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 2003
Five minutes into the tale the Marine Sergeant was still animatedly recounting his version of the fighting on Chulak to a rapt audience of those who hadn’t been there, better than a dozen base personnel were gathered around the table SG-3 was sat at. ‘So we're still stuck in the forest a few miles from the stargate trying to force the rest of the garrison to either surrender or pull back and then the Commander gets pissed-off and requests close-air-support’ he said, ‘I mean we’re thinking the F-302’s are going to make a return visit after chasing off the Death Gliders that attacked us earlier but no, it’s better than that’ he declared. ‘Freaking Prometheus comes barrelling in, maybe a couple of hundred feet above the treetops, and does a goddamn strafing-run with her Rippers’ the marine exclaimed miming the event be sweeping his left hand over the table, pretending to shoot up the salt and pepper pots. ‘Swear to God’ he promised, raising his right hand. ‘I don’t know what the Jaffa thought about getting strafed by a ship twice the length of a football field but when that big mother turned in the sky and came around for another pass they must have lost some faith in Apophis because they all ran like hell’ he told them, starting to laugh.
‘You should have seen the damage those rotary staff-cannon did’ Breytenbach the X-COM member of SG-3 added, his South African accent as noticeable as the metal claw which had replaced the forearm he lost to a Sectoid plasma weapon. ‘Trees were turned to kindling, afterwards it looked like someone had put a fire-break through the forest’ he said, reaching across his food tray for the salt with his good hand. ‘It was at least a klick long, like a tornado had swept through’ he said.
‘Oh yeah’ the Marine Sergeant agreed, ‘and then Sharp orders the additional X-COM guys he bought in specially for the mission to chase ‘em down so they don’t get a chance to stop running and regroup’ he said. ‘There’s like fifty dudes in Powered Armour running through the trees and they’re all howling and shit, got the external speakers on the suits cranked all the way up’ he continued. ‘Christ only knows what the Jaffa thought, maybe they figured it was demons?’ he suggested, they were know to be superstitious as hell and powered-armour was deployed infrequently as a rule. ‘Either way I hear the Jaffs kept running until they ran into a river they couldn’t get across.’
‘So what happened then?’ a technician asked curiously.
‘Oh, half of the rest of us headed for the factory where they were making those new fancy Death Gliders that come through the gate, while the others went to link up with Bra’tac and the Free Jaffa who had arrived to take the city’ the marine replied. ‘It fell pretty fast, the locals didn’t like the garrison, they were mainly Sokar’s old guys, so they weren’t in much of a mood to back them up.’
‘No I meant what happened to the Jaffa that ran to the river’ the technician told him.
‘We killed them all’ another voice spoke up, everyone turning to the speaker who was sat alone at the next table. The man in an X-COM jumpsuit with Captain’s Rank Insignia on it was still writing on a notepad, not having looked up from it, and had delivered the line dispassionately. He was tall and muscular, almost bulky in fact like a lot of the X-COM troops, even if they weren’t like that to start with the steroids and other pharmaceuticals, accompanied by a lot of exercise, soon tended to leave them that way.
‘Didn’t they want to surrender Sir?’ the technician queried.
‘We didn’t really give them much of a chance’ the X-COM Captain replied evenly, still writing on his pad.
‘Oh’ the technician responded before looking back to the others. ‘Who’s he?’ he whispered.
‘New guy assigned to the SGC’ one of the others, an Army Ranger whispered back, ‘transferred in the day before yesterday, Chulak was his first off-world operation’ he said. ‘I think his name's Gaston.’
‘Great, another hard-core X-COM psycho’ someone muttered disparagingly then realised the company. ‘No offence meant there Brey’ he told the South African awkwardly.
‘None taken, but I’ve gone soft hanging around with you wimps the last couple of years’ Breytenbach replied with a smile. With his injury he would never have been cleared for missions against Loki’s forces so after having to prove he could still do his job well enough to fight Jaffa Breytebach had remained with the SGC for some time now, not transferring back to the other alien war like others had done.
Jake Gaston put down his notepad and pen and resumed operations against what purported to be a pasta salad but which he suspected was a failed cloning experiment of some kind. Next time he would opt to screw the “healthy option” and go for the steak and fries instead he decided, forking the food into his mouth. The throng next to him eventually broke up as the war stories petered out and the canteen began to empty out as people returned to duty. Gaston had a couple of hours before he was due to attend a mission briefing so he didn’t hurry to leave himself, for one thing the pasta was putting up considerable resistance, being harder to chew up than a few hundred Jaffa.
