Calm Before the Storm

Posted on Sat Oct 12th, 2019 @ 10:43pm by Major Jacob Asher & Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus & Civillian Shae & Civillian Mikayla Rees & 1st Lieutenant Hunter Williams

Mission: Mother Knows Best
Location: P3X-974 - Heorot
Timeline: Current

The team had all completed their assigned tasks. It was very early evening, with dusk probably an hour away.

Jake had convinced Hrothmond to give them a place to have their evening meal and prepare for their night and morning to come. They were sharing that meal now.

"Okay," Jake said. "Somebody start talking. Lay out everything each of you has discovered."

"Judging from the claw marks we found in the stone of the wall, these are creatures of great strength," Shae spoke up, laying out what she and Jake had discovered during their walk. "They walk upright and their tracks are deep, indicating dense bodies, and their stride suggests tall stature. Their footprints have marks of claws as well, and the soldiers we have spoken to mentioned horns. And their scent is quite unusual; it reminds me of other creatures I have come across... Ano, I forget the word, but they have... scales? Not like fish, these creatures smell like scaled animals who shed their skin."

"Lizards?" Jake said. "Reptiles, maybe?"

"Yes!" Shae replied with a smile and an emphatic nod, recognizing the words he used. "Yes, reptiles, they smell like reptiles, but also not reptiles. It is quite strange," she affirmed.

Jake nodded. "It is strange," he said. He turned to the others. "If these guys hit the compound tonight, Shae is going to backtrack their trail to their base of operations and reconnoiter the area for us. If they don't, then she'll leave before first light. She can move more quickly and definitely more quietly if she's not dragging us along with her." Jake unrolled a map derived from photos the UAV had taken prior to their mission. "We'll approach the swamp on this side and Shae will try to rendezvous with us here. Hunter? Crow? Doctor Rees? Anything to report from your assignments?"

“I’m sorry, but I will just say it, though I feel like a git for doing so. Beowulf. We all know the legend, correct?” Rees was doing up her hair in a simple utilitarian braid and looking to the others. “If the Old English epic poem wasn’t on your required reading list, you aren’t at a disadvantage here. They made many movies for the silver screen as well and you, Major, bear a striking resemblance to one of the more handsome … well no matter. This is not the village of Heorot of the poem, though it does seem to be the inspiration. I shall only point out the peculiarities between them because they are telling. This village is not old enough by far. I’m no expert on ancient Danish building methods and I have no reason to believe these people are actually Danes, but from what I can tell, there are multiple styles of construction employed in its makeup. Not on the surface so much - that appears of a piece, but beneath, when you look at the ‘older’ sections, there are inconsistent techniques and a lack of tool marks which you would expect to find. I spoke with the women and some few of the men. It may surprise you to hear that their family histories only travel back three generations; one woman spoke of a fourth, but she had the sound of a false braggart. Three generations in a meadhall less than two hundred years old and no knowledge between them of what came before. As if they materialized into existence two centuries ago and have no idea or care to ponder their origins prior to that. Even if they traveled through the Stargate, where are their stories, legends and family lineage?”

Rees activated the screen on what she thought of us the heavy duty iPad - though she’d been advised that it was not an Apple product and was a military grade tactical tablet - she swiped through to a photo of a small horse and spun it around to Asher. “The horses in their stable, what few are left, are larger than you'd expect from Daneland of this period. Medieval horses were akin to modern day ponies, swipe right, but as you can see, these are full size. The selective breeding necessary for that would take many many hundreds of years, arguably thousands. But we've already established this is not Heorot. Major, I believe this to be a copy for the purpose of some sort of unbriefed...reenactment perhaps? Maybe a human harvest? I believe these people are transplanted and fairly recently too, but without the benefit of intact memories.”

She laid down the tac-tab and pulled on the hat she hated. “When I asked around; are there other villages? Are there known settlements for trade or bloodline diversification? They looked at me as if I were daft. Sir, they aren’t aware of any other people on this planet aside from the mysterious foreigners who came to their aid when Hrothmond was a child. If we don’t prove to be as helpful, I suspect they’ll assume we are the harbingers of their doom instead.”

Hunter nudged Corvus, who sat with his chin on his hand. He was almost completely asleep and about to nod himself into his food. It must be really bad for the kid if he was foregoing food. The nudge only served to get Corvus to jerk up for a moment, then spread his arms out on the table and lay his head on top of it.

" 'm fine," he muttered. "Need more supplies, though. They use shit as a poultice." His head lifted momentarily, but then nestled back into the crook of one arm.

Hunter sighed as he shook his head. "Major, you mentioned the possibility of making alliances here, but I don't think that's going to be possible. Not with the attackers. They're about indiscriminate killing. They are eating the defenders and they're not limiting themselves to the combatants. That, as terrible as it is, is at least understandable. But they'll take whatever they get their hands on. Soldiers, women, children. It doesn't matter. You can't have an alliance with people like that. You won't ever be able to trust them at all." He stirred some of the food left on his plate. "And I don't think the King would allow it either. Not now."

