Chapter 92: Scouting Part 3
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Chapter 92: Scouting Part 3
Hyperspace, Near Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
Catra clenched her teeth. Adora had the situation under control - in the hallway, there was no way even an entire army of Jaffa could get past her. But that only secured the bridge. "We need to get to the hyperdrive. And the ordnance magazines. Before the Jaffa in command figures out that they can't beat us."
"Yep," O'Neill agreed. "Our princess can't be in two places at once - much less three." He looked at Teal'c. "So… we've got two locations to secure. And a bridge to guard."
"I'll take the ordnance magazines," Catra announced. O'Neill opened his mouth, presumably to protest, and she flashed her teeth and added: "I can fight perfectly fine without any risk of accidentally shooting the Naquadah-enhanced bombs or whatever they have there."
He blinked, then pouted. "Good point."
"I will go to the hyperdrive," Teal'c said. "I should be able to disable it without significantly damaging it."
"Well, I think Adora can handle the bridge here just fine," O'Neill said.
"She's busy fighting. Someone has to guard the bridge," Catra objected. "And we need someone in reserve if something else goes wrong." That was basic officer training.
O'Neill narrowed his eyes at her. "You know, it should be me telling you to stay back as a reserve."
"Good luck with that." She snorted and turned towards the ventilation duct. "I'll take the ducts - Adora should make the perfect distraction." She easily jumped up to the opening and dug her claws into the metal to pull herself into the ducts. As she started to crawl towards where the magazines should be, she heard O'Neill complain about no one listening to him any more and chuckled. The guy needed to accept that he wasn't the only one allowed to risk his life. Or have fun.
And they did need someone held back in reserve. Adora was great, but she wasn't perfect. And sometimes, she was a bit too naive. O'Neill was the best choice to handle her. Except., of course, for Catra, but she was the best choice to secure the magazines.
She gritted her teeth as she speed-crawled through the dirty ducts, and her tail once again dragged through something slimy. Even with the suit on… she'd spend an hour in the bath after this, just so she could feel clean again. She should put her helmet on, but… it limited her vision and hearing. And her sense of smell. And that could be fatal here. A bit of dirt was a small price to pay. Or should be.
So she pressed her lips together and pushed on until she reached the shaft that should lead down to the floor with the magazines. The Goa'uld had them in the centre of the ship - well-protected. Using her claws made descending easy - if a bit hard on her ears. But a few seconds later, she was on the right floor. Just a bit more crawling through stinky ducts.
Finally, she reached the right… area. Whatever. She sneaked up on the grate covering the opening and tried to look into the hallway. Nothing. No guards at the magazine? That didn't feel right. But she couldn't hear or smell anyone, either.
Well, she had an objective to secure. If the enemy had made a mistake, she wouldn't complain.
She shredded the grate and dropped into the hallway, quickly checking left and right. Still nothing. Ah, well.
A moment later, she was at the hatch leading to the magazines. A few swipes of her claws made short work of the metal on one side. Hah! O'Neill would have had to blow it open, and you didn't do that with magazines! She kicked the remains of the door, and it swung open.
And she cursed. This was a lot of heavy ordnance. Bombs. Missiles. No personal arms, though - those would be somewhere else. But the weapon lockers wouldn't have ordnance able to destroy the ship. Or so she hoped.
On a Horde surface ship, she would flood the magazines to render them safe. But this wouldn't work here, for a lot of reasons. And she couldn't defuse so many bombs and warheads, anyway.
That left making sure no one could get to them. Fortunately, she came prepared for that.
She grinned as she reached into her belt pocket and pulled out the charges. They weren't Horde incendiary packs, but Earth 'thermite' would work well enough.
A minute later, she had the entire hallway wired - around piled-up metal shredded from the next hallways. Ready to melt and block access. Now she just had to…
The sound of a hatch opening made her whirl around. Jaffa! That meant she couldn't set a timer and escape through the ducts - they might defuse it.
Baring her teeth, she set the timer for one minute and charged towards the enemy.
Jack O'Neill wasn't supposed to stay back while his team risked their lives. Good officers led from the front. At least when in charge of small units, he amended his thoughts. But you couldn't really get much smaller than a team of four.
And yet, from a purely military perspective, it made sense. Somewhat. Adora was a one-woman army and could handle the Jaffa attacking them, but they had to secure the magazines and take out the hyperdrive, and fast. And someone had to guard the bridge and be held in reserve if something else went wrong on this mission. Teal'c knew this class of ship best and was familiar with Goa'uld technology, so he was the logical choice to go and sabotage the hyperdrive. And Catra was better in close combat than Jack - though her claws gave her an unfair advantage. Add her enhanced senses, and she really was a female version of Wolverine, right down to the attitude and bloody past. Jack wouldn't say that she was the better soldier, though - he had a bag of tricks and a few decades of experience on her. Still, she probably was the better choice to go and secure the ship's magazines.
But Jack still wasn't happy staying back. It felt wrong. He couldn't even lead from here - everyone knew what they were doing, and trying to micromanage others was a terrible idea to start with anyway. At least if you had a competent team. And if you didn't have a competent team, that was on you as the leader.
He looked around the bridge. No attempt to break through the walls. No secret passage opening. And the consoles were still broken - not that he could fix that, anyway. He was good at destroying stuff. Carter was the one you wanted when it came to fixing things. He checked the bound and stunned prisoners for the third time in five minutes. They were still out. And not dying.
Wait. He cocked his head and shifted his carbine a bit. The sounds of battle had stopped. Jack tapped his mic. "Adora?"
"Just a second!" her voice sounded over the comms. "Have to… close this… door…"
She was probably wrenching it shut, Jack imagined.
"Done! That should hold them - once they return."
If they returned. Judging by what he had heard, and what he had glimpsed before returning to the bridge, Adora had gone through the Jaffa like a hot knife through butter. Or more like a bowling ball through a set of pins. On a greased floor.
And there she was - looking none the worse for wear, despite having just flattened dozens of Jaffa. Maybe even more of them. Although… he frowned. She looked almost… embarrassed?
"Uh, Jack? I need some help."
"Yes?"
"I've knocked out most of the Jaffa, after healing the worst, but… we need a room to put the prisoners into." She smiled weakly. "And I kind of broke the locks of the only room big enough to hold them."
Oh, hell! "I don't think we have enough strips to tie them up," Jack said. Not that it would do any good - you could guard four bound prisoners by yourself. You couldn't really guard a few dozen bound prisoners.
And they couldn't just shoot the bastards, either. "I guess we better stun them all." That would buy them some time to find a better solution. And speaking of buying time… Jack tapped his mic again. "Status?"
"I'm about to engage the guards at the objective," Teal'c reported, as calmly as if he was talking about taking a stroll to the mess hall.
Good. Jack nodded even though his friend couldn't see it. He'd bet on Teal'c against any other Jaffa. Or a couple of them. He trusted him to win this.
"I'm fine."
Catra's report, on the other hand, was a bit off. And Jack wasn't the only one to notice.
"Catra! What's happened?" Adora asked.
"I've got the hallway to the magazines melting down," Catra replied. "I just need to… deal with some guards."
"You're not fine!" Adora protested. She looked at Jack. "I know her! She's in trouble!"
He agreed - Catra sounded tense, and just a bit more stressed than she usually did.
"I'm fine. I've been through worse. And those guards can't stop me!"
Her ears were working fine, at least. And she wasn't dead. And, the part of Jack that he often hated, added, she had achieved her objective.
Adora bit her lower lip. "I can make my way to you - we're done here."
