Chaos_eternus

Xanders Not Allowed too..

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:54:07 GMT

66) Not allowed to name a weapon after foreign gods.
66a) Especially if all I know said deity is from a cartoon, anime, or comic.
66b) Nor am I allowed to invoke him in battle.

68) In fact, I'm not allowed to invoke ANY god in battle.

69) Not allowed to invoke gods, period.

70) "She followed me home!" is not a valid excuse for providing a nonhuman entity with access to Council Headquarters.

71) Deities are not human, therefore Rule 31 applies.

72) Smiting or threats thereof are not a valid counterargument to the previous two rules.

The trouble started with the new axe. It was sharp, shiny, cost a bomb to have customized to Xander’s grip and then another, somewhat larger bomb getting all the spell components for the ‘enhancements’ Willow had decided to try out.

What they had given Xander ended up being a very sharp blade that would never go blunt of get stained and just happened to have the mystical equivalent of a ‘Sombody’s elses problem’ field. Or in this case, a ‘not a threat’ field

Frankly, she had expected that to be… interesting but not to the extent it was. Whilst carrying the axe, nobody, not even if they had just seen Xander tear his way straight through a dozen vampires, could get it into their heads that Xnader might possibly be a threat to them. It made it very easy for Xander to outflank, outthink or just plain walk past minions to get to the desired target. Combined with a distraction, slayer style, it meant Xander wasn’t noticed up till the point where the biggest demon suddenly found themselves dead. Sometimes, he wasn’t noticed even then.

The axe was quickly becoming regarded as the mystical equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Naturally, Xander had decided it deserved a name…

“Ares?” Willow suggested.

“Well, that would be appropriate, see…”

“Nah,” Xander interrupted, “haven’t you seen The Legendary Journeys? Guy was a total jerk.”

The look the watcher shot him could best be described as glacial, “well, if you are going to use that… profane example of crass commercialism of history as a source…”

Xander blinked, his expression turning bemused as he glanced across at Giles, who promptly rolled his eyes and turned his attention away from the conversation.

“Assassin?” Buffy suggested.

“Tempting, certainly appropriate…” he mused with a grin, “lets drop that into the maybe column.”

“Axe of Iolaus?” Dawn suggested quietly, her mouth turning upwards in a faint smile at Giles groan.

Xander shook his head, “nah, just doesn’t quite have it. Besides, G-man is probably right about the crass commercialism part.”

He grinned unrepently as Giles choked, spilling tea over his almost-completed paperwork, his expression managing to convey the impression that the effect was exactly what he had been looking for.

Dawn smiled, tightly, “I think it’s very appropriate Xander, after all, you’ve always been there when once of us has needed you… '--Then call on me as your Iolaus, as long as the daylight lasts.'”

Giles smiled, sending the teen an approving nod as he attempted to mop up the table, “Plato’s Phaedo.”

Touched, Xander pulled the axe from sheath on his back with a smile, “Iolaus it is,”

Of course, that wasn’t a problem. No, the problem would come later, when its name would come into play in a unexpected way. In the meantime, Xander now had an axe with an all-too appropriate name, zoom forward now to apocalypse season…

“He has the axe!” Xander gasped out as he dived behind the line of Slayers, a dozen small but far too smelly demons promptly dieing as they tried to follow the one-eyed warrior.

“The Demon Prince? Don’t worry about it, he’s not a threat,” Buffy blinked, her mind processing the words she had just spoken, “oh wow, damn. We have got to redo the wards on that axe.”

“Why?” Faith asked, as puzzled expression on her face as she drove her sword right between armour segments on a larger but less smelly demon, instantly severing its spinal cord at the neck.

The senior slayer shrugged, “true, it’s not as if they guy who has it is going to be able too…. Damn. We so need to do something about that axe.”

“Right…” Faith shot her a bemused look, “I wouldn’t suggest sending anyone after it at the moment, still to many demons to deal with. Besides, the guy who’s holding it doesn’t even know… how… too… Oh, bollocks.”

Buffy grimaced, “cottoned on have you?”

“Cottoned on to what?” Faith shrugged, “hey, at least Iolaus didn’t end up in the hands of one of the larger demons. Nasty little bastards.”

Buffy shook her head and aided by the Axe’s magics, gave up on trying to get the point across. After all, it wasn’t as if the guy who had the axe was a threat, no Rona could deal with him regardless how it might actually look.

Wait, why did Xander just shout for his axe?

Damnit, why couldn’t they see it? That thing was a menace without the axe but with it… was he the only who actually saw the threat there? Of course… it was his axe, intended for him and he had been the person to use it most, it might have granted him immunity to its magics.

Still, that left Rona in a very threatened position… and the thing was about to kill her with his axe! His pride about to be tainted forever…

Perhaps it was instinct, perhaps it was a selfish desire not to have his most prized possession tainted by the blood of a hero but either way, in that critical moment Xander didn’t call Rona’s name as the axe began to fall, but that of the axe itself.

“Iolaus!”

Rona closed her eyes fearfully, knowing this was the end, that one of the few survivors of the Sunnydale hellmouth was about to die, that…

Hang on, why wasn’t she dead already?

Demon Prince was taking his time…

She opened her eyes, glanced upwards and her expression a mixture of shock, relief and grim satisfaction dived out of the way mere seconds before the body of the ex-demon prince crashed down to the ground where she had been slumped mere seconds before.

Faith blinked, her eyes wide as she glanced from the mysterious blonde haired man who had just scored a perfect bullseye on the bastards eye from across the full length of the cathedral and in the time it had taken her to merely think about what he had done, had already reloaded his bow twice and taken two other lesser demons out as well.

He was muscled too, not in the bodybuilder way, but in an ‘I have worked hard and fought hard all my life and am still here’ kind of way.

“Faith,” Buffy’s voice snapped her back to the fight, “you can salivate over our mysterious friend later. In the meantime, slay please?”

She grinned, darting forward then groaned, shooting an annoyed glance back at her sister slayer, mouthing ‘Slay Please?’

“I thought summoning only worked for demons and for Gods?” Giles stated with a frown.

Iolaus shrugged, “as I understand it, works for minions as well. So long as you rightfully work above or below, you can be summoned. Never had it happen to me before, well, except by Hercules normally at the most inconvenient of moments but still…”

Buffy frowned, “inconvenient?”

He blushed, “Last time I was… busy. Almost finished in fact. Hercules didn’t try that again.”

The group fell quiet, their expressions moving as one from ‘huh?’ to ‘I don’t want to know’ with a quick stop off a ‘eww!’ and ‘I did not need that mental image.’

“Of course,” Iolaus shrugged slightly, hiding a smile, “Aphrodite always thought it was she who was going to end up summoned by one of you first. Apparently she’s been keeping an eye on Xander here.”

“Really?” Dawn grinned, “do tell…”

She had warning at that point, she could have stopped it then, but truly, she had no idea what Dawn was up too. If she any idea… well, she would probably have allowed the little brat to chase Xander like she had always wanted. Better that then the alternative, Dawnie playing matchmaker…

Then again, she had been distracted by the humble pie Giles had been eating over a certain 'profane example of crass commercialism of history'

It wasn’t often the wards pinged her consciousness and then did the mystical equivalent of attempting to curl up in a corner and hide. When that happened, Willow knew something big was up and teleported straight in the main hallway of the Slayer’s Council headquarters, Amy’s Little surprise on her lips, fireballs in the hands. All of which she allowed to dissipate with a resigned smile as soon as she saw exactly who was in the doorway.

“Xander, what did you do this time?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged, a baffled, bemused expression on his face, “she just followed me home,”

“I doubt a Goddess just followed you home,” Willow shrugged, “her hands dancing intricately behind her back, “certainly not Hecate herself,”

“Well…” Xander shrugged helplessly.

“Mind if we finish this?” the Earthly looking woman next to him said with a purr, “Aphrodite told me so much about you…”

“Aphrodite,” Willow said flatly.

Xander groaned, shook his head and shouted, “Dawnie, when I get a hold of you I am going to kill you,”

“Knew we shouldn’t have left her and Iolaus alone,” she frowned, pouting, “course, she would have to ‘forget’ that rule 31 still applies.”

“Hey!” he replied outraged.

“Rule 31?”

“Not allowed to date outside of my speacies,” Xander responded grumpily.

“Well honey,” Hecate responded, “I am a God, I could smite anyone who tried to enforce that if you wanted?”

Xander grimaced, sending Willow a pleading look, “probably not the best idea, you know I don’t think this relationship is going to…”

Willow stifled a snicker.

“I could even smite the IRS for you…” she pouted, I don’t know why people keep asking for that one,”

“Okay,” Xander replied shortly, “now I’m tempted.”

Willow just barely stopped herself from nodding.

Trouble indeed, Buffy sighed, her expression mutinous as she gazed across the figure who now quite frequently joined them in their slaying, explaining quite simply why there was very little slaying to be done these last few months.

Of course, having Hecate on you side did have its benefits…

“You think my outfit looks tarty?” Faith shrieked, “I show you a new outfit… Hecate work thy will, before thee let the… Pantomime Dame crawl.”

“Done and girl, you have been spending far too much time around Giles.”

Of course, being able to summon Hecate at any time did also have its disadvantages. Two-hundred pounds of body-builder turned vampire in drag was certainly one of them. Not.

Fic: 12Battlegroup 23/?

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:48:05 GMT

Twenty-Three

**one or two swears and as usual, I dont own most of it**

“Earth’s defences remain at a high state of alert today after the discovery of a stealthed monitoring platform just outside the Sol System. The station, believed to be of Goa’uld construction, was discovered during a random check on the outlying areas of the system being carried out by the destroyer General Hammond.”

“A source within Stargate Command has suggested current plans may result in the prototype type 3 defensive satellite may be placed so as to protect the construction of the Gaia shipyard, whose construction in Earths own orbit has been confirmed but not yet started. This goes directly against earlier statements which suggested the platform may be placed above the Stargate Command facilities currently being rebuilt in Colorado or over one of the scattered Royal Space Service facilities in the United Kingdom.”

“A motion has entered congress today to convert the Kennedy Space Centre into a transhipment and construction facility for the proposed Tau’ri Star Service. The facility, whose future like so many NASA bases has been uncertain since Disclosure, would end up being the largest construction base for support craft such as the Airhead orbital lifters and Paladin transports as well as retaining its role as a starport, taking cargoes in by rail, road and air ready for lifting to be orbit or vice-versa. The facility is already well equipped for this role having the bulk of the required infrastructure already in place.”

“Unconfirmed reports are reaching us that an Asgard Beliskner class ship has arrived in orbit and is preparing for cleanup operations around the Exeter Exclusion zone, now thoroughly and some say irretrievably contaminated with radiation.”

“If you look up to the skies tonight you may see a new star glinting in the heavens, that glinting dot seen most clearly in South England and parts of France is no star, it’s the Battlestar Atlantis, currently scheduled to be on proving trials between Mars and the asteroid belt. No-one has yet confirmed the reason why this craft has taken up orbit over Earth but its location and the rumours of Asgard vessels modified for radiation cleanup duties cannot be a coincidence.”

“The 1^st Battlegroup, assigned to support allied races is on its way home today. Sources confirm that the group dialled in from a Stargate close to the allied territories, apparently to transmit reports and to seek parts and equipment. This has not been confirmed, but it has been suggested that a significant number of body bags were sent through the gate to the temporary Stargate Command Facilities. What is certain is that the group will have to travel for several months to reach Earth with frequent stops to restock on food, as well as recyclables such as water and oxygen.”

Murielle gazed unblinkingly through the dirtied glass of her binoculars, one eye on the distant farm buildings, the other flickering around the surrounding countryside, checking as ever for unwanted surprises. Movement, she stiffened slightly, and then relaxed as two female figures walked out of the old, possibly medieval barn across to the only slightly newer farmhouse. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought they were twins, but Murielle knew enough to recognise model sixes when she saw them.

Normally she would have been in by now, at the head of a detachment of SAS, Royal Marine Commandoes or whoever else was available. Not this time however, this farmhouse was in an area that had 100% radar coverage, both civilian and military and of mixed types. There was no way anyone should be able to land in this particular corner of the English countryside unnoticed and yet these guys had. She could understand the human forms managing to land elsewhere and assemble here, but there was a large detachment of warriors badly concealed around the buildings too and who would miss or mistake those?

Not to mention, the glimpses she had caught of the inside of the barn they seemed to say ‘heavy raider’. That was certainly a problem, she wouldn’t want to guess how many of those annoyingly pocket sized nukes the Colonials and Cylons used could be landed on one of those. But that was a minor consideration in why they weren’t going in, there were enough dead already that if those went up here and now in response to a raid, it wouldn’t make much of a difference to the stats, even with the local presence of several large towns. No, nasty as it might sound the bigger issue was how they were landing and supporting this small base without being noticed, after all, if they would manage it here in such a well covered area, how much could they get away with in a less well monitored zone?

It helped of course that most planes had been grounded long since and that most flights at the moment were official or scheduled well in advance, sure it was a bastard for those who could afford a small plane such as a Cessna but it made tracing flights at lot easier.

Movement again from within the farmyard, several figures stepping out of cover, looking around as if waiting, and now a tingling from her wrist reciever. She glanced down, her eyebrows rising just slightly at the small led readout.

Somebody inside the farm was transmitting were they? And a possible homing signal at that, very interesting, it may just be that they were about to have visitors. After two weeks of watching and no dice, it was damn well past time.

She glanced up, her eyes darting around, controlling, swiftly quartering every corner of the sky, ground and farmyard with practised efficiency. Still, she misses the exact moment exact moment the heavy raider appears, with a grimace Murielle realises exactly what has happened and knowing it may cause her death, but also knowing the information is too important to risk being lost if she was caught in her escape, she slowly reaches down, pulling a small radio with attached keyboard and swiftly begins to type.

“This is a problem,” Admiral Thompson states flatly.

“This is a fucking nightmare,” O’Neill growls, “if there Raiders can just jump into atmosphere then they can be in and out literally in a minute.”

Carter shrugged, the light glinting of the single star on her shoulder tabs, “assuming they have precalulated outbound co-ordinates, yes. Even if they don’t, they would be able to calculate an outbound jump before we had any chance to intercept…”

“If they decide to start attacking instead of just dropping of raiding parties and Intel groups…” O’Neill growled.

“The question is why haven’t they yet?” Thompson noted his expression pensive, “they certainly seem more determined to weaken then to actually destroy.”

“Weaken implies an intention to take…” Carter mused, “it’s certainly not a guarantee but…”

“Do we know of any way to jam their jump drives?” Thompson noted.

“No,” Carter shrugged, “apparently the Colonials did try to find a way during the first cylon war but never had any real success.”

“I think it just became a priority,” the Commander of Ravenbright station shrugged, “either we jam ‘em so they can’t just jump into range of Earth or we come up with some form of interdict so we can stop them where we want them. Either way…”

“I think our only saving grace so far is that the human forms are not militarily trained for the most part, they are certainly learning tactics as they go along but it’s easy to miss things like that. If they start to truly think about what they can do with those jump drives,” The Admiral slumped down in his seat, “then the war will very swiftly be over for us. Carter, I know Sciences can do without another priority but O’Neill is right, we need an interdict or jamming capability and I think we needed it several years ago.”

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Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:56:06 GMT

Drabbles based upon the Things Xander Is NO LOnger Allowed To DO list

85) Not allowed to encourage Angel to sing as a form of torture.
85a) Especially 'Mandy'.

“We’ve tried everything, bamboo shoots under the nails, glass rod up his…” Buffy stuttered to a stop, blushing faintly, “right, electric shocks, plain beatings, I don’t think he’s going to talk,”

“We need to know where he has hidden Dawnie buff,” Willow commented sadly.

“I know, I know,”

“I,” Xander shuddered, “have an idea,”

“But I sent you away, oh Mandy”

“Stop it, stop it, I’ll talk,” screamed the 1000 pound demon, eyes streaming with tears, his hands pressed desperately against his ears, “please!”

“I hate you Xander,” Angel grumbled, “perhaps I should finish the song?”

“No!” Xander responded, alarmed.

98) I cannot organize a "pool" about the species of Buffy's next boyfriend.
98a) Even if Faith wants "a piece of that action."
98b) Or Dawn.
98c) Or Willow.
98d) Or Giles.
98e) Nor can I refer to "human" as the "sucker bet."

“Place your bets, place your bets here!”

“Alien,” Andrew grinned, handing over a twenty. Nodding, Xander noted it down into his little black book.

“Demon,” Willow grinned, handing her money over.

Giles took Elven, a choice which got a raised eyebrow but no comment from Xander, Kennedy rather nastily choose animal.

Grinning lecherously, Faith pulled a twenty from between her breasts, handing it to a suddenly nervous Xander, she commented simply, “female,”

“What are you choosing Dawnie?” Xander asked, noticing her trying to get his attention.

“Human,” she replied, with a knowing grin.

Xander snorted, taking the Keys money, “sucker bet,”

“What’s a sucker bet?”

Grinning, they turned to face the door where Buffy stood, a tall handsome, human looking figure beside her.

“Oh right, guys I would like you to meet Duncan McCloud. He’s immortal,”

Groans filled the room, “all right,” Giles sighed, “who had ‘none of the above?’”

169) I am not 'The Dread Pirate Roberts.'
169a) The slayers are not to be referred to as my 'brute squad.'
169b) Andrew is not a "Rodent of unusual size,' even if Faith agrees with me.
169c) I am not to go into battle with the cry 'My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to Die!'
169d) I cannot tell the new slayers that Buffy dressed as Buttercup that Hallowe'en.

“All right yea landlubbers, this here is the Dread Pirate Roberts and I’m here to shiver your timbers!”

The look the said ‘landlubbers’, a rather large group of Polgara demons, sent the eye-patched Scooby was largely disbelieving but there was enough shock in their for twenty Slayers to file unmolested into the room as well.

“What’s that, yer brute squad?”

“And one Rodent of Unusual size,” Xander noted as Andrew slipped in, sword in hand.

Grinning tightly, Andrew raised his saber, “My name is Inigo Montoyo, you killed my father, prepare to die!”

The ‘brute squad’ took that as their cue.

“Well that was bracing,” Xander commented as they fled before the approaching sirens.

“But sad, I mean, come on, all those Princess Bride references?”

Xander grinned at Kennedy, “You think we’re bad? A certain Slayer we both know dressed up as Buttercup one Halloween…”

Kennedy blinked, “Buffy? No way!”

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:52:51 GMT

Chapter 16: Fallout

Sarah sighed as she stroked Jareth, the post owl cheerfully digging into the treats she held in her other hand, not noticing or caring much that her master was not paying her much attention, only knowing that her favourite foods were being given to her.

Sarah herself was having very mixed thoughts, she had learnt whilst at the school of course, but beyond what her ‘animagus’ form could be and a few meditation techniques had she truly learnt what she needed to? Had she learnt her control?

Certainly that was not yet up to scratch, her dreams, her nightmares, even her waking moods were still spilling over to affect the school as a whole That never used to be a problem, hell, until those idiots that started this mess, the ones she had sent to the bog of eternal stench, she had seen few if any indications that she had any sort of power. Certainly not power to the extent that was, often wildly, being expressed by her these days, and why was that exactly?

Had all those abilities remained dormant until she had called them into action in her fear, defending herself against those cretins or had Jareth locked them until needed?
Wait, Jareth.

He had appeared the very instant near enough that the doorway to the bog had been opened and closed. Could that be coincidence? No, she had to admit coincidence wasn’t likely; the timing was far too tight. Either he had been watching her and had responded as soon as she had disposed of the idiots, in which case she needed to kick his arse for not doing something sooner. She had seen the dark light in their eyes, she knew what they planned and she had little doubt Jareth knew it too, if he had been watching and was just going to let that happen….

