I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Stargate - Planet PX9-757 – July 2000

The Jaffa guarding the Chappa'ai raised their staff weapons and charged them, anything could be coming through and they didn’t want to meet the fate of the guards who had clearly been caught unawares by the Tau’ri agents who had recently come to this world and sabotaged the vessel that was being constructed here. There was a rumour in the ranks that the Tau’ri had used salvaged Atoniek technology to achieve the feat but nobody knew for sure. In any case the loyal Jaffa warriors would meet any enemy of their God Apophis with courage in their hearts and their staff in their hands as benefits the scions of millennia of martial tradition and service.

The splash-like energy backwash caused by the Chappa'ai’s incoming wormhole bought the half dozen Jaffa to full alert. The planetary garrison was smaller now the shipyard was destroyed and the redeployment of troops and weaponry to more important worlds meant they had no Staff-Cannon trained on the gate but nevertheless anything that came through the shimmering event horizon of the gate at less than supersonic speed was going to be in trouble once plasma bolts began to rain down upon it.

It was no man that stepped through the gate but instead a machine of some kind that clattered through the stargate on metal tracks. One of the Jaffa laughed. ‘It is one of the Tau’ri reconnaissance devices’ he declared, the heart that had been pounding in his chest in anticipation of battle starting to slow its frantic beat immediately. They all knew of the use of such mechanisms by the humans of Earth though none present had set eyes upon one before.

‘I have heard that the Tau’ri call them “Malps” or something similar’ another Jaffa declared. ‘It must mean something in their language though I know not what.’

‘They must have sent it to see if we had vacated this world’ the Jaffa who had first identified the machine theorised. ‘Shall we destroy it?’ he asked, aiming his staff.

‘It is no threat’ a third Jaffa stated. ‘We could capture it and offer it to Lord Apophis as a trophy’ he suggested. ‘It’s technology is inferior to that of the Gods but he may reward us for our initiative.’

‘You speak wisely’ the first Jaffa agreed. ‘Come help me see how we can disable its power source. We may need a litter to drag it back to camp but it is not so big’ he said putting down his Staff and starting to walk towards the machine which supposedly carried audio and visual recording devices that were undoubtedly sending pictures and sound to the fools that had thrown it away by sending it here. He fought back the urge to yell insults at the machine, better they see the smug impression on his face as he approached.

Part of the machine swung around to point itself at him as he approached. Assuming it was a camera the Jaffa could not help but give it a wave. A split second later some kind of external speaker fitted to the “Malp” device spoke up.

‘Lay down your arms and surrender’ the machine commanded in a slightly distorted electronic tone. ‘If you fail to do so immediately you will face lethal force’ it told them.

The Jaffa laughed again. ‘You have a better sense of humour than I thought Tau’ri Gonach’ the closest to the machine replied wondering if they knew enough of the Goa’uld tongue to recognise the foul insult and hoping they did.

‘You were warned, no second chances’ the machine replied and a beam of bright coherent red light lanced out from the part of the device pointing at him and instantly burned a gaping hole right through the Jaffa’s chest, vaporising both flesh, breast-plate and the chain-mail armour underneath in a split second.

The first Jaffa was still falling to the ground with an astonished expression on his face when the machine's weapon started to swing swiftly around to engage the next warrior.

They were well trained and had worshipped their Lord for many years, practising for combat every day so that they could serve him to the best of their ability, so the remaining Jaffa got over their shock very rapidly and the first on numerous staff-blasts hit the machine just before it fired again. Unfortunately for the warrior who was promptly cut neatly in half by the now scything laser beam, the plasma merely scorched and slightly pitted the thick armour plate the Tau’ri combat-capable robot carried, and did not prevent him ending his days in two separate pieces.

More staff blasts rained in but the machine simply shrugged them off and kept firing. It had originally been designed to withstand considerably more powerful weapons than these and had been subsequently upgraded since then with additional armour. After taking out two more Jaffa in quick succession it starting rumbling down the ramp that led to the stargate, firing on the move as it went, plasma blasts continuing to scorch and pit its metallic surface but doing nothing to stop it.

‘We must flee’ one of the remaining Jaffa declared.

‘Coward’ another retorted continuing to fire again and again to no avail. The Tau’ri had no honour to send a device to do the work of a warrior he thought, they must be surely cowards too he decided before the laser burned into him, incinerating both his lower torso and the Goa’uld larvae that nestled within it.

The skirmish, such as it was, lasted barely two minutes, the last of the Jaffa, the youngest, least experienced and battle-hardened shot in the back as he fled, having already cast aside his staff.

One of the Chappa'ai guardswas still conscious, and from where he lay bleeding into the dirt from a massive, and only partially cauterised wound, he watched a pair of humans emerge from the gate, sound followed by several more and all carrying what he assumed were weapons though he did not recognise from the pictures he had been shown of captured Tau’ri firearms.

Loyal to the last, unlike his feint-hearted comrade, the Jaffa fought back his pain and tried to raise his staff to shoot at the humans in a last gesture of defiance and piety but one spotted the movement, shouldered his mysterious weapon and fired a less powerful though still deadly version of the laser the machine had used before the Jaffa could get off a shot of his own. The beam struck the Jaffa right between the eyes killing him instantly, the energy boiling his brains as it burned right through his skull on both sides and back out again, lancing through his tight fitting thin metallic skull-cap helmet.

One of the humans surveyed the carnage and nodded his approval. ‘I want these corpses back at base for dissection ASAP’ he ordered. ‘The staff things too, the geeks might find a use for them but they don't look like much to me’ he added. ‘Alright clear the ramp we’ve got a jeep coming through any second’ he continued, ‘I want this ball of rock swept clean of any technology we can salvage and any of the Naquadah shit especially’ he said. ‘That crap’s got real potential boys and girls’ he reminded them, ‘and someone check if the HWP needs more than a new paintjob’ the officer commanded. ‘If it's badly damaged send it back and have them send a replacement in case we need the backup’ he told the trooper that was headed for the machine. A Heavy Weapon’s Platform could give you a very nice edge.

‘Don’t think much of these Jaffa assholes Sir’ one of them observed.

The officer nodded his agreement. ‘They’ve been kicking their asses with MP-5’s and the like for years so I’m told’ he replied. ‘Feudal society with badly designed clumsy weaponry’ he noted. ‘Christ if they thought those SGC pussies were bad wait until they get used to us coming through the gates’ he declared with a grin.

‘This one is still breathing’ one of the soldiers said loudly, checking a fallen Jaffa.

‘Stick a medkit on him and stabilise the poor bastard’ the officer ordered. ‘Guess one of them doesn’t get dissected after all’ he said then smiled evilly. ‘Just interrogated and maybe vivisected instead’ he added with a feral grin.

An injection of stimulant bought the wounded Jaffa around just as a four wheeled vehicle rolled through the gate, this wasn’t how the Tau’ri operated, they worked in smaller groups as a rule and were not so… ardently military. ‘Who are you?’ he gasped at the invader who seemed to be treating his wound.

‘Extraterrestrial Combat Unit at your service’ the human replied evenly. ‘They call us X-COM back home, sorry to tell you this but the bad Tau’ri are loose in the Galaxy now, so if there’s a real God you pray to have a quiet word now, because we’re going to rip the fake Goa’uld ones a new asshole’ he declared.

By the time the X-COM team was done scavenging PX9-757 another thirty-two Jaffa warriors were dead, six were taken alive mostly thanks to being shot in non-vital spots then ganked with a stun-rod and the first one from the skirmish at the gate was sitting in Alien Containment in the European XCOM Base in Poland, where the Stargate recovered from the Pacific had been taken. The Jaffa was heavily bandaged up, though both the wondrous Tau’ri battlefield medical kits and the rejuvenating power of his larval Goa’uld had together prevented and otherwise mortal wound from killing him.

The Jaffa had many questions but to be honest the one he was wondering about most was why exactly the Tau’ri had an unusually buff looking Asgard of all things in the next cell? He thought they were allies?

Meanwhile beyond the walls of the armour-plated, sound-proofed, airtight and utterly infallible prison for captured extra-terrestrials the negotiations between X-COM and the representative of the SGC were starting to draw to a conclusion. Things were going to be done very different at Cheyenne Mountain from now on, the days of the old SG teams were numbered, from now on it would be the newly christened XSGCOM that was going to lead the fight against the Goa’uld threat not that the SGC was particularly happy about it.

The X-COM Troopers slated to be assigned to the other Alien War were fairly upbeat about it, why worry abut the Goa'uld? At worst they might implant you with a symbiote, but at least that was still a lot less scary than being impregnated by a damn Chryssalid and as for the notion of fighting Jaffa instead of Sectoids and their freinds for a few months, well that just sounded like a period of badly needed R&R. Most of them them needed some light duty to get over the damn PTSD that was endemic among any of them with more than half a dozen of missions under their belts.

How scary the System Lords were depended largely on whether you were used to fighting really unpleasant aliens. It’s all a matter of perspective when you think about it, and if there was only one thing you were allowed to say about the perspective of the average X-COM grunt, it would be "warped".

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – August 2000

‘It’s not like we had a choice’ General Hammond told Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter, the two sat across from him around the briefing table, ‘they already had a Stargate of their own and with the DHD they could override ours’ he pointed out. ‘We either allowed them into the program or we ran the risk of having them in the driving seat with no prospect of acting as a moderating influence.’

O’Neill crossed his arms. ‘With all due respect Sir from what I can see of their methods it’s going to be like we recruited the NID guys that went around the Galaxy stealing technology instead of putting them in the stockade where they belonged’ he opined.

‘Which is precisely why we need to be there with them, so they don’t alienate our existing allies or worse actually increase our number of enemies blundering about like amateurs’ Hammond responded. ‘I assume you’ve read the files they provided’ he asked, ‘or at least the summary pages’ he added looking at O’Neill.

Carter shook her head in amazement just thinking about it. ‘Casualty rates of well over fifty percent per mission’ she said incredulously. ‘And the average is only that low now because of the laser weapons they’ve been using recently’ she continued. ‘For the first few months of last year they often took seventy-five percent losses from a single mission, she said. ‘I doubt any other military organisation in history has ever sustained losses that high as a matter of course.’

‘Guess they didn’t have the right personnel’ O’Neill surmised.

Carter looked at him. ‘X-COM have access to a far wider recruitment base than we do’ she pointed out. ‘They’ve got the Special-Forces from over a dozen different countries to choose from and they took the very best they could find’ she continued. ‘If you compared our SG Teams with X-COM, half of our people wouldn’t even get past the first stage of being considered to join them, their required standards are too high’ she told him, tapping the file in front of her. ‘Just to get your foot in the door you have to be the elite of the elite.’

Hammond nodded. ‘United States Military personnel on secondment do in fact make up a fair sized portion of X-COM, which made it easier for me to establish a line of communication with them over the last week or so than it might have been otherwise, and everything I’ve heard bear's out Major Carter's analysis’ he concurred, ‘but even more than that, the losses they take in combat acts like some kind of sick process of Darwinian selection’ he continued. ‘Only the best, and maybe the luckiest, of them last through enough missions to fully adapt to the nature of the high-intensity combat they are involved in on a regular basis’ he said. ‘If you can’t run like an Olympic sprinter, shoot like Annie Oakley and have reaction times like a rattlesnake you die, it’s as simple as that, I’m exaggerating but not by as much as I wish I was’ he added. ‘I couldn't imagine being in a position where I regular sent men on missions where their was a better than even chance of them not coming back but that's normal for these people.’

‘Our problem is’ Carter interjected, ‘and to continue General Hammond’s analogy’ she continued, ‘they’ve evolved a shoot-first and dissect later mentality, which is fine for the war they’ve been fighting until now, but it could be disastrously counterproductive if they play it the same way with us’ she said. ‘This is especially true as regards the Asgard, because like it or not, it’s pretty inconceivable that these “Sectoids” they’ve been fighting aren’t related to our little grey friends, despite the huge gulf in their respective modus operandi.’

O’Neill frowned. ‘I can’t see the Asgard doing some of the stuff that I’ve read about in the files and by the way the photographs clipped to the after-action reports ruined my lunch’ he declared. ‘Abductions? Mutilations? Does that sound like Thor’s people to you?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘It sounds more like the X-Files’ he added.

‘Mulder and Scully never had a Grey locked up in a cell to show people when they asked for proof’ Carter replied wryly. ‘X-COM provided detailed autopsy results, DNA and blood samples plus video recordings of Sectoids in captivity’ she pointed out. ‘Other than the fact they look more generally muscular than any Asgard we’ve encountered before, physically overall they appear to be the same species.’

O’Neill snorted. ‘So who are they?’ he asked. ‘Asgard body-builders that overdid the steroids and got over-aggressive like the guys who take too much testosterone?’ he asked sardonically.

Carter chuckled as she got the mental image of Thor pumping iron. ‘They’re still noticeably weaker than the average human’ she noted. ‘Given the size and weight of the weapons these things carry maybe they needed to bulk up to use them effectively?’ she suggested. ‘A regular Asgard would make for a lousy grunt.’

‘But even if they wanted to do this stuff why would they need to bother with the way they’ve been doing it?’ O’Neill asked. ‘Asgard ships could beam anything they wanted right off the planet from orbit and we’d never know they were there’ he said.

O’Neill took a sip from the glass of water in front of him. ‘These guys land in ships and drag people away, I mean other than the weaponry they’re not even at the technological level of the damn Goa’uld as far as I can tell’ he continued. ‘I mean if they were Asgard what’s the chances you could tag one of their ships with a couple of missiles? Even nuclear ones?’ he asked. ‘We couldn’t even knock down a Ha’tak with a thousand megaton warhead because of the shields, so how the crap is X-COM splashing them with these “Avalanche’s”?’ he queried. ‘They’re just a glorified Phoenix Missile with a low kiloton yield proximity fused warhead slapped to the front’ he noted tapping one of the pieces of paper scattered across the table.

‘It’s a mystery’ General Hammond agreed. ‘We’re contacting the Asgard and hopefully they can show up with all the answers, but until then there are other issues to consider as well’ he said. ‘Firstly the integration of transferred X-COM personnel into the existing SGC structure’ he began. ‘They’re pushing hard for one or two of their people on SG1.’

‘No chance’ O’Neill responded in a flash. ‘We’re already fully staffed Sir’ he pointed out.

‘It’s not written in stone that an SG Team only has four members Colonel’ Hammond replied evenly.

O’Neill grimaced. ‘Couldn’t you give them their own teams?’ he asked. ‘I bet they’d love that.’

‘I’m sure they would but when a dozen alien battlecruisers turn up in orbit demanding the heads of the people that just shot up their planet we wouldn’t love it’ Hammond told him. ‘I want them kept on a leash so we don’t end up with a noose around our necks.’

‘What about Teal’c?’ Carter asked. ‘I hope I’m not being harsh but these people are firmly in the camp that says if it’s not human it ends up on an autopsy table or being tied down and having electrodes inserted into uncomfortable places’ she said. ‘I’ll be fair if I had their track record on meeting aliens I’d be leaning towards xenophobia myself but wouldn’t we be better keeping them away from Teal’c?’ she suggested.

‘Good point Major’ O’Neill agreed. ‘Could be a clash there, wouldn’t want to risk any additional tension between us and them’ he added. Hopefully this would ensure he didn’t have to put up with someone else on his team.

General Hammond looked thoughtful. ‘I agree’ he said. ‘I guess the only choice is to pull Teal’c from SG1 and hand him over to X-COM to be placed in confinement because that’s what they’re asking for.’

O’Neill’s jaw dropped. ‘You’ve got to be kidding George?’ he exclaimed.

‘The only way Teal’c stays out of a cell is if he’s on SG1 and we are going to have someone from X-COM on the team too’ Hammond replied. ‘It’s out of my hands’ he said. ‘I pulled all the strings I could to keep him out of a room with bars on the window but if he’s on the loose, which is how they see it, they want one of their people alongside to shoot him if they think it becomes necessary.’

‘So after everything Teal’c has done for us, for this planet’ O’Neill replied, ‘we’d allow these rookies to lock him up and throw away the key unless they’ve always got someone around to blow his brains out?’

Hammond nodded. ‘That’s about it’ he confirmed with a shrug. ‘Oh and there’s other news I received just before you arrived’ he added. ‘Technically the SGC is seconded to X-COM so the field personnel like yourself are being put on the same salary as them, it was considered likely to cause further strife between the teams if we didn’t. The Pentagon is picking up the tab and it’s not coming out of my budget I’m glad to say.’

‘Don’t they pay the same to all ranks or something?’ O’Neill asked with a wince. As a Colonel he was bound to get screwed here even if the majority of SG Team members might get a raise.

Hammond sighed. ‘X-COM pay their combat soldiers twenty thousand dollars a month before deductions, and by international agreement those don’t include income tax’ he said. ‘You’ll be on a lot more than I am’ he said with a mild hint of resentment in his voice. ‘Actually I checked and you’ll be making more than any of the Joint Chiefs, or the Vice-President for that matter.’

O’Neill blinked. ‘Twenty thousand a month’ he repeated. ‘Why didn’t anybody tell me about this before?’ he asked. ‘I’d have requested a transfer as soon as they started up.’

‘Until recently the SGC and X-COM didn’t even know each other even existed’ Carter pointed out. ‘Only a few people knew about both organisations which is why we never got to share technology before. Sometimes you can take secrecy too far’ she opined.

‘And it just had to be the NID that was one of the groups that knew about both’ O’Neill said sadly. ‘Not that I’m surprised given all the nasty black ops they’ve got a hand in’ he continued. ‘Finding out Maybourne had gone to X-COM once he discovered they’d salvaged the gate didn’t shock me one little bit’ he said. ‘Filled in all the blanks and then acted as an intermediary between them and his Russian KGB buddies when they negotiated for the DHD, goddamn typical.’

‘So you did read all the files?’ Carter asked in surprise.

‘Slow night on TV’ O’Neill replied, actually he wasn’t as averse to paperwork and the like as he made out to be, just as he wasn’t as uneducated as he pretended sometimes also. If you had the reputation of not dealing with reports or memo’s properly, people tended to send you less to deal with, which was all to the good, as was having people underestimating you because you came across like you weren’t necessarily the sharpest knife in the drawer. In reality he had a razor edge and was always ready to draw it across an unsuspecting throat if the ideal opportunity to do arose, which it did pretty often in this line of work.

Carter shrugged, that made sense she thought then frowned. ‘What about Daniel?’ she asked. ‘He’s not military so I guess he’s not included in the new pay deal?’ she asked.

‘Fortunately for Doctor Jackson no he’s not’ Hammond replied with a wry smile on his face.

‘Fortunately?’ O’Neill queried suspiciously.

The General smiled. ‘As a civilian, X-COM are listing him as a member of their science personnel’ he said. ‘That pays thirty thousand a month, tax free as before’ he told them. ‘So I’m not the only one here getting paid less as a nominal superior than my staff is.’

This time Carter blinked. ‘If I resigned my commission how long would it be before I got the extra money?’ she asked eventually. If nothing else she had just discovered why X-COM seemed to have even better R&D people than the SGC and it wasn’t just because they had a wider recruitment base to work with.

X-COM BASE 2 (North America) – Earth – August 2000

The Marines of SG3 were led from the elevator through the base corridors straight to one of the aircraft hangers which was currently void of the Skyranger VSTOL transport aircraft that normally lived there. The craft was currently sitting on a landing strip at Area 51, it had transported some of the bases science and engineering teams there so they could check out the stockpile of alien hardware the SGC had been accumulating over the last few years in the hopes they could bring some of their reverse-engineering magic to bare. X-COM lived by the truth that knowledge was power, and sometimes more importantly it was firepower.

The team had been chosen by General Hammond to go check out the X-COM hardware that others had been raving about before he approved its use by the SGC, and they were more than happy to do so, though they found it hard to believe some of the stuff they had been told during the trip from Cheyenne Mountain.

‘So you’re the SGC blokes?’ a trooper with a British accent wearing the standard X-COM jumpsuit and sergeants stripes asked, looking them up and down. ‘Come here to see the toys’ he added then grinned. ‘Well at least they sent Marines’ he said, ‘could have been worse I suppose’ he declared and stuck out his hand. ‘Kevin Nash formerly of Her Majesties Royal Marines Special Boat Service and now seconded from Special Forces to X-COM, or as we like to think of it, very Special Forces’ he said shaking their hands. ‘Come along lads you’ll like these’ he promised heading for a bench that had been set up and which now held a number of different weapons and other indeterminate items.

Major Wade the commander of SG3 looked over the hardware. ‘These the Lasers?’ he asked pointed at a bulky looking pistol and a large boxy looking rifle. It had been painted from the looks of it, and then subjected to harsh treatment so that in some places the paint had flaked off revealing what looked like a shell of red plastic underneath. Why the hell would anyone make it red, he wondered? Well at least someone else, probably a grunt with more brains than the designer, had seen fit to change it to a more tactically useful colour.

‘L2-A1 Hades Laser Rifle’ the XCOM Sergeant nodded reaching down to pick it up. ‘couple of pounds heavier than an ordinary assault rifle like the M16A2 or G-36 but you more than make up for it in the weight of ammunition you don’t have to carry.’

‘How many shots, or how much charge does it hold I mean?’ Wade asked, not being sure what the correct terminology was.

‘Unlimited’ the British Sergeant told him in a serious tone then after a couple of seconds of incredulous looks he grinned again. ‘No not really, but it seems like that’ he told them. ‘It’s around two-hundred and seventy-five to three hundred shots off a full charge, you just plug them in after a mission to power them up again, most of the casing is taken up by the power-pack.’

‘But what if you run out of… charge… in the middle of a firefight?’ Wade queried.

‘How many magazines do you carry for your M16A2 when you go off on a mission?’ the Sergeant responded. ‘More than ten?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘The L2-A1 carries the equivalent of that many shots and it’s a fuck load more dangerous with each one Sir trust me’ he said. ‘Leading the target is a piece of piss with a laser, you don’t really need to’ he told them. ‘It’ll burn through armour like a hot knife through butter which would stop a tungsten-cored 7.62mm armour-piercer dead in its tracks, and as for aiming it's just point and shoot, no bullet-drop in flight to worry about’ he continued. ‘There’s not even any recoil, so you can fire a three shot burst and they all end up in exactly the same place as long as you’ve got a steady hand.’

Major Wade looked at the weapon again, more appreciatively this time. ‘Are you on commission for selling these things Sergeant?’ he asked. ‘Because that’s the best sales pitch I’ve ever heard’ he told him seriously.

‘If we were a company Sir I’d buy shares in us’ the sergeant replied with a smile. ‘Once we start selling these on the open market every other weapons manufacturer on the planet is going out of business’ he declared. ‘Even the L1-A2 Laser Pistol there is beyond anything I could have hoped for before I started this job, it’s just a fucking shame the bug gear is even better’ he added regretfully.

‘Bug?’ Wade queried.

‘Sectoids’ Nash explained. ‘I hear that you call them the Asgard, good name because they’d better be watching their little grey arses when we get the new ships off the drawing board.’

‘Jury’s out on whether they’re the same race’ Major Wade advised him. They looked very much alike he had to admit, but the differences in technology and behaviour were so great as to render that seem trivial as far as most of the SGC was concerned.

‘I don’t believe much in coincidences Sir, but they just pay me to slot bugs and I leave the politics to the people higher up the chain’ the sergeant told him. ‘But I’ll tell you straight that if the Commander decides we’re going to war with these Asgard, then there’s not a Trooper or Pilot in X-COM that won’t follow’ he vowed.

‘Sergeant they’re more powerful that you can imagine’ Wade told him, trying not to sound condescending. ‘Earth is barely holding it’s own against people that the Asgard think are third-raters. You don’t know just how outclassed we truly are compared to the rest of the universe’ the Marine stated honestly.

‘It’s only a matter of time Major’ the sergeant replied confidently, Wade thought it was hubris but made no comment. ‘Right' the sergeant began, changing the subject, ‘we’ve set up targets on the other side of the hanger for you to have a go at with the Lasers, no need to worry about ricochets of course’ he said. ‘Those metal plates are equivalent to the armour the Jaffa wear so prepare to see why these Goa’uld you’ve been fighting are going to start waking up at night in a cold sweat every time they dream of the day they decided to fuck with the human race’ he declared haughtily. ‘Oh yeah, the guys over in Europe tried out one of those Staff-Weapons on our new armour, no penetration but just don’t get hit too many times in the same place because they say repeated blasts start to crystallise the alloy whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean.’

‘Any other secret weapons?’ Major Wade asked curiously.

‘Well the Motion Scanners are bloody high-tech, I ain’t got a clue how they work, but we don’t use them too often in the field anyway’ Nash replied. ‘The Medi-Kits are the dogs bollocks though, saved my arse more than once when I was leaking like a sieve’ Nash replied. ‘What we’re all waiting for in the ground-pounders is when they get plasma-guns figured out so we can even things up with the bugs but I hear that’s on hold while the egg-heads see what we can do with Goa’uld gear. They’re supposed to be raving about something called a Zatty-nickle.’

‘Zat’nik’tel’ the Major corrected him. ‘We call them Zat guns, only decent weapon the Jaffa carry, at least it’s the only one we ever bother to use.’

‘Well whatever you call it they say it’ll make retrieving live aliens a lot easier and it might even be a solution to those crab bastards’ the X-COM man said, an involuntary shudder running through his body just thinking about them.

Wade looked at him. ‘Crab bastards?’ he queried.

‘Chryssalids’ the Sergeant explained, ‘be grateful you’ve never met one, I had to shoot a mate who got impregnated with an incendiary round before he turned into one himself’ he said. ‘Runs at better than forty miles an hour, claws that’ll rip through a HWP and they always look like they’re grinning’ he continued. ‘Makes your skin crawl it does. We only ever got one of them alive, they played the tape of the science team cutting it up when it was still breathing to us in the mess hall later that week, we were cheering, swear to god’ he said raising his right hand. ‘So do you want me to show you how the Hades works then Sir?’ he asked. ‘There’s not much to it, no moving parts so nothing to strip down and clean, just an on/off switch, a fire-selector and a trigger’ he said. ‘It’s the Infantryman’s dream’ he said then smiled, ‘and every extra-terrestrial wanker’s nightmare’ he added.

After the first dozen shot’s with the L2-A1 Hades the whole of SG3 would have given their right nut to take them back with them to the SGC. Fortunately for them X-COM only accepted cold-hard cash and offered them for $36,900 apiece, well they did have overheads after all and it wasn’t like they were a charity or anything. They did offer a bulk discount on the armour however, $50,000 each and they already came with the new XSGCOM badge painted on. Well you’ve got to brand the product right?

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Hawaii – Earth – August 2000

Major Cameron Mitchell slowly started to push the throttle up as soon as he cleared land, he didn’t want to leave a sonic boom behind to ruin the surfing going on down there but once he was out over the Pacific it was time to have some fun. As the twin pulse detonation engines started to strut their stuff he felt himself pushed back hard in his seat and the mach meter dial being projected onto the Head Up Display in front of him started spinning upwards fast. He could have altered the display to give him a digital readout instead but he liked watching those dials spin as the fighter effortlessly went through the speed of sound and kept accelerating smoothly towards Mach 2 and beyond.

The guys back at base just called it an Interceptor, which was its function in a nutshell, but technically it was an XF-701 Sigrdrífa, and it was named for its spiritual ancestor the XB-70 Valkyrie bomber, a Nineteen-Sixties design for a very high speed bomber that could maintain high supersonic speeds for an unusually long time because of a little trick it had of actually riding its own supersonic shockwave almost like a goddamn surfboard, the beach bums being left far behind would have appreciated the technique. Once past the sound barrier the last third of each delta wing folded downwards to an angle of 65 degrees to best catch the wave and it was surf’s up dude as many an XF-701 Pilot was known to joke, even the ones not based in Hawaii.

When the UFO’s started turning up in ‘98 the various airforces that tried to catch them had run into one major stumbling block, the damn saucers were just too damn fast. The Japanese Kiryu-Kai flying F-15J’s never got close and even the Russians found that their notably faster fighters, the MiG-25’s and 31’s, couldn’t be vectored in quickly enough, they had the sprint speed but not the endurance to get where they needed to be before the unwelcome visitors made themselves scarce.

Earth needed a fighter that could get up to beyond Mach 3.2 and stay there, so they dusted off the 1960’s Valkyrie program, made a smaller scale copy and then as the piece de resistance stuck on two pulse-detonation engines that had come from the same stable as the Hypersonic Aurora Spy-Plane program. The result was a machine that could really haul-ass, and thanks to avionics, radar and electronics taken from aerospace firms all over the world, plus a decent weapons load, it could kick it too.

Mitchell headed towards his target as the XF-701 Sigrdrífa, named for one of the Valkyrie’s of myth, and which literally meant “Victory Bringer”, passed through Mach 3 and he was soon tearing across the sky going a thousand miles an hour faster than a speeding bullet. He maintained radio silence and had his own radar shut down, being vectored towards his target by X-COM’s base dug in up on Mauna Loa, the fighter was shielded against electronic emissions, and the particularly vicious ECM they used, but he certainly didn’t want to loudly advertise his presence until he was coming up on firing range.

Mitchell began humming a tune, this was his fifth interception which meant if the saucer went down instead of him, he was about to become the third guy to make ace shooting down alien spaceships. Not that he could boast about it anywhere but at the bar back at base, but he was itching to get that tiny saucer number five painted just below his canopy.

He was carrying a full war load, six of the AIM-54X Avalanche Missiles, an upgraded and modified version of the venerable Phoenix which sacrificed some of the range for greater speed and a larger warhead, usually a five kiloton yield nuclear device but this time the first two off the rails would be something special.

His father had been a test pilot but Dad had never got to try out something this special Mitchell thought as he approached the target, even with the shielded electronics and the heavy use of radar-absorbent-material in the airframe the bugs were bound to pick him up soon.

‘Crap’ he swore as the threat warning box indicated that the saucer had picked him up. There was no point in trying to be sneaky now, once they got a lock on you it stayed locked, so Mitchell powered up his radar, an AN/APG-79 from the F-22 program and started hunting.

As a fighter pilot going after them, the best thing you could say about the bugs was that, unless you ran into their very biggest ships, the Avalanche outranged their Plasma Beams. A couple of other X-COM fighter-jocks had found out the hard way about the reach of those big bastards and since then they only ever tried to tackle them on the ground, though that of course was hard on the poor bloody infantry instead. This thing looked to be one of their mediums, you could usually reckon to need several nearby Avalanche detonations to bring those down, and after the first couple they would typically throttle up and outrun your sorry ass which kinda sucked after you went to so much effort to fly over and offer them an extremely warm welcome to planet Earth. Hopefully this time was going to be very different, they wouldn’t be getting the chance to respond to the first howdy-do’s, it would be a done-deal with the first handshake.

Turning on his telemetry transmitter, so that the boys watching with interest back home could watch the action, Mitchell waited until he was a couple of nautical miles inside the maximum range on his AIM-54X’s and tried for a lock.

Their ECM and ECCM was good, but X-COM had taken apart a couple of the units stripped from UFO’s captured on the ground and knew how to avoid them breaking the lock like they used to at first.

‘Lock and tone’ Mitchell said to nobody but himself. ‘Fox-Three’ he added and launched the first two Avalanche Missiles from the rails which were partially recessed into the wings to reduce aerodynamic drag. The twin missiles tore off ahead of the Interceptor riding a trail of fire from their rocket engines, hurtling up to beyond Mach 5 and rapidly closing the gap with the alien ship.

‘If you’re listening to this on the charred remains of my black box flight recorder the geeks got the minimum safe distance wrong’ Mitchell observed wryly as he tracked both missiles and target on his radar. The aliens didn’t seem to have true stealth but rather an active cancellation system that left a lot to be desired because you could still track them even if only intermittently sometimes.

The UFO, one of the types X-COM had christened an “Abductor”, because of it’s primary and unsettling function, was just starting to accelerate away when the two missiles arrived within the range set for their proximity fuses and simultaneously detonated roughly eight miles above the Pacific and approximately three hundred and fifty miles East of the Hawaiian Islands.

X-COM had never used Naquadah enhanced warheads before but they instantly became huge fans when the Avalanches, their nuclear yields increase by well over an order of magnitude by only a few kilos of the material, promptly enveloped the alien craft in a thermonuclear fireball that was visible almost all the way back to Hawaii and which basically turned the thing to plasma in a nanosecond.

Extremely glad they had advised him to steer away, run like hell and keep his eyes squeezed firmly shut under a pair of aviator sunglasses Cameron Mitchell wondered if it still counted as a kill if there wasn’t really any physical evidence left that the target had ever actually existed in the first place? He also decided to advise them that a full load of six Naquadah enhanced AIM-54X’s was probably overkill and they might as well stick on one of the new Laser Cannons as a backup instead.

Yup, he was definitely glad he took the X-COM job when they offered it to him instead of quitting the Airforce, he decided. Well what were the chances he was going to be offered any other job remotely as cool as this one in the future if he had turned them down?

Shooting down ships crewed by a race everyone was starting to call the Asgard with a fighter named for a figure from Norse Myth was a damn fine notion too he decided, as he headed back to base wondering if a victory roll over the airfield would be too much?

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – August 2000

Commander Russell Sharp, more usually addressed as Russ or “Sir”, noted to himself as he pounded his way along yet another corridor, that when you’ve seen one underground bunker you’ve seen them all. He had been met at the elevator by a USAF Master Sergeant named Harriman and with two of his Troopers in tow he was being led through the SGC Complex which basically seemed to be a greatly expanded twin of one of their own bases albeit with a lot of US as opposed to UN insignia and none of the ever-present variations on the X-COM logo emblazoned on personnel and equipment.

Wearing their grey X-COM jumpsuits, sleeves rolled up as always, a holstered laser pistol at their side and topped with a black beret the three newcomers stood out from the US personnel and they were getting assorted looks from those they passed in the corridors. Many seemed resentful of their presence, they were foreign interlopers in a United States military operation, others were merely curious having heard so much in the last few weeks about the other people out there keeping Earth safe from the alien threat but the most impressive glare came from a large black guy with a gold emblem fixed to his forehead. Sharp knew who he was of course, there was only one Jaffa in the SGC, but the Commander pointedly ignored him whereas one of his Troopers glared right back and meaningfully tapped his holster, goddamn extra-terrestrial asshole the Trooper thought as Teal’c looked them over dismissively.

‘First time in the mountain Sir?’ Harriman asked, as they finally approached their destination, General Hammond’s office.

‘Visited before back when I was still in the Canadian Military’ Sharp replied. ‘Didn’t get to see these levels though Sergeant’ he added. ‘Just NORAD upstairs.’

‘Well no Sir, we’re very need-to-know here at the SGC’ he said. ‘Top secret clearance just doesn’t cut it’ the Sergeant noted, as they arrived at the door and knocked.

‘Come in’ a voice responded from within the office and Harriman opened the door.

‘Commander Russell Sharp Sir’ Walter introduced the X-COM officer as General Hammond rose from his chair holding out his hand which Sharp took in his own as he entered the room.

‘Russ’ the X-COM Commander advised the General in charge of the SGC as they shook hands.

‘George Hammond’ the General responded. ‘I’m not sure how our ranks match up’ he admitted. ‘Which one is supposed to call the other one Sir?’ he asked with a grin.

‘Damned if I know George’ Sharp replied. ‘I’ll skip it if you will’ he offered reaching up to remove his black beret which held his rank insignia, a human skull with an X underneath it cast as a brass badge. The same insignia graced his shoulder patches under both the UN Flag and the standard X-COM logo.

‘Deal’ Hammond agreed readily. For one thing he was fairly sure that technically at least the Commander outranked him even if he was at least ten years younger and would most likely have never have been promoted up that high by now in an organisation that wasn’t quite as fluid as X-COM. Promotion was fairly easy in their job, the people higher up kept getting killed in action, freeing up the ladder.

Commander Sharp turned to the USAF non-com. ‘Master Sergeant can you show my two Troopers standing out their in the corridor to the canteen?’ he requested. ‘We’ve been stuck in the back of a Skyranger for an hour and a half and it’s not designed for a comfortable trip, I’d bet they’d sell their sidearms for a cup of coffee.’

‘That’s a deal too’ Hammond joked. ‘I’ve seen what you’re charging for them normally’ he interjected. ‘Walter escort them to the Canteen and give them a guided tour of the gate room afterwards’ he told the Master Sergeant, might as well be hospitable to them he thought, even if he’d rather they weren’t moving onto his turf. ‘Take a seat’ he offered, sitting back down himself as Sharp took him up on the offer, having to shuffle slightly because his oversized L1-A2 Laser Pistol got in the way at first, its holster hanging up on the arm rest.

Sharp smiled as he made himself comfortable. ‘You should have seen what Dwoskin our bean-counter wanted to charge for the gear’ he responded. ‘He nearly had a fit when he found out we were discounting the body-armour, we don’t have your budget and we needed the additional funds for expanding our R&D into Goa’uld tech’ he explained. ‘Be fair, our stuff is more than worth the money’ he added.

‘According to the glowing report I received from SG3 it is’ Hammond agreed as Walter made himself scare and closed the door. ‘You didn’t brainwash them or anything did you because I’ve never seen four grown marines act like my grandchildren wheedling for a present before.’

The Commander chuckled. ‘Sorry but we haven’t figured out how the bugs do the mind thing yet’ he replied. ‘If we had we would have circumvented them and probably put the whammy on you instead’ he joked.

Hammond frowned. ‘So they can really get into your head’ he asked. ‘These Sectoids I mean?’

Sharp nodded. ‘Only the ones we think are officers’ he replied. ‘The ordinary grunts don’t seem to be able to do it’ he continued. ‘We had a couple of guys put under direct control by the bastards on a mission over in South Africa only last week, some seem more susceptible than others to it’ he explained. ‘I’ve felt it myself, one tried to panic me, I felt it tingle in my head then I got this feeling of, well pretty much indescribable dread.’

Hammond’s eyebrows raised. ‘What did you do?’ he asked.

‘Blew the little fuckers brains out, felt better immediately’ Sharp replied with a grin, which he soon wiped from his face. ‘Other guys have freaked out completely, dropped their weapon, and like I said some get taken over’ he told the General. ‘We try and stun them but we’ve had to take our own people out sometimes before they shoot one of their own team.’

‘We’ve never encountered that kind of…’ Hammond began, ‘what do you call it?’ he asked.

‘Psionic’ Sharp answered.

‘Right’ Hammond noted, ‘any such Psionic power from the Asgard’ he told him. ‘Their technology seems fairly close to magical sometimes, but mind control? No that doesn’t sound like the little grey men we know.’

‘Like I said, some can do it, some can’t’ the Commander responded. ‘Maybe the one’s you’ve met before are from the former group?’ he suggested.

‘We prefer not to believe they’re in the same group as your Sectoids period’ Hammond told him flatly.

‘I’d like to think so too’ Sharp told him, ‘Aliens not try to abduct, mutilate and kill you seems a nice novelty to me, but until we get proof we’re assuming they’re the same people and preparing accordingly.’

‘Preparing how?’ Hammond queried.

‘That’s largely classified but let’s just say those Goa’uld-Busters you tried out once are firecrackers compared to some of the hardware we’ve got on the drawing board’ Sharp told him.

‘I think you’re badly underestimating the Asgard’ Hammond told him. ‘These are the people the Goa’uld have been too scared to cross for thousands of years.’

‘I’ve fought Jaffa a couple of times, seen Goa’uld weaponry in action’ Sharp responded. ‘In less than ten years they won’t just be scared of us they’ll be facing extinction’ he declared in a tone of voice that said that wasn’t just hyperbole as far as he was concerned. ‘If we can beat the Sectoids back, and put a few hundred X-COM platoons through the gate, then we’ll show the Galaxy that anybody who thinks Earth is a soft target is badly deluded’ he said. ‘And maybe burnt, bleeding or irradiated for good measure’ he added.

‘Part of the SGC mandate is exploration’ Hammond told him. ‘We don’t have your purely military outlook and for all my years in the service that’s how I like it’ he continued. ‘There’s a lot of archaeologists, botanists, astronomers and others on my staff I hope you don’t think that the mountain is going to suddenly become the staging area for some kind of Manifest Destiny galactic takeover attempt.’

Commander Sharp chuckled. ‘Nah we’re planning to use the other gate for that stuff where you bleeding-heart liberal pacifists can’t interfere’ he responded wryly. ‘We’re a UN operation, do you know how difficult it is to get things authorised for us sometimes?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘The Interstellar Conquest idea is going to be stuck at the committee stage for years and then it’ll have to be referred back for amendments’ he joked. ‘Defending the planet and retrieving technology to enable us to do so is all X-COM is about’ he added seriously.

‘We had problem with people retrieving technology before’ General Hammond said meaningfully.

‘I read the reports, NID types stealing from advanced cultures’ Sharp replied. ‘We don’t steal from allies, or potential allies’ he said. ‘If it’s enemy equipment we take anything not bolted down and bring bolt-cutters just in case, but you have to shoot at us before we loot from you, that’s how the politicians want it so like a good soldier that’s what I’ll do’ he said. ‘Okay I’ll admit we’re not going to play as nice as you do, but that’s because we haven’t had it as easy as you, and I’ll tell you straight George from X-COM’s perspective you people are too much speak softly and not enough big stick’ he opined.

‘Speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far’ Hammond quoted.

‘Thousands of light years so the guys with the high IQ’s tell me’ Sharp replied with a gentle smile. ‘Look I’m not stupid’ he said, ‘I know you don’t want us here, ‘but when the time comes that Earth needs that big stick rammed up someone’s ass, trust me you’ll see us in a new light. We’re not amiable, half my troopers are downright surly and a good chunk of what’s left might seem borderline psychotic to outsiders’ he continued. ‘We’re cynical, fatalistic and we’re not remotely subtle, but we are very good at our jobs because the one’s that aren’t are all dead by the third mission.’

Hammond nodded. ‘How many have you lost?’ he asked.

‘I don’t keep count’ Sharp replied evenly. ‘I’ve tagged twenty-seven aliens though, not including Jaffa, which makes me a decent scorer, and that’s the only thing we try to remember in my unit, we honour the fallen by fucking-up ET’s plans at every damn opportunity, we’re saving the mourning and the grieving until the hangovers fade after victory day.’

‘That’s no way to live Commander’ Hammond told him.

‘I’m on borrowed time General’ Sharp replied with a wry smile. ‘We all are in X-COM, one day the plasma with my name on it is going to send me to the great beyond and I just want to take plenty of the bastards along with me’ he said. ‘You know before they offered me this job I spent half my time teaching X-COM recruits the lessons to be learned from my boundless wisdom’ he told him, ‘I’m an old hand and I’ve only been doing this less than a year’ he noted. ‘Look I’ll lay this out on the straight and level, I’m not going to pull rank unless I have to, but if I think I’m right I will countermand your orders and do things the X-COM way because I know it works and you’ll have to convince me that your way does too’ he told Hammond honestly. ‘In reality it’s still going to be your base because in X-COM everyone fights from recruit all the way up to Commander so I’ll be in the field a lot if that cheers you up.’

Hammond smiled. ‘I’d be happier with me in the field and you stuck here’ but the USAF doesn’t like having people over the rank of Colonel getting regularly caught up in firefights’ he said.

‘Get a transfer’ Commander Sharp told him, ‘for us it’s expected’ he said.

‘I’ll talk to the wife’ Hammond joked.

‘Mention the pay but not the mortality rate’ Sharp advised deadpan, but fighting back a grin.

General Hammond opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a file. ‘One thing I do want to mention before we see about you’re people becoming established is SG1’ he said, opening it. ‘They’re my best people, practically legendary around here, and I think it would be a fatal mistake if you tried to interfere with the way they do things.’

‘As a gesture of good faith we’re reducing the personnel we’re adding to the unit to one’ the Commander replied. ‘They’ll be under Colonel O’Neill’s command, and other than a standing order to watch the Jaffa turncoat like a hawk they’ll simply be another member of the team’ he said.

Hammond nodded. ‘Teal’c won’t react well to the situation’ he said.

‘Like I could give a crap’ Sharp replied frankly. ‘I’ve already chosen the girl for the job, she’s a damn fine soldier with plenty of brains and more balls than half the men in X-COM which is saying something because two big brass ones is regulation issue along with the scruffy jumpsuit’ he joked.

‘A woman?’ Hammond queried in surprise.

‘We’ve got a higher percentage of women in the field than you do’ Sharp told him. ‘They tend to live longer than the men which helps, more likely to listen to advice, and not think they know everything before they’ve ever seen a plasma bolt in anger, is my guess’ he explained. ‘Rank of Sergeant so no chain-of-command friction with Major Carter either, unless it’s some female thing, but I can’t be held accountable for that’ he said. ‘She was on course for a field promotion any time soon, more than enough kills for even the die-hard misogynists to take her seriously.’

‘And she’ll kill Teal’c if she thinks he’s switching sides again?’ Hammond asked.

‘In a heartbeat’ Sharp replied. ‘She’s X-COM to the core.’

General Hammond sighed. He was already starting to miss the good old days when the only thing he had to worry about was Goa’uld Ha’tak’s bombing him from orbit.

Area 51 – Earth – August 2000

Major Samantha Carter couldn’t quite figure out why, but for some reason, and after less than a day of knowing him, the face of Area 51’s leading expert on Naquadah and the Stargate program was the one she would most like to punch on the nose of any on the planet, and probably a good proportion of the worlds of the Goa’uld System Lords for that matter.

Fortunately he was currently loudly arguing with one of the R&D guys X-COM had sent over, as opposed to insulting her intellect or making cringingly bad passes at her, which meant that free from the distraction that was Rodney McKay she could continue to monitor the power readings coming off the Elerium material being analysed in the test chamber on one of the computer terminals scattered around. The room was full of scientists from both Area 51 and various X-COM bases and they were all engaged in animated discussions about the various alien technologies they had encountered and studied. The few non-scientists present, including an almost catatonically bored Colonel Jack O’Neill, were propping up the refreshment table instead.

Eventually the X-COM guy threw up his hands and turned his back on McKay and stomped away muttering something in a language she couldn’t understand as he headed in her direction, though the meaning was pretty clear from both the expression on his face and the exasperated tone of his voice. Apparently McKay’s manner didn’t go down well other people too, a less than revelatory discovery as far as Carter was concerned.

‘How do you work with that man?’ the X-COM scientist asked Carter, moving slightly to one side so he could see the results coming up on the screen she was looking at.

‘I don’t, we only met yesterday, I work out of Cheyenne Mountain not Area 51’ Carter replied. ‘He’s really annoying, and condescending… and annoying’ she stated.

‘The man had the temerity to try and correct me on the ideal crystalline structure of Elerium’ the X-COM scientist said, gritting his teeth. ‘He did not even know it existed until recently, the team I’m on has already built working test-model engines powered by the material’ he told her.

‘His confidence in the notion that his theories are facts is unshakable’ Carter agreed. ‘Samantha Carter SGC’ she introduced herself, holding out a hand.

‘Radek Zelenka X-COM Science Division’ he replied shaking the proffered hand.

‘Your English is very good’ Sam told him, ‘better than my… where are you from?’ she asked, slightly embarrassed by the admission.

‘Czech Republic’ he told her. ‘Do not worry you could not place the accent’ he said. ‘To us, you Americans and the Canadians like McKay sound exactly alike though we are told you do not’ he said. ‘So what do you think about our Elerium?’ he asked. ‘Your Naquadah has certainly made many of my people overjoyed.’

‘Hard to believe they’re basically the same stuff’ Carter observed.

‘They’re what?’ O’Neill asked, walking over holding a canapé in one hand and a glass of orange juice in the other.

‘They’re the same element’ Carter told him. ‘Weren’t you in the lecture earlier?’ she asked in confusion, she'd swear she saw him there.

‘I was at the back, difficult to hear’ O’Neill told her. He didn’t mention he and one of the Area 51 Security Team were actually playing cards back there, it was the fact the guy had won ten bucks from him that was the clincher as to him not telling her the truth, he must have cheated, O'Neill's system was foolproof, or so he thought.

Carter sighed. ‘Naquadah and Elerium are both element 115, they’re a stable isotope of Ununpentium’ she told him, ‘the difference between them is that they’re different allotropes of the same element.’

‘Allotropes?’ O’Neill repeated, none the wiser.

‘Allotropes are forms of an element which are bonded together differently so they take different forms’ Zelenka told him, he was used to trying to explain these things to the military, X-COM soldiers were no more scientifically literate as a rule than soldiers generally.

‘Naquadah and Elerium don’t look anything like each other’ O’Neill pointed out. Naquadah was basically grey and metallic, Elerium was green, glowing crystal crap, he'd seen some earlier.

‘Neither do Graphite and Diamond but they’re both allotropes of carbon with nothing else in them, the atoms are just arranged differently which effects not only how they look but other things too’ Carter responded. ‘Diamond is hard enough to cut glass but graphite rubs off on a sheet of paper, Graphite conducts electricity, Diamond doesn’t.’

‘Diamond is a crystal you can see through like Elerium, Graphite isn’t, like ordinary Naquadah’ Zelinka interjected. ‘Same element, radically different properties’ he said.

‘They even behave differently radiologically, which they shouldn’t but they’re both so weird to start with that’s not remotely the strangest thing about them’ Carter noted. ‘Liquid Naquadah, the form that powers Staff-Weapons for example, is the third allotrope’ she told O’Neill, ‘it’s actually the Naquadah equivalent of Carbon Fullerine, Buckyballs I mean’ she said. ‘The atoms are arranged so that they form tiny molecular balls so it's like a sea of ball-bearings, that acts like a liquid in effect but isn’t really’ she explained. ‘Liquid Naquadah does share the green glow with Elerium so in some ways it apparently behaves as an intermediary between the other two’ she added.

‘Buckyballs?’ O’Neill queried, narrowing his eyes. He sometimes thought she was making up words on the spot, though not as often as he thought that of Daniel.

‘I’ll find a picture in a text book back at the SGC, it’ll be easier than trying to explain’ Carter told him.

‘The good news is that now we know this we may be able to find a way to produce Elerium from raw Naquadah’ Zelinka said. ‘This is wonderful news as we are woefully short of it, and although in some ways inferior to ordinary Naquadah for power generation, it is much easier to construct an Elerium powered spacecraft, especially a small fighter sized one.’

'Yeah?' O'Neill asked.

Carter nodded. ‘Elerium is used up a great deal faster in use but its ability to generate gravity waves in certain conditions is more than useful’ she said. ‘A hybrid powerplant that used an Elerium Engine only to provide motive force, and a Naquadah Generator to power everything else, weapons, radar, avionics etc. would drastically increase fuel efficiency.’

‘I liked the presentation by Professor Ross from X-COM North America and his idea for a liquid Naquadah afterburner unit’ Zelenka interjected, ‘though I am not sure of the feasibility.’

‘If you could get it to work it would be a sight to see’ Carter agreed, ‘but so would the engine exploding like a thermonuclear bomb if something went wrong.’

‘It would not be a project I would be overjoyed to be assigned to’ Zelenka observed. ‘McKay is approaching, I apologise for abandoning you and fleeing the scene though perhaps you could get your colleague here to shoot him?’ he suggested, indicating O’Neill.

As Zelenka gave a slight bow and left, ignoring McKay, Carter turned to O’Neill. ‘These X-COM people never cease to amaze me with how quick they can figure out the simple solution to seemingly insurmountable technical problems’ she told him.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – August 2000

Commander Sharp had only met Colonel Jack O’Neill the day before but it was already apparent he was going to be trouble, not that it was remotely unexpected, he had guessed it would be the case based on both the mans file plus the vociferous warnings from General Hammond about treating the commanding officer of SG1 with kid gloves. Frankly Sharp would have preferred to knock him on his ass wearing boxing gloves, but he was doing his best not to stir up any more trouble between his people and the SGC, there was plenty of friction already.

Another source of strife was likely about to present itself but if it was an easy job they would have given it to someone else he reasoned as the door opened and O’Neill entered the briefing room followed by Major Carter and the Jaffa turncoat.

‘You asked to see us Commander?’ O’Neill began, pointedly not moving to take a seat.

‘If by that you mean I issued an order for you to report to me then yes, yes I did’ Sharp affirmed. ‘It wasn’t that recently either’ he added checking his watch.

O’Neill narrowed his eyes, it was going to be a cold day in hell when he reported to anyone on this base that wasn’t bald, Texan and named George Hammond. ‘We’re here Sir’ he responded, making sure to say the word in such a manner as to indicate he didn’t mean it whatsoever. These X-COM people had come waltzing in like they owned the place and acted like they expected the SGC to bend over and take it, well that wasn’t going to happen, not to SG1 anyway.

‘It’s alright Colonel’ Sharp told him. ‘I don’t expect you to like me and I can’t say it bothers me that you don’t’ he continued. ‘They might talk about you like you’re the second coming around here, but I won’t take you or anyone else in the SGC seriously until I’ve seen evidence you’re as good as they make out.’

‘With all due respect Sir’ O’Neill replied, meaning very little, ‘I could say much the same about you.’

Sharp half smiled. ‘Oh we’re a lot better than the rumours say we are Colonel’ he responded seriously. ‘You’ll see soon enough I’m sure’ he continued, ‘on which note I would like to introduce your new team member’ he added indicating the young woman wearing the same grey coveralls he was that was stood against the far wall at parade rest. ‘SG1 may I present your new team member Sergeant Lyudmila Andianov formally of 216 Independent Battalion Russian Special Forces’ he said, the woman snapping to attention as he did so though more for formalities sake than anything else.

O’Neill inwardly groaned, it had to be a Russian didn’t it? A Russian on SG1, why couldn’t Hammond have gone for the all X-COM teams instead, a few diplomatic incidents and minor wars breaking out would have been worth it surely? ‘Didn’t think there were too many women in Spetsnaz Sergeant?’ he queried.

‘Few join, even fewer pass, or perhaps in some cases I should say survive the training Colonel’ the Sergeant replied, her accent noticeable but her English better than O’Neill might have expected. ‘Of course compared to my more recent military career Spetnaz training and operations were light duty’ she told him. ‘It will take some adjustment for me to get use to an easy life again now I am assigned to your unit.’

Carter resisted the urge to roll her eyes while O’Neill didn’t bother to do the same with his smirk. ‘If you’re expecting an easy ride on SG1 you’re in for the shock of a lifetime Sergeant’ O’Neill told her.

‘Whatever you say Sir’ Andianov replied deliberately saying it to O’Neill the same way he had to Sharp. ‘Though I believe my own shock of a lifetime was the day I sat upon a live stunrod’ she told him straight-faced. ‘I am told I took off straight up like a Skyranger and the howling was equally reminiscent of a jet aircraft’ she continued, delivering the line completely without a change in her expression or demeanour.

‘We’ve stopped that part of the recruit hazing since’ Sharp interjected. ‘Too many electrical burns in places that made long trips on the bench seats of a Skyranger very uncomfortable’ he said with a chuckle.

‘Between that the armour and the laser rifles the recruits are too spoiled these days Commander’ the Sergeant opined. ‘Are there any such rituals you will feel the need to inflict on me Colonel?’ she asked O’Neill.

‘We could Zat you’ Carter offered deadpan.

‘Make sure I am unarmed at the time Major’ Andianov told her. ‘I am told by those of your countrymen in the team that I have a quick draw like your Billy the Kid’ she told Carter. ‘I would not wish to shoot you by reflex.’

O’Neill smiled. ‘I’d like to see…’ he began.

The Sergeant’s sidearm was in her hand, the muzzle of the laser pistol aimed directly between his eyes so fast it was almost a blur. ‘…that’ O’Neill finished. ‘Do you practice that in the mirror or something?’ he asked. Even Teal’c was surprised at her speed and reaction times, you could tell by the eyebrow raise.

‘Yes’ Andianov replied flatly, lowering and holstering the pistol. ‘It has saved my life on more than one occasion’ she told him. ‘If you wish me to demonstrate my skills I will happily accompany you to a firing range then the base gymnasium, out-shoot you then run you into the ground’ she offered.

‘That won’t be necessary thank you Sergeant’ O’Neill told her, he got the distinct impression she just might and he didn’t need to confirm her opinions on SGC personnel before he got the chance to show her how good he really was, in the field, not in practice where it didn’t count.

The warning claxons went off reporting an unscheduled activation, O’Neill started to move to head to the gateroom to investigate but a look from Commander Sharp stopped him in his tracks. If it was something important he would be told about it anyway.

‘I am told Commander Sharp that one of the sergeant’s duties is to assassinate me?’ Teal’c announced. O’Neill visibly flinching at the words, diplomacy and tact wasn’t in his nature either.

‘Yes’ Sharp confirmed. ‘X-COM is not as convinced as the SGC that you are reliable’ he told the Jaffa honestly. ‘I’m giving you a chance’ he said, ‘convince the Sergeant and then she might convince me’ Sharp told him. ‘If you can’t convince her then don’t ever give her cause to boil your brains with her laser because she will, right Sergeant.’

‘Yes Commander’ Andianov responded. ‘It is however nothing personal’ she told Teal’c, ‘I have not had the opportunity to develop any particular animosity to either you or your people’ she said. ‘In my two trips through our own Stargate none of the Jaffa we encountered lived long enough for me to harbour negative thoughts about them, they were completely unprepared for our weaponry’ she stated.

That was something O’Neill couldn’t help but believe. Whilst they had been at Area 51, and after sitting through an unending series of lectures that had bored him to the point of catatonia, he and other US Military personnel had watched a demonstration of the various X-COM developed Laser weapons in action, from pistols up to cannon designed to be mounted on aircraft. He had even been allowed to try out one of the rifles and after some adjustment to a completely recoilless weapon with a totally flat trajectory he was soon more than impressed, the things were unbelievably good and he was more than shocked to be told that the “Sectoid” personnel weapons were even better, some estimated perhaps twice as powerful. ‘They’ll adjust in time’ he told her.

‘They haven’t adjusted their tactics much in response to ordinary firearms in the last couple of years from what I can tell Colonel’ Sharp responded. ‘Even something as simple as cutting down their Staff-Weapons to a more reasonable size and adding a pistol grip, a stock and some iron-sights would have narrowed the gap enormously, but they haven’t’ he continued. ‘We’ve already got a couple of those in prototype versions but they’re still inferior to our L2-A1 so it’s unlikely they’ll be bought into service.’

‘We thought about that’ Carter told him, ‘I did so of the preliminary design work but the rate of fire is too low’ she said. ‘Staff-Weapons can only rapid fire a few shots before they overheat’ she noted.

‘True but mount six of them together and add an electric motor and you’ve got yourself one hell of a Gatling-Gun’ Sharp told her with a smile. ‘The first of those mounted on a HWP arrives next week, you can put down full-auto suppressive fire almost indefinitely, the Liquid Naquadah power-cells are good for thousands of shots apiece I’m told, ideal for breaking up a charge of pissed-off Jaffa.’

Carter’s jaw dropped. ‘Why the hell didn’t we do that?’ she asked.

‘Damned if I know Major’ Sharp replied with a shrug. ‘We’ve also got other HWP’s planned that will mount dual Staff-Cannons for heavy support when needed, sometimes thunder and lightning has its place.’

‘Not exactly the way we do thing around here’ O’Neill told him.

‘Not the way you used to do things’ Commander Sharp responded with a wry smile. ‘X-COM is a tiny bit more proactive than you’re used to’ he said. ‘We’re going to start taking the war to them, not too hard at first, at least not until we’ve got the hardware to contest them in orbit, but the softly-softly shit is right out the window’ he declared.

‘Indeed’ Teal’c commented with clear approval of the sentiment, if accompanied by some serious personal reservations regarding the idea of having a sword, or rather a laser, hanging over him from now on. There was something in the Sergeant’s eyes that was more than disturbing, he had heard the Tau’ri call it the “thousand yard stare” though the Jaffa had their own word for a warrior that had seen too much action in too short a space of time. A knock at the door broke his concentration.

‘Come in’ Sharp responded, Master Sergeant Harriman stepping through, an expression of concern over his face.

‘Commander Sharp, Colonel O’Neill’ Walter began, ‘the General sent me to find you, the unscheduled activation, it was Doctor Rothman coming through from P3X-888.’

‘The planet Daniel’s digging up?’ O’Neill queried.

‘Yes Sir’ the Master Sergeant responded. ‘He says that an Unas took Doctor Jackson and the rest of his team had gone off in pursuit.’

‘When?’ O’Neill asked urgently.

‘Three hours ago Sir’ Harriman replied. ‘General Hammond has authorised you to lead SG1 there immediately.’

‘Sir…’ Carter began, looking to Commander Sharp.

‘Don’t “Sir” me Major, get your ass in gear’ Sharp told her. ‘Sergeant you’re with SG1 as of now, go with and retrieve Doctor Jackson from the hostile’ he said. ‘I’ll have a full squad ready to go if you require backup’ he added.

They were already running towards the armoury when Sergeant Lyudmila Andianov realised she had absolutely no idea what the hell an “Unas” was.

Stargate – P3X-888 – August 2000

Reinforced by SG-2 they had deployed into a defensive formation around the gate as soon as they arrived, following on from the UAV that had come through beforehand. O’Neill tried getting hold of both Daniel and SG11 on the radio to no avail and ordered Major Coburn to keep the gate secure before setting off with Doctor Rothman heading to where Daniel had been taken.

‘Teal’c take point’ O’Neill ordered. ‘Pierce, you and Sergeant Andianov watch our six’ he continued indicating one of the members of SG2, the others would stay with Coburn their Commanding Officer to guard the gate.

‘Yes Sir’ Pierce responded, at least the Russian chick wasn’t bad looking although that armour she was wearing was less than flattering he decided. At least she wasn’t wearing the full ensemble, X-COM armour was okay for the short vicious firefights they usually got involved in but you wouldn’t want to hike anywhere in it. Fortunately it was modular by design which meant she had simply gone for the torso and upper arms sections, the normal blue metallic finish painted over by a light brown khaki that matched her coveralls. Much to his amusement written across the back of the armour, just above where her light field pack rested was stencilled her name plus “Ex-Commie” underneath in brackets.

The SG personnel were carrying P90’s which had recently been adopted by Stargate Command as a supplement to the normal MP5’s. They might in fact themselves be shortly phased out once the teams were trained and equipped with the new lasers but for now only Andrianov was carrying them, preferring both the bulky pistol at her side and the boxy-looking rifle in her hands to projectile weapons. Pierce wasn’t convinced, he’d heard the stories but high-velocity lead had served him damn well in the past and still edged out high-tech in his mind as they followed the others along the trail.

‘Have you encountered an Unas before?’ the Russian asked, keeping her voice down and continually turning her head to scan the environment.

‘No but I hear you have to weigh them down with lead to stop them’ Pierce replied. ‘If it’s got a Goa’uld in it the thing will heal fast too’ he added.

‘The Research Teams will likely be interested in a live specimen’ Andianov stated. ‘I have both a stun rod and a Zat gun in my pack’ she told him.’

‘Priority is saving SG-11 and Doctor Jackson’ Pierce responded.

‘Of course’ Andianov replied. ‘But if the opportunity presents itself and I am disabled the stun-rod has a simple control, simply turn up the dial to the required voltage and press the button when you touch it to the target’ she advised. ‘If these Unas are as tough as you make out a full power jolt may be required, do not touch the electrode at the tip, it may be powerful enough to stop your heart and will certainly both burn and cause convulsions.’

‘Thanks for the warning’ Pierce told her, the accent was pretty nice to listen to as well he decided, even if she did look kinda stern.

Up ahead Captain Griff had been landed with the job of keeping Doctor Rothman moving which wasn’t exactly to his liking but when a Colonel gives you a job you do it, especially when his name is O’Neill. SG-2 had a decent reputation in the SGC and Griff was proud to be second in command after Major Coburn but SG-1 were considered the elite, well they were by everyone except the new X-COM people, none of whom were assigned to SG2 yet thank God.

‘Sir’ Carter announced suddenly.

‘Yeah?’ O’Neill responded.

‘Fairly strong RDF signal. It's gone now not long enough to triangulate’ Carter told him looking up from her receiver.

‘So what, what, what, what does that mean?’ Rothman asked.

‘Daniel might have tried to use his radio’ Carter explained.

‘It could be SG-11’ Griff pointed out, just as likely to be them as Doctor Jackson though of course Carter, O’Neill and Teal’c would be more concerned for their team-mate.

‘UAV picked up something. I can’t explain why it died out’ Carter said.

‘Alright let’s pick it up’ O’Neill ordered. A signal meant at least one person was around to be doing the transmitting, the fact it was cut off might indicate they were in trouble.

Captain Griff heard Rothman quietly moan at the idea of moving any faster than they already were, well at least in the worst case scenario he wasn’t the lowest ranked one here and could always order Pierce, or maybe the Russian Sergeant, to carry Rothman instead.

When they arrived at the dig site Rothman pointed out where Loder from his team had been killed before Daniel was dragged away, Teal’c confirmed from the corpse that he had been killed by a very strong creature judging by the injuries and that the tracks were consistent with an Unas. SG-11 had left behind a large number of spent cartridge casings which caused Captain Griff to inwardly wonder if they had panicked or the fire needed to bring down a Unas was even greater than he thought.

Pierce and Andianov were scouting the edges of the dig site, Pierce returned with a slightly glazed looking Major Hawkins from SG-11. ‘I found him just standin’ there, starin’ off into space’ he reported.

‘Colonel’ Hawkins said.

‘Where’s the rest of your men?’ O’Neill wanted to know.

‘We were attacked’ Hawkins replied. ‘Sanchez is dead for sure. I don’t know what happened after that. We got split up. I was hoping some of them might’ve made it back’ he reported.

‘Oh God’ Rothman said in shock, he knew these people, they were his team, some even his friends.

Carter took a breath. ‘Major we’ve been trying to contact you for the last few hours’ she told him.

Hawkins blinked. ‘My men are dead aren’t they?’ he asked quietly, staring into space.

O’Neill felt a pang of sympathy, losing someone you were responsible for hurt worse than hell, he’d usually wished it was him instead when it happened but they didn’t have time for this right now. They could get his head straight back at the SGC but for now they needed to try and make sure nobody else was going to die. Look, Hawkins we can’t, spare anybody to take you back to the Stargate’ he told him, having already dismissed the idea of sending only one or two along with him as being too risky given the risk of another ambush. ‘You’re gonna have to stick with us. Can you do that?’ he asked.

‘Whatever you say, sir’ Hawkins responded, sounding a little more sure of himself.

‘Let’s move out’ O’Neill ordered and with Teal’c tracking the Unas trail they started off again at a fast pace, Griff still having to chivvy on Rothman and Pierce keeping an eye on Major Hawkins. Sergeant Andianov was herself keeping an eye on Teal’c but for somewhat different reasons.

The trail led to a river and with Rothman wheezing, O’Neill ordered them to rest as night approached, Rothman gratefully slumped back against a tree just inside the forest bordering the river and took a drink from the canteen Pierce offered before settling down to sleep, his short lived slumber ended an hour later by O’Neill who wanted his opinion on Hawkins who was definitely acting weird.

Lyudmila Andianov considered they were all more than a little weird and kept both her distance and her Rifle ready as she tried to make herself comfortable in her armour and failed miserably. The damn stuff chafed like crazy, especially for the female members of X-COM, a sports bra just wasn’t up to the job sometimes she thought ruefully as she eventually drifted off to sleep.

Shortly after dawn O’Neill nearly shot her. Teal’c was at the river bank, she was nearby watching him and O’Neill was watching her. Suddenly as Teal’c started to swing his staff around she snapped her rifle up and a laser beam sliced through the air right next to the Jaffa.

‘Drop it’ O’Neill screamed at her.

‘No O’Neill’ Teal’c’s voice boomed out and he inexplicably turned and aimed his staff at the team members who all came running. ‘I sensed there were Goa’uld in the river, one launched itself at me but before I could shoot it down the Sergeant did so’ he said. He didn’t add that the accuracy and reactions it must have taken her at that range were almost astonishing. ‘Any of you may have been taken as a host’ he continued, covering them with his staff.

Shortly thereafter, her hands and feet tied together Andianov wondered if she should have stayed on Earth and fought the damn bugs because this was nothing short of humiliating. Teal’c made a decent case in that what she knew of the Goa’uld and Jaffa confirmed he was the only one present that couldn’t be a host, but nevertheless she was still bound and her armour was even less comfortable stuck in this position. Teal’c had radioed the rest of SG-2 at the gate to collect them but it would be many hours until they could and by then she would not only be sore, hungry and thirsty she was already dying to go to the toilet and therefore increasingly cranky. Teal’c himself had resumed searching for Doctor Jackson alone.

‘This is ridiculous I’m not a Goa’uld’ Rothman stated.

‘Well then why didn't you say so? We could have straightened this whole thing out’ O’Neill responded sarcastically.

Andianov muttered something in Russian, the words were unfamiliar but the way she said them made the meaning abundantly clear.

‘So which one of you is it?’ Captain Griff asked, looking around.

O’Neill struggled against his bonds. ‘All right, anybody with a snake in their head raise their hands’ he declared wryly.

Major Hawkins eyes glowed and Sergeant Andianov’s widened as he snapped his bonds easily and stood up. ‘Next time I am just going to shoot the entire lot of you’ she declared, hoping there was going to be a next time.

‘Good idea’ O’Neill responded as Hawkins went to retrieve a P90. ‘Teal’c’ he said loudly to no response. ‘TEAL’C’ he repeated several times with increasing volume.

Hawkins picked up the weapon and was taking aim when the first of several staff-weapon blasts slammed into his body causing him to collapse to the ground as the Jaffa appeared.

It was a decent plan Andianov considered as Teal’c explained only a Goa’uld host would have been able to break the bonds. She was rubbing her own wrists when Teal’c untied Rothman whose own eyes suddenly glowed and he knocked the Jaffa aside and snatched up the Staff-Weapon Teal’c had put down in order to remove their bonds.

Andianov was already moving before Rothman could level the staff at the nearest target which was Captain Griff. Her reaction times had tested out as far above average and she was quick on her feet too, not only that she was in armour and threw herself between them just as Rothman fired, the blast impacting with her chest and knocking her backwards with the impact. Before he could fire again O’Neill, the first one untied, had snatched up his P90 and emptied half a clip into Rothman who fell to the ground riddled with holes.

‘Sergeant’ O’Neill said urgently as Andianov rolled onto her back, the front of her armour blackened by the staff blast.

‘I am unwounded though I will be spending several hours polishing my armour’ she responded reaching around to touch the point of impact pulling her finger away instantly. ‘It’s hot’ she said. ‘I am only grateful the weapon lacks penetration, most Sectoid plasma weapons would have likely killed me’ she said as O’Neill offered her a hand up.

‘That took balls’ O’Neill told her.

‘Better the weapon struck me than Captain Griff who would have likely suffered serious injury or death’ she replied evenly.

‘Could have hit you in the head’ Griff pointed out. ‘I owe you one Sergeant’ he told her.

‘I will make sure to collect Captain’ she replied in her usual deadpan manner.

‘Right, now we go get Daniel’ O’Neill declared. ‘We’ve lost too many people on this planet already.’

‘Pierce and I will bury them’ Captain Griff announced. ‘They deserve that.’

‘Right’ O’Neill agreed. ‘Teal’c you’re on point and double-time it’ he ordered. ‘Andianov watch our six’ he continued as the Russian retrieved her own weapons.

‘Are you sure you’re okay Sergeant?’ Carter asked her.

‘I am fine Major, thank you for your concern’ she replied with a nod. ‘The sooner we can retrieve Doctor Jackson the sooner we can return home’ she said then paused. ‘Colonel O’Neill I have heard you enjoy fishing’ she said randomly.

‘Yeah?’ O’Neill responded quizzically.

‘Have you ever done so with dynamite?’ she asked taking a grenade from a pouch on her gear and half nodding towards the river.

‘Sergeant I like the way you think’ O’Neill told her grinning. The water would deaden the noise and the gunfire had already alerted anyone nearby to their presence anyway.

Andianov pulled the pin and pitched the grenade into the river, it exploded pushing up a jet of water and soon a number of dead Goa’uld were floating to the surface. It was more than satisfying as they went to retrieve Jackson, eventually finding him making nice with a bunch of tribal Unas although the Sergeant did have to burn a hole in one of them with her laser rifle, she beat O'Neill to the trigger by a good half second.

Cheyenne Mountain - Earth - September 2000

Lyudmila Andianov was still grumbling something to herself in Russian when they returned through the Stargate from P53-381. Helping the Enkarans was just social work to begin with, and just when things were getting interesting Doctor Jackson figured out a solution that didn’t end in the remains of the Gadmeer vessel being available for recovery, research and back-engineering. Assuming of course that the overloaded Naquadah Generator Major Carter had rigged to explode would have left any chunks big enough to study once it detonated.

‘Look at it this way Sergeant’ Daniel told her, ‘the Gadmeer seem like a reasonable, intelligent and peaceful race’ he said. ‘They might prove to be a welcome ally in the future.’

Andianov looked at him askance and muttered something that caused the archaeologist to stop dead in his tracks at the bottom of the ramp letting her go on ahead, Russian was a surprisingly good language for profanity, they had a national history that promoted such a development, the devastation wrought by Nazi Germany in the Second World War and the economic collapse that followed the fall of communism were just the most recent in a long line of events that had taught the Russian people the need to be able to really swear well.

‘I don’t think she likes me very much’ Daniel stated as the Russian headed towards the armoury to offload her rifle and armour.

‘At least she does not keep you under constant surveillance in order to decide whether or not to shoot you Daniel Jackson’ Teal’c responded flatly.

‘She’s growing on me’ O’Neill declared.

‘That’s just because when you came up with the idea of nuking the Gadmeer she was all for it’ Carter observed wryly.

‘Yeah well it’s another vote on the team for the “kill ‘em all let God sort ‘em out” school of thought’ O’Neill responded. ‘It’s refreshing’ he continued, trying not to chuckle.

Daniel rolled his eyes. ‘You’ll forgive my disagreement on that’ he replied. ‘In any case I think she’s an atheist.’

‘Okay so it’s “kill ‘em all, Darwinian selection in action” instead’ O’Neill corrected himself. ‘It’s all good’ he added, ‘well not so much good but…’

An airman approached and saluted. ‘Colonel O’Neill, General Hammond would like you and Major Carter to report to the briefing room after you’ve unloaded your equipment’ he said. ‘He also says you’ve got time for a shower and it might be appreciated if you took one’ he added, trying not to grin.

‘Very well Airman, carry on’ O’Neill responded, returning the salute. ‘Forget to put on deodorant during one mission to a jungle planet and they’ll be moaning about it forever’ he complained as the Airman moved off.

‘Be fair Sir you were pretty ripe’ Carter pointed out, holding back a grin of her own.

‘Et tu Major?’ O’Neill asked her rhetorically as they headed towards the door leading out from the gateroom. He was sure it was this damn X-COM armour that was the problem, you couldn’t help but sweat underneath it even if they only tended to wear the torso section as a rule.

Twenty minutes later, and smelling of cologne, O’Neill was sat across from General Hammond and Commander Sharp wondering if he was in trouble, or if they had a mission for him that might mean he was in serious trouble. O’Neill and Carter couldn’t help but envy Sharp for being able to wear the utilitarian coveralls instead of a proper uniform, it was scruffy but looked damn comfortable as he sat there reading through a file on the table in front of him.

‘We want you to go back to P3X-989’ Hammond told them.

‘Altair? Harlans world?’ Carter queried, how she remembered all those codes O’Neill never understood.

‘Correct Major’ Hammond replied. ‘Commander Sharp has suggested we offer Harlan and the duplicates he made of SG-1 a number of our new Naquadah reactors in order to solve their power problems in return for access to their advanced technology’ he told them.

‘If this Harlan can produce exact android replicas which are actually sentient copies of people it would open up new areas of research into robotics and artificial intelligence’ Commander Sharp declared, ‘not to mention all the other technologies we might find of use, their tech base generally must be very high to have developed such equipment.’’

‘That kind of technology is decades, maybe centuries beyond us Sir’ Carter told him, you had to be realistic she thought.

‘You may be right but the R&D people are already salivating at the prospect I’m told’ Sharp replied. ‘It was also suggested by a Doctor Zelenka that the power-cells and capacitors used for our portable laser weapons might be as valuable a trade item as the reactors’ he said.

‘Putting a few of them together to act as portable power-packs for Harlan and the duplicates’ Carter surmised, thinking about it. ‘They do hold an enormous amount of charge’ she noted. ‘Good idea.’

‘I hate to change the subject but have we heard from the Asgard yet Sir?’ O’Neill asked the General.

Hammond nodded. ‘SG-4 managed to get in contact via the chamber you found on P3X-974’ he replied. ‘A local named Gairwyn they ran into said to say hello incidentally.’

O’Neill nodded. ‘What did Thor say?’ he asked.

‘It wasn’t him that answered the call’ Hammond replied. ‘Another Asgard told SG-4 that because of the losses incurred against the Replicators their Fleet is completely tied up and they can’t spare a vessel to come to Earth at present, although they were very interested in the news we told them regarding the Sectoids’ he continued. ‘Hopefully an Asgard vessel will be freed up in the next couple of weeks.’

‘Giving them plenty of time to come up with a convincing cover story’ Commander Sharp commented.

Carter sighed. ‘If the Asgard meant us harm they could arrive in orbit and pulverise our entire planet from there’ she told him. ‘We just don’t buy the idea that their High Council would either do the things the Sectoids are or have to go about it in as low-tech a fashion’ she said. ‘It just doesn’t make any sense, they could abduct people by teleport from radar invisible ships in space, they don’t need to fly down and risk getting tagged by your interceptors.’

‘Maybe you’re right but X-COM remains unconvinced and the stakes are considered too high to take the risk’ Sharp replied. ‘It’s just a pity the satellite defence system is at least two years away.’

O’Neill grinned. ‘What make’s you think you have a chance of putting anything in space that could hurt the Asgard?’ he asked sarcastically.

‘Oh I think a few naquadah-enhanced ten-thousand megaton bomb-pumped X-Ray Lasers would at least give them pause for thought Colonel’ Sharp responded flatly.

‘Ten gigaton X-Ray lasers’ Carter repeated, her eyes widening.

‘Only ten times the yield of the Goa’uld-Busters you’ve used before Major’ Sharp replied evenly, ‘nothing too outrageous, and well within our capability if we get enough naquadah… and they can figure out how to make it work.’

‘What’s an X-Ray Laser?’ O’Neill wanted to know.

Carter looked at him. ‘You detonate a hydrogen bomb as the power source for a cluster of lasers’ she explained. ‘They’re destroyed of course but before the entire unit ceases to exist you get an immensely powerful beam with a wavelength thousands of times shorter than an ordinary laser, X-Ray’s instead of visible, ultra-violet of infra-red light’ she continued. ‘Even if only a fraction of the energy ends up in the beams it’s still a colossal amount of energy focused at one point.’

‘Our big hitters’ Sharp agreed, ‘but only part of the network which will include hundreds of smaller satellites mounting scaled-up versions of the lasers we’ve developed for aircraft plus a missile battery.’

Carter smiled. ‘I think you’re underestimating the problem, it’s lack of spacelift capacity that will prevent anything on that scale.’

‘Oh our spacelift capacity is near infinite Major Carter’ Sharp told her with a chuckle. ‘You just haven’t thought it through.’

‘He looks smug’ O’Neill declared, ‘better let him get it off his chest’ he suggested to Carter.

Commander Sharp grinned. ‘We haul the second stargate currently housed in X-COM Europe plus it’s DHD into high orbit’ he said. ‘Transfer the material we want around Earth to the Alpha site through the gate here at Cheyenne Mountain’ he continued, ‘then we plug in the DHD to the gate in orbit which will then override the system making the orbital gate the primary…’

‘And simply send the equipment at the Alpha site back through the gate to Earth but instead of returning to the SGC it ends up in Earth Orbit instead’ Carter interrupted, shaking her head. ‘It’s so simple I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.’

‘The gate’s over five metres across in internal diameter, so we can send most satellites through in one piece then we transfer them to the orbits we want from there’ Sharp said. ‘It’s hauling the stuff up from Earth that’s the hard part, once you’re in space moving things is easy I’m told.’

Carter nodded. ‘We could use it to build orbital shipyards too, assemble them like the International Space Station’ she suggested. ‘If we construct vessels in orbit they could be far larger than anything we could build on Earth.’

‘That’s what they tell me’ Sharp replied.

‘Asteroid mining’ Carter continued randomly. ‘If you can get the infrastructure into space to start with you can start thinking about asteroid mining’ she continued. ‘And then orbiting power satellites, huge solar arrays beaming energy to ground stations’ she continued, ‘infinite clean power.’

‘Weaponry first, environmentalism second’ General Hammond told her. ‘Thinking of which how are you finding the new lasers yourselves.’

‘Hard to get used to’ O’Neill replied, ‘but I pity the next Goa’uld patrol we meet’ he added. They were weird to use after a lifetime of conventional firearms but they really kicked ass.

‘SG-8 ran into a company of Jaffa yesterday’ Hammond told them. ‘They were throwing Staff-Weapons through the gate for a good ten minutes after they cleared up’ he continued, ‘we’re running out of storage for the things’ he declared. Area 51 was having to build a new hanger to store the materials coming from both SGC and X-COM missions.

‘I was happy to see that the SGC people have fully embraced our looting and pillaging ways’ Commander Sharp joked. ‘As for putting those things to use we’ve tried out one of the Gatling-Staff HWP’s against a saucer that landed in South America’ he added. ‘X-COM is having to replant a large area of the Amazon’ he said with a mock grimace, ‘it chopped through the jungle like a lumberjack on speed according to the report, best fire-support ever, pure intimidation, the bugs just duck and stay ducked while you flank them.’

‘The other war going well then?’ O’Neill queried.

‘Enhanced Avalanches are swatting them out of the sky like flies’ Sharp responded happily. ‘Anything too fast for the Interceptors gets met on the ground by our troops, and between the lasers, the Zat’s and the new HWP’s we’re really kicking ET’s ass there too, losses cut by more than a third’ he noted, which still made them damn high by anyone’s standards.

‘The Zat’s work on the other aliens then Commander?’ Carter asked with interest.

‘Not fatally as a rule Major, we think it’s a difference in their nervous systems’ Sharp told her. ‘Some of the bastards need a few shots to stun them too, ‘Chryssalids especially, and they don’t work at all on Cyberdiscs, the little hovertanks Sectoids keep around I mean, but overall they’ve helped a lot’ he answered. ‘Floaters are supposed to be hilarious when you Zat them’ he added with a grin. ‘The discharge sometimes does something to the control mechanism on the anti-gravity unit that lets them fly, so they either crash straight to the ground or else start spinning like a gyroscope’ he said. ‘Which taught us something else’ he added, ‘Floaters puke when they’re dizzy’ he told them. ‘Who knew?’ he asked with a chuckle.

O’Neill laughed, he was wondering if maybe he should bring along some things for the duplicate of himself? A DVD player, a small TV and the last couple of seasons of the Simpsons would probably get a warmer welcome than the reactors he decided.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

Stargate – P3X989 (Altair) – August 2000

Captain Samantha Carter was the first through the gate and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who was waiting for her, this caused Daniel following directly behind to crash straight into her and the two of them cleared the stargate in an undignified stumble as O’Neill and Teal’c bought up the rear.

‘Comtraya’ Harlan greeted them with considerably less enthusiasm than normal. ‘We have visitors’ he added redundantly.

‘Aw crap’ the O’Neill who had just come though the gate moaned as he came face to face with himself, a very angry looking himself carrying an unfamiliar large boxy rifle and wearing what looked like part of a suit of armour designed to mimic the human torso.

‘And what the hell do you think you’ve been doing?’ the O’Neill with the armour on asked.

‘Same thing you do, only better’ the other O’Neill responded.

‘What does that mean?’ O’Neill in armour asked.

‘Better? It means bet-ter, stronger faster..’

‘You’re a fucking robot’ armoured O’Neill growled. ‘You’re not me, and you don’t work for the United States Airforce’ he pointed out.

‘I can still do the job though’ android O’Neill replied, ‘explore the universe, fight the Goa’uld, protect Earth.’

‘Unless I'm badly out of the loop the SGC did not outsource my job to a planet full of robots’ the human O’Neill retorted. ‘I haven’t been replaced by mechanisation yet’ he declared.

‘Pity’ Android O’Neill replied. ‘You’re not getting any younger and I’ll bet you’ve put on a few pounds since I came off the production line’ he said looking the other one over.

O’Neill was about to launch into a counter-tirade of abuse relating to rust, metal fatigue and loose wiring when his Samantha Carter decided it was best to intervene before someone had to drag the two duplicate Colonels off each other. ‘Harlan tells me you designed a portable power-pack?’ she said to her android double. ‘Nice work’ she told her. ‘I got promoted to Major’ she added.

‘Well that was overdue’ her Android duplicate replied. ‘Congratulations’ she said holding out a hand to shake which they did.

‘The bandana doesn’t suit me, I mean you’ Daniel told his own duplicate who was wearing a piece of black cloth tied over his head.

‘Jack’s idea’ the android replied pulling it off, ‘say’s it makes me look more dangerous and less like a geek.’

‘Wannabe pirate maybe’ human Jackson observed.

‘That’s what I said’ android Jackson agreed with a shrug, as the two Tealc’s nodded a silent greeting at each other.

Lyudmila Andianov rolled her eyes upwards and muttered something in Russian, one set of them all was bad enough she thought to herself, hoping this was going to be a quick mission.

‘Who’s that?’ Android O’Neill asked, pointing at the woman who was hanging around at the back.

‘Sergeant Lyudmilla Andianov, the fifth member of SG-1 as of the last couple of weeks’ the original replied.

‘A Russian?’ android O’Neill responded in surprise. ‘They let the Russians into the program?’ he asked, nonplussed.

‘She’s UN via an organisation called X-COM’ the other O’Neill explained. ‘Long story short, we’ve got two alien threats now and they were fighting the other one’ he explained. ‘Now we’re fighting both together’ he said.

‘Two Alien threats?’ android O’Neill repeated. ‘That wasn’t your fault was it?’ he asked suspiciously. ‘You, I mean we’re not diplomatic enough sometimes.’

‘Compared to them we are’ the other O’Neill replied, indicating the Russian. ‘Some of the guys back at the SGC have started calling X-COM the Waffen XX.’

Andianov narrowed her eyes and spat on the floor meaningfully, getting compared to the fascists that had raped and pillaged their way across the motherland was beyond infuriating and if anyone said that in front of her they were getting knocked on their ass regardless of rank.

‘So if they've got that reputation why are they with the SGC?’ android Daniel asked in confusion. That certainly wouldn't have been tolerated back when he was in the organisation he decided.

‘The SGC is with us’ Andianov stated. ‘XSGCOM’ she declared turning to show the insignia painted on the upper arm of her torso armour.

‘They didn’t give us much of a choice’ the human O’Neill told the duplicates. ‘We did get some nice toys though’ he added, indicating his rifle. ‘It’s a Laser’ he explained, ‘honest to god’ he promised. ‘Beats an ordinary rifle hands down, and as for the armour we’ve got on’ he continued, tapping it with the knuckle of his free hand, ‘it’ll stop a Staff-Blast or a fifty-calibre no problem.’

‘What’s it made from?’ the android Carter asked intrigued, her scientific curiosity kicking in.

‘An alien developed alloy’ her human counterpart replied. ‘Tougher and more durable than anything we’ve got except Trinium, but it’s a lot easier to get hold of.’

‘Trinium?’ the android Carter queried.

‘Oh yeah right you wouldn’t know about that’ the human Carter remembered, ‘we went our separate ways before the SGC discovered the stuff’ she continued. ‘Trinium is a rare metal that’s only found on a few planets and even then not usually in quantity’ she explained. ‘Properly forged and alloyed it’s a hundred times stronger than steel and lighter too.’

‘Laser weapons? Advanced alloys?’ the android Carter responded impressed, ‘any other technological leaps.’

‘Naquadah Reactors which are small enough to pick up but provide as much power as a decent sized Fission plants’ her human double replied. ‘As a matter of fact that’s why we came, we were going to offer them to you to solve your power problems in return for scientific access to the technology here’ she said. ‘We were more than slightly surprised to find Harlan here on his own and you out trying to save the universe.’

‘We got bored’ android O’Neill stated truthfully. ‘Well Carter was having fun taking this place apart’ he admitted, ‘but the rest of us were going stir crazy.’

‘We’re going to be having words’ the flesh and blood O’Neill declared, ‘serious, and probably rude words’ he added, putting on his stern look and fixing his doppelganger with a glare.

‘What do you think you’ve got to say I could possibly be interested in hearing’ the android version responded with a superior smile.

‘I’ve got every episode of the Simpsons from 1989 up to last week burned to a stack of DVDs, plus a TV and a player for them,’O’Neill told the android, ‘you’ll listen or they’re coming home with me’ he threatened darkly.

‘If General Hammond finds out he was using the base computer gear for video piracy we’re in so much trouble’ Carter mumbled to herself.

Android Jack O’Neill blinked. ‘I’ll be good’ he said eventually, looking down at the floor, lousy, rotten, stinking bastard knew him too well he thought resignedly. ‘So these Lasers’ he said, ‘any chance of trying them out?’ he asked. ‘Maybe getting our hands on a few?’

‘That would require approval from Commander Sharp and he would likely require some financial, technological or material exchange’ Sergeant Andianov stated.

‘Commander Sharp?’ the android Carter asked.

‘Her boss’ O’Neil explained.

‘Our Commanding Officer Sir’ Andianov corrected him.

‘Technically’ O’Neill responded, ‘very technically’ he added for emphasis. George Hammond was his CO as far as he was concerned, Sharp was a damn Canadian Interloper.

‘So you might as well fill us in on what’s been happening while we’ve been away’ the android O’Neill told his counterpart. ‘We won’t tell anyone, we don’t break under torture, we just break down completely.’

‘I’ll want a full list and set of reports for the missions you’ve been running from here’ the flesh and blood O’Neill ordered. ‘If you’ve screwed anything up out there I want to know in advance before people hold me accountable for your fuckups.’

‘Ditto’ the gears and wires O’Neill responded. ‘We were always expecting to gate to a world one day and get lynched or something’ he continued. ‘The locals would have been pretty surprised when we just hung there not dying though’ he said. ‘Oxygen is for wimps’ he declared smugly.

‘Bite me Frankenstein’ O’Neill retorted.

‘That was the creators name not the monster’ both Daniels said almost simultaneously.

Harlan was giving Lyudmila a disquieting look which caught her eye ‘If you make a copy of me I guarantee that you will end your days in pieces on a lab bench at X-COM Research and Development’ she told him coldly.

‘She’s not bluffing’ O’Neill warned him, his Carter, Daniel and Teal’c nodding their consensus.

Harlan could take a hint, the way she was tenderly stroking the laser rifle in her arms gave more than enough discouragement to his notions of expanding the labour force.

Forest Edge - P3S-452 – September 2000

Commander Sharp threw himself to the ground as another volley of Staff-Blasts came shrieking out of the Forest, fortunately Jaffa, or at least their weaponry, couldn’t hit the side of a barn if they were standing in it.

The thirty or so mixed X-COM and SGC soldiers accompanying him immediately scattered and began opening up on the tree-line, lasers slicing through both lumber and the occasional Jaffa, but it was starting to seem like there was an inexhaustible supply of the bastards. They’d already butchered at least two companies getting this far and if things didn’t start to quiet down soon they’d have to bring in extra men just to salvage equipment from all the dead enemy soldiers they were littering the planet with.

At least they were going to have a few pieces of Deathglider salvage to take back with them even if they weren’t exactly in pristine condition after being shot out of the sky by Stinger Missiles, the R&D people supposedly wanted to merge the X-301 and Firestorm projects but they needed more material to work with to overcome the difficulties of putting together Human, Goa’uld and Sectoid technology and still making it all work.

Sharp began crawling for cover though there wasn’t anything truly worthy of the name nearby. The stargate here was surrounded by open pasture bordered by forests, with a large inland sea to the East and the hills containing the Naquadah mines and the processing plant a few miles to the West. They were using increasing quantities of the material both at the SGC and for X-COM requirements and P3S-452 had plenty, unfortunately it was also a Goa’uld Stronghold for the very same reason.

The Commander heard a familiar sound and turned to watch a tracked Heavy Weapon’s Platform rolling into range. The Jaffa immediately switched targets and opened up on the machine but the rare staff blast that hit the thick frontal armour merely blackened it before the HWP began to return fire in a storm of identical blasts from the six staff-weapons mounted together on a revolving turret

An electric motor turning them like a Gatling-Gun the cluster of staff-weapons, now minus their counterweight clubs at the far end, began to pour a continual stream of plasma bolts into the treeline as the HWP kept rolling along, its treads marking it’s passage across the planet all the way back to the stargate. Cooling issues meant that a staff could only rapid fire a few shots normally, drastically restricting their usefulness in suppression fire, but in this mounting when there was a half dozen of the things putting out better than four-hundred discharges a minute between them, the small automated tanks carrying a Gatling-Staff could really kick ass.

The psychological impact of the continual sound and fury was as much of a factor, if not more as the casualties caused. Laser and conventional cannon armed HWP’s had considerably more accuracy, a longer reach and overall slew more effectively, but they didn’t project the same aura of mayhem on the move that one of these babies did, Sharp thought to himself with a grin, as the machines relentless, plasma-spewing advance continued, the quantity of fire coming from the forest starting to drop off at last.

‘They’re bugging out Sir’ one of the troopers declared. ‘We going in there after them?’ she asked as the HWP stopped firing. A second identical machine was approaching in its wake and it might have been that which made the Jaffa decide a tactical retreat was in order, the new Tauri machines were truly fearsome.

‘Negative’ Sharp responded. ‘The winds blowing the right way, just throw a few smoke and teargas grenades in there to keep them occupied and watch your IR Scopes and Motion Trackers’ he ordered, ‘They might not be able to see through that crap but we can’ he reminded them, ‘use Incendiary rockets and grenades on the forest if you have to but only as a last resort I don’t want to be cut off by a wildfire in the wind changes’ he continued. ‘I want 1st Squad to secure the route back to where SG-3 is holding the stargate and to direct traffic once the 4x4’s start coming through, 2nd Squad covers from here to the bridge up ahead the UAV spotted while the rest of us are going to take it and push on for the highground’ he ordered. ‘There’s Naquadah in them thar hills and I plan to bring so much back home they’ll let me have a big chunk of weapons-grade as a paperweight’ he told them as they started their advance once again.

Taking the stone bridge across the river that winded down from the hills was easy despite the presence of a Staff-Cannon and another fifty Jaffa. The defenders were simply shot down from well beyond their own effective range and once they were crushed Sharp and his Troops crossed to the far bank from then on meeting only sporadic resistance as they approached their primary objective.

It was a strange, almost incongruous sight to witness the practically bronze-age slave labour camp that mined the Naquadah Ore next to the sleek Goa’uld factory complex that processed and refined it. The Guards put up a spirited defence and held the Tau’ri back for nearly half an hour, aided by Commander Sharp’s reluctance to use heavy weapons, but eventually they succumbed to the vastly superior weaponry and tactics of the human soldiers and as the four-wheel-drive vehicles started to roll up to collect the spoils one of the X-COM soldiers took out a UN Flag which had the Tau’ri Gate Symbol superimposed upon it and, after cutting down a standard of the System Lord that claimed the planet, symbolically raised it over the complex.

Persuading the slaves that they weren’t just going to belong to a different Goa’uld Master now, and nor were they going to be killed, was surprisingly difficult. In the end Sharp gave up trying and got them to help load captured Naquadah and Technology onto the vehicles and figured he could take them to the Alpha Site and let someone else deal with them, somebody a lot more patient. They numbered in the low hundreds and seemed to hail from at least a dozen different worlds so they might prove to be a useful source of intelligence at least. Many were in a sorry state and required medical attention which Sharp had provided to them along with giving them access to the food stores.

A final counter attack, a half-hearted combined-arms effort with Deathgliders supporting Infantry and with a number of Staff-Cannons bought up for fire-support was quickly smashed. They simply had no idea how to deal with a competently-led and properly equipped opponent, and unfortunately being that talent and initiative were not all that prized or rewarded in Goa’uld service, the System Lords being far too paranoid for that, the Jaffa always kept repeating the same mistakes.

