I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.
High Orbit – Earth – September 2000
Hair-Trigger reflexes and a shoot-first-and-interrogate-later policy had kept Russell Sharp alive during his time with X-COM, but the very things that had maintained his grip on this mortal coil were more than occasionally detrimental to the other duties he had to undertake as a Commander in the far less heated environment of his new duties with the SGC. Aggression and decisiveness were a good survival trait in the field when you were shooting it out with Sectoids, but they did him no favours when confronted with an almost identical looking representative of the Asgard race.
Sharp looked around, the act of teleporting had not really felt of anything much physically, which had surprised him, though the experience was nonetheless more than slightly disorientating given that one second he was in the briefing room at the SGC and the next he was on an alien vessel several hundred miles above the planet.
‘You know if Thor wanted you dead he could have just beamed you into vacuum outside’ Major Carter noted, observing the expression on the Commanders face.
Sharp’s hand kept involuntarily tapping against his empty holster. ‘I am fully aware of that consciously Major’ he replied. ‘It’s my instincts which are telling me to do something other than just stand here’ he explained. It was pure fight-or-flight reflex and although he had the willpower to suppress it he was still far from happy at the situation. Once the shock of Thor’s arrival had worn off and his heart had returned to a semblance of its normal rhythm Commander Sharp had damped down his adrenaline rush and now clearly in a calmer more controlled state the Asgard had requested that he, General Hammond and the three members of SG1 present join them on his ship. All had agreed, though Sharp had involuntarily twitched at the idea and now they were stood on the bridge of an Asgard Cruiser though not to a certain Colonel’s chagrin one of the new O’Neill Class.
‘No offence Commander but you X-COM guys are wrapped way too tight’ the aforementioned O’Neill told him as Thor continued to play with the console in front of him.
‘The loose ones get a plasma bolt up the ass five minutes into their first mission’ Sharp replied evenly. ‘It’s survival of the fittest, or maybe the most paranoid’ he told him.
General Hammond was looking around with interest, his own experiences with the Asgard and their technology were far more limited than those of SG1 and on that basis he couldn’t help but act slightly like a tourist and wished he could take some photographs to show the grandkids. ‘Well you put up a hell of a fight before you calmed down’ Hammond told Sharp.
‘I’m sorry about that George but I was caught off guard’ Sharp pointed out.
‘Haven’t seen anyone put up that kind of fight since I told Colonel O’Neill he needed to complete his part of the annual report to the Joint Chiefs’ Hammond declared. ‘I thought I was going to have to break your fingers to get your pistol away from you.’
Daniel chuckled. ‘I thought we were going to have to Zat you’ he added.
Thor finished what he was doing and looked up. ‘I have finished checking with the High Council and they have agreed that in the circumstances it would be wise to reveal more than I had originally been authorised too’ the Asgard announced. ‘Until I arrived and accessed your database I was not aware of how much more serious the situation was than we had even feared.’
‘Database?’ Sharp repeated.
‘You call it your “UFOPaedia” I believe’ Thor replied. ‘Your firewall preventing remote access was surprisingly advanced, and given your overall technology level quite effective, though needless to say it was not a match for our systems.’
‘Gee thanks’ Commander Sharp replied sardonically.
Thor interlaced his fingers. ‘As must be obvious the Sectoids that have been coming to this world are kin to the Asgard’ he began.
‘No shit’ Sharp responded wryly.
‘Though when I say kin they are in fact genetically enhanced versions of our standard clone stock which have been modified for quicker reaction times, strength and physical endurance’ Thor explained, ignoring the human’s sarcastic retort.
‘They do look a lot more buff than the other Asgard I’ve seen’ O’Neill interjected.
‘That was the intent’ Thor told him. ‘Some years ago when the replicator threat had become increasing pronounced the High Council was concerned that our over-reliance on technology might prove to be our undoing in the long term, so research was undertaken to develop a more study and physically superior clone which was not as frail and could still carry our consciousness’ he explained. ‘The beings you know as Sectoids emerged from that research, although the experiments were officially abandoned when it became known how the scientist in charge of the project had achieved such results so quickly.’
