[OOC: Since we're reaching the limit of number of posts for this thread, this seemed like a good place to start the new one.]

Oh, great! She's asking me for instructions!


Hoping she correctly understood Kaspar's intentions, Vasandra responded to Hilda's request.

"Without energy or control crystals, it would be pointless for them to stay in engineering," she said.

"They should be in the pel'tak. We will secure the chappa'ai first, and then proceed upward. Kree!"

In reply to Vasandra Tourmaline (msg # 2):

OOC:

As we all charge up the entry, we surreptitiously allow the Jaffa to slip into the lead.

If I remember correctly, we are entering a wide, long hallway that leads straight into the interior of the ship. About halfway down the hallway, on either side, is a big door that leads into a cargo area. Since our intent was to secure the Stargate first, we would have opened one of the two outer doors that would let us into a hallway that has an entry into the gate room. So...on which side is the gate room, and is the door into it open or closed?

At Vasandra's order, Hilda faced the Jaffa, bellowing her orders. 'Jaffa, shield wall! Tau'ri, rear guard and protect the goddess! Kree!' The Jaffa hustled to their positions, and if they, not carrying shields, misunderstood the formation, then she was quick to shove them into the front-line regardless. 'Now we go to battle our foe, to die for glory and our goddess!' Regardless of the plan to use the Jaffa as cannon fodder, the Cimmerian was marching in the frontline too, on the left flank of the column, shield raised high and staff weapon crooked under her arm like a spear. She needed to be there to command and control the Jaffa, but there was also no way she'd miss this battle.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 4):

OOC: *ahem* So ... on which side of the hallway, relative to us as we enter from outside, is the gate room, and is the door into it open or closed?

Hilda and the Jaffa charge up the ramp and into the hallway on the cargo deck, but there are no orak'tar about.

The door to the cargo bay with the chappa'ai is on the left is open, and there is no one in the bay.

The central spiral ramps are open still. You can't hear any sounds from below or from above.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 6):

Kaspar jogs over to the cargo bay doorway, glances in, then jogs back to Vasandra.

"Goddess," Kaspar bows before Vasandra, "the bay is empty of enemies, the Star-" Kaspar grimaces, then continues, "the, uh, chappa'ai is ours. Would you have your technicians..." Kaspar nods towards Freyda and Gavin, "begin repairs now, or wait 'til a later time?" Kaspar hopes that Vasandra picks up on his emphasis of the word now.

"The Gator-Jaffa..." again Kaspar grimaces, berating himself for the slip, "I mean, the, uh, orak'tar must either be below, in the engine room, attempting repairs, or are up in the pel'tak. Given that we welded the doors, below, it's a pretty fair bet that they are all above. Or, finding the ship sabotaged, they may have returned whence they came."

Kaspar snaps a finger to gain Rajip's attention, and glances over at Hilda, nodding that she should come closer, as he finishes his 'report' to Vasandra,

"Should we rush upwards and attack them in the pel'tak, or check below first? We are yours to command, Goddess." Kaspar barely hides the smirk.

"They'll be in the pel'tak," Vasandra replies to Kaspar, more from her experiences as a pilot rather than her knowledge of these Goa'uld Dragon Lords.

"Jaffa! Guard the ramps upward! We'll secure these levels first then deal with the orak'tar."

"Freyda, Gavan, repair the chappa'ai."

"Rajip, Hilda... clear the lower levels."

"Asherrra, Kaspar... stay alert. The Dragon Lord and his orak'tar cannot return whence they came... not since I control the chappa'ai. They might have had the strength to rotate the ring, but there is still no power."

"I remind you that we are here to salvage the ha'tak. We will not leave without it, or unless it has been destroyed."

She was finding it hard to say what she meant without alerting the Jaffa that things weren't the way they thought they were. She hoped the others weren't really taking her words as serious commands, but more as suggestions... without letting the Jaffa know.

'Old fool! Use the tongue of the gods!' Hilda snarled to Kaspar at his slips, raising the back of her hand, in the manner of a Jaffa overseer she remembered from her time as a serf. She hoped he would not really take offence to her words, but she had to maintain their ruse.

She addressed Vasandra, now Angrboða, but eyed the others 'Yes, my Queen. Shall we take some of these other Jaffa?' Dividing them up seemed the best way to keep them manageable.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 9):



Kaspar grimaces - yet again! - as he bows deeply towards Hilda,

"First Prime is...wise." Kaspar says in shaky Goa'uld, "This Jaffa obeys."

Kaspar straightens up and gestures towards Asherrra,

"You! Come with me." Kaspar says in Goa'uld - unsure if Asherrra even knows any Goa'uld, he also makes an expansive 'come with me' gesture, then walks over towards the DHD, as if to provide protection for Freyda and Gavin, while they work on replacing the crystals taken from the device.

Vasandra just shrugged at Hilda's question. She figured Hilda was supposed to be the First Prime (wait... wasn't that an oxymoron?), so she'd make those decisions. A god wouldn't be expected to make that sort of decision. Do this, do that--how it got done was the First Prime's responsibility.

'You are no Jaffa! You are a Tau'ri slave!' Hilda corrected Kaspar, aware his slips could expose their ruse. 'Remember your place!'

She bowed to Vasandra, then selected four Jaffa – enough for her and Rajip to deal with alone, with surprise, if it came to it, while also weakening their numbers here – 'You, you, you, and you, with us to the lower levels. Kree!' She let the march ahead, then followed with Rajip.

Hilda and Rajip escort some Jaffa down to the engineering deck, and quickly discover that the door has been forced open, probably with the use of staff weapons. It is otherwise empty. There are no signs of the orak'tar or the Dragon Lord.

Some of the panels have been removed, but when it was discovered that the control crystals have all been removed, nobody bothered putting the panels back in place.

After quickly surveying the engineering deck, making sure there were no Jaffa in hiding, Hilda returned to the Stargate and the rest of the team. She bowed to Vasandra, reporting 'Great Angrboða, the lower levels are clear, the enemy abandoned the engineering deck. If you wish, we shall now advance and seize the pel'tak.'
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 08:41, Mon 25 Sept 2017.

He could have figured it out eventually, by trial and error, replacing each of the crystals in their proper place in the DHD. Fortunately, Freyda knew exactly where each one went, although Gavan wasn't sure if he just knew it or remembered where each one went from when they removed them. In any case, they'd kept the crystals from the DHD separate from the engineering crystals just so they wouldn't get them confused, even if many of them were otherwise identical.

Freyda told Gavan where to put the crystal, and Gavan complied. Three of the crystals were the power storage units that automatically got recharged every time the stargate was activated. This is what enabled the stargate to rotate to the proper symbol align ments.

Gavan was intrigued by the placement of the crystals, since this triangular DHD was a lot different than the circular ones back in the main part of the galaxy. Still, the core was apparently the same.

"The chappa'ai has been repaired, O Mighty Angrboda," he informed Kaspar by way of Vasandra.

Once more, she was in an awkward position, having to judge what her team leader, Kaspar, wanted to do... wanted her to do... all without any communication that might tip their hand to the new Jaffa recruits.

To be honest, she wasn't sure that anything they said would matter to the Jaffa. They were like a ship without a rudder. There had been no indication that there was anything like the Free Jaffa out here. They didn't seem to be capable of much thinking on their own, no doubt due to years of enforced obedience.

"The Slime God was able to survive on the enclosed ha'tak without any problem," she announced, "so there is no reason to think that the Dragonlord and his orak'tar cannot do the same."

She had not been aware of it, but there appeared to be some sort of osmotic function of the hull that allowed air in when needed or necessary, yet kept out the vacuum of space, and it did so without power.

And then there was the sarcophagus. It must have some sort of internal power, rather than crystals, that could not be tapped to run the ship, or else the Dragonlord would have used them already. Unless he did not know about them. The Goa'uld could be clever and cunning, though, so no reason to assume this Dragonlord wouldn't have thought of that.

No matter how she looked at it, the Dragonlord and his orak'tar had to be eliminated... one way or the other.

"Hilda, Rajip... take the Jaffa and secure the pel'tak. Either the Dragonlord must surrender to me, or else he must be destroyed!"

Her people knew all too well the heel of the Goa'uld overlords. Force is all they knew.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:18, Mon 25 Sept 2017.

In reply to Vasandra Tourmaline (msg # 16):

Off to the side, as Vasandra was issuing her orders, Kaspar was nodding slightly in approval - and hoping that Vasandra was seeing it!

Also, as Kaspar stood near the odd triangular DHD with Freda and Gavin, he had his hands resting on the P90 suspended from his combat vest, and was making slow, surreptitious circles with his right index finger - with himself, Gavin, Freda and Vasandra, herself, in the circle - then pointing at the floor in front of the DHD, before repeating.

The old man raised his eyebrows slightly, and gave Vasandra a significant look.