The fighting on Chulak had in fact been pretty hard, the soldiers of Apophis determined and generally well-equipped by their standards. Eventually though superior Tau’ri firepower had crushed any resistance, hovertanks and powered-armour, plus unusually air-support for once, proving more than a match for anything the enemy could offer up against them. A number of ordinary Death Gliders had tried to stop their advance from the stargate but the F-302X Grim Reapers launched by Prometheus had soon established Air Superiority and then Air Supremacy over the battlefield, superior weapons, manoeuvrability and engines would have given them a massive edge even without their shields and the Grim Reapers lived up to their name, scything Death Gliders from the skies with ease. Later three of the newer model goa’uld fighters, the version that could travel via stargate had joined the fray, scrambled to try and stop Tau’ri robot hovertanks advancing on the factory that produced them. Shielded and hugging the dirt they proved to be much harder to deal with but eventually they were shot down too, their modified Tel’tak shields able to absorb Laser-Cannon fire from the F-302X but no match for the Plasma Beams they carried too.
Unfortunately it seemed that most of the gate-fighters were off-world on a training exercise, along with their commanding officer, but the factory which made them was at least destroyed which would put a brake on the ability of Apophis to deploy them in number for a while. The facility had been shielded, but nowhere near as strongly as the Ha’tak the X-303 had already taken out and the Tau’ri Capital Ship had simply pounded the shield with her Rippers until it collapsed in one spot then surgically shot out the shield generator inside the complex with her beams. The generator had exploded, causing a fair deal of collateral damage and a number of deaths among the slave-labour force, but it was better than nuking the entire place to radioactive rubble in terms of minimising casualties. It also gave the attacking forces the opportunity to search for a retrieve anything interesting from the place, Prometheus on its way back to Earth was now carrying a couple of half-finished gate-fighters, as well as her normal complement of F-302’s, and the Free-Jaffa had hauled off all the Staff-Cannon they could.
As Gaston recalled the fighting, and wondered if he would ever be allowed to publish his memoirs because they’d make for a great read, he noticed a girl in civilian clothes was collecting trays from the racks by the door. They were deposited there by those leaving the mess-hall and she seemed to be taking them away to the kitchen to be cleaned. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt along with what looked like a hairband crossed with what was almost a strangely ornate silver tiara, the latter being excessively showy and ornate for the surroundings Gaston decided. He noticed she also had something which might have been a old-fashioned CD Walkman clipped to her belt before his thoughts drifted again and he wondered if his green Jell-O dessert was going to disappoint as much as the rest of the meal.
A couple of guys in USAF fatigues got up from a table on the other side of the room and headed for the exit leaving their trays behind on the table. They were half-way there when the girl emerged from the kitchen again and spotted the discarded trays causing her to adopt an angered expression.
Gaston expected her to call out to them and complain but instead she reached out one hand roughly in their direction and then swept it to one side. This in itself just looked odd but what really astonished him was that simultaneously an empty chair suddenly shot across the room of its own accord and stopped in front of the two USAF personnel barring their way out. They turned around and the girl scowled at them before pointing to their table, tapping her foot in annoyance, after a couple of seconds they sighed resignedly and went back to collect their trays to deposit them on the racks like they were supposed to, the girl now looking slightly smug.
The girl then noticed Gaston staring at her, nobody else was paying much attention they had seen it all before and at least she hadn’t fired a fork past their heads into the door as a warning shot. ‘What are you looking at?’ she asked the X-COM officer sternly, glaring back at him, hands now on hips.
‘Cassandra Fraser, apparently the most intimidating busgirl in the galaxy’ Gaston replied. He wasn’t aware of any other human telekinetics so it was a safe bet on her identity, even if the report he read on her hadn’t contained a photograph. He did reasonably wonder however why the hell they had her helping out doing this of all things, maybe she was on KP for accidentally frying some poor bastard’s brains he wondered, her Psionic abilities were supposed to be in the hundreds and improving with practice.
‘Right’ Cassie confirmed, her fame amongst those cleared to read files marked above top-secret clearly preceded her. ‘Who are you?’ she asked the stranger.