The alternative was that he set it up in order to force her to use her abilities, in which case she wasn’t likely to be in any physical danger as she doubted Jareth, arsehole though he was, would allow his constructs to go that far, but still, that being true, she still needed to kick his arse.

And there was his responses, his actions once he had appeared, they had been swift, decisive, not a hint of hesitation or pause, as if he had practised them. He knew exactly what he was going to say, he had everything all planned out ready, even if it was only in his head, that was the only explanation she could think of. Which meant she really needed to have a ‘quiet’ word with Jareth, preferably at gunpoint. A shotgun pointing somewhere low down and valuable should do it, not that she could get her hands on a shotgun but the thought was certainly nice.

-----

“She did what?”

Hermione sniggered, her eyes dancing with malicious humour, “her classmates found her on top of Snape in a full on lip lock,”

Harry shook his head, “Snape is never ever going to forgive use for that.”

“True,” Hermione laughed, “but just imagine the fun we can have reminding him of it at every opportunity? Not like Snape is going to allow Gryffindor or Slytherin to win the House Cup now anyway, so we might as well have some fun.”

Harry gaped at Hermione, startled, “Hermione, this is a Professor you’re talking about!”

“The mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, the great teacher inspires. William Arthur Ward if I remember correctly,” She shook her head dismissingly, “Snape might know potions better then any other person alive, but he is certainly no teacher.”

“Hey guys,” Harry and Hermione stopped, glancing behind them at the familiar voice of Ron racing up to join, “have you heard, Snapes been sedated! Kept on raving about an Abbot or something, he was totally cracked.”

Breaking out laughing, Harry and Hermione preceded to explain to Ron exactly why Snape had cracked.

-----

Snape didn’t know what was worse, the fact that he had lost control, in front of the students no less or the fact that he had lost control so badly he had needed to be sedated. Or perhaps thanks to word getting out about being caught in a lip lock with a student that he was now going to have his status here as a teacher reviewed, not just by the school board who were in Malfoys pocket anyway and so wouldn’t be a problem whilst Voldemort saw a need for him to be here, but by Ministry Aurors too.

He was knee-deep in dragon shit thanks to those blasted Gryffindor and Slytherins and worse, the whole school knew it. And just to cap it off, there was not a single chance of Miss Abbott leaving him alone now, having a female writhing on top of him had provoked a long forgotten reaction much to his disgust, and whilst Abbott herself had hidden that reaction from the arriving students and teachers he had known and so had she.

He was truly in the shit, and if either the School Board or the Aurors asked the wrong question and his carefully cultivated immunity to veritiseaum didn’t hold up them he would truly be in trouble. That shit would most definitely hit the fan.

In that case he might as well just go to Voldemort and admit to being an agent for Dumbledore; it would be a lot less painful then what would happen to him otherwise.
Damn those blasted brats, damn Miss Abbott and damn himself for losing control!

Chapter 17: Party, Hogwarts Style

“Do you think she knows?”

Harry shook his head dismissively at Ron’s question, “Sarah knows something is up, but I don’t think she has figured out there’s a party coming.”

“Surprised no-one’s told her,” Ron replied.

“McGonagall threatened to make the first student that told look after Hagrid’s menagerie next time he went on one of his… ‘trips’,” Hermione replied.

Ron considered this for a moment as his steps took him off the moving staircases and onto the relatively stable floors of Hogwarts main corridors, his step instinctively lengthening over a floor stone that wasn’t really there, “That would do it, but why wasn’t I told?”

Harry and Hermione shot their friend bemused looks, “McGonagall did catch you threatening Pansy Parkinson,”

“Right,” Ron frowned, “so what; she didn’t think it was necessary to threaten me as well?”

Hermione snorted as they approached the great wooden doors to the hall itself, “definitely not,”

Ron considered this for a moment, “I don’t know whether to be thankful or annoyed,”

“Settle for thankful,” Harry winced, “she went as far as to describe some of Hagrid’s latest acquisitions to her Slytherin classes…”

Ron shot his friend a questioning look and Harry shrugged, “was delivering some pine cones for a second year transfiguration class and caught the end of it. At least I know now where Ridley Scott got the idea behind Alien from,”

Hermione paused, a truly disturbed look crossing her face.

“Alien?”

Shuddering, she led the way into the Great Hall, “you don’t want to know.”

------

“Okay, what’s up,”

Draco blinked, caught off Guard, “Nothings up,”

The look that Sarah shot the Slytherin Prince could best be described as disbelieving with a not so subtle hint of ‘yeah, right’ and a nice dash of ‘you couldn’t lie to save your life’. On reflection, Draco decided perhaps he shouldn’t have, yea gods, volunteered to keep Sarah distracted whilst the rest of the school gathering in the great hall. It was her expression that gave it away… then again; it was her expression, her behaviour around him that had him so interested in her anyway.

Everyone else in the school looked at him in a very limited way, there was the useful ‘you rank higher then me so I’ll bow and obey whilst it serves my needs’ from the Slytherins… of course, he didn’t see so much of that nowadays, ever since that ‘Dark Fart’ howler he sent Mouldy-shorts. Nowadays it boiled down to frank admiration for his bravery in telling the most powerful figure in the Wizarding World, bar perhaps a certain female not that far from him, what he really thought of him. The other Slytherins… well, if they showed up with dark marks on their arms, he wouldn’t be at all surprised. As for the rest of the school, he was either admired (usually for his body and not always by the females… yeech) or utterly hated. There was no middle ground.

Sarah…

Now Sarah on the other hand, she seemed to find him amusing. It was an interesting and perplexing change to say the least.

“Malfoy…”

Okay, so occasionally she found him exasperating as well. That attitude he really liked, it was so much fun getting the terrible trio into that state…

“What?”

Sarah rolled her eyes, “that’s ‘Pardon’, honestly, for someone brought up in such a high status home, you certainly didn’t pick up any manners.”

“Manners and status don’t always come hand in hand,” Draco replied, then froze, finding himself aghast at his own words, had he just stated something nice? Something that might suggest people of lower birth may actually be better in some ways then the peers of the Wizarding world?

Okay, he had thought it for some years, but dammit, it wouldn’t do his image any good to be actually heard saying it. Nervously, he glanced at Sarah out of the corner of his eye, had she caught his little slip?

“Why Draco, I do believe that is the nicest thing I’ve ever heard you say,”

Damnit, he should have known better then to think she would have missed that little slip.

Inwardly he groaned as he caught the twinkle in the corner of Sarah’s eye, she was going to let it go for now, of that he had little doubt, but he also had little doubt that she intended to remember that little Fraudian slip.

“So, when is the party starting anyway?”

How the hell was he going to minimize the impact of the little... what in Merlin’s name did she just say?

“Party…” Draco spluttered, “I have no idea what you’re talking about,”

The look he got in response could best be described as old-fashioned. It was, he mused inwardly, quite possibly Neolithic.

There was just one word that covered this situation, Draco noted, and unfortunately Sarah counted as polite company, damn.

“Are Hufflepuff having one of their ‘Day of the Week that ends in Y’ parties again?” he tried.

Bemusement, that I can work with, Draco thought to himself, “seriously, have you seen how… ah, ‘weighty’ their beaters are getting? No wonder they can take hits so well, all that cushioning!”

Good, she’s trying not to laugh; maybe I can keep her distracted.

“Nice try… but the Hufflepuff parties don’t normally take the entire house elf staff of Hogwarts to prepare, want to try another?”

Bollocks.

-----

Dumbledore’s lips twitched as he watched Snape quite suddenly and for no reason at all, apparently remember some work he had to do, something which had nothing at all to do with the arrival of a certain student. Not that that would get him far…

He grinned as Snape bounced back into the room, unable to pass through the exits, as some truly evil individuals had already rigged the doorways to stop him leaving. Oh yes, and let Miss Abbott know Snape would be unable to leave the party. Not that he had anything to do with that of course, the twins had… borrowed that spellbook from his room after all, waiting until his back was turned and at his advanced age, he couldn’t exactly be expected keep track of anything.

Of course, he wouldn’t let it go so far as to a relationship… but he had little doubt that determined and single-minded as she was, Miss Abbott could crack that thick shell of his. Most likely Snape would find himself someone else out of sheer self-defence, to save him from Abbott and that would be a great day. That stick was truly too far up his arse, he could do with somebody to loosen it.

-----

“She mocks me too much,”

“My Lord,” Pettigrew grovelled, “she threatens your power, challenges you, makes you look weak,”

“Weak?” Voldemort hissed, rising, wand raised and ready from his seat.

“There has been talk… you are making your followers uneasy. They see a threat at a ripe age to be turned to your ends, a threat that has managed to turn several promising members of the Voldemort Youth from your sight and they see what you are doing about it,”

Voldemort sat slowly back down into his seat, “I see your point wormtail… still you questioned. Crucio!”

As Pettigrew screamed and writhed on the floor, soiling himself quite noisily, Voldemort turned to another of his followers, “we move tonight, the Traitor shall be killed under his very nose. Then they shall know that even at Hogwarts none are safe.”

Chapter 18: Isn’t it supposed to be a surprise?

“Oh wait, is that the time?” He glanced at his watch, “I think we had best head to the hall, grab some tea before horde arrives?”

“Oh wait is that the time? Draco, I know you’re not that hot at lying and avoidance, but come on, at least drop the clichés”

‘Actually,’ Draco noted to himself, ‘I’m quite good at the lies, evasions and the like… I just seem not to be able to manage it when something ‘nice’ is going on. Bugger that little weakness.’

Outwardly, he shrugged, “it is teatime and I would rather like something to eat,”

“Well, that sounded genuine at least. Okay, you win Draco.”

Of course he sounded genuine, Dobby had let slip that he had been making his special chicken, that was something he would never get tired off. The meat cooked so that if just fell off the bones at the slightest of pressures, the dusting of spices, his own recipe for stuffing…

“And that is definitely genuine salivation. Geez Draco, if I knew you were that hungry I would have shown you how to get into the kitchens,”

“That’s a servant’s area,” Draco winced, okay, so perhaps he deserved that slap. Talk about not censoring your own mouth…

Wait…

Perhaps he deserved that slap?!?

Geez, he was turning into a wishy washy Hufflepuff. Next thing he knew he would be giving a damn about others petty feelings.

“And that is the Draco we all know and love and love to hate,”

She was amused?!

“Now, I believe you said you were hungry?”

That’s it; he was going to have to kill her.

Either that or marry her.

“Lead on Mcduff,” he commented sarcastically, gesturing towards the Castle entrance.

“Such a Gentleman,”

Sarcasm, he was definitely going to have to kill her.

Wait…

What was that he had just thought?

Marry…

Marry!

Marry?!

“Draco, that’s a wall. You can’t walk through walls.”

-----

“I have a question,” Ron slowly commented, his eyes not leaving a figure who was swiftly filling a large plate from the buffet tables that ran the length of the room where the Slytherin table would normally, “this is a surprise party for Sarah right?”

Catching the puzzled nods of his friends out of the corner of his eye, he continued, “and we’re just waiting for the guest of honour to arrive so we can get the party properly started right?”

“Of course,” Hermione replied, her tone of voice saying all to clearly that she had no idea where this was going and was just humouring her friend.

Ron shrugged, and snapped the trap shut, “then who is that at the buffet table?”

“Bollocks,” Harry replied, his eyes spotting instantly whom Ron was talking about, his words earning an instinctive and completely unnoticed ‘Don’t Swear’ from Hermione.
“How did she get in?” Ron asked.

“Couldn’t have used the main entrance like they were supposed to, they would have been noticed. Draco would have had to lead her around to a side entrance…” Hermione grimaced, “Malfoy.”

“He knew we were all expecting her at the main door,” Ron sighed, “so he decided to bring his own little twist to the party. Now why am I not surprised?”

“He’s Malfoy,” Harry shrugged.

“Right,” Ron shook his head slowly, “that would be it,”

“It was a very Slytherin thing to do wasn’t it?” Hermione noted with a frown.

Behind them, a startled Draco glanced listened to their words with gratified surprise.

-----

“Would you care to dance?”

“No,” Snape replied, gritting his teeth, “I would not care to dance, I would not care to play your party games, I would not care to ‘join in’, I would care to be in my quarters with a dozen bottles of red ink and some Gryffindor papers to mark. Alas, certain cretins, no doubt with Dumbledores knowledge, if not outright assistance have seen to keep me from these simple pleasures,”

“You cannot lock yourself away from life,” Abbott replied, her expression enticing, “at some point, you have to live, otherwise all you will do is die inside, day by day, little by little until all that is left is a bitter and twisted shell. You’re not their yet and… I could save you.”

Uttering an inarticulate growl of pure utter disbelief at the Hufflepuffs words and their unmistakable suggestion, Snape fled, his path taking him swiftly to the headmaster, stopping only to drop gigawatt range glares at any students he passed who were getting too familiar for his liking. That, given his mood, including just glancing at a member of the opposite sex, let alone necking or, heavens forbid, dancing like couples.

“Headmaster, I don’t know why you tolerate this… this debauchery!”

Dumbledore turned around to face Snape, a faint glimmer of surprise hiding in the corners of his eyes, barely visible under a look of such pure innocence that it would make Lucifer weep “Debauchery? I was not aware that Miss Abbott had succeeded in getting your attention quite that well.”

The response was a simple grinding of teeth of Snape held his arms ramrod straight at his sides, his eyes resting disconcertingly on the older wizard’s jugular, following the mesmerising pulsing as blood was pumped around Dumbledore’s body.

The headmaster took an involuntary step back, one hand moving closer to his wand, reminded disconcertingly, and not for the first time, of a vampire.

“I suggest you hurry in removing that ward from the doors,” Snape replied finally, his voice so taut it reminded the headmaster of an elastic band that was set to slingshot an object into orbit, “in case you have not noticed there are no facilities in this room and with the number of frivolous drinks you have been forcing into my hand all evening I’m afraid I have quite a pressing need. Unless you would like me to display some debauchery… right into the punch bowl!”

The innocent look fell from Dumbledore’s face, no doubt making at least a dozen angels weep with grief, replaced by a look that could best be described as disturbed.
Grinning at his victory, Snape swept swiftly but menacingly from the room as the headmaster made a simple gesture with his wand. Behind him, the headmaster made his own swift way right to the age-line restricted drinks section.

Unnoticed by either, a young figure darted out of the room also, following Snape as he fled the party.

-----

“Where is he?”

“We can’t keep scrying, it won’t be too long before Dumbledore notices and investigates, if that happens, we’re scuppered.”

“We’ll give it another go. Damnation, would never have taken Snape of all people for a party animal, bloody hell, he’s never even left to go to the toilet all night.”

“Yea, well he’s left now. Looks like he’s heading towards the ground floor toilets,”

“Great, we’ll kill him there,”

“With his pants down? Not exactly sporting,”

“Who gives a flying shit about sporting when we’ve got Voldemort to think about and the potential for… annoyance,”

The second voice considered this for a moment, his thoughts going, just for a moment, to Malfoy Seniors final… well, you couldn’t call it moments. Final days on the other hand…

“Pants down; right,” he concluded.

Fic: Seeker 10Deliverence

Sun, 28 May 2006 11:26:20 GMT

Chapter 10: Deliverance

Cain led us to Earth, his knowledge of the route clear as he led us direct to habitable worlds, worlds with water, worlds with food or resources directly as and when needed, there was no searching only recon for the rapidly advancing cylons.

Along the way we were discovered several times but the Cylons ability to jump far more rapidly then we could often meant the patrols escaped to take word of our position long before we could target them properly and blow them out of our sky.

It was a pity, it meant the Cylons got a far stronger picture of where we were headed, therefore where Earth was likely to be, but time was never going to be on our side anyway.

Given Seeker’s depleted and slowly eroding condition, it is perhaps fortunate that we met no serious opposition along the way, my crew, whilst determined and loyal, failing under the weight of their tasks, their numbers too few to maintain the ship properly. Crew loaned by the Pegasus helped, but Cain could not spare too many for his ship was our primary defensive and offensive element should it be needed and he could ill afford to compromise his ships readiness. In hindsight, that was not needed, but hindsight is nearly always perfect anyway.

Given that we did not need to search for resources, our journey to Earth was the fastest I could remember, taking just a month and a half, but we were dogged by Cylons a full third of the way. They were getting dangerously close, and we could see the signs all along the way, a new ship class tentatively labelled a construction ship entered our warbooks and then bred, forty-three being logged before we left the Cylons behind. It was clear that the Cylons had no intention of giving us time to rebuild if they could avoid it, making our mission, to return and to strike, to weaken their advance all the more important.

Our welcome at Earth was at best distracted, and we were quick to learn that the Earth was in chaos, its inhabitants not truly ready for the news they had been presented with.

I could understand that, but I wished they would get their arses into gear, this we certainly did not have time for. We did at least have the support of several of Earths governments, as well as several of the religious hierarchies, the actions of the Cylons having been labelled as an abomination by many. Still, there were idiots, they always are and that was what was causing the problem on Earth.

Together, Cain and I presented our plan to ‘High Command’, the group of Colonial and Earth-Allied officers that had been placed in command of military operations by our forces the day after we arrived in the system. It was approved soundly; the only issue being raised was my right to command the Seeker.

I know I am young, but shouldn’t my experience speak for me? I commanded Seeker for months, I did my duty through mutiny, boarding actions and more, they should have seen that I had proven myself.

The issue of law was unfortunately not something I could wield here, there were E&E appointed commanders here, they could force a change upon an officer who had been promoted by fatality. Worse, there was an Exploration and Evaluation Admiral, formerly commanding the mission set up in the area to study the Earthers in preparation for contact.

The only saving grace I had was the support of Cain who had watched and learned during our long journey back to Earth, Adama who had seemingly taken one look in my eyes and seen all he needed to know and Roslin, who admitted sympathy and understanding for somebody who had been dropped into a job they weren’t ready for and had proven themselves capable.

Unfortunately, some form of compromise was inevitable and I did find an experienced officer forced upon me as Executive Officer but frankly, given the extremely depleted nature of my crew, such changes were inevitable anyway. Many of the replacement crew were sourced from the various survivor vessels but I also found myself with a large contingent of Earth humans, the largest of the fleet, to train into crew.

These Earthers had received some basic training, but the bulk would have to be done on-mission, not the best way to get the job done. Perhaps fortunately, the majority were assigned to the marine contingent and were already well versed in combat techniques; they only needed to be taught ship-board specifics. We did however also receive Earther medical personnel as well as a scattering of weapons crew and flight deck crew.

I did lose the bulk of the surviving science contingent, such highly trained personnel were more precious then diamonds and I had to agree that they should not be risked on what was blatantly a high-risk combat mission.

All these changes occurred during the month long period it took to bring the ship back to full operational readiness, the large volumes of refit experienced crew available making Seekers turnaround the fastest since the fall or so I was told. By this time, the bulk of the fleet had already been brought back to operational readiness and the personnel scraped off ships personnel for the duty would soon be reassigned to shipyard construction.

Then, fully crewed Seeker left earth space without fanfare, accompanied by the E&E Wayfinder, the Battlestars Pegasus and Trident and finally, the Blockade Runner Hermes.

Our mission was simple; we were to disrupt the Cylon advance by any means necessary without further compromising the location of Earth and the Survivors. The name for the mission, determined by the Earthers amongst High Command, was ‘Crow’. Apparently, that meant something to them as far as vengeance was concerned, to me, it was just a name.