"I understand that," Jake said. "But let's gather as many of the facts as we can before we just wipe these creatures out. What they're doing is horrifying, but we don't know what, if anything, Hrothgar and his people may have done to provoke the creatures. Also, we don't know how many of these things there are or if this is the only group. I think every military member of this team has spent more than enough time playing terrorist whackamole to understand the concepts of biting off more than we can chew and wasting time and lives fighting an enemy on it's own turf. If we hit these guys and there are more and those come looking for revenge, have we really helped?" Jake turned to Hunter. "Crow, this is an order. Make a list of the supplies you need and give it to Hunter, then finish eating if you can, then go crash out for a few hours. Again, that's an order, including the last part. Get some rest. Hunter, take that list back to the gate quick as you can without wearing yourself out, phone home, have them send through what Crow is asking for, plus anything else you think we'll need, at your discretion, including weapons, munitions, and other equipment. Take Doctor Rees with you. You three clear on your orders?"

Rees nodded in the affirmative, but continued staring ahead. Was she the only one who was scared out of her mind? Everyone was talking about preparations for tonight’s attack as if it weren’t a momentous event on which hung the future or end of their lives. The ‘natives’ of Heorot were rightly scared, but SG-1 seemed more or less...calm. Rees had seen more fear on the faces of men about to enter long sealed tombs; empty tombs that bore no thread aside from rock abrasions. But SG-1 was unafraid. Well not Rees; she was terrified.

Hunter, being a good XO made sure to nudge Jeremy so that he'd be somewhat conscious to receive their CO's orders. Jeremy sat up, but Hunter could tell that he wasn't really there.

"Sir," Hunter said, then shrugged and gave a small smile, "does that include a small yield nuke?" He hated that the major was still contemplating an alliance with these creatures. No matter what he said - and yes, he knew every military in this room had probably done distasteful things that were unequivocally unethical. But they didn't make it a point to order genocide as a main dish at lunch. The 'warriors' here were barely old enough to shave, much less lose their lives to primitive, savage creatures. But that was his opinion and his feelings. Neither of which were appropriate to express in any way at the moment.

TAG Major

"Worth a shot," Hunter said, looking across the table to Rees. "You up for a short hump, at double time?"

“I’m your girl,” Rees muttered. She drummed on her knees before standing up, stretching her back. “May I assume we’ll be calling for reinforcements as well? Equipment and gear and weapons sound grand, but additional soldiers to wield them would be even better.” She eyed her empty bowl, wishing she’d known before she yammed it down, that she’d be running back to the gate.

Hunter shrugged. "There are some of the SF guys who are backups and alternates, but not many in the compound are cleared for Gate travel. There's not a lot of options there, but if Major okays it, I'll put in the request for a few more squads to show up."

A few more squads? How many people was that? Bollocks, Rees didn’t even know how many people were in a squad. Why did the Air Force have to make everything so difficult? She was thinking it through in her head. Why not march every soldier the Air Force could round up through the Stargate? There had to be hundreds of military men and women stationed in Colorado Springs alone. Would a tank fit? Maybe a handful of small tanks? And while they were at it, slip the civilians back to Earth and out of harm’s way. Giving Mikayla a gun and teaching her to shoot a target was one thing; running into unexpected battle and using that weapons was one thing else, but sitting around planning on doing battle when there was a perfectly good Stargate to provide instantaneous travel of properly qualified personnel? That seemed like the way to go here.

"If you can get a few, fine," Jake said. "But my orders stand. We take this one step at a time, we find out what the deal is, the WHOLE deal."

Jeremy heard Hunter speaking but, for the most part, he was too busy hastily scribbling onto the notepad he always carried when out in the field. Through haste and sheer exhaustion, his writing was definitely very 'doctor' but he made it so that it would be understandable at least. Then, while it wasn't something he would notice as uncharacteristic anybody else who's known him for more than two meals, he took a look at his still nearly full plate and then pushed it away. He stood and was already walking toward the door, trying to remember where their quarters were located when he stopped and turned back to the table.

"Permission to leave, sir?" he asked, looking at the Major. Though, in his sleep fogged mind he was mixing up his CO with his Dad. Yet, it wasn't so long ago that asking permission to be dismissed from the dining table would apply to both equally.

"Let's hold off on that (small yield nuke)," Jake said. "And Hunter, I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday." Jake could sense the lieutenant's uneasiness. "I'm not going to get us all killed pretending these things are something they're not. But we don't know the whole story. Going in pretending we do actually will get all of us killed, and I don't intend to die here unless it's absolutely necessary. Too much to live for. So we take this one step at a time."

