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.
Gomai Foothills – Chulak – September 2000
Teal’c addressed the two former Serpent Guards, they and their followers would significant bolster the burgeoning Jaffa rebellion which was why both he and Bra’Tac had sought this secret meeting so that Teal’c could persuade the two local leaders to join the cause. ‘It is time for Jaffa to stop whispering about freedom, and begin to show our true power’ he told them. Rak’nor in particular was already known for coming from a family that had long fought against Goa’uld oppression, his own father Del’nor, believing the System Lords to be false gods, had seared the mark of his former master Apophis from his son’s forehead leaving the obvious scar he wore.
Ma’kar the host of the meeting looked doubtful. ‘A power we can only hope is greater than that of the gods’ he responded with definite reservations.
‘False gods’ Teal’c told him without a trace of doubt evident in his own voice.
‘Their power is real, and stronger than ever’ Ma’kar responded. ‘Even Heru-Ur, and the other System Lords fear Apophis’ he stated, this time with certainty. ‘He commands the vast army of Sokar’ the Jaffa noted. The size of Sokar’s army and industrial base had rapidly become legend, the factories of Sokar’s capital world Delmak had produced a vast fleet of the finest Ha’tak warships that eclipsed those of the other gods.
‘An army of Jaffa’ Teal’c noted. Without Jaffa warriors to act as the footsoldiers, warship crews and Deathglider pilot of the System Lords the Goa’uld were nothing he knew. Although barely more than slaves to the parasites, they were also their masters powerbase and once the Jaffa came to grasp that, and rejected the false divinity of the Goa’uld, a truly free Jaffa Nation could arise Teal’c knew.
‘You know of what happened here on Chulak at the hands of Apophis?’ Ma’kar asked rhetorically.
‘Yes, I know how many were slaughtered’ Teal’c replied. ‘But, I also know that those left alive are ready to rise against him’ he declared. ‘The Jaffa are the foundation upon which the false gods have built their empires. We can tear them down’ he told the pair.
Rak’nor spoke up. ‘To do so, we will have to fight our own kind’ he pointed out.
‘As the Goa'Uld have forced us to do in their names for countless generations’ Teal’c reminded them. ‘Only now, we will fight for the freedom of all Jaffa.’
‘Rak'nor has the loyalty of a great many here on Chulak’ Ma’kar noted.
So, Bra'Tac has heard from you, and I from him’ Teal’c replied. ‘It is the word of our friend Ma'kar that has brought me here tonight’ he told Rak’nor. ‘In their hearts, many Jaffa believe as we do. Those with the strength and the courage must speak out’ he declared. ‘We must fear the Goa'uld no longer. Those who wish to join our cause must be united. Kol'na of the High Cliffs Hak'nor of the Cordi Plains have already agreed to meet at the Chapa Groves tomorrow’ he told them.
‘Then I will meet with them as well’ Rak’nor responded smugly, rising to his feet as he raised his voice. ‘And this blasphemous rebellion will finally be crushed’ he thundered, glaring at Teal’c. ‘Hash'Ak Cree!’ Rak’nor ordered as another warrior appeared in the doorway raising a Zat'nik'tel, aiming it at Teal'c.
The familiar sound of the energy discharge of a Zat was heard, but instead of striking Teal’c the Jaffa in the tent doorway fell forward stunned by a shot that had struck him from behind.
Looking somewhat less surprised by the sudden turn of events that the other two Jaffa Teal’c could not help but smile. ‘This may be the first time I have been grateful those Taur’ri in authority over the SGC no longer fully trust me’ he said as a woman in the garb of a local woman carrying a Zat'nik'tel in one hand and a Tau’ri Laser pistol in the other entered the tent weapons trained as she stepped over the stunned Jaffa on the ground. ‘There were two others’ she said in a strange accent, ‘I’ve dealt with them’ she declared, aiming her weapons at both Ma’kar and Rak’nor in a manner that indicated to them that she was obviously used to handling them and should not be taken lightly.
‘You did so very quietly Sergeant’ Teal’c told her appreciatively.
‘I garroted one and knifed the other’ Andianov explained. ‘I also used a stun-rod on several others I was not sure of’ she told him, ‘including the family of your host’ she added. ‘The rod does not make the noise the Zat does’ she noted. ‘Do these two know anything of value?’ Andianov queried.
‘They both may’ Teal’c replied. ‘Rak’nor being more likely to I think’ he told her.
‘I will never betray my god’ Rak’nor declared haughtily.