Against the SGC Teams armed with projectile weaponry they had lost engagement after engagement, fighting against troops wearing armour that could stop a staff blast and wielding laser rifles they didn’t so much lose so much as they were either swatted aside or scythed down en-masse as they attempted yet another futile charge. One of the vehicles that had come via the stargate situated in X-COM Europe had bought along a mortar and a salvo of mixed white-phosphorus, high explosive and shrapnel bombs soon bought the battle such as it was to a conclusion, the remaining Jaffa retreating from the field as a broken rabble.

‘If it wasn’t for their ships we could bring them to their knees inside of two years’ Sharp declared watching the enemy retreat. ‘Poor dumb brainwashed bastards ain’t got a clue’ he said shaking his head sadly.

‘No offence Sir’ an X-COM Sergeant replied, ‘but let’s hope it stays that way’ he said. ‘It’s nice not to go home without a load of our people in body-bags.’

‘No arguing there Sergeant’ Sharp agreed. ‘After we’ve stripped this place I want the mines collapsed with charges and the plant blown all to hell then set on fire’ he ordered, turning to an SGC Major. ‘X-COM offworld SOP’ he explained, ‘pillage then burn.’

The Major nodded, okay so it was like hanging with Genghis Khan and the Mongol Horde sometimes, they did get results he considered, watching another load of Naquadah being driven off towards the stargate as the acrid smell of phosphorus and burnt flesh drifted in and started to assail his nostrils.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – September 2000

General Hammond sighed and looked around the briefing room to gauge reactions, it was a full house with extra chairs bought in to accommodate both the more senior SGC staff and visitors. ‘I did warn you that you weren’t necessarily the best choice to go and see the Nox’ he reminded Commander Sharp, trying not to catch the eye of any of the other SGC personnel sat around the table for fear of breaking up into laughter. ‘Especially so soon after you returned from P3S-452’ he added. Although fairly level-headed and moderate, well by X-COM standards anyway, Sharp was still not exactly one of the great diplomats of our time and with his blood still up after the combat mission he really shouldn’t have headed straight out again on a peaceful one.

‘Goddamn hippies’ Sharp muttered venomously, his arms crossed in front of him and with a definite scowl.

Better able to keep a straight face than either Colonel O’Neill to her right or Daniel to her left Major Carter spoke up. ‘Would I be correct in assuming your overtures to the Nox asking for access to their visual cloaking technology and offering a military alliance didn’t go well?’ she asked angelically. She thought the Commander deserved his chain yanking a bit, he hadn’t exactly ordered Teal’c not to be there too, but he hadn’t put his name on the list of people he wanted to attend either. As a result Teal’c was off on a rifle range with Lyudmila acting as both his instructor in the L2-A1 Hades Laser Rifle and of course his ever-present shadow and would-be assassin.

Attorney-Major Kovachek the commanding officer of the diplomatic team SG-9 that had accompanied Sharp to P3X-774 looked down at his paperwork. ‘I believe the exact moment negotiations began to deteriorate beyond the point of no return was when Commander Sharp told Anteaus of the Nox to, and I quote “Get a job and a haircut”.’

‘Scruffy pacifistic munchkins’ Sharp growled. ‘One of the “Four Great Races” my ass’ he muttered darkly.

‘On the plus side at Commander Sharp’s instigation the Nox have been removed from the list of races X-COM considers a possible Offworld threat’ Kovachek added.

‘They’re a threat, it’s just only to themselves’ Sharp declared. ‘Neutrality isn’t necessarily a bad thing but if you’re going to try that you want to be like Sweden and make sure you’re heavily armed and ready for a fight too’ he opined. ‘Hiding, running away and turning the other cheek will only get you so far.’

‘Thinking of neutral and heavily armed are you still going to see the Tollan?’ Daniel asked.

‘Yes but I promise to be on my best behaviour if that’s what you’re worried about Doctor Jackson’ Commander Sharp replied, trying to damp down his feelings regarding those sandal wearing loafers the Nox.

‘It was’ Daniel told him flatly. He had never really adjusted fully to the military mindset anyway and these X-COM people made even SG-3’s gung-ho marines look inoffensive by comparison. They got results but they had about as much subtlety as a baseball bat to the side of the head, frankly he was starting to wonder if they were more than slightly unhinged. Even SGC military staff from teams that had seen action offworld alongside X-COM troops had mentioned how ridiculously aggressive and full of bravado they could be, O’Neill said it was a coping mechanism from seeing too much action and that at least they had the skills to back up their bullshit.

‘Shall we move on to the next item on the agenda?’ General Hammond asked, it was probably best to. ‘Doctor Markov if you could begin’ he said to the woman sat a few places down the table.

Svetlana Markov picked up a pen and began absent-mindedly playing with it as she scanned her notes one last time. Carter had been more than impressed to find out the Russian was one of the Senior Scientists working for X-COM and in O’Neills words had been practically gushing when they met earlier, he had been worried at one point she was going to produce one of Markov’s papers and ask her to sign it but fortunately it hadn’t got that far. O’Neill’s own interest in the physicist was slightly academic itself, he was wondering if female physicists as a group actually were all hot or if it was just him. As Markov began to talk he also idly wondered if Marie Curie was a babe too, he’d have to see if he could find a picture on the internet.

‘The basic problem we have is a complete overload of research projects’ Markov told the group. ‘Between the technology we have taken from Sectoid vessels, and that recovered from other races through the Stargate, we simply have a over-abundance of useful and eminently worthwhile items to investigate and back-engineer and despite trimming these down to a more sensible number a lack of resources, by which I mean competent Scientists, Technicians and Engineers, is holding everything up.’

Carter couldn’t help but nod. ‘The Powerpack design we got from the Androids on P3X-989 is notably superior to anything we already have, including those fitted to our Laser Hand-Weapons’ she said, ‘but it will be months before we’ll be able to put them into production because so many other projects are already in the pipeline ahead of it.’

‘I hope we’re still prioritising the Firestorm Research’ Commander Sharp asked. ‘Our Interceptors aren’t scoring any more, they’re just being left in the dust by faster UFO’s, I think we were too successful with the Enhanced Avalanches’ he said. ‘They’ve adjusted tactics to cope.’

‘The first Firestorm will be constructed and ready for flight testing at the end of the week but it is unlikely we’ll be building many of them given the clear superiority of our new hybrid Technology Fighter that will replace it in production’ Markov replied. ‘By taking technology from both the Firestorm and the Deathglider based F-301 project, which has been put on hold, we should be able to bring the production model F-302 into service at least a year earlier than planned and in a considerably more deadly form given that it will use Elerium powered Engines and mount either the new Laser Cannons we are currently trialling on the XF-701’ she said. ‘Or perhaps even Plasma-Beams if we have mastered the technology by then’ she added.

‘I was going to get to Test-Fly the 301 before they pulled the plug on the program’ O’Neill noted sadly.

‘You might get to try out a Firestorm Colonel’ Sharp told him, ‘supposed to be able to do well over Mach 6 and outmanoeuvre any jet we’ve got.’

‘Doesn’t the navigation system read your thoughts though?’ Daniel asked, they’d all seen the briefing notes about the craft.

‘Partially I’m told’ Commander Sharp replied, ‘based on alien technology that’s been modified for our use and allows for quicker responses’ he explained. ‘Why do you ask?’ he queried.

Daniel turned and looked past Carter at O’Neill’s head with a wry smile. ‘Oh, no reason’ he said with a chuckle as he looked forward again.

‘Funny’ O’Neill told him, narrowing his eyes. ‘Just don’t you try it out because you’re too absent minded to keep concentrating on where you’re supposed to be going and the thing would just fly around in circles until it ran out of gas’ he retorted.

‘Boys, boys’ Markov chided them with a smile of her own, ‘another project that has been given high priority is the improved L2-A2 version of our Laser Rifle’ she said. ‘By using the alien alloys instead of conventional metals we have lightened it sufficiently to allow our version of the Zat'nik'tel discharge weapon to be fitted within the housing underneath the barrel without making the weapon too heavy or cumbersome’ she announced.

‘It’s still heavier than the L2-A1’ one of the other SGC Officers noted, ‘and that thing’s no lightweight to start with.’

‘Perhaps you need to spend more time in the gym’ Markov replied with a smirk. ‘Pump some iron as you American’s say correct?’ she asked, miming that she was lifting weights. ‘Build some muscles’ she suggested.

‘What about the Plasma Weapons?’ Sharp asked. ‘We might outgun the Jaffa but the X-COM personnel fighting the other invaders are still badly outclassed’ he noted.

‘Our researchers say they should have figured out the Plasma Pistol weapon soon and will then move onto the more powerful Rifle and eventually the so-called Heavy Plasma which has started to appear in Sectoid service of late.’

‘Heavy Plasma?’ an SGC Major queried.

‘It is like an oversized rifle and is powerful enough to not only penetrate our personal armour but also go right through the person inside causing massive internal injuries and then on through out the back burning through both rear armour and pack’ Markov responded. ‘It can blow holes in brick walls large enough to climb through’ she continued for emphasis. ‘And despite all this firepower it still only weighs the same as the A1 version of our far inferior Laser Rifle’ she added.

‘Good God’ the Major replied, his tone of shock mirroring the responses of the others sat around the room.

‘Our forces encountering them are perhaps unlikely to think so’ Commander Sharp observed. ‘It puts facing Jaffa with Staff-Weapons in a different light doesn’t it?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘One of those Heavy Plasma Rifles can take out an HWP with a single shot’ he noted. ‘If the damn things start appearing more often we’ll start taking casualties at approaching fifty percent again’ he added ruefully. Getting to a situation where even a relatively inexperienced Trooper had a better than even chance of coming back alive had done wonders for X-COM morale even if in any other conflict those kind of casualty rates would have still been considered beyond horrific. ‘Other than a few exceptions such as Sergeant Andianov and myself you’re going to see the X-COM personnel assigned here start to rotate duties every couple of weeks between the Goa’uld and Sectoid fronts’ Sharp announced. ‘You might not think so but fighting Jaffa is light work so we can give them a break by taking them away from the action for a while to let them get their heads straight again.’

‘What about us?’ another SGC Officer, a Captain, asked. ‘Can we rotate to fight the other aliens too?’ he queried.

‘You’d have to be nuts to want to but if you’re single and meet the entry requirements I can arrange a secondment’ Sharp replied. ‘You do know there’s a very real possibility you’ll die on your first mission right Captain?’ the Commander checked.

‘Well I wasn’t planning on it Sir’ the Captain replied evenly.

‘Well I admire your guts son and I hope some Chryssalid doesn’t end up ramming one of its eggs in there too’ Sharp told him. ‘You’ll need to get authorisation from General Hammond though’ he told him.

George Hammond inwardly winced and hoped he be able to talk him out of it, he wasn’t surprised at the officer volunteering however. The X-COM people had been mentioning how easy life was in the SGC compared to fighting the other alien war ever since they arrived, and it was bound to cause some to want to prove they were every bit as good as the “Commers” by getting in some trigger-time against the supposedly almighty Sectoids, Floaters and Snakemen. Initially the Stargate Teams had thought the newcomers were just full of shit but after actually watching them in action it had been become abundantly clear how good they really were. One evaluation of the performance of X-COM forces in the field that Hammond requested from an Army Ranger in SG-18 was a succinct “fucking amazing” which was short on detail but long on meaning. ‘See me in my office after we finish up here Captain’ Hammond told the volunteer, he might see sense, you never know the General thought to himself.

‘On the subject of guts I would like you all to remind your teams not to try foodstuffs on alien words regardless of how friendly the locals are’ Sharp said, with a definite smirk. ‘This comes straight from Doctor Frasier who was not overjoyed at the state her infirmary ended up in after SG-6 returned from their last mission with a severe case of… well let’s just say they couldn’t keep anything in’ he told them. ‘Both the medical staff and the cleaning crews will be grateful if that sort of thing isn’t repeated any time soon regardless of how funny it may seem to the rest of us’ he added. He shouldn’t have grinned when she told him though, that had been a major mistake, she might have been a small woman but she was pretty damn fierce and intimidating when riled as he’d found to his cost after a severe tongue-lashing from the SGC’s chief medic for not taking the issue seriously enough.

Commander Sharp was about to invite Colonel O’Neill to give his summary report regarding SG-1’s mission to Altair when a flash of light and the sudden appearance in a flash of light of a short grey guy in one of the few clear spaces nearly gave him a heart attack which was followed by a physical assault and restraint when several SGC personnel including General Hammond grabbed him to stop him drawing the laser pistol at his hip and firing it.

‘Thor buddy’ Colonel O’Neill began, ‘you’ve got to stop making entrances like that because the only reason you’re not dead right now is because our resident Russian Gunslinger isn’t here’ he told the Asgard as Hammond managed to pry the Laser from Sharp’s hand ignoring the Commanders muffled cries which were a result of his being held down.

‘We need to talk’ Thor said seriously. ‘You are in a great deal of trouble and although we are partially responsible we are currently in no position to provide much assistance’ he told them apologetically. ‘The High Council has however instructed me to contact the leadership of the human organisation known as X-COM with an explanation and what useful information we can provide.’

‘As soon as he’s calmed down to a homicidal rage feel free to go right ahead’ O’Neill replied, indicating the still struggling and now vociferously swearing Commander Sharp.

Thor almost seemed to grimace. ‘I see’ he replied. ‘Will that take long?’ he asked.

‘Hopefully not’ O’Neill responded. ‘So how’s Mrs Thor and the Clones?’ he asked, trying to make conversation in the meantime as a wide-eyed Svetlana Markov stared at Thor incredulously.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

High Orbit – Earth – September 2000

Hair-Trigger reflexes and a shoot-first-and-interrogate-later policy had kept Russell Sharp alive during his time with X-COM, but the very things that had maintained his grip on this mortal coil were more than occasionally detrimental to the other duties he had to undertake as a Commander in the far less heated environment of his new duties with the SGC. Aggression and decisiveness were a good survival trait in the field when you were shooting it out with Sectoids, but they did him no favours when confronted with an almost identical looking representative of the Asgard race.

Sharp looked around, the act of teleporting had not really felt of anything much physically, which had surprised him, though the experience was nonetheless more than slightly disorientating given that one second he was in the briefing room at the SGC and the next he was on an alien vessel several hundred miles above the planet.

‘You know if Thor wanted you dead he could have just beamed you into vacuum outside’ Major Carter noted, observing the expression on the Commanders face.

Sharp’s hand kept involuntarily tapping against his empty holster. ‘I am fully aware of that consciously Major’ he replied. ‘It’s my instincts which are telling me to do something other than just stand here’ he explained. It was pure fight-or-flight reflex and although he had the willpower to suppress it he was still far from happy at the situation. Once the shock of Thor’s arrival had worn off and his heart had returned to a semblance of its normal rhythm Commander Sharp had damped down his adrenaline rush and now clearly in a calmer more controlled state the Asgard had requested that he, General Hammond and the three members of SG1 present join them on his ship. All had agreed, though Sharp had involuntarily twitched at the idea and now they were stood on the bridge of an Asgard Cruiser though not to a certain Colonel’s chagrin one of the new O’Neill Class.

‘No offence Commander but you X-COM guys are wrapped way too tight’ the aforementioned O’Neill told him as Thor continued to play with the console in front of him.

‘The loose ones get a plasma bolt up the ass five minutes into their first mission’ Sharp replied evenly. ‘It’s survival of the fittest, or maybe the most paranoid’ he told him.

General Hammond was looking around with interest, his own experiences with the Asgard and their technology were far more limited than those of SG1 and on that basis he couldn’t help but act slightly like a tourist and wished he could take some photographs to show the grandkids. ‘Well you put up a hell of a fight before you calmed down’ Hammond told Sharp.

‘I’m sorry about that George but I was caught off guard’ Sharp pointed out.

‘Haven’t seen anyone put up that kind of fight since I told Colonel O’Neill he needed to complete his part of the annual report to the Joint Chiefs’ Hammond declared. ‘I thought I was going to have to break your fingers to get your pistol away from you.’

Daniel chuckled. ‘I thought we were going to have to Zat you’ he added.

Thor finished what he was doing and looked up. ‘I have finished checking with the High Council and they have agreed that in the circumstances it would be wise to reveal more than I had originally been authorised too’ the Asgard announced. ‘Until I arrived and accessed your database I was not aware of how much more serious the situation was than we had even feared.’

‘Database?’ Sharp repeated.

‘You call it your “UFOPaedia” I believe’ Thor replied. ‘Your firewall preventing remote access was surprisingly advanced, and given your overall technology level quite effective, though needless to say it was not a match for our systems.’

‘Gee thanks’ Commander Sharp replied sardonically.

Thor interlaced his fingers. ‘As must be obvious the Sectoids that have been coming to this world are kin to the Asgard’ he began.

‘No shit’ Sharp responded wryly.

‘Though when I say kin they are in fact genetically enhanced versions of our standard clone stock which have been modified for quicker reaction times, strength and physical endurance’ Thor explained, ignoring the human’s sarcastic retort.

‘They do look a lot more buff than the other Asgard I’ve seen’ O’Neill interjected.

‘That was the intent’ Thor told him. ‘Some years ago when the replicator threat had become increasing pronounced the High Council was concerned that our over-reliance on technology might prove to be our undoing in the long term, so research was undertaken to develop a more study and physically superior clone which was not as frail and could still carry our consciousness’ he explained. ‘The beings you know as Sectoids emerged from that research, although the experiments were officially abandoned when it became known how the scientist in charge of the project had achieved such results so quickly.’

‘Officially?’ Daniel repeated.

‘I’m more interested in what was wrong with the methods’ Sharp said. ‘I can guess though.’

Thor nodded. ‘As you have undoubtedly surmised the short-cut that the scientist responsible took was to incorporate sections of genetic material from other species where that material could be made compatible’ he told them. ‘Among those species were sentient ones, including your own, that were taken without their consent for purposes of experimentation.’

‘I’m shocked’ Sharp responded. ‘No wait I’m not’ he added coldly. ‘So I’m guessing your government is going to deny any responsibility and pin the blame on some rogue faction right?’ he asked.

Thor shook his head, he found adopting these human mannerisms around them aided communication. ‘Not a faction’ he said. ‘One Asgard in particular, a brilliant though single-minded scientist named Loki apparently continued the project in secret, using increasing numbers of the enhanced clones as staff, and over the years it has expanded in scope beyond measure.’

‘And you know this how?’ General Hammond inquired.

‘Once word of the Sectoid attacks on your world reached us we were more than shocked but the familiar descriptions of the invader set alarm bells ringing as you might say. It was also at this time that Loki suddenly disappeared which was more than sufficient for the High Council to order an investigation of his computer files. Most had been wiped but we pieced together enough data to become extremely worried.’

‘Assuming I buy this can we assume that you Asgard are going to step in and clean up this mess?’ Sharp asked.

Thor looked away. ‘Would that we could but the fleet is already overstretched almost to the point of breaking and Loki was very careful to make it very difficult for us to do so by deliberately using technologies that our ships cannot readily detect.’

‘Why?’ Carter asked in surprise.

‘Because they are either too low-tech and with such minimal power that they do not show up on long-range sensors or else they are so radically different from known technologies that they simply do not register’ Thor replied. ‘For example the use of this Elerium as a power source, instead of the ordinary Naquadah which powers Asgard, Goa’uld and Ancient technology alike, means that this vessel is finding it very difficult to track their ships’ he said. ‘Surprisingly your primitive radar, as with your obsolete projectile weapons against the replicators, is actually of somewhat more utility than our own sensors in this situation’ he told them.

‘Okay but there’s a lot more going on that just a few medical experiments’ Sharp declared, ‘although I’ve seen some sick shit’ he said.

Thor frowned, or at least that’s what the expression looked like. ‘Loki motivations are far more than merely seeking to create a better clone’ he said. ‘He is trying to save the Asgard race from many different threats not merely the external one of the Replicators though it is likely his development of considerable and rising military might is aimed at them’ he theorised. ‘My people are all clones, copies of copies of copies and over the millennia some degeneration was inevitable’ Thor announced. ‘Loki seeks to use human DNA to redress this, and Earth has by far the largest population of your kind in the Galaxy to experiment with, so it is an ideal target especially considering they would not have to reckon with Goa’uld Warships.’

‘Why humans especially?’ Carter queried. ‘There’s plenty of other species out there, or even here on Earth for that matter’ she pointed out.

‘Loki has apparently experimented on many races, the origins of the other creatures with whom your X-COM has done battle, but only humans, or rather some humans’ Thor noted, looking directly at O’Neill, ‘carry a genetic legacy of the ancients which is why you would be singled out for more attention.’

‘Why does that matter?’ General Hammond asked curiously.

Thor seemed to smile. ‘That was one of the things I needed the authorisation of the High council to reveal’ he replied. ‘Firstly there is an ancient gene that must be present in a being to enable them to activate certain types of their technology including weapon systems and in a longer term sense we Asgard have lost the ability to ever ascend as the Ancients did and Loki undoubtedly seeks to fix that at the expense of untold numbers of your race.’

‘So you’re saying this one little grey guy, acting on his own, built up a private army without the knowledge of your government and now conveniently you can’t do anything about it’ Sharp said, more than suspiciously. ‘Okay here’s my reaction’ he said. ‘Don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s raining’ the X-COM Commander declared. ‘You’re either feeding us a load of bullshit or otherwise it’s your mess and your job to clear it up’ he stated angrily. ‘Do you have any idea how many people I’ve lost? How many civilians have died?’ he asked rhetorically.

‘If we could bring them back we would but that is beyond even our technology’ Thor replied apologetically.

‘Fine then wipe the fuckers out and deliver this Loki’s head to us in a box’ Sharp replied.

‘As I said we are in no position to do this because of our fleet deployments and overstretch’ Thor replied. ‘Even this vessel could only be spared for a short while and needs to be back in action within the next three days and even a thorough investigation of this single system would take at minimum an order of magnitude longer than that given the problems we have tracking their ships.’

‘Oh yeah these guys are fantastic’ Sharp told the SGC personnel sarcastically, turning to face them. ‘I can see why you rave about them so much.’

‘Loki has been working on this project in secret for centuries we believe’ Thor responded defensively. ‘He knows our technology as well as I do and has been preparing for the day when the High Council found out all this time, add in the fact we are pushed to the limit and I am ashamed to admit that the Asgard are largely powerless to intervene for the foreseeable future’ he continued. ‘We do not even know how many of them there even are either in turns of ships or raw numbers’ he told them. ‘With cloning, reasonably advanced manufacturing capability and enough time there could potentially be vast hordes of them.’

‘If this Loki has been working on this for centuries why turn up now?’ General Hammond wanted to know.

‘It is likely that scouting and small scale abductions have been going on for decades at least, which would likely explain many of the stories regarding such by people resembling ourselves’ Thor replied. ‘As for the huge flourish of activity from the latter part of the year 1998 in your calendar I have a theory at least, though no evidence to back it up.’

‘Theorise away’ O’Neill told the Asgard.

‘It was in June of that year that you destroyed two Goa’uld ships in orbit around this world indicating that Earth was becoming advanced enough to be a threat to Loki’s plan’ Thor replied. ‘The Sectoids drastically stepped up operations in response and continue to do so at a fever pitch despite losses because they are concerned that technology you obtain from the Goa’uld or others via the stargate will soon make direct attacks on Earth with their vessels completely suicidal.’

O’Neill’s jaw dropped. ‘It was our fault?’ he replied.

‘It would be somewhat of a coincidence’ Thor told him, ‘though as I said it is only a theory.’

Sharp sighed. ‘You know that’s the first thing you’ve said that I can completely buy’ he told Thor. ‘No good deed ever goes unpunished’ he said, shaking his head sadly.

Daniel folded his arms. ‘And despite raising their game they still can’t use any technology much more advanced than they are because if they did the Asgard might find them’ he said. ‘So no teleporters, not even advanced shields.’

‘Their personal weaponry is damn good’ Sharp pointed out.

‘But wouldn’t put out enough of an energy signature to be picked up at anything like long range’ Carter noted. ‘Same reason why they don’t use big capital ships like the Goa’uld or the regular Asgard’ she realised. ‘Even the vessels you labelled “Battleships” are tiny by comparison to a Ha’tak’ she told Commander Sharp.

‘We also believe that their base, or bases, outside this system are situated on worlds that are not part of the Stargate network’ Thor added. ‘This further reduced the chances of being located by either us or the Goa’uld.’

‘Sneaky little grey bastards’ O’Neill commented. ‘No offence’ he quickly said to Thor.

‘None taken’ Thor replied. ‘It is an accurate description’ he continued, ‘in tactics as well as in both colouration and the fact that, as clones, none of us have married parents.’

‘That was a joke’ Daniel responded in surprise.

‘I am not humourless though I think my lack of inflection in your language and different body language makes them too deadpan for humans to always notice I am making them’ Thor told him then once again addressed Commander Sharp. ‘Although we cannot offer direct military aid the High Council has authorised me to provide Earth with technology to aid in your defence against the Sectoids’ he told him. ‘It has been judged that since it is a rogue of our own species that has already interfered, that therefore many of the conditions of the Protected Planets Treaty that would normally prevent us from doing so are negated’ Thor announced.

O’Neill smiled. ‘Finally’ he said, ‘big honking spaceguns.’

‘I am afraid not O’Neill’ Thor told him apologetically. ‘You presumably mean armaments that would be capable to destroying large Goa’uld vessels which would be massive overkill for dealing with the Sectoid menace and well beyond the spirit of the Treaty’ he continued. ‘We will however show you how to adapt the types of primitive shields the Sectoids appear to be using so that they work in atmosphere as well as vacuum.’

‘So not even your shields?’ O’Neill asked.

‘Based on the information gleaned from the X-COM UFOPaedia the new Firestorm fighter will already close much of the technological gap performance wise’ Thor replied. ‘With even a primitive deflector type shield added it would be more than a match for all Sectoid craft within the atmosphere except perhaps the battleship’ he told them. ‘The fact that it and any succeeding fighter so equipped would also have a considerable edge over a Goa’uld Deathglider, which of course lacks shields of any type, is something that the Asgard never considered… if the System Lords ever mention it to us during future negotiations.’

‘Yeah blame us’ O’Neill agreed. ‘They already think the worst of us anyway’ he said.

‘If you ask me’ Commander Sharp interjected. ‘the worst is yet to come’ he said before turning back to Thor. ‘Okay here’s something I want to get sorted out right now’ he said. ‘If Loki is adding our DNA to yours, and we end up finding little alien-human hybrid kids what happens then?’

‘I think what he’s saying is, are you going to take responsibility or are we going to have to hold up placards outside the High Council saying “Earth Demands Child Support” on them?’ a completely deadpan Colonel O’Neill told the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet.

It was probably a good thing Sharp wasn’t armed, because at that precise moment his first instinct in response to what O’Neill had just said was to shoot him.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – September 2000

‘I still can’t believe they just vanished into thin air’ O’Neill complained as they walked to the gate room.

Carter sighed, was he going to go on about that for the next month. ‘We had no idea they were remotely that advanced Sir’ she replied. ‘The only way they could have escaped was to have teleported away, we had the building completely surrounded’ she declared.

‘X-COM has a team sifting through the rubble of his homeworld’ Andianov noted, ‘though the Goa’uld were very thorough in their destruction and it is doubtful much useful technology will be discovered’ she told them having earlier chatted with one of the other X-COM personnel at the SGC.

‘Screw the recovered technology’ Daniel retorted. ‘I feel sorry for Martin’ he said.

‘He should not have deserted in the first place’ the Sergeant replied flatly. ‘I have no sympathy for him.’

‘He changed his mind’ O’Neill replied. ‘Wanted to go back and fight even though he thought he’d die doing it’ he continued, ‘that puts him way above the rest of his crew in my opinion Sergeant.’

Lyudmila Andianov shrugged. ‘We will have to agree to differ Sir’ she replied. ‘We did at least recover their landing craft intact’ she added. ‘That may provide some useful knowledge at least’ she added on a positive note.

‘Only because that X-COM UFO Recovery team pulled the self-destruct before it went off’ O’Neill replied. ‘Damned if I know how they figured it out that fast.’

‘Our people have considerably more experience with that sort of thing than the SGC Colonel’ Andianov replied with a self-satisfied smile.

‘Martin Lloyd should be grateful that his mind remains addled however or he might have attracted the attention of your experts in other fields’ Teal’c couldn’t help but observe. Thor had certainly admitted surprise at the amount of information X-COM had gleaned from interrogations of live alien specimens, it was an effective cocktail of questioning, threats, occasional use of outright torture and even worse what they less than euphemistically referred to as “Mind Rape” based upon early studies into psionics. Apparently X-COM had authorisation for such measures signed by the UN Security Council which gave them considerable latitude in methods. This had led to an amusing exchange during their time with Martin Lloyd when he had asked plaintively “doesn’t the Geneva Convention cover Extra-Terrestrials?” and received a flat “No” from Andianov in response.

The Team entered the gate room and made a final check on their gear. ‘So we’re sure we’re not going to have to fight out way out of this one?’ O’Neill asked.

‘According to our Intel yes Sir’ Carter replied.

O’Neill grimaced. ‘Better take off that safety catch before we step through the gate Sergeant’ he told the Russian.

‘Yes Sir’ Andianov replied.

‘He’s kidding Sergeant’ Carter told her.

‘I realise that Major but it is of no consequence as I never go through the gate with the safety catch on in any case’ Andianov responded deadpan.

‘She’s kidding Major’ O’Neill told Carter with a grin.

‘I wish I was so sure’ Carter replied evenly.

‘So what is so special about P8X-362?’ Andianov asked.

‘I swear she stops listening to briefings after it’s mentioned the chances for combat are negligible’ Daniel responded wryly.

‘Please do not mock me Dr Jackson’ Andianov replied. ‘I realise that P8X-362 is a mineral rich planet, which unlike many others has not been strip-mined by the Goa’uld’ she said. ‘My question related to why SG1 in particular would be sent on this mission rather than one of the other teams? Surely we have better things to do?’

‘Oh right’ Daniel responded. ‘Well you wouldn’t know the background but P8X-362 was one of the first planets the SGC ever visited and SG-4 found that, although the locals were friendly, they had a system of negotiating deals which was very much based upon social standing and hierarchy’ he said. ‘As SG1 is the SGC’s lead team we’re in a better position to get favourable mining rights than anyone else.’

‘Naquadah or Trinium?’ the Sergeant queried.

‘Neither’ Carter replied. ‘Lanthanide elements, they’re used in certain specialised alloys as well as laser’s and we need a lot more of them than we used to’ she replied.

‘Rare?’ O’Neill asked.

‘It varies from metal to metal’ Carter replied. ‘Luteium is scare enough that it’s several times more expensive per gram than Gold and we need it to produce the modified deflector shield Thor provided the plans for’ she explained.

‘We’ve got to go on commission’ O’Neill responded shaking his head. ‘Maybe a finders fee?’

‘I thought we were in it for the planet not the money’ Daniel replied with a smile as the gate started to spin up.

‘Say’s the man who gets paid half again as much as the rest of us’ O’Neill retorted. ‘How is the search going for the new house with the swimming pool anyway?’ he asked sarcastically.

‘I’m viewing a couple of places Friday’ Daniel replied, his smile widening into a grin. ‘I never thought I’d get rich in archaeology’ he said in mild amazement.

‘Capitalism’ Andianov said with a dismissive snort, then paused ‘Sorry it is my communist upbringing coming to the fore, it is hard to forgot all those years of exposure to Marxist propaganda in the Young Pioneers’ she apologised as the Stargate activated with the usual pseudo wave-like kawoosh and the six wheeled robot scout rolled through making sure there was nothing untoward on the other side.

‘MALP shows all clear’ reported the control room over the loud speaker system.

‘In Soviet Russia MALP watches you ’ Andianov declared as they headed up the ramp.

Teal’c couldn’t understand why O’Neill, Major Carter and Daniel Jackson were in hysterics as they stepped through the gate.

Area 51 – Earth – September 2000

‘I was supposed to be testing the X-301 in a couple of weeks’ O’Neill complained as they entered the hanger, walking past the Deathglider-based prototype which was already being partially disassembled as benefits its status as a dead-end project. According to some of the X-COM people who had taken a look it was a good thing too because they claimed to have discovered failsafe programming that the Area-51 people had missed.

‘Get over it Sir’ Carter told him, trying not to chuckle. ‘It was never going to be a production fighter anyway’ she noted.

‘It still looks cooler than that thing Major’ O’Neill replied as they reached the small saucer shaped craft which they had come to see take its test flight.

A familiar face appeared from around the other side of the craft. ‘Ah Doctor Carter, nice to see you again’ the man greeted her, smiling and reaching out a hand.

‘Doctor Zelenka’ Carter greeted him back, shaking his hand. ‘You’ve met Colonel O’Neill before’ she said, ‘and these are the other members of SG-1’ she continued. ‘Doctor Daniel Jackson, Teal’c and Sergeant Andianov’ she introduced them, Zelenka shaking hands with all of them.

‘Call me Radek’ Zelenka told them, ‘too many Doctors and Military Titles around here already’ he added with a smile. ‘So you have come to see our baby?’ he asked, tenderly patting the side of the craft.

‘It’s very…’ Daniel began. ‘Classic’ he said diplomatically.

‘Like something from a Nineteen-Fifties Sci-Fi B-Movie you mean’ Zelenka replied with a grin. ‘Yes it does look like that it was the easiest shape to work with because of the way the Elerium Drive works’ he explained. ‘Although as we learn more about the systems later craft will not have to be saucer shaped’ he told them.

‘What’s it got under the hood?’ O’Neill asked.

‘The engine is a standard Elerium Drive we took from a Sectoid ship and modified so that it could interface with the mix of technologies that we are using’ Zelenka replied, ‘this was extremely tricky as you can imagine’ he continued. ‘It was bad enough when it was just Earth and Sectoid equipment we were using, but now we have also included the superior inertial dampeners from a Deathglider plus one of your Naquadah Reactors which makes the Firestorm here rather more of a kludge than we would like although it does all seem to work together so far’ he explained. ‘We burn quite a lot of Elerium fuel in flight, which along with the small size of the craft limits its combat radius, but by only using E-115 for locomotive power, with the Naquadah reactor powering all other system we have increased endurance by over fifty percent with enough of a generation surplus to power the new Asgard Modified deflector shields.’

‘I think the Colonel was more interested in how that pans out into performance’ Carter told him.

‘Oh’ Zelenka responded. ‘Even without the inertial dampener activated it can pull nine gees of constant acceleration, top speed in the atmosphere is just over 4,200 Knots or Mach 6 sustained’ he told the Colonel.

‘What’s it packing?’ O’Neill asked. ‘Weaponry I mean.’

‘There are two internal weapon bays’ Zelenka replied. ‘Standard combat load is intended to be three Avalanche Missiles, which have the new second-generation naquadah-enhanced variable-yield warheads which can be set to detonate at anything from two up to two-hundred kilotonnes as required, plus we carry a Laser Cannon in the other bay.’

‘What’s the effective range on the Laser?’ Carter asked curiously. The X-COM R&D people had made massive leaps forward in directed-energy weapons and she was interested to know if their designs had scaled up well.

‘It varies with atmospheric density, and hence altitude of course, but we tell the pilots an effective range of twenty-one kilometres against enemy vessels can be expected during a typical mission’ Zelenka replied. ‘Part of the problem is targeting rather than beam strength, though of course being a laser if it is pointed in the right direction when fired it will not miss’ he noted. ‘There is no dodging a beam of light coming towards you at over a billion kilometres an hour’ he noted.

‘That far exceeds the capabilities of the Staff-Cannon fitted to Goa’uld Deathgliders’ Teal’c noted.

Zelenka nodded. ‘Our Firestorm here could eat Deathgliders for breakfast’ he said enthusiastically.

‘Looking forward to that’ another voice interrupted. ‘The diet of Sectoid ships is getting samey’ it continued as a man wearing a grey flightsuit with both USAF wings on the chest and X-COM patches on the shoulders approached.

Zelenka half turned. ‘May I introduce Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron Mitchell who is our test pilot for the Firestorm’ he said.

‘I suppose Radek here has already mentioned we’re going by first names around here Colonel’ Mitchell said to O’Neill. ‘If you’re okay with that you can call me Cam’ he offered reaching out a hand.

‘When in Rome do as the Romans do’ O’Neill replied. ‘Jack O’Neill’ he said shaking the proffered hand. ‘This is Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, Teal’c and Lyumila Andianov’ he introduced the others.

‘I’ve met the fastest Gun in the East before’ Mitchell said with a grin. ‘We were both based in Hawaii together for a while’ he explained. ‘I once made the mistake of thinking my finely honed fighter-pilots reflexes were a match for her and got creamed at table-tennis five straight games’ he said shaking hands with Andianov.

‘I can imagine’ O’Neill replied, the woman had reaction times and hand-eye coordination which was frankly freakish, of course if she hadn’t she would have likely been dead after her first few missions. Lots of the X-COM field grunts seemed to be exceptional in one way or another, the South-African guy now assigned to SG-3 made the Marine’s distinctly uncomfortable, he could shoot a lot better than they could and that wasn’t easy to do given that they were some of the top marksmen from a Corps that valued the skills of a riflemen very highly.

‘You’re Airforce then?’ Carter noted, indicating Mitchell’s wings.

‘I was seconded over to X-COM last year’ Mitchell replied. ‘Been flying out of the Islands most of that time until they offered me the job of testing the Firestorm’ he told her. ‘I thought going from F-16 Vipers to XF-701 Interceptors was a leap but this thing is a whole new ball game’ he said rapping the metallic side of the saucer.

‘I thought the XF-701 was called the Sigrdrífa’ Daniel asked. It meant “Victory Bringer” in Old Norse.

‘It is officially, like the F-16 is officially the Fighting Falcon not the Viper’ Mitchell replied. ‘We call the thing an “Interceptor” because hardly anyone can pronounce Sigrdrífa properly’ he told them.

‘Thor got a kick out of it when we told him anyway’ O’Neill told the pilot. ‘The Asgard have a ship called that too.’

‘They probably have less trouble saying it’ Mitchell replied with a smile. ‘The weapon’s system is properly linked into the navigation now right Radek?’ he asked the X-COM scientist.

‘Yes’ Zelenka replied.

‘And I’m definitely not going to have to think in Czech to make it work?’ Mitchell asked.

‘That was an oversight, it’s all fixed now’ Zelenka replied sheepishly.

Mitchell chuckled. ‘First time we went weapons hot on a test run I activated the cannon and couldn’t do a damn thing with it because Zelenka here programmed it with his brainwaves’ he told them. ‘It was like that scene in the film Firefox when Eastwood had to think in Russian, except that he could speak Russian in the film and I don’t know any Czech’ he explained.

‘It works for everyone now, like the navigation system itself’ Zelenka reassured him.

‘How does that work anyway?’ Daniel asked. ‘The machine reading your mind I mean?’

‘We just stuck a copy of the metal head-band thing from a Sectoid Navigation computer in an ordinary helmet’ Mitchell replied. ‘Beyond that I haven’t got a clue’ he joked.

‘I can talk you through it later’ Zelenka replied. ‘I understand the basic theory though another team did most of the work on that’ he said. ‘The engines and weapons control were my children’ he said proudly.

‘Hey it’s fast and it kicks ass’ Mitchell replied. ‘You should be proud of the kids’ he told Zelenka.

‘I am’ Zelenka replied. ‘Though it will be eclipsed by the X-302 soon enough’ he continued.

‘So you the best X-COM’s got?’ O’Neill asked. ‘That why they bought in you on this?’ he asked.

Mitchell shook his head. ‘I’ve got thirteen UFO kills’ he replied, ‘nine of them since we got the new missiles, but that doesn’t put me at the top of the scoreboard yet’ he said, ‘they bought me in for politics’ he explained. ‘I’m the top scoring American in X-COM and since we were merging efforts with the Area-51 team working on the X-301 they thought sending a USAF guy would be diplomatic.’

‘X-COM does diplomatic?’ Daniel asked incredulously.

‘The oversight committee does’ Mitchell responded. ‘They’re largely toothless but the military people like to go along with recommendations when they can’ he told them. ‘Most of us are from NATO countries, or other democracies, so you might say X-COM has inherited the culture of civilian control of the military to some extent’ he told them, ‘despite what it might seem like to outsiders sometimes’ he added with a grin.

‘Sound’s like you’ve gone native’ O’Neill told him.

‘Like you said yourself’ Mitchell replied, ‘when in Rome’ he told him. ‘I’m taking her up in five minutes, better get yourself a good seat outside because the show’s worth watching’ he advised.

Exactly as promised the show was worth watching. After bringing the Firestorm out of the hanger, hovering just above the ground Mitchell suddenly bought up the nose, or rather the front of the small saucer shaped craft from his perspective, and put the Elerium Engine to full power hurtling off into the sky at a forty-five degree angle and going through the sound barrier before he had cleared the end of the runway continuing to accelerate.

With the inertial dampeners from a Deathglider keeping Mitchell from blacking out from a myriad of high-gee manoeuvres the Firestorm began to perform a series of low-level passes over the base with a large, thought of course all security-cleared, crowd watching with interest bordering on amazement.

‘On the second test flight we took the Firestorm out into space’ Zelenka told SG-1, ‘only a sub-orbital flight but it could make low-orbit and return home afterwards’ he told them. ‘The ceramic armour we added to increase resistance to plasma weaponry functions perfectly well as a re-entry shield, though the ride is supposed to be hair-raising’ he added with a chuckle.

A low-level sonic boom rattled the base. ‘Did he just make a supersonic pass going sideways?’ O’Neill asked incredulously.

Zelenka nodded. ‘Because of the orientation of the engine the Firestorm can only go hypersonic going forwards, above Mach 5 I mean, but it can reach just above Mach 2.5 going sideways and Mitchell once went through the sound-barrier backwards though he said it was highly disorientating’ he told them.

Mitchell took the craft into set of what seemed like impossibly tight loops before doing another pass spinning in the air like a Frisbee.

‘Can you imagine trying to dogfight against that thing in a Deathglider’ O’Neill asked Teal’c in mild awe.

‘The manoeuvrability of the craft may be even more impressive than its speed and armament O’Neill’ Teal’c replied.

‘It’s only the inertial dampening that makes it possible’ Zelenka told them. ‘For one thing you would likely throw up trying that otherwise’ he noted, ‘or at least become extremely dizzy’ he continued. ‘The Firestorm is greater than the sum of its parts, you need technology from both Goa’uld and Sectoid craft to make it do that. The only real weakness is its relatively short range’ he noted sadly. ‘It is also optimised for combat in the atmosphere which is not true for its opponents.’

‘Well it might not be able to go to them but at least the next time they come to us we can give them a warm welcome’ O’Neill said appreciatively.

‘Very warm’ Zelenka agreed. ‘The next part of the demonstration will be the use of the laser cannon against ground targets and aerial drones’ he said.

‘Sweet’ O’Neil replied enthusiastically. He wondered whose ass he was going to have to kiss, or how many favours he needed to call in, to get a turn in the pilot’s seat. It really did look like something from an old B-Movie but he was willing to accept the aesthetics for a hot ship with moves like that.

Watching through binoculars as pieces of unmanned aircraft began to rain from the sky, swatted from the air by a goddamn laser cannon of all things O’Neill was struck by the thought that if they could get this sort of gear from theory to the production line in a few months then how long was it going to be before X-COM really could take the fight back to the enemy and contest space as well as ground battles with the aliens.

Also watching the display Senator Kinsey frowned, this was too much rapid progress with no chance to claim any of the credit for it. He was going to have to talk to the President about getting a place on the X-COM oversight committee as the US representative before he lost any opportunity to profit politically from the situation. The damn foreigners were going to take all the credit and the United States, and more importantly he himself, were going to end up sidelined.

Kinsey left well before the Firestorm finished its display. He needed to get right on this one immediately, and strike while the iron was hot.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

Gomai Foothills – Chulak – September 2000

Teal’c addressed the two former Serpent Guards, they and their followers would significant bolster the burgeoning Jaffa rebellion which was why both he and Bra’Tac had sought this secret meeting so that Teal’c could persuade the two local leaders to join the cause. ‘It is time for Jaffa to stop whispering about freedom, and begin to show our true power’ he told them. Rak’nor in particular was already known for coming from a family that had long fought against Goa’uld oppression, his own father Del’nor, believing the System Lords to be false gods, had seared the mark of his former master Apophis from his son’s forehead leaving the obvious scar he wore.

Ma’kar the host of the meeting looked doubtful. ‘A power we can only hope is greater than that of the gods’ he responded with definite reservations.

‘False gods’ Teal’c told him without a trace of doubt evident in his own voice.

‘Their power is real, and stronger than ever’ Ma’kar responded. ‘Even Heru-Ur, and the other System Lords fear Apophis’ he stated, this time with certainty. ‘He commands the vast army of Sokar’ the Jaffa noted. The size of Sokar’s army and industrial base had rapidly become legend, the factories of Sokar’s capital world Delmak had produced a vast fleet of the finest Ha’tak warships that eclipsed those of the other gods.

‘An army of Jaffa’ Teal’c noted. Without Jaffa warriors to act as the footsoldiers, warship crews and Deathglider pilot of the System Lords the Goa’uld were nothing he knew. Although barely more than slaves to the parasites, they were also their masters powerbase and once the Jaffa came to grasp that, and rejected the false divinity of the Goa’uld, a truly free Jaffa Nation could arise Teal’c knew.

‘You know of what happened here on Chulak at the hands of Apophis?’ Ma’kar asked rhetorically.

‘Yes, I know how many were slaughtered’ Teal’c replied. ‘But, I also know that those left alive are ready to rise against him’ he declared. ‘The Jaffa are the foundation upon which the false gods have built their empires. We can tear them down’ he told the pair.

Rak’nor spoke up. ‘To do so, we will have to fight our own kind’ he pointed out.

‘As the Goa'Uld have forced us to do in their names for countless generations’ Teal’c reminded them. ‘Only now, we will fight for the freedom of all Jaffa.’

‘Rak'nor has the loyalty of a great many here on Chulak’ Ma’kar noted.

So, Bra'Tac has heard from you, and I from him’ Teal’c replied. ‘It is the word of our friend Ma'kar that has brought me here tonight’ he told Rak’nor. ‘In their hearts, many Jaffa believe as we do. Those with the strength and the courage must speak out’ he declared. ‘We must fear the Goa'uld no longer. Those who wish to join our cause must be united. Kol'na of the High Cliffs Hak'nor of the Cordi Plains have already agreed to meet at the Chapa Groves tomorrow’ he told them.

‘Then I will meet with them as well’ Rak’nor responded smugly, rising to his feet as he raised his voice. ‘And this blasphemous rebellion will finally be crushed’ he thundered, glaring at Teal’c. ‘Hash'Ak Cree!’ Rak’nor ordered as another warrior appeared in the doorway raising a Zat'nik'tel, aiming it at Teal'c.

The familiar sound of the energy discharge of a Zat was heard, but instead of striking Teal’c the Jaffa in the tent doorway fell forward stunned by a shot that had struck him from behind.

Looking somewhat less surprised by the sudden turn of events that the other two Jaffa Teal’c could not help but smile. ‘This may be the first time I have been grateful those Taur’ri in authority over the SGC no longer fully trust me’ he said as a woman in the garb of a local woman carrying a Zat'nik'tel in one hand and a Tau’ri Laser pistol in the other entered the tent weapons trained as she stepped over the stunned Jaffa on the ground. ‘There were two others’ she said in a strange accent, ‘I’ve dealt with them’ she declared, aiming her weapons at both Ma’kar and Rak’nor in a manner that indicated to them that she was obviously used to handling them and should not be taken lightly.

‘You did so very quietly Sergeant’ Teal’c told her appreciatively.

‘I garroted one and knifed the other’ Andianov explained. ‘I also used a stun-rod on several others I was not sure of’ she told him, ‘including the family of your host’ she added. ‘The rod does not make the noise the Zat does’ she noted. ‘Do these two know anything of value?’ Andianov queried.

‘They both may’ Teal’c replied. ‘Rak’nor being more likely to I think’ he told her.

‘I will never betray my god’ Rak’nor declared haughtily.

Andianov smirked and them zatted both Rak’nor and Ma’kar in quick succession, leaving them writhing on the ground in convulsions. ‘You can carry him’ she told Teal’c. ‘We likely cannot get him back through the Gate that way, not if we're trying to avoid any patrols or general attention from others, but I know of several effective field techniques the KGB taught my Spetsnaz training instructor and can interrorgate him myself’ she advised him. ‘We should be going’ she suggested, 'there may be others around.'

Teal’c moved to retrieve the man. ‘What techniques?’ he asked, intrigued.

‘Cutting works fast’ Andianov replied evenly. ‘I can also adjust the voltage on the stun rod and apply it to both his testicles and the symbiote to see which bothers him most’ she continued unemotionally.

Teal’c blinked. ‘Although the latter would indeed be most painful’ he told her, ‘the former would be far more difficult to withstand’ he advised. ‘Jaffa and Human biology are not that dissimilar’ he explained fighting back a grimace at what she was contemplating.

Carrying a now bound and gagged Rak’nor over his shoulder Teal’c followed the Sergeant out of camp, heading for the safety of the broken line of hills up ahead. She definitely suited the women’s garb of Chulak, and he decided he would find her quite attractive if it wasn’t for the unfortunate fact that once again she had demonstrated the reason why, that on a basic level, she quite frequently frightened the living crap out of him.

Cloaked Tel’tak Transport - Tobin System – September 2000

‘You should have been there Jacob’ O’Neill told the pilot. ‘There we were in the Egyptian desert looking up at this ship taking off, Goa’uld at the controls, smug as hell and suddenly the Firestorm they sent up from the base in Poland pops up from behind a dune right in front of her’ he said trying not to start laughing. ‘So Daniels ex with the snake in her head...’

‘Sarah’ Daniel called from the back of the small ship. ‘Her name was Sarah’ he said quietly.

‘Right, Daniels ex, Sarah... with the snake in her head...’ O’Neill resumed, ‘she’s looking out of her cockpit into the cockpit of the Firestorm, totally stunned that we’ve got a ship like that, and then the X-COM pilot opens his weapons bays, that’s naquadah-enhanced nuclear missiles and a freaking Laser Cannon, raises his hand, points straight at her through the glass then points down towards the ground’ he continued with a grin, ‘I guess those old ships didn’t have shields because she landed straight away and we hauled her sorry ass right out of there’ he said brightly. ‘I hit her with a stun-rod and we trussed her up like a turkey, I wasn’t even going to be there but Teal’c didn’t want to go fishing unless we used grenades like on the Goa’uld homeworld and I wasn’t going to blast Minnesota.’

Jacob shook his head. ‘The Tok’ra won’t be universally pleased that Earth is starting to get ships like that’ he said disparagingly. ‘I wasn’t that pleased at the attitude of that Commander Sharp guy I talked to either’ he added.

‘Blunt would be a better name for him’ O’Neill agreed. ‘You got a better reception than Thor from the Asgard’ he noted. ‘He nearly shot Thor.’

‘And he actually managed to piss off the Nox which is a feat in itself’ Carter added, leaving Daniel with his books and entering the cockpit. ‘I think the Sectoids pretty much culled all the nicer elements out of X-COM at least a year ago, they’re all pretty much trigger-happy xenophobic jerks now’ she opined.

‘Be fair Carter’ O’Neill chided, ‘they’re good at it’ he said with amusement. ‘They’re already taking that old Goa’uld ship apart at Area 51.’

‘If it’s the class of vessel Selmak thinks it is the hyperdrive is slower than the one driving this thing’ Jacob told them. ‘And it’s quirky so we suggest you don’t try and strip it unless you want your engineers to glow in the dark.’

‘We’ll let the geeks know when we get back’ O’Neill replied. ‘They’ve already got more stuff to back-engineer than they can handle anyway’ he said with a shrug. ‘They’ll probably want to pick up one of those mines out there when they get the chance.’

‘Heru-Ur and Apophis should be arriving for their conference soon Jacob said. ‘I’ve chosen a mine so I hope you’re ready for this’ he said putting on a headset eyepiece. ‘Precision Head-up display’ he explained to a quizzical looking Jack O’Neill, ‘Trust me we don’t want that thing to touch the floor, walls or ceiling back there’ he said seriously.

It was a sound plan in theory, provoke a war between Apophis and one of the few System Lords with sufficient ships and Jaffa Armies to wear him down before he became too powerful to stop. Even if Heru-Ur was defeated by Apophis greater forces, as was likely, it would hopefully prove a pyrrhic victory as other System Lords used the opportunity to strike against him themselves while he was weakened.

The plan worked flawlessly to a point, after a hair-raising false start concerning the need for a zero in advanced technology, despite the Tobin being descended from the Phoenicians whose mathematics lacked that symbol, they successfully reprogrammed the mine and sent it on its way whilst Heru-Ur tried to explain to Apophis that he was going to give him the shol’vah Teal’c as an offering to cement their alliance but the attempt to capture him had somehow gone wrong.

Apophis was not impressed by Heru’Ur’s words, nor was he happy when the reprogrammed mine crashed into his ship and assumed it was an attempt on his life by the other System Lord. Both Heru-Ur and SG1 were however impressed by the sight of Apophis cloaked fleet appearing and blasting the hell out of the formers Ha’Tak, this ensured that Heru-Ur was only briefly impressed amidst a mighty conflagration of Ha’tak fire and exploding Tobin mines. Unfortunately Napoleon’s truism that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy was borne out once again.

When they got back to Earth Commander Sharp thanked Jacob and the Tok’ra for their assistance in ensuring that Apophis, who would now absorb the territory and armies of the deceased Heru-Ur, was going to be a more powerful and dangerous threat than ever, and inquired if they would like to do humanity a favour and give the Sectoids some helpful suggestions instead next time. Teal’c and Andianov were already back at the SGC after returning from Chulak and were not too disappointed that they had missed all the fun.

Meanwhile elsewhere in the galaxy an irradiated and slightly charred unaccompanied message arrived mysteriously through a stargate on the Aschen homeworld. In handwriting Mellon, one of their most respected political functionaries, confirmed was his own it simply said “Under no circumstances provoke X-COM” and was dated as coming from a decade in the future.

It was sound advice from an alternate timeline where much of the Aschen homeworld was burning. That the attempt to use a biological weapon to annihilate most of the population of Earth had been badly misjudged had become abundantly clear when the first BC-305 Battlecruiser arrived in orbit and started to blast the major cities of the Aschen Federation to rubble with ZPM boosted Asgard supplied weaponry. The Aschen were only lucky that most of the Tau’ri fleet was still too busy beating the crap out of the Ori in their home galaxy to be sent their way otherwise the entire planet would have been scorched down to the bedrock before they could figure out how to use the timing of solar flares to get the message back to the past through the stargate.

As a point of trivia XSGCOM 1 never did find out why the Aschen were so obsequious to them when they eventually encountered them roughly a year later on the Volian homeworld P3A-194.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – October 2000

Teal’c meshed his fingers in front on him resting them on the conference table. ‘So it seems that Apophis is not having things as easy as we feared he would’ he said. ‘After the death of Heru-Ur one of his lieutenants, a previously low-ranking Goa’uld named Terok took command of his forces and has been resisting Apophis with more skill than might have been expected. His defeat is inevitable but he is buying us time.’

‘What do we know about this Terok?’ General Hammond asked.

‘He has a reputation for cruelty’ Teal’c replied. ‘Intriguingly we learned via our interrogation of Rak’nor on Chulak that Terok was the one who masterminded the trap intended to capture me’ he continued. ‘It is likely his failure that meant Heru-Ur left him behind when he went to meet Apophis.’

‘So because he flunked out he got to live’ O’Neill observed, ‘I guess there’s no justice in the universe’ he continued, ‘but if we’ve got Goa’uld fighting Goa’uld I guess we can take off our boots and relax’ he said brightly.

‘Not all the news is so good Colonel’ Commander Sharp told him. ‘While the threat from Apophis is temporarily mitigated by his war with this Terok the fight against the Sectoid menace has taken a turn for the worse’ he told them, handing out files.

O’Neill opened the file and found himself looking at a photograph of a creature he had never seen before. ‘New alien?’ he asked.

Sharp nodded. ‘We’re calling them “Muton’s” because of the amount of genetic alteration the Sectoids have done to them to enhance their combat abilities’ he said. ‘Their skin is actually an organic armour grafted onto their bodies and they’re as tough as they look’ he told them.

‘Muscular build’ Carter observed looking at the photograph before reading the brief summary description underneath. ‘Cybernetic enhancements for increased strength and improved senses... averages over seven feet in height and over four hundred pounds in weight...’

‘All muscle’ Sharp interrupted, ‘well muscle, organic armour and machinery anyway’ he said. ‘We lost nine of a twelve man team to them in Laos last week, Zat’s don’t do dick and our lasers only seem to piss them off unless you get in multiple shots’ he said. ‘They handle a Heavy Plasma like a water pistol and they’re faster than they look.’

General Hammond took a breath. ‘X-COM has requested a temporary reassignment of three SG Teams to the Sectoid War until they can train up replacements for their recent spate of losses’ he said. ‘It’s volunteer only...’

‘I’m in’ O’Neill said quickly.

‘I’m afraid not Colonel’ General Hammond replied flatly. ‘If we’re going to be down three teams I can’t afford to have my premier amongst them’ he explained.

O’Neill frowned. ‘What about the Interceptors?’ he queried. ‘If they’re that tough take them down before they land.’

Sharp rubbed the back of his neck. ‘We only have three Firestorms in service and the old XF-701’s can’t keep up with the ships they’re using now’ he said. ‘We nearly lost the Firestorm flying out of Japan the day before yesterday when it managed to bounce a battleship slowing down out over the East China Sea’ he said. ‘The Plasma Beams on those things outranges our Avalanches’ he said. ‘Even with the shield design we got from the Asgard taking most of the hit the pilot had to limp home with half the front off the ship melted off, the shield generator fused and the naquadah generator making noises that were scaring the hell out of him.’

‘Do we have any numbers on those weapons?’ Carter asked. ‘Yields and definitive ranges I mean.’

Sharp nodded. ‘Only an estimate but we’re talking a beam strength in the kiloton range and it’s accurate enough to hit a fighter sized target at over 65 nautical miles.’

‘Kiloton?’ Daniel queried. ‘Isn’t that less than the naquadah-enhanced warheads we use?’ he asked. ‘Don’t we measure those in megatons?’

‘We don’t like throwing megaton yield warheads around in Earth’s atmosphere’ Sharp told him. ‘Even a high single digit kiloton explosion is too high-profile for use over most of the planet’ he said. ‘That’s why the Avalanche warheads are variable yield, the pilot can dial up how big the bang is going to be before they launch.’

‘Besides which a focused beam of energy at one point is still going to be more effective than a much larger detonation which is spread out over a wider area, certainly against a shield’ Carter added. ‘It’s like using an ice-pick instead of a baseball bat to kill someone with’ she said, ‘blunt force trauma requires more effort’ she said then shuffled awkwardly in her chair when everyone looked at her strangely. ‘I’ve been reading a lot of crime novels recently’ she explained awkwardly.

‘Okay...’ O’Neill responded slowly. making a mental note to tell Andianov to keep an eye on her as well as Teal’c. ‘So what are we going to be doing?’ he asked.

‘Given the situation with Terok the logical thing to do is exploit it’ Commander Sharp replied. ‘We’ve got plenty of capture Jaffa equipment from the armies of numerous System Lords so let’s get them involved in the fight with some false flag operations’ he said.

Daniel Jackson pursed his lips. ‘For all their arrogance the Goa’uld aren’t stupid’ he said. ‘We can’t think that because we dressed up like Apophis’s troops and attacked another System Lord then we can get them involved in the fighting’ he said. ‘They’d never fall for it.’

‘Your concepts of maskirovka are sorely limited Doctor Jackson’ Andianov spoke up for the first time. ‘We attack a System Lord in the uniforms of Heru-Ur’s army and in the name of this Terok’ she said.

O’Neill laughed. ‘Whoever we attack will think it’s Apophis trying to pretend they’re Terok’s boys’ he said with a grin.

‘Maskirovka?’ Teal’c queried.

‘Russian word, there’s no equivalent in English’ Daniel told him. ‘Think deception, camouflage, diversion and imitation’ he said.

‘Classic Soviet military planning’ O’Neill said, ‘makes me nostalgic for the Cold War’ he said. ‘And I like the idea’ he added.

Hammond nodded. ‘The question is what System Lord do we target?’ he asked.

‘Cronos’ Teal’c suggested with the barest hint of an evil smile on his face. ‘He has sufficient forces to be a suitable candidate and the galaxy would be well rid of him’ he declared. ‘He is already a known foe of Apophis and so should be readily deceived by this ploy.’

‘Thought you wanted to deal with him yourself?’ O’Neill asked. Cronos had killed Teal’c father who had been his First Prime.

‘The chances I will get the opportunity to take his life personally are slim O’Neill’ Teal’c replied pragmatically. ‘Having Apophis possibly do so instead is an opportunity not to be thrown away and if I am lucky Cronus will meet a very painful demise when his forces are eventually defeated’ he continued, fondly imagining him strapped down with Apophis applying a pain-stick to his body, the bright light shining from his mouth and eyes dwarfed by the supernova of pain within. He wondered if Cronus would scream as Rak’nor did when Andianov used her stun rod on him.

‘I think Teal’c’s in a happy place’ O’Neill remarked looking at the beatific smile on his friends face as he daydreamed. ‘Any objections to dealing Cronus into the game Sir?’ he asked Hammond.

‘None here Colonel’ Hammond replied, ‘Commander?’

‘You know the Goa’uld better than I do’ Sharp replied. ‘If you think this Cronus is a good candidate then I’ll roll with it, the more of the bastards we can get killing each other the better’ he opined. ‘It’ll make mopping up the rest easier’ he said. ‘I might tag along myself, does that Jaffa chainmail chafe as much as I think it does?’

‘Oh yeah and find a set in the stores that’s been properly washed, I don’t think some of the System Lords enforce strict enough hygiene rules amongst their grunts’ O’Neill told him. ‘You’ll want to get in some practice with a staff down at the range, they handle like crap’ he started. ‘How’s your Goa’uld getting along.’

‘Jaffa kree!’ Sharp responded. ‘Who is guarding the chappa’ai?’ he asked. ‘Or as we say in Canada, “Who is guarding the chappa’ai eh?’ he deadpanned.

‘Better let me and Teal’c do the talking’ Daniel suggested.

‘I thought it was pretty good for a beginning’ O’Neill told the Commander, ‘but you’ve got to live the role, be the Jaffa, put more passion into the “kree” when you say it’ he advised, trying not to laugh.

‘Maybe wearing the chainmail with help with the method acting?’ Carter suggested, getting in on the joke.

‘If you’re mocking me I can order Sergeant Andianov to shoot you and she would’ Sharp told them in mock seriousness.

‘Jaffa kree!’ Andianov suddenly thundered, snapping Teal’c out of his daydream and leaving him bolt upright in his chair.

‘Excellent’ Daniel told the Russian.

‘The pronunciation is easier than English’ she replied honestly. ‘This reminds me, your Russian needs work’ she told him.

Daniel pouted and resisted the urge to ask how good her Latin and Ancient Greek were.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – October 2000

‘God damn it’ Commander Sharp complained catching his reflection in the glass as he looked down into the gateroom. ‘It just won’t rub off’ he moaned taking a handkerchief from one of the innumerable pockets in his grey X-COM jumpsuit, spitting on it and started furiously rubbing his forehead again.

‘You should have chosen a gold insignia instead of the permanent ink’ General George Hammond replied trying not to sound as amused as he was.

‘You’re right, the glue would have taken off less skin’ Sharp agreed, ‘at least it’s fading’ he said trying to sound upbeat.

‘You can add a brief stint as a Jaffa Warrior to your resume anyway Sir’ Walter suggested, looking up from his computer monitor.

‘That doesn’t count for much Sergeant’ Sharp replied. ‘Even using their weapons we beat them like a red-headed stepchild’ he stated. ‘We only hit a small camp but there’s no way we should have been able to get away so light, we only had eight injured between all five teams and only two of them were serious’ he said, checking his reflection again. ‘I spent too long fighting Sectoids’ he added. ‘If I don’t lose at least a quarter of my people on a mission it feels weird’ he said.

Hammond nodded. ‘The Jaffa have never demonstrated a predilection for small unit tactics’ he agreed. ‘You’d think they’d have learned by now’ he said.

‘To be fair Cronus hasn’t fought against our people much’ Sharp noted. ‘Our recent clashes with Apophis troops shows they’re learning’ he continued. ‘They stopped charging down the Laser Rifles anyway’ he said sadly, that had made life so much easier than attacking them was. Closing the range down meant even the poor ergonomics of a staff-weapon got more hits and although the torso section of the armour SG Teams were wearing now would stop a blast, cumulative hits would penetrate eventually as the metal crystallised. Plus there was of course the possibility of getting your head blown off by a lucky, or perhaps unlucky, shot.

‘Can we talk outside?’ Hammond asked Sharp.

‘Sure’ the Commander replied and followed the General out of the control room, and stopping in the corridor.

‘Another two of the seconded SGC people assigned to the Sectoid War are KIA from a mission they went on when you were offworld Russ’ Hammond said quietly. ‘I don’t know if you were told?’

Sharp sighed. ‘Sorry to hear that George’ he replied. ‘That’s three now?’ he asked.

‘Four’ Hammond corrected him. ‘And one more that’ll never walk again’ he added. ‘How the hell did you do it?’ he asked. ‘Accept losses like that as routine?’

‘Honestly?’ Sharp replied. ‘I tried not to think to hard about it’ he admitted. ‘We have to beat the bastards so we have to accept the losses’ he said simply. ‘I used to lose four or more people every time I went out on an op’ he said. ‘We deliberately never got to know the rookies until after their third mission because the fatality rate starts to drop after that, you learn and adapt fast fighting those aliens or you die, they’ve got better tactics than Jaffa and they’ve always outgunned us.’

‘I don’t know if I could learn to live with that’ Hammond told him. ‘I care too much for my people.’

‘Be grateful you never had to’ Sharp told him seriously before smiling slightly. ‘That problem you had with NID, I had it dealt with’ he said.

‘Dealt with?’ Hammond asked.

‘I had a few off-duty X-COM people who weren’t US citizens pay a visit on the people who picked up your granddaughters from school’ he said. ‘They won’t trouble you any more’ he said confidently.

‘Should I ask the details?’ Hammond asked.

‘Better you don’t know’ Sharp told him. ‘I can claim diplomatic immunity with my UN Accreditation but you’re not insulated like that’ he noted. ‘I’ll say this, they’re all still alive if not necessarily unharmed physically or psychologically.’

‘You’re right I don’t want to know but thanks Russ’ Hammond told him gratefully. ‘And thank your people’ he added.

‘Any time’ Commander Sharp told him. ‘We think Senator Kinsey is involved somehow, we’ve been watching the son of a bitch ever since Maybourne clued us in but he’s untouchable even for my people’ he said apologetically. ‘We can terrorise a low-ranking asshole from Military Intelligence but politicians are another matter even if we had definite proof.’

Hammond ran his hand up over his bald head. ‘How is Harry Maybourne anyway?’ he asked.

‘Still living in fear of the NID’ Sharp replied. ‘He’s well motivated to keep in with X-COM because he’s worried we’ll sell him down the river if he doesn’t’ he said. ‘It’s been a rewarding association, he was able to steer us towards the guys involved in the pressure made on you through your grandkids.’

‘Give him my thanks too then but let him know I’m still liable to punch him on the nose if we meet in person again’ Hammond replied.

‘Will do’ Sharp replied.

Walter suddenly popped out of the command centre. ‘Sorry Sirs’ he said. ‘I thought you’d want to hear this’ he said. ‘X-COM is tracking a Sectoid Type battleship heading straight for their base in Poland.’

‘Oh shit’ Sharp swore. ‘We thought they were scouting for our installations’ he said.

‘Most of the military personnel based there are off on a mission’ the Sergeant announced. ‘X-COM is preparing to self-destruct the base if they survive the base defences and land.’

Sharp turned and punched the wall hard which hurt but not as much as he hoped it would. Then he suddenly froze. ‘Get every SG Team member armoured up and with a weapon in their hand in the gateroom right now!’ he ordered.

‘Sir?’ Walter queried.

‘Just do it Walter’ Hammond ordered and the Sergeant tore off to get it done. ‘What are you thinking Commander?’ he asked.

‘The second gate’ Sharp said, ‘we were going to use it to move equipment into Earth orbit by taking it up in a ship, sending stuff through from here to the Alpha Site and then plugging the DHD into the second gate making it the master here.’

‘So when anything is sent back from the Alpha site it arrives in Earth Orbit through the gate we originally took from Antarctica and which you recovered from the ocean’ Hammond said then his jaw dropped. ‘It’s at the X-COM Base in Poland!’ he exclaimed.

‘Damn straight it is’ Sharp declared. ‘Get on the horn to them and tell them to get ready to plug in the DHD thirty seconds after the last one of us heads through to the Alpha site’ he said. ‘Tell them not to blow the base and hold the access routes as long as they can with the troops they have, tell them the cavalry is coming, it’s just going to travel a very long way to get there’ he said turning and starting to run towards the armoury.

‘That is one inventive son of a gun when the pressure’s on’ Hammond said to himself as he watched Sharp pound down the corridor. That was sure going to catch the opposition by surprise anyway he decided as the claxons started to sound and Walter ordered every team to prepare for immediate action.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.  

 Alpha Site – P3X-984 – October 2000

Commander Sharp looked around. ‘I didn’t have time to make much of a speech before we went through the gate so here’s the straight facts’ he began, looking around the twenty or so SGC personnel who had been available to grab their gear and go into action immediately. ‘By now an alien vessel will be dropping troops into the X-COM base in Poland and our job is to reinforce the garrison and secure the base’ he said. ‘About three quarters of you are SGC personnel so let me make this clear, some of you will almost certainly die if you follow me back through this gate’ he told them flatly. ‘The enemy we will be facing is smart, uses proper small-unit tactics and is packing weaponry that makes these things look like pop-guns’ he stated, holding up his L2A1 Laser Rifle. ‘This isn’t like fighting Jaffa, we’re marching into hell so if anyone wants to back out because they never signed up for this shit then go ahead, I won’t criticise, you’d have to be fucking insane not to stay here’ he said.

A few of the SG Team members looked around nervously but nobody said anything until eventually Colonel O’Neill spat on the ground. ‘You come to Earth uninvited you get shot at’ he said simply. ‘That’s what I signed up for’ he declared.

‘Indeed O’Neill’ Teal’c agreed. ‘I for one am eager to test myself against such a foe.’

‘You poor dumb bastards’ Sharp said shaking his head before breaking out into a grin. ‘Shoot anything that isn’t human, keep shooting it until it fall over and shoot it once more in the head to make sure’ he advised. ‘They’ve all got quick reaction times so don’t miss or they’ll return fire before you get another try, and they won’t miss.’

‘Sir the Alpha site guards want to come along’ Carter announced indicating another half dozen troops who had been guarding the gate when they arrived in the camp.

‘The more the merrier’ Sharp responded, ‘if they’re shooting at you they aren’t shooting at me’ he joked. ‘Okay I’m making the X-COM vet in each SG team the team leader for the duration of his mission...’

‘Like hell!’ O’Neill exclaimed.

‘Shut up’ Sharp snapped back, ‘Andianov you and your people follow me when we arrive, I’m going to head straight for the access shaft with the SG3 jarheads there’ he told her indicating the only SGC troops who looked enthusiastic more than apprehensive, ‘the rest of you secure the hanger bays, the chances are they came in through there too’ he said. ‘Listen up O’Neill, and this goes for the rest of you officers that might feel pissed at being put under the command of an X-COM grunt’ he said. ‘We’ve done this shit before and you haven’t’ he said, ‘I want to win, and you all want to live, so put your egos on hold and listen to the experts’ he ordered. ‘Shit, we’re the only ones that know our way around the base anyhow’ he added.

‘One of these days I’m going to drop you on your ass... Sir’ O’Neill replied, fighting back the urge to protest further.

‘God I hope so because if you do it means we both live through the next half hour’ Sharp replied. ‘Alright, the DHD should be plugged in so we’re going to Poland’ he said. ‘Dial Earth’ he ordered.

‘O’Neill I am making you my Second in Command’ Sergeant Andianov told the Colonel, barely able to resist a smirk. ‘If only because Doctor Jackson is not here’ she couldn’t resist adding.

‘It’s karma for all those non-coms I got to do my paperwork over the years’ O’Neill muttered.

‘Quiet in the ranks’ Andianov ordered.

‘Enjoy it while you can Sergeant’ O’Neill told her, checking his Laser Rifle as the Stargate powered up and the wormhole back to Earth engaged with the characteristic “kawoosh”.

Sharp switched on his radio headset. ‘This is Commander Sharp at the Alpha Site, is the gateroom secure over?’ he asked, then listened for the reply. ‘Okay they say the gateroom in Poland is still secure’ he announced, ‘it’s in an annex to the rest of the base because it was added later’ he said then listened again. ‘Once we get into the main complex we could be knee deep in Sectoids and they say Cyberdisk’s too, for Christ’s sake don’t shoot up a cyberdisk from less that thirty yards because when they blow up next to you the only recognisable part of you left will be a pair of smoking combats boots.’

‘Perhaps you will now appreciate how it feels for me as a former First Prime to be what you call a grunt O’Neill?’ Teal’c suggested as he raised the stock of his L2A1 to his shoulder to look down the sights at a distant tree. At a visceral level he still somehow preferred a staff-weapon but its total all-round inferiority to the X-COM Laser Rifle had been made very evident over the last few months so he now carried the latter himself plus a Zat'nik'tel as a more traditionally comforting backup. The SGC had yet to receive any of the new L2A2 Laser Rifles with an integral Zat-type weapon under the barrel but they were due soon.

‘I always thought the first woman to boss SG1 was going to be me’ Carter announced as they got ready to move. ‘After you retired I mean Sir’ she added quickly.

‘GO GO GO’ Sharp bellowed and charged up the stone steps followed by SG3 and then Andianov leading SG1. There had better be something to shoot at on the other side O’Neill thought to himself as he plunged through the event horizon.

Back at Cheyenne Mountain Daniel waited nervously for news, he had volunteered to go but Commander Sharp vetoed the idea immediately, being left behind was the worst feeling of all he decided and wondered how General Hammond dealt with it every day. If he had asked he would have been told that it was stress like that which made your hair fall out.

X-COM Base One (Europe) – Earth – October 2000

Colonel Jack O’Neill looked around the gate room. ‘Ours is bigger’ he declared, listening to the sounds of what he assumed was gunfire.

‘It’s what you do with it that counts Colonel’ Commander Sharp couldn’t resist replying earning a derisory snort from Sergeant Andianov before she could stop herself. ‘Okay the double doors lead into a corridor heading for the access shaft to the surface’ he continued ignoring the Russian. ‘It splits into a crossroads fifty yards up, the elevator is straight ahead and the two hangers are to the right and left’ he told them. ‘It’s a wide corridor because we had to get the stargate through it so hug the walls’ he advised. ‘The bugs probably won’t be expecting us so hit them hard and fast before they get their shit back together’ he ordered. ‘Remember there are friendlies in here so watch your fire, that also goes for not shooting up the laboratories or the workshops unless you really have to.’

Carter took a breath and let it out slowly. There had been three X-COM troopers already here when they arrived preparing to hold the gate room if necessary and they were now getting ready to open the doors into the main complex. Fortunately the Sectoid invaders seemed more interested in moving in the other direction towards the Research and Development and Manufacturing areas, Carter reasoned they were just as interested in getting hold of the latest Earth military technology as the humans were interested in getting hold of theirs.

The eight virtually identical X-COM bases that between them now guarded the planet were all laid out so that the two hangers and access shaft were at one end of the base and the extensive laboratories and machine-shops were at the other, with stores, living quarters and other base areas containing the radar, alien containment and defensive missile batteries in between. It was a uniform, utilitarian and frankly bland design of steel reinforced concrete and fluorescent lighting that wasn’t really too much different from the SGC only with X-COM and United Nations insignia on everything. In the event the aliens managed to reach the containment areas where their brethren were being held they would quickly discover just how failsafe the system was, any unauthorised breach would result in nerve-gas being pumped into the cells, there was even a backup system if the gas didn’t work which would incinerate the prisoners, nobody and nothing escaped.

‘Alright we do this quick, nasty and with as much violence as possible’ Commander Sharp declared. ‘Crank her open’ he ordered the troops by the doors and they pressed a button that started them sliding apart, initially just a crack so they could check the corridor was clear then wider to let Sharp lead the mix of SGC and X-COM soldiers through.

Sharp moved to the right hand wall of the corridor followed by the marines of SG3 and their own X-COM member Sergeant Breytenbach a sullen South African who Andianov freely admitted was a better marksman that she was “but not as fast”. She herself led SG1 along left hand wall as the two teams spearheaded the counter-attack, the others waiting to follow-on behind once the crossroads in the corridor was secured.

O’Neill heard a brief high pitched, almost siren like noise, at least he thought he did at first but after a second he realised he had heard it inside his head.

‘Shit, psionics’ Sharp growled. ‘They must have an officer or too with them, so much for the element of surprise’ he said and began to move faster.

‘They can sense your thoughts, see your location in their minds’ Andianov said. ‘We learned that early on, but only Sectoid Squad leaders seem to be able to do it.’

‘Their grunts are too dumb then’ O’Neill replied, ‘guess they don’t get promoted over their officers’ he couldn’t help adding as Andianov and Sharp reached the crossroads and quickly looked around the corner.

Sharp signalled the other teams to move up and then moved across the corridor junction. At the end of another short length of corridor lay wooden double doors leading to a small storeroom then the access shaft to the surface. The sound of firing was closer now, and intermittent explosions echoed down the concrete tunnels, he signalled for the teams to split and as the rest of the troops headed for the hangers Andianov and Breytenbach stood back against the wall on either side prepared to kick them open, weapons up and ready to go as the others aimed between them.

‘Go’ Sharp ordered and the two X-COM soldiers kicked the doors hard, slamming them open revealing a small solitary grey figure under five feet tall and carrying a large metallic rifle almost as big as it was. The sectoid officer might have sensed their location but the alien grunt now stood in front of an open doorway still looked pretty surprised as it momentarily found itself looking down the barrels of ten Laser Rifles.

As a race they had been genetically engineered by Loki to be stronger, tougher and faster than the original Asgard clones but they still weren’t remotely enhanced enough to do much more than think “shit” in a circumstance like this, and although the language was indecipherable that was, as it happens, pretty much the only thing that went through the sectoid’s mind in the fraction of a second before its brain, and the rest of its body was burned through by a barrage of amplified coherent light.

Andianov was already moving before the sectoids corpse hit the floor, rifle up and firing as she went through the door, the sectoids were smart enough to suffer momentary shock and even morale problems so they could sometimes be intimidated and shaken-up by suppressive fire, at least that was the idea. ‘Chyort voz'mi!’ she exclaimed, throwing herself to the floor as another sectoid inside the room opened up with a Heavy Plasma Rifle set on burst fire.

The first shot of the three missed completely and went straight over her head striking the door behind her and blasting it to pieces, showering fragments everywhere. The second hit the doorframe and blew a crater in the concrete it was set into.

Moving at beyond hypersonic velocity shot number three of the burst went clean through the doorway and narrowly missing Breytenbach instead slammed into one of the SG3 Marines in the corridor. The effects were appalling, the particle bolt of superheated green plasma simply burned through his chest armour like it wasn’t there and blasted his torso apart sending a spray of scorched flesh, rib fragments and blood in all directions as the sheer kinetic impact took effect and blew him backwards.

The sectoid never got the chance to fire again, Breytenbach put a burst of his own into the creature before it got the chance, his laser pulses cauterising the wounds they caused ensuring a far less messy demise than that of the unfortunate marine.

‘Don’t stop, keep moving, mourn later’ Sharp bellowed and charged into the room followed by the South African, Andianov herself quickly getting up off the ground.

Less shocked than the remaining Marines O’Neill was the next through the doorway, he had lost people before, far more than he would care to recollect, and though it was heartless perhaps the fact the SG3 member pouring what was left of his blood onto the brushed concrete floor wasn’t one of his team meant he could handle the death far more easily. Carter almost lost her footing on the slippery surface but followed her Colonel as Teal’c took a different tack and grabbed the nearest marine pulling him along with the rest of them. ‘Seek vengeance’ he said simply which seemed to do the trick admirably, the veteran of innumerable battles the Jaffa knew they could not pause to think about it as they left their broken friend behind.

‘Why the hell didn’t you make these places easier to defend?’ O’Neill asked as he stepped over a sectoid body and found himself looking at the remains of an X-COM soldier who must have died in here earlier on defending the base.

‘Why the hell don’t you have big automated guns in the gateroom at Cheyenne and why did we have to install proper defensive surface-to-air missile batteries around the place?’ Sharp retorted, ‘because we’re all idiots’ he stated. ‘If I don’t get killed here I’m getting rotary staff-weapons and maybe the laser cannon from the Firestorms set up at the access points of every fucking base we have’ he declared. ‘The next aliens that drop in on us likes this checks out immediately’ he declared, putting down his L2A1 and picking up the dead troopers upgraded L2A2 with a larger capacity power-cell and the trademark plain thirty-millimetre diameter metallic tube under the barrel which held the X-COM copy of a zat gun. He checked the charge indicator and fired a shot into the floor to verify it was in working order before thinking of using it.

Breytenbach had already reached the next door and squatted down ready to carefully push it open. The bugs liked to ambush you, unlike Jaffa who seemed to like charging down machineguns and laser rifles like idiots.

‘Clear behind’ the South African whispered and slowly pushed the door open a crack.

A bright green bolt of Heavy Plasma blasted through the door at chest height and kept going, destroying a water-filled fire-extinguisher hanging on the far wall in a grenade-like explosion which threw shrapnel everywhere, some ricocheting off Carter’s armour and one piece putting a small gash in her forehead. Well that’s one unorthodox way to get a Purple Heart O’Neill thought as everyone started firing back through the door. ‘Fire in the hole!’ Sharp shouted pitching a concussion grenade through the largest hole in the now riddled wooden door, the South African next to it rolling away clear.

The explosion blew the already shattered door off its hinges and Sharp hoped that the store-room he had just blown up wasn’t filled with anything too prone to secondary explosions, too inflammable or too expensive. ‘Move’ he ordered and once again Andianov beat Breytenbach to the punch, getting into the next room before he did. They moved damn well, O’Neill had to admit, Sharp himself already positioned to follow or to cover a quick retreat.

The remains of a sectoid were spread out over the floor amidst a pile of broken crates. ‘If I see any of the rest of you clearing a room that way, or doing reconnaissance by high-explosive, I’ll kick your ass’ Sharp said just before a titanic explosion in the distance seemed to rock the whole base.

‘What the hell was that?’ O’Neill asked as they took up positions using the remaining crates as makeshift cover.

‘Either someone whacked a cyberdisk or a bug threw one of those grenades they use’ Sharp replied. ‘They go up like an oversized fucking satchel charge’ he said. ‘Teal’c you and SG3 pull back to the last room in case they throw one in here’ he ordered. ‘Don’t want all to arrive in the afterlife together thinking what a bunch of stupid bastards we all are.’

‘Indeed Commander’ Teal’c agreed, ‘better that some of us get the opportunity to arrive many years from now and mock you’ he said completely deadpan.

‘The room with the Access Shaft is up ahead...’ he began before he was interrupted by the door leading to the shaft being apparently kicked open from the other side and a pair of Heavy Plasma Rifles appeared apparently being blind-fired by sectoids stood either side of the doorway on the other side of the wall.

They were all returning fire when a grenade-sized high-velocity purple sphere flew through the same doorway and exploded against a wall next to Carter. A strange concussive explosion immediately dropped her, O’Neill and Sharp to the ground in an unconscious heap, the latter falling sideways and hitting his head against the corner of a plastic packing crate, he’d be feeling that one when he regained consciousness which hopefully wouldn’t be under a sectoid’s laser scalpel.

Andianov kept firing and must have hit one of the opposition on the other side because an alien scream of pain rang out and one of the blind-fired Plasma Weapons dropped to the ground.

Moving up and firing his own Laser-Rifle one-handed Teal’c pulled out his zat’nik’tel and fired a salvo of repeated energy blasts at the opposition, another more muted cry indicated he successfully hit another one though the remaining Heavy Plasma Rifle blind-firing through the doorway continued to spew charged bolts of certain death... until the magazine ran out.

Andianov thought quickly as well as moved like it and she immediately charged to the attack throwing herself through the doorway and landing at the feet of a now extremely distressed alien invader who was trying to eject his ammunition clip and load a fresh one. Andianov boiled his brains with a single shot up at his head at nearly point-blank range then finding herself by the Access Shaft rolled to take up a position lying prone covering the elevator doorway. ‘Breytenbach get in here’ she yelled, the South African moving up behind her, dropping to one knee rifle ready.

A number of sectoid and a few X-COM bodies from the fighting before they arrived were scattered around. ‘SG3 with me’ Breytenbach yelled as Teal’c checked the unmoving bodies of Major Carter and then Colonel O’Neill behind them.

‘They are alive, merely stunned’ Teal’c announced. ‘The device fired at us must work like a Goa’uld Shock Grenade’ he said.

‘Try giving them a stimulant shot from your medkit’ Andianov called back, eyes still focused on the elevator and rifle ready to kill the next motherless clone asshole that crossed her path.

‘I will try’ Teal’c replied, unhooking the device from his belt and pressing it against Colonel O’Neill’s neck before triggering an injection of stimulant drugs. The X-COM medkits were a miracle of design, they could immediately seal wounds with a substance that instantly clotted blood, inject strong painkillers and if necessary drugs that would practically raise you from a coma, albeit with some strain on your heart.

Lying flat on his back where Teal’c had rolled him O’Neill almost instantly sat bolt upright, eyes wide open and with a yelp. ‘You are back O’Neill’ Teal’c announced. ‘How many fingers am I holding up?’ he asked.

‘Three’ the Colonel replied in confusion.

‘Only one O’Neill’ Teal’c corrected him. ‘If you meet three sectoids shoot the one in the middle’ he advised before moving on to Major Carter. ‘You were stunned by an alien grenade of some type’ he said before giving Carter an injection of her own causing her to instantly awaken too with a noise that was akin to a slurred “Yarf fragglesnoop”.

Andianov collared one of the marines who had moved up. ‘We are going to the left’ she told him, ‘the rest of you move to the right’ she ordered. ‘Teal’c wake them up then cover the elevator doors’ she called back. The firing elsewhere in the complex seemed to be rising in intensity, she hoped it was the last sectoids being crushed as they deserved and not a last stand by the SGC and X-COM personnel.

O’Neill shook his head clear as Teal’c injected Sharp and then returning his medkit to his belt moved to support the others as requested. ‘You okay Carter?’ the Colonel asked, getting up slowly and retrieving his rifle before checking the Commander who seemed to be waking up more slowly, likely because of the evident blow to his head.

‘I’m woozy but fine Sir’ Carter replied reaching for her own dropped weapon.

‘Glad to hear it’ O’Neill responded then with a barely concealed grin he delivered a stinging slap with his free hand to Sharp’s cheek snapping him around instantly.

‘What.. where?’ Sharp mumbled.

‘Got stunned, back now, grab rifle, kill bugs’ O’Neill told him.

‘Head hurts’ Sharp replied in the same tone picking up his L2A2 and rising to a squat. ‘That’s a new one on me’ he announced, blinking a few times. His head felt like it was full of cotton wool which was only a good thing if you were half way through a bottle of decent Scotch.

‘Maybe they wanted to take X-COM people alive for interrogation’ Carter suggested. ‘We zat them don’t we?’ she asked rhetorically offering a hand to help him up though still not completely steady herself.

Already mobile O’Neill moved up to join Teal’c and watched Andianov and Breytenbach leading their respective marines. ‘Follow the Sergeant there’ O’Neill told him, ‘I’ll shoot anything that might still step out of the elevator’ he said, getting his rifle ready.

‘Yes O’Neill’ Teal’c replied and started to move to support the Russian.

Before the Colonel could yell a warning or fire a thin grey arm raised from among the bodies laying all around and aimed a rifle-like weapon at the Jaffa. A single shot of plasma hit him in the back and sent Teal’c sprawling to the ground

O’Neill fired a snap-shot which instantly killed the sectoid and dashed to Teal’c’s side. ‘Shit’ he said, seeing the hole burned in his armour.

‘I am still alive O’Neill’ Teal’c announced.

‘Keep still you’ve got a hole in your back I could fit my fist in’ he said reaching for his own medkit. ‘Carter you and Sharp watch the damn elevator’ he ordered. ‘I don’t want to get shot in the back too’ he added stopping the Major running to join them too as he sealed the wound. He wouldn’t bleed to death now hopefully anyhow.

‘Standard Plasma Rifle’ Commander Sharp observed. ‘A Heavy would have killed him outright’ he said, joining Major Carter.

A short lived flurry of gunfire from the direction Breytenbach had headed was punctuated by a human scream and then a number of apparent death cry of a sectoid. They did not know it at the time but after another of the marines was killed by a single alien waiting in ambush the South African had also just had his left arm blown off at the elbow by a bolt of plasma. Another SG3 Marine gunned down the sectoid responsible as Breytenbach gave himself a shot of painkiller, sealed his own wound and drew his pistol because the rifle was too awkward one-handed.

Working on Teal’c injury O’Neill heard the same sound in his head he had experienced earlier only this time it was accompanied by a sudden feeling of dread which he fought back. Damn aliens trying to screw with my mind, he decided, ‘kiss my ass’ he thought as loudly as he could.

Carter then felt something different in her own mind, something attempting control, it reminded her a little of playing host to the Tokra Jolinar and she fought it but she felt herself slipping, only her previous experience of her mind being hijacked gave her the ability to hold out this long. ‘It’s... trying... to... control... me’ she forced out, dropping her rifle so they couldn’t use her to kill her friends.

‘Sweet dreams’ Sharp replied and shot her with the zat gun fitted to his rifle. In the old days they had to kill X-COM troops that were mind-controlled by the aliens, stunning them was much easier on the conscience he decided.

Another explosion rocked the base and the distant firing began to slow down. In the end casualties proved to be relatively light, less than a quarter of the reinforcements who came through the gate being killed in action and only 4 more wounded not counting Teal’c or Breytenbach, the unexpected counter-attack had caught the sectoid foe by surprise and they had already split into small groups to search through the base when struck by the hammer blow of numerical superiority.

Near one of the living quarters, which were normally home to the hundreds of evacuated scientists, technicians and engineers who were ordinarily based here, the marines of SG-12 and a pair of X-COM troops who had been at the base since the sectoids arrived were involved in a vicious firefight with three or perhaps four aliens who had decided to dig in and make a stand of it after being beaten back out of one of the aircraft hangers. ‘These little grey fuckers don’t quit’ one of the marines yelled out as a burst of plasma fire went past his head and blew a hole through one of the thin internal walls that divided the accommodation areas into rooms.

‘You should see the big green fuckers in action’ one of the X-COM troopers replied, returning fire with a series of shots from his laser rifle. ‘At least these things fall over when you shoot them’ he said, ‘Muton’s just get pissed off’ he declared.

‘Need some help?’ a US Army Ranger from SG-15 asked loudly. ‘We greased the last bastard next block over, lost a man doing it too’ he added bitterly.

‘Shit yeah’ one of the marines replied. ‘You keep their heads down and I’ll get over there and put them in a crossfire from the left.’

‘Remember that they can shoot through any cover you try using’ the second X-COM trooper with an Australian accent told them before he was drowned out by the first making a triumphant whoop as he performed a perfect snap-shot and caught a sectoid hiding behind a makeshift barricade of lockers and wooden furniture right between the eyes killing it instantly.

‘Fuck yeah!’ a marine responded appreciatively. ‘Let’s finish this’ he added with a crazed grin as a barrage of continuous laser fire from numerous human troops bracketed the remaining sectoids, it was getting close to the end-game as other soldiers did likewise elsewhere in the complex.

The base started to rumble as the alien ship which had landed on top of the underground installation lifted off again. It had used a new ECM system to avoid the defensive missiles fired at it on the way in but now a Firestorm loaded with naquadah-enhanced nuclear warheads was inbound fast and it didn’t want to risk finding out if the ECM worked on the humans air-launched missiles too or not. It had already failed its mission so now the objective was to flee.

As the sectoid vessel outran the Firestorm Interceptor and headed for space the last shot fired inside the base was taking place as a member of SG-4 found a panicked sectoid cowering in a corner, weapon abandoned. Lacking a zat gun but deciding they'd want it alive he shot it in the kneecap, after watching his friends killed the creatures cry of pain was damn satisfying he thought happily as he grabbed it by its injured leg and dragged it along the ground behind him back to the others.

The alien Squad leader which had been trying to get into O’Neills mind had been knocked unconscious by the nearby explosion of a cyberdisk, the heavily armoured compact alien hovertank eventually destroyed by multiple hits from all directions. When it awoke the sectoid officer found itself strapped to an interrogation couch, a psionic suppressor band around its head preventing it from influencing the humans stood around it as they prepared to strip its mind of useful information, a process X-COM had come to call “Mind-Rape”.

One of the humans leaned over the sectoid and looked into the large black eyes which gave it such good night-vision. ‘Well this has buggered your plans for conquering the universe’ the X-COM scientist declared in a New Zealand accent and with a vicious smirk on his face before reaching for the electrodes.

That the information retrieved from its mind and the new stun-grenade launcher were themselves thought by X-COM to be more than worth the losses of personnel in the attack was not relayed to General Hammond, it was considered likely he wouldn’t grasp the big picture as he wrote out letters to the families of the fallen SG Team members.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – November 2000

‘So how are you doing today Teal’c?’ O’Neill asked, pulling up a chair beside the bed in the infirmary.

‘I would be more comfortable if I were able to at least lay on my back O’Neill’ Teal’c replied. ‘I cannot even lean back in a chair or the pain soon becomes excruciating.’

‘Junior not worked his magic yet then?’ the Colonel asked.

‘Teal’c’s recovery has been exceptional’ Doctor Fraser injected, looking up from her desk in the corner of the infirmary. ‘If not for his symbiote I doubt he would have even been able to sit up at all yet. The injury caused by the alien plasma weapon was extensive.’

‘At least his armour took some of the hit’ O’Neill said, ‘could have been a lot worse.’

‘Having picked several armour fragments out of his back I can tell you he was only lucky one didn’t go through his spine’ Doctor Fraser told him. ‘Of course given the number of SG Team members that returned here in a body bag or with permanently debilitating injuries Teal’c is lucky period, one of the larger alien weapons would not have been survivable, armour and symbiote notwithstanding’ she stated.

‘Bugs have good guns, got to give ‘em that’ O’Neill replied with a shrug. He had thought his L2A1 Laser Rifle had been impressive until he got to see what a Sectoid Heavy Plasma Rifle could do. Hell their pistols were more powerful than a Goa’uld Staff-Weapon and were more accurate too if only because they had decent ergonomics.

‘They are not unskilled warriors either O’Neill’ Teal’c opined rolling onto his side to face the Colonel. ‘I would not have thought a creature so similar to an Asgard would prove to be so effective in battle’ he said.

‘Makes you wonder what one of those big armoured Muton things is like if Loki can make the little grey guys into a half-decent grunt’ O’Neill asked rhetorically. From what he’d heard a greater and greater percentage of the ships landing were carrying the genetically enhanced alien super-soldiers and it was getting nasty for X-COM as their casualty rates rose. ‘Hey the geeks managed to make a prototype copy of their Plasma Pistol’ he told Teal’c, ‘they think they’ll have the rifles like the one they shot you with figured out by the end of the month.’

‘And the larger model rifles?’ Teal’c asked, ‘The firepower of those devices was practically that of a small staff-cannon’ he noted.

‘They’re working on it’ the Colonel told him. ‘We might not get issued them for a while though even when they get the things figured out’ he said. ‘They’re overkill for Jaffa, hell our lasers already give us a huge edge.’

‘How is Major Carter?’ Teal’c asked.

‘Still kinda pissed that another alien hijacked her brain’ O’Neill replied, ‘At least the last one turned out to be a good guy but somehow I don’t think there’s any such think as a Tok’loki’ he said. ‘We’re getting replacements for the people we lost but General Hammond has scaled down missions for a while so you rest up as long as you like.’

‘I would like to get back to duty now but Doctor Fraser says she will not allow me sufficient painkillers to render that possible’ Teal’c replied.
‘Even if Teal’c might take a while to develop a dependency we’re not sure what the effects of heavy doses of morphine would have on the developing symbiote’ the doctor noted.

‘You think Junior might turn into a junkie?’ O’Neill turned to her and asked in surprise.