‘Officially?’ Daniel repeated.
‘I’m more interested in what was wrong with the methods’ Sharp said. ‘I can guess though.’
Thor nodded. ‘As you have undoubtedly surmised the short-cut that the scientist responsible took was to incorporate sections of genetic material from other species where that material could be made compatible’ he told them. ‘Among those species were sentient ones, including your own, that were taken without their consent for purposes of experimentation.’
‘I’m shocked’ Sharp responded. ‘No wait I’m not’ he added coldly. ‘So I’m guessing your government is going to deny any responsibility and pin the blame on some rogue faction right?’ he asked.
Thor shook his head, he found adopting these human mannerisms around them aided communication. ‘Not a faction’ he said. ‘One Asgard in particular, a brilliant though single-minded scientist named Loki apparently continued the project in secret, using increasing numbers of the enhanced clones as staff, and over the years it has expanded in scope beyond measure.’
‘And you know this how?’ General Hammond inquired.
‘Once word of the Sectoid attacks on your world reached us we were more than shocked but the familiar descriptions of the invader set alarm bells ringing as you might say. It was also at this time that Loki suddenly disappeared which was more than sufficient for the High Council to order an investigation of his computer files. Most had been wiped but we pieced together enough data to become extremely worried.’
‘Assuming I buy this can we assume that you Asgard are going to step in and clean up this mess?’ Sharp asked.
Thor looked away. ‘Would that we could but the fleet is already overstretched almost to the point of breaking and Loki was very careful to make it very difficult for us to do so by deliberately using technologies that our ships cannot readily detect.’
‘Why?’ Carter asked in surprise.
‘Because they are either too low-tech and with such minimal power that they do not show up on long-range sensors or else they are so radically different from known technologies that they simply do not register’ Thor replied. ‘For example the use of this Elerium as a power source, instead of the ordinary Naquadah which powers Asgard, Goa’uld and Ancient technology alike, means that this vessel is finding it very difficult to track their ships’ he said. ‘Surprisingly your primitive radar, as with your obsolete projectile weapons against the replicators, is actually of somewhat more utility than our own sensors in this situation’ he told them.
‘Okay but there’s a lot more going on that just a few medical experiments’ Sharp declared, ‘although I’ve seen some sick shit’ he said.
Thor frowned, or at least that’s what the expression looked like. ‘Loki motivations are far more than merely seeking to create a better clone’ he said. ‘He is trying to save the Asgard race from many different threats not merely the external one of the Replicators though it is likely his development of considerable and rising military might is aimed at them’ he theorised. ‘My people are all clones, copies of copies of copies and over the millennia some degeneration was inevitable’ Thor announced. ‘Loki seeks to use human DNA to redress this, and Earth has by far the largest population of your kind in the Galaxy to experiment with, so it is an ideal target especially considering they would not have to reckon with Goa’uld Warships.’
‘Why humans especially?’ Carter queried. ‘There’s plenty of other species out there, or even here on Earth for that matter’ she pointed out.
‘Loki has apparently experimented on many races, the origins of the other creatures with whom your X-COM has done battle, but only humans, or rather some humans’ Thor noted, looking directly at O’Neill, ‘carry a genetic legacy of the ancients which is why you would be singled out for more attention.’
‘Why does that matter?’ General Hammond asked curiously.
Thor seemed to smile. ‘That was one of the things I needed the authorisation of the High council to reveal’ he replied. ‘Firstly there is an ancient gene that must be present in a being to enable them to activate certain types of their technology including weapon systems and in a longer term sense we Asgard have lost the ability to ever ascend as the Ancients did and Loki undoubtedly seeks to fix that at the expense of untold numbers of your race.’
