(More of "Pyrrhus," see previous post for start and next post for more.)
Spoiler:
Still not getting it, Jonas asks him to prove it, and is subsequently shoved back into the wall with a telekinetic punch. Smirking, Jason turns to the stargate and watches as the particle accelerator deactivates, its job finished. Watching her old friend pick himself up off the ground, Sam suppresses a laugh and turns to see Colonel Taylor in the control room. She says that they'll be back as soon as possible, then gives the go-ahead to re-dial the gate so the kawoosh can finish the task of clearing out an entry way for them.
A short time later, the stargate is dialed for Ankgor, and the particle accelerator from years before is once again set up, blasting away into the puddle as it clears debris from the other side. Off to the side, Jonas waits, suited up in an Intelligence field uniform consisting off a loose-fitting jumpsuit covered in pouches and straps to hold numerous knives, pistols, grenades, and various types of spy equipment. He looks up to see Carter enter from the other side of the room in traditional SG gear and a P90 in hand, checking her clip to make sure it's full. Surprised, he asks if Sam is coming along, to which she replies that this whole mess is personal, and there's no way she's sitting this out. Unfortunately, they don't really have a "special ops" division anymore since they're still putting the ISGC back together, but she has a volunteer who has a few "special" abilities of his own. In explanation, she jerks her thumb over her shoulder at Jason Carter, likewise pulling on a set of offworld gear. When Jonas asks how wise it is to bring a kid along, Jason, annoyed, says that he's almost twenty and hardly just a "kid," and besides that, can pack one Hell of a punch. Still not getting it, Jonas asks him to prove it, and is subsequently shoved back into the wall with a telekinetic shove. Smirking, Jason turns to the stargate and watches as the particle accelerator deactivates, its job finished. Watching her old friend pick himself up off the ground, Sam suppresses a laugh and turns to see Colonel Taylor in the control room. She says that they'll be back as soon as possible, then gives the go-ahead to re-dial the gate so the kawoosh can finish the task of clearing out an entry way for them.
On Ankgor's surface, in a barren, decimated wasteland that was once the capital city of the proud Jaffa planet, an odd humming is heard. A second later, the muffled sound of an activating stargate penetrates the dirt, and a blue energy vortex breaks through the crusted ground, revealing the previously-buried stargate, active and ready for use. At the ISGC, Taylor wishes his away team good luck, and watches as the three travelers back up and sprint toward the portal, disappearing into the puddle with flying leaps that carry them up the few feet to the lip of the surface on the other side so they don't fall back into the wormhole. Spitting out some dirt that he ate on the way up, Jason mutters that this is just plain humiliating, and Jonas remarks that all his fancy powers don't really help very much now. Sam mutters something about men and pulls herself up, seeing a familiar-looking woman step out of the shadows of a nearby ruin and approach. Ironically enough, it's Freya, the former host of Anise and the operative assigned to this planet by Alliance Intelligence. She was alerted via subspace message to watch for "friends via waterway," and she correctly guessed that the meaning was allies coming through the "puddle" of a stargate.
Jonas, clearly surprised to see Freya here, asks how she managed to pull such a high-profile assignment given her lack of a symbiote. The woman smiles, saying that having your life partner be the former leader of the entire organization helps, and besides, she does have a set of skills all her own without Anise. Now that they've all finished with the meet and greet, she suggests they get moving toward the Der'kal base a mile away, considering that SG-1's executions are due to take place in only an hour or two. Not disagreeing, Sam asks her to lead the way, and the impromptu team sets off at a jog in the direction of the massive alien buildings towering close by.
Up in orbit, a hyperspace window is opening, ejecting a small Nox transport ship into space. At once, the Der'kal forces in the area mobilize to surround it, but the craft offers no resistance, merely broadcasting a text-only message of surrender. At once, it is boarded and its sole occupant, an unarmed male Nox, is taken prisoner, but the aliens are clearly confused by this strange arrival and the seeming pointlessness of it all. The Alliance-affiliated arrival requests only to speak with the leader of the enemy war effort, and, surprisingly, said official agrees to a meeting before his execution alongside SG-1. He is quickly transferred to the alien flagship and brought to a small conference room of sorts and left there, with his escorting warriors sealing the doors behind them as they leave. After a moment, a door on the other end of the room slides open, and Lor'al enters, asking her "guest" what it is he has to say before he dies. The Nox bows, ignoring the threat and thanking her for seeing him, and says that he has only come to deliver a warning from his people; the days of the Der'kal are numbered, and although the Jaffa, Tok'ra, and Tau'ri may be beaten back or conquered, the Nox are one group that the extragalactic aliens have no hope of ever defeating.