"I can handle this!" Catra snapped. "You do your task! I do mine!"
"But…"
Adora was cut off by the whole ship suddenly lurching - and a new alert going off on the bridge. That meant…
"I have successfully disabled the hyperdrive," Teal'c confirmed Jack's thoughts. "But I was detected by reinforcements."
Jack could hear the sound of staff weapons blasting away in the background. He looked at Adora.
She stared back at him. "I can reach either of them faster than you can."
And safer. But she didn't have to say that. Jack sighed and drew his zat. "I'll stun the prisoners."
Catra was in danger! Adora knew she shouldn't have let her lover go off alone - Catra was tough, and strong, and smart, but she wasn't as tough as She-Ra - she couldn't shrug off staff blasts! And in the narrow hallways of the Ha'tak, she couldn't dodge as well as she usually could. If there were enough Jaffa massed to shoot at her…
Adora clenched her teeth as she charged down a corridor, towards the door she had just blocked. She gripped the edge of the door and pulled, grunting as she ripped it open.
A staff blast hit her in the head and another in the shoulder before she brought her shield up and caught three more blasts on it. Oh, for… "I've got no time for this!" she yelled and charged ahead. More staff blasts peppered her shield and the hallway around her. One blew a hole in the floor, and she almost stumbled when her foot was caught in it, but she pulled her leg free and kept going.
The Jaffa were stacked three rows deep, three wide - the first row kneeling, the other two standing, all firing. They tried to blow the floor away, but Adora jumped - and smashed her shield into them, shattering their formation. And probably their bones, but right now, she didn't care. Catra needed her.
Two Jaffa were still fighting, one on the ground, pointing a zat at her, the other even getting up and raising his staff weapon. She flung her arm out and knocked the second into the wall while staring at the first. He fired at her - once, twice, three times. Four times. Then he stopped, mouth falling open.
Adora bared her teeth at him before knocking him out.
"Catra! I'm coming!" she yelled into her comm.
"I'm fine!" came the answer. "Secure the bridge!"
She wasn't fine - Adora could tell. But she had a point about the bridge.
Adora turned around and jumped over the hole in the floor, then sped to the wrecked door. It took more effort to wrench it closed - and warp it so the Jaffa couldn't easily pull it open - but that should keep Jack safe. Safe-ish. Long enough for Adora to fetch Catra and return, at least. And get Teal'c.
"Teal'c, status?"
That was Jack.
"I am changing position to avoid becoming pinned down, O'Neill."
So, Teal'C was also in a bind. Catra first, then Teal'C. "I'm coming!"
"No… Don't!"
Adora scoffed and started running - and jumping - again. Although… if she had to go through Jaffa at every intersection… She stopped, then frowned as she recalled the deck plans of a Ha'tak.
The magazines were below the bridge. Quite a bit below, but… She concentrated on her sword, returning it to its original form. Then she stabbed it into the floor and cut a wide circle around herself.
A second later, she dropped down, jumping off before her slice hit the floor with a loud crash. The Jaffa would hear that, but she was already cutting the next hole. By the time she cut the fourth, she caught a glimpse of charging Jaffa before she dropped out of sight.
She moved a step back, swatted the two Jaffa jumping after her out of the air, and cut another hole into the floor.
This time, the crash wasn't quite as loud, but she dropped right in front of another group of Jaffa. She struck them down with her sword-turned-shield. Then she noticed that this had just been half a group - she had dropped part of the ceiling on top of the other half, crushing them into a paste.
Grimacing, she cut the next hole into smaller pieces. That one should lead her to the magazine floor. A moment later, she was on the right floor. Now, where was Catra? With all the alerts blaring, she couldn't hear any noise from fighting. But she could ask. "Catra, where are you?"
"I am fine!"
"I am on the same floor now!" Adora snapped. "Tell me where you are!"
"I am headed upstairs. Just need to… deal with some annoying pests."
That meant… Adora turned and sprinted left. The magazines were in the other direction, but the stairs were this way. A few hallways and turns, as well as one hapless group of Jaffa, later, she saw flashes in the distance - staff blasts! Catra!
She pushed herself to run even faster, her shield changing into a sword, and turned the corner, blade rising…
"Hey, Adora!" Catra smirked at her.
"Catra!" Adora could see about a dozen Jaffa on the floor - Catra was standing on one who was missing his head.
"I told you I was fine!"
But she wasn't fine! "You're hurt!" Adora gasped. Catra's suit was damaged on her side! And scorched on her thigh!
"It's just a scratch. I can still…"
Adora tuned her out and pointed her sword at her. Her lover was hurt, and she would heal her.
"Look, I…"
Adora healed her. Then she pulled her into a hug. Catra kept protesting, of course, but that didn't matter. She was safe and whole again.
Now they just had to fight their way to Teal'c and return to the bridge.
Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
"The boarding team has breached the hull."
Samantha Carter didn't need the report - she could see that herself on her screen; she had a direct feed from the bots assaulting the crippled Ha'tak. She had used remote controls to hack the airlock controls - and this time, she had made sure that any overrides were disabled, even if that took a bot to physically burn out a circuit or connector. But it had taken longer than if she had been present. Too long when every minute counted. She knew there was a risk that the Jaffa might self-destruct, but in this case…
"Oh, look at them!" Entrapta commented. "The Jaffa are ready for them!"
Sam pressed her lips together. Indeed, and it was her fault. If she had been faster, then the bots would have still had the element of surprise. As it was, it looked like the opening of Star Wars as the white bots poured through the narrow hallway into a hail of staff blasts, firing their own blasters even as they dropped one after another.
But, like stormtroopers, they just kept coming, climbing over the fallen - their own and the Jaffa's. The feed on the screen switched three times as bot after bot was destroyed before the Jaffa at the airlock were falling back - and then once more when the next bot ran into an ambush further into the ship.
"Second shuttle docking."
Samantha quickly hit a few keys on her laptop and collected the data from the assault. The bots had taken six times the casualties of the Jaffa in the engagement. Sure, the defenders had been prepared, and conventional wisdom meant an attacker needed three times the troops of a defender, but she still didn't like those odds. "The bots need better armour and shields," she muttered as she watched the attacking force hit the next choke point.
"Yeah," Bow agreed. "But they're still pretty tough - they gave us a hard time when Prime invaded Etheria. Those Jaffa are good."
When they weren't facing princesses. Or SG-1, Sam added in her mind. "We can't underestimate them."
"But we can build better bots! Although improving every bot would take a long time," Entrapta said. "Maybe some assault bots with better shields? Like Emily? Well, she's too large to fit into those hallways, so not exactly like Emily, just tough enough to withstand the Jaffa's blasters long enough to take them out."
Spearheading units. That sounded like a good idea, but Sam wanted to run it by the Colonel and Teal'c. She clenched her teeth. She would do it. When they were back. When, not if, she reminded herself. They would return safely. They had to.
"Yes," Glimmer chimed in. "And we should have special assault shuttles that can lock onto a ship's hull and then breach it. That way, we could bypass chokepoints and hit a target with multiple attacks."
Entrapta nodded. "Oh, yes! We thought about such a system, but they weren't compatible with the stealth system - well, they would have required a much bigger hull, which would have meant the stealth system would have to be bigger and need more power as well, and that meant an even bigger ship, which would make it harder for the stealth system to compensate for the delay from the light being bent around it, which means even more power, and more computing power, would be needed, and that would require better shielding, and… well, there's a point where you can't really hide your emissions any more because you're just putting out too much power. But! A dedicated space assault shuttle should be possible!"