Andianov smirked and them zatted both Rak’nor and Ma’kar in quick succession, leaving them writhing on the ground in convulsions. ‘You can carry him’ she told Teal’c. ‘We likely cannot get him back through the Gate that way, not if we're trying to avoid any patrols or general attention from others, but I know of several effective field techniques the KGB taught my Spetsnaz training instructor and can interrorgate him myself’ she advised him. ‘We should be going’ she suggested, 'there may be others around.'
Teal’c moved to retrieve the man. ‘What techniques?’ he asked, intrigued.
‘Cutting works fast’ Andianov replied evenly. ‘I can also adjust the voltage on the stun rod and apply it to both his testicles and the symbiote to see which bothers him most’ she continued unemotionally.
Teal’c blinked. ‘Although the latter would indeed be most painful’ he told her, ‘the former would be far more difficult to withstand’ he advised. ‘Jaffa and Human biology are not that dissimilar’ he explained fighting back a grimace at what she was contemplating.
Carrying a now bound and gagged Rak’nor over his shoulder Teal’c followed the Sergeant out of camp, heading for the safety of the broken line of hills up ahead. She definitely suited the women’s garb of Chulak, and he decided he would find her quite attractive if it wasn’t for the unfortunate fact that once again she had demonstrated the reason why, that on a basic level, she quite frequently frightened the living crap out of him.
Cloaked Tel’tak Transport - Tobin System – September 2000
‘You should have been there Jacob’ O’Neill told the pilot. ‘There we were in the Egyptian desert looking up at this ship taking off, Goa’uld at the controls, smug as hell and suddenly the Firestorm they sent up from the base in Poland pops up from behind a dune right in front of her’ he said trying not to start laughing. ‘So Daniels ex with the snake in her head...’
‘Sarah’ Daniel called from the back of the small ship. ‘Her name was Sarah’ he said quietly.
‘Right, Daniels ex, Sarah... with the snake in her head...’ O’Neill resumed, ‘she’s looking out of her cockpit into the cockpit of the Firestorm, totally stunned that we’ve got a ship like that, and then the X-COM pilot opens his weapons bays, that’s naquadah-enhanced nuclear missiles and a freaking Laser Cannon, raises his hand, points straight at her through the glass then points down towards the ground’ he continued with a grin, ‘I guess those old ships didn’t have shields because she landed straight away and we hauled her sorry ass right out of there’ he said brightly. ‘I hit her with a stun-rod and we trussed her up like a turkey, I wasn’t even going to be there but Teal’c didn’t want to go fishing unless we used grenades like on the Goa’uld homeworld and I wasn’t going to blast Minnesota.’
Jacob shook his head. ‘The Tok’ra won’t be universally pleased that Earth is starting to get ships like that’ he said disparagingly. ‘I wasn’t that pleased at the attitude of that Commander Sharp guy I talked to either’ he added.
‘Blunt would be a better name for him’ O’Neill agreed. ‘You got a better reception than Thor from the Asgard’ he noted. ‘He nearly shot Thor.’
‘And he actually managed to piss off the Nox which is a feat in itself’ Carter added, leaving Daniel with his books and entering the cockpit. ‘I think the Sectoids pretty much culled all the nicer elements out of X-COM at least a year ago, they’re all pretty much trigger-happy xenophobic jerks now’ she opined.
‘Be fair Carter’ O’Neill chided, ‘they’re good at it’ he said with amusement. ‘They’re already taking that old Goa’uld ship apart at Area 51.’
‘If it’s the class of vessel Selmak thinks it is the hyperdrive is slower than the one driving this thing’ Jacob told them. ‘And it’s quirky so we suggest you don’t try and strip it unless you want your engineers to glow in the dark.’
‘We’ll let the geeks know when we get back’ O’Neill replied. ‘They’ve already got more stuff to back-engineer than they can handle anyway’ he said with a shrug. ‘They’ll probably want to pick up one of those mines out there when they get the chance.’
‘Heru-Ur and Apophis should be arriving for their conference soon Jacob said. ‘I’ve chosen a mine so I hope you’re ready for this’ he said putting on a headset eyepiece. ‘Precision Head-up display’ he explained to a quizzical looking Jack O’Neill, ‘Trust me we don’t want that thing to touch the floor, walls or ceiling back there’ he said seriously.
