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Planet Juna - P2X-729 – February 2001
Concealed at the edge of the forest with the others Colonel Jack O’Neill lowered his binoculars. ‘They used to pay the crew of navy ships a share of the value of any enemy vessels they boarded and took off the enemy’ he said. ‘I don’t suppose we can resurrect that tradition?’ he asked.
Commander Sharp shook his head. ‘They’d never go for it back home’ he opined. ‘Can you imagine the market value of a Goa’uld Ha’tak?’ he queried, looking at the huge spaceship landed on top of the pyramid nearby. ‘Anyhow it would set a precedent, do you know how many Sectoid ships X-COM has retrieved?’ he asked rhetorically.
‘We could see if the UN would give us a Letter of Marque to go out and practice interstellar privateering’ Daniel suggested. ‘I’d look good in a bandana’ he declared.
‘If I hear a single one of you say “avast”, “arr matey” or “yo ho ho” when we get aboard that thing I’ll have you shot’ Commander Sharp declared.
‘Shouldn’t that be keelhauled or hung from the yardarm Sir?’ Major Carter asked sweetly.
‘Just don’t get hurt’ Sharp replied.
‘Aye aye sir’ O’Neill responded, ‘alright bucko’s let’s take ourselves a prize vessel’ he said, putting on his best pirate accent.
‘I could always resurrect another fine naval tradition Colonel’ Commander Sharp stated.
‘Rum ration?’ O’Neill asked hopefully.
‘The Cat O’ Nine Tails’ Sharp replied flatly.
‘I still think I’d look good in a bandana’ Daniel noted.
Although the planets naquadah mines were exhausted beyond the point at which the Goa’uld would bother with them, strategically P2X-729, known to its inhabitants as Juna, lay at a point where it was a useful staging area in the war Cronus and his ally Terok were waging against Apophis. In fact it might have been occupied as a buffer against him even the System Lords hadn’t already been at each others throats. However just because the mines weren’t economically viable for a society which utilised slave labour, picks and shovels to dig up ore, and which had far richer and more easily exploitable mines elsewhere, they were still worthwhile to a culture that had rather more sophisticated mining technology and couldn’t yet afford to be as fussy regarding the quality of the ore.
As more and more naquadah-based weaponry and other technology was put into service by the Tau’ri in their wars against both the Goa’uld and the Sectoids they increasingly required continual supplies of the mineral. Following the visit of the Harcesis Child, and the resumption of contact with Abydos, Ra’s old mines there were about to go back into production, although this time the workers there would be paid instead of terrorised to motivate them. Tau’ri mining engineers and troops were also on P3R-636 after Daniel had negotiated a mutually beneficial arrangement with the planets leader Princess Shyla who to his embarrassment apparently still carried something of a torch for him and who told him that although her long, painful period of sarcophagus withdrawal had seemed unbearable at the time she was grateful he had given her the strength to go through it.
SG1 had once helped the people of Juna overthrow the forces of Heru’er and told them to bury the stargate after they left, this did not help them when Cronus arrived by ship but then he himself made the unwitting mistake of digging it back up so when the SGC dialled P2X-729 again in the hope SG1’s advice had been ignored so they could access the old mines for a proper evaluation of their potential they not only found they could establish a wormhole, to their surprise they found the Goa’uld were back in charge.
With their alien-alloy body armour and now all armed with the L2A2 model Laser Rifle with its integral Zat the Tau’ri soldiers of SG-2 sent to investigate had easily overpowered and neutralised the mixed Jaffa and local militia now sworn to Cronus who challenged them once they came through the gate. Interrogation of the local militia leader Darian quickly revealed the situation and the recently promoted Major Griff contacted the SGC for instructions.
The answer had been forthcoming quickly along with Commander Sharp, SG-1 and several other teams, X-COM policy was clear in these situations, they might not necessarily consider liberating Juna again a high priority but as soon as SG-2 informed them there was an Alien Ship on the ground SOP was to retrieve it. A Hat’ak might be orders of magnitude larger than a Sectoid Scout but nobody could accuse X-COM of a lack of ambition and most importantly thanks to the war with Apophis the ship only had a skeleton crew with the majority of the thousand or so Jaffa it might usually be carrying deployed to the front.
