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.
Omega Site – Terra Nova – October 2003
Commander Russell Sharp opened his eyes and found that he was lying in a gently lit grey metal box that was far too coffin-like for comfort. The hinged lid, also itself far too akin to that of a funeral casket in his opinion, slowly began to rise but he still had plenty of time to read the helpful note written on the underside of it just in front of his face: “This is not the afterlife”.
Sharp waited until the X-COM designed copy of the goa’uld sarcophagus fully opened before he sat up. There was a man in a white doctors coat sitting beside a desk writing something on a clipboard nearby and the Commander coughed to get his attention. ‘Okay’ Sharp began, ‘what the fuck happened?’ he asked. ‘And where are my pants?’ he added, noticing he was buck naked.
The doctor looked up from his work and turned around. ‘Oh you’re awake’ he said in a Scottish accent. ‘You were in there longer than expected’ he noted, ‘I guess we underestimated your injuries’ he decided. ‘The other three we put into the tubes got out nearly an hour ago’ he continued, ‘the second batch are in there now’ he told Sharp, indicating the other caskets in the room which had displays indicating they were occupied.
‘I’ll ask again in simpler terms’ Sharp responded in an annoyed tone, ‘what happened and where pants?’ he asked again more curtly.
‘Oh you were killed in action Commander’ the doctor told him, ‘and you weren’t the only one’ he said, standing up. ‘We’ve still got a few other corpses, I mean casualties, on ice waiting to take your place in the sarcophagus’ he said. ‘Good thing we got the cryogenic stasis technology from the Eurondans or we might have lost some of you permanently, there’s a backlog here and at the SGC’ he told him whilst fetching a surgical gown and passing it to him.
Sharp climbed out of the “coffin” and began putting on the gown, there was no point in being self-conscious in front of Doctor Beckett, the Omega Site physician had seen him naked before during his last medical exam and for that matter it was likely he had now seen his insides too for that matter. ‘Is that my armour?’ he asked, spotting a breastplate which had apparently been thrown into a corner of the room.
‘Aye’ the doctor confirmed. ‘After we managed to get it off you we had to dig out a few pieces of it from your wounds before we could stick you in the sarcophagus there’ he said. ‘Good thing you were dead at the time’ he added as Sharp walked over and picked up the torso armour. There were four fairly neat holes shot through the thick cydonium plate, one of them right over where his heart would have been which explained why he had little recollection of his death, it was probably quite quick.
Dropping the armour again Sharp frowned. ‘What the hell did this?’ he wanted to know. There wasn’t a weapon he knew of that would have that effect. The holes were too small to be the result of hits from a goa’uld staff, the metal was still frankly in too good a condition for it to have been an elerium plasma weapon, and a laser would have made a less ragged penetration.
‘What do you remember Commander?’ Beckett asked professionally, sometimes those who came out of the sarcophagus could be more than a little addled.
‘I was leading a mission where we were going to ambush a conference between a couple of second-rate goa’uld who were meeting on neutral ground to negotiate an alliance’ Sharp recalled, thinking back.
‘Tilgath and Ramius wasn’t it?’ the doctor prompted.
‘Right’ Sharp confirmed. ‘We wanted to get the two goa’uld alive for interrogation so we sprung the ambush using zat’s, stun-bombs and shock-grenades’ he remembered, ‘it went great, Tilgath and Ramius went down unconscious before they could activate their personal shields and we took down the Jaffa easily but then just when we were gathering up weapons and tying up the prisoners I remember some freak in a big black suit of armour coming through the gate and then the next thing I know is that I woke up in that thing’ he said, indicating the casket he had been in.
Beckett nodded. ‘Yes that’s what the others said happened’ he confirmed. ‘You were hit with the first salvo and then the enemy soldier started taking apart your troops.’
‘Son-of-a-bitch must have been fast to get the drop on me’ Sharp decided. ‘How many did it take out before they gunned it down?’ he asked.
‘It took out almost your entire team Commander’ the doctor told him flatly. ‘A few were only wounded but other than for two troopers that out-ran it and then managed to loop back to the gate to call for help it took down everyone you had in less than three minutes.’
Sharp blinked. ‘You’re shitting me’ he responded eventually.
‘I wish I was’ Beckett replied. ‘From what I heard your weapons were completely ineffective’ he said flatly.
‘Our laser rifles can burn through the side of an APC doctor’ Sharp told him doubtfully.
‘But not apparently the armour of your assailant’ Beckett replied with a shrug.