Hilda had hoped her counsel and requests for orders had been leading enough for Vasandra Angrboða to get the idea what she wished to do. Since what she wished was invariably battle, perhaps that just went without saying. 'I obey!' she saluted, then turned to her Jaffa. 'Jaffa! We go to confront the Dragon Lord, in the name of Lady Angrboða! Form up and march to the pel'tak. Kree!'

The Jaffa line up and begin marching up the ramps to the top of the ship. As they reach the topmost ramp, ma'tok fire comes down at them. The first round of fire does not hit any of them, but almost as one, they charge up the ramp the rest of the way, firing their weapons as they go.

Three of them fall before reaching the top, where the orak'tar are gathered around the opening for the ramp.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 19):

As Hilda leads the Jaffa off to combat, Kaspar just stands by the DHD - but once the last Jaffa has left the cargo bay, he jogs over to the bay door and watches the Jaffa force head towards the central transit shaft. Once all the Jaffa have started up the ramps, Kaspar turns back towards the gate.

"Right! Gavin! Freyda! Dial up the SGC!" Kaspar calls out, reaching up to unlimber the microphone of his radio from his vest, as he walks back towards the DHD.

---

OOC: Anything prevent dialing up the SGC?

Gavan has no trouble dialing up the SGC. The gate rotates through its sequence, and then the wormhole forms.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 21):

As soon as the wormhole stabilizes, Kaspar keys his mic and starts talking in a rush,

"Gwiazda Brama Komenda, Gwiazda Brama Komenda, to jest SG-X1. Słyszysz mnie, Gwiazda Brama Komenda? Over." Kaspar blurts out in Polish.

Almost immediately the response is, "Whaaaaat? Who is this? Identify yourself!"

"Gówno!" Kaspar shouts at the ceiling, then redirects himself to the mic, keying it open again,

"This is Major Gorski," he says, this time in his American accent, "Commander, Team SG-X1. I need to speak with the Duty Officer immediately."

Uncaring of the fates of the Jaffa she might be, there was no way Hilda was going to let them fight a battle without her, and no way she would be seen to be cowardly. 'Angrboða!' she roared, charging into the scene, but not before assessing the field of battle and the ranks of her orak'tar enemies. She used the allied Jaffa as cover as she did.


OOC: What are the distances and numbers here? Do we have cover? Should I just start rolling attacks?

Initiative 25, rolled a 20.
20:54, Today: Hilda rolled 25 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 20. initiative.

It's about 30 feet up the ramp to the pel'tak. There were 9 orak'tar at the start, but the Jaffa have killed two.

Hilda can start rolling for attacks. There are enough Jaffa to run interference for her.

COMM TRAFFIC... >>>"This is General Hammond, Commander," comes a reply to Kasper over the radio. "Is everyone all right?"

"You've been out of contact for two days."

'Shield wall!' Hilda bellowed, more in instinct than planning, a sound tactic hampered only by the fact that none of the Jaffa actually carried shields. Regardless, needing to get as many Jaffa to the top of the ramp as soon as possible, the tactic served well enough. The armoured Jaffa on the edges were the shields. 'Charge!'

Marching close behind, Hilda spun from side to side, angling the staff weapon high. Spying the first crocodile-faced orak'tar overlooking then, she unleashed a powerful blast at it.


OOC: Using a staff weapon, so:
Awkward: -2 to Initiative, now 23
Armour piercing: ignores DR 3.
Accuracy: -2 (I don't know what this applies to)
Sidestep: +1 dodge Defense vs all foes, total Defense 14

Attack 19, damage 22 @ nearest Jaffa

Hilda manages to hit one of the orak'tar, and, as expected, it goes down. The staff weapon easily penetrates the armor that they are wearing, which is only a crude breastplate. The gator-folk have a natural armor, of course, but it still isn't as tough as the armor that the Jaffa wear.

For about 2 minutes, staff weapon fire is exchanged in a fast and furious manner. At one point, though, one of the orak'tar fires a zat and hits Rajip. Hilda and two of the Jaffa target him immediately, and kill that gator-folk.

And then the battle is over. All of the orak'tar are dead, and there are only two Jaffa left.

General Hammond listens to Kaspar's report before replying.

COMM TRAFFIC... >>>"I was hoping it was something like that. We opened the gate twice, to see if we could pick up any radio transmissions, but we didn't want to risk sending another MALP through. We were considering sending a small drone through, just to get a picture," General Hammond says.

"So what is your plan of operation now?"

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 28):

"Well, Sir, we've bluffed the original Jaffa crew of the Ha'tak into helping us take on the Goa'uld who showed up with the Gator-Jaffa. With their help I'm fairly confident of taking out the Goa'uld. That will leave us in control of the Ha'tak. The only unknown is how many of the original Jaffa crew will survive the fight. These guys have no idea about the revolt going on with the Free Jaffa, back in the main part of the galaxy. I'm not sure they could even conceive such a concept."

"So, the issue becomes what do we do with our Jaffa, once they've beaten the Goa'uld and his forces for us? Do we double cross them and put a bullet in the back of their heads? Should we try and bring them to the SGC, where one of the Free Jaffa might convince them there is another way. Can we take the chance of just letting them dial their home, and letting them gate out?"

"I'm afraid I'm a little rusty at making these kinds of decisions, General, so I'm passing it on to Higher Authority. Oh, and would you have a platoon of Marines just standing around? I think I could use some reinforcements."

COMM TRAFFIC... >>>"I appreciate you trying to pass the buck to me, Major, but you are the officer on site. The decision has to be yours." Hammond replies.

"I can advise you, though. My personal feeling is that double-crossing anyone at any time is never a good idea. I know how much I hate it when the politicians do it to me."

"We can pass the Jaffa through the gate to a neutral site where they will be met by Free Jaffa, who can explain the situation to them. Do you think any of them will know the address for that gate? If you bring it back, or relocate it, however, even knowing the address won't help as they won't be able to dial it."

"I'm sure I can round up a few marines... I'm at a loss as to what you need them for?"

In reply to General Hammond (msg # 30):

"They might know the address, sir." Kaspar responded, "This was their ship, and their gate. Or their Goa'uld Masters. But I think your solution is the better, all around, General. I was just thinking that the Marines could help if the Jaffa got a little jumpy, plus we might need a little more site security."

"Now that we've secured the Ha'tak, Gavin and Freyda will be making engineering studies and Captain Tourmaline will be assessing the flight systems, all prior to our salvaging the vessel's systems for study back on Earth. I'll be returning to the City of The First for some more Anthropological study while the Tech Team does their thing. That just leaves Hilda and Sargent Mojdar to secure the gate in case another Goa'uld should gate in. And I'll probably bring one or the other of them with me to the city."

"Which also brings up the issue of a Diplomatic Team. I explained to the First Elders who we are and what we are about - in generalities - and The First seemed interested in contact. The Ancients that genetically elevated The First and the other species on this world also left behind some global defenses that limit Goa'uld activity on the planet. It might be worthwhile to make friends with them."

COMM TRAFFIC >>>"I thought the mission was to bring back the ha'tak?" Hammond replies.

"We didn't know at first what the status of the ship was. The address was to the gate, which, if you are correct, was never on this world anyway."

"Is it worth leaving it? You said The First might dig up their gate. Should we let them have the one in the ship, so that they don't have to dig it up?"

"Do you think it would be practical to install an iris over it?"

"Do you have any intel that indicates there are other Dragon Lords that might come through the gate? The slime got one of them... the one that possessed the ship in the first place. He was transported the gate there to ship naquadah through it, right?"

"You've stranded the second one there... he's the one that sabotaged the ship in an attempt to steal it, the stargate and the naquadah. What is his status?"

In reply to General Hammond (msg # 32):

"This vessels return was a hard objective, Sir?" Kaspar asks, "I mean, I suppose we could ... the ship doesn't seem to be significantly damaged from its hard landing, but, General, do we even have access to enough refined naquada fuel to make the attempt? We are located in a stellar globular cluster just outside our galaxy - how long would a return trip take?"

"Although, admittedly, if we did fly this Ha'tak back home, we'd have yet another gate to add to the collection - maybe we could put one on Mars?"

"Actually, sir, I think it might be better for The First's cultural psyche if we let them reinstall their own gate, but we offer to supply them with an iris. From what I saw, they are technologically capable of both operating and maintaining such a device."

"The First Elders implied that several Dragon Lords make occasional visits here to mine naquada. I do believe that it was the intention of this Ha'tak's Goa'uld to set up this gate here and set up a more permanent presence."

"The impression I got was that ships could land if their weapon systems were powered down. Other than that, as long as the cities aren't attacked, the global defenses remain inactive. The First Elders weren't specific on how the weapons worked, just that they would stop any Goa'uld attacks."