‘I thought you could just read that straight out of my head?’ Gaston replied.
‘I can if you give me permission’ Cassie replied with a smirk. ‘Not allowed to otherwise’ she told him.
‘Permission denied’ Gaston told her quickly, he didn’t want anyone or anything rooting around in his thoughts, a couple of etherials and a sectoid officer had done that before and he didn’t like it one bit even if he did have fairly good psionic scores and had kept them out after a mental struggle. ‘Captain Jake Gaston, just transferred in’ he told her.
‘Like I really care’ Cassandra replied, rolling her eyes. ‘Just put your tray in the rack when you leave and don’t you dare spill anything on your table’ she told him harshly before turning away.
‘Yes Ma’am’ Gaston responded, starting to grin. He supposed the thing on her head was a neural interface connected to the gadget on her belt which he now assumed was some sort of custom Psionic Amplifier. ‘Cute’ he said with a chuckle then giving up on his salad started on his dessert with one hand while opening his notebook to a fresh page and starting to write with another.
After he left and Cassandra collected his tray, properly deposited on the racks of course, she found a note on it, or rather a short poem about the prophetess Cassandra of Troy. It was weird but what surprised her more was that after checking on-line she suspected that the new guy had just written the damn thing then and there because while she couldn’t find it anywhere after some googling she did discover a book of poetry on called “Lost in Wonder” written by one Jake Gaston. What the hell kind of gung-ho X-COM officer writes poetry anyway, she wondered, before ordering it on a whim.
Palace of Apophis – Delmak – April 2003
With the chappa'ai protected by an energy shield and the planet itself defended not only by eight Ha’tak vessels and twenty Al'kesh, but also hundreds of Death Gliders and the great flagship of Apophis himself the Jaffa garrison on Delmak did not think they were likely to see much action during their time there. Indeed Apophis rotated troops from the front lines back to Delmak after their units had been badly mauled and it was considered a place where his loyal regiments could recuperate and train replacements before being sent back into the fray.
They weren’t expecting trouble on Delmak but today they were going to get it in spades.
A Jaffa guard walked the perimeter of the palace, staff ready for battle, a zat'nik’'el on his wrist holster and alert despite he fact nobody had ever tried to attack the home of his master. The sound of his boots rhythmically hitting the stone floor echoed off the walls as he went and he occasionally passed another guard marching in the other direction, or a human slave busying themselves with the task of keeping the building and its environs spotless.
A flash of light behind him had the Jaffa instantly spin and raise his staff, he stared at the hulking creature stood there which appeared to be wearing green almost organic-looking clothing or armour that covered its whole body except its face. ‘Halt in the name of Apophis’ the Jaffa thundered, activating his staff, readying it to fire.
The alien looked back at him and began to raise a weapon the Jaffa had not seen before. The guard fired and the orange bolt of plasma impacted the creature in the centre of its chest resulting in nothing but leaving a black mark behind. ‘Not good’ the Jaffa said with a grimace before the alien aimed his weapon and blew a hole right through both him and his armour, turning much of his torso and the goa’uld prim’ta he carried into bloody mush.
As more and more of the invaders appeared in a flash of light Jaffa horns sounded alert and the palace guard rose to do battle for their god. Meeting their opponents head on, and careless of their losses, Jaffa would usually prefer to die rather than show cowardice or fail their lord and master and just because this new terrible enemy was strange and unknown that did not mean they would break their vows or ignore years of training and centuries of tradition.
Serpent Guards, the elite of the armies of Apophis, skilled warriors of proven loyalty quickly abandoned their heavy and clumsy ceremonial helmets and engaged the foe. They fought with tenacity and near suicidal courage but they soon discovered that the armour of the green-clad beasts was as invulnerable to zat’nik’tel fire as the new body armour their god had begun to produce and it was even better at resisting staff-bolts.
Other aliens began to appear, wearing long hooded cloaks that almost resembled those favoured by Anubis, or Sokar who had himself once ruled this world, they seemed to be acting as officers directing the others though without making a sound. They fell more easily to Jaffa weapons but where they went the defenders nearby began to feel fear gnaw at their souls and the terror caused some to drop their weapons and flee, only to wonder later why they did so.