Disguising themselves as locals using the clothes and weapons taken from the stunned militia and using a supposedly captured SG1 as bait getting into the pyramid was easy, Cronus himself wasn’t on the ship, he had departed on another vessel shortly after seizing the world and was now with the majority of his fleet fighting Apophis, however his servant Cindar commanding both the Hat’ak and the occupation of Juna was more than pleased that he was going to be able to present his Lord and Master with a gift such as the shol’va Teal’c and the insolent Tau’ri known as O’Neill.
Trying not to smirk Commander Sharp dressed in native clothes dropped to one knee. ‘Hail Cindar loyal servant of Cronus’ he said head bowed. ‘I bring you the traitor Teal’c and the rest of the Tau’ri known as SG-1’ he said.
Cindar looked at the Jaffa Traitor and the uniformed humans all bound each with one of the local militia stood behind them with zat’nik’tels ready. ‘You have done well’ he said, ‘I have not met you before’ he added.
‘I am Russ, cousin of Darian who commands the warriors of Juna in the service of Cronus’ Sharp said, trying to sound convincing. ‘I captured these intruders and my cousin said that if I and my men presented them to you we would be rewarded for our loyalty’ he said. ‘These were their weapons’ he added indicating the small pile of L2A2 Laser Rifles and a mix of Beretta’s and Laser Pistols he had placed on the deck in front of Cindar as soon as they arrived.
Cindar nodded. ‘You have served your God well’ he said. ‘I will mention this to My Lord Cronus and he will surely shower you with rewards for such dedication’ he added.
‘Thank you’ Sharp told him. ‘May I request one thing instead?’ he asked.
‘Slaves, riches?’ Cindar asked, it was good policy to reward the troops for a job well done, it helped encourage others to emulate their example.
Sharp raised his head and looked around, there were some six Jaffa in the chamber though none looked ready for immediate action. ‘I’ve always wanted a ship like this, can I have it?’ he queried then grinned.
‘What?’ Cindar asked then his face turned to horror as the militia warriors turned and fired their Zat guns at the Jaffa catching them totally off-guard.
Teal’c instantly charged forward and simply crashed into Cindar knocking him flying before he could raise the alarm. One of the disguised X-COM soldiers then stunned him with his zat as another began to cut the bonds holding SG-1.
‘Was that really the best line you could come up with Commander, “I’ve always wanted a ship like this”?’ O’Neill asked as the leather strap tying his hands together was cut and he stepped forward to reach down and pick up a Laser Rifle. ‘You’ve got to learn to taunt the Goa’uld and their people better’ he opined.
‘Throws them off their game?’ Sharp queried.
‘Yeah but annoying them is mainly the end in itself’ O’Neill told him. ‘Major Griff should be attacking the Jaffa at the pyramid any second’ he said checking his watch.
Sharp nodded then looked around. ‘I want the Jaffa on this thing cleaned out’ he ordered. ‘Stun them if you can, no need to kill more than necessary and they might have useful intel, but if it’s you or them burn a hole in the bastards’ he ordered. ‘Major Carter take Sergeant Andianov and secure the engine room, Colonel O’Neill you and Teal’c take the bridge.’
‘If laid out like a standard Ha’tak the ships armoury should be nearby and en-route to both destinations’ Teal’c replied as his own bonds were cut. ‘We can obtain shock-grenades to make the task easier’ he advised as they prepared to head out.
Commander Sharp looked around and remembered a line from one of his favourite films. ‘Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him’ he said with a grin.
‘Somebody better tell the Sectoids they’re going to need a bigger boat’ O’Neill replied.
Canadian Airspace – Earth – February 2001
Despite the addition of the navigation computer linked directly to his brain through the interface built into his helmet, most of the flight controls on the Firestorm had been designed to be as familiar as possible and Cameron Mitchell always enjoyed the experience of slamming the throttles on the elerium powered engines to full military power when he was hunting a UFO.