"If we have the time to design it," Sam said. "We have a lot of urgent projects."
On the screen, the bots had overcome the ambushing force and were now spreading out to secure the bridge and the magazines. And a third shuttle was delivering more bots.
She brought up the Ha'tak's deck plans, highlighting the routes to the bridge - the hyperdrive and engines had already been taken out by naval fire during the attack.
"Yeah, a second attack would have forced them to split their soldiers," Glimmer commented. "We probably would have taken fewer casualties that way - leverage our numbers."
"Well, we can repair the bots," Entrapta pointed out. "They can't repair the Jaffa. Not in those numbers, at least."
From anyone else, that would have been a very cynical statement. But Entrapta didn't mean it like that - she merely pointed out the obvious. Of coure, Goa'uld could use sarcophaguses, but the odds of those making a difference in a war were very, very low - if they were used at all on Jaffa. "Repairs cost time and other resources," Sam said. "But we can spare those." Training a Jaffa took far longer than building a bot took. But between all the System Lords, there were many, many Jaffa. Even with more automated factories, it would take a long time, and huge casualties, until the numerical advantage would shift to the Alliance.
"The assault force is about to reach the bridge."
Sam could see that - she recognised the armoured doors leading to the bridge on the screen now. And the defenders who had made their stand outside the bridge were already dead. Soon they would have the bridge under control, and then there was only…
The feed cut off. Sam frowned. Another ambush? And why didn't it switch…? She looked at her laptop and mentally cursed.
"The Ha'tak has blown up."
The screen showed an explosion. Sam had the record go back to a moment before the explosion. There. The Ha'tak blew up from the inside. In slow motion, she could see the shockwave ripping the ship apart before it vanished. And the origin of the explosion… She checked the readings from the spy bots against the deck plans. As she expected: the magazines.
"They blew themselves up by detonating their own ordnance," Sam said. "The assault force didn't manage to secure the magazines in time."
Unknown Location, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
Catra was fine! And had been fine. It had just been a scratch. And a bit of bleeding where Entrapta's suit hadn't managed to completely deflect a blast. And a lot of pain in her thigh from another glancing blow. But she had had worse! And she had still kicked ass! Adora had no reason to baby her like this!
Even if it was a little bit flattering to see such a reaction from her lover. And heartwarming - well, something-warming, at least.
But still tactically unsound. Catra had dealt with the enemies attacking her, and she had been about to disappear into the ventilation ducts again. Once she found them.
"Should have gone to Teal'c first," she muttered as she ran behind Adora down another hallway.
"He isn't wounded!"
"He wasn't," Catra corrected her. "He might be wounded now."
"He would have told us if he was," Adora shot back.
Catra clenched her teeth. That was a low blow!
They turned a corner and ran straight at - into - a group of Jaffa. Adora's shield took the staff blasts they managed to get off and then barrelled through them. Catra quickly took out the two Jaffa that were not down from getting smashed into the walls - or the ceiling. A kick knocked one out, and a swipe of her claw disarmed the other. Not quite literally.
"It only counts if it's serious!" she said as they ran up some emergency stairs.
"If it's bleeding, it's serious!"
"Not if it's just a scratch!"
"It wasn't!"
"It was!" Catra scoffed - Adora had no way to prove it had been worse than that! "Now drop it - we're on the right deck!"
"What? I should drop it?"
Catra tapped her communicator as she raced past Adora, down the hallway from which she heard fighting. "Teal'c? We're on the hyperdrive deck. We're almost with you. Coming from the emergency staircase."
"Noted."
As expected, Adora pushed herself and passed Catra right before they reached the intersection where Teal'c was…
…barricaded inside a shot-up alcove, with half a dozen corpses lining the hallway between him and the enemy.
Adora didn't bother stopping and just continued to run straight at the Jaffa - more than half a dozen - trying to suppress Teal'c for another push. They switched targets at once, but once again, her sword-turned-shield took the blows without a problem.
Catra stopped next to Teal'c and crouched down. "Are you hurt? If yes, is it serious?"
"It is not serious," he replied as she took a step out of the alcove, staff aimed forward.
"Don't bother wasting ammo. Adora needs to work off some tension," Catra told him as nonchalantly as she could.
"I see." Teal'c slowly nodded - and didn't even react when a screaming Jaffa flew past them to smash into the wall behind them at an angle that had him ricochet and hit the ceiling before landing on the floor.
"Lots of tension," Catra added.
"Indeed."
But half a dozen Jaffa didn't last long against one She-Ra, and Adora quickly rejoined them. "Teal'c! Are you hurt?"
"Not seriously," Catra replied for him. She used her communicator again. "Jack? We've got Teal'c. How are things with you?"
"Great! And just peachy so far. Not sure how much longer, though."
Of course, her idiot lover had to heal Teal'c anyway. And then the wounded Jaffa, so they had to spend a minute stunning everyone with their own zats. Well, Teal'c did that - when one shot stunned and two killed, you didn't want two shooters who might mix up who got whom.
And it wouldn't do to accidentally kill a Jaffa whom Adora had gone to such lengths to keep alive. Even though Catra was rather sceptical about Adora's chance to actually turn some of them away from Sokar. Then again, if anyone could do it, it was Adora - and she hadn't really had the necessary time to give it a good try. But that could wait. Other things couldn't. "Alright. Let's go back to Jack before the Jaffa manage to break through to the bridge," she said.
"Indeed. I think we should forego stealth and make haste."
"Yes." Adora, predictably, agreed with the plan. She raised her shield and started running towards the central stairway.
Cara half-expected Teal'c to suggest a less obvious route - the Jaffa would be using the stairway as well - but he didn't seem to be bothered at all. Not that it was easy to tell, of course. Not with him. Still, she had the suspicion that he liked this.
Then she couldn't dwell on it any more since they hit the first choke point between them and the central stairway, and even with Adora taking the brunt of the enemies' attention and fire, Catra had to focus on dodging and taking cover - and taking out survivors, together with Teal'c.
And the Jaffa kept coming. Even Adora had to slow down - though that might mostly be because she tried not to kill them. Catra wanted to berate her for it, but… The Jaffa were similar to Horde soldiers. Raised to blindly follow their leader. She could understand that.
Of course, they were trying their best to kill Catra and her friends, so that didn't mean Catra would be sentimental about killing the back before they succeeded. She wasn't Adora, after all.
Baring her teeth, she cut down a Jaffa with a mangled arm who still tried to fire his staff at Teal'c's back.
Yeah, raised from birth, indoctrinated and lied to the Jaffa might be, but Catra's friends still came first for her.
Teal'c was safe. Jack O'Neill briefly sighed with relief. His friend was tough, but he wasn't a magical princess or a catwoman version of Wolverine. And he was fighting other Jaffa with the same weapons. But he was safe now - and he had accomplished his mission; they had dropped out of hyperspace. With the magazines secure, the hyperdrive disabled and the bridge under their control, the Ha'tak wouldn't be going anywhere.
Of course, the team's situation wasn't anywhere close to alright. They were still just four people facing hundreds of enemies, trapped in the middle of space - probably, the odds of them dropping out in an inhabited system were low. Carter would say astronomically low, but with the way things had been going, Jack wouldn't be shocked if they had managed to end up right on top of another snake's home system. Pissed, of course, but not shocked.
But they were better off than they had been - Jack was dead certain that wherever they had been going wouldn't have been a friendly place. Taking control of a Ha'tak didn't do you any good if the enemy just shot it to pieces, and while Adora might survive that - might; Jack was pretty sure she wasn't some real-life version of Supergirl - Jack had no illusions that he would.