The Jaffa did not know who they were fighting but a supposed minor goa’uld in the service of Apophis, who also lived in the palace, knew very well what they were when he caught a glimpse of them. A Tok'ra infiltrator he had heard of the other enemies of the Tau’ri and realised that the servants of the false god Apophis were now up against the warriors of another deity from the many human pantheons, Loki the Asgard, trickster god and renegade. Mutons, genetically engineered super-warriors and Ethereals, powerful psionic creations born of ancient Asgard genetic stock, now stalked the great halls and corridors, fighting the guards and apparently searching for something judging by their behaviour.
Heavy Plasma Rifles that had more firepower than a light staff-cannon thundered in the marble-clad corridors as the Mutons ploughed on through the palace, smashing any resistance aside with ease. Apophis himself was in orbit aboard his flagship otherwise even more Jaffa guards would have been present and the slaughter even greater. Elerium grenades made short work of heavy doors and internal walls as Loki’s troops continued on their way, searching rooms but seemingly ignoring the treasures and technology they found there. Mere gold and jewels nor primitive goa’uld devices were of any interest to the aliens, they wanted to seize something special, something they knew was there but had been unable to get a firm sensor lock upon.
Thousands more Jaffa rallied to the palace from the city that surrounded it, eventually sheer weight of numbers began to tell as the invaders, who numbered less than a hundred in total, were faced by a force already now twenty times that number and rising fast. Even so Jaffa losses were approaching horrific levels and then leaped clear over that point as the few Muton soldiers so-equipped started to fire off their “Blaster-Bomb” miniature guided missiles to hold back the Jaffa tide, small nuclear explosions killing scores at a time, some simply incinerated by the fireball, others smashed by the blast waves.
Ethereals scanned the minds of any they came upon, looking for information that might lead them to their target. Although the loyal warriors of the System Lords could not be themselves be easily mind-controlled, albeit it mainly because of interference from the prim’ta within them rather than unswerving faith, the human slaves also in the palace could and those that were picked up discarded zat’nik’tels or staffs and began fighting the Jaffa themselves under the psionic command of the aliens.
‘What are these orac?’ a Jaffa exclaimed as a muton finally fell to a volley of staff-blasts, the creature taking better than fifteen hits to finally bring it down. Orac, unspeakable monsters, was a good name for them he decided. His group had been over a hundred strong when it arrived at the palace and was now less than twenty-five, a trail of corpses marking the route they had taken.
‘I do not know brother’ another replied, ‘but I will never again tell my young son that if he doesn’t say his prayers an Unas will come for him in the dark’ he said. ‘These demons would use Unas as snacks’ he declared. ‘I have faced the cross-marked warriors of the Tau'ri Warlord Sharp in battle and even they are nothing by comparison’ he said, picking up the muton's rifle but finding himself unable to use it.
‘We should wait for the staff-cannon to arrive’ another Jaffa opined, several others nodding their heart-felt agreement. ‘I was told they were going to be bought via rings and would be here soon’ he noted.
‘And let these things despoil the holy palace of our god longer than they have to?’ another responded deridingly. ‘It is our duty to wipe them out and cleanse this place of their presence’ he declared hefting his staff. ‘They are strong but we can make them fall’ he told the others, indicating the one nearby. ‘And if we are to die could any of us hope to ever meet a more mighty foe?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘Come Jaffa, this is a glorious battle’ he exclaimed.
‘Then you go first’ the Jaffa who had suggested they wait for the staff-cannon told him. He was far from being afraid despite the situation but it was stupid to throw your life away for a building when more effective heavy weapons would be arriving soon. Several others laughed at his scathing delivery of the line.
‘Cowardly shol'va’ the Jaffa who wanted to go on immediately sneered back at him. The warrior the insult was directed against bristling at the accusation he was a traitor. If the cannon had not been coming he would have done his duty and gone on without them but in the circumstances he would rather not gift the enemy more easy kills for little purpose. ‘I will show my loyalty by going on even if nobody else does’ the Jaffa who wanted to press on declared and headed down the corridor, pausing to spit on the corpse of the muton on the way.
‘He desperately wishes promotion’ the Jaffa who had mentioned fighting the X-COM humans before commented. ‘If he ever achieves his aim I have heard tale of a tradition amongst the armies of the Tau’ri called “fragging” which we may wish to adopt’ he suggested.