Fic: Illusion 15 (extended)

Sun, 28 May 2006 10:48:18 GMT

Chapter 15: It’s supposed to be a ‘surprise’.

There is nothing like walking around all day seeing half-hidden and excited smiles shot at you, the obvious hiding of objects as the dampening of conversation as you walk in the room to tell you that Something Is Up, with capital letters naturally.

Of course, the ‘happy’ attitude suggests it not a bad or perhaps a fatal thing, whatever from there point of view, but I have to ask, has the whole school been dragged into somebody’s plot for revenge? I mean, my outbursts, my displays of a lack of control have very much on occasion affected the whole school, and considering the results of said outbursts it’s not unreasonable that the students would want some form of revenge. On the other hand, I had thought that, excluding the Slytherins perhaps, said outbursts were actually being taken quite well.

Never mind, perhaps I think too much.

On the other hand, Snape just shot me a look of such pure disgust and exasperation that whatever it is the school has planned, I doubt it can be that bad. However, I may just be forced to recommend lessons in how not to let on that you have something planned for the whole bloody population.

-----

“Bloody Gryfindors!” Snape spat out, slamming the door of the Potions classroom shut behind him, “and you slytherins, you’re supposed to be better. What is the point of a surprise party if you let the subject of said surprise know that something is going on? Sarah isn’t blind you know, she is now damn well aware that something is up, which defeats the whole purpose of a surprise!”

Snape swung around, glaring at his class as if they were all morons. Said class in return were looking at the potions professor quite askance.

“He’s been replaced,” Ron spat out disturbed, “a… what was that phrase Harry?”

“Pod person,”

“Or perhaps the muggles have cloned him and trained the fake up as a spy to keep an eye on the wizarding world?” The class as one turned and gave Blaize Zabini an off look.

“His… her… well, Zabini’s parents decided to punish Blaize over the last holiday by sending her to live with distant muggle relatives, thought that would encourage her or him to get the grades up,” Draco noted, frowning as his housemate, “never been the same since,”

“What were they?” Hermione asked amused, “conspiracy theorists?”

“Something called a ‘movie critic’ apparently,”

There was a muffled snort from those portions of the room’s occupants that came from muggle parentage at that, but by this time, the look Snape was directing at his class could best be described as glacial.

“I think we could rule out muggle clone,” Hermione noted, “but magical cloning is possible.”

“So,” Harry replied, “first we need to verify if that is Snape, and if so, we need to find out if he is in his right mind,”

“This is Snape,” Draco pointed out.

“Okay, the frame of mind that is normal for Snape,”

“Just what do you think you’re playing at?” Snape ground out, the grinding of his teeth making the class wonder, not for the first time, exactly how often he had to magically regrow them.

“Sorry,” Hermione replied, raising her wand, “but the real Snape would never say anything that suggested he supported anyone other then the Slytherins having fun.”

“On that, both houses agree,” Draco noted raising his own wand, the rest of his house swiftly following.

“What? And just what do you think you’re doing…”

“Petrificus Totalis!”

“You know,” Ron commented and not for the first time, “you can be right scary sometimes Hermione,”

Draco shook his head, mentally, and also not for the first time, being forced to raise his opinion of the muggleborn a few notches. However, “you know, I’m glad I didn’t have to do that,” he said conversationally, as he stepped towards the petrified form of the Potions Master, “because if that is really him and if he is not actually being mind controlled, then he is likely to be more the mildly unhappy when he eventually gets unpetrified.”

Hermione glanced at Snape, his eyes caught her and promised a lifetime of detentions and her great-great-grandchildren still scrubbing cauldrons the muggle way. She yelped in fear, and tried to hide behind Ron who sensibly decided that being between Hermione and Snape might not be a good survival tactic and got out of the way.

“For the record,” Snape managed to grind out, “I was professionally insulted by the sheer lack of sneakiness and actual covertness being displayed by the school, I do not in anyway at all support the party!”

As one, the classes eye’s widened and they froze, but it was Ron who managed to express what they were all feeling at that moment.

“Oh bugger.”

-----

Truth be told, much as he tried to hide it, Snape was surprised and somewhat pleased by the fact that the Slytherins and Gryfindors were co-operating. The fact that they had been ballsy enough to take him on when he was generally regarded as the scariest teacher in the school… well, he was almost proud.

Didn’t mean they wouldn’t be in detention until their great-great-grandchildren were out of Hogwarts, they had after all shown somewhat blatant disrespect towards a teacher but they had also shown useful survival skills, skills they would need if Voldemort was to be taken down. That applied double when you consider that the Boy who lived to be a total prick was in fact intended to take the bastard Dark Lord down.

And wouldn’t the brats just love it if they realised how much he struggled not to add ‘of the Sith’ to that even in his own head?

Still, they had shown suspicion, they had seen an oddity and reacted appropriately, if annoyingly. Okay, they hadn’t thought it through properly, but that he blamed fully on the Gryffindor influence. Better yet, they had reacted decisively and ignoring interhouse prejudices, as a team.

Now that was something he was proud of. Slytherins and Gryffindors had hated each other since the school was founded, heck, if the stories were anything to go by, Godric and Salazar… well, they might have respected each other but they sure as hell didn’t get along well. Right now, with the bastard growing in power and practically in control of the Ministry, well, it was, as much as he hated to admit it, time for old prejudices to be set aside in the name of taking Voldemort down.

Not that he would give up his prejudices though, such actions were for the young who had time to change… or perhaps he could admit to himself that he was far too stubborn and bitter to want to give up his own prejudices?

The question only remained now, exactly how long were they going to leave him tied up here before they came up with the courage to free him?

They couldn’t… bloody hell, they would.

“You come back here right now and release me or by Merlin’s name you will wish you were dead by the time I finished with you!”

Shit, how the hell was he going to get out of this now?

Wait, the next class was Hufflepuff… the class that included the annoying Miss Abbot who seemed to have developed an unhealthy fixation for him. A Miss Abbot who always arrived early and they had left him here tied up. The evil, evil bastards, he was going to get them for this.

Assuming he survived that is.

-----

“Bloody Hell Harry, do you have a death wish or something?”

“Don’t swear Ron,” Hermione replied automatically.

“If you want,” Harry pointed out reasonably, “you could always go back and free him,”

Ron gulped, glancing back at the receding door to the potions classroom, “I think that’s called going above and beyond the call of duty.”

Draco shook his head, resisting the urge to snicker, “I think I underestimated you Harry but you do realise that Snape is going to go utterly ballistic right?”

Harry shrugged, “and that would be different from his normal attitude how?”

“Well,” Ron smirked, “for once, I don’t think he is going to be going easy on the Slytherins.”

The smiles dropped abruptly off the Slytherin students in hearing range, and Draco gazed shocked at the backs of the Gryffindors as they continued to walk away, “how the hell did he end up in Gryffindor and not Slytherin?”

His housemates nodded, it was perhaps the finest complement they knew had to pay.

Adventurer Xander 5J

Sat, 20 May 2006 11:42:28 GMT

Five J

“Just why are we leaving town Buffy?” Joyce replied, frowning, somewhat bemused at her daughter, “I mean, I have friends here, the gallery, you have your duty here.”

“Actually,” Buffy grimaced, “it’s kind of the duty that’s taking me away. So, I hear Colorado Springs is good this time of year?”

Joyce dropped the potatoes she was peeling and turned away from the sink, “okay, I’ll bite, what’s in Colorado? Other then the military that is.”

One glance at Buffy’s face was enough, “the military? After what happened with the Initiative you’re going to be working with the military again? Wait, you aren’t thinking of taking them on are you?”

“No,”

“Well, that at least is a relief,”

“Though we may have to deal with a certain rogue military faction…”

Joyce glanced up to the heavens as if asking for patience, “I don’t want to know. So, what are ‘we’ going to do doing in Colorado then?”

“Saving the world?” Buffy replied nervously.

Joyce laughed, it was a somewhat shrill, stressed laugh, “I should have seen that coming, what from this time? More demons?”

“Actually…” Buffy gulped, glancing at her mothers ‘go on’ expression, “alien invaders.”

Joyce Summers blinked, “Alien Invaders?”

She sighed as Buffy nodded, “I’m the one back in LA in the clinic aren’t I? Being hopped up on drugs because I’ve come to believe my daughter is truly a superhero.”

“God no,” Buffy spat back, shocked, “mum, if you were imagining this, I would have a lot more fun and a lot less pain, hell, sending of Ex’s to hell, hospital visits…”

Joyce winced, “Point taken,”

“It’s important mum,” she replied quietly.

“Then we go, I’ll just have to arrange a transfer for Dawn,”

The guilty, dismayed look on Buffy’s face was enough, and it brought an angry and fearful expression shuttering down her mothers face. Carefully, calmly, Joyce tossed her paring knife into the sink, and turned her whole body to face her daughter.

“Don’t tell me Dawn has become involved please?” Joyce pleaded.

“I’m sorry,”

“I see, and just who exactly decided that my youngest would be involved as well?”

“The Powers That Be,” Buffy replied, intimidated by the look in her mothers eyes.

“And just where do I find these ‘Powers That Be’?”

“This,” Xander commented quietly, pointing to a fearful, squirming figure head tight in the jaws of Oz, currently polymorphed as a Sabre-toothed tiger, “is a fairly typical vampire of the minion class, not particularly intelligent or powerful, dangerous only to the untrained and unaware unless in large numbers,”

Reaching forward, he ripped the cross that Jack had been trying to hide underneath his jacket from his neck and pressed it against the human appearing figure in Oz’s jaws. Said figure began screaming as his skin around the cross began smoking, the smell making Daniel and Samantha back away disturbed but Jack and Teal’c just winced, albeit barely perceptibly in Teal’c case at the many memories of battlefields the smell brought back and stepped forward to better examine the now obviously non-human captive.

Grimly, O’Neill faced Xander, “is the military doing anything about this?”

“Army tried too, NID managed to seize control of the project,”

O’Neill glanced at the vampire, not needing to ask how well that had gone, “bastards, they dead?”

“For the most part, it was the Army personnel already assigned to the project who died though Walsh, who was NID to the core, was killed and reanimated by the NID’s latest toy, Adam,” Xander shrugged, “destroyed Adam, saved what we could and the Army ended up catching the flak for the failed project.”

“Was Riley part of this project?” Daniel asked perceptively.

Xander nodded, “publicly, he’s listed as AWOL but those in the know generally scupper any attempt to track him down, in reality he’s sort of our unofficial liaison to the Army, couldn’t get full jackets on you guys though.”

Nodding, Jack made a mental note to investigate which Army officers had been trying to pull his file recently, “so, how do we kill it,”

Xander snorted, “well not with garlic, all it does is irritate their noses, but stakes, decapitation, fire, sunlight, even holy water if you’re clever with it will kill vampires,”

Oz growled, the sound making the vampire trapped between his jaws whimper, and Oz bit down, shaking his head violently. The vampires head went one way, the legs flew off another and the whole creature dusted.

Xander grimaced, not noticing the subtle and not so subtle collectively wincing by the members of SG-1, “or there’s that, but the dust tastes bloody awful and frankly, washing your mouth out is highly recommended pretty damn quickly. The thought of accidentally eating vamp dust is not funny.”

“No,” Jack gulped, sending a glance of horrified admiration at Oz, “I would guess not.”

Fic: Illusion

Wed, 17 May 2006 14:32:08 GMT

Chapter 15: It’s supposed to be a ‘surprise’.

As always, previous parts are at http://www.chaoseternus.co.uk under main stories, illusion.

And of course, I do not own nor do I cliam ownership of characters and/or concepts from Labyrinth or Harry Potter

There is nothing like walking around all day seeing half-hidden and excited smiles shot at you, the obvious hiding of objects as the dampening of conversation as you walk in the room to tell you that Something Is Up, with capital letters naturally.

Of course, the ‘happy’ attitude suggests it not a bad or perhaps a fatal thing, whatever from there point of view, but I have to ask, has the whole school been dragged into somebody’s plot for revenge? I mean, my outbursts, my displays of a lack of control have very much on occasion affected the whole school, and considering the results of said outbursts it’s not unreasonable that the students would want some form of revenge. On the other hand, I had thought that, excluding the Slytherins perhaps, said outbursts were actually being taken quite well.

Never mind, perhaps I think too much.

On the other hand, Snape just shot me a look of such pure disgust and exasperation that whatever it is the school has planned, I doubt it can be that bad. However, I may just be forced to recommend lessons in how not to let on that you have something planned for the whole bloody population.

“Bloody Gryfindors!” Snape spat out, slamming the door of the Potions classroom shut behind him, “and you slytherins, you’re supposed to be better. What is the point of a surprise party if you let the subject of said surprise know that something is going on? Sarah isn’t blind you know, she is now damn well aware that something is up, which defeats the whole purpose of a surprise!”

Snape swung around, glaring at his class as if they were all morons. Said class in return were looking at the potions professor quite askance.

“He’s been replaced,” Ron spat out disturbed, “a… what was that phrase Harry?”

“Pod person,”

“Or perhaps the muggles have cloned him and trained the fake up as a spy to keep an eye on the wizarding world?” The class as one turned and gave Blaize Zabini an off look.

“His… her… well, Zabini’s parents decided to punish Blaize over the last holiday by sending her to live with distant muggle relatives, thought that would encourage her or him to get the grades up,” Draco noted, frowning as his housemate, “never been the same since,”

“What were they?” Hermione asked amused, “conspiracy theorists?”

“Something called a ‘movie critic’ apparently,”

There was a muffled snort from those portions of the room’s occupants that came from muggle parentage at that, but by this time, the look Snape was directing at his class could best be described as glacial.

“I think we could rule out muggle clone,” Hermione noted, “but magical cloning is possible.”

“So,” Harry replied, “first we need to verify if that is Snape, and if so, we need to find out if he is in his right mind,”

“This is Snape,” Draco pointed out.

“Okay, the frame of mind that is normal for Snape,”

“Just what do you think you’re playing at?” Snape ground out, the grinding of his teeth making the class wonder, not for the first time, exactly how often he had to magically regrow them.

“Sorry,” Hermione replied, raising her wand, “but the real Snape would never say anything that suggested he supported anyone other then the Slytherins having fun.”

“On that, both houses agree,” Draco noted raising his own wand, the rest of his house swiftly following.

“What? And just what do you think you’re doing…”

“Petrificus Totalis!”

“You know,” Ron commented and not for the first time, “you can be right scary sometimes Hermione,”

Draco shook his head, mentally, and also not for the first time, being forced to raise his opinion of the muggleborn a few notches. However, “you know, I’m glad I didn’t have to do that,” he said conversationally, as he stepped towards the petrified form of the Potions Master, “because if that is really him and if he is not actually being mind controlled, then he is likely to be more the mildly unhappy when he eventually gets unpetrified.”

Hermione glanced at Snape, his eyes caught her and promised a lifetime of detentions and her great-great-grandchildren still scrubbing cauldrons the muggle way. She yelped in fear, and tried to hide behind Ron who sensibly decided that being between Hermione and Snape might not be a good survival tactic and got out of the way.

“For the record,” Snape managed to grind out, “I was professionally insulted by the sheer lack of sneakiness and actual covertness being displayed by the school, I do not in anyway at all support the party!”

As one, the classes eye’s widened and they froze, but it was Ron who managed to express what they were all feeling at that moment.

“Oh bugger.”

Tigerclaw (WingCO / BSG03)

Wed, 17 May 2006 14:00:12 GMT

Tigerclaw

For the record, I do not own nor do I claim ownership of characters and / or concepts from Wing Commander (movieverse used here) or the new Battlestar Galactica.

----

Captain Jason Sansky was not a happy man. A mere month had passed since the failed Kilrathi assault on Earth, an incident which had been saved only by the desperate actions of his ship, his crew and the desperate race by Admiral Tolwyn’s forces to make Sol space before the enemy did, it was an incident that was still sending shockwaves through the Terran Confederation.

His ship had spent two weeks in dock being brought back to full operational readiness, and then had been ordered to picket duties in the sol system, picket duties!

The politicians were scared, the populace was scared and the military was being forced to provide a heavy fleet presence in the sol system at the one time they should have been advancing into Kilrathi territory.

Yes, they had lost Pegasus and all the ships docked there, an incident that was still being investigated as highly suspicious, but the enemy had lost more simply because Blair had done his job and Admiral Tolwyn had accepted the arrival co-ordinates for the Kilrathi.

It was a massacre, and for the first time the Terran Confederation truly appeared to have more ships then the enemy, albeit it marginally. They should be advancing, instead the fear of the politicians was keeping the fleet at home and it was the enemy who were advancing, the enemy who were pressing what had to be an unexpected advantage.

Bastard politicians, let fear overrule basic common sense, not that many of them had much of that to start with. Occasionally, he had fantasies of telling them what he truly thought to there faces, but alas, that would have to wait until the day he retired as otherwise it would kill his career, and well, he wasn’t ready to retire yet, not with the war still on.

Of course, the way things were headed, the politicians might just lose the war for them. Idiots.

Well, Tolwyn was rumoured to be raising a stink, hopefully he would be bale to get some results, otherwise, they might well be buggered.

-----

“Sir,” Tolwyn replied, reining his temper in with great difficulty, “surely you must see what I am say, if we do not push forward now, whilst we still have some semblance of an advantage, we may well lose this war.”

“And unmask Earth? The enemy knows where we are know, they can attack at any time and if Earth falls, you lose the bulk of your recruitment and resources, surely you must realise that,” Defence Minister Fredericks replied sarcastically, parroting the Admirals words back at him.

Tolwyn shook his head, “I’ve been telling you for ten years now that the military budget needed to be increased, that the only reason we have been able to keep up any kind of an offensive with the limited forces you have allowed us is that the enemy do not know where Earth is. Now, the other shoe has dropped and as I have warned you on many an occasion, we are left without forces enough to be offensive whilst maintained the defensive depth needed. I told you this would happen, and now it has. It was always a matter of time before Earth’s only real defence was stripped and it has happened. We must resume offensive operations now or by the time we have forces enough to both defend and attack, the Kilrathi will have taken over much of the Confederations territory and we will have lost.”

“But Earth must have a physical defence, we must have ships in force to keep us safe, neither the government nor the populace will accept anything else,”

“Then you have no choice,” Tolwyn replied, “whether you like it or not, you are going to have to vastly increase the military budget and increase the rate of ship production and you must do it fast. You are also going to have to allow me to release some of the ships from picket duties to offensive duties.”

“You have no right to tell me what to do Admiral, the navy serves the government, the government does not serve the Navy!”

“We are losing this war,” Tolwyn shot back, “and we are losing it through inaction forced upon us by the Government. Now, I have told you what must happen it we are to have a shot at winning, and we can still win, but time is running out,”

“I will not push for an increase in the military budget,” the defence minister replied, “so far, the war has had only a minimal effect on the basic standard of living and it has been a delicate balancing act to manage that. If we increase the military budget then the basic standard of living will be affected, this government will not survive such an act,”

“The government will not survive its constituents dieing either,” Tolwyn spat out, turning to leave the room, “and for the record, the military might serve the government, but the government is supposed to serve the people. Ultimately, that means the military serves the needs and will of the populace, you might want to consider what that means.”

Angry, the Admiral strode from the office, his expression grim as he carefully turned off the transmitter hidden inside his jacket.

------

“Admiral Tolwyn,” Sansky smiled tightly as he welcomed his old friend onto the Tigerclaw, “what brings you here?”