Lor'al laughs, pointing out that they can hardly say that they've been a force in this war, rarely sending out more than one or two of their ancient battleships, and then occasionally participating in Alliance fleet activities. But the Nox emissary assures her that this has all been part of a greater plan, giving them time to build up a armada powerful enough to crush any resistance. Even now, the ships are preparing to leave Velieris for enemy-controlled systems, and with their technological superiority, they will crush the Der'kal with ease. Smiling, the Nox man goes on to add that even if Lor'al and her pathetic excuse for a fleet decided to engage them it would be a futile gesture, and would certainly end in her destruction. There is no way to win, and she has lost. Staring blank-faced at the messenger, Lor'al doesn't seem to know how to react. Then, slowly, her rage builds, and she roars that idle threats from cowardly pacifists do not frighten her. She pulls out her double-bladed sword and extends its ends, smashing a chair out of the way and slicing down at the Nox. As soon as it makes contact with him, however, a bright white light flashes out, and when it fades, there is nothing left but his elegant-yet-simple robes, leaving the infuriated alien admiral with far more questions than answers.
On the surface, Sam and her team are sneaking into the Der'kal's base of operations, darting in between the towering buildings to avoid patrolling gunships. Freya says that the entrance to the Exarch's palace is heavily guarded, but there are ring platforms inside to allow ease of transportaton in and out. If they can track down an external platform, they can just ring into the compound and move from there, but finding that external part might be the real problem since she has no idea where to look. Thinking quickly, Jonas asks their Tok'ra guide what the aliens would have done with SG-1's tel'tak. If they can get to the impound docks, they could sneak into the craft and use its rings, a plan Freya thinks might actually work. The storage center for captured vehicles and starships isn't very heavily guarded, and it's just an old Jaffa hanger on the outskirts of the settlement. Liking this idea, Sam tells her to lead the way, and they warily rush down an alleyway, heading off toward their new objective.
Meanwhile, Dr. Talbot is standing outside a cell on the Jupiter, trying to figure out what to do with the Traditionalist senators who destroyed Pandora's Box. She asks them what they expect to happen now, to which their leader replies that he has no doubt that they will sit in this cell for a short while, until the new elections are held for the Jaffa Senate. Once that happens and Teal'c and his Progressives are swept out of power, he imagines they will be welcomed home as heroes, but until then, they're ready to wait. Fuming, Talbot informs him that she has no intention of letting them leave before a full trial is held, and there's no way any human jury is going to just let them off like that. But the senators are quite certain they'll be fine; after all, the terms of the Alliance charter specifically state that foreign dignitaries can be extradited in cases of extreme need, and he's sure that their allies in the Senate will find some cause for them to return home. They may be stuck here for now, but sooner or later they will walk free. Danielle tells them that this isn't over, but leaves the room to try and gather some more ammunition against them.
On Ankgor, Sam is zatting a Der'kal guard outside the main impound hanger, and she waves the rest of her team inside. The foursome hurries into the building and finds themselves on a walkway overlooking a massive, sunken area where the captured ships are kept. And there, amongst all the hulks lying rusting down below, SG-1's tel'tak can be seen freshly-landed off to one side. Moving quickly, the humans rush down a small staircase into the hanger and make their way through the other vessels toward the scout ship. Once they get near it, Jonas runs up to the airlock and punches in the code to unlock the door. He pries it open and leads the others to the ring room, motioning for them all to get into position for transport. Once they're all within the circle, Freya enters in the combination for the rings inside the Exarch's palace, and they disappear in a flash of light. Inside the compound itself, two Der'kal warriors look up to see the ring platform suddenly at work, and they grab their plasma rifles in preparation to blast the intruders. Sam and Jonas go to grab their guns, but it's proven to be unnecessary when Jason lifts the two aliens off the ground via telekinesis and slams them into the wall, knocking them unconscious. The three older team members all give him a strange look of admiration and shock, to which Jason just shrugs, adding that he really should find a lightsaber to complete the effect. Knowing that time is of the essence, they then head off toward the wing where the execution is scheduled to take place.
At the same time, Lor'al has arrived on the bridge of her flagship, and is struggling to come to a decision in regards to the Nox; their own intelligence suggests that something is happening on their homeworld, but they can't verify if it is indeed the construction of a massive armada. Hoping her captured Tok'ra can fill in the gaps, she closes her eyes as the room fades away to darkness. Standing across from her in the illusory surroundings, Anise says that she has no intention of just telling the Der'kal about any more Alliance plans, but Lor'al demands that she reveal what she knows. Anise just sighs and walks closer, reminding her captor that the Nox are the oldest living race in the galaxy, having been members of the original Alliance of Great Races that was formed millions of years ago. If anyone has the power to crush the alien menace, it would be them. And it might be better to just wipe them out now, fleet or no fleet, before they decide to move on that superiority and take action. Velieris is deep within Allied space, but the chance to annihilate a potentially devastating enemy fleet is too good to pass up, isn't it?