Eventually the alien invaders found their goal secured in a vault, it was a well-timed discovery because the Jaffa had finally deployed the heavier weapons they needed to fight back effectively and were pushing hard. A muton blew open the vault door and an Ethereal went through and seized their prize, signalling their success it then beamed out with the others of its kind leaving the disposable mutons to fight to the last. Apophis would be left with the weaponry they had been carrying but without elerium to power them they were useless as he discovered to his anger when he had them analysed.
In orbit the Asgard ship Loki had taken with him when he left his people activated its faster-than-light drive and a hyperspace window opened. As it did so the advanced cloaking device it had been using powered down and now detectable by the goa'uld vessels the ship was under fire as it accelerated away into sub-space. Its Asgard engines were far too swift for a pursuit to be worthwhile even if the Ha'tak of Apophis could have kept track of it which they couldn’t after less than thirty seconds, the ship already a vast distance away.
Less than an hour later on Tartarus the chappa'ai there activated as an incoming wormhole formed between that planet and somewhere else in the galaxy. Like the one on Delmak an energy shield prevented anyone coming through uninvited but despite this a figure appeared in front of it, a shimmering hologram of a small form stood before both the event horizon of the chappa’ai and the forcefield in front of it.
Anubis was soon told of the visitor who had requested an audience with him from the Jaffa nearby and uncharacteristically hurried to the chamber where the chappa'ai stood. ‘I am Anubis’ he said to the hologram.
‘Greetings’ the hologram replied. ‘I wish to discuss an alliance’ it said.
Anubis looked the image up and down. ‘The Asgard wish an alliance?’ he responded. ‘I doubt that.’
‘I am not affiliated with the High Council of my race’ the hologram told him. ‘I am Loki, I consider myself freelance’ the Asgard renegade told him. ‘We have much to offer each other Anubis, I have resources and technologies you do not and my monitoring of your war with Apophis indicates you will need my assistance to prevent him taking over this galaxy.’
‘And why would you wish me to do that?’ Anubis wanted to know.
‘For the same reason I would help him fight you if the strategic situation were reversed’ Loki replied honestly. ‘I do not wish goa'uld unity under one banner, collectively you would be a threat to my race and though they think me a traitor I have only their best interests at heart’ he declared.
‘Why should I take this proposal seriously?’ Anubis asked. ‘This could easily be a trick.’
‘Realising this would be an issue I have arranged a act of good faith’ Loki replied. ‘Forces under my command have earlier this day attacked the palace of your enemy Apophis and slew many of his Jaffa’ he said. ‘This was not however their goal’ he continued. ‘I have an item in my possession I know you have been seeking and offer it as a token.’
‘What item?’ Anubis wanted to know.
‘The Eye of Apophis’ Loki told him. ‘I will have it delivered to the world of your choosing assuming you are not likely to lower the forcefield here to allow me to present it in person’ he said.
Anubis was more than surprised by this revelation. ‘The fourth Eye’ he said. ‘If I could only obtain the other two I could wreak havoc on the fleets of Apophis’ he declared.
Loki crossed his thin arms. ‘I have also recently obtained the Eye of Tiamat, or at least I will have it once I can arrange collection’ he said.
‘You cannot’ Anubis responded doubtfully. ‘That is in the hands of the Tau'ri’ he noted.
‘Your failure to obtain it it from them by brute force and intimidation may have failed but I had subtler means at my disposal and have infiltrated their world’ Loki replied. ‘Their leaders do not even know it is missing’ he said with a definite degree of smugness to his tone. ‘I will hand over the Eye of Tiamat also, but in return I wish one of your newest Ha'tak class vessels with all the Asgard technology upgrades I know you obtained from your interrogation of Thor.’
‘You are well informed’ Anubis told him. ‘And if you are able to deliver what you say you can you have a bargain’ he agreed.
‘Excellent’ Loki replied. ‘In the meantime I have some news that may be of interest’ he said. ‘You may have heard the rumours of the return of Egeria to the Tok'ra?’ he asked.
‘Unsubstantiated rumours I discounted’ Anubis responded.
‘It is true’ Loki told him, earning a growl from Anubis. ‘Perhaps a mutually beneficial exchange of information is in order’ he said. ‘I will tell you of Egeria, and some cloning techniques and related technologies that may prove useful, and in return you will explain how it is exactly that you have made so many improvements to your ships using what is clearly the science of the Ancients.’