‘More to the point we don’t know what having the thing going cold turkey in there might have on Teal’c immune system’ she replied. ‘I probably shouldn’t have said that in front of one of the X-COM people earlier’ she continued with a frown, ‘I have this terrible notion that they’ve got some poor Jaffa prisoner in one of their Alien Containment cells high as a kite right now so they can cut him off and see what happens when he goes through withdrawal’ she said. ‘There’s more than a faint whiff of Doctor Frankenstein about their medical people’ she opined, or maybe Doctor Mengele she thought to herself with distaste.

‘They’re fitting that X-COM Sergeant Breytenbach with a claw to replace his hand’ O’Neill told Teal’c. ‘They offered a prosthetic that looked... well more like a hand but he wanted a claw because he thought it would be more useful’ he said. ‘They won’t quit and they’re so short of people they’re letting him stay’ he continued. ‘So if you ever need a beer he’s going to have a built-in bottle opener.’

‘The remnants of his left arm are in the refrigerator’ Doctor Fraser said. ‘He came back with it in a plastic bag and asked me to put it somewhere for safe keeping until he decided what he wanted to do with it’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘Can you pass on a message I’ve still got his watch too’ she added.

‘Still working?’ O’Neill asked curiously.

‘Yes amazingly’ she replied.

‘Got to be a Timex’ the Colonel stated confidently. ‘Takes a plasma beaming, keeps on ticking’ he said. ‘So I’ve got to go to a briefing’ he announced. ‘See you later Teal’c.’

‘I will see you later O’Neill’ the Jaffa replied. ‘Could you bring something for me to read from my quarters when you return?’ he requested.

‘One of those Star Trek novels?’ O’Neill queried, it still made him grin that a man born on another planet with an alien larvae living in his guts was a sci-fi fan.

‘Yes thank you O’Neill’ Teal’c replied, ‘none of those written by Shatner’ he requested, ‘in hindsight purchasing them was a grievous mistake’ he said sadly.

With Teal’c laid up in the infirmary so she didn’t have to keep so close an eye on him Lyudmila Andianov found herself with more free time. She was currently putting it to gainful use by working out in the base gym and amusing herself by pretending to be unaware of the fact that three members of SG-8 had positioned themselves with good vantage points for when she did stretching exercises or treadmill work between sets of free-weights. It took much of her stoic self-discipline not to laugh at the inadvertent moan when she touched her toes the first time, she wasn’t what you might call stunning to look at, Major Carter was the prettier female on SG1, but she was athletic and limber and back in her Spetsnatz days Russian Special Forces members used to make appreciative noises when she exercised too.

This was of course why she wore such short shorts and why her old olive brown Russian Army training top was perhaps a little tighter than it needed to be, Andianov liked to play games with the men, it was cheap entertainment and in the unlikely event one ever stepped out of line she was more than capable of flattening him as she had once done to a drunken Captain from GRU Military Intelligence in Moscow who grabbed her ass after a session at the bar, he hadn’t even bought her a drink the cheap bastard.

The men the in gym who came from X-COM didn’t tend to look so much, they were generally far more focused on the task at hand of getting just a little bit faster, a smidgen stronger so they wouldn’t die or at least they’d take a few more aliens with them when the did. They often had an intensity about them which Andianov had realised made others uncomfortable in their presence, to be honest some of them even gave her the creeps, especially Ulbricht the expressionless German now attached to SG-12. The story was he had been the sole survivor on three separate UFO retrieval missions and had gone very strange as a result, he was only assigned to the SGC because even the X-COM psychiatrists who had no problem sending people with severe Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder back into battle thought he needed a break, it was the fact he seemed so unbothered by it all that worried them, he didn’t even get drunk and start fights like a normal X-COM grunt would.

To the disappointment of her audience Andianov finished her training session and decided to hit the firing range after taking a shower, as she headed out she ran into Captain Griff from SG-2 who greeted her with a smile. Griff had been one of the more friendly towards the X-COM personnel generally and her in particular ever since the mission to P3X-888, it was hard not to hold a favourable opinion of a person that risked their life to save yours even if she had been wearing armour unlike he had been at the time. ‘You are well Captain?’ she asked.

‘I’m peachy’ Griff replied. ‘Sorry I missed the fight in Poland, if we’d known we were needed SG-2 would have been there instead of scouting another pile of ruins somewhere in the ass-end of the galaxy’ he said.

‘Maybe you will get the opportunity to be killed next time’ Andianov replied with a wry smile.

‘Yeah this streak of bad luck I’m having has got to run out eventually’ Griff joked. ‘Do you know the X-Commer they’ve just assigned to us?’ he asked. ‘Lieutenant Collignon?’

‘Emile yes’ Andianov confirmed. ‘A good soldier but he will start yelling at you in French when the situation becomes hectic’ she told him. ‘I found swearing back in Russian made him realise what he was doing.’

Griff grinned. ‘I don’t speak any Russian’ he replied.

‘Practice this’ Andianov told him. ‘Zatknis' na hui’ she said.

‘Zatknis' na hui’ Griff repeated as best he could. ‘So what does that mean?’ he asked.

‘Shut the fuck up’ Andianov translated.

‘I’ll try it in English’ Captain Griff decided.

‘I can only guarantee the Russian version will work’ Andianov told him.

Area 51 – Earth – November 2000

With Teal’c still out of action and General Hammond opting to scale back off-world activity whilst the SGC recovered from its losses Major Samantha Carter found herself with more time available for her first love, physics. Shooting at Jaffa was exciting but there was a special joy to be had from taking apart a piece of alien machinery and figuring out how it worked which she thought only Daniel could really relate too as she saw the same light in his eyes when he translated the words on the outside of an artefact as she felt when she figured out how to turn it on.

The Colonel was a great deal smarter than most people figured, though why anybody thought a man that had reached the rank of Colonel in the USAF could be as wilfully ignorant as O’Neill sometimes deliberately made out to be was amusing in itself, Carter thought as she was guided through the complex by one of the base security staff, it was obvious Jack played dumb so people underestimated him just like she suspected Teal’c sometimes pretended to be more lost in social circumstances that he really was.

Carter was greeted at the laboratory door by a familiar face and smiled. ‘They’ve got you back at Area 51 then Radek?’ she asked the Czech physicist.

‘For my sins Samantha’ Zelenka replied. ‘I think McKay is a trial sent by God to test me’ he said before dismissing the security guard and showing her inside where it was nothing but him and piles of equipment.

‘He’s not here is he?’ Carter asked nervously, looking around like she would for concealed Goa’uld assassins.

‘Fortunately he has been sent to Russia for a few weeks to assist in the work being done there on the modified Elerium Engines we plan to put on the F-302X’ Zelenka replied.

‘Russia?’ Carter repeated. ‘I didn’t think X-COM had a base there?’ she queried.

‘It’s a Russian Federation installation not X-COM’ Zelenka replied, ‘the one at Yamantau some call the Russian Area 51’ he said. ‘It’s in the Ural mountains, or perhaps under one of them would be a more accurate description’ he told her. ‘X-COM does not like to keep all its eggs in one basket and Russia, along with France, Britain and China are all now trying to compete for more influence by offering money and resources’ he told her. ‘The British are starting a second manufacturing line for nuclear warheads for our Avalanche Air-to-Air missiles at their Aldermaston facility and the French are making the missiles themselves at their Aérospatiale-Matra plant.’

‘What are the Chinese offering?’ Carter asked.

‘Cannon fodder’ Zelenka told her with a sigh. ‘Unfortunately a fresh supply of what the military arm of X-COM calls “meat for the grinder” is extremely valuable to us’ he said. ‘Especially with our mounting losses due to the Muton’s’ he explained.

Carter nodded. ‘I can easily imagine Beijing being more willing than the West to throw bodies at a problem’ she opined. ‘So how goes the research in Plasma weaponry?’ she asked, half nodding towards the half-disassembled Sectoid Rifle on the nearest lab-bench.

Zelenka moved over to the device in question. ‘Although it works on the same basic principles and uses some commonality of design as the Plasma Pistol we have already back-engineered the rifle here is more complex’ he said, ‘and the more powerful Heavy Plasma Rifle even more so’ he said. ‘The first problem we faced was of course that the device is rigged to only work when used by the aliens that created it themselves or else we would have simply issued the ones we have captured already to the troops’ he said. ‘Removing the electronic devices concerned is taking longer than for the pistol, they have a greater degree of tamper-proofing’ he said.

‘So what happens if you just cut the wires?’ Carter asked.

‘The power-cell running the electronics overloads and melts the internal components’ Zelenka replied. ‘And before you ask no you can’t just pull the power-cell first, if you do that it explodes’ he said. ‘We lost a good man at the base in Japan doing that’ he said regretfully.

Major Carter pursed her lips. ‘So how long do you think it’ll take to figure it out?’ she asked.

‘We are making steady progress and have many scientists working on the project’ Zelenka replied, ‘small teams dealing with each component simultaneously as fortunately the Sectoids design according to modular principles as we do’ he said. ‘It should not be too many weeks until we can copy this weapon and issue them to our soldiers.’

‘How does it compare to our Laser Rifles?’ Carter asked.

‘It is around thirty to forty percent again as powerful’ Zelenka replied, ‘the larger version we have called the “Heavy” Plasma Rifle however is perhaps twice as powerful as our laser rifle in a weapon of equivalent mass’ he said.

Carter shrugged. ‘No need to sell me on the Heavy Plasma’ she said, ‘when something has shot at you with one you either die or want one of your own’ she said. Watching the things put craters in concrete walls had been a sobering experience. ‘So how’s the Elerium supply? She asked.

‘Not too bad’ Zelenka replied, ‘though we can only obtain it from captured alien vessels our use of your naquadah reactor for non-propulsive power generation on the Firestorms has reduced our usage to half what it would have been and during the “happy time” we built up a decent stockpile’ he said.

‘Happy time?’ Carter asked in confusion.

Zelenka smiled. ‘It is what we call the time between the introduction of the Laser Rifle and the appearance of the Muton’s in large numbers’ he said. ‘Our UFO retrieval teams were victorious in many engagements without losing an unacceptable number of soldiers in the process’ he explained. ‘The rotary-staff weapon equipped HWP’s and Zat'nik'tel weapons also helped enormously’ he added, ‘unfortunately the armour worn by the Mutons seems to offer perfect immunity from Zat fire and considerable resistance to Staff-Blasts’ he told her sadly.

‘We once met a bounty-hunter named Aris Boch that wore a type of armour that was Zat-proof’ Carter noted. ‘He looked human but must have been from a sub-species because the people of his race rejected the Goa’uld symbiote, they couldn’t be used as hosts.’

‘Useful trick’ Zelenka remarked.

‘Not so much’ Carter disagreed, ‘the Goa’uld wiped most of them out and addicted the others to a narcotic called roshnah to keep them subservient and not a threat’ she told him.

Zelenka rolled his eyes. ‘Such a nice species the Goa’uld’ he said, ‘I look forward to the day when we genocide their entire evil parasitic race’ he declared. ‘Them and Loki’s vicious minions’ he added then perked up. ‘Have you heard the results of the latest studies into the Sectoids?’ he asked.

‘No I’ve gotten behind in my reading’ Carter admitted, ‘I tend to prioritise physics so the biological stuff gets put at the bottom of the pile’ she admitted.

‘Me too’ Zelenka told her, ‘biochemistry and biology are so... what’s the word? “Icky” sometimes’ he said.

Carter laughed. ‘The three laws of science’ she said, ‘If it moves, it’s biology’ she began, ‘if it smells, it’s chemistry...’

‘And if it doesn’t work it’s physics’ Zelenka finished for her, grinning.

‘So what’s “moving” with the Sectoids then?’ Carter asked, smiling back.

Zelenka picked up a file from on top of a nearby stack and opened it to a summary sheet. ‘You are aware that only the higher-ranking Sectoid’s can use psionics’ he asked.

Carter grimaced, she still remembered the thing getting into her head. ‘Yes, and it’s good that they can’t all do it’ she stated vehemently.

‘We are now certain that it is because they have an extra gene in their DNA which the ordinary Sectoids lack’ Zelenka told her. ‘And it appears to have been spliced in from human gene-stock’ he continued, ‘or at least from the genetic code of a certain population of our species’ he said.

‘Human DNA?’ Carter queried.

‘Yes’ Zelenka confirmed, ‘in fact identifying the gene concerned has proven to be extremely useful in our own ongoing investigations into psionics in humans’ he told her. ‘There actually seems to be two separate genes at work, one seems linked to psionic skill, the ability to control or influence others whilst the other is linked to what X-COM is calling psionic strength, or your ability to resist others control’ he explained. ‘We did wonder why some people are seemingly almost immune to psionic attack whilst others were highly susceptible to it, the “strength” gene appears to be the reason’ Zelenka stated. ‘Every one of the people that we’ve tested who could easily shrug off sectoid mental influence had the gene, on the scale of resistance we’ve determined, from one to a hundred, people with this gene score in the nineties.’

‘Jack... I mean Colonel O’Neill resisted a telepathic attack much better than I did’ Carter noted. ‘I guess he’s got the gene’ she said thoughtfully before an idea occurred to her. ‘Thor told us that one of Loki’s goals was to make it possible for the Asgard to ascend, and that the presence of a gene carried by the ancients, who could ascend, was needed to work some of their technology’ she said. ‘Colonel O’Neill could interface with the Ancient technology on P3R-272 which downloaded data into his mind.’

Zelenka crossed his arms. ‘It might be worth screening him to see how he scores on our psionic scales for both strength and skill’ he said. ‘I’ll talk to our wetware people’ he added.

‘I’d like to be tested too if that’s okay’ Carter requested.

‘Eventually everyone will be so that should not be a problem’ Zelenka replied. ‘I will say however that there does not appear to be any link between either of the psionic genes and intelligence, comparisons of IQ and either mental strength or skill quotients have demonstrated no correlation’ he said.

Carter nodded then smiled again. ‘To be honest Radek it all sounds a little like voodoo’ she said with a chuckle.

‘I could not agree more’ Zelenka replied. ‘Some of the more... free-thinking members of the group even believe that telekinesis may eventually be possible with continued research’ he said with a chuckle.

‘I’ll believe that when I see it’ Carter replied, ‘under laboratory conditions and after peer-reviewed study’ she declared.

‘My sentiments exactly Samantha’ Zelenka agreed wholeheartedly.

X-COM BASE TWO (North America) – November 2000

Daniel looked through the glass screen, or rather the reinforced transparent polymer screen that separated him from the Goa’uld then held up his notes for her to read. ‘And you say that your ship was the standard light cargo and transport vessel before the Tel’Tak?’ he verified.

‘Yes, I assume that it was phased out of use because the Hyperdrive has stability problems’ Osiris replied. ‘How long will I remain in this confinement?’ the Goa’uld inhabiting the body of Daniels former girlfriend Sarah inquired.

‘Until we develop the technology to remove you safely from the host ourselves or get an ally to do so’ Daniel replied.

‘I would kill the host first’ Osiris replied, eyes flashing in anger.

‘If you did we’d feed you into a waste disposal unit an inch at a time’ Daniel stated coldly, ‘if you’re lucky’ he continued darkly. ‘If not some of the people down the corridor at Research and Development would vivisect you completely conscious and fully aware of what was going on as they fed you into the spinning blades just to monitor how much it hurt with the electrodes they’ll have stuck in your itsy bitsy brain.’

‘You’re bluffing’ Osiris replied with a sneer.

‘No, I was actually quoting one of them’ Daniel replied honestly, ‘they regard the Goa’uld around here like they do one of the things in the next cell but one called chrysallids’ he said. ‘That’s not too highly’ he explained redundantly. ‘You’re just another human-infesting alien parasite, they don’t care that you’re self-aware and capable of reason.’

‘And you care for my wellbeing I suppose?’ Osiris asked sarcastically.

‘Less than I care for Sarah’s, a lot less’ Daniel replied, ‘but I’m not hypocritical enough to think to put zero value on the life of a sentient, sapient alien lifeform but still think my species is special anyway’ he said. ‘By cooperating you’re helping yourself, you may be thousands of years out of the loop but Goa’uld society and technology has only moved glacially over that period so you’ve got information that still has value’ he said. ‘Many of the same System Lords still rule and I doubt their personalities or methods have shifted too much’ he said then smiled at how Jack might have put it. ‘If you want to save your own ass you’ll rat out your people.’

‘You would think I would betray my race to help preserve my own life?’ Osiris asked with another sneer.

‘Yes, every time, it’s a racial failing’ Daniel opined. ‘Only the Tok’ra have any notion of self-sacrifice for the collective whole, the rest of you are self-serving, egomaniacal, megalomaniacs who’ve spent so long pretending to be God’s some of you are crazy enough to start believing it.’

‘The Tok’ra?’ Osiris said with a snort of derision. ‘Deviants born from a genetically or mentally defective Queen who passed on her weakness to her offspring’ Osiris replied. ‘I would not have believed my kind could fall so far until you told me of them’ the Goa’uld stated. ‘I slept in that canopic jar too long, if myself and my Queen Isis had been in a position of power during the early stages of the Tok’ra treason we would have helped Ra crush them.’

‘The Goa’uld have been trying to crush the Tok’ra for two thousand years’ Daniel replied, ‘somehow I don’t see you doing much better’ he said.

‘When my fellow Goa’uld come, conquer this world and liberate me I will personally lead a crusade against the turncoats’ Osiris declared haughtily.

Daniel laughed. ‘Sorry but if the Goa’uld do come you’re shit out of luck anyway because this base is designed to pump nerve gas into the cells, then microwave them and finally we’re sitting on a thermonuclear self-destruct system’ he told Osiris. ‘You were unconscious thanks to a stun rod when they bought you here but there’s a sign on the door to the Alien Containment block, abandon hope all ye who enter here’ he said.

‘Dante’s Divine Comedy’ Osiris noted, Sarah Gardner the host had read the book so the Goa’uld was fully versed in the work.

‘We’re underground’ Daniel noted, ‘It’s the seventh level of hell for hostile aliens’ he said.

Osiris smirked. ‘As traitors the Tok’ra should be held even lower, on the ninth level’ the Goa’uld declared.

‘But they’re out there and you’re in here’ Daniel reminded Osiris, ‘that’s pretty funny really, an alien parasite pretending to be a God kept under lock and key by us self-professed mortals’ he said, ‘Now that’s divine comedy.’

‘When I escape you will see what I am capable of’ the Goa’uld thundered.

Daniel laughed at the bluster. ‘Good luck with that’ he said. ‘You’re living on borrowed time and at our sufferance’ he continued flatly. ‘I’ve seen some of the plans of this place you can’t get out’ he said tapping on the thick plastic that separated them, ‘and I hate to break it to you but if you’re thinking there’s anyone else that will help you you’re deluded’ he stated. ‘There’s no followers of yours left on this planet so if you’re expecting a band of lost Goa’uld worshippers to spring you from this facility think again, your name is nothing more than a ancient myth’ he told the creature infesting a woman he still cared about.

This time it was Daniel's turn to look smug. ‘Trust me’ he said, ‘the Cult of Osiris isn’t coming’ he announced confidently.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

Planet Juna - P2X-729 – February 2001

Concealed at the edge of the forest with the others Colonel Jack O’Neill lowered his binoculars. ‘They used to pay the crew of navy ships a share of the value of any enemy vessels they boarded and took off the enemy’ he said. ‘I don’t suppose we can resurrect that tradition?’ he asked.

Commander Sharp shook his head. ‘They’d never go for it back home’ he opined. ‘Can you imagine the market value of a Goa’uld Ha’tak?’ he queried, looking at the huge spaceship landed on top of the pyramid nearby. ‘Anyhow it would set a precedent, do you know how many Sectoid ships X-COM has retrieved?’ he asked rhetorically.

‘We could see if the UN would give us a Letter of Marque to go out and practice interstellar privateering’ Daniel suggested. ‘I’d look good in a bandana’ he declared.

‘If I hear a single one of you say “avast”, “arr matey” or “yo ho ho” when we get aboard that thing I’ll have you shot’ Commander Sharp declared.

‘Shouldn’t that be keelhauled or hung from the yardarm Sir?’ Major Carter asked sweetly.

‘Just don’t get hurt’ Sharp replied.

‘Aye aye sir’ O’Neill responded, ‘alright bucko’s let’s take ourselves a prize vessel’ he said, putting on his best pirate accent.

‘I could always resurrect another fine naval tradition Colonel’ Commander Sharp stated.

‘Rum ration?’ O’Neill asked hopefully.

‘The Cat O’ Nine Tails’ Sharp replied flatly.

‘I still think I’d look good in a bandana’ Daniel noted.

Although the planets naquadah mines were exhausted beyond the point at which the Goa’uld would bother with them, strategically P2X-729, known to its inhabitants as Juna, lay at a point where it was a useful staging area in the war Cronus and his ally Terok were waging against Apophis. In fact it might have been occupied as a buffer against him even the System Lords hadn’t already been at each others throats. However just because the mines weren’t economically viable for a society which utilised slave labour, picks and shovels to dig up ore, and which had far richer and more easily exploitable mines elsewhere, they were still worthwhile to a culture that had rather more sophisticated mining technology and couldn’t yet afford to be as fussy regarding the quality of the ore.

As more and more naquadah-based weaponry and other technology was put into service by the Tau’ri in their wars against both the Goa’uld and the Sectoids they increasingly required continual supplies of the mineral. Following the visit of the Harcesis Child, and the resumption of contact with Abydos, Ra’s old mines there were about to go back into production, although this time the workers there would be paid instead of terrorised to motivate them. Tau’ri mining engineers and troops were also on P3R-636 after Daniel had negotiated a mutually beneficial arrangement with the planets leader Princess Shyla who to his embarrassment apparently still carried something of a torch for him and who told him that although her long, painful period of sarcophagus withdrawal had seemed unbearable at the time she was grateful he had given her the strength to go through it.

SG1 had once helped the people of Juna overthrow the forces of Heru’er and told them to bury the stargate after they left, this did not help them when Cronus arrived by ship but then he himself made the unwitting mistake of digging it back up so when the SGC dialled P2X-729 again in the hope SG1’s advice had been ignored so they could access the old mines for a proper evaluation of their potential they not only found they could establish a wormhole, to their surprise they found the Goa’uld were back in charge.

With their alien-alloy body armour and now all armed with the L2A2 model Laser Rifle with its integral Zat the Tau’ri soldiers of SG-2 sent to investigate had easily overpowered and neutralised the mixed Jaffa and local militia now sworn to Cronus who challenged them once they came through the gate. Interrogation of the local militia leader Darian quickly revealed the situation and the recently promoted Major Griff contacted the SGC for instructions.

The answer had been forthcoming quickly along with Commander Sharp, SG-1 and several other teams, X-COM policy was clear in these situations, they might not necessarily consider liberating Juna again a high priority but as soon as SG-2 informed them there was an Alien Ship on the ground SOP was to retrieve it. A Hat’ak might be orders of magnitude larger than a Sectoid Scout but nobody could accuse X-COM of a lack of ambition and most importantly thanks to the war with Apophis the ship only had a skeleton crew with the majority of the thousand or so Jaffa it might usually be carrying deployed to the front.

Disguising themselves as locals using the clothes and weapons taken from the stunned militia and using a supposedly captured SG1 as bait getting into the pyramid was easy, Cronus himself wasn’t on the ship, he had departed on another vessel shortly after seizing the world and was now with the majority of his fleet fighting Apophis, however his servant Cindar commanding both the Hat’ak and the occupation of Juna was more than pleased that he was going to be able to present his Lord and Master with a gift such as the shol’va Teal’c and the insolent Tau’ri known as O’Neill.

Trying not to smirk Commander Sharp dressed in native clothes dropped to one knee. ‘Hail Cindar loyal servant of Cronus’ he said head bowed. ‘I bring you the traitor Teal’c and the rest of the Tau’ri known as SG-1’ he said.

Cindar looked at the Jaffa Traitor and the uniformed humans all bound each with one of the local militia stood behind them with zat’nik’tels ready. ‘You have done well’ he said, ‘I have not met you before’ he added.

‘I am Russ, cousin of Darian who commands the warriors of Juna in the service of Cronus’ Sharp said, trying to sound convincing. ‘I captured these intruders and my cousin said that if I and my men presented them to you we would be rewarded for our loyalty’ he said. ‘These were their weapons’ he added indicating the small pile of L2A2 Laser Rifles and a mix of Beretta’s and Laser Pistols he had placed on the deck in front of Cindar as soon as they arrived.

Cindar nodded. ‘You have served your God well’ he said. ‘I will mention this to My Lord Cronus and he will surely shower you with rewards for such dedication’ he added.

‘Thank you’ Sharp told him. ‘May I request one thing instead?’ he asked.

‘Slaves, riches?’ Cindar asked, it was good policy to reward the troops for a job well done, it helped encourage others to emulate their example.

Sharp raised his head and looked around, there were some six Jaffa in the chamber though none looked ready for immediate action. ‘I’ve always wanted a ship like this, can I have it?’ he queried then grinned.

‘What?’ Cindar asked then his face turned to horror as the militia warriors turned and fired their Zat guns at the Jaffa catching them totally off-guard.

Teal’c instantly charged forward and simply crashed into Cindar knocking him flying before he could raise the alarm. One of the disguised X-COM soldiers then stunned him with his zat as another began to cut the bonds holding SG-1.

‘Was that really the best line you could come up with Commander, “I’ve always wanted a ship like this”?’ O’Neill asked as the leather strap tying his hands together was cut and he stepped forward to reach down and pick up a Laser Rifle. ‘You’ve got to learn to taunt the Goa’uld and their people better’ he opined.

‘Throws them off their game?’ Sharp queried.

‘Yeah but annoying them is mainly the end in itself’ O’Neill told him. ‘Major Griff should be attacking the Jaffa at the pyramid any second’ he said checking his watch.

Sharp nodded then looked around. ‘I want the Jaffa on this thing cleaned out’ he ordered. ‘Stun them if you can, no need to kill more than necessary and they might have useful intel, but if it’s you or them burn a hole in the bastards’ he ordered. ‘Major Carter take Sergeant Andianov and secure the engine room, Colonel O’Neill you and Teal’c take the bridge.’

‘If laid out like a standard Ha’tak the ships armoury should be nearby and en-route to both destinations’ Teal’c replied as his own bonds were cut. ‘We can obtain shock-grenades to make the task easier’ he advised as they prepared to head out.

Commander Sharp looked around and remembered a line from one of his favourite films. ‘Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him’ he said with a grin.

‘Somebody better tell the Sectoids they’re going to need a bigger boat’ O’Neill replied.

Canadian Airspace – Earth – February 2001

Despite the addition of the navigation computer linked directly to his brain through the interface built into his helmet, most of the flight controls on the Firestorm had been designed to be as familiar as possible and Cameron Mitchell always enjoyed the experience of slamming the throttles on the elerium powered engines to full military power when he was hunting a UFO.

Utilising an inertial dampening system back-engineered from a Goa’uld Deathglider as well as Sectoid drive technology the Firestorm was a truly awesome machine to fly. It could maintain accelerations that should turn the pilot to paste, it had manoeuvrability best described as beyond extreme and with its Asgard modified Sectoid shield technology, X-COM Laser Cannon and a trio of naquadah-enhanced variable yield Air-to-Air missiles it punched far beyond its weight class.

What it couldn’t do however was catch the damn Sectoid Battleship which it was currently chasing through the night sky, despite Mitchell pushing everything he could into the engines. One decent thermonuclear smackdown with an Avalanche would send it spiralling to the ground, and the Firestorm’s shields could survive one hit from its beam weapon making closing to firing range not necessarily suicidal, but with a top speed in the atmosphere of “only” Mach 6.35 the smaller saucer-shaped X-COM simply didn’t have the power to catch a type of craft which had been frequently clocked at over Mach 7.5 as he chased it from the artic circle right across Alberta heading for the US Border.

‘He’s playing with me’ Mitchell growled, both for the benefit of his flight recorder and out of frustration. ‘Just slow down a few more hundred knots and I’ll shoot a nuke up your ass and then we’ll see who’s laughing’ he vowed.

With a Firestorm now operating out of every X-COM base and a handful of others based at Cheyenne Mountain, Area-51 and Yamantau Earth could now successfully defend itself against any of the smaller, slower Sectoid UFO designs, indeed the enemy now rarely deployed them since they were nothing but Firestorm fodder, but Battleships and the so-called Harvesters were appearing in greater and greater numbers, the latter often being re-tasked to missions previously undertaken by the slower Abductor Class UFO’s. Humans were still being kidnapped and experimented upon and X-COM was more than pissed about it, once the faster even more capable F-302X was bought into service they’d sweep the skies of Earth free of alien trash but until then it was up to the Firestorm Interceptors and their pilots to do the best they can.

‘Son-of-a-bitch is heading right down our throats’ Mitchell realised, the ship certainly now seemed to be vectoring itself directly towards X-COM’s North American base further south. The complex would have seen this too and its defences would now be powering up, not only the battery of Russian-supplied S-300 Surface-to-Air Missiles but they should have their new Laser Cannon operational now too, the large ground-based Directed-Energy-Weapon weapon inordinately more powerful than the one carried in the Firestorms second bay. ‘When you slow down to land I’m going to catch you’ Mitchell said, as if taunting a child. He wouldn’t use an Avalanche set to high-yield anywhere near an X-COM base but a smaller single kiloton explosion would soften the thing up nicely for the base defences.

Thanks to being gradually re-equipped with back-engineered alien Plasma-Rifles the situation had recently slightly improved for X-COM ground-pounders when they managed to get to a landed UFO before it took off, but although more powerful than the L2A2 Laser Rifles the X-COM P2A1 Plasma Rifle, which came with an integrated Zat like its predecessor, was still inferior to the Heavy Plasma Rifle the enemy now carried almost universally, and losses amongst X-COM retrieval teams were still high. The big advantage with the P2A1 was that it didn’t always require multiple hits to bring down a Muton soldier, or at least not as many as a Laser Rifle, so the number of human soldiers being killed after getting off the first shots in a firefight had dropped. A Plasma Rifle was simply better at killing or badly wounding the dangerous foe than the Laser which all too often merely seemed to make the genetically and surgically enhanced creature extremely pissed off. If aliens did get inside the base they’d receive a very warm reception especially since after the attack on X-COM Europe internal base defences including Rotary Staff Weapon and Laser Cannon armed HWP’s were placed to defend the entry points.

‘Interceptor Foxtrot-Sierra X-Ray-Three this is Interceptor Control’ a voice announced over the radio breaking Mitchell away from his thoughts, ‘you are advised to darken your canopy, lower your sun visor and be ready to break off pursuit immediately. Over’ it instructed.

The accompanying transponder code read as genuine so Mitchell flicked the switch which polarised the canopy and lowered the visor on his flight helmet. Maybe there was another interceptor on the way from Cheyenne or Area-51 he thought? This was SOP if you were about to witness a nuclear explosion, those things were bad for the eyesight especially at night and unprepared. Mitchell also closed one eye just in case, better safe than sorry.

They were seventy-five thousand feet up and two hundred and twenty-five kilometres over the US border, still both going at hypersonic velocity with the UFO leading Mitchell by approximately seventy kilometres staying beyond missile range when the Interceptor Pilot saw a massive ball of energy, blinding bright in the darkness, come hurtling from the sky above and impact directly with the UFO blowing it into tiny fragments. ‘What the fuck?’ Mitchell swore, that wasn’t a nuke, and it wasn’t a Sectoid Plasma Beam either, if anything it reminded him of a Goa’uld Staff-Weapon blast he’d seen demonstrated at Area-51, only many orders of magnitude greater in scale.

‘He shoots he scores!’ a strangely familiar and triumphant voice roared from the radio on the X-COM Channel. ‘Hey are you guys tracking any more of those things? Over’ it asked.

‘This is Interceptor Control, be advised we have another UFO inbound over the Atlantic heading for Morocco. Over’ came the reply.

‘Roger interceptor control’ the voice replied, ‘Carter point this thing East’ it continued the voice slightly muffled as if the speaker had turned away from the microphone ‘Interceptor Control you keep telling us where they are and we’ll keep smashing them. SG-1 Out’

Cameron Mitchell could only hope that somebody back at base could tell him what the hell was going on. The idea of gigantic Sectoid-Smashing balls of plasma falling from the sky like the wrath of God was a pleasing one but deep down he was also hoping that he hadn’t just been put out of a job as he flew his Firestorm home.

Hundreds of kilometres above and now heading towards the Atlantic as fast as its sub-light engines could carry it the Goa’uld built Hat’ak, which had only dropped out of hyperspace a few minutes before, started to hunt for its next prey. Although in some ways more technologically advanced the sheer disparity in size between a Sectoid built “Battleship” seventy-five metres in diameter and a true Capital Ship like a six-hundred metre wide Hat’ak meant that the former was not remotely built to take the kind of punishment the main guns of the latter could put out, especially in the atmosphere where the Sectoid vessel couldn’t use its deflector shields and could only rely on its armoured hull for protection.

Utilising Faster-Than-Light Hyperwave communications Sectoid craft near Earth began to warn of the new threat and planned missions were scrubbed as they waited for new orders. They were going to have to adjust tactics and perhaps start to dust off the more advanced equipment they had been keeping back for fear of attracting the notice of the Asgard.

The cloned Legions of Loki were not going to let a minor setback like this dissuade them from their mission, they had been created to save the Asgard race from eventual extinction and fight the likes of the Replicators, a few evolved apes and some stolen second-rate technology wasn’t going to stop them.

Elsewhere in the Solar System, within a vast underground base, an Asgard designed computer containing a copy of Loki’s consciousness issued instructions to begin constructing pre-production models of the Hyperspace capable Type 1 Aerospace Superiority Fighter that was designed to be far more than a match for the new human Firestorm. Meanwhile preliminary designs for the even better Type 2 were being finalised for the prototype stage and those of the larger Type 3 Strike Fighter were gradually taking shape.

Capital Ships can be extremely capable but what they can’t do is be in two places at once like a multitude of small craft can. Loki didn’t care about losing a few hundred or thousand clones, they were disposable cannon-fodder designed to throw at the Replicator hordes. The Muton’s were designed to be the ultimate infantry but he had other creations in mind, new genetically and cybernetically enhanced creatures designed to be the ultimate fighter pilots, just grow them in vats, surgically implant the technology and put them in a cockpit.

And the humans hadn’t even seen the product of his experiments with the combining of genetic material from some of their own race with that stemming from the research done by that overrated, squeamish, sorry excuse for a scientist Heimdall as yet the computer thought smugly.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – March 2001

‘You’re making a mistake Commander’ Jacob Carter insisted, rising from his chair and leaning against the conference table. ‘The Tok’ra can be of great assistance in helping you get to grips with the technology on that ship and all we ask is to borrow it for a few days’ he said wishing he only had to deal with George Hammond and not the X-COM jerk sat next to him as the three met to discuss the Tok’ra request to make use of a certain large item that had just come into Earth’s possession.

‘We can figure that thing out on our own thanks’ Sharp replied confidently. ‘We’ve already got teams crawling all over it.’

‘You’re underestimating just how far ahead Goa’uld technology is ahead of Earths’ Jacob declared.

‘And you are seriously underestimating the ability of X-COM to figure out alien technology’ Sharp replied. ‘The guys with the high IQ’s tell me that most of the basic scientific principles at work in that Ha’tak are the same as for the ship we got from Osiris back in September and I bet we’re already a lot further down the road in figuring that thing out than you give us credit for’ he stated.

‘So you’ll be able to make a second rate copy of the hyperdrive in ten years...’ Jacob began dismissively.

‘Improved version up to modern Tel’tak standards in another two months at the outside’ Sharp interrupted.

Jacob’s eyes flashed as Selmak took over. ‘Impossible’ the symbiote declared.

‘Yeah, impossible takes us about six months, stuff that’s only really difficult like back-engineering the sarcophagus that came with the Ha’tak they reckon two or three at the outside’ Commander Sharp replied.

In fact the main problem now facing XSGCOM was that they simply had too many possible avenues of research and were forced to prioritise some at the expense of others. The ongoing research into Sectoid Plasma Weapons was high priority since the grunts needed Heavy Plasma Rifles to compete and the fighter-jocks wanted Plasma Cannon for the Interceptors, similarly the F-302X program was absorbing a great deal of resources and money as it was rushed through to replace the Firestorms so that limited the amount of work being done on planned alien technology based fighter-transports to replace the Skyranger VSTOLS in the role of carrying UFO Retrieval Teams to action.

More esoteric notions such as Powered Armour for the troops was shelved for now, along with elerium-powered flying Heavy Weapon Platforms for fire-support, the Psionic program only continued apace because so many of the scientists involved were too specialised to be effectively transferred to other projects.

‘Can’t you help me here George?’ Jacob asked his old freind as Selmak stepped aside once more.

‘Sorry Jacob, in other circumstances I might have argued your case for the sake of the alliance with the Tok’ra but we need that ship in orbit to keep the Sectoid’s off our ass’ Hammond replied. ‘They stopped showing up as soon as the Ha’tak arrived and it’s giving us breathing space’ he explained. ‘The Hat’ak sensors have a lot of trouble detecting Sectoid ships at long range, and you can only get a target lock at a few hundred miles, but we can vector the ship to the right coordinates using ground-based Radar’ he said.

‘The Sectoid ships can’t outrun a Firestorm if they’re going much under Mach 7 in the atmosphere and at that speed they can’t manoeuvre anywhere near as well as they can at lower speed’ Sharp noted. ‘They can slow down to try and dodge the Ha’tak’s guns but if they do they get caught by the Interceptor’ he said. ‘Even a few weeks with no, or at least a minimal number of missions will get X-COM back to full field strength after our losses’ he announced. ‘We’re feeding our wounded into the sarcophagus, bought it down in a shuttle bay, and we’re even calling back the personnel who we thought were too badly injured to ever see action again’ he continued. ‘Once we get plasma-cannon armed Reapers into service we might think about letting our new toy out for a spin around the galaxy but until then Earths great big trump card stays right over our head where we can use it to club uninvited guests.’

‘Reapers?’ Jacob queried.

‘F-302X Grim Reaper’ Sharp explained, ‘a whole lot nastier than an F-22 Raptor’ he added. ‘It’ll scythe through Goa’uld Deathgliders like Death himself is pissed at them taking his name in vain’ he declared with certainty, he’d seen the design specifications.

‘You should beware of using the sarcophagus’ Jacob warned.

‘We know the psychological side-effects, it’ll only be used sparingly, half of X-COM is nuts enough already’ Commander Sharp replied with a grin. ‘What we’re really after is a few more Goa’uld Healing Devices, the ones that fit on your hand’ he said. ‘Between those and our medikits we should be able to keep our battlefield casualties alive long enough to get them to the sarcophagus even if they’re shot all to hell’ he continued. ‘You can’t borrow the Ha’tak but we’ll swap technology with you for them.’

‘Such as?’ Jacob asked.

‘For a start the sectoids have this gadget we call a mind-probe, it’s a hell of a lot more effective and portable than one of your za’tarc detectors’ Sharp replied. ‘They cost us over a quarter million dollars apiece to manufacture and use materials we can only obtain from the aliens so don’t think they’re going to be cheap’ he told him. ‘We used the technology to improve our interrogation techniques.’

‘They call it “Mind Rape” if I recall correctly’ Hammond interjected disapprovingly.

‘We’ve got captured Plasma Pistols, we don’t use them because our Laser Rifles are better overall, but they’re more powerful and accurate than a Staff-Weapon and a lot more concealable’ Sharp continued unabated. ‘Handy if your agents need to shoot their way out of a situation’ he said enticingly. ‘Plus we know you use security people to defend your bases, we can do a deal on Laser Rifles with built-in Zat’s and body-armour that’ll stop a staff-blast almost every time.’

‘The rifles and armour provide a serious edge over Jaffa Troops’ Hammond agreed.

‘In return for Healing Devices?’ Jacob questioned.

‘And any other Goa’uld technology you have that we either don’t or haven’t had the time to figure out yet’ Sharp replied. ‘If you supplied a scientist to speed up our R&D work with the Ha’tak we’d give you a hell of a discount on any new equipment we get our hands on in future.’

‘I thought you didn’t need our help?’ Jacob asked sardonically.

‘We don’t it’ll just speed things up’ Sharp responded. ‘For one thing the fact our physics geeks can’t read Egyptian Hieroglyphs is a pain in the ass to start with’ he admitted. ‘Look I know the Tok’ra don’t see us as equals but this alliance is going to be on a more even keel from now on’ he said. ‘You’ve got access to Intel we don’t and a leg-up on Goa’uld tech, we’ve got Sectoid Tech you can get a lot of use out of and we bust heads even better than you play with them with your plots and mind-games’ he continued. ‘The Tok’ra/Tau’ri dynamic is going to change from here on in, you can cut out the “we know best” bullshit because it’s getting old fast and we already get enough of that condescending paternalistic crap from the Asgard as far as I’m concerned’ he opined.

Jacob sighed. ‘You’re heading for a fall Commander’ he responded, shaking his head sadly.

‘Freefall maybe, I’m catching a ride on a captured Deathglider up to the Hat’ak tomorrow’ Sharp replied with a smile. ‘The flight bays weren’t full but we got over a dozen of the things along with the ship, we’re going to refit them with our Laser Cannon as an interim aerospace fighter until the Reapers are ready’ he said. ‘Handy for an aggressor squadron against the Firestorms too’ he added. ‘We’re putting a set of rings into the SGC so we can teleport up to the ship in future but until then we’re shuttling back and forth in the Deathgliders.’

‘You’re risking attention you don’t want’ Jacob warned.

‘From the Goa’uld?’ Sharp responded dismissively. ‘They’re busy fighting each other and I’m already planning more missions through the stargate aimed at weakening Apophis and stopping him crushing Cronus and Terok’ he said. ‘You know the other System Lords won’t stand by forever, they’ll deal themselves into the war against Apophis because they either fight him or kneel to him and too many of them won’t do that.’

Jacob couldn’t help but agree to some extent. ‘We have heard rumours from within the camps of both Lord Yu and Olokun that they are on the verge of joining the war, but even their forces won’t stem the tide of Apophis’s armies very long’ he said.

‘Every day the Goa’uld are too busy fighting each other to worry about this backwater is another day we have to get ready for when they turn up’ Sharp replied. ‘They’re getting weaker with each battle and we’re getting stronger with each new piece of technology.’

‘There’s not enough time to close the gap’ Jacob told him.

‘We’ll see’ Sharp replied, unflustered by the possibility the Tok’ra might be right.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – April 2001

Commander Sharp crossed his arms, he was glad he’d decided to make this a one-to-one in his office because it meant he could be strident without having Colonel O’Neill stepping in. ‘Let me get this straight’ he began, ‘this Orlin guy escaped through a stargate he made by himself in a few days with some titanium, a couple of hundred feet of optical fibre, a few industrial capacitors.. and a toaster?’ he queried.

‘Among other things’ Major Carter replied, ‘it’s completely burned out now’ she noted.

‘I should have you thrown into a containment cell for helping him get away’ Sharp growled.

‘With respect Sir I don’t think the usual X-COM interrogation techniques would have worked on an ascended being, and if they had his people probably wouldn’t have let us develop any technology we obtained from him by force, they destroyed Velona because those people tried to use the weapons Orlin gave them to defend themselves against the Goa’uld against others’ she noted.

Sharp narrowed his eyes. ‘Have you considered the possibility that this Orlin character had you under some form of mind control?’ he asked. ‘I’ve seen your PSI testing results’ he said, ‘you might be smart as hell but you’ve got some of the lowest resistance to psionic influence of anyone we’ve checked so far’ he noted.

Carter bristled at that, what was worse was just how damn high Colonel O’Neill had scored in the same test, it was something to do with certain genes some people had and others didn’t. ‘Sir I’ve had my brain hijacked by a Tok’ra symbiote and I’ve been under psionic attack by a Sectoid, I might not be able to fight it off but I know what it feels like to get played like that’ she stated. ‘Orlin was telepathic, he told me he read my mind and it was probably that what knocked me out when we first arrived on P3X-636, but he wasn’t controlling me’ she said with certainty. ‘It might have been centuries of loneliness but.. he said he loved me and I believed him.’

‘Jesus Christ, why couldn’t he have gotten a crush on Andianov instead?’ Sharp muttered to himself, ‘she’d have ganked him with a stun rod and dragged his over-evolved ass to alien containment before he could start reciting love poetry.’

‘Orlin didn’t recite.. Carter began then stopped when Sharp glared at her. ‘He was a nice guy’ she said quietly, looking at the floor.

Commander Sharp closed his eyes counted to ten to calm back down then sighed. ‘If you were X-COM I’d tell you need to get drunk, or laid, or ideally both’ he told her. ‘Look if you want to get back in my good graces I want you to help identify everything Orlin purchased with your credit card and every household appliance he cannibalised to make that stargate’ he said. ‘The only people we know apart from the Ancients who can make a stargate themselves are the Tollan, and they got help from the Nox, so even if they’re a one-shot deal if we can reproduce that technology we’ll have a hell of an edge over the Goa’uld.’

‘It’s probably way beyond us’ Carter told him doubtfully. ‘Even the Tollan are centuries more advanced than we are and the Nox may be on a par with the Ancients or the Asgard.’

‘Major once you know something can be done you’re a long way towards doing it yourself’ Sharp reminded her. ‘If he could McGuyver together an entire stargate from a few thousand dollars worth of stuff freely available on the open market we might have been drastically overrating how hard it is to master wormhole technology’ he said. ‘Anyway we have actual naquadah to make it out of not a substitute like titanium so we’re already a step up’ he reasoned.

Carter pursed her lips. ‘We could always talk to the Tollan again’ she suggested. ‘They didn’t want to give us any of their technology but we’ve got technology we can offer in trade now like we did with the Tok’ra’ she noted. ‘Dad saw the benefit of the deal and with Selmak they talked around the rest of the High Council’ she continued, ‘maybe we can get a foot in the door with the Tollan Curia now too?’

Sharp nodded, he wasn’t a great fan of the Tollan, they had repeatedly called Earth “primitive” when he visited there a few months back which annoyed the crap out of him, but they were a lot better than the Nox as far as he was concerned. At least the Tollan backed up their non-interventionist neutral stance with batteries of Ha’tak smashing Ion Cannons unlike the Nox hippies who preferred to hide, hold hands, wish for the best and sing kumbaya. ‘Good idea, I’ll see if we can put together a package of our latest R&D and then we’ll visit them again’ he said.

‘They don’t have very good hyperdrive technology, the Tollan I mean,’ Carter pointed out, ‘when we first met them we were told it would take a lifetime to travel between Tollana and Earth in one of their ships which makes them slower than even the older Goa’uld drives, maybe we could offer them our research in that area’ she suggested.

‘Makes you wonder why they didn’t just capture a Ha’tak or Tel’tak of their own and back-engineer it?’ Sharp pondered. ‘They’re more than capable with their superior weaponry and phase-shifting technology.’

‘The Tollan don’t think like us Sir’ Carter replied, ‘as long as you leave them alone they leave you alone, they aren’t great explorers, they’re mainly isolationists’ she said.

‘Hypocritical bastards too’ Sharp opined, ‘they wouldn’t give Earth access to their technology because it was more advanced but they were happy to accept help from the Nox to make that gate of theirs’ he said. ‘Hey that’s an angle we can use, they’ve already tacitly accepted that trading stargate technology between races of differing technological development is acceptable because they’ve done it’ he realised.

Carter raised her eyebrows, that was a better idea than she might have expected from Commander Sharp, he was normally the type to resort to violence before legal argument. ‘Politically and legally the Tollan are pretty progressive and we know they let non-Tollan access to their courts’ she said. ‘If we don’t get anywhere with the Curia we could try and bring a Civil Action to overturn the decision using the precedent you just mentioned.’

‘Maybe just reminding the Curia we could will help sway their opinions’ Sharp responded, ‘we’re not asking for a handout, we’ll be offering a trade’ he noted. ‘And once we’ve got our foot in the door on the stargate issue it’ll make future negotiations easier because we’ll have set another precedent that its okay to trade tech between us.’

‘Stargate technology today, Ion Cannon’s tomorrow?’ Carter replied with a smile.

‘We’ll offer to upgrade theirs once we’ve improved the design’ Sharp replied with a grin. ‘Maybe do a deal for phase-shifting tech.’

‘We could suggest a permanent UN Embassy on Tollana’ Carter said thoughtfully.

‘Hey diplomats we can do’ Sharp replied, ‘plus we could maybe get an agreement for a ceremonial military presence, as an Embassy it’ll be legally Tau’ri territory right?’

‘Ceremonial?’ Carter questioned with a very Teal’c-like raised eyebrow.

‘Okay not all that ceremonial’ Sharp responded with a wry smile. ‘They nearly got their asses kicked before because of complacency and only survived because of SG-1 and the Nox, if we’ve got boots on the ground and some X-COM firepower in place maybe we can keep an eye on them’ he said. ‘They have the hardware but not the military mindset to back it up’ he opined. ‘The Tollan are the most advanced human civilisation we know of, that makes them an asset worth protecting.’

‘Us protecting the Tollan?’ Carter asked rhetorically with a chuckle.

‘Even if only from themselves Major’ Sharp replied then after a few seconds he grimaced, ‘damn it I’m talking like one of those self-righteous paternalistic jerks like the Asgard or Tok’ra’ he moaned.

Carter laughed. ‘Thinking of the Tok’ra what do you think about our new guest scientist?’ she asked.

‘I think we’re not going to get much productive work out of our male engineers and technicians poking around that Ha’tak if we’ve got her wandering around it in that outfit she arrived through the stargate in’ Sharp replied flatly.

‘I can see Anise being.. eye-catching’ Carter responded carefully.

‘I think it’s a dirty Tok’ra trick to slow down our R&D work by distracting all the labcoat wearing, Dungeons and Dragons playing, Trekkie geeks we employ’ Sharp declared only half in jest.

‘I guess they’ve learned something from two thousand years of undermining the System Lords by subtle means instead of brute force’ Carter responded, trying to keep a straight face.

‘Sneaky, underhanded bastards’ Sharp muttered.

Stargate – Planet P7S-441 – April 2001

‘I’m working on it Sir’ Major Carter replied, trying to reboot the control system on the armed and armoured robot probe which had preceded them through the stargate and which was now positioned nearby. A fluke hit from a staff had knocked its systems off-line which was why it wasn’t currently kicking serious Jaffa ass. Although she was using the thing as cover Carter’s job wasn’t helped by the fact that she was being shot at while trying to work, it was hard to keep your mind on the task at hand when blasts of plasma were whizzing past your head.

Taking partial cover behind a pile of rocks Andianov on the left flank yelled something in Russian as she gunned down yet another Jaffa unfortunate enough to stick his head out in the open where she could see it, between her reflexes, marksmanship and the pin-point accuracy of her Laser Rifle the X-COM Sergeant was quickly racking up kills. ‘English Sergeant, speak English’ O’Neill yelled at her.

‘Sorry Colonel’ Andianov yelled back. ‘Come on you fuckers’ she repeated, roughly translating her previous phrase for his benefit. She was usually more subdued and clinical than this even during hostile action, unfortunately for the enemy she was cranky with PMS and they had presented a welcome opportunity for stress relief.

‘You told her’ Daniel pointed out to O’Neill, as he fired his own rifle repeatedly giving suppressive fire. The rifles had been upgraded with the powerpack design provided by SG-1’s robot duplicates on Harlan’s World and were now good for up to five hundred shots from a full charge.

Off to the far right Teal’c rolled on his side to a slightly better position where he could lay down a crossfire and keep the Jaffa pinned down away from the gate while Major Carter worked. He alternated laser and zat fire from his rifle as targets presented themselves. The former First Prime of Apophis was becoming increasingly fond of his L2A2, it was truly a fearsomely effective weapon and he hoped to negotiate with Colonel Sharp and X-COM to have a batch delivered to the Jaffa Resistance, such a device would greatly mitigate their numerical inferiority to those still loyal to the false god’s. ‘Sorry brother’ he said quietly to himself as his Laser burned a hole through the armour then the warm body inside of a fellow Jaffa sending the warrior screaming to the ground, his torso lanced right-through by a beam of coherent light.

Colonel O’Neill drew a bead on an enemy soldier whose aim was too good for comfort and ended his life with a squeeze of the trigger. ‘How you doing Tyler?’ he asked the young man lying beside him who was grimacing in pain from a severe wound in his leg.

‘I’m good Sir’ Tyler replied.

‘Don’t you die on me Lieutenant’ O’Neill ordered. ‘This isn’t X-COM, we expect our people to live through at least three missions and this is your third with SG-1’

Tyler tried to smile. ‘I’ll do my best Sir’ he replied.

‘Danny you take a look at Tyler’s leg’ O’Neill told the academic, ‘you’re not hitting much anyway and if you stick one of those fancy medikits on him you can stop all that red stuff leaking out’ he said. ‘Give him some painkillers too’ he added.

‘No drugs’ Tyler responded instantly.

‘Don’t try and be a tough guy Lieutenant’ O’Neill chided. ‘We’ve all taken a shot of morphine in the arm after a shot of something more painful like a plasma blast’ he stated, starting to fire again.

‘I’ve got allergies to pain medication’ Tyler insisted, he seemed very worried about the drugs. ‘It doesn’t hurt that bad’ he insisted. ‘I’d rather grin and bare it than risk going into anaphylactic shock’ he declared reasonably.

‘Okay Tyler your choice’ O’Neill agreed, ‘just plug the leak’ he told Daniel who had moved where he could apply the X-COM manufactured medikit to the leg of SG-1’s sixth and most recent member.

‘Got it!’ Carter declared triumphantly as the six-barrelled rotary staff-weapon on the Robotic Heavy Weapons Platform and scout, often referred to in the SGC as a “Mighty-MALP” began to spin up as the turret swung around towards the attacking Jaffa Warriors.

‘Oh yeah!’ Colonel O’Neill cried out enthusiastically as a stream of continual thunderous plasma blasts started to pour into the enemy ranks, the turret slowly swinging back and forth under Major Carters control. Trees and bushes were shredded as the rotary staff-weapon scythed across the landscape. ‘Keep your head’s down until we’re sure they’ve pulled back’ he ordered.

‘At least they’ve learned they can’t charge down one of those things now’ Daniel told Tyler, indicating the tracked robot vehicle as he yelled over the noise it was making. ‘At first they kept trying, it was a slaughter’ he said distastefully, remembering witnessing such a scene. It must have looked like a First World War battle with soldiers making their way across no-mans-land into machinegun fire he decided. Only machine-guns overheated and ran out of ammunition, the rotary staff could fire non-stop for tens of thousands of rounds, it was the ultimate in fire-suppression.

O’Neill turned to Tyler. ‘If you want when we get back home we can book you some time in the sarcophagus they’ve put in Area 51’ he said. ‘Get you back on your feet for the next mission.’

Lieutenant Tyler blinked, he had no idea what that technology would do to him just like he had no idea what the human painkilling drugs would do which is why he had refused them. As the Mighty-MALP stopped firing he decided he’d be better off trusting them than finding out. At least these people were enemies of the Goa’uld and they seemed okay in the brief time he’d known them. O’Neill had carried him back here to the gate on his back after their fluke meeting and the woman with the strange accent and the rebel Jaffa had risked their lives coving the retreat of the others. ‘I’m not Lieutenant Tyler’ he said. ‘I’m an alien’ he continued, ‘my people are called the Re’ol’ he said.

‘I hope you’re joking Tyler’ O’Neill responded, ‘because if you’re not I think the blood loss has got to you’ he said. ‘We need to get you back to Doctor Fraser ASAP Lieutenant’ he added.

Tyler reached out and touched the side of Daniels head, the academic immediately widening his eyes and moving back slightly. ‘This is my true form’ he told Daniel quietly.

‘Erm Jack, he’s not kidding and I’m still full of blood’ Daniel announced, looking at the clearly alien and almost skeletal form of the creature.

‘My race secretes a chemical as a natural defence mechanism’ the alien told him. ‘It makes others see us as one of them’ he explained, ‘that’s why the Jaffa captured me, I was a prisoner on a transport ship being taken for dissection and experimentation’ he continued. ‘I escaped and sabotaged the guidance system which is how I ended up here and met you’ he said. ‘My people are harmless, all we want to do is hide and live in peace, but because of our gift the Goa’uld have hunted us almost to extinction trying to replicate it.’

Daniel shook his head sadly. ‘Sounds more like a curse than a gift to me’ he opined.

‘Some of us are still left, we’ve found a planet to hide on the Goa’uld don’t know about’ the alien told them. ‘After I get there we’ll bury our stargate and be safe.’

‘Lots of people have thought that before and the Goa’uld came in ships’ Daniel warned him.

‘Hiding and blending in is all my people are good at’ the alien told him, reaching out to touch O’Neill too, demonstrating his true form.

‘Aliens hunted by the Goa’uld because of a special ability to hide’ O’Neill said, does that remind you of anything?’ he asked Daniel, surprisingly unfazed by the aliens true appearance.

Daniel frowned. ‘The Fenri’ he said. ‘The Goa’uld hunted it because they thought it could make itself invisible.’

‘Right’ O’Neill agreed, ‘if you’re telling the truth, and believe me we’ve got ways of finding out, we might be able to steer you towards a safer place’ he told the alien. ‘Have you ever heard of a people called the Nox?’ he asked.

‘No’ the alien replied honestly.

‘You’ll love them, warm, friendly, pacifistic and they like to hide things the Goa’uld are trying to destroy’ Daniel told him. ‘They’re the ones that were making the Fenri invisible, it was really just a big alien hummingbird.’
‘Nice folks’ O’Neill agreed. ‘And if they’ll take your people in we can stay in touch’ he said. ‘I bet we’ve got people that’ll be interested to see if we can synthesise that chemical of yours.’

‘And we promise not to let X-COM dissect you’ Daniel told the alien. ‘They only tend to do that to the aliens trying to kill us’ he noted. ‘They’re just rude and overbearing to potential allies as a rule’ he added wishing he could put a more positive spin on it than that.

O’Neill nodded. ‘Just do yourself a favour and don’t show the Russian girl over there what you really look like until she’s unarmed’ he advised seriously, ‘she’s in a bad mood and she’s dangerous enough as it is normally’ he explained.

Tok’ra Base - Vorash – May 2001

‘You were not informed we were coming here because we did not wish you to inform your master Apophis’ Teal’c told him smugly.

‘You’ve been played’ Colonel O’Neill added. ‘We’ve been feeding you false intel since day one’ he told the Goa’uld agent.

Tanith’s eyes widened and he was wondering whether he would be better off denying everything or seeking escape when a zat blast struck him and he fell to the ground twitching.

O’Neill turned to the party responsible and glared. ‘For crying out loud Sergeant’ he told Andianov who was now lowering her L2A2, ‘we weren’t nearly done gloating yet’ he complained.

‘Indeed’ Teal’c agreed, with more than a touch of annoyance evident in his voice. ‘I was planning to remind Tanith of how agonising for the symbiote forced removal from the host is and taunt him with lurid tales of what revenge Apophis would take upon him for his failure.’

Andianov looked around, everyone both Tok’ra and the rest of SG-1 looked equally disappointed. ‘I should have been notified that this was the plan’ she stated flatly, and shouldered her rifle by its strap.

‘We’ve totally lost the moment now’ O’Neill muttered, it just wouldn’t be the same if they bad to wait around for Tanith to recover.

Jabob shrugged. ‘Nice demonstration of the rifle though’ he said.

‘We bought four crates of them with us through the gate Dad’ Major Carter told him, ‘plus two mind-probes and a single crate of Plasma Pistols and Ammunition clips for them’ she continued. ‘We’ve got a naquadah reactor with a charger unit built in you can recharge the rifles from too, should be good for a few years’ she said, ‘and we’ll deliver the body-armour and the other items you expressed an interest in with the next shipment’ she added.

‘The sergeant there with no sense of the occasion can demonstrate the weapons to your security people up on the surface’ O’Neill told the Tok’ra. ‘We’ve got operating manuals Daniel translated into Goa’uld script anyway but being shown in person is always better’ he advised.

‘The mind-probe we can demonstrate on Tanith there’ Carter suggested pointing at the unconscious heap on the ground. ‘X-COM tried it out on Osiris and the Goa’uld can resist the probe for a while, it just hurts like hell and they do break eventually’ she told them.

Daniel nodded. ‘Talking of Osiris we think we’re close to getting all the useful information we can get so I’d like to ask a personal favour of the Tok’ra’ he said. ‘Can you extract the Goa’uld from the host’ he requested. ‘Sarah deserves her life back’ he said quietly.

Jacob nodded. ‘I can’t see the Tok’ra High Council not agreeing to that’ he replied. ‘I’ll talk to High Councillor Per’sus myself’ he offered.

‘Thank you’ Daniel replied gratefully. ‘When you’re established in your new base we’ll bring Osiris to you.’

One of the other Tok’ra, a woman frowned. ‘If you had agreed to lending us your Hat’ak we could have moved a stargate and set up a new base the Goa’uld could not find’ she said.

‘Hey we offered you a list of gate coordinates which we don’t think they know about anyhow’ O’Neill countered. ‘Ones I got downloaded into my head by that Ancient gadget that I programmed into the SGC Computer.’

Jacob nodded. ‘Yes and we’re grateful for that Jack’ he responded, ‘but it still would have been better if we could have moved a gate ourselves.’

‘Maybe we’ll loan you the ship next time you decide to move base’ Daniel suggested, trying to smooth things over as ever. ‘When Earth is better defended.’

‘Thinking of defences that offer of a honking great Laser Cannon for your new home still stands’ O’Neill reminded the Tok’ra. ‘We’re digging three of them in around Cheyenne’ he noted. ‘Don’t hit like a naquadah-enhanced nuke but they’re not effected by ECM and they can’t be shot down on the way, you just point and shoot’ he said, miming firing at something. ‘Think one of those Laser Rifles scaled up into a small building’ he told them. X-COM had already added Laser Defence batteries to its bases to supplement the nuclear tipped Surface-to-Air Missiles already defending them. The next planned step was even more powerful Plasma Beam defences, essentially larger versions of the cannon used by Sectoid Ships.

‘And what would you want in trade for such a device?’ a Tok’ra asked suspiciously.

‘A cloaking device from one of your Tel’taks would be nice’ O’Neill suggested.

‘So not a whole Tel’Tak’ Jacob replied with wry amusement.

‘We’re not greedy’ O’Neill responded with a chuckle. ‘The galaxies worst spy down there is going to be waking up again soon’ he noted. ‘Might want to throw him into a cell.’

‘We’ve got a drug that will keep him docile’ Major Carter added. ‘We developed a variation of the sedative which kept Osiris tranquillised in his canopic jar, a couple of CC’s and Tanith will be too relaxed to cause you any trouble’ she told them. The X-COM R&D people were always coming up with little tweaks of known technology like that.

‘If he starts talking about peace, love and trying to organise a big concert called Chulakstock you’ve given him too much’ O’Neill deadpanned, unfortunately of the Tok’ra only Jacob got the joke so it didn’t get the laughs he thought it deserved. Ironically when they tested the new drug on Osiris a few weeks before the goa’uld actually did get a bad case of the munchies and accessing the memories of the host Sarah Gardner demanded large quantities of chocolate brownies immediately or the jailers would face unspecified vengeance at a later, equally unspecified, date.

‘So how’s the war going for Apophis?’ Daniel asked, as the Tok’ra led them towards a meeting room where refreshments had been laid out.

‘Cronus is nearly at breaking point, he’s lost more than two thirds of his forces and Terok is even worse off but the attack by the combined fleets of the System Lord’s Olokun and Lord Yu has put Apophis back on the strategic defensive for now’ Jacob answered. ‘One of our operatives who has infiltrated Kali’s inner circle says that she’s about to join in the fight too which is good news because she’s a close ally of Bastet which means she’ll likely follow Kali’s lead.’

‘Guess the System Lords are starting to decide they either hang together or hang separately’ O’Neill observed.

Jacob nodded as they arrived at their destination and he showed them to their chairs. ‘Apophis still has them outgunned but he advanced so fast he overstretched his supply lines and manpower’ he remarked. ‘The Goa’uld aren’t good at logistics, they’re still too feudal at heart’ he continued, reaching for a piece of unidentified fruit from a bowl on a table. ‘Taste’s like a peach but the texture’s more like an apple Samantha’ he told his daughter. ‘Try one’ he advised, taking a bite, he thought she’d enjoy it, they always had similar tastes in food.

‘Even with more Goa’uld armies taking up arms against him Apophis can only be stalled not stopped’ another Tok’ra, told them, sitting down next to Jacob and reaching for a crystalline jug filled with water.

‘Stalled is good’ O’Neill replied, ‘I like stalled’ he added.

‘Do we know of any other System Lord’s mobilising?’ Daniel asked curiously.

‘They’re all mobilising Doctor Jackson’ the Tok’ra replied, pouring water from the jug into a ruby coloured glass. ‘We just don’t know which ones might be planning to join which side’ she continued. ‘Several Minor Goa’ulds have already opted to align themselves with Apophis and have sworn fealty in return for keeping the one or two planets they control.’

‘Small fry’ Jacob commented, ‘it’s the remaining major players like Ba’al, Camulus and Amaterasu who matter’ he declared. ‘We think Amaterasu is the most likely to join the war against Apophis in the near future because she’s got ties with Bastet.’

‘So we could see Kali, Bastet and Amaterasu all throw in together’ Daniel queried. ‘Goa’uld Girl Power’ he joked.

Jacob smiled. ‘If Apophis hadn’t inherited so much war material from Sokar this would be a great day in the history of the Tok’ra’ he noted. ‘The System Lords are about to beat each other senseless it’s just that Apophis can ride out the losses better.’

‘Have you considered providing intelligence to his enemies?’ Teal’c asked.

‘Ally ourselves with the Goa’uld?’ the Tok’ra female exclaimed in horror.

‘Yes, in order to weaken the hand of the most dangerous of all’ Teal’c replied. ‘After discussing the situation with Master Bra’tac we have already decided to concentrate the efforts of the Jaffa Resistance against Apophis and cease operations against any System Lord opposed to him’ he told them.

‘We’re doing the same’ O’Neill added. ‘Only raiding worlds belonging to Apophis, we’re going to start taking out supply dumps, naquadah mines, all the good stuff’ he said. ‘If he’s already overstretched himself even small strikes can have a big impact’ he noted. ‘You know a few of our Special Forces teams delivered by cloaked Tel’taks to targets you people identify could really ruin Apophis’s day’ he suggested.

Jacob looked thoughtful. ‘Even making him garrison his facilities more heavily against attack would damage his front line strength’ he reasoned. ‘It still wouldn’t tilt the scales totally against him but it’ll royally mess up his campaign plans.’

‘Hey worst case scenario it’ll make him really pissed-off’ O’Neill said with a grin.

‘Very intriguing idea Jack, something else to talk to High Councillor Per’sus about’ Jacob replied, taking another bite of fruit.

Later returning to the surface with several Tok’ra security people Lyumila Andianov set up some targets and began demonstrating the new personal weaponry they had traded for Tok’ra technology and technical assistance. The Tok’ra were surprised at just how effective the Laser Rifles were, easily cutting through relatively thick steel plate at a far greater range than you could hope to hit something with a Staff-Weapon, and with the underbarrel X-COM copy of a zat’nik’tel they could be used for non-lethal combat too. The power of the Sectoid Plasma pistols was equally of note, although compact they were nonetheless again more powerful and accurate than a Jaffa Staff and could be fired fully automatic like a Tau’ri machine-pistol giving the user immense firepower when required, their only weakness was the fact they needed reloading after twenty-six discharges making them unsuitable for a prolonged battle unless you had plenty of spare clips. In reality of course Tok’ra agents rarely got into that kind of combat, what they needed was something to cause a great deal of mayhem in a short space of time and the Plasma Pistol met that criteria very well, more than a few Tok’ra later owed their lives to the devices as they used them to shoot their way out of an otherwise hopeless situation.

One infamous occasion a year or so later saw a cornered Tok’ra, who had been shown a Chow Yun-Fat action movie during a visit to the Tau’ri’s Alpha Site, pull dual Plasma-Pistols on the Jaffa trying to capture him and proceeded to gun down a full squad of extremely overconfident warriors before making good his escape, perhaps even more surprised at the outcome than the dead and badly wounded Jaffa he left in his wake. Tau’ri culture was insidious like that, it rubbed off on you, totally shifted the way you looked at the universe and made you try things you wouldn’t have dreamt of before.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.  

Colonel O’Neill and Teal’c were met on arrival through the transporter rings and were led to the ships Pel’tak, or Bridge as it was now called under the ships new ownership. It was certainly easier to travel back and forth now a set of rings had been set up in the SGC, shuttling back and forth in Deathgliders was a pain in the ass.

Much of the ship seemed to be crawling with engineers and technicians trying to figure it out. One of the plasma cannon’s that made up the Ha’taks secondary armament had already stripped out and shipped down to Earth in pieces so it could be back-engineered and the plan was for one of the even more powerful main guns to follow in time. So far it seemed that all Goa’uld plasma weapons were based upon the same basic principles as the Jaffa staff-weapon and were simply scaled up versions of the same with certain necessary changes made to adjust for increased size and power. As such they weren’t working blind and the R&D people were confident they could figure the weapons out in a matter of weeks rather than months or years.

As they made their way along a corridor they ran into the Tok’ra Anise who was explaining the principles of the sub-light engines to a number of X-COM and SGC Scientists taking notes as she traced the route of some of the internal cabling through the ship. She acknowledged the two of them with a nod but continued unabated in her lecture, the only one following her not seemingly enthralled by either her words or her appearance the bored looking female X-COM grunt with a Laser Rifle assigned to watch over her in case the Tok’ra did something underhanded.

A few things had already been established which were interesting. Although they hadn’t tried to enter Earth’s atmosphere the Sectoids had sent scouts into Earth space revealing that the Goa’uld vessel had the same trouble tracking Sectoid ships at extreme range as the Asgard, which wasn’t necessarily a shock as Loki would wish to avoid the attentions of the System Lords as well as his own people. The Hat’ak could get a decent weapons lock at relatively short ranges of hundreds of miles but it needed to be directed to the vicinity of the enemy first by the more primitive, but nonetheless in this case more effective, human radar first. Also of note was that Goa’uld shielding was less energy efficient than the otherwise similar Asgard-modified Sectoid deflector shield units now being used by X-COM Firestorms. Anise had already suggested that this finding could be the basis for a more resilient hybrid shield unit that would stand up to punishment longer than a standard Ha’tak, though it would still be far below the standards of even an older Asgard design such as a Beliskner Class ship.

In the long term the plan was to strip out the Deathglider bays one at a time and refit them for the superior and slightly larger F-302’s as they came off the production line. It was felt that the ship would be better deployed as a carrier rather than a line warship given that Earth only had one such vessel and could not afford to have it battered about unnecessarily. The striking power of fifty-plus of the new Tau’ri fighters armed with lasers, plasma cannon and naquadah-enhanced thermonuclear warheads should give most foes pause for thought without having to bring the ship itself into danger it was considered.

Colonel Caldwell turned in his command chair when they eventually arrived on the bridge and narrowed his eyes. ‘Colonel O’Neill’ he greeted his guest with a hint of more than a touch of hostility in his voice, ‘Teal’c’ he added, acknowledging the Jaffa, ‘welcome aboard’ he told them.

O’Neill wasn’t sure what the attitude was about, he himself would have been overjoyed to have been assigned the job of commanding a sweet boat like this but Caldwell a fellow USAF officer didn’t seem all that happy. ‘Enjoying the new command Steven?’ he asked, deciding that given they were the same rank and had met before a few times some informality was okay.

‘I was enjoying it more until recently Jack’ Caldwell replied, taking a look around the bridge which was only partially manned at present.

‘Problem with the ship?’ O’Neill queried.

‘The ship’s fine, everything working like it should be’ Caldwell replied, ‘my problem is the crew, and it’s your fault’ he declared.

‘What did I do?’ O’Neill asked in confusion.

Caldwell crossed his arms. ‘When I took command of this vessel I was told they hadn’t come up with a name yet’ he began, ‘then someone decided that they’d let everyone in X-COM and the SGC vote on it after taking suggestions.’

‘Ah’ O’Neill responded awkwardly.

‘So when the votes are counted I check to see why exactly the suggestion that won got so many votes and I discover that a certain well-respected Colonel had been campaigning for it’ Caldwell continued. ‘He swayed so many votes with the SG Teams that along with the science geeks it beat out all the decent names to first place.’

‘Teal’c helped out’ O’Neill responded, trying to share out the blame.

‘Indeed’ Teal’c concurred, ‘I talked around many wavering voters’ he declared proudly.

Colonel Caldwell muttered something darkly to himself. ‘Nobody with my hairline should ever find himself the commanding officer of a starship called the god-damned Enterprise’ he growled.

O’Neill desperately fought back a grin, even the stoic and ever laconic Teal’c was clearly finding it hard to keep a straight face. ‘What’s the problem Steve?’ he asked deadpan.

‘The problem, Jack, is that everybody on this ship has started calling me Jean-Luc Picard behind my back, and in the case of some of the civilians right in front of me’ he complained.

O’Neill felt his cheek twitch as he continued to force back a smile. ‘That can’t be good for the dignity of command’ he observed. Caldwell did have a reputation of being pretty tough, harsh but fair was the oft-used phrase to describe him, and he wasn’t the type who’d enjoy this kind of thing.

‘It’s not’ Caldwell replied flatly.

Colonel O’Neill looked thoughtful for a few seconds. ‘You know I see a solution’ he said eventually.

‘I’m all ears Jack’ Caldwell replied, his voice tinged with hope.

‘Okay so here’s my idea’ O’Neill began, leaning in so nobody but Teal’c could overhear. ‘You start wearing an expensive, but unconvincing toupee, make out with resident alien babe Anise and then they’ll start calling you Kirk instead’ he advised in as serious a tone as he could muster.

Caldwell blinked a few times and then narrowed his eyes again. ‘I can have you thrown out of an airlock, you do know that right?’ he asked coldly.

‘Totally worth it’ O’Neill replied happily, ‘you can let it go now Teal’c’ he added causing the Jaffa to break out into the best laugh he’d had since telling the joke about the Setesh Guard.

‘Get off my bridge’ Caldwell ordered sharply as soon as Teal’c stopped laughing.

Captain Michael Redmond grinned as he gained on the Sectoid Battleship, for some reason it wasn’t putting everything it could into the engines enabling the X-COM Firestorm under his command to catch up with the large alien craft, once he was down to sixty kilometres he was going to joyfully put a naquadah-enhanced nuclear tipped avalanche missile up its ass and then go home and paint another flying saucer on the side of his Interceptor, at least that was the plan.

It was surprising the opposition hadn’t done this before Redmond thought to himself as he chased down his prey. Another identical enemy ship was currently on the other side of the world heading across the Pacific towards South America which was why the newly christened Enterprise was being bought into action down there instead of here, the captured Hat’ak was a hell of a weapon but what it couldn’t do was be in two places at once which meant Interceptor Control had to prioritise their targets. Flying out of X-COM Europe Redmond had been seconded from the USAF and he hoped this mission would give him the chance to finally get his kills into double figures, it had been too quiet recently with the lull in the war and he had been worried he was never going to splash his tenth UFO, one thing was for certain, he didn’t want to lose out to the second Firestorm heading from X-COM’s base in Japan so he pushed his fighter’s engines to the maximum as he closed in on weapons range.

The plasma cannon on a battleship outranged his missiles so this wasn’t going to be a cake-walk. The shield fitted to his fighter could reasonably be expected to take one hit before failing but after that all he had to rely on was the Firestorms armour plating and his good luck. Adrenaline starting to surge as he closed in to less than a hundred kilometres Redmond initially failed to spot the change in the blip on his radar only noticing that it was breaking up into one distinct and one much fuzzier track when the second began closing fast, very fast.

His first thoughts were that the Battleship had fired an Air-to-Air missile at him, which was a first, but far from totally beyond the realms of possibility given that the enemy weren’t stupid and humans had been successfully using such things against them for over two years now. Breaking off pursuit and slowing down for increased manoeuvrability the pilot put his hybrid Tau’ri/Goa’uld/Sectoid technology derived ECM system to maximum and got ready to try and jink to avoid the missile.

The sudden and visible impact of plasma fire against his shields soon changed Redmond’s mind as to what the indistinct signal was on his radar. ‘Son of a bitch bought along a fucking fighter escort’ he exclaimed, pulling the Firestorm around and starting to perform a series of viciously high-gee manoeuvres which would have black him out in an instant if not for the inertial dampening system back-engineered from a Goa’uld Deathglider fitted to his craft.

‘Can’t get a missile lock’ Redmond growled as more plasma impacted on his shields, the enemy craft seemed to have much better ECM than previous ships they had encountered and although it’s plasma cannon wasn’t remotely in the league of the Battleships it was still starting to deplete his shield strength.

Another tight turn bought the Firestorm almost face to face with its opponent, a small roughly saucer-shaped craft of very similar dimensions and a slightly more flowing design aesthetic than other sectoid ships. It flashed right past the nose of the Firestorm and Redmond found that he could get a lock but only at near point blank range which was not what he wanted when his Avalanches were carrying naquadah-enhanced nuclear warheads.

‘Nimble little bastard’ Redmond noted as the alien fighter demonstrated it could outturn him, its plasma weapon continuing to chew on his shields every time it got the chance. ‘Okay let’s do this the old fashioned way’ the pilot said opening his second weapons bay and powering up the Laser Cannon it was carrying.

As the two saucers danced through the air it was more like a First World War dogfight than a twenty-first century air battle, no long-range sniping with beyond visual range missiles and huge Directed Energy Weapons this was more of a knife fight and the Firestorm was at a distinct disadvantage. Although it could outturn any terrestrial fight with ease unlike its opponent the Firestorm was not a dedicated aerospace superiority fighter, it was a pure interceptor with a laser cannon designed for maximum beam strength not rate of fire.

‘I’m being pecked to death’ Redmond said through gritted teeth as the alien fighters guns bought his shield strength closer and closer to zero. He wasn’t at all keen to find out what those plasma weapons would do to his armour once the shield was gone and he decided it was becoming the smart thing to do to run like hell. Unfortunately when he tried to break off he then discovered that the alien fighter wasn’t just more manoeuvrable, the damn thing had better acceleration and was goddamn faster too.

As determination turned into panic Redmond tried a series of rapid random turns and loops to break away from the engagement but it was getting him nowhere until he once again found himself nose to nose with the enemy fighter and triggered his Laser Cannon on reflex, this time the searing beam of coherent light cutting deep into the saucer, causing the alien to jink away this time. At least they didn’t have shields yet Redmond thought to himself with relief, we’ve still got one edge on the bastards he decided.

Taking advantage of the temporary reversal in the situation Redmond banked hard right, gunned his elerium powered gravity engine to maximum and put the Firestorm into a steep dive. If he could just make it back to land instead of dogfighting over the sea and occasional iceberg he could lead the alien fighter a merry chase flying nap of the earth.

It might have worked if the battleship hadn’t decided to end the fight, coming into range of its oversized plasma cannon and firing a single shot which instantly bought down the Firestorms remaining shield strength, vaporised its armour and overloaded the naquadah generator sat just behind the pilots chair. It detonated reducing the craft and its pilot to several thousand pieces in a microsecond, the flash visible for scores of miles even in daylight.

The alien fighter turned and rejoined the ship it had been escorting. As the battleship quickly settled down near the town of Kazachye in Northern Siberia and began abducting people wholesale the fighter performed a Combat Air Patrol overhead, effortlessly knocking down a pair of Russian Airforce MiG-31’s that tried to challenge it. With the second Firestorm coming from Japan ordered to return to base until this new threat could be properly analysed, and before X-COM in the form of the Enterprise in orbit could otherwise intervene, both the Battleship and its Fighter escort were leaving the atmosphere again, soon disappearing from all sensors as they accelerated away from Earth.

In the aftermath the recorded telemetry from Redmond’s Firestorm told a disquieting tale, they clearly hadn’t seen everything the sectoid’s could do yet and it came as a nasty shock. They were still introducing new technology to the game and Earth wasn’t as secure as it had started to think it was.

The second battleship and its own fighter escort had been blown apart by the Ha’tak over the Pacific but neither Loki nor his AI copies cared for the lost of a few clones or easily replaced ships. Human genetic material and test subjects were more valuable than ship crews, the former carried the secret of saving the Asgard Race from extinction and perhaps securing ascension, the latter be they sectoids, mutons or other races were simply grown in a tube as replacements were needed. Earth was an endless genetic resource to be plundered, and it would be until the humans there raised their game even more.

As ever in the aftermath X-COM licked its wounds, and prepared for the next round, more determined than ever to fight back regardless of losses or technical inferiority. The war might be fought in the skies and on the ground but it was going to be won in the lab and if Loki’s Legions had thought they’d seen everything humanity could do yet they were in for a nasty shock too. Deep inside a mountain at Area 51 the first prototype F-302X Grim Reaper was being assembled, technicians working around the clock as they redoubled efforts to get the aerospace fighter operational as soon as possible. Back against the ropes with a bloody nose once again the Tau’ri were going to do what they always did, come out fighting.

A team of Engineers and Technicians had installed a large flatscreen X-COM Geoscape display on the back wall of the Gate Control room some months back and General Hammond was using the remote control to slowly rotate the image of Earth hanging in space. Eight bright blue squares superimposed on the world showed the locations of X-COM bases right around the world, two orange squares indicated Area 51 and Yamantau and a single white square pointed to the location of the SGC.

A blinking blue diamond moving across the surface of the image of the world meant that the captured Goa’uld Ha’tak was directly over that spot. Solid yellow diamonds were X-COM craft in flight, either Firestorm Interceptors, older XF-701’s pressed back into service after a brief retirement, or Skyranger supersonic VSTOL Transports. Red diamonds were hostile UFO’s, and there were three of them showing up with the blue diamond heading for one and several yellows heading for each of the other two.

‘They’re getting more escort fighters every time they show up’ Commander Sharp standing just behind Hammond stated flatly. ‘Three or four of the things for every battleship now at least, our Firestorms are outclassed even with the shields and the older Interceptors aren’t much more than plasma fodder’ he stated.

New symbols, this time orange diamonds seemed to be appearing from the symbol for the Ha’tak. ‘Deathgliders?’ Hammond queried.

‘Yes’ Sharp replied. ‘They aren’t remotely a match for the Foo Fighters one-on-one but we’ve got fifteen of them re-armed with lasers now and weight of numbers is a good equaliser. Mostly we try and use them to chase the bastards off, harass them so they don’t try to land, sometimes it works’ he said, ‘sometimes it doesn’t.’

‘What about the rest of the Deathgliders?’ Hammond asked. ‘We got more than fifteen from the Hat’ak’ he noted.

‘They’re all being upgunned, but it takes time to do that and purge the onboard computers of any nasty surprises the Goa’uld left behind’ Sharp replied. ‘They’re even dusting off the old X-301, it’s not much but it’s got the speed to catch a UFO and we need every bird we can get into the air’ he said. ‘As soon as we get that other Deathglider back that SG-1 borrowed it’ll be thrown into the fight too.’

Hammond nodded. Somehow Major Carter had destabilised a star by bypassing the stargate safeties and the team was currently trying to save an inhabited world called K’tau by introducing a super-heavy element called Maclarium into the planets sun. This would have been a very difficult proposition if they hadn’t simply taken a Deathglider apart and shipped it to K’tau for reassembly. Once completed it would fly out of the atmosphere, get as close as it could to the star and fire the MacLarium payload hopefully solving the problem. Apparently some local religious fanatic had tried to sabotage the construction thinking it was all the will of the gods, which to him meant the Asgard who the people of K’tau worshipped, but had been shot with a zat discharge by an ever-alert X-COM sentry before he could do so. ‘How many pilots are you losing?’ he asked quietly.

‘Too many’ Sharp replied, ‘but while I hate to say it its the lost aircraft that’s worse’ he continued quietly, ‘we can always replace pilots, we’ve got fighter-jocks from the airforces of every major power on Earth to call on, but we can’t manufacture Interceptors quick enough to replace losses’ he said. ‘The Firestorm was never intended to be built in large numbers, it was a stop-gap until the F-302X and even if that thing was through testing the production lines for it at Area 51 and Yamantau aren’t finished yet.’

‘Ever wondered how the RAF felt during the early days of the Battle of Britain when the Luftwaffe was grinding down Fighter Command quicker than the Brits could repair airfields, train pilots and churn out Spitfires and Hurricanes?’ Hammond asked.

‘I think I’m getting the idea’ Sharp replied. ‘Not so keen on reliving the way the RAF got through it though’ he added. ‘The Germans stopped attacking the RAF and started terror bombing cities instead, it gave Fighter Command the breathing space it needed to recover but it meant the civilians ended up bearing the brunt instead’ he said. ‘If I’d have been in charge of the RAF in the thirties it wouldn’t have happened.’

‘How would you have done it?’ Hammond asked curiously.

‘I’m X-COM, we win the war in the lab’ Sharp replied. ‘I’d have thrown money at Frank Whittle when he came along with that crazy “no propeller” idea, can you imagine what the first Messerschmitt pilot crossing the channel in 1940 would have thought when he got bounced by a jet fighter?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘It could have happened that way instead.’

Hammond zoomed in on a portion of the Geoscape display when a number of red and yellow diamonds had converged. Somewhere over Australia human and alien pilots were fighting for their lives, it all felt so remote until Hammond imagined himself in the cockpit of a Firestorm, dogfighting against a far superior enemy machine high over a red desert. One of the yellow diamonds disappeared from the screen signifying the loss of an X-COM craft. ‘God bless you son’ Hammond said, visualising the wreckage and the corpse of a young pilot falling to Earth.

‘Got one’ Sharp said, as a large red diamond amidst three smaller ones turned into a white cross indicating a UFO had been shot down. ‘They’ll have a retrieval team there in thirty minutes’ he said. ‘That was a Harvester most likely, they pick up cattle and the odd farmer in that part of the world’ he said. ‘We’ve knocked a few of the little ones down but we haven’t recovered one remotely intact enough yet to learn much from it’ he said. ‘They’re making a field modification to our lasers so the pilots can select a less powerful shot with a higher rate of fire which will help with dogfighting but we really need to take a look inside one of those things to see why they’re so good at stopping you getting a missile lock.’

‘Who suggested the name you’re using for them?’ Hammond asked.

‘Foo Fighters?’ Sharp responded. ‘We’ve got plenty of people on the staff who are serious Flying-Saucer nuts’ he said. ‘Foo Fighters is what they called the UFO’s that buzzed aircraft all over the world during World War Two. It seemed as good a name as any so it stuck.’

‘They’re leaving anyway’ Hammond noted, the trio of alien escort fighters accelerating away from the fight leaving even the hypersonic Firestorms trailing in their wake.

Sharp nodded. ‘We got the ship they were escorting and they’re running but it’s a pyrrhic victory’ he said. ‘Lost another damn Firestorm.’

‘And another brave man’ Hammond pointed out.

‘I just wish we had the reserves of aircraft we did of guts George’ Sharp replied. ‘We’ll run out of the first a long time before we run out of the second’ he declared. ‘When we get those Reapers in the air we’ll make them pay, lets see how they like coming up against better technology for once’ he said as Hammond zoomed the geoscape display back out. Already a Skyranger had taken off from the closest base, also in Australia though perhaps five hundred miles distant from the UFO crash site, and was heading towards its target with a squad of determined well-armed troops in the back. That was one difference these days, X-COM grunts weren’t outgunned any more, the R&D people had finally put Heavy Plasma Rifles into the hands of the troops and the days of aliens shrugging off shots and returning fire afterwards was over, even the eight foot armoured Muton behemoths dropped like most everything else when hit by a blast from one of the weapons.

‘So I hear they decided against you having any role in the delegation to Tollana’ Hammond said, putting down the remote and turning around to look through the armoured glass towards the stargate.

‘I can’t say I was too surprised George can you?’ Commander Sharp asked rhetorically.

‘Well you’re not as unwelcome on Tollana as you probably are with the Nox Russ’ Hammond replied, trying to put as positive a spin on it as he could.

‘They’ve recruited some diplomat’ Sharp told him. ‘Supposed to be a hot-shot, they’re bringing her here’ he said. ‘I always wish I could be there when they tell new people what we do for a living.’

‘Nobody believes it until they see for themselves’ Hammond replied. ‘Are we giving her the special tour?’ he asked.

‘I won’t tell her about the rings if you don’t’ Sharp replied with a grin. ‘We just need to get her to stand in the right place and transport her up to the Enterprise.’

‘What’s her name?’ Hammond asked.

‘Doctor Elizabeth Weir’ Sharp replied. ‘If she’s as good as they say maybe she can get the Tollan to swap some tech and open up a permanent Embassy’ he said. ‘Supposedly our Treaty with the Tok’ra is already based on some of her work... she’ll probably want a commission when she finds out’ he reasoned. ‘Oh yeah and she’s not keen on the military which means I bet she’ll really hate X-COM, that’ll make for a fun working relationship’ he said with a sigh of resignation.

‘These things are sent to try us Commander’ Hammond observed.

‘I’d sooner deal with ten sectoids or fifty jaffa than one pacifistic, political scientist’ Sharp declared. ‘You can’t even use a stun rod on them no matter how much they annoy you.’

‘So you’ll be doing more off-world combat missions again to keep out of her way?’ Hammond asked.

‘We both know it’s for the best’ Sharp replied with a resigned shrug.

 I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.  

Colorado – Earth – June 2001

‘I usually fly business class’ Elizabeth Weir told the Skyranger pilot as they tore through the Rocky Mountains at what she considered a dangerously low altitude but the pilot seemed relaxed enough.

‘Trust me, you’re better off sitting in the front with me than in the back’ the pilot replied. ‘They don’t build these things with grunt comfort in mind’ he told her. ‘If you hit turbulence you could get the teeth rattled out of your head sitting on the fold-out seats back there’ he declared, indicating the empty hold of the VSTOL Transport aircraft.

‘How fast are we going?’ Weir asked.

‘About six hundred and fifty knots’ the pilot answered, ‘just subsonic but I can push her up to Mach 1.1 if need be’ he told her, ‘beats the hell out of flying a helicopter or a CV-22.’

‘You’re American?’ Weir verified. They hadn’t talked much during the flight until now, she had been far too wrapped up in the pile of reading she was trying to get through.

‘US Airforce on secondment to X-COM’ the pilot told her. ‘Hey we’re getting an escort in the last few miles, guess they want to welcome you properly’ he said, pointing out of the cockpit window to the left as another aircraft pulled up alongside.

Weir stared through the glass. ‘It’s a flying saucer’ she said incredulously.

‘Firestorm Interceptor’ the pilot explained with a grin. ‘Back-engineered Alien Technology, we use their stuff to shoot them down with these days’ he told her, waving to the other pilot who waved back. ‘They say they’ll be replacing the Skyranger here with an alien tech based aircraft eventually, but it’s not high priority so it could be a while.’

As Weir watched the Firestorm pilot decided to show off, spinning the Firestorm 90 Degrees so he was flying sideways then doing an impossibly tight combination flip and loop that somehow ended up with the saucer shaped craft directly in front to them going backwards at the same speed they were going. ‘How much does one of those things cost?’ Weir asked amazed at the agility of the craft.

‘Believe it or not they’re a lot cheaper than an F-22’ the pilot told her as the Firestorm repeated its manoeuvre in reverse and resumed its original position flying alongside as an escort. ‘It’s an amazing bird, do over Mach 6, pity the bugs fly even better ones these days’ he said sadly.

‘Bugs?’ Weir queried.

‘Sectoids, the little grey bastards’ the pilot explained. ‘Every time we think we’ve caught up they roll out something else, we’re always playing catch-up’ he told her.

Weir nodded, the summary analyses she’d been provided with had said pretty much the same. ‘Have you ever met one?’ she asked curiously.

‘I usually only see dead ones or unconscious ones in the back after a retrieval mission Ma’am’ the pilot replied. ‘Seen a few in alien containment but mostly they just stare at you through the glass with those big black eyes’ he said, deciding not to mention the fact that like most X-COM people he used to taunt the prisoners for kicks. ‘You can’t have a conversation with them, they say the Asgard are smart but the Sectoids... they’re only made as smart as they need to be, their officers are smarter than their grunts but they’re still not all there according to the experts, just enough brains to operate the machinery and know when to duck in a firefight’ he said.

‘The clones are an empty vessel waiting to be filled’ Weir quoted from one of the reports, ‘Loki programs them to do a job and they do it, minimal personal initiative or higher reasoning skills’ she said.

‘Now there’s one evil son of a test-tube everyone would love to get their hands on’ the pilot practically growled. The rogue Asgard scientist and would-be warlord was regarded about as highly as Vlad the Impaler in X-COM and SGC circles.

A thought occurred to Weir as she took another look at the flying saucer flying alongside them. ‘Is that thing carrying nuclear weapons?’ she asked nervously.

‘I hope so or it’s not much use as an escort’ the Skyranger pilot replied. ‘Three AIM-54X Avalanche missiles, with variable yield warheads’ he detailed, ‘two kiloton up to two hundred kiloton depending on how big a bang the pilot wants’ he said. ‘If you want some scale Hiroshima was a thirteen kiloton explosion’ he told her. ‘Of course compared to some of the big warheads they’re stockpiling just in case an Avalanche is a firecracker’ he continued. ‘They say they measure the yields of those things in the gigatons.’

‘So much for all those disarmament treaties I helped negotiate’ Weir muttered.

‘Every mushroom cloud has a silver lining’ the pilot replied ‘Thank God for the Cold War’ he joked, ‘the nuclear powers had enough weapons grade plutonium hoarded away to keep X-COM in nukes for years’ he said. ‘If we couldn’t make them glow in the dark we’d be knee deep in monsters from outer space by now’ he opined. ‘Arriving at the Mountain in five minutes Ma’am’ he told her, we’ll be met by a jeep that’ll take you from the strip to the base and then one of the SGC people will escort you down to the facility.’

‘Are you based there?’ Weir asked.

‘No I fly out of the North American X-COM Base’ the pilot told her. ‘I don’t usually taxi VIP’s around, I fly maniacs packing rayguns into firefights with invaders from outer space for a living most days’ he told her with a wry smile. ‘If I’m not doing that I usually haul cargo between X-COM, Cheyenne Mountain and Area 51, the kind they don’t want to move by FedEx because it’s from outta town... way outta town if you see what I mean.’

Weir shook her head. ‘I can’t believe all this was going on and I didn’t know about it’ she said. ‘Flying Saucers, Alien Parasites pretending to be Gods, UFO abductions are real...’

‘The truth is out there’ the pilot deadpanned.

Weir laughed, it was nice to know that the people involved in this had retained a sense of humour and hence their fundamental humanity despite everything they knew and had seen. ‘Have you been inside the SGC?’ she asked.

‘I got a guided tour the first time I flew a Skyranger to the mountain’ the pilot replied. ‘When we’ve beaten the bugs I’m going to try and get a transfer, see some of the galaxy.’

‘What’s it like?’ Weir asked.

‘When you’ve seen one secret underground bunker you’ve seen them all’ he replied.

‘I’ve never seen inside any secret underground bunkers’ Weir told him.

‘Then I hope you like the look of concrete, steel doors, exposed pipes and ducting’ the pilot responded.

‘They haven’t got me living on the base’ Weir told him, ‘they’ve got me a house in Colorado Springs.’

‘Definitely a VIP’ the pilot observed, ‘I share an unpainted room with a seven foot tall, knuckle-dragging two-hundred pound Neanderthal from the Australian SAS’ he complained. ‘And he was there first so he got the top bunk’ he added.

‘Seven feet tall and a knuckle-dragger?’ Weir queried with a smile.

‘Okay, I exaggerate for effect’ the pilot conceded, ‘six foot ten inches tops’ he told her.

‘So if you’re not spinning tall tales what do you do on these flights?’ Weir asked.

‘Usually I just put on some Johnny Cash and enjoy the view as it goes past as a blur at seven-hundred miles an hour thirty feet off the deck’ he replied. ‘They give us a lot of leeway to get away with doing things like that because they don’t think we’re going to live very long anyway’ he explained. ‘Skyrangers are plasma magnets when they’re heading into a hot LZ’ he told her, ‘friend of mine was shot down on his first mission, came in too high and too slow and it was game over’ he said with a sigh. ‘Me I try my best to scare the crap out of the guys and gals in the back, coming in low and fast for a retrieval op dodging trees and flying under power-lines’ he declared.