“A mission,” Tolwyn replied, “an… unofficial mission. I’m afraid Minister Fredericks is still refusing to get his head out of his arse, but I have plans in place to combat that. Until then, I am taking personnel responsibility for releasing five ships to raiding duties behind Kilrathi lines,”

“I see,” Sansky replied, “am I to presume the Tigerclaw has been chosen for such duties?”

“No, your old friend Taggert has gone missing; his last report indicated that the Kilrathi had made contact with a new race, a highly amicable contact,”

“That can’t be good,” Commander Gerard noted as the trio stepped into Tigerclaws briefing room,”

“No, its not,” Tolwyn replied, “if they start exchanging knowledge, we could be sunk, just another little problem Fredericks is ignoring in the name of votes at the polls.”

“Recon then,” Sansky suggested.

“Not quite,” Tolwyn replied, walking across and gesturing at a point on the star charts which covered the wall of the briefing room at the foor of the long table, “his last report indicated a group of refugees fleeing these new aliens, the ‘cylons’ in this general area. Had a nice recording of a battle between the only military ship in the group successfully holding off a trio of Cylon carriers long enough for the civilian ships to escape through an unknown FTL method.”

“Rescue those refugees, guide them here, we get intelligence on the Cylons, possibly a new warship hull and a public relations victory we might be able to use,”

Tolwyn shot the abrasive Commander a slightly startled look, “I was thinking more of intelligence, but you are right. I might be able the PR aspect as well.”

“So,” Tolwyn said, turning from the charts to face Captain Sansky, “is the Tigerclaw able to carry out the mission?”

Sansky shot the Admiral a mildly insulted look, “we can leave before the morning is out.”

“Good,” Tolwyn smiled tightly, “then I suggest you get to it. Good day.”

Day One

Captains log entry: TCS Tigerclaw departed Sol System space at Ten hundred hours with a full complement of personnel, munitions, parts and consumables, the stores masters at Lagrange station having been unusually co-operative.

This is certainly to our advantage as we begin a search for what will almost certainly be the needle in the proverbial haystack, one convoy of ships in th vastness of space when we only know of a few stars they have visited, nothing of where they came from or where they are headed?

This certainly promises to be an interesting challenge and one I sincerely hope the Tigerclaw is up too. I will certainly be glad to miss the current politicking which is adversely affecting the bulk of our operations and hope that this is cleared by the time we return.

-----

Commander’s Log, BSG-75 Galactica: It’s strange, the Cylons have almost disappeared, the last week they have not attacked, not raided; they have not so much as shown up as a blip on the Dradis.

I don’t like it, I don’t trust it.

Still, I must take advantage of the opportunity whilst we have it. Between them, the science ships, mining ships, refinery ships and the flattop, the fleets repair and recovery ship have managed to devise a way to produce segments of the old Mark VI armour as used by Galactica during much of the first Cylon war. It is not as good as the Mark IX that replaced it during the last refit, but it is still extra armour.

The process is of course resource intensive in our depleted state, but the Galactica is supposed to have a double armoured hull, and the outer layer was mostly removed prior to decommissioning. That means Galactica has been taking damage on the inner layer of armour and the ribs designed to support the outer layer.

All the battles, all the nukes the hull has taken has weakened what armour we have, making replacement a priority, a priority even the full Council of the Twelve was forced to agree with.

Of course, we are vulnerable whilst the new segments are being moved into position and fixed, indeed, we are forced to remain at an absolutely constant course and speed, but so long as the Cylons keep away, the two completed segments of armour should be placed with little difficulty.

Nevertheless, the worry is simple, why now of all times, are the Cylons staying away? What has them so distracted that we have become insignificant to them?

The only thing I can thing of is that they have found somebody else to fight, perhaps even Earth and that is a thought that fills me only with dread.

[i]reviews and comments always appreciated[/i]

Fic: 12Battlegroup 10&11

Tue, 09 May 2006 16:26:02 GMT

Ten

“Reports leaked to us from the Royal Space Service indicate that an assassination attempt against Thundersdawn station Commander and chief of Earth’s defences Commodore Peters was narrowly averted this week despite heightened security surrounding the station since Disclosure.

How, or even why this assassination occurred is not yet know, what is know for certain is that this is not the first of the disturbing reports coming out of the station to have reached our ears. Overwork, staffing difficulties and even sabotage, all of which have a severe knock-on effect on the security and safety of our world.

The Royal Space Service has yet to respond publicly to these reports, but is rumoured to be taking the situation extremely seriously indeed”

-----

“The Second Great Fire of London is now over, the devastated city smoulders today as the weary but jubilant fire-fighters, auxiliaries and volunteers began the time consuming task of making the city safe. Joined by military and civilian engineers and work crews from, so far seven nations, the task of now cooling down the smouldering ruins, bulldozing the wreckage and assessing what can be saved and what needs to go had begun.

It’s estimated that about two thirds of the city lie in ruins, the damage enough to make the insurance industry collectively weep. Rebuilding here will take years.

But years the government doesn’t have. The cities population exceeded 7 million years before the events of Disclosure and the evacuation. Whilst it is certainly true that between the Goa’uld attacks on the city and the fire that many are dead, there are still untold millions crowding in makeshift camps surrounding the city, desperate for food, water, basic sanitation and in many areas, a heavy police presence.

All of these they are looking to an increasingly battered and besieged government for, but the aid they need is being slow to appear and time is running out”

-----

“Stargate Command, currently housed at an unidentified location, has confirmed the arrival through the Stargate of food and medical supplies from several of our off-world allies, believed to include the Orbanians, the Edorans and the Land of the Light. The Land of the Light is noteworthy here as Stargate Command has increasingly and with the co-operation of the natives, used the planet as an off-world medical facility”

-----

“The trials began in closed courts today of the Military personnel and civilian conspirators arrested for treason and attempting to subvert the constitutional Government in the immediate aftermath of disclosure.

The largest group ever arrested by the American government for such crimes, these individuals are under constant watchful guard, not just to prevent their escape, but to prevent their murder. We know attempts have been made on their lives, at least one of which was by the original Guard detail themselves and one has to wonder, even if found not guilty, how long do these people truly have left to live?

Mud has been thrown, and this kind does not ever wash off.”

-----

“Stargate Command and the Royal Star Service have today issued a call for qualified individuals to apply for Colonisation rights on Alpha Prime. Such individuals will undergo a security check but the positions these services are looking to fill range from structural engineers to teachers, covering the whole range of jobs a virgin colony will need. The websites of both agencies currently have a list of five thousand positions they wish to fill for this second wave of colonisation, and both specifically state that preference will be given to family groupings”

-----

“Both the Royal Star Service and Stargate Command websites went down earlier today after a record surge of visitors overloaded the capacity of the servers following the announcement of Colonisation opportunities on Alpha Prime in the Alpha Centauri system.

A statement issued by Stargate Command indicates that both agencies are currently working to add capacity to their servers and intend to have the sites back up before tomorrow however gives no guarantee as to when the sites will be live again.

It is perhaps fortunate that both agencies use separate server farms for their Operational, as opposed to Public Relations duties”

-----

“A cylon attack on the Alpha Centauri system was rebuffed earlier today after the attacking basestars were successfully caught between the systems small defence fleet, ably supported by the Colonial Battlestar Galactica and the massed guns of Ravenbright station. The station, still incomplete, is the most heavily fortified position currently available to our space forces”

-----

“Akin perhaps to the British Spitfire Funds of the Second World War, a wave of extra moneys is being donated to the Royal Space service and Stargate Command by the general public. This money is intended solely the purchase of fixed emplacements such as the Type I, Type II and the upcoming Type III to reinforce Earth’s weakened and paltry defence grid.

This idea, revived by a Senator from Iowa, has so far raised enough money in America alone to fund an additional thirty satellites, enough we are told, to provide adequate cover for one city. This is despite inadequate advertising of the program in the rush to get this idea running”
-----

“A Military Coup has occurred within China.

In the Early hours of this morning, troops of the Chinese army moved into the Government buildings in Beijing and seized control. Details are sketchy at this point, the situation extremely confused, but we have reason to believe the Premier has been arrested but is still alive.

At this point in time, we do not know why this coup occurred or how it managed to take the Chinese government so completely by surprise but rumours are reaching us that it is related to the recent more aggressive policy taken by China with regards not just to Taiwan, but with their relations with the US and the other starfaring nations”

--------------------------------------

Eleven

“Captain Jones,” Weir commented, walking into the briefing room, “I heard you had a fun trip.”

Snorting, the Captain of the Britannica bit back a startled laugh as he replied, “you could say that. Two major scuffles on route, both Invincible and Overseer requiring repairs and munitions severely depleted. Luckily, we lost no ships. We did lose a good few people though.”

“Personnel I can’t help you with,” Weir shrugged, sliding into the seat opposite the Captain, “as far as repairs go, well the local shipyards are getting better at repairing Earth built and captured Goa’uld vessels but security implications make it troublesome and frankly, they still aren’t set up for it. If any major work is required, I would suggest you send them home.”

“We would have to escort them home,” Jones noted, “Anubis seems intent on blocking off reinforcements and supplys from Tau’ri space, not that there is going to be too many of them given the recent situations.”

“Indeed, but the Tau’ri vessels in the area are the most powerful of the Alliance ships, I can see why he wouldn’t want more arriving.”

“True enough perhaps,” Jones nodded, “but the battlegroup is reduced to three operational hulls already, I’m afraid your reinforcements might just have to turn and head back home.”

Grimacing, Weir leaned back in the alien seat, “can I interest you in a party before you go?”

Jones raised an interested eyebrow.

“Anubis has a major resupply base he is launching the brunt of his attacks from,” Weir held Jones’s eyes, “it’s heavily guarded, but the Minbari warrior sect believe that if the base is knocked out, that Anubis will be forced to either replace it, buying us time, or to launch his assaults from further back. None of the facilities and resupply points behind this main facility, code-named Poseidon, are anywhere near as extensive.”

“We can’t launch a major assault with three operational hulls,” Jones pointed out.

“You won’t be,” Weir grinned, “the Alliance is assembling a major taskforce not far from the front. Prometheus and Independence have already joined the fleet, but three extra hulls would not be complained about.”

“Are your Dauntless class vessels, the Indomitable and the Interrogator I believe, joining the assault?”

“No,” the Tau’ri Ambassador to the Alliance shook her head, “They, along with the Dawn of Valour are standing guard over Babylon 3.”

Jones glanced up sharply, “they’ve started work on a replacement?”

“The keel plate had been laid, but little more then that.”

“I don’t think command is aware of that fact,” Jones pointed out.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Weir replied, “the distance makes communication difficult, and the lingering remnant of the hyper barrier doesn’t help either,”

Jones nodded, accepting that, “still, it is perhaps fortunate that you kept the Dauntless’es out of the assault, if our experience en-route is anything to go by, their stamina and protection is insufficient for wall duties.”

Weir raised an eyebrow questioningly, “wall duties?”

Captain Jones glanced up startled, then frowned, “sorry, forgot for the moment that you aren’t a naval officer. It’s an old term, holdover from the days of sail and wooden hulled warships. A ship of the wall in basic terms is just a ship capable of holding its own in a major multi-ship engagement. The Dauntless class, whilst exceptional at rapid reaction, raiding and scouting duties, appears inadequate as fair as ‘ship of the wall’ or ‘ship of the line’ duties are concerned but Command already suspected that. The issue was actually part of my briefing packet when I assumed temporary command of the Battlegroup.”

“I see,”

“So, I think you had best tell me more about this assault…”

-----

“Could you repeat that please?” Admiral of the Fleet Thomas asked, dangerously calmly, “Because it sounded to me dangerously like you said that RSS security has been compromised by the Cylons.”

“I’m afraid so,” Commander Joan Williams replied darkly, “the clincher was of course finding a Cylon inside the logistics department and confirming that the assassin who attacked the Commodore was a Cylon but in both instances the Cylons used models not previously seen,”

“How the hell did they manage to get two Cylons past our security?”

“At this point in time, its not as difficult as any of us would like,” Joan replied, knowing that the information she had just had pointed out to her by security would not be welcomed here, “phase one of a background check involves a records check, but everyone has their records online nowadays and these can be and have been hacked by humans, let alone beings that can directly hook themselves up to the internet. That’s not mentioning the backbone satellites, at which point all it takes is a raider getting close enough for a sufficient length of time to do some subtle reprogramming…”

The Admirals face was stony, granite like.

“The records issue has always been a problem and why Phase two, a discreet check amongst neighbours, old school photos etc has been a part of the security check for many years,” Jones continued, “but there are also ways around this, and for certain agencies it is practically SOP. Not to mention, there are legitimate reasons why a phase two check might not be possible,”

“That explains infiltration perhaps,” Thomas replied, making a mental note to have a very long ‘discussion’ with security, “but Cylons were screened for specifically.”

“And according to the records, both known Cylons were screened on at least three occasions,” she replied, “the first check was of course visual identification of known models which found none, but the latter checks were hidden as part of the standard yearly medicals. The records being suspect whenever Cylons are concerned, I interviewed the Doctors listed as having carried out the checks on the off chance and hit the jack-pot. Doctor Jones-Somersby who carried out the last recorded medical on our assassin has a photographic memory; she knows that she has never done a medical on our assassin though interestingly she has seen him, or at least a copy of him, on a visit to Ravenbright station, a place our assassin has never been. That is of course, according to the records.”

Thomas turned the air blue.

“I’m afraid that I suspect I’ve only touched the surface as far as the infiltration goes Admiral,” Joans replied evenly, “we may have underestimated the cylons, greatly.”

Rayne'd Part 4

Tue, 09 May 2006 16:23:22 GMT

previous parts at http://www.chaoseternus.co.uk under short stories/drabbles

Four

Large army of supposedly mystical creatures all waiting for a fight, check.

Him, in the front row, riding a talking horse and ready to lead said army into battle at the ‘request’ of a talking horse whose mystical power appeared to be roughly equivalent to the energy released by a nuke, check.

Enemy army approaching, check.

Said army approximately four times the size of his own, oh bugger.

His sanity?

Checked out hours ago and currently on the beach at Blackpool.

Just what in the name of chaos was he doing here anyway?

Ah yes, that was it, trying to survive and not get eaten by the Lion, Brilliant plan.

At least these ‘Narnians’ knew how to pick a fight, he thought, gazing up as wave after wave of flying creatures passed overhead most carrying rocks, but he would love to know how exactly they had learned that particular trick.

He grinned maliciously as the smaller birds started flocking overhead, carrying not rocks but his party favours, a few herbal mixtures he had concocted or heard about over the years contained in highly fragile and breakable jugs.

If he survived, he would remember this day fondly for a long time. Of course, chaos had to have its way first…

-----

I am never using those party favours again, Rayne told himself as he gazed across the battlefield, trying hard to resist the urge to scrub his eyes out.

Admittedly, the birds had shown themselves to have exceptional aim, though the comment from his ‘good right hand’ that several of the birds had actually done this before was again, a worrying development. Especially coupled with the names ‘Susan, Peter, Edmund and Lucy’, now he really wanted to know where exactly they had gotten the wardrobe from.

Still, good aim meant the rocks had torn great holes in the approaching army. Unfortunately, said army being four times larger could afford such losses far better then they could.

Good aim also meant most of his party favours got to work. Unfortunately, that led to the eyeball scrubbing. Minotaur charging in full battle army was bad, pissed off Minotaur charging in a too-tight woman’s corset? Disturbing and scary. Said Minotaur getting hit by another special and suddenly finding itself wearing nothing at all? Actually, somewhat of a relief.

Sudden quicksand appearing under a giant? Helpful, took a big player out of the fight, but when said giant thrashes around, taking out a number of its comrades in arms whilst trying to escape, well, that’s just a bonus.

Finding out his untested ‘chicken’ bombs work? Beautiful, but finding the enemy line break at human sized chickens appearing amongst them was even better. Seeing the chickens peek at the ankle-bitters, mistaking them for edible worms… priceless.

Add to that a modification of his spell to make allies be seen as hated enemies, and the chaos in the ranks was just gratifying.

Rayne wondered idly if the ‘evil’ forces of the Usurper Queen Meredith would ever actually bother to continue closing with his forces, but he rather suspected it would be a while before that happened. His specials might have been used, but they were still dropping rocks so his forces were still contributing to the enemy’s losses. That was a good thing, he would hate for Meredith’s army to kill themselves before his own people had a shot at it.

His own people? Time to stop thinking to yourself Rayne.

-----

Battle won, check. Minimal casualties on his side due to the blatant demoralisation of the enemy, check.

Him still alive, very much checked, thank you Janus!.

Escaped from Narnia not checked.

Him new King of Narnia?

“Fuck that for a game of soldiers, there is no way am I becoming the ponce in charge. I’m a chaos mage not a bloody royal!”

-----

Out of Narnia, check.

Location, unknown, definitely a downside.

Metal room, check, ship-like portholes, check, but not promising.

Stars outside porthole… there are bloody stars outside the buggering porthole.

One Rayne, almost certainly Royally Screwed, checked.

“Just what in the name of the Tester are you doing in my quarters?”

Very pissed off and dangerously looking Lady with a gun, check.

Cat like creature hissing at him with nice sharp claws, check.

Pants… still clean, somehow.

Just what had he truly done to deserve all this?

Well, apart from the Halloween costumes, the band candy and all the rest of that stuff that is.

Site Back Up

Tue, 09 May 2006 16:20:37 GMT

okay, http://www.thundersdawn.co.uk is back up

as it turns out, in the server move, a single serial number got displaced in the settings and that was enough to stop the domian name responding....
all i can say to that is 'figures'

chaos_eternus

Fic: Inventory

Tue, 02 May 2006 18:53:52 GMT

Authors Notes at end, but I will say here 'some Kennedy bashing'

------

To say Giles was unamused and perhaps a little scared would be too understate the matter, it had been relatively quiet since the closing of the Sunnydale Hellmouth. After all, with the demons waking up one morning to find themselves surrounded by slayers and the largest source of their power destroyed the bulk of the non-human population had been doing the collective demonic equivalent of finding themselves clean pants.

There was even a rumour of a new self-help group called Darksiders anonymous apparently formed by the demons to help those who suddenly found themselves with the urge to go white, or at least neutral and take themselves off the target list. That rumour had kept him smiling for days, despite the sheer volume of paper-pushing involved with seizing control of the watchers council and its assets.

The revelation that their was an alien threat to earth in the form of the Goa’uld was taken in its stride, the sudden almost scary cooperativeness of the demonic creatures meant that the Slayers were largely reduced to mere Police Duties not warfare and as such, it was little matter to assist Earth’s defences in that area as well.

It meant he was doing a lot of organising, but in general the Earth was safe, so he had time to relax, to spend with his family, dysfunctional as it was and even to sow the seeds of a family of his own.

And now this…

“Please tell me how you acquired this sword again,” Giles asked exasperated, his expression screaming his annoyance and disbelief with the situation he found himself presented with.

“Well, it began with inventory…”

---

“Right,” Xander commented abruptly as he walked up to the third inventory room of the day, his eye flicking as he read the icons hammered into the surface of the door, “Room Delta-Omega-5-5-9-Alpha, check the list Kennedy.”

Grumbling, the slayer turned to the clipboard in her hand, “what was that again?”

Impatiently, Xander repeated himself, his blank expression hiding his annoyance and contempt for the bratty warrior in front of him.

“No listing,” Kennedy grumbled, flapping the clipboard about, “another room we have to inventorise, great. Tell me again why I have to do this?”

“You broke Mr Gordo,” the look Xander shot Kennedy could loosely have been described as ‘glacial’, “it took me a week of searching in the ruins and you used it for target practise.”

“Yeah,” Kennedy grumbled, “how was I to know Buffy was really so childish as to still want a teddy bear?”