‘Once the Eye of Apophis is in my hand and you have proved your trustworthiness I think we will have much to talk about’ Anubis told Loki.
Some time afterwards when the new alliance between Anubis and Loki became known the news was greeted with dismay everywhere. Only one man made a joke about it, as according to Jack O’Neill it could be the start of a beautiful fiend-ship.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – April 2003
Elizabeth Weir looked around the briefing room, she was there acting in the capacity of representative of the International Oversight Advisory and had been granted emergency authority to deal with the situation immediately before it escalated into an all-out diplomatic crisis. ‘So let me see if I’ve got this straight’ she said, ‘you were visited by the ghost of Daniel Jackson in the SGC elevator?’ she asked Colonel O’Neill. He was sat next to Major Carter with General Hammond and Commander Sharp sat across from them and Weir at the head of the table, surrounded by papers and reports.
‘Not so much a ghost, as an ascended being in human form’ O’Neill replied, ‘but I suppose as a description “ghost” is close enough for government work’ he said.
‘And you didn’t think it strange that the apparition of a dead team-member would appear to you in this way?’ Weir queried.
O’Neill shrugged. ‘It wouldn’t even make my top three weird-ass experiences’ he told her. ‘Maybe it’d scrape into the top five though?’ he pondered, thinking about it.
‘We have experienced ascended beings taking human form previously’ Major Carter spoke up in his defence. ‘Oma Desala at the Temple on Kheb appeared as a sort-of human-shaped spirit...’
‘And then there was that Orlin guy who had the hots for you too’ O’Neill interjected.
‘I was coming to him Sir’ Carter responded, ‘I wouldn’t have necessarily phrased it that way though’ she added. ‘Anyhow Daniel appearing isn’t exactly an event entirely outside our experience’ she said.
‘Of course at first I thought the robot version had sneaked onto the elevator somehow’ O’Neill admitted. ‘It was an Occam’s Razor sort of thing’ he said. ‘Of course the fact I could wave my hand through him pretty much knocked the sneaky android thing on the head straight away.’
Weir closed her eyes for a second and collected her thoughts. ‘Ignoring that part of the tale for a moment you say that the spirit of Daniel Jackson told you that Anubis now had possession of five of the six Eye Jewels and that, and I quote from your written statement “Each is powerful on its own but to use them in combination increases that power ten fold” correct?’ she asked.
‘That’s what he said’ O’Neill confirmed. ‘The only one he’s missing now is the Eye of Ra which Daniel says is probably still hidden on Abydos.’
‘Which is why you want to take your team there to get it before Anubis does?’ Weir checked.
O’Neill nodded. ‘Right again’ he said.
‘Presumably you mentioned at that time to him that it would be difficult for Anubis to have the other five given that Apophis still has one and another was locked up at Area 51’ Weir asked him.
‘I threw that into the conversation which is when he told me to ask the Tok’ra if they’d had any recent news from their agents on Delmak and when the last time somebody checked the doohicky of Tiamoth at Edwards was’ O’Neill replied.
‘Tiamat’ Weir corrected him. ‘So did you?’
‘Yeah’ Colonel O’Neill confirmed. ‘I sent Jacob a message over subspace and when I got a reply saying he had just heard that Loki of all people had stolen the Eye of Apophis I decided it might be worth mentioning to General Hammond and Commander Sharp that the Tiamat one needed looking at.’
Weir rubbed her temples, she could definitely feel a headache coming on. ‘You didn’t explain why you thought so?’ she asked.
‘No they’d have thought I was nuts’ O’Neill responded. ‘Right?’ he asked the two senior officers.
‘Probably’ General Hammond admitted.
‘More nuts’ Sharp told him. ‘As it was I asked an X-COM scientist named Zelenka who was already at Area 51 to check on the Eye and when he got back to me saying it had been replaced by a damn fake... I may have overreacted’ he said.
Elizabeth Weir took a deep breath. ‘Commander you ordered fifty armed X-COM Troopers to immediately teleport to Area 51 from their own bases using the Aschen supplied transport platforms, and locked down a United States Air Force facility.’
‘It’s not like they shot anyone’ Sharp said in his defence.
‘Does the phrase “National Sovereignty” mean anything to you?’ Weir asked him incredulously. ‘You had everyone on the base mind-probed, including the security staff’ she said. ‘Your soldiers wouldn’t let anyone leave until they were screened.’