‘More exaggeration?’ Weir queried with another smile.

‘Nope’ the pilot replied with a grin. ‘I’ve arrived back at base with tree branches caught up in the landing gear more than once’ he told her.

Weir frowned. ‘For the record, and in the interests of self-preservation, exactly who do I tell them never to let fly me anywhere ever again?’ she asked.

‘Major John Sheppard’ the pilot answered. ‘If they’re X-COM and they’ve flown a mission with me watch out for the grimace’ he joked. ‘I make it my business to be the man that makes them happier jumping out the back into gunfire than they are on the way in getting there’ he said. ‘That little bit of extra motivation makes all the difference’ he opined brightly.

To Doctor Elizabeth Weir's surprise and mild horror despite the bravado he was in fact the most balanced and least gung-ho member of X-COM she met that day.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2001

The scientist, Sharp thought his name was Felger but he wasn’t certain, looked up when the X-COM Commander arrived. ‘The girl’s body is still putting out a low-level EM field which spikes occasionally and is playing merry hell with our equipment’ he said, turning some kind of gadget around so Sharp could see it, not that the display meant a damn thing to Sharp anyway. ‘We moved her into this shielded room to protect the base computers’ he noted.

‘The girls name is Cassie’ Doctor Fraser retorted tersely from the other side of the bed, checking her daughters temperature again, the fever caused by the strange retrovirus afflicting her was getting worse and worse and as it did her behaviour was becoming more erratic.

‘Just let me go’ Cassandra begged, ‘you’re killing me’ she said. She knew what was wrong with her, her people called it the "Mind Fire" and she knew what to do to get rid of it, return to Hanka and wander alone into the forest.

Sharp deliberately ignored the girl completely for the moment. ‘SG-1 may have returned from her homeworld P8X-987 with the solution’ he announced.

Janet Fraser’s expression instantly shifted from one of desperation and fear to a flash of hope. ‘They found a cure?’ she asked.

Sharp shook his head. ‘They found a secret laboratory in the forest where Cassandra keeps asking to go’ he replied. ‘It looks like the Goa’uld Nirrti was experimenting on the people there to try and create an improved strain of human being, I don’t know the science behind how’ he admitted.

‘Rewriting their DNA using the retrovirus’ Fraser theorised.

‘Well however it’s done when Cassandra’s people reach her age they need to be stabilised or something because the change is too hard on the body’ Sharp told her. ‘Nirrti was tweaking their genes one generation at a time trying to create a hok’taur or advanced human to be a better host’ he said. ‘Well we can ask her the details when she wakes up because SG-1 caught the bitch’ he said.

‘She was there? They caught her?’ Janet responded wide-eyed.

‘Dragged her back here through the gate unconscious’ Sharp confirmed. ‘She was using some kind of personal cloak that made her invisible but she made two mistakes, firstly she made some noise and second she didn’t know we carry motion trackers, Colonel O’Neill shot her with a zat, when she’s awake again we’ll get her to do whatever it is she did to fix the other kids.’

‘I’m not a kid’ Cassandra stated, despite the raging fever she wasn’t going to let that one slip past her unchallenged.

‘The day anyone more than twenty years younger than me isn’t a kid is the day I break down and cry sweetheart’ Sharp replied with a grin. ‘Let me keep the delusion I’m not old a few more years okay?’ he requested in mock seriousness. ‘See you later, I just thought I’d let you know what was going on’ he told Janet before frowning, ‘she knows she has to reimburse us for the medical treatment right?’ he asked, nodding his head towards Cassandra. ‘I’ll have her washing dishes in the canteen for the next couple of months if her allowance doesn’t cover it.’

‘Hey!’ Cassandra protested as Sharp turned to leave ‘He’s kidding right?’ she asked before coughing a few times.

Janet shrugged. ‘You’d better hope so’ she replied. ‘Do you know how many people eat in there every day?’ she asked rhetorically, reaching over to stroke her daughters sweat-soaked hair. She was burning up, Janet thought to herself, oh God please let them make the goa’uld bitch cure her soon.

Major Carter arrived a few minutes later with a chess set but Cassandra wasn’t interested in playing. She did however render Carter near speechless when she started telekinetically moving the pieces, even making a knight tumble in the air in front of her saying it helped somehow. It was probably a good thing there were no X-COM Psionic Researchers present or they would have likely wired her up to every piece of machinery they had to try and find out how the hell she was doing it.

Three hours later and Nirrti still wasn’t cooperating. They had her sitting up chained to a cot in a cell, all her goa’uld technology stripped and wearing an orange jumpsuit but all she did was smirk at her captors. ‘If you release me I will cure the girl’ she said. ‘Otherwise she will die’ she stated.

Colonel O’Neill sat placidly on a chair beside her. ‘If Cassie dies what do you think will happen to you?’ he asked.

Nirrti laughed. ‘I am far too valuable a prisoner to be executed’ she declared, ‘your leaders would never permit it’ she said confidently.

‘Speaking as one of those leaders’ General Hammond interrupted, walking in the open door past Teal’c who had positioned himself there armed with an L2A2, ‘you’re playing a risky game’ he told the goa’uld. ‘On this world it’s called chicken’ he said.

‘And another Colonel named Sanders made a fortune from serving them up for dinner’ O’Neill interjected.

‘We will see’ Nirti replied with a smug knowing smile.

Commander Sharp followed Hammond in and regarded Nirrti with barely disguised loathing, just an alien parasite he thought to himself. ‘The kid is getting worse’ he told O’Neill, ‘I can bring in a team to mind-rape the bitch but they’re at least two hours away and it could be a while until she breaks’ he noted.

Nirti’s smile broadened. ‘Release my bonds, return my technology and I will save the girl’ she said. ‘All I ask is to be released through the chappa’ai with a sample of her blood so that I can continue my research.’

‘Not a fucking chance’ Sharp replied.

Janet appeared beside him. ‘Cassie’s temperature is up to a hundred and six’ she said quietly, a note of desperation in her voice. ‘She’ll die if you don’t help and I swear I’ll kill you if you don’t save her’ she said stepping forward and starting to raise a handgun to point at Nirrti.

Unfortunately for Doctor Fraser Commander Sharp moved a lot faster than she did and disarmed the doctor in a flash, painfully twisting the pistol from her hands before it was even fully raised. Janet screamed and struck out at him, Colonel O’Neill dragging her off as Nirrti chuckled.

‘I don’t know why the hell you’re laughing’ Sharp told the goa’uld, passing the pistol to Teal’c. ‘There’s faster ways than standard interrogation to break you’ he stated as Sergeant Andianov walked in and handed him something Nirti immediately recognised with considerable disquiet. ‘Everyone out’ he ordered. ‘Sergeant watch the door’ he added.

Still finding her way around after a few days at the SGC Elizabeth Weir ran into a tearful Doctor Fraser, a stern looking General Hammond plus Colonel O’Neill and the Jaffa Teal’c standing in the corridor outside one of the cells. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked before an ear-splitting scream howled from the cell nearly making her jump out of her skin.

‘Commander Sharp is utilising a Pain Stick on the prisoner Nirti’ Teal’c replied, as another scream rang out.

‘A what?’ Weir asked.

‘A goa’uld torture device that inflicts agony on both host and symbiote’ Teal’c explained. ‘He seeks to break her will and ensure her cooperation before Cassandra Fraser succumbs to her fever.’

Weir gaped in horror. ‘He’s torturing a prisoner while you wait out here? She exclaimed.

‘Time is of the essence if the girl’s life is to be saved’ Teal’c stated.

‘And you’re letting this happen?’ Weir asked Hammond.

Hammond looked away. ‘Technically he’s my commanding officer’ he noted awkwardly.

‘I was only obeying orders as an excuse went out of fashion with the Nuremberg Trials’ Weir retorted. ‘We don’t do things this way’ she declared.

‘Cassie is dying’ O’Neill responded coldly, leaning back against a wall arms crossed.

Weir gathered her thoughts. ‘I realise the girl means a great deal to you but...’ she began before Janet Fraser spun around and slapped her around the face hard enough to rock her head to the side.

‘She’s my daughter’ Janet said, directing a blazingly fierce glare at Weir.

Nirrti screamed again inside the cell, this time it was prolonged as Sharp gave her a longer taste of the device, the blinding bright light shining out from her mouth and eyes as a side-effect causing Andianov standing in the open doorway to cast a shadow into the corridor.

‘...but if we do this how are we different to them?’ Weir finished quietly, feeling the bruise forming on her cheek which she touched gingerly.

‘We do bad things for a good cause’ Andianov stated emotionlessly. ‘They do them for a bad one’ she continued. ‘If you cannot grasp the distinction then your intellect is vastly overrated.’

After one final scream, the sound of pleading for mercy and a short period of quiet Commander Sharp appeared at the doorway, the sergeant stepping aside to reveal he was holding a deflated, broken Nirrti by a twisted up clump of her hair, still carrying the pain stick in his other hand. ‘Just just need to motivate them the right way’ he stated before forcefully turning Nirti around to face him. ‘The girl dies I’ll torture you to death, bring you back to life in a sarcophagus and do it again’ he told the goa’uld. ‘Do you believe me?’ he asked with an intensity that would have scared the hell out of someone he hadn’t just been torturing.

‘Yes’ Nirrti replied, her normally commanding voice trembling and raspy from the screaming.

‘Cassie will be fine’ Sharp told Doctor Fraser who gave him a look of eternal gratitude. He noted both the bruise and the expression on Weirs face, guessing correctly the cause of the former. ‘I wouldn’t let you die either’ he told Weir. ‘And when the day comes that that’s an issue you might hate yourself for doing it but you’ll pray for some vicious ruthless bastard like me to save you’ he said. ‘Come on bitch’ he told Nirti with a growl, hauling her off down the corridor, Sergeant Andianov following behind.

‘You can’t defend humanity by abandoning it in yourself’ Weir called after him.

‘It’s been working for me okay so far’ Sharp replied.

Curia Building – Tollana – June 2001

Although the members of the Stargate Project who predated X-COM involvement were at least marginally to the left of Atilla the Hun, unlike the likes of Commander Sharp and his stormtroopers, it had soon become apparent to Elizabeth Weir that if she had any philosophical allies within the SGC it was with the non-military staff, especially the historians and anthropologists, so she had been making efforts to foster cordial working relationships with them. Doctor Daniel Jackson was especially valuable in that he was widely respected in many quarters because of his accomplishments both academic and otherwise, even the military types seemed to like him, he had after all shot an awful lot of Jaffa as well as dug up an awful lot of broken pots. ‘So how do you think it went?’ Weir asked Daniel after their preliminary meeting with High Chancellor Travell and other senior members of the Tollan Government.

Daniel considered the question for a moment. ‘It might have been easier if Omoc wasn’t so hard-line on the issue of tech transfer to “primitives” like us’ he replied. ‘Most of the Curia deep down seem to think they owe us one but there are still plenty who’ll stonewall any moves to liberalise their stance’ he said. ‘Their track record with the people of Serita completely colours their world view.’

Weir nodded. ‘But how well did you think I made our case?’ she asked.

‘Fishing for complements?’ Daniel asked with a smile.

‘I’ll read into that response I shouldn’t be hiding from criticism at least’ Weir responded, smiling back.

‘You made the case that all we wanted was a transfer of stargate technology which a more advanced race than them had given the Tollan anyway very well’ Daniel told her, ‘masterful use of language and tone especially when you shot Omac down in flames on the point of the Nox trusting younger races like them with technology they hadn’t developed yet.’

‘He walked right into it when he started spouting off about not being able to trust less advanced societies with science they didn’t work to attain themselves’ Weir noted. ‘They’re very advanced but I don’t think their political system is as cut and thrust as ours, their debating skills fall far behind their engineering.’

‘Nice to have one edge on them’ Daniel replied. ‘The others are back from their guided tour’ he said indicating the approach of the rest of SG-1 who had been off seeing the sights while the two academics met the Curia delegation.

‘We met Narim outside’ Carter announced indicating their Tollan companion.

Elizabeth Weir did a double-take and stared at the man. ‘I’m sorry’ she said, ‘but you look exactly like my boyfriend Simon’ she said as Narim shuffled awkwardly under her scrutiny. ‘I mean it’s uncanny’ she continued. ‘You could be twins.’

Narim slowly broke out into a smile. ‘Well all I can say is my doppelganger is a very lucky man’ he told her chivalrously. ‘You must be Doctor Weir?’

‘Elizabeth, please’ Weir replied.

‘Narim’ the Tollan introduced himself, offering his hand to shake in the Tau’ri fashion which Weir took. ‘I was surprised to hear that the Curia granted you an audience’ he admitted.

‘We threatened to take them to court if they didn’t’ O’Neill explained, ‘I mean haul them up in front of a Triad’ he corrected himself using the local word. ‘They couldn’t have been too confident they’d win’ he opined.

Narim shrugged. ‘Private citizens have successfully won their cases again the Curia in Triad many times’ he said. ‘Our government is not above our laws.’

‘There you see’ O’Neill said, ‘now that’s the kind of thing you don’t see enough of in the galaxy’ he declared.

‘Of course that also means that if the Curia voted to allow tech transfer with us Omoc or others could also challenge that decision too’ Daniel noted.

‘On the other hand there’s a lot to be said for dictatorship in certain circumstances’ O’Neill changed tack.

Narim chuckled. ‘It was wise of you not to bring Commander Sharp’ he opined. ‘During his brief visit to Tollana last year he managed to annoy many in the Curia.’

‘I’m shocked’ Weir responded sardonically.

‘The Commander is a skilled soldier and excellent tactician’ Andianov declared, defending him stalwartly as she glared at Weir.

‘The Commander is living proof of Talleyrand’s dictum that war is much too serious a business to be left to the military’ Weir retorted.

O’Neill chuckled. ‘You know you’d get more traction in military circles if you quoted Von Clausewitz instead’ he advised. ‘Policy is the intelligent faculty, war is only the instrument, not the reverse. The subordination of the military view to the political is therefore the only thing possible’ he quoted then noting the look of surprise in Daniels eyes he smiled. ‘Show me a military officer who hasn’t read On War thoroughly and I’ll show you a dumb son of a bitch’ he told him. ‘I can give you the best bits of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War too’ he added. ‘If you want to be good at your job you’d better be familiar with the guys that literally wrote the book on the subject’ he said.

Narim wasn’t quite following the cultural references but he got the gist of the conversation and understood the differences of opinion. Although Tollana didn’t have a formal military as such it did have Security Personal that were at least mildly paramilitary in role given that they both enforced the law and operated and controlled the planets Ion Cannon Defences. ‘I am told you are offering Hyperdrive technology in return for information on stargate construction?’ he asked, deciding to change the subject.

‘Technically we’re offering Goa’uld Hyperdrive technology we back-engineered from vessels of theirs we captured’ Carter told him. ‘We know you’re behind them in that, your ships are pretty slow by comparison’ she noted.

‘Our people were never expansionistic enough to devote much effort towards perfecting hyperdrive technology’ Narim replied. ‘What exploration we did was mainly done through the stargate, but to be honest we were never as driven to explore the galaxy as you seem to be’ he said.

‘But the technology is worth something to you though?’ Daniel asked.

‘We do have limited numbers of ships, certainly making them faster would be welcomed by the crews who currently have to spend months on a journey that might take days with a better hyperdrive design’ Narim answered. ‘We certainly wouldn’t offer you our Ion Cannons for them but since all you seek is non-military technology in return I doubt there would be a public outcry at what most would consider a fair mutually beneficial exchange.’

‘Omac’s a friend of yours could you maybe put in a good word for us’ Daniel requested. ‘He seemed to be the ringleader of the opposition camp in the Curia.’

‘He’s not as blinkered and immovable in his position as you may fear’ Nerim replied, ‘if you can make a convincing case he’ll come around with or without my attempts at intervention or persuasion’ he continued. ‘Knowing him as I do I’d say that part of his strategy is to be so obstructionist now that even if we do end up exchanging technology this time it will make further more controversial transfers in the future more difficult.’

‘You guess we’re still itching for those big honking spaceguns of yours then?’ O’Neill asked.

‘Of course’ Narim replied. ‘We know what a threat the Goa’uld are, you would be a foolish people indeed to not desire a weapon that can smash any ship they send against you and although you are centuries behind us you are not a foolish people.’

‘In the long term Earth wants a friendly and productive relationship with Tollana’ Weir told him. ‘We could be great friends and allies’ she said.

‘My people would be happy to be friends with yours, as we have friendly relations with the Asgard, Tok’ra and Nox, but we have always avoided alliances for risk of being dragged into someone else’s fight’ Narim told her.

‘You’re already in the fight or did the last Goa’uld attack slip your mind’ O’Neill asked wryly. ‘You know that Apophis could win the war that’s going on out there right?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘Without the other System Lord’s to worry about he might decide its worth losing a few ships to finally get rid of the only human civilisation out there which can potentially kick his ass.’

Narim sighed. ‘I’m sure the Curia has considered that possibility’ he said.

‘You know with our hyperdrive on a ship mounting a couple of your Ion Cannon’s you could really give Apophis pause for thought’ Daniel noted. ‘He’d be far less likely to attack Tollana if he thought the immediate response was going to be your ships arriving over his worlds’ he said.

‘I’m going to push that argument to the Curia’ Weir agreed. ‘I’m not in the military, as a matter of fact I don't particularly like the military, but given the threats present in the galaxy some kind of strong deterrent is a must for any world that wants to retain its independence’ she said. ‘The Goa’uld might not care how many Jaffa you kill when they attack your world but they’d certainly care about the prospect of a Tollan warship arriving over their royal palace with a very vengeful crew aboard.’

Teal’c nodded his agreement. ‘Amongst the Jaffa there is a saying’ he began. ‘The best defence is a good Ha’tak’ he said.

‘Okay now that’s just a freaking classic Teal’c’ O’Neill told him with a grin.

‘Thank you O’Neill’ the Jaffa replied. He was always glad when one of his pearls of wisdom was well received.

 I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2001

O’Neill looked from Weir to Sharp. ‘I don’t know which one of them looks more pleased with themselves’ he whispered to Carter sat next to him in the canteen which was being temporarily used as a lecture hall as Hammond handed over the briefing to Weir. The room was full of SGC personnel as the senior staff updated the whole base as to the current state of the war.

Elizabeth Weir looked around and smiled. ‘As you know after a lengthy negotiation the Tollan have agreed to trade Stargate for Hyperdrive technology’ she began. ‘Furthermore we have been given permission to set up a permanent Embassy on Tollana and have been offered a small pre-existing government owned building for the purpose.’

‘They didn’t want us bringing in our own engineers to put one up’ General Hammond remarked. ‘Something about building codes’ he explained.

Weir nodded. ‘The Tollan seemed to think that with our level of technology anything we built would fall down the next time it got windy’ she said, causing a ripple of laughter to run through the canteen as she rolled her eyes for effect. ‘In any case I’ll be taking the job as Ambassador to Tollana on a temporary basis while a permanent appointee is found’ she announced.

‘We’ve got our foot in the door now’ Hammond observed. ‘SGC Personnel both military and civilian will be rotated through the Embassy and I expect you all to make sure to leave a good impression on our hosts’ he said. ‘You will be polite, civilised and try to look as “advanced” as possible at all times.’

‘You know that could be harder for some than others’ O’Neill couldn’t resist responding, ‘I mean some of us look more evolved and eat less raw meat’ he noted, pointedly grinning at Colonel Reynolds the commanding officer of the SG-3 Marines who muttered something about the “Air Farce” in return.

‘Who gets the job of Military Attaché?’ Colonel Barnes from SG-6 asked.

‘Yet to be decided, are you after the job Colonel? General Hammond queried.

‘No Sir’ Barnes replied vehemently.

‘Dodged a bullet there’ O’Neill told the other USAF Colonel. ‘Never volunteer or sound like you’re volunteering’ he advised sagely, earning a chastened nod from Barnes.

‘Commander Sharp’ Weir said, turning over the briefing to the X-COM officer who stood up from the chair he’d been sat in.

‘Okay’ Sharp began, ‘as you know more and more System Lord’s have joined the coalition against Apophis which has ground his offensive to a temporary halt as he’s forced to re-deploy his forces to meet some nicely carried out counter-attacks’ he said. ‘A joint armada of Hat’ak vessels from the fleets of Kali, Bastet and Amaterasu crashed into his flank two weeks ago while he tried to knock Lord Yu out of the fight and the bastard then had to retreat straight away because unfortunately for him our Tok’ra friends had clandestinely informed Kali what planets his supply lines were routed through’ he continued with a smirk. ‘Lord Yu then took the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and retook several strategic worlds he’d lost to Apophis, it’s only a temporary reversal but I think you’ll agree any bad news for Apophis is worth celebrating’ he said.

‘Are we going to deal ourselves into this Sir?’ a Captain from SG-7 asked.

‘Oh hell yeah’ Sharp replied with a grin. ‘The Tok’ra are sending a pair of Tel’tak’s with cloaks to the Alpha site where they’re going to pick up four teams I’m assigning to the mission later today’ he said. ‘We’re going to ride through Apophis space like the Mongol Horde and blow up everything we can with some handy new demolition charges Major Carter can tell you about.’

Carter stood up. ‘The charges are actually an elerium-based sectoid manufactured grenade contained in a thin weapons-grade naquadah jacket we added’ she explained. ‘They’re about the same size and weight of a tin of beans and have an explosive yield of approximately one and a half kilotons of TNT’ she told them. ‘That should be sufficient to destroy or at least cripple most unshielded targets’ she said.

‘We’ve got crates full of them just ready to go’ Sharp announced enthusiastically. ‘We’ll shoot everything that moves and blow up everything that doesn’t’ he declared. ‘Apophis will have to strip his offensive forces to garrison every logistically important world he has, he’s got the ships to fight all the other System Lord’s but he doesn’t have the manpower to match so being forced to do that will hurt.’

‘What if we run into a large existing garrison?’ another officer queried. ‘The Tok’ra can’t have perfect intelligence there’s not enough of them to keep tabs on every world Apophis has.’

‘We’ve got a target list we’re pretty sure of’ Sharp replied, ‘but nothing is for certain’ he admitted.

‘Sounds like fun’ O’Neill said.

‘Indeed’ Teal’c agreed, Daniel looking at both of them like they were insane.

‘So what about the teams not assigned?’ Colonel Reynolds asked.

‘The worlds the cloaked Tel’taks are going to hit were chosen because they have decent gate defences, some may even have a force-field Iris’ Sharp replied. ‘There are other planets which are easier to attack via the stargate so don’t think that anyone getting left behind isn’t going to be in on the fun, we’ve got a second-tier of targets with minimal gate defences that are worth hitting too and we will be hitting them in concert with our Free Jaffa allies’ he said then walked over to retrieve an object which had been lying on a table under a cloth.

‘What the hell is that monstrosity?’ someone asked as Sharp revealed the device.

‘We’re calling it a “Staff-Rifle”, or at least we’re going to try and get the Free Jaffa to call it that and not something full of apostrophes’ Commander Sharp replied to some laughter. ‘Basically all we’ve done is taken a Staff-Weapon, removed the counterweight club and two feet of the staff length and added a metal stock, a handgrip, some iron sights and a trigger in the right place’ he said. ‘Guess what’ he continued, ‘you can actually hit something when you fire the thing now’ he joked provoking laughter from the room. The ergonomics of the standard Jaffa weapon were truly abysmal.

‘We are delivering the first batch to the Free Jaffa Resistance tomorrow’ Teal’c announced, ‘I expect my people to be resistant to using them until they witness their greater military effectiveness’ he said.

‘They’re still nowhere near as good as a L2A2, or even a conventional rifle’ Sharp said, ‘but they beat what the Goa’uld Loyalist Jaffa carry all to hell and if we can train the Resistance to use proper cover and manoeuvre, and fight at a distance where the better accuracy will really show its worth, then the Staff-Rifle will give them a hell of a tactical advantage.’

‘Why not give the Jaffa our weapons Sir?’ a marine sergeant asked.

‘The latest production model L2A2 Laser Rifle with the improved power-pack and zat costs thirty-three thousand dollars each to manufacture’ Sharp replied, ‘and we’d have to supply naquadah reactors to recharge them with’ he said. ‘If we gave them conventional weapons it would be cheaper but they’d be entirely reliant on us to supply ammunition’ he noted, ‘this thing is cheap to convert, doesn’t require ammunition and will run for years on its power-cell’ he said holding up the Staff-Rifle. ‘Besides which do you have any idea just how many damn Staff-Weapons we’ve got in storage?’ he asked rhetorically, ‘every time we get into a firefight you people throw another dozen at least back through the gate.’

‘I heard Area 51 has a warehouse full of them stacked up to the ceiling’ Carter interjected.

‘The more we can get rid of the better’ Sharp agreed. ‘It’s really not that bad a weapon when you can aim it properly’ he said, shouldering the weapon and sighting it on the far wall. ‘Be honest, how many of you would be alive if your average Jaffa Warrior could hit the side of a barn if he wasn’t inside it?’ he asked to more laughter. ‘No offence Teal’c’ he added.

‘None taken Commander’ Teal’c responded. ‘My experience with the soldiers of the Tau’ri have long left me with the knowledge that although the Staff is an effective weapon of terror, useful for intimidation or melee battle, it is not an effective weapon of war’ he said. ‘The old ways and weapons may still hold a place in the Jaffa heart but it would be irrational for them to remain in our minds and hands.’

‘And besides which if we ever have a problem with the Free Jaffa they won’t have weapons that’ll penetrate our body armour’ O’Neill added, giving Sharp a look that said I know you thought of it first.

‘Never occurred to me’ Sharp responded, lying through his teeth though he did it well enough that O’Neill decided not to play poker with the man.

‘How many Free Jaffa have we got on our side now?’ the recently promoted Major Griff now commander of SG-2 asked.

‘Near a hundred warriors ready to take the field of battle though the number will swell when news of their successes spread’ Teal’c replied. ‘Master Bra’tac is rallying them for the offensive against Apophis.’

‘The Tok’ra have given us a list of suitable worlds with staunchly loyalist garrisons which the Free Jaffa can kick the shit out of’ Sharp announced. ‘Hard fights where Teal’c’s boys will be outnumbered but winnable ones’ he said.

‘So how is the other war going Sir?’ Colonel Barnes queried.

‘Not great’ Sharp replied honestly. ‘We’re down sixty percent on our peak strength of Firestorms and in case you hadn’t heard we lost three Deathgliders the day before yesterday’ he announced in stoic tones. ‘The good news is the prototype Reaper made it through flight tests without crashing, exploding or irradiating the pilot and it’s supposed to be as good as they said it was so if the Interceptor Pilots can hold on a few more weeks we’ll finally be able to meet the Foo Fighters on equal terms.’

‘How many bug ships are getting through?’ O’Neill asked.

‘Too many, we can’t contest every attempted landing’ Sharp replied. ‘Unless they’re headed for a heavily populated area we’re not even trying.’

O’Neill took a deep breath. ‘How many civilians are we losing?’ he asked.

‘Dozens of abductions every week, it would be hundreds if we weren’t conserving our forces for priority missions’ Sharp answered then looked around at the expressions of the assembled personnel. ‘You know from the reports what happens to the people they abduct’ he said. ‘Medical experiments and judging from what we’ve found on some UFO’s they’ve even been used as food’ he said, his face now a dark mask set with determined eyes. ‘Now let’s all get this straight’ he said coldly. ‘We will beat the Sectoids, we will beat the Goa’uld and we will beat every other alien motherfucker that underestimates the human race’ he declared. ‘We lose battles, we lose pilots, we lose soldiers but we will not lose the war and we will never, ever stop fighting regardless of the losses’ he continued. ‘Honour our fallen comrades, grieve for the civilians we couldn’t save, but do your jobs and never for a second believe there’s no hope of final victory because, mark my words, there is no possibility of defeat’ he stated with all the conviction he could muster.

Weir watched as first Colonel O’Neill and then everyone in the room started thumping their fists on the tables faster and faster in approval and agreement. If self belief was a weapon, she thought, then the aliens really had bitten off a lot more than they could chew.

Free Jaffa Camp – P8X-987 – June 2001

‘You realise that as the only survivor of the people that lived here technically Cassie owns this whole planet’ Daniel realised as he looked around the collection of tents that they had provided for the newly arrived Jaffa resistance who were starting to make themselves at home, some scouting the local area, others suspiciously sampling the dubious delights of MRE ration packs.

Carter had been checking the contents of a crate of miscellaneous supplies but now paused in her work, turning to look at him. ‘I never thought of it that way’ she replied. ‘She’s the last Hankan so she inherits everything.’

‘I don’t think anyone is going to try and uphold Nirrti’s claim to the place at least’ Daniel reasoned.

Bra’tac had been walking across the camp and paused listening in on the conversation. ‘Teal’c spoke of the girl of this world the healer adopted’ he said. ‘For the false god Nirrti to murder her entire people and then attempt to use the child as a weapon was an act vile by even the standards of the Goa’uld’ he said. ‘I am surprised you allow Nirrti to live’ he opined.

‘She’s more use to us alive’ Carter replied with a shrug. ‘She knows more about hok’tar genetics than anyone else, except maybe the renegade Asgard Loki, and she’s answered a lot of questions about other advanced goa’uld technology.’

‘The goa’uld are skilled deceivers, you should take care’ Bra’tac warned.

‘They’re also heavily into self-preservation’ Carter replied. ‘At the moment all that stands between Nirrti and being yanked out of the host by the Tok’ra then fed into a waste disposal unit is cooperation’ she said.

‘Be wary’ the old Jaffa master advised. ‘Their overconfidence and arrogance is their greatest weakness, do not fall into the same trap’ he told them, ‘it could as easily be your undoing as theirs’ he said then pointed across the camp to where Teal’c and the Tau’ri female warrior Andianov of Russia were demonstrating the Staff-Rifle to a number of Jaffa. ‘Many of our number have expressed dissatisfaction that you have supplied such weapons’ he noted.

‘You wanted regular Staff’s and Zat’nik’tels?’ Daniel queried.

‘No we had thought we would be given the light-beam weapons that the Tau’ri soldiers now carry’ Bra’tac replied, ‘Teal’c tells me you call them Laser Rifles’ he continued. ‘That your weapons are not only more effective in battle, but also more advanced is clear to all that have seen them’ he said.

Carter closed the crate she had been checking and moved to the next one. ‘You’ll be surprised just how much better the Staff-Rifle is than the original weapon’ she told the Jaffa Master. ‘I’m sorry but the decision to give you those instead of our L2-A2 Lasers was taken higher up the chain of command than myself or Colonel O’Neill though’ she added.

‘Teal’c said it was the order of Sharp of Canada’ Bra’tac replied.

‘Maybe but I think the bean-counters might have played a part too’ Carter told him.

‘Bean Counters?’ Bra’tac repeated quizzically. ‘Why would those who tally crops have influence on such a decision?’ he asked in confusion.

‘It’s a slang phrase meaning an accountant or similar’ Daniel explained, ‘someone who determines the value of things and may decide how many can be bought, made or sold’ he said. ‘The Laser Rifles are very expensive, you could purchase many of the old projectile weapons we used to use for the price of a single one.’

‘These “bean-counters” have ruled then that your weapons are too valuable to give away’ Bra’tac said thoughtfully. ‘If we offered fair exchange could then the Free Jaffa purchase them?’ he asked.

‘I think that might depend on what you had to trade’ Daniel replied, thinking about it. ‘It would have to be something valuable enough to silence any objections’ he surmised.

‘Naquadah may fall into our hands’ Bra’tac noted, ‘would that be considered valuable enough?’ he queried.

‘You can never get too much naquadah, weapons grade would be the most valuable’ Carter responded in the affirmative, ‘pieces of obscure Goa’uld technology would be worth something too’ she added. ‘No staff weapons, those we’ve got too many of already’ she told him with a smile.

‘Taken from the still warm bodies of fallen Jaffa’ Bra’tac replied flatly. ‘It has become a modern legend that the Tau’ri soldiers are like locusts which strip the land free of anything they value’ he said. ‘And before they leave they destroy anything useful they cannot steal’ he continued, ‘there is rarely a bridge, mine or dam left intact after the Tau’ri raid a world it is said.’

‘Yes that sounds like the way we do things now’ Daniel replied, sounding less than overwhelming enthusiastic as to the change in policy.

‘It is an effective, though I cannot say honourable way to make war’ Bra’tac observed.

‘To quote Vince Lombardi’ Colonel O’Neill said, joining the group, ‘Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing’ he said.

Bra’tac turned to him. ‘Is this Vince Lombardi a renowned leader of warriors amongst the Tau’ri?’ he asked.

‘Won five NFL League Championships in nine years’ O’Neill affirmed. ‘I just got off the radio to the SGC’ he announced. ‘They just got a report back from Sharp and his merry band of roving lunatics’ he told them, ‘they’ve taken out the second target in their list and they’re moving onto the third, a recovery and retrieval team from the SGC is going to do the clean up.’

Carter nodded. ‘Sounds like arriving by cloaked Tel’tac is working then Sir?’ she replied.

‘Can you imagine the paranoia when word spreads we’re doing that?’ O’Neill asked rhetorically. ‘Apophis is going to be pissed’ he said happily.

‘You know he could retaliate easily enough’ Daniel pointed out. ‘We know he can cloak whole Ha’taks.’

‘You have no equivalent empire and if he attacks Earth directly he risks war with the Asgard’ Bra’tac replied. ‘He will not do so, they are feared by all Goa’uld, no System Lord has ever faced them in battle and achieved even a small measure of victory’ he said. ‘The legends speak of Thor’s Chariot smashing a whole flotilla of Ha’tak’s single handed without being even damaged.’

‘That was an old Beliskner Class Cruiser’ the Colonel responded, ‘you should see one of their new kick-ass O’Neill Class Warships’ he said.

‘Sir do you plan to tell everyone at every opportunity about those?’ Carter asked.

‘Yes’ O’Neill replied. ‘And if they ever make a Carter Class ship you will too’ he told her.

‘The Asgard named a class of warships after you?’ Bra’tac queried of O’Neill, clearly impressed.

‘Yeah me and Thor are good buddies’ the Colonel told him with a smile.

‘Jack and Freyr not so much’ Daniel couldn’t resist noting.

‘We had a tiny personality clash I’ll admit’ O’Neill conceded.

‘It’s just a good thing Freyr as a clone doesn’t have a mother or he might have been pretty insulted by what you called him Sir’ Carter observed.

‘Yeah well, I did ask to talk to Thor instead’ O’Neill responded awkwardly. ‘Anyhow we know the Asgard can be jerks just like humans so it’s not like just because they’re way more advanced they’re automatically way better people’ he said. ‘Look at Loki’ he continued, ‘clear favourite to win Evil Asshole of the Galaxy Award 2001.’

‘I used to think Apophis was the clear front runner, after winning the previous four years in a row like he did’ Daniel replied seriously, playing along because Bra’tac looked like he was taking O’Neills comment seriously and was likely wondering if the title was awarded by a special Tau’ri committee set up for the purpose.

‘Well at least we know it’s between the two of them’ Carter interjected, ‘I mean what’s the chances of a new Nominee with a chance of winning coming along now?’ she asked rhetorically.

Goa’uld Base – P3S-114 – June 2001

Holding the data storage device in one hand Ba’al smiled as he waved the stone over it to change the display to the next page. ‘I wish all my commanders were as competent as you Zarin’ he told the other goa’uld sat across the table from him as they picked over a light lunch. ‘This world is as productive as any in my realm and the garrisons of my troops under your command compare in skills and training to even the elite Jaffa regiments I hand-picked myself’ he said. ‘Were I as paranoid as some I would have you killed as a possible threat’ he said with a chuckle.

Zarin laughed. ‘If I served a System Lord who was less well balanced I would deliberately make sure to look less competent’ she responded. ‘Fortunately My Lord you grasp the value of having lieutenants with abilities other than sycophancy’ she said.

Ba’al looked around to make sure they were alone. ‘Unlike my peers I’m still aware that we made up the story about being gods to help maintain dominance over the primitive, superstitious slaves we took from among the Tau’ri’ he said. ‘Unfortunately over the centuries most System Lord’s seem to have succumbed to their own propaganda’ he continued, shaking his head sadly. ‘Having retained my grip on reality I realise that it’s safer to put my trust in the loyalty of skilled underlings than to trust in the delusion I am divine’ he said. ‘I do still expect the sycophancy however’ he added with amusement.

Zarin bowed slightly. ‘Of course’ she said, before reaching for a piece of succulent fruit. ‘As you ordered I have begun an accelerated training program for new Jaffa Warriors and increased production of weapons’ she told him before taking a bite.

‘Good’ Ba’al replied, putting down the data tablet and the page-turner and reaching for a similar piece of fruit for himself. ‘You know we’ll be at war with Apophis within weeks?’ he asked.

Zarin nodded. ‘I guessed that was your reason for visiting’ she replied.
‘Losses will be heavy, I will need you to help oversee several more worlds and ensure war production and training of replacement troops takes place at maximum efficiency’ Ba’al commanded.

‘I will toil every minute of the day to ensure it’ Zarin replied then paused. ‘May I speak freely?’ she asked with a frown.

‘You are going to ask whether we can win a war with Apophis?’ Ba’al pre-empted her question. ‘The answer in normal circumstances would be no but these are not normal circumstances’ he said. ‘If they were I would have executed you as soon as I learned that you were of the Tok’ra’ he said with a smirk.

Zarin’s eyes widened as Ba’al pointed his left hand towards her, palm flat as he pointed a previously concealed zae’tarc beam weapon at her. ‘My Lord I am not...’ she began.

‘Please don’t insult my intelligence or your dignity by lying’ Ba’al told her. ‘This is only a guarantee that you won’t do something stupid’ he told her indicating the weapon. ‘I know that the Tok’ra have been providing information to the other System Lords fighting Apophis, I also know that you consider him a greater threat than the rest of us put together’ he continued. ‘In short your enemies enemy is your friend, at least for now, so I see no logic in not uniting against a far more dangerous foe’ Ba’al announced.

The Tok’ra agent blinked. ‘You seek alliance?’ she asked.

‘Temporarily’ Ba’al replied. ‘I seek you personally to continue your duties and help prepare my armies to fight Apophis and I seek whatever intelligence the Tok’ra as a whole might provide to enable me to best combat him he said. ‘Don’t think I’ve gone soft, I plan to crush you mutant traitors in the future but I won’t have a future unless Apophis is stopped’ he stated.

Zarin fought the urge to take flight, or else try and take Ba’al with her by detonating one of the concealed weapons she was carrying, and instead tried to look calm and relaxed. ‘If you consider Apophis such an overriding threat why did you not join the war earlier?’ she asked.

‘A question every Goa’uld in the Galaxy would probably wish answered’ Ba’al replied. ‘The truth is I needed the time to modify a number of Ha’tak vessels to both detect the cloaked versions Apophis is using and increase their shield and weapons power’ he answered truthfully. ‘Numbers are still limited but they are superior enough to help counter the vast fleet Apophis inherited from Sokar.’

‘I was not aware you had been devoting such resources towards the research required to advance your ship technology so far’ Zarin said in surprise. ‘Was this a project of Nerus?’ she asked. The overweight and annoying though brilliant goa’uld scientist in Ba’als service was renowned for his inventions.

Ba’al smiled. ‘Always seeking intelligence’ he responded, half in amusement, half in mild admiration. ‘No the information came from somewhere else’ he told her. ‘Another ally who would likely be an enemy in different circumstances’ he explained. ‘I only wish the situation was such that I could avoid dealing with you both’ he added wistfully.

‘Who is this other ally?’ Zarin asked.

‘You know to be honest I do wonder if “what” rather than “who” might be a more accurate way to phrase that question’ Ba’al replied.

A hooded figure in a heavy black cloak appeared from nowhere beside them. ‘Do not test my patience or seek to mock me Ba’al’ it said in a tone which even other goa’uld would have considered excessively melodramatic. ‘I am Anubis’ the figure declared.

‘As a hologram’ Ba’al told Zarin, reaching over to wave his hand through it because he knew just how annoyed the even less corporeal than normal Anubis would be if he did.

‘Anubis’ Zarin repeated in horror. ‘He vanished centuries past.’

‘I have returned’ Anubis stated. ‘Inform your kind I will annihilate them once I have dealt with Apophis’ he told Zarin.

‘Commanding presence, knowledge of Ancient Technology but no social skills whatsoever’ Ba’al commented shaking his head sadly. ‘He’s probably scowling at me from under that cowl now too’ he told Zarin with a smirk. ‘Unfortunately he needs me’ he said, the fact was that Apophis had such a great fleet it went a long way to making up for the fact that the technology Anubis had meant his Ha’taks were individually far superior.

‘That will not be the situation forever’ Anubis stated, Ba’al would pay for his mockery and lack of deference one day.

Ba’al inwardly shrugged, he had to survive Apophis first before he needed to start worrying about Anubis, he had to prioritise stopping one posturing megalomaniac with delusions, or perhaps in the latter’s case memories, of near god-hood at a time.

 I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Stargate – P4A-771 – July 2001

SG-1 had once very briefly visited this world four years earlier, upon arrival they were greeted by a considerable quantity of what they assumed was Goa’uld firepower and after exchanging fire for a while with a foe they never actually saw amongst all the trees immediately headed straight back home, O’Neill and Carter enjoying the dubious pleasure of ending up at the Antarctic Stargate instead of the SGC.

Observing through binoculars from a concealed position it was abundantly clear to Commander Russell Sharp why you wouldn’t want to travel here uninvited by stargate. A large Jaffa garrison supported by a multitude of Staff-Cannon emplacements meant that even with superior X-COM equipment you would have to be lucky in the extreme to not incur heavy casualties trying to force a bridgehead.

On the other hand, because Sharp and the two mixed squads of SGC and X-COM soldiers had arrived on P4A-771 via cloaked Tok’ra Tel’tak’s all the Staff-Cannons, bunkers and guards were facing in completely the wrong direction which was damn convenient as they prepared to launch an attack.

‘If everything is going according to schedule they should be dialling in right about...’ Sharp whispered to the closest team, checking his watch. ‘Now’ he said with a grin as the stargate engaged, the splash like “kawoosh” of the incoming wormhole forming from Earth immediately attracting the attention of all the Jaffa Warriors in the vicinity.

Tactically the best way to assault a defended bridge is from both ends at once and you could think of the stargate as a choke point very much like a bridge in this case. ‘I can see this being a really good day’ Sharp declared brightly as his troops used the distraction to move into their final positions. He switched on his radio headset and sent the correct IDC signal to tell the SGC on the other side it was him. ‘You may fire when ready Gridley’ he said into the microphone and put his binoculars away, reaching for his rifle.

Something came hurtling out of the stargate at enormous speed and immediately started to climb, riding into the sky on a pillar of fire. It wasn’t the first time the Tau’ri had used this tactic, firing Maverick Missiles through the gate which would target anything painted by a laser, but it still seemed to catch the Jaffa very much by surprise especially when the thing did a loop and began hurtling back down towards the strongest defensive position which was being marked for destruction by a Lieutenant from SG-7, knelt beside Sharp illuminating it with a laser.

The missile slammed into a bunker, its 125 pound high-explosive warhead and what was left of its fuel blasting it and its occupants to pieces and sending a pair of heavy Staff-Cannons flying off into the distance like they were matchsticks.

‘He shoots he scores!’ the Lieutenant exclaimed as the X-COM and SGC troops took the explosion as the signal to open fire themselves, gunning down the reeling Jaffa with their L2-A2’s. Once again the element of surprise added to superior weaponry meant that the outnumbered Tau’ri had the edge.

‘Time to switch lasers and rack up some more points’ Sharp responded, indicating the Lieutenants own rifle. ‘Well after dealing with that Deathglider Airbase we scouted earlier’ he added, raising a remote detonator, flipping up the safety and pressing the button. They didn’t have the forces to attack both sites simultaneously, and taking out the Deathgliders first would have revealed their presence, but there was always an alternative means when you have sneaky special forces who can easily avoid unwary guards and a number of very special demolition charges.

The flash of light from the East arrived in what seemed like a surprisingly long time before the ground shook and the sound of the explosion arrived. It wasn’t particularly large in relative terms, but given that its relations were designed to level whole cities that didn’t mean it wasn’t still pretty impressive as the one-point-five kiloton nuclear device they had planted at the base went off and quite thoroughly removed the prospect of the Jaffa calling in Air Support. In fact one Deathglider kept on ready alert had already being prepped for flight and was just taking off when it was largely disintegrated by the blast-wave, the remains caught up in the maelstrom and raining back to the ground over a mile away.

‘Oh God I hope someone has a camera’ Sharp said to himself in awe as the familiar mushroom cloud rose into the sky only a handful of miles away. It also occurred to him that the geeks back home had better be right about a naquadah-boosted elerium grenade producing minimal radioactive fallout because in the long term he didn’t want cancer and in the short term he didn’t want to glow in the dark. ‘Shit better get back to work’ he realised and then gleefully joined in the gunfight.

With the Jaffa defenders in disarray more troops started to pour into the battle straight from Earth via the stargate. The Jaffa were brave and determined and fought to the last but they were hopelessly outgunned and outflanked and bolstered by the addition personnel Sharp’s forces finished the garrison off in a few scant minutes of vicious fighting.

The last sounds of battle were the screams of wounded Jaffa which tailed off as some were finished off as they attempted to fight on and others considered too badly wounded to save were put out of their misery. A few were disarmed and to their great surprise were then treated by Tau’ri medics who dressed their wounds and gave them painkilling drugs, it certainly didn’t seem to fit in with the stories told of the evil Tau’ri, nor with the ferocity of the human warriors the injured Jaffa had witnessed moments before. They were truly a strange people one warrior decided as the needle stuck into his arm soothed the agony of the hole burned through both his armour and his chest.

‘Alright listen up!’ Sharp ordered at the top of his lungs as the troops eventually secured the area. ‘Right up that trail is a Goa’uld Armaments Factory’ he informed them, pointing North. ‘We guessed that Apophis had his troops guard the gate for a good reason and that’s it’ he continued. ‘The minimum time for the snakeheads to get a Hat’ak here is six hours according to the Tok’ra so I want everything worth taking back through the gate and all of us gone in five’ he announced.

‘Aw shit we’re not going to be humping more Staff-Weapons about are we Sir?’ an X-COM Trooper complained. He must have carried hundreds of the things back to stargates over the last few months and they weren’t light.

‘I said “worth taking” didn’t I?’ Sharp responded flatly. ‘Leave the Staffs, just take out the Liquid-Naquadah power-cells and bring them back, there’s probably crates of the things in the factory too’ he said. ‘The real prizes are Staff-Cannons, there should be a good number and those things are worth breaking a sweat to haul through the gate’ he noted. ‘And Shock-Grenades, everyone look out for those, they’re damn useful and in short supply.’

‘What about the machinery?’ a Major asked.

‘I’m not planning to dismantle a production line’ Sharp replied. ‘The Tok’ra that flew a few of us here will help you decide if anything small enough to take is worth taking but we’re nuking anything that’s left so don’t worry about sabotage, there won’t be enough of the place to worth rebuilding.’

‘How about the workers?’ the Major queried, ‘slave labour like normal?’

‘Yeah’ Sharp confirmed. ‘Some might be willing to give us a hand once we get the message across we’re going to set them free but watch out for the ones that are Goa’uld Loyalists, there’s always a few of the poor dumb brainwashed bastards that actually bought into the “gods” bullshit’ he continued. ‘Just zat them if they’re being a pain in the ass’ he advised.

‘And the enemy prisoners Sir?’ a medic asked, indicating one nearby he had just treated.

‘Stabilise them, tie them up if necessary and leave them here’ Sharp replied. ‘Alien Containment is getting crowded and we don’t ever get much useful information out of Jaffa anyway’ he noted. ‘Hopefully they’ll spread the word that the Tau’ri aren’t monsters but they’ll get the point that we’re not people to be fucked with either’ he said.

Sharp looked back at the mushroom cloud, most others doing likewise. ‘So...’ he said slowly, ‘does anybody think we’ve been too subtle in communicating the last part?’ he asked with a grin.



Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – July 2001

Janet Fraser had been wondering why she was called to General Hammonds office but she was more than surprised when she found not only the General, Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter but also her daughter Cassie who was sat in a chair directly across from the General. ‘What did you do?’ Janet asked the girl accusingly. ‘You did it again didn’t you?’ she continued. ‘Cassie you can’t yell at people in the canteen just because they don’t empty their own trays into the trash’ she said in exasperation.

‘I’m not in trouble Mom and thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt’ Cassie replied with a glare. ‘Anyhow I never wanted the job, you could have told Commander Sharp to get bent when he said he was serious about me paying them back for all the trouble they went to for me’ she argued. It sucked helping out in the canteen, she thought with annoyance, she couldn’t even flirt with cute guys because Jack there growled at any of the guys under twenty-five that flirted back and the rest treated her like a kid.

‘I didn’t ask Cassie to come here because she’s done anything wrong’ Hammond told Doctor Fraser. ‘She’s here because of the results of the tests she went through to determine any long-term effects of Nirti’s gene-tampering’ he said.

‘She’s not sick is she?’ Janet said in horror.

‘For God’s sake Mom stop jumping to conclusions’ Cassie retorted. ‘Can’t you just tell her?’ she asked the General.

Hammond rubbed the palm of his left hand back over his bald head. In younger days he would have run his fingers through his hair but those days were long-gone unfortunately. ‘Do you want to explain Major Carter?’ he asked. ‘You’re understand this stuff better than me’ he freely admitted.

‘It’s still a new field to me too Sir but I’ll try’ Carter replied. ‘Janet, you know that Nirti was experimenting on the people of Hanka to try and develop a better host’ she began, ‘a Hok’tar or advanced human’ she said. ‘Well according to the tests our scientists did on Cassie she might have been more successful than she thought.’

‘I think it was because I went through the Mind-Fire longer than anyone else’ Cassie interrupted. ‘Usually it was a few hours before teenagers went out to the forest’ she noted. ‘If it wasn’t for the medical technology and drugs you have I’d have died’ she said. ‘On Hanka I would have’ she added.

‘Certainly possible’ Carter conceded, ‘but in any case although Nirti stabilised her it seems a lot of the changes to Cassie were permanent’ she said. ‘Scans using X-COM equipment such as mind-probes show that her brain formed numerous new connections...’

‘Hence the telekinesis which would have been cool if I wasn’t so hot’ Cassie interjected. ‘Sorry go on’ she said seeing Sam’s displeasure at the second interruption.

Carter gave the girl a look then continued. ‘... and there were other minor physiological changes as dormant genes activated’ she finished. ‘We know from research into sectoid psionics and genetics that there are clear propensities for psionic strength and skill which come from the Ancient Genes which the sectoids had added by Loki’s genetic engineering’ she continued, ‘genes that certain humans share and which determine their ability to resist psionic attack and operate Ancient Technologies.’

‘Some of us can’t be mind-controlled’ O’Neill spoke up with a smile, ‘some can’ he added looking at Carter with an amusement she didn’t share.

‘Correct’ Carter was forced to agree. ‘After considerable investigation X-COM Researchers determined a scale for psionic strength and skill in humans’ she told Janet, ‘both run from one to a hundred with the top being considered the maximum for a human being.

‘Psionic strength ninety-eight’ O’Neill said happily, pointing at himself. ‘You made the low-teens didn’t you Major?’ he asked mischievously.

‘Mid-to-high teens’ Carter corrected him, narrowing her eyes. It was still far from impressive she had to admit.

‘I’m sorry but I don’t know where Cassie comes into this’ Janet said.

Hammond leaned forward in his chair. ‘X-COM tested Cassie to see what her PSI ratings were’ he said. ‘She burned out three sensing machines before they realised they were going to need a custom unit to determine her scores.’

‘Too much voltage’ Cassie joked. ‘When they finally got one to work earlier today I thought the two guys watching the readout were going to faint’ she continued. ‘They just kept looking from the machine to me and back again.’

‘Why wasn’t I told about this?’ Doctor Fraser demanded to know.

‘I didn’t want you to fuss’ Cassie explained. ‘It’s not like any of the testing hurts’ she said. ‘So do you want to hear my scores?’ she asked.

Janet Fraser frowned. ‘Did you get the perfect hundred?’ she asked. ‘Is that what this is about?’

‘No, in fact Cassie completely destroyed the scale’ Carter responded.

‘Three-hundred and Eighty-Seven’ Cassie declared. ‘In your face Jack’ she said, playfully sticking her tongue out at O’Neill.

‘What!’ Doctor Fraser exclaimed.

‘Three-hundred and Eighty-Seven’ Cassie repeated.

‘With a baseline psionic skill score of well over two hundred which can be improved with practice’ Carter added. ‘The X-COM Parapsychologists say that they think Cassie can be thought of as representing one of the final stages of pre-ascended human evolution’ she continued.

‘They were pissed when I melted all the wiring in that other gadget too’ Cassie said with a chuckle. ‘They thought it might give me the telekinesis back’ she explained, ‘but as soon as I put it in my hand and turned it on it went really hot like those chess pieces did, made a fizzle sound and smoke started pouring out of it’ she told them. ‘Like I said, too much voltage’ she added, tapping the side of her head.

‘Yes the psionic amplifier’ Carter noted. ‘They cost a hundred and sixty thousand dollars to manufacture and that’s just the cost of the raw materials’ she said. ‘You completely fused the prototype’ she told Cassandra.

‘Don’t tell the Commander, he’ll have me working in the canteen until I’m thirty paying it off’ Cassie requested.

‘More to the point I think a larger danger is that he’d see if he could conscript you’ Carter opined. ‘We haven’t witnessed a sectoid telepath with a fraction of your potential, if they can get a functioning psi-amp which you didn’t overload you could probably force the Colonel here to stand on one leg, hop up and down and sing show-tunes.’

‘Which isn’t a serious suggestion right Major?’ O’Neill said quickly.

‘It would be an interesting test of her abilities given that ninety-eight score of yours Sir’ Carter deadpanned.

‘Conscript her?’ Janet said. ‘You wouldn’t let them do that would you Sir?’ she asked the General.

‘Technically Cassandra isn’t an American Citizen, nor even from this planet’ Hammond replied. ‘Legally I don’t know where we’d stand’ he admitted. ‘She is human however and I think that makes her “one of us” from X-COM’s perspective’ he continued. ‘They’ll almost certainly want to study Cassie in more depth but I’m sure they’d much prefer for that to be entirely voluntary, their scientific personnel aren't as hard-line as their soldiers at least.’

‘I don’t mind’ Cassie said, ‘do you think they’d pay me?’ she asked. ‘I know what they pay you guys.’

‘Some of us anyway’ Hammond said. He was still on USAF pay which meant he wasn’t remotely as well paid as O’Neill or Carter who were on X-COM wages.

‘Cassie, these are not nice people’ her mother warned.

‘Mom, I know what Commander Sharp did to Nirti to force her to help me’ Cassandra replied, ‘I know they’re not nice people’ she said, not that it particularly bothered her that Sharp had tortured the bitch who had experimented on her and wiped out her entire people. ‘But if they think I can help stop what happened to Hanka happening to Earth then I will’ she said with determination. ‘Everyone I loved died Mom’ she said quietly, ‘I still see them in my dreams sometimes’ she continued, ‘I never thought I could do anything about it until now but if I have this potential then I want to develop it and use it to defend the people I love now’ she told them. And cheat at exams and read boys minds, she thought to herself happily, not realising that the latter would be deeply disturbing.

Janet Fraser shook her head. ‘I just don’t want them to use you Cassie’ she said.

‘It’s my choice Mom’ Cassie replied, making certain by her tone she meant that.

‘You think it’s going to be an adventure but think of the possible dangers’ Doctor Fraser told her daughter. ‘All this psionic stuff, it’s all just unproven theory.’

‘Having been put under mind-control and after seeing Cassie levitate something with my own eyes it’s not all that theoretical’ Carter noted, ‘but I agree with your Mother that you need to think this through carefully’ she advised the girl. ‘We’ll all back you if you decide not to go ahead with it.’

‘We will’ O’Neill agreed, General Hammond nodding his affirmation.

‘Okay I give it some more thought before I tell them I want to go ahead with the research’ Cassandra agreed.

‘Good’ her adoptive mother responded. That might be the best she could hope for.

‘Hey at least you guys all know about the funky mental powers now’ Cassie said. ‘The Cassandra from Troy could see the future but nobody believed her’ she noted.

‘If you do become psychic and can see the future come to me when you want to make bets on the horses’ O’Neill offered. ‘You’re too young to gamble and I’ll only take a small percentage’ he said generously. ‘You only wish you’d thought to say it’ he told the other three USAF personnel who had immediately glared at him.

‘Cassie you have my permission to use Colonel O’Neill as a test subject and I expect to see a video of the results’ General Hammond told the girl. ‘The song “Gee, Officer Krupke” from the musical West Side Story would be an ideal accompaniment to the hopping’ he suggested. ‘Dismissed Colonel’ he told O’Neill before he could raise any objection.



Over the South Atlantic – Earth – July 2001

With engagement ranges measured in single digit kilometres at most the fighter combat between the X-COM pilots and their uninvited Sectoid visitors more closely resembled a classic dogfight than the beyond visual range missile duels so many of the human pilots had trained for in their previous careers flying for the various Airforces they hailed from. The aliens utilised extremely advanced Stealth, ECM and ECCM technology which prevented a target lock at long range whereas they themselves couldn’t use their own long-range radar analogues because when they did they found to their horror that X-COM immediately locked onto the active signal and used it to back-track their locations.

Sometimes it was so close that "knife-fight" might have been a better description of the action, Cameron Mitchell thought to himself as his F-302X Reaper chased a wildly jinking Sectoid “Foo Fighter” through the sky above a choppy South Atlantic Ocean below.

‘Stay still you little grey bastard’ Mitchell hissed as he fired his laser cannon again, the beams narrowly missing the target because it slid sideways just as he pressed the firing button on his joystick. That was something that still pissed him off mightily, the new human fighter was faster than its opponent and more heavily armoured being both shielded and with an outer skin made from a laminate of Trinium, super-plastics and heat-resistant ceramic, but the Sectoid fighter-jocks still had the edge in manoeuvrability and their plasma cannon had a faster rate of fire.

The Sectoid Fighter banked left sharply to try and break away from its pursuer but Mitchell had correctly predicted the move and fired again, the twin laser cannon set into the wing-roots of his Reaper searing through the alien hull alloy and clearly hitting something important because the Foo Fighter almost seemed to stop dead in the air and then plummeted straight towards the ocean with all the grace and aerodynamic qualities of a brick. ‘Can I get a hell yeah!’ Mitchell yelled in triumph as the alien craft fell from the sky.

It was the shields that did it, Mitchell knew. If it wasn’t for the fact that the Asgard modified deflectors worked properly in the atmosphere as well as it vacuum then the F-302X wouldn’t have made the impact it had when they started entering the fray only a couple of weeks before. The enemy fighters usually got in the first hits but their fire was soaked up by the Reapers and it only took one or two decent laser strikes to splash a Foo Fighter. The Firestorms had the same shields but their performance was so far behind the opposition that they were at a grievous disadvantage in a dogfight and usually never got the opportunity to get a decent bead on the target because their deflectors were depleted by numerous plasma hits.

Mitchell watched another alien fighter zip past with a pair of Reapers on its ass. ‘Get that son-of-bitch’ he said as they fired at it repeatedly, bracketing it with fire between them, one eventually got lucky and must have hit the power-plant because the Foo Fighter exploded into fragments, the debris slamming into their shields as they flew through the remains.

A far larger flash of light in the distance indicated that the larger alien ship the fighters had been escorting had just been nuked by the Firestorm assigned to deal with it. It only made sense to detail the less agile craft to the task of taking out the relatively lumbering vessels whilst the Reapers cleaned up the Foo Fighters. An X-COM pilot from the RAF had noted that it was like the Battle of Britain, with the Reapers taking up the Spitfire role of dealing with the fighters and the Firestorms playing the part of the Hurricane shooting down the slower less manoeuvrable foes they were protecting.

The production lines at Area-51 and Yamantau were rolling out more F-302X’s at a steady pace, replacing the Firestorms, captured Deathgliders and Sigrdrífa Interceptors which had been lost during the previous months and hopefully turning the tide of battle back in Earth’s favour after the nasty period when the aliens had retained the initiative. The Sectoids had responded of course, already increasing the numbers of escorts for their forays to Earth but this wasn’t making up for their losing what had been their gross performance edge over the human fighters. Reapers were being lost but in considerably lower numbers than the Foo Fighters, it was not a role reversal any combatant would welcome especially when X-COM was now churning out fighters quite a lot faster than the Sectoids were shooting them down.

The last remaining Foo Fighter of what had originally been seven before they were intercepted tried to make a run for it, heading for the safety of space at top atmospheric speed but it was chased down easily by Mitchell’s flight of F-302X fighters, their much better power-to-weight ratios giving them better acceleration and a higher maximum speed. It was summarily gunned down and fell to the ocean in two roughly equal chunks after a freakishly lucky laser beam neatly cut it in half.

‘Interceptor Control this is Shaft’ Mitchell transmitted on the secure X-COM frequency, ‘All bogeys in the water, no losses for our team’ he reported. ‘Unless you’ve got another place for us to be we’re heading home to break out the beers’ he announced.

‘This is Interceptor Control’ the radio responded, crackling to life. ‘No other intruders on the geoscape, return to base and well done’ it said.

‘You heard the man’ Mitchell transmitted to the other pilots, ‘it’s Beer O’Clock and the last one back to Fifty-One is buying’ he said.

‘Aw come on do I get a head-start at least?’ came a protest from the Firestorm pilot. Unlike the lucky Reaper flyers his craft couldn’t even make mach 6.5 whereas flat-out they could get up to over mach 9 in the atmosphere.

‘What do you think?’ Mitchell replied with a laugh.

‘I think that if you have to wait for me to reach the bar you’ll be missing out on some drinking time’ the Firestorm pilot pointed out.

‘We’ll run up a tab in your name’ Mitchell replied, ‘see you later’ he said and turned his fighter towards home. ‘Meep meep’ he added, slamming the throttles forward.

‘I always wanted the coyote to win in the cartoons too’ the Firestorm pilot declared, turning his saucer-shaped craft to follow the rapidly disappearing Reapers towards Nevada.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Curia Building - Tollana – August 2001

Ambassador Joseph Faxon smiled at High Chancellor Travell, it was only his second meeting with the head of the Tollan Curia since he arrived to take over the position which had been temporarily held by Elizabeth Weir and he was still amazed by the fact he was on an alien world, treating with an extra-terrestrial human government. ‘It’s a pity perhaps I agree’ he said, ‘but you must realise that the days when you could rely for your defence on nothing but your Ion Cannons may be numbered’ he told her. ‘You can bet your bottom dollar...’ he began then paused, ‘that’s a unit of currency’ he explained, ‘that if Apophis defeats the other System Lords he will come after you shortly afterwards.’

The High Chancellor smiled back. ‘Although not a warrior people the sophistication of our defence technology far exceeds that of the Goa’uld and you perhaps underestimate how formidable a weapon our Ion Cannon’s are’ she replied, earning nods from the other members of the Curia sat to her left and right along their side of the conference table.

Faxon half turned towards Elizabeth Weir who gave him a knowing smile of her own. The Tollan often seemed more than a touch condescending to their Tau’ri guests, using a tone of voice as if you would to children and she had warned him about it before they left the Embassy for this meeting. He was formulating a well worded diplomatic reply when Colonel O’Neill laughed, immediately gaining everyone’s attention.

‘Does something amuse you Colonel?’ High Chancellor Travell asked.

O’Neill looked her in the eye. ‘I was just remembering what happened to those formidable Ion Cannon’s the last time the Goa’uld attacked’ he said. ‘If it wasn’t for us getting Lya to hide one you’d all being getting whipped in a naquadah mine right now’ he told her.

‘Colonel’ Weir responded sharply in rebuke, for his part Daniel who was sat between them grimaced. It might have been better to pick a more diplomatic military representative but as the leader of the flagship SG Team the job had fallen to O’Neill. The rest of SG-1 were either back at the Embassy or in Sam’s case she had been invited to lunch by Narim who still seemed to hold a torch for her. Sergeant Andianov had however observed that Sam herself seemed to be more interested in Joseph Faxon despite only a few brief conversations between them. When Daniel had replied that he hadn’t noticed that himself and wondered if she was imagining it Andianov pointed out that he was a man and therefore utterly clueless regarding that sort of thing. For his part Teal’c mentioned that his wife had frequently correctly predicted developing bond-pairings which he had been oblivious to and that he sometimes suspected females to possess mild telepathic abilities. Andianov told him it was just that men were dense and he admitted his wife had also offered a similar explanation.

High Chancellor Travell raised her hand to indicate it was okay. ‘We remember the debt of gratitude we owe to your people for that’ she said, ‘but rest assured it won’t happen again’ she continued, ‘the Goa’uld would not be allowed free-rein to... what was the word?’ she said trying to remember the term the Tau’ri used, ‘paint... our Cannon for destruction in a pre-emptive attack again’ she told them confidently.

‘That’s all well and good High Chancellor’ Faxon commented, ‘but how would you cope with the sudden arrival of dozens of Goa’uld Hat’ak ships appearing in orbit above you simultaneously.’

‘We would destroy them’ another Curia member stated.

‘All of them?’ Faxon asked seriously. ‘Before any could launch a volley of fire from their main guns which our own military experts tell me could lay waste to much of this region at a stroke?’ he continued. ‘Are you absolutely certain of that?’

‘The Goa’uld don’t care about Jaffa losses, and if he’s defeated the other System Lord’s Apophis won’t care about losing a fair percentage of his fleet to wipe out an advanced human civilisation like yours’ Daniel opined. ‘You care about your people, he doesn’t’ he said flatly, ‘he’ll accept a few dozen destroyed Hat’aks to win, how many hundred thousand Tollan deaths would you be willing to have on your conscience?’ he asked rhetorically, ‘they’ll grind you down by weight of numbers until you surrender and then all hope is lost’ he told the Curia members, looking along the line.

Omoc sat at the very end of the line of Curia members leaned forward. ‘And I suppose this is when you say we need to give you advanced weapons to fight the Goa’uld so you can protect us?’ he asked knowingly.

‘No because even to a newcomer like me it’s clear that’s not going to happen’ Faxon replied. ‘The only alternative is that we do our best to equip you to defend yourselves’ he added with a wry smile. ‘If not with technology so much as ideas on how best to use the technology you have in a manner you may not have considered’ he explained.

‘You’re on Colonel, this is your field of expertise not mine’ Weir told O’Neill.

‘Thank you’ O’Neill responded, meshing his fingers on the table in front of him. ‘What you guys need is deterrence’ he told the Tollan, ‘you need something that will make the Goa’uld too damn scared to attack you and that doesn’t mean defence, that means retaliation’ he stated.

‘Retaliation?’ Omoc queried.

‘Right’ O’Neill confirmed, ‘you need Apophis and all the other System Lords to know that even if they did conquer Tollana they’d be risking their own sorry asses in the process’ he said. ‘They might be willing to lose a few Hat’aks but they’ll think twice if they were risking whole worlds’ he opined, standing up so to give his delivery more force.

‘On Earth we call it MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction’ Daniel observed, ‘Or sometimes the Balance of Terror’ he added.

‘And MAD is a lot saner than it sounds’ O’Neill noted. ‘Okay here’s how it works back home’ he began. ‘The major military powers each keep an arsenal of nuclear weapons to deter each other from attacking’ he explained. ‘It’s pretty simple, you nuke us and we’ll nuke you back, back to the stone-age if things ever got too nasty’ he continued. ‘Now one problem is that someone might launch a sneak attack, like the Goa’uld did to you before, trying to knock out your weapons on the ground before launch’ he said, ‘so how we do it is that we hide submarines in the ocean with nukes aboard as a guarantee against that, even a sneak attack doesn’t mean you don’t get blown all to hell in retaliation.’

‘We know from the story of Serita that you have the technology to create inordinately powerful weapons that can cause planetary-level destruction’ Daniel said.

‘That technology was misused by the Seritans’ Travell responded. ‘It was that misuse which not only destroyed Serita but meant that the original Tollan homeworld had to be abandoned.’

‘Yeah but it still went boom and you must know how to do it yourselves’ O’Neill replied. ‘We can’t build anything that powerful, and we haven’t seen the Goa’uld demonstrate that kind of firepower either’ he said. ‘So there’s your deterrent’ he noted, ‘tell them if they attack Tollana you’ll blow the crap out of them’ he explained. ‘Point them towards what’s left of Serita so they can check it out for themselves you’re not bluffing when you say you can do it and then sit back and find out how much balls they really have’ he said with a grin. ‘It ain’t much’ he declared confidently.

‘We’ve given you our designs for a Hyperdrive that is as fast as contemporary Goa’uld vessels’ Faxon noted. ‘That gives you ability to get to their worlds’ he said.

‘And you use your phase-shifting technology on those ships to hide them’ O’Neill added. ‘We hide our ultimate deterrent on submarines, you put yours on ships that can’t be seen’ he suggested. ‘We’ve seen you guys walk through walls so I guess you could even put some of your ships inside planets where the Goa’uld could never get to them’ he queried. ‘Make sure the Goa’uld know all about it’ he advised, ‘demonstrate that you’ve got ships as fast as them, tell them they carry those Ion Cannons of yours too and tell them very loudly that they carry planet-busting bombs and that if they come calling uninvited of you then you’ll come calling on them and you won’t be in a good mood.’

‘You expect us to slaughter millions?’ High Chancellor Travell asked in horror.

‘No’ O’Neill replied, ‘you won’t have to’ he stated with certainty.

‘One of the defining traits of the Goa’uld is that they are not only self-serving but they’re also obsessed with self-preservation’ Daniel noted. ‘The System Lords won’t attack you if they think there’s a reasonable possibility of the kind of response you’re technologically capable of.’

Omoc frowned. ‘We wouldn’t have thought in these terms’ he said.

‘We know’ Elizabeth Weir replied, ‘you’re really not a warlike people’ she said, ‘and personally I find your non-expansionist neutrality refreshing, but from what I’ve learned about the rest of the galaxy the near utopian society you’ve created here is endangered by forces beyond your control.’

‘I’ll admit it, technologically we are primitive compared to you’ O’Neill told the members of the Curia, ‘but in other ways you’re damn naive’ he said, ‘it’s a big bad galaxy and you’re too advanced to be so damn optimistic’ he continued, ‘frankly from our perspective Tollan Foreign and Defence Policy amounts to cross your fingers and hope for the best.’

‘Cross your fingers?’ Travell queried in confusion.

Daniel demonstrated. ‘People on Earth do this for good luck’ he explained. ‘It’s only a superstition of course’ he said, ‘more reasoned people make their own luck through their actions’ he added meaningfully.

‘We would have to discuss this in great depth in the Curia, and likely put any such decision to the entire population in a referendum’ the High Chancellor said. ‘I can see your argument but it is a radical shift from a policy that has served the Tollan people well for many centuries’ she said.

‘Rest assured that Earth stands ready to offer our Tollan friends any advice or counsel you might require’ Faxon replied.

‘We might be unevolved but we’re good at war’ O’Neill remarked. ‘Or maybe because of it’ he theorised.

Weir couldn’t help but sadly agree, the thing that bothered her most was that it was likely the only thing that gave the Tau’ri any hope of survival. What they currently lacked in technology or resources the humans of Earth made up for in the fact that thousands of years of continual warfare had bought them to a level of sheer proficiency in military matters nobody else seemed to match.

In the long-term the real question perhaps was what the galaxy would be like when Earth had broad technological parity with its rivals as well.



Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – August 2001

Doctor Fraser showed the results of her investigations to General Hammond before dropping the clipboard onto her desk. They were alone in the infirmary which was good because she wasn’t sure how certain people might react to the news, she had wanted to talk it over with the General before confronting Commander Sharp who should arrive in five minutes or so. The Commander had only just returned from the latest wave of attacks on the logistical supply lines of Apophis Fleet and had been about to head into Colorado Springs to find a bar when Fraser had sent him a note asking him to come see her.

‘Drugs?’ Hammond said incredulously. ‘They’re all on drugs?’ he asked in astonishment.

Janet Fraser nodded. ‘Various kinds’ she confirmed. ‘None of them showed up on any routine screening though a few were clearly developments of compounds I’m partially familiar with’ she said. ‘If I had to guess they’re probably taking a combination of experimental performance enhancing drugs and have been for some time’ she told him. ‘I was doing some random testing of blood samples checking for traces of off-world viruses or bacteria and I noticed something odd about all the samples from X-COM personnel’ she said. ‘I had their samples put through a mass spectrometer and found all sorts of things that shouldn’t have been in there’ Fraser told him.

‘You mean like steroids?’ Hammond asked.

‘Yes there’s at least one anabolic steroid in there’ Doctor Fraser confirmed, ‘but there are also Erythropoietin-like hormones which increase both the number of red blood cells and the individual ability of those cells to carry oxygen’ she said. Additional chemicals appear to have a neurological effect on how the fight-or-flight reflex is triggered, and possibly increase aggression, and amongst other physical performance enhancing drugs there are several types of Nootroopics.’

Hammon frowned. ‘Nootropic?’ he queried.

‘Cognitive Enhancers’ Doctor Fraser explained. ‘They improve brain function’ she continued, ‘improved memory, faster reaction times, increased awareness, focus and alertness’ she listed then paused. ‘Haven’t you ever noticed how some of the X-COM people sometimes seem to have this “ready to pounce” look about them?’ she asked rhetorically.

General Hammond shrugged. ‘I put it down to them all being unhinged because of the PTSD’ he replied honestly.

‘That’s probably a factor too but at least to some extent it’s the chemicals floating around their systems’ Fraser told him. ‘The effects seem to be cumulative over time although they would eventually plateau because you can’t push the human body or mind too far’ she said. ‘Those X-COM personnel who survive the first few missions get better fast because they’ve been enhanced with various pharmaceuticals’ she told him. ‘They have greater awareness which added to improved recall means they learn at an accelerated rate’ she continued. ‘Better oxygen transfer in the blood means greater endurance and the steroids mean they get stronger too.’

‘I’m guessing there’s a major downside’ Hammond asked.

Fraser nodded. ‘They cannot possibly know what the long-term side-effects will be’ she replied. ‘Or for that matter what the medium-term effects will be on their psyches’ she added. ‘You’d never get approval to dose anyone up with this cocktail’ she stated with certainty. ‘Looking at the Nootropic’s alone I found a Piracetam derivative, Aniracetam, Nicergoline and Sulbutiamine’ she said. ‘It’s almost a witches brew’ she said with distaste.

‘The short-term effects of not taking them was the extreme likelihood of being killed by plasma fire so we decided it was worth it’ Commander Russell Sharp interrupted. ‘We were wondering when you’d find out, took longer than I thought it would but I guess our geeks were right about the stuff not being easy to detect’ he said, walking into the infirmary and closing the door behind him. ‘Sorry for arriving early and listening at the door but my chemically boosted paranoia kicked in’ he told them wryly.

‘You’ve been experimenting on your own men’ Fraser said, finger pointing in accusation. ‘Do they know they’re guinea-pigs?’ she asked angrily.

‘Yes and they’re all volunteers, myself included of course’ Sharp replied. ‘You didn’t honestly think we were naturally so much better than regular Special Forces did you?’ he asked with amusement. ‘We only give the pills and injections to the ones that have survived a few missions first so they get over any reluctance they might have for obtaining an edge by any means necessary’ he told them. ‘I wouldn’t have taken the stuff until I saw first-hand what we were up against myself either’ he said. ‘After my Road to Damascus moment I’d have let them inject me with anything they wanted’ he said honestly.

‘I cannot believe that X-COM got UN approval for something like this’ Hammond declared.

‘We didn’t, this was just something our own R&D guys cooked up’ Sharp replied, ‘the bleeding heart liberals would never have signed off on a plan to pump us grunts full of mostly untested pharmaceuticals’ he continued, ‘it was all done on our own initiative’ he told them. ‘And we would have got away with it too if it wasn’t for you meddling kids’ he deadpanned.

‘You think this is funny?’ Doctor Fraser asked irately. ‘This is verging on Doctor Frankenstein territory’ she declared. ‘This is the sort of thing I’d expect from Loki or Nirti’ she declared.

Sharp chuckled. ‘Sometimes I forget how soft you are’ he replied. ‘X-COM Troops expect to die in combat’ he told them, ‘even with our fancy high-tech medkits, and that sarcophagus we’ve got these days it’s only a matter of time before we meet the plasma bolt with our name on it’ he said. ‘The drugs help push that time back and also mean we get an opportunity to take a few more aliens with us to Valhalla’ he said. ‘Victory at any costs, self-sacrifice is our watchword remember’ he continued. ‘Now don’t be too scathing, the USAF gives its pilots amphetamine-based “go-pills” we just take the notion of better soldiering through chemistry a few stages further.’

‘This stuff might kill you’ Fraser pointed out forcefully.

‘I know’ sharp replied evenly, ‘it hasn’t turned my brain into a bucket’s worth of mush yet’ he told her, ‘but my guess is an eventual nice quick cerebral aneurysm being as how I’m an optimist, some of the guys think we’ll all get cancer instead though’ he added.

‘What about the possible mood altering effects, have you considered if you’re fit to command?’ Doctor Fraser asked seriously.

‘I’ll give you authorisation to look at my X-COM psych evaluations’ Sharp replied, ‘according to our shrinks I’m just crazy enough to do my job properly without having a mental breakdown’ he told them. ‘I’ve got that scheduled for after the war’ he said, ‘no time to waste going insane when there’s still extra-terrestrials to fight’ he joked.

‘I’ll have to report this all to my superiors’ Hammond told Sharp.

‘Of course George’ Sharp responded, ‘it’s your duty’ he told him. ‘They’ll make some noise and so will the Security Council but in the end they’ll accept it’s a fait accompli’ he said confidently. ‘The Sectoids and the Goa’uld are too much of a clear and present danger to worry about trivial crap like this’ he told them. ‘We all signed waivers and knew the possible consequences before we swallowed the pills and had the needles stuck in our arms’ he continued. ‘The only difference is going to be we won’t have to be so secretive about it from now on.’

‘You don’t honestly think they’ll sweep this under the carpet do you’ Fraser asked.

‘Of course I do, we’ve been covering up alien invasions from the public, they’re not going to do anything about a few scientists ignoring FDA rules on human-testing or whatever’ Sharp replied with conviction. ‘More than half our scientists and engineers are taking the stuff too’ he revealed. ‘That’s part of the reason we’re so damn good, we take the very best in every field and make them better’ he continued. ‘We don’t give any more of a crap about health and safety rules than we do about patent law, we get stuff done fast because our lab geeks can work longer and harder and they don’t mind cutting corners on safety to speed things up’ he said. ‘Nobody ever asks how we do it because the people at the top don’t care about the methods they only care about the results.’

Hammond shook his head sadly. ‘Nobody might have ever known’ he realised.

‘None of us grunts would have ratted out the guys who came up with the idea and the politicians wouldn’t have investigated’ Sharp replied. ‘It would have been X-COM’s little secret’ he said.

‘Do you really all care so little for your own lives?’ Fraser asked quietly. ‘You do know that the EPO hormone they give you can cause cardiovascular problems as well as being linked to an increased likelihood of tumours?’ she asked.

‘Yeah but you should see how much faster I can run the ten-thousand metres now’ Sharp replied. ‘The cognitive enhancers might do something nasty to my brain too but I’ll take that risk for the better memory and quicker reactions’ he continued. ‘Hey you’d be surprised at how many points higher my IQ tests out as now’ he said brightly.

‘Pity the drugs clearly haven’t improved your common-sense too Commander’ Fraser snapped back. She was a doctor and a humanitarian so to her human life was far too precious to be treated in such a cavalier fashion.

‘I can direct you to a large number of both former commanding officers and girlfriends that would assure you that there’s not a pharmaceutical made that’s capable of that feat Doctor’ Sharp replied. ‘I might take stimulants other than spinach but like Popeye said “I am what I am”.’

The Commander later wished he had chosen other words because once the news spread along with Doctor Frasers detailing of the conversation he could have done without the less than fearsome nom-de-guerre of “Sharpy the X-COM Man”.



High Orbit - Kawawn – August 2001

‘According to the information our spy in Bastet’s ranks told us we should expect the enemy fleet to arrive very soon My Lord’ the Jaffa stood before him reported to Zipacna.

‘Is the entire fleet concealed?’ the Goa’uld asked, leaning back in his throne-like chair on the Hat’aks bridge.

‘Yes My Lord’ the Jaffa replied. ‘They will not know they have walked into a trap until we open fire’ he declared. ‘Their losses will surely cripple their ongoing counter-offensive as you predicted.’

Zipacna nodded. ‘Lord Apophis will be pleased by our victory’ he said then smirked ‘Execute any prisoners we recover from the wreckage of their ships’ he ordered.

‘It will be done My Lord’ the Jaffa responded, turning to head back to his duty station.

The sheer size of Apophis fleet and the scale of the war meant that he couldn’t possibly run the entire enterprise himself and had delegated some control to associates of proven loyalty, or at least known sycophancy such as Zipacna who could always be relied upon to faithfully serve any System Lord who was in the ascendant. Given command of a medium-sized fleet of Hat’ak vessels for the past three months Zipacna had been fighting with some moderate success against the combined forces of Bastet, Amaterasu and Kali whilst Apophis himself spearheaded the fight against Lord Yu and the rest of the coalition of System Lords arraigned against him. Initially the coalition had proved more effective than Apophis had expected stopping his advance and then pushing him back several systems but soon he had rallied his forces and the fighting was now one of attrition with Apophis seeking to wear his opponents down, relying on his superior numbers and the greater industrial base he had inherited from Sokar to win the day.

In some ways being on the defensive had also helped Apophis, his Hat’ak’s possessed cloaking devices that the other System Lords only had fitted to a limited number of far smaller craft such as Tel’taks and this offered the possibly of ambush which had become a favourite tactic of Zipacna in particular. As soon as news arrived of a coalition attack being planned against Kawawn, one of Apophis principle mining planets, Zipacna had arranged this warm reception for them, a simultaneous decloaking and point-blank volley from the main guns on his Hat’aks would cause both heavy damage and disorder in the fleets of the three female System Lords before the fleets clashed in earnest.

After another victory Apophis was bound to offer Zipacna his own small empire, carved from those of the vanquished, the Goa’uld thought happily to himself. He harboured no ambition to be an independent System Lord in his own right, remaining a vassal with a few worlds to rule and a few million slaves to lord it over was all he wanted which is why he was going to survive and prosper while others fell by the wayside. Zipacna had known which way the wind was blowing as soon as Apophis took command of Sokar’s legions and had quickly returned to the service of his former master, noting that he had also loyalty served Clorel his heir.

‘Vessels emerging from hyperspace My Lord’ a Jaffa reported. ‘They appear to be those we expected’ he continued.

‘Number?’ Zipacna asked.

‘Twelve Hat’ak’s’ the Jaffa answered, ‘four each from the fleets of Ametsaru, Kali and Bastet’ he noted.

‘Excellent’ Zipacna responded. ‘We outnumber them as well as enjoying the element of surprise’ he noted with satisfaction. ‘This should be an easy victory’ he said.

‘They are closing on the planet’ the Jaffa announced. ‘Approaching optimum firing range’ he continued then checked his console. ‘Five more vessels emerging from hyperspace’ he said.

Zipacna sighed, if they were going to be more evenly matched in numbers he was likely to lose some ships even if victory itself was still guaranteed. ‘Who’s ships are they?’ he asked, not that it matter which of the bitches had sent them.

The Jaffa turned. ‘The other Hat’aks belong to Lord Baal’ he reported.

‘Baal?’ Zipacna repeated with a frown. ‘You are certain?’ he checked.

‘Yes My Lord’ the Jaffa confirmed. ‘The vessels are forming up with the others.’

‘Our Master Apophis said he expected Baal to enter the fray in time’ Zipacna said thoughtfully. ‘We will make him regret siding with our enemies’ he added. ‘Prepare to decloak and open fire’ he commanded. ‘Make sure that at least one of the vessels destroyed in the first salvo is from Baal’s fleet’ he ordered.

‘The enemy ships are firing upon us!’ the Jaffa exclaimed in shock as the five vessels belonging to Baal opened up, somehow targeting them despite the cloak.

With cloaks engaged the Hat’aks were unable to fully power their shields and seconds later two of Zipacna’s ships exploded as they were ripped apart by a storm of incoming plasma fire. The rest including his own immediately decloaked and powered up their shields as the ships of the three female System Lords joined in the fight.

Things continued to degenerate for Apophis’s forces from that point, the ships belonging to Baal not only seemed to possess technology that could see cloaked vessels but their weapons were notably more powerful than a standard Hat’ak and their shields must have been upgraded too because even concentrated fire from several of Zipacna’s own ships failed to overwhelm them.

Zipacna watched as two more of his Hat’aks exploded joining the remains of others which were starting to litter the area, pieces would be falling to Kawawn and burning up in the atmosphere for years to come. One of Bastet’s ships and two of Kali’s had been destroyed as well and other enemy vessels had been damaged enough to retreat but Baal’s forces continued to fight on unscathed and relentlessly engaged and destroyed on Hat’ak after another.

‘Prepare to withdraw’ Zipacna ordered, ‘have those ships which are already damaged stay and cover our retreat’ he commanded. ‘Lord Apophis must be told of this and we cannot risk losing any more ships’ he declared, hoping that it would prove a good enough excuse for Apophis not to have him executed for running away.

Sat on the bridge of one of his own Hat’aks Baal watched in satisfaction as Zipacna fled into hyperspace. ‘A successful test of our improved ships wouldn’t you say Nerus?’ he asked the unusually fat and unattractive Goa’uld stood to his right.

‘My integration of the upgraded sensor, shield and weapon designs provided by Anubis into our fleet has gone very well Sire’ Nerus replied, before taking another swig from the crystal goblet in his right hand. ‘It seems likely that the ships Anubis is building himself will be even more powerful however’ he warned. ‘Perhaps even a match for the Asgard in sufficient numbers.’

Baal nodded, Anubis would almost certainly kept the very best technology back for his own use giving his temporary ally only enough of an advantage to help mitigate the continuing numerical superiority of Apophis over the entire coalition. ‘When we land troops to take over the mines inspect the machinery for signs of sabotage and determine if we can increase production’ he told Nerus. ‘I want as much ore as possible transferred back to our shipyards’ he ordered then looked him over in distaste. ‘And we’re at war which means skip lunch and no fooling around with slavegirls when you should be working’ he added.

Known for his “many appetites” Nerus sighed dejectedly. Unfortunately Baal himself was known for his many inventive punishments when crossed so he decided to do as he was told.

‘Your plan worked excellently too’ Baal told the woman stood to his left. ‘Turning an ambush back on itself was a masterstroke’ he said. ‘I thought you’d like to witness it yourself’ he continued, ‘you can return home now and give my thanks to the rest of the Tok’ra for providing such first-rate intelligence on the deployments of Apophis forces.’

‘You’re welcome’ Zarin replied offering a somewhat ironic bow to her supposed master before turning to leave. A Tel’tak would transport her back to the worlds she continued to rule in his name despite being now known as an agent of the Tok’ra. As long as Apophis remained a greater threat to both of them than they were to each other Baal and the usually despised Tok’ra were allies of convenience.

Baal watched the Tok’ra leave, he could never take the likes of her as a Queen of course but she would make a nice living trophy once things were back to a semblance of normality. She talked back and he liked the verbal sparring and the mutual dislike of each others near-identical races provided a nice spark.

‘I wonder if the Tok’ra have informed the Tau’ri of our more recently amiable contact with them?’ Nerus asked curiously.

‘Doubtful’ Baal replied, ‘they’re naturally duplicitous and secretive’ he opined. ‘We can use that to divide them when the time comes.’

‘Planning for the next war already?’ Nerus asked.

‘Next but one’ Baal replied, ‘after Apophis we’ll have to deal with Anubis’ he said. ‘The Tok’ra and the Tau’ri are third-rate threats by comparison.’

Nerus nodded, what could a dwindling number of traitors and some primitive humans do to the System Lords other than provide an irritant to be scratched out one day?

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Aschen Harvester - P3A-194 (former Vollian Union) – August 2001

One thing that Colonel O’Neill hadn’t expected when the Aschen were confronted with the evidence SG-1 had found in the underground ruins of the Vollian city was for them to so readily admit what they had done to the unfortunate Vollians two centuries earlier. Releasing a genetically engineered plague then offering a “cure” which incidentally rendered the vast majority of the population sterile was close to being one of the most despicable acts O’Neill had ever heard of, and after years of fighting the Goa’uld that was saying something.

It was damn fortunate for the galaxy that the Aschen Confederation was isolated by circumstance from everyone else. They had control of a small number of star systems relatively near their homeworld which they had reached via spaceship, and they possessed the stargates that linked P3A-194 with their own planet which was apparently P4C-970, but like the Tollan their indigenously developed hyperdrive technology was relatively slow and both of their stargates lacked the DHD’s needed to account for stellar drift over time. This meant they had never expanded very far and although advanced enough to actually convert a Gas-Giant planet into a star as they had in the Vollian System they were nonetheless not the major power in the galaxy they potentially could have been.

Recalled from Tollana early Elizabeth Weir had been given the job of negotiating with the Aschen and she couldn’t say she was enjoying it. At least the Tollan for all their technological advancement didn’t think that other less-advanced peoples were worthless like these people apparently did, or perhaps used to. Spearing Mollem, the lone Aschen official present, with a look across the small briefing table she made sure to voice her comments as calmly as possible. ‘So you freely admit what you did to the people of this world?’ she asked. ‘That you snuffed out their entire civilisation?’

‘Yes’ Mollem replied flatly, ‘please keep in mind that it occurred a long time ago however’ he added.

The Aschen were far from stupid, they knew that trying to pretend their sterilisation and stealthy conquest of the Vollian Union never happened might fail, and if caught out in the lie they would look very bad to these primitive, though presumably more dangerous than they looked Earth people, so they had prepared a cover-story if discussions turned for the worst.

‘What do you mean it happened a long time ago?’ O’Neill retorted. ‘Do you think that makes it alright?’ he asked sarcastically. He was very pleased that the rest of SG-1 with plenty of firepower were by the gate, if anything unpleasant happened they were ready to demonstrate to the Aschen that being centuries behind in technology overall didn’t mean that Earth didn’t still have some very nasty hardware. In the worst case scenario the SGC would throw some very large naquadah-enhanced nukes through the gates to both here and the Aschen homeworld which would at least give even the most advanced societies pause for thought regarding messing with the Tau’ri.

Mollem’s expression did not change in response to O’Neill’s obvious hostility. ‘No of course not but although our average lifespans are perhaps twice yours according to the information we have already shared, you must remember that it has been over two centuries since the Confederation came to this world’ he noted, ‘many decades have passed since the last member of the administration of that time died of old age’ he said. ‘Is there no action of the government of your own nation within the last two centuries that you would not now regret and wish to change if you could?’ he asked.

O’Neill opened his mouth to retort but then realised what the United States was still doing to the Native Americans barely more than a single century ago. Just because the Aschen government used to be evil assholes didn’t mean they still necessarily were so maybe he should be willing to give them a bit more of the benefit of the doubt. ‘Okay I see your point’ he conceded. You couldn’t automatically hold someone guilty for a crime their ancestors committed.

‘You need to understand our situation’ Mollem told them. ‘The habitable areas of our homeworld are densely populated and highly industrialised’ he said. ‘We have too many mouths to feed with the farmland available so we rely upon grain supplies from here to sustain our population’ he continued. ‘The situation deteriorated sharply a short time before our spaceships found the Vollian Union and our leaders at that time decided that we deserved the agricultural output of this world more than the people originally living here did.’

‘Because you were a couple of hundred years more advanced?’ Weir asked.

‘That was the justification made’ Mollem replied.

Elizabeth Weir thought about what Mollem had said and this raised a question. ‘Why did your population problems get worse so quickly?’ she queried.

‘We developed new techniques for increasing the lifespans of our people’ Mollem explained. ‘Unfortunately we had not fully considered...’

‘That less people dying is more people to feed’ Weir finished for him.

‘Exactly’ Mollem responded. ‘We have conquered almost all forms of disease, we live over twice as long as our ancestors’ he continued. ‘There are simply too many Aschen for a single world to accommodate’ he said. ‘The most extreme elements said we should simply release biological warfare agents to kill all the Vollian’s at a stroke but that was deemed too immoral, even when we ourselves were facing famine’ he told them. ‘Instead our government used more subtle means.’

‘Sterilise ninety percent of the population and just wait for them to die out’ Weir replied.

‘Yes’ Mollem confirmed. Taken as a whole it was a very well-considered lie given that it was in fact mostly an accurate version of the events and would therefore stand up to scrutiny if investigated, the only deviation from the truth was that the current Aschen government would still be perfectly willing to do what their great-grandparents did. They didn’t feel guilty about what they did to the Vollians whatsoever and would happily do the same to these Tau’ri if given the opportunity.

‘I suppose that’s easier to live with than slaughtering them’ O’Neill remarked with a snort.

‘The Vollian Union was a century less advanced than you are now when we encountered them’ Mollon noted, ‘we had faster-than-light starships and they had the internal combustion engine’ he continued. ‘We could have easily blasted wiped them out from orbit but even at a time when our own children were starving we would not kill theirs so callously.’

‘But you would happily ensure they wouldn’t have any more?’ Weir commented.

‘It was a difficult decision which I am glad the current government does not have to make’ Mollem told them. ‘Our population is stable and thanks largely to food shipments through the stargate from the farms here nobody goes hungry.’

‘Covered up the whole story from the remaining Vollians though didn’t you?’ O’Neill pointed out.

‘What’s done is done’ Mollem replied. ‘Do we mistreat the Vollians in any way other than hide their past from them?’ he asked.

‘To me that’s bad enough’ O’Neill told him. ‘What your ancestors did to theirs was monstrous.’

‘I agree but what do you expect us to do about it now?’ Mollem asked rhetorically. ‘We try to make amends in a small way by providing the Vollians with medical and other technologies that make their lives better’ he said. ‘You have talked to the people here, do they consider us oppressive invaders?’ he asked.

O’Neill frowned. ‘No’ he conceded. Keel, the farmer that lived closest to the stargate with his family hadn’t had anything bad to say about the Aschen, in return for his grain they provided medicine, machinery and help when requested and otherwise left him alone to do whatever the hell he wanted, he was inordinately better off than he would have been under the Goa’uld at least.

‘We know that you are unlikely to trust us in the circumstances but the Aschen Confederation hopes that you will come to do so in time’ Mollem told Weir. ‘You have both stargate addresses and the knowledge on how to correct for stellar drift plus more advanced hyperdrives to offer’ he said. ‘We can trade teleportation technology, medicines and far more’ he said. ‘An alliance or at least continuing friendly contact would be advantageous to both parties’ he continued, ‘especially given the goa’uld threat you have made us aware of.’

‘You guys are way more advanced than the Goa’uld’ O’Neill pointed out.
‘We control a small number of worlds, we do not have a vast navy to protect us and what vessels we have are slower than theirs’ Mollem replied. ‘We do not keep a large standing military, the most dangerous weapons we could produce in a short space of time would be biological, thanks to our mastery of genetic engineering, but the ability to poison the air of their worlds would not help us when they send ships through the vacuum of space.’

‘Oh for crying out loud why can’t we ever meet an advanced human civilisation who’s got a proper damn armed forces’ O’Neill complained. Although he did wonder if the idea of the Aschen with a decent fleet might have bothered him even more, they had no sense of humour and frankly gave him the creeps.

‘When did we ever need one?’ Mollem asked reasonably. ‘Perhaps given our more comparable technological base the Tollan you mentioned might be more willing to help us than they apparently were you?’ he suggested.

‘Sure’ O’Neill replied with a snort, ‘I bet they’d give you guys Ion Cannon’s’ he said bitterly. That was a continuing sore-point with him.

‘Ion Cannon?’ Mollem repeated quizzically.

‘Big Honking Space-Guns’ O’Neill explained. ‘Tollan weapon, blow a Goa’uld ship right outta the sky’ he said. ‘They don’t have a proper military either but they can kick some serious ass when provoked’ he added.

‘We would very much like to include them in negotiations’ Mollem stated. ‘Along with establishing contact with the Asgard, Tok’ra and Nox’ he requested. ‘If you were to act as intermediaries on our behalf you would earn the gratitude of the Aschen Confederation’ he said.

‘How much gratitude are we talking about?’ O’Neill asked with rising interest.

