A steady ocean breeze wafted over Nelson's team, as they dug in around the road to the Stargate. This ocean on P2V-171 was pretty small, according to Hargrove's description of aerial surveys, but was essential to the nearby town. Even from here, Nelson could see fishing boats entering and leaving the small port. He'd been concerned that the locals would give them away, but at this distance they might not even see the fighting, when it started. Besides, from what he'd been told the humans on this planet were little more than slave laborers for Nereus, working and dying in his mines. He doubted they even knew how to fight, much less wanted to.
He peered across the road, and Galosi gave him a cheerful thumbs-up from his position. Nelson shook his head, smiling. The boys from Valech had accepted him, at least informally, as their primarch. Unfortunately, that also meant they'd adopted some of his mannerisms. They'd even taken to telling jokes in his style, but since there were only seven Valei in all, the jokes were pretty limited in scope. Also, they had a tendency to imitate him, sometimes in ways that were particularly painful to hear. He felt the same excitement they did, though.
For the first time since he'd been separated from Earth, he felt like they were all on task, and making progress.
Of course, some of that could also be from the live weapons they were carrying. They'd be going up against Jaffa warriors, and since they had no guarantee that intars would work on Jaffa, even at maximum setting, Tony had told them to go old-school.
"Team two, are you in position?"
Nelson pulled his radio from his pack. "We're ready to roll, boss."
Over the distortion, Nelson thought he could hear Tony's voice flatten. "I have a visual on the convoy, headed your way. ETA five minutes. Remember, they have to get a signal off before you get them all."
"Copy that. Team two out." He signaled his team, and they all checked their weapons. Time to see how good a trainer he really was.
-.-
Over a mile away, in the hills above the town, Tony carefully lined up his P90 on the target below. The Jaffa was at the top of a stone tower, on one corner of the fortified camp in the hills. He patrolled his section of the wall regularly, but only left Tony's field of fire for moments at a time. Down by the road, just outside the camp, Cayo had just checked in with the rest of team three. Tony couldn't see them from his current vantage point, but they'd need his accuracy when the time came.
Once again, he marveled at the sheer amount of information Hargrove had accumulated over his two years in the SGC. The man must have an eidetic memory. He'd provided almost all the details they had on this planet, all from memory of poring over intelligence reports.
P2V-171 was one of at least fifteen planets under Nereus' control, but it made a good first target both because of the relatively light Jaffa garrison, and for the regular naquadah shipments sent through the 'gate. Hargrove himself was on another planet with Suna and Desousa, who had recovered near-miraculously quickly thanks to Deuca healing. If everything was still on schedule, they and a handful of the more promising Survivors would be hitting one of Nereus' weapons plants at about the same time.
He shook his head to clear it, and tried to focus on his task. About now, Ahardt's team would be opening up on the convoy of Jaffa moving towards the 'gate. Sure enough, he could hear a Jaffa horn-call echo through the hills, followed by an answering one from a watchpost about a mile away. The Jaffa inside the camp stirred like an anthill, and he could see their commander, his forehead branded with a silver wolf's head instead of the usual black tattoo, began shouting orders.
"Should we move in now?" Argyros whispered from right behind him, and Tony twitched.
"Hold on, Pyrta. Wait for it…" he urged.
It took a few minutes for them to get organized before a group of Jaffa, almost thirty strong, began running out of the newly opened palisade gates. Tony gave it a five count, and then sighted in on the tower lookout and fired. His shot took the Jaffa in the head, and he could hear Argyros using his radio to trigger the others.
At nearly the same time, Cayo's team broke into motion, leaning out of cover behind trees and large rocks, and pelting the reinforcements with fire from both sides of the path. Tony whispered a quick prayer for their safety, as he hauled the less-than-agile Argyros from cover and began sliding/running down the steep hill towards the palisade gates.
The fighting outside the gates was in full force by now, and some of the Jaffa had retreated inside for cover. From what he could see, they'd begun to close the gates to the camp. If they did, taking the camp would be a bloodbath, and Tony knew he'd never get close enough to stop them, not in time.
He snatched his radio from Argyros, and fumbled with it for a second. "Cayo! The gates!" He shouted into it.
Cayo's head snapped around, and he leveled his P90 at the wooden walls and held the trigger down. From the yells, a few bullets made it through, but the gates kept closing.
Cayo emptied the clip with no success, and drew his sword as he started running towards the gates. Tony considered the situation. The Jaffa outside were all dead, as far as he could tell, and they could now move on the walls.
Still, all the enemy needed to do to force them back was to put guards in the towers, and Tony was willing to bet they were already on the way.
He was about to call a retreat when he caught sight of a muzzle flash from the other side of the compound, at least four hundred yards away, and the gates stopped closing. Cayo threw down his blade and began hauling them open again. Other Survivors joined in, and by the time Tony and the panting Pyrta finally arrived, the gates had been thrown all the way open. A few staff weapons fired at them from the inside, but the attacks were hurried and inaccurate. Tony rallied groups one and two, and they charged into the compound, firing.