‘So you’re saying this one little grey guy, acting on his own, built up a private army without the knowledge of your government and now conveniently you can’t do anything about it’ Sharp said, more than suspiciously. ‘Okay here’s my reaction’ he said. ‘Don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s raining’ the X-COM Commander declared. ‘You’re either feeding us a load of bullshit or otherwise it’s your mess and your job to clear it up’ he stated angrily. ‘Do you have any idea how many people I’ve lost? How many civilians have died?’ he asked rhetorically.
‘If we could bring them back we would but that is beyond even our technology’ Thor replied apologetically.
‘Fine then wipe the fuckers out and deliver this Loki’s head to us in a box’ Sharp replied.
‘As I said we are in no position to do this because of our fleet deployments and overstretch’ Thor replied. ‘Even this vessel could only be spared for a short while and needs to be back in action within the next three days and even a thorough investigation of this single system would take at minimum an order of magnitude longer than that given the problems we have tracking their ships.’
‘Oh yeah these guys are fantastic’ Sharp told the SGC personnel sarcastically, turning to face them. ‘I can see why you rave about them so much.’
‘Loki has been working on this project in secret for centuries we believe’ Thor responded defensively. ‘He knows our technology as well as I do and has been preparing for the day when the High Council found out all this time, add in the fact we are pushed to the limit and I am ashamed to admit that the Asgard are largely powerless to intervene for the foreseeable future’ he continued. ‘We do not even know how many of them there even are either in turns of ships or raw numbers’ he told them. ‘With cloning, reasonably advanced manufacturing capability and enough time there could potentially be vast hordes of them.’
‘If this Loki has been working on this for centuries why turn up now?’ General Hammond wanted to know.
‘It is likely that scouting and small scale abductions have been going on for decades at least, which would likely explain many of the stories regarding such by people resembling ourselves’ Thor replied. ‘As for the huge flourish of activity from the latter part of the year 1998 in your calendar I have a theory at least, though no evidence to back it up.’
‘Theorise away’ O’Neill told the Asgard.
‘It was in June of that year that you destroyed two Goa’uld ships in orbit around this world indicating that Earth was becoming advanced enough to be a threat to Loki’s plan’ Thor replied. ‘The Sectoids drastically stepped up operations in response and continue to do so at a fever pitch despite losses because they are concerned that technology you obtain from the Goa’uld or others via the stargate will soon make direct attacks on Earth with their vessels completely suicidal.’
O’Neill’s jaw dropped. ‘It was our fault?’ he replied.
‘It would be somewhat of a coincidence’ Thor told him, ‘though as I said it is only a theory.’
Sharp sighed. ‘You know that’s the first thing you’ve said that I can completely buy’ he told Thor. ‘No good deed ever goes unpunished’ he said, shaking his head sadly.
Daniel folded his arms. ‘And despite raising their game they still can’t use any technology much more advanced than they are because if they did the Asgard might find them’ he said. ‘So no teleporters, not even advanced shields.’
‘Their personal weaponry is damn good’ Sharp pointed out.
‘But wouldn’t put out enough of an energy signature to be picked up at anything like long range’ Carter noted. ‘Same reason why they don’t use big capital ships like the Goa’uld or the regular Asgard’ she realised. ‘Even the vessels you labelled “Battleships” are tiny by comparison to a Ha’tak’ she told Commander Sharp.
‘We also believe that their base, or bases, outside this system are situated on worlds that are not part of the Stargate network’ Thor added. ‘This further reduced the chances of being located by either us or the Goa’uld.’
‘Sneaky little grey bastards’ O’Neill commented. ‘No offence’ he quickly said to Thor.
‘None taken’ Thor replied. ‘It is an accurate description’ he continued, ‘in tactics as well as in both colouration and the fact that, as clones, none of us have married parents.’
‘That was a joke’ Daniel responded in surprise.
‘I am not humourless though I think my lack of inflection in your language and different body language makes them too deadpan for humans to always notice I am making them’ Thor told him then once again addressed Commander Sharp. ‘Although we cannot offer direct military aid the High Council has authorised me to provide Earth with technology to aid in your defence against the Sectoids’ he told him. ‘It has been judged that since it is a rogue of our own species that has already interfered, that therefore many of the conditions of the Protected Planets Treaty that would normally prevent us from doing so are negated’ Thor announced.