The look dropped beyond glacial, heading rapidly towards absolute zero with an interesting visit to the nuclear fire of Xander utterly pissed off. In her first sensible move of the day, Kennedy shut her mouth. Unfortunately, she ruined it by forcing the door to the vault open.

Carefully opening his eye to find the world still in existence, Xander somehow managed to calmly ask the Slayer, “how did you know it was safe to open that door?”

“Well,” she replied, “we’re still here aren’t we.”

Xander didn’t bother to dignify that with a response.

“Besides,” she continued, so far all the light grey to white stuff has had Delta on the door.”

“Yes,” the Scooby replied, “and that’s true. However, I don’t remember seeing the Omega on anything rated below ‘Hurt’s True Gods’”

Kennedy’s jaw slammed shut as she shivered, gazing around the newly revealed vault with new, less brazen eyes.

“Seeing as how the world still appears to exist and that Willow hasn’t had to ‘port in again,” Xander continued, “I’m assuming you didn’t trigger anything dangerous off this time, such as another booby-trap. That being true, I am going to inventories the room and you are going to sit quietly by here doing nothing except writing exactly what I say, understood?”

Kennedy opened her mouth to protest;

“Else I tell Buffy what really happened to her pig,”

Defeated, the Slayer sat down, gazing at Xander with aggrieved, petulant eyes.

Turning his back on his new favourite enemy, the only person to have ever successfully replaced ‘Angelus’ on that lowest of pedestals, Xander walked into the room and slowly carefully, began writing down descriptions and taking photos of every item.

The Sword, according to the numbers on his inventory sheet was the twenty-ninth item he had catalogued.

“Item, One sword, looks factory new, steel or perhaps iron blade, handle leather, some decoration including gold inlay but not a display item, this looks more like a sword designed to be used. Writing down the length of the blade, looks vaguely English, think it’s human. I need a Twinkie…” Xander shook his head, sitting down abruptly as he reached into his pockets, pulling one of the treats from his pocket as he surveyed the room with a groan, “this has to be the most boring job ever,”

“Yeah,” Kennedy shouted from the corner, “how did the Slayer’s blue eyed boy get shafted with this job? Didn’t run fast enough at her call like a good doggy?”

“First, she dragged me out shopping, and then she actually asked ‘does my bum look big in this?’” Xander grimaced, “I was distracted, didn’t censor my mouth fast enough.”

“You didn’t?” came the amused, malicious and simultaneously sympathetic reply.

“I did,” he replied, slipping the sweet wrapper into his pocket, “I don’t think she appreciated the honesty.”

“No shit Sherlock,”

Groaning, he rose back to his feet, turning once more to the sword.

“Sword in embedded in stone, looks like granite, worked granite at that,” he continued, glad that he didn’t have the laborious task of identifying every single item, “very smooth surface, base is near perfectly round, somebody definitely put a lot of effort into this. Sword is…”

Xander reached carefully forward, pulling at the sword, “loose in the stone, comes free easily revealing more of the writing.

He paused, his eyes narrowing, “believe I recognise the writing now, it’s Old English, Saxon period, thank you to all those research sessions… letters, E, X, C, A…”

“Oh fuck,”

Glancing up, Xander saw Kennedy discard her clipboard, throwing herself towards him;

“Put it back, now!”

Giving her a look that bluntly told her she had best know what she was doing; Xander carefully dropped the sword back into its slot, then watched bemused as Kennedy attempted to pull the sword back out, putting the entire force of her Slayer enhanced body into the effort. Defeated, she stood back from the stone, her eyes wide, her chest rather distractingly heaving.

“Excalibur,” she said awed.

Xander blinked, reached across and carefully but with no resistance, a fact his mind very carefully noted, he pulled the sword from the stone, his eyes resting firmly on the lettering as it was revealed.

Excalibur.

“Oh hellmouth,” he noted, before slumping to the ground in a dead faint.

---

Giles groaned; his hands worrying in a familiar motion at his glasses, “Couldn’t you have just quietly put it back, left the room, very firmly locking the door behind you, never to mention it again?”

“Giles,” he replied, slightly aghast, “sword, stone, Excalibur pulled!”

“Yoda speak like must you?” Giles snapped back, “for that matter, Excalibur! That sword is not supposed to return to Britain until her hour of greatest need, if that is truly Excalibur, then Apocalypse season has come early this year.”

Xander grimaced, but Giles wasn’t finished, a smirk crossing his face, his voice fading into pure British aristocrat, a tone that had Xander gazing at the Watcher with more then a little wariness, “You do realise of course that this makes you a champion of Great Britain?”

Xander blinked, “Oh bugger,”

“Quite,” Giles replied, snickering as he gazed upon the young man he looked upon as his only son.

------

Inspired by the ‘Thing’s Xanders No Longer Allowed To Do’ List

http://jpublic.livejournal.com/52812.html

176) I am not to sneak into the Council's secure storage basement and try to pull any swords out of any stones I should 'happen to find just sitting there.'
176a) If I actually succeed in pulling a hypothetical sword out of a theoretical stone, just for the sake of argument, I am to quietly put it back, leave, lock the door behind me, and never mention it to anybody ever again.
176b) Especially Giles. It will just give him a headache.

I do not own nor do I claim ownership of characters and/or concepts from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Arthurian Legand is, as far as I am aware, public domain.

Funny

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 19:22:20 GMT

This arrived in my inbox from a regular reviewer called rankukon alpha:

-----

This is absolute gold.... No wonder so many people say google's search
engine can find anything for you

1- Go to Google ( http://www.google.com/ )

2- Type in the word "Failure"

3- Instead of clicking "Google Search," click "I'm Feeling Lucky."

4- Giggle..no laugh out loud!!!!

5- Spread the word before the people at Google "fix" it.

-----

Funny as hell, appropriate too but I am just waiting for the shit to hit the fan

Website

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 14:22:56 GMT

Okay, I am aware that the archive http://www.thundersdawn.co.uk is down

This site is hosted on a private server and the owner of the server was rather unceremoniously told he had to move it, and fast.

as soon as it's back up I'll try and let you know

Original Fic: A.S.P 13Dragon Rising

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:29:53 GMT

Chapter 13: Dragon Rising

It didn’t take a genius to guess, judging by the equipment and personnel that were sent to reinforce us, that command really hoped that we had captured the shipyard intact and that we could potentially construct our own reinforcements. Otherwise, why would they send extra shipyard and shipboard personnel, tons of parts such as shield emitters, thruster modules and the like?

We were lucky in that respect, the station was intact and we had a number of hulls that could be swiftly completed and brought into service. We also had other damaged hulls that could be refitted or stripped for parts but all these supplies would not last forever and we would need a steady stream of those parts we could not make ourselves shipped in.

That meant arranging such supplies, which meant somebody would have to be sent back. Sending a civilian ship without a guard was a bad idea, but so was reducing our defences here.

Reluctantly, Ross was forced to order the two newly arrived Dauntless class ships back to Alpha Centauri along with their two merchantman, now stripped of their supplies. The intention was simple; they would take back the report from the operation as well as the bulk of the intelligence we had managed to gather so far, including the extremely valuable schematics for the new Cruiser design and the Dnepr refits and hopefully return with news that command was preparing a supply pipeline to keep this remote but potentially valuable facility online.

In the meantime, we had five hulls to assign personnel too from the shipboard personnel we had available, the four Devourers and the light cruiser, these ships would be a very valuable addition to our defences once they were completed.

-----

On our twentieth day in the system, the light cruiser was commissioned, its name, the Liberation was determined by the freed population of Newest Hope. This vessel to all appearances was a development of the Pearls of Tears class of Destroyers, having an almost identical if lengthened internal infrastructure and superstructure however that extra space means lots of room to improve the sensors, power generation systems, increase the size of the munitions stores and add an extra pair of turrets making the Liberation a formidable six turret hull. If it wasn’t for the relative weakness of her armour and a limited endurance, she would most likely be classed higher then Cruiser, our initial guess of light cruiser based on remote sensor data was very definitely off though.

Being the most powerful ship in the group, Ross was swift to transfer his flag across as soon as she had completed a week long proving trial, not that that was truly long enough to test all her systems but time was not entirely on her side and we needed that hull operational.

By the time Liberation completed her trials, the Damn Skippy had launched and rejoined the fleet and the Dnepr that had rammed and destroyed the Chatham had been moved into a destroyer slip and was bring carefully broken up.

A second slip was being used to break up other salvage from the battles, mostly shattered hull segments, but all containing usual and valuable parts. The hull alloys themselves would be melted down and reworked where they were primarily metal. If they were a synthetic, then for the most part they had to be discarded.

-----

On the twenty-third day, merchantman appeared on the edge of the system and proceeded to move confidently inwards. We raced to intercept her, but before we could reach her the vessel abruptly slowed, then turned and fled the system.

We didn’t know what had spooked the ship, has Dauntless and Damn Skippy were both occluded by a planetary mass as we moved to intercept and the other ships should have been out of identification range but it was irrelevant. We now had to assume our capture of the system was known and as such, be ready for possible counter-attack.

------

On the thirtieth day, the first of the Devourers, named the Hope’s Halberd launched and joined the budding fleet we were gathering, she was swiftly joined by the merchantman we captured during that first battle to hold the system, That merchant, called the Phoenix of Wrath had not been a priority job and as such it had taken a while to declare her safe, bombs and timed self-destructs as well as other surprises always being a risk with captured cult vessels.

It was at this point that Ross ordered our civilian vessels away, to take a circumspect route back to friendly dominated territory, which meant the Phoenix of Wrath, the Pride of Solstice and the Lady of Sol. The two liners could be better used elsewhere, the same with the merchantman.

-----

On the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth days, the last three Devourers launched, taking the names Hope’s Fire, Chatham II and Sword of Hope. The Chatham II was used to fill in the gap the loss of its predecessor had caused in the 4th Rapid Reaction Force whilst the other three were formed around the Cruiser Liberation¸ forming the core of a second squadron which Ross assumed command of, leaving me as senior Captain in operational command of the 4th Rapid Reaction Force.

It was at that point that the hulks from the previous battles, that is the ones we considered could be brought operational were finally moved into the shipyard, which at first amounted to just the type 42 Destroyer, the HMS Glasgow, knocked out of the fight during the initial assault. That ship needed a new prow which was pretty major work, the Dnepr’s were a more controversial issue, whilst we needed the hulls our options for crewing such ships were now limited by the fact that the bulk of the personnel we had available for assignment aboard ships had already been assigned. It didn’t help that even refitted; the Dnepr’s seemed to be second rate hulls.

In the end, it was decided they would be broken up for parts and the station would start work in the other slips on newer designs. Normally, such orders would be given by the joint Admiralty but given our distance from command and our orders, we were effectively operating as an independent entity, as such, Commodore Ross was the highest authority and his decision was law.

It would at the least be four months before the hulls were ready to launch though, even considering the wealth of parts we had ready and waiting.

------

On the thirty-seventh day, the new squadron under Ross intercepted and attempted to seize a pair of merchantman that literally just walked into their laps. The first merchantman attempted to flee but self-destructed when it realized it had no chance of escaping, the second attempted to ram the Liberation and was put down.

------

On the fifty-first day a patrol of cultist warships entered the system, their first communication signalling that they were here for supplies and would carry mail out. The familiarity of their message suggested that they were semi-regular visitors and Ross used this to draw them in closer to our guns where they would be forced to surrender. It helped that Ross could safely (and truthfully) claim a change of command when the enemy ships questioned why they were not responding as per usual.

Unfortunately, but not perhaps unsurprisingly the enemy did not just waltz into our net, they got suspicious just out of our weapons range and attempted to back off and run full a full counter-sign check. Ross knew we had little chance of successfully fooling them and ordered the assault, our two groups of ships rapidly closing on the shocked cult forces.

It was our biggest shock when the patrol surrendered, but interestingly enough, our intelligence officers were not surprised, they would not elaborate as to why but they were not surprised.

That made me curious, and I checked the official dispatches, none of which showed up in the search as having anything relevant, the historical archives however were far more informative.

The beginning of the war it was like a plague had swept across space, spinning a hundred worlds into chaos and darkness in a swift matter of months, starting from…

The truth surprised me, the chaos had started very near to here, it was the human inhabited worlds furthest from here that were now most corrupted, the most fanatical and strong in the worship of the cult. I tried to get the computer to project a timeline of the effected worlds; it refused, flashing a security override.

This, to put it mildly, made me intensely curious indeed but the business of group command meant I had little time to engage in idle curiosity, doubly so when it appeared at least someone in the Command chain had a clue as to what was going on.

------

On the sixtieth day after liberation, the local cult forces made the first probe of the system, a full squadron of destroyers, early model Devourers by their flight profile, waltzed confidently into the system, transmitting a request for full security verification and ordering us to stand ready for inspection. They seemed more the mildly surprised at the aggressive posture our ships took, leading us to believe that whilst they were investigating a claim that this system was no longer in friendly hands, that they had not believed the claim. That however was plain conjecture.

Either way, we still hadn’t found the proper responses in the computers and files from the cultists and if they hadn’t been found by now, it was almost certain they never would be as such Ross had no real option then to order an obvious assault as bluffing the enemy without the codes they had requested would be difficult.

Unsurprisingly, given our aggressive approach, our superior numbers and the lack of any Cult verification codes, the enemy warships fled and we failed to engage.

The enemy know knew this system was out of their control, all we had to wait for now was their response.

------

On the sixty-fourth day, a reinforced patrol arrived in system, carrying mails, a handful of supplies, parts and new personnel and new orders.

It seemed Admiral Lee had a Plan, one he felt could win us the war. He wanted the Cultists to lose the support of their periphery systems; he wanted the supplies and resources of these systems flowing into allied hands. Of course, in the immediate term, the enemy would likely not notice or care about the loss of a few stars so far away from the fighting, but by the time they realized such systems were deliberately being taken from them and reacted, hopefully there would be a noticeable impact on their available resources.

Of course, the resources provided by one world settled a mere sixty or so years could not hope to meet those of the long settled and densely populated worlds like Alpha Centauri and Serendipity, but if you could take enough away from the Cults and hold them, it would erode their power base.

It would be a long and slow process and given the need to maintain the frontline fleets at full readiness, support would be limited requiring us to capture as much as we could, that means the industry base and the defensive platforms as well as warships, intact.

Newest Hope was the test; if we could hold here then the full force of the joint Admiralty would come behind the plan, welcoming any change from the relative stability and massive resources required by the front.

The plan was solid, but if we were to go on the offensive we would need more ships then we currently had available. There were off course two captured Devourers undergoing safety and security check in the shipyard which would be available in about a month, the two Dauntless hulls we had started construction on, and the Type 42 HMS Glasgow we recaptured which needed a rebuilt nose but those alone would not bring us up to offensive strength. We had to hope the Admiralty could find extra ships to join us and soon, at least with all the debris and salvage we were storing away, we were not short of parts.

We also received of the front; the Cult forces had successfully landed on Serendipity and pushed our forces off, however it was not believed they had the forces remaining to hold the system. This would be the twenty-third time in the fifty year old war that Serendipity had changed hands that I was aware of.

-----

It wasn’t until the hundredth day after Liberation that the Cult forces first seriously attempted to retake the system, but we had used the time well and not only we were well drilled but both squadrons were at full operational strength with the launch, a mere two days ago admittedly, of the two seized Devourers, now labelled the Striking Tiger and the Pouncing Lion. The locals were having difficulty deciding on ship names that were not already used by an in-service ship, but the Striking Lion had also had three ‘safety devices’ disabled and removed during her safety checks, proving the need for such caution.

The attack force consisted of two reinforced squadrons of Destroyers, the squadron designated ‘Threat Alpha’ consisted of eight Tears of Pearls, an aging but still front-line capable design whilst ‘Threat Beta’ amounted to four Devourers and a full ten Dnepr’s. Behind them, screened by a further six Dnepr’s was Threat Charlie, a trio of liners, no doubt loaded to the gills with troops.

We were officially outnumbered, but given the number of older hulls in the enemy fleet, perhaps not outgunned. Rapid Reaction Force 4, my squadron was ordered to provide cover for the shipyard, the only truly valuable thing within the system whilst Ross took his squadron, still not officially designated by the Admiralty but informally named Liberation Squadron, forward to attack.

The choice was logical, I after all had the City of London to deal with, and at that point in the war, a carrier was still considered of little use against warship hulls and was primarily an assault support hull, albeit and expensive and valuable assault support ship.

Ross engaged Threat Alpha first; the more numerous batteries of the Liberation, supported by the other warships of the group quickly tore through three of the Tears of Pearls before the squadron was forced to reformate to cover the wounded Hope’s Halberd. At this point, Threat Beta was moving to support their embattled comrades and Ross broke off the close engagement, moving far enough away to be free to engage at his choice. The Tears moved to follow and Ross matched their speed, starting a running engagement.

The Hope’s Halberd fell back at this point; its damage meaning it was unable to keep up withy the rest of Ross’s squadron and was abandoned. The ships of Threat Alpha, now reduced to four ignored the life pods and shuttles scrambling from the Halberd, intent on engaging Liberation Squadron, but the ships of Threat Beta coming up behind allowed their CIWS batteries to destroy anything that came within their limited range.

Unfortunately for the Tears of Pearls, Ross had chosen the distance of separation between the two groups of ships carefully, the Tears did not have the range to fire upon Ross’s ships as they didn’t have the range to cover both the distance between the two ships and the distance Liberation squadron would move whilst the projectiles were in flight. Liberation squadron on the other hand was being chased; the required range was the distance between the two groups of ships minus the distance the Tears of Pearls would move whilst the projectiles were in flight, the accuracy was degraded by the long range, but Liberation squadron could fire and successfully killed a fifth Tears of Pearls.

Now outnumbered and having no way to close the range without diverting power from shields or weapons, the surviving ships of Threat Alpha fell back and formed up with the as yet unengaged Threat Beta.

The Commander of Threat Beta was more canny and had placed the Dnepr’s between Ross’s forces and his more effective warships, hoping to force Ross to waste ammunition and energy on those ships allowing his Devourer’s and the surviving Tears of Pearls to engage on their terms, not Ross’s.

Unfortunately, Ross had little choice to bite, wasting his munitions on such relatively low threat targets as he couldn’t risk the combined squadron reaching the station and us at full strength. Still maintaining a running engagement, Ross destroyed five Dnepr’s before being forced to admit his ammunition was critical. At that point, he ordered his ships to accelerate at best speed away from the Cultist ships, diverting power from the depleted weapons to provide more speed.

Tied down by the slow Dnepr’s, the cult forces did not actively pursue, instead choosing to head directly for my squadron, the liners and their escort following a good distance behind.

Five Dnepr’s, Four Devourers and three Tears of Pearls and I had just five combat effective warship to take them out with, the City of London and the troopships did not count. This, I remember thinking, should be fun.

I suspect I was being sarcastic.

Luckily, the Dnepr’s were now outnumbered, making it difficult for the other ships to hide behind them, using the Dnepr’s as ablative armour. As such, I ordered my five ships to fire past the Dnepr’s, first concentrating fire on a Devourer then when that died, a Tears of Pearls. The two troopships meanwhile had opened fire on the Dnepr’s, as far as space to space combat capability goes, excluding the Troopships longer reach, they were pretty equal but I was aware that if we held here, the troopships would almost certainly be needed for future operations. As such, with the Tears of Pearl now dropping back I ordered weapons fire turned to the Dnepr’s.

