22 – It All Goes South For The Winter
(Destiny – Gate Room – 02.27.2020, 0900)
Dale Volker and Adam Brody were on Gate Room duty, with Brody behind the dialing computer console and Volker at Kino readings station. At the moment, Destiny was moving at FTL. The plan was to drop out in ten minutes, which would put them in range of H9E-502. Based on the telemetry, the planet would be a good source of fresh water and fertilizer. Which was why Camille Wray and Vanessa James were in the Gate Room. If the readings were good, they would be part of the team going on this supply mission.
Then – eight minutes away from the planet – things went wrong. Destiny dropped out of FTL and the Stargate lit up, before starting to dial. But this was not the first time that Destiny had been invaded. In fact, this was how Varro and several others had ended up on the Ancient vessel back in the day. And in the time since, protocols had been established. The group bolted from the room, while James grabbed her radio and contacted Colonel Young.
“Colonel, we’ve got incoming.”
=/\=I know. Implement Protocol Alpha.=/\= Young said. =/\=Reinforcements are on the way.=/\=
“Yes, sir.”
James closed the doors, then readied her weapon. Now it was just a matter of waiting for everything to go south for the winter. After all, there had been a plan to handle the Lucian Alliance invasion of Destiny. ~And that hadn’t exactly worked out.~ Or as General O’Neill had once put it. ~Since when does Plan A ever work ?~
(Destiny – Gate Room - 02.27.2020, 0903)
Supreme Commander La-27-A was leading Operation Prime himself. As he boarded the alien vessel, it became crystal clear that these people had no intention of going down easy. They had locked the room and evacuated the air. La-27-A was only still alive because the last of the first wave had managed to signal back through the wormhole. He was breathing from an air tank. Six of his soldiers had not been so lucky.
He gave hand signals to his soldiers, who moved to the doors out of the room. They took out silvery disks that the Hal’Iry called modulators. The modulators were attached to the doors. After lighting up for two seconds, the devices fell from the doors. But they already done their jobs, because the doors opened. There was a rush of air and then the enemy opened fire, cutting down several of the Hal’Iry troops.
La-27-A gave the hand signal to open fire, which they did. ~Time to get on with it.~ Two of his troopers threw grenades into the corridor. After the detonations, La-27-A moved into the corridor, to find…..nothing. The Ka’Zinro had retreated. But he knew that the fight was far from over.
(Destiny – Corridor - 02.27.2020, 0908)
Vale and Greer had been in the Control Interface Room when the Bridge had sounded the alarm. Vale had been unarmed, but Greer had been carrying weapons, because he had been on his way to join James and Wray in the Gate Room. Greer had given Vale his Berretta 92F, while keeping assault rifle as the two of them went to back up James. Rush and Aranov had been in Control Interface Room manning the consoles. As soon as the soldiers had left and the civilians – Brody, Volker and Wray – were inside, they had locked down the room.
Vale, Greer and James had opened fire as soon as the doors opened. The Hal’Iry had returned fire, before throwing grenades that had forced the three of them to get out of dodge. Vale watched as the Hal’Iry leader stepped into the corridor and recognized him. ~That’s the guy from the quarry.~ Then he reloaded his Berretta and opened fire.
(Destiny – Bridge – 02.27.2020, 0908)
Young looked at the internal sensors. And things were not looking good. The Hal’Iry were pouring out of the Gate in large numbers. Vale was doing his best to put up on firefight, but it was not enough. And that was not their only problem. Lieutenant Matthew Scott, Doctor Lisa Park and Sergeant T’Zalo were manning the forward consoles. Scott had detected three Hal’Iry warships on approach. Which meant that they would soon be in a fight on two fronts.
“Weapons’ range ?” Young asked.
“Three minutes, sir,” Scott began. “Weapons fully charged.”
Scott was manning the weapons console, while T’Zalo was doing the driving and Park was manning the sensors. Complicating things was the fact that they were not in a solar system. Instead, Destiny was in open space with zero cover. Nevertheless, T’Zalo had pointed the ship at the nearest solar system and maxed out the sub-light drive.
“Colonel ?” Park said. “Those ships have been upgraded.”
“I see it.”