O’Neill smiled. ‘Finally’ he said, ‘big honking spaceguns.’
‘I am afraid not O’Neill’ Thor told him apologetically. ‘You presumably mean armaments that would be capable to destroying large Goa’uld vessels which would be massive overkill for dealing with the Sectoid menace and well beyond the spirit of the Treaty’ he continued. ‘We will however show you how to adapt the types of primitive shields the Sectoids appear to be using so that they work in atmosphere as well as vacuum.’
‘So not even your shields?’ O’Neill asked.
‘Based on the information gleaned from the X-COM UFOPaedia the new Firestorm fighter will already close much of the technological gap performance wise’ Thor replied. ‘With even a primitive deflector type shield added it would be more than a match for all Sectoid craft within the atmosphere except perhaps the battleship’ he told them. ‘The fact that it and any succeeding fighter so equipped would also have a considerable edge over a Goa’uld Deathglider, which of course lacks shields of any type, is something that the Asgard never considered… if the System Lords ever mention it to us during future negotiations.’
‘Yeah blame us’ O’Neill agreed. ‘They already think the worst of us anyway’ he said.
‘If you ask me’ Commander Sharp interjected. ‘the worst is yet to come’ he said before turning back to Thor. ‘Okay here’s something I want to get sorted out right now’ he said. ‘If Loki is adding our DNA to yours, and we end up finding little alien-human hybrid kids what happens then?’
‘I think what he’s saying is, are you going to take responsibility or are we going to have to hold up placards outside the High Council saying “Earth Demands Child Support” on them?’ a completely deadpan Colonel O’Neill told the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet.
It was probably a good thing Sharp wasn’t armed, because at that precise moment his first instinct in response to what O’Neill had just said was to shoot him.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – September 2000
‘I still can’t believe they just vanished into thin air’ O’Neill complained as they walked to the gate room.
Carter sighed, was he going to go on about that for the next month. ‘We had no idea they were remotely that advanced Sir’ she replied. ‘The only way they could have escaped was to have teleported away, we had the building completely surrounded’ she declared.
‘X-COM has a team sifting through the rubble of his homeworld’ Andianov noted, ‘though the Goa’uld were very thorough in their destruction and it is doubtful much useful technology will be discovered’ she told them having earlier chatted with one of the other X-COM personnel at the SGC.
‘Screw the recovered technology’ Daniel retorted. ‘I feel sorry for Martin’ he said.
‘He should not have deserted in the first place’ the Sergeant replied flatly. ‘I have no sympathy for him.’
‘He changed his mind’ O’Neill replied. ‘Wanted to go back and fight even though he thought he’d die doing it’ he continued, ‘that puts him way above the rest of his crew in my opinion Sergeant.’
Lyudmila Andianov shrugged. ‘We will have to agree to differ Sir’ she replied. ‘We did at least recover their landing craft intact’ she added. ‘That may provide some useful knowledge at least’ she added on a positive note.
‘Only because that X-COM UFO Recovery team pulled the self-destruct before it went off’ O’Neill replied. ‘Damned if I know how they figured it out that fast.’
‘Our people have considerably more experience with that sort of thing than the SGC Colonel’ Andianov replied with a self-satisfied smile.
‘Martin Lloyd should be grateful that his mind remains addled however or he might have attracted the attention of your experts in other fields’ Teal’c couldn’t help but observe. Thor had certainly admitted surprise at the amount of information X-COM had gleaned from interrogations of live alien specimens, it was an effective cocktail of questioning, threats, occasional use of outright torture and even worse what they less than euphemistically referred to as “Mind Rape” based upon early studies into psionics. Apparently X-COM had authorisation for such measures signed by the UN Security Council which gave them considerable latitude in methods. This had led to an amusing exchange during their time with Martin Lloyd when he had asked plaintively “doesn’t the Geneva Convention cover Extra-Terrestrials?” and received a flat “No” from Andianov in response.