‘I’m sure we could offer something as a gesture of good-will’ Mollem replied. ‘Have you cured cancer yet?’ he asked.

Weir and O’Neill looked at each other before facing him again. ‘Okay, you can consider us interested’ O’Neill told him, Weir nodding her heartfelt agreement. ‘But if we start going sterile just remember that we will nuke you back to the stone-age’ he added seriously.

Mollem decided O’Neill was being serious and correctly surmised that it was making that mistake which led to the Aschen sending a warning from the future about not provoking X-COM. It would not be a mistake they would repeat, far better to play a long game and ingratiate themselves with the other major civilisations of the galaxy until the Aschen Confederation was in a position to take over.

Say what you like about the Aschen, they were a great deal of help when the Ori started releasing their own genetically engineered bio-weapons starting with the “Prior Plague” into the Milky Way, the Ori being, to put it mildly, less than happy to discover that there was an advanced and independent human civilisation who were just as ruthless and competent at germ warfare as they were. To quote Major-General Jack O’Neill in 2005, when Earth put together the Grand Alliance to fight the invaders “The Aschen? They’re bastards, but they’re our bastards.”



Desert (Wormhole X-Treme shooting location) – Earth – September 2001

Tanner couldn’t do much but just stare at the two Tau’ri as they continued to argue. Despite his men having firearms trained on them they were pointedly ignoring the implied threat and were continuing their impromptu heated conversation unabashed. Only the Jaffa seemed to be taking the situation seriously and was aiming a weapon of his own, aiming it Tanner himself as the leader. They were all some distance from the filming with the vans that had bought the equipment and everyone else seemed more interested in watching the show being filmed than they were in them.

‘Lighten up Sergeant’ O’Neill told Andianov. ‘It’s not like it’s really us’ he pointed out. ‘The guy they’ve got playing Teal’c is supposed to be a freaking android’ he told her, pointing across at the actor plastered in grey makeup. If nothing else the existence of the show was a terrific cover-story for the real SGC, and added much plausible deniability for any leaks.

Andianov narrowed her eyes. ‘You are not the one who for some reason is portrayed as going into battle in ludicrously short shorts and a tight top’ she complained, indicating the actress playing “Elena Yermalov” the “feisty and fast-on-the-trigger” fifth member of the team as she talked to the producer. ‘I will be mocked relentlessly about this when the series is televised’ Andianov told him. Both the SGC and X-COM personnel would never allow her to forget this embarrassment, she knew, it was bad enough that the drug addled brain of the extra-terrestrial Martin Lloyd had remembered enough of them to write this dire television show but it was clear in Andianov’s mind that in his subconscious he had been harbouring lascivious thoughts about her, the shower scene in the script was particularly galling, especially as she had a much nicer backside than that actress.

‘You should take a leaf out of my book’ O’Neill told her. ‘I’m taking this all in my stride.’

‘Your character “Colonel Danning” gets all the good lines, such as they are, shoots many aliens and gets all the girls’ Andianov retorted. ‘Of course you are not displeased’ she continued, ‘I am nothing but... what would you call it?’ she said trying to think of the right phrase, ‘eye candy’ she declared irately crossing her arms in front of her borrowed USAF uniform, the two of them there supposedly as technical advisors to the show. Her accent explained to the curious as her being a naturalised citizen born in the Ukraine.

Tanner finally couldn’t take it any more. ‘Aren’t you in the least bit annoyed that we’re about to get away?’ he asked.

O’Neill turned away from the Russian and towards Tanner ‘Why the hell did you think that was going to happen?’ he replied in mock confusion.

‘Because any second now our ship is going to arrive and transport us off the planet’ Tanner replied evenly. ‘We can’t stay here any longer, either you people or the NID will find us eventually.’

‘You’re going to get away on your ship?’ O’Neill queried, turning back to Andianov with exaggerated surprise. ‘They think they’re going to get away on their ship’ he told her, overacting nearly as much as the guy playing “Colonel Danning”.

‘What ship?’ Andianov asked, playing along.

‘They must have two’ O’Neill remarked. ‘It’s the only explanation’ he said. ‘Damn we only knew about the one that probe took a picture of out near Mars or somewhere’ he noted regretfully.

‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Tanner demanded to know.

‘Your ship, the one you hid out past Mars, in the asteroid belt wasn’t it?’ O’Neill replied. ‘We didn’t know about the other one’ he said, shaking his head sadly before smirking.

‘We’ve only got one ship’ Tanner replied, with increasing annoyance evident in his tone.

‘Ooh, that’s not good for you guys then’ O’Neill told them. ‘Seeing as how you’ve got about as much chance of getting away in that as I do getting a job in show business’ he continued, ‘I guess seeing as how the Goa’uld kicked your butts that your ship isn’t really much use in a stand up fight with a Hat’ak right?’ he asked.

Tanner blinked. ‘A Goa’uld Hat’ak?’ he said nervously.

‘Well it was Goa’uld built but it’s more of a Tau’ri Hat’ak these days right Teal’c?’ he asked his companion.

‘Indeed O’Neill, our seizure of the vessel makes it the property of this world as spoils of war’ Teal’c agreed.

O’Neill pointed upwards. ‘We had it positioned so that the Earth was between it and your ship on its way in, in case your ship might have spotted it and warned you about it somehow I mean’ he explained, ‘but it’ll be right above us just about the time you try to get away and it’ll shoot your ass right outta the sky if you try and make a run for it’ he said confidently. ‘Unless one of the Reapers gets to you first’ he added, ‘we’ll have a squadron of those things over this desert any second and those fighter-jocks are always looking to be the first to knock down a new type of alien ship.’

‘Reapers?’ one of the other extra-terrestrial humans queried, looking up, there were vapour trails way up there.

‘Earth built fighters made from recovered alien technology’ O’Neill explained, ‘they’re sweet too’ he continued appreciatively, ‘hey I think some of the tech might have even come from the escape pod you people came to Earth in originally’ he noted. ‘I think that’s just a load of spare parts at Area 51 these days.’

‘You want our ship’ Tanner said coldly.

‘Oh yeah’ O’Neill confirmed, ‘and we’re going to get it’ he added. ‘The question that should really be concerning you right now is what are we going to do with you?’ he told him.

‘Planning to strap us to a nice dissection table somewhere?’ Tanner asked, ‘pump us full of truth drugs so we tell you all the secrets of our technology?’ he suggested. ‘Kill us or leave our memories like Marty afterwards?' he said with distaste.

‘It would get my vote’ Andianov spoke up, earning a disparaging look from O’Neill which caused her to roll her eyes and mutter in Russian about how the X-COM way was more efficient.

‘But fortunately for you this isn’t a democracy and I was thinking something less drastic’ O’Neill noted. ‘You guys were sent out looking for people to help you find the Goa’uld right?’ he asked Tanner rhetorically. Martin had told them the full story the last time they met him the year before.

‘This planet was a dead loss on that score’ Tanner replied bitterly. They were even further behind the Goa’uld in weapons technology here than his people had been.

‘And then instead of going home to fight you deserted when you realised Earth wasn’t advanced enough to fight the Goa’uld’ O’Neill continued. ‘That didn’t sit well with Martin’ he added, at least the little guy had the guts to want to go home and fight after he got guility enough about it.

Tanner glared at O’Neill. ‘If we didn’t know for a fact it was suicide and wouldn’t achieve a damn thing we would have gone home to fight’ he practically growled.

‘Your world was destroyed’ O’Neill told him, it was hardly a great revelation by their reaction ‘we went there and checked’ he said. ‘If you’d gone home to fight you’d be dead like all the rest of your people’ he told them all, looking each of them in the eye in turn, all but Tanner unable to meet his gaze. ‘Me, now I’d have probably gone home and gone down fighting but it’s too late for you guys to get your honour back that way’ he said, ‘but I know you’re soldiers and I do know a way for you to at least live with yourselves and achieve something worthwhile’ he said.

‘Worthwhile?’ Tanner responded, his voice cracking slightly as the guilt he felt every day reared up again. He would never be free of it, none of them would.

‘You wouldn’t be the first people who weren’t born on this world who joined us’ O’Neill declared. ‘The Goa’uld slaughtered your people because they wouldn’t kneel and become their slaves’ he said. ‘You must feel something about that?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘If it was me I’d be proud of my race and want to make sure I lived up to them’ he said. ‘You came here for allies, well you found them’ he said indicating himself, Andianov and Teal'c, ‘you guys have as much reason as anyone else in the galaxy to hate the Goa’uld and if you don’t want to hate yourselves forever you’ll pay the bastards back.’

Tanner blinked. ‘You want us to help you fight the Goa’uld?’ he asked.

‘I want you to help us beat the Goa’uld’ O’Neill corrected him. ‘You’ve got a ship that you know a hell of a lot better than we do’ he said. ‘You can’t use it to save your people any more, but with our help you can use it to get some payback for them’ he said.

A commotion a few hundred yards away caught their attention. As the actors and crew of Wormhole X-Treme looked up in the sky in amazement what appeared to be a spaceship, or at least a very good special-effect, slowly moved into position hovering above them.

‘So are you going to sign up or not?’ O’Neill asked. ‘This is a one-time offer’ he told them.

As Martin Lloyd nearby told the cameraman to angle up and film the ship, Tanner looked away from it back to O’Neill. ‘Do you expect us to trust you?’ he asked.

‘Tell you what’ O’Neill replied. ‘Transport aboard, head for space and when you’re under the guns of the Hat’ak up there, then make the choice about whether it’s get back into the fight against the Goa’uld or get blown all to hell by the Tau’ri’ he said.

In the circumstances Tanner and his men couldn’t help but be swayed by the weight of the Colonels arguments and after teleporting aboard the ship along with O’Neill, Teal’c and Andianov they were soon heading upwards to rendezvous with the Earth Hat’ak Ship Enterprise. They took a great deal more convincing that was the ships real name though, not even Martin would have come up with something that goofy for the god-awful Wormhole X-Treme.



Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – September 2001

Cameron Mitchell on one of his infrequent visits to the SGC was enjoying himself immensely as he acted as narrator to the action being projected up onto the screen. It was a packed house in the dining hall, the only space large enough for everyone not on gate duty or offworld to fit into and he had their rapt attention. A number were munching popcorn they must have made in the microwave and wishing they could get a bucket sized cola like at the movie theatre too.

‘Okay, now this is footage from a Reaper chasing a Sectoid Large Scout Ship over the North Atlantic’ he said as the film played. ‘I hope you’re noting the smooth flying technique’ he added.

‘Yeah that bug knows his stuff but the guy in the F-302 is all over the place’ barracked one of the audience.

Mitchell threw a baleful glare at the Skyranger pilot who had flown him up from Area 51 and who had decided to stay on to watch the show. ‘I was being shot at with a plasma cannon’ he pointed out to the grinning Major John Sheppard.

‘Excuses, excuses’ Sheppard feigned to mumble, just loud enough that at least half the hall could hear clearly.

‘So why aren’t you shooting back?’ someone asked. In the earlier footage of human Firestorms and Reapers dogfighting with the aliens the firing had been considerably less one-sided, with much cheering as the film showed human Laser Cannon ripping up Sectoid machines which eventually either exploded from a hit to the power-plant or broke up into pieces that fell to Earth.

‘Because I was there to observe not to engage’ Mitchell answered, ‘you’re gonna love this’ he promised as the film approached the best part.

After a few weeks during which it became evident that the F-302X, unlike the Firestorm, could catch any ship the Sectoids had the aliens had reverted back to using the slower vessels they had previously stopped deploying as well as their more capable craft. The cross-shaped “Large Scout” as X-COM had christened it was a slow-coach compared to the likes of the “Battleship” or “Abductor” but it was likely considerably more disposable and it seemed like Loki’s Legions must have an unlimited supply of the things as no matter how many the human fighter-pilots knocked down there were always more arriving a day or so later. Flying without the Foo Fighter escort of the largest enemy ships it was generally left to the older Firestorms to intercept the small-fry, along with Deathgliders from the Enterprise which now all re-equipped with X-COM Lasers instead of the inferior Staff-Cannon armament they were originally armed with.

‘Okay we’re currently five hundred kilometres south of Greenland doing about twenty-seven hundred knots or approximately Mach Four’ Mitchell told the SGC and X-COM people. ‘The bug pilot would probably be crapping his pants right now but they don’t wear pants, or according to the dissection guys with the scalpels, have a proper digestive system’ he continued with a grin. ‘I’m faster, better armed and I’ve got a shield which he doesn’t, so I guess the bug thinks his days are numbered... which they are but not for the reason he thinks’ he said.

On screen the alien ship suddenly and inexplicably came to a dead stop then simply fell out of the sky like a stone.

‘Okay, so what did you just do there?’ Colonel O’Neill spoke up from the front row.

‘Me?’ Mitchell responded, ‘nothing, I was only there to film’ he said. ‘We call this the Wile E. Coyote manoeuvre’ he told them, ‘because it looks a lot like the cartoon character did when he accidentally went off the cliff for the thousandth time’ he said replaying the sequence in slow-motion, ‘that brief pause in mid air before gravity takes hold’ he continued, clearly trying to keep a straight face.

‘So what happened Son?’ General Hammond asked from the best seat in the house, Sharp was off-world again so he was definitely in charge.

Mitchell took deep breath ‘We used the teleporter in the new ship we put in low orbit directly above to beam the poor son-of-a-bitches elerium engine right out of his ship when he was ten miles off the ground’ he said then cracked up as the entire room erupted into howls of laughter merging into copious applause.

‘The Wile. E Coyote manoeuvre’ Hammond repeated, ‘very funny’ he told Mitchell.

‘Thank you Sir’ Mitchell replied with a grin. The Firestorm and Reaper pilots had also started referring to the opposition as “Marvin’s” after the alien Looney Toons character “Marvin the Martian” who was always trying to destroy Earth.

‘Comedy value aside, why not just teleport a bomb aboard?’ O’Neill asked eventually over the dying laughter. ‘Not that I’m not totally in with the humour you understand’ he added. The mental image of the expression of abject horror of the faces of the Sectoid crew watching their ships source of power and locomotion vanish in front of their eyes was hilarious.

‘Elerium is valuable stuff’ Mitchell explained, ‘we wanted to see if we could take out the ships but still save the engine and boy did it work’ he told them. ‘We’re hoping to score a lot of free and easy fuel doing that’ he continued.

‘It’s a shame the teleporter is short-ranged’ Carter observed. ‘Anything more than a couple of hundred miles and you run the risk of losing containment of the material you’re transporting’ she noted, inwardly grimacing at the idea of that happening to someone because it would be messy on re-integration to say the least. ‘The rings the goa’uld use get around it by having a receiver and transmitter to improve signal clarity, that’s why you can beam all the way from a planet to its moon’ she said. ‘I guess the Asgard get around it by just being tens of thousands of years more advanced, they worked out all the bugs.’ she added.

‘Have you tried using it on the Foo-Fighters?’ Hammond asked. ‘I know we’ve been trying to get one of those things intact.’

Mitchell shook his head. ‘We tried but we think the same countermeasures that stops us getting a radar lock on them also stops the teleporter’ he said.

‘Loki would know how to jam teleporters, he knows we had help from the Asgard so maybe he thought we might get given their beaming technology and planned ahead for that?’ Carter reasoned.

‘Why not upgrade the larger ships too?’ Daniel queried.

‘Unlike the Foo-Fighters they land which means we might capture the technology and work out a counter-measure to the jamming’ Carter replied. ‘Loki knows how good we are at figuring out any technology we get our hands on now, he wouldn’t want to risk it.’

‘Yeah, we’ve shot down plenty of the fighters but the wreckage is usually made up of burned-up melted chunks you’d carry away in a small bucket’ Mitchell agreed. ‘Not much good for trying to back-engineer the things’ he said regretfully. ‘The R&D guys would love to get their hands on a whole one.’

‘What we really need is a big net’ Sheppard joked. ‘You know, like catching butterflies’ he said, miming the action.

‘Or a tractor beam like on Star Trek’ Teal’c added. ‘I believe the Asgard may have such technology’ he noted.

‘They’d never let us have it’ O’Neill told him. Damn Protected Planet’s Treaty was more trouble than it was worth sometimes.

‘No, but we can make our own net’ Carter responded, a smile slowly developing on her face. ‘Trinium makes very good cable’ she said.

‘Oh I know that expression’ O’Neill said suspiciously, ‘mad scientist at work.’

‘I can’t see any Sectoid Pilot letting himself get caught in a net Major’ Mitchell told her.

‘If he’s unconscious he won’t have much say in the matter’ Carter replied, ‘General Hammond request permission to make a really big Zat gun I can strap to an F-302’ she asked.

‘Permission granted’ Hammond replied, ‘and if this works I want to see more film’ he announced to a chorus of whoops.

Sheppard stood up and looked around the room. ‘The net idea was mine, and you’re all witnesses’ he told them all. ‘I’ll have something for you to sign to that effect if there’s any kind of reward, promotion or extra leave entailed’ he announced.

‘We’ll put his name after yours in the paperwork’ O’Neill whispered to Carter.

 I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Skyranger Transport - Inbound to UFO Crash Site in Zaire – September 2001

Sergeant Kevin Nash formerly of the Royal Marines Special Boat Squadron, and for the past two and a half years an X-COM Trooper, winked at the new recruit sat across from him in the Skyranger as they entered into their high-speed final approach run. ‘Cheer up Jefferson’ he said. ‘It might never happen’ he told him. Frankly it was practically a miracle it had never happened to Nash but they did say it was better to be lucky than good, and Nash was both.

‘Yeah brighten up rookie’ Mallozzi an American X-COM soldier agreed. ‘You’ve got better than a fifty-fifty chance of surviving the next hour it’s not like the old days.’

‘True enough’ Nash concurred, hefting his P3-A1 Heavy Plasma Rifle with integral zat. The weapon had replaced the L2-A2 Laser Rifle in UFO retrieval missions much to the joy of the troops being nearly twice as powerful per shot despite weighing no more. It had taken a while but they were really starting to get some nice kit now Nash decided, looking around the Skyranger. Two of the ten-man team carried the X-COM upgraded copy of the Sectoid Stun-Bomb launcher which could not only fire its original loads but could also launch high-explosives over a long distance when necessary, everyone else not only had a Heavy Plasma Rifle but was also carrying Goa’uld Shock-Grenades which were ideal for clearing out a room without damaging equipment or killing aliens who might yield important information when interrogated back at base.

‘Alright you all know the drill’ Captain Waring leading the Team announced. ‘Except for Recruit Jefferson there we’ve all done this before and even he’s done it plenty of times in training’ he said.

‘Getting shot at with an Intar’s not like getting lit up by a Heavy Plasma mate’ an X-COM soldier from the Australian SAS sagely told the newbie. Use of the Goa’uld training weapons had helped prepare replacements for their first taste of combat with the aliens but it was still not a patch on the real thing, it was hard to simulate the extremely unnerving experience of a green bolt of plasma that would go straight through an APC whizzing past your head at a good percentage of the speed of light.

‘We want another leader and a navigator alive to help with the Hyperwave research’ the Captain noted. ‘Only use lethal force when absolutely necessary’ he ordered.

‘Better not be Muton’s then’ Nash muttered. The zat discharges had no effect on the armour that was bonded to their skin, they were resistant to the effect of the aliens own elerium stun bombs and the shock-grenades only tended to make them extremely pissed-off. ‘Eitam would you stop playing with that bloody thing’ he told the young woman sat next to him.

The Israeli on secondment from Sayeret Matkal slid the Goa’uld healing device off her hand and put in back in her pocket. ‘I have to practice’ she replied. ‘Do you know how difficult it is to use one of those things if you’ve never had a Goa’uld Symbiote?’ she asked. ‘It took me six weeks after they injected me with naquadah to figure out how to turn it on’ she told him.

‘You could turn me on with a look Nava’ another soldier told her with a wink.

‘What about a gesture?’ she replied, giving him the finger.

‘Thirty seconds’ the pilot called back.

‘On your toes X-COM’ the Captain ordered, standing up with the others and getting ready to charge down the ramp after the Heavy Weapon’s Platform as soon as they landed. The Tracked HWP at the back of the Skyranger always went out first, it was much better armoured than they were and more easily replaced if some alien sharpshooter was waiting to give them a warm reception.

The VSTOL Jet Transport was being buffeted around hard now and most of the troops were holding onto the straps provided and most had their jaws clenched tight so they wouldn’t accidentally bite off their own tongues.

‘Word of advice son’ Nash told Jefferson. ‘If you get killed and then see a bright light remember it might not be heaven, you could just be waking up in a sarcophagus so don’t assume the figure in white standing over you is an angel until you’re absolutely sure it’s not someone in a labcoat checking your pupil dilation’ he said.

‘Has that happened to you?’ Jefferson asked, ‘being killed I mean?’

‘No but the Captain there is on his third life’ Nash replied. ‘Last time he came back his first words were “Aw shit not again” right Sir?’ he asked loudly.

‘People who regret that they only have one life to give their country are quitters’ Captain Waring replied with a grin, checking his P3-A1. He didn’t even hold the record, there was a Sergeant in the Team flying out of the base in Japan who had been killed in action four times and was supposedly turning strange because of the nasty personality warping side-effects of repeated sarcophagus use. That is to say he was turning “strange” by X-COM standards, others might call it totally batshit insane. ‘Time to save the world again boys and girls’ Waring declared.

The ramp started to lower before they landed and the pilot must have taken the idea of flying nap-of-earth seriously because they seemed to be barely above the trees, or perhaps not at all because a sudden thump on the bottom of the Skyranger meant that they had just scraped the tree-tops. If you came in much higher or slower you ran a good chance of being shot down by Plasma Fire so both the pilots and the passengers much preferred a risky hair-raising ride to a suicidal stately approach.

They just got a glimpse of the crashed UFO before they set down, it was a nice big grey battleship which had been perforated by multiple laser hits from a squadron of F-302’s. Normally they nuked them, or in a recent change of tactics beamed the power-plants out one by one until it ditched in the ocean but the people in charge wanted their prisoners and were willing to risk grunt lives to get them. The troopers understood, they weren’t going to win the war in the field with rifles, the war needed to be won in the laboratory with test-tubes and computers and it was their job to retrieve whatever the geeks needed to accomplish that.

The HWP was rolling as soon as they hit the ground and came under fire immediately, the compact automated tank returning fire with its rotary-staff weapon, spitting out a storm of plasma bolts to cover the humans behind it as they went into battle.

Captain Waring never got a chance to make life number four, a Sectoid blew his head off with a Heavy Plasma blast five minutes into the mission and even the sarcophagus couldn’t bring you back from something like that. Jefferson the newbie took a glancing hit which almost took his right leg off but a combination of the medkit stopping the bleeding and Eitam repairing much of the damage with the Healing Device on the way home meant he was almost fully mobile even before they returned to base.

Dozens of alien kills and years of training and experience under his belt, supplemented by plenty of performance enhancing drugs flowing through his veins, saw Sergeant Kevin Nash successfully fight his way inside and up through all three decks of the alien ship, he and his troops zatting, shock-grenading and stun-bombing everything in their path. They lost two more soldiers achieving their objective, one of who was able to be bought back later, but they got the alien officers they were after, not only a Leader and a Navigator but an Engineer too.

X-COM traded the lives of its soldiers for information every day, but with every new piece of information obtained they increased the payment of blood the enemy had to make to come to Earth. The best and brightest of the human race, soldiers, scientists and engineers, were going to bleed the grey aliens white until they kept coming, and then the Tau’ri were going to come after them, and they wouldn’t be in a mood to forgive and forget.

Loki did later wonder regretfully if it might not have been a better idea to attack Goa’uld controlled worlds looking for genetic material after all. Who would have ever imagined that the evolved primates that the Ancients had dabbled with as a hobby would hold such a grudge, learn so fast and prove to be such a monumental pain in the ass?

To be fair to him however the Ascended Ancients observing events in the mortal plane with interest were pretty surprised at their success too, their very long-term plan to stick it to the Ori and get some revenge on the Wraith was running way ahead of schedule.



Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – October 2001

Russell Sharp entered the briefing room, and finding Weir the only one present so far pointed an accusing finger at her. ‘I know you had something to do with this’ he stated with enough menace to make her want to shrink back into her chair though she fought the impulse. Even before she found out about the mind altering chemicals she wasn’t all that certain he wasn’t going to go on a random killing spree one day, the majority of the time he did come across as reasonably balanced but the moments he didn’t were all too frequent for Weir’s liking.

‘I merely reported my concerns about the way the SGC was being run’ Weir replied as Sharp dropped into a seat across the table from her. ‘That I found such a receptive audience in some quarters merely speaks for the validity of my arguments’ she told him.

Sharp leaned forward. ‘Senator Kinsey was a thorn in the side of the SGC long before I ever showed up’ he said. ‘Ask Hammond, or O’Neill if you want to hear the unedited version of Kinsey’s shortcomings as a human being’ he advised. ‘He’s been trying to control Stargate Command for his own ends for years and now you’ve helped him gain some actual authority over the running of this place’ he told her.

‘Only in as much as he is the United State’s representative of the new International Oversight Committee’ Weir replied. ‘X-COM technically operated under civilian authority and had an Advisory Board before’ she noted, ‘it’s not that big a step.’

‘As long as we killed enough Aliens, retrieved enough technology and didn’t go bankrupt the civilians the UN foisted on us never interfered’ Sharp replied. ‘The Security Council voted a resolution telling us to defeat the threat by “all necessary means” and asked very few questions which is exactly how we like it’ he said. ‘Based on what I’ve heard so far the new IOC is going to be a pain in the ass, and I’m not going to kiss someone else’s when I should be kicking a Goa’ulds’ he declared.

Weir rolled her eyes, the man talked like some character from an action movie. ‘Commander, elements in the governments of several UN Security Council members are quite understandably concerned about the dire consequences that could result from the SGC making a poorly considered judgement call’ she said. ‘The influence of the military in this program is excessive and your accountability far too limited’ she continued, ‘I thought that from the moment I learned about both the SGC and X-COM and I’ve yet to learn anything that has swayed my opinion on the matter.’

‘Haven’t you been paying attention?’ Sharp retorted, ‘we’re under attack’ he said, ‘evil and immoral assholes from outer space want to enslave or experiment on us’ he pointed out. ‘We’re fighting for the survival of the human race and you think that’s a good time to let politicians and bureaucrats get involved?’ he asked incredulously.

‘Commander who are you to make the call as to what the best course of action is?’ Weir asked. ‘What are your qualifications?’

‘My qualifications are the number of hostile aliens killed on my watch, the number of UFO’s bought down as scrap metal and the number of factories and mines we’ve blown all to hell’ Sharp replied.

‘And how many current or potential offworld allies have you alienated?’ Weir asked, ‘no pun intended’ she added, realising her unfortunate choice of words.

Sharp frowned. ‘Relations with the Tollan and Tok’ra are better than ever as regards tech-transfer’ he responded defensively.

‘Largely despite you Commander’ Weir told him. ‘The only way I could persuade the Nox to attend the conference with the Aschen was to promise you wouldn’t be within a hundred light-years.’

‘Playing nice with the Planet of the Hippies is not my idea of a strategic aim of prime importance’ Sharp declared.

‘They know how to make stargates and they have a flying city’ Weir reminded him. ‘Along with the Asgard they’re considered one of the Four Great Races, we would have to be insane not to keep in touch and try to maintain friendly a relationship’ she said.

‘Wear something tie-dye and don’t comb or wash your hair and they’ll love you’ Sharp advised. ‘Tell them we’re willing to swap a busted up 1960’s Volkswagen Campervan for the anti-gravity stuff and they’ll jump at the deal.’

Elizabeth Weir sighed as she attempted to decide if she disliked the petulant child part of his personality more than the sociopathic streak. ‘The IOC is here to stay, get used to it’ she told him with finality.

‘And I’ll bet you’ll be their bright-eyed and busy tailed little helper’ Sharp observed scornfully.

Weir was patient, thoughtful and diplomatic by inclination as well as career but sometimes you had to bite back. ‘You’re even less amiable than usual’ she told him. ‘What’s the matter? Haven’t got to kill anybody today?’ she asked sardonically.

Sharp looked her in the eye. ‘It’s still early’ he replied coldly just as General Hammond entered. ‘Hey George, what do you think of the new IOC with Kinsey on it?’ he asked.

‘My thoughts are unrepeatable in mixed company’ Hammond replied, taking his own seat. ‘I’ll do your paperwork for a week if you tell Colonel O’Neill instead of me’ he offered.

‘No deal’ Sharp replied, ‘it took me over a year to get him to the stage where he doesn’t resent me being here... quite as much’ he said. ‘You can afford to lose more O’Neill goodwill than me.’

A near thunderous “Oh for crying out loud” in the corridor outside indicated that the Colonel had just run into a likely gloating Kinsey thereby saving them both from the job. O’Neill strode in with an appalled look on his face and a smug Senator following on behind. ‘This is someone’s idea of a joke right?’ he asked. ‘Tell me this is a joke and that’s really someone in a Kinsey mask’ he pleaded.

‘I’m afraid not Colonel’ Hammond replied.

‘Blame her’ Sharp told him, indicating Weir who was quite surprised at the reactions of O’Neill and Hammond in particular, the Airforce General having always struck her as being a man of considered, reasoned opinions.

‘Credit Ms Weir for acting as she saw fit in the best interests of the country’ Kinsey responded. ‘The other members of the International Oversight Committee are still on the fifty-cent tour of the facility’ he continued, ‘I’ve seen it all before’ he said sitting down next to her. ‘You are Commander Sharp no doubt’ he said. ‘I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced’ he noted.

‘Senator Robert Kinsey, Commander Russell Sharp of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit’ Hammond introduced them properly.

‘You’re Canadian I believe’ Kinsey asked leadingly.

‘It was the snow chains and the maple-leaf bumper-sticker on my car outside that gave it away again right?’ Sharp replied wryly.

Kinsey ignored the mans attempted wit. ‘I must say that I and many others in Washington have held reservations for some time about having this project under foreign control’ he said.

‘Foreign?’ Sharp queried, ‘I’m here fighting for Earth, which is where I thought I was’ he said evenly. ‘X-COM operates under a mandate from the United Nations and as far as I’m aware the US hasn’t left either the UN or the X-COM organisation yet’ he said. ‘I have heard through channels that certain people have been trying to play up the old anti-UN “national sovereignty” stuff but I was hoping that those in authority realised that either the nations of this planet hang together or we’ll hang separately’ he told Kinsey. ‘You know there are a few people in X-COM who wonder if the anti UN stuff is actually part of some alien plot of divide and conquer’ he added. ‘Personally I don’t hold to conspiracy theories but the Goa’uld and Sectoids do have brainwashing and mind-control so you never know’ he added. ‘Might be wise to keep the suspects under surveillance just in case’ he opined.

O’Neill noted the expression on Kinsey’s face and decided it was worth playing along even if only for the laughs. ‘How would you determine who the suspected alien dupes were?’ he asked Sharp, putting on his serious voice.

‘Well we know the High Council of the Goa’uld System Lords wanted us to shut down the stargate program when the Asgard negotiated Earth being added to the Protected Planets Treaty so I guess anyone that wanted to do that too would be pretty high on the list’ Sharp reasoned.

‘Yeah that makes sense’ O’Neill agreed. ‘How would you make sure they weren’t just a dumbass instead of a traitor though?’ he asked, noting the rising expression on fury on Kinsey’s face.

‘Well if they were that determined to clear their name we could use a mind-probe on them’ Sharp suggested. ‘Of course we might accidentally find out any secrets they might have and we’d have to promise not to tell anyone about them.’

‘Hand on heart, Scout’s Honour’ O’Neill agreed nodding and performing the action. ‘We could rig them up to a Zatarc detector instead, that tells you if they’re lying’ he reminded the Commander.

‘Not as effective, they might not necessarily know they’re lying and what if you asked them other questions like were all the campaign contributions they received completely legal?’ Sharp asked rhetorically. ‘I mean if they were a politician say’ he added. ‘Where would we stand on asking the FBI to investigate?’

‘Legally I’d say that would be a grey area’ O’Neill said. ‘Roswell grey’ he joked.

Kinsey’s look of fury had shifted to one of increasing concern, if they decided to insist on screening for possible alien influence there was plenty of information in his head he really wouldn’t want to become known, especially by the likes of Jack O’Neill.

‘I guess thinking about it we’d better keep alert and vigilant for signs of pro-alien activity George’ Sharp told Hammond. ‘I mean the security of the entire world is at stake’ he said. ‘They do say if you’ve got nothing to hide you’ve got nothing to fear’ he declared.

‘Indeed they do’ O’Neill concurred.

Later that day as they passed in the corridor Sharp observed quietly to Weir that amongst his other qualifications for the job was a very good grasp of strategy and tactics and that outmanoeuvring an opponent that was not only both overconfident and cocky, but also underestimated you, was easy. Weir made a mental note that being slightly unhinged by normal standards by no means meant being stupid and decided not to underestimate the gung-ho son-of-a-bitch herself either.

Meanwhile Kinsey decided that he needed to re-think his game-plan, he had thought that he would be able to quickly establish overriding authority over the SGC via what the military drones would call a direct frontal assault through his position on the IOC, but now he realised he would have to resort to good old-fashioned political chicanery and seek to divide and conquer by helping to drive a wedge between the various factions within the program he had identified.

For his part O’Neill got to watch Kinsey squirm which took him to a happy place where usually only a new episode of the Simpson’s took him. His opinion of the X-COM Commander also improved a few points because anyone that seemed to automatically realise that the Senator was a slimy, underhanded, self-serving weasel was at the very least a good judge of character.

Hammond just wondered how he’d managed to keep a straight face through the whole thing.



Space Station – Hasara System – October 2001

Lord Yu scowled at Baal when he finally arrived to take his seat. ‘You are late’ he growled, ‘it shows disrespect for the other members of this Council’ he said. ‘Especially when the Council is a Council of War’ he added.

‘I prefer to think of it as making a memorable entrance’ Baal replied looking around. Bastet, Kali and Amaterasu were sat together and all greeted him with a friendly nod of acknowledgement which he returned. With reasonably strong ties before the war they had been fighting Apophis as a united front, their combined forces making them the leaders of a formidable fighting force and their block vote on the Council making them a useful political as well as military ally. By throwing his own fleet into the conflict alongside theirs, rather than that of Lord Yu or another more powerful individual System Lord, Baal had sought to earn the favour of the reasonably strong sub-alliance they represented within the more fractious overall anti-Apophis coalition.
‘Perhaps Baal you might make amends for arriving late by providing us with the plans for these more advanced Hat’aks we have heard so much about’ a female goa’uld with bright red hair suggested.

‘I don’t think so Morrigan’ Baal replied with a smirk. ‘I’m surprised to see you here’ he continued, ‘your forces have not exactly made themselves as well known in the fight against Apophis as my new ships’ he observed.

‘At least I threw myself into the fight long before you decided what side to join’ Morrigan retorted. ‘We were starting to wonder if your refusal to get involved was calculation or craven cowardice’ she said. ‘I thought the latter’ she added with a sneer.

‘You never were a good judge of character’ Baal told her. ‘What did you think Olokun?’ he asked the System Lord sat beside her.

‘I for one always knew that you were far more deceitful and cunning than you were spineless’ Olokun replied, Camulus nodding his agreement with the assessment.

‘I’ll choose to take that as a complement’ Baal told him. ‘I must say I am surprised to see those two were invited’ he said, indicating Cronus and Terok. ‘According to my intelligence they can barely scrape up a thousand Jaffa and three spaceworthy ships between them’ he declared, causing Cronus to leap from his chair only to meekly return when Yu indicated with a gesture he should. The once mighty army of Cronus, and Heru-ur’s vast fleet that Terok had inherited following his masters death had been shattered by Apophis and in reality they were both merely vassals of Lord Yu these days.

‘Your intelligence is false’ Cronus blustered.

‘My intelligence is probably the best and most comprehensive amongst all the Goa’uld’ Baal replied, ‘which brings me to the point at which I’d like to introduce my surprise guest’ he said, waving a solitary figure into the room none recognised. ‘This is Ren’al’ he said, ‘of the Tok’ra’ he added.

Ren’al hadn’t known whether to expect stunned silence or consternation and got the former as she looked around. In different circumstances she would have happily killed the entire lot of them with the symbiote poison she had helped develop. ‘Greetings from the Tok’ra High Council’ she said. ‘We would like to negotiate a temporary truce between us until the threat Apophis represents is neutralised’ she said.

‘You bought a Tok’ra here?’ Camulus exclaimed. ‘Are you insane?’ he asked incredulously.

‘Far from it’ Baal replied. ‘The Tok’ra have as much to fear from a single all-powerful System Lord as we do’ he noted. ‘I have been in contact with them for some months, as indeed have you all without knowing it’ he continued. ‘They have been surreptitiously and anonymously feeding you information on the dispositions of the forces of Apophis for quite some time’ he announced. ‘We just felt the time was right to bring things out into the open’ he said.

‘I will tear this traitor apart with my bare hands’ Olokun declared, standing up. ‘Then I will deal with you’ he hissed at Baal.

‘Given that the Tau’ri supplied sidearm she is wearing could apparently put a hole through your torso larger than your fist I would suggest hearing her out before making any rash moves’ Baal advised, the Tok’ra indicating the holstered plasma pistol hanging from her belt. ‘At any other time I would enthusiastically kill her myself but these are not normal times’ he pointed out. ‘The Tok’ra have agents throughout the galaxy and know more about what is happening within the systems Apophis controls than anyone else, they will provide this for a fairly reasonable agreement that we merely stop trying to wipe them out for the time being.’

‘Weapons are banned from the summit, all are scanned for energy weapons on arrival’ Amaterasu stated. ‘It must be a bluff’ she said.

‘The technology is of a type completely new to both our societies and would not be recognised by your sensors’ Ren’al explained, it was an elerium powered device and as such would have triggered no alarms. She herself had been injected with a Tok’ra innovation, an isotope which prevented her being detected on Goa’uld sensors for up to six hours, if not for that Baal would have never managed to sneak her aboard. ‘Any System Lord that cooperates will also be offered immunity from Tok’ra attack while the truce holds’ she told them. ‘When Apophis is defeated the usual state of affairs will resume and I’m sure I look forward as much to trying to exterminate the goa’uld collectively once again as you all do my people.’

‘How can we trust these traitors?’ Morrigan snarled.

‘The same way that we currently trust each other’ Baal replied. ‘We’re all intelligent enough to realise that Apophis represents a far greater threat to all of us than we do to each other’ he said. ‘Enlightened self-interest is a powerful bond that supersedes personal animosity.’

‘We Tok’ra despise you as you do us but we could never hope to defeat a single all-powerful System Lord’ Ren’al told them honestly. ‘You will all revert to form in time, we know this coalition of yours is an ephemeral thing that will vanish the instant you start to fear each other more than you collectively fear Apophis’ she said, ‘until then helping you butcher and keep each other in check more effectively is simply a sensible response to the current political situation.’

Baal grinned. ‘It’s hard not to like them at a certain level of grudging respect isn’t it’ he said to the other System Lords. ‘If they weren’t treacherous disgraces to their race they would make worthy adversaries’ he opined. ‘I’ve already got one of them helping to run my war effort’ he said, ‘in some ways its refreshing to have an underling that honestly wants me dead on principle rather than seeks to usurp my realm’ he joked.

‘I’ll let her know you feel that way’ Ren’al told him sardonically.

‘Her presence sickens me’ Kali commented, looking at the Tok'ra in disgust.

‘I’m surprised you have such a weak stomach after seeing that outfit in the mirror each morning’ Ren’al retorted. ‘You should look to Bastet’ she continued, ‘at least she could pass muster and earn a more honest living as a painted harlot.’

Baal couldn’t help but laugh at the expression on both of the faces of the maligned System Lords, they clearly weren’t used to be spoken to in such a manner. It was also evident that Ren’al had been taking female human hosts for quite some time, she had the vicious turn of phrase to prove it. ‘Perhaps we should discuss this further after dinner?’ he suggested.

‘I’ll pass’ Ren’al replied. Baal had informed her they were going to ritually consume goa’uld symbiotes and that was a bit too close to cannibalism for her liking.

Ren’al had to admit it was all quite the masterstroke by Baal, after bringing a Tok’ra guest offering truce to the summit his announcement that Anubis had returned and wished to resume his seat on the Council as a recognised System Lord sounded almost reasonable by comparison. With the deal sweetened by the offering of a smattering of the ancient technology Anubis could offer to aid their war against Apophis the vote was near unanimous with only Lord Yu voting against the proposal.

The Tok’ra decided to keep a very close eye on Baal, he was too clever by half and was increasingly exhibited dangerously un-goa’uld-like traits like favouring reasoned argument over bluster and seeing the big picture instead of having a myopic focus on his immediate goals. One of the greatest advantages the Tok’ra had always had over their ideologically opposed brethren was that the latter didn’t act collectively or plan long-term. Baal seemed to be at odds with this goa’uld stereotype and it was a cause for worry, though naturally eclipsed by the real and present threat of Apophis and the upcoming likely threat posed by Anubis who seemed already to be dangerously technologically advanced over the rest.

Selmak and host Jacob Carter were dispatched to the Tau’ri to notify them of the developments. O’Neill complained that it was the usual Tok’ra “go it alone and keep us in the dark crap” and said they were nuts to trust the Goa’uld even if it was in the System Lords best interests to keep their end of the deal. Selmak and Jacob couldn’t help but agree but it had been a decision taken by the collective Tok’ra Leadership and they were bound by it.

On the plus side the Tollan had offered to provide the Tok’ra with a brand-new stargate which they would transport to a new planet outside the original network constructed by the ancients. The Tollan had begun building their first ships utilising the faster Goa’uld hyperdrives the Tau’ri had given them and were in a better position to do the Tok’ra such a favour. A secure base which wasn’t on anyone’s list of gate addresses would be a handy hiding place if the Tok’ra ever needed one and the way the galaxy was going they might need one pretty soon.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Area 51 – Earth – October 2001

Jack O’Neill had mixed feelings about these occasional trips down to Area 51 to see what the R&D people had come up with recently. Some parts were pretty cool, such as the demonstration of the new Plasma Cannon, or as one of the more enthusiastic scientists had referred to it, the “relativistic beam of superheated kinetic death”, but the pure science and biology stuff tended to be either dull or gross.

‘I’ve seen the inside of an alien before’ O’Neill pointed out as Carter almost forcibly dragged him into the next laboratory where supposedly there were several dissected species on display, some being cut up specially for the guests. Why couldn’t he be off training the Free Jaffa in Tau’ri small-unit tactics with Teal’c or Andianov instead, he thought with a groan. Still it could have been worse he could have been digging up pieces of clay pot with Daniel, why he took such an immediately negative attitude towards O’Neill’s perfectly sensible suggestion that using C4 to dig with would save time was a mystery.

Later on Carter was going to get to talk a load of geeks through her own fighter-sized zat gun project which was well underway. O’Neill had already arranged to be elsewhere for that, supposedly at another lecture on the new helmet for the F-302X that added the eye-piece Head-Up-Display from a Tel’tak, but in reality he was going to be propping up the base bar with a Navy Pilot who owed him a beer.

‘This is fascinating stuff Sir’ Carter enthused, as the Colonel daydreamed of cold frosty glasses of what Benjamin Franklin said was the proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. ‘The cybernetic implants in the Muton especially’ she continued, ‘it’s amazing how Loki managed to graft them so seamlessly into the organic features’ she said as they found themselves amongst a small group stood around the corpse of a dead alien which was in the final stages of being cut up by a female scientist in a labcoat, blue latex gloves and a surgical facemask.

‘And now you see how the already enlarged heart and lungs are supported by highly efficient mechanical pumps for liquids and fluids’ she said, using her scalpel to point. ‘This along with the other genetic tampering and surgical modifications gives the Muton its enhanced physical strength and stamina’ she noted, putting down the scalpel and taking a step back. ‘If you have any further questions please address them to Doctor Richmond there’ she told the mixed military and civilian audience who gave her a polite round of applause for the presentation.

‘Damn we’re too late’ Carter moaned. ‘I wanted to see the whole thing’ she said.

‘It’s a tragedy’ O’Neill replied sardonically. ‘Though on the bright side after seeing thirty seconds worth I’m not feeling so hungry’ he told her as everyone started to move along to the next table where another scientist was preparing to use a hammer and chisel to crack open the exoskeleton of a Chryssalid.

‘If you would like a quick reprise Major Carter I’m sure I can manage it’ the scientist who had been dissecting the Muton offered.

Carter looked at her. ‘I’m sorry do we know each other?’ she asked.

‘All too well unfortunately’ the woman replied pulling off the mask.

‘Arrgh!’ O’Neill exclaimed, reaching for a pistol her wasn’t wearing. ‘What the hell are you doing here and not in a cell?’ he asked, looking around and noting that there were several armed guards in the room already keeping an eye on her.

‘Nirrti?’ Carter queried nervously, not immediately willing to believe the evidence of her own eyes.

‘In return for my ongoing cooperation they have permitted me the luxury of seeing more of your world’ the Goa’uld explained, ‘although one Laboratory is much like another I did at least enjoy the view on the flight here’ she told them. ‘Being underground is oppressive after a while’ she said.

‘Okay let’s take a step back’ O’Neill said, ‘shouldn’t you be rotting in a cell?’ he asked angrily.

‘I was’ Nirrti replied, ‘then they came to me with questions regarding my work on creating a Hok’taur which I answered, chiefly because they threatened to starve me if I didn’t’ she said. ‘Then later they asked me to look at the DNA analyses of Loki’s human-hybrid psionic creations to see if there were parallels with my own research’ she continued, ‘finally after I told them I could be of more help if I was allowed to see the subjects first-hand they let me examine the subjects personally’ she told them. ‘Needless to say they were more than impressed by my superior ability to fathom Loki’s genetic handiwork.’

‘So they gave you a fucking job?’ O’Neill exclaimed in horrified amazement.

‘The situation is far closer to being in a state of slavery’ Nirrti replied bitterly. ‘I’m sure you approve of that irony at least’ she said. ‘After I am finished here today I will be transported back to the X-COM facility and returned to my cramped cell until my services are once again required’ she told him. ‘It had better not be too late, there is a show I wished to watch tonight and they will not provide a TiVo’ she complained.

O’Neill’s jaw dropped. ‘You’ve got a freaking television in your cell?’ he asked incredulously.

‘Another pitiful reward for my cooperation’ Nirrti replied. ‘At first I thought the device was meant as a punishment but then I realised I could change channels and it didn’t only have to show televangelism 24/7’ she admitted. ‘You’re culture is very strange but your multitude of television stations can usually be relied upon to have something worth seeing’ she said.

‘Multitude?’ O’Neill repeated. ‘You’ve got goddamn cable haven’t you?’ he asked, an expression of incredulity mixed with rage on his face.

‘Yes, but X-COM is too cheap to throw in HBO’ Nirrti replied.

‘I’m going to see someone about this’ Carter announced. ‘It’s like Operation Paperclip’ she said, ‘worse, it’s like the break they gave to the men in Unit 731’ she corrected herself.

‘Unit 731?’ O’Neill queried. He knew about Operation Paperclip, the German Scientists and Engineers like Von Braun who were bought to America after the war.

‘Japanese WMD research in World War Two’ Carter told him. ‘They carried out medical experiments on human subjects, including vivisection, and they used biological warfare against Chinese Civilians, killed tens maybe hundreds of thousands with Bubonic Plague and other diseases’ she continued. ‘The kicker is they were given immunity from war crimes prosecution in return for handing over their research to the United States’ she said. ‘The information was considered potentially too valuable’ she explained.

O’Neill blinked, that story was new to him. ‘And what this mass-murdering bitch knows is too valuable to us now’ he reasoned with clear distaste at the putting of expediency before principle.

‘I am too useful to your planets ongoing scientific research for any complaint you make to be taken seriously’ Nirrti opined. ‘As well as my knowledge of the biological sciences I am also aiding in a project designed to replicate my personal cloaking unit with the technology available here on this world’ she continued. ‘Perhaps you will both be happy to hear that I have several tracking devices plus an explosive device imbedded in my body to deter escape’ she added.

‘No, I’d be happy to hear that they fed you stale bread and brackish water in a pitch-black cell and that when they did want information, and you wouldn’t cough it up, they beat it out of you’ O’Neill replied.

‘It was tried, I believe the phrase used was that they discovered the carrot worked better than the stick’ Nirrti told him. ‘I do suspect that as soon as I am no longer any use I will be disposed of’ she said. ‘I find that extremely motivating to make myself indispensable.’

‘They should just cut you open and take out the snake right now’ O’Neill declared.

‘I have been within this host too long, ask the Tok’ra’ Nirrti replied. ‘She would be incurably insane by now thanks to what she has seen me use her to do, plus the effects of repeated sarcophagus use over centuries would have damaged her weak human mind’ she said. ‘Removing me would in fact be a cruelty to the human form I wear’ she pointed out.

‘Euthanasia for both of you works for me’ O’Neill growled. ‘Justice and mercy in one neat little nine-millimetre package’ he said, miming to point a pistol at her head.

Nirrti began removing her surgical gloves, they were bloodstained from the Muton which was oddly appropriate. ‘My help will save many of your kind from death at the hands of your Goa’uld and Sectoid enemies’ she said. ‘Killing me would likely make you feel better but it would mean that you were responsible for the deaths I would have prevented’ she noted.

‘She’s got a point Sir’ Carter reluctantly agreed, before delivering a sudden and a very neat punch to Nirrti’s nose that broke it all over her face. ‘Of course there are alternative ways to feel better’ Carter noted with satisfaction as the Goa’uld clutched her broken nose that was already dripping blood down her white lab-coat.

‘Good thinking Major’ O’Neill told her. ‘Way to improvise’ he said appreciatively.

‘I get these flashes of brilliance sometimes Sir’ Carter replied, checking her knuckles.



Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – November - 2001

‘Six months’ Sharp growled, throwing the file he had been leafing through onto his desk, ‘all I ask for is six fucking months without Loki pulling something new out of his ass’ he said. ‘Is that too much to ask’ he said looking up towards the ceiling of his office, General Hammond, sat across from him next to Colonel O’Neill, guessing he was looking for divine intervention rather than pleading with the NORAD personnel upstairs.

‘How many did you lose?’ O’Neill asked.

‘One team in its entirety, and two more with losses pushing seventy-five percent’ Sharp replied. ‘Shit we haven’t gotten beaten up on like that since before we developed the Laser Rifle and Personal Armour’ he declared. ‘Even the Muton’s weren’t this bad when they turned up’ he noted. ‘The only reason we didn’t lose even more is that we had a couple of people with high PSI strength who had the common-sense to zat anyone that didn’t’ he said.

‘They’re all telepaths?’ General Hammond asked.

‘Every single damn one, and even the low-ranking ones are as strong at it as the Sectoid Leaders’ Commander Sharp told him. ‘Our people went into their missions like normal and started receiving multiple continuous Psionic assaults’ he continued, ‘most that were too strong to be mind controlled were hit by those panic attacks we’ve seen Bug Officers use instead, only much more effectively’ he said.

‘Yeah felt that one myself’ O’Neill remarked, recalling the Psionic Attack he had experienced during the fight to defend the X-COM base in Poland. ‘It’s just like a feeling of... intense dread really’ he told General Hammond.

‘You score out in the nineties on Psionic Strength Colonel’ Sharp told him, ‘most people would have dropped their weapon and gone to hide in a corner, or started shooting everything that moved regardless of what side it was on’ he said.

‘And you’re calling them...’ Hammond asked.

‘Ethereals’ Sharp answered, taking a picture from the file and showing it to them. ‘They’re showing up in larger and larger numbers every day’ he told them.

O’Neill looked at the photograph of the most intact Ethereal corpse the X-COM UFO Retrieval Teams had dispatched so far. ‘Sucker looks like he needs a good meal’ he opined.

‘We think Loki genetically engineered for brains and psionic abilities over physical strength’ Sharp told him, tapping the image. ‘They’re taller than we are but so skinny and lacking in muscle mass they’re even weaker than a sectoid’ he said. ‘The head and the brain inside is disproportionately large, these guys are likely a lot smarter than we are too’ he noted.

‘Kinda almost like a tall Asgard’ O’Neill suggested.

‘You are closer to the truth than you realise O’Neill’ a disembodied voice responded.

‘Thor buddy is that you?’ O’Neill asked, looking around.

‘Yes O’Neill’ the voice replied, ‘I will shortly be arriving in orbit around your planet’ it said. ‘I have already notified your captured Hat’ak and the other ship so they do not open fire on me, not that they would achieve much by doing so’ he added. ‘I thought it wise to announce my presence before teleporting in so as to not cause Commander Sharp to reflexively draw his weapon and try to shoot me again.’

‘Nearly gave me a goddamn heart attack last time’ Sharp muttered.

Two small grey figures appeared in the room with the customary flash of light of an Asgard Transporter Beam. ‘Greetings humans’ one said, in an unfamiliar voice.

‘Hey you bought a guest’ O’Neill said to the other one. ‘Is this Mrs Thor?’ he asked. Strangely the other Asgard did sound somewhat feminine.

‘The Asgard are asexual as you know’ Thor replied. ‘This is Heimdall, one of our most revered and well-respected scientists’ he introduced his companion.

‘So not a chick?’ O’Neill asked.

‘No’ Heimdall verified. ‘At least not as you would understand it’ the Asgard continued, ‘originally our species was more like yours with differentiated sexes and some elements of that have continued in certain clone lines including mine.’

‘So... chick-like?’ O’Neill queried. ‘Look I just want to know whether it’s he or she when talking about you’ he said.

Heimdall turned to Thor. ‘Yes he is much as you said he was’ the Asgard said.

‘You get used to it’ Thor replied resignedly. ‘In our own language we do not use masculine or feminine descriptors O’Neill’ he told the Colonel, ‘we would say the equivalent of “it”.’

‘Now to me that sounds rude’ O’Neill responded. ‘I’ve always thought of you as a guy. So I say “he” when I talk about you.’

‘Gah!’ Sharp exclaimed. ‘For the love of God just let them tell us why they’re here’ he pleaded to O’Neill.

‘Okay’ O’Neill agreed, ‘you’re a “she” from now on’ he told Heimdall quietly.

Thor turned to Sharp. ‘We have been monitoring your war with Loki’s creations’ he said. ‘We are particularly intrigued by the race you are calling Ethereals and feel an exchange of information is in both our interests’ he said.

‘Monitoring how?’ General Hammond asked.

‘We have undetectable observation satellites in high orbit that routinely download from your databases and also monitor for the use of advanced Asgard technology in case Loki decides to employ transporter beams or our more advanced shields’ Thor explained.

‘You’re spying on us’ Sharp responded irately.

‘We are merely hoping that Loki will make a mistake so we can track him down and bring him to justice’ Thor replied. ‘We cannot leave a ship here full time because of the ongoing war with the Replicators but we do feel obligated to watch out for your planet because Loki is regretfully one of us’ he said.

‘And these Ethereals are somehow a mistake?’ O’Neill asked.

‘No they are in fact indicative of Loki being far more successful than we might have considered possible’ Heimdall replied. ‘For all the moral repugnance they provoke his unethical experiments do seem to get results faster than would be achieved normally’ the scientist admitted.

Thor nodded. ‘The Asgard recently located a derelict vessel which our own race dispatched from our own Home Galaxy of Ida towards this one many thousands of years ago’ he said. ‘When the craft was launched our hyperdrives were such that such a journey would take many years so the crew were cryogenically frozen for the trip’ he told them.

‘The ship was considered lost after its navigation system failed and it was only quite recently recovered’ Heimdall interjected. ‘Its crew predated our large scale genetic manipulation of our race, one of whom was still intact after thirty-thousand years.’

‘You guys have had hyperdrive for thirty thousand years?’ Sharp responded in surprise.

‘You are impressed we were so far advanced while you still lived in caves?’ Thor supposed.

‘No I’m thinking that if we’d been an industrialised interstellar civilisation for a tenth of that time we’d be way ahead of where you are now’ Sharp told him seriously.

Heimdall said something to Thor in their own language. ‘Yes they are arrogant’ Thor agreed in English, ‘but recall that we have always said much the same thing about the Ancients’ he noted, those people had been around for millions of years before the Asgard emerged and frankly didn’t have a fraction as much to show for it as they really should have. At the very least the universe should have been teeming with what the humans called Dyson Spheres by now, but the Ancients were the poster-children for a society in extreme technological stasis. The Asgard had idly wondered on occasion if the humans the Ancients created in their own image on this world were prone to such frenetic advancement as they had exhibited lately because their predecessors realised their own weakness in this area and “fixed” it in the genetic code of their experiment.

‘Still don’t exactly know why you’re visiting’ O’Neill told the Asgard, ‘not that you guys and gals aren’t always welcome to drop in’ he added.

‘Perhaps this hologram of what the early Asgard looked like will explain’ Heimdall replied, a life-sized representation appearing in front of the door.

Commander Sharp looked from the hologram to the picture on his desk and back again. ‘Okay I think we’re getting the message now’ he said.

‘You guys used to be a lot taller’ O’Neill observed. ‘You didn’t used to be telepathic too did you?’ he asked.

‘No’ Thor replied, ‘although Loki does seem to have created the beings you called Ethereals from early Asgard genetic material the psionic genes are still likely based upon his research into your species’ he said. ‘It is however his success in recreating the physical form of our ancestors that interests us’ he continued. ‘Heimdall has been attempting similar research to find a cure for our races creeping genetic degeneration.’

‘But with apparently far less success’ Heimdall admitted. ‘I am of course considerably more restricted in my research methods’ the Asgard noted.

‘That having a conscience and not experimenting on live humans thing holding you up?’ O’Neill asked rhetorically.

‘A neat summation’ Heimdall agreed.

General Hammond stood up. ‘Presumably you’re here to request any research we’ve made into the Ethereals?’ he asked. ‘And for genetic samples’ he added.

‘Yes’ Thor replied.

‘What do we get out of it?’ Sharp asked. ‘And I mean as in concrete benefits not the ongoing goodwill of your race.’

‘Maintaining the goodwill of the Asgard is a concrete benefit’ Hammond told the Commander.

‘I’d prefer something more tangible’ Sharp stated flatly.

‘Under the terms of the...’ Thor began.

‘Protected Planets Treaty blah, blah blah’ Sharp interrupted. ‘Okay how about this’ he said. ‘We get Heimdall here’ he said.

‘What?’ Thor replied in surprise.

‘Heimdall gets to continue her research’ he said, ‘but right here on Earth at one of our installations’ he said. ‘You can bring any equipment you want, and we promise not to steal it, but the work is done here’ he said.

‘Why?’ Heimdall asked.

‘Because if you’re here the rest of your people might take more notice the next time someone decides to attack us’ Sharp replied.

‘You wish Heimdall to be a hostage?’ Thor queried guardedly.

‘More of a combination guest and guarantee’ Sharp responded, ‘we’ll also pool our research into Loki’s little science projects which will help both of us’ he pointed out, then crossed his arms. ‘The way I figure it, having the possible future survival of the Asgard race dependent on work being done here on Earth might concentrate your minds a bit if the Goa’uld ever decide to say "screw the treaty" and come calling’ he said.

‘We would always do our best to defend a planet accorded our protection under the treaty’ Thor told him.

‘Then Heimdall is perfectly safe here from Goa’uld attack’ Sharp replied. ‘You can attribute it to my paranoia if you like but I’d feel happier having her here’ he said. ‘Hey where else is she going to get a steady stream of Loki’s DNA experiments to work on anyway?’ he asked.

‘He makes a good point there Supreme Commander’ Hemidall told Thor. ‘I also note you are referring to me as being of the female gender’ Heimdall continued to Sharp.

‘The Colonel’s right, you do sound more like a girl and the voice is the only way we can tell you apart’ Sharp replied honestly.

Heimdall seemed to be contemplating the situation. ‘Loki’s development of psionics as an off-shoot of a likely research into the further evolution of sapient life and ascension would also be worth study’ she said, ‘and the humans here have made some strides in that direction of late.’

‘Yes their files did indicate they are on the verge of a breakthrough with Psionic Amplification’ Thor agreed. ‘You would like to stay here and investigate further?’ he queried.

‘The subject does hold some fascination for me’ Heimdall confirmed. ‘I am willing to stay here for the time being.’

‘This would of course require approval by the Asgard High Council’ Thor told the humans.

‘Yeah I’ll probably have to run it past the damn International Oversight Committee too’ Sharp complained. ‘I bet our pen-pushing bureaucrats are worse than yours’ he wagered.

‘I would be very surprised if they were’ Thor replied evenly. The previous week he had to appear before them to justify increased expenditure of resources on defence due to an increase in the construction of the O’Neill Class Battlecruisers. At one point he had been sorely tempted to adopt the mannerisms and language of the vessels namesake and yell at the rest of the Council that didn’t they realise there was a fucking war on?

‘It should not be difficult to quickly relocate my laboratory from Adara to here’ Heimdall told Thor.

In later years Heimdall would usually answer other Asgard when the topic came up that living on Earth for a while wasn’t as bad as they might have thought, and that being an actual “Roswell Grey” at Area 51 was mildly entertaining for playing practical jokes on new human members of staff. Thor on the other hand was often heard to complain that the human males never used to hold doors open for him when he was there.



Apophis Palace – Delmak – November 2001

‘My Lord, I must report that we have lost another System to the enemy fleet spearheaded by Baal’s forces’ the Jaffa announced as Apophis sat on his throne looked up from the stone tablet in his hands.

There was a time not too long ago when Apophis would have struck down the Jaffa for delivering such news but reports of this kind had become increasingly common recently and, while it was usually cathartic, shooting the messenger wasn’t a good long-term policy. ‘Which System?’ he asked.

‘Erebus My Lord’ the Jaffa told him, voice trembling.

The Goa’ulds eyes flashed and he snapped to his feet, throwing the stone tablet and the page-turning stone resting on it into the distance where it clattered onto the polished stone floor. ‘Erebus?’ he bellowed. ‘How did this happen?’ he demanded to know.

‘A great battle was fought but the Ha'tak vessels of Baal were too formidable for our fleet’ the Jaffa replied. ‘Our own forces bombarded the planet to destroy the shipyards before Baal could take possession of the planet’ he added.

Apophis once again considered executing the messenger and raised his hand with the bejewelled ribbon device upon it to do so, relenting at the last second. ‘Baal will soon rebuild the manufacturing facilities there’ he said.

‘Our forces were very thorough, it will be many months at least before your enemy can once again begin construction of Ha’tak’s’ the Jaffa told him, head bowed, eyes fixed on the floor.

‘I needed that world to help replace my own losses’ Apophis responded.

‘The first of your new advanced-model Ha'taks nears construction My Lord’ the Jaffa noted. ‘They make the ones that were being built on Erebus look obsolete by comparison’ he pointed out.

‘Quantity has a quality all its own’ Apophis responded. ‘Damn the Tau’ri’ he raged, ‘if they had not destroyed the prototype of the new Ha’tak we would have been producing them in quantity long before Baal entered the war.’

‘They will pay for their crimes’ the Jaffa declared with certainty, nobody could challenge a god with impunity.

‘Of course’ Apophis agreed. ‘Return to your duties’ he ordered, the Jaffa offering a yet deeper bow and departing.

From what Apophis had determined by analysing the results of battles between his forces and Baals new ships, the latter were in fact still superior to even the new improved and upgraded Ha’tak designs now under construction in the Delmak Shipyards. Where Baal had obtained such radically advanced technology of apparently Ancient design was still largely a mystery to Apophis but nonetheless it was still not too far advanced for Baal to blithely ignore the numerical superiority Apophis enjoyed and the technological edge Baal possessed was going to be closed up still further by the new ships being built.

The war had not gone remotely as well as Apophis had originally thought it would. The early period of untrammelled success had become a hard grind once the other System Lords put their differences aside to present a united front against him and now he was clearly the one on the defensive, his forces gradually being driven back, losing the gains they had previously made. The enemy appeared to possess suspiciously good intelligence as to the deployment of his fleets which gave them a strategic advantage, Baal’s advanced Ha’taks had offered a tactical edge and the wretched Tau’ri and their Tok’ra allies, fighting without a shred of honour, had been hitting his supply lines relentlessly, causing logistical problems disproportionate to their numbers and forcing him to re-deploy troops from the front lines to garrison duty to deter them.

Strangely as his forces fell back things were becoming easier for Apophis in some ways. His lines of supply were shorter and easier to guard, he had less worlds amongst which to divide his occupation troops and fleets could be more easily transferred between the various fronts because they weren’t as spread out. Losing an important manufacturing base like Erebus, or a major naquadah mining planet like Kawawn were a blow but many of the planets being retaken by the enemy were only a matter of prestige not military importance. The Coalition of System Lords were not strong enough to deliver a swift knock-out blow and as time went on the balance would soon once again shift in Apophis favour as his new ships entered the fray.

Unusually for a Goa’uld world Delmak was heavily populated and highly industrialised, and several of the other worlds Apophis had inherited from Sokar were likewise developed beyond the typical agrarian colony populated by uneducated, god-fearing, superstitious peasant slaves typically favoured by the System Lords. This gave Apophis the ability to replace material losses more readily than most of his opponents and meant that he could suck-up defeats which would have shattered the ability of his rivals to make war. The reoccupation of Chulak and the other worlds he had once ruled before becoming a prisoner of Sokar had provided much needed additional replacement manpower for his armies as the campaign wore on, and despite everything the bulk of his war machine remained intact and formidable.

The Jaffa who had been sent away to his duties suddenly came rushing back in. ‘My Lord’ he exclaimed. ‘A new fleet of powerful warships has attacked our borders’ he reported. ‘They appear to be the same as those being using by Baal but have declared themselves openly to be in the service of...’ he said, voice petering out as Apophis glared at him.

‘In the service of who?’ Apophis demanded to know.

The Jaffa took a breath. ‘Anubis’ he replied nervously.

‘Anubis was stripped of his rank as System Lord a thousand years ago by the High Council’ Apophis retorted, ‘he is also dead’ he added.

‘It would seem not’ the Jaffa replied, suitably fearful of correcting his god but it was sometimes his duty and a Jaffa put duty before all. ‘The communication said that the High Council recently voted to readmit him and he has joined the war against us’ he said, that likely being part of the deal he reasoned accurately.

‘Lord Yu would never have allowed that’ Apophis retorted. ‘He, my brother Ra and myself were instrumental in instigating the banishment’ he said. Anubis was one of the few Goa’uld who were probably as evil as their reputation suggested, even others of his own race had feared him.

‘You are of course correct but perhaps Lord Yu was outvoted?’ the Jaffa reasoned. ‘That these new ships declaring themselves to be of Anubis appear to be the same as those of Baal may indicate that it was he who swayed the Council?’

‘Baal’ Apophis snarled, spitting out the name. ‘I will make his death particularly gruesome when the time comes’ he vowed, perhaps even worse than he planned for the sholva Teal’c or O’Neill of the Tau’ri he thought.

‘What are your orders?’ the Jaffa asked.

‘Order Lord Zipacna to move what vessels he has to block Anubis in the interim while I determine a new strategy’ Apophis replied. After his defeat to Baal at Kawawn Zipacna had been rebuilding his fleet to act as a mobile reserve and this was the sort of situation where he would get a chance to earn his reputation as a valuable lieutenant back.

‘It will be done My Lord’ the Jaffa responded.

‘And ready my flagship’ Apophis added. ‘If necessary I will meet my enemies in battle personally’ he declared.

The Jaffa straightened up. ‘It would be an honour for any Jaffa to fight at your side of his god’ he said proudly.

Apophis nodded, thinking that the actual idea was to have the Jaffa in front so that they acted as a convenient ablative shield of bodies.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Stargate – P89-534 – November 2001

‘Alright, I want everyone to keep in mind that this is the planet where Apophis captured the original SG-11 back in ’99 so just because it looks like nobody’s home doesn’t mean a damn thing’ O’Neill announced after everyone had dropped into the standard defensive deployment around the gate after arrival. ‘I want SG-13 to stay here and defend the gate if we have to leave in a hurry, SG-8 is coming with me and SG-1 to recon that village by the ruins the UAV spotted to the East’ he ordered.

‘Yes Sir’ Colonel Dixon the commander of SG-13 responded, ‘but can I request that next time we don’t get stuck with gate-watching duty?’ he asked.

‘It’s the number, everyone thinks we’re Jaffa magnets’ Wells from SG-13 muttered.

‘Why would that be an issue?’ Teal’c queried.

‘Triskaidekaphobia’ Daniel replied. ‘It’s the fear of the number 13 and it’s more widespread in our culture than you might think’ he told him. ‘It dates back to Ancient Babylon at least’ he added.

‘It’s got a name?’ O’Neill asked incredulously, more surprised by that than he was that Daniel would know the word if it existed.

‘Yes’ Daniel confirmed. ‘Fear of Friday the 13th in particular is known as Paraskavedekatriaphobia’ he noted.

‘And this is the reason I don’t play scrabble with you any more’ O’Neill declared. ‘You could be making it all up and I’d never know’ he said.

‘Are you taking the Mighty-Malp along as fire-support?’ Dixon queried, indicating the armed and armoured tracked robot vehicle which had come through the gate first and was now stood off to one side of the stone steps leading to the stargate.

‘Not this time Colonel’ O’Neill replied. ‘They’re sending a prototype through from the X-COM base in Poland they want us to field-test’ he said. ‘Didn’t want to spoil the surprise’ he continued with a grin as the stargate started to fire up indicating an incoming wormhole from the second gate on Earth.

The pseudo-splash of the gate was followed a couple of seconds later by a shape starting to emerge from the event-horizon.

‘What the hell?’ Dixon said in amazement as what looked like a futuristic Main Battle Tank emerged from the gate, the real shock being that it was floating better than six feet off the ground as it went, only gently lowering itself towards the surface of the planet once it was fully through the gate being too wide not to pass through any lower.

‘They’re calling it a Mega-Malp’ Carter explained. ‘It’s basically our version of the Cyberdisk, the automated hover-tank the Sectoids use I mean’ she told the astonished personnel of SG’s-8 and 13. ‘The armour is an improved version of the British Dorchester that adds Trinium to the laminate’ she noted, ‘the main gun is a Laser Cannon from an F-302 and it’s got twin rotary staff-weapons, one on each side of the turret’ she continued. ‘The powerplant is an elerium engine for flight plus a naquadah reactor for the laser and to power the deflector shield.’

‘It’s got a goddamn shield too?’ A Major from SG-8 queried in surprise.

‘Again the same as on the F-302X’ Carter replied. ‘It’s pretty heavy with the armour, weaponry and the heavily upgraded sensors so it can’t go much above a hundred and fifty miles an hour flat out but I’m going to love to see the expression of the first Jaffa that fires a Staff-Cannon at it’ she said, walking over to it and unhooking a helmet hanging from a fastener on the side of the machine. ‘It can run on its own or you can drive it remotely using one of these helmets’ she said. ‘Direct neural interface and an eyepiece that feeds from a camera mounted with the guns’ she told them putting on the helmet.

The hovertank began to glide forward a yard above the ground. ‘It’s got zoom on the camera too’ Carter said with a grin as she flipped an eyepiece in front of her right eye.

‘We’ll all want to have a go eventually Major’ O’Neill told her, ‘don’t get too attached’.

‘Spoilsport’ Carter replied, as the turret on the machine began to sweep the horizon. ‘It’s very intuitive’ she remarked.

‘Just don’t run any of us over’ O’Neill told her. ‘Okay, lets move out’ he ordered, ‘Carter have the thing follow us’ he added as he led off, Teal’c and Andianov to his left and right.

‘Heel’ Carter told the machine which started to follow the two teams at walking pace, about ten yards behind. ‘Good tank’ she told it.

‘Have you considered getting a real pet?’ Daniel asked her a few minutes later as they made their way towards the village.

‘I don’t need to take this one to the vets’ Sam replied, playing along ‘and it’s better than a guard dog.’

‘I can see it now’ Daniel replied, ‘a sign on the front of your house saying, “Beware of the Nuclear Powered Flying Robot Tank”.’

‘It would definitely deter most burglars Major Carter’ Teal’c observed thoughtfully.

‘Sir we need to name it’ Carter realised.

‘They won’t let you keep it Carter’ O’Neill replied with a sigh, ‘we only got the job of testing it because they thought you could fix it if the thing breaks down’ he reminded her. Most SG Teams weren’t quite so blessed in the brilliant physicist and applied engineer department. ‘And it’s called Harvey’ he added with finality.

‘Harvey?’ Daniel asked. ‘I guess you don’t mean the six foot invisible rabbit?’

‘As in Armoured Vehicle’ O’Neill replied. ‘Ar-Vee’ he explained.

‘I can live with that’ Carter agreed. ‘You know it’s got a robot arm in there too under a hatch’ she noted.

‘Major we are not teaching the tank to play fetch’ O’Neill told her, causing a lieutenant from SG-8 to start laughing.

‘The fact you said it means you must have thought of it too Sir’ Carter told him with a grin.

‘I do not understand why you are anthropomorphising this machine’ Teal'c stated.

‘That would mean we're attributing human characteristics not animal’ Daniel told him. ‘Zoomorphising would be more accurate’ he added.

‘No scrabble games again ever’ O'Neill vowed.

They left the hovertank a mile outside the village, hoping not to intimidate any locals they might find, but found it long deserted before moving onto the stone ruins of a rather more advanced culture close by. Daniel was starting to decipher a wall of inscriptions in a Phoenician dialect which led him to believe they had found the remains of an off-shoot of the extinct Tobin Civilisation when they came under attack from a companies worth of Jaffa loyal to Apophis.

The Jaffa were slightly confused at the Tau’ri battlecry of “Sic ‘em Harvey” but they didn’t have much time to ponder the meaning of the phrase before a large, floating machine, utterly impervious to their weapons appeared in their midst spitting a continual stream of laser and plasma fire and the situation became very unpleasant for them indeed.



Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – December 2001

‘It was only luck we found out about the asteroid out as far as we did’ Carter told them. ‘Whatever Goa’uld did it they made sure to direct it so it would arrive far off the plane of the elliptic where most of our telescopes looking for objects that close aren’t pointed’ she told the two senior officers who were in confereance with SG-1.

‘Plane of the elliptic?’ Commander Sharp queried.

‘It’s the two dimensional plane where most of the planets and asteroids in the solar system are found’ O’Neill explained before Carter could. Astronomy was the only science he had more than a passing familiarity with, his idea of a good vacation was spending all day fishing by a lake and looking at the stars through his telescope after the sun went down.

‘Right’ Carter confirmed, ‘the asteroid was spotted by an amateur astronomer looking at the Constellation Cassiopeia, declination sixty-one degrees, six minutes; right ascension two hours, forty-eight minutes’ she said, O’Neill feeling smug that he was likely the only person in the room completely following her for once. ‘We determined it was on collision course with Earth and that it was very, very large.’

‘One hundred and thirty-seven klicks end to end’ O’Neill noted. ‘Dinosaur Killer’ he added, miming an asteroid collision with the planet by thumping a clenched fist into the palm of his other hand.

Daniel nodded. ‘On impact it would have been the greatest mass extinction since the end of the Cretaceous’ he agreed.

‘Whole other league to dodging those little falling rocks on Edora’ Colonel O’Neill said, ‘I mean P5C-768’ he explained to General Hammond.

‘Would have been?’ Sharp replied, ‘isn’t that a little presumptuous?’ he asked. ‘It’s still coming as far as I was aware?’ he asked.

‘Yes Sir but we do have a plan’ Carter told him. ‘We’ll probably need your influence with X-COM to put it into practice though’ she told him.

‘Yeah we’ll need to borrow something for a couple of weeks’ O’Neill added, with a smile. ‘Carter promises not to scuff it up any’ he said.

Sharp was immediately even more paranoid and suspicious than normal which for him meant a great deal. ‘Blowing it all to hell would have been easier’ he commented.

‘Yes Sir’ Carter agreed, ‘but after Captain Tanner intercepted it with the Redemption it became apparent from the gravitational field it was far denser than it had any right to be’ she told him. ‘If Tanner had dropped a Goa’uld-Buster on the asteroid to try and nudge its course it would have caused the asteroid to detonate like a small nova’ she said. ‘Even that far out the effects on Earth would be catastrophic’ she noted. ‘A week closer and it would have sterilised the planet and boiled the oceans.’

General Hammond winced. ‘How much naquadah?’ he asked nonplussed, he had already had a quick briefing before Sharp arrived.

‘Approximately forty-five percent of the asteroid by mass’ Carter told him. ‘It’s only low-grade ore but we’re talking in terms of billions of tons.’

Sharp blinked. ‘Billions?’ he repeated.

‘Yes’ Carter confirmed.

‘That’s a lot of naquadah’ Daniel sagely observed.

‘That’s a lot of anything Danny’ O’Neill responded.

Teal’c looked thoughtful. ‘I am not aware of any System Lord ever possessing even a tiny fraction of that amount of naquadah’ he said. ‘It would represent a stockpile of unimaginable worth.’

‘Well it would solve the worlds energy problems for a few... millennia... anyway’ Carter remarked. ‘Which is kind of where we’re going with this’ she told Commander Sharp.

‘Yes?’ Sharp queried.

‘Well we can’t blow it up, or even use a nuclear device to try and deflect it’ Carter told him, ‘but we can physically push it into a different course’ she said. ‘We reason that the Goa’uld bought it here through hyperspace then accelerated it using a Ha’tak so...’

‘We want to use the Enterprise to push the thing ourselves’ O’Neill finished for her.

Carter nodded. ‘Given the mass of the asteroid and what we plan to do with it it’ll take weeks of constant thrust with the Ha’tak to achieve our objective’ she said.

‘So it doesn’t hit Earth?’ Sharp reasoned.

‘Oh no that wouldn’t be so much trouble’ Carter told him, ‘we want to mine it’ she told him. ‘We can use our Ha’tak to slow it down to a more reasonable velocity then move it by hyperspace ourselves to the outskirts of the Solar System’ she said, ‘out beyond the Oort Cloud so if it did explode it wouldn’t be a major problem’ she continued. ‘We set up a mining operation and use smaller hyperspace vessels like Tel’tacs to haul the ore back to Earth.’

‘The Oort Cloud is the mass of comets and other junk left over from the formation of the Solar System out past Pluto’ O'Neill told Sharp.

‘Okay, that’s... ambitious’ Sharp commented.

‘It’s the motherload’ O’Neill told him, ‘if we could get our hands on a small percentage of the naquadah in that asteroid we’d never have to worry about prospecting and mining other planets for the stuff ever again’ he said. ‘Heck we could give it away... or better yet bribe the Tok’ra with it’ he suggested.

‘We’d have to be crazy not to try’ Carter agreed. ‘The downside is that we wouldn’t have the Enterprise in Earth Orbit for several weeks which opens us up to more Sectoid attacks’ she pointed out. ‘That’s why we need you to put the case to the X-COM hierarchy Commander’ she told Sharp.

Sharp frowned. ‘Our retrieval teams are already taking a hammering from the Ethereals’ he said. ‘We’ve probably got enough Reapers and Firestorms in the air now to intercept the majority of UFO’s we can’t yoink the engines out of with the Redemption but if we haven’t got the Enterprise covering our ass it still means more alien ships getting through’ he told them. ‘We’re short of deployable grunts because we never know if we’re facing Ethereals so the troops with low psionic strength are on ice for now’ he continued. ‘If only we had the hyperwave decoder facilities up and running, at least then we’d know when we could deploy the others.’

‘Hyperwave Decoder?’ Andianov asked curiously, for the most part she kept quiet in these briefings knowing her input would be unlikely to be helpful as a rule, her skills lay in shooting things not strategy or science.

‘The Sectoids use a Faster-Than-Light communication System which we think is based on the same basic principles as the subspace transmitters and receivers the Asgard use for real-time communication across lightyears’ Carter told her. ‘We’re calling it hyperwave’ she explained, ‘all their transmissions are heavily encrypted so even after we worked out how to listen in it made no sense but by putting together a few super-computers we can decode enough of the message fast enough to be useful’ she continued. ‘The hyperwave transponder signal Loki’s ships generate tell you what type of vessel it is, where the ship is going and what mission its on and the race aboard.’

‘If the hyperwave tells you it’s a ship full of Ethereals you send in a Skyranger full of troops with known high psionic strength like O’Neill here’ Sharp added. ‘If it’s a bunch of Muton’s with the telepathic ability of a cabbage you send the low psionic strength grunts after them’ he continued. ‘The problem is our detection net isn’t anywhere near finished yet’ he said sadly.

‘How are you doing with our own use of psionics?’ General Hammond asked curiously. ‘I know the program has been underway for some time now’ he said.

‘They think they finally have a workable Psionic Amplifier design that’s usable in the field but it requires months of training and we’re only gradually getting our troops up to speed with it’ Sharp replied. ‘It works just like the Sectoid or Ethereal psionics, eventually we’ll be able to panic, mind-scan or even control the bastards’ he said then chuckled, ‘and they think they’ve also got a custom Psi-Amp for Cassandra that she won’t melt’ he announced.

Major Carter pursed her lips. ‘What does Janet have to say about that?’ she asked.

‘I won’t repeat all the words used, she may have taught me some new ones, but suffice to say Doctor Fraser expressed a clear hostility to the continued role Cassandra is playing in our psionics program’ Sharp replied wryly.

‘If I ever hear that Cassie is anything but a completely willing participant you’ll hear some choice phrases from me too Russ’ General Hammond told him seriously.

‘I don’t think that attempting to force Cassandra with a psionic amplifier to do something against her will would be all that wise anyway but I’ll note the warning George’ Sharp responded. ‘As for the asteroid I’ll talk to the powers-that-be and give you an answer within an hour’ he said.

‘Even if we don’t go through with the mining we’ll still need the Enterprise for a couple of days to deflect it off-course’ Carter noted.

‘Billions of tons of naquadah?’ Sharp verified.

‘Yes, with a b’ Carter confirmed.

‘We’d be able to nuke the Goa’uld all the way back to P3X-888’ Sharp said happily. ‘Someone remind me to send a note of thanks to the dumbshit that gave it to us’ he requested.

‘It was only luck that we saw it coming and even luckier that we didn’t blast it without checking first Sir’ Carter pointed out. ‘If we’d only spotted it when it was looking right down our throats we might have just shot first and never got the chance to ask questions afterwards’ she said. ‘It was a clever way to try and circumvent the Protected Planets Treaty when you think about it’ she opined. ‘The Asgard would send a ship to fight a Goa’uld invasion fleet but not a big rock.’

‘Don’t underestimate luck Major’ Sharp replied, ‘Napoleon considered a lucky officer more valuable than a good one.’

‘It seems to work out for Jack’ Daniel responded. ‘Not that I mean you’re not a good officer too’ he added quickly as O’Neill gave him a look.

‘Do you consider yourself lucky or good Commander Sharp?’ Teal’c asked him out of interest.

Sharp considered the question. ‘Wilfully determined would be a better description than either’ he decided.


Free Jaffa Camp – P8X-987 – December 2001

‘There has been some friction between our own forces and those newly arrived with K’tano’ Bratac informed Teal’c as they watched a number of Jaffa practice the martial art used by the warriors of the Goa’uld Imhotep called mastaba. K’tano had arrived here on the planet Hanka three weeks earlier supposedly seeking to ally his own Free Jaffa faction, but it had become apparent he had a fierce desire to take on the mantle of overall leadership.

‘It is to be expected’ Teal’c replied. ‘K’tano was First Prime of Imhotep before slaying him and leading his Jaffa in rebellion’ he said. ‘He is used to command and many Jaffa from the armies of other System lords have already flocked to his cause’ he continued, ‘he likely feels he is chosen by destiny to lead.’

‘Destiny perhaps’ Bra’tac responded, ‘but he will need to demonstrate wisdom and humility as well to prove his worth’ he stated. ‘He did not react well to the easy defeat of his warriors in the training yesterday’ the Jaffa-Master commented.

‘Indeed’ Teal’c replied, with the hint of a smile.

‘You need not look so smug Teal’c’ Bra’tac chided mildly.

‘His forces outnumbered mine three to one and were soundly defeated’ Teal’c replied. ‘Perhaps now he will realise that equipping our warriors with the Tau’ri Staff-Rifles, and by using some of their small-unit infantry tactics, the Free Jaffa can be far more effective soldiers’ he said.

‘A valuable lesson it is true’ Bra’tac conceded, ‘but I feel you would have kept the moral high ground, as well as holding the tactical high ground in the exercise, if you had not shot K’tano in the backside with your Intar when ambushing his advance’ he told him.

Teal’c nodded. ‘I sometimes suspect I have spent too much time with O’Neill’ he replied sadly. ‘On the other hand perhaps his temporary difficulty remaining comfortable when sitting down will aid K’atano learn some of the humility you believe he requires’ he suggested.

Bra’tac couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘Perhaps you are right’ he said. ‘K’atano’s willingness to throw lives away cheaply in suicide attacks certainly necessitates a shift in his thinking’ he opined. ‘We are still too few in number to waste the Jaffa we have’ he said, as they turned and headed towards the firing range. ‘You say that the reason Major Carter is not with you is that she is moving an asteroid?’ he asked.

‘Yes’ Teal’c confirmed. ‘We believe that one of the System Lords bought it to the Tau’ri home system and launched it at their world in an attempt to destroy it whilst not risking the wrath of the Asgard Fleet’ he said. ‘With the assistance of the Tok’ra scientist Anise she is using the humans captured Ha’tak to accomplish the task’ he continued. ‘The Tok’ra have also offered their tunnel crystals to aid in mining the core of the asteroid which is particularly rich in naquadah’ he told him.

‘And the price the Tok’ra asked for this assistance?’ Bra’tac queried.

‘Several hundred tons of weapons-grade naquadah every year in perpetuity’ Teal’c replied.

‘Tons?’ Bra’tac gasped.

‘The asteroid is truly massive’ Teal’c told him. ‘The Tau’ri are already making plans to use the naquadah from it to power orbital defences the likes of which would make many System Lord’s tremble in fear at the thought of coming up against them’ he continued. ‘Imagine one of the X-COM Laser Rifles scaled up so that that the barrel barely fits through a stargate’ he said.

‘A fearsome image is certainly conjured’ Bra’tac responded. ‘Although the shields of a Hat’ak could easily absorb such energies for some time’ he noted.

‘The Tau’ri are great believers in mass-production’ Teal’c told him. ‘It would not be a single such beam striking the shields but instead many’ he continued. ‘Only a great fleet arriving all at once could overwhelm such defences and with the bulk of the armies of the System Lords at war with each other the Tau’ri reason none could spare so many for the conquest of a single human world.’

‘For now perhaps but eventually either Apophis or the System Lord’s opposed to him will emerge victorious’ Bra’tac replied. ‘The stories I have been hearing from newly arrived Jaffa about the new vessels Anubis is using are disturbing’ he said. ‘They are superior to even those of Baal which themselves are beyond anything the Goa’uld have used previously.’

‘The Tok’ra informed us that Baal obtained the technology for them from Anubis though it appears he naturally kept the very best designs back for himself’ Teal’c replied. ‘We are not certain how he came by such advances however.’

‘As a child I remember my own grandfather telling tales of the evils perpetrated by Anubis before he was banished and thought dead’ Bra’tac remarked. ‘That even the other Goa’uld reviled him must be a cause for major concern now he has returned.’

Teal’c nodded. ‘Nirrti apparently turned quite pale when informed of Anubis returning and said she hoped the other System Lord’s had the good sense to immediately turn on him once Apophis was vanquished.’

‘With yet more Jaffa falling in battle in the process’ Bra’tac replied. ‘Throwing their lives away for false gods’ he said sadly as they neared the firing range where O’Neill and the female warrior of the Tau’ri Andianov was teaching a class made up of K’tano’s Jaffa how to use a Staff-Rifle properly.

Another small group of K’tano’s men freshly arrived through the chappa’ai was approaching and Teal’c instantly recognised one with a degree of shock. ‘We may need to intervene to prevent violence’ he told Bra’tac, starting to hurry.

‘You!’ a Jaffa exclaimed, recognising the Tau’ri female. ‘Thanks to you I was banished for my failure and had to flee Chul’ak’ he cried out. ‘It was months before I found a new home and allegiance with K’tano’ he said.

Lyudmila Andianov turned and faced the Jaffa, transferring her Staff-Rifle to her left hand. ‘I would think your inability to walk properly for some time after our last encounter would have been your major grievance’ she replied, recognising him easily thanks to the scarred forehead.

‘Friend of yours Sergeant?’ O’Neill asked, walking over, the Staff-Rifle in his hands ready for action.

‘Intimate acquaintance’ Andianov responded. ‘This Jaffa was the one working for Heru’ur that tried to capture Teal’c as an offering to Apophis’ she told him.

‘Tau’ri bitch’ Rak’nor snarled, reaching for the zat’nik’tek on his wrist holster but stopping before he could draw his weapon because he was barely there before the woman’s pistol was already aimed right between his eyes.

‘Alright everyone calm down’ O’Neill ordered as the rest of K’atano’s Jaffa nearby started to react to one of their own having a gun pointing at him.

‘Rak’nor’ Teal’c exclaimed as he arrived. ‘You do not wish to do this’ he said.

‘Ah the famous Teal’c once again we meet’ Rak’nor responded, eyes remaining locked with the female. ‘Perhaps you seek to once again stand idly by while a Tau’ri strips me of my honour.’

‘It was part of your clothing I stripped’ Andianov pointed out. ‘If you had just told us what we needed to know I would not have needed to interrogate you like that’ she said flatly. He had in fact held out far longer than she would have expected, Jaffa were stoic in the extreme, even under torture.

‘Oh so this is the guy you zapped with the stun-rod’ O’Neill realised, remembering the mission report she had made with a grimace as he thought about it. ‘Okay I can see how you might hold a grudge’ he told him ‘but...’

‘She will kill you Rak’nor, you are Free Jaffa now and the Tau’ri are our allies and we should not kill each other’ Bra’tac told him. ‘We heard of your exile after the death of your master Heru’ur, that Terok sought your death because the plan to capture Teal’c failed’ he continued, ‘at least now you realise that the Goa’uld are truly false gods and that now you fight for the freedom of all Jaffa.’

‘It was nothing personal’ Andianov told him honestly.

‘What is going on here?’ K’tano asked loudly as he arrived to see what the commotion was about. ‘Why is this Tau’ri female aiming a weapon at one of my Jaffa?’

‘He went for his zat first’ O’Neill spoke up. ‘She’s just... really damn fast’ he told him.

‘It is true K’tano’ another Jaffa confirmed.

‘I will holster my pistol if he takes his hand away from his own’ Andianov offered.

‘There you see, everyone calms down and then nobody gets shot’ O’Neill said.

‘How can I be expected to be calm?’ Rak’nor exclaimed.

‘Sergeant, say you’re sorry’ O’Neill told her.

‘I was only doing my duty and will not apologise for it Colonel’ Andianov replied. ‘If the situation had worked out differently Rak’nor knows that it would have been Teal’c being interrogated by torture instead because of his actions’ she said.

Rak’nor opened his mouth to retort but realised it was true. Terok had planned to torture Teal’c with a pain-stick and had boasted to him of this. ‘If you were a man I would challenge you to a fight to the death’ he told her.

‘It is a good thing for you that I am not then’ Andianov responded, though she knew in the hand-to-hand or quarterstaff-style combat the Jaffa favoured she would be at a severe disadvantage.

‘There is no honour in killing a woman Rak’nor’ Bra’tac told him, offering him a way out.

‘True’ Rak’nor agreed and slowly moved his hand away from his zat’nik’tel, Andianov lowering her pistol as he did.

‘Okay show’s over, everyone go about your business’ O’Neill said with relief.

As everyone dispersed K’tano approached Teal’c. ‘The Tau’ri do not keep their women under sufficient control’ he observed. ‘Their ways are not ours and I do not believe the Free Jaffa are well-served by aligning ourselves so closely to them’ he said.

Teal’c looked to where O’Neill was having a quiet word with Andianov. ‘They are skilled warriors with much to offer our cause in weapons and new ways of thinking’ he replied.

‘Their ways of war lack honour’ K’tano declared. ‘The Jaffa you trained in their methods fight like bandits’ he said disparagingly.

‘When it is called for’ Teal’c admitted. ‘In battle they do however triumph over superior numbers of Jaffa fighting in the traditional manner almost every time’ he noted.

‘The humans do not even provide the best weapons they have’ K’tano complained.

‘That is true and I have often raised this matter with their leaders’ Teal’c replied. ‘Even so the Staff-Rifle has proven itself in the field to be a superior weapon to the Goa’uld Staff it is based upon.’

‘For shooting accuracy at least’ K’tano conceded.

‘It could be worse brother’ Bra’tac told him. ‘If the Tau’ri had provided their older projectile weapons we would be dependent upon them for ammunition’ he said.

‘It is amazing they were using such primitive technology so recently’ K’tano remarked.

‘And yet even those were superior in combat to what the Goa’uld have given the Jaffa to carry for so long’ Teal’c said, ‘weapons of war rather than weapons of terror and intimidation.’

Bra’tac looked around. ‘Daniel Jackson is approaching from the direction of the stargate’ he said.

‘O’Neill sent him earlier to fetch a device from Earth as a gift of sorts for you Master Bra’tac’ Teal’c told him. ‘It is called a Mind Probe.’

‘A Mind Probe?’ Bra’tac queried.

‘A device invented by the renegade Asgard Loki that enables you to read the surface thoughts and intentions of another’ Teal’c explained. ‘With our recent surge in recruitment O’Neill fears we may be infiltrated by Jaffa still working for the System Lords’ he said. ‘They may not even be aware of it, the Goa’uld have used brainwashed zatarc agents before, but the Mind Probe detects such unwitting tools of the enemy.’

K’tano’s eyes widened. ‘I do not think my warriors would submit to such an invasion of their mind’ he said. ‘I will have to talk to them about this’ he said, turning and leaving in a hurry as Daniel arrived.

‘Hey Teal’c’ Daniel greeted them holding a silver metal sphere in his hand. ‘I picked up the mind-probe, they said not to lose it, they’re expensive’ he said.
‘Daniel Jackson what is the range on that device?’ Teal’c asked, as both he and Bra’tac watched K’tano hurry away suspiciously

‘A couple of hundred feet I think’ Daniel replied, ‘why?’ he asked in confusion.

‘Please scan the Jaffa heading towards the stargate in a hurry’ Teal’c requested.

K’tano, or rather the minor Goa’uld Imhotep, was half way through dialling the gate when Teal’c ran up and shot him in the back with a zat’nik’tel. When he woke up they let Rak’nor question him before turning him over to the Tau’ri for more in-depth and mentally invasive interrogation back on Earth, it was thought that the scarred Jaffa might benefit from blowing off a little steam and it did seem to improve his mood quite a lot.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Tok’ra Base – Revanna – January 2002

Elizabeth Weir looked around the circular room with its crystal walls. The Tok’ra had made it especially for this conference and it looked like they had taken the task seriously with plenty of ornate furnishings added and what appeared to be a silk banner behind each representative present emblazoned with their respective people’s insignia.

The table they were sat around was itself a huge crystal which caught the light and seemed to almost shimmer making it almost a shame to be covering the section before her with a laptop computer and sheets of paper. ‘I would first like to thank High Chancellor Per’sus of the Tok’ra for hosting this meeting’ she began earning a smile and a small bow of acknowledgement from their host sat also directly across from her, ‘next I offer my thanks to both the governments and the representatives of the Asgard, Nox, Tollan and Aschen for attending’ she continued, ‘on behalf of the United Nations of Earth I hope that this is only the start of a new era of fruitful contact and cooperation between our peoples’ she said.

‘Tollana shares the same wish’ High Chancellor Travell from the Tollan Curia agreed. ‘My people have already established firm and mutually rewarding relations with the Tok’ra and Nox and look forward to deepening friendship with both the Asgard and Aschen’ she said. ‘Although we have been isolationist for many centuries, and intend to continue our strict policy of neutrality, the Tollan are becoming increasingly aware of changes in the overall galactic situation and have come to accept the need for a more dynamic foreign policy in order to best meet the challenges of the future’ she continued. ‘We all have something to offer the other societies represented here today, be that technology’ she said, looking at the Asgard and Aschen representatives, ‘or wisdom and sage counsel’ she added, smiling warmly at Lya who smiled back.