‘Zats don’t work either, we even tried a Staff-Cannon armed HWP Sir’ a familiar voice interrupted. ‘Never seen armour like it’ he said. ‘A hit from the cannon knocked the thing over but it got back up again afterwards’ he noted.
‘Colonel’ Sharp greeted Rodrigues who was stood in the doorway holding a spare set of grey X-COM coveralls which he threw to the Commander, with the threat of incusions by Loki’s forces into the Sol System diminished Gomez Rodrigues and more than half of the X-COM soldiers who had been previously based on Earth were now assigned to the Omega Site. The rest were scattered between the eight X-COM facilities on Earth with a few on Mars. ‘The Doc said we got whupped, that true?’ Sharp asked.
‘Yes to a point’ Rodrigues replied. ‘When the call for assistance came through from the last guys left mobile in your team I took another team in Powered Armour, a few Heavy Weapon Platforms and a Hovertank through’ he said, ‘I figured R&D would want a look at the thing we were fighting so we tried to take it down alive with Shock Grenades and then Sectoid Stun Bombs initially but nothing doing’ he said. ‘Bastard actually took out two of my guys and three HWP’s’ he growled.
‘He took out Powered Armour?’ Sharp responded in mild disbelief.
‘Some new rapid-fire plasma weapon, it’s got one on each arm’ Rodrigues explained, ‘it still takes a few hits in the same place to take down out PA suits but it’ll do it’ he said. ‘In the end we had to take it down the hard way’ he said.
‘Heavy Plasma Rifles?’ Sharp queried, ‘Micro-nukes?’ he wondered.
‘No, I still wanted it in one piece so I had the Hovertank run into the thing at high speed’ Rodrigues replied. ‘It must have flown thirty feet but it still only stunned the sucker’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Once it was on the ground we managed beat it into submission though’ he continued. ‘We thought at first it might be a Jaffa in new fancy duds but boy were we surprised when we got it back to Omega and got its helmet off’ he told Sharp.
‘Where is it now?’ Sharp asked, putting on the coveralls, he still needed footwear though.
‘Chained to a wall in Alien Containment’ Rodrigues told him. ‘It’s strong as hell’ he declared. ‘Ugly too’ he added.
‘We had to strip off the armour before we could get the MRI Scanner or X-Rays to work’ Beckett said. ‘Once we got a look inside I called in a few experts because I recognised some of what I was seeing.’
Sharp looked from the doctor to the Colonel. ‘So what are we dealing with here?’ he asked.
‘Best you take a look for yourself’ Rodrigues replied.
‘We’ll go via my quarters, I need boots’ Sharp said.
‘Right’ Rodrigues agreed. ‘So was that your first time KIA?’ he asked as they headed off.
‘Yeah’ Sharp confirmed.
‘See a bright light and some Pearly Gates?’ the Colonel inquired.
‘No but I’m sort of expecting rivers of lava and a red guy with horns anyway’ Sharp told him honestly.
‘Have you ever considered joining the Catholic Church?’ Rodrigues asked. ‘We’ve got this thing called confession and penance that might get you a Get out of Hell Free card’ he noted.
‘Even with that Aschen anti-aging vaccine I wouldn’t live long enough to say all those Our Father’s and Hail Mary’s I’d need to’ Sharp replied. ‘To be honest I’m mainly banking on God not wanting me on Lucifer’s team.’
Rodrigues thought about that. ‘Yeah that might lead to Revelations needing a re-write’ he decided.
Sharp wasn’t too surprised to find out who the “expert” sent from Earth was when he reached the bases Alien Containment facility. Nirrti wearing a lab-coat was washing her hands after examining the subject which was now lying face up on an Examination Table taken from a Sectoid Abductor Class UFO. The Alien Surgery machine next to it looked like it needed cleaning there were spots of oddly coloured blood on it, perhaps from spray. ‘Oh, you’re alive’ she said regretfully, throwing Sharp a look.
‘And kicking’ Sharp replied, ‘and it’ll be you that gets the kicking if you cause any trouble on my base’ he told the former System Lord.
‘I’d expect nothing less’ Nirrti told him. There were three armed X-COM Troopers stood nearby watching her, if she tried to escape they’d zat her and then she’d lose her TV privileges for six months. ‘So what do you think of our new guest?’ she asked, indicating the creature which was staring blankly up at the ceiling.
Sharp looked at the humanoid alien which had translucent skin and heavy musculature. ‘One of Loki’s toys?’ he asked.