So, he just had to trust that Carter and the others would do their science-magic and find them. Before anyone else did. And he did. Trust, that was. And yet… If only Carter were with them! Teal'c had grown up with all the Goa'uld technology, and that was a godsend, but he didn't quite understand it as Carter did.
But enough pointless wishing. Jack had a bridge and a few dozen prisoners to guard. And a few dozen or more Jaffa to keep from breaking through the doors Adora had jammed to take the bridge back. Which was a tall order for a lone guy without magic powers.
But Jack only had to hold out until the rest arrived. And he had experience with such situations. Granted, in Iraq, it hadn't worked out as well as he would have liked, but…
He heard a banging noise from the blocked door and clenched his teeth. "Looks like we're going to have visitors…"
He moved back to the corner of the next intersection and crouched down against the wall, taking up a firing position, before tapping his mic. "Call out when you're coming - I'm about to have company here and don't want to shoot you by mistake."
"What? Oh, no! We're coming. Hurry up!" Adora gasped over the radio.
Another banging noise. The door shook a bit - unless that was his imagination. No, it wasn't - he could see it shift now. Were they literally breaking it down?
A blast that shredded the door and forced him to duck around the corner answered that. He moved forward again at once, just in time to catch the first Jaffa through the smoking hole with a burst to the chest.
The tough bastard stumbled but didn't go down, even firing his staff weapon - although he hit the ceiling.
Jack shot him again, and the Jaffa fell over, but more were already coming out of the smoke. Jack put a few bullets into the first, but a near-miss sprayed wall fragments all over his position, and he had to duck back again.
More staff blasts hit the corner, damaging it further, and others hit the wall on the other side. Good suppressive fire, Jack had to admit. Sokar trained his Jaffa well.
But that also meant they were kind of predictable. Jack counted to five - with all the shooting, he wouldn't be able to hear them charge up - and then pushed the button on his remote detonator.
The C-4 going off in the hallway around the corner almost deafened him, and the pressure wave was a bit harder than he had expected, but a quick glance around the corner confirmed that his improvised claymore had cut the Jaffa attacking the bridge to bits. Bloody bits.
He shot at one guy in the back who was still moving, then had to fall back when the next wave arrived and started suppressing his corner again.
He stopped at the entrance to the bridge - in hindsight, destroying that door had been a bit hasty - and aimed his carbine down the hallway. Hopefully, the Jaffa would expect another mine and proceed more carefully.
Judging by the sudden yelling, they were doing the opposite.
"Getting a bit crowded here," he muttered into his mic.
"We're coming!"
This time, he waited with detonating the next mine until the first Jaffa turned the corner. The explosion threw them around, and Jack finished the three staggering Jaffa with a few quick bursts. "There's more where that came from!" he yelled, wishing it were true. At least, he consoled himself as he heard more yelling, trying to fake them out with a decoy bomb to slow them down, preferably in my line of fire, would have been a waste of time.
But here they came again! Packed tightly and several rows deep, as if they were reenacting Gettysburg, they charged. Jack shot the first row with a few bursts, then the next as they jumped and climbed over the fallen and tried to ignore the staff blasts hitting close to him.
Then his eyes widened as one Jaffa wound his arm up - grenade!
Jack switched to full auto and emptied his magazine into the man, but all he managed was to spoil the aim - instead of landing inside the bridge, the grenade landed in the middle of the hallway.
Jack dove to the side, behind a console, a moment before it got off, then rolled over and aimed at the entrance again while he changed magazines. They were yelling again - angry. And he was out of tricks. And almost out of ammo.
Wait - those yells were different.
"We're coming! We're almost at the bridge!"
Ah. Jack grinned as he shot a Jaffa who was as much charging as fleeing through the door, then the next one who was actually shooting backwards.
The cavalry had arrived in time.
A Jaffa was trying to hit her with his staff. Adora ducked under the swing, swept her leg around and sent the man somersaulting through the air. He managed to land on his side, not on his head, but a strike with the flat side of her sword dropped him for good. That left…
..none? She blinked. The entrance to the bridge was clear, she could see Jack standing up behind a console to the side, Teal'c was guarding their rear, and Catra was… "Catra!" Adora snapped. "Don't maim the prisoners!"
"He was still fighting," her lover retorted. "And I barely scratched him."
"If he's still fighting, then he's not a prisoner," Jack commented as he joined them. "Thanks for the help. That was getting a bit dicey."
"It's what Adora does," Catra said with a snort. "Whether or not you need the help."
Adora didn't pout. But she frowned. Yes, she would help people - it was the right thing to do. Whether or not they wanted help didn't matter - Catra was the best example that often, people didn't know or wanted to accept that they needed help.
"So, block the hallway again?" Catra asked, pointing her head towards the bulwark they had come through.
"It would be prudent," Teal'c said, still watching the hallway. "Although I think between the engagements we fought so far, the main part of the crew has been dealt with."
Really? But a Ha'tak had… Adora ran a quick calculation in her head. Oh. It might actually fit.
"Maybe they've also realised that they can't beat us no matter how many of them attack us," Catra said.
"I don't know about that." Jack shrugged. "They're a stubborn lot. Death before dishonour and all that."
"They have been taught that death is preferable to failing," Teal'c added. "In light of Sokar's reputation, they might also falsely believe that their death would expunge their failure and grant them some leniency in the afterlife."
"I've got a feeling that if dear Sokar could punish his followers in the afterlife, they would be out of luck no matter what," Jack said. "Anyway! We need to find out where we are and how to contact our friends so they can come and fetch us - and our prize."
"Prize?" Adora asked. "Oh, you mean the ship. I thought you stopped that practice on Earth." She frowned. "I actually think that was explicitly left out in the Alliance treaty - I remember Mermista saying she didn't want to risk the Alliance going bankrupt by paying for prizes." Apparently, that had once almost happened to Salineas during a war with the Kingdom of Snows when their fleet had managed to capture an entire flotilla of enemy ships.
"It was a figure of speech. We don't exactly pay people for taking prizes any more. Pity - I could've retired with my take from this," Jack said with a grin.
Catra snorted. "As if you'd retire in the middle of the war." She shrugged. "So… are the comms still working? We should still be in range of some of our forces."
Adora knew she meant the spy bot network but wouldn't mention that where the prisoners could overhear them.
"I will check the systems," Teal'c said. "You can guard the bridge and see to the wounded."
Right! Adora hefted her sword. She had to heal the prisoners before they died.
"My ears are ringing, but otherwise, I'm fine," Jack said.
And her friends, of course! She pointed her sword at Jack and healed him, then started on the downed Jaffa around her once Jack was ready to stun them with his zat. And Catra had taken their weapons, of course.
This could take a while, she realised. And, worse, in the rush to save her friends, she had left a lot of wounded strewn along the route she had taken.
"We have to hurry!" Adora said, starting to heal the prisoners. "We can't let them die!"
"Yeah, I mean, it's not as if they have been trying to kill us all…" Jack muttered as he stunned the next Jaffa she had healed.
"They are our prisoners - we are responsible for them!" Adora told him with a frown. That was the same on Etheria and on Earth.
And not all of them looked like they were still trying to kill them, she noticed as she healed the next batch of wounded Jaffa. Some of them seemed grateful for the healing, the way they looked at her. In fact, their expressions seemed a bit familiar…
The next one she healed muttered something she didn't quite catch. 'Onak'? Where had she heard that word before?
She blinked again as she remembered that 'onak' meant 'goddess'.