Penigal from the Asgard High Council had his own notes in front of him, although like the Tollan and Aschen these were being projected holographically by small devices rather than being written on the paper of the primitive humans of Earth or on a seemingly stone tablet like the Tok’ra. ‘The Asgard are pleased at the development of this body’ he told them, ‘although our ongoing war with the Replicators means that our presence in this Galaxy will remain sporadic for the foreseeable future and we may not be able to attend all future conferences in person like myself rather than as a hologram’ he told the others apologetically. ‘Like the Nox we were once part of the Alliance known as the Four Great Races, along with the Ancients and Furlings, and we hope that such an Alliance might be reborn for the benefit of all’ he said grandly.

Lya nodded. ‘It is a shame that the Furlings are not also in attendance’ she opined. ‘Both my people and the Asgard tried to contact them but we have had little contact for many centuries’ she said. For her part she seemed to be working without notes or recording devices purely from memory which was unsurprising considering how bright the Nox were. ‘My people were both very pleased and reassured that the Asgard at least are involved in these discussions’ she noted, ‘we have been friends for many millennia and value their opinions even though we have long differed on philosophical matters’ she said.

‘Whilst we praise the Nox stance of utmost pacifism at some levels the Asgard have always maintained that it is utopian to think that not fighting always brings about the best outcome’ Penigal told the others. ‘For some groups such as the Goa’uld a threat of force is quite literally the only thing they understand’ he stated, earning a nod of heartfelt agreement from Per’sus and a more reluctant one from Travell, the Tollan regarding their advanced defence technology as a necessary evil.

‘If it wasn’t for the Protected Planet’s Treaty, and the Goa’uld perception that the Asgard would intervene militarily on our behalf, Earth would have been conquered by a coalition of the System Lords years ago’ Weir concurred. ‘I am not a fan of the military solution and prefer civilised, diplomatic alternatives whenever possible, but regretfully I have to recognise that even if we do our best to avoid war we face foes who are not likely to respond to any political overtures not backed by force.’

‘The Aschen are also concerned about the Goa’uld threat to our Confederation’ Mollem their representative told the group. ‘Although we are more advanced overall our ships are no match for theirs in speed, and the worlds of the Confederation consist of a handful of planets which could be invaded one at a time in a concerted move by the System Lords’ he said. ‘Our only available means of defence at present would be a pre-emptive strike by biogenic weapons launched through the stargate and our present government is reluctant to contemplate genocide’ he lied.

Daniel Jackson had once said that the Nox liked everyone, it was their way. In fact this was not true, Lya had taken an immediate dislike of Mollem and the Aschen as a whole and the combination of their near lack of emotion and humour, plus their near extermination of the Volian Union two centuries before, gave her the creeps. Empathic to some degree she couldn’t read Mollem at all and that was viscerally disturbing to a member of a species like the Nox who tried to live in harmony with those around them. ‘Killing countless others to save yourselves is immoral’ Lya declared.

‘There are billions of Aschen’ Mollem stated, ‘we have a right to self-defence’ he replied flatly.

Travell nodded. ‘And to that end the Tollan Curia is voting on the matter of supplying our Ion Cannon weaponry to the Aschen Confederation’ she said. ‘In addition to the other technology transfers between us’ she announced.

Mollem read his holographic notes. ‘Following negotiations brokered by Earth the Aschen are providing the Tollan with our Teleportation Platform technology in return for Tollan built stargates for the worlds of the Confederation that do not have them’ he said.

Lya turned to High Chancellor Travell. ‘I hope that these stargates will all be restricted as we requested’ she asked. The Nox had been the ones that helped the Tollan develop the ability to make their own gates and would not want the technology used to ill purposes.

‘The Tollan built gates cannot be manually dialled and can only be used at present to open wormholes to other worlds in the Aschen Confederation’ Travell confirmed. ‘They can be unlocked at a later date if required but the technology is tamper-proof’ she declared. ‘Given the Aschen actions against the people of the Volian Union the Tollan fully agree that the Confederation needs to demonstrate good faith over a long period of time before we can trust them with fully operational stargates and lists of gate addresses’ she said. ‘Likewise Earth and ourselves will not be providing them the faster Goa’uld Hyperdrive technology.’

‘The Aschen Confederation accepts these terms and trusts we will prove in time that we are not the same people we were two centuries ago’ Mollem responded. ‘Earth has agreed to provide the necessary naquadah for the stargates in return for a small number of our teleporter platforms’ he added.

‘We’re also providing the material for the gates Tollana is producing for the Tok’ra and ourselves’ Weir pointed out.

‘In trade for access to some of our technology and expertise’ Per’sus reminded her. ‘It’s not like you cannot now readily spare the naquadah’ she added.

‘Our new Cruiser using the Goa’uld Hyperdrive design we obtained from Earth will place the stargates on the respective worlds both the Tok’ra and Earth requested’ Travell said. ‘Each will be fitted with a force-field to prevent unwelcome visitors but given that they will be gate coordinates and worlds entirely unknown to the Goa’uld that should not be a problem anyway’ she said.

‘You went for the shield optional extra too then?’ Weir asked Per’sus.

‘It wasn’t too much more’ the Tok’ra High Chancellor replied. ‘You intend a secret base like our own?’ she asked.

‘Yes, far more secure than our Alpha or Beta sites’ Weir answered. ‘As well as the force-field we’re fitting one of our own trinium alloy iris shields in case of power-failure.’

‘Unnecessary I assure you’ Travell told her.

‘Tollan forcefields can’t be manually hand-cranked closed in an emergency’ Weir told her with a smile. ‘We like a back-up plan whenever possible’ she said.

Travell chuckled. ‘Tollan technology is supremely reliable’ she said confidently.

‘I’ll admit that we’re possibly paranoid as well as primitive’ Weir responded. ‘How has your research into elerium panned out?’ she asked curiously, ‘we did ask for regular updates in return for allowing Tollan Scientists and engineers access to Sectoid Technology’ she noted.

‘My Technical Advisors tell me that the naquadah allotrope you call elerium was definitely synthesised from the original material but they cannot as yet determine how this might have been accomplished in an economic manner’ Travell replied. ‘We have managed to reproduce it ourselves using nanotechnology, simply rearranging the atoms of naquadah into the correct crystal structure, but the cost is prohibitive beyond belief’ she said.

‘The Asgard ran into the same problem when we investigated elerium’ Penigal confirmed. ‘We suspect Loki must have developed some kind of self-sustaining catalytic reaction that breeds elerium from highly refined conventional naquadah but for now we are none the wiser on the actual methodology’ he admitted.

‘The Aschen would be willing to investigate, perhaps we would bring a new approach that might achieve results’ Mollem offered.

‘I’ll pass the offer on to my superiors’ Weir told him. ‘Elerium has been a gift to Earth technological progress because it offers shortcuts to technologies we would have been unable to develop so quickly otherwise’ she said. ‘The gravity engines on our F-302 Fighters or Plasma weaponry for example.’

Penigal muttered something in Asgard which only Lya understood. ‘The Plasma Beam weapon you back-engineered from Sectoid Vessels is originally of Asgard design’ he said changing to a language all could understand. ‘We have been working on a replacement for the energy pulse weapons carried on our Beliskner and now O’Neill Class Cruisers for some time and it appears that Loki used the elerium as what you called a shortcut in making it work’ he told them. ‘For any given input of energy the beam is more precise and effective at cutting through shields than current Asgard weapons, or those of the Goa’uld’ he explained.

‘It’s a scalpel used to cut precisely instead of a club used to batter through brute force’ Weir said, recalling an explanation one of the X-COM engineers had told her.

‘Correct’ Penigal replied. ‘Scaled up from the version carried by the tiny Sectoid ships the Plasma Beam technology would give a capital ship like the O’Neill unparalleled firepower’ he said.

‘Our Ion Cannon already give us an overwhelming edge over the Goa’uld’ Travell observed.

‘Because like our pulse weaponry you use an element of phase shifting to help penetrate Goa’uld shields’ the Asgard responded, ‘if the Goa’uld developed better shields your cannon might prove underpowered to smash them down’ he continued. ‘The beam weapon concentrates force at a point and drills through so less raw power is required to defeat the shield even if the improved design initially held.’

‘It is said that the new ships of Baal and especially Anubis may be a match for the Asgard’ Per’sus interjected, ‘unless we see more evidence I am inclined to think it hyperbole but we do know they are considerably more formidable than other Ha’tak ships in Goa’uld service’ she said.

‘Tollana is confident of our Ion Cannon but the new Cruisers offer additional insurance against attack’ High Chancellor Travell remarked. ‘I doubt the Goa’uld would risk attacking us if they believed retribution would fall upon their heads soon after’ she continued. ‘We now have phase-shifting missiles that cannot be shot down with warheads that would devastate a continent at their lowest yield and crack the crust of a planet if necessary’ she said.

‘As a world not bound by the terms of the Protected Planets Treaty, which of course prohibits the Asgard from providing advanced technology to the worlds under our protection, the Asgard High Council may be willing to offer you more advanced shields than you can provide yourself for your new Cruisers’ Penigal told Travell. ‘As our Beliskner Class is retired from active duty we have a number of their shield generators available as surplus awaiting possible disposal’ he said. ‘They are second-rank designs by modern Asgard standards, the O’Neill Class that is replacing the Beliskner is more heavily protected, but they are still far more effective than Goa’uld shields’ he stated.

‘We’ll take them’ Travell said quickly. The Tollan were well aware of the superiority of Asgard Shields over those of other races.

‘I will talk to the High Council on your behalf’ the Asgard told her. ‘We may ask a favour in return such as the use of the Tollana System as an occasional base of operations and resupply in this Galaxy’ he said.

‘I will have to discuss this with the Curia of course’ Travell responded, ‘but the Asgard Fleet is always welcome to visit Tollana’ she told him. For one thing the presence of Asgard ships in the vicinity had a tendency to make every usually belligerent Goa’uld Hat’ak ship within a hundred light years suitably nervous and mild mannered.

‘I would be happier to hear of these shields being placed to protect cities than warships’ Lya observed sadly.

‘In an ideal universe we wouldn’t need them at all ’ Travell replied.

‘The Aschen Confederation would very much like access to this defensive technology if the Asgard are offering it to other advanced human cultures not covered by your treaty with the Goa’uld’ Mollem spoke up.

‘It may be possible’ Penigal replied guardedly. Not a chance, he thought to himself privately.

‘If not, Earth has an improved version of Goa’uld shields that utilises Sectoid designs to enhance them and would be willing to exchange them for Aschen technology’ Weir interjected. ‘Our people are interested in your anti-gravity devices which judging from your harvesters appears to be ahead of the Goa’uld’ she said. ‘We’ll exchange one for the other if that is acceptable’ she offered.

‘That may be acceptable if the Asgard are unwilling to offer us their own shields’ Mollem agreed. Once they got a look they would almost certainly be able to improve the design still further themselves given that the confederation was scientifically centuries ahead of Earth if apparently still somewhat behind the Tollan overall and far behind the Asgard.

After the Conference it was agreed that the Tollan would host the next meeting and Lya accepted an offer of a lift back to her homeworld on Penigal’s ship, it only being a few minutes out of the way at the speed of an Asgard Hyperdrive. Mollem was the first to leave, being escorted back to the stargate by Tok’ra security who dialled the gate for him and as soon as he was gone everyone else compared notes on just how much the Aschen made their flesh crawl.

Back home Mollem advised his government that they should continue to play nice with the aliens for now until they had caught up militarily because currently the Tollan were too powerful to provoke, and the Asgard could crush them like a bug. Work was accelerated at new shipyards in preparation for the construction of an Aschen Navy to rival that of any Great Power in the Galaxy or beyond, all they needed was to bide their time and only make their move when they were ready.

The Tollan didn’t trust the Aschen an inch and regularly dispatched one of their new phase-shifting Cruisers, which the Tau’ri nicknamed Ghostriders, to the Confederation to spy on them. For their part the Tau’ri merely made sure to regularly, and in an unsubtle manner, remind the Aschen just how powerful a thermonuclear bomb encased in ten metric tonnes of weapons-grade naquadah was and just how many of the damn things Earth was stockpiling, the Tollan and the Asgard might have their high-tech as a deterrent but the apparent willingness of the Earth Military to turn heavily populated worlds into vast expanses of shattered and cratered radioactive glass on a whim was something the Aschen almost admired.



Stargate – P3X-116 – January 2002

Thanks to the ubiquitous terraforming of much of the galaxy first by the Ancients, then the Goa’uld, with the Asgard and Nox occasionally dabbling in it too, one planet on the stargate network was often pretty much like another as regards fauna and flora with a few examples of non-terrestrial life on occasion. The stargate here was amongst some sand dunes at the edge of a forest, and there was really very little of note to look at, once you’ve seen one mass of trees you’ve pretty much seen them all.

As always SG-1 had arrived through the gate ready for trouble but they hadn’t found any and after a while with nothing better to do as they waited for their contact to turn up they started to chat. Well O’Neill, Carter and Daniel started to chat, Teal’c said very little and Andianov continued to dutifully watch the tree-line, her pharmaceutically-enhanced intense focus on the task at hand overriding the boredom of having nothing to shoot at.

‘We just couldn’t beam through all that rock’ Carter explained. ‘The naquadah core of the asteroid was tens of kilometres down under ordinary rock so we needed the Tok’ra crystals to tunnel down to it’ she said. ‘Once we had that done we could use the transporters on the Redemption to just beam the unrefined naquadah into its cargo holds and haul back few hundred tonnes at a time’ she told them. ‘It’s only a fraction of a light-year out, less than a couple of minutes for a hyperdrive on maximum, so Captain Tanner just shuttles back and forth when he’s not beaming elerium engines out of Sectoid Ships’ she said.

‘But they’re constructing a permanent mining base?’ Daniel checked.

‘Yes with a naquadah refinery and several batteries of base defence laser cannons, missile silos and a squadron of Reapers to hold off an attack’ Carter replied. ‘Enterprise and Redemption could be there to help defend the asteroid in less than a couple of minutes if required too like I said’ she continued. ‘We’re hoping to snag an Al’kesh eventually and strip it out for cargo runs, hauling the stuff back to Earth round the clock.’

‘Someone could still blow it up’ O’Neill pointed out.

‘True but we eventually hope to mount a Ha’tak Hyperdrive on it so we can actually move the entire asteroid at will’ Carter replied. ‘Thanks to the Tok’ra we’re well on the way to being able to do that, the first Earth built capital ship hyperdrive is earmarked to be mounted on the Prometheus Project but once you’ve made one the second is always easier.’

‘Prometheus?’ Daniel queried.

‘The X-303, it’s a USAF project, US funded but with X-COM technical assistance in a few areas’ Carter told him, ‘Earth’s first self-built interstellar warship.’

‘Based on captured Goa’uld craft and Loki’s technology’ Daniel noted. ‘Prometheus stole the secret of the fire from the gods’ he said with a smile, ‘very appropriate.’

‘I’m hoping they don’t stick with that name for the ship itself’ O’Neill commented. ‘It’s a Greek tragedy.’

‘Sorry to tell you this Sir but its likely they will’ Carter told him. ‘The X-303 will probably be like the X-301 was, a prototype for testing out some of the technologies before a design for full-scale production model craft is produced’ she added.

‘X-304?’ Daniel queried.

‘BC-304, BC for battlecruiser, using naval abbreviations’ Carter replied.

Colonel O’Neill checked his watch. ‘We were supposed to meet our contact here fifteen minutes ago’ he complained. ‘If he doesn’t show up in the next five dial Earth’ he ordered. ‘I’m not going to sit on my ass here all day’ he declared.

‘Why not Jack? It’s a nice day for a picnic’ came a disembodied voice from nowhere that had Teal’c and Andianov snap their laser-rifles to their shoulders ready for action.

‘Oh you’ve got to be yanking my chain’ O’Neill moaned as a figure snapped into view beside them turning off a personal cloaking device attached to his belt.

‘Like it?’ Maybourne asked, ‘it’s amazing what you can get a Goa’uld to make for you with sufficient motivation’ he said tapping the device, ‘Nirrti says the battery isn’t as long-lasting as the original, because she had to use some less efficient Earth tech for some of the components, but it’s good for a couple of hours between recharging’ he told SG-1.

‘What the hell are you doing here Maybourne?’ O’Neill demanded to know. ‘And why are you dressed like that?’ he asked.

‘It’s my cover, I’m a trader’ Maybourne replied, ‘the look is a little medieval I’ll admit but if you’re going from planet to planet in a pretty low-tech galaxy you’ve got to try and fit in’ he said. ‘So how are things on Earth?’ he asked, ‘it’s been a couple of months since I left.’

‘Still there’ O’Neill replied, ‘now I know you didn’t leave via the SGC so...’

‘X-COM gate in Poland’ Maybourne interrupted. ‘They’ve been sending people through for a while to gather covert intelligence’ he explained, ‘Our CIA, British MI6, French DGSE, Russian SVR, Israeli Mossad... all the greats’ he continued. ‘X-COM didn’t want to rely on the Tok’ra for human intel so they asked for volunteers’ he told them. ‘There’s dozens of us out here all doing our spooky best to help defend the homeworld’ he announced, ‘makes you proud’ he declared with a grin. ‘Needless to say I’m one of the key operatives’ he added smugly.

‘And my opinion of X-COM went up for not trusting the Tok’ra and then straight back down again for trusting you’ O’Neill told him.

‘They recognise talent when they see it Jack’ Maybourne replied, ‘and you know I’m good at what I do even if you might not think the reason I’m doing it is on the up and up’ he said. ‘Anyhow you’re here to give me some back-up so we might as well get on with it’ he said brightly.

‘Sergeant if this man leads us into an ambush shoot him’ O’Neill ordered.

‘Yes Sir’ Andianov replied.

‘I don’t mean stun him with a zat’ O’Neill noted. ‘I mean kill him’ he said.

‘So I assumed Colonel’ Andianov replied unemotionally. ‘I will also have my motion-tracker to hand if he activates his cloak’ she added.

‘She’ll do it you know’ Daniel warned Maybourne.

‘Indeed’ Teal’c affirmed.

‘Consider me suitably warned’ Maybourne told them. ‘Okay so you’re probably wondering why you’re here?’ he said.

‘I was told we were meeting an operative off-world who had information for us’ O’Neill replied.

‘Kinda’ Maybourne replied, ‘come on I’ll explain on the way’ he said, leading off.

‘Where are we going?’ O’Neill asked suspiciously, staying where he was.

‘Goa’uld base a few miles thataway’ Maybourne told him, pointing. ‘I already scouted it out and they’re not expecting trouble’ he said. ‘The front lines are better than a five hundred light years from here and all the System Lords in this part of the Galaxy are allies fighting against Apophis’ he said.

‘I’m not going one step until you spill everything’ O’Neill told him.

‘And if we are not satisfied that which may be spilled could be your blood’ Teal’c told Maybourne.

The former NID officer sighed. ‘Okay, we found out that Anubis was setting up a new base on this planet’ he said. ‘The guy has a lot of high-tech but not much in the way of territory as yet so he’s expanding his turf into uninhabited worlds like this one’ he explained. ‘All his Hat’aks are off fighting Apophis right now so the only ships he’s got for jobs like this one are Tel’taks and Al’kesh’ he continued then grinned. ‘We’re going to steal an Al’kesh’ he declared.

‘We are?’ Carter asked in surprise.

‘Well technically Teal’c there is because I can’t fly one’ Maybourne replied, ‘but with my cloaking device and a distraction from the rest of us he should be able to sneak in, get aboard one of the two landed at the base, pick us all up with the rings and get the hell out of dodge before Anubis Jaffa realise what the hell is going on’ he said.

‘Oh yeah, sounds like a detailed well thought out plan to me’ O’Neill responded sarcastically.

‘Hey we’ve only been hitting Apophis for the last few months’ Maybourne reminded him, ‘there’s only a small number of Jaffa setting up the base, it’ll be a walk in the park.’

‘Damn it Maybourne don’t tempt fate saying stuff like that!’ O’Neill exclaimed.

‘Relax Jack, everything is going to be fine trust me’ Maybourne told him.

‘Not in this lifetime Harry’ O’Neill responded. ‘What do you think Carter?’ he asked.

‘We do need an Al’kesh’ Carter replied. ‘And one of Nirrti’s cloaking devices would give Teal’c quite an advantage’ she continued. ‘I say we check it out ourselves and if it looks possible it’s worth a try.’

‘Teal’c?’ O’Neill asked. ‘Sounds like you’re getting the dangerous job here’ he told him.

‘If the garrison is small and unprepared and the Al’kesh grounded and poorly secured as it well might be in the circumstances it would be an ideal opportunity to seize the craft’ Teal’c replied. ‘I am prepared to undertake the mission’ he said.

‘We know that Anubis can detect cloaked ships, maybe he has portable tech for his Jaffa that can detect cloaked people too’ Daniel warned.

‘The System Lords already have the Transphase Eradication Rod developed to detect and fight the invisible Reetou, and knew that other Goa’uld such as Nirrti had developed personal cloaks, but nonetheless they did not routinely issue the weapon’ Teal’c replied. ‘This would indicate that they do not take the threat as seriously as they should’ he opined.

‘Hey they didn’t detect me when I poked around their camp earlier’ Maybourne told them.

‘Okay let’s go take a look but if this looks risky I’m plugging the plug on the mission’ O’Neill announced. ‘Lead on Harry’ he told him.

Truth be told the entire operation went without a hitch. Teal’c wearing the cloaking device Maybourne gave him simply sneaked into the unfinished base, which was in the early stages of construction and poorly garrisoned, and when the rest of SG-1 provided a sizeable distraction by detonating C4 charges and lighting up the other side of the camp with laser and zat fire an invisible Teal’c entered the Al’kesh through an open bay door zatted it’s very surprised crew, threw them out of the ship and took off, picking up the rest of the team as they ran from the scene under the cover of a few smoke grenades.

Teal’c also had the presence of mind to plant a C4 charge of his own on the second Al’kesh parked next to the one he stole. It had nearly caught up with them when the plastic explosive detonated and pieces of the pursuing ship rained down onto the planet as SG-1 headed out of the atmosphere so they could engage the hyperdrive.

They dropped Maybourne off on another empty planet with a stargate before heading back to Earth. O’Neill told him that if the next time they met he could direct them at one of the upgraded Ha’tak’s of Baal or Anubis which was available for easy theft he might even start to like him a little bit.



Near the Galapagos Islands – Earth – January 2002

Cameron Mitchell watched with satisfaction as the three Reapers assigned the job of bringing down the Sectoid Battleship went about their business professionally. The largest type of Sectoid Craft carried a large plasma cannon which outranged their own, meaning that you couldn’t bring them down with impunity like you could smaller vessels, but they had soon developed tactics to cope with that. Two F-302X aerospace fighters would close to within range of their own recently developed X-COM plasma cannon and fire off as many shots as they could before the Battleship scored a hit on one of them whereupon the Reaper would immediately back off out of range and let its now almost depleted shield recharge while another fighter took over its place. The third fighter also had the job of keeping any Foo Fighters off the ass of the two attacking the battleship, they couldn't afford to be hit without their shields close to a full charge or they might not survive and would certainly incur damage.

Searing bright green beams of energy lanced through the sky towards the metallic grey battleship while the rest of the squadron dealt with the enemy vessels escorts, a small squadron of Foo Fighters which were now dogfighting for their lives against the less manoeuvrable but faster and shielded Reapers.

The heavy plasma beams, each Reaper had two one being slung under each wing on the inboard missile pylon, were unsuited for anti-fighter combat due to their low rate of fire so the human pilots relied on the laser cannon built into the F-302’s wing roots for the fast-turning close in fights with the Foo-Fighters. Occasionally you got the ideal target, a Sectoid pilot dumb enough to stay on the same course for more than a couple of seconds in which case you could vaporise him with a single blast of plasma, but generally they made you work for it Mitchell thought regretfully as he tried to get on the tail of an enemy craft.

It didn’t help that he was being forced to hold fire on his lasers trying to get in close for a decent hit with the unwieldy weapon slung under his Reapers belly and connected to a huge capacitor in the fighters internal bay. ‘Give me a break Marvin’ Mitchell hissed as the Foo-Fighter he was chasing jinked hard to the left, messing up his shot once again.

‘Battleship is going down’ a pilot whooped as the Sectoid ship finally succumbed to the multiple blasts of superheated matter fired into it and began to drop towards the ocean trailing thick smoke.

‘You’re next you bug bastard’ Mitchell swore as he managed to line up another shot, pressing the firing stud on his joystick. ‘Shit’ he added as the Foo-Fighter performed a sudden climb avoiding the massive zat’nik’tel cannon blast the human pilot had fired at him, the discharge barely missing its target but nearly hitting just wasn’t enough.

‘Thirty seconds to recharge the zat-cannon Sir’ the co-pilot in the back seat told him.

‘Okay Banks’ Mitchell replied as he continued pursuit. The advanced mind-controlled navigation, avionics and sensors in the Reaper meant that although the fighter had two seats it often flew with just a single crewman, but for this operation he needed someone along to monitor the largely jury-rigged extra weapon. Another Reaper chasing down its own prey, laser-cannon firing as it went flashed past the nose of Mitchell’s F-302X and momentarily scared the crap out of him, a mid-air collision was not the way he wanted to go.

‘Zat-cannon ready’ Lieutenant Banks reported. ‘If this works I hope they manage to catch it’ he continued. ‘It’ll probably drop like a stone when we hit the thing’ he stated.

‘That’s the other guys problem Lieutenant’ Mitchell told him. ‘We zap it, they snatch it’ he said, hoping that the Reaper crew carrying the large folded trinium cable net slung under their own airframe remembered not to be going too fast when they did, because inertial dampeners or not the sudden jolt on the Reaper of scooping up a plummeting Foo-Fighter at high speed would likely rip the F-302X apart, they were constructed of trinium and the extremely strong alloys used by the Sectoids but they weren’t that tough.. ‘All things considered I think we got the sweet end of the deal’ he said seriously.

‘You and me both Sir’ Banks agreed wholeheartedly.

Mitchell managed to draw a bead on their quarry again wishing that zat blasts went at the speed of light like a laser, or a fair percentage of it like a Sectoid Plasma Beam, because it would give the Foo-Fighter less opportunity to dodge the...

‘Got him!’ Mitchell hollered triumphantly as the zat-cannon scored a direct hit on the Foo-Fighter engulfing it in the usual lightning-like effects just scaled up by nearly two orders of magnitude. As expected the energy discharge had much the same effect on the unshielded enemy fighter as it did on other Sectoid equipment like their Cyberdisc hovertanks, the craft simply ceased to function properly, all the electronics went haywire, the gravity engine safeties all kicked in simultaneously and the Foo-Fighter suddenly did a very good impression of a falling rock.

‘If the bug flying that thing had hair it would all be standing on end right now I reckon’ Mitchell joked as the Reaper with the net dove down to catch it. ‘It must be like getting shocked by a Taser the size of a Buick’ he said, starting to laugh.

When Major Carter arriving back on Earth in a captured Al’kesh heard the news that her zat-cannon had worked she did a little dance of joy which she made the rest of SG-1 promise not to tell anyone about. Meanwhile when Mitchell’s Reaper squadron got the Foo Fighter back to Area 51 the base engineering team, who had instantly got to work stripping it down in order to back-engineer the technology, stated the best description of its unfortunate pilot when they opened up the cockpit was “crispy”.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – February 2002

Jacob Carter, usually addressed these days in Tok’ra company as Selmak, stepped out of the stargate into the SGC expecting to find his daughter waiting for him on the ramp but instead found himself looking straight into a battery of weapons mounted on a turret that was apparently lowered from a mounting on the ceiling. ‘I surrender’ he said, grinning at Samantha who was stood next to it.

‘No offence meant Dad, everyone gets the same reception these days, our teams included’ Sam Carter told him as the turret smoothly retracted upwards out of the way. ‘Eventually someone is going to get hold of one of our GDO’s’ she said. ‘They might be surprised at what happens if they step through’ she added. ‘You’re late’ she told him before walking up the ramp and giving him a quick hug.

‘Had to deal with something urgent back on Revanna’ Jacob replied.

‘Trouble?’ Samantha asked nervously.

‘Overdue paperwork’ Jacob responded with a sigh, well technically it was more like stone tablet work using a goa’uld data device but it was no more interesting for that. ‘I was told by the boss herself that I couldn’t leave without finishing it’ he said.

‘Sounds like Per’sus and General Hammond have a lot in common’ his daughter responded with a laugh. ‘He once told Colonel O’Neill that if he tried to leave the base without filling in a report he’d have armed guards turn him back from every exit’ she said. ‘We’d better get a move on, the briefing is about to start’ she told him, leading off.

‘Was that a Staff-Cannon on that thing?’ Jacob asked, pointing upwards to the turret which had been looking right down the stargates throat from a position just in front of the blast door.

‘Taken from a Deathglider’ Sam confirmed, ‘set between twin rotary staff-weapons and a pair of fully automatic shotguns’ she told him.

‘Automatic shotguns?’ Jacob asked, following her towards the door out of the gate room which was sliding open.

‘Twelve-gauge miniguns, power-fed from hoppers, six hundred rounds of buckshot a minute each’ Samantha told him. ‘In case we ever have to deal with Replicators coming through the gate’ she explained. ‘They’re based on the autocannons X-COM used to give their troops before they had lasers’ she said.

‘Loud’ Jacob observed.

‘Very’ Sam agreed.

They eventually arrived at the briefing room where General Hammond and Commander Sharp were already talking to the rest of SG-1. ‘Nice to have you here Jacob’ Hammond greeted his old friend as they sat down.

‘Always nice to get back home even for a little while George’ Jacob replied. ‘Selmak says it’s an honour to be invited’ he added.

‘I think the idea is that if we’re more open with the Tok’ra, you might be more open with us’ Colonel O’Neill observed.

Jacob bowed his head slightly and raised it again, his voice shifting as he did so. ‘We were concerned to hear that for some time Earth has been undertaking intelligence gathering missions using agents unknown to us’ Selmak stated.

‘Bites to have the shoe on the other foot for once does it?’ O’Neill asked with some amusement.

Selmak turned to him. ‘We Tok’ra have been infiltrating the Goa’uld for centuries’ he said. ‘Your people are amateurs by comparison’ he declared. ‘They will only cause trouble and likely hinder our efforts.’

‘Or do so much better they make you guys look bad’ Sharp responded.

‘The Tok’ra High Council would like to know where your people are and what missions they are undertaking’ Selmak requested, ignoring the human’s snide reply.

‘Okay, but only if we get the same information for all Tok’ra agents’ Sharp countered.

‘That information is restricted’ Selmak told him.

‘You’re not big on the whole cooperation being a two-way-street thing sometimes are you?’ Sharp asked. ‘Quid pro quo, Selmak, we’ve swapped technology on an even basis which was fair but you won’t give us parity on Intel so we have to compensate’ he said. ‘Until the Tok’ra High Council lets us in on all their dirty little spy secrets we’re going to be running our own cloak and dagger games out there too’ he said.

Selmak lowered his chin to his chest and Jacob took over again. ‘You’re making a mistake if you’re going along with this George’ he told General Hammond.

‘It’s out of my hands but frankly I’ve got to agree with the assessment that the Tok’ra haven’t exactly been as forthcoming over the years as they might have been’ Hammond replied. ‘Relations are better now than they’ve been in the past, definitely more amicable and our pooling of scientific research has helped both of us, but we’re still working to different agendas with different styles and that’s not likely to chance anytime soon’ he said.

Jacob shrugged. ‘I just hope you come to your senses and listen to us more before you end up getting my favourite planet in the galaxy blown up or enslaved’ he said.

‘We really don’t get enough recognition for what we’ve done’ O’Neill muttered. The Tok’ra had accomplished less against the Goa’uld in the last two thousand years than Earth had managed in the last five as far as he was concerned.

‘As for technology transfer the High Council have been very interested in the reports Anise has been sending back’ Jacob told them, changing the subject because it wasn’t likely to get anywhere. ‘She’s been damn complementary regarding your successes in producing hybridised weapons, ships and other equipment using Earth, Goa’uld and Sectoid technology’ he said. ‘The upgrades you’re making to your captured Ha’tak for example’ he noted.

‘We’ve mounted a few dozen Laser Cannon Turrets on it that would swat Deathgliders like flies, and the shield is better than a regular Hat’ak, but it’s still well behind what we know Anubis or Apophis is using these days Dad’ Sam told him. ‘Anise has helped us understand a lot about the systems and where we can tweak them but basically it’s still an outdated class compared to the latest Goa’uld Motherships’ she said.

‘It’s better than anything outside the fleets of Apophis, Baal or Anubis’ Jacob pointed out, ‘that’s impressive in itself’ he said. ‘Anise also mentioned you’re planning to install Plasma Beam weapons to supplement the main armament’ he added.

Sam nodded. ‘They’re not unstoppable super-weapons or anything but they could probably take out an Al’kesh with one shot’ she told him. ‘Against another Hat’ak they wouldn’t punch through a fully charged shield but we do think that if you could weaken the enemy ships shields in advance with our Ha’taks standard main guns you might be able to cut through them with a beam and start inflicting heavy damage before the opposition could knock out the shields of the Enterprise’ she continued. ‘It’s an edge in a one-on-one fight at least’ she said.

‘Not really so much help if we’re outnumbered ten to one by an invading fleet then’ Daniel remarked.

‘Which would be a good low-end estimate of the odds’ Jacob told him wryly.

‘Gotta start stealing more motherships’ O’Neill said, ‘make a note of that Sergeant’ he told Andianov who like Teal’c had been sitting quietly listening and unlike him occasionally jotting something down on a pad of paper.

‘We still have one more than the Tok’ra ever managed Colonel’ Andianov pointed out.

‘True’ Teal’c confirmed.

‘Anise also said you recently managed to capture one of Loki’s fighters but it’s not a project she’s directly involved in’ Jacob said.

‘Yeah but if we thought we’d be able to get anywhere fast back-engineering the Foo-Fighter we were being wildly optimistic' Sharp said glumly. ‘I read a report from Area 51 in my office just before I came here’ he announced.

‘Too damaged by the zat Cannon?’ Sam asked, ‘I did wonder if the avionics systems might be too fragile for that much energy’ she said. ‘It would totally fritz one of our F-302's’ she told them.

‘Nope the fighter's fine, or at least it's not fried enough for that to be a major problem’ Sharp replied, ‘after taking it to pieces the R&D people are saying that we were all badly underestimating just how much more advanced than the other Sectoid craft we've seen before their Foo Fighter really is’ he told them. ‘They're saying it could take six months to figure out exactly what part does what and then they've got no idea how long it might take to work out in enough detail to replicate how it actually does it’ he said. ‘They can tell it uses different drive, shield and sensor technology than the ships we captured before, and the plasma cannon is a generation ahead in efficiency, but beyond that they're just scratching their heads wondering where to even start.’

‘If it's so much more high-tech than our fighters how come you’ve been able to fight them?’ Jacob queried. ‘It sound's like you’ve been taking P-51's up against F-15's’ he said.

‘I'll hazard a guess Dad’ Sam offered, ‘they're fighting out of their element’ she said. ‘Our 302's work in space but they're still primarily designed for fighting Sectoid and Goa'uld ships in the atmosphere’ she continued. ‘To give one obvious example sectoid shields don't work except in a vacuum unless they've had the Asgard designed modifications Thor provided’ she said, ‘the chances are that all of Loki's military research was, and probably still is, largely geared towards fighting the Replicators, stopping them in space before they even reach Asgard planets’ she suggested.

‘Indeed’ Teal'c concurred. ‘If the Replicators reach the atmosphere of a world it is already likely too late to save it’ he said.

Sam nodded. ‘To Loki we're really just a genetic resource that forcibly objects to being exploited, not a threat to the survival of his race’ she observed. ‘If he wanted to destroy us he could have done so pretty easily years ago before we obtained any of the extraterrestrial defence technology we have now’ she pointed out.

‘He must want human DNA and experimental subjects bad to take the losses he is’ O'Neill stated.

‘There's another theory we're also being used to try out new weaponry and tactics now you know’ Sharp interjected. ‘Loki could be at least partially using Earth as a live-fire test arena for his new toys now, and seeing how good at soldiering and piloting his cloned grunts really are’ he suggested.

‘It does feel a lot like an arms race sometimes, war tends to speed up technological development and not just of military hardware, there's usually knock-on effects into other fields’ Samantha observed.

‘Perhaps he is honing his forces for a strike at the Replicators using the warriors of this world as the grindstone’ Teal'c declared. ‘The System Lords often tested their armies against other Goa'uld in such a fashion’ he told them.

Daniel looked thoughtful. ‘Darwinian pressures’ he said quietly, ‘we're evolving them’ he continued more loudly. ‘That's exactly how Loki would think about it, he's supposed to be a geneticist right?’ he asked rhetorically.

Sam blinked. ‘Survival of the fittest’ she said. ‘Even if he had all the biological samples he needed Loki might still continue to attack Earth indefinitely because he's not just driving our military development we're also driving his’ she said.

O'Neill leaned forward in his chair. ‘The Replicators did already stir up the Asgard into upgrading their fleet to the shiny and super slick O'Neill Class’ he said. ‘War breeds military innovation a thousand times faster than peace, I guess that’s true of the Asgard as well as us’ he theorised.

‘The direction Tok’ra technology took was certainly more driven by our enemy than ourselves’ Jacob told them. ‘The tunnel crystals as a way to hide our bases, the cloaked Tel’tacs and the radioactive isotopes that blocks our operatives from Goa’uld scanners for example’ he said. ‘Selmak agrees it’s logical to assume that Loki is developing military technology in response to the Replicators in the same way.’

‘Unlike Goa’uld plasma guns the Sectoid ones project enough mass at a high enough velocity to act as a kinetic energy as well as a directed-energy weapon’ Sam noted. ‘Replicator bugs would be shattered just as effectively as they would be by a bullet and the power of the blast would probably turn the one hit into shrapnel destroying the ones near it anyway.’

Sharp frowned. ‘Loki knows our weapons and tactics work pretty well against the Replicators so why not see how we fight to help him beat them’ he said. ‘Fas est et ab hoste doceri’ he added with a sigh.

‘It's proper to learn even from an enemy’ Daniel translated, more than mildly surprised that the Commander could quote Ovid, especially in Latin.

‘It’s a dangerous universe’ O’Neill observed, ‘Sectoids and Replicators and Goa’uld! Oh my!’

General Hammond looked at the members of SG-1. ‘Well at least you’ve already got the brains, heart and courage’ he said with a chuckle. Having them whistle “We’re off to see the wizard” every time they went through the stargate for the next month made him regret the comment later though.



Underground Facility – P3X-989 (Altair) – February 2002

‘But why did you bring it here?’ the android Captain Carter asked her doppelganger and the very human Major Carter as they waited together outside Harlan’s Laboratory with their respective Jack O’Neills. Both Teal’c’s were in the chamber where the stargate was situated inspecting the advanced defence precautions established to keep out uninvited Goa’uld guests along with a singular Lyudmila Andianov who was by inclination more interested in military matters than cybernetics or emotionally immature Artificial Intelligences.

‘Daniels idea’ Major Carter replied. ‘Our Daniel I mean of course’ she added. ‘she was upset, she thought we all hated her because she was different so...’

‘You brought a freaking machine that can make these damn Replicator things to our planet’ the gears and wires O’Neill said to his flesh and blood counterpart irately.

‘You’re a machine too numb nuts’ human O’Neill replied, crossing his arms.

‘Which is why we brought her here’ Major Carter said. ‘Reese acts like a big kid, she was practically bouncing up and down when Daniel talked her into switching off the Replicators she made telling her there were other people just like her and she didn’t have to be somewhere where she was different.’

‘We are not just like her’ android O’Neill stated flatly.

‘Well technically we’re less advanced according to the notes they brought with them Sir’ Captain Carter interjected.

‘Hey we might be machinery but we’re people, or at least we’re perfect copies of people’ her commanding officer responded. ‘This mechanical chick wasn’t ever more than someone’s science project.’

‘Reese is self aware’ Major Carter told them, ‘she had emotions, she’s more like a child than anything else’ she continued. ‘She’s afraid that we’ll kill her and when she’s afraid she defends herself with her toys.’

‘Killer Von Neumann machines’ android Carter pointed out seriously.

‘She promises not to make any if people are nice to her’ human Carter replied. ‘Just don’t let her get... bored’ she advised with a slight grimace. ‘We’re hoping that Harlan might be able to deactivate that ability, he’s the closest thing to an android expert we could think of’ she said. ‘Heimdall the Asgard who’s living at Area 51 these days ran some detailed scans which we brought along to help him’ she said.

‘Thanks for sending us regular updates on what’s been going on back on Earth’ Captain Carter said to their visitors. ‘We’ve never met the Asgard but they sound pretty cool’ she said.

‘I like the little guys’ the human Jack O’Neill said. ‘Most of them try to do what’s right and they’ve got guts’ he told the duplicates.

‘Heimdall wanted to take Reese apart, as their original creator she might be the solution for beating the Replicators’ Major Carter told them, ‘but Reese objected... and we didn’t know how many stray Replicators bugs there might be hiding in the SGC so we backed off’ she said. ‘The hope is that Reese will be far more agreeable to having Harlan, and maybe you examine her, because you know that just because a lifeform is mechanical that doesn’t mean it’s bad or doesn’t have feelings.’

‘We’d all be better off killing the thing’ both O’Neill’s said simultaneously. ‘Whoa, synch’ they both continued then looked at each other.

‘We brought a couple more naquadah reactors and some other gear for you’ Major Carter told the androids. ‘We’re hoping that some of the technology of this facility, particularly the power transfer system, might be applied to the ships we’re planning’ she continued. ‘If it can run continually for thousands of years with minimal maintenance it should be hardier and more battle resistant than Goa’uld technology’ she said.

‘Want me to see what I can come up with? The other Carter asked. ‘I know this place better than anyone but Harlan, and I understand Earth technology better than he does.’

‘I was hoping you’d say that’ human Carter responded with a smile, ‘the preliminary work is on the new laptop I brought for you.

‘Hey it’ll be fun’ Captain Carter said, smiling back. ‘This place is humming along nicely now so I’ve been getting bored sometimes’ she admitted.

‘Thinking of bored I bet you forgot to bring the latest Simpsons DVD’s’ android O’Neill said to his double accusingly.

‘I’ll throw them through the gate when I get back home okay’ the other O’Neill said. ‘I’ll have to buy another set now’ he muttered to himself bitterly. ‘Now you guys have only been scouting the planets we told you to right?’ he asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes.

‘Yes’ his android double replied. ‘Only the gate addresses to planets that are too radioactive or have air that’ll kill you wussy oxygen breathers’ he told them. ‘We never meet anyone interesting’ he complained.

‘Hey be grateful we let you out at all’ the somewhat more oxygen dependent O’Neill responded.

‘We’re too useful an asset to waste and you know it Sir’ Captain Carter told him with a smile, ‘there’s plenty of worlds in the stargate network far too hostile to organic life for you to properly investigate’ she said.

‘And far too boring’ her commanding officer added. ‘Come on Jack, put in a good word with the guys upstairs, tell them we’d be more use kicking Goa’uld ass than guarding this place, looking at deserted planets and playing nursemaid to the geeks who come here from Earth.’

‘The SGC spot for O’Neills is already taken’ his double replied.

‘I’ll arm wrestle you for it’ the android version replied. ‘Yours would come off at the elbow when I put the pressure on but that would just prove my point about the best man winning.’

‘You’re not a man’ the other O’Neill retorted.

‘He’s mean to you too’ Reese interupted loudly with a pout on her face as the door to Harlan’s Laboratory slid open. ‘I like the Daniel that’s like me’ she said brightly, indicating the one of the two of them stood behind her.

‘You’re welcome to the crush’ human Daniel whispered to the android one. ‘She can’t physically crush you’ he added.

‘I know a new word’ Reese declared. ‘Comtraya’ she said mimicking Harlans hand gestures and clap as she said it. ‘It means greetings and hello to friends’ she announced with a beaming smile.

Harlan walked past her. ‘Reese is very advanced but similar enough to us to understand her basic workings’ he told android Carter.

‘Harlan is very old’ Reese said. ‘Even older than I am’ she declared. ‘The Daniel that’s like me will last forever like I will’ she said. ‘I’ll never be lonely again’ she said happily.

‘So you won’t need toys to play with’ Major Carter asked meaningfully.

‘No I can play with Daniel forever’ Reese replied.

‘And I’m sure the millennia will just fly by’ that Daniel replied, staring into the distance. She was annoying him already even if intellectually he found her fascinating, being a true AI not a copy of human consciousness like he was.

‘Just let her grow up emotionally before you teach her any “special” games assuming you’re both equipped for that’ human O’Neill told him. Reese looked like an adult woman but mentally she behaved like a girl many years younger in appearance.

‘What special games?’ Reese asked, ‘I want to play special games!’ she insisted.

‘I’ll let you explain after I’m long gone’ human Daniel quickly told the android version who decided that the former had definitely turned into more of an asshole since they went their separate ways. How the hell do you explain the facts of life to an android that acts like a pre-pubescent girl?

‘And you don’t mind Harlan working on you?’ Major Carter asked. ‘Trying to figure out how you make and control your toys?’ she asked.

‘No he’s nice’ Reese replied, ‘he reminds me of my father’ she said. ‘Only more silly’ she added with a giggle. ‘Comtraya’ she said again.

‘Comtraya’ Harlan replied happily. ‘It is a pity Hubald is not here, he understood so much more than I’ he said regretfully. ‘Though as you thought I know far more than you’ he added honestly.

‘We think Harlan went slightly strange being alone all that time but he’s been getting better the last few years’ android Carter whispered to the human one.

‘Makes sense, your neural nets are more than advanced enough to suffer from that’ the other Carter whispered back.

Both Teal’c’s and Andianov wandered in. ‘The defences are formidable indeed O’Neill’ the Jaffa with a symbiote not a powerpack in his guts declared.

‘We’ve got automated guns plus anybody coming through is instantly stunned like you were when you first came here anyway, unless they send the proper GDO code in advance’ Captain Carter told them, ‘if they got past that we’ve also got the Laser Rifles you provided plus Harlan’s disintegrator pistol which gives us quite an edge in a firefight all on its own’ she added. ‘Worst case scenario we’ve got a naquadah reactor rigged to blow the facility to prevent it falling into hostile hands’ she announced.

‘We haven’t figured out how that works yet, the disintegrator I mean’ android O’Neill said with a sigh. ‘Harlan cannibalised the others he had for spare parts centuries ago’ he noted.

‘It was another of the technological miracles invented by Hubald’ Harlan told them. ‘So many secrets died with him’ he said with a sigh. ‘But it is all becoming better again’ he added in an upbeat manner.

‘Perhaps I can make another?’ Reese suggested, ‘I can make things’ she said.

‘She uses nanotechnology and energy fields to rearrange atoms of material into anything she wants’ Major Carter said. ‘She made Daniel a little statue before she made one of her... toys’ she said.

‘I can show you’ Reese offered.

‘No creating self-replicating machines though, that’s the rule, you know what happens if you break the rules Reese’ human Daniel responded.

The android girl pouted again. ‘Time-out’s and grounding’ she said, ‘sent to my room with no TV and no play if I’m naughty.’

‘That’s right’ Daniel told her. ‘The other Daniel is going to have the same rules’ he added.

‘Can I explore now?’ Reese asked hopefully, looking around ‘With the Daniel that’s like me?’ she begged.

‘If you say no she’ll wheedle until you give in’ the Daniel that wasn’t like her advised. ‘Just don’t fold on the important stuff like making Replicators... or keeping her room tidy.’

‘Daniel who’s not like me is strict’ Reese complained. ‘My father was like that sometimes’ she said.

‘Not strict enough to my way of thinking’ human O’Neill opined. ‘And who designs a computer with Attention Deficit Disorder for crying out loud?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘We need freaking android Ritalin’ he growled.

‘Hang on, do we get child support or what?’ the gears and wires O’Neill asked sternly. ‘This is not a foster home for orphan robots’ he declared vehemently, fixing the flesh and blood O’Neill with an icy glare.



Torture Chamber – Ba'al’s Fortress – February 2002

Ba'al’s lo’taur Shallan poured him another drink and then did the same for Nerus who thrust his goblet in her direction. ‘Leave us’ Ba'al told his slave who bowed and walked backwards a few steps before turning to depart looking suitably submissive. She had been present earlier when Ba'al had tortured a captured member of Apophis Royal Guard, a gravity generator pinning him to a weblike metal grille on the far wall while Ba'al horizontally dropped daggers on him and she was very glad to leave the place, it had been horrible to watch.

‘Very attractive, she would make a good host’ Nerus told Ba'al before taking a gulp of his wine, watching the human slave leave.

Ba'al rolled his eyes, a gesture learned from his host that expressed his thoughts on the matter very well. ‘I didn’t think the appearance of the host mattered to you Nerus’ he replied scornfully. ‘In fact the only things you ever seem to take note of are your next meal and your work, with the latter coming a distant second’ he declared.

‘I have been working my fingers to the bone on your behalf’ Nerus replied. ‘I missed brunch yesterday’ he declared as if it were a sacrifice worthy of commendation. ‘Barely so much as a snack between breakfast and lunch’ he said woefully.

‘But have you achieved anything?’ Ba'al demanded to know. ‘I gave you control of this facility where my most advanced research equipment is based and so far all I’ve seen as a result is that you can’t go into any laboratory or workshop in this place without finding slaves trying to wipe up the scattered remnants of your meals’ he said. ‘If your accuracy at getting the food from the plate to your mouth is any indication I hope you do not carry a weapon because you would be far more likely to shoot yourself than your enemy’ he stated with a sneer.

‘You wound me My Lord’ Nerus responded.

‘When I decide to wound you Nerus you’ll know about it’ Ba'al vowed. ‘Although I don’t know if there’s enough tal’vak acid in the entire galaxy to dissolve all the blubber in your body’ he declared. ‘I want results not excuses, what have you discovered from your research?’ he demanded to know.

Nerus put down his goblet, it was a very good time to look professional he decided. ‘Firstly it does appear from examination of the wreckage of ones we have destroyed in battle that the new ships of Apophis are not quite as advanced as we first feared’ he said. ‘They may be faster than any Ha’tak we have seen before but their shields and weapons do not have the vast superiority over the older designs that their hyperdrive does’ he said.

Ba'al nodded. ‘Have you determined why they are so swift?’ he queried.

‘It would appear that Apophis, or more likely Sokar, had developed a completely new hyperdrive which as part of the design encases the entire power-core in trinium’ Nerus replied. ‘It allows the core to run at a far higher output without overloading’ he said.

‘Can we copy this design?’ Ba'al asked.

‘Yes but unlike the less drastic upgrades Anubis provided we cannot retrofit it into existing vessels’ Nerus told him apologetically. ‘The entire Ha’tak is built around it’ he said.

‘Damn’ Ba'al responded. ‘Apophis has been using the greater speed of his new ships to considerable advantage and is able to counter-attack and reform fleets too rapidly for comfort’ he said. ‘Even battles Apophis loses are mitigated in the damage they cause him strategically by the ability of his fleeing Ha’tak ships to readily outrun our own’ he noted. ‘They outflank our advances easily forcing us to abandon deep thrusts into his territory in favour of a war of attrition.’

‘We can convert one of our shipyards to start producing new vessels that use the technologies of both Apophis and Anubis but that will take time’ Nerus told him.

‘The war stretches on and on’ Ba'al complained bitterly. ‘The only saving grace is that the armies of the other System Lords have suffered far more than ourselves due to their inferior ships’ he said.

‘What of Anubis? Nerus asked.

‘His numbers grow, and his advanced Hat’ak vessels minimise his losses, but as yet he is still only capable of fielding a relatively small fleet’ Ba'al replied. ‘I wish we could obtain one of his ships’ he continued, ‘his shields and sensors are better than the ones he provided to me to earn my favour.’

‘Our research into more advanced gravity generators and improved weapons here may give us an advantage yet’ Nerus suggested. ‘Beyond their usefulness as amusing means of torture and prison cells our compact artificial gravity units are a technology seemingly unknown to all other Goa’uld’ he said. ‘Certainly in implementation if not scientific principle’ he said.

‘See that the research remains a secret’ Ba'al commanded. ‘The other System Lords do not know of this place, they would be threatened to know the resources I have devoted towards scientific research’ he noted then sipped his wine. ‘I have heard a rumour that Thoth has returned to the service of Anubis’ he told Nerus after savouring the taste ‘Your old rival I believe?’ he asked rhetorically.

Nerus frowned. Thoth was a very able scientist who would likely be able to achieve much with the technology and resources Anubis had returned with. ‘We competed for the reputation as the most able of Goa’uld scientists a few centuries back’ he said. ‘I couldn’t see why anyone might think his inventions could possibly match my own but for some reason the scientifically illiterate thought they did’ he said dismissively then paused and sighed. ‘He would however be able to back-engineer the new hyperdrive of Apophis as well as I’ he admitted.

‘Let’s make sure we get there first Nerus’ Ba'al told him. ‘Lives may depend upon it, yours in particular’ he threatened.

‘Have no fear, Nerus is here’ the other Goa’uld declared confidently.

Ba'al looked him up and down. ‘Next time I’m here I expect to see more results or I’m putting you on an exercise program and a severe diet’ he said.

Nerus paled. ‘Couldn’t you just have some Jaffa torture me with a Pain Stick?’ he begged.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

Sentinel Chamber – P2A-018 (Latona) – March 2002

Jack O’Neill checked his watch again. ‘Grieves if you don’t pick up the pace I’m going to get the Sergeant outside to come in here and stick her stun rod up your ass’ he told the former Colonel and NID man who along with his partner in crime Kershaw was trying to getting the Latonan Sentinel device operational again. Major Carter was watching them work while Daniel, after earlier helping Kershaw lower the chamber forcefield, was now trying to decipher the text on the device, jotting notes onto a pocket notepad and occasionally muttering to himself.

‘That’s not likely to speed things up’ Grieves replied evenly as he continued to work on the machine which had kept the planet free of the Goa’uld for centuries until he and his team of NID agents had interfered with it. He and Kershaw had been on Death Row for treason and this mission was a chance not only to redeem themselves for their actions but avoid execution which was already fairly motivating to start with.

‘I’m not seeing much progress either way and it would lighten my mood’ O’Neill responded. ‘This planet is full of Jaffa, we’ve got the best part of a battalion’s worth heading our way, and even if we had the manpower to stop them that Goa’uld mothership in orbit would level the entire region rather than accept defeat gracefully’ he stated. ‘I had to fight my way back here with Major Benton and the rest of SG-9 after seeing Marul, if it wasn’t for the armour and their marksmanship SG-1 would have a new CO’ he said.

‘So close’ Carter said in mock bitterness, ‘no offence Sir’ she continued, you know I’m just waiting on you to retire’ she said trying to keep a straight face.

‘Counting down the days to the top job Major?’ O’Neill asked wryly.

‘Got to get yours before I start thinking about taking over from General Hammond Sir’ Carter replied deadpan.

‘He makes less than we do’ O’Neill pointed out. Say what you like about X-COM, they expected you to risk your life for your planet but at least they paid you a decent wage for it.

‘But he’s got the biggest office and a better desk than yours’ Carter replied.

‘I have a desk?’ O’Neill asked in confusion before shaking his head and turning to Kershaw. ‘We’re not paying you by the hour, you’re earning extra years by being here not overtime’ he told her.

‘The last time we did this it took 48 hours to get past the forcefield and another week and a half to dismantle, examine and reassemble the Sentinel Device Colonel’ Kershaw replied. ‘There’s a limit to how much time you can shave off something like this’ she told him.

‘Don’t think the stun-rod thing only applied to Grieves’ O’Neill responded evenly. ‘Carter can you speed things up?’ he asked her. ‘You’ve got a knack with the alien doohickeys’ he noted, waving his hand around at the equipment.

‘This is a whole new technology to me Sir’ Carter admitted. ‘I don’t think I could do any better than these two’ she said. ‘Probably worse because at least they’ve done it before’ she added.

‘And they did it wrong’ O’Neill pointed out.

‘I still don’t think we did’ Kershaw whispered to Grieves. She couldn’t think how but she wondered if that caretaker guy they killed the last time they were here had something to do with the Sentinel not working somehow.

Grieves looked at her, eyes narrowed telling her to keep her mouth shut. ‘This would be easier if the Latonans hadn’t decided to regress a few hundred years’ he said loudly.

‘Yeah you could have beaten it out of them how their ancestors made it when you first came here right?’ O’Neill retorted. ‘Quicker than sneaking in here and you wouldn’t have ended up screwing the damn machine up’ he added.

‘We were doing our duty’ Grieves replied, ‘what we thought was best for Earth’ he said. ‘From what I hear the way we operated isn’t so much different from the way you do things these days anyhow’ he declared.

‘We take technology as spoils of war from the enemy’ O’Neill told him. ‘We don’t go around stealing from allies or poor innocent schmucks like the locals’ he said.

‘It’s a question of degree Colonel’ Grieves replied, ‘we were just more willing to step further over the line’ he said.

‘You went so far over the line you couldn’t even see it from where you ended up Grieves’ O’Neill responded harshly. ‘I’m going outside for some fresh air’ he said. ‘Carter if these two try anything zat them’ he told his second-in-command before heading outside.

Outside the concealed entrance to the chamber Teal’c, Andianov and SG-9 had dug in as best they could and were now waiting to meet the Jaffa onslaught. SG-3 had already reluctantly retreated through the stargate as ordered and there was little chance of rescue from that direction. A handful of fully armed and armoured SG Teams with armoured support from armed MALP’s would pulverise a few hundred Jaffa but the Goa’uld Svarog had a Hat’ak in orbit and they couldn’t do anything to counter that kind of fire-support. They either got the Sentinel working soon or they were going to have to make the decision whether or not to abandon the Latonans to their fate and try to fight their way back to the stargate which could be more than tricky by this point.

‘We’ve rigged claymores to cover the approaches Sir’ Major Benton reported to O’Neill when he appeared, Benton and the rest of SG-9 had been on Latona for some time trying to negotiate access to the Sentinel before Svarog, a System Lord who had not become heavily embroiled in the war against Apophis, discovered that the planet was now open for conquest.

‘Okay I want you all to keep your heads down and your eyes open’ O’Neill told them. ‘We hold them off as long as we can then I’ll make the call whether or not to pull back into the chamber and put the forcefield back on or make a run for it’ he said.

‘I’d rather fight than run Sir’ Sergeant Grogan of SG-9 responded, ‘we’re the only chance the Latonans have and like it or not it was two of our people that got them into this mess’ he said.

‘Grieves isn’t one of our people Sergeant’ O’Neill told him. ‘We’re just cleaning up someone else’s mess’ he said moving to take up a position lying behind a log next to Teal’c and getting his L2-A2 ready. ‘Good field of fire’ he observed.

‘We should be able to hold the enemy for some time O’Neill’ Teal’c agreed.

‘Hopefully they’ll want to capture the gadget inside intact so they won’t just blast our sorry asses from orbit’ O’Neill replied.

‘The Goa’uld scavenge alien technology as a matter of routine, all their machines may be nothing but copies or poor imitations of the inventions of other races which they claimed credit for’ Teal’c said. ‘It is unlikely that Svarog would risk destroying a weapon with the potential of the Sentinel without first expending many warriors in an attempt to seize it’ he observed.

‘Jaffa are cheap I guess’ O’Neill replied.

‘The Goa’uld have always thought of us thus’ Teal’c said coldly as he prepared to kill more of his brothers who were going to throw away their lives in service of a false god.

‘Andianov, you good over there?’ O’Neill asked, looking across to the Russian Sergeant who was positioned to provide a crossfire along with Tarkman from SG-9.

‘All things considered Colonel I would rather be back in Moscow, and do you know how cold it is in Moscow this time of year?’ Andianov responded. ‘We only drink vodka because it’s the closest thing to antifreeze that won’t kill you’ she confided to Tarkman.

‘I thought you X-COM people enjoyed a good firefight Sergeant’ Major Benton called from his own position. His armour was already blackened and scorched from a Staff-Weapon blast when the enemy had first arrived, as was Winters the other member of SG-9 with him.

‘The shooting at them is fun, it is them shooting back which I have never learned to enjoy quite as much’ Andianov replied, then paused. ‘I have known other X-COM Troops who seemed to greatly like that part too’ she admitted, ‘the crazy, adrenaline addicted maniacs.’

The sound of Jaffa horns nearby had them tighten their grips on their rifles. The enemies strange mix of advanced weaponry such as zat’nik’tels, staff-cannons and shock grenades along with primitive signalling devices such as horns and the feeble protection offered by medieval chain-mail armour was still something of a wonder to O’Neill even after all these years. The goa’uld could make far more effective infantry equipment, a battalion of Jaffa with plasma rifles with decent ergonomics, plus the body armour and other personal gear the bounty hunter Aris Boch had used would make them a far more fearsome opponent but as it was the System Lords still preferred to throw their slave armies away in waves against the superior weaponry and tactical doctrine of the Tau’ri. It was stupid and wasteful as much as it was immoral butchery of their own followers to O’Neill’s mind, but he was only grateful that the Goa’uld were so inclined, because if the System Lords ever started to use their technology efficiently, and to its full potential, then Earth would be in trouble. ‘Fire at will’ he ordered as the first Jaffa appeared in sight, some distance away, the words barely finished when a laser neatly speared the Jaffa in the centre of his chest, dropping him instantly. ‘That’s just showing off Sergeant’ he stated, knowing full well who it would have been. ‘Save some for the rest of us okay’ he added.

‘I have no choice Sir’ Andianov replied, ‘my rifle powerpack will be depleted before the Jaffa run out’ she noted with a half smile.

‘Shit, you can use mine’ Tarkman told her, semi-seriously.

Another blast of the horn saw a mass of Jaffa surge towards them through the trees. Others put down wildly inaccurate long-range support fire with their staffs, the plasma bolts smashing into trees and only a small number even getting close enough to warrant ducking.

The Tau’ri soldiers opened up with their L2-A2 Laser Rifles, aiming carefully at first to drop the apparent officer and NCO equivalents who were yelling orders to the other Jaffa then switching to snap shots then automatic fire as the enemy closed. ‘I wish we had a few rotary-staffs’ Sergeant Grogan said as he shot down another Jaffa. ‘We’d slaughter them’ he continued.

‘Then the Hat’ak up there would blow us to kingdom come’ Major Benton pointed out.

‘Hell of a situation to be in where you don’t dare win even if you could’ O’Neill growled, firing repeatedly at the enemy, some of who had now gone to ground close enough to fire more accurately and effectively at the Tau’ri, trying to pin them so another rush would reach them.

Teal’c switched his rifle over so it was firing a continual stream of both laser fire and zat discharges, putting the importance of weight of fire over accuracy as he hosed it left and right. ‘I am becoming concerned O’Neill he told the human next to him impassively.

‘You and me both’ O’Neill replied. ‘Hit the claymores’ he bellowed as another wave of Jaffa came at them.

Major Benton, snatched up the remote detonator, armed it by flipping up the safety and squeezed the trigger. The anti-personal charges exploded like huge shotgun blasts, supersonic steel ball-bearings shredding the Jaffa ranks and shattering their attack.

The normally quite placid Sergeant Grogan began hollering a primitive battle cry as something burned far deeper in his psyche than military training took over, fight or die. Like Teal’c he began to spray fire at the opposition, his style far removed from the almost mechanical precision of Andianov who simply gunned down one Jaffa after another with clinical lack of feeling on the matter.

Jaffa warriors fell by the dozen but hundreds more waited to take their place, eventually one had to get lucky with his staff weapon and a bolt of plasma took Winter’s head off, his blood, brains and pieces of his skull showering Major Benton who did his best to ignore it as he gritted his teeth and kept fighting.

‘Carter get your ass out here’ O’Neill yelled. With one less Tau’ri gun in action the vast numerical superiority the Jaffa enjoyed was now even more of a factor.

Major Carter leaned out of the concealed entrance to the chamber and began firing from there. Daniel thought he had got something with translating the text and she hoped it would help because an minute now they were going to be forced to retreat into the chamber and raise the forcefield, trapping themselves.

‘Staff-Cannon’ Tarkman yelled, ducking as a huge bolt of plasma crashed into the ground right next to him, throwing dirt up in all directions.

‘Got it’ Andianov responded, drawing a bead on the Jaffa operating the weapon and taking him out. Another took his place and got the same treatment, if she was using a Heavy Plasma Rifle she could have blown the thing apart but her laser lacked the required firepower so she had to deal with the crew instead. ‘Shit’ she swore as she saw another cannon being set up. A single well-placed shot from one of those things could smash any of their positions. She began switching targets engaging the Jaffa trying to operate both cannons but that meant she couldn’t help deal with the infantry. It was all starting to get very uncomfortable as far as she was concerned.

‘We die well O’Neill’ Teal’c stated with certainty. They were fighting to protect a people who could not defend themselves, even if they were unsuccessful he was certain of the rightness of their cause and glad he was going to lose his life in such a fashion, it was honourable and he died free.

‘We ain’t dead yet Teal’c’ O’Neill responded, ‘And I’m taking a lot more than this many with me when I go’ he declared, wishing he had brought along one of the X-COM naqudah-enhanced elerium grenades, that was the way to go out in style, he decided, in a huge flash of light. ‘What the hell...’ he exclaimed as a bright flash of white light washed past him from behind.

‘The Sentinel’ Teal’c said in awe as the Jaffa touched by the light simply vanished, the effect reminding him of the Asgard using their transport beams as weapons. The light swept on towards the city taking the enemy with it.

‘Way to go Grieves!’ O’Neill yelled, he might be a rat-bastard but if he’d just saved their asses he had gone way up in O’Neill’s estimation, that sort of thing earns a reappraisal.

‘Grieves is gone’ Daniel said, emerging from the chamber entrance with Kershaw who looked downcast at the loss of her former commanding officer. ‘The Sentinel needed a human component to work, Grieves killed the last one when he was here before so he took his place when I figured out the text’ he said. ‘When he activated the machine it destroyed him, self-sacrifice might be part of the process’ he noted.

O’Neill stood up. ‘Regained your honour Grieves’ he said, looking towards the city, ‘way to go’ he repeated quietly, turning to see Major Benton looking down at Winter’s remains, shaking his head sadly before making his way over to the commander of SG-9, it was hard to lose a man under your command, you only hoped it never got easy like it seemed to have done for some of the X-COM Officers.

‘My Colonel’s dead and now I go back to prison’ Kershaw said, letting out a long sigh. ‘I might have been better off getting killed’ she said, kicking out at a stray stone that bounced away.

‘You’re good, with the alien technology I mean’ Carter said. ‘Maybe they could find a better place for you than a cell’ she suggested. ‘Hell they put Nirrti to work’ she added bitterly.

Kershaw blinked. ‘I’ll do anything to stay out of that cell’ she responded hopefully.

‘I’ll talk to General Hammond and Commander Sharp’ Carter replied, it was a waste having her in a cell instead of doing something useful, the NID had recruited highly skilled people for their short-lived off-world team.

Unfortunately Marul, head of the Latonan government refused them permission to work on the Sentinel device any more and they had to return to Earth without knowledge of how the weapon worked, Grieves had cleaned up his own mess but Winter’s had died too all for nothing in the end. Major Benton only wished he could tell the mans family how he really died.



Omega Site – PX0-999 – April 2002

Commander Russell Sharp stepped out through the stargate and found himself standing in the middle of a small camp built along the lines of the Alpha Site. They were near a fast flowing river in a grassy valley between two mountains, part of what he knew from reports was a range that crossed the planets single continent from north to south like a spine. It all looked very picturesque and for some reason like much of the galaxy reminded him greatly of his home Canada.

Although clearly terraformed at some point in the past the planet had not been part of the stargate network which was why it was chosen, after the Asgard helpfully provided a list of locations they thought suitable for the main Tau’ri offworld base. The gate the world now possessed was of Tollan design and manufacture and had been placed here by one of their new “Ghostrider” warships, or “Defence Vessels” as the Tollan preferred to call them, in readiness for the Earth humans to establish their facility. Unlike the ubiquitous Ancient-built stargates that filled the galaxy it was slimmer in form and in some ways rather more advanced, with all the functions of a DHD including power source built into the gate itself which was dialled by remote unit.

‘Welcome to PX0-999 Sir’ Colonel Edwards who was in charge of the suvey and engineering team building the base greeted him with a salute which Sharp returned. ‘Some of us call it Terra Nova’ he added.

‘New Earth, not a bad name’ Sharp replied. ‘Stargate still not underground yet?’ he queried. At least there was plenty of hardware and troops set up to defend the gate, several weapons of differing types had been aimed at him when he stepped through, so the Omega Site was secure but the plan was to have the whole facility deep underground.

‘Still excavating that part of the complex’ Edwards explained. ‘Even with the crystals we got from the Tok’ra speeding things up with the access and ventilation shafts we’re still digging out a base that makes Cheyenne Mountain look like a pothole’ he said. ‘Eventually the gate is going to be in a granite chamber about a mile and a half under where we’re standing but we want to get all the other facilities in place first like the base defences’ he continued. ‘The missile silos are finished and we’re just waiting on the Russians to deliver the SA-21 prototypes with the naquadah nuke warheads.’

‘What about the rest?’ Sharp asked.

‘The PAC-3 Patriots are in place and the VLS batteries with the SM-3’s are nearly operational, they just yanked them from a pair of Aegis Destroyers they docked in Gdańsk and sent them through as sections via the gate in Poland’ Edwards replied.

Sharp smiled and nodded. ‘Laser Cannons?’ he queried, looking around trying to see if he could spot any of the concealed emplacements intended to house them.

‘Just need the naquadah reactors to run them now’ Colonel Edwards told him, ‘if you’d like to follow me to the rings I can take you underground to show you what we’ve done so far’ he said.

‘Lead on Colonel’ Sharp told him.

‘We were hoping to get Plasma Beam defences’ Edwards told Sharp as they headed for a circle marked nearby with a few white painted stones. ‘Something to really put the hurt on a Ha’tak if it got too close’ he said.

‘We don’t have elerium coming out of our ears like we do weapons-grade naquadah’ Sharp replied regretfully. ‘Base defence Lasers would take out Deathgliders or Al’kesh by the bucketload at least’ he said. ‘They say they’ll be able to make copies of the main guns on a Ha’tak eventually, so we’ll probably shift to them as the main base-defence armament when we can’ he said as they stepped into the ring platform, Edwards activating it by remote control.

The rings transported them down into a crystalline tunnel which sloped off downwards, the complex being too far down for rings to operate all the way through that much rock. The original access tunnel which had got them down this far to install the rings, the sections brought to the Omega site through the stargate, had already been sealed. ‘This place can’t collapse can it?’ Sharp asked, reaching out and touching the walls, they were warm, probably because of the depth.

‘The tunnel walls are damn tough despite how fast they’re grown’ Edwards told him. ‘The local geology is stable so we don’t have to worry about earthquakes’ he continued, ‘or nuclear strikes with yields less than a few hundred megatons’ he added with a chuckle. ‘It gets damn hot down here like a deep mine but we’ve got good aircon’ he said, ‘concealed ventilation shafts run up into the mountains miles away’ he said, walking down the fairly steep sloping path. ‘It would hit over a hundred and twenty Fahrenheit without the cooling, we consulted the mining engineers who run the deep gold mines in South Africa to see how they coped with the problem.’

‘The tunnel network connects all the outlying bunkers to the main base?’ Sharp checked.

‘All the aircraft hangers, missile batteries everything’ Colonel Edwards confirmed. ‘They can all be isolated if the enemy gain access to them from the surface’ he noted, ‘steel doors, demolition charges or just use another crystal to seal the whole tunnel’ he said. ‘Sorry we have to walk’ he apologised, ‘we’ve got track laid throughout the base but the areas where we’re digging and need to move rock or heavy machinery take priority on the engines’ he said, indicating the steel rail tracks on the ground.

‘No problem, the exercise is good for me, I’ve been spending too much time out of the field lately’ Sharp replied. ‘We’ll be relocating a lot of troops, equipment and manufacturing facilities here as soon as we can’ Sharp told him. ‘Getting this base finished is high priority’ he said.

‘Good thing I thrive under pressure Sir’ Edwards replied.

‘Yeah, especially given the freaking air pressure down here Colonel’ Sharp responded. Damn they were getting deep he thought as they continued on, occasionally passing an engineer or technician heading the other way. Suddenly the tunnel seemed to shake for a couple of seconds and a loud rumble echoed down the tunnel causing Sharp to raise his eyebrows. ‘Geologically stable?’ he asked suspiciously.

Edwards laughed. ‘That was one of the teams excavating the main chamber’ he explained. ‘The Tok’ra crystals have limits so we use old-fashioned blasting methods for some of the work’ he told the Commander. ‘I say “old fashioned” but that was a potassium/naquadah device’ he continued, ‘yield of a decent sized fission nuke but it doesn’t leave a lot of long-lasting fallout behind’ he said. ‘Beats the shit out of dynamite and jackhammers I’ll tell you’ he added with another laugh.

‘What are you going to do after you finish this place?’ Sharp asked.

‘Everything else will be a comedown Sir but we’ve still got to survey the rest of the planet in detail for mines’ Edwards replied. ‘There’s not much if any naquadah on this rock from what we can tell but there’s definitely trinium as well as rare earths, which aren’t so rare here, and a crap load of pitchblende’ he said, ‘uranium ore I mean’ he explained. ‘If this place was on the stargate network before now I’ll bet the Goa’uld would have filled this place with slaves swinging pickaxes’ he said.

‘No Goa’uld but have you found gold?’ Sharp joked.

‘Yes’ Edwards replied seriously, ‘but it’s the platinum and silver for electrical contacts and circuits we’re more interested in’ he continued. ‘It’s not like we can ship too much of it back to Earth to sell, we’d crash the market price of the stuff if we did’ he noted with a shrug.

‘Damn, there goes my idea for bolstering the operating budget’ Sharp replied. ‘And my retirement fund’ he added with a chuckle. ‘What we really need to find somewhere is a mountain of elerium’ he said with a frown.

‘I thought that was an artificial allotrope, not a naturally occurring one?’ Edwards asked as they continued on down the sloping tunnel.

‘So the Asgard and Tollan say and our people agree unfortunately’ Sharp confirmed. ‘It’s pretty clever of Loki when you get right down to it’ he said. ‘Any other advanced technology you use against the Replicators they can capture, analyse and use back at you but Loki’s stuff is useless to them because as soon as the elerium in the captured equipment is used up the Replicators can’t make his engines or weapons work any more’ he said. ‘Loki has a monopoly on elerium production, as far as we can tell, so he can continue making more and more advanced weapons, ships and shields based upon it and the little lego bastards are stumped’ he continued. ‘If I was Loki I’d be waiting for the rest of the Asgard to be right at the edge of defeat and then ride to the rescue when they’re in no position to turn down his offer.’

‘Saviour of his entire race’ Edwards responded with a snort. ‘While he screws ours’ he added with a growl.

Sharp nodded, to be fair to Loki he himself would be perfectly willing to screw over the Asgard to save humanity but he knew he was a ruthless bastard and didn’t particularly consider himself a shining example of the best his species had to offer on the ethical or morality front. ‘I am getting the biggest office and the best quarters in this place right?’ he asked, changing the subject.

‘Right’ Edwards confirmed.

‘I still think we should have gone for the hollowed out volcano surrounded by liquid hot magma’ Sharp declared.

‘You were told that given budgetary constraints it was either that or the F-302’s with the frickin laser beams Sir’ Edwards replied deadpan, playing along as was good policy when your CO makes a joke, or attempts one.

‘I’ve got to start kissing up to the IOC more to get a budget increase’ Sharp said thoughtfully, or maybe threatening Kinsey would work he thought. Cassandra could probably pull something suitably criminal and persuasive out of his mind that would guarantee support, there was no way that shifty fucker wasn’t involved in some truly jail, or even firing-squad, worthy activities he decided.




Marduk's Ziggurat – P2X-338 – April 2002

‘Okay I admit it’ Daniel conceded, ‘I did scream like a little girl when that thing jumped out of the sarcophagus at me’ he said. ‘Even Teal’c jumped’ he added defensively, ‘damn thing moved like greased lightning’ he stated.

O’Neill grinned. ‘The expression on your face when it bounced off your armour and then tore off towards the door with Andianov shooting at it’ he said, ‘never seen her miss like that before’ he noted.

‘See, everyone was shaken’ Daniel declared.

Carter finished checking the remains in the sarcophagus. ‘Like I thought, Marduk jumped ship into the... whatever it was’ she said with a frown. ‘I knew I felt a Goa’uld inside it when it went past me heading for the way out’ she said.

O’Neill frowned. ‘We’ll have to track it down’ he said. ‘Teal’c, you and the Sergeant find the little bastard and waste it’ he ordered.

‘Yes Sir’ Andianov replied, she was still feeling guilty about missing the creature earlier and was highly motivated in the extreme to make amends. ‘My motion tracker should be effective as long as it keeps moving trying to evade us’ she suggested.

‘Use the zat on your rifle only, no blowing holes in walls with lasers’ O’Neill told them. ‘You could collapse the whole damn pyra... ziggurat on us’ he pointed out.

‘Yes O’Neill’ Teal’c agreed, as Andianov retrieved her motion tracker and switched it on. ‘I will lead Sergeant’ he said, heading out of the chamber with the Russian following on behind, eyes flicking between the screen of the motion scanner and their environment.

‘This Marduk fellah must have been quite an asshole for his own priests to seal him in the sarcophagus here with that thing to snack on him’ O’Neill observed, looking at the remains.

‘Certainly not too popular’ Daniel agreed, continuing to read the Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions around the room. ‘The sarcophagus would have kept healing him to prolong the agony’ he noted.

‘Not how I’d want to go’ O’Neill stated with a shudder.

‘I just wish the Russians had told us about the gate coordinates their archaeologist found in Iraq earlier’ Carter said. ‘We’ll have to find a way to get this sarcophagus out of here, maybe have one at the Omega Site’ she suggested, they already had one on Earth.

‘I’m sure if he had his way Doctor Britski would have made his discovery public two and a half years ago when he found the stone tablets’ Daniel responded. ‘The Russian government recognised the symbols from the DHD they sold to X-COM and kept the tablets secret until they saw a way to profit from them.’

O’Neill muttered something darkly about unreformed commies to himself before raising his voice. ‘I’m not happy about that Colonel Chekov getting offered command of the Omega Site’ he opined.

‘He’s still technically junior to Commander Sharp Sir’ Carter noted.

‘That wouldn’t be too great a thing even if it counted for much’ O’Neill replied. ‘Sharp’s not a desk jockey, he’ll leave Chekov to run the Omega Site like he mostly leaves Hammond alone to run the SGC’ he said. ‘It’s like they’re rewarding the damn Russians for keeping something quiet until they could get paid for the information.’

Carter held up the large circular crystal set into a gold disk they had found in the sarcophagus. ‘The Eye of Tiamat is supposed to be an extremely powerful piece of technology Sir’ she said.

‘Possibly an energy weapon of Ancient design’ Daniel suggested, he knew Jack was always a sucker for a big honking space gun.

‘It could just be a piece of gaudy jewellery for all we know’ O’Neill responded. ‘Reminds me of something I might have worn in the seventies with an open shirt and flares’ he said.

Daniel grimaced. ‘Not a mental image I wanted’ he said.

Elsewhere in the sarcophagus Andianov and Teal’c were still hunting the alien creature possessed by Marduk. ‘It might be laying in ambush’ Teal’c suggested. ‘I cannot be taken as a host so you are in more danger than I’ he told the Russian.

‘If it appears again I will be expecting it and won’t miss this time’ Andianov replied.

‘This structure is labyrinthine’ Teal’c noted. ‘If it remains stationary we could hunt it for many days unsuccessfully.’

Andianov nodded sadly then looking up from her motion scanner to Teal’c smiled evilly. ‘Poison gas’ she suggested. ‘We return to Earth, collect the gas and pump the whole ziggurat full of lethal nerve agents’ she said.

Teal’c raised an eyebrow. ‘An excellent idea’ he agreed.

‘There are non-persistent agents that would dissipate within hours’ Andianov told him. ‘The structure would be undamaged, and once the ziggurat was cleansed of the alien threat engineering teams could shore up the walls and ceiling so Doctor Jackson undertake a proper investigation of the ziggurat’ she said.

‘Shooting it would be more... satisfying’ Teal’c observed.

‘I’ll settle for it being dead’ Andianov replied evenly.

SG-1 used the rings Daniel found in the ziggurat to escape the building, but limited by his host Marduk was unable to do likewise and could not open the stone doors which sealed him inside either. When he heard the rings activate again many hours later he scurried to the site hoping to ambush a human, intending to take them as a far more suitable host, instead he found himself looking a strange cylindrical device marked with symbols he could not understand and which was venting some kind of...

The VX Nerve gas having done its job SG-1, returning in full NBC Gear, found Marduk and his extremely undignified last host dead on the floor by the rings. Other personal unsealed the ziggurat and flushed it out with clean air before they started systematically searching the building, putting in reinforcing beams where needed. Marduks’s hand device was found two weeks later along with other Goa’uld technology in a concealed compartment in a wall. Unlike the ones already in their possession it was the more advanced type with a personal force-field which had many Tau’ri scientists clamouring for the opportunity to try and unlock its secret.

The Eye of Tiamat itself however remained a mystery for some time, Anubis was very annoyed when he came looking for it and found the ziggurat empty except for the obvious signs of Tau’ri presence such as signs and insignia marked with that stupid X logo they left all over the galaxy.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – April 2002

‘A base’ Colonel O’Neill repeated incredulously, ‘how the hell could they set up a base?’ he asked. ‘I mean right here on freaking Earth’ he exclaimed.

Major Davis delivering the briefing looked around the room, the rest of SG-1 looked just as shocked as O’Neill albeit less vocally. Commander Sharp looked like he was going to snap the pen in his hand any second and even the usually calm and collected General Hammond appeared shaken by the revelation. ‘Long term analysis of Sectoid activity in the area indicates it was likely constructed last June’ he said. ‘If you’d recall our circumstances at the time the enemy had recently introduced the Foo Fighter, and we had yet to field the F-302X, so Interception losses were very high’ he continued, ‘the decision was taken to only engage the hostiles if they were heading for highly populated areas so alien craft operating over much of the Earth’s surface were ignored’ he explained. ‘It was noted that several enemy craft seemed to be scouting and occasionally setting down in a remote area in the Amazon basin...’

‘But the decision was taken that if Loki wanted to abduct a few primitive tribesmen then they were acceptable losses’ Daniel interrupted angrily.

‘If you can only protect so much territory you prioritise’ Commander Sharp stated. ‘Better a few dozen people get screwed than lose military assets needed to protect countless more’ he said dispassionately. Sharp had been offworld for a couple of weeks, first at the Omega Site and then went straight from there to join a join XSGCOM and Free Jaffa raid on a world Apophis was using as a staging area, it had been a great deal of fun but he felt more out of the loop than normal.

Daniel rounded on him. ‘It’s not whether it’s right or wrong, it’s how easily people like you make the call’ he said. ‘No agonising about it and no remorse for the poor bastards in the loin clothes who end up on a surgical experimentation table because we were husbanding our hardware’ he declared.

‘I try and save as many people as I can, and getting wrapped up in the ones I’ve already lost doesn’t help me do it so I don’t’ Sharp replied flatly then threw O’Neill a look that told him to get his teams humanitarianly-minded civilian in line. ‘What do we know about the base Major?’ he asked Davis, getting things back on track.

Davis checked his notes, he had been assigned the job as liaison between X-COM, the Pentagon and the SGC and as part of that read so many files it was sometimes hard to keep track. ‘They seem to have been keeping a low profile’ he said. ‘After establishing the base out in the boonies they apparently stopped sending their larger ships there, presumably so we wouldn’t get suspicious’ he continued, ‘it was only when we started getting a cluster of UFO sightings in the area we started to wonder if something was up and then three days ago one of our Hyperwave Decoders detected a transmission from a previously unknown type of Sectoid Vessel on what translated to be a “supply mission” to the area.’

‘Must have run out of something’ O’Neill suggested then frowned. ‘Hey why were people sighting UFO’s if they stopped sending ships there until recently?’ he asked.

‘They were using fighters and Foo Fighters don’t show up on radar and also don’t seem to use the same hyperwave transponder technology as the older ships’ Major Davis replied.

Carter nodded. ‘Initial examination of the Foo Fighter we captured indicated a refinement of hyperwave communications technology which we think is closer in capability to the subspace communications the Asgard use’ she said. ‘Think of it as one being AM and the other FM’ she added for the benefit of Colonel O’Neill.

‘The fighters are too small for abduction missions, but they’re okay for reconnaissance and it does appear that the aliens are scouting for something, sending up fighters at night from their jungle base up towards Central America’ Major Davis told the group.

‘No idea what they’re after I’m guessing?’ General Hammond queried.

‘I’m afraid not sir’ Davis replied apologetically.

‘This is a hell of an opportunity if we can take the base intact’ Sharp declared.

‘Yes Sir, that’s the general opinion amongst all concerned, and a plan to land several teams of X-COM Troops is on the cards, but there’s a school of thought it could be a tactical mistake and we want to try something else first’ Davis told them.

‘How so?’ O’Neill queried.

Major Davis leaned forward in his chair. ‘It’s thought possible that there might be a higher ranking enemy officer within the base than we’ve encountered previously’ he said. ‘Loki pre-programs his cloned troops with only as much information as is required to do their job, so we don’t gain as much intel from prisoners as we might hope’ he continued. ‘We’ve captured the equivalent of Lieutenants and Captains in rank on occasion but we really need to score someone higher up the chain hoping that he might know more.’

‘And you think a Base Commander is what we’ve been looking for?’ Hammond asked.

‘Stands to reason that Loki would give the guy running an independent command more brains than he’d bother giving the cannon-fodder’ Commander Sharp opined reasonably.

‘To capture and interrogate such an alien would be valuable indeed’ Teal’c observed. ‘It would be equivalent to seizing a First Prime rather than an ordinary Jaffa Warrior.’

O’Neill tapped the table. ‘We need to get a Special Forces Team in there to turn the tables on them and abduct the bastard’ he said. ‘Infiltrate the base quietly and haul his little grey ass out of there in chains’ he declared.

‘Good plan let down by the fact that you can’t sneak into a base where at least some of the guys defending the place are likely to be telepathic’ Sharp pointed out.

‘That’s why I’ve come here to the SGC’ Major Davis told them. ‘We think we know a way to do it but we need SG-1’ he said.

‘Ready to save the world again’ O’Neill declared proudly.

‘Not you Colonel’ Major Davis told him. ‘We need you to look after P3X-989 while X-COM borrows the other SG-1’ he said.

‘Our android doubles on Altair?’ Daniel responded, then his eyes widened. ‘They’re machines, no brainwaves’ he realised.

‘Functionally immune to either psionic attack or detection’ Major Davis concurred. ‘Loki’s troops should be taken completely by surprise’ he said. ‘From what we know of their capabilities your android doubles are stronger, faster and have quicker reactions than you as well’ he added.

‘Yeah well, that might be true’ O’Neill conceded. In fact he knew the androids were considerably superior in many ways to the original humans they were copied from. ‘I still don’t think four of them could get the job done though Sir’ he added.

‘We could throw in a couple of Mighty MALPs as fire-support’ Carter suggested.

Andianov closed her eyes to think something through quietly to herself then opened them. ‘I will permit the android Harlan to make a copy of me if necessary to add to the team’ she said quietly.

‘I’d reconsider that offer before someone takes you up on it Sergeant’ O’Neill counselled her.

‘The androids have not faced Loki’s forces in battle and are not familiar with many of the weapons and tactics used to fight them effectively Sir’ Andianov replied. ‘They would benefit from my knowledge as well as having another rifle in action’ she said.

‘They’ll be another you out there Sergeant, I suggest you give it some serious thought before committing to that’ General Hammond told the Russian.

‘The sacrifice of a little of my own uniqueness matters less than the contribution my android duplicate could make to this proposed mission and others’ Andianov replied evenly.

‘This is assuming the duplicates go for it’ Major Davis pointed out.

Colonel O’Neill chuckled. ‘We’ve got a pretty good idea on that’ he said.

‘They’ll go for it’ Carter stated confidently.

‘I guess in the circumstances you should be the ones to contact them’ General Hammond reasoned, looking to SG-1.

‘I’d expect it to be me that asked me, if the roles were reversed and I was him and he was me’ O’Neill agreed then frowned. ‘Did that make any sense?’ he asked after a pause.

‘It did until I gave it more thought’ Daniel replied with a shrug.



High Orbit – KS7-535 – April 2002

The world below them was a frozen wasteland with temperatures so low that the ice was a mix of water and carbon dioxide. It hadn’t always been so, which is why the Ancients had placed a stargate there millennia ago, but these days you would likely freeze to death in seconds if you were foolish enough to venture out on its surface. Logically it wasn’t really worth fighting over, indeed in ordinary circumstances System Lords would be more likely to try and palm the place off on one another as a useless possession, but these were not ordinary circumstances. The world was strategically positioned along the line of advance Anubis was taking towards Delmak and there was no way that Apophis was going to let the returned, some whispered resurrected, System lord have it without a hard fight.

Fifteen Ha’tak vessels belonging to Apophis, mostly the older type but six were the new much faster and generally more capable versions now being produced by his shipyards, were clashing with nine Anubis Ha’tak’s, the superior shielding and harder hitting weaponry of the latter making it a reasonably even match as they battered away at each other with huge bolts of plasma. Ongoing numerical superiority, and the new ships that closed some of the technological gap, had allowed Apophis to hold back Anubis as no other System Lord would have been able given the frightening advances he had made, but the war was becoming costly beyond measure in terms of lost Jaffa and smashed fleets and it showed no sign of ending soon.

Lord Zipacna commanding the fleet in the service of Apophis inwardly winced as once of his new ships finally succumbed to the pounding it was taking, its shields failing and the next volley shattered the pyramid ship, great burning chunks tumbling in space as air and Jaffa crewmen poured into the vacuum. A second of his Ha’tak’s, this time an older model soon joined its younger brethren as debris gradually falling towards the icy wastes below.

‘My Lord an enemy Ha’tak is destroyed’ a Jaffa exclaimed as the combined fire of three of their ships blew one of Anubis ships to pieces.

‘Good’ Zipacna responded. Anubis could not replace his losses nearly as easily as Apophis so each lost ship was a body blow to the vile creature whose actions in the past had led even the other System Lords to think of him as a monster.

‘More ships emerging from hyperspace’ the Jaffa announced. ‘Three of our new Ha’tak vessels and... My Lord it is the Great Mothership of Apophis himself!’ he declared in a mixture of joy and awe.

Zipacna had a reputation of always having a smirk on his face but this time the smile was, and looked, completely genuine as the four new ships immediately joined in the battle. The three newly arrived Ha’tak ganging up on a single one of the enemy while the huge flagship began to throw the full weight of its main guns at the enemy battle line supporting Zipacna’s own command.

On board the flagship Apophis watched in satisfaction as the puny Ha’tak of Anubis almost seemed to tremble before the sight of his most powerful vessel. Although for their size they were heavily armed and shielded the enemy ships were a mere six hundred metres across and were dwarfed by his three-kilometre plus wide leviathan which mounted guns that more than made up for in size and number what they lacked in relative sophistication. ‘Watch how they quake in fear before my might’ Apophis declared in a transmission to all his ships from his ornate chair on the flagship’s pel’tak.

Enemy Ha’taks with shields already depleted from the fighting against Zipacna’s fleet began to whither under Apophis’s guns, their ferocity seemingly suitable as the wrath of a true god.

Three more Anubis motherships blew up in quick succession as they succumbed to the now overwhelming firepower directed at them. Jaffa on the ships of Apophis yelled in triumph as the enemy first faltered and then began to retreat into hyperspace, the least damaged vessels covering the withdrawal before joining it in flight.

‘Cowards’ Apophis declared with a sneer although he knew that Anubis would have given explicit orders to his ship commanders to pull out of the battle if losses mounted too high, he could not afford to sacrifice an entire fleet for the sake of Jaffa pride, the principle that he that fights and runs away lives to fight another day was well known to the Goa’uld. ‘Order Zipacna to salvage the remains of the enemy ships and if he has time rescue any of my Jaffa that remain alive in the hulks of our own losses’ Apophis ordered.

‘Shall I plot a course back to Delmak?’ a Jaffa queried.

‘Yes’ Apophis replied. ‘Have the three Ha’tak that arrived with us stay here to reinforce Zipacna and return us to our palace’ he ordered. Five more of the new ships currently fitting out should be completed within days and he would personally lead them and half of the ships already in orbit around Delmak against Baal he decided.

Apophis smiled. He had forgotten just how much fun it was to smite your foes in person, or at least from the command chair of a oversized warship.

When the remains of his own fleet arrived Anubis raged and had a number of senior Jaffa Officers executed to encourage the others to do better in future. Afterwards he issued orders to increase the amount of resources being ploughed into the construction of his own great mothership, one day he was going to blow that runt of a flagship Apophis used to pieces he decided.



Amazon Basin – Earth – May 2002

Squatting behind a tree Andianov looked at her hands, moved her fingers and then clenched a fist. ‘It still feels...’

‘Exactly like you?’ Carter interrupted. ‘Yes, we didn’t even know we were copies at first’ she said.

‘When I woke up on the table I thought it hadn’t worked until I realised I was wearing different clothes and then saw he other me standing by the doorway’ the Russian said.

‘Not as big a shock as when we found out though’ Daniel opined. Watching Doctor Fraser withdraw that white hydraulic fluid from Jack’s arm had likely been a somewhat more disturbing experience he decided.

‘You’ll adjust’ Carter told her, ‘even Colonel O’Neill mostly got used to it after a couple of years’ she said. ‘Well other than the occasional rant at Harlan whenever he remembers what it was like to enjoy a good meal and a beer.’

‘Hey campers’ the aforementioned O’Neill greeted them happily, returning to their position after checking out the perimeter of the base. ‘Teal’c scouted us a way in and we’d better be moving before we run out of charge’ he said.

‘We’re still good for at least a day and a half Sir’ Carter pointed out. In order to maximise surprise they had been beamed down by the Redemption several miles away and had hacked their way through the dense rainforest to reach their objective, a now filthy pair of mighty-MALPs rumbling along behind them and now set up to give support fire if necessary.

‘I just don’t want to risk running out of juice in the middle of a base filled with hostile aliens’ O’Neill stated. ‘We get in there quietly, check the place out, disable any defences we can, find the head honcho, stun his little grey ass, call in the cavalry and then all we have to do is hold until relieved’ he said, sounding all too enthusiastic about it.

‘The personal cloaks are only good for two hours’ Andianov pointed out. Indicating the unit clipped to her belt and the others.

‘Plenty of time to get in the front door’ O’Neill responded brightly. ‘Just remember that they might not be able to see us, or detect us telepathically, but they can still sure as hell hear us so let’s not do much talking or stamping around in there until it’s time to stomp on a few heads okay?’ he requested. ‘That means no gushing just because you see a piece of new technology or some alien language written on the wall’ he told Carter and Daniel. ‘So what’s your weakness?’ he asked Andianov. ‘What gets the old hydraulics pumping?’

‘Combat’ the Russian replied, hefting her P3-A1 Heavy Plasma Rifle, they each had one plus several spare clips of ammunition, a harness full of Shock Grenades, a Laser Pistol and a Stun-Bomb launcher strapped to their backpack. Normally that much equipment plus the armour they were wearing would have been a burden but the androids of the unofficially christened “SG-1A” were built to a higher standard than the humans they were copied from. They even had a extra plate of trinium/ceramic laminate underneath their body armour protecting the power-cell and main pumps in their torso which made them considerably more likely to survive a stray shot.

‘There you see, now that’s the kind of thing that should get you excited’ O’Neill declared. He had been going quietly insane not seeing any decent action since the “real” SG-1 found out the duplicates like him had been indulging in highly unauthorised missions of their own, but now he had the chance to do some good for Earth and finally prove how much of an asset he and his team were. ‘Okay let’s go kick some alien ass’ he said, bringing up his own rifle. They had spent the last few days familiarising themselves with the new weaponry back on Altair and he was already a big fan although Harlan had gone ape when Daniel accidentally blew a hole in a defenceless wall which had only been innocently going about its business.

Getting inside the base proved easier than it might have been, invisible to the naked eye using the X-COM version of Nirrti’s cloak they made their way to one of the surface access points where an unfortunate sectoid guard had his head turned around 180 degrees by a mechanical Jaffa, the snap of its neck not loud enough to alert any others Teal'c swiftly hid the body and they moved on. Like in their ships the sectoids used a sort of anti-gravity elevator within the base which Andianov was well familiar with and she led the others down into the expansive complex.