"Yes, General, we believe the Goa'uld who came through the gate somehow sabotaged this Ha'tak to dump its fuel just prior to landing. I think the slime infestation may have been unplanned - they didn't appear to be prepared for it, when they came through the gate. Last we knew, he had gone up to the pel'taq with his Gator-Jaffa. He should be up there, since we had disabled the DHD when we left the ship, and it didn't look like the dialer had been touched when we repaired it. Of course, I can't discount that he may have alternate means of dialing the gate."

"So either this Dragon Lord is upstairs with his Jaffa, or he snuck off the ship over night. Is there any particular reason you want him alive, General? I thought every effort to interrogate a Goa'uld had failed, so far?"

Hilda had ordered her massed Jaffa troop to charge to the top of the ramp, under heavy staff-weapon fire, so that they could face the orak'tar on level ground as quickly as possible. It was brave, glorious, and almost completely not survivable.

As the flames and smoke cleared, Hilda regarded the two remaining Jaffa, a prone Rajip, the annihilated orak'tar, and the many dead Jaffa on her own side. 'We win!' Hilda whooped, not knowing the concept of a Pyrrhic victory. She thrust her staff weapon into the air and firing a triumphant blast into the ceiling. 'Brave warriors all, they shall drink and fight forever in Valhalla!'


OOC: How many orak'tar can we estimate remain, after seeing the number who entered through the Stargate the other day?

HILDA: A dozen orak'tar came through initially, along with the Dragon Lord. You killed three of them that were left guarding the gate. The rest are now laying on the deck, dead.

COMM TRAFFIC >>>"We did not know what the status of the ha'tak was when we sent you through," Hammond answered. "Admittedly, it seemed unlikely that it would have just been sitting there abandoned... for no reason. And, as it turns out, there were two reasons... sabotage and slime."

"But, yes, we assigned your team to this mission because Vasandra could pilot the ship. And Freyda and Gavan might be able to increase its speed."

"We hadn't actually sat down and determined what an acceptable length of time was to return. I suppose we could have accepted a year. Longer than that, untenable... unacceptable risk."

"I didn't say I wanted the Dragon Lord alive, Major. You said that you'd trapped him on the ship, and have yet to offer a report on his status. Is he still alive?"

"There is naquadah on the planet, correct? Is there any reason you know of that you can't acquire some of that?"

"Also, my advisors inform me that you might be able to salvage enough naquadah from the staff weapons to at least move the ship to another world. Does that sound like a plan?"

"As for The First... I'll send a signature box through with the marines. I'll assemble a team of techs that can assemble the iris. I wouldn't want The First to dig up their gate and then be vulnerable while we diddle around getting the iris in place."

"If the gate is buried, does that mean it is face down? If so, can The First raise it to an upright position again? Or will they need assistance from us?"

Hilda counted the dead, and compared them to the number of orak'tar she'd seen march through the Ring of Stars. That seemed to be all of them, bar the Dragonlord, her true Goa'uld enemy. Using her Tau'ri radio, she opened a channel to all of SG-X, though she addressed only "Lady Angrboða". 'My Queen! We have slain all the filthy orak'tar. Only the Dragonlord Chu-Lung remains! Two Jaffa survived the battle; they fought most valiantly. We shall continue the hunt, if you will it.' While she waited for a response, she tried to revive Rajip, mainly by splashing water on his face.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 37):

COMS>>> My Queen! We have slain all the filthy orak'tar. Only the Dragonlord Chu-Lung remains! Two Jaffa survived the battle; they fought most valiantly. We shall continue the hunt, if you will it. <<<

"Well that sounds like a clog in the toilet." Kaspar says to no one in particular, then keys his radio to the General,

"Ah, General, sounds like the battle upstairs is about over. All enemy Gator-Jaffa are reported K-I-A, all but two allied Human Jaffa are reported K-I-A. The enemy Goa'uld is M-I-A. I have to assume he's heading for the gate. Could you excuse me for a few minutes while I prepare what defenses I can. I'll call you right back."

Kaspar drops the mic, which just hangs over his right collar bone, and points at Vasandra, "Radio Hilda to 'pursue your enemy relentlessly' then arm yourself, Captain. Freyda, Gavin. The Goa'uld Master is on the loose and we should assume he's heading here to make good an escape. Arm yourselves. Freyda, can you and your Magic Chair set up a perimeter intrusion scan around this cargo bay? As you know, those Goa'uld can be sneaky; there's reports that some of them can even spoof scanners and appear to not be where they are, so watch your sensors carefully, please."

Ignoring the fully automatic P90 hanging from his chest harness, Kaspar pulls his old, reliable Makarov pistol from its old leather holster.

"Find some cover between the gate and that open door, everybody. Keep the gate open as long as you can - as long as it's open to Earth, that Goa'uld can't go anywhere. But that only gives us, maybe, twenty minutes."

"Excuse me, Kaspar, but I believe you've got that wrong," Gavan says. "There is one place the Goa'uld can go--Earth."

"As long as the gate is open from this end, he can go through. Presumably the iris is still closed, so if he should make it to the gate and step through... splat."

"On the other hand, I wouldn't put it past this Goa'uld, or any Goa'uld for that matter, to be able to bypass the iris, whether he knows it's there or not. No one has ever accused a Goa'uld of being stupid."

"Unless you plan on returning to SGC, I would recommend that you shut the gate down, and have Hammond dial back in 30 minutes. No. Scratch that. We'll dial back... if we can. If SGC dials here, and the Goa'uld sees the address, he'll know that there's some place to go."

In reply to Gavan (msg # 39):

"Damn. Good point. I was thinking there was no way around the iris, but you're right - I shouldn't count on that. Okay."

Kaspar keys his mic again,

"General, it seems we've misplaced the enemy Goa'uld; he could be running around loose on the Ha'tak. While we have confidence in the iris, we're thinking it's better to be safe than sorry, so we're going to shut down the gate. If we can, we'll call you back in thirty minutes. We think there's a risk the Goa'uld might get the earth address if you dial in to us, but if we don't call in in thirty minutes, that's up to you."

Kaspar waits a moment to see if Hammond has any last instructions, then tells Gavin to shut down the gate.

Having seen the Jaffa use zat'nik'tels to capture slaves back on Cimmeria (and felt it herself), Hilda remembered it would be some minutes before Rajip recovered from the stunning blast. She couldn't wait that long, nor spare the time to carry him back to the Ring of Stars. 'Ma'lek,' she ordered one of the Jaffa, 'Bring Rajip and any other survivors back to the Chappa'ai and there serve the Goddess.'

'Bar'tok, follow me. Today we are hunting dragon!' she boomed eagerly, thrusting her ma'tok like a lance, before leading him up to the pel'tak, where she was sure the Goa'uld would make its nest.

Hilda and Bar'tok begin searching around the deck. This is the pel'tak level, and the actual command bridge is only through the closed doors. There is no power to them, though, and they won't open on their own.

That was where they'd found the bones of the previous Goa'uld who'd sat in the command chair.

The doors are normally powered closed, but without power, they can be pried apart. With the two of you, they can be opened with some difficulty.

No attack occurs while you are doing that, though. Once the doors are open, you can enter the bridge. A quick search doesn't turn up the Dragon Lord, but the bones have been removed from the chair.


Gavan shuts down the gate.

A minute later, one of the Jaffa returns carrying an unconscious Rajip.

'Ha!' Hilda had yelled, jumping into the room to surprise the Dragon Lord with a ready staff-weapon, only to be disappointed to find it empty. 'Oh.'

Hilda moved in and surveyed the room, in particular inspecting the strewn bones.

She radioed the team, beginning 'Hilda to S— Queen Angrboða. We have seized the pel'tak, but the Dragon Lord is not here. We shall continue the hunt!'


OOC: Are the Dragon Lord's bones just dumped on the floor with the others, or have they been actually removed from the room?

The bones were just dumped onto the floor.

With Rajip temporarily out of it, Gavan decides that Hilda might need some back-up. After all, she's up in the pel'tak with only a Jaffa to help her stop this Dragon Lord.

"Kaspar, I'll go help Hilda," he informs the Major. "The Tolan are the only ones with phasing ability... as far as anyone has found out. Even the Asgard can't do it, and we're not even sure the Ancients could. That means the Dragon Lord is still on the ship  somewhere, as there is no way he could have opened any of the hatches."

He's pretty sure that Kaspar, Freyda, Vasandra and Asherrra can handle the sole Jaffa with them.

He hurries up the ramp, reaching the pel'tak quickly and sees the dead gator-Jaffa. He spots Hilda coming out of one of the side rooms.

"No sign of him?" he asks her. "How familiar are you with this type of ship? Are there hiding places?"

It only then occurs to him that he could have asked Vasandra and Freyda about them.

Hilda groaned. 'Only behind every corner.' She tried to think where the Dragon Lord might've gone, maybe some place he would be strong or safe, or could hide. A sarcophagus, maybe.


OOC: Does Hilda have any idea where Chu-Lung might have gone, or what should I roll?

