23 – Gas…
(Spera – Bridge - 02.27.2020, 0930)
Destiny was dead. The entire Ancient science vessel had been flooded with toxic gas by the enemy. Checking this life-signs using the Deep Space Internet connection, the crew of Spera found only one cluster of life-signs. ~The crew that had made it to the garden.~ Levine thought. Who had probably been protected by the plants. But it was only a matter of time before Hal’Iry opened the door and executed them. And outside of that room, the only life-signs were the hostiles. ~With more flooding in through the Gate.~ Which tied their hands.
“Bloody hell…”
Then a Hal’Iry life-sign vanished from the Gate Room. And another, and another….and another. Then Levine remembered something. ~New Asurans don’t need to breathe.~ And fifteen of them had been part of the Spera’s crew. Fifteen New Asurans, who were now aboard Destiny…
(Destiny – Gate Room – 02.27.2020, 0930)
Claus fired two Hal’Iry energy pistols that he had taken off dead troopers. The gas had done its terrible work… ~Airman Atienza, Corporal Barnes, Airman Greaster, Private Lougheed, Airman Trasolin, Airman Rennie...~ The list of casualties went on. And it made Claus furious. These people had been their allies, their friends. ~Despite Oberoth, the IOA and the Senate.~ They had overcome a rough beginning and become an unified group. ~Maybe even a family.~ And then this had happened.
As for how this rage manifested, that was simple. Claus had gone on a killing spree. And he was not alone. All fifteen New Asurans had gotten their hands on Hal’Iry weapons and gotten busy. Which was not only throwing the Hal’Iry plans in disarray, but also buying the Jynacko time to make it to the armory and get weapons.
Unlike the New Asurans, the Jynacko DID need to breathe. But the Xivolo had engineered them to….well, be engineers. Which meant that they were expected to work in places where the atmosphere was less then clean. So the Xivolo had included an advanced filter in their make-up, which protected their lungs against airborne toxins. ~Thank you, Xivolo.~ And those provided them with immunity against the Hal’Iry gas. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew was not so lucky.
(Destiny – Garden - 02.27.2020, 0932)
Tamara Johansen heard footsteps outside the door. She and thirty-ish others were inside the garden, which had also been flooded with the poison gas. But because of the plants and the oxygen they produced, the gas had been diluted just enough for the people inside not die or pass out. This had allowed them to manipulate the ventilation and pressure. Which had expelled the gas. That was the good news.
The bad news was that they had zero weapons. Which meant that if the footsteps belonged to Hal’Iry troopers, they would find a group of defenseless targets. There was a pause and then the door opened. TJ’s heart dropped as a pack of Hal’Iry troopers made their way through the opening. They were all wearing gas mask of some kind and carrying energy weapons. These weapons were quickly trained on the Destiny crew. Before anybody could say anything, the troopers pulled the trigger.
(Destiny – Corridor - 02.27.2020, 0930)
Supreme Commander La-27-A was facing a good news, bad news, weird news situation. The good news was that the gas had spread throughout Prime, presumably killing the bulk of the enemy. His troops had found a single holdout, but that would soon fall. Then they would proceeded to the bridge and lower the shields. Then the Decimator and the Crimson Claw would teleport the troops off, before making quick work of the alien vessel.
The bad news was that they had lost contact with their warships. He had attempted to contact them several times, but gotten no response. They were, however, still out there. The corridor he was in, was located the very edge of the deck. Several large portholes allowed for a view of space. There, he could see the three Hal’Iry warships, which were now flying parallel to the alien ship. There were also signs of scorching on the Crimson Claw. The Ka’Zinro had clearly gotten off a few shots before the gas had taken effect.
~But the damage is minor. And nowhere near their main transceiver unit.~ Whatever the issue was, he had every confidence that the crews would be able to handle it. And his radio operator had made it crystal clear that there was no problem on their end. ~Once we get to the bridge, we’ll use this ship’s transmitter.~
But the thing keeping him occupied was the weird news. He had just gotten a report that several enemy soldiers had begun a siege of their arrival point. And that these beings apparently didn’t need to breathe. So he had send a signal through the wormhole for reinforcements, while the first wave continued to look for the bridge. There had been a control center near the room with the ring, but it had been empty and its consoles deactivated. So they kept looking.
The alien vessel was massive and their knowledge of the layout was minimal. Still, it was only a matter of time before they found the main command center. La-27-A continued down the corridor. So he did not see the blue dot of light that appeared in the starfield beyond the window…
(Spera – Bridge - 02.27.2020, 0931)
The science console beeped. This made Doctor Antonia Peters frown. Peters was the ranking scientist of the five head team that had stayed behind on Spera. She had two doctorates to her name. The first was her public one, which was in chemistry. Doctorate number two didn’t officially exist, because it was in Ancient History and was classified beyond the confines of the Stargate Program.
~Because the Ancients and their technology officially don’t exist.~ Levine thought as he looked at her frown. ~If it confuses her, something weird is going on.~ Peters had proven herself a capable leader in her time as Spera’s second-in-command. He made his way to her console and looked at the display.