A short time later, the stargate is dialed for Ankgor, and the particle accelerator from years before is once again set up, blasting away into the puddle as it clears debris from the other side. Off to the side, Jonas waits, suited up in an Intelligence field uniform consisting off a loose-fitting jumpsuit covered in pouches and straps to hold numerous knives, pistols, grenades, and various types of spy equipment. He looks up to see Carter enter from the other side of the room in traditional SG gear and a P90 in hand, checking her clip to make sure it's full. Surprised, he asks if Sam is coming along, to which she replies that this whole mess is personal, and there's no way she's sitting this out. Unfortunately, they don't really have a "special ops" division anymore since they're still putting the ISGC back together, but she has a volunteer who has a few "special" abilities of his own. In explanation, she jerks her thumb over her shoulder at Jason Carter, likewise pulling on a set of offworld gear. When Jonas asks how wise it is to bring a kid along, Jason, annoyed, says that he's almost twenty and hardly just a "kid," and besides that, can pack one Hell of a punch. Still not getting it, Jonas asks him to prove it, and is subsequently shoved back into the wall with a telekinetic shove. Smirking, Jason turns to the stargate and watches as the particle accelerator deactivates, its job finished. Watching her old friend pick himself up off the ground, Sam suppresses a laugh and turns to see Colonel Taylor in the control room. She says that they'll be back as soon as possible, then gives the go-ahead to re-dial the gate so the kawoosh can finish the task of clearing out an entry way for them.
On Ankgor's surface, in a barren, decimated wasteland that was once the capital city of the proud Jaffa planet, an odd humming is heard. A second later, the muffled sound of an activating stargate penetrates the dirt, and a blue energy vortex breaks through the crusted ground, revealing the previously-buried stargate, active and ready for use. At the ISGC, Taylor wishes his away team good luck, and watches as the three travelers back up and sprint toward the portal, disappearing into the puddle with flying leaps that carry them up the few feet to the lip of the surface on the other side so they don't fall back into the wormhole. Spitting out some dirt that he ate on the way up, Jason mutters that this is just plain humiliating, and Jonas remarks that all his fancy powers don't really help very much now. Sam mutters something about men and pulls herself up, seeing a familiar-looking woman step out of the shadows of a nearby ruin and approach. Ironically enough, it's Freya, the former host of Anise and the operative assigned to this planet by Alliance Intelligence. She was alerted via subspace message to watch for "friends via waterway," and she correctly guessed that the meaning was allies coming through the "puddle" of a stargate.
Jonas, clearly surprised to see Freya here, asks how she managed to pull such a high-profile assignment given her lack of a symbiote. The woman smiles, saying that having your life partner be the former leader of the entire organization helps, and besides, she does have a set of skills all her own without Anise. Now that they've all finished with the meet and greet, she suggests they get moving toward the Der'kal base a mile away, considering that SG-1's executions are due to take place in only an hour or two. Not disagreeing, Sam asks her to lead the way, and the impromptu team sets off at a jog in the direction of the massive alien buildings towering close by.
Up in orbit, a hyperspace window is opening, ejecting a small Nox transport ship into space. At once, the Der'kal forces in the area mobilize to surround it, but the craft offers no resistance, merely broadcasting a text-only message of surrender. At once, it is boarded and its sole occupant, an unarmed male Nox, is taken prisoner, but the aliens are clearly confused by this strange arrival and the seeming pointlessness of it all. The Alliance-affiliated arrival requests only to speak with the leader of the enemy war effort, and, surprisingly, said official agrees to a meeting before his execution alongside SG-1. He is quickly transferred to the alien flagship and brought to a small conference room of sorts and left there, with his escorting warriors sealing the doors behind them as they leave. After a moment, a door on the other end of the room slides open, and Lor'al enters, asking her "guest" what it is he has to say before he dies. The Nox bows, ignoring the threat and thanking her for seeing him, and says that he has only come to deliver a warning from his people; the days of the Der'kal are numbered, and although the Jaffa, Tok'ra, and Tau'ri may be beaten back or conquered, the Nox are one group that the extragalactic aliens have no hope of ever defeating.