It was a sound plan in theory, provoke a war between Apophis and one of the few System Lords with sufficient ships and Jaffa Armies to wear him down before he became too powerful to stop. Even if Heru-Ur was defeated by Apophis greater forces, as was likely, it would hopefully prove a pyrrhic victory as other System Lords used the opportunity to strike against him themselves while he was weakened.
The plan worked flawlessly to a point, after a hair-raising false start concerning the need for a zero in advanced technology, despite the Tobin being descended from the Phoenicians whose mathematics lacked that symbol, they successfully reprogrammed the mine and sent it on its way whilst Heru-Ur tried to explain to Apophis that he was going to give him the shol’vah Teal’c as an offering to cement their alliance but the attempt to capture him had somehow gone wrong.
Apophis was not impressed by Heru’Ur’s words, nor was he happy when the reprogrammed mine crashed into his ship and assumed it was an attempt on his life by the other System Lord. Both Heru-Ur and SG1 were however impressed by the sight of Apophis cloaked fleet appearing and blasting the hell out of the formers Ha’Tak, this ensured that Heru-Ur was only briefly impressed amidst a mighty conflagration of Ha’tak fire and exploding Tobin mines. Unfortunately Napoleon’s truism that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy was borne out once again.
When they got back to Earth Commander Sharp thanked Jacob and the Tok’ra for their assistance in ensuring that Apophis, who would now absorb the territory and armies of the deceased Heru-Ur, was going to be a more powerful and dangerous threat than ever, and inquired if they would like to do humanity a favour and give the Sectoids some helpful suggestions instead next time. Teal’c and Andianov were already back at the SGC after returning from Chulak and were not too disappointed that they had missed all the fun.
Meanwhile elsewhere in the galaxy an irradiated and slightly charred unaccompanied message arrived mysteriously through a stargate on the Aschen homeworld. In handwriting Mellon, one of their most respected political functionaries, confirmed was his own it simply said “Under no circumstances provoke X-COM” and was dated as coming from a decade in the future.
It was sound advice from an alternate timeline where much of the Aschen homeworld was burning. That the attempt to use a biological weapon to annihilate most of the population of Earth had been badly misjudged had become abundantly clear when the first BC-305 Battlecruiser arrived in orbit and started to blast the major cities of the Aschen Federation to rubble with ZPM boosted Asgard supplied weaponry. The Aschen were only lucky that most of the Tau’ri fleet was still too busy beating the crap out of the Ori in their home galaxy to be sent their way otherwise the entire planet would have been scorched down to the bedrock before they could figure out how to use the timing of solar flares to get the message back to the past through the stargate.
As a point of trivia XSGCOM 1 never did find out why the Aschen were so obsequious to them when they eventually encountered them roughly a year later on the Volian homeworld P3A-194.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – October 2000
Teal’c meshed his fingers in front on him resting them on the conference table. ‘So it seems that Apophis is not having things as easy as we feared he would’ he said. ‘After the death of Heru-Ur one of his lieutenants, a previously low-ranking Goa’uld named Terok took command of his forces and has been resisting Apophis with more skill than might have been expected. His defeat is inevitable but he is buying us time.’
‘What do we know about this Terok?’ General Hammond asked.
‘He has a reputation for cruelty’ Teal’c replied. ‘Intriguingly we learned via our interrogation of Rak’nor on Chulak that Terok was the one who masterminded the trap intended to capture me’ he continued. ‘It is likely his failure that meant Heru-Ur left him behind when he went to meet Apophis.’
‘So because he flunked out he got to live’ O’Neill observed, ‘I guess there’s no justice in the universe’ he continued, ‘but if we’ve got Goa’uld fighting Goa’uld I guess we can take off our boots and relax’ he said brightly.
‘Not all the news is so good Colonel’ Commander Sharp told him. ‘While the threat from Apophis is temporarily mitigated by his war with this Terok the fight against the Sectoid menace has taken a turn for the worse’ he told them, handing out files.
O’Neill opened the file and found himself looking at a photograph of a creature he had never seen before. ‘New alien?’ he asked.
Sharp nodded. ‘We’re calling them “Muton’s” because of the amount of genetic alteration the Sectoids have done to them to enhance their combat abilities’ he said. ‘Their skin is actually an organic armour grafted onto their bodies and they’re as tough as they look’ he told them.
‘Muscular build’ Carter observed looking at the photograph before reading the brief summary description underneath. ‘Cybernetic enhancements for increased strength and improved senses... averages over seven feet in height and over four hundred pounds in weight...’