Utilising an inertial dampening system back-engineered from a Goa’uld Deathglider as well as Sectoid drive technology the Firestorm was a truly awesome machine to fly. It could maintain accelerations that should turn the pilot to paste, it had manoeuvrability best described as beyond extreme and with its Asgard modified Sectoid shield technology, X-COM Laser Cannon and a trio of naquadah-enhanced variable yield Air-to-Air missiles it punched far beyond its weight class.
What it couldn’t do however was catch the damn Sectoid Battleship which it was currently chasing through the night sky, despite Mitchell pushing everything he could into the engines. One decent thermonuclear smackdown with an Avalanche would send it spiralling to the ground, and the Firestorm’s shields could survive one hit from its beam weapon making closing to firing range not necessarily suicidal, but with a top speed in the atmosphere of “only” Mach 6.35 the smaller saucer-shaped X-COM simply didn’t have the power to catch a type of craft which had been frequently clocked at over Mach 7.5 as he chased it from the artic circle right across Alberta heading for the US Border.
‘He’s playing with me’ Mitchell growled, both for the benefit of his flight recorder and out of frustration. ‘Just slow down a few more hundred knots and I’ll shoot a nuke up your ass and then we’ll see who’s laughing’ he vowed.
With a Firestorm now operating out of every X-COM base and a handful of others based at Cheyenne Mountain, Area-51 and Yamantau Earth could now successfully defend itself against any of the smaller, slower Sectoid UFO designs, indeed the enemy now rarely deployed them since they were nothing but Firestorm fodder, but Battleships and the so-called Harvesters were appearing in greater and greater numbers, the latter often being re-tasked to missions previously undertaken by the slower Abductor Class UFO’s. Humans were still being kidnapped and experimented upon and X-COM was more than pissed about it, once the faster even more capable F-302X was bought into service they’d sweep the skies of Earth free of alien trash but until then it was up to the Firestorm Interceptors and their pilots to do the best they can.
‘Son-of-a-bitch is heading right down our throats’ Mitchell realised, the ship certainly now seemed to be vectoring itself directly towards X-COM’s North American base further south. The complex would have seen this too and its defences would now be powering up, not only the battery of Russian-supplied S-300 Surface-to-Air Missiles but they should have their new Laser Cannon operational now too, the large ground-based Directed-Energy-Weapon weapon inordinately more powerful than the one carried in the Firestorms second bay. ‘When you slow down to land I’m going to catch you’ Mitchell said, as if taunting a child. He wouldn’t use an Avalanche set to high-yield anywhere near an X-COM base but a smaller single kiloton explosion would soften the thing up nicely for the base defences.
Thanks to being gradually re-equipped with back-engineered alien Plasma-Rifles the situation had recently slightly improved for X-COM ground-pounders when they managed to get to a landed UFO before it took off, but although more powerful than the L2A2 Laser Rifles the X-COM P2A1 Plasma Rifle, which came with an integrated Zat like its predecessor, was still inferior to the Heavy Plasma Rifle the enemy now carried almost universally, and losses amongst X-COM retrieval teams were still high. The big advantage with the P2A1 was that it didn’t always require multiple hits to bring down a Muton soldier, or at least not as many as a Laser Rifle, so the number of human soldiers being killed after getting off the first shots in a firefight had dropped. A Plasma Rifle was simply better at killing or badly wounding the dangerous foe than the Laser which all too often merely seemed to make the genetically and surgically enhanced creature extremely pissed off. If aliens did get inside the base they’d receive a very warm reception especially since after the attack on X-COM Europe internal base defences including Rotary Staff Weapon and Laser Cannon armed HWP’s were placed to defend the entry points.
‘Interceptor Foxtrot-Sierra X-Ray-Three this is Interceptor Control’ a voice announced over the radio breaking Mitchell away from his thoughts, ‘you are advised to darken your canopy, lower your sun visor and be ready to break off pursuit immediately. Over’ it instructed.