‘Yes and no’ Nirrti replied. ‘The creature was apparently grown in part using Asgard cloning technology but some of the genetic tampering reminds me more of my own techniques’ she said. ‘I’ve already cut it open to confirm what the scans indicated with my own eyes and it’s masterful work’ she said appreciatively.
‘Is it dead?’ Sharp queried.
‘No I thought a vivisection would be more useful than a dissection so I used the paralysing device fitted to the Examination Table to keep it nicely controlled while I worked’ Nirrti replied, ‘I just finished closing it back up a few minutes ago.’
Sharp spotted a goa’uld hand-held Healing Device on a tray with some scalpels and other surgical instruments, Nirrti had most likely used it to finish the job neatly because the alien was unmarked. ‘Okay what’s the news?’ he asked.
‘All the internal organs are out of proportion, the heart and lungs are extremely large in order to supply sufficient oxygenated blood to its muscles which are even stronger than they look’ Nirrti told him. ‘The trade off for the resulting drastically increased strength and physical endurance is that it wouldn’t live very long if not for two additions’ she said. ‘Firstly it is the host for a goa’uld symbiote which helps sustain it and regulates its enhanced physiology and secondly there are several familiar cybernetic implants which take some of the load off the organs’ she continued. ‘Its lifespan would be hours without the symbiote, perhaps only weeks at best without the implants.’
‘The implants are familiar how so?’ Sharp queried.
‘They’re modified versions of the ones found in the cardiovascular system of Loki’s Muton soldiers’ Nirrti announced. ‘This creature seems to be a hybrid of several technologies’ she said, ‘almost a work of art’ she added appreciatively.
Colonel Rodrigues scratched his nose. ‘I always thought you goa’uld preferred better looking hosts’ he asked Nirrti. ‘This thing is uglier than an Unas that stuck its face into a blender’ he opined.
‘Yes’ Nirrti agreed, ‘and we want hosts that will live longer too, but judging from the electrical activity of the symbiotes brain it’s a blank’ she continued. ‘It reminds me most of the non-sentient offspring the shol’va Egeria produced on Pangar’ she told them. ‘No real intellect or personality, it’s just there to do little more than regulate organs, increase healing rates and pump a continual flow of tretonin into the host.’
Sharp crossed his arms. ‘So have you mind-raped this thing yet?’ he asked.
‘First thing we did before we started cutting it open but unfortunately there was some brain damage to the host which didn’t help us gain any useful information’ Nirrti replied. ‘From the cerebral architecture it wasn’t likely all that intelligent anyway to start with’ she said.
‘The things helmet had a dent in it, probably from when the tank hit it’ Rodrigues noted. ‘We did find out what it’s called and who it serves.’
‘Loki surely?’ Sharp responded quizzically.
Rodrigues shook his head. ‘No it says it serves Anubis’ he said. ‘I guess those two have made their alliance more formal’ he said.
‘Shit’ Sharp swore. ‘So what is this thing called then?’ he asked.
‘It called itself a Kull Warrior’ Nirrti told him then smirked. ‘If I was your kind I’d be concerned about what it is exactly they’re intended to cull’ she said.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – October 2003
Sat in General Hammond’s office Jacob Carter sighed. ‘No it’s worse than that George’ he told his old friend. ‘It’s not just the damn Kull, Anubis is throwing other new weapons at the remaining System Lords and he’s using his new toys effectively’ he said.
‘What do you mean Jacob?’ Hammond asked. The Tok’ra had dispatched Jacob and Selmak to Earth seeking to share information and keep the Tau’ri informed but so far it seemed to be bad news all round and getting worse by the hour.
Jacob’s expression grew even more serious. ‘Yesterday we received a report from Free Jaffa agents within the ranks of Lord Yu that a large force of Kull Warriors had attacked one of Yu’s main bases and had wiped out better than ninety percent of the garrison in less than two hours’ he said. ‘Yu deployed his best troops, the ones that Apophis equipped with Staff-Rifles and Sokar’s advanced armour and who joined Yu after Delmak was destroyed, but they got their butts royally kicked’ he said.
‘I’m not surprised’ Hammond responded, ‘the Kull armour and the Plasma Repeaters they carry are a hell of an edge’ he stated.
‘They are, but Anubis had complete air-superiority as well’ Jacob told him, ‘some kind of upgraded Deathglider that has a shield and as well as the normal Staff-Cannon it’s got a scaled-up version of the Plasma Repeater mounted in each wing too’ he continued. ‘The things took out Yu’s own regular Deathgliders first and then when Yu sent in the Chappa’nok’kek gate-fighters he also inherited from the armies of Apophis, thinking they’d be a better match, they got hammered too’ he said.