Oh, no! Not again!
Hyperspace, Near Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
Catra clenched her teeth. Adora had the situation under control - in the hallway, there was no way even an entire army of Jaffa could get past her. But that only secured the bridge. "We need to get to the hyperdrive. And the ordnance magazines. Before the Jaffa in command figures out that they can't beat us."
"Yep," O'Neill agreed. "Our princess can't be in two places at once - much less three." He looked at Teal'c. "So… we've got two locations to secure. And a bridge to guard."
"I'll take the ordnance magazines," Catra announced. O'Neill opened his mouth, presumably to protest, and she flashed her teeth and added: "I can fight perfectly fine without any risk of accidentally shooting the Naquadah-enhanced bombs or whatever they have there."
He blinked, then pouted. "Good point."
"I will go to the hyperdrive," Teal'c said. "I should be able to disable it without significantly damaging it."
"Well, I think Adora can handle the bridge here just fine," O'Neill said.
"She's busy fighting. Someone has to guard the bridge," Catra objected. "And we need someone in reserve if something else goes wrong." That was basic officer training.
O'Neill narrowed his eyes at her. "You know, it should be me telling you to stay back as a reserve."
"Good luck with that." She snorted and turned towards the ventilation duct. "I'll take the ducts - Adora should make the perfect distraction." She easily jumped up to the opening and dug her claws into the metal to pull herself into the ducts. As she started to crawl towards where the magazines should be, she heard O'Neill complain about no one listening to him any more and chuckled. The guy needed to accept that he wasn't the only one allowed to risk his life. Or have fun.
And they did need someone held back in reserve. Adora was great, but she wasn't perfect. And sometimes, she was a bit too naive. O'Neill was the best choice to handle her. Except., of course, for Catra, but she was the best choice to secure the magazines.
She gritted her teeth as she speed-crawled through the dirty ducts, and her tail once again dragged through something slimy. Even with the suit on… she'd spend an hour in the bath after this, just so she could feel clean again. She should put her helmet on, but… it limited her vision and hearing. And her sense of smell. And that could be fatal here. A bit of dirt was a small price to pay. Or should be.
So she pressed her lips together and pushed on until she reached the shaft that should lead down to the floor with the magazines. The Goa'uld had them in the centre of the ship - well-protected. Using her claws made descending easy - if a bit hard on her ears. But a few seconds later, she was on the right floor. Just a bit more crawling through stinky ducts.
Finally, she reached the right… area. Whatever. She sneaked up on the grate covering the opening and tried to look into the hallway. Nothing. No guards at the magazine? That didn't feel right. But she couldn't hear or smell anyone, either.
Well, she had an objective to secure. If the enemy had made a mistake, she wouldn't complain.
She shredded the grate and dropped into the hallway, quickly checking left and right. Still nothing. Ah, well.
A moment later, she was at the hatch leading to the magazines. A few swipes of her claws made short work of the metal on one side. Hah! O'Neill would have had to blow it open, and you didn't do that with magazines! She kicked the remains of the door, and it swung open.
And she cursed. This was a lot of heavy ordnance. Bombs. Missiles. No personal arms, though - those would be somewhere else. But the weapon lockers wouldn't have ordnance able to destroy the ship. Or so she hoped.
On a Horde surface ship, she would flood the magazines to render them safe. But this wouldn't work here, for a lot of reasons. And she couldn't defuse so many bombs and warheads, anyway.
That left making sure no one could get to them. Fortunately, she came prepared for that.
She grinned as she reached into her belt pocket and pulled out the charges. They weren't Horde incendiary packs, but Earth 'thermite' would work well enough.
A minute later, she had the entire hallway wired - around piled-up metal shredded from the next hallways. Ready to melt and block access. Now she just had to…
The sound of a hatch opening made her whirl around. Jaffa! That meant she couldn't set a timer and escape through the ducts - they might defuse it.
Baring her teeth, she set the timer for one minute and charged towards the enemy.
*****
Jack O'Neill wasn't supposed to stay back while his team risked their lives. Good officers led from the front. At least when in charge of small units, he amended his thoughts. But you couldn't really get much smaller than a team of four.
And yet, from a purely military perspective, it made sense. Somewhat. Adora was a one-woman army and could handle the Jaffa attacking them, but they had to secure the magazines and take out the hyperdrive, and fast. And someone had to guard the bridge and be held in reserve if something else went wrong on this mission. Teal'c knew this class of ship best and was familiar with Goa'uld technology, so he was the logical choice to go and sabotage the hyperdrive. And Catra was better in close combat than Jack - though her claws gave her an unfair advantage. Add her enhanced senses, and she really was a female version of Wolverine, right down to the attitude and bloody past. Jack wouldn't say that she was the better soldier, though - he had a bag of tricks and a few decades of experience on her. Still, she probably was the better choice to go and secure the ship's magazines.
But Jack still wasn't happy staying back. It felt wrong. He couldn't even lead from here - everyone knew what they were doing, and trying to micromanage others was a terrible idea to start with anyway. At least if you had a competent team. And if you didn't have a competent team, that was on you as the leader.
He looked around the bridge. No attempt to break through the walls. No secret passage opening. And the consoles were still broken - not that he could fix that, anyway. He was good at destroying stuff. Carter was the one you wanted when it came to fixing things. He checked the bound and stunned prisoners for the third time in five minutes. They were still out. And not dying.
Wait. He cocked his head and shifted his carbine a bit. The sounds of battle had stopped. Jack tapped his mic. "Adora?"
"Just a second!" her voice sounded over the comms. "Have to… close this… door…"
She was probably wrenching it shut, Jack imagined.
"Done! That should hold them - once they return."
If they returned. Judging by what he had heard, and what he had glimpsed before returning to the bridge, Adora had gone through the Jaffa like a hot knife through butter. Or more like a bowling ball through a set of pins. On a greased floor.
And there she was - looking none the worse for wear, despite having just flattened dozens of Jaffa. Maybe even more of them. Although… he frowned. She looked almost… embarrassed?
"Uh, Jack? I need some help."
"Yes?"
"I've knocked out most of the Jaffa, after healing the worst, but… we need a room to put the prisoners into." She smiled weakly. "And I kind of broke the locks of the only room big enough to hold them."
Oh, hell! "I don't think we have enough strips to tie them up," Jack said. Not that it would do any good - you could guard four bound prisoners by yourself. You couldn't really guard a few dozen bound prisoners.
And they couldn't just shoot the bastards, either. "I guess we better stun them all." That would buy them some time to find a better solution. And speaking of buying time… Jack tapped his mic again. "Status?"
"I'm about to engage the guards at the objective," Teal'c reported, as calmly as if he was talking about taking a stroll to the mess hall.
Good. Jack nodded even though his friend couldn't see it. He'd bet on Teal'c against any other Jaffa. Or a couple of them. He trusted him to win this.
"I'm fine."
Catra's report, on the other hand, was a bit off. And Jack wasn't the only one to notice.
"Catra! What's happened?" Adora asked.
"I've got the hallway to the magazines melting down," Catra replied. "I just need to… deal with some guards."
"You're not fine!" Adora protested. She looked at Jack. "I know her! She's in trouble!"
He agreed - Catra sounded tense, and just a bit more stressed than she usually did.
"I'm fine. I've been through worse. And those guards can't stop me!"
Her ears were working fine, at least. And she wasn't dead. And, the part of Jack that he often hated, added, she had achieved her objective.
Adora bit her lower lip. "I can make my way to you - we're done here."
"I can handle this!" Catra snapped. "You do your task! I do mine!"