The accompanying transponder code read as genuine so Mitchell flicked the switch which polarised the canopy and lowered the visor on his flight helmet. Maybe there was another interceptor on the way from Cheyenne or Area-51 he thought? This was SOP if you were about to witness a nuclear explosion, those things were bad for the eyesight especially at night and unprepared. Mitchell also closed one eye just in case, better safe than sorry.
They were seventy-five thousand feet up and two hundred and twenty-five kilometres over the US border, still both going at hypersonic velocity with the UFO leading Mitchell by approximately seventy kilometres staying beyond missile range when the Interceptor Pilot saw a massive ball of energy, blinding bright in the darkness, come hurtling from the sky above and impact directly with the UFO blowing it into tiny fragments. ‘What the fuck?’ Mitchell swore, that wasn’t a nuke, and it wasn’t a Sectoid Plasma Beam either, if anything it reminded him of a Goa’uld Staff-Weapon blast he’d seen demonstrated at Area-51, only many orders of magnitude greater in scale.
‘He shoots he scores!’ a strangely familiar and triumphant voice roared from the radio on the X-COM Channel. ‘Hey are you guys tracking any more of those things? Over’ it asked.
‘This is Interceptor Control, be advised we have another UFO inbound over the Atlantic heading for Morocco. Over’ came the reply.
‘Roger interceptor control’ the voice replied, ‘Carter point this thing East’ it continued the voice slightly muffled as if the speaker had turned away from the microphone ‘Interceptor Control you keep telling us where they are and we’ll keep smashing them. SG-1 Out’
Cameron Mitchell could only hope that somebody back at base could tell him what the hell was going on. The idea of gigantic Sectoid-Smashing balls of plasma falling from the sky like the wrath of God was a pleasing one but deep down he was also hoping that he hadn’t just been put out of a job as he flew his Firestorm home.
Hundreds of kilometres above and now heading towards the Atlantic as fast as its sub-light engines could carry it the Goa’uld built Hat’ak, which had only dropped out of hyperspace a few minutes before, started to hunt for its next prey. Although in some ways more technologically advanced the sheer disparity in size between a Sectoid built “Battleship” seventy-five metres in diameter and a true Capital Ship like a six-hundred metre wide Hat’ak meant that the former was not remotely built to take the kind of punishment the main guns of the latter could put out, especially in the atmosphere where the Sectoid vessel couldn’t use its deflector shields and could only rely on its armoured hull for protection.
Utilising Faster-Than-Light Hyperwave communications Sectoid craft near Earth began to warn of the new threat and planned missions were scrubbed as they waited for new orders. They were going to have to adjust tactics and perhaps start to dust off the more advanced equipment they had been keeping back for fear of attracting the notice of the Asgard.
The cloned Legions of Loki were not going to let a minor setback like this dissuade them from their mission, they had been created to save the Asgard race from eventual extinction and fight the likes of the Replicators, a few evolved apes and some stolen second-rate technology wasn’t going to stop them.
Elsewhere in the Solar System, within a vast underground base, an Asgard designed computer containing a copy of Loki’s consciousness issued instructions to begin constructing pre-production models of the Hyperspace capable Type 1 Aerospace Superiority Fighter that was designed to be far more than a match for the new human Firestorm. Meanwhile preliminary designs for the even better Type 2 were being finalised for the prototype stage and those of the larger Type 3 Strike Fighter were gradually taking shape.
Capital Ships can be extremely capable but what they can’t do is be in two places at once like a multitude of small craft can. Loki didn’t care about losing a few hundred or thousand clones, they were disposable cannon-fodder designed to throw at the Replicator hordes. The Muton’s were designed to be the ultimate infantry but he had other creations in mind, new genetically and cybernetically enhanced creatures designed to be the ultimate fighter pilots, just grow them in vats, surgically implant the technology and put them in a cockpit.
And the humans hadn’t even seen the product of his experiments with the combining of genetic material from some of their own race with that stemming from the research done by that overrated, squeamish, sorry excuse for a scientist Heimdall as yet the computer thought smugly.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – March 2001
‘You’re making a mistake Commander’ Jacob Carter insisted, rising from his chair and leaning against the conference table. ‘The Tok’ra can be of great assistance in helping you get to grips with the technology on that ship and all we ask is to borrow it for a few days’ he said wishing he only had to deal with George Hammond and not the X-COM jerk sat next to him as the three met to discuss the Tok’ra request to make use of a certain large item that had just come into Earth’s possession.