‘All muscle’ Sharp interrupted, ‘well muscle, organic armour and machinery anyway’ he said. ‘We lost nine of a twelve man team to them in Laos last week, Zat’s don’t do dick and our lasers only seem to piss them off unless you get in multiple shots’ he said. ‘They handle a Heavy Plasma like a water pistol and they’re faster than they look.’
General Hammond took a breath. ‘X-COM has requested a temporary reassignment of three SG Teams to the Sectoid War until they can train up replacements for their recent spate of losses’ he said. ‘It’s volunteer only...’
‘I’m in’ O’Neill said quickly.
‘I’m afraid not Colonel’ General Hammond replied flatly. ‘If we’re going to be down three teams I can’t afford to have my premier amongst them’ he explained.
O’Neill frowned. ‘What about the Interceptors?’ he queried. ‘If they’re that tough take them down before they land.’
Sharp rubbed the back of his neck. ‘We only have three Firestorms in service and the old XF-701’s can’t keep up with the ships they’re using now’ he said. ‘We nearly lost the Firestorm flying out of Japan the day before yesterday when it managed to bounce a battleship slowing down out over the East China Sea’ he said. ‘The Plasma Beams on those things outranges our Avalanches’ he said. ‘Even with the shield design we got from the Asgard taking most of the hit the pilot had to limp home with half the front off the ship melted off, the shield generator fused and the naquadah generator making noises that were scaring the hell out of him.’
‘Do we have any numbers on those weapons?’ Carter asked. ‘Yields and definitive ranges I mean.’
Sharp nodded. ‘Only an estimate but we’re talking a beam strength in the kiloton range and it’s accurate enough to hit a fighter sized target at over 65 nautical miles.’
‘Kiloton?’ Daniel queried. ‘Isn’t that less than the naquadah-enhanced warheads we use?’ he asked. ‘Don’t we measure those in megatons?’
‘We don’t like throwing megaton yield warheads around in Earth’s atmosphere’ Sharp told him. ‘Even a high single digit kiloton explosion is too high-profile for use over most of the planet’ he said. ‘That’s why the Avalanche warheads are variable yield, the pilot can dial up how big the bang is going to be before they launch.’
‘Besides which a focused beam of energy at one point is still going to be more effective than a much larger detonation which is spread out over a wider area, certainly against a shield’ Carter added. ‘It’s like using an ice-pick instead of a baseball bat to kill someone with’ she said, ‘blunt force trauma requires more effort’ she said then shuffled awkwardly in her chair when everyone looked at her strangely. ‘I’ve been reading a lot of crime novels recently’ she explained awkwardly.
‘Okay...’ O’Neill responded slowly. making a mental note to tell Andianov to keep an eye on her as well as Teal’c. ‘So what are we going to be doing?’ he asked.
‘Given the situation with Terok the logical thing to do is exploit it’ Commander Sharp replied. ‘We’ve got plenty of capture Jaffa equipment from the armies of numerous System Lords so let’s get them involved in the fight with some false flag operations’ he said.
Daniel Jackson pursed his lips. ‘For all their arrogance the Goa’uld aren’t stupid’ he said. ‘We can’t think that because we dressed up like Apophis’s troops and attacked another System Lord then we can get them involved in the fighting’ he said. ‘They’d never fall for it.’
‘Your concepts of maskirovka are sorely limited Doctor Jackson’ Andianov spoke up for the first time. ‘We attack a System Lord in the uniforms of Heru-Ur’s army and in the name of this Terok’ she said.
O’Neill laughed. ‘Whoever we attack will think it’s Apophis trying to pretend they’re Terok’s boys’ he said with a grin.
‘Maskirovka?’ Teal’c queried.
‘Russian word, there’s no equivalent in English’ Daniel told him. ‘Think deception, camouflage, diversion and imitation’ he said.
‘Classic Soviet military planning’ O’Neill said, ‘makes me nostalgic for the Cold War’ he said. ‘And I like the idea’ he added.
Hammond nodded. ‘The question is what System Lord do we target?’ he asked.
‘Cronos’ Teal’c suggested with the barest hint of an evil smile on his face. ‘He has sufficient forces to be a suitable candidate and the galaxy would be well rid of him’ he declared. ‘He is already a known foe of Apophis and so should be readily deceived by this ploy.’
‘Thought you wanted to deal with him yourself?’ O’Neill asked. Cronos had killed Teal’c father who had been his First Prime.