"But…"
Adora was cut off by the whole ship suddenly lurching - and a new alert going off on the bridge. That meant…
"I have successfully disabled the hyperdrive," Teal'c confirmed Jack's thoughts. "But I was detected by reinforcements."
Jack could hear the sound of staff weapons blasting away in the background. He looked at Adora.
She stared back at him. "I can reach either of them faster than you can."
And safer. But she didn't have to say that. Jack sighed and drew his zat. "I'll stun the prisoners."
*****
Catra was in danger! Adora knew she shouldn't have let her lover go off alone - Catra was tough, and strong, and smart, but she wasn't as tough as She-Ra - she couldn't shrug off staff blasts! And in the narrow hallways of the Ha'tak, she couldn't dodge as well as she usually could. If there were enough Jaffa massed to shoot at her…
Adora clenched her teeth as she charged down a corridor, towards the door she had just blocked. She gripped the edge of the door and pulled, grunting as she ripped it open.
A staff blast hit her in the head and another in the shoulder before she brought her shield up and caught three more blasts on it. Oh, for… "I've got no time for this!" she yelled and charged ahead. More staff blasts peppered her shield and the hallway around her. One blew a hole in the floor, and she almost stumbled when her foot was caught in it, but she pulled her leg free and kept going.
The Jaffa were stacked three rows deep, three wide - the first row kneeling, the other two standing, all firing. They tried to blow the floor away, but Adora jumped - and smashed her shield into them, shattering their formation. And probably their bones, but right now, she didn't care. Catra needed her.
Two Jaffa were still fighting, one on the ground, pointing a zat at her, the other even getting up and raising his staff weapon. She flung her arm out and knocked the second into the wall while staring at the first. He fired at her - once, twice, three times. Four times. Then he stopped, mouth falling open.
Adora bared her teeth at him before knocking him out.
"Catra! I'm coming!" she yelled into her comm.
"I'm fine!" came the answer. "Secure the bridge!"
She wasn't fine - Adora could tell. But she had a point about the bridge.
Adora turned around and jumped over the hole in the floor, then sped to the wrecked door. It took more effort to wrench it closed - and warp it so the Jaffa couldn't easily pull it open - but that should keep Jack safe. Safe-ish. Long enough for Adora to fetch Catra and return, at least. And get Teal'c.
"Teal'c, status?"
That was Jack.
"I am changing position to avoid becoming pinned down, O'Neill."
So, Teal'C was also in a bind. Catra first, then Teal'C. "I'm coming!"
"No… Don't!"
Adora scoffed and started running - and jumping - again. Although… if she had to go through Jaffa at every intersection… She stopped, then frowned as she recalled the deck plans of a Ha'tak.
The magazines were below the bridge. Quite a bit below, but… She concentrated on her sword, returning it to its original form. Then she stabbed it into the floor and cut a wide circle around herself.
A second later, she dropped down, jumping off before her slice hit the floor with a loud crash. The Jaffa would hear that, but she was already cutting the next hole. By the time she cut the fourth, she caught a glimpse of charging Jaffa before she dropped out of sight.
She moved a step back, swatted the two Jaffa jumping after her out of the air, and cut another hole into the floor.
This time, the crash wasn't quite as loud, but she dropped right in front of another group of Jaffa. She struck them down with her sword-turned-shield. Then she noticed that this had just been half a group - she had dropped part of the ceiling on top of the other half, crushing them into a paste.
Grimacing, she cut the next hole into smaller pieces. That one should lead her to the magazine floor. A moment later, she was on the right floor. Now, where was Catra? With all the alerts blaring, she couldn't hear any noise from fighting. But she could ask. "Catra, where are you?"
"I am fine!"
"I am on the same floor now!" Adora snapped. "Tell me where you are!"
"I am headed upstairs. Just need to… deal with some annoying pests."
That meant… Adora turned and sprinted left. The magazines were in the other direction, but the stairs were this way. A few hallways and turns, as well as one hapless group of Jaffa, later, she saw flashes in the distance - staff blasts! Catra!
She pushed herself to run even faster, her shield changing into a sword, and turned the corner, blade rising…
"Hey, Adora!" Catra smirked at her.
"Catra!" Adora could see about a dozen Jaffa on the floor - Catra was standing on one who was missing his head.
"I told you I was fine!"
But she wasn't fine! "You're hurt!" Adora gasped. Catra's suit was damaged on her side! And scorched on her thigh!
"It's just a scratch. I can still…"
Adora tuned her out and pointed her sword at her. Her lover was hurt, and she would heal her.
"Look, I…"
Adora healed her. Then she pulled her into a hug. Catra kept protesting, of course, but that didn't matter. She was safe and whole again.
Now they just had to fight their way to Teal'c and return to the bridge.
*****
Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
"The boarding team has breached the hull."
Samantha Carter didn't need the report - she could see that herself on her screen; she had a direct feed from the bots assaulting the crippled Ha'tak. She had used remote controls to hack the airlock controls - and this time, she had made sure that any overrides were disabled, even if that took a bot to physically burn out a circuit or connector. But it had taken longer than if she had been present. Too long when every minute counted. She knew there was a risk that the Jaffa might self-destruct, but in this case…
"Oh, look at them!" Entrapta commented. "The Jaffa are ready for them!"
Sam pressed her lips together. Indeed, and it was her fault. If she had been faster, then the bots would have still had the element of surprise. As it was, it looked like the opening of Star Wars as the white bots poured through the narrow hallway into a hail of staff blasts, firing their own blasters even as they dropped one after another.
But, like stormtroopers, they just kept coming, climbing over the fallen - their own and the Jaffa's. The feed on the screen switched three times as bot after bot was destroyed before the Jaffa at the airlock were falling back - and then once more when the next bot ran into an ambush further into the ship.
"Second shuttle docking."
Samantha quickly hit a few keys on her laptop and collected the data from the assault. The bots had taken six times the casualties of the Jaffa in the engagement. Sure, the defenders had been prepared, and conventional wisdom meant an attacker needed three times the troops of a defender, but she still didn't like those odds. "The bots need better armour and shields," she muttered as she watched the attacking force hit the next choke point.
"Yeah," Bow agreed. "But they're still pretty tough - they gave us a hard time when Prime invaded Etheria. Those Jaffa are good."
When they weren't facing princesses. Or SG-1, Sam added in her mind. "We can't underestimate them."
"But we can build better bots! Although improving every bot would take a long time," Entrapta said. "Maybe some assault bots with better shields? Like Emily? Well, she's too large to fit into those hallways, so not exactly like Emily, just tough enough to withstand the Jaffa's blasters long enough to take them out."
Spearheading units. That sounded like a good idea, but Sam wanted to run it by the Colonel and Teal'c. She clenched her teeth. She would do it. When they were back. When, not if, she reminded herself. They would return safely. They had to.
"Yes," Glimmer chimed in. "And we should have special assault shuttles that can lock onto a ship's hull and then breach it. That way, we could bypass chokepoints and hit a target with multiple attacks."
Entrapta nodded. "Oh, yes! We thought about such a system, but they weren't compatible with the stealth system - well, they would have required a much bigger hull, which would have meant the stealth system would have to be bigger and need more power as well, and that meant an even bigger ship, which would make it harder for the stealth system to compensate for the delay from the light being bent around it, which means even more power, and more computing power, would be needed, and that would require better shielding, and… well, there's a point where you can't really hide your emissions any more because you're just putting out too much power. But! A dedicated space assault shuttle should be possible!"
"If we have the time to design it," Sam said. "We have a lot of urgent projects."