Now that Hilda thinks about it, she hasn't seen a sarcophagus. There's no sensible reason for Chu-Lung to have 'hidden' in the sarcophagus, but if he thought he was trapped inside the ha'tak without food and water, he might have thought that was a way to preserve himself.

For lack of a better idea right now, Hilda decided 'Let's go to the Dragon Lord's chambers on this ship. Maybe Chu-Lung will seek weapons or a sarcophagus there.'


OOC: Have we looked at any naquadah reactor? Chu-Lung might have had a plan to refuel it.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 48):

OOC: "First Prime" Hilda, Rajip, and 4 Jaffa did go down to the engineering deck (messages #10 thru #13, this thread) where they found one of the doors had been forced open. You searched around and found evidence that the Gator-Jaffa had discovered our removal of key control crystals, but found no evidence of a naquada reactor being messed with.

Hilda and Gavan and the Jaffa head to the personal quarters of the Dragon Lord. However, the door is closed, and it won't open since there's no power.

The ha'tak hasn't been here long enough to have dust on the floor, but Hilda notices that the door doesn't look like it's closed completely... as if it had been closed manually.

OOC: I wasn't sure if the naquadah reactor was part of the engineering deck or not.

Wary of the not-quite-closed door, indicating recent and hurried manual use, Hilda waved Bar'tok to cover her, while she crouched and tried to slowly pull the door open again...

"The door could be secured in some way from the other side," Gavan pointed out to Hilda as she struggled to force open the door... apparently with little or no success.

"Remember, I have an alternate way to get through a wall. I can only take you, though, not Bar'tok, too."

Hilda paused in her work. 'That would surprise the one on the other side.' she agreed with a devilish grin.

"Then grab my hand, and don't let go until we're on the other side," Gavan said, holding out his hand.

When she had grabbed hold, he activated the phase device and stepped through the door with Hilda.

He was aware that there were certain materials that the Tollan phase device couldn't penetrate, but he couldn't remember what they were. All he knew was that they were very rare, and so didn't appear in construction materials. And he was pretty sure that the Goa'uld didn't use them.

He made sure they were completely through, but didn't turn off the phase device just yet, in case there was someone waiting.

Hilda grabbed Gavan's hand with her left and stepped through the wall; though she'd done it before, she still tensed in trepidation. Her nerves weren't helped by expecting a Goa'uld to be waiting on the other side. Nevertheless, she tried to go first, to shield Gavan against any retaliation.

Gavan and Hilda stepped through the door to the personal quarters of the Dragon Lord. It wasn't what either of them expected. It was 'normal' in many respects--bed, couch, chairs, storage chest... It was all decorated in an Art Deco style, which meant nothing to either of them, but it was ornate and lush... gold and mirrors. The bed had a headboard of mirrored arches trimmed in gold, there was a white fur cover on the bed, and a dozen throw pillows.

Though odd, but not unexpected, there was a gold high-back claw-foot bathtub.

The floor is also covered with an assortment of fur throw rugs, many from creatures unfamiliar to either of them.

There was, however, no one present.

Gavan pointed towards the storage chest, which, now that you look a bit closer, you realize is probably the sarcophagus. It's a bit larger than any normal chest, and it, too, is decked out in the Art Deco style.

Hilda had grown up in a simple timber farmhouse with rude furniture of wood and hide, so all this was still immense finery in her eyes, all gold and glass, if not quite what she'd seen of Goa'uld palaces before. She was eager to loot these treasures, but she had a mission to complete and a foe to slay first.

Leaving behind the staff weapon and unsheathing her trusty sword, the warrior crept toward the sarcophagus. With the blade poised over the box, ready to deliver a killing thrust, she looked for a control to open it...

It's not that the controls are concealed or hidden, just that they are worked into the decorative trim. Maybe it was meant to hide them, though more likely it was to preserve the decor.

Hilda locates the dial control in the middle of the lid, inset into a scarab motif, and turns it once, which causes the locking 'tentacles' to withdraw, thus unlocking it. She then has to turn it a bit more to get the two halves of the lid to slid apart.

For a moment, she can't tell if there's anyone in there because of the fog/mist that billows up out of it, caused by the temperature differential.

Then she sees the Dragonlord as the mist clears and he starts to sit up.

She could have tried capturing the Dragonlord, for interrogation or as a trophy slave.  She could have kept him at her mercy, and taunted and tormented him with her blade. But, right here and right now, with one of the hated Goa'uld emerging from his sarcophagus, unaware of her ready sword through the mist, there was only one thing Hilda could do. 'Die!' she screamed, stabbing her broadsword down at his chest.


OOC: Initiative 12
Attack with sword, attack 24, rolled a 20, auto-hit
Spent an Action Die to make it a critical hit
Damage 8, taken from Wound Points and dropping the Dragonlord's Init by 5 (assuming the Dragonlord is a special NPC)

As the lid of the sarcophagus opens, Hilda has a momentarily vague notion that the Dragonlord was conscious and alert, but then again, he was probably expecting one of his men to be the one opening the sarcophagus.

17:35, Today: StarMaster rolled 4,13 using 1d20+2,1d20+5 ((2,8)). Initiative/Attack

Hilda catches him completely by surprise, and stabs him through the chest for 11 Wound Points of damage (house rule: max damage on a natural roll of 20).

This doesn't kill him outright, though; not unexpected since she doesn't know exactly where the symbiote is inside him... more so now that she sees the host. The Dragonlord does not have his helmet 'on' (would have been awkward within the sarcophagus), so she can see that the host is probably some near-human... red skin, large eyes, flat nose and a bony ridge front to back on top of his head. He also appears to be hairless.

His eyes widen even more, though, as the sword stabs through him. With some effort, he reaches up with one hand and grabs her hand around the hilt of the sword, keeping her from letting go or from pulling the sword out!

With his other hand, he fires a force blast from his gauntlet. It hits Hilda square in the chest, delivering 10 points of Vitality damage and driving her backwards ten feet (unless she has some way of countering it).

OOC: Hope the wait was worth it!

Hilda's ice-blue eyes widened in shock as the ettin, still alive, clutched her hand and the hilt of the sword she'd named Serpentslayer. The name was no good if she missed the serpent within! Then the magic blast struck her, throwing her back and away from the ettin...


OOC: I'm assuming the DR 3 from my armour (Tactical Deployment Vest or however I've disguised it) applies.

Sidestep: +2 dodge Defense vs the Dragonlord

Do I lose my sword or do I manage to keep it? Shall I act or wait for Gavan?

Gavan had no idea what to expect. He couldn't imagine the Dragonlord 'hiding' in the sarcophagus, but what kind of damage could he have sustained to warrant healing?

He wasn't particularly surprised that Hilda had instantly attacked whatever was in the sarcophagus though he still found it a bit concerting. Nor did he expect that Hilda couldn't handle any threat.

Yet, after being stabbed, a gauntleted hand reached up and grabbed her hand and sword. And then some sort of blast threw her away from the sarcophagus!

He quickly drew his kel-am and aimed it at the Dragonlord as he rose from the sarcophagus. He fired before the Dragonlord spotted him, but not before the dragon-helm snapped into place.

19:33, Today: Gavan rolled 17 using 1d20+2 ((15)).

It briefly occurred to Gavan that the Dragonlord may not be aware of the Tollans and the Tollan stun weapon. He didn't know how the stunner would work against the Dragonlord's armor, but he knew that Goa'uld within the host would probably overcome the stun in less than a minute, rather than the ten minutes most organic beings were affected by it.

Hilda's TDV's DR does work against the damage, but doesn't stop the force that pushes her away.


19:46, Today: StarMaster rolled 15 using 1d20+5 ((10)). Dragonlord's FORT Save vs. DC 18...

The armor did give him a +2 bonus against the stun effect, but it's not enough. The Dragonlord's host is probably stunned for 10 minutes. The Goa'uld may be able to reduce that.

Recovering from the blast with gritted teeth and swiftly regaining her feet, and seeing Gavan had fired his own lightning weapon, Hilda raced back to the Dragonlord's side. Now was her chance! Though she was an honourable warrior, she would not give up a chance to strike at a hated foe stunned by an ally's attack.

She laid a hand on Serpentslayer's hilt and drew it forth with a bloody streak. In two hands she grasped it then raised it high, ready to behead the Dragonlord!


OOC: I assume it's a half action to move back, another half action to retrieve my sword from wherever it ended up.

Oops. Forgot to cover that. Because the Dragon Lord had his hand on the sword, when his other hand blasted Hilda with sufficient force to drive her back, involuntary reflexes caused her to let go of the sword. When she gets back to the sarcophagus, the Dragon Lord still has the sword stuck in him as he was stunned before he could withdraw it.

OOC: Okay. If he's stunned (unconscious?), can I pull it back out?