All the walls seemed to be covered in thin sheets of the alien alloys which made up their own body armour and Carter couldn’t help but make mental note of the various devices they encountered as they quietly headed through the base, stepping aside to let wandering aliens making their ways along the metal corridors by. Daniel stopped in a large room which seemed to be filled with biological samples, including human remains, and finding a half dissected child he fought back the urge to blow the head off the next sectoid that crossed his path and continued on. Teal’c had headed for the aircraft hanger and was planting charges in locations which could not readily be seen by passing alien technicians who were working on the trio of Foo Fighters he found there.

Excessively wide corridors crisscrossed the base and the reason why became clear when O’Neill nearly ran into a Cyberdisk hovertank gliding along, presumably on patrol. He had memorised much of the X-COM documentation dealing with these things and knew it was heavily armoured and armed and exploded like a ton of TNT if you took one out. It felt strangely creepy to be walking around unnoticed deep inside the enemy lair like this but he fought back the emotion, stranger perhaps that he still had emotion in this artificial body and mind he thought to himself, watching the Cyberdisk turn into another corridor before he moved off again.

Doors in sectoid ships, and presumably the base too, opened for you automatically but the sensors that triggered them were no better at seeing the cloaked SG-1A than the aliens were so the team soon realised that if they were going to get inside what appeared to access on towards the command centre in the middle of the base they were going to have to either switch off the cloak or else hope to follow someone inside. O’Neill waited outside a double set of doors for five minutes hoping for a passing sectoid to oblige before eventually losing his patience and deciding it was time to abandon stealth for surprise.

O’Neill activated his internal radio transmitter and signalled the others. They had been keeping radio silence until now for fear of alerting the opposition to their presence too early but it was time to go to work properly. In some ways it was almost like telepathy itself, the androids could silently communicate mind to mind by encrypted radio transmission which gave them another edge in combat. He ordered them to converge on his position and got ready to make his move, switching his P3-A1 to stun, the zat’nik’tel based unit fitted under the barrel a better choice for shooting something you wanted kept alive than superheated plasma which could blow a hole in armour plate.

Rifle up and ready O’Neill switched off his cloak and stepped through the door which slid open for him. ‘Game-time’ he said both aloud and on the radio as he shot what appeared to be a very surprised sectoid on the other side. A narrow corridor on the other side looped around to a door which led into the command centre itself and O’Neill started running towards it, fishing a shock grenade out of his equipment harness ready to clear the place out properly.

Another sectoid in the way was stunned by a zat discharge before it had time to register the sudden appearance of a human so deep inside the base and reaching his destination O’Neill let the doors slide open and rolled in the grenade standing to one side of the doorway inside since he wasn’t quite certain what the thing would do to androids if it went off next to one.

Bewilderment reigned in the enemy ranks. It had long been known that the sectoids weren’t mindless automatons, they were susceptible to panic and had even been known to drop their weapons and cower away from battle at times of great stress and fear. Still cloaked, the rest of SG-1A began to shoot at every alien they saw while outside, activated by remote, the two armed MALP units began firing towards the base, confusing the situation still further.

Inside the command centre O’Neill found that there was another level above reachable by gravity elevator. He reached behind him and unhooked the stun-bomb launcher on his pack, firing it upwards to hopefully clear the room before dropping the now empty launcher and making his way up. All he found were unconscious sectoids and after zatting each to make absolutely sure they were suitably disabled he secured them together with plastic handcuffs, and went back down to join in the fun.

With only one way into the Command Centre it wasn’t too difficult for the androids to secure the corridors that led to it. More and more alien soldiers appeared but lacking the ability to see who was firing at them their aim was needless to say badly impaired. Daniel had found himself a good spot and was firing blind around a corner, only his rifle and right arm available as a target as he pulled the trigger as fast as he could.

‘Tank!’ Carter exclaimed as a Cyberdisk came into view firing bolts of green plasma which destroyed anything they struck. A burst of Heavy Plasma from beside Carter slammed into it before it could close and the machine exploded with a deafening roar, blowing out a nearby wall. ‘Nice shooting’ she said, all three bolts had struck practically the same place coring the hovertanks armour.

‘An easy target’ Andianov replied switching her rifle back from plasma to zat fire.

‘Think they’re distracted enough yet Jack?’ Daniel asked, grimacing as a bolt of green plasma nearly took his arm off. ‘The cloaks can’t have too much time left in the batteries and we’re too outnumbered not to be invisible’ he opined.

‘Yeah time to call in the troops’ O’Neill agreed. ‘This is O’Neill, lets see some of you flesh and blood people down here risking their asses’ he transmitted on his radio.

Two Skyranger Transports filled with armed and armoured X-COM Troopers lifted off from X-COM’s own base in South America and accelerated towards the alien base soon passing the sound barrier. The chaos inside the complex hopefully ensuring the reception outside wasn’t going to be too unpleasant.

‘Blow the C-4 Teal’c’ O’Neill ordered, the android copy of the Jaffa pulling a detonator remote from his pocket and triggering a series of charges they had placed in what they thought was the machinery than opened the hangers where the Foo Fighters were based. F-302 Reapers would be on hand to escort the Skyrangers in but it was better if they didn’t have to fight off any alien craft that might scramble with the intent of defending the base.

The first explosion was followed by a second more titanic one that shook the whole base. ‘Secondary explosion’ O’Neill said with a frown. The C-4 must have set off something else, maybe the powerplant of a Foo Fighter, he thought, damn they were hoping to get those things intact if possible.

Carter pitched a shock-grenade down the corridor, the device becoming visible as it left her hand and bouncing on the floor a few times, eventually rolling to a stop and detonating in a bright flash. ‘Nice’ she said as a sectoid which had been leaning around a corner firing towards her fell unconscious into view , slumping onto the polished metal surface. It was even better than she thought because two others out of her line of sight had gone down as well. Her situation then worsened as her cloaking device ran out of power.

Teal’c took out another Cyberdisk, the machine scattering broken pieces in all directions just as his own cloak began to fail and he switched it off. They should find a way to run the devices off the androids own power cell he decided as the sectoids, finally having a target they could see, started placing return fire with considerably more accuracy.

‘Crap’ Carter swore as a stray Heavy Plasma bolt took her left leg off at the knee causing her to fall sideways before Andianov could grab her and pull her back into cover. ‘That’ll require a few hours in the machine shop’ Carter said as she watched the white fluid she now thought of as her blood spurt onto the ground amidst electrical arcing from exposed wires.

‘You okay Carter?’ O’Neill asked with concern, he had been supporting Daniel but turned to see how she was doing.

‘Well if we need to run anywhere I’m in trouble but it’s nothing I can’t fix later’ Carter told him. ‘I’ll put a tourniquet on the hydraulics’ she said. ‘The electronics I’ve already isolated’ she added as the sparks started to die down. ‘Hey do you think I’ll get a medal?’ she asked. ‘The Purple Pump maybe?’ she deadpanned.

Despite the situation O’Neill burst out laughing. ‘That’s the spirit Sam’ he told her as Andianov picked up Carters rifle and began firing both, finding she had the strength to do so more effectively than she hoped.

Daniel had discovered something very useful about the rifle he was using. Because the zat’nik’tel unit ran off its own independent power-cell you could continue to fire it continually with a press of a button while you reloaded a fresh magazine for the Heavy Plasma. In short he found he could almost hide behind it which was good because there seemed to be an awful lot of aliens who were intent on killing him right now. ‘How many shots does a zat fire?’ he asked.

‘Many hundred’ Teal’c replied.

‘Might not be enough’ Daniel responded glumly. He was certainly going to run out of Heavy Plasma clips before too long anyway. ‘So are we going to go out like Butch and Sundance at the end?’ he asked.

‘Yeah but I’m hoping that won’t be for another few thousand years’ O’Neill replied. ‘That reminds me, now we’re back on Earth we need to kidnap Matt Groening and have Harlan make a copy because I’m not going to cope with an eternity of nothing to watch but Simpsons reruns’ he declared with a grimace.

Another huge explosion rocked the base. ‘This is Assault Force X-Ray Niner’ a voice on the radio they could all hear announced. ‘F-302’s are currently strafing ground defences and we are inbound with relief troops’ it declared. ‘ETA five minutes’.

‘As the great Nelson Muntz would say, Ha Ha!’ O’Neill jeered at the aliens. ‘Now tell the truth isn’t this better than being stuck at home?’ he asked his team brightly.

Only his android reactions made it possible for him to avoid the remains of Carters leg when she threw it at him.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant. 

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – May 2002

Janet Fraser scowled at the Commander as he checked his watch and announced he had to gear up straight away for an offworld mission, apologising sardonically that he didn't have time to stand there for another five minutes and be berated by an over-protective parent before he turned and left the lab leaving her and Cassie alone, the researcher that had been monitoring the girls psionic progress having earlier surreptitiously fled as soon as Doctor Fraser arrived and began to accuse Sharp of trying to turn her daughter into some kind of walking WMD. ‘I don't know why you like that man Cassie’ she stated. ‘He's only interested in your mind.’

‘Can't be many teenage girls whose Mom's say that to them’ Cassandra replied. ‘Shouldn't you be warning me about older guys trying to get in my pants?’ she asked with a grin. She was still sat in a chair with numerous electrodes connected to her head in front of a bank of computers and machinery. Although progress had been made in the direction of ordinary humans using psionics, field testing was already underway, none of them even came close to Cassandra’s potential, the teenaged Hok’taur was simply in a class of her own and hence the subject of continued research and investigation.

’This isn't funny Cassie’ Janet told her seriously.

‘It's funnier than you think’ Cassandra told her with a giggle.

Janet sighed. ‘You're just a weapon to him Cassie not a person, it's like someone stripped part of his soul and all he cares about is winning.’

‘That's not true’ Cassandra replied with certainty. ‘Well maybe about the winning part’ she conceded, ‘but he's not as bad as you think’ she asserted. Cassandra knew that X-COM considered her an extremely valuable resource, with months of training in X-COM’s “Psi-Labs” the very best human psionics could cause a subject to panic, even take control of another being for a short while if they concentrated hard enough, Cassie on the other hand could look right into a persons head and read their thoughts with ease and make “suggestions” which would have a person singing songs from West Side Story, the video of Colonel O’Neill involuntarily singing “Gee Officer Krupke” being a smash hit in the SGC. She was even showing signs of the telekinetic powers she had manifested during the “Mind Fire” returning, although that did take a lot of concentration, and was haphazard as yet. Being able to make a pen levitate for a few seconds had led to some awestruck looks from Doctor Bill Lee, and a round of applause from everyone else present, but it wasn’t all that useful given that for the most part it was far less effort to walk over and pick it up in your hand if you wanted it.

Doctor Fraser tried to make herself sound as reasonable and sympathetic as possible. ‘I'm sorry Cassie’ she began, ‘I know you're bound to have a soft spot for him because of what he did to Nirrti to get her to save you but..’

‘Mom, I'm not guessing here’ Cassandra interrupted her.

‘Cassie you're too young to really understand’ Janet responded, ignoring the girl’s rudeness and trying not to sound too condescending, that never played well with Cassie. ‘It’s like...’

‘You're not telepathic enough to understand’ Cassandra interrupted for a second time. ‘You're guessing, I'm stating a fact’ she maintained forcefully.

‘What?’ Janet responded in surprise.

Cassandra indicated the device she was plugged into. ‘Did you see me switch this thing off when you came in here and gave the Commander a piece of your mind?’ she asked. ‘He was so annoyed about it, he forgot it had a Psi-Amp built into it as well as the monitoring gear’ she said.

Janet blinked. ‘A psionic amplifier?’ she said slowly, looking at the machine. ‘You were reading his thoughts?’ she asked, eyes widening.

‘Not at first, but I got bored listening and I started to wonder what he would have been saying if you'd given him more of chance to get a word in’ Cassandra told her with an impish smile. It had been pretty funny to watch her Mom direct one of her well-meaning, but overly-protective maternal tirades at someone that wasn’t her for a change.

‘You can't do things like that Cassandra’ Janet declared sternly. ‘It's an invasion of people's privacy’ she said.

‘I prefer to think of it as practice’ Cassandra replied. ‘So I guess you don't want to know what he was thinking?’ she asked sweetly.

‘No… I mean… ‘ Janet Fraser replied awkwardly.

‘You probably wouldn't have liked the part where he was wondering if the reason you got divorced was because your ex-husband got sick of being lectured’ Cassie observed.

Janet's face instantly shifted into a mask of fury. ‘That son of a…’

‘Then he decided you were only looking out for me and it was nice you cared that much seeing as how I'm only adopted’ Cassandra added. ‘He thought it was sweet.’

‘Oh’ Janet responded, her anger fading. She did try to treat Cassie no differently than she hoped she would have her own flesh and blood in different circumstances.

‘Then his mind started to wander because you just kept talking at him and he decided you were hot too’ Cassie told her, continuing her tale. ‘He had this vague idea of kissing you because it might stop you talking but it was just a random thought… not like when he started wondering what you were wearing under your uniform which is pretty much when I decided to get out of his head’ she continued, ‘I didn't want all the mental imagery he headed into after that’ she stated with a grimace. ‘I know they say men think about sex all the time and I guess it’s true’ she reasoned wondering if that was what the boys at school were thinking when they were just talking about random stuff, if so she was a mixture of sort of pleased and very disturbed.

Janet looked mortified. ‘You can't ever do that again or tell anyone about it’ she said, starting to blush. ‘It's wrong Cassie.’

‘From what I saw before I decided to get out of his head the adjective I’d have gone for would have been “uncomfortable” because that desk over there isn’t padded’ Cassandra told her, very much enjoying just how uncomfortable in a different way her Mom now looked.

‘Cassie!’ Janet exclaimed. ‘Enough’ she told her sternly.

‘Hey I learned all sorts of other things when his mind wandered’ Cassie replied, changing tack, ‘his new boots aren't properly broken in yet and hurt his feet, he thinks Jack is funny but tries too hard at it’ she said. ‘He cares more about losing people than you think because he was worried about not everyone coming back from his next mission’ she continued, ‘he feels guilty he’s here fighting the Goa’uld instead of Loki because Jaffa are less dangerous than Sectoids... and I learned that Canadians say MILF like Americans’ she added, earning exactly the look on her mothers face she was hoping for.

‘I said that was enough of that Cassie’ Janet told her, blushing again.

‘Mom that was important’ Cassie replied with fake sincerity, ‘my cover story is that I’m from Toronto not Hanka remember’ she said. ‘I should know these things’ she said. ‘It’s like when I watched Ice Hockey because people expect me to understand the game’ she said. ‘I hope someone comes back and disconnects me from this thing soon’ she said, shaking her head slightly so the wires connected to it rattled, ‘Jack forced a hotdog and huge Diet Coke on me in the canteen earlier and I don’t know how much longer I can go without needing to visit the restroom’ she announced.

Janet frowned. ‘I’ll do it’ she said reaching over.

‘Better not touch it Mom’ Cassandra warned, fending her off. ‘They spent fifteen million dollars putting together this gear after I kept melting the stuff they tried before’ she said. ‘They’re making a portable unit I can carry like a normal Psi-Amp’ she told her mother. ‘That’ll be so cool... you know I mean if I don’t accidentally melt it’ she added.

‘They’re weaponising you’ Janet responded, ‘making you field deployable’ she continued.

‘Have Super-Psi-Amp, will travel’ Cassie said, beaming. It was like being a super-hero or something, saving the human race from the evil aliens with her mutant psychic powers, X-COM meets the X-Men, she thought.

‘I need to put a stop to this’ Janet declared. ‘It's already gone too far’ she said.

‘You’ll do no such thing’ Cassandra replied curtly. ‘You know I want to help’ she declared. ‘This is how I get to pay everyone back for what they’ve done for me, good or bad’ she asserted. ‘Besides what are you going to do?’ she asked, eyes showing amusement. ‘It looks like venting on Commander Sharp only makes him... libidinous’ she pointed out, using the word her mother had used when explaining the facts of life. ‘So if I got Jack and Sam in here together want to bet I already know what they’re thinking when they look at each other?’ she asked.

‘Don’t you dare Cassandra Fraser’ Janet told her daughter, putting her foot down. It would be a gross invasion of their privacy and after working with the two of them for years it was a waste of effort anyhow, she thought, you didn’t need to be telepathic to read those two when they were in close proximity.

‘Spoilsport’ Cassandra replied, playfully sticking out her tongue.

‘You're not reading my mind right now are you?' Janet asked suspiciously as the thought occured she might very well be.

‘Nah’ the teenager denied. ‘Why? Are you lying to me?’ she replied in amusement.

‘Don't be silly Cassie, I just don't think that's an appropriate ability for anyone let alone an impressionable young girl’ Janet told her.

‘You're not thinking about doing things on that desk too are you?’ Cassandra asked with a giggle.

‘No!’ her mother vehemently denied.

‘Okay then’ Cassandra accepted. ‘So can you find a geek to get me the heck out of this thing before I explode?’ she requested with increasing urgency.

‘Maybe I should let you suffer for all the teasing’ Janet suggested.

‘Hippocratic Oath Mom, remember that one?’ Cassandra reminded her. ‘Do no harm’ she added.

‘I knew I'd regret taking that one day’ Doctor Janet Fraser replied with a sigh.



Free Jaffa Camp – P8X-987 (Hanka) – May 2002

‘She is a proud woman’ Bra’tac noted, ‘she would not accept a prim’ta from a Jaffa still loyal to the false gods we slew in battle’ he said, standing outside the tent where Drey'auc lay recovering.

Teal’c nodded, his wife’s stubbornness was either a character flaw or one of her most admirable features, whether it was one or the other depended largely on circumstance. She was very far from the subservient ideal of a Jaffa woman and their verbal sparring on occasion made most of the battles he had fought pale by comparison. He loved her dearly but sometimes it was tempting to want to shake some sense into her. ‘It is well that the Tau’ri have taken many Goa’uld larvae from the waters of their ancestral homeworld for study’ he said. ‘When you contacted us I was able to procure one readily’ he noted.

‘I do not understand why they would be fishing for Goa’uld in the manner you described’ Bra’tac responded quizzically.

Teal’c crossed his arms. ‘They seek large numbers of Goa’uld since they are trying to develop biological weapons with which to combat them’ he said. ‘The waters of P3X-888 teem with them, they use high explosives because the concussive effect brings many to the surface unconscious where they can be netted in safety.’

‘But surely many Goa’uld also die’ Bra’tac suggested. ‘It seems wasteful’ he opined.

‘There are plenty and the Tau’ri of X-COM seem to greatly enjoy throwing their explosive grenades into rivers filled with Goa’uld’ Teal’c told him. ‘The wild Unas of that world often gather to watch with some amusement I am told, and they consume the dead symbiotes afterwards so the waste is minimised.’

Bra’tac raised an eyebrow. ‘The cross-marked warriors in the service of Sharp of Canada are becoming renowned among the Jaffa for their savagery as well as their undeniable skill in battle’ he said. ‘When I have led Free Jaffa into battle alongside the Tau’ri they appear to relish in the mayhem and destruction they wreak’ he said disparagingly.

‘Amongst many of the Tau’ri who are not from Commander Sharp’s forces the soldiers of X-COM are regarded as being of dubious sanity’ Teal’c told him. ‘They have seen too much battle and have been injected with drugs that enhance their combat skills but may negatively effect their reasoning.’

‘The Tau’ri leaders force these drugs upon them?’ Bra’tac asked in surprise.

‘No they take them willingly without duress’ Teal’c told him.

‘Then they are insane’ Bra’tac declared. ‘A warrior does not give up his mind and soul for victory’ he stated. ‘If he does he has already lost the thing most worth fighting for’ he said. ‘Our numbers continue to swell’ he noted, looking around at what was rapidly becoming a virtual tent city. ‘The war between the Council of the System Lords and Apophis has greatly weakened the false gods and made many bold enough to publicly doubt their divinity’ he said.

‘The victories won by the Free Jaffa should not be discounted either old friend’ Teal’c responded. ‘That so many of our people fight in their own name rather than as slaves for another is a cause for great joy and pride’ he said.

Bra’tac smiled. ‘The truth of that is undeniable’ he agreed. ‘Only last week Rak’nor, M’zel and myself led near five hundred Jaffa into a great battle with the armies of Apophis, defeating a numerically superior foe and taking a Tel’tak and a pair of Al’kesh as trophies.’

‘M’zel?’ Teal’c queried. ‘I do not know that Jaffa’ he said.

Bra’tac sighed. ‘You have been away from your people too long’ he said sadly. ‘M’zel served Heru’ur before his death, later Terok until the many defeats Terok suffered at the hands of Apophis confirmed to M’zel that his new master was far from being a god’ he told his former apprentice.

‘A good warrior?’ Teal’c asked.

‘Courageous and skilled in battle but more importantly he is wise beyond his sixty years’ Bra’tac replied. ‘I suspect that one reason our forces do so well against the deluded loyalist Jaffa is that we now promote our combat leaders based solely on ability not sycophancy or excessive reverence of age’ he said. ‘M’zel has become well respected among our ranks because he leads by example not through fear and holds deep conviction on the importance of freedom to choose which resonates well with our forces.’

Teal’c nodded. ‘Wise indeed for someone so young’ he agreed. ‘Do you remember me at sixty?’ he asked with a smile.

‘I thought you were never going to grow up’ Bra’tac told him with laughter. ‘It was infuriating.’

‘I am still surprised you didn’t give up on me’ Teal’c replied, chuckling himself.

‘So am I’ Bra’tac told him, his expression becoming more serious. ‘There are continued rumblings of discontent that you do not take your place among your brothers’ he said.

‘If it was not for the Tau’ri we would not be where we are today’ Teal’c replied. ‘I serve our people best by keeping a foot in both camps’ he said. ‘The Tau’ri are a bridge that links us with other enemies of the Goa’uld, the Tok’ra and Asgard’ he continued. ‘The Free Jaffa need allies and friends of such power.’

Bra’tac frowned. ‘Many of our people regard the Tok’ra as little better than the Goa’uld’ he said. ‘They also complain that while the Tau’ri give them their most fearsome weapons, they only supply us with staff-rifles’ he noted.

‘Have not the staff-rifles proven effective?’ Teal’c asked.

‘They are clearly superior in accuracy to the Goa’uld staff-weapons they are made from’ Bra’tac conceded, ‘but we know the Tau’ri could supply better, leaving their forces with an advantage if we ever came to blows in the future’ he said.

Teal’c nodded. ‘It is likely that was part of the reason’ he replied. ‘Commander Sharp and the other senior officers of X-COM regard all non-humans as a greater or lesser threat to their world’ he said. ‘It is fortunate they are restrained by their political hierarchy and moderates such as the Envoy and Scholar Elizabeth Weir.’

Rya’c put his head out of the tent. ‘Mother says she is near recovered from the implantation of her new prim’ta’ he told his father. ‘She would like to see you’ he added.

Bra’tac smiled. ‘I will take Rya’c on a tour of the camp to leave you and Drey'auc alone to talk’ he said. ‘The boy has not had much opportunity to look around since he came here’ he noted. ‘Like a good son he rarely left his mother’s side during her illness.’

‘I would very much like to learn more about the martial art of Mastaba I have seen warriors practice Master Bra’tac’ Rya'c requested.

The Jaffa Master nodded. ‘Although it came to us from the false god Imhotep in the guise of K’tano it's effectiveness has meant that many have chosen to adopt it nonetheless’ he said.

‘And I would like a staff-rifle’ Rya’c requested. ‘I have only a zat’nik’tel and a bashaak training staff’ he said.

‘When I was your age I would have be grateful for either’ Teal’c told him. At the boy’s age he had been a refugee living in far worst circumstances than these after his mother had fled with him to Chulak following the murder of his father by Cronus.

‘That was a very long time ago father’ Rya’c responded. ‘Things have changed since the days Unas were everywhere’ he said in much the same tone as a child on Earth would have remarked that his parents remembered woolly mammoths.

Bra’tac laughed. ‘And so life turns full circle’ he said. Teal’c had been a sarcastic little bastard sometimes too when they first met over eight decades beforehand he remembered.

‘You will still be here when I return?’ Rya’c asked his father.

‘I am not due to return to the SGC for three days’ Teal’c replied.

‘Good’ Rya’c replied. ‘Go to mother’ he said then paused. ‘She is not in a good mood’ he warned.

Although he remained impassive on the outside Teal’c inwardly grimaced. He knew he had not exactly been the most attentive husband or father and he was deserved anything he got in the way of complaint on that front.

Which is not to say he wasn’t really annoyed when his wife asked suspiciously why he always seemed to have that Tau’ri warrior woman in tow, she was there to assassinate him? A likely story, Drey'auc said scornfully.



Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – May 2002

‘Perhaps someone could tell me exactly why we have an archaeologist that probably absorbed enough radiation to make him glow in the dark in the infirmary?’ Commander Sharp asked, dropping into a chair in the briefing room next to General Hammond and looking directly at Colonel O’Neill.

‘Daniel needs to be placed in a sarcophagus immediately’ Carter told him. ‘It’s the only thing that might save him right now, he absorbed at least seven grays and that much will kill him’ she said.

O’Neill glared at Sharp. ‘We were told he had to wait his turn’ he said.

‘Both of them are already in use’ Sharp replied. ‘I’m told we took a lot of casualties in a UFO retrieval mission just before you came back through the gate.’

‘Danny is going to die’ O’Neill stated through clenched teeth.

‘As I told you earlier Colonel the two people already in the sarcophagi are already dead and they’ll stay that way permanently unless they’re given priority treatment’ General Hammond reminded him. ‘Doctor Jackson is in a lot of pain right now but I’m told it’ll be many hours, perhaps days, until he dies’ he said. ‘If he starts to go down-hill quickly we can bring in one of the X-COM medics trained in the use of the hand-held healing device to stabilise him’ he added.

‘Sir the longer it’s left the more severe the damage to Daniel’s cells and genetic structure will become’ Carter told him. ‘Teal’c and the Sergeant are with him now’ she said. There would be at least one of the team with him every moment until it was over.

‘We’ve got two of the damn things Major’ Commander Sharp pointed out, ‘we can leave him in one of them for days until he’s fully healed if we have to’ he said. ‘We just can’t do it until the poor son-of-a-bitch using the thing at the moment is breathing again.’

‘We’ve got the Redemption ready to beam Doctor Jackson directly to Area 51 where one of the sarcophagi is located as soon as its current occupant is ready to vacate it’ General Hammond said. ‘He was the least damaged physically so he should be the first to recover.’

‘Look I know how you feel Colonel...’ Sharp began.

‘Bullshit, you couldn’t care less about casualties’ O’Neill spat back.

‘You’re out of line Colonel’ Hammond told him.

‘I don’t let it cloud my judgement, or effect my decision making, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care, it just means I don’t let my caring kill anyone else’ Sharp told O’Neill coldly. ‘Now I still want to know why exactly one of my people is hurt and am I going to have to do something unpleasant to someone else because of it?’ he demanded to know.

Carter checked the expression on the Colonel’s face and decided he was calming down before explaining. ‘Well it’s like this Sir’ she began. ‘You know about naquadria?’ she asked.

‘Weird heavy isotope of naquadah, got the geeks buzzing with excitement, I read the preliminary report’ Sharp replied.

‘Yes Sir, it’s extremely unstable but potentially makes naquadah look like yesterday’s news’ Carter replied. ‘We could be looking at orders of magnitude more energy per unit of volume than weapons grade naquadah’ she told him.

‘Think grenades that could turn a major metropolis into a smoking crater’ O’Neill interjected.

‘More powerful shields and more compact hyperdrives is what we really need Sir’ Carter responded.

‘The Kelownans are thinking bombs Carter’ O’Neill pointed out. ‘They want a super-weapon to scare the crap out of their neighbours’ he said.

‘Terrania and the Andari Federation’ Carter explained. ‘The three powers are in a sort of armed standoff, like a Cold War that could go hot any minute because they haven’t got nuclear weapons as a deterrent’ she said. ‘Their technology is roughly Earth in the 1940’s, they’re working on Jet Aircraft, long range rocketry and the like’ she continued. ‘We had the Manhattan Project, they’ve got their naquadria bomb.’

‘So was there an accident with the bomb?’ Sharp asked. ‘Like they had with the early A-Bomb programs?’

‘The Kelownans say that Daniel was irradiated while trying to sabotage the weapon’ O’Neill replied with a growl.

‘Okay, just playing devil’s advocate for the moment, was he?’ Sharp asked. ‘He is a civilian and his politics and philosophy aren’t as... okay I’ll give it, they aren’t as fascist as someone like me’ he said. ‘If he thought the Kelownans were going to blow a few million people to pieces are we certain he wouldn’t have tried to do something about it?’ he continued. ‘I know Doctor Jackson might be willing to entertain us nuking the Goa’uld back to the Unas age but these are people we’re talking about here.’

‘If Danny had done that he’d have told us’ O’Neill responded. ‘He’s got the courage of his convictions.’

‘What does he say happened then?’ Sharp asked.

‘He won’t say, he says it doesn’t matter’ O’Neill replied.

‘Well if he won’t say get your sorry ass back to Kelowna and find someone that will’ Sharp replied.

‘We could try Jonas Quinn Sir’ Carter suggested to O’Neill.

‘Who?’ Sharp queried.

‘Kelownan geek that was part of their Research and Development Team, Daniel liked him’ O’Neill explained.

‘If you don’t get anywhere, invite him or one of their government officials back here and I’ll get Cassandra to take a look in their head’ Sharp replied. ‘I need to prove to Dwoskin that she’s worth what we’re spending on her anyway’ he said. The X-COM Finance Director was always writing Sharp nasty little memos asking when they were going to concrete results from all the money they were ploughing into Psionic R&D.

By the time O’Neill returned again, alone, pissed-off and empty-handed from Kelowna Daniel was starting to hallucinate, or at least he thought he might be because if he wasn’t he’d been having a conversation with the ascended being Oma Desala for the last hour. It all seemed real enough but one of the effects of large doses of radiation was that your brain swelled and being still confined to your skull this caused you to go more than slightly deranged.

Daniel wasn’t quite certain if he was going to die, they might bring him back in a sarcophagus which given the severity of his radiation damage might mean days in there followed by weeks of serious withdrawal from the side-effects, but more than that he wasn’t even completely sure it wouldn’t be better if he just gave up. He knew others thought he’d contributed so much, helped so many and he had to admit that the way he ended up absorbing all the radiation was a nice example of self-sacrifice which he hoped Sha’re would be proud of, but in many ways he still thought of himself as a failure somehow. For some reason Oma Desala seemed to be trying to persuade him otherwise, offering to ascend him to her plane of existence, but she was apparently hamstrung by the fact he didn’t think he was worthy of it. This did of course imply that all ascended beings must be egotistical but he decided not to point this out for the sake of diplomacy, and whether she was the product of a delusion or not Oma was the only source of conversation in town because he was by now far too drugged up with morphine to talk properly to any of his friends.

Driven by guilt Jonas Quinn arrived through the stargate with the truth of what had happened with Daniel and all the naquadria he could bring with him. He requested asylum and was granted it, this soured relations between Earth and Kelowna for some time but they eventually contacted the SGC begging for help against a new foe in their midst that could not be deterred by a naquadria bomb or any other technology they had, genetically the people of the world Langara were very interesting and that led to attention from a quarter they neither wanted nor could ever have expected.

One thing that was very annoying about Oma, Daniel decided, was that she all too often talked in what most resembled Zen Kōans, these were very poetic by some terms of reference, and undoubtedly contained great wisdom, but they were cryptic as hell and one of the reasons he still preferred ancient Western Philosophy to Eastern. The thoughts of Plato, Socrates and Aristotle might seem to lack the soul of Buddhism in some ways but by God they were more considerate in saying what they meant to say without expecting you to have some kind of revelation first. Fortunately Oma, delusion or not, eventually realised she was going to have to stop talking like a fortune cookie if she wanted to talk Daniel around and she did have a very good reason for wanting to do so that she was annoyed she couldn’t tell him.

‘You said I was the only one qualified to judge myself? So, how ever much I want achievement enlightenment or whatever you want to call it, what happens if I look at my life and I don't honestly believe I deserve it?’ Daniel asked.

‘The success or failure of your deeds does not add up to the sum of your life. Your spirit cannot be weighed. Judge yourself by the intention of your actions and by the strength with which you faced the challenges that have stood in your way’ Oma replied.

Daniel sighed, that could be a problem, he thought to himself. ‘What if I can't?’ he asked.

‘The people closest to you have been trying to tell you that you have made a difference. That you did change things for the better’ she said. That was true enough, there had been a steady stream of visitors giving him pep talks his entire time in the infirmary. Andianov had done hers in Russian so the medical staff couldn’t understand, it was sweeter than he would have expected of the gun-slinging Sergeant but it was also a pain in the ass because she had kept him awake when what he wanted to do was get a couple of hours sleep.

‘Not enough’ Daniel stated. Maybe if he had managed to save Sha’re it might have been different he thought to himself wistfully.

Oma smiled. ‘The universe is vast and we are so small. There is only one thing we can ever truly control’ she told him.

‘What's that?’ Daniel queried.

‘Whether we are good or evil’ Oma Desala told him.

Daniel nodded then frowned. ‘You do realise that if the genetic determinists are right that a lot of what we think is moral behaviour is encoded into our DNA so the choice isn’t fully ours?’ he asked.

Oma grinned. ‘Yes I know a great deal about what behaviour is coded into human DNA’ she replied. ‘Who do you think put it there?’ she asked rhetorically. ‘Trust me you are worthy, more worthy than most of us that are already ascended’ she said. ‘You want answers and I can give them but only if you accept the gift I’m offering.’

‘Why? Why me? Why, why give me this chance? Daniel asked nonplussed.

‘Anyone can reach enlightenment. Anyone prepared to open their mind as you did when you first came to Kheb’ Oma told him. ‘The Asgard told Colonel O’Neill that your race had true potential and they are right, even if they did monumentally screw up their species by seeking a short-cut to immortality through science.’

‘They're going to save me. They're preparing to transport me to a sarcophagus’ Daniel said.

‘Then your journey will continue as before’ Oma told him.

‘What if I don't want it to? Not that way’ Daniel replied.

‘Walking the Great Path brings great responsibility. You cannot fear it nor hesitate in your resolve’ Oma told him.

Daniel nodded. ‘I understand. I'm ready to go with you’ he agreed.

‘At last’ Oma responded with relief, sensing his sincerity. ‘There’s something you need to know about who you are’ she told him. ‘And now I can make you one of us I can tell you’ she said.

‘Me?’ Daniel asked. ‘What’s special about me?’ he asked.

‘As an individual more than you give yourself credit for but I was talking about humanity as a whole’ she told him. ‘You’ve guessed who we are? The ascended beings I mean?’

‘Nous ani Anqueetus’ Daniel replied. ‘We are the ancients’ he translated.

‘Right’ Oma told him. ‘This is what I looked like before I ascended’ she told him, indicating her appearance.

‘We’re the second evolution of our race?’ Daniel asked in surprised.

‘You didn’t evolve’ Oma told him, ‘well not really’ she continued. ‘We helped a lot, tweaked your DNA over millions of years so you ended up looking like we did.’

‘God made man in his own image’ Daniel remarked.

‘We’re not gods’ Oma told him. ‘We’re a long way from being omniscient or omnipotent’ she told him, ‘the real secret is how we changed you to be not like us’ she said.

‘Dumber?’ Daniel reasoned.

‘No’ Oma replied, ‘we made you better... in some ways’ she said.

‘What ways?’ Daniel asked in surprised.

‘Heightened aggression, propensity to violence, strategic and tactical thinking, improvisation’ Oma listed. ‘Everything that was a weakness in us we fixed in you’ she said.

‘Those are negatives’ Daniel responded forcefully.

‘You only think that because you haven’t met the Wraith or the Ori yet’ Oma told him. ‘And there are other races out in the universe that make them look cuddly’ she added honestly.

‘You created us like the Goa’uld created the Jaffa, or Loki created the Sectoids!’ Daniel exclaimed. ‘We’re war toys’ he realised.

‘We gave you the freedom to choose’ Oma told him, ‘we just equipped you better to meet the universe on its own terms than we were’ she said. ‘We had technology you couldn’t dream of but we were forced to flee one galaxy after another because we’re not like you’ she said. ‘Ascending in itself was another way to run and hide in a way’ she continued. ‘We had to start again from scratch, create a new type of humanity, and here you are’ she said proudly. ‘We don’t interfere in what you might call the mortal planes much any more, we left you to your own devices, but we also left you better able to handle the dangers than we were’ she said.

‘Enemies of the Ancients, fear their children’ Daniel said quietly.

‘Appalled by the news?’ Oma asked.

‘Yes’ Daniel freely admitted.

‘I’ll break it to you about Anubis after a nice slice of apple pie in the diner’ Oma told him, her appearance changing so that she was inexplicably dressed like a waitress. ‘It’ll soften the blow.’

The members of SG-1 gathered around his bedside were expecting Daniel to disappear in a flash of light but they were expecting it to be a transporter beam from the Redemption not an ascension from archaeologist to higher being. Daniel did leave a note of sorts, appearing in Jack’s mind to say goodbye first and explain as much as Oma let him.

He also went behind Oma’s back and sent a message to Cassandra, knowing that she would be able to receive a psychic communication that others couldn’t because it was deliberately not much more than a gentle wave on the psychic tide.

“AG-3 powered by heavy liquid naquadah” he told her. The very best war toys have initiative he thought to himself with a smirk, and sometimes ascended beings tell you more by accident than they may have actually wanted you to know.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Ha’tak Ship – Adara System – June 2002

Strapped to a table looking up at the ceiling of his cell Thor found that his own language didn’t quite have a suitable phrase for the circumstances so he resorted to English. ‘Well I’m a sorry son-of-a-bitch’ he said dejectedly, looking around as best he could.

The Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, or perhaps the former Supreme Commander would be more accurate he decided, given that his career would shortly end along with his life, couldn’t help but think it all would have seemed a great deal more worthwhile if he’d actually been captured doing something a little more meaningful than defending a Research Station which had already been vacated for months. Automated sensors left in the largely stripped-out underground facility had signalled the arrival of Goa’uld vessels in orbit via subspace and since the Adara System was included in the Protected Planets Treaty Thor had taken the only available ship, an old Beliskner Class Cruiser which was waiting to be taken out of service, and had flown straight there to tell whichever System Lord it was to get lost or else.

Even though superseded by the O’Neill Class the venerable Beliskner was still thought by the Asgard to be more than a match for anything short of a large fleet of Goa’uld motherships. Although eventually pulverised and crash-landing as a result a single Beliskner had once defeated ten Ha’tak’s in a battle over the planet Stennos which was the sort of loss ratio that any single one of the System Lord’s with their limited industrial base simply weren’t willing to accept. You might be able to overwhelm a Beliskner but you’d lose a fair percentage of your fleet doing it which meant that even if the Asgard didn’t come gunning for you some other System Lord would take advantage of your losses and invade your domain. The best way to deal with the Asgard was to accept that the twenty-seven worlds listed in the Protected Planet’s Treaty were theirs and be happy with the rest of the Galaxy.

Thor remembered his confidence when he emerged from hyperspace to find himself facing a mere two Ha’tak vessels and he ordered them to leave the Adara System as they were in violation of the treaty by being there. The Goa’uld in command of the vessels had been Athena, a middle-ranking though ambitious character known to have allied herself with every up and coming System Lord that arose over the past few centuries, and now thought by the Tok’ra to be in league with Anubis, and Thor had been surprised by her dismissive reaction to the gravity of his threat. Wondering if Athena had been spending too much time in the sarcophagus of late, and had therefore lost her grip on her faculties, Thor powered weapons and engaged the lead Ha’tak.

It had not gone according to plan, or at least it had not gone according to Thor’s plan, the one Athena seemed to be working to had gone pretty well because to the consternation of the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet his weaponry had been absorbed by the enemy shields and the two Ha’tak’s had then opened up with their own main guns which were considerably more powerful than any he had witnessed the Goa’uld using before.

‘Too much reliance on high technology and not enough brute force’ Thor muttered to himself bitterly in his own language. Although the Beliskner had vast power-requirements met by its four neutrino-ion generators, it was not designed to feed more than a fraction of that energy into its weaponry, the generators were there to power the inter-galactic hyperdrive. The ships armament was an advanced system designed to penetrate shields and did not require the bludgeon effect of the oversized staff-cannon the Goa’uld used, it used finesse not force to destroy enemy ships, and had never failed until now. Unfortunately the upgraded shields on these new Goa’uld motherships produced by Anubis seemed to counter the shield-piercing effect and unable to transfer enough energy into his guns to batter them into submission instead Thor had found himself defeated by ships that between them only had a fraction of the power-output that the Beliskner did.

The Ion Cannon used by the Tollan would likely have failed too, Thor realised. They used a similar system to the Asgard in that their anti-ship weaponry was highly effective at cutting through the old-style Goa’uld shields and did not therefore bother with an excessive amount of raw firepower. Either of the two advanced societies could construct weapons with yields that would dwarf the amount of energy even these new Ha’taks could manage but they were both too over-confident in the superiority of the weaponry they already had to have done so.

The Goa’uld walked in looking justifiably smug, for centuries, millennia, they had been forced to kowtow to the pathetic little grey creatures and now those days were over. ‘You have committed an act of war against the Asgard’ Thor stated. ‘The response will be swift and decisive’ he declared with considerably more bluster than he would have liked.

Athena smirked. ‘As swift and decisive as your attempt to defend this planet?’ she asked sarcastically.

‘We underestimated your strength’ Thor replied. ‘That mistake will not be made again’ he told her. ‘You are also underestimating ours’ he continued. ‘The Goa’uld may have somehow developed more advanced defence technology but the vessel you defeated is of a type we are currently replacing with a far more powerful vessel which unlike the one I was commanding is built solely for war’ he said. ‘You would do well not to provoke my people’ he advised.

‘You may have better than that pathetic ship I vanquished’ Athena conceded, though she doubted it given that the Asgard had been using that type since the Goa’uld had first encountered them, ‘but we will soon have all the secrets of your technology’ she said.

‘My ship’s generators self-destructed after I ejected in the escape pod you retrieved’ Thor replied, ‘you will be unable to obtain much useful information from the debris’ he told her. ‘The battle damage you previously inflicted yourself had already destroyed many of the systems’ he added.

The Goa’uld smiled. ‘I meant we would obtain knowledge of Asgard technology from you yourself’ she explained with an expression that Thor would have found unsettling if he’d been better at reading those of humans or human hosts.

‘I will never surrender my knowledge to you’ Thor stated with determination, although seemingly fragile the Asgard were not a race that would break easily under torture, they were a wilfully determined people who would sooner die than betray their principles or their species. Self-sacrifice was something they regarded as one of the greatest virtues an individual could have, that was one of the many reasons despised the self-serving Goa’uld.

‘Not to me, no. Anubis himself has taken an interest in this matter. He's on his way here as we speak’ Athena told him. ‘After he has stripped you of your knowledge...’

‘Or failed to do, so he will kill me’ Thor interrupted. ‘You may as well do so now because I will neither cooperate nor succumb to torture’ he said.

Athena looked smug once again. ‘Anubis has a device that will be implanted in your brain and simply download your knowledge into this ships computer’ she told him.

‘The Goa’uld have no such technology’ Thor stated with certainty. Improved shields and weapons were one thing, but that kind of device required a degree of technical sophistication which only one of the Four Great Races could have managed, Thor doubted that even the Tollan could do it which meant the Goa’uld had no chance at all.

‘Things have changed Supreme Commander’ Athena told him, ‘more than you know’ she said. ‘In any case I wouldn’t worry about your death just yet’ she continued, ‘Anubis has a better use for you alive than he does dead’ she told him. ‘The Asgard High Council would not be willing to negotiate anything for your release but the Tau’ri will surely accept the trade we have in mind.’

‘What could they have that any Goa’uld would want?’ Thor queried in confusion. ‘Especially one that is clearly the most advanced?’ he asked.

‘Anubis has learned that the Tau’ri recovered the Eye of Tiamat before he was able to do so’ Athena explained. ‘We are certain that they will swap it for your life’ she continued, ‘they are a weak and sentimental people.’

Thor looked back at the ceiling. ‘It seems that everyone is underestimating everyone else today’ he observed.



Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2002

‘And since when have the Tok’ra been the messenger-boys for the Goa’uld?’ O’Neill asked sardonically as the Tok’ra Aldwin had the decency to at least look awkward about it and had appeared fairly embarrassed over the situation ever since he arrived.

‘Colonel we are merely part of a conduit between the two parties involved’ Anise said in her fellow Tok’ra’s defence. She had ringed down from the Enterprise as soon as she heard another Tok’ra was on Earth but might have stayed up there if she’d known the purpose of the visit, the notion of treating with the Goa’uld made her skin crawl.

Aldwin nodded. ‘Anubis relayed the communication to Ba’al who requested our operative Zarin to forward the message to the Tau’ri via Tok’ra channels’ he said, looking around the briefing room and noting the less than enthused expressions on their faces. ‘Anubis wishes to exchange his captive the Asgard Thor for the crystal known as the Eye of Tiamat which he believes you obtained from the Ziggurat of Marduk.’

‘Tell him to go fuck himself’ Commander Sharp responded, checking his watch. It was nearly lunchtime and today’s special sounded almost appetising.

Unfamiliar with the Tau’ri military officer Aldwin looked at him in surprise, for her part Anise was however rather less taken aback by the reply having dealt with the man for quite some time now as she continued to help the Tau’ri scientists and engineers master Goa’uld technology. ‘Shall we assume that is not your final stance in any negotiation?’ she asked with some amusement.

‘The Commander likes to take a firm opening position’ General Hammond responded, noting the half smile on her face and trying not to laugh.

‘Sir if we could get Thor back it would likely help cement our relations with the Asgard still further and he’d owe us one’ Carter pointed out.

‘Exactly how many are the Asgard going to have to owe us before we start seeing something concrete in return Major?’ Sharpe asked flatly. ‘If the Asgard had more balls, the lack of which is not just because they’re asexual clones, they’d launch an escalating series of strikes against Anubis until he let Thor go’ he said. ‘They haven’t even taken out a few Ha’taks in retaliation for the cruiser they lost’ he continued, rolling his eyes, ‘if they aren’t going to any lengths to get their man back why the hell should we?’ he asked rhetorically.

‘We know from the subspace message Freyr sent to Heimdall at Area 51 that the Asgard Fleet is still tied up with the Replicators’ Carter responded. ‘They’re in no position to jump into another war especially given that the new ships Anubis is using are apparently too advanced to risk deploying anything except their best vessels against’ she said, that in itself had come as a shock when the news arrived about Thor. It had been known that the new model Ha’taks were better than the previous versions in Goa’uld service but the idea that their shields could withstand Asgard weaponry was pretty horrifying given that it critically endangered the Protected Planets Treaty.

‘They need more O’Neills’ the eponymous Colonel declared.

‘We’ve got one I could be persuaded to part with’ General Hammond quipped.

‘I’ll write up the outstanding mission evaluation reports today Sir I swear’ O’Neill responded. Not so long ago he would have pleaded with Daniel to help out with the paperwork when it had built up into a backlog where the General wasn’t going to let it go, now he had to do it himself, one more reason to miss him, not that he didn’t have more than enough of those already.

‘I am surprised that Anubis would think the Eye more valuable than Thor’ Teal’c observed. ‘As either a source of information or as a symbol of his power the Supreme Commander of the Asgard would be a captive of incalculable worth to any System Lord’ he said.

‘What do we know about the thing Major?’ General Hammond asked.

Carter pursed her lips. ‘Initial testing demonstrates it can be used to focus energy, but beyond that we’re not certain what its purpose was’ she replied.

‘There were originally six eyes including that of Anubis himself plus those of Ra, Apophis, Tiamat, Osiris, Ba’al and Balor’ Anise spoke up, ancient technology was her academic specialty. ‘The leading System Lords in the era they were first discovered’ she said. ‘They are believed not of Goa’uld design but are examples of the technology of the gate builders and were considered symbols of the high status of those that owned one’ she explained. ‘Their power however was more than symbolic as they could be used to amplify the power of a ships weaponry if required’ she said.

‘So Anubis already has one of the Eyes?’ O’Neill queried.

‘Our information is that he already has those of Balor, which was in the possession of Morrigan, and that of Ba’al as well’ Aldwin responded. ‘Apophis still has his own, you have the Eye of Tiamat and those of Osiris and Ra have not been heard from for thousands of years’ he said.

‘We might have the Eye of Osiris too, or at least we know someone that might know where it is and be persuaded to tell if asked the right way’ Sharp noted wryly. He would have her mind-raped again if the less than idle threat to do so wasn't enough to gain her cooperation.

‘Why would he want the one we’ve got if he’s already got three?’ General Hammond asked curiously.

‘Hey people collect those Pokémon things’ O’Neill replied. ‘Maybe he’s just gotta have them all?’ he suggested.

‘Colonel’ Sharp began, glaring at him. ‘I’m armed’ he pointed out meaningfully. ‘Now if he wants them I don’t want him to have them, that’s the big picture’ he said, getting back on track. ‘Now I know the idea of leaving no man, or little grey alien, behind might sound noble, but the way I see it this is no different than negotiating with some kidnapper asking for a ransom’ he opined. ‘You don’t pay them off, you track them down and kick their ass.’

‘We’re in even less of a position to do that than the Asgard themselves Sir’ Carter told him.

‘Okay but couldn’t we just screw the rat-bastard over?’ O’Neill suggested. ‘End up with Thor, the Eye, and a really pissed-off Goa’uld?’ he asked.

Aldwin frowned. ‘Anubis is neither stupid or easily fooled’ he said. ‘You should not expect to easily deceive or swindle him’ he warned.

‘Anything in mind Colonel?’ Hammond inquired with interest. Sharp looked intrigued too.

‘I could give it some thought Sir but what we really need is a sneaky, underhanded, amoral, tricky son-of-a-bitch to plan something for us’ O’Neill replied. ‘I think we know just the man we need for this kind of thing’ he said sagely. ‘So do we know where in the galaxy Harry Maybourne is right now and how easily and quickly we can get him back?’ he asked Commander Sharp.

Hammond raised his eyebrows. ‘You know we had our moments’ he said, ‘but we never used to be this despicable in the old days’ he observed sadly to Aldwin and Anise who were more than slightly confused.



Forest Clearing – P6J-452 – June 2002

‘I’m still not certain that giving the Tok’ra access to the transporter technology on the Redemption was a fair deal for this thing’ Samantha Carter opined to Teal’c as she took a closer look at the controls of their newly acquired Tel’tak transport. ‘I think we got sold a clunker’ she said, slightly lifting a loose panel.

Teal’c nodded. ‘The cloaking device the Tok’ra fitted is likely the only work done to this vessel in five centuries or more’ he agreed. ‘I would not be surprised if a pilot of Master Bra’tac’s great-grandfathers generation had requested this vessel be retired.’

‘I might recommend we scrap this thing and put the cloak and the shield on our Al’kesh instead’ Carter said thoughtfully.

‘A wise course of action’ Teal’c concurred, rocking the pilot’s seat side to side. It had rattled every time they pushed the engine to more than three-quarters of its rated maximum and after a few hours it had driven the usually stoic Jaffa to distraction.

‘And next time we trade for a ship we send an engineer to look over it before we shake hands on the deal’ Carter added. Doctor Weir was a great diplomat and had negotiated far more out of both the Tok’ra and Tollan than people would have thought possible a couple of years ago, but she clearly wasn’t the ideal person to broker a deal on a used spaceship which had enjoyed more than a few careless owners.

‘Colonel O’Neill and Sergeant Andianov should be making their rendezvous with Maybourne shortly’ Teal’c noted. He and Carter had remained with the ship in case a quick getaway, or perhaps repair, was needed.

Carter looked out at the forest. ‘I tried to talk to the Colonel about Daniel again’ she said quietly.

Teal’c looked at her. ‘He was not receptive to the conversation I would assume?’ he asked.

‘It’s like he’s pretending it didn’t happen’ she said. ‘Or that it doesn’t bother him’ she added.

‘You continue to mourn his loss’ Teal’c stated.

‘Of course, don’t you?’ Carter snapped back. ‘I’m not going to get more “way of the warrior” crap from you am I?’ she asked rhetorically. ‘I’ve had about all I can take of that from Andianov and the Colonel’ she said.

‘Daniel Jackson has ascended to a higher plane of existence’ Teal’c replied. ‘Many Jaffa over the years have dedicated their lives to finding Kheb as a means achieving such a goal’ he noted.

‘So I'm supposed to celebrate?’ Carter asked sardonically.

‘It is a great accomplishment’ Teal’c replied.

‘We were a team, Teal'c, friends’ Carter declared. ‘No one can even begin to understand what we went through together, what we mean to each other’ she continued. ‘So maybe Daniel has achieved something of great cosmic significance, I don't know. And to be honest with you, right now, I don't really care’ she told him. ‘I'd rather have him back’ she said.

Teal’c looked out at the forest. ‘As would I’ he admitted wistfully.

Carter smiled and put her hand on his shoulder. ‘Good to know’ she said.

‘You might be interested to hear Major Carter that the Sergeant has also expressed her sorrow to me about losing Doctor Jackson’ Teal’c told her.

‘You’re kidding?’ Carter responded in surprise.

‘No’ Teal’c denied. ‘I was invited to join several of the non-commissioned officers to a bar and while there the Sergeant drank too much and became maudlin’ he told her. ‘She is somewhat confused however as to what bothers her more’ he continued., ‘the fact that she mourns the loss or that she has become soft during her time with the SGC’ he said.

‘What?’ Carter queried in confusion.

‘In her previous unit losing team members was a regular, perhaps frequent occurrence’ Teal’c explained. ‘The X-COM soldiers became hardened to it as a result as did not dwell on the loss of a comrade’ he told her.

‘She’s been on the team over a year and a half and we haven’t lost anyone until now’ Carter realised. ‘So what you’re saying is she’s not only depressed because Daniel’s gone she’s also depressed because she’s depressed about it’ she said.

‘Indeed’ Teal’c confirmed. ‘As I said, she believes she has become weak.’

‘What she got is some of her humanity back’ Carter stated forcefully.

‘It is my belief that she conflates the two’ Teal’c opined.

Carter sighed. ‘You’re probably right’ she replied. ‘I’m surprised she talked to you’ she told him. ‘I’m not unapproachable am I?’ she asked, hoping she wasn’t.

‘You are an officer and in any case she would likely have not been as open with me if I was not the only thing keeping her upright’ Teal’c responded. ‘The drinking competition with the new sergeant on SG-3 was not conducive to her balance’ he recalled.

‘Who won?’ Carter asked curiously.

‘The Marines may never forgive him’ Teal’c replied.

Three miles to the east Colonel O’Neill was grateful that unlike his second-in-command Sergeant Andianov did not seem interested in discussing their feelings as they hiked through the forest towards the agricultural land that covered much of this part of the planet. Lacking mines or industry it was apparently the farms on P6J-452 which were the basis of the local economy and they generated enough trade to warrant the local Goa’uld System Lord to keep a close watch on the Stargate which was why they were extracting Maybourne by cloaked ship after contacting him by radio.

‘Stay alert Sergeant’ O’Neill advised. ‘The Jaffa Garrison could be out looking for our guy’ he said. They would certainly have been alerted by the signal sent through the gate from Earth, normally operatives working secretly off-world only communicated at set times from pre-arranged worlds known to be Goa’uld free.

‘Sir when have you ever known me to not be alert?’ Andianov responded, continually looking around, rifle ready for action.

‘Point conceded’ O’Neill replied. ‘Sometimes I just have to do the officer thing you understand’ he added.

Andianov nodded, it was usually best to accept their occasional compulsive need to give orders, even when completely unnecessary, with quiet acceptance if not good humour. Spotting movement in the trees she suddenly stopped dead and dropped to one knee, the Colonel doing likewise without asking questions, he wasn’t by any means the stupidest commanding officer she had ever had.

Seconds later when it became apparent who it was, and after checking they didn’t have any obvious Jaffa in the vicinity O’Neill frowned and Andianov took up a position to give covering fire if necessary as the Colonel went to meet the man they were there to collect.

‘Maybourne, for crying out loud who the hell is that?’ Colonel O’Neill asked the former NID man who was dressed in the same disguise of traders clothes he had been the last time they met but was now accompanied by a fearful looking young woman wearing considerably less ornate garments.

‘Jack! Nice to see you again, always a pleasure’ Maybourne replied with what sounded like sincerity but of course that didn’t mean a hell of a lot. ‘Didn’t expect them to send you as the taxi service’ he said.

‘I wouldn’t trust anyone else to treat you with the suspicion you deserve’ O’Neill replied. ‘And you didn’t answer my question’ he added.

‘Don’t worry about Aikaterina here’ Maybourne told him. ‘She’s harmless’ he said indicating the girl who was in her late teens or maybe early twenties.

‘She’s also uninvited’ O’Neill replied, ‘who is she and why have you dragged her along?’ he asked.

‘Well I couldn’t leave her alone’ Maybourne replied, ‘she’s a hard worker but totally incapable of looking after herself without direction’ he said, the girl looking at O’Neill and his strange clothes fearfully. ‘Don’t worry she’ll be no bother and after I’ve done whatever it is the brass wants me to do you can drop us off again somewhere’ he said, stepping closer to O’Neill away from the girl ‘She’s part of my cover’ he whispered.

‘Harry, who the hell is the girl?’ O’Neill asked flatly.

‘Officially she’s my slave but...’ Maybourne began.

O’Neill glared at him. ‘Did you buy this woman?’ he interrupted.

‘I did a trade with a guy in the Lucian Cartel that bought a batch off a minor Goa’uld that was down on his luck because of the war’ Maybourne replied. ‘They’re like a criminal syndicate of smugglers and other unsavoury characters that operate under the radar of the System Lords in this part of the galaxy’ he explained. ‘I really wanted someone with more muscles to haul a cart for me but I didn’t like the way some of the people bidding for her looked, they had dishonorable intentions I could tell’ he said.

‘Recognise the look from the mirror did you?’ O’Neill asked sarcastically. ‘You’re free’ he told the girl. ‘Go have a nice life’ he added.

The girl looked back at him blankly as Maybourne shook his head. ‘She’s been a slave all her life’ he said. ‘You can’t just let her go and expect her to be okay’ he said.

O’Neill pursed his lips and then grabbed Maybourne by the collar pulling him close. ‘Harry you can’t bring your slave-girl along’ he told him sternly. ‘You’ll just have to jerk off like the rest of us’ he added more quietly.

‘I haven’t laid a finger on her’ Maybourne declared defensively. ‘I mean I might have’ he admitted, ‘but the guilt stopped me first’ he said. ‘Honest she’s just part of my cover, she carries my bags, cooks and does my laundry and that’s it’ he told O’Neill.

‘Please don’t hurt the master’ the girl begged, voice trembling.

O’Neill released his grip. ‘God damn it Maybourne’ he said angrily. ‘If she comes with us to Earth I’m handing her over to someone I trust her with more than I do you’ he said.

‘That’s fine by me’ Maybourne replied with a grin. ‘Come on Aikaterina’ he said brightly. ‘I’m going to take you home’ he told her.

‘Do you wish me to rub your feet again before we set out on our journey?’ the girl asked compliantly.

‘You’re a bad, bad man Harry’ O’Neill told him with a disapproving shake of the head.

‘Isn’t that why I’m in demand?’ Maybourne replied smugly. ‘And for the record didn’t Doctor Jackson screw the girl he was given on Abydos?’ he asked. ‘Sha’re wasn’t it?’

‘He married her’ O’Neill spat back with a great deal more passion than Maybourne was expecting. ‘Get your ass in gear, we need to get back quickly and our ship is a pile of crap’ he growled.

‘You’re in a bad mood today, get up on the wrong side of bed this morning?’ Maybourne asked.

‘Jackson’s gone’ O’Neill told him coldly.

Maybourne blinked, he hadn't known, you tended to be badly out of the loop if you'd been out in the boonies a while. ‘And by gone I guess you don’t mean he’s back digging up pieces of pottery in Egypt’ he asked rhetorically.

‘No I don’t mean that’ O’Neill replied curtly.

‘I’m sorry’ Maybourne told him, ‘really I am, he was a decent man’ he said.

‘Better than either of us Maybourne’ O’Neill agreed. ‘Now come on we need that twisted mind of yours to do its thing’ he said.

‘So is this a good time to renegotiate my pay if I’m in demand?’ Maybourne queried.

‘You know if you were a few pounds lighter I’d zat you but I don’t want to haul your fat ass back to the ship’ O’Neill replied, narrowing his eyes.

‘I’ll take that as a no’ Maybourne decided. ‘So on another matter do you think I can claim what I spent on Aikaterina back on expenses?’ he asked hopefully. ‘I had to pay a premium because she’s got all her teeth’ he announced.

 I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2002

Sitting at his desk across from Commander Sharp General Hammond finished reading the preliminary plan Maybourne had concocted and closed the file slowly. ‘The man should have gone into law or politics’ he said.

‘I think we’re all grateful he didn’t’ Sharp replied. ‘You know if this works Anubis is going to be pissed’ he said meaningfully.

‘Not just Anubis’ Hammond pointed out. ‘It’s a good thing the Goa’uld are too mutually distrustful and far too busy fighting each other already to collectively retaliate.’

‘If you’re going to kick somebody up the ass make sure they’re already caught up in a fight they can’t turn their back on’ Sharp observed. ‘It might not be sporting but this isn’t a game’ he continued, ‘and anyway it’s funny’ he added with a chuckle.

Hammond smiled, there was a certain satisfaction to be had at yanking the chains of the System Lord’s even if he personally thought that some of his staff, Colonel O’Neill, for example, enjoyed it a little more than was healthy. ‘I assume you read the request the Tollan made to us via Ambassador Faxon?’ he asked.

Sharp nodded. ‘Plus Faxon’s own notes on the situation on Tollana’ he confirmed. ‘The Curia are shitting themselves at the news that there’s even one Goa’uld System Lord with shields that are likely just as able to stop their Ion Cannon fire as they are Asgard shield-piercing weaponry’ he said. ‘The general population is demanding their government do something and unfortunately for them we’re the only game in town’ he said. ‘The Tollan know we’ve back-engineered the main guns from the Enterprise with Tok’ra help, and they know that even older Goa’uld weapon designs work against Anubis built Ha’taks because Apophis managed to take a few down before he got his own new ships’ the Commander continued, ‘until they can come up with an Ion Cannon design with a lot more punch behind it they want our plans for Ha’tak weaponry.’

‘And we’re going to give it to them’ Hammond replied, ‘without payment?’ he queried. ‘That threw me I’ve got to admit Russ’ the General told him, it wasn’t exactly the usual X-COM way of doing things.

‘Without payment now’ Sharp corrected Hammond. ‘They get the plans for an effective weapon they can retrofit to their cruisers, and maybe emplace a few on the ground around their capital city’ he said. ‘We get the plans for their Heavy Ion Cannon when they’ve got them’ he said.

‘Heavy Ion Cannon?’ Hammond repeated quizzically.

‘Apparently just scaling up their existing design wouldn’t work for some reason, but basically the Tollan are just going to go back to the drawing board and make something that’s got at least a hundred times as much power behind it’ Sharp explained, ‘they’ve got the science and engineering to do it they just never bothered because what they already had worked for centuries’ he said. ‘The basic idea is that any shield it can’t penetrate it’ll batter down just like the Goa’uld do it.’

‘Not exactly typical Tollan thinking’ Hammond observed.

‘Our military attaché on Tollana pointed out the benefits of thinking like unsophisticated barbarians’ Sharp replied wryly. ‘The Tollan think we’re primitive but like the Asgard they’re starting to realise that it’s our low-tech, brute-force methods that still get the job done when their high-tech fails’ he said. ‘Reliability fades with complexity after all.’

‘Having a permanent presence on Tollana helps our relations’ Hammond pointed out, ‘I know Ambassador Faxon has been leading a charm offensive, getting to know the people worth knowing in the Curia and the media, they’ve got political discussion shows on their equivalents of C-SPAN and CNN, they often invite him on to give his opinions on galactic events which are more pressing on the Tollan as they emerge from centuries of isolation’ he said. ‘He’s even persuaded some of the Embassy Staff to visit schools and answer questions from Tollan children.’

‘Hearts and minds’ Sharp said with a smile, ‘the kids go home and tell their parents that the knuckle-draggers from Earth aren’t that bad really.’

Hammond nodded and grinned. ‘We might get a trade deal out of it too’ he said. ‘After making sure they didn’t have to worry about allergies someone gave out chocolate to the kids, our Trade Representative found himself with several entrepreneur parents trying to make deals and requesting importation rights from the Curia’ he said. ‘I can imagine how my grandchildren would have been if they’d never tasted chocolate before’ he continued. ‘The Tollan probably thought we’d put a narcotic into the stuff at first’ the General declared with a chuckle.

Sharp smiled in response and then looked thoughtful. ‘Spices’ he said randomly. ‘They might not want our manufactured goods, they keep telling us so, but they might be interested in spices, that’s how the first big global trading companies started out’ he remembered from the last few minutes of a documentary he’d watched on the Discovery Channel once waiting for a show about Hannibal. ‘A few crates of spices would go a long way, the Tollan population isn’t huge, we could corner the market there’ he said. ‘Build up a trade relationship to help break down their isolationist instincts a little more.’

‘Commodore Perry opened Japan up to trade and less than a hundred years later the United States was at war with them’ Hammond pointed out. ‘If the Tollan had been more like us then we might have seen their warships over Earth years ago.’

‘If the Tollan were more like us, the Goa’uld would have been wiped out years ago’ Sharp responded flatly. ‘And Perry opened up Japan to the outside world with the power of the United States Navy’ he noted, ‘we’re helping protect Tollana from warships, not threatening them with some’ he continued. ‘If it was the Aschen we were talking about I’d think differently, those people creep me the hell out and I like the fact they’re bottled up’ he declared, ‘but the Tollan? It’s a damn good thing that they might be heading towards the stage where they step up and take a role in the galaxy’ he said. ‘With their technology, and our ways of doing things, humanity will prosper.’

‘The Tollan as the Athens to our Rome?’ Hammond suggested, Sharp wasn’t the only one who liked documentary channels although their tastes in sports broadcasts differed.

‘A small advanced democratic city-state with the technology and science but not the population, drive and resources to dominate the known world, or galaxy, supplanted by a power that does have the last three?’ Sharp replied. ‘Sounds a pretty reasonable analogy to me now I think about it’ he said.

‘And when Earth, sorry I should probably say Terra if we’re going with the Roman theme, is victorious over the Sectoids and the Goa’uld?’ Hammond queried.

‘Vae victis’ Sharp quoted in Latin. ‘Woe to the vanquished’ he translated.

The Ascended Ancients watching the conversation were very pleased that their plans were coming to fruition. Their meddling with human DNA had produced exactly the results they were after and the self-aware biological weapons made in their own image were even better than they could have hoped for. Ascended Newcomer Daniel Jackson was somewhat less enthused but they reasoned his hostility and bitterness over the situation was largely down to the fact that as one of the biological weapons, albeit more advanced than most apparently, he was bound to be more aggressive, belligerent and antagonistic than a regular Alteran.

For his part Daniel had already decided that with a few exceptions the Ancients were self-interested arrogant jerks with little sense of personal responsibility for the state they had left the universe in when they ascended. They talked of non-interference like it was noble instead of moral cowardice, they spent their time philosophising on trivial matters instead of doing anything remotely constructive. The majority treated him like a second-class citizen at best, because he wasn’t truly one of them and needed Oma’s help to ascend, and he suspected that the only reason they seemed to watch Earth with interest, or “Terra” as they called it in their own language, a precursor of Latin, was because they expected their meddled with “second evolution of our form” was going to get them a measure of vengeance on the enemies they had faced before they ran away from corporeal existence. The only positive Daniel could see there was that it meant they were still “human” enough to be petty which meant he might be able to talk a few more of them into helping out by holding up the carrot of screwing over the bitterly remembered “Ori” and “Wraith” a bit more, whoever the hell they were, nobody had bothered to explain properly yet.

Oh well, at least he could get a decent cup of coffee and a good slice of pie at the diner Oma had created from his memories. A sympathetic and unbelievably hot female ancient named Athar had dropped in yesterday to say hello, hopefully she’d accept his invite come back today too. Apparently lots of the others wouldn’t talk to her either because of a past transgression so she had enjoyed the company as well it seemed. For Daniel it had been a nice change from Orlin gushing over how much he liked Sam anyway, it seemed you could never be too many millennia old to have a schoolboy crush and Daniel was only grateful he was in no position to pass on a note in class.



Area 51 – Earth – June 2002

‘I can’t believe she sat there, cut up his steak for him and expected to only eat whatever he left on his tray’ Major Carter remarked as the four members of SG-1 stepped off the Aschen Transporter platform which had taken them from the SGC to Area 51 in an instant. The Aschen had supplied a dozen of the things so far in return for Tau’ri back-engineered goa’uld shields and weaponry and they certainly made getting around a lot quicker. Each of the eight X-COM bases worldwide, plus the SGC, Area 51 and Yamantau now had one with the last in storage waiting for detailed examination along with numerous other items of alien technology.

‘I guess that’s what she considers the right thing to do?’ Colonel O’Neill supposed. ‘Even when Maybourne put a tray of food in front of her and told her to eat it she wouldn’t at first in case he wanted seconds’ he said. ‘The last thing he needs is seconds, I hope Doctor Fraser ordered him to drop a few pounds after she gave him a physical’ O’Neill added.

They all showed their ID’s to the guards waiting by the transporter platform, redundantly considering the only places they could have arrived from were just as Top Secret and secure as Area 51 anyway, and headed down the corridor towards the Research and Development Laboratories. ‘The girl seems quite attached to Maybourne’ Andianov remarked.

‘She probably thinks that she’ll be sold on to someone else if she doesn’t make a show of it’ Carter responded with a sigh.

‘Given that unlike her prior owners Maybourne does not it seem starve her, or abuse her physically or sexually, her attitude is understandable’ Teal’c reasoned. ‘She likely believes that her servitude to Maybourne is as good a life as she can expect to lead and fears losing what she has.’

‘Hey we all tried explaining that she was free, even Harry’ O’Neill pointed out, ‘she wasn’t buying it’ he said. ‘I don’t know if she was pretending to be fond of him or not but it seemed genuine.’

‘Human slaves of the Goa’uld often become highly attached to their masters’ Teal’c noted.

‘Maybourne masqueraded as a trader not a god Teal’c’ O’Neill replied.

‘Nevertheless a small kindness can lead to devotion’ Teal’c told him. ‘A trusted slave granted better conditions than his peers will often become sycophantic’ he said. ‘I have seen many Lo’taur behave as this Aikaterina does’ he told them.

‘Serf’s in my own countries history were often highly loyal to the Tsarist aristocracy that in fact severely oppressed them’ Andianov interjected. ‘Many simply accept their place in society’ she continued. ‘Marx considered the peasantry as a group conservative at best, reactionary at worst’ she noted. ‘Revolutionary thought and action comes mainly from the middle-class bourgeoisie.’

‘You’re never going to lose all that commie brainwashing completely are you Sergeant?’ O’Neill replied with a smile.

‘It is deeply ingrained Comrade-Colonel’ Andianov replied deadpan as they arrived at their destination, O’Neill opening the tall double-doors to the lab and going through first followed by Carter. ‘Holy Crap!’ he exclaimed as an eight foot tall armoured behemoth lunged at him.

‘Jennifer please refrain from doing that to everyone that walks in’ Zelenka chided the bulky suit of armour, appearing from behind it. ‘Colonel O’Neill, Samantha welcome back to Area 51’ he greeted them. ‘Teal’c, Sergeant’ he added. ‘I was sorry to hear of the lost of Daniel Jackson’ he told the rest of SG-1.

‘He’s not lost, lost’ O’Neill replied, ‘we just don’t know where he is’ he said before his eyes widened and he fixed his gaze on the suit. ‘Jennifer?’ he repeated loudly.

A face plate slid up on the head on the thing and a familiar face appeared. ‘Colonel O’Neill’ it greeted him, trying to keep a straight face.

‘Cadet Hailey’ O’Neill responded, narrowing his eyes.

‘Lieutenant Hailey Sir’ the girl replied. ‘I just graduated the Airforce Academy this month’ she told him. ‘Immediately assigned to Area 51 until I can get a transfer sorted out to the SGC’ she told him brightly.

‘Jennifer has been helping with our ongoing Powered Armour project’ Zelenka told SG-1. ‘Her knowledge of both military matters and physics has already been a godsend’ he announced.

‘And for the first time of my life... I’m tall!’ Lieutenant Hailey declared with a grin, taking a step backwards so they could get a good look.

‘Okay, I admit it’ O’Neill began. ‘I’m officially impressed’ he told Zelenka looking the suit of Powered Armour over.

‘Two and a half centimetres of laminated armour’ Zelenka explained, pointing at the suit, ‘Trinium-Titanium alloy like the SGC Iris over advanced ceramics and sectoid alloys’ he enthused. ‘Stop a Heavy Plasma bolt or a Staff-Cannon blast’ he told them happily. ‘Naquadah powerplant that allows for weeks of continual use, drastically enhanced physical strength, sealed against Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare environmental hazards it can also be safely used in the vacuum of space’ he continued, ‘plus it includes a full suite of sensors with a head-up display.’

‘It projects targeting data onto the inside of the helmet visor like in an F-302’ Hailey told them. ‘You’ve got night-vision plus zoom’ she added.

‘Can it fly?’ O’Neill joked.

‘Not this model but the follow-up design will include an auxiliary elerium powerplant that gives limited flight ability’ Zelenka replied seriously. ‘You will be able to take off and hover in the air for a restricted time, perhaps twenty or thirty minutes of use before the elerium fuel-cell is exhausted’ he said.

Colonel O’Neill looked at the Czech scientist incredulously ‘You’re kidding?’ he asked.

‘No’ Zelenka denied. ‘A planned third model will also include both a personal force field and cloaking device running off the naquadah reactor but that may be unavailable for at least eighteen months or so’ he told him. ‘The team working on the personal force-field function of the hand device recovered from Marduk’s ziggurat are currently both stretched by other projects and underfunded so it may be longer than that however’ he said regretfully.

‘How easy is it to use Lieutenant?’ Andianov asked Lieutenant Hailey.

‘It takes a lot of practice not to smash everything to pieces when you walk around a room’ Hailey replied. ‘And I still can’t pick up an orange without it exploding so best not shake hands’ she continued. ‘The servo’s give me plenty of power, I can run and jump in this thing and there’s cracks in the concrete floor to prove the latter, but fine control isn’t happening’ she said regretfully.

‘We don’t want these things to play nice with the enemy Lieutenant’ O’Neill responded, ‘we want these things to put the hurt on them with’ he said.

‘Oh they’ll do that Sir’ Hailey replied, outstretching a hand and picking up a thick steel bar which she then bent effortlessly in both hands ‘It’s like wearing a mighty-malp’ she said.

Carter smiled at the young officers enthusiasm. ‘It’s amazing you’ve got the project this far so fast’ she told Zelenka.

Zelenka shrugged. ‘Much of the preliminary work was already underway when it was shelved in favour of the F-302 program’ he said. ‘We merely dusted off the initial research, upgraded what was there with more recent advances made in other fields and here we have it’ he said. ‘Examination of the cybernetics of both the Altairan androids and the remains of so-called Sectopod robots we have occasionally encountered operating with Loki’s Ethereals on larger ships, helped perfect the design’ he noted.

‘So when are we getting them?’ O’Neill wanted to know.

‘Now that the prototype is nearing the end of it’s testing the first production units are due to start coming off the line next month but they are already assigned to the sectoid war’ Zelenka told him apologetically. ‘Muton’s are considered a more serious threat to our soldiers in the field than Jaffa’ he explained. ‘It may be a while before the SGC is equipped with our Powered Armour suits.’

O’Neill put a friendly hand on Zelenka’s shoulder and leaned in. ‘How about one accidentally gets left off a manifest and delivered to the wrong base, or is maybe deliberately sent to the SGC for special testing?’ he suggested quietly.

‘Special testing in what?’ Zelenka queried, narrowing his eyes.

‘Help me out here Major’ O’Neill requested, he hadn't thought that far ahead.

‘Extremely harsh environments we don’t get on Earth’ Carter thought up quickly. ‘Like... the heat on P9Q-281’ she said, trying to think of an appropriate planet, ‘or the extreme cold on KS7-535.’

‘Extreme cold’ O’Neill repeated sagely, nodding his head.

‘The SGC sends operations to planets with toxic atmospheres, sometimes no atmosphere, all the time’ Carter pointed out.

‘No atmosphere’ O’Neill repeated her again in a serious tone.

‘The prototype is nearly done with testing here’ Lieutenant Hailey noted. ‘It could probably do with a few weeks field testing too’ she said, ‘of course the SGC would need somebody that could show them how to use and maintain it’ she added sweetly.

‘Somebody that coincidentally wants a transfer to the SGC perhaps?’ O’Neill responded.

‘Works out well for all concerned’ Hailey replied, ‘I mean hypothetically’ she added.

‘Except what exactly do I get out of this given that it would be me signing the documentation?’ Zelenka asked.

‘Well I’ve got some pull in the Airforce, I know some people, can call in a few favours, how would you like a chance to head up the X-COM personnel assigned to the Prometheus project?’ O’Neill asked.

‘McKay is already spoken of as being given that job’ Zelenka replied.

‘Ah but McKay isn’t well liked by, well lets face it, by pretty much anyone that’s ever met him’ O’Neill responded. ‘Factor in some positive waves about a Doctor Radek Zelenka coming from the USAF side and things could very well go your way.’

‘McKay would be livid’ Zelenka said. ‘It is a highly prestigious program to be on, let alone head-up’ he continued. ‘Perhaps it would teach him humility’ he pondered, ‘it would be good for him’ he opined.

‘Character building for him, career building for you, everyone’s a winner’ O’Neill declared.

‘Field testing for the Powered Armour prototype in hostile environments’ Zelenka said, ‘a totally logical next step don’t you agree Jennifer’ he asked the young officer in the armoured suit.

‘Totally the way to go’ Lieutenant Hailey agreed wholeheartedly.

‘General Hammond asked us to check up on Jonas before the lecture Sir’ Carter reminded her commanding officer.

‘Right’ O’Neill agreed, ‘we’ll be back later’ he told Zelenka. ‘Lieutenant if you can get out of that thing you’re welcome to join us in the good seats for the lecture.’

‘The good seats Sir?’ Hailey asked.

‘Major Carter will be at the front asking questions you can have my seat next to her, I’ll be at the back trying not to fall asleep when they go all technical on us’ O’Neill replied.

Carter frowned. ‘Sir the Avenger Class Corvette will not only fill the transport role of the Tel’tak and Skyranger but also the combat role of the Al’kesh’ she said. ‘It’ll be shielded, heavily armed, hyperspace capable and capable of a wide variety of missions’ she said.

‘It’s the way they always feel the need to explain how everything works instead of just saying “small multi-role warship and tactical transport, big guns, goes fast” that gets to me Carter’ O’Neill countered. ‘I just don’t need to know more than that’ he said honestly.

Carter sighed, she really should have given up on the hope he’d develop a sense of scientific curiosity years ago she decided as they headed for another lab in the underground complex.

Jonas Quinn was sat in an examination chair being scanned and tested by two other extra-terrestrials, both of whom everyone referred to as “she” but neither of which was actually female in the strictest sense of the word. The truly alien looking one was the first Asgard he had ever met, a scientist named Heimdall who was using a piece of advanced technology to look into his body somehow, the other was externally a quite attractive woman but underneath the surface she was a Goa’uld war-criminal named Nirrti now working as forced intellectual labour for the Earth humans that had captured her.

Heimdall and Nirrti were the most knowledgeable geneticists on the planet, and had inexorably found themselves working together as they investigated other captured aliens, usually those created by the renegade Asgard Loki. They mutually despised each other on principle but had both reached the conclusion that they got much better results if they cooperated and tried to maintain a civil working relationship.

‘Ouch’ Jonas exclaimed as Nirrti stuck a needle in his arm to take another blood sample. The fourth person in the room, a guard always on hand to watch Nirrti reached for his sidearm before Jonas could indicate he wasn’t badly hurt whereupon the guard resumed looking bored.

‘Your hand-eye coordination is as clumsy as your scientific methods’ Heimdall told the Goa’uld. ‘This subject is not a hostile prisoner and should be treated with care not carelessly stabbed’ she said.

Nirrti scowled at Heimdall, stuck-up Asgard bitch, she thought. ‘Perhaps if you got your own hands dirty with these menial tasks sometimes you would be in a position to criticise’ she said.

‘The simple tasks are best undertaken by the simpler minds’ Heimdall retorted.

‘You know every time I cut open a Sectoid to examine it I imagine it’s you’ Nirrti declared, placing the blood sample in one of the highly advanced genetic screening devices Heimdall had arrived on Earth with.

‘Given the physiological differences I imagine only a scientist with a third-rate grasp on anatomy could so easily mistake my people for the creations of Loki’ Hemidall replied. ‘The internal differences are even greater than the obvious external changes of grossly increased musculature.’

‘Clone’ Nirrti hissed at the Asgard.

‘Parasite’ Heimdall threw back.

‘Ladies, please’ Colonel O’Neill said with amusement, walking in after he’d stood outside the door listening for a few moments.

‘I am not female and neither technically is the goa’uld inhabiting the female host Colonel O’Neill’ Hemidall pointed out. ‘It is however a pleasure to see you again’ the Asgard added politely.

‘Nice to see you too Hemidall’ O’Neill replied with a smile, ‘not managed to get yourself shot trying to escape yet then?’ he asked Nirrti. ‘Pity’ he added.

‘SG-1, my day is complete’ the Goa’uld said bitterly as they entered. ‘No Daniel Jackson?’ she queried. ‘No of course not, he’s gone’ she said with a smirk.

‘Ascended’ Teal’c responded, directing a harsh look at the fallen false god.

‘With considerable help no doubt given that he was genetically far too primitive to do so himself’ Nirrti replied, still wearing the smirk. ‘He was not even as advanced as my creation Cassandra’ she said, still working, looking at the display on the machine she had put Jonas Quinn’s blood into. ‘Or this individual’ she added, eyes widening as she looked from the display to the man himself.

‘Much evidence of genetic drift from regular Earth stock since his ancestors were taken from here by the Goa’uld?’ Hemidall queried.

‘Considerable’ Nirrti confirmed, ‘to the extent of having several genetic markers I would characterise as being of Hok’taur stock’ she said.

‘Sorry?’ Jonas asked in confusion.

‘Hok’taur’ Major Carter repeated, ‘it means “Advanced Human” in Goa’uld’ she explained.

Heimdall checked the results. ‘Your genetic profile indicates several genes associated with strong psionic potential’ she told Jonas. ‘We are familiar with them since they are the ones Loki has been introducing into his Ethereal and more mentally advanced Sectoid troops.’

‘My IQ tested out well above average for this planet too, I mean it tested out higher than average back home too but not that far above’ Jonas noted. ‘I mean I was considered a quick study for Kelowna but...’

‘You are more advanced than the humans of this planet’ Hemidall told him. ‘It is likely that your people are simply a few steps further along the evolutionary path due to a genetic quirk and long isolation.’

‘Interesting’ Nirrti said, reaching over and stroking his hair, an act that frightened the crap out of him. He had been warned that the Goa’uld had a habit of “vamping” men to try and get something from them. She’s only interested in your DNA, he told himself hurriedly.

‘He should be tested for psionic strength and skill level immediately’ Heimdall suggested. ‘In addition some of his genes may be useful in my own work.’

‘Still trying to splice together a hybrid that you can download an Asgard consciousness into?’ Nirrti asked. ‘I might be able to help you know’ she offered.

‘Or sabotage the entire project’ Heimdall replied knowingly.

‘Did the captured Sectoid Commander help there?’ Carter asked out of academic interest. ‘I’ve read reports that say it was far more intellectually capable than the ones we’ve seen before.’

‘Yes Major Carter although I have only had limited access to it so far’ Heimdall replied sadly. ‘Because the X-COM hierarchy does not know when, if ever, it might capture such a high-ranking officer again they are being very cautious and methodical in their interrogations for risk of harming it’ the Asgard explained. ‘It may be a while before I am given the opportunity to examine it properly in depth’ Heimdall added.

‘Gentle persuasion and less extreme methods before they go for the mind-rape and hand over what’s left of its brain to our Asgard buddies I guess’ O’Neill reasoned.

‘Makes sense, we’re holding Loki’s people back pretty well with all the F-302’s we’ve got now so it’s not like we need information urgently, better to find out everything we possibly can’ Carter agreed.

‘And once we know all we can we’ll kick their little grey butts right out of the Solar System’ O’Neill declared. ‘No offence’ he told Heimdall, remembering the company he was in.

‘None taken’ the Asgard replied diplomatically. What could you expect from a hairy primate anyhow?



Desert - Vorash – June 2002

‘So I guess nobody else wanted this piece of prime real-estate after the Tok’ra moved out’ Colonel Jack O’Neill observed, looking at the dunes and kicking up some sand.

‘Indeed’ Teal’c agreed. ‘There are far more hospitable worlds than this which are equally vacant’ he noted. ‘The reason why the Tok’ra built a base here in the first place was likely because any passing ship of Jaffa Squad arriving through the gate would be unlikely to recommend to their superiors it was worth absorbing into the domain of even the most Minor Goa’uld’ he said.

‘Well it reduces the chances for collateral damage if things turn nasty Sir and the Tok’ra left their surface set of rings behind, so it’s ideal for this exchange’ Carter pointed out. ‘SG-2 is keeping the gate permanently dialled to another empty planet we can escape to if necessary and Anubis can ring his people down here.’

O’Neill looked up. ‘So how many motherships do you think Anubis will have up there?’ he asked.

‘He’s still too stretched militarily by the war with Apophis to send a fleet, two or three tops I’d say’ Carter reasoned.

‘Think he’ll try and screw us?’ O’Neill asked tongue placed firmly in cheek

‘As soon as he’s got the Eye he’ll bombard the area around the stargate from orbit most likely’ Carter replied. ‘Turn all the sand within a couple of klicks of the gate to glass.’

O’Neill looked around. ‘It would raise the price of land by a few bucks an acre anyhow’ he replied before turning to Andianov. ‘If this goes all to hell I expect those enemy Jaffa to die well before I do Sergeant’ he told her, and preferably only them’ he added.

‘Of course Sir’ the Russian replied, sighting her rifle on some feature in the distance. As well as sand there were a few worn stone outcroppings around that sufficed.

‘They should be arriving any second according to the timetable we sent Anubis via Baal and the Tok’ra’ O’Neill said, checking his watch just as the rings activated, ‘prompt little bastards’ he said, watching them rise from the ground ‘I admire punctuality in a fake god and his minions’ he declared.

A flash inside the rings formed into a group of four Jaffa surrounding a fifth, each one armed with a zat’nik’tel and already pointing it. They knew they were in fact more effective against the warriors of Earth than the technically more powerful Staff Weapons because of the blast resistant armour the Tau’ri wore and they could also be pre-aimed and ready to fire on arrival.

‘Hey guys’ O’Neill greeted them, ‘I’m not seeing an Asgard with you’ he said in mock surprise.

‘You will hand over the Eye now’ the leader of the Jaffa ordered. He wore the symbol of Anubis on his forehead like the others but it was cast silver indicating although not a First Prime he was fairly senior.

‘Perhaps you need to check the definition of “exchange” in your dictionary’ O’Neill replied. ‘What’s the word for exchange in Goa’uld Teal’c?’ he asked turning to his own Jaffa companion.

‘I do not wish to hear anything from the shol’va, order him to remain silent’ the lead Jaffa interrupted.

‘You know as a rule it’s getting him to talk, not stay silent, that’s the tricky part’ O’Neill observed. ‘He’s laconic’ he added. ‘Okay let’s get this straight, no Thor, no Eye of Tiamat’ he stated.

The Jaffa leader sneered. ‘Hand it over or die’ he commanded.

‘Okay, something you need to be made aware of is that buried in the sand not ten yards from where you’re standing is one of our damn ingenious nuclear demolition charges’ O’Neill told the Jaffa, ‘I’m sure you’ve heard of them, we’ve been using the things to blow the Jaffa working for Apophis all to hell for a while now’ he said. ‘You start shooting, and you, the Eye, and ourselves, will need even stronger sunblock that we’re already wearing because we’re at ground zero.’

‘He is bluffing’ one of the other Jaffa told his commander.

‘Getting killed by a point-blank nuke doesn’t hurt one iota’ O’Neill responded, ‘getting captured by a System Lord and being tortured to death by pain sticks sounds a lot worse to me’ he said. ‘Which way would you go if you had the choice?’ he asked them.

The Jaffa Officer opened his mouth to respond then thought about it some more, yes given the choice instant atomisation was clearly the better alternative he decided. ‘Very well we will make the trade’ he said. Anubis did not think he could gain much more from the Asgard prisoner anyway, every time he tried the computer he connected to its brain had to be deactivated because Thor’s mind hijacked the damn thing. The holographic and transporter beam technology was already in itself well worth the trouble taken to capture the Asgard, and the Eye was deemed far more valuable than a largely catatonic and wilfully stubborn short grey alien.

‘Good, now we’re talking’ O’Neill said brightly. ‘Okay ring down my old buddy Thor and I’ll give you the Eye’ he said.

‘Put the Eye in my hand first’ the senior Jaffa insisted, his troops backing up his request by brandishing their weapons even more dramatically.

‘Hey you’ve got ships up there that can blow me all to hell’ O’Neill remarked, ‘I’m the one in danger of getting shafted here guys’ he said. ‘Okay you all step well away from the rings so you can’t try a quick snatch, grab and getaway, and lower those zats, and I’ll show you the Eye’ he offered.

‘Agreed’ the lead Jaffa replied and he and his four companions complied after which they watched the infamous Tau’ri O’Neill walk towards a non-descript point in the sand bend down a dig up a cloth wrapped object which he unwrapped to show them. ‘The Eye of Tiamat’ the Jaffa said with a smile. ‘My Lord will be pleased.’

‘I don’t suppose you could let us know why he wants this damn thing could you?’ O’Neill asked hopefully. ‘I mean we’re curious as hell right Carter?’ he asked his Second In Command.

‘Right Sir’ Carter confirmed.

‘It is none of your business’ the Jaffa told him.

‘Anubis didn’t bother to tell you either huh?’ O’Neill decided.

The Jaffa frowned, good guess by the human. ‘The business of a god is of no concern to a mortal’ he said defensively.

‘I guess Anubis practices mushroom management’ O’Neill told his troops. ‘Keep ‘em in the dark and feed ‘em shit’ he said. ‘Skippy here is out of the loop’ he added. ‘Guess he’s not even middle-management.’

The Jaffa Officer growled. ‘My position is high in the Jaffa ranks loyal to Anubis’ he declared.

‘Yeah and the Security Guard on the front desk runs the Corporation’ O’Neill replied with a grin. ‘Okay I’ve shown you mine now you show me yours’ he said. ‘And don’t go thinking I’ll put the Eye in the rings and expect it to swap places with Thor in there’ he continued. ‘I don’t trust you people an inch to hold up your end of the bargain’ he said flatly.

Talking a small spherical communication device from inside his uniform the Jaffa activated it. ‘Send down the casket with the Asgard inside’ he said.

‘Casket?’ O’Neill repeated, ‘I hope he’s not dead because if he is then the deal’s off’ he announced.

‘The Asgard is alive’ the Jaffa replied as the rings activated again, rising from the ground and then descending once more absolutely nothing appearing inside them.

O’Neill fixed the Lead Jaffa with a glare. ‘Very funny’ he said.

Looking confused the Jaffa activated his communication device again. ‘Where is the Asgard?’ he asked.

‘A Tel’tak decloaked and intercepted the matter stream’ the device announced. ‘We have ordered it to surrender or be destroyed, it is trying to escape but cannot outrun our Deathgliders and Al’kesh will pursue if tries to escape in hyperspace.’

‘Betrayal!’ the lead Jaffa howled and pointed his zat’nik’tel at O’Neill.

‘Ha’tak ships are dropping out of hyperspace’ the voice on the device declared. ‘They are the new vessels of Apophis’ it declared. ‘The Tel’tak is fleeing towards them.’

‘Nice try but I ain’t buying it’ O’Neill told the Jaffa. ‘Send down the Asgard or I’ll set off the nuke’ he said coldly.

‘If this is a trick, it is of your doing’ the Jaffa declared with certainty, ‘the deceitful tactics of the Tau’ri are well known’ he stated.

‘You dumb bastard’ O’Neill retorted, ‘you were about to send down the Asgard, if we were going to fuck you over we’d have intercepted the Eye going back the other way after we got Thor’ O’Neill retorted. Suddenly Staff-Weapon fire started hurtling over head. ‘Get down’ he yelled throwing himself to the ground as bolts of plasma seared overhead, everyone else doing likewise.

‘Serpent Guards’ Andianov yelled out, firing her rifle at the first familiar helmet shape that appeared in sight before anyone else could, the enemy Jaffa dropping back out of sight. ‘Got one’ she added.

‘You jerks’ O’Neill screamed at the Jaffa who had come down via the ring earlier, ‘you let Apophis find out about the trade’ he howled, starting to fire back towards the enemy.

‘We did not’ the Lead Jaffa responded. ‘It must have been a traitor in your ranks’ he declared.

‘We are fighting the Ha’tak of Apophis, we are outnumbered’ the communication device declared. ‘Our Al’kesh are under fire, they cannot pursue the Tel’tak.’

‘We are also under attack from the troops of Apophis on the planet’ the Jaffa told his friends high above.

‘The Jaffa have a saying O’Neill’ Teal’c called over. ‘Misery loves company’ he said, earning the nodded agreement of the Jaffa loyal to Anubis who had more important things to worry about right now than the shol’va.

‘We’re pinned down, SG-3 we need you right now’ Carter yelled into her radio.

New figures appeared from nowhere and began firing at the Serpent Guards, catching them in a crossfire and forcing them to retreat.

‘What is going on?’ one of Anubis’s Jaffa exclaimed.

‘We had troops hidden out there ready to spring an ambush if you tried anything’ he said. ‘Apophis must have landed his own men in a cloaked cargo ship and then placed it to intercept the rings.’

‘Give me the Eye’ the lead Jaffa commanded. ‘You may have lost your goal but...’

‘Don’t bother it’s a fake we made up’ O’Neill told him almost apologetically, we were going to screw you too’ he admitted. ‘The only guy that comes out ahead today is Apophis’ he declared bitterly as the firing died down around them. ‘We’re getting the hell out of here, I suggest you do the same’ he advised.

‘We would have sacanned it and learned of your deception quickly, vengeance would have been swift’ the Jaffa told him. The Tau'ri were clearly stupider than he had been led to believe if they thought such a simple ruse would have worked.

One of the other Jaffa pointed a zat’nik’tel at O'Neill. ‘You will not get away Tau’ri gonach’ he vowed.

‘Aw for crying out loud the last thing any of us need right now is a firefight amongst ourselves, the day sucks enough already’ O'Neill moaned.

‘Lower your weapons, we are outnumbered here and must survive to report this to Lord Anubis ourselves if the Ha’tak and Al’kesh are lost in battle’ the Lead Jaffa ordered his men.

‘I’m guessing he’s not up for promotion’ O’Neill asked the Jaffa Officer, pointing at the other one who had aimed a weapon at him. ‘At least you’ve got some brains’ he added. ‘So in that dictionary what’s the Goa’uld for “clusterfuck” because that’s what this is’ he told him.

‘My Lord Anubis will still want the Eye of Tiamat’ the Lead Jaffa told O’Neill as they both got up from the ground and dusted themselves off.

‘We’ll trade something else for it if you want it so badly, you know how to get in touch’ O’Neill offered. ‘You gate out, we’ll strip what we can from the Serpent Guards we’ve killed and head home ourselves.’

‘Yes I have heard you Tau’ri scavenge from the dead like vultures’ the Jaffa responded with distaste.

‘Better hurry, your boss is going to want to know that Apophis might be playing with some Asgard tech soon, I guess that’s what he’s aiming for anyhow’ O’Neill told the Jaffa. ‘Stargate is that way’ he said pointing in its direction.

‘The next time we meet I will kill you’ The Jaffa told him, turning to leave, the others following.