This was the opportunity the Cult Commander had been waiting for and his three Devourers and both surviving Tears popped up above the Dnepr’s and opened fire. Their initial salvo killed the unlucky HMAS Damn Skippy but our return fire had destroyed a Dnepr and knocked two others out of the fight. The final two were broken, fleeing the battlefield.

I ordered weapons fire turned back to the more capable warships, concentrated fire from all the available vessels killing a Devourer even as the Chatham II disabled. At this point, I ordered my ships to stop closing the enemy and heel over, presenting our full broadsides to the enemy. That gave us the advantage of being able to bring every gun to bear but it also meant we had presented our largest aspect to the enemy, greatly decreasing their chances of missing.

The final two Devourers were killed in short order, but not before the Sword of London took major damage and the crew were forced to abandon. By this time, the final group of Cult warships, the six Dnepr’s assigned to guard the Liners were moving forward, no doubt thinking that there support might just turn the tide of the battle but they were intercepted by Liberation Squadron and not wanting to guess how much ammunition the group had left, surrendered.

That broke the back of the cult assault, and the final enemy ships surrendered on the dawn of the hundred and second day after the liberation of Newest Hope. The battle had reduced the Rapid Reaction Force Four to a mere three operational warships, Liberation Squadron to five but altogether we had destroyed five Tears of Pearls, crippled one and captured two, destroyed four Devourers and six Dnepr’s, crippled two more and seized eight as well as three ships we had identified as liners, but turned out to be mixed cargo-passenger ships. They had been carrying a grand total of nine hundred troops; all there support equipment and numerous other supplies.

The battle was a victory for us, but it was more marginal then I would have liked. If the local Cult Sector commander had managed to arrange a second wave, we could be in serious trouble.

Fic Rewrite Visionary 3&4

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:42:10 GMT

Chapter 3: Chel Nak! (Very Cool!)

Teal’c was startled, he had thought that the legend of the Tarithna was unknown to the Tau’ri, lost to them in the annuals of time, yet for somebody and perhaps most importantly, a young lady to be at the gate claiming to be the Chosen Warrior…

Well, it proved the legend had not been lost. He slowed in his steps, frowning, yet how to prove that this young lady was truly she?

The legends stated that the Tarithna was a formidable and skilled warrior but he knew not how much of that was inherent and how much was trained, meaning he could use her combat prowess as a test.

That applied to a certain extent to speed and reflexes too, but strength…

Teal’c spotted an abandoned object lying just inside an area marked off by the yellow/black taping the maintenance crews worked and he nodded, that would do nicely.

Teal’c stepped quickly into the Guardroom, eyebrow rising once more as he noted the young female who had been gazing straight at the door as she stepped through, a wary look in her eyes. Had she sensed him coming?

He glanced across at the Guards who were alert; in fact he would have to say that they were at full alert and ready to fight. The ones whose nametag read ‘O’Malley’ glanced at him significantly, then between the woman and the door.

She had sensed him coming, but he had not sensed her…. Interesting.

“Are you the one who claims to be the Tarithna?” the Jaffa warrior asked calmly, hiding the racing of his heart. The subtle flash in the female’s eyes told him that he had not been entirely successful in hiding his excitement… or his fear.

“Yes” She replied simply.

Nodded his head slightly, he brought his hands out from behind his back, handing Buffy an iron bar he had grabbed on his way up. Buffy took it just as O’Neill, Carter and Daniel Jackson crashed through the Guardroom doors, Teal’c guessed that his team-mates feared the worst at that point because they instantly raised their guns and prepared to defend him. It was gratifying but he had a feeling it was not necessary.

“Alright, put the bar down now, and no-one gets hurt”

The blonde lady quirked an eyebrow in amusement, glancing at O’Neill, before bending the iron bar around until both ends touched. Shocked, but with a feeling of joy rising within him, Teal’c accepted the now rounded bar back and attempted to bend it back into shape, as he expected, he was unable.

He glanced at the diminutive figure of the Slayer, and spoke just two words,

“Chel Nak!”

The Jaffa nodded in acknowledgement of a fellow Warrior, then reached across and carefully pushed his team-mates mouth closed.

“Okay,” O’Neill shook his head, “I get that you’re a female superman, I get that to the Goa’uld you’re a bogeyman… bogeywoman, whatever. What I don’t get is why you’re here”

“Goa’uld?” Buffy asked, “Is that what the snake-heads with the freaky glowy eyes are called?”

O’Neill paused then shook his head, groaning as he realised he had just breeched security himself, albeit in a relatively minor way given the circumstances, “well, yes”

“Coolness,” Buffy shrugged, grinning innocently, “well, I was sent here. Seems somebody thinks there’s a fight here involving these ‘Gold’ demons I could help with,”

“Goa’uld,” Teal’c interrupted, “they are parasitic aliens not demons”

Buffy nodded in acknowledgement, the innocent grin not leaving her face. O’Neill sidled slightly away, that grin was beginning to get him suspicious.

“Well, that means one of two things, either you’re fighting the Goa’uld and I help, or you’re with the Goa’uld and I strangle you to death with your own intestines”

O’Neill blinked, the words of her threat combined with the innocent ‘butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth’ expression on the blondes face made for a just disturbing combination.

“A vague disclaimer,” she continued as if quoting, “is no-ones friend”

The Colonel grinned, making a mental note, he was beginning to like this girl.

Chapter 4: Explanations

Major General Hammond, Senior Officer of Stargate Command was unhappy.

This unhappiness revolved, once again, around SG-1. This time however he had had to deal with a nice phone call from Security informing him that his wayward team had just signed in an unauthorised and uncleared female.

To put it mildly, he was not pleased with this.

“Just what in the Sam-hells name is going on here!?!” General Hammond bellowed at SG-1 as they walked off of the elevator, with Buffy in tow, “She isn’t into authorised to be in this area! Hell, we don’t even know her name!”

“Good volume” Buffy muttered, slightly awed by the force behind that bellow, rubbing her pained ears. O’Neill heard the comment, and tried in vain to resist the urge to snicker.

“We must discuss this in private, General Hammond” Teal’c answered the General, his tone firm.

“My office, Now” Hammond replied, anger radiating from his voice as he gestured SG-1 and Buffy in front of him.

SG-1 took one look at Hammonds face and grabbing an amused Buffy they quickly double-timed it to Hammond’s office. This was not going to be fun.

“O’Neill, maybe you would care to start?”

“Well, we were in the cafeteria when Airman Reynolds came in with a message for Teal’c, saying that the Tarithna was at the gate, Teal’c left in kind of a hurry and we followed, arriving at the guardroom in time to see Buffy here bend a solid iron bar into a perfect circle using only her hands”

Carter gave up examining the bar, looking for evidence of trickery and dropped it onto Hammond’s desk with a solid thunk. Hammond picked it up, and tried to bend it, having no effect. He dropped it back onto the desk;

“Are you trying to tell me this young lady bent that?” He asked his voice disbelieving.

Buffy shrugged, unconcerned, and reached across, grabbing the iron bar back up and bending it with a screech of protesting metal back into an approximation of its former straight self. She then dropped it onto the astounded Generals desk.

Hammond caught himself staring in disbelief, and quickly closing his mouth asked; “Just who the hell are you?”

“Buffy Anne Summers, also known as The Slayer, or Tarithna. As Giles used to put it, ‘Unto each generation a slayer is called, one girl in all the world given the strength and knowledge to fight the demons vampires and monsters, she is the slayer’ Of course, there is no longer just me, there are several hundred slayers running about now, and that job description doesn’t mention prophetic dreams involving the words ‘Many have said that, but you are the first I believe could do it!’”

The members of SG-1 visibly stiffened in their seats, turning to stare at Buffy.

“Those are the exact words I told O’Neill on Chulak” Teal’c said, a hint of surprise and awe in his voice.

“As I said, I got the cliff-notes version 3 nights ago, including images of this place and the definite subtle hint that I was needed here,” Buffy snorted, making air quotes as she said ‘subtle’

Hammond glanced at Buffy warily, his mind suddenly flickering to a time long past, remembering a meeting he had a mere two years before assuming command of the Stargate Program.

Grimacing, he shook himself back to the present, he wasn’t sure that incident was relevant here.

“Miss Summers, we will need to investigate who you are, you understand?”

“Yep,” Buffy shrugged, “but shouldn’t you just have to access the Initiative files on me?”

“Initiative?” O’Neill asked.

“Military operation that set itself up gung-ho fashion in Sunnydale, didn’t last too long before they got an up close and personal intro into exactly how dangerous demons and Frankenstein monsters can be”

O’Neill grimaced, rolled his eyes and mouthed ‘NID’ at Carter. Carter shook her head wryly, refusing to take the bet.

“Demons, could they be Goa’ulds, or other aliens mistaken for creatures of demonic nature?” Daniel wondered.

“No” the reply came almost simultaneously from Buffy, O’Neill and Hammond, Doctor Jackson glanced around at them in surprise.

Buffy shrugged, “Chosen warrior remember, these things are not aliens”

“You get to see a lot of things on black ops, you either adapt and learn to live with it, or lose it. Trust me, not aliens” O’Neill added.

“How many aliens survive 45 9 millimetre rounds, then turn to dust when a bit of wood is shoved through their heart”, Hammond turned to Buffy, perhaps the matter was relevant? One way to find out… “Does the name India Cohen mean anything to you?”

“She’s the slayer whose death resulted in me being called” Buffy answered, quietly.

“She saved my life from a vampire attack quite a few years ago now, O’Neill” Hammond turned to face the CO of SG-1, “Take Miss Summers to the VIP area for the moment”

As Hammond was about to leave, he heard Buffy ask a question, and turned around curious to hear the answer himself.

“Teal’c, how do you know of the slayer or Tarithna as you call it?”

“The Tarithna is well known to the system lords, Tarithna means Hunter of debased ones, and is one of only two positions respected by all Goa’ulds, indeed it is rumoured Ra once killed a minor system lord who attempted to control the Tarithna, and that the Tarithna commanded an army of Jaffa on this world.

However, Ra grew jealous of the Tarithna’s abilities and captured her, attempting to find away to control the Tarithna’s abilities, or take one as a host. He failed, and the Tarithna of the time escaped, and led the rebellion that threw Ra off this world.

It is also rumoured that whilst no Goa’uld has ever succeeded in taking the Tarithna as a host, Egeria took one as a host for 5 years, until the host sustained considerable damage in battle, and even the combined healing abilities of Egeria and the Tarithna herself were unable to save the hosts life”

“Okay,” Buffy glanced at Teal’c askance, “Egeria? Who or what was she?”

“She was the Queen of the Tok’ra,” Teal’c replied.

Buffy just raised an unenlightened eyebrow.

“The Tok’ra are, in theory, the anti-Goa’uld,” O’Neill growled, “same species but they are supposed to take only voluntary hosts”

Buffy didn’t miss the sarcastic tone there nor the wince from carter, and filed both away for future consideration.

“Tok’ra,” Daniel interrupted, “translates as Against Ra, in theory they are a resistance movement opposing the oppression of the System Lords”

“System Lords meaning the ‘evil’ Goa’uld?” Buffy surmised, then continuing warily at O’Neill’s disgusted nod, “I’m hearing a lot of ‘in theory’s’ and ‘supposed’ in there”

“The Tok’ra are not trustworthy,” Teal’c replied.

“These guys always have their own agenda,” O’Neill nodded agreeing, “nor can they be trusted to tell you every detail you need for a mission”

“So corrupt then,” Buffy noted.

O’Neill shook his head no, “not for most part, just too wrapped up in their own needs and the way things are done and always have been done”

Carter coughed significantly at this point and O’Neill nodded acknowledgement of the point, “well, except for Selmac / Carter, they do try to give us the straight deal”

“Selmac Carter?”

“My Father,” Sam replied, “he was dying of cancer, it was the only way to save him and us”

Buffy shook her head, “hell of a way to ‘save’ someone, turning them over to a group you don’t trust”

Carter shook her head agreeing, but “in the end, it was his choice”

Buffy nodded, and let it go.

Fic Rewrite: Visionary Chptrs 1&2

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:39:59 GMT

Okay, hopefully this is an improvement over the original but I would like your comments.

That includes what you like/dislike about the rewrite and suggestions for future chapters, hell anything

thanks

chaos_eternus

PS: LiveJournal:
http://chaos-eternus.livejournal.com

PPS: all parts for the trilogy, the original Visionary, Bane of Anubis and the now complete Slayer Hunting are archived at
http://www.chaoseternus.co.uk under mainstories, visionary

Chapter 1: Dreams

Buffy thrashed around in her bed, the nightmare coursing through her mind making her cry out in fear and pain. Flashes of pyramids, of demons who took humans as hosts, of cultists in funky armour passed through her mind. Then Buffy saw her, a slayer leading an army, a host of humans against the cultists, screaming ‘false gods’ for all to hear. The humans behind her taking up the chant, as demons, even vampires joined the slayer in pushing this vile creature and his followers off their world.

Then the scene changed, it felt newer somehow, like there was less age to what she saw. A massive black man bearing the seal of Apothis pointing a staff of some kind at humans cowering below him, an older man in fatigues shouting

“I can save these people, help me!”

Pleading, “Help Me”

“Many have said that” the black man says, turning and firing at his fellow warriors of Apothis “But you are the first I believe could do it!”

Flash, a mountain, a tunnel leading deep within, Cheyenne Mountain Complex in raised letters over the entrance, soldiers patrolling and guarding.

Flash, the black man back again, calling her ‘Tarithna’ Slayer,

Flash, the first slayer, “you are needed, Tarithna”

Flash, the tunnel entrance again, zooming in on the words ‘Cheyenne Mountain Complex’

Buffy awake with a start, breathing quickly, “Okay” she muttered, “I can take a hint”

“Well,” Giles commented dryly, “these dreams certainly seem prophetic”

“Gee whiz,” Buffy replied sarcastically, “how did I not figure that out for myself?”

“Well, quite,” The oldest Slayer grinned, she didn’t need to be able to see her mentor to know he was almost certainly cleaning his glasses at the other end of the phone-line, “and they are unusually direct for the Powers That Be too”

She snorted wryly, “You noticed? So, what do we do?”

“Well,” he replied calmly, “you’ve certainly provided enough information to research these… unknowns, there should certainly be something if they are, as you said, based upon ancient Egypt. I certainly remember there being something off about the Gods of Ancient Egypt but you’re suggesting that they are technology users which rules out the sheer bulk of the demonic population”

“Technology was the feel I got, not magic,”

“Well, I trust your perception in this of course, but you do realise what this means of course”

Buffy grinned, “Yep, the first person to tell Andrew what’s going on gets sewer duty for a month”

There was a snort from the other end of the line, “quite”

Buffy stilled, gazing around the room with wariness in her eyes, “you know what this means though”

There was an expectant pause on the other end of the line.

“The Military,”

“Yes,” Giles answered, the frown in his voice coming clear down the line, “what do you suggest?”

“I can’t ignore the dream,” Buffy replied slowly, “but given our past experiences with the military…”

“Do you want us to come?” her watcher calmly asked.

“Yes,” she replied, nodding although she knew the older man could not see it, “I go in alone at first, try to make peaceful contact but if this goes to hell I want back-up I trust nearby”

The Slayer laughed grimly, “If the dream is true, then I may just need your reinforcement anyway”

“I understand,” Buffy smiled gratefully at his response, “We’re coming Buffy”

Chapter 2: Colorado

Buffy stopped her rental car just short of the mountain, gazing at the entrance; it was exactly as she remembered it from her dream, except, she thought with a wry grin, for the guards who were taking a very active interest in her presence.

She rolled down her window as a blonde-haired female approached her car, a patch on her uniform identifying her as Staff Sergeant O’Malley,

“I’m sorry miss, you can’t park here” she calmly told the Slayer, who didn’t miss the alertness in the soldiers eyes, how close her fingers were to her rifles safety nor the carefully hidden turrets and gun emplacements that dotted the area.

Buffy looked up to the sergeant with a wary but wry smile, “Do you have a” she thought back to her dream, concentrating hard for a moment, “Teal’c working here? Tall black guy, funky gold tattoo on his forehead?”

O’Malley stiffened subtly, “I’m afraid I don’t know the name Sir, but if you come to the guardroom I could check for you”

“Sure” Buffy said, glancing around at all the guns that were suddenly not quite pointing at her, “and while you’re having me checked out, you can pass a message along to that person who may not work here…”

The look O’Malley sent her could best be described as ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about’

The airman walked quickly into the cafeteria, gazing unnoticed around the room before he spotted SG-1 or rather the unmistakable form of Teal’c. Relived that he didn’t have to search any further, he strode swiftly across to the group.

“Excuse me”

“Yes Airman” Colonel O’Neill replied groaned, putting down his spoonful of Jelly, cursing whatever beings might be listening that once again, a simple meal with his friends looked about to be interrupted by business.

“Message for Teal’c sir”

Teal’c raised an eyebrow in surprise; it wasn’t often that an airman came looking for him; usually it was O’Neill, Major Carter, or Daniel Jackson, the other members of SG-1.

“The guards are holding a young lady up top; she refuses to identify herself, but insists on a message being brought down to you Sir”

“Secret admirer Teal’c?”

Teal’c ignored the comment and raised the other eyebrow, every female on planet he knew was either known to the guards, or a member of the SGC.

“The message is, ‘the Tarithna is at the gate’ sir”

Teal’c nodded almost complacently, then blinked, his eyes widening slightly.

Seeing the subtle signs of pure shook from their friend, his team-mates tensed, preparing for action but Teal’c was already out of the door.

O’Neill glanced at Teal’c chair as it bounced off the floor in shock, “Did Teal’c just flat out run out of the room?”

“Err, yeah” Daniel replied, brushing the remains of Teal’c dinner off of his fatigues.

“Did he look… shocked to you?”

“Very” Carter answered, glancing at her CO. The communication was silent, no words were needed and with a clatter of chairs hitting the floor, the rest of SG-1 ran after their comrade.

Fic: Emperor Xander 25/?

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 15:01:42 GMT

for the record, my archive, http://www.chaoseternus.co.uk was brought up to date on friday.
all previous parts are there

Twenty-Five

Xander looked up concerned as Buffy slowly walked in through the door into the Library, interrupting his patrol report to Giles “Buffy what’s up?”

Giles glanced up too, then straightened up swiftly, catching the look in his Slayers eyes, a look he recognised as the ‘thousand yard stare’

“Monster,” Buffy managed to spit out.

“Where Buffy?” Giles asked concerned, “and what did it do to you?”

“Mum and Bond… monster”

Xander shot Giles a half bemused, half scared look at that, “okay, there is a monster and it has your mum and Bond. Any idea where it is?”

“Mum… bedroom… Bond,”

“It has Bond and is in Mums bedroom?”

Dazed, Buffy shook her head no, “mum and Bond… bed… monstrous”

A startled look crossed over Giles face, and he hid his face behind a book to hide his smile.

“Okay Giles,” Xander asked carefully, “whats up?”

“I do believe she burst in on her mum and Mr Bond in the bedroom,” Giles replied calmly.

“Oh,” a disturbed look crossed Xanders face, “they’re old, they shouldn’t be doing things like that, it’s gross!”

Giles just shook his head bemused and walked away, leaving Xander to deal with a seriously grossed out and near-catatonic Slayer.
-----

“Where has that scab gone?” Glory screamed frustrated, “if I have to go searching for him…”

“Most Glorificusness,” a cowering form beside her said carefully, “there are some signs of a fight near the last place your most humble servant was known to be”

“A fight,” Glory frowned, “who with?”