The Team entered the gate room and made a final check on their gear. ‘So we’re sure we’re not going to have to fight out way out of this one?’ O’Neill asked.
‘According to our Intel yes Sir’ Carter replied.
O’Neill grimaced. ‘Better take off that safety catch before we step through the gate Sergeant’ he told the Russian.
‘Yes Sir’ Andianov replied.
‘He’s kidding Sergeant’ Carter told her.
‘I realise that Major but it is of no consequence as I never go through the gate with the safety catch on in any case’ Andianov responded deadpan.
‘She’s kidding Major’ O’Neill told Carter with a grin.
‘I wish I was so sure’ Carter replied evenly.
‘So what is so special about P8X-362?’ Andianov asked.
‘I swear she stops listening to briefings after it’s mentioned the chances for combat are negligible’ Daniel responded wryly.
‘Please do not mock me Dr Jackson’ Andianov replied. ‘I realise that P8X-362 is a mineral rich planet, which unlike many others has not been strip-mined by the Goa’uld’ she said. ‘My question related to why SG1 in particular would be sent on this mission rather than one of the other teams? Surely we have better things to do?’
‘Oh right’ Daniel responded. ‘Well you wouldn’t know the background but P8X-362 was one of the first planets the SGC ever visited and SG-4 found that, although the locals were friendly, they had a system of negotiating deals which was very much based upon social standing and hierarchy’ he said. ‘As SG1 is the SGC’s lead team we’re in a better position to get favourable mining rights than anyone else.’
‘Naquadah or Trinium?’ the Sergeant queried.
‘Neither’ Carter replied. ‘Lanthanide elements, they’re used in certain specialised alloys as well as laser’s and we need a lot more of them than we used to’ she replied.
‘Rare?’ O’Neill asked.
‘It varies from metal to metal’ Carter replied. ‘Luteium is scare enough that it’s several times more expensive per gram than Gold and we need it to produce the modified deflector shield Thor provided the plans for’ she explained.
‘We’ve got to go on commission’ O’Neill responded shaking his head. ‘Maybe a finders fee?’
‘I thought we were in it for the planet not the money’ Daniel replied with a smile as the gate started to spin up.
‘Say’s the man who gets paid half again as much as the rest of us’ O’Neill retorted. ‘How is the search going for the new house with the swimming pool anyway?’ he asked sarcastically.
‘I’m viewing a couple of places Friday’ Daniel replied, his smile widening into a grin. ‘I never thought I’d get rich in archaeology’ he said in mild amazement.
‘Capitalism’ Andianov said with a dismissive snort, then paused ‘Sorry it is my communist upbringing coming to the fore, it is hard to forgot all those years of exposure to Marxist propaganda in the Young Pioneers’ she apologised as the Stargate activated with the usual pseudo wave-like kawoosh and the six wheeled robot scout rolled through making sure there was nothing untoward on the other side.
‘MALP shows all clear’ reported the control room over the loud speaker system.
‘In Soviet Russia MALP watches you ’ Andianov declared as they headed up the ramp.
Teal’c couldn’t understand why O’Neill, Major Carter and Daniel Jackson were in hysterics as they stepped through the gate.
Area 51 – Earth – September 2000
‘I was supposed to be testing the X-301 in a couple of weeks’ O’Neill complained as they entered the hanger, walking past the Deathglider-based prototype which was already being partially disassembled as benefits its status as a dead-end project. According to some of the X-COM people who had taken a look it was a good thing too because they claimed to have discovered failsafe programming that the Area-51 people had missed.
‘Get over it Sir’ Carter told him, trying not to chuckle. ‘It was never going to be a production fighter anyway’ she noted.
‘It still looks cooler than that thing Major’ O’Neill replied as they reached the small saucer shaped craft which they had come to see take its test flight.