Both host and Goa'uld are stunned, so there's nothing to keep Hilda from pulling the sword out and then stabbing him again. She only lost her grip on it because of the twofold factor of the Goa'uld holding it to prevent her from using it again and hitting her with a bolt of force.

He hadn't been unconscious when she opened the sarcophagus; and he was expecting to see his Prime... not his enemies.

OOC: Thanks. I think it's Gavan's turn now.

"Is it dead?" he asks.

"The Goa'uld, I mean. I don't want to get close enough to it so that it might try to take me over."

'It soon will be.' Hilda answered, her intent perfectly clear in her raised sword...


OOC: I intend to coup de grâce it, unless Gavan has a better idea?

"Even with Freyda, I don't think we have the resources to safely transport a Goa'uld back to my home world where we could separate the worm from the host," Gavan commented.

"Even then, the host body may not even have a mind left... assuming it had one to begin with."

"One less Dragon Lord out here in the cluster seems like a good thing to me."

A flash of steel and the sword swept down. A wet chunk sound and it bit into the neck. A dull thud as the head hit the floor. Hilda looked back at Gavan, withdrawing a bloody sword. 'Sorry, what did you say?'


OOC: Full action: coup de grâce, critical hit, 11 wound points

Not knowing where in the host body the Goa'uld had taken up residence, mainly because Hilda wasn't familiar with this 'near-Human' species, she wound up getting lucky by beheading the host, for the Goa'uld had wrapped itself around the spinal column in the neck, presumably accounting for the thick neck of the host.

Hilda's sword stroke not only beheaded the host but beheaded the Goa'uld!

Hilda was gleeful as the decapitated serpent slipped from the bloody stump of the neck, wiggled with nerves, and finally fell limp. 'The Dragonlord is dead.' she proclaimed, wiping the blood from her blade on the corpse's robes and returning it to her sheath.

Now, with a rush of avarice, she knelt down and tugged the gauntlet from his hand, remembering its blast had hurled her back and feeling it could be valuable. She pulled it onto her own hand for the sake of a place to put it, then looted whatever gold and jewels she could spy. Finally, she retrieved Chu-Lung's severed head, with the serpent head inside. It would be grisly proof of her slaying of the Dragonlord.

Gavan couldn't help but look at the severed head with just a bit of disgust. Killing anything was anathema to him, his people and his very culture.

"I think that takes care of the Dragon Lord," he said to Hilda. "We should go report to the Major."

'Hold on,' Fishing about the bedchamber, Hilda hacked open a pillow, pulled out the stuffing, and then stuffed the head inside, having made a serviceable sack for the bloody severed head. It was certainly an ignoble end for the Dragonlord Chu-Lung. 'Now we go.'
This message was last edited by the player at 01:50, Wed 17 Jan 2018.

Gavan grabs Hilda, activates his phase device, and walks back through the sealed door.

Once on the other side, Gavan and Hilda and the Jaffa head back down to the cargo bay level where the others are waiting and guarding the gate.

'Couldn't we just use the door?' Hilda complained as Gavan dragged her back through the wall again. It wasn't that she disliked this phasing through things, though she did; it just seemed lazy somehow.

Once back in the cargo bay, Hilda bowed to Vasandra and opened the makeshift sack, which had now become brown and soaked. With most of the Jaffa dead, there now seemed little need for all the grand words and lies. But Hilda was, at heart, a skald, and could hardly resist it. 'Lady Angrboða! Your foe, the Dragonlord Chu-Lung, is slain!' From the sack, she produced the severed head; holding it by the bony crest, she raised it in triumph for all to see displaying the hairless red skin, large eyes, flat nose, and the bloody stump of the neck, from which, amidst drips of blood, dangled half a Goa'uld serpent.

"We should move the ship away from this location," she suggested. "I believe we have enough liquid naquadah from the staff weapons we've recovered that we can power the ship for a short trip."

"We don't know where the mine is, but if we move the ship far away, that should eliminate anyone accessing it."

In reply to Freyda (msg # 79):

"Accessing what, the mine or the ship?" Kaspar asks, "I thought, with this gate on the ship, anyone with another gate could access this gate, no matter where on the planet we were?"

"Accessing the mine, to get more naquadah," Freyda replied.

"The only other possibility that I can suggest is that we remove the DHD from the ship, hide it or bury it somewhere. That way, we could still use it to dial back, but anyone that came through wouldn't be able to dial out."

"Perhaps we can get the First Ones to take the DHD for safekeeping. That way, if we come back, we'll know where to go and get it."

Hilda was rather disappointed that her trophy had not garnered more praise. She stuffed it back in the sack; at the very least, Jarl Hammond's wise men would want to examine the strange inhuman creature. In the end, it had really had been a dragon, or a dragon mane. There was a disappointing lack of wings and fire-breathing, however.

'Can we not fly the ship back to Earl Hammond?' Hilda proposed with a viking gleam in her blue eyes. 'He would wish to add it to his fleet.'

"That was the original idea," Gavan explained to Hilda. "It was one of the reasons Va... Angrboda was... um, here."

"It depended on the condition of the ship, of course. There is not enough liquid naquadah to take it all the way back to... Angrboda's home. And it would take months to cover that much distance."

'Then we must leave it here, broken so it cannot be used, until we find enough liquid naquadah or the First Ones claim it.' Hilda agreed. 'But we don't have to move it. After all, we can't hide it anywhere.'

"There was not enough room in the First Ones' city to set the ha'tak," Freyda responded, "so that isn't an option."

"Nor do we know what the city's defenses would do if we tried that."

"However, a planet is a big place. Merely putting the ship far away from here would suffice."

"There is still the problem with the gate."

"I believe we can use the DHD to open the gate to Earth, then remove a crystal from the DHD and take it with us when we go through the gate. In that way, anyone else that comes through the gate will not be able to return from whence they came. I do not believe they have any way to communicate through the wormhole the way that the SGC does, so those stranded here cannot tell others what they need."

"Will that work, Angrboda?" she asks, but looks at the Major.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 85):

Kaspar ponders for a moment,

"If we move the Ha'tak we lose quick access to The First city. And even if we do disable the DHD, we're not stopping Goa'uld forces from coming here by gate, we're only trapping them here."

"No, let's dial up the SGC and consult General Hammond. After all, I did ask for military support last time we called. At the least he might have a Tactical Squad ready to come over to guard the gate. At best he might have some kind of portable iris system we can install over here. Let's ask him, shall we?"

"Go ahead and dial, Freyda..."

'They can spend a few hours walking out here.' Hilda pointed out, remembering in time not to pay the Asgard too much respect in front of the remaining Jaffa. Who didn't seem all that worth worrying about now.

She agreed with Kaspar, remarking 'Even if we move the ha'tak to the other side of the planet, the Jaffa may still come here in death gliders. Or call for another ha'tak. And Jaffa stranded here will cause trouble for the First Ones.'

She looked over to the quiet Asherrra, wondering what thoughts she had about what was left on her world.

"Possibly, but with the ha'tak on the other side of the planet," Vasandra responded, "they may not find it."

"You have two of these self-styled Dragonlords destroyed. It could be awhile before another Dragonlord realizes that something is amiss. Those two Dragonlords had the gate address, but they may have been the only two."

"As it is, the gate had to have come from somewhere nearby for the gate address to have still been able to dial it. Once that was done, of course, it updated itself."

"We don't really know the political situation around these parts. We've probably only scratched the surface."

Gavan went ahead and dialed the Earth address on the strange triangular DHD, after making sure that none of the Jaffa could see the address.

It was up to Kasper, Rajip or Vasandra to transmit the code, although it's possible that Freyda could have done it as well.

Kasper is now able to report to General Hammond.

Hilda shrugged to Vasandra, unable to disagree. She watched as Gavan opened the Ring of Stars and waited for Kaspar to contact Earl Hammond. 'Why don't we just go back now?' she whispered to the others. There didn't seem to be much else to do here, apart from get rid of the last Jaffa.

Asherrra said little, but watched everything that went on.

"Am I to be permitted to travel through the gate with you back to your world?" she asked.

"There is much the First Ones wish to know about the universe that our teachings may not have prepared us for. As it is, I will be the only First One to have traveled through the ancient Alteran portals."

"We do not venture out much from our city, but the Elders realize that a time will soon come when it will be necessary for us to do so. Thus, where the Goa'uld craft resides does not matter to us, as we will not go anywhere near it, nor will the Goa'uld come near us. Do not be concerned for us on that matter."

"The Goa'uld have been coming to this planet for the power mineral for centuries. There is no one here for them to enslave, so they have little interest in it. They have learned to keep their presence low for fear of activating the Guardian."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Mon 12 Feb 2018.

'You could be the first of the First!' Hilda laughed, clapping Asherrra on the shoulder. She called to Kaspar where he was working out how to communicate with Earth. 'Kaspar! Ask the earl if Asherrra may come back with us as emissary.'