‘I guess you flunked out of Jaffa charm school’ O’Neill called after him, watching them trudge through the sand as they eventually disappeared out of sight.

‘Sir we really need to get out of here before they realise what the hell just happened’ Carter told him.

‘For Christ’s sake Sergeant you nearly blew my head off’ a Serpent Guard announced appearing from behind a sand-dune activating the mechanism that unfolded the helmet away.

‘I am sorry Commander, if my shot had missed by too much it would not have looked convincing’ Andianov told Sharp.

‘Looks like the Tel’tak got away clean according to its last transmission Sir’ Carter interjected. ‘I guess the identification codes we got for Apophis’s Fleet were right because they let it go thinking it was one of their own advanced scouts sent to confirm the presence of Anubis’s ships.’

Sharp looked up at the fireworks in orbit. ‘They’re kicking each others asses up there’ he said happily.

‘Think everything else is going to work?’ O’Neill asked. ‘I mean we might have lured Apophis into supporting our cover story by leaking the position of a few enemy ships ripe for the picking but after that...’

‘By now the Tok’ra will have told Baal that Apophis has committed his reserves out here to Vorash on the edge of his territory and you know that opportunistic bastard will immediately throw everything he has at Apophis while he’s got a free hand’ Sharp replied.

‘So Baal comes out ahead’ Carter said, ‘oh well at least we stuck it to Anubis and Apophis in one fell swoop’ she said happily.

‘With luck we got Baal good too’ O’Neill corrected her. ‘We knew from the Tok’ra he’s got a secret weapons research facility one of their operatives named Kanan found out about... of course we told Lord Yu it belongs to Apophis so he’s on his way to attack it, hopefully he’ll shoot first and ask questions later’ he said with a grin. ‘Even if he doesn’t bombard it he’ll still be monumentally pissed at Baal for not sharing advanced tech with his supposed allies.’

‘You know when they all figure out what happened...’ Carter began.

‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it’ Sharp replied, ‘then nuke it afterwards with a naquadah-enhanced elerium grenade so they can’t follow us’ he added. ‘The beer’s on me people’ he announced.

‘Canadian beer?’ O’Neill queried suspiciously.

‘There’s other types of beer worthy of the name produced on the North American continent?’ Sharp asked in apparent mystification.

‘Well if it’s free I suppose I can stomach it’ O’Neill decided, looking up at the fighting still going on far overhead. ‘Maybourne, you are definitely the man’ he said in salute.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2002

Sitting forward in his chair, hands together on his desk General Hammond was clearly not in a good mood, in fact the expression on his face was such that O’Neill didn’t even attempt to make light of the situation, well not as much as usual anyhow. ‘Colonel are you intent on working your way through every archaeologist and linguist on the staff until we can’t find a single one that either you’ll work with, or will work with you?’ he asked flatly.

‘Hey, Captain Mathison only lasting two hours wasn’t my fault George’ O’Neill protested, and ‘Hagman being unconscious in the infirmary is entirely down to him not doing his job properly on P2X-374’ O’Neill defended himself.

‘And Doctor Lewis only the day before yesterday?’ Hammond asked.

‘Sergeant Andianov was the one that broke his jaw Sir and for one I don’t buy his story that he only put his hand there to help her up that slope either’ O’Neill replied. ‘And she was professional enough to only deck him when we got back to the SGC so I thought not putting her up on a charge was the right thing to do’ he said. Watching Lewis hit the ramp in a heap barely two seconds after stepping out the gate had been pretty entertaining to watch in any case, he did have a creepy vibe about him, Carter mentioned it too.

Hammond began drumming his fingers on his desk. ‘Given the number of personnel already reluctant in the extreme to join SG-1 because they know how many missions you’ve undertaken which by rights you should never have returned alive from I’ve got to tell you Colonel you’re this close to getting assigned another member of X-COM because they’re the only ones crazy or masochistic enough to do it’ he said.

O’Neill groaned. ‘Couldn’t I give Major Pressman another go?’ he asked. ‘Doctor Fraser says the limp is only temporary and...’

‘The Major seems less than keen for a reprise’ Hammond interrupted.

‘Really?’ O’Neill asked in surprise. ‘I thought we all hit it off pretty well, I mean even Teal’c swapped a couple of sentences with him and that’s unheard of for a new guy because he’s been my friend for years and we can still go weeks without...’

‘I sincerely doubt that Major Pressman would be interested in undertaking another mission with SG-1’ Hammond interrupted again.

‘Two measly firefights and they up and quit on you’ Colonel O’Neill complained.

‘Within the space of a single four hour mission to a supposedly deserted planet’ Hammond pointed out, ‘and it was three firefights according to the mission reports’ he noted.

‘I didn’t count the third one because they barely got a shot off before Teal’c and Andianov flanked them and they ran off’ O’Neill responded. ‘I guess they just don’t make Jaffa like they used to’ he added. ‘I think we’ve already killed off a lot of the really brave or really dumb ones’ he reasoned.

‘Face it Colonel, for whatever reason SG-1 is a trouble magnet and that’s just not attractive to a fair percentage of our staff’ Hammond told him.

‘Anybody that wouldn’t want to come along with us and do what we do is whacked’ O’Neill declared with sincerity. It was the greatest job in the world, he thought, visiting other worlds, learning from ancient and wise cultures, encountering advanced civilisations and when that got dull, which it tended to pretty quick, there was always the shooting at people who really deserved to be shot at which never got old and gave you a warm glow of job satisfaction every day.

General Hammond sat back in his chair. ‘Jack we both know that the problem is you’re trying to replace Doctor Jackson...’

‘There is no “replacing” Daniel’ O’Neill interrupted, he figured it was his turn. ‘I’m filling a spot on the team and if I have to have a socio-political nerd along I need someone that I think can do the job well enough not to interfere too much with our overwhelming coolness’ he said.

‘I’m perfectly willing to assign someone to you and not take no for an answer if it comes to that’ Hammond told him. ‘Neither you nor they having any choice in the matter’ he added. ‘I’ll give you a week to find your own number five and after that you take what you’re given’ he said with finality.

O’Neill sighed. ‘Maybe I could put up a recruiting poster in the canteen, poach someone halfway decent from another team... that guy Ferretti recruited for his new crew now he’s back in the game bossing SG-2 sounded okay.’

‘Somehow I don’t think Lieutenant-Colonel Ferretti will be too happy about that... so if it happens I knew nothing about it whatsoever in advance’ Hammond told him. It would be a great deal easier to put someone new on SG-2 than find someone else for SG-1 if it panned out that way.

‘You knew nothing about what Sir?’ O’Neill asked in mock confusion.

‘Perfect’ Hammond told him. ‘Did you finish reading the latest intelligence updates about the fall-out from Maybourne’s little hustle?’ he asked, changing the subject.

‘Not only did I read it, I re-read it Sir’ O’Neill replied. ‘Laughed all the way through lunch’ he said.

‘I thought somehow you’d appreciate it’ Hammond told him with a chuckle.

‘We got the Asgard, and kept the Amulet, Apophis and Anubis both lost ships and we think Yu flattened half of Ba’als main research base before he realised he was bombing an ally’ O’Neill recalled happily. ‘Even better Anubis thinks Ba’al was involved because he’s such an infamously scheming bastard so those two aren’t on good terms any more’ he continued. ‘Ba’al thinks it must have been all down to the Tok’ra, because he underestimates us but he knows those guys are sneaky, so we’ve driven a wedge in there too’ he said, ‘which I like because Ba’al and the Tok’ra were getting to friendly for my liking’ he said then looked thoughtful. ‘I think Maybourne might be touched by genius somehow, if he goes over to the other side we need a contingency plan to assassinate him straight away before he sets himself up as a new System Lord with Earth as his capital’ he said. ‘He’s already got the sycophantic slave-girl to fit the super-villain persona’ O’Neill noted.

‘I’m still not completely convinced I did the right thing letting her go with him when he returned to his day job’ Hammond remarked.

‘Hey everyone tried to talk her out of it, even Maybourne, but she just wanted to stick with the devious SOB’ O’Neill replied. ‘The worst thing is now she knows he’s really a secret agent working against the Goa’uld she thinks he’s cool and heroic too’ he said. ‘You know if the SGC went public I’m sure a couple of single guys like us would be up to our eyes in hero-worshipping females’ he said wistfully.

‘It never occurred’ Hammond told him, not exactly truthfully, they might all him the old man but he wasn’t that old. ‘It’s a shame Thor was in a coma, the Asgard think Anubis must have used some new technology to rip information from his mind’ the General observed sadly.

‘Hack’ O’Neill responded with a snort, ‘our guys rip information out of alien’s minds all the time and we don’t end up turning them into vegetables’ he declared. ‘Yeah it’s a real pity about Thor’ he agreed wholeheartedly, ‘I always liked that little guy’ he continued, ‘a lot more than most people I’ve ever known to be honest, human people I mean’ he said. It was surprising somehow but although they were a race of physically identical clones the Asgard had such a wide range of different personalities. Thor was pretty cool in his opinion, Heimdall had a peppy enthusiasm that made her likeable, Freyr was kinda an officious jerk but no more than a lot of political types tended to be and Loki was a ruthless, evil asshole which made him no worse than the worse humanity had to show for itself. ‘I hope the Asgard can fix him up, they’ve got some kick-ass medical technology’ he stated from experience. ‘I once saw them bring you back to life after a Jaffa hit you twice with a Zat’ he said. ‘Parallel universe’ he explained.

‘I’ve formally passed on our wishes to the Asgard High Council for Thor to make a speedy recovery and offered any help we might be able to offer’ Hammond told him, ‘not that I think that’s likely given how much more advanced they are than us’ he said. ‘The Tok’ra say they’ve no idea what Anubis might have used, it goes way beyond any mind-interface technology the Goa’uld have ever had before.’

‘Where does he get those wonderful toys?’ O’Neill asked rhetorically. ‘If he’s got himself some Asgard gadgets now too we could be in serious trouble if he starts looking in our direction’ he said.

‘Commander Sharp and myself thought the same thing which is why as soon as we can get in contact with all our off-world strike teams we’re ending operations against Apophis’ Hammond told him.

O’Neill grinned. ‘Without us screwing with his supply lines he can get his logistics running properly again, thin out his garrisons and send them back to the front line and...’

‘Give Anubis something more important to deal with than us’ Hammond finished the sentence. ‘My idea’ he added.

‘And it’s a good one George’ O’Neill told his superior. ‘It’ll be a dark day when we’re at the top of the hit list as opposed to being an irritating pain in the ass’ he said. ‘So does this mean we get to hit any Goa’uld we want again?’ he asked hopefully. ‘Targets of opportunity, no more unfairly picking on poor old Apophis?’

‘That’s the plan’ Hammond told him.

‘Great because hitting Serpent Guards and Sokar’s old boys has been getting samey’ O’Neill replied. ‘There’s a whole lot of System Lords and pissant minor Goa’ulds that still haven’t had the pleasure of meeting us properly’ he said. ‘I think Ba’al deserves a visit, he’s been getting off light till now and maybe we should introduce Anubis to some of our new technology as well’ O’Neill declared.

‘The Tok’ra still regard Apophis as the major threat given his continued superiority in shipbuilding’ Hammond told him. ‘They may not agree with our change in targets so we might lose the use of their cloaked Tel’tacs for sabotage and hit and run raids’ he said.

‘It was fun while it lasted I guess, and we do still have that bucket of bolts they sold us if we ever need a cloaked ship for a special mission’ O’Neill replied with a shrug. ‘We’ve always worked to our own agendas, they’ve just coincided for a while but it’s not like I expected it to last forever.’

‘I know you’ve always had a few reservations regarding the Tok’ra but we’re still allies Colonel’ Hammond reminded him.

‘Yeah, but I like it now we’re allies on much more even terms Sir’ O’Neill responded. ‘It’s the getting talked down to that grated you know?’

‘I know exactly how you feel Colonel’ Hammond agreed. ‘At least these days people like the Tok’ra and the Tollan take us more seriously’ he said. ‘It makes negotiating with them a lot more pleasant when they aren’t being condescending... or less condescending.’

‘General, I look forward to the day when we get to spend an entire meeting patronising the crap out of them’ O’Neill told him.

‘Son, that thought keeps staving off my retirement for another year’ Hammond replied.



Yamantau – Russia – July 2002

Jonas Quinn looked around. ‘So is there only one architect that designs secret underground military bases on this entire planet?’ he asked quizzically looking around.

Carter smiled. ‘Military functionality’ she said. ‘Area 51, Yamantau, Cheyenne Mountain, any of the X-COM bases, they’re all just concrete, steel doors and exposed piping and airducts’ she told him. ‘I prefer our colour scheme to this habit the Russians have of painting everything the same shade of green though’ she added as they stepped off the Aschen Transporter platform which had zipped them from the SGC to the Russian Military facility under the Ural Mountains via a short stopover in the X-COM Base in Poland.

‘Colonel Carter?’ a young woman wearing a Russian military uniform greeted them. ‘I am Lieutenant Tolinev’ she introduced herself. ‘If you would please accompany me to the main hanger Doctor McKay is waiting for your arrival’ she said, leading off.

‘I hope nobody waited for us Lieutenant’ Carter replied, following on.

‘From what I could tell Doctor McKay seemed more concerned about impressing you than he did any of the other personnel, including several senior officers who travelled from Moscow especially to see the project yesterday, Colonel’ Tolinev replied.

‘So is there a history here I don’t know about’ Jonas asked Sam.

‘If there is it exists solely in McKay’s twisted imagination, and that’s something I just don’t want to think about for a second’ Carter replied.
Fortunately the platform at Yamantau wasn’t too far away from the laboratories and underground aircraft hangers and walking at a brisk pace they soon arrived. ‘Samantha’ a woman greeted them warmly just inside the door leading to a cavernous underground chamber.

‘Doctor Markov’ Carter responded with a smile as Tolinev handed them over to the scientist and headed off.

‘As I have told you before, call me Svetlana, please’ the Russian physicist told her. ‘And this must be Jonas Quinn who provided the naquadriah correct?’ she asked.

‘It is’ Carter confirmed. ‘Jonas meet Doctor Svetlana Markov, the senior X-COM Scientist based at this facility’ she told him.

‘It’s a pleasure’ Jonas told her. ‘I read a few of your papers, very impressive’ he said. ‘Of course I had to read a large number of physics textbooks first before I could understand any of them but from what I could keep up with Samantha’s description of you to me earlier as “brilliant” was extremely apt’ he said.

‘Physics texts?’ Markov queried.

‘Kelowna where Jonas comes from is a few decades behind us in theoretical physics’ Carter explained. ‘The rate at which he got up to speed is frankly frightening’ she continued. ‘He’s also read almost all of our old mission reports and I think he memorised practically all of Daniels old notebooks.’

‘I’m a quick study’ Jonas told her, as if the feat wasn’t much to speak of.

‘Yes but unfortunately we can’t all be hok’taur Mr Quinn’ Markov told him, ‘I’ve read the file X-COM have on you, your tested Psionic scores were highly impressive’ she added.

‘Not impressive enough to prevent a teenage girl making me involuntarily sing Kelownan folk songs apparently’ Jonas replied wryly.

‘Cassie does that to everyone with good scores’ Carter told him, ‘teaches them humility’ she said, and she gets a kick out of it Sam knew.

‘Plus Commander Sharp wanted to make sure I knew that if I ever got hold of a Psi-Amp and tried mind-controlling anyone for nefarious reasons I’d be slapped down’ Jonas replied knowingly. ‘I realise I’m not fully trusted yet’ he said. ‘Colonel O’Neill made that abundantly clear by his refusal to even contemplate me joining SG-1.’

‘Well you are an alien’ Carter pointed out. ‘And if it helps your ego Cassie said she never had to put in so much effort to control someone before’ she continued.

‘Teal’c is an alien too, and he’s on the team already’ Jonas replied, ‘and so is the very same Cassandra Fraser who you trust to keep me in line’ he noted.

‘Trust is earned and at least those examples prove there’s hope’ Carter replied. ‘Just remember that it’s not like we keep a gun on you 24/7 like we do Nirrti.’

Jonas grimaced. ‘That woman, if woman is the right word, makes me extremely... uncomfortable’ he admitted. She had clearly been trying to seduce, or “vamp” him as the locals said, for her own ends and it was disturbing in the extreme.

‘I think of the female alien scientists working alongside us on occasion most men seem to prefer the company of the Tok’ra Anise’ Markov observed. ‘I cannot think why’ she asked in feigned ignorance.

‘Complete mystery’ Carter replied trying to keep a straight face.

‘Hey are you going to stand over there all day gossiping or are you going to come look at this new hyperspace window generator’ an annoyed and familiar voice yelled out to them.

‘We will be there presently Doctor McKay’ Markov called back to where he was standing next to an F-302X Grim Reaper in the centre of the hanger. ‘He is very rude’ she noted, ‘many of the staff have refused to work with him ever again after a few days of doing so’ she continued. ‘He also does not share credit even when it is due, Doctor Murphy contributed much to the research, as did Doctor Novak before she was transferred to the Prometheus project’ she noted.

Carter shrugged. ‘Unfortunately for all his failings as a human being he really is almost as smart as he thinks he is’ she said, ‘which makes him too valuable not to have working for us’ she said.

‘His contribution on the incorporation of naquadriah into our existing hyperdrive designs has been invaluable I must reluctantly admit’ Markov conceded. ‘It has enabled us to design a drive based largely upon that carried by a Tel’tak but small enough to fit on an F-302’ she said. ‘The tactical advantage this offers our pilots is immense as you know.’

Carter nodded. ‘We can’t risk the Enterprise in combat with other Ha’tak ships, it’s too valuable an asset, but if it can simply drop out of hyperspace outside a target solar system and launch squadrons of Faster-Than-Light capable fighters in strike missions against high-value targets we could cause massive damage to Goa’uld facilities.’

‘I have heard suggestions of Pearl Harbour style carrier attacks against enemy shipyards being mooted’ Markov replied.

Carter chuckled. ‘We might use another historical example ourselves in the U.S.’ she said.

‘I’m very grateful to get the chance to accompany you here to see the new hyperdrive design’ Jonas told them. ‘I don’t get out too much for one thing’ he continued. ‘Could I get a chance to get up on the surface?’ he asked. ‘I checked the weather forecast for the region and it’s good for the next five hours’ he said.

‘Both General Hammond and Commander Sharp said we should give you access to any naquadriah related research’ Carter replied. ‘And out of interest do you ever tune your TV to anything but the Weather Channel?’ she asked with amusement.

‘It’s fantastic’ Jonas enthused. ‘All of your weather from all over your planet right there. Even a long-range forecast. It's like… predicting the future’ he said.

‘You should come back to Russia in the winter’ Markov told him. ‘We will show you weather worthy of the name’ she said.

‘Cool’ Jonas replied brightly.

‘Very’ Markov told him as they went to join the impatient McKay.

Lieutenant Tolinev ran back into the hanger. ‘Colonel Carter you have been called back to the SGC’ she said. ‘Doctor McKay also’ she continued. ‘There is a problem with the stargate’ she told them.

‘Darn’ Carter responded. ‘Did they say what the problem was?’ she asked.

‘There is an incoming wormhole from an unknown location which has not deactivated after the usual thirty-eight minutes and General Hammond wishes your analysis of the situation’ Tolinev replied.

‘I thought that keeping a wormhole open longer than thirty-eight minutes was impossible’ Jonas asked in confusion.

‘No, it just requires a staggering amount of energy’ Carter replied. ‘The Tollan gave us the equations that filled in most of the gaps we had in understanding wormhole physics’ she said. ‘They made my head hurt’ she admitted. The Tollan were centuries ahead of Earth, they were actually at the scientific stage not only of having a Unified Field Theory that explained Quantum and Relativistic effects simultaneously but they had practical applications of that theory such as the power-source that Tau’ri engineers called the UFT Generator, not that that they understood remotely how it worked beyond the level of knowing it put out a truly phenomenal amount of energy. A misused UFT Generator had pretty much shattered the planet Serita in the original Tollan home system, a feat which would require thousands of tons of weapons-grade naquadah at the very least to replicate. ‘McKay we need to get to the SGC’ she called out.

‘But I was going to let you look over my equations’ McKay told her, he knew she’d be impressed assuming she could follow them.

‘I can correct your math later’ Carter responded, earning a scowl. ‘There’s an incoming wormhole which has been active over thirty-eight minutes’ she told him.

McKay looked at the hyperdrive, it could wait he decided, this sounded like something interesting, something that required proper investigation and the keenest mind on Earth to look into. Carter would make a damn fine eye-candy lab assistant while he worked it out too.

‘If you keep him there’s a bottle of vodka in it for you’ Markov told Carter seriously.

Lieutenant Tolinev left eye twitched. ‘I have just been told I am getting re-assigned shortly to X-COM at the SGC’ she said. ‘I will give you two bottles to ensure he is sent back here Colonel’ she counter-offered.

‘You know somewhere in the universe there has got to be a place for McKay’ Carter observed thoughtfully.

‘With stargates and hyperdrive, anywhere in this galaxy would be insufficiently distant for my liking’ Markov told her.



Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2002

Carter looked down at the stargate again before turning back to the senior staff. ‘We’ve checked the results three times and it’s definitely not a glitch’ she said. ‘The energy build-up is so incredibly gradual, we had to increase the sensitivity of our monitoring equipment two-hundred percent to even register it’ she told them, ‘but over time it’s incrementally building to a level which the gate won’t be able to hold.’

McKay nodded. ‘A stargate is basically a giant superconductor that stores charge like a capacitor and releases it to create a wormhole’ he explained. ‘It can hold a huge amount of charge but eventually it’s absorbed all it can take and once it’s reached its limit...’

‘We estimate an explosion of two to three thousand megatons in yield’ Carter interrupted him.

‘Think ten to fifteen times the yield of the Krakatoa eruption in 1883 which blew the island to pieces’ McKay told them. ‘It’ll basically take out the whole of Colorado and effects will be global, the ash Krakotoa threw up into the atmosphere depressed temperatures world-wide for the next five years and that was a lot smaller than this is going to be.’

‘Nuclear winter’ General Hammond replied.

‘Oh yeah’ McKay confirmed. ‘Of course the localised damage to the North American continent will be more severe’ he noted.

‘How long have we got?’ Commander Sharp asked.

‘Well we’re talking days not hours fortunately because so far we’ve got no idea how to stop it Sir’ Carter replied.

‘Days?’ Colonel O’Neill queried.

‘The build-up to overload is incredibly incremental’ Carter told him. ‘Guessing this whole thing is deliberate we don’t know if that’s because this is as fast as it can be done or it’s just someone’s idea of prolonging the agony’ she said.

‘Guessing this is the work of some Goa’uld I wouldn’t bet against the latter’ O’Neill observed.

‘Any we can’t tell where it’s coming from?’ Sharp asked.

‘Sorry Sir, we don’t have Caller ID on the gate or anything’ Carter reminded him.

Sharp crossed his arms. ‘With a couple of days to work with we could probably get a ship there and show them some megatonnage of our own’ he growled.

‘You know this sounds like a job for our oh-so-advanced allies to me’ O’Neill observed.

Carter shrugged. ‘Anise is going to ring down from the Enterprise but she says she’s never heard of any piece of Goa’uld technology that can do something like this so she’s not sure if she can help at all’ she said. ‘Heimdall says she thinks she knows how someone might be doing it, and is trying to think up a way to delay the explosion by drawing some of the excess power off the gate as an interim measure, but it might take a while to put something together.’

‘Anyone talked to the Tollan?’ Sharp asked.

‘Yes, we signalled them and requested if they couldn’t help could they talk to the Nox in case they can’ Carter replied. ‘But to be honest if the Asgard don’t have an immediate solution then we shouldn’t get our hopes up for them to either’ she said.

The lights dimmed and several alarms starting going off. ‘We’re experiencing widespread loss of power Sir’ Harriman reported, looking at his screen.

‘First too much power then not enough’ O’Neill responded, ‘you know if we could find a way to merge these two problems we’d be sweet’ he said.

‘We’ve got company’ Sharp said, pointing out into the gate room as a slightly transparent image formed on the ramp.

‘I am Anubis’ the figure began to speak with enough volume and the right tones to reverberate.

‘It looks like a holographic projection’ Carter opined. ‘This is Asgard technology. He must have downloaded it from Thor’ she said.

‘Well thank you Captain obvious’ McKay responded, rolling his eyes.

‘At least get my rank right, that’s Major obvious’ Carter corrected him

‘Humans of the Tau’ri, I am aware of your deception’ the image of Anubis stated. ‘You will hand over both the Eye of Tiamat and your prisoner Osiris or face your doom’ it commanded. ‘There is nothing that can stop the destruction I bring upon you’ it declared with certainty.

‘Oh come on... who talks like that?’ O’Neill asked sardonically.

‘The Tok’ra said Anubis had a reputation for being melodramatic even by System Lord standards’ General Hammond observed.

‘And I thought Apophis and his camp Ming the Merciless act was bad’ O’Neill commented. ‘This guy raises the bar for clichés’ he declared.

‘Can he hear us?’ Sharp asked.

‘We can open a channel on a Goa’uld frequency, transmit a reply’ Carter responded.

‘Go ahead please Major’ Sharp requested.

‘Done’ Carter told him after punching a few keys.

‘This is Commander Russell Sharp am I addressing the Goa’uld System Lord Anubis?’ Sharp asked, leaning into the microphone in front of him.

‘You are’ the hologram confirmed. ‘You will learn to bow before my awesome power or face annihilation’ it added.

‘This guy really digs his own act’ O’Neill whispered. ‘Do you think he practices the super-villain speech in the mirror before show-time?’ he pondered. ‘Make sure he’s stressing the right words?’

Sharp raised a hand to shut O’Neill up. ‘We don’t have the Eye of Tiamat, Apophis stole it’ he said into the microphone.

‘I am all knowing’ the hologram declared, ‘I saw through your simple ruse, how could you think to trick a god?’ it asked.

Sharp turned to General Hammond who shrugged. ‘Took you long enough to work out, doesn’t exactly meet my definition of omniscience’ Sharp told Anubis with some amusement.

‘Your chappa’ai is in my hands’ Anubis responded, reaching out a clenched fist like he meant it literally, ‘agree to my terms or I will destroy it and you with it’ the holographic image of the System Lord vowed.

‘I’m sorry you seem to have mistaken me for someone who takes you seriously’ Commander Sharp replied sarcastically.

The image of Anubis leaned its head to one side. ‘Your pathetic bluster means nothing, I know that your people yielded to Sokar when threatened such as this’ the hologram said. ‘As you once handed Apophis over to him you will do the same with what I demand.’

‘Yeah well the days of giving into guys that think the cowl is a good look are over’ Sharp told him. ‘No offence George’ he said to Hammond.

‘Your insolence and bravado is nothing but a mask for your hopelessness’ Anubis declared. ‘I will return in a day when your deaths are closer at hand and your leaders are ready to bow to their god and then I will decide if I want your head also’ he said, the hologram vanishing and the lighting coming back on.

‘Do you think he’d accept the Commander’s head as a deposit on the other stuff?’ O’Neill asked. ‘Just spitballing here Sir’ he added as Sharp directed a glare his way. ‘I mean we could try and make it sound like a good deal’ he continued, ‘you know, low mileage, original hair...’

‘We could throw in the Colonel’s head as a bonus, we know the Goa’uld put a price on it’ General Hammond suggested deadpan.

‘Let’s make that Plan D’ O’Neill responded. ‘Carter I think the Commander and I would really like Plan’s A to C on the table in the next few hours’ he said, Sharp nodding his wholehearted agreement. ‘You know when we were linked to the black hole we broke the connection with a shaped-charge’ O’Neill suggested.

‘That was an outgoing wormhole not incoming’ Carter replied. ‘Things work very differently depending on whether you’re the sending or receiving gate’ she reminded them.

McKay nodded. ‘This Anubis, he has a real flair for the dramatic, doesn't he? Very theatrical’ he observed.

‘Yeah. Pretty much all the Goa'uld are like that’ Carter responded.

‘But, why wait so long before appearing?’ McKay asked.

‘I don't know. Maybe he wanted to make sure it was gonna work’ Carter suggested.

‘Yeah, that would be embarrassing, wouldn't it?’ McKay agreed. ‘He’s all “Nothing can stop the destruction that I bring upon you!" Then the Gate shuts down.’

‘Maybe it’s new technology, or old technology he’s unfamiliar with’ Carter observed. ‘Heimdall said she thought this entire thing reeked of the Ancients, we know from the Tok’ra that most Goa’uld technology is based upon their back-engineering of Ancient artefacts.’

‘There’s a thought’ O’Neill said. ‘Anubis has been pulling a lot of funky new tricks out of his ass ever since he showed up’ he said. ‘What if he found an old Ancient Outpost or something?’

‘And he disappeared for a few centuries because he was back-engineering what he found’ Carter responded. ‘It’s not a bad theory, maybe all he’s really been doing is getting Goa’uld equipment closer to their original Ancient specs.’

‘Holds some water as a theory but it doesn’t help us too much right now’ Commander Sharp interrupted.

McKay clicked his fingers. ‘I’ve got an idea’ he announced. ‘It was you replying to Anubis over the radio that got me thinking’ he told Sharp. ‘We know that for certain kinds of energy or forces a wormhole is two-way’ he said.

‘Right, like radio or... gravity’ O'Neill replied.

‘We could send a massive EM Pulse back through the wormhole and try and disrupt the mechanism on the other side that’s doing this’ McKay suggested.

‘Would that work?’ Hammond asked.

‘No, Sir. I already thought of it, and the reason I didn't mention it is because it is far too problematic’ Carter told him. ‘The Iris would have to be opened and we have absolutely no idea how much EM would be required to knock this thing out.’

‘Have you got a better idea?’ McKay asked. ‘I could get an EM Pulse Generator set up in less than four hours.’

‘If we open the iris we’re cutting the amount of time we have until the gate explodes for something we don’t know will work’ Carter told the group. ‘At the moment the iris is absorbing some of the incoming energy which is one reason it’s only a trickle getting through to the stargate.’

‘Feel free to come up with a better idea but until then I’m going with the one we’ve got’ Commander Sharp said.

‘Sir not every problem can be solved by blasting it with...’ Carter started to reply then stopped. ‘But maybe this one can’ she said.

‘This is what I call a Carter brainstorm moment’ O’Neill remarked. ‘You get used to them after a while.’

‘The electromagnetic spectrum’ Carter said. ‘It starts with long wavelengths, radio, and as the wavelengths get shorter you get microwaves, Infra Red, visible light, UV, X-Ray’s then finally Gamma Radiation’ she said.

‘Major even I know that with my “low mileage” head’ Sharp replied. ‘No need to dumb it down too far’ he advised.

‘Sorry Commander’ Carter apologised. ‘Well we know that the longest wavelengths travel through the wormhole in both directions or we couldn’t communicate by radio’ she said. ‘And we know from connecting to worlds where the stargate is in a radioactive region that gamma rays at the other end of the spectrum can come through as well so it’s not just the longest EM wavelengths that can do it.’

‘Stargate physics 101’ McKay interjected. ‘We know the gate doesn’t let visible light in the middle of the spectrum through because... well it’s pretty obvious because you can’t see through the event horizon’ he said.

‘Right’ Carter agreed, but what that means is that there should be two points, high and low, probably in the microwave and X-Ray parts of the spectrum where EM radiation isn’t being blocked any more’ she said.

‘The X-COM Laser Cannons’ McKay realised, slapping himself on the side of the head. ‘They’re FEL’s.’

‘They’re what?’ O’Neill asked.

‘Free Electron Lasers’ Carter explained. ‘It uses a relativistic electron beam as the lasing medium’ she said.

‘Maybe a little more dumbed-down than that’ Sharp requested, O’Neill nodding his agreement.

‘It doesn’t really matter’ Carter told him. ‘What it means is that unlike gas, liquid or solid-state lasers a Free-Electron Laser can be tuned, you can get them to output a beam from the microwave frequencies all the way up to soft X-Rays’ she explained. ‘We use them in the visible spectrum but with some adjustment they don’t have to Lase in that band’ she said.

‘We run a cannon at the shortest and longest frequencies we can get it to produce and hopefully one of those will be short or long enough to work’ McKay said.

‘It’s a pity we can’t get one of the big Base Defence Lasers down here’ Carter said. ‘Hook up a couple of naquadah generators and the biggest capacitors we can get and after testing the frequency with a lower-powered beam to make sure it’ll work throw all the wattage we possibly can back at them.’

‘Why can’t we get one of those down here?’ O’neill asked.

‘They’re huge Sir, they’d never fit down the corridor even if we could get them down the lift shaft’ she said. ‘A Laser Cannon from an F-302 should be doable though’ Carter replied.

A cough from the back of the room caused everyone to turn finding Jonas standing there with a cup of coffee. ‘Sorry to interrupt but there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask since I got here and this seems like the time’ he said. ‘How did you get the stargate in here to begin with?’ he asked. ‘It’s bigger than the corridors too’ he noted.

Carter blinked. ‘Above it is a shaft that leads to the surface, and inside is a crane mechanism that hoisted the Gate down’ she replied. ‘Jonas you’re a genius’ she added wondering how long he'd been listening. When not reading he pretty much roamed about the base talking to people, mainly about the weather, and drinking coffee which was starting to turn into a major caffeine addiction to be honest.

‘Wouldn’t Anubis have thought of something like this?’ Hammond asked.

‘Goa’uld, Asgard, Tollan, Sectoid... everyone uses plasma-based weaponry but us Sir, and plasma won’t go the wrong way down a gate so they'd never think of return fire, if plasma did work in both directions I’d fire a Zat-Cannon through instead’ Carter replied. ‘If the beam doesn’t work we can always try Plan B and fire McKay’s EM Pulse straight away.’

‘Take any personnel you need from any project and get this done ASAP’ Sharp ordered. ‘You have my authority to pull engineers and equipment from every facility we have around the world Colonel.’

‘Yes Sir’ Carter replied.

‘And someone contact every intel source we have out there and find out what fucking planet Anubis is firing at us from’ Sharp ordered loudly. ‘Walter get the Redemption loaded with the biggest warheads we’ve got, there should be a few nice big ones on Enterprise they can beam over’ Sharp told him. ‘I feel a field-trip coming on’ he said.

‘Plan C?’ Hammond queried.

‘It’s only fair seeing as how Anubis is threatening this planet with nuclear winter’ Sharp replied. ‘And I don’t feel like sitting around here waiting for Plan D to sound good to someone’ he added.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2002

Samantha Carter watched as the gate finally reached the surface, it had taken a little over two hours to secure the thing, rig up the winches and haul the device up the access shaft. ‘Remember it weighs sixty-four thousand pounds’ she called out to the team of Army Engineers now preparing to transport the stargate the rest of the way to its final destination. ‘Don’t let the size fool you’ she continued, ‘the gate material is extremely dense.’

‘The gate may be dense Carter but I don’t think the engineering crew are’ Colonel O’Neill told her quietly. ‘You do the physics and leave the heavy lifting to them’ he advised. ‘People hate being told how to do their own business’ he reminded her.

Carter looked embarrassed, she realised she was getting a displeased look from the Officer commanding the crew and decided the Colonel had probably read the situation pretty well. ‘Carry on’ she said loudly, then turned to head off towards the closest of the Base Laser Defence installations X-COM had been emplacing around the mountain over the last year. It was a great deal easier to bring the gate to the laser than the oversized laser cannon to the gate and some of the best scientific minds on Earth were now working to re-tune the weapon from its usual output in the visible-light part of the electromagnetic spectrum to one which would transmit through the active wormhole. ‘I feel like a fifth wheel’ she admitted to O’Neill. ‘McKay has a team putting together the EM Pulse Generator in case the laser doesn’t work and we’ve got the actual people who designed the laser doing that part of the work so I’m left standing around trying to look busy’ she said.

‘Sometimes you’ve got to let go and let the best qualified people for the job do it’ O’Neill told her. ‘You were the one that ordered all these people here and told them what they needed to do’ he continued, ‘now you just sit back and wait to take the credit for all their hard work’ he said. ‘I’ve been doing that with you and Daniel for years’ he added deadpan.

Carter laughed. ‘I don’t know how I’d handle another promotion’ she told him as they walked together.

‘I find avoiding the paperwork made it less painful to rise above Major’ O’Neill replied. ‘Of course you do need to find a smart, hard-working and meticulous second-in-command who you can dump that on’ he said.

‘I’ll bear that in mind Sir’ Carter replied. ‘Which reminds me, I might be willing to do some of your reports but I won’t forge your signature so could you at least sign them and read them through in case General Hammond or Commander Sharp ask you questions’ she said. ‘I looked ridiculous trying to mime the answers to you at the briefing last month.’

‘I’m sorry but I didn’t think Sharp was a paperwork kinda guy’ O’Neill responded. ‘Hammond yeah but Sharp isn’t my idea of a desk jockey’ he said. ‘Caught me on the hop when he asked a hard question about the report summary’ O’Neill told her.

Carter shrugged. ‘It’s the nootropic drugs the X-COM people take’ she explained. ‘They make it easier to focus on tasks, even mundane ones’ she continued. ‘Ritalin is a nootropic, the stuff they give to kids who can’t concentrate in class I mean.’

O’Neill blinked. ‘You’re not seriously telling me that not only are the X-COM people stronger, faster on their feet and with quicker reactions, they’re also better at doing their damn paperwork than we are?’ he asked with a groan.

‘I’m afraid so Sir’ Carter replied apologetically. ‘If it wasn’t for the other side effects I might start taking some of the pills and injections they take myself’ she told him. ‘I don’t think the long-term dangers are worth it, you just can’t play with the human body and mind like that and expect to come out okay at the end of it’ she opined. ‘It’s like abusing a sarcophagus, short-term you feel great and it’ll add decades or maybe even centuries to your life but in the end you’re giving up too much of what you really are’ she said.

The Colonel nodded his agreement, he was willing to give his life but his mind and soul were something he’d rather keep intact until the end. ‘So much powerful are these lasers?’ he asked as their destination came into view, the heavy steel doors set into the ground open and the laser turret having been raised into position as it would be during an attack. Several of the weapons ringed the complex waiting to shoot down any unwary alien craft that approached.

‘They’re roughly ten times the wattage of the laser cannon the F-302X Reapers carry’ Carter told him. ‘You could take out an Al’kesh or a shielded Tel’tak with one shot, not nearly enough firepower to deal with a Ha’tak but anything less wouldn’t be able to get near’ she told him. ‘There are a few silos with naquadah-enhanced nuclear-tipped SAM’s as a back-up but detonating that kind of ordinance over Colorado wouldn’t be my idea of a great idea’ she said. ‘They’re planning to add a trio of mothership heavy guns we copied from the ones on the Enterprise by the end of the year which will give us some protection even against full-scale attack but that may fall behind schedule because of resources diverted elsewhere.’

O’Neill grinned. ‘I’ve got this vision of a Ha’tak coming in to land on the mountain like we saw in that parallel universe we went to and the mountain kicking its ass’ he said.

‘I missed that mission if you’d remember Sir, had to stay here because my dimensional twin and I couldn’t be in the same universe at the same time very long’ Carter replied.

‘Well it’s a sweet mental image anyhow Major’ O’Neill told her. ‘How do you think Sharp is doing?’ he asked, pointing upwards at the sky.

‘They should have loaded the weaponry into the bays on the Redemption and be preparing to head out any time soon Sir’ Carter replied.

‘They’d better bring back some video that’s all I can say’ O’Neill declared yelling over the sound of an F-302X coming into land. They had already formulated another back-up if both the laser and the EMP pulse failed, now the gate was on the surface they could simply strap it to the aerospace fighter and haul it into space where the detonation wouldn’t be quite such a world-imperilling issue.

‘I’m sure they’ll be recording the whole thing Sir’ Carter told him with a smile.

O’Neill looked at the oversized laser cannon. ‘Think Anubis is going to see this coming?’ he asked.

‘Sir we’ll be firing the beam at a wavelength he won’t see at all except for the after-effects’ Carter replied. ‘Anything in front of the outgoing stargate when that laser is fired back at it is likely to be vaporised’ she said.

‘Here’s hoping that Nuby is the type to be stood there cackling and rubbing his hands gleefully then’ O’Neill replied. ‘Or if not that he’s the hands-on type that will be personally investigating what happened when Sharp arrives and nukes the crap out of the planet he’s firing at us from.’

Carter laughed. ‘Think the Commander will be cackling and rubbing his hands with glee when he orders the Redemption to drop its warheads?’ she asked.

O’Neill looked thoughtful for a while. ‘No to the hand-rubbing’ he said eventually, ‘but only because he’ll insist on pushing the button himself’ he said. ‘Maybe more of an excited schoolgirl giggle than a cackle too’ he added.

‘Unleashing thermonuclear hell does seem like his idea of a fun activity’ Carter agreed.

‘Remind me to ask for a raise’ O’Neill replied. ‘He’ll be in a good mood for weeks after this.’



High Orbit – Earth – June 2002

Captain Tanner turned in his command chair when Sharp entered the bridge and gave a nod of acknowledgement to register his presence. ‘Hyperdrive powering up Commander’ he reported. ‘Shield generators and Particle Cannon showing one-hundred percent efficiency’ he continued. ‘Just remember that if we try and tangle with a Ha’tak we’ll come apart with the third shot from their main guns’ the non-terrestrial born human officer added seriously.

‘I thought we’d upgraded the shields and weapons?’ Sharp queried. Thanks to captured Goa’uld, Sectoid and a few other alien defence technologies it had obtained over the last few years Earth was developing some very interesting and surprisingly effective bastardised systems which often surpassed the original designs by a noticeable margin.

‘Before the upgrades our shields would have collapsed after the second shot’ Tanner replied flatly. ‘Your people added a few laser point-defence turrets which give us a much better chance against a Death Glider squadron or two but we’re still a long way from being a capital ship’ he told Sharp frankly. The four forward-facing particle beam cannon the Redemption carried would pulverise an Al’Kesh or a shielded Tel’tak in short order but they simply didn’t have the firepower to burn through the shields of a pyramid ship before the damn great thing blew them to fragments. During the fighting to defend Tanner’s home system he had watched the Goa’uld motherships sweep aside his peoples small navy and its relatively undersized ships with impunity, the memory was painful though not as much as the guilt he felt for desertion.

Sat in the navigators chair Martin Lloyd nodded his agreement with Tanner, they had been getting along better of late but Martin was however still wary of the rest of his crew given their history together during their brief exile on Earth. Although more advanced than the Goa’uld in some scientific areas Martin pondered to himself, their matter transporter technology to give one example, his people had nonetheless been overwhelmed by their enemies raw military might which is why of course they had sent this ship to look for allies in other star systems, in particular the fabled homeworld of humanity hoping that the first world would be more advanced than it turned out to be. ‘Course laid in for P8X-987 Captain’ he told Tanner, trying to sound calm although the prospect of possibly facing battle had his heart racing. They had all opted to keep their adopted Earth names, much as they had also accepted the renaming of their vessel, it was easier to deal with both the present and future if they avoided too much dwelling on the past.

Looking away from the command console in front of his chair Tanner directed his his full attention on Sharp. ‘The cargo is secure’ he said. ‘Your people are going to have a cramped journey in the hold with all those warheads’ he noted. It wasn’t a large ship, barely over forty metres in length and not intended for passengers, just the five man crew and a smallish cargo hold for supplies.

‘I don’t like travelling without a few troopers just in case’ Sharp replied, ‘there’s only three of them, plenty of space to stretch out as long as they don’t mind cuddling up to a few nuclear weapons.’

‘Not my idea of a sleeping companion’ one of the other aliens observed, Sharp thought he was the one called Ted which made him the weapons officer, the pilot over there called himself Bob but Sharp was damned if he could remember what the fifth member of the crew, the engineer who was still helping the X-COM soldiers get settled in the hold, called himself.

‘If you’re right next to the thing when it detonates it doesn’t really matter if it’s a quarter kilo of HE in a grenade or a quarter-billion tonne yield nuke’ Sharp pointed out reasonably. ‘There’s only so dead you can be’ he said then paused. ‘Of course resurrecting you in a sarcophagus after the grenade would probably be a more likely proposition’ he added, thinking about it some more.

‘I was thinking a woman not a warhead’ Ted replied. ‘As a companion I mean’ he continued. ‘Haven’t got any surface leave in a while’ he complained, giving Sharp a meaningful look. Between beaming engines out of Sectoid ships, and hauling naquadah from the asteroid full of the stuff the Goa’uld had thoughtfully supplied, the crew of the Redemption had been very busy the past few months and occasional trips to the Enterprise wasn’t quite the same as a weekend in Vegas. They were paid the same salary as other X-COM personnel, indeed they now wore the standard jumpsuits and insignia too, but they rarely got to spend their pay.

Sharp frowned. ‘You do realise the core mission of X-COM is to keep you damn aliens off our fine Earth Women?’ he asked straight-faced before smiling. ‘This mission goes smooth and you can take a few days off, just don’t leave any accidental kids behind with DNA anomalies someone will notice’ he requested semi-seriously. Thousands of years of minor, or in the case of some worlds like the one Jonas Quinn was from fairly major genetic divergence meant that extra-terrestrial humans would clearly be identifiable as such from their genes.

‘So we kill Goa’uld then get laid’ Ted remarked. ‘Sounds good to me’ he opined. ‘Beats the shit out of carting naquadah ore from the Oort Cloud’ he added brightly. ‘Hyperdrive is in the green’ the pilot announced giving his own console displays a final check.

Sharp looked around the bridge. ‘Okay we think Bratac is the best bet to have a handle on where Anubis is firing at us from so we pick him up from the Free Jaffa base on Hanka and then deliver our response to our new favourite System Lord’s demands’ he addressed the crew. ‘Let’s get going Captain, and don’t spare the hyperdrive, we’ll overhaul the thing when we get back if we have to so push it hard’ he ordered.

Tanner pressed a few controls on his own touch-screen panel, verifying the ships condition and the programmed course. ‘Let’s go’ he told Ted and in response the pilot fired up the ships faster-than-light engines, opening a hyperspace window ahead of the ship as the Redemption shifted to flight mode, the outer section of the vessel swinging around ninety degrees from the horizontal to the vertical and then accelerated on through into sub-space.

‘Let me know when we’re an hour out Captain’ Sharp told Tanner, turning to head back to the cargo hold before stopping and turning back towards him again. ‘There’s one more thing I need to know’ he added. ‘Where’s the toilet on this ship?’ he asked.

‘First hatch on the left after the reactor room’ Tanner replied, ‘we’ve added instructions in English because we know you can’t read our script’ he told Sharp. ‘Just make sure to turn the valves in the right order when you’ve finished’ he warned. ‘The pump can go into reverse and you don’t want that to happen trust me’ he told the Commander with as much emphasis as he could.

Sharp noted the grimace on Martin Lloyds face and made sure to read the instructions thoroughly as he headed for his latest encounter with alien starship plumbing technology. He only hoped they had a better sense of ergonomics than the Goa’uld, by general request the toilets on Enterprise had been ripped out and replaced well before the X-COM personnel aboard started dissecting the computer core.

Passing the engineer in the corridor as the crewman headed in the opposite direction towards the bridge, Sharp failed an attempt to surreptitiously read his name tag en-route and kept going towards the cargo bay finding it dominated as expected by a large rack of nuclear ordinance. ‘You okay in here Troopers?’ he asked, returning the salutes of the trio of X-COM soldiers who had risen from improvised seats of weapon crates to salute him.

‘We’re fine Sir’ the nearest replied. ‘Hoping for a little action’ he added.

‘I guess we’ll see how it goes’ Sharp replied. ‘Stand easy’ he told them.

‘Excuse me Sir but what’s the yield on these things?’ one of the troopers asked curiously, indicating one of the racked re-entry vehicles.

‘Those are our new standard 1.2 gigaton naquadah-enhanced warheads’ Sharp replied, he had read all the documentation. ‘The three oversized ones are something a little special’ he continued. ‘Basically the same warhead but set in two metric tonnes of cobalt’ he explained.

‘Cobalt?’ one of the troopers queried.

‘Produces radioactive fallout like you wouldn’t believe, make an area uninhabitable for decades’ Sharp told him. ‘We’re sending a message to Anubis and every other Goa’uld bastard that if you fuck with Earth then Earth will fuck with you’ he declared. ‘Anubis overloading and detonating the stargate on Earth would cause global damage, well we can do that to his worlds too’ he said. ‘Hopefully they’ll decide that escalation isn’t in anyone’s interest, we know from Tok’ra agents that when the Tollan announced they had the Ghostriders and their new UFT bombs the System Lords crapped themselves’ he continued with a grin, ‘well we can’t blow up a whole world but we can make it so you really wouldn’t want to live there unless you like having your hair and teeth fall out and your kids born with webbed feet and seven fingers on each hand’ Sharp told his troops who laughed in response.

‘How do we drop these things anyhow?’ one of the three asked.

‘Just beam them off the ship and let gravity and the thrusters on the re-entry vehicles do the work’ Sharp answered. ‘Accuracy isn’t perfect I’m told but with those yields getting within ten kilometres of target should more than do it’ he continued happily. ‘Christ you’d still get third degree burns from one of those going off if it detonated two hundred klicks away’ Sharp enthused.

‘And we’ve got twelve of them plus the three big ones?’ one of the troopers responded slowly, looking at the things with mild concern.

‘Let it not be said that X-COM fucks around’ Sharp replied. ‘Just wait until we get those naquadria bombs the R&D people are working on, makes regular naquadah look like gunpowder they say’ he added, rubbing his hands with barely restrained glee and with a beaming smile that wasn’t quite as bright as a thousand suns but was pretty disturbing nonetheless.

When they picked him up along with Teal’c who had been visiting his family on Hanka Master Bra’tac, ever a good judge of character, observed to his former apprentice that Sharp of Canada alas seemed no more balanced than before earning a heartfelt “Indeed” of agreement in reply.



Stargate Destroyer – Anubis’ Planet – June 2002

Operating largely untended once their all-powerful and all-knowing master, the Lord Anubis, had repaired and activated the device the Jaffa guarding the ancient machine were starting to get very bored. This did not mean they were becoming lax, they were too loyal for that, but they would have all much preferred to be with the forces battling Apophis rather than be sat watching the ancient machine fire its continual beam of energy into the gate.

Set in what looked much like a decaying stone amphitheatre, surrounded by two concentric rings of obelisks, the device itself was certainly impressive to watch in operation, at least it was at first, but after a few hours the fascination the Jaffa had with this great artefact started to fade. The outer ring generated a force-field which protected the structure like a great wall with only one way in or out while a looped ribbon of energy connected the inner ring, the ribbon looking much like the beam the central structure was firing into the chappa’ai. They had no idea how it all worked, the Goa’uld did not permit their slaves too much knowledge of what many Jaffa still thought was magic, they only knew that Anubis had declared that the beam would eventually destroy the chappa’ai on the Tau’ri homeworld unless that is that they surrendered both their captive Osiris and the Eye of Tiamat to him and pleaded for mercy.

Three Hat’ak ships flew in orbit overhead, and deathgliders patrolled the skies as a defence. Many more of both would have been present to defend such a valuable weapon in less chaotic times but the needs of the front line of the war came first and Anubis could not spare any more assets even to protect a site such as this. Although hard pressed by both the combined numbers of the fleets of his enemies, and the superior shields and weapons in the service of Ba’al and especially Anubis himself, Apophis still stubbornly refused to buckle under pressure and as his own improved model Ha’tak ships increased in numbers from their birthplace in the great shipyards of Delmak his position was stabilising if anything. Long term Apophis probably couldn’t win, eventually as Anubis increased his domain and industrial infrastructure, gaining decent numbers of ships and Jaffa warriors to match his technological superiority the rogue System Lord sitting on Sokar’s old throne would be crushed, but for now Apophis was making a very respectable fight of it and could still afford to lose more vessels in each battle while maintaining military parity.

Still establishing himself after his long banishment from the ranks of the System Lords Anubis still controlled relatively few worlds as yet, indeed if not for his impressive scientific edge on his peers the handful of systems he controlled would have made him no more important in the big scheme of things than a minor Goa’uld such as Imhotep. As it was his forces punched well above their weight making him a powerful ally or dangerous foe, whilst the lust other System Lords had for access to even a few minor examples of his new technological marvels meant even the likes of Ba’al or Lord Yu treated him with a degree of public deference whilst obviously planning to deal with him as he deserved after the downfall of Apophis.

Few of even his most loyal Jaffa knew the location of Tartarus, the secret capital world of Anubis where his chief scientist Thoth was working on new applications for the Ancient Technology Anubis inexplicably seemed to comprehend. As well as continued incremental upgrades to his ships the laboratories and workshops of Tartarus were slowly working towards the perfection of new infantry weapons for his armies with body armour and a new breed of warriors to match. Lacking the disposable cannon-fodder of many worlds with a large population of Jaffa upon them Anubis was always forced to seek force-multipliers, in this way he was strangely similar to the Tau’ri he now found himself in opposition to, they both constantly sought a technological means to make up for their numerical shortcomings.

Two of the Jaffa set to guard the device idly watched the machine continue its task. ‘I have heard it said that once the Eye’s of Tiamat and Osiris are in the hands of our God he will then only need to recover that of Ra to possess all six’ one remarked. The fabled crystal Eye’s had long been spoken of in Jaffa legend as the symbols of the greatest System Lord’s of the old days, that Anubis would have all of them was only fitting for his glory.

‘It sickens me that the atheist scum of the First World that actually deny the very divinity of the God’s should have any of them in their keep’ the other replied with obvious distaste for the very notion. ‘Our Lord Anubis should demand their fealty and the heads of their leaders as well as the return of that which is rightfully his’ the Jaffa declared, the sincerity of his faith clear to any that might be listening.

‘I agree brother’ the first Jaffa concurred. ‘Once we have crushed those heretics and the armies of Apophis then we will surely finish the holy task set us and crush the traitor Jaffa that have rallied to the shol’va cause.’

‘It surely says much of Apophis that the rebel Jaffa are led by two that were both once his First Prime, Bra’tac and Teal’c’ the second Jaffa noted then laughed. ‘For a God Apophis is surely a poor judge of who he should promote to his side’ he continued with amusement.

The first Jaffa nodded. ‘You may be right’ he agreed, Apophis was surely a lesser deity than Anubis on that basis alone. ‘We are fortunate to serve a Lord who rewards only those who are genuinely loyal and deserving and can recognise those that are merely feigning devotion’ he said then smiled. ‘Although to hear tell my wife my own promotion is surely late in coming’ he added.

‘We will have our reward for our loyal service in time Brother’ the other replied with certainty. ‘Either in this life or the next’ he said confidently.

Thousands of light-years distant at the other end of the open wormhole a team of well educated heretics had finished its own act of devotion to its cause and with the receiving chappa’ai positioned on the dangerous end of a large directed-energy weapon one Samantha Carter was preparing to send Earth’s response to Anubis in the form of the most coherent beam of microwaves they could manage. They were going to fire at the longest wavelength the tuneable Free-Electron-Laser could manage and hoped it was long enough to get around the wide band of frequencies in the middle of the electromagnet spectrum that would not transmit down a wormhole, built as a laser it was now by far the most powerful maser cannon anyone had ever constructed.

With McKay and his back-up plan, a charged EM Pulse Generator, ready Carter signalled for the iris mechanism to be activated and as soon as it slid open she immediately pressed the jury-rigged manual control that fired the maser.

Visually it was all highly unspectacular at the Earth end of the wormhole given that microwaves are invisible to the human eye, at the other end however...

As the two Jaffa Guards watched and gaped sparks started to shoot off the Ancient Device, it was too well constructed to be destroyed even by the gigantic wattage being fired back at it through the stargate but like metal in a domestic microwave oven the surface started to arc as it absorbed the energy and if the crystal and superconducting naquadah control circuitry objected most strenuously to this unexpected and unplanned for assault. A small bird flew into the microwave beams invisible path and promptly exploded as all the blood in its body instantly boiled and the internal pressure blew it to pieces.

Constructed to last for countless millennia by the Ancients, a race known to drastically over-engineer, and who seriously built to last, the great machine was not however destroyed but instead long dormant automatic safeties kicked in and it immediately shut down its own beam heading in the opposite direction, shutting down the wormhole to protect itself. Only open longer than the standard thirty-eight minutes because of the vast energies the machine was constantly pumping in to keep the wormhole maintained the chappa’ai instantly turned itself off, cutting off the maser beam going the other way as well and leaving the device inert once again, much as it had been in the millions of years of abandonment before Anubis located and activated it. The main difference however was that you could currently fry an egg on any suitable surface, it was practically glowing being designed to transmit a beam of energy not have one played over it.

Back on Earth dozens of scientists and engineers who had been watching the operation cried out and jumped for joy the instant the gate closed down and a certain Rodney McKay got slapped for kissing Samantha Carter whilst seeking to take advantage of the situation. The other stargate located in the X-COM base in Poland had been standing by and quickly plugging in their DHD they dialled the Omega Site preventing Anubis trying again just in case.

The two Jaffa looked on in dismay. ‘Someone has to tell Anubis’ one said eventually, looking at the now inactive machine. Unfortunately shooting, or rather hand-devicing the messenger was a time-honoured Goa’uld custom and even by the standards of his race Anubis wasn’t exactly inclined to mercy, he would likely just lash out in frustration or merely to make himself feel better.

‘It’s been nice knowing you’ the other replied. ‘And no I wasn’t volunteering to do it myself’ he added in case he hadn’t made that quite clear. They were devoted but that did not mean they were remotely enthusiastic about the likelihood of being slain for stress relief especially given the agony of such a demise, the ribbon of energy from the hand device worn by the God’s inflicted pain beyond imagining. ‘It was as if the Tau’ri used some invisible magic of their own to smite the chappa’ai destroyer’ he continued, ignoring the glare he was receiving. ‘Did you see the bird that flew between them?’ he asked. ‘How could they do such a thing?’ he asked rhetorically, he had not even heard of the God’s themselves doing such a thing the wrong way down the tunnel between worlds, not even in legend.

Anubis had considered possible Asgard intervention, or indeed that the Tau’ri themselves or with Tok’ra help might come in ships, but once again the humans of the first world had demonstrated the power of ignorance. They did not know or care what centuries of hidebound tradition said was impossible, so making it all up as they went along, and frequently with little subtlety of method, they simply tried things nobody else would have considered. Innovation and out-of-the-box thinking was apparently once again proving itself a surprising match for what should have been overwhelming, unstoppable power. Monitoring the situation from orbit the crews of the three Ha’tak ships which had been standing guard decided they had been flying around pointlessly with their thumb up their arses all this time and stood down from high alert because the damn Tau’ri apparently already had an effective defence against the chappa’ai destroyer which they didn’t even have to leave home to use.

Thus it was that when the Redemption emerged from hyperspace near the planet and accelerated to maximum sub-light it took the Jaffa far longer than it should have to respond, the confusion caused by what the Ha’tak ships sensors said it was making things even worse, the people and vessels of that world had been utterly annihilated by the forces of another System Lord years ago.

This is not to say that Captain Tanner on the Redemption was any less perturbed by practically running straight into the three ships which utterly dwarfed his own, that they didn’t immediately fire only gave him more time to swear vociferously in both English and the language of his homeworld as they shot straight between two six-hundred metre wide Ha’tak scanning the surface of the world below for energy readings.

‘Why aren’t they shooting at us?’ Martin asked in amazement.

‘Don’t tempt fate’ Bra’tac advised him. ‘That they aren’t is more than enough to know’ he said sagely.

‘Deathgliders on our ass’ Ted the weapon’s officer reported as staff-cannon fire began ineffectually impacting the upgraded shields. The motherships might not have been awake but some of the Jaffa fighter-pilots on patrol around them were still alert enough it seemed. ‘Point Defence Cannon tracking and firing’ he continued with a smirk as the retro-fitted laser turrets swung around and began swatting the unshielded deathgliders like flies. Though a fraction as powerful as the modified base-defence cannon which had been fired into the open stargate back on Earth the X-COM designed directed-energy weapons added to Redemption were still overkill against the Goa’uld fighters. They had been originally designed for engagement against the considerably better armoured ships Loki’s creations flew, not the relatively flimsy targets they were being fired at now, and at near point-blank single-kilometre range, and still outside the atmosphere which would have otherwise bled off some of their wattage, the beams sliced through the small enemy craft like the proverbial hot-knife through butter.

‘I think we’ve got our target, starting bombing run’ the pilot reported. ‘Preparing to transport warheads from the hold in planned sequence’ he said, wishing his palms weren’t so sweaty on the controls.

‘I’ll push the button’ Commander Sharp responded. ‘Anybody back there in the hold sitting on a nuke that doesn’t want to go out yelling “YEEEHAAA” riding it like in Doctor Strangelove might want to get the fuck off the thing right now!’ he yelled down the open passageway that led to the cargo bay. It was sound advice as seconds afterwards, as he pressed the control indicated to him, they slammed into the atmosphere going fast enough to jar the whole ship and then the first warhead shimmered into nothingness only to appear outside the ship where it began to fall just like things should in a gravity field, the ships computer having determined the best place to deploy the thing so that it landed where they wanted it to.

Redemption ploughed a fiery path through the sky as it tore through the atmosphere, plasma bolts from Deathgliders hurtling past it, plus an ever increasing volume of initially inaccurate but improving fire from secondary batteries on the Ha’taks joining in. The motherships were also starting to roll, orientating themselves to bring their main guns to bear as well but it was too late, by the time they had done so Redemption had released its entire inventory of nuclear weapons and was running for its life, not just from the enemy but from its own labours.

Fused to surface burst the first in the string of twelve naquadah-enhanced warheads impacted the ground and each detonated with a force equivalent to over ninety-thousand Hiroshima bombs. The thermonuclear fireball was still growing when the next warhead detonated twenty-five kilometres further along the flight-path the ship had taken and so on it went, the dozen warheads wreaking unimaginable destruction in turn as their blast-waves grew and overlapped, each generating a fireball itself twelve kilometres across that vaporised anything caught within it. The blinding flash and shock wave through the ground each caused heralding the detonation of the next as they carved a vicious wound across the planet, a chain of fire that put any artistic depiction of hell to shame.

The seventh warhead landed with more accuracy than had been hoped, only two kilometres from the gate-destroyer, although built to withstand the ages this was considerably more than even the Ancient engineer that designed it had planned for and it was simply erased from existence by the explosion as the rather tougher stargate itself was sent spinning away through the air like a matchstick in a hurricane, landing far away and bouncing along the ground until finally coming to rest half submerged at the edge of a swamp, the water boiling around it from the heat it had absorbed from the blast.

Climbing back into space after its bomb-run Redemption had left the best till last. As titanic mushroom clouds of debris climbed to the heavens in its wake, the three special cobalt-jacketed warheads detonated as airbursts some hundreds of kilometres apart to maximise the spread of their deadly radioactive fallout. It would encircle the globe within days, poisoning much of the eco-system for generations to come, the Chernobyl disaster was a release of radiation barely worth mentioning by comparison. It was a final object lesson left to the Goa’uld by Earth that said simply your worlds are fragile too, don’t push us too far into a corner or you may not like how we choose to come out fighting.

The Ha’tak were opening fire with their main guns as Redemption jumped back into hyperspace, one shot impacted the shields and interrupted the impromptu chorus of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” being sung by the X-COM Troopers in the now much more spacious cargo bay before the ship passed through the hyperspace window and disappeared, its engines pushed well beyond the recommended limits and Sharp spitting blood because the jarring impact of the energy against the shields had caused him to bite his tongue as he joined in the singing.

When Anubis personally arrived to inspect the damage wrought he was so enraged that he did not even bother to kill any of his Jaffa, he did however maim one severely when the Taur’ri sent him a device containing a video recording of the events taken from the bombing craft. He vowed never to underestimate their resourcefulness again and plotted his next move as his self-professed experts in Tau’ri culture tried to determine the hidden meaning behind the small image painted on the device, a caricature of a human child, one arm outstretched and saying “Hah-Ha!” in Tau’ri script.

I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.

Unknown Hat’ak Ship – L5 Lagrange Point (Earth/Moon System) – June 2002

Turning a corner at the junction of two corridors O’Neill threw himself to the deck, the staff-blast barely missing him as he landed awkwardly. His reflexes had saved him again but the next shot wouldn’t miss he knew, he was too easy a target even for a Jaffa using one of those god-awful to aim things.

The black-clad warrior, Anise had said they were the elite of Anubis Armies after he explained what they were wearing to her on the radio after running into them earlier, never got the chance to finish the job. Before he could put a bolt of plasma into the sprawling human a beam of coherent light from behind neatly speared him through the head and he dropped to the deck instantly, his partially destroyed brain leaking from the scorched entry and exit wounds in his skull. ‘Secure the corridors left and right’ a voice ordered and as O’Neill felt a wave of relief flow through him he watched a squad in X-COM uniforms and breastplate torso armour move swiftly to obey their officers instructions. ‘Colonel O’Neill?’ the officer queried.

‘Nice timing Captain...?’ O’Neill replied, waiting for the name.

‘Gaston Sir, Jake Gaston’ the officer told him, giving him a hand up. ‘Sorry we took our time getting up here after being transported over from Enterprise’ he said. ‘Since we got your call that there were still Jaffa aboard this thing, and that they objected to our salvage attempt, we’ve been sweeping up from the flight bays’ he explained. There were several ring transporters on a goa’uld vessel this size and after SG-1 had secured the bridge and reported all-clear, precipitately as it turned out, Colonel Caldwell commanding the Tau’ri flagship had sent additional troops over to secure the rest of the derelict ship. There were a veritable legion of salivating engineers who wanted to get aboard the ship and see how much of its technology was improved from the basic ha’tak they were familiar with, but there was no way Caldwell was going to risk the best and brightest Earth had to offer until the most belligerent and blood-thirsty had secured it to his satisfaction.

‘Better late than never Gaston’ O’Neill replied, getting to his feet. He looked young to be a Captain, O’Neill thought to himself, not too much over twenty-one at a guess, but promotion in X-COM could be pretty fast. You just needed talent, well, that and have enough people above you in the chain of command getting themselves killed in action to free up the ranks.

‘So what’s our next move Sir?’ Gaston asked.

‘There’s an infestation on this ship I want dealt with, think you can handle that Captain?’ O’Neill responded.

Gaston tapped his L2-A2 Laser Rifle. ‘Until last month when I got transferred to Enterprise with my squad I was clearing Muton’s out of Loki’s ships for a living’ he replied. ‘This is what we live for’ he declared confidently. X-COM UFO Retrieval Teams usually worked with smaller vessels than this, even the largest Sectoid ship was only three decks in height and about seventy-five metres across, but the tactics used to clear them were much the same. ‘Where’s the rest of SG-1 Sir?’ he asked. The Captain knew that O’Neill had earlier ringed aboard the ship with his whole team plus the Tok’ra Anise and a couple of human scientists specialising in Goa’uld tech once [i]Enterprise[i] had taken up position next to the new arrival.

‘Teal’c and Carter went to the computer core, Andianov and Jonas are up with Anise on the pel’tak’ O’Neill replied.

‘That’s the bridge right?’ Gaston checked, earning a nod of reply, ‘sorry my Goa’uld is almost non-existent’ he admitted. ‘At least this thing looks like it’s mostly laid out the same as the Enterprise’ the young X-COM Captain continued, ‘we’ve been familiarising ourselves with the layout the last few weeks so we should be okay’ he said.

‘We don’t know how many there are aboard’ O’Neill told him. ‘Life-sign scans showed the ship was like the Marie Celeste but when I ran into that guy and his friend near the shield generators I started to suspect that wasn’t exactly one-hundred percent accurate’ he wryly observed.

Gaston chuckled. ‘I guess his friend was the corpse I passed on the way up here?’ he checked.

‘Looked like a ninja wannabe, big sword lying next to him and a big hole in his chest?’ O’Neill asked. ‘Yeah that was him’ he confirmed after Gaston nodded.

‘We’ll do a sweep and clear deck by deck’ Gaston told O’Neill, ‘we’ll try to take a prisoner alive if we can’ he added.

‘Don’t risk any of your troops just to capture a Jaffa’ O’Neill responded, ‘I know it’s X-COM SOP to take the enemy alive for interrogation but the Goa’uld don’t tell their grunts shit’ he told the Captain frankly. ‘If you can get one safely do it, otherwise just kill them’ he advised, ‘this ship is a better prize than any intel we’ll get from a Jaffa POW’ he said. ‘I already lost one man today’ O’Neill continued, he had been escorting a scientist named Friesen who had wandered off to check out the ships shield generators and ran into the Jaffa holdouts still aboard, ‘and I don’t want us to lose anyone else’ he told Gaston earnestly.

Captain Gaston thought that it would be well worth losing more people if the payoff was a ship like this, but he knew he was operating from an X-COM standpoint which saw it perfectly acceptable to sacrifice large numbers of personnel in return for alien technology and intelligence. O’Neill was the commanding officer on this mission and he set the rules of engagement here. ‘Okay people this is a sweep and clear by the numbers’ he said into his radio microphone, ‘taking prisoners is low priority’ he instructed, ‘don’t get hurt’ he added.

‘I’m going to head out and leave you to it Captain’ O’Neill told Gaston, ‘can I borrow one of your men to reinforce my team just in case?’ he requested.

‘Yes Sir’ Gaston replied, ‘Trooper Kemp you’re assigned to Colonel O’Neill here’ he told the closest squad member. ‘With your permission Sir we’ll get to work’ he addressed O’Neill.

‘Go to it Captain’ O’Neill told him, Gaston and his command minus the single X-COM soldier now left with the Colonel moving off. They would go through the ship professionally and methodically making sure it was safe for other personnel to come over.

The unexpected arrival of an unidentified Ha’tak so close nearby had nearly caused half the guys watching screens at the SGC and various X-COM Installations to have instantaneous heart attacks. If it had arrived any closer it might have been instantly fired upon by Enterprise, but for whatever reason it had dropped out of hyperspace at the gravitationally stable L5 Lagrangian Point following the moon in its own orbit some three-hundred and eighty thousand kilometres from Earth and had simply remained there apparently inert and derelict while a decision was taken to investigate it.

With Anise already present on Enterprise she was the ideal candidate to check out the unknown ship, and after SG-1 was transferred up to join her and a small team of experts the Ha’tak already in Earth’s hands had been moved to within weapons range of its near twin. It stood ready to obliterate the newcomer if required and as an added precaution a high-yield nuclear warhead had been transported across with Anise and SG-1, if they had to destroy the ship they could do so with the push of a button.

O’Neill arrived at the computer core with his escort and they were met by Carter who was working on the core, Teal’c stood ready to defend her and the room from any other Jaffa remnants left aboard. ‘Sir as I thought this is definitely the ship Anubis used to destroy Thor’s vessel and the one he was detained upon’ Carter told O’Neill as she worked on the core. ‘I think Thor may have sabotaged the ships computer when he was connected to it by Anubis’ she theorised, ‘while Anubis tried to hack into Thor’s mind, Thor hacked the ship in the other direction and maybe left behind a computer virus’ she said. ‘We know the computer sealed off the sections that might have been used by the crew to disable the ship and it stopped the self-destruct they tried to set’ Carter noted, they had to blast the door down to get in here, the computer had sealed itself off.

‘Oh you’ve got to love that guy’ O’Neill declared. ‘Way to go Thor’ he added with a mental salute. The Asgard was still in a coma after they got him back from Anubis but it sounded like the little grey guy had managed to screw the goa’uld son-of-a-bitch good before going out. ‘So the reason we found all the escape pods launched was that they couldn’t take back the ship from the little present Thor left them and they had to abandon ship?’ he queried.

‘Most likely explanation’ Carter replied, ‘Anise thinks so too, she’s trying to re-establish control from the bridge while I get the computer working again’ she said, ‘We might need to re-boot the whole system though, a virus might not be able to tell the difference between us and the enemy even if we think Thor left a sub-routine that told the ship to fly here to Earth and then power-down.’

‘Oh yeah, screw Anubis good!’ O’Neill enthused. ‘The shields on this thing resisted the guns on an Asgard Beliskner, Thor would want the design to get back to his people so he sends it to Earth because we’ll make sure the Asgard get to take a look’ he said.

‘Heimdall is based on Earth’ Teal’c noted, ‘she is likely the closest Asgard available plus the Tau’ri have close ties with both the Tok’ra and Tollan who would also likely be very interested in the new technology Anubis is using’ he said.

‘And Earth gets ourselves another damn ship into the bargain’ O’Neill added brightly.

‘So this ship is here as a present?’ Kemp the X-COM Private asked, he had been watching the door weapon ready, but was listening in with interest.

‘That and as a hearty fuck-you to Anubis I’m guessing’ O’Neill replied.

‘Colonel O’Neill this is Colonel Caldwell on the Enterprise are you receiving me?’ the radio headsets they were wearing crackled to life.

‘Go ahead Colonel’ O’Neill replied.

‘We’ve been recalled to deal with a major attack by Sectoid ships’ Caldwell reported, ‘They are using a new type of escort fighter that is superior to our F-302’s and there are too many for planetary defence squadrons and the Redemption to handle alone’ he continued. ‘Do you wish to return to Enterprise?’ he asked.

‘Negative Colonel, you get going, we can deal with a few Jaffa’ O’Neill replied.

‘We’ll be back once the enemy have been driven off’ Caldwell told them. ‘Enterprise out’ he said.

‘Fucking bugs probably saw the Enterprise was further out than normal and decided to throw a major raid at us to take advantage’ Kemp hissed.

‘It’s what we’d do if the situation was reversed Trooper’ O’Neill pointed out. The main guns on a Ha’tak could blow a Sectoid Battleship to pieces with one shot, having the Enterprise standing guard made any visits Loki’s forces made to Earth very costly. ‘New fighters too?’ he continued, shaking his head, ‘could be a bad day for our Reaper guys’ he said regretfully.

‘This is Captain Gaston’ the radio spoke up again. ‘We have encountered a number of Jaffa who were heading towards the bridge and are engaging them’ the X-COM officer reported. ‘Suggest the bridge be sealed off until we can eliminate them’ he advised.

‘I am doing so’ the Tok’ra Anise who had been listening in signalled back from the bridge.

‘Andianov, Jonas’ O’Neill transmitted, ‘you keep those Jaffa out of there, but if they get in nuke the ship’ he ordered.

‘Yes Sir’ Andianov responded. ‘We will not permit them the chance to regain control of this vessel so close to the motherworld’ she said with finality.

‘It’s not my motherworld but okay’ Jonas added with an audible gulp, he hadn’t expected to end his first trip into space quite that way but he knew it was the right thing to do.

‘Always have a naquada-enhanced backup plan’ O’Neill told the others. ‘Worst case scenario is a draw, they don’t get to win regardless’ he said.

‘Colonel O’Neill this is Anise’ the radio said. ‘I have just detected several ships approaching which were not picked up by my sensors until they were practically on top of us’ she reported.

‘Goa’uld?’ O’Neill asked, ‘Anubis trying to get his ship back?’ he queried.

‘They appear to be of Sectoid construction which would explain why our sensors did not detect them’ Anise replied, Loki had deliberately designed his vessels to be hard to track with Goa’uld or Asgard equipment, oddly it was easier with the far more primitive radar equipment Earth used.

‘Another wave of ships heading to Earth?’ O’Neill asked.

‘No they are on an intercept course with ourselves’ Anise told him, ‘they are decelerating, I think... I think they are planning to board’ she said. ‘If they were going to attack they would have already, they are well within weapons range’ she opined.

‘They’re going to board?’ O’Neill asked incredulously.

‘Maybe Loki wants the tech too?’ Carter suggested, ‘this ship did defeat an Asgard ship remember.’

‘Well he can’t fucking have it’ O’Neill declared, ‘finders keepers losers weepers’ he said determinedly, if in a slightly childish turn of phrase.

‘Three ships of Sectoid Battleship configuration have latched onto the hull on the lower decks’ Anise reported, ‘they are burning through with plasma.’

O’Neill put on a determined expression. ‘Captain Gaston, I think we’re about to get into a three-way firefight with Anubis boys and Loki’s boys for possession of this ship’ he transmitted.

‘I guess I should have been more specific when I wished for a three-way when I blew out the candles on the cake last birthday Sir’ Gaston replied deadpan. ‘Don’t worry Colonel, nobody goes down harder than X-COM’ he said, ‘Just ask my girlfriend’ he added, the sound of both firing snd laughter near his position audible in the background.

Carter grinned, ‘You’ve got to give them credit’ she said, ‘they know how to laugh in the face of danger’ she said.

O’Neill smiled as well. ‘Trooper Kemp watch out for Major Carter here’ he ordered, ‘Teal’c let’s go lend a hand to the Captain’ he continued. ‘Carter shoot out the computer core if anyone not on our team tries to get in’ he told her. ‘This ship belongs to Earth or no one’ he declared.

‘Yes Sir’ Carter responded. ‘I’ll show the Trooper here where to shoot the core too if I’m incapacitated’ she added as the burst of what sounded like random static or noise came from the ships intercom. It had been periodically doing that since they arrived.

O’Neill got his Laser Rifle ready. ‘Let’s roll, Teal’c’ he said, leading off.

‘This should be a great battle O’Neill’ Teal’c responded, following on behind.

Kemp watched them leave. ‘You don’t think we’re going to miss all the fun do you Major?’ he asked Carter glumly.

‘No member of SG-1 has ever been that lucky’ Carter replied, getting back to work.



Kerguelen Islands (Southern Indian Ocean) – Earth – June 2002

Cameron Mitchell watched his lasers eat into the hull of the new model alien saucer for a brief second before the enemy fighter pulled into another hard turn. ‘What the hell are these things made of?’ he hissed through gritted teeth as he tried to get it back into his sights. It certainly wasn’t the same stuff as the smaller Type 1 fighters, it was too resistant to damage and when it did burn under laser fire it was the wrong colour entirely.

What had started as a small dogfight between a flight of three F-302’s from the base in Antarctica and half a dozen Foo Fighters escorting a trio of battleships had rapidly grown out of all proportion as the unfamiliar new type of craft tore in from above in what seemed like an ambush. Both X-COM and the invader began feeding more and more fighters into the battle as it continued to escalate with now perhaps a hundred and fifty human and alien fighters caught up in what was by far the largest aerial battle of the war so far.

Getting back on the tail of his opponent, if a saucer-shaped craft could in fact be described as having a “tail” it being difficult at a glance to distinguish the front and back of the alien fighter, Mitchell lined up his shot again and triggered both his lasers and this time the two plasma beam cannon his F-302X carried, one slung on a pylon under each wing. With a low rate of fire they were usually reserved for use against the slower, less manoeuvrable alien ships rather than their nimble escorts but he wanted a kill and they packed considerably more punch than his lasers.

The bright green beams sliced into the Type 2 Saucer, only momentarily held back by its armoured hull material before they hit something important and it exploded into a fireball. ‘Hell yeah!’ Mitchell howled in triumph as the debris impacted his shield causing it to flare up as the bubble of energy surrounded his craft deflected away the heat and kinetic energy.

Other human pilots were not having such a good day, close by an F-302X Grim Reaper exploded into fragments itself, shield eventually depleted by multiple plasma hits from the two alien saucers chasing it and the next volley blowing it apart the pilot having no chance to eject. ‘You’re not going home to boast to your buddies about that’ Mitchell vowed under his breath, bringing his fighter around to engage one of the responsible saucers.

Caught up in the middle of the fight a Sectoid Battleship suddenly seemed to stop dead in mid-air and simply fell from the sky with all the aerodynamic grace of a brick. It was still falling towards the ocean when another large ship of a different design tore right through the midst of the dog-fight four large particle beam cannon discharging into another alien battleship gouging holes in its hull.

Forward facing main guns blazing, and now point-defence laser turrets firing in all directions targeting alien saucers to help out the F-302’s Redemption had arrived to add its weight to the battle. First using her teleporter to beam away the elerium engine of one of the three largest alien ships then with shields raised she was now using her particle-cannon to engage a second one.

The Sectoid battleship retaliated, firing back with its elerium powered plasma-beam weapon, more powerful than the ones the F-302’s carried, the beam eating into the upgraded shields on the Redemption. ‘Kill that fucking thing’ Captain Tanner on the Redemption growled as his ship fired again, its own less powerful beam weapons striking the unshielded enemy craft once again. That was the only advantage Redemption had but it was a good one, the deflector shields Loki used didn’t work in an atmosphere.

Smaller than the battleship Redemption was nonetheless the largest human craft engaged in the fight and her intervention had momentarily shifted the fight more towards X-COM’s favour, her point-defence guns putting the hurt on the smaller saucers as her main armament directed its fury on her opposite number. A second blast of plasma-beam fire from the battleship nearly depleted her shields entirely and the third was going to hurt bad, the crew knew, but they were soldiers and this was their job. They had hid from the fight once but never again, this wasn’t their homeworld but it was a human world and that was enough. ‘The moment our shields go down and we can use the transporter again beam the engine of that fucking thing into our hold’ Tanner ordered.

‘Sir when the shield goes those fighters are going to be all over our ass’ Ted the ship’s weapons officer pointed out as he continued to fire the ships guns.

‘Our hull should be able to take a few hits before we have to get out of here’ Tanner replied, ‘support our fighters as long as we can’ he ordered.

‘I guess that leave we were promised is cancelled?’ Martin commented. ‘We’ll have to help fix the ship first’ he said.

‘Crap, I had tickets booked for the fight at Caesars Palace’ Ted complained.

‘Boxing is a barbaric sport’ Tanner observed, ‘the people on this planet are thugs’ he opined. ‘Will you kill that prick already’ he snarled as another beam of green plasma struck Redemption, this time overloading the shields and tearing into her hull, making the ship shudder violently.

‘Teleporter has failed’ Martin reported, ‘that hit cut the power conduits to the system’ he said.

‘Shit’ Tanner swore.

Redemption fired its particle cannon again, this time causing a critical hit and exploding one of the battleships three elerium engines. It lurched sideways, then with a bright secondary explosion that rippled across its hull it began to tumble towards Earth. ‘Got the bastard’ Ted said with a vicious grin.

Cameron Mitchell momentarily watched the second alien battleship plummet as he pulled into a tight turn to try and lose the saucer now on his own tail. He knew that the aliens suffered morale problems too, they could panic and run away just like humans if you put them under enough pressure.

The third battleship was now swinging around to fire on Redemption, it had been busy until now with a pair of Reapers but they had been driven off by the alien ship’s escorts and it was now free to engage the human ship, with shields down Redemption wouldn’t stand up too long under the punishment it could deliver.

A huge thunderbolt from above streaked down from the stratosphere and impacted the battleship, blowing it apart with a single shot. ‘Enterprise’ Mitchell realised with another howl of triumph. Another squadron of F-302’s bearing the markings of those now assigned to Earth’s flagship now came hurtling into the fight too, scrambled from the captured Goa’uld mothership now in orbit directly overhead.

The handful of scientists watching from their biological research station on the Kerguelen Islands nearby had no idea what was going on high above. The French government which owned the islands had been reporting a great deal of unusual meteor activity going on the last couple of years so they guessed it was another of the wave of meteor storms, it all looked very pretty though they thought and made a nice change from the normal routine.

The team manning the satellite tracking station also based on the island knew better but they were affiliated with X-COM too like almost all other agency watching the skies right around the world. One advantage a UN organisation had was that almost every government was already in on the secret and they cooperated to keep it concealed from the entire planet, the pre-X-COM involvement SGC never had that kind of freedom of action.

The firework display eventually died down and the scientists went back to work, one swore later that he saw an aircraft with strange markings swoop down low over the Islands and do what he thought was a victory roll before heading north-west at a phenomenal speed but the others just thought he’d been at the cognac again.



Unknown Hat’ak Ship – L5 Lagrange Point (Earth/Moon System) – June 2002

‘Anise what the hell is going on with the doors?’ O’Neill yelled into his headset as yet another one slammed shut in front of his face.

‘I don’t know Colonel’ the Tok’ra replied from the ships bridge. ‘I think Major Carter repaired the internal sensors, I am tracking Jaffa and three unidentified species the ship doesn’t recognise through the ship’ she said. ‘The doors seem to have a life of their own I have no ability to control them.’

‘I didn’t repair the sensors they just came back on by themselves’ Carter interrupted from the computer core.

‘I’m trying to flank the guys trying to flank Gaston and his men but every time I get close a door seals me off from them’ O’Neill complained, Teal’c was getting annoyed too, he looked angry, you could tell by the very slight change in his expression.

‘You should be grateful Colonel’ Anise responded, ‘an airlock just opened and vented the atmosphere in the section ahead of you’ she told him. ‘Several of the creatures that arrived on Loki’s vessels have been ejected into space’ she said.

‘Carter that virus Thor left behind is making the ship go crazy’ O’Neill told her. ‘Get rid of it before I get sucked into space’ he ordered.

‘I’m trying Sir’ Carter replied.

‘This is very strange’ Anise announced curiously. ‘The doors are opening and closing in a distinct pattern’ she said. ‘They seem to be channelling the Jaffa and Loki’s forces towards each other and preventing either of the two groups manoeuvring behind the human troops’ she continued. ‘It’s very unlikely this is random’ she opined.

‘Weird’ O’Neill responded in surprise. ‘Loki’s boys will slaughter the Jaffa, they don’t have the hardware to take on that kind of opposition’ he said.

‘Indeed’ Teal’c agreed, Staff-Weapons would need multiple hits to bring down the more formidable opponents such as Muton’s and the creatures were near-immune to zat’nik’tel discharges thanks to the organic armour bonded to their skin.

‘More doors are opening in sequence’ Anise reported, ‘the Jaffa now have access to the ships main armoury’ she said.

‘The armoury holds portable Staff-Cannon and large numbers of Goa’uld Shock Grenades’ Teal’c noted, ‘those would give the Jaffa a much better chance to acquit themselves well in battle’ he said. ‘This is very convenient turn of events O’Neill’ he said suspiciously. ‘Our enemies may weaken each other considerably, the Jaffa are the elite of Anubis Armies and will surely inflict some losses before we have to deal with Loki’s troops ourselves’ he reasoned.

‘I agree’ O’Neill replied, ‘Carter, Anise, there’s something going on here and I want to know what it is’ he said.

‘Another small group of Loki’s soldiers have been vented into space’ Anise announced. ‘The majority of others are further inside the ship and are sealing the doors behind them to prevent it occurring any more’ she continued.

‘What’s the count?’ O’Neill asked.

‘I make it twenty-eight Jaffa and a combined fifty-seven of the other enemy troops remaining Colonel’ Anise answered. ‘They will encounter each other within minutes at their current rates of advance’ she said. ‘Many of Loki’s forces are still heading for the shield and hyperdrive generators however, they appear to be blasting their way through the doors with powerful explosive devices.’

‘Elerium grenades I’ll bet’ O’Neill supposed, they had more explosive yield than a whole satchel load of plastic explosives. ‘Any heading for the computer core?’ he asked.

‘Not as yet, as Major Carter will be pleased to hear I’m sure’ Anise told him.

‘Colonel O’Neill this is Gaston, I’ve been listening in, do you want us to back off and let the aliens fight it out between themselves?’ the X-COM officer asked.

‘Just stop either group making it up to the bridge, otherwise let them soften each other up Captain’ O’Neill replied. ‘Call it Operation Vulture, swoop in and chew up what’s left afterwards’ he instructed.

‘I hate leftovers but understood Sir, Gaston Out’ the Captain responded.

Across the other side of the great ship, and a deck above the one O’Neill was on, the first Jaffa to see a Muton had no idea what the hell the hulking great creature was but decided that shooting at it was the best course of action. This was in fact an error of judgement as he discovered when the blast of plasma from his staff weapon splashed on its torso leaving a blackened and scorched wound but causing insufficient actual damage to do much more than make the alien scream in pain and become extremely angry.

The genetically engineered and cybernetically enhanced Muton soldier retaliated in kind and fired back with it’s own plasma weapon, a more accurate and considerably more powerful Heavy Plasma Rifle. The bright green bolt of energy blew a hole right through the Jaffa large enough to fit the Muton’s own very large fist through and so began a fierce exchange of fire between the two sides which rapidly escalated as more and more got involved.

‘Okay, now this is sweet’ O’Neill stated a few minutes later, as moving through the ship he rounded another corner and in the distance at the end of the corridor saw green and white balls of energy hurtling back and forth as the two alien factions fought for territory. The Jaffa were clearly being forced back but as he watched a Muton was blown in half by a Staff-Cannon blast, the Jaffa much have bought it up after deciding they needed more firepower as Teal'c thought they would so it certainly wasn’t all a one way affair.

A familiar feeling in his mind caused O’Neill to wince. ‘Psionics’ he hissed. ‘Carter we’ve got telepaths in the house, if they come calling on that big brain of yours make sure Kemp hits you with a zat’ he ordered into his radio. Carter had very low resistance to psionic attack. ‘Jonas you out there?’ he asked.

‘I’m here Colonel’ Jonas Quinn responded from the bridge.

‘Now would be a good time to try out that Psi Amp Jonas’ O’Neill advised. ‘What are we dealing with here?’ he asked.

On the bridge Jonas unhooked the Psionic Amplifier from his belt and switched it on. Although with the device he was the second strongest telepath ever encountered by X-COM, after Cassandra Fraser, he had never used the ability outside of controlled conditions. ‘Here goes nothing’ he said to Sergeant Andianov as he cranked up the amplifier’s power output and reached out across the ship with his mind.

Alien intelligences were everywhere, he touched each in turn finding Jaffa and Muton’s first, then Sectoid Engineers looking for the upgraded systems Anubis had fitted to the ship and finally he encountered minds that seemed alien but somehow similar to his own. Ethereals, the strongest psionics Loki had yet produced with his DNA tampering.

An Ethereal detected Jonas and fought back mentally, Jonas found he was able to easily keep the alien from his own mind and retaliated in kind. ‘Fear me’ he telepathically told the Ethereal who immediately dropped the weapon it was carrying and collapsed into a gibbering wreck on the deck. Cool, Jonas thought happily, adopting a word he had heard Colonel O’Neill use and he connected to another Ethereal trying something more ambitious.

Near the hyperdrive an Ethereal suddenly stopped what it was doing and turning and raising the plasma pistol it was carrying emptied half the clip into the back of a Muton. The great alien footsoldier fell and the Ethereal then shot dead a very confused Sectoid before finally putting the pistol to the side of its own head and pulling the trigger.

On the bridge Jonas suddenly turned and threw up on the deck. Apparently causing something to commit suicide when you were controlling its mind was a bad idea he had just discovered, the feeling was quite unpleasant in the extreme. ‘Are you okay?’ Andianov asked.

‘Not really’ Jonas replied, ‘give me a second’ he added as the feeling of nausea subsided.

Anise looked none too happy. ‘The Goa’uld have slaves to clear up something like that’ she said, ‘we don’t, try not to do that again’ she requested.

‘Unexpected side-effect’ Jonas replied, taking a swig of water from his canteen. ‘On the plus side I just proved I’m a stronger telepath than an Ethereal’ he said.

‘Do they have stronger stomachs?’ Andianov asked him sarcastically.

In the computer core Carter finally figured out what was going on with the ship. ‘Colonel O’Neill, Thor didn’t leave a virus behind, he left himself behind’ she said.

‘What?’ came the incredulous reply.

‘Thor must have downloaded his entire consciousness into the ships computer, Anubis couldn’t get rid of it so the majority of the crew abandoned ship once Thor took over completely’ Carter told him. The self-destruct was activated so Thor had to shut down certain higher-level systems to stop it and then directed the Ha’tak towards Earth where he might find some help’ she said.

‘You’re shitting me?’ O’Neill replied, ‘no offence Major’ he added.

‘None taken Sir’ Carter replied. ‘We’ve seen the transfer of a complete consciousness to a machine before such as our Android Duplicates’ she said. ‘Sir the Asgard might be able to put in back into a clone, that might have been what Thor was thinking’ she suggested.

‘So it’s been Thor helping us out?’ O’Neill asked. ‘Screwing with the Jaffa and the other alien assholes?’

‘That would be my guess Colonel’ Carter told him. ‘He could be listening to us right now’ she said. ‘The ship did give the Jaffa access to the armoury right after you suggested they needed more firepower, the sound coming from the intercom is likely Thor's garbled speech’ she noted.

‘Excellent’ O’Neill responded. ‘Thanks Thor buddy’ he added, hoping he wasn’t just addressing a computer virus.

‘The Jaffa are in full retreat after taking heavy losses’ Anise reported. ‘And Jonas has regurgitated his full stomach after taking ill’ she added confusingly.

‘Okay’ O’Neill replied, ‘Thor if you can hear me let the big green guys through and then open the doors so our people can get behind them and shoot some lasers up their ass’ he said. ‘With luck we can pin Loki’s jerks in a crossfire’ he said. Muton’s were big and tough but they were dumb as hell.

‘Sir the shield generators are back on-line, I think the aliens have managed to get control of that part of the system’ Carter announced, looking at a display.

‘The Enterprise is heading back in this direction’ Anise told them by way of explanation. ‘If the aliens are able to power the weapons as well this ship will likely be able to destroy our own Ha’tak’ she pointed out, the ship they were on was greatly upgraded from the standard model she knew.

‘Screw that’ O’Neill responded. ‘Gaston we need to kick some ass before we lose a perfectly good mothership, either Enterprise or this one because we blow it up ourselves’ he said.

‘Ready for action Colonel’ Captain Gaston replied, ‘I wish we had a few P3-A1 Heavy Plasma’s though’ he added, mentioning the X-COM copy of the heaviest weapon Loki's forces used ‘You need a few good hits with an L2-A2 to bring down a Muton’ he noted.

‘Do what you can with what you’ve got Captain’ O’Neill told him. ‘It’s time Thor’ he continued, ‘Gaston when those doors open you move’ he ordered.

Captain Jake Gaston got his Laser Rifle ready and prepared to lead his squad into action again, if they timed this right they could take out at least a few enemy soldiers cheaply and level the playing field a little against a stronger, tougher and better-armed opponent.

A door slid open to his right. ‘Up and at ‘em X-COM!’ he yelled and started to move, his troops hot on his heels as they pounded up the metal deck, each door before them opening in turn as they arrived at it.

The human soldiers from half a dozen nations crashed into the rear of the Muton advance against the remaining Jaffa and concentrating their fire cut down the first few they encountered. Laser and plasma fire scorched flesh and burned through armour as the three-way battle degenerated into near chaos. O’Neill and Teal’c threw themselves into the fray as Jonas Quinn regained his composure and once again started to deal with the smaller numbers of Ethereals who had come aboard.

In the aftermath the familiar smell of burned flesh and the sound of moans filled the rooms and corridors where the fighting had been most intense. All of the human wounded and even some of the dead would be saved by hand-held healing devices and the use of captured sarcophagi but the Jaffa and Muton dead would not be so fortunate. ‘There’s still a few of the fuckers left’ Gaston told his troops as they shot and stunned any remaining enemy soldiers. Wounded troopers able to do so used their medi-kits to inject painkillers and stimulants and a trooper trained to use a goa'uld hand-held healing device was treating the most severe injuries in turn. It took great practice to master the device, plus an injection of both naquada and goa'uld genetic markers to operate it at all, but it was a literal life-saver in the field.

‘If we can re-take the shield generator room we can lower them and get reinforcements sent over from the Enterprise to help deal with the rest’ O’Neill told him. ‘What are your losses?’ he asked more quietly.

‘Seven dead, at least three permanently’ Gaston replied evenly, anything short of getting your head blown off was usually recoverable these days so there were different grades of KIA. ‘Pretty light considering’ he added.

‘Too damn many’ O’Neill replied, too damn young he added to himself, looking down at the broken corpse of a blond girl who looked like she should still be at high-school. That could just be his age though, he thought sadly, anyone under thirty looked twelve these days.

‘Alright Troopers, you heard the Colonel, let’s take that fucking shield generator’ Gaston ordered.

‘Teal’c take point’ O’Neill told him. ‘The rest of you follow me’ he ordered.

‘Long way from home to die’ Gaston observed as they double-timed towards their destination.

‘Lot closer to home than where I’ve lost people before Captain’ O’Neill told him. Anywhere in the Solar System was practically Earth’s doorstep when you were used to stargate travel. ‘This is home turf’ he said.

‘Think the aliens will eventually get the idea we don’t like them coming here without an invite?’ Gaston asked.

‘I think we’re doing a damn fine job of getting the message across’ O’Neill replied. ‘Of course they ain’t always that bright’ he added.

‘Depends how much you nuke them Sir’ Gaston observed.