‘I only sent United States Military personnel on secondment to X-COM’ Sharp noted in his defence. ‘It’s not like I dropped a platoon from the PRC in there or anything’ he told her.
Weir stared at him, was that the best he had to offer? ‘They still didn’t have one ounce of jurisdiction to take over Area 51 and you didn’t have the authority to tell them to’ she declared.
‘We caught the son-of-a-bitch that stole the thing didn’t we?’ Sharp asked rhetorically. ‘And two other NID bastards working with him’ he continued. ‘If you’d let us properly screen everyone that worked there like I advised we wouldn’t be in this situation’ he said.
General Hammond felt the need to rise to the defence of the USAF. ‘Do the Russians let X-COM mind-probe everyone at Yamantau Commander?’ he asked Sharp, knowing full well they didn’t. The Russian equivalent to Area 51 was still run from Moscow with X-COM only “guests” at the facility.
‘No’ Sharp admitted, ‘but they check out their own people with the equipment we provided’ he said. ‘All we got from the US Government was a load of crap about not wanting to violate the right to privacy of US citizens and a flimsy reassurance that everyone that was cleared to work at Area 51 was fully screened’ he noted with a snort of derision. ‘The rogue NID assholes we caught were part of the team that screened the damn applicants!’ he exclaimed, rolling his eyes.
Weir checked her notes. ‘I see that after you magnanimously decided to hand back control of Area 51 to the United States Air Force your troops then dragged the three suspects to the transport platforms and performed what you have ironically termed in your report “Extraordinary Rendition” by taking them to the X-COM Base in Poland for more in-depth questioning’ she said.
‘We gave them back a couple of hours later, they weren’t even waterboarded or put in orange jumpsuits’ Sharp replied sardonically.
‘No but they were subjected to psionic interrogation’ Weir reminded him curtly.
‘We had to make sure they weren’t acting under alien control of some kind’ Sharp told her. ‘We also checked for Goa’uld brainwashing.’
‘Your people shot them with a zat gun’ Weir responded flatly.
‘That does actually work against Goa’uld brainwashing’ Major Carter felt the need to point out.
‘See’ Sharp told Weir, it made a decent enough excuse for doing it anyway he thought. ‘None of the stupid bastards knew they were indirectly working for a damn alien, they thought they were doing it for the good of their country, well the NID guys did, the scientist who stole the Eye of Tiamat and swapped it for a copy they had made up also got two millions dollars for his trouble.’
‘Doctor Hugh Bricksdale’ Weir read from her file. ‘Once returned to the United States he was placed in detention awaiting someone to figure out what they were going to do with him.’
‘I could make a few suggestions’ Sharp muttered.
‘Regardless the question now remains what do we do now?’ Weir asked rhetorically, looking around the room.
‘Daniel said that Loki snagged the two Eyes and is giving them to Anubis’ O’Neill replied. ‘They’ve probably got some kind of evil rat-bastard support group thing going on’ he said.
‘With Anubis on the back-foot in his war with Apophis this is the ideal time for Loki to get the best deal from him’ General Hammond reasoned.
Carter nodded. ‘Anubis has Ancient Technology that we know the Asgard are interested in’ she said. ‘That technician of theirs Hermiod crawled all over that Anubis Ha’tak we scored’ she noted. ‘It’s weaponry is effective against Asgard Shields after all and they were considered almost impenetrable to anything short of a small fleet of Goa’uld motherships before.’
‘Loki is bound to want a piece of that Ancient action’ O’Neill agreed.
‘And if Loki can get a ship past all the sensors around Delmak, or the ones we have around Earth, then Anubis might well be interested in getting hold of a much better cloaking device than the ones we’ve seen before’ Carter suggested. ‘Our Anubis Ha’tak can detect Goa’uld cloaks but, according to what Daniel told the Colonel, Loki can land a ship here at will.’
‘Makes you wonder why he doesn’t use the cloak in combat?’ Sharp queried.
‘Maybe because he doesn’t want us to know he’s got it?’ O’Neill replied.
‘Did Doctor Jackson reveal any other information?’ Hammond asked.