On the screen, the bots had overcome the ambushing force and were now spreading out to secure the bridge and the magazines. And a third shuttle was delivering more bots.
She brought up the Ha'tak's deck plans, highlighting the routes to the bridge - the hyperdrive and engines had already been taken out by naval fire during the attack.
"Yeah, a second attack would have forced them to split their soldiers," Glimmer commented. "We probably would have taken fewer casualties that way - leverage our numbers."
"Well, we can repair the bots," Entrapta pointed out. "They can't repair the Jaffa. Not in those numbers, at least."
From anyone else, that would have been a very cynical statement. But Entrapta didn't mean it like that - she merely pointed out the obvious. Of coure, Goa'uld could use sarcophaguses, but the odds of those making a difference in a war were very, very low - if they were used at all on Jaffa. "Repairs cost time and other resources," Sam said. "But we can spare those." Training a Jaffa took far longer than building a bot took. But between all the System Lords, there were many, many Jaffa. Even with more automated factories, it would take a long time, and huge casualties, until the numerical advantage would shift to the Alliance.
"The assault force is about to reach the bridge."
Sam could see that - she recognised the armoured doors leading to the bridge on the screen now. And the defenders who had made their stand outside the bridge were already dead. Soon they would have the bridge under control, and then there was only…
The feed cut off. Sam frowned. Another ambush? And why didn't it switch…? She looked at her laptop and mentally cursed.
"The Ha'tak has blown up."
The screen showed an explosion. Sam had the record go back to a moment before the explosion. There. The Ha'tak blew up from the inside. In slow motion, she could see the shockwave ripping the ship apart before it vanished. And the origin of the explosion… She checked the readings from the spy bots against the deck plans. As she expected: the magazines.
"They blew themselves up by detonating their own ordnance," Sam said. "The assault force didn't manage to secure the magazines in time."
*****
Unknown Location, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
Catra was fine! And had been fine. It had just been a scratch. And a bit of bleeding where Entrapta's suit hadn't managed to completely deflect a blast. And a lot of pain in her thigh from another glancing blow. But she had had worse! And she had still kicked ass! Adora had no reason to baby her like this!
Even if it was a little bit flattering to see such a reaction from her lover. And heartwarming - well, something-warming, at least.
But still tactically unsound. Catra had dealt with the enemies attacking her, and she had been about to disappear into the ventilation ducts again. Once she found them.
"Should have gone to Teal'c first," she muttered as she ran behind Adora down another hallway.
"He isn't wounded!"
"He wasn't," Catra corrected her. "He might be wounded now."
"He would have told us if he was," Adora shot back.
Catra clenched her teeth. That was a low blow!
They turned a corner and ran straight at - into - a group of Jaffa. Adora's shield took the staff blasts they managed to get off and then barrelled through them. Catra quickly took out the two Jaffa that were not down from getting smashed into the walls - or the ceiling. A kick knocked one out, and a swipe of her claw disarmed the other. Not quite literally.
"It only counts if it's serious!" she said as they ran up some emergency stairs.
"If it's bleeding, it's serious!"
"Not if it's just a scratch!"
"It wasn't!"
"It was!" Catra scoffed - Adora had no way to prove it had been worse than that! "Now drop it - we're on the right deck!"
"What? I should drop it?"
Catra tapped her communicator as she raced past Adora, down the hallway from which she heard fighting. "Teal'c? We're on the hyperdrive deck. We're almost with you. Coming from the emergency staircase."
"Noted."
As expected, Adora pushed herself and passed Catra right before they reached the intersection where Teal'c was…
…barricaded inside a shot-up alcove, with half a dozen corpses lining the hallway between him and the enemy.
Adora didn't bother stopping and just continued to run straight at the Jaffa - more than half a dozen - trying to suppress Teal'c for another push. They switched targets at once, but once again, her sword-turned-shield took the blows without a problem.
Catra stopped next to Teal'c and crouched down. "Are you hurt? If yes, is it serious?"
"It is not serious," he replied as she took a step out of the alcove, staff aimed forward.
"Don't bother wasting ammo. Adora needs to work off some tension," Catra told him as nonchalantly as she could.
"I see." Teal'c slowly nodded - and didn't even react when a screaming Jaffa flew past them to smash into the wall behind them at an angle that had him ricochet and hit the ceiling before landing on the floor.
"Lots of tension," Catra added.
"Indeed."
But half a dozen Jaffa didn't last long against one She-Ra, and Adora quickly rejoined them. "Teal'c! Are you hurt?"
"Not seriously," Catra replied for him. She used her communicator again. "Jack? We've got Teal'c. How are things with you?"
"Great! And just peachy so far. Not sure how much longer, though."
Of course, her idiot lover had to heal Teal'c anyway. And then the wounded Jaffa, so they had to spend a minute stunning everyone with their own zats. Well, Teal'c did that - when one shot stunned and two killed, you didn't want two shooters who might mix up who got whom.
And it wouldn't do to accidentally kill a Jaffa whom Adora had gone to such lengths to keep alive. Even though Catra was rather sceptical about Adora's chance to actually turn some of them away from Sokar. Then again, if anyone could do it, it was Adora - and she hadn't really had the necessary time to give it a good try. But that could wait. Other things couldn't. "Alright. Let's go back to Jack before the Jaffa manage to break through to the bridge," she said.
"Indeed. I think we should forego stealth and make haste."
"Yes." Adora, predictably, agreed with the plan. She raised her shield and started running towards the central stairway.
Cara half-expected Teal'c to suggest a less obvious route - the Jaffa would be using the stairway as well - but he didn't seem to be bothered at all. Not that it was easy to tell, of course. Not with him. Still, she had the suspicion that he liked this.
Then she couldn't dwell on it any more since they hit the first choke point between them and the central stairway, and even with Adora taking the brunt of the enemies' attention and fire, Catra had to focus on dodging and taking cover - and taking out survivors, together with Teal'c.
And the Jaffa kept coming. Even Adora had to slow down - though that might mostly be because she tried not to kill them. Catra wanted to berate her for it, but… The Jaffa were similar to Horde soldiers. Raised to blindly follow their leader. She could understand that.
Of course, they were trying their best to kill Catra and her friends, so that didn't mean Catra would be sentimental about killing the back before they succeeded. She wasn't Adora, after all.
Baring her teeth, she cut down a Jaffa with a mangled arm who still tried to fire his staff at Teal'c's back.
Yeah, raised from birth, indoctrinated and lied to the Jaffa might be, but Catra's friends still came first for her.
*****
Teal'c was safe. Jack O'Neill briefly sighed with relief. His friend was tough, but he wasn't a magical princess or a catwoman version of Wolverine. And he was fighting other Jaffa with the same weapons. But he was safe now - and he had accomplished his mission; they had dropped out of hyperspace. With the magazines secure, the hyperdrive disabled and the bridge under their control, the Ha'tak wouldn't be going anywhere.
Of course, the team's situation wasn't anywhere close to alright. They were still just four people facing hundreds of enemies, trapped in the middle of space - probably, the odds of them dropping out in an inhabited system were low. Carter would say astronomically low, but with the way things had been going, Jack wouldn't be shocked if they had managed to end up right on top of another snake's home system. Pissed, of course, but not shocked.
But they were better off than they had been - Jack was dead certain that wherever they had been going wouldn't have been a friendly place. Taking control of a Ha'tak didn't do you any good if the enemy just shot it to pieces, and while Adora might survive that - might; Jack was pretty sure she wasn't some real-life version of Supergirl - Jack had no illusions that he would.