A familiar face appeared from around the other side of the craft. ‘Ah Doctor Carter, nice to see you again’ the man greeted her, smiling and reaching out a hand.
‘Doctor Zelenka’ Carter greeted him back, shaking his hand. ‘You’ve met Colonel O’Neill before’ she said, ‘and these are the other members of SG-1’ she continued. ‘Doctor Daniel Jackson, Teal’c and Sergeant Andianov’ she introduced them, Zelenka shaking hands with all of them.
‘Call me Radek’ Zelenka told them, ‘too many Doctors and Military Titles around here already’ he added with a smile. ‘So you have come to see our baby?’ he asked, tenderly patting the side of the craft.
‘It’s very…’ Daniel began. ‘Classic’ he said diplomatically.
‘Like something from a Nineteen-Fifties Sci-Fi B-Movie you mean’ Zelenka replied with a grin. ‘Yes it does look like that it was the easiest shape to work with because of the way the Elerium Drive works’ he explained. ‘Although as we learn more about the systems later craft will not have to be saucer shaped’ he told them.
‘What’s it got under the hood?’ O’Neill asked.
‘The engine is a standard Elerium Drive we took from a Sectoid ship and modified so that it could interface with the mix of technologies that we are using’ Zelenka replied, ‘this was extremely tricky as you can imagine’ he continued. ‘It was bad enough when it was just Earth and Sectoid equipment we were using, but now we have also included the superior inertial dampeners from a Deathglider plus one of your Naquadah Reactors which makes the Firestorm here rather more of a kludge than we would like although it does all seem to work together so far’ he explained. ‘We burn quite a lot of Elerium fuel in flight, which along with the small size of the craft limits its combat radius, but by only using E-115 for locomotive power, with the Naquadah reactor powering all other system we have increased endurance by over fifty percent with enough of a generation surplus to power the new Asgard Modified deflector shields.’
‘I think the Colonel was more interested in how that pans out into performance’ Carter told him.
‘Oh’ Zelenka responded. ‘Even without the inertial dampener activated it can pull nine gees of constant acceleration, top speed in the atmosphere is just over 4,200 Knots or Mach 6 sustained’ he told the Colonel.
‘What’s it packing?’ O’Neill asked. ‘Weaponry I mean.’
‘There are two internal weapon bays’ Zelenka replied. ‘Standard combat load is intended to be three Avalanche Missiles, which have the new second-generation naquadah-enhanced variable-yield warheads which can be set to detonate at anything from two up to two-hundred kilotonnes as required, plus we carry a Laser Cannon in the other bay.’
‘What’s the effective range on the Laser?’ Carter asked curiously. The X-COM R&D people had made massive leaps forward in directed-energy weapons and she was interested to know if their designs had scaled up well.
‘It varies with atmospheric density, and hence altitude of course, but we tell the pilots an effective range of twenty-one kilometres against enemy vessels can be expected during a typical mission’ Zelenka replied. ‘Part of the problem is targeting rather than beam strength, though of course being a laser if it is pointed in the right direction when fired it will not miss’ he noted. ‘There is no dodging a beam of light coming towards you at over a billion kilometres an hour’ he noted.
‘That far exceeds the capabilities of the Staff-Cannon fitted to Goa’uld Deathgliders’ Teal’c noted.
Zelenka nodded. ‘Our Firestorm here could eat Deathgliders for breakfast’ he said enthusiastically.
‘Looking forward to that’ another voice interrupted. ‘The diet of Sectoid ships is getting samey’ it continued as a man wearing a grey flightsuit with both USAF wings on the chest and X-COM patches on the shoulders approached.
Zelenka half turned. ‘May I introduce Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron Mitchell who is our test pilot for the Firestorm’ he said.
‘I suppose Radek here has already mentioned we’re going by first names around here Colonel’ Mitchell said to O’Neill. ‘If you’re okay with that you can call me Cam’ he offered reaching out a hand.