“What is that ?” He asked, while pointing to a reading on the screen.
“I don’t know.” She paused. “Yet. I’m running the search program now.”
“I’ll use the Stones to report this back to Earth. You keep things going here.”
“Yes, Major.”
Levine bolted from the bridge, while Peters got back to work on figuring out what was happening on Destiny. However, as her fingers flew across the board, she realized that it wasn’t just what was happening inside the ship that was off. She was getting an anomalous reading from outside the ship as well. And then the computer kicked back what she was looking at…
(Destiny – Corridor – 02.27.2020, 0947)
The first sign that La-27-A got that something was wrong, had arrived seven minutes ago. Not only had the non-Breathers taken the room with Ring, they were holding it. They had also broken the transmitter that had been keeping the wormhole open. And seven minutes ago, the wormhole had closed. Which was extremely bad news, because the remote they had been able construct, was crude and could only be used once. ~No more reinforcements, we need to take the bridge now.~
On the bright side, they had found said bridge. And because there was nobody to resist them, it was only a matter of minutes to reach the room. Fortunately for them, the doors to it were already open. They stepped inside to find no remains, only chairs and control consoles. All the consoles were in an alien language unlike anything La-27-A had ever seen before.
Still, an examination of the consoles quickly revealed which controls belonged to the shields. La-27-A worked the controls until the shields dropped. Then he nodded to his radio operator. The man was carrying a large transceiver unit on his back, which he used to transmit to the Decimator. And this time, he got an answer. But the look on his face made it clear that he had not gotten the response he had been expecting.
“What’s wrong, Filler ?” The Operator was a Filler First Grade.
“It was a message in Hal’Iry, Supreme Commander. But…” He swallowed. “But this message is pre-recorded and based on the way it is spoken, it was generated by a translation matrix of some kind.”
“What was the message, Filler ?”
“You should not have returned.”
“What is that supposed to mean ?” La-27-A began. “We’ve never been this close to the edge of the galaxy before. And our probes indicated that all the local planets are uninhabited.”
Before the operator could say anything, the room lit up with the light of a teleporter beam. At first, La-27-A thought that this meant the plan was back on track, but he quickly discovered just how wrong things had gone.
(Earth, Washington DC – White House, Oval Office – 02.27.2020, 0942)
Woolsey, O’Neill and Mackenzie were studying a schematic with the layout of Destiny. Major Levine had made several reports on developments taking place aboard the ship. The latest report was that the wormhole had disengaged. To keep the enemy from sending more reinforcements, Chaser had dialed in. Of course, this would only buy them thirty-eight minutes. But Mackenzie was not complaining.
“So, our New Asuran crewmembers are still alive,” Mackenzie began. “Any chance of any other survivors ?”
“No, Mister President,” O’Neill said.
“You know, it’s ironic that the REP-LI-CAT-ORS, aka the guys you did not want onboard…” He looked at O’Neill, who had thrown a fit a Vale for his negotiations with the New Asurans back in the day.“…might be the ones to save the day.”
“Yes, Mister President.”
“Did I say that out loud ?”
Mackenzie looked at the schematic. He just hoped that the New Asurans were able to pull this situation out of the fire. But more importantly, he hoped that O’Neill was wrong about there being no other survivors.
(Destiny – Garden - 02.27.2020, 0933)
The Hal’Iry troopers had fired their weapons and everybody…..had been enveloped in an odd, purple light. The energy bolts from the Hal’Iry weapons had ended up hitting the bulkheads. It was Eli who said what everybody was thinking.
“What the Frak just happened ?”
“I have no idea,” Hailey said.
The bulk of the people who had made it to the garden had come from two locations, which had been Brody’s Bar and the Infirmary. Jennifer Hailey, Alexander Bennett, Alec Colson and Amanda Perry had been amongst those from the Infirmary, while G’Yal, Allisson Porter, Chloe Armstrong, Varro, Ginn and Eli Wallace had come from Brody’s Bar.
The rest of the group were individuals who had come in alone. While TJ was glad that nobody had gotten hurt, she also felt a pang of guilt. Cinara had volunteered to go report with the Stones and had not made it back. Before she could ponder it further, the Hal’Iry troopers began moving into the room. And one walked right through Ginn.
“What was that !?”
“No way,” Eli said, before turning to Hailey. “Are we…”
“Out of phase ?” Hailey said. “Yes, we are.”
“Well, that’s convenient,” Eli said. ~Talk about cliché.~ Eli thought. ~If this had been a novel, it would be a horrible Deus Ex Machina.~ Of course, it had saved him from getting vaporized. So he was not complaining. “But it does raise the question, who did it ?”
“And why ?” Ginn asked.
Johansen exchanged a look with Hailey. These were the questions they needed to find answers for – and fast - but neither of them had any idea of how to go about it. And there was the little issue of figuring out how to get back into phase with the rest of the universe.
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