“Soldiers your most beautifulness,” the cowering thing replied, gazing up worshipfully at its master, “bullets littered the ground around the fight and there was a tattered piece of his cloak left behind”

“So,” Glory replied breezily, her eyes fading, the sanity in them slipping away once more, “my enemies have him. No doubt they plan on making him tell tales out of school”

“He would not betray your grace,”

“For his sake I hope so,” Glory replied, slipping woozily, airily into a seat, “now bring me someone young and tender. Find him later…”

-----
“Boss is pissed,”

Gerard snorted, “An agency of the United States Government tried to have her killed, I would be kind of pissed too,”

“True,” Cosmo replied, “but at least she is getting somewhere”

“Yes,” Cooper noted, “but I would love to know exactly who sent us the instructions of how to get into the NID mainframes”

Gerard snorted, “Wouldn’t we all. Whoever it was, they were either on the inside or real good at their jobs”

“Good enough to crack into half the defence computers in the western world and have them send out a communiqué to all the Special Forces types?” Cosmo asked calmly.

Gerard froze for just a moment, and then grinned, “I do believe you have a point Cosmo, congratulations”

“Yea yea,” he replied sarcastically, “so, you think it was them?”

“I think,” Gerard replied carefully, “that if it wasn’t them, they at least have a pretty good idea who it was”

“Just the thing to make a complicated situation worse,” Cooper pointed out, “there actions were illegal as such we have an oath to uphold, we should bring them in. Flipside to that, those actions helped us and as much as I hate to say it, those vigilantes do good and necessary work”

Gerard shrugged, “their… situation has been passed up the chain. For the moment it’s the problem of people who earn far bigger pay checks then we do”

“There he is,” Cooper interrupted, “blue ford by the lights”

“Okay, I got him,” Gerard commented a moment later, swiftly pulling the unremarkable car out into the traffic, following the blue vehicle Cooper had spotted, “Mr Simmonds, where are you headed?”

----

O’Neill grimaced as he stepped into the Library, he doubted, no, he hoped he would never get used to the thought of going to school kids whenever problems came to the fore, certainly not when those problems involved powerful beings who claimed to be Gods.

It rankled, he was an Airforce Officer, it was his job, his responsibility to keep the children of the nation, heck given his recent job, the Earth safe and yet, if it involved Sunnydale or Sunnydale type business at some point he would be answering to mere children.

They should be worrying about dates, about grades and about how they looked; they certainly should not be worrying about the continued existence of the earth and about saving lives whilst they were still in school.

But, they were and for the moment, he had little choice in the matter.

Didn’t mean he had to like it though.

“Anything new on Glorificus?” O’Neill shook himself out of his thoughts as he heard Xander speak.

“Yes,” he replied calmly, carefully hiding his feelings for the moment, “Eva and the Twins managed to catch a break; we got a Scab waiting for interrogation”

Fic: Battlegroup 8/?

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 12:04:17 GMT

Eight

Admiral of the Fleet Alistair Thomas, Commanding Officer Royal Star Service was officially unamused.

One might go so far as to say he was mildly vexed.

“I want to know why exactly my second in command is in hospital, I want the names of everyone involved and I want heads and I want them yesterday!”

Commander Joan Williams winced, raising her hand to her now tender ears, “Christ boss, cool it will you, I’m sure they didn’t hear planetside…”

“I. Don’t. Care” Thompson voice was calm, dangerously so, the very quietness and levelness managing to portray his unhappiness far better then he previous shouting had, “somebody just attempted to assassinate my second in command, worse, they tried to assassinate the officer in command of the Sol System defences aboard a station which is being marred by personnel troubles and so called ‘administrative’ delays. Somebody is deliberately attacking the Royal Star Service and I want to know who and I want to know why. And I want their heads on a bloody platter”

“So do it,” Joan replied annoyed, “but shouting at me isn’t going to help. Now, the question is, are those problems actually related?”

“Finding out is now your concern Commander,” Thompson replied annoyed, “I’ll be passing along word to Murielle to contact you for orders. I’m going to be giving you some pretty broad powers in this, don’t disappoint me”

“Aye Sir,” Joan replied, taking her orders chip off her boss before fleeing the room.

-----

Lieutenant Hayes grimaced, her hands clenched as she gazed annoyed at the tactical display, “Set condition one and prepare to jump to space-normal”

“Aye Ma’m,” came the swift reply from the only other officer present on the bridge, Ensign Bridges, “Condition One and rig for jump”

Nodding, the tactical officer gazed across the display, trying to identify targets from the twisted mass of blurry markers on the screen, some were already marked as ships, hostile or alliance, some marked as spent weapons or debris but most were simply unidentified.

“Report!” Hayes turned at the brisk word from the bridge hatch, catching the Captain pulling his uniform top over his head as he stepped into the room.

“We have a furball Captain, space-normal,” she replied, stepping smartly away from the console to give her Captain a better view, “identified alliance warships, Narn and League as well as several Drakh ships. Ship is ordered to battlestations and we are rigged to jump”

Hayes watched passively, her Command having devolved to the Captain as soon as he stepped onto the bridge, waiting for orders.

“Jump us out on the edge of the furball, and be ready to contact the Alliance ships, I want a sit-rep ASAP,”

Nodding, Hayes stepped towards her own tactical console, surrendering the central display as the rest of the command crew raced onto the bridge. She almost didn’t hear her Captains whispered final comment.

“Dropping right into a fight, oh joy”

-----

“He came towards me swiftly,” Peters said softly, grimacing at a stab of pain from her abdomen, “but there was something in his eyes that frightened me. It was… as if he truly believed he could not die, not then or there”

“Religious fanatic?” Joan asked softly, her eyes speaking her sympathy even as her body language screamed professional doing her job.

“I don’t know,” Peters replied, her form twisting under the thin hospital sheets as she tried to get more comfortable, her face dropping into a pained grimace as the movement sent shards of pain radiating outwards from her stomach, “something about him seemed off though I cant tell you what. It was an impression more then anything else, it may not mean anything”

Joan nodded, “what happened next?”

“I attempted to fight him off, protect myself until security could arrive and deal with him,” Peters shook her head, “but he was fast, well trained and I had already lost the full use of my right arm because of his first blow. He gutted me, caught me right in the stomach”

Joan nodded; glancing once at her recorder, making sure the small device was still working.

“It was at that point that the banging at the hatch started, I could hear the handle trying to turn but there was also another sound, I wondered at that moment if he had blocked the door from opening but I also noticed that he appeared to be distracted, though more annoyed by the sounds outside the door. I used the opportunity to dive forward, knife in my hand; I knew that that was most likely my last shot at killing him before he finished me off”

Peters gulped, turning her face away from Joan in distress, “he turned, his knife caught me again even as my own caught his throat. I thought I had missed everything vital as he continued to pound his blade into me again and again, the pain forced me to the ground at that point and I blacked out”

Joan nodded, “do you remember anything else?”

“Not until I woke up here,” Peters replied, and Joan didn’t need to look to know that tears were coming into the eyes of the shaken woman.

“Thank you,” Joan replied softly, grasping the officer’s hand once, reassuringly before she left the room.

-----

“Receiving a tactical update from a Vree Xill class Cruiser,” Hayes noted loudly, her hands racing as she transferred the data from the communications systems to the tactical computers, an annoyed frown passing across her features as the data slowly crept across, anti-virals and hardware scanners taking their turn on the data before allowing its transfer.

Nodding, Captain Jones turned his gaze onto the rapidly shifting display, unidentified icons flicking in rapid succession, some to blue, allied, but most glaring red, threat.

He shook his head warily, and then grimaced, his eyes not missing the fact that the surviving allied warships were englobed, trapped and unable to escape.

“Increase speed to Squadron Flank,” he ordered swiftly, “lets break our allies out”

Major Archive Update

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 20:16:29 GMT

Archive Updated: http://www.chaoseternus.co.uk

14/04/06 -
Drabble/Short Section Reorganised
New (hopefully easier to use) Visionary Index
Earthman Index modified for clarity

Stories:
Seeker, 3 new chapters
Adventurer Xander, 3 new parts
Visionary 3: Slayer Hunting, 6 New Chapters [Finished]
Illusion, 4 new chapters

Drabble:
SG-1: Guardian Sword I&II
Rayne'd Part III
Champion BTVS
Dredded Galactica BSG2003/Dredd
Dust BSG2003
Lords BSG2003
Odd Days BSG2003 / HHGTTG
Quandary BSG2003
Tapped By Death BSG2003 / Discworld
Vengeance BSG2003 / The Crow
Spectre HP / MW4: Mercs

Fic: Seeker 9: Eat Fish or Cut Bait

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 12:04:44 GMT

as always, previous parts archived at http://www.chaoseternus.co.uk

Chapter 9: Eat Fish Or Cut Bait

“Our best option is to report to Earth for reinforcement and replenishment,” Cade pointed out reasonably, her eyes not leaving Cains face as he pondered her words.

“That much is true, our best option is to head home but I don’t think their best option is for us to head home”

Cade raised an eyebrow considering, and then reached across for the jug of water, “I’m listening”

“The Cylons seek Earth and the survivors, that much is known and is certain,”

Cade nodded, “doubly so as their agent, Commander Helva would have been able to confirm not only the existence of Earth but a few details of the system and give them a general idea of the distances involved”

Cain grimaced, “Indeed, that is part of the problem. The cylons know that the distances are too great for them to launch effective attacks or even properly manage a search in regions that for them are uncharted. We, that is the Pegasus have observed that they are taking the safe option here. The cylons are heading in the correct direction, but they are doing it slowly, building up all the support they will need, supply depots, refineries and mines, construction facilities, everything along the way”

“Damnation,” Cade replied, “are you sure of this?”

“Unfortunately yes,” Cain replied, “I trust you see the risk here”

“The safe approach,” Cade shook her head annoyed and unamused, “dangerous. Gives Earth and the survivors more time to rebuild and prepare but it means when the Cylons do hit it won’t be piecemeal, they will attack in force”

“They will need too as well,” the aged Commander agreed, “in a one on one fight, a reasonably modern Battlestar can defeat even the new Basestars. That is almost certainly why they chose the stealthy assault method they used to take out the colonies”

“They had to destroy the bulk of the military strength fast or they would be defeated”

“Precisely,” Cain grimaced, slumping backwards in his seat, “and whilst as a Commander I can appreciate the tactics they chose and their effectiveness, as a human, well…”

“The shoe is on the other foot now though,” Cade pointed out, “Whilst I have not engaged the cylons if I could avoid it, from the times I have seen their ships I received the distinct impression that they had fewer capital ships then we did prior to the fall”

“I am afraid that I cannot argue the point,” Cain shook his head, “that too would have encouraged them to use the stealthy approach, but now, as you say, the shoe is on the other foot. At the least, they currently have numbers equal to our own, probably a few more but with the build-up they are currently pursuing, by the time they reach and find earth, even assuming Earth has managed to construct more hulls, they will greatly outnumber our own forces”

“Then we must return to earth and warn them,” Cade replied.

“No,” Cain firmly asserted, “we must strike at their rear, force them to divert ships and resources to pursue us, to picket their facilities and to repair the damage we will be causing them. We buy time, with our life’s blood if necessary”

“Seeker is in no shape to support such operations,” Cade shook her head, “between us we have crew enough to get both hulls to Earth, at which point we refit and recrew as best we can and we present our plan to whatever command structure is in place. If necessary, we go AWOL but if, as you say, the likes of Adama are in Command then I doubt that will be required. He would send us to our deaths if he felt the need, he wouldn’t like it, but I have heard enough of the man to know he would do it”

Cain sighed, shaking his head, gazing around the battered breifing room, “having served alongside him in the last war, I agree, he would do it. Then again, he was only a Commander, he might not be the one to make the decisions”

“Then we do what we must,” Cade shook her head, “but if we are to be truly effective, then we had best be at our full strength”

“It’s a long journey, several months. Does Seeker have food enough for that?”

Cade shook her head grimly, “we were due to head home for refit when the end came, our medical stores are empty, most of what we have is aged beyond safe use, the same goes for much of our perishables including the survival rations. Fortunately, we do have some hydroponics and much of the crew have taken to having some plants, tomatoes and the like, in their quarters to provide some greenery and brightness. We also have empty storerooms and quarters we could perhaps modify and seed, but all this will push our water usage up”

“Increasing the number of stops we must make and thereby increase our chances of discovery,” Cain replied slowly, then nodded, “nevertheless, it must be done. You have won me over child, we go home”

“Home?”

Cain sighed, “The Colonies are gone, lost to us forever. The radiation damage alone was not enough to make them unliveable though certainly it would not be healthy. Unfortunately, radiation corrupts… how many bacteria have now been mutated? How many viruses previously defeated have become something else? And with the increased radiation levels they will keep evolving, keep mutating”

“Biohazard,” Cade replied flatly, “the true bane of the Exploration and Evaluation corps”

“And worse, we know not what surprises the Cylons will have left,” Cain grimaced again, resisting the urge growl in disgust, “and unlike the last war, they have had completely unmonitored access to the worlds they’ve seized making it far harder to find and destroy any surprises”

“And home has to be somewhere,” Cade replied softly.

“Quite Child,” the youthful commander shot Cain a disgusted look at that comment.

“Do not glare at me,” Cain pointed out, “remember, I served in the last war, you would not even have been a twinkle in your mothers eye then. Indeed, you mother was probably too young to have child at that time. To me, you are a child and far too young to be in Command, let alone command of a capital ship sized hull!”

“Then,” Cade replied firmly, “if you think I am unable to do my job, I suggest you try and take Seeker from me”

“These may be desperate times child,” Cain replied soothingly, “but no so desperate that I would be willing to abandon the rule of law I swore to uphold. The Command is legally yours, I have less authority over E&E then I would a civilian vessel”

Cade nodded, “don’t forget it either. In the meantime, the crew are arranging a ‘surprise’ birthday party for my nineteenth tomorrow, so if you want to continue this discussion then I’m sure they wont mind setting an extra place so long as you are suitably surprised”

Cain shot Cade a startled look, then laughed, “I see child that you have already learnt the most important part of Command, know everything that’s going on”

“I try,” Cade replied grinning slightly.

Updated Archive

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:27:07 GMT

http://www.chaoseternus.co.uk

11/04/06 -
7 Points & 7 Points 2: Colonial Thunder moved to seperate story indexes (Main Index updated accordingly)
Discontinuity & Dis: Indefatigable: As Above
[Mainstory] 12: Battlegroup, 4 new chapters
[Gatewar Interludes] 3 New Interludes Added
[Art] New Image Viper Mk 8
[Tech] New Page, Viper VIII & IX
[Tech] MGB Listing updated

Fic: Battlegroup 6/7

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 11:29:38 GMT

Six

“Whilst no official statement has yet been given regarding the mass arrests of military personnel last week, rumours are continuing to circulate that the officers in question were planning to attempt a military coup and seize control of the United States.

This disturbing suggestion has not yet been refuted by the Agent Gibbs of the NCIS who is leading the investigation”

-----

“Royal Space Service sources today confirmed the departure of the 1st Battlegroup for Minbari space. The Minbari, an alien race allied to both the Royal Space Service and Stargate Command, have come under heavy attack from forces loyal to the Goa’uld Anubis and have been calling for reinforcement.

This deployment means that the Battlegroup will be deploying into a major battlefield largely untried and untested with their proving trials incomplete”

-----

“President Hayes today announced the appointment of Brigadier General Davis to Stargate Command as the services new commanding officer. General Davis has served in a liaison role between the command and the Pentagon for over sixteen years and as such, is well versed in the role and capabilities of the force”

-----

“Jubilation today as the battered, bloody fire services today confirmed that the London fire is contained. It’s not out, not by any stretch of the imagination but its ability to spread has been curtailed in a massive effort involving thousands of fire-fighters from across the UK and indeed, from other nations joined by service personnel and demolitions experts.

The result, a massive firebreak which it’s believed and hoped the fire will not be able to cross.

Now, for these people, its time to breath once more, to get some sleep, for tomorrow, they will begin the assault on the fire itself”

-----

“Tension in Asia at an all time high as China prepares to invade Taiwan. The move to ‘reintegrate the renegade province’ was confirmed by the Chinese defence minister earlier today, as part of a move to ‘unite the nation once more under one banner, strengthening her heart and resolve to better resist the corrupt west.

The Taiwanese forces, already at high alert before the announcement are believed to have gone to forward staging positions however for obvious reasons, a news blackout is now in place.

Taiwan, which only two years ago was officially recognised by NATO as a separate nation, has called for assistance in resisting ‘blatant Chinese aggression and warmongering’, however given the weakened states of many of the western military forces, assistance is unlikely.

Many analysts are saying that is exactly what the Chinese government are hoping for but the Chinese are refusing to comment further except to say that the reunification of China is an internal police matter and no business of the media”

-----

“Tokyo today confirmed its intension to aid Taiwan should China invade, Japan which has not yet recognised Taiwan as a separate nation stated that a reunified and aggressive China was not in the best interests of international stability”

-----

“A Royal Navy Spokesperson has confirmed the destruction of an unidentified Kilo class submarine discovered in the waters surrounding the North Sea oilfields. The unknown craft which ignored attempts at communication was heard to open torpedo tube doors as it approached one of the oilrigs and was consequently destroyed”

-----

“Uncertainty today as for the first time since Disclosure, Americans prepare to go to the polls. The result is uncertain; no-one is willing to guess which of the candidates will walk off with the Presidency.

Hayes is looking for a second term but the effects of the troubles which affected the nation during his term are uncertain, will Americans vote judging by the chaos or by the swift and strong response to it?

Either way, this is one election that is certainly not a forgone conclusion and a lot of bookies are refusing to give odds on the outcome”

-----

“Shares in Shell rose nearly ten points after confirmation that the company was the successful bidder for an investigation contract addressing the possibility of producing and refining oil on the Earth colony Alpha Prime for import to Earth.

The Colonial Governor, currently Lord Holmes, has stated his belief that the issue would not be the production or refining, though those would require a lot of equipment to the shipped to the planet, but the transport of either the refined product or the crude to Earth and safely adding it to the distribution network in large enough quantities to be economically viable.

A small refinery already exists on the surface on Alpha Prime which provides oils and distillates for local usage.

In related news, bidding opened for a contract to create a complete oil network for the Colonials on Freedom, from acquisition of the crude oil to distribution of refined products. The Colonials, whilst far less dependent on oil for their energy then us, nevertheless require a certain level of oil supply, primarily for chemical production and the plastics industry.

Once completed, the entire network will be state owned”

-----

“In a cost saving measure, the Russian government today announced its intention to phase out the Russian Space Agency, now seen by many as obsolete in the face of recent developments.

The agency directly employs only 300 as most of the work is contracted out, but their fate and the fate of the facilities owned by the Russian Space Agency is now highly uncertain. How much will be absorbed into Stargate Command, of which the Russian government is a funding member, is unknown.

What is known is that these facilities are looked on greedily by many within the US who see the British founded Royal Space Service as very much an usurper to the American space crown. They would need to be upgraded off course, but a lot of the infrastructure is already in place and we may see these facilities in use for many years to come yet”

Seven

“Looks like they were planning a welcoming committee,” LT Hayes noted, her hands dancing across her tactical controls.

“Oh,” Captain Jones smirked, “they got one all right. Target the lead shadow warship, all group weapons”

“Aye Captain,”

Jones leant forward in his seat, his eyes dancing between the tactical display and the relayed view of the front of the ship, eyes eager to see the effect of the groups combined weapons. This was a new thing for the Tau’ri, fleet manoeuvres had, up till now, been thrown together in a hurry and the ships never really got to practise them. Now on the other hand…

The lead shadow warship abruptly disappeared from the tactical display, momentarily intercepted by the blinking lines of gauss rifle fire from six Tau’ri warships.