Lor'al laughs, pointing out that they can hardly say that they've been a force in this war, rarely sending out more than one or two of their ancient battleships, and then occasionally participating in Alliance fleet activities. But the Nox emissary assures her that this has all been part of a greater plan, giving them time to build up a armada powerful enough to crush any resistance. Even now, the ships are preparing to leave Velieris for enemy-controlled systems, and with their technological superiority, they will crush the Der'kal with ease. Smiling, the Nox man goes on to add that even if Lor'al and her pathetic excuse for a fleet decided to engage them it would be a futile gesture, and would certainly end in her destruction. There is no way to win, and she has lost. Staring blank-faced at the messenger, Lor'al doesn't seem to know how to react. Then, slowly, her rage builds, and she roars that idle threats from cowardly pacifists do not frighten her. She pulls out her double-bladed sword and extends its ends, smashing a chair out of the way and slicing down at the Nox. As soon as it makes contact with him, however, a bright white light flashes out, and when it fades, there is nothing left but his elegant-yet-simple robes, leaving the infuriated alien admiral with far more questions than answers.
On the surface, Sam and her team are sneaking into the Der'kal's base of operations, darting in between the towering buildings to avoid patrolling gunships. Freya says that the entrance to the Exarch's palace is heavily guarded, but there are ring platforms inside to allow ease of transportaton in and out. If they can track down an external platform, they can just ring into the compound and move from there, but finding that external part might be the real problem since she has no idea where to look. Thinking quickly, Jonas asks their Tok'ra guide what the aliens would have done with SG-1's tel'tak. If they can get to the impound docks, they could sneak into the craft and use its rings, a plan Freya thinks might actually work. The storage center for captured vehicles and starships isn't very heavily guarded, and it's just an old Jaffa hanger on the outskirts of the settlement. Liking this idea, Sam tells her to lead the way, and they warily rush down an alleyway, heading off toward their new objective.
Meanwhile, Dr. Talbot is standing outside a cell on the Jupiter, trying to figure out what to do with the Traditionalist senators who destroyed Pandora's Box. She asks them what they expect to happen now, to which their leader replies that he has no doubt that they will sit in this cell for a short while, until the new elections are held for the Jaffa Senate. Once that happens and Teal'c and his Progressives are swept out of power, he imagines they will be welcomed home as heroes, but until then, they're ready to wait. Fuming, Talbot informs him that she has no intention of letting them leave before a full trial is held, and there's no way any human jury is going to just let them off like that. But the senators are quite certain they'll be fine; after all, the terms of the Alliance charter specifically state that foreign dignitaries can be extradited in cases of extreme need, and he's sure that their allies in the Senate will find some cause for them to return home. They may be stuck here for now, but sooner or later they will walk free. Danielle tells them that this isn't over, but leaves the room to try and gather some more ammunition against them.
On Ankgor, Sam is zatting a Der'kal guard outside the main impound hanger, and she waves the rest of her team inside. The foursome hurries into the building and finds themselves on a walkway overlooking a massive, sunken area where the captured ships are kept. And there, amongst all the hulks lying rusting down below, SG-1's tel'tak can be seen freshly-landed off to one side. Moving quickly, the humans rush down a small staircase into the hanger and make their way through the other vessels toward the scout ship. Once they get near it, Jonas runs up to the airlock and punches in the code to unlock the door. He pries it open and leads the others to the ring room, motioning for them all to get into position for transport. Once they're all within the circle, Freya enters in the combination for the rings inside the Exarch's palace, and they disappear in a flash of light. Inside the compound itself, two Der'kal warriors look up to see the ring platform suddenly at work, and they grab their plasma rifles in preparation to blast the intruders. Sam and Jonas go to grab their guns, but it's proven to be unnecessary when Jason lifts the two aliens off the ground via telekinesis and slams them into the wall, knocking them unconscious. The three older team members all give him a strange look of admiration and shock, to which Jason just shrugs, adding that he really should find a lightsaber to complete the effect. Knowing that time is of the essence, they then head off toward the wing where the execution is scheduled to take place.
At the same time, Lor'al has arrived on the bridge of her flagship, and is struggling to come to a decision in regards to the Nox; their own intelligence suggests that something is happening on their homeworld, but they can't verify if it is indeed the construction of a massive armada. Hoping her captured Tok'ra can fill in the gaps, she closes her eyes as the room fades away to darkness. Standing across from her in the illusory surroundings, Anise says that she has no intention of just telling the Der'kal about any more Alliance plans, but Lor'al demands that she reveal what she knows. Anise just sighs and walks closer, reminding her captor that the Nox are the oldest living race in the galaxy, having been members of the original Alliance of Great Races that was formed millions of years ago. If anyone has the power to crush the alien menace, it would be them. And it might be better to just wipe them out now, fleet or no fleet, before they decide to move on that superiority and take action. Velieris is deep within Allied space, but the chance to annihilate a potentially devastating enemy fleet is too good to pass up, isn't it?
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