Young looked at one of the screens above the command chair. Destiny had already figured out that these were the same ships that had attacked them before. ~Vale was right.~ But he had to deal with the onboard forces first.
(Destiny – Corridor – 02.27.2020, 0910)
NR-4 was running towards the Gate Room. They had been in the Mess Hall when the alarm had sounded. The team had grabbed weapons from the armory and was now on their way to join the fray. Besides the team leader – Captain Carl Grogan – there were three more members in the team. First Lieutenant Alexia Harris had been a member of the USMC, while Sergeant Henry McKinley came from the Special Air Service and Private First Class Jeannie Anders was from the Belgian Army.
All four of them were carrying G36K Assault Rifles. When they reached the engagement, they found Colonel Vale leading the fight. The problem was that there were only three of them, while there were dozens of Hal’Iry. To make things worse, Lieutenant James had been shot in the leg. Greer and Vale were shooting G36K’s, while James was doing her best with a Berretta 92F.
“Harris,” He signaled to the left, where Greer was. “Anders,” He signaled to the right, where she would be Vale’s back-up. “McKinley, see to Lieutenant James.”
The team nodded and executed their orders, while Grogan lay down so that he could cover the middle without getting shot. McKinley had received medical training in the SAS, so he knew how to deal with James’ wounds. He gave his G36K to James and got to work. Of course, there was the small issue of the fact that they were about to be overrun.
(Destiny – Gate Room – 02.27.2020, 0911)
The Ka’Zinro were putting up quite the fight. But La-27-A had numbers on his side, so it was only a matter of time. ~Of course, there is the matter of keeping the wormhole open.~ Which was why they had placed a transmitter in the Ring Room to keep a signal going. With that covered, he was ready to move on to the next phase.
He returned to the room with the Ring to see the next wave of troops come through. They were pulling along a large gas tank, which they proceeded to move across the room. With the room secure, they had been able to study the alien vessel. This was when they had located a life-support node. The Hal’Iry troopers had opened said node and were now connecting the tank to it. Inside the sank was a poison gas called RVX-12. It would take care of the Ka’Zinro in a matter of minutes. La-27-A watched as the gas began to flow. ~It’ll be over soon.~
(Earth, Washington DC – White House, Oval Office – 02.27.2020, 0915)
President Robert Mackenzie was sitting behind his desk, while General Jack O’Neill and Richard Woolsey were sitting across from him. The two of them had been in the Oval Office to discuss the construction of a Beta Site for the Pegasus Galaxy. The Pegasus Alpha Site had gotten a major upgrade last year, but the IOA didn’t trust the Wraith. So they wanted to increase the Atlantis Expedition’s military resource, just in case things went wrong.
But as soon as the Hal’Iry had launched their invasion of the ship, the crew of Destiny had reported it to both Earth and Atlantis using the Ancient Communications Stones. It had been Cinara who had made the report. She had also told them that she and TJ had been in the garden when the alarm had sounded. Cinara had gone to report, while TJ gathered as many civilians as she could in the garden to keep out of harm’s way.
“This is bad,” Mackenzie began. “As long as the Hal’Iry have control of the Stargate, we can’t send reinforcements and they can keep sending in more troops.”
“What about getting our ships there ?” Woolsey said.
“Chaser is days away and Spera months,” O’Neill said.
Before Mackenzie could reply, the door to the Oval opened and Lieutenant-Colonel Dennis Green came in. When Colonel Young’s crew had gotten stranded on Destiny, Green had been a Major assigned to Homeworld Command. He had been the one who had accompanied Chloe Armstrong when she had gone to tell her mother that her father had been killed aboard the Ancient Science Vessel. These days, Green was still assigned to Homeworld Command. But had been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 2016. The look on his face made it clear that he did not have good news.
“Colonel ?” O’Neill asked.
“We just lost contact with Destiny, sir.”
“What happened ?” Mackenzie asked.
“The enemy began flooding the ship with poison gas, Mister President,” Green said.
Colonel Green handed Mackenzie a folder with a printed report inside, which was the long version of what he had just told them. ~Blast.~ The President skimmed the report, then exchanged looks with both Woolsey and O’Neill. Nobody needed to say that this could be the end of the Destiny Expedition.
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