XSGCOM: Mirror Image

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.