‘When in Rome do as the Romans do’ O’Neill replied. ‘Jack O’Neill’ he said shaking the proffered hand. ‘This is Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, Teal’c and Lyumila Andianov’ he introduced the others.
‘I’ve met the fastest Gun in the East before’ Mitchell said with a grin. ‘We were both based in Hawaii together for a while’ he explained. ‘I once made the mistake of thinking my finely honed fighter-pilots reflexes were a match for her and got creamed at table-tennis five straight games’ he said shaking hands with Andianov.
‘I can imagine’ O’Neill replied, the woman had reaction times and hand-eye coordination which was frankly freakish, of course if she hadn’t she would have likely been dead after her first few missions. Lots of the X-COM field grunts seemed to be exceptional in one way or another, the South-African guy now assigned to SG-3 made the Marine’s distinctly uncomfortable, he could shoot a lot better than they could and that wasn’t easy to do given that they were some of the top marksmen from a Corps that valued the skills of a riflemen very highly.
‘You’re Airforce then?’ Carter noted, indicating Mitchell’s wings.
‘I was seconded over to X-COM last year’ Mitchell replied. ‘Been flying out of the Islands most of that time until they offered me the job of testing the Firestorm’ he told her. ‘I thought going from F-16 Vipers to XF-701 Interceptors was a leap but this thing is a whole new ball game’ he said rapping the metallic side of the saucer.
‘I thought the XF-701 was called the Sigrdrífa’ Daniel asked. It meant “Victory Bringer” in Old Norse.
‘It is officially, like the F-16 is officially the Fighting Falcon not the Viper’ Mitchell replied. ‘We call the thing an “Interceptor” because hardly anyone can pronounce Sigrdrífa properly’ he told them.
‘Thor got a kick out of it when we told him anyway’ O’Neill told the pilot. ‘The Asgard have a ship called that too.’
‘They probably have less trouble saying it’ Mitchell replied with a smile. ‘The weapon’s system is properly linked into the navigation now right Radek?’ he asked the X-COM scientist.
‘Yes’ Zelenka replied.
‘And I’m definitely not going to have to think in Czech to make it work?’ Mitchell asked.
‘That was an oversight, it’s all fixed now’ Zelenka replied sheepishly.
Mitchell chuckled. ‘First time we went weapons hot on a test run I activated the cannon and couldn’t do a damn thing with it because Zelenka here programmed it with his brainwaves’ he told them. ‘It was like that scene in the film Firefox when Eastwood had to think in Russian, except that he could speak Russian in the film and I don’t know any Czech’ he explained.
‘It works for everyone now, like the navigation system itself’ Zelenka reassured him.
‘How does that work anyway?’ Daniel asked. ‘The machine reading your mind I mean?’
‘We just stuck a copy of the metal head-band thing from a Sectoid Navigation computer in an ordinary helmet’ Mitchell replied. ‘Beyond that I haven’t got a clue’ he joked.
‘I can talk you through it later’ Zelenka replied. ‘I understand the basic theory though another team did most of the work on that’ he said. ‘The engines and weapons control were my children’ he said proudly.
‘Hey it’s fast and it kicks ass’ Mitchell replied. ‘You should be proud of the kids’ he told Zelenka.
‘I am’ Zelenka replied. ‘Though it will be eclipsed by the X-302 soon enough’ he continued.
‘So you the best X-COM’s got?’ O’Neill asked. ‘That why they bought in you on this?’ he asked.
Mitchell shook his head. ‘I’ve got thirteen UFO kills’ he replied, ‘nine of them since we got the new missiles, but that doesn’t put me at the top of the scoreboard yet’ he said, ‘they bought me in for politics’ he explained. ‘I’m the top scoring American in X-COM and since we were merging efforts with the Area-51 team working on the X-301 they thought sending a USAF guy would be diplomatic.’
‘X-COM does diplomatic?’ Daniel asked incredulously.