‘The chances I will get the opportunity to take his life personally are slim O’Neill’ Teal’c replied pragmatically. ‘Having Apophis possibly do so instead is an opportunity not to be thrown away and if I am lucky Cronus will meet a very painful demise when his forces are eventually defeated’ he continued, fondly imagining him strapped down with Apophis applying a pain-stick to his body, the bright light shining from his mouth and eyes dwarfed by the supernova of pain within. He wondered if Cronus would scream as Rak’nor did when Andianov used her stun rod on him.
‘I think Teal’c’s in a happy place’ O’Neill remarked looking at the beatific smile on his friends face as he daydreamed. ‘Any objections to dealing Cronus into the game Sir?’ he asked Hammond.
‘None here Colonel’ Hammond replied, ‘Commander?’
‘You know the Goa’uld better than I do’ Sharp replied. ‘If you think this Cronus is a good candidate then I’ll roll with it, the more of the bastards we can get killing each other the better’ he opined. ‘It’ll make mopping up the rest easier’ he said. ‘I might tag along myself, does that Jaffa chainmail chafe as much as I think it does?’
‘Oh yeah and find a set in the stores that’s been properly washed, I don’t think some of the System Lords enforce strict enough hygiene rules amongst their grunts’ O’Neill told him. ‘You’ll want to get in some practice with a staff down at the range, they handle like crap’ he started. ‘How’s your Goa’uld getting along.’
‘Jaffa kree!’ Sharp responded. ‘Who is guarding the chappa’ai?’ he asked. ‘Or as we say in Canada, “Who is guarding the chappa’ai eh?’ he deadpanned.
‘Better let me and Teal’c do the talking’ Daniel suggested.
‘I thought it was pretty good for a beginning’ O’Neill told the Commander, ‘but you’ve got to live the role, be the Jaffa, put more passion into the “kree” when you say it’ he advised, trying not to laugh.
‘Maybe wearing the chainmail with help with the method acting?’ Carter suggested, getting in on the joke.
‘If you’re mocking me I can order Sergeant Andianov to shoot you and she would’ Sharp told them in mock seriousness.
‘Jaffa kree!’ Andianov suddenly thundered, snapping Teal’c out of his daydream and leaving him bolt upright in his chair.
‘Excellent’ Daniel told the Russian.
‘The pronunciation is easier than English’ she replied honestly. ‘This reminds me, your Russian needs work’ she told him.
Daniel pouted and resisted the urge to ask how good her Latin and Ancient Greek were.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – October 2000
‘God damn it’ Commander Sharp complained catching his reflection in the glass as he looked down into the gateroom. ‘It just won’t rub off’ he moaned taking a handkerchief from one of the innumerable pockets in his grey X-COM jumpsuit, spitting on it and started furiously rubbing his forehead again.
‘You should have chosen a gold insignia instead of the permanent ink’ General George Hammond replied trying not to sound as amused as he was.
‘You’re right, the glue would have taken off less skin’ Sharp agreed, ‘at least it’s fading’ he said trying to sound upbeat.
‘You can add a brief stint as a Jaffa Warrior to your resume anyway Sir’ Walter suggested, looking up from his computer monitor.
‘That doesn’t count for much Sergeant’ Sharp replied. ‘Even using their weapons we beat them like a red-headed stepchild’ he stated. ‘We only hit a small camp but there’s no way we should have been able to get away so light, we only had eight injured between all five teams and only two of them were serious’ he said, checking his reflection again. ‘I spent too long fighting Sectoids’ he added. ‘If I don’t lose at least a quarter of my people on a mission it feels weird’ he said.
Hammond nodded. ‘The Jaffa have never demonstrated a predilection for small unit tactics’ he agreed. ‘You’d think they’d have learned by now’ he said.
‘To be fair Cronus hasn’t fought against our people much’ Sharp noted. ‘Our recent clashes with Apophis troops shows they’re learning’ he continued. ‘They stopped charging down the Laser Rifles anyway’ he said sadly, that had made life so much easier than attacking them was. Closing the range down meant even the poor ergonomics of a staff-weapon got more hits and although the torso section of the armour SG Teams were wearing now would stop a blast, cumulative hits would penetrate eventually as the metal crystallised. Plus there was of course the possibility of getting your head blown off by a lucky, or perhaps unlucky, shot.
‘Can we talk outside?’ Hammond asked Sharp.
‘Sure’ the Commander replied and followed the General out of the control room, and stopping in the corridor.
‘Another two of the seconded SGC people assigned to the Sectoid War are KIA from a mission they went on when you were offworld Russ’ Hammond said quietly. ‘I don’t know if you were told?’