‘Apophis had started to adopt a basic combined-arms doctrine towards the end, and the Free Jaffa have been getting results my trying to emulate our ways of doing things’ Hammond responded, looking concerned, ‘I guess Anubis has been paying attention’ he reasoned.
‘Combined Arms is right George’ Jacob replied. ‘The Kull had tank support too’ he said, earning raised eyebrows from Hammond. ‘From the descriptions it sounded something like those little hovertanks Loki uses but carrying a Heavy Staff Cannon on top and a pair of Plasma Repeaters for dealing with infantry’ he said. ‘And it’s got a freaking shield too’ he added.
Hammond grimaced. ‘You read our briefing about Anubis using a kind of MALP analogue to scout for him now too?’ he checked. ‘That carries a single Plasma Repeater and a shield for self-defence itself’ he noted. ‘We managed to bring one down with enough laser-rifle fire but not before it shot up half of SG’s 6 and 17’ he said. ‘Fortunately the armour it had under the shield wasn’t the Kull material or we might have lost both teams’ he admitted.
Jacob nodded. ‘Could be the same shield and powerplant as in the tank, assuming Anubis and Loki are using economy of scale in their production runs’ he suggested. ‘You know if you’ve got a bottle in that cabinet over there I wouldn’t mind a belt right now’ he added.
‘You and me both’ Hammond replied, getting up off his chair and heading for the cabinet. He very rarely would ever think of drinking on duty but sometimes you had to adapt to circumstances he thought to himself as he found two glasses and then fished out a decent bottle of bourbon.
‘We tried to capture a Kull alive that was sent to take out Montu, a minor Goa’uld that works for Baal’ Jacob told Hammond. ‘Montu’s First Prime Gerak is a sympathiser with the Free Jaffa cause so we managed to get a mixed team of Free Jaffa and Tok’ra onto his capital world without facing any resistance from Montu’s own Jaffa’ he said.
‘How did that work out for you?’ Hammond asked, passing Jacob a glass with a decent measure of brown liquor poured into it.
Jacob regarded the glass, Selmak was already complaining in his head about the brain cells it would kill off. ‘We tried to catch it in a one-way forcefield cage and then hit it with a trinium dart full of symbiote sedative and a universal tranquilliser’ he said. ‘It walked right through the damn forcefield and ignored enough dope to knock out a goddamn dinosaur’ he muttered, taking a drink.
‘The cloth material the Kull wear underneath the armour plates is like Kevlar I’m told’ Hammond said, making himself comfortable in his big leather chair again.
‘It’s a woven fibre made from the same basic material as the solid pieces’ Jacob replied. ‘When the tranquilliser darts didn’t work we tried symbiote poison darts instead that Ren’al prepared as a contingency plan, even that took a while to kill it and in the meantime we lost a lot of good men and women’ he said mournfully. ‘Orac bastards are harder to kill than anything I’ve ever seen or heard of’ he growled.
‘We’ve had some luck using Sectoid Plasma Weapons’ Hammond told him.
Jacob forced a smile. ‘A Tok’ra agent took one down by emptying nearly a full clip from a Plasma Pistol into its back at point-blank range’ he announced. ‘I don’t know who was more surprised, our guy or the Kull’ he continued in amusement, it was a nice mental image.
‘It takes several concentrated bursts even with a Heavy Plasma Rifle I’m told’ Hammond responded, ‘one of Sharp’s squads took out a pair of them on P3X-984’ he said. Elerium based plasma weapons were as much a particle beam fired at relativistic speeds as they were directed-energy, even Kull armour couldn’t stand up to it indefinitely.
‘Nice work’ Jacob said, raising his glass in salute.
‘After how much trouble they had with the first they actually used a small nuclear device to take out the second’ Hammond told him, before laughing.
Jacob Carter chuckled himself. ‘If in doubt fall back on massive overkill’ he declared, raising his glass in salute again before downing the remaining contents in one gulp.
‘Anubis is following the trail we blazed you know’ Hammond observed, ‘he hasn’t got a fleet that can take on his rivals in space yet so he’s fighting them on the ground instead using better weaponry and tactics’ he said.
‘After he’s finished with his old enemy Lord Yu, and beaten up on a few of the small-fry to make an example of them, he’ll start picking off the remaining System Lords’ Jacob reasoned. ‘He might forge a few alliances with those he can easily dominate to speed up the process but I doubt we’ll see anyone powerful ally with him because the last time he did that they stabbed him in the back as soon as Apophis was gone.’