‘No Sir, in fact he seemed surprised that he was allowed to let slip as much as he did’ O’Neill answered. ‘He said something about not being supposed to interfere in the “mortal planes” and that the others would stop him if he either helped us out directly, or gave away too much intel we shouldn’t rightfully have’ he said. ‘Teal’c thinks the ascended types must have some kind of non-interference Prime Directive like they do on Star Trek.’
‘Orlin said as much’ Carter agreed.
‘We really need to get the Eye of Ra before hooded-cloak boy gets his hands on it’ O’Neill said. ‘I’ll take my team, SG-2 and 3 and some heavy-duty hardware, we can be on Abydos inside the hour’ he said.
‘If General Hammond agrees then I can say the IOA will also’ Weir said.
‘I think I get a say on this Doctor Weir’ Sharp told her. ‘I’m in command of this facility and have the last say on off-world military deployments via the stargate’ he said.
Weir adopted a smug expression. ‘Not any more Commander, I am recommending that with immediate effect you are relieved of command of the SGC’ she said, ‘given the circumstances I feel it is very likely the full IOA Committee and the X-COM funding nations will agree’ she said.
‘What?’ Sharp shouted, getting to his feet.
‘Commander there is no way in hell that X-COM is going to be able to maintain cordial links with the United States Air Force with you here’ Weir told him. ‘You unilaterally took over another of their bases with no right to do so and you’re lucky you did find the people responsible for the theft of the alien artefact during your invasion of Area 51 or else I’m sure that Washington and the Pentagon would be demanding your head on a plate’ she said flatly. ‘As it is they’re likely too embarrassed by the security breach to do more than issue a stern complaint as long you are ousted from Stargate Command’ she declared.
‘Son-of-a bitch’ Sharp swore. ‘You can’t fire my ass’ he said. ‘You’re just a damn bureaucrat!’
‘Yes I can’ Weir told him seriously. ‘I said earlier I had the full authority of the IOA and X-COM is not as autonomous as you would like, certainly not as regards the SGC’ she said. ‘General Hammond at least in the interim I am returning command of the SGC to you’ she told him. ‘I imagine the USAF will not object?’
‘I’m sure they’ll be delighted’ Hammond replied. ‘Sorry Russell but you stepped way over the mark on this one’ he told Sharp.
‘So is this when I get escorted from Cheyenne?’ Sharp asked Weir coldly.
‘You can have all the time you require to pack up your effects Commander’ Weir replied. ‘For the record as a combat soldier I think you’ve done an exemplary job’ she told him.
‘Coming from you that means practically nothing’ Sharp replied angrily. ‘I’ll fight you on this’ he told Elizabeth Weir seriously, turning to leave.
‘I wouldn’t expect any less’ Weir replied as he headed for the door.
O’Neill looked to Carter for a second and raised his eyebrows at the turn of events before turning to General Hammond. ‘Nice to have you back in charge Sir’ he told him honestly.
‘Thank you Colonel, I just wish the circumstances were different’ Hammond replied before straightening up in his chair. ‘SG-1 you have a go on your mission to Abydos’ he said. Colonel you have overall command of SG-2 and SG-3 for the duration of operations there’ he continued. ‘Now get to it son’ he ordered.
Commander Russell Sharp stomped through the SGC with an expression on his face that guaranteed nobody would ask why he looked so mad. He knew the news would spread like wildfire anyway so he opted not to do anything rash, better to collect his thoughts first and calm down. As he neared his office he suddenly stopped walking and recalled the advice he had told many X-COM Troopers while training them for battle, if the situation changes radically try and look for new opportunities you can exploit.
Doctor Frasier heard a knock on her door and told whoever it was to come in. ‘Commander?’ she said in surprise at his unexpected visit. ‘Do you want something?’ she asked. ‘Your booster shots aren’t due until the day after tomorrow and I won't give them early you know that’ she reminded him.
Sharp stepped inside and closed the door behind him. ‘As of five minutes ago I’m no longer in charge of this facility’ he told her. ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen with that long-term but I figured that since you’re no longer under my command...’ he said then paused with an awkward, almost nervous look suddenly on his face. ‘Well I thought that since the military protocol that stopped me doing this before is thrown out of the window now...’ he continued then paused again. ‘Janet can I buy you dinner?’ he asked hopefully. ‘We could go see a movie or something afterwards’ he suggested.
Janet Frasier just stared at him for what seemed to Sharp like an eternity. ‘You’re kidding?’ she asked eventually.