‘We can figure that thing out on our own thanks’ Sharp replied confidently. ‘We’ve already got teams crawling all over it.’
‘You’re underestimating just how far ahead Goa’uld technology is ahead of Earths’ Jacob declared.
‘And you are seriously underestimating the ability of X-COM to figure out alien technology’ Sharp replied. ‘The guys with the high IQ’s tell me that most of the basic scientific principles at work in that Ha’tak are the same as for the ship we got from Osiris back in September and I bet we’re already a lot further down the road in figuring that thing out than you give us credit for’ he stated.
‘So you’ll be able to make a second rate copy of the hyperdrive in ten years...’ Jacob began dismissively.
‘Improved version up to modern Tel’tak standards in another two months at the outside’ Sharp interrupted.
Jacob’s eyes flashed as Selmak took over. ‘Impossible’ the symbiote declared.
‘Yeah, impossible takes us about six months, stuff that’s only really difficult like back-engineering the sarcophagus that came with the Ha’tak they reckon two or three at the outside’ Commander Sharp replied.
In fact the main problem now facing XSGCOM was that they simply had too many possible avenues of research and were forced to prioritise some at the expense of others. The ongoing research into Sectoid Plasma Weapons was high priority since the grunts needed Heavy Plasma Rifles to compete and the fighter-jocks wanted Plasma Cannon for the Interceptors, similarly the F-302X program was absorbing a great deal of resources and money as it was rushed through to replace the Firestorms so that limited the amount of work being done on planned alien technology based fighter-transports to replace the Skyranger VSTOLS in the role of carrying UFO Retrieval Teams to action.
More esoteric notions such as Powered Armour for the troops was shelved for now, along with elerium-powered flying Heavy Weapon Platforms for fire-support, the Psionic program only continued apace because so many of the scientists involved were too specialised to be effectively transferred to other projects.
‘Can’t you help me here George?’ Jacob asked his old freind as Selmak stepped aside once more.
‘Sorry Jacob, in other circumstances I might have argued your case for the sake of the alliance with the Tok’ra but we need that ship in orbit to keep the Sectoid’s off our ass’ Hammond replied. ‘They stopped showing up as soon as the Ha’tak arrived and it’s giving us breathing space’ he explained. ‘The Hat’ak sensors have a lot of trouble detecting Sectoid ships at long range, and you can only get a target lock at a few hundred miles, but we can vector the ship to the right coordinates using ground-based Radar’ he said.
‘The Sectoid ships can’t outrun a Firestorm if they’re going much under Mach 7 in the atmosphere and at that speed they can’t manoeuvre anywhere near as well as they can at lower speed’ Sharp noted. ‘They can slow down to try and dodge the Ha’tak’s guns but if they do they get caught by the Interceptor’ he said. ‘Even a few weeks with no, or at least a minimal number of missions will get X-COM back to full field strength after our losses’ he announced. ‘We’re feeding our wounded into the sarcophagus, bought it down in a shuttle bay, and we’re even calling back the personnel who we thought were too badly injured to ever see action again’ he continued. ‘Once we get plasma-cannon armed Reapers into service we might think about letting our new toy out for a spin around the galaxy but until then Earths great big trump card stays right over our head where we can use it to club uninvited guests.’
‘Reapers?’ Jacob queried.
‘F-302X Grim Reaper’ Sharp explained, ‘a whole lot nastier than an F-22 Raptor’ he added. ‘It’ll scythe through Goa’uld Deathgliders like Death himself is pissed at them taking his name in vain’ he declared with certainty, he’d seen the design specifications.
‘You should beware of using the sarcophagus’ Jacob warned.