‘The oversight committee does’ Mitchell responded. ‘They’re largely toothless but the military people like to go along with recommendations when they can’ he told them. ‘Most of us are from NATO countries, or other democracies, so you might say X-COM has inherited the culture of civilian control of the military to some extent’ he told them, ‘despite what it might seem like to outsiders sometimes’ he added with a grin.
‘Sound’s like you’ve gone native’ O’Neill told him.
‘Like you said yourself’ Mitchell replied, ‘when in Rome’ he told him. ‘I’m taking her up in five minutes, better get yourself a good seat outside because the show’s worth watching’ he advised.
Exactly as promised the show was worth watching. After bringing the Firestorm out of the hanger, hovering just above the ground Mitchell suddenly bought up the nose, or rather the front of the small saucer shaped craft from his perspective, and put the Elerium Engine to full power hurtling off into the sky at a forty-five degree angle and going through the sound barrier before he had cleared the end of the runway continuing to accelerate.
With the inertial dampeners from a Deathglider keeping Mitchell from blacking out from a myriad of high-gee manoeuvres the Firestorm began to perform a series of low-level passes over the base with a large, thought of course all security-cleared, crowd watching with interest bordering on amazement.
‘On the second test flight we took the Firestorm out into space’ Zelenka told SG-1, ‘only a sub-orbital flight but it could make low-orbit and return home afterwards’ he told them. ‘The ceramic armour we added to increase resistance to plasma weaponry functions perfectly well as a re-entry shield, though the ride is supposed to be hair-raising’ he added with a chuckle.
A low-level sonic boom rattled the base. ‘Did he just make a supersonic pass going sideways?’ O’Neill asked incredulously.
Zelenka nodded. ‘Because of the orientation of the engine the Firestorm can only go hypersonic going forwards, above Mach 5 I mean, but it can reach just above Mach 2.5 going sideways and Mitchell once went through the sound-barrier backwards though he said it was highly disorientating’ he told them.
Mitchell took the craft into set of what seemed like impossibly tight loops before doing another pass spinning in the air like a Frisbee.
‘Can you imagine trying to dogfight against that thing in a Deathglider’ O’Neill asked Teal’c in mild awe.
‘The manoeuvrability of the craft may be even more impressive than its speed and armament O’Neill’ Teal’c replied.
‘It’s only the inertial dampening that makes it possible’ Zelenka told them. ‘For one thing you would likely throw up trying that otherwise’ he noted, ‘or at least become extremely dizzy’ he continued. ‘The Firestorm is greater than the sum of its parts, you need technology from both Goa’uld and Sectoid craft to make it do that. The only real weakness is its relatively short range’ he noted sadly. ‘It is also optimised for combat in the atmosphere which is not true for its opponents.’
‘Well it might not be able to go to them but at least the next time they come to us we can give them a warm welcome’ O’Neill said appreciatively.
‘Very warm’ Zelenka agreed. ‘The next part of the demonstration will be the use of the laser cannon against ground targets and aerial drones’ he said.
‘Sweet’ O’Neil replied enthusiastically. He wondered whose ass he was going to have to kiss, or how many favours he needed to call in, to get a turn in the pilot’s seat. It really did look like something from an old B-Movie but he was willing to accept the aesthetics for a hot ship with moves like that.
Watching through binoculars as pieces of unmanned aircraft began to rain from the sky, swatted from the air by a goddamn laser cannon of all things O’Neill was struck by the thought that if they could get this sort of gear from theory to the production line in a few months then how long was it going to be before X-COM really could take the fight back to the enemy and contest space as well as ground battles with the aliens.
Also watching the display Senator Kinsey frowned, this was too much rapid progress with no chance to claim any of the credit for it. He was going to have to talk to the President about getting a place on the X-COM oversight committee as the US representative before he lost any opportunity to profit politically from the situation. The damn foreigners were going to take all the credit and the United States, and more importantly he himself, were going to end up sidelined.
Kinsey left well before the Firestorm finished its display. He needed to get right on this one immediately, and strike while the iron was hot.