In reply to Hilda (msg # 92):

Kaspar nodded acknowledgement (to everyone talking at him), as he keyed his microphone,

"SG-X1 Actual, calling SGC." Kaspar sent, "Repeat: SG-X1 Actual, calling SGC. All loose ends have been cleared up on this end, now, General. Ready to discuss next phase of mission. No matter how I look at it, General, it looks like we've got our hands on an unfueled but otherwise operational Ha'tak as well as another working Stargate."

"What do you want us to do with all these goodies, General?"

"Good work, Major!" General Hammond answers.

"We weren't sure what we would find at first, but the short and sweet answer is: we want you to bring them both back!"

"Unfortunately, neither will fit through the stargate. Even if we could refuel the ha'tak, it'd take you the better part of a year to return to Earth. At least the globular cluster isn't on the other side of the galaxy."

"I've been talking to the scientists and engineers, and neither group thinks it would be feasible to send a tech team through to study the ha'tak. Too much risk of getting caught, and insufficient tools at hand."

"We've got no way of destroying either of them. Not that I think that's a good idea. The object is to keep them out of the hands of the Goa'uld."

"What about moving the ship and stargate to where the naquadah mine is? We might be able to get in a bit of mining before the Dragonlords figure it out."

"I'm already assembling a contact team to deal with the First Ones."

"As our man on site, Major, do  you have any recommendations?"

In reply to _General Hammond (msg # 94):

"Actually, Sir, I do." Kaspar responds, gesturing for everyone to move closer and join in the conversation,

"As you point out, flying this Ha'tak back to Earth would take a year, even assuming we could get that much naquada -- which we probably could, if we mined and refined if from here, in the weeks it would take to outfit and supply this ship for that trip. You must remember, Sir, that the Green Slime ate everything of an organic and near-organic nature. There are no food supplies aboard, no sheets on the beds, no mattresses, no freshwater reserves, no laundry detergent, no cleaning supplies ... no toilet paper!"

"And then, even if we do fly it back to Earth, where are you going to hide something the size of a small Egyptian pyramid? No, I really don't think that flying this Ha'tak back to earth, at this time, is the way to go."

"However, moving the Ha'tak to the mine site is an excellent idea, both for defense of the site as well as ease for us to continue mining it for our own naquada needs. But, after moving the Ha'tak, I suggest we render it immobile by removing it's propulsion engines - shipping those systems back to earth for study and retro-engineering. We keep the power systems active and convert the Ha'tak into an SGC facility, on this planet. An embassy, of sorts, as well as a cultural exchange center with the First Ones."

"We keep this gate here, rig up an iris, move in a command team, place some security troops, store supplies in the spaces made empty by removing the flight engines, turn one or two of these cargo bays into vehicle bays for land rovers and lorries and mining equipment and such. Then set up the Diplomats and the Scientists, and we have a fully functional base, complete with functional shields and defensive energy weapons."

"I think the Ha'tak would make an ideal, ready-made base facility. And, it would remain in the possession of the SGC, available for study whenever wanted."

"Somewhat of a good idea, Major," Gavan adds. "Not that some of the things you suggest can't be done, but it won't be easy. Goa'uld pyramid ships are built from the ground up... engines first, then the rest is built around them."

"You'd have to prop the four corners up on some sort of platform to get access to the underside just to get at the engines. Not sure, even then, that they could be removed. They don't build things with interchangeable parts, only with consistent parts because they aren't very creative. If a ha'tak got damaged, for instance, but the engines were intact, they'd just dismantle the old one and build a new one around the old engines."

"Also, you don't have the technology to refine naquadah yet. Neither Freyda nor I have the knowledge to assist you in that endeavor, though possibly Vasandra does."

He pauses for a moment before continuing.

"As a cultural exchange base for the First Ones, that is very good idea. It would get them acclimated to leaving their city, establish us as allies, and educate them to another culture."

"As I understand it, the mine isn't that far from here. It's why the ship crashed in this location--it was on its way to the mine. I suspect the mine is probably hidden, as it was coveted by all the Dragonlords. It was probably the main source of political power for the Dragonlord that owned the ha'tak."

As they spoke to Earl Hammond, Hilda chipped in what she thought necessary to the reports and proposals.



'There is a Stargate. You could bring supplies.' she pointed out.



'Mars?'


She didn't have much more to add. Insteadm Hilda went to the shimmering portal of the Ring of Stars. 'Earl Hammond, please raise the iris!' Then, with an underarm throw, she hurled the bloody sack through. On the radio, she declared 'Earl Hammond! I deliver you the head of the Dragonlord Chu-Lung!'

Not sure what the 'threat' was, Hammond indicated to close the iris. A moment later, there was a splat-like sound that was only partially distorted by the iris's metal.

"What was that?" he called back before it registered what Hilda meant.

"Well, that was interesting, though I'm not sure that was the best way to dispose of it. We have no presence in the cluster, and they have no concerns in this part of the galaxy, so it probably doesn't matter."

"On the other hand, you've effectively stolen a ha'tak from them. That may have consequences."

"I'll take your suggestions under advisement, Major, but I'm inclined to agree with you. For the moment, I suggest you move the ha'tak to the mine, and I'll assemble a team to fill that temporary base."

"Anything else?"

OOC: Oops. I meant to open the iris. I thought it was already closed. :) Hilda's going to have to scrub that off, isn't she? :\

Hearing the soft thud over the radio, Hilda winced then had a sheepish look. 'I meant... ah, never mind.'

After that escapade, she rejoined the others, asking 'Can the ha'tak be... made to sail itself? We tell it to go to Midgard – Earth – then pick it up when it comes.'

"Yes, Hilda, the ship can be placed on auto-pilot," Gavan replied, "but over that long a distance, any number of things can go wrong."

"In any case, the ship doesn't have the fuel to go anywhere, and someone would probably need to refuel the ship about halfway there."

"I think placing that ha'tak at the mine and using it as a base is a good idea... with one exception. You can't leave the stargate on board. Any number of nasty things can be sent through it, including a naquadah bomb. Or even flying a death glider through it."

"I don't know if one of your irises would stop either of those."

"There are other things that could be done as well."

'We are going to take the magic crystals out of the altar, are we not?' Hilda checked, indicating the DHD. 'That will close the Ring of Stars... But also stop us from returning. We can give them to the First Ones, so they only open it at certain times.'

"Taking the crystals out of the altar will not prevent the gate from functioning, Hilda," Freyda responded. "That will only make it so no one can operate the gate from this side."

"Others can still dial in... they could come through the chappa'i and just be stranded here, as they could not then go back."

"I am not sure if the First Ones could reinsert the crystals into the altar, though it is not that hard."

In reply to Freyda (msg # 102):

Kaspar nods at everyone's ideas, but turns to the still-active gate and opens his comm again, before addressing his team mates.

"Oh, by the way, General," Kaspar transmits, "we actually still have one local Jaffa left with us - and he's starting to look a little lost at sea.  He could be a valuable source of current info on the doings in this star cluster, so, is there one of the Free Jaffa available to come over here and take him in tow?  Maybe help him adjust to the new life paradigm he's faced with?  Or a Tok'ra? Whoever is helping Jaffa adjust to freedom?"

Without waiting for an answer, Kaspar releases the mic and turns to his fellows, "Right, those are all good points you've all made. How about this - right now we put as much liquid naquada into the Ha'tak fuel tanks as we can scrounge up, then hope that it's enough to fly this beast to the mine. We set it down at a location as close to the mine as we can, in a nice strategic spot."

"Once we've landed at the mine - and probably with a few helpers from home - we then move the 'Gate and its DHD to a spot outside, maybe several hundred yards from the Ha'tak, but also someplace that we can keep the gate covered by weapons on the Ha'tak.  Whether those are already installed Goa'uld weapons, or weapons installed aboard by us, doesn't matter, just as long as we can put any hostiles coming through the gate under fire."

"We'll leave any future installation of an iris up to the General."

"How's that sound, Ladies and Gentlemen?"

"An excellent idea, Major!" Gavan said a bit wryly at Kaspar's reiteration of what they had just told him.

"Moving the stargate out of the ha'tak is not going to be the easy thing you think it is," he added. "No doubt the Dragonlord used some sort of Ancient gravity control device to load it on in the first place."

"I believe the First Ones can assist you with that," the Cat-ffolk spoke up. "We have a few Lifters given to us by the Alterans. It should only require two of them to move the portal."

"Will that be sufficient incentive to let me visit your world?"

Hilda shrugged at the plan they'd settled on and Kaspar outlined. She had no more objections or ideas. In fact, she just wanted to go back to Earth, now the exciting stuff was done here. She hadn't watched Xena in ages. 'This is fine.'

She had an idea on what to do with the Ring of Stars, however, without needing an iris. 'If you tip the stargate on its face, the vortex will make a big pit. Then anyone who comes through will fall in and be trapped and vulnerable. Or dead. We can radio before we come, and you can lift it up again.'