‘Our analysts think he’ll attack Baal last’ Hammond told him.
‘Selmak agrees and so do I’ Jacob responded. ‘Baal still has enough fleet assets to protect all his most important worlds’ he noted, ‘Kull and souped-up Deathgliders aren’t a match for several Ha’tak in orbit’ he said, capital ship staff-cannon blasts falling from above weren’t to be taken lightly. ‘The other Goa’uld don’t have the ability to defend more than a handful of their systems properly, leaving the way open for Anubis to send in no more than a single Ha’tak and maybe a few supporting Al’kesh and Troop Transports as a viable invasion force in most circumstances.’
Hammond checked his watch. ‘I think we need to get to the briefing room’ he said, getting up.
‘Selmak would be happier about that if we didn’t know that Nirrti was going to be there’ Jacob replied, rising himself. ‘You should have let us remove her from the host ages ago’ he said.
‘Unlike the other goa’uld we captured Nirrti is still useful even after we obtained all the intelligence she could provide’ Hammond responded, ‘she’s an evil bitch but she’s our evil bitch’ he remarked.
Nirrti was already answering questions from the other Carter currently in the SGC complex when Hammond and Jacob arrived. Major Samantha Carter personally despised the rogue System Lord as well but her scientific skills were undoubted and her work on the Kull was invaluable.
For his part Colonel O’Neill was more interested in reading the latest results of tests on the Kull armour and weapons than he was hearing about the the biological component inside the suit. He was leafing through the latest analysis from the team at Area 51 testing the Plasma Repeater whilst Teal’c sat to his left fixed Nirrti with an ever-suspicious glare.
The Kull weapon now widely known as a “Plasma Repeater” fired a much smaller bolt than the Staff-Weapon but it did so at considerably greater velocity and the energy density of the plasma was notably higher too. It had superior penetration, if not stopping power per shot, than the standard Jaffa weapon but its major advantage was its rate-of-fire. The Repeater could only fire in bursts rather than continually, it had safety cut-outs to prevent the overheating bench tests indicated it was prone to, but it still nonetheless vastly eclipsed any other goa’uld weapon in terms of capability and the sheer volume of fire, range, relative accuracy and its ability to pierce armour it offered had X-COM both drooling at the thought of copying it and bemoaning the need to protect against it.
General Hammond and Jacob narrowly beat Daniel Jackson who dashed in carrying a number of books and journals which he dumped on the briefing table before selecting one in particular. ‘I think that’s everyone’ Nirrti said. ‘Let’s get on with this so I can get back to my cell before the Sopranos starts’ she said.
Nirrti waited until everyone was sat down before beginning. ‘My analysis of the Kull revealed a distinctive and unique energy signature within its cells’ she began. ‘It’s a match for the residual side-effects of sarcophagus use or intense use of a Healing Device’ she said.
Selmak spoke up, the voice used it wasn’t the host Jacob that was speaking. ‘Our examination of Kull remains indicated the same’ the Tok’ra commented.
‘Presumably you also found that the creature was not technically alive in the conventional sense of the word until it was grown into its mature state?’ Nirrti queried.
‘Yes, and it was extremely perplexing’ Selmak confirmed.
‘For me too until I realised that it must have been energised by an Ancient device, most likely the one that the sarcophagus was originally based upon’ Nirrti said. ‘For those not familiar with the story thousands of years ago a goa’uld scientist named Telchak found a piece of technology with immense healing abilities’ she said. ‘It was in fact far too powerful to use with human hosts but Telchak managed to create the original sarcophagus based upon his partial understanding of the device.’
‘The Tok'ra have long sought this device in the hope of using it to perfect the sarcophagus technology, so that we could all benefit from it’ Selmak interjected.
‘So basically the sarcophagus is just another inferior copy of Ancient tech’ O’Neill observed. ‘Why am I not surprised?’ he asked sarcastically.
Nirrti ignored the slight to her race. ‘Doctor Jackson’ she prompted.
Daniel had been reading his notes. ‘Ah yes’ he said looking up, ‘when Nirrti first mentioned Telchak and the healing device it reminded me of a theory of my grandfather Nicolas Ballard regarding the Mayan God Chac and the legend of the Fountain of Youth’ he said. ‘According to goa’uld history Anubis went to war with Telchak trying to take the device but although he won the war Anubis never found it, it was believed to be hidden in one of Telchaks temples.’
‘What good does knowing this do us?’ O’Neill queried.