Sharp sighed. ‘Sorry to hear that George’ he replied. ‘That’s three now?’ he asked.
‘Four’ Hammond corrected him. ‘And one more that’ll never walk again’ he added. ‘How the hell did you do it?’ he asked. ‘Accept losses like that as routine?’
‘Honestly?’ Sharp replied. ‘I tried not to think to hard about it’ he admitted. ‘We have to beat the bastards so we have to accept the losses’ he said simply. ‘I used to lose four or more people every time I went out on an op’ he said. ‘We deliberately never got to know the rookies until after their third mission because the fatality rate starts to drop after that, you learn and adapt fast fighting those aliens or you die, they’ve got better tactics than Jaffa and they’ve always outgunned us.’
‘I don’t know if I could learn to live with that’ Hammond told him. ‘I care too much for my people.’
‘Be grateful you never had to’ Sharp told him seriously before smiling slightly. ‘That problem you had with NID, I had it dealt with’ he said.
‘Dealt with?’ Hammond asked.
‘I had a few off-duty X-COM people who weren’t US citizens pay a visit on the people who picked up your granddaughters from school’ he said. ‘They won’t trouble you any more’ he said confidently.
‘Should I ask the details?’ Hammond asked.
‘Better you don’t know’ Sharp told him. ‘I can claim diplomatic immunity with my UN Accreditation but you’re not insulated like that’ he noted. ‘I’ll say this, they’re all still alive if not necessarily unharmed physically or psychologically.’
‘You’re right I don’t want to know but thanks Russ’ Hammond told him gratefully. ‘And thank your people’ he added.
‘Any time’ Commander Sharp told him. ‘We think Senator Kinsey is involved somehow, we’ve been watching the son of a bitch ever since Maybourne clued us in but he’s untouchable even for my people’ he said apologetically. ‘We can terrorise a low-ranking asshole from Military Intelligence but politicians are another matter even if we had definite proof.’
Hammond ran his hand up over his bald head. ‘How is Harry Maybourne anyway?’ he asked.
‘Still living in fear of the NID’ Sharp replied. ‘He’s well motivated to keep in with X-COM because he’s worried we’ll sell him down the river if he doesn’t’ he said. ‘It’s been a rewarding association, he was able to steer us towards the guys involved in the pressure made on you through your grandkids.’
‘Give him my thanks too then but let him know I’m still liable to punch him on the nose if we meet in person again’ Hammond replied.
‘Will do’ Sharp replied.
Walter suddenly popped out of the command centre. ‘Sorry Sirs’ he said. ‘I thought you’d want to hear this’ he said. ‘X-COM is tracking a Sectoid Type battleship heading straight for their base in Poland.’
‘Oh shit’ Sharp swore. ‘We thought they were scouting for our installations’ he said.
‘Most of the military personnel based there are off on a mission’ the Sergeant announced. ‘X-COM is preparing to self-destruct the base if they survive the base defences and land.’
Sharp turned and punched the wall hard which hurt but not as much as he hoped it would. Then he suddenly froze. ‘Get every SG Team member armoured up and with a weapon in their hand in the gateroom right now!’ he ordered.
‘Sir?’ Walter queried.
‘Just do it Walter’ Hammond ordered and the Sergeant tore off to get it done. ‘What are you thinking Commander?’ he asked.
‘The second gate’ Sharp said, ‘we were going to use it to move equipment into Earth orbit by taking it up in a ship, sending stuff through from here to the Alpha Site and then plugging the DHD into the second gate making it the master here.’
‘So when anything is sent back from the Alpha site it arrives in Earth Orbit through the gate we originally took from Antarctica and which you recovered from the ocean’ Hammond said then his jaw dropped. ‘It’s at the X-COM Base in Poland!’ he exclaimed.
‘Damn straight it is’ Sharp declared. ‘Get on the horn to them and tell them to get ready to plug in the DHD thirty seconds after the last one of us heads through to the Alpha site’ he said. ‘Tell them not to blow the base and hold the access routes as long as they can with the troops they have, tell them the cavalry is coming, it’s just going to travel a very long way to get there’ he said turning and starting to run towards the armoury.
‘That is one inventive son of a gun when the pressure’s on’ Hammond said to himself as he watched Sharp pound down the corridor. That was sure going to catch the opposition by surprise anyway he decided as the claxons started to sound and Walter ordered every team to prepare for immediate action.