"Alas, I cannot gainsay General Hammond letting you visit Earth, Asherrra," Gavan replies to the First One.

"Just as you and your kin live in a single city, so, too, do the Tau'ri live in multiple cities across the entire world. Only one small city knows about the stargates, and even those aren't always comfortable around non-humans."

"It isn't likely that you would be allowed outside that one small city because those outside would be afraid of you. Even in that city, you would likely be stared at out of curiosity."

"However, I will put in a good word for you to General Hammond."

He then addressed Hilda.

"Yes, anyone passing through the gate would be stuck in the hole created by the emergent wormhole, and it would be obvious that the gate had been activated, but how then would anyone get to those so trapped?"

"Lowering and raising the gate is not so easy a task, though the secrecy needed on Earth would probably not be necessary here."

"It is a possibility, though. I think they would appreciate a simply solution."

'There's a city?!' Hilda exclaimed at the revelation. 'I'm trapped under Cheyenne Mountain while somewhere there's a whole city I could visit?'

'The hole is just for killing people.' she explained plainly. She tried to think of something less horrific, and naturally considered how her homeworld was protected, and Freyda standing close by. 'The Asgard. Lady Freyda, can the Asgard protect the First under the Protected Planets Treaty?'

In reply to Hilda (msg # 108):

"Actually, Asherrra, I think Gavin may be calling our Star Gate Command facility a 'city', for lack of a better word." Kaspar says, "The SGC is built underground - under an entire mountain, actually - it is very large and has several hundred people living in it; soldiers, technical personnel and scientists, all working to run our exploration mission.  They sleep there, eat there, work and recreate there; they live entire lives in that underground facility - just like they would if living in a city on the surface of the world."

"I think we could probably convince General Hammond to allow you to visit, but Gavin was right that we probably would not be allowed to show you around outside the SGC.  We Tau'ri - that's the Goa'uld name for us, by the way; we call ourselves either 'Earthlings', because everyone there calls my planet 'Earth' these days.  Or we call ourselves Terrans, which is based on what we called our world many, many centuries ago; back then our world was called Terra.  That's the name The Ancients - the Alterans - knew our world by"

"Anyways, Terrans are new on the galactic scene; we've only just started using Stargates, and we've run into some difficulties with the Goa'uld - only we don't have an ancient Alteran defense system to protect our world. We're doing that on our own and so far, we're holding our own."

"But our general population is, as yet, unaware of our using the Stargate, or of the SGC's encountering many races unknown on Terra.  Our governments on the homeworld feel that many of our world's population would panic, if that information were just thrust out there, so the SCG and what we do remain a secret from the general population, while our governments take time to prepare our people for these facts, in a way that will avoid any panic."

Kaspar suddenly raises a hand to halt the conversation momentarily, then he reaches up and keys his microphone, while turning to look at the still active gate,

"General Hammond, Major Gorski, here.  Any word on someone coming to counsel this lost Jaffa, over here?  I'm in no hurry, of course, Sir - but I would remind you that there is a Cimmerian over here, Sir.  And she has her sword out ... Sir."

Kaspar releases the mic and winks at Hilda, with a grin.

"There's no one available at the moment, Major," General Hammond replies to Kaspar, "plus there are the logistics to work out."

"We are looking into getting this Bra'tak fellow for the task."

"Meanwhile, go ahead and relocate the ha'tak to the mine entrance. Report again in two hours if  you are successful."

"I suspect that when you next return to Terra, the Earl Hammond will let you visit some of the cities," Freyda replied to Hilda.

"It is not that they don't trust you, but that your customs are different than theirs. They wanted to make sure you understood that before letting you wander around their streets. Remember, not everyone on Terra is a warrior. You could easily hurt some of them without meaning to."

"Oh. And it is not like Xena either."

'But Lady Freyda,' Hilda protested, 'I would only hurt those I mean to.'

Catching Kaspar's wink, she thought she got his meaning. She drew her sword...
This message was last edited by the player at 08:10, Fri 16 Mar 2018.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 112):

"O Mary, Mother of God! No!" Kaspar blurts out, waving for Hilda to sheath her sword, "I didn't mean you were actually threatening him..." Kaspar glances to the side, to check and see if the Jaffa is still confused, or if he might be starting to understand what's really happening here.

"I only said that to light a fire under Hammond's ass and get someone over here to take charge of the poor guy."

Before it had fully emerged, Hilda slid her sword back into its sheath. 'Oh.' She didn't ask about his intended burning of Earl Hammond; perhaps it was only in effigy.

"Besides, he may know where the mine is," Gavan spoke up again. "If not from here, then perhaps once we get to the right coordinates, he'll know where the entrance is."

"Remember, this was supposed to be a secret location, though it seems as if most of the Dragonlords knew there was a naquadah mine here. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if a single ha'tak was permitted to land at the mine, but more than one at a time might trigger the Alteran defense system. Simply mining for a natural resource could easily be perceived as peaceful, whereas multiple ha'taks or other ships could be considered aggressive or exploitative."

"So, it looks like Freyda and I need to replace the engineering crystals and then the bridge control crystals. We'll also need to drain the staffs of their naquadah and put it in the power core."

"Vasandra can give Hilda the command, and Hilda, you can have the Jaffa bring all the staffs down to engineering."

He glanced over at Vasandra and was surprised to see that she seemed to be enjoying her role as a goddess. At any rate, she seemed to be maintaining her pretense. But was that a flicker of excitement in her eyes at the prospect of finally flying the ha'tak?

This role as a goddess didn't really suit her, but Vasandra could just as easily play the strong silent type, since a pilot seldom had anyone to talk to other than herself, and that route often led to madness as you started answering yourself and then imagining you were talking to someone else.

If it wasn't so odd and scary, it'd probably be amusing. The sole remaining Jaffa was hardly a threat, especially without a weapon, but she couldn't let him see that she was concerned about the near-bickering conversation of the others. She had to maintain her disinterested aloofness. When things had finally been resolved and the gate had closed once more, she looked at the others, and said, in Goa'uld:

"I have listened to what you have said. It is now my wish to implement The Plan."

"Freyda and Gavan, prepare the ha'tak for flight. Hilda, have your Second gather up the staff weapons and take them to engineering so that their naquadah may be used to fuel the ship."

"While you are at it, have him direct you to the mine's location."

"I will be in the pel'tak. Asherrra and Kaspar, with me. Rajip, assist Hilda."

She didn't know if the First One understood the pretense that was going on, nor did she know if Asherrra could assist Freyda in any way, though she doubted it. She also did not know how well the First One could fight if trouble occurred with the Jaffa. So, the best course was to keep her with Kaspar and herself.

Anyway, she wanted to be on the bridge when the power was brought back on line so she could see if the ship had any other damage or problems. As soon as the Jaffa's back was turned, though, she gave Kaspar a wink, to let him know she was still playing the game.

In reply to Vasandra Tourmaline (msg # 116):

"As the Goddess commands, we obey." Kaspar says, bowing low towards Vasandra, then straightening and gesturing towards Asherrra,

"Come, my dear, we follow the Goddess." Kaspar says to the First One, giving her a wink - then hoping that that means the same thing to her people as it does to Terrans.

Either way, Kaspar and Asherrra fall in behind Vasandra - that is, behind 'Angrboða' - and follow her up to the pel'tak.

'Are we still doing this?' Hilda muttered irritably, then caught herself and returned to her role as First Prime. 'Yes, my queen. I obey.'

She marched off and waved the last remaining Jaffa to follow her, giving orders in Goa'uld. 'Kree! We must gather the ma'tok staffs and take them to Engineering.' With him and Rajip in tow, she returned to the sight of the battle between the Jaffa.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 118):

OOC: Hmmm.  Actually, doesn't that mean that Hilda, Rajip & Jaffa Joe are also heading up to the pel'tak with Vasandra, Kaspar & Asherrra?  I mean, the pel'tak is where the big Jaffa fight happened, ain't it?

OOC: On a ramp up to the pel'tak, yes. Also, I named Jaffa Joe Bar'tok, so he doesn't have to be "Hey, you." any more. :)

Bar'tok seems suitably impressed at Angrboda's plan to use the staff weapons to refuel the ship, though he probably doesn't realize how little that's going to be. So he dutifully follows behind Angrboda and gathers up the staff weapons when they find them. All in all, there are probably two dozen staff weapons... some left from the slime, and those recovered from the battle.

Once you've taken all the staff weapons down to engineering, Bar'tok seems a bit disappointed that he can't keep one of the staff weapons so that he can defend his new god, but he understands that every staff weapon needs to be used.

He certainly has no liking for the would be hijackers, and really is still impressed than Angrboda slew the Slime God.

He pretty much thinks that Kaspar, Rajip, Hilda and Gavan are 'Jaffa', albeit from a strange world somewhere that he's never heard of, but he's very impressed that Freyda and Asherrra are under the sway of Angrboda.