‘Well if we can find the device Nirrti thinks it might be possible to use the thing to develop a means to counteract the energy used to bring the Kull to life’ Daniel replied.
‘And if I’m right I expect better living conditions, some servants and a decent lab assistant who also knows how to make an adequate cup of tea’ Nirrti insisted. ‘I am poorly appreciated in my work’ she complained bitterly.
Everyone ignored the goa’uld who scowled in response. ‘Anubis probably learned how to make one of the devices himself when he was ascended so he never needed Telchaks’ Daniel reasoned.
‘This all seems a little sketchy Daniel’ O’Neill told him.
‘I thought so too until I showed Nirrti this journal that belonged to my grandfather’ Daniel replied, pushing the book under Selmaks’s face.
‘These illustrations show writing in an obscure goa’uld dialect’ Selmak said in surprise.
‘Yes they do’ Nirrti agreed. ‘Okay, if the servants aren’t on the cards I’ll settle for a new forty-two inch plasma screen TV but the lab assistant is not negotiable’ she insisted.
Ruins of Vis Uban – P4T-3G6 – November 2003
UNHCR was already likely to put in a serious complaint about the way in which X-COM Troopers had forcibly relocated the people who had been living in the dilapidated remains of the Ancient city but Russell Sharp was sure that when UNESCO found out about what he was about to do they’d want his balls on a plate. Daniel Jackson and the rest of the archaeologists working within the stargate program might never speak to him again either Sharp decided as he squeezed the detonator in his hand triggering a series of C4 demolition charges.
The three Kull Warriors which had been heading down a narrow street towards the centre of town couldn’t help but notice the explosions but they couldn’t do much more than watch as a large section of wall collapsed on them, granite blocks weighing up to two tonnes apiece raining down and crushing them.
‘Well that had to hurt’ Sharp declared, laughing as he dropped the remote detonator and picked up his Heavy Plasma Rifle. ‘Well we laid out the welcome mat and invited them in so now it’s time to make sure our guests never forget their visit to this lovely tourist destination’ he told the nearby troops. ‘Not a single damn one of them gets out of here alive unless it’s heading to Alien Containment’ he ordered.
The sound of Kull Plasma Repeaters and X-COM weaponry broke out in the distance, the gunfire echoing off the stonework as the dust from the C4 explosions finally started to settle. ‘Okay boys and girls, you know the job. Let’s head for the sound of the guns’ Commander Sharp declared. ‘Last one out of a sarcophagus buys the beer’ he joked, grinning as he led his troops to support the team dug in to the North that was clearly engaging more of the Anubis Super-Soldiers.
They didn’t have nearly enough powered armour to equip every Trooper and in a close-up fight like this one was going to be, a vicious series of ambushes and short, sharp engagements you were probably better off fighting light anyway. Better to hear the Kull stomping around first than for them to hear you.
Both Tok’ra agents and the Tau’ri’s own network of spies and informers that had spread throughout much of the galaxy had reported the Reconnaissance Probes belonging to Anubis investigating sites that had once held Ancient outposts. It was thought extremely likely that Anubis was scouting for yet more useful relics he might be able to find and apply to his war effort, using his new toys for the task, and this had been deemed to offer an opportunity to spring a trap.
It was considered only a matter of time until the ruins of Vis Uban, the last city built by the Ancients in the galaxy, were visited by Anubis and it was also the case that the city itself offered a suitable battleground which could be turned into a death-trap for the Kull. When a probe did finally show up through the stargate it was allowed to progress most of the way towards the city and come upon what appeared to be a major archaeological dig being carried out by the Tau’ri before it was destroyed. The bait set, with Anubis now fooled into thinking that the humans must have found something worth having, it was only a couple of hours before the black-armoured super-soldiers started to arrive in force, along with a number of what had been nicknamed Kull Mini-Tanks in support.
Before the enemy arrived the ground had to be cleared of non-combatants but unfortunately the elder of the tribe who had been living in the ruins was reluctant to go to the point of outright refusal. After failing to persuade him Sharp eventually announced that they could either move of their own accord or he would have them shot with zat’nik’tels and carried to the gate for evacuation. They still wouldn’t go, thinking he was bluffing, so to the dismay of the UNHCR team who Sharp had bought along to look after them he did exactly as he had promised. He only had to make an example of a handful before the rest complied, cursing his name.