Jeremy frowned at being denied permission to leave but, well, it was the Major so he trudged back to the table, slumped into his vacated chair then promptly put his head back on the table. "Jus' restin m'eyes," he muttered to no one in particular.

Rees was a civilian and much of the team’s military protocol went over her head or skirted right around here - despite her protracted two weeks of training - but she had the impression Corvus missed the meaning of Asher’s instructions. The Major was trying to curtail any requests for excessive force, not deny Corvus the opportunity to head off for some much needed sleep; sleep that the Major had moments before ordered Corvus to pursue. But, what did Rees know of these things?

Hunter looked from Jeremy, shaking his head and rolling his eyes as the boy was probably already asleep. But he turned back to the Major after making sure to glance at both Rees and Shae before doing so. "Understood, Major," was all he said. But it was the 'understood, sir' of a senior NCO which merely meant "you're the one giving orders and I am the one following them no matter what I believe otherwise". He wasn't sure there was anything these people could be doing to justify what was being done to them. Honorable combatants did not intentionally target women and children - or eat their opponents. Still, he had his orders to follow and was waiting on Rees to be ready. Presuming that they, unlike Crow, could be dismissed to carry out their orders.

Rees grabbed a flashlight and touched the 9mm Glock holstered on her thigh for reassurance. She stomped her feet a few times to settle her incredibly uncomfortable boots into place. “Shall we, Sir?”

Holding back a sigh because working with squints was so...squinty...he plucked the flashlight out of her hand and attached it to her molle rigging where it belonged. "Gun stays in the holster, equipment stays where it's supposed to be while we're on the move." He gathered up his rifle and pack, making sure they were secured tight for the run back. Fortunately for his aging knees, it wasn't that far back to the Gate. His only concern was whether or not the invaders knew about the Gate and had it watched.

Rees’ eyes had followed Williams hands as he roughly manhandled her equipment. She wasn’t accustomed to this level of subordination. Up until roughly two weeks ago she’d been chief and chieftain of her own affairs; answering to others yes, but in charge of her own affairs while out in the field. She’d certainly been able to hold a bloody flashlight in her mitt without being instructed of a better way of doing it. Mikayla took a deep breath and forced herself to recall that she’d willingly subjected herself to this treatment even if she hadn’t been quite clear on everything that entailed.

"Crow," Jake said. "Why the fuck are you still here. Make your goddamn list, give it to Hunter and... You know what, Crow? Just go lie down. That's a fucking order. RFN. I mean it. Will, you were a PJ and you're a CRO now. I'm assuming you can figure out what medical supplies we need without Sleepy's help?"

"Well, Major, I think he's already anticipated your order," he said, squatting next to the staff sergeant. "Hey, Corvus, your mother is on the phone. Don't worry, we told her you'd be with her as soon as you were done with the prostitute."

Rees rolled her eyes.

"What?" Jeremy said, suddenly sitting up straight and looking around, bleary eyed and confused. "You told my mom what?"

"The Major told you to hit the rack, Airman," Hunter said, "Not make a pillow of mashed potatoes. Now be a good PJ and get your PJs on and get some shuteye; your turn at watch will come far too soon."

"Yes, Major," Jeremy said, despite it being Hunter speaking to him. He was that tired and that confused. He really wished he could have taken a long, hot shower to get cleaned up from his day spent in the 'healing temple' but that would have to wait until later. He got up and left the room. Eventually he stumbled to the bed assigned to him, sat and bent over to take off his boots. He managed to get one untied and partially unlaced before he slumped over onto the bed and was asleep before his head hit the roughspun fabric of the pillow.

Hunter turned back to the Major. "He already gave me his list, I'll look it over and see if there's anything he may have forgot. You ready Rees?" he asked, already packed and ready to head out. Though, he did find a chuckle out of the young Airman.

“I am still ready, Sir. Lead the way, Sir. I’ll just double hump it right behind you, Sir.” As soon as the words came out of her mouth she regretted them. Rees hadn’t meant to be quite so cheeky. And as a proper English woman, she’d been brought up with more bearing than that. She imagined Kilgraston School’s headmistress and her would-be disappointment at such a bad-mannered remark. “Sorry, Hunter. I’m just tired and on edge. Let’s do it.”

Hunter was more than willing to forego the first entendre, but when the second was uttered he had no choice. He was a highly trained, professional special forces operator and there was a well earned reputation for childishness, impishness and all around puerile behavior to uphold. "Do it?" he asked, with a raised brow. "Right here in front of the Major and Shae and everyone?"

Rees punched him lightly in the arm. “Not even were you the mighty Beowulf himself. Now run in front; you’d have to be barmy if you think I’m having you staring at my arse after a comment like that.”

Jake chuckled as the Hunter and Mikayla left for the Stargate. He and Shae would both relax and maybe even sleep until dusk settled, then Jake would take first watch, keeping Shae fresh for an attack that, if it came, would come well after dark.