‘We know the psychological side-effects, it’ll only be used sparingly, half of X-COM is nuts enough already’ Commander Sharp replied with a grin. ‘What we’re really after is a few more Goa’uld Healing Devices, the ones that fit on your hand’ he said. ‘Between those and our medikits we should be able to keep our battlefield casualties alive long enough to get them to the sarcophagus even if they’re shot all to hell’ he continued. ‘You can’t borrow the Ha’tak but we’ll swap technology with you for them.’
‘Such as?’ Jacob asked.
‘For a start the sectoids have this gadget we call a mind-probe, it’s a hell of a lot more effective and portable than one of your za’tarc detectors’ Sharp replied. ‘They cost us over a quarter million dollars apiece to manufacture and use materials we can only obtain from the aliens so don’t think they’re going to be cheap’ he told him. ‘We used the technology to improve our interrogation techniques.’
‘They call it “Mind Rape” if I recall correctly’ Hammond interjected disapprovingly.
‘We’ve got captured Plasma Pistols, we don’t use them because our Laser Rifles are better overall, but they’re more powerful and accurate than a Staff-Weapon and a lot more concealable’ Sharp continued unabated. ‘Handy if your agents need to shoot their way out of a situation’ he said enticingly. ‘Plus we know you use security people to defend your bases, we can do a deal on Laser Rifles with built-in Zat’s and body-armour that’ll stop a staff-blast almost every time.’
‘The rifles and armour provide a serious edge over Jaffa Troops’ Hammond agreed.
‘In return for Healing Devices?’ Jacob questioned.
‘And any other Goa’uld technology you have that we either don’t or haven’t had the time to figure out yet’ Sharp replied. ‘If you supplied a scientist to speed up our R&D work with the Ha’tak we’d give you a hell of a discount on any new equipment we get our hands on in future.’
‘I thought you didn’t need our help?’ Jacob asked sardonically.
‘We don’t it’ll just speed things up’ Sharp responded. ‘For one thing the fact our physics geeks can’t read Egyptian Hieroglyphs is a pain in the ass to start with’ he admitted. ‘Look I know the Tok’ra don’t see us as equals but this alliance is going to be on a more even keel from now on’ he said. ‘You’ve got access to Intel we don’t and a leg-up on Goa’uld tech, we’ve got Sectoid Tech you can get a lot of use out of and we bust heads even better than you play with them with your plots and mind-games’ he continued. ‘The Tok’ra/Tau’ri dynamic is going to change from here on in, you can cut out the “we know best” bullshit because it’s getting old fast and we already get enough of that condescending paternalistic crap from the Asgard as far as I’m concerned’ he opined.
Jacob sighed. ‘You’re heading for a fall Commander’ he responded, shaking his head sadly.
‘Freefall maybe, I’m catching a ride on a captured Deathglider up to the Hat’ak tomorrow’ Sharp replied with a smile. ‘The flight bays weren’t full but we got over a dozen of the things along with the ship, we’re going to refit them with our Laser Cannon as an interim aerospace fighter until the Reapers are ready’ he said. ‘Handy for an aggressor squadron against the Firestorms too’ he added. ‘We’re putting a set of rings into the SGC so we can teleport up to the ship in future but until then we’re shuttling back and forth in the Deathgliders.’
‘You’re risking attention you don’t want’ Jacob warned.
‘From the Goa’uld?’ Sharp responded dismissively. ‘They’re busy fighting each other and I’m already planning more missions through the stargate aimed at weakening Apophis and stopping him crushing Cronus and Terok’ he said. ‘You know the other System Lords won’t stand by forever, they’ll deal themselves into the war against Apophis because they either fight him or kneel to him and too many of them won’t do that.’
Jacob couldn’t help but agree to some extent. ‘We have heard rumours from within the camps of both Lord Yu and Olokun that they are on the verge of joining the war, but even their forces won’t stem the tide of Apophis’s armies very long’ he said.
‘Every day the Goa’uld are too busy fighting each other to worry about this backwater is another day we have to get ready for when they turn up’ Sharp replied. ‘They’re getting weaker with each battle and we’re getting stronger with each new piece of technology.’
‘There’s not enough time to close the gap’ Jacob told him.
‘We’ll see’ Sharp replied, unflustered by the possibility the Tok’ra might be right.