-.-
Three minutes later, it was all over. Cayo had spoken to the Jaffa commander, who was bleeding from the shoulder, and given him a chance to surrender. Predictably, the sandy-haired man had pulled a sidearm and Cayo had cooly dropped him with a single shot. Tony wasn't sure whether to be impressed, unnerved, or both.
"Search the camp!" He called out. "If anyone's left alive, bring them out here, but stay clear of the bodies!" Every adult Jaffa carried a symbiote in a pouch in their gut. A shot to that pouch was just as deadly as a headshot, in fact.
The symbiote was responsible for their physical prowess, but if the Jaffa died, so would the symbiote unless it could find somewhere else to go. Tony didn't want to take the chance that any of those critters had survived, or was old enough to take one of his people as a host.
As he expected, they didn't find anyone alive. Jaffa weren't known for surrendering, after all. He pulled up his radio. "Ahardt, report your situation."
"We're all in the green here, boss. We got two crates of naquadah ore here, and a dozen dead bad guys."
"Casualties?" Tony looked around at his own people for the same answer.
"Two injuries, both minor. Nothing to write home about."
As he heard Cayo call for him, Tony could see Argyros tending to a staff blast wound on one of Cayo's team. While not as powerful as some of the healing technologies the Goa’uld had, the Deuca tools were certainly effective. He’d been too busy to pay much attention when Argyros had explained, but apparently the Deuca treated wounds by accelerating the natural healing process, instead of trying to repair the injury directly. While he was still evasive as to how his people had developed this technology, the results were obvious.
The kid was pale but calm, as the Pyrta gently placed a pressure bandage on his leg. Another of his own team was holding a bloodied shoulder and waiting. Tony gave him a reassuring nod and moved towards Cayo and the dead Jaffa commander.
"You did a good job back there, Cayo."
"Thank you, sir." He pointed at another corpse a few yards from the commander. "I thought you should see this."
Tony rolled the corpse onto its back, and saw a hole burned into the chest. "Odd. This is a staff weapon wound. His own people killed him?"
"From the tracks, he was standing still when he was shot. I'd say the commander did it, from the angle he fell." Cayo frowned slightly. "It doesn't explain why, though."
Tony shook his head. "We'll have to wonder about that later. We can't stay here long. All right, everyone!" He spoke up. "You know what to do."
His people broke into motion. Some helped other wounded Survivors out of the area, while others searched the buildings for any technology or weapons they could use. The rest gathered up all the Jaffa staff weapons and handed them out.
When everyone was clear Tony gave the command, and his people started firing staff blasts throughout the compound, hitting walls, towers, and buildings alike. After the place looked truly wrecked, Tony pulled out a radio-controlled detonator, and carefully placed a tripwire inside the central building. Painstakingly stepping over it, he set the transmitter, and left what was left of the building.
With luck, any reinforcements would search the place thoroughly and when they set off the tripwire inside, all five packets of C4 would go off at once, wiping the camp off the map.
As they left the camp, Ahardt and two of his team came running up the road. He skidded to a stop when he saw the camp. "Whoa. I know taking the camp was part of the plan, boss," he surveyed the damage, "but did you have to go all Bruce Banner on this place?"
"It has to look good, Ahardt." Tony smiled. "Otherwise they'll search this place expecting trouble." He stopped as something occurred to him. "And didn’t you mean David Banner?"
Ahardt gave him a deprecating look. "Sure, if I wanted to sound like an old-timer like you."
"But that’s his original name!"
Ahardt gave an exaggerated, theatrical sigh. "Ahh, logic: my old enemy."
Cayo leaned in closer. "What in the name of Old Zau are you two talking about?"
"It’s a… long story."
Over the confusion of those nearby, Tony said. "Is everything set?"
"Yup. My team took the crates and weapons through the 'gate a few minutes ago. We also heard from SR. Hargrove's on his way back, too. A few injuries there, too, nothing serious." He looked around at the other Survivors. "How'd they do, anyway?"
"They did an excellent job. Cayo kept his group focused without any problems, and Chanehi saved the day with some excellent shooting from across the way."
"Glad to hear it." Ahardt looked at Argyros critically, as he approached. "You ok, Archie?"
Though his breathing had returned to normal, Argyros' fine tunic was stained with sweat, and he hunched over with fatigue. He'd accepted the nickname Archie with exaggerated patience, a fact that apparently amused some of the Survivors all the more.
"Perhaps I am less healthy than my diagnostic equipment would indicate," Argyros responded with an air of wounded pride, "but I wasn't assigned to join you because of my impressive athletic skills, was I?"
"Fair enough." Ahardt laughed. "Come on, let's get home before Hargrove does. We have the same return window, but I'd still like to beat him there."
