6 – What the
Lucian Alliance Has Been up To
(Outpost 7 – Commander’s Office – 24 September 2017 /
Day 30, 1217)
Yarnok Zinar was sitting in his office and sorting
through a huge pile of paperwork and folders. Things were not going well for
the Lucian Alliance. The War with the Tau’ri was still going. Several years
ago, they had attempted to destroy an Tau’ri outpost called the Beta Site, only
to find it had moved. They had attempted to find it again, but to no avail. And
a recent attack on the Alpha Site had ended in defeat. Worse, he had just
gotten a report from one of their spies.
Before, the Tau’ri had two ships in this galaxy, the George Hammond and the Odyssey. But in response to this failed
attack, they had decided to salvage a third ship called the Sun Tzu. Furthermore, they were also
building a replacement for a ship called the Korolev, which had been destroyed by a race called Orii. ~This will
not make the bosses happy.~
Besides ship battles, there had also been dozens of
ground battles between Alliance people and SG-teams. The Alliance had wiped out
several SG-teams, but the Tau’ri kept replacing them. And the Tau’ri had burned
several large kassa crops. Kassa was an artificial – and highly addictive – kind
of corn. So far, the war had been a heated stalemate. But with these two extra
vessels, the balance might shift to the Tau’ri. ~This will make the bosses the
bosses *really* unhappy.~
As for Zinar, he was the Commander of Outpost 7.
Outpost 7 was where the Alliance was trying to dial with ninth chevron. To do
this, they had gathered a large number of reactors and several hyperdrive
cores. The output was gathered in one place and then channel through several
buffers containing weapons-grade naquadah, boosting it many times. The power
source was far from safe. Seven years ago, it had been days from completion
when they had run a test. It had resulted in an explosion that had destroyed
the outpost and killed most of the people who were assigned to it.
Zinar had been against the test. He and a small group
of followers had left Outpost 7 several hours before. Still, they had barely
survived the detonation. As a reward for saving some of the outpost crew, he
had been promoted to Commander and was made leader of the rebuilding of the
Outpost. It had taken three years to remove the radiation enough to make it
safe to begin construction. The original Outpost 7 had been build in a year.
~They cut too many corners the first time around. Not on my watch.~ This time
around, it had taken four years. But now, it was done. ~Here we go.~ He
finished cleaning up the papers and walked out of his office.
(Outpost 7 – Gate Room - 24 September 2017 / Day 30, 1225)
As he walked into the Gate Room, Zinar saw his forces
getting ready. He had one-hundred-and-twenty men and women – counting himself –
to secure Destiny with. Then – much
to his dismay – he spotted the bosses. They called themselves the Council of
Senior Commanders these days. ~Blasted fools.~
Back in 2009, the Alliance had send an invasion force
to Destiny. It had failed. And then,
several months later, a faction within the Alliance had launched an attack
against Earth. It had done some damage to key facilities, but not enough. So it
had also been labelled a failure. After that, the Alliance Civil War had begun.
It had been a struggle between several factions for dominance within the
Alliance. The war had lasted for three-and-half-years and – at least in Zinar’s
opinion – was the reason that the Alliance had not launched an all-out attack
against Earth. In the end, several Senior Commanders had been ended up running
the Alliance. The next three years had been spent repairing the damage done by
the war.
And six months ago, work had begun for the war against
the Tau’ri to enter its next phase. First, they would take Destiny and then they would launch an all-out attack against Earth.
He reached his troops and his second-in-command handed him his gear and weapon.
Most of the Senior Commanders were chauvinistic men, so it was hard for women
to make their way up the ranks these days. So when he had needed a
second-in-command, he had ignored them and given the job to a woman, regardless
of what they thought. She had simply been the best candidate. Her name was
Valerie Watson and she was a Captain in the Alliance.
“Ready to go, Commander.”
“Very well.” He turned to a technician, who was
sitting at costume-build terminal that controlled the Stargate. “Dial Destiny.”
“Yes, Commander.”
The Stargate began dialing, while Zinar heard the
sound of the power source slowly ramping up to full power. It was the sound of
crackling electricity. He looked around the Gate Room. ~Good, loyal soldiers.~
His eyes went to the Council. The Gate Room had a lower level with a single
entrance – where the force and the Gate were – and a U-shaped upper
level-slash-balcony. The Council was looking at them from the upper level.
~Typical. They are away from the danger, while we get to walk into the fire.~
He looked at the Stargate, which was locking the seventh chevron now. ~Almost
there.~ He checked his weapon to pass the time. But – as he expected – it was
in perfect working order. Then the ninth chevron locked in place and the wormhole
opened. But power source did not sound healthy.
“Okay, people..,” He began. “…here we go.”
He approached the event horizon-slash-puddle. ~One of
the perks off being the boss is that you get to go first.~ Taking a deep
breath, he stepped through the Stargate.
(Outpost 7 – Gate Room - 24 September 2017 / Day 30,
1232)
The last soldier walked through the puddle and the
wormhole disengaged. Senior Commander Gerhart Zinar had done his best to hide
his worry, but he didn’t like this whole mission one bit. The Alliance’s last
attempt had ended in disaster. And the current one was being led by his younger
brother Yarnok. ~He is not a fan of us either. Not that I can blame him.~ Most
of the Senior Commander’s were pigs. As for Gerhart, he had become a Senior
Commander by being ruthless.
And he knew it. But he also knew that he had to be
ruthless, because otherwise the other Senior Commanders would eliminate him in
a heartbeat. Furthermore, he knew that some of the Commanders and Captains were
more cut-throat then the people in charge now. And it was his job to keep them
in line. ~If we don’t attack Earth, we’ll have another Civil War on our hands.~
He was about to leave when he heard the technician behind the dialing computer
curse. He made his way down to the lower level of the Gate Room.
“What is wrong?”
“The computer was acting strangely, Commander,” The
technician said. “It froze for a moment, then there was an odd screen and then
it….” He shrugged. “…It just went back to normal, sir.”
“What do the logs say?”
“One moment, sir,” The technician hit several keys and
the logs appeared on the screen. “Oh, this is bad.” He hit more keys. “Somebody
downloaded an unknown program into the network. And it came….” He pointed at
the Stargate. “…through the wormhole, Commander.”
“That’s impossible. Radio signals cannot cross a nine-chevron
wormhole,” He began. “And according to our intelligence, Colonel Young and his
crew were in stasis. Even if they were not, the Tau’ri do not have the technology
necessary.” ~Like I said, it’s impossible.~
“I don’t know what to say, Commander,” The man entered
more commands. “The Gate Room is shielded, sir. No signals in or out. The only possible
passage is the wormhole. And the logs check out, Commander. I don’t…..” The
computer suddenly went dark. It stayed so for several seconds, but then came
back to life. There was computer code running across the screen. “Crap, it’s a virus!”
Gerhart grabbed the cable that connected the dialing
computer to the rest of the base and pulled it out. But it was already too
late. He knew this from a sharp shift in the sound made by the power source.
Before he could do anything else, the blast door above the only entrance came
down. ~It’s in the system.~ He heard a loud click, which indicated that the
door had been locked. The power source began making a really unhealthy noise.
~Time to go.~
He pulled the cable that connected the Dialing Computer to the
Stargate. Then he made his way to the left side of the room and pulled a large
lever. It triggered a safety mechanism that manually dialed the Gate to the
nearest planet. As soon as the wormhole opened, Gerhart and the technician ran
through the puddle. Two minutes later, Outpost 7 exploded for a second time.
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