When fighting as a group the Kull adopted very familiar and quite effective small-unit-tactics. They didn’t fight like Jaffa, instead they fought much like Loki’s creations with some skill and clear adaptability to new situations. They had counted some thirty Kull Warriors and five Mini-Tanks coming through the gate, the warriors splitting into groups of three and their armour support waiting outside the ruins, both screening the approach to the gate and ready to follow in the infantry if heavier firepower was required.
With the equivalent of a company lying in wait for the supersoldiers the humans had a decent numerical advantage and although their armour was nothing compared to that of the super-soldiers the X-COM Troopers trusted in their Heavy Plasma Rifles to bring down the foe. Whilst the Kull had easily carved a swathe of death and destruction through the ranks of the System Lords, and indeed they had also soundly beaten the better trained and equipped Free Jaffa/Tok’ra forces in the field in almost every engagement where they faced off, the Tau’ri had not proven so obliging. Loki had warned Anubis not to underestimate X-COM but for all his advanced technology the partially-ascended goa’uld was still as arrogant and over-confident as most of his race and he had ignored the rogue Asgard, a decision that was proving costly.
The Tau’ri fought dirty, they engaged in hit and run tactics against the Kull and would use ambushes and ruses to deal with them. Supersoldiers found themselves falling into hidden pits dug in trails, stepping on anti-tank mines and in one case a Kull was lured into a particular spot and was caught by a ring transporter that engaged and deposited him in the cargo bay of a cloaked Tel’tak, the air promptly being pumped out until it fell unconscious.
Mind-probing of Kull captured alive showed that the world they originated from was Tartarus, a planet deep inside territory belonging to Anubis. At first it was hoped a commando raid or even a through-gate nuclear strike could be launched against the facility but the stargate there was not only shielded, Loki had also insisted upon additional security measures being put in place including Jaffa equipped with Mind Probes to screen any arrivals and an Asgard beaming device, this being much like the one on Cimmeria which would simply sweep away intruders.
To the great annoyance of X-COM both the Asgard and the Tollan showed an unwillingness to launch a large-scale attack on the Tartarus System despite the very real possibility that Loki was holed-up there. They still wished to avoid a conflict with the goa’uld which could rapidly escalate given the currently chaotic nature of galactic politics and alliances. An already very effective network of sensors set up in the system by Anubis had been improved by the addition of Loki’s latest scanning technology so even a strike using cloaked ships belong to the Tau’ri or Tok’ra themselves was considered unfeasible. Attempts to push the other System Lords, Baal in particular, into sending their fleets against Tartarus came to nought after an abortive attempt by Lord Yu to do that very thing himself ended in abject failure with the remaining Ha’tak belonging to Anubis plus upgraded Al’kesh, Deathgliders and Loki’s own fighters devastated Yu’s fleet almost as soon as they arrived.
As Sharp lined up his P3A1 Heavy Plasma Rifle and fired a short burst of fire into a super-soldier, the bolts so destructive than even the Kull armour was quickly shredded, he received word via his radio headset that a pair of X-COM Hovertanks coming through the gate were now engaging their enemy equivalents. Automated machines of war were fighting for ownership of the way to and from the planet whilst the flesh and blood soldiers determined who was going to enter the event horizon again alive.
The Kull had learned to alternate fire between their two Plasma-Repeaters so that they could maintain a constant stream of fire despite the limitations of their weapons. In open combat this made them an absolute bitch to deal with as they advanced firing on the move, never giving their enemy a fair chance to shoot back, pinning them down. Within the ruins of Vis Uban however they often did not see the opposition until they had already entered an established field of fire and several Kull were shot down by multiple P3A1’s before they ever had a chance to return fire.
X-COM troopers were going down too but attrition was working against the Kull and the deeper they pushed into the city the more opportunities there were for the Tau’ri to use their superior knowledge of the layout of the buildings to get behind the outnumbered supersoldiers and shoot them in the ass. Maps of Vis Uban drawn up by survey teams sent there shortly after the discovery of Daniel Jackson there were a gift to Sharp and he had planned a combination fighting retreat and series of ambushes that would chew up the Kull and spit them out.
The Kull had adapted to a degree however. After previous skirmishes they had learned to finish the Tau’ri off where possible, making sure to always shoot fallen human soldiers in the head before moving on. The sarcophagus simply couldn’t repair that kind of damage, once your brains were blown out you were gone for good, so the number of permanent KIA’s had risen sharply in the last few weeks. Quickly replacing lost hardware was simply a matter of money and materiel whereas an experienced soldier gone forever was robbing the Tau’ri of a resource that could not be replaced any time soon. The years of war with the sectoids had produced a large pool of extremely competent troopers but it was being drained now and not refilled and in the longer term this would inevitably lead to a drop-off in battlefield efficiency. No training, not even the intensive courses X-COM operated using Intars for pseudo live-fire exercises could make up for actual combat experience as yet and every hardened veteran who had a plasma bolt put through his helmet meant the Tau’ri were just a little less horrific a prospect to face in the field.