So, he just had to trust that Carter and the others would do their science-magic and find them. Before anyone else did. And he did. Trust, that was. And yet… If only Carter were with them! Teal'c had grown up with all the Goa'uld technology, and that was a godsend, but he didn't quite understand it as Carter did.
But enough pointless wishing. Jack had a bridge and a few dozen prisoners to guard. And a few dozen or more Jaffa to keep from breaking through the doors Adora had jammed to take the bridge back. Which was a tall order for a lone guy without magic powers.
But Jack only had to hold out until the rest arrived. And he had experience with such situations. Granted, in Iraq, it hadn't worked out as well as he would have liked, but…
He heard a banging noise from the blocked door and clenched his teeth. "Looks like we're going to have visitors…"
He moved back to the corner of the next intersection and crouched down against the wall, taking up a firing position, before tapping his mic. "Call out when you're coming - I'm about to have company here and don't want to shoot you by mistake."
"What? Oh, no! We're coming. Hurry up!" Adora gasped over the radio.
Another banging noise. The door shook a bit - unless that was his imagination. No, it wasn't - he could see it shift now. Were they literally breaking it down?
A blast that shredded the door and forced him to duck around the corner answered that. He moved forward again at once, just in time to catch the first Jaffa through the smoking hole with a burst to the chest.
The tough bastard stumbled but didn't go down, even firing his staff weapon - although he hit the ceiling.
Jack shot him again, and the Jaffa fell over, but more were already coming out of the smoke. Jack put a few bullets into the first, but a near-miss sprayed wall fragments all over his position, and he had to duck back again.
More staff blasts hit the corner, damaging it further, and others hit the wall on the other side. Good suppressive fire, Jack had to admit. Sokar trained his Jaffa well.
But that also meant they were kind of predictable. Jack counted to five - with all the shooting, he wouldn't be able to hear them charge up - and then pushed the button on his remote detonator.
The C-4 going off in the hallway around the corner almost deafened him, and the pressure wave was a bit harder than he had expected, but a quick glance around the corner confirmed that his improvised claymore had cut the Jaffa attacking the bridge to bits. Bloody bits.
He shot at one guy in the back who was still moving, then had to fall back when the next wave arrived and started suppressing his corner again.
He stopped at the entrance to the bridge - in hindsight, destroying that door had been a bit hasty - and aimed his carbine down the hallway. Hopefully, the Jaffa would expect another mine and proceed more carefully.
Judging by the sudden yelling, they were doing the opposite.
"Getting a bit crowded here," he muttered into his mic.
"We're coming!"
This time, he waited with detonating the next mine until the first Jaffa turned the corner. The explosion threw them around, and Jack finished the three staggering Jaffa with a few quick bursts. "There's more where that came from!" he yelled, wishing it were true. At least, he consoled himself as he heard more yelling, trying to fake them out with a decoy bomb to slow them down, preferably in my line of fire, would have been a waste of time.
But here they came again! Packed tightly and several rows deep, as if they were reenacting Gettysburg, they charged. Jack shot the first row with a few bursts, then the next as they jumped and climbed over the fallen and tried to ignore the staff blasts hitting close to him.
Then his eyes widened as one Jaffa wound his arm up - grenade!
Jack switched to full auto and emptied his magazine into the man, but all he managed was to spoil the aim - instead of landing inside the bridge, the grenade landed in the middle of the hallway.
Jack dove to the side, behind a console, a moment before it got off, then rolled over and aimed at the entrance again while he changed magazines. They were yelling again - angry. And he was out of tricks. And almost out of ammo.
Wait - those yells were different.
"We're coming! We're almost at the bridge!"
Ah. Jack grinned as he shot a Jaffa who was as much charging as fleeing through the door, then the next one who was actually shooting backwards.
The cavalry had arrived in time.
*****
A Jaffa was trying to hit her with his staff. Adora ducked under the swing, swept her leg around and sent the man somersaulting through the air. He managed to land on his side, not on his head, but a strike with the flat side of her sword dropped him for good. That left…
..none? She blinked. The entrance to the bridge was clear, she could see Jack standing up behind a console to the side, Teal'c was guarding their rear, and Catra was… "Catra!" Adora snapped. "Don't maim the prisoners!"
"He was still fighting," her lover retorted. "And I barely scratched him."
"If he's still fighting, then he's not a prisoner," Jack commented as he joined them. "Thanks for the help. That was getting a bit dicey."
"It's what Adora does," Catra said with a snort. "Whether or not you need the help."
Adora didn't pout. But she frowned. Yes, she would help people - it was the right thing to do. Whether or not they wanted help didn't matter - Catra was the best example that often, people didn't know or wanted to accept that they needed help.
"So, block the hallway again?" Catra asked, pointing her head towards the bulwark they had come through.
"It would be prudent," Teal'c said, still watching the hallway. "Although I think between the engagements we fought so far, the main part of the crew has been dealt with."
Really? But a Ha'tak had… Adora ran a quick calculation in her head. Oh. It might actually fit.
"Maybe they've also realised that they can't beat us no matter how many of them attack us," Catra said.
"I don't know about that." Jack shrugged. "They're a stubborn lot. Death before dishonour and all that."
"They have been taught that death is preferable to failing," Teal'c added. "In light of Sokar's reputation, they might also falsely believe that their death would expunge their failure and grant them some leniency in the afterlife."
"I've got a feeling that if dear Sokar could punish his followers in the afterlife, they would be out of luck no matter what," Jack said. "Anyway! We need to find out where we are and how to contact our friends so they can come and fetch us - and our prize."
"Prize?" Adora asked. "Oh, you mean the ship. I thought you stopped that practice on Earth." She frowned. "I actually think that was explicitly left out in the Alliance treaty - I remember Mermista saying she didn't want to risk the Alliance going bankrupt by paying for prizes." Apparently, that had once almost happened to Salineas during a war with the Kingdom of Snows when their fleet had managed to capture an entire flotilla of enemy ships.
"It was a figure of speech. We don't exactly pay people for taking prizes any more. Pity - I could've retired with my take from this," Jack said with a grin.
Catra snorted. "As if you'd retire in the middle of the war." She shrugged. "So… are the comms still working? We should still be in range of some of our forces."
Adora knew she meant the spy bot network but wouldn't mention that where the prisoners could overhear them.
"I will check the systems," Teal'c said. "You can guard the bridge and see to the wounded."
Right! Adora hefted her sword. She had to heal the prisoners before they died.
"My ears are ringing, but otherwise, I'm fine," Jack said.
And her friends, of course! She pointed her sword at Jack and healed him, then started on the downed Jaffa around her once Jack was ready to stun them with his zat. And Catra had taken their weapons, of course.
This could take a while, she realised. And, worse, in the rush to save her friends, she had left a lot of wounded strewn along the route she had taken.
"We have to hurry!" Adora said, starting to heal the prisoners. "We can't let them die!"
"Yeah, I mean, it's not as if they have been trying to kill us all…" Jack muttered as he stunned the next Jaffa she had healed.
"They are our prisoners - we are responsible for them!" Adora told him with a frown. That was the same on Etheria and on Earth.
And not all of them looked like they were still trying to kill them, she noticed as she healed the next batch of wounded Jaffa. Some of them seemed grateful for the healing, the way they looked at her. In fact, their expressions seemed a bit familiar…
The next one she healed muttered something she didn't quite catch. 'Onak'? Where had she heard that word before?
She blinked again as she remembered that 'onak' meant 'goddess'.
Oh, no! Not again!
*****
