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.