Sharp ejected an empty magazine for his rifle and loaded another 35 round clip. It took a ludicrous number of hits to take down a Kull, you could take out a tank with less effort, but at least the damn things died eventually he thought with relief as he looked at the smoking corpses of a trio of super-soldiers who had tried to force their way through the latest defence line. ‘Pull back a hundred metres and get ready for the next wave’ he ordered. The Kull were relentless which made them frightening but it also made them a tad too predictable in some ways, they never suffered from morale problems and obeyed their orders to the letter so you could usually safely assume they were going to keep attacking until they were all dead. They weren’t very smart either, Anubis had prized unwavering obedience over initiative making them psychologically more akin to the ideal Jaffa than what the Tau’ri would consider the ideal soldier.
‘Private Bailey is down Sir’ a trooper called back. ‘He’s dead.’
‘Drag him with us unless he took a head-shot’ Sharp replied, ‘make sure to hand out his remaining ammo’ he added.
Supposedly the Ancient gizmo Doctor Jackson had found in Honduras was the answer to the Kull, or at least it would be eventually if a technology based upon it could be weaponised, but Sharp would believe it when he saw it. Fancy science tricks had their place but you could always rely on the reliability of the brute force approach. It was a pity he hadn’t been there when the anti-government rebels who captured Jackson and carried him over the border into Nicaragua looked up and found an Avenger hovering over their camp. That must have been hilarious, Sharp thought, especially when a squad wearing Powered Armour descended upon them zatting everything in sight. The zombie rebel now gracing the Area 51 Alien Containment block might be worth a look too for that matter he decided as he helped move Bailey’s corpse.
It was now theorised that the Ancient Device might actually be the reason Loki’s ships had spent so much time scouting around Central America a while back. With his interest in both creating new soldier species, and saving his own race from eventual extinction, such a valuable piece of medical technology would be a huge prize for him. As it was it now belonged to humanity and after it was used to try and make anti-Kull weapons it would likely be studied by researchers seeking to not only perfect the goa’uld sarcophagus, removing the nasty tendency to turn you evil with too much exposure, but also to develop an equivalent to the hand-held healing device that didn’t need naquadah in the blood and had a simple on/off switch and a dial setting, not mental control that required months of training and practice to use.
After the last enemy fell Sharp ordered the usual retrieval of the enemy bodies and equipment, plus their own casualties, before heading back to the Omega Site. Let Anubis have Vis Uban and waste as much time searching through the ruins as the humans had, they weren’t fighting to contest ownership of the place X-COM just wanted to bleed the super-soldiers a little, deplete their numbers and prevent them applying force where it really mattered for another day.
The battle of Vis Uban was a victory for Earth against Anubis but the very same day he won other battles on half a dozen other worlds extending his domain at the cost of the realms of lesser goa’uld. Jaffa belonging to the armies of the defeated were given a choice to join him or die and his numbers of warriors swelled as a result, the newly absorbed Jaffa acting as garrison troops for his expanding empire whilst the Kull did the hard work of conquering the next wave.
Enhanced by Asgard construction techniques the shipyards belonging to Anubis were increasing their production rates every day also. Moreover Loki had provided the plans for hyperdrive modifications that produced performance that not only exceeded anything Apophis had built, and Baal was currently building, they were more compact and didn’t require a large input of expensive and hard to find trinium in their manufacture simplifying logistics.
Loki wasn’t interested in the politics, he was himself devoting more and more of his time into perfecting the sectoid form into one that could completely replace the weak and sickly Asgard clones. Everything Loki did was for the good of his race and he was confident one day they would realise it and hail him as the hero who both saved the Asgard and gave them the same opportunity to ascend to the next plane as other peoples had.
The latest creature he had originally developed using Langaran DNA, and was now perfected using the Ancient DNA Re-Sequencer given to him by Anubis, was very promising. Psionically it was far stronger than anything he had managed to produce before and was also extremely intelligent and skilled at command. One of them could lead a squadron of better pilots increasing their effectiveness still further overall and attacking the minds of the enemy pilots during the fight. The humans would name them Psilords, the Jaffa regarded them as abominations, Anubis thought they were great.