Jones blinked, “shields?”

“No indications the shadow ships have them,” Hayes swiftly replied, “looks like bio-organics, so the Minbari got that right”
The Captain nodded, “concentrate on using the Gauss rifles then, leave Long Tom on standby”

“Aye Cap… wait,” Hayes, glanced up shocked, “I’ve lost sensor contact with the hostiles!”

“What?” shocked and dismayed, Jones unclasped his safety harness, diving up to the tactical console to see the readouts for himself.

“My God,” he breathed, “how?”

“No idea Captain,” Hayes shook her head disturbed, “but I don’t think they left. Looks like they cloaked?”
“Cloaked?” Jones frowned, puzzled, then his eyes widened with fear, “all ships, battle profile kilo-twelve, rig to engage cloaked hostiles!”

He was almost too late.

-----

Overseer rocked as a powerful beam flashed out of nothing, tearing the newly refitted vessels shields to shreds, dropping their strength almost to nothingness before the beam cut out.

Gauss rifle fire flashed through space around the point of origin for the beam, the Tau’ri computers carefully swiftly looking for any impact as the relatively cheap and expendable trinium rounds sought out their enemy.

A single impact explosion lit the scene, but it was enough and return fire, this time of naquadah tipped rounds tore the Shadow Battlecrab to shreds.

The fleet manoeuvred, desperately trying to provide as much cover as possible for their weakened comrade, but with only four other warships, the task wasn’t easy and masking the Overseer completely was an impossibility.

Another beam flashed across space, Britannica shuddering under the force, rocking as second beam joined the first, the Shadows exploiting the one ships major weakness, most of its gauss rifles were optimized for forward fire and less able to fire to the side. But Captain Jones had ordered Long Tom run out and the massive Ion weapon spoke, Britannica rocking to one side under the force as a Shadow Battlecrab appeared on the sensors, its energy absorbent armour being surrounded for mere seconds by a corona of powerful ionized energies.

Long Tom moved to rapid fire, the mighty Battlecruiser slowing as energies were drained, all shunted into the beam and into the weakened shields.

The Battlecrab died, the absorbent armour overloaded, creating an energy wash that flashed across space as containment was lost. Moved by the wash, the Tau’ri fleet vessel frantically manoeuvred to avoid colliding with their fellows, destroying much of the unit cohesiveness that was their strength, their weapons spitting vengefully at four contacts that appeared momentarily in the explosions wake.

One died, just breaking up, its structural integrity destroyed, the other three manoeuvred swiftly to avoid their companions fate, splattering the Tau’ri ships with bursts of fire as they attempted to regroup.

Invincible came under fire, its shields rapidly decaying, her Captain ordered the least of the battlegroups vessels to retreat to hyperspace and escape. The shadows fired once more, this time at the hyperspace jump point, not at Invincible herself.

The point collapsed, but the Dauntless class ship was already in hyperspace.

Unbeknownst to the Tau’ri, two Shadow Warships followed the destroyer into Hyperspace, intending on running down and capturing the small vessel. Unfortunately for them, the Invincible was in no mood to hang around and had already dropped out of hyper, going swiftly to ground.

Finding itself the only Battlecrab still fighting the Battlegroup itself, the final Shadow vessel decided discretion was the better part of valour and it data cores loaded with all the sensor data it had gathered during the fight, the vessel retreated from the battlefield.

-----

“Where did Invincible go to?” Jones demanded after five minutes of waiting for the next Battlecrab to show itself.

“Not far,” Hayes replied, “Passives are picking up weak sensor emissions from the edge of the system that it IDs as one of our arrays”

“Very well,” Jones replied, wiping a sheen of seat from his forehead, “lets join her shall we? Condition two steaming, but maintain shields at full available strength”

“Do we continue onto Minbar?” LT Holst asked, glancing up from the helm console.

Captain Jones shook his head, “get me damage and expenditure reports from all ships, we’ll know then”

-----

Commodore Peters didn’t know what exactly had caused her to wake; all she knew was that one minute she had been enjoying a quite nice and frankly, imaginative erotic dream and the next, she was awake and at ‘Red’ alert.

Grimacing, she moved intending to check the time on the display set by her bed and screamed as the knife meant for her throat slammed into her shoulder.

Instinctively, her hand dived for the small, compact pistol-bow she kept in a non-obvious holster at the side of her bed, the weapons lack of penetrative ability making it an ideal weapon for ship-board use.

It wasn’t there, and there was tape over the sensor that would scream that it had been removed. Growling, she threw off her sheets, tangling her opponent in them as she reached across, tearing the surprisingly flimsy cover off the timepiece and swiftly pulling at the small blade hidden within. A knife incidentally, whose metal blade was part of an unauthorised alarm circuit, its removal broke the circuit, triggering the alarm circuit that her assassin and by the way, base security actually knew about.

Knife in hand, she swung around then cursing, dived across the bed, narrowly avoiding the knife thrust that would have disembowelled her, before turning, knife raised to face her as yet unidentified adversary.

The room was dark, she couldn’t tell who it was, though the sounds they had been making suggested male to her eyes.

Whoever it was, they coming for her again and she stood, knife ready to ‘welcome’ them.

Fic: 12 Battlegroup 4/5

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 11:26:23 GMT

Four

“Several leading military officers were arrested today in raids conducted by a joint taskforce headed by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service assisted by the investigative branches of all the remaining services and the FBI.

The reasons for these sweeping arrests have not yet been made clear; however those arrested cover the whole gamut, from Admiral Fenton, Commanding Officer of the Independence Wet-Navy Battlegroup to General Henderson, who is largely responsible for logistical support for the Airforce.

It’s not just the ranks of the senior officers who have been devastated too, a number of lesser officers and indeed, non-commissioned officers have been hit in raids with are reputed to have resulted in over a hundred arrests.

Does the government have legitimate reasons for these arrests?

The use of the criminal investigative agencies both federal and military suggests so but is not conclusive and we are forced to ask ourselves, has our government, the United States Government, begun a purge of the military?

Only time will tell, but either way, this is one more worrying and perhaps dangerous development in a year that has seen so many despite being so new”

-----

“A militant Arab group known to be funded and supported by the Iranian government is today being blamed for an attack on the Russian oil pipelines which supply much of Europe.

An official estimate on the damage has not yet been released but is known to be considerable, at least two of the pipelines have received heavy damage, indeed, it is reported that a three mile section of Pipeline One is gone, its ruin surrounded by burning oil”

-----

“European Union leaders called for calm today as rioting broke out in a number of cities, triggered almost certainly by news of the Russian Oil Disaster, a disaster which will now doubt push prices up even further across the continent.

This comes as the British Government officially announced the reintroduction of rationing on all petrol and diesel, the last time such rationing was used was during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath”

-----

“BP today confirmed its intension to increase capacity in the North Sea oilfields with five new rigs as well as replacements for those destroyed by militant groups soon after disclosure.

Shares in the company rose almost ten points within a hour of the announcement, further increasing the value of a company which has seen almost unprecedented success since the OPEC blockade began.

Nor is BP alone, in America alone, five previously abandoned fields are being reactivated, an increase in the sophistication and capability of drilling technologies such as horizontal drilling allow oil bearing strata previously abandoned as economically no longer viable to once more be tapped.

Many of these still hold at least one half of their original stocks of crude oil”

-----

“California wrote into law today an act which makes recycling a legal requirement for almost every home in the state.

Whilst home recycling is highly encouraged in many areas, so far where recycling has been law, it has been primarily so for businesses and for specific items such as computers.

The state legislature has yet to announce how such a law might be enforced”

-----

“The Royal Space Service today gave a statement confirming the presence of an Asgard O’Neill class warship within the Sol system. Why this vessel is here has not been announced but it is the fervent hope of many British and increasingly, those living on the North coast of France that they are here to assist with the clean-up resulting from the Cylon use of a ‘dirty’ nuclear device.

In related news, the skipper of the cargo ship “Lady Lee” was arrested earlier after stopping his ship in the English Channel and his ship moved on. The area is currently under a no-stopping order, allowing shipping through despite elevated levels of radiation”

-----

“Mob funding of space warships?

That’s the question we are dealing with today as it is revealed that elements of the Russian criminal underworld make significant contributions towards Russians purchase of 4 ships from the British and Americans.

Indeed, whilst exact details aren’t available as yet, it is rumoured that the donation was enough to fund a complete warship.

The American and British governments are known to be taking this situation very seriously indeed”

-----

“A Cylon probing attack was thwarted today after the basestar leading the assault arrived between the visiting Asgard O’Neill class vessel and the newly formed First Battlegroup.

The battle is said to have been exceedingly brief”

-----

“Reports now reaching us from Minbari Alliance space indicate that the forces of the Goa’uld Anubis has begun a major offensive against the allied races.

Losses have been heavy and reports have been sketchy, not only does it take time for information to filter back from such a distant area of space but the information we receive is often highly censored.

Still, we know that at least five worlds have been lost already during this latest assault. Whilst it is not yet confirmed, we strongly suspect that the allied races, which include the Minbari, the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and the Narn, have called for support from our military however a question mark has to raised over our ability to react to such a call”

Five

“So,” O’Neill shook his head, “we have a problem”

“Indeed,” Thompson said nodding, “the initial idea had been to send the battlegroup in for probing and vengeance strikes against the Cylons, maybe even a little salvage but this new assault by Anubis is something else. We have no real choice; we have to reinforce our allies”

Peters nodded, the annoyance on her face clear even through the monitor, “it’s obvious that Anubis has kept these forces in reserve and not used them until now”

“Which is a problem, but one we perhaps should have expected sooner,” Thompson shook his head, “he might have been forced out of the former system lords territories but we don’t know how much space he had in the realm he was banished too, not to mention exactly how much of the unexplored territories he has seized. It’s a lot of space to hide or construct ships in”

“And those new fighters of his are murderous,” Peters grimaced, “you’ve all seen the reports. Something caused him to hide them since their first appearance at Edonia and now they are showing up in droves, full squadrons all of whom seem to be exceedingly well trained. Not only is he using stealth technologies now, but it seems he has decided to take the time to do things right and that worries me”

“Never was one for long-term planning,” O’Neill noted thoughtfully, “sounds almost as if we have forced him to adapt and improve”

“Also a problem,” Thompson shook his head, “whilst he has always been advanced technologically, almost painfully so at times, he has never been exactly smart and that has always been our edge. If he is adapting and thinking now, we just lost our only real advantage”

“That’s an issue for another time though,” Peters shook her head, “right now, we have to deal with one simple issue: How do we reinforce our allies?”

“First Battlegroup,” Thompson said unhesitatingly, “there’s nothing else we can send, the Cylons will just have to wait”

“That’ll certainly be a blooding;” O’Neill grimaced, “are they ready for that?”

“They will have to be,” Thompson replied, “if we can rebuff Anubis’s advance, maybe supply some ground troops to assist in the liberation of seized worlds, we could recall the group to launch a foray into Cylon space, perhaps when Atlantis launches…”

O’Neill shook his head, “two weeks and Atlantis will launch, and I don’t think you will be able to stop Anubis that swiftly”

“No,” Peters shook her head, “we won’t”

Thompson nodded, “so the First Battlegroup we send to reinforce, now we just need to free up some ground-pounders to assist as well as transports for them”

“Talk to the allies,” O’Neill shrugged, “I know Britain won’t be able to spare a single regiment, I doubt my government will be able to free up more then two and the Russians are too busy assisting you’re rebuilding, it’s unlikely they will be able to spare any significant force….”

Thompson nodded, “Okay, have a word with your President, have him talk to the Germans, I’ll see about scaring up a few Canadian, Austrian, Australian or Italian units”

“That still leaves the issue of transport,” Peters shook her head, grimacing, a cup appearing in range of the screens pick-up for just a moment, “and frankly, we have jack-shit as far as shifting units in bulk goes”

“The Paladins have the endurance,” O’Neill shook his head, “but not with a full load of troops aboard. The Ha’taks would really be my first choice, but the only three that are operational are fully booked”

“What about the three just shifted to refit?” Thompson asked.

O’Neill shook his head, “crews have already been scattered, the ships completely powered down and a number of vital crystals removed from the controls. They’re sealed up on the surface right now, and could theoretically be brought back online but the reasons they were taken offline for in the first place would still exist”

“Perhaps, but we need the transport capacity” Peters noted.

Thompson grimaced, “O’Neill is right, the run to alliance space is almost invariably intercepted. Usually just catches the edge of an Al-kesh sweep but you know as well as I do that there have been full blown battles along the way. We know Anubis has units attempting to interdict any supplies and shipments between our space and the allies, the Standard Ha’taks do not have the speed to run from such an engagement nor can they be relied upon to fight there way out. If we use them, we put the crew and passengers at a not-inconsiderable risk, same with the Paladins”

“The only alternative,” Peters shrugged, “is a Merchant with cargo pods modified for mass passenger transport. Time consuming to set up but it could work”

“Unfortunately,” Thompson noted, “Liberty is queued for repairs, Merchant is highly involved in the Edonia run. That leaves just the Sir Lancelot and one ship alone will not move a regiment”

“It will have to do though,” Peters shook her head, “pity we can’t send the Gatecrashers”

“Half the teams are guarding the temporary Stargate Command,” Thompson shrugged, “and the other half are involved with efforts to retrieve the Cheops class mothership team four found last year. That’s going to be a long haul job, we can’t afford any bug that can visibly break down the cells of any animal lifeform into the wild, but we could certainly do with that hull”

“A Cheops?” O’Neill shook his head, “hell yes, but where would we refit it?”

“Planetary surface, most likely Alpha Prime, no other way to do it unless we build a customized bay just for the task” Peters noted.

“Has its advantages,” O’Neill commented, “but if you do refit that thing on the surface, I suggest you use a desert area and have a few nukes on standby ready to glass it should the bug be proven to have survived”

“We would like to avoid that if possible,” Thompson noted, “but I can see the point”

“So,” O’Neill noted, “I heard Thor paid a visit”

“He did,” Peters replied, “and he’s headed back home again. Just popped in to get up to date scans of Exeter and the surrounding area, I heard President Hayes bent his ear a little though and he left with scans of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and a few other places”

“Sweet,” O’Neill shook his head, “but we’re going to owe them one for once”

Thompson nodded, “if he manages the cleanup, I won’t complain”

The Admiral glanced across at Peters screen, “any idea of what he plans? I haven’t had a chance to read the reports yet”

Peters shook her head, “from what he said, they are refitting a few Beliskners for the task, which reminds me actually, we are going to need to reinforce the defensive picket when they arrive, Thor mentioned that they would be vulnerable whilst attempting to sweep the area of radioactive particles”

Thompson winced, “okay, well, as soon as the Edonia Patrol is cleared to report to their duty station, I’ll have a fighter squadron or maybe a pair recalled from the nebula. That should help”

“Perhaps,” Peters grimaced, “but you know Intel is getting a bit itchy about the nebula. Somebody should have launched a serious attack by now, attempted to take such a powerful and valuable artefact from us, but they haven’t. At this point in time, I would say we were more then slightly overdue”

“There have been attacks,” O’Neill pointed out.

Peters shook her head, “probes at best, none of the attacks have been pressed”

“This is fun,” Thompson noted, “really, a brushfire here, a brushfire there, and potential over there and a need to picket here. Again I say, we need more ships”

“Nothing new launching for a while,” Peters replied, “sorry”

“Just Atlantis here,” O’Neill shook his head, “then we’re stuck with Ha’tak refits, both for us and for the Free Jaffa”

“I’m afraid we’ll have to prioritise the Free Jaffa refits,” Thompson grimaced, “they have lots of ships but they are now for the most part seriously outclassed. The only reason they haven’t been taken out is that Maktenos is content to let them be for the moment whilst he concentrates on Anubis but still”

“Maktenos is smart,” Peters commented wryly, “tries to fight his enemies one at a time, now why didn’t we think of that?”

O’Neill grinned, “Sometimes you get the fish and sometimes, the fish gets you”
“Perhaps,” Thomspon replied thoughtfully, “but if we can refit the Cheops on the surface, why cant we do the Ha’taks too?”

Peters and O’Neill froze.

“Would get the crews some experience in case we do manage to get the mothership,” O’Neill pointed out, his mind scrambling to figure the new idea into his plans, “but the Free Jaffa will be doing most of their refits on a planetary surface so its best if we show them how to convert the ships to the new design on the surface”

Peters nodded, “make it easier for there crews to assist with the refit too, as they have some experience in constructing and repairing their ships on the surface, could probably teach us a few things for our own refits”

“Leaves all three of my warship slips free for other tasks,” O’Neill noted, “but we’re talking a massive infrastructure to set up and we’ve already lost a lot of the normal cargo craft”

Thompson nodded, “I’m going to push a new merchant higher up the list, but in the meantime, those Ha’taks had Tel’tacs as part of their inventory did they not?”
“Of course,” Peters noted, “we detach them from their ships for the duration of the refit and use them to shift supplies for the refits. Nice”

“Crews,” O’Neill mused, “should be easy enough to find, we’re talking just three small ships here”

“Infrastructure wise, we’re talking a new town, preferably in the desert so we can use the same facilities should we manage to get a hold of the Cheops” Thompson pointed out.

“Right,” O’Neill nodded, “water pipeline, pumps for definite, oasis are very few and far between or so I’m told, landing platform, some anti-air, all the usual but a massive stock of moveable gantries, scaffolding, cranes and the like”

“Crew,” Peters pointed out, “we would need personnel trained for construction work and support personnel. It’s a lot of people”

“We can scrape a few experienced crews to lead from all three existent facilities,” Thompson pointed out, “but the bulk would have to be green. Luckily, we have already started training additional personnel ready for Gaia station, considering the delays they will be ready before the station is”

“Can’t pull too many people from here,” Peters shook her head, “in fact, I would be happier if you didn’t pull anyone. I got problems; I need more personnel in the yards and fast. If you’ve read the reports from the First Battlegroups proving trials, you will know that quality control has slipped, too much hurry, not enough bodies, the morale kicker from Disclosure, hell, I have a malcontent element aboard the station now and that’s a serious first. Saboteurs I’ve had but not this”

O’Neill and Thompson stiffened, “how bad?”

“Approaching dangerous,” Peters grimaced, “I’ve put reports through the channels but… well, the last response was a note of censure for exaggeration and scare-mongering”
“What?” Thompson officially and rather loudly blew his top.

“My feelings exactly,” the Commodore grimaced, “somebody needs some reality shoved right up there arse, as well as a careful reminder of exactly who is second in command of the Royal Space Service”

“I’ll get Internal Affairs onto it,” Thompson responded, “it could just be some dick who needs a new arsehole but I’m afraid I don’t like exactly how much of this bullshit I’m seeing evidence of. We may be looking at subtle sabotage, unlikely, but it’s got to be investigated”

“Doubly so considering I’ve had a spare crew here for months,” O’Neill pointed out, “if Peters is short, that crew should have been posted to Thundersdawn”

Peters glanced across at O’Neill, “I’m short by about five crews”

“That’s bad,” Thompson shook his head, “and it means, no, you can’t space anyone for a surface facility”

“What about the Russians?” Peters pointed out, “I doubt every crew would have been at work in that yard of there’s before it blew and as Russia is signed up to the SGC”

“It’s a thought,” Thompson noted, “I’ll get Hammond onto that”

“I’ll start getting infrastructure setup,” O’Neill nodded, walking out of the conference room.

“Well, I’ve got arrangements to complete for three major hull repairs,” Peters grimaced, “going to be fun, catch you again boss”