Once they were done with the work, Hilda faced Bar'tok. 'Thank you. Now, where is the naquadah mine on this planet? The goddess wishes for this ha'tak to guard it against her enemies.'

"It is in the base of the Little Peak on the north side of the Blue Mountain," Bar'tok replies.

"I do not know where that is from here, as the ha'tak crashed off course. I did not see the Blue Mountain while I was outside, but then none of us had really been looking for it. We had more immediate concerns."

'How far off course?' Hilda asked, 'Kilometres or continents?'

"I do not know this thing you call 'kill o'meaters'," Bar'tok answers, "so I cannot answer in that manner. I am not a pilot or navigator. The others seemed to think we were on the right continent, and they were concerned that the proximity of the crash site to the First Ones might trigger a retaliation."

"I cannot say what that means, though."

So, Bar'tok knew next to nothing, if not nothing itself. 'Have you seen this Blue Mountain? Would you know it if you saw it again?' she asked, as she led him back up to the pel'tak. Maybe Vasandra could make something of it?

"Absolutely. Probably. I think so," Bar'tok replied.

"No one looked through windows as the ha'tak landed. It was only after it landed and we exited the starship that a view of the mountain was possible. Unless there is more than one blue mountain, it should be easily spotted."

Hilda hmmed at their mountain-spotting chances, and continued leading him to the pel'tak.

While Freyda could have installed the crystals herself, it went faster with Freyda telling him which crystal to put where. Soon, the crystals had all been replaced in the engineering level. They still had a few left over, but those had come from the pel'tak.

Emptying the naquadah from the staff weapons into the 'fuel tank' was another story. It wasn't really designed to do that from the inside. It required dismantling a section, disconnecting the fuel line, now pouring it in and then putting it all back together.

Finally, it was done.

With all the doors open now, Gavan was pretty sure he could communicate with the Major who should be up in the pel'tak by now.

"Gavan to Major Gorski. The controls are operational again. The ship has power. Freyda estimates you've got about an hour of flight time."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:30, Sun 08 Apr 2018.

In reply to Gavan (msg # 129):

"Roger that, Gavan, I'll inform the Captain." Kaspar responds, "Standby for flight engine activation. Over."

Kaspar turns to Vasandra, standing near the flight controls, "The Ha'tak is fueled and power is restored, O Great One." he says with a big grin,

"My recommendation would be to lift off slowly, but at the same time move away from the City of The First Ones. Hopefully we won't get shot at if we're not being threatening. Once we get up to a kilometer or so we can start looking for any geological features that resemble blue mountains.  With luck we shall see just such a feature and be able to get to it before we run out of naquada."

Kaspar grins again and makes a deep bow towards Vasandra, "At your pleasure, O Great One."

With Bar'tok in tow, Hilda had ascended to the pel'tak, where she dutifully reported what Bar'tok had told her about the location of the mine and the so-called blue mountains. That wasn't too helpful, but Hilda had the advantage of being an experienced woodsman and mountain traveller. Certain trees could make mountains seem blue. So could some kinds of stone, or a lot of ice.

She crossed to the computers, asking Vasandra and Kaspar 'Can I see maps and paintings of the land on these? I might be able to find these mountains.'


OOC: Can I use Survival (mountains) to navigate?
22:03, Today: Hilda rolled 15 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 6. survival - mountains.
Switch to 12 if a basic Survival check is preferred.

As Vasandra lifts the ha'tak off the ground, getting it airborne, she calls up the maps and 'paintings' for Hilda.

Hilda, of course, is already familiar with 'moving paintings', although she's probably more used to the story-telling version that involves scene shifts and fades.

Now, the paintings line up with the map, and the painting moves as the ship movies, showing a continuous image, even one that changes elevation.

Vasandra zooms out on the map to show three distinct mountain ranges in the area. She tried to call up the entry trajectory of the ship when it crashed, but it was already low enough on power that the flight log had shut down. All she was able to get was an initial vector.

"This range here probably wasn't the one the ship was headed for. Unfortunately, the course appears to bisect the other two," she explained.

She kept the ship low over the ground just in case power failed and they crashed again.

"I can find no coordinates for the mine in the ship's logs. Apparently, the Dragonlord wanted to keep it secret and didn't trust his own computer or Jaffa."

"Bar'tok. Do any of these mountains appear familiar?"

As the image zoomed in on the distant mountains, making the appear to grow larger, Bar'tok steps forward to get a 'closer' look.

"There! That one!" he says excitedly. "And that one. And that one..."

The three that he points out do, indeed, have blue appearance. The range to the north has a blue tinge to all the peaks, which gets stronger to the eastern end, strongest on the last peak which has a clear separation from the rest of the range.

The southeastern range is rockier, and the leftmost peak has the blue of the other range. The other mountain has a definitely blue coloring to the rock face.

It's not hard to imagine the blue being more pronounced at certain times of the day or from certain angles.

'The mine is at the base of the Little Peak on the north side of the Blue Mountain, you said.' Hilda confirmed with Bar'tok. Peering over the displays, she tried to find a blue mountain with a small peak north of it that might fit the description...

There's only one blue mountain that has a small peak to the north of it; the other two have larger peaks near them.

As the ship flies over to the little peak and starts to circle around it, Bar'tok says:

"There! That's it! That pile of rocks! The rocks are hollow and can be moved aside easily. Does not look like anyone else has been here."

As the ship sets down, you note that the flight only took about 15 minutes. It could have been faster if you'd known where you were going. Still, that gives you about 45 minutes of reserve power for the ship.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 135):

"Well, if we can't land right on top of the mine, then land in the best, closest location." Kaspar say's looking out (thru?) the great window in the pel'tak to view the landscape, below, "Then use whatever naquada we have left to charge up any and all secondary and tertiary power supplies - back-up batteries or whatever will give us some stored power for the longest time.  You'd know better, Cap--uh, I mean O Great One!"

"Once we're settled in, we can check the mine and see if refining any more naquada for our own use is even possible. Otherwise, we secure the site and settle in to wait for General Hammond to send support and relief."

Throughout the flight, Hilda had surveyed the lay of the land, from where they had been near the First's city to the Blue Mountain. Although the journey had been short, by air, she knew well that the return journey, a trek through the wilderness on foot, would be much, much longer. It might be hard for Asherrra to return home once she was done visiting Earl Hammond, or for another SG team to visit the First.

'Ugh. I have no wish to see a boring mine.' she groaned.


OOC: How far away is it by ground?

If you tried to go back to the crash site overland, it'd be about 30 miles, with maybe a third of it over rough terrain or a bit of mountain climbing.

As it turns out, however, the mine is on the other side of the First One's city. Apparently, the crash was a result of over-shooting the mine. When the ship ran out of power, it no longer had control to alter course.

From the mine to the First One's city is probably only 5 miles... perhaps a bit longer circling around the mountain. But it's over slightly rolling hills and through the forest.
This message was last updated by the GM at 17:54, Fri 13 Apr 2018.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 138):

Kaspar turns a melodramatic look of shock upon Hilda and places his hand over his heart as if to calm it.

"Guð minn góður!" Kaspar exclaims, "Is Hilda the Cimmerian actually complaining about having to do some honest travel by foot?!  Has she become so corrupted by Tau'ri ways that she now only travels by - dare I say it? - automobile?!  Call forth the Skalds! This dark day the Gods in Asgard are weeping!  Freyda! O my dear Freyda, do you not weep?"

Kaspar finally stops and giggles for a few moments at his own wit.

"Eh-heh ... Not to worry, Hilda ... heh ... That is why Americans invented the Jeep."

Hilda scowled thunderously at Kaspar. 'I just don't want to have to carry your ass, old man.' she returned, in similar but less merry humour. She pointed at the screen and map. 'I'm planning our journey by foot for when we return to the First city. It is easier to do up here than under the trees. I also have no wish to crawl underground like a worm, unless there are dwarves with a magic sword for me.' she explained, and approached threateningly 'And don't you dare make me ride in a Jeep.'
This message was last edited by the player at 11:56, Sat 14 Apr 2018.

"Really, Hilda? Do you know what a jeep is?" Rajip asked. "Have you ridden in one before? I'd think it'd be a bit like riding a horse. At least, I always thought of it that way. Well, I think of riding a jeep across rough terrain. That part's fun."

In reply to Rajip Mojdar (msg # 141):

Kaspar turns to Bar'tok - though the warrior's been cooperative so far, the Jaffa's loyalties must still be considered in question - so, in a hopefully respectful-enough tone he asks,

"Jaffa Bar'tok, if I may ask a question," Kaspar says, bowing his head to the warrior, "How was the naquada to be collected? Were there slaves aboard this vessel who were to do the mining?  Or are their miners already at the mine, just waiting for this vessel to show up and gather the mined ore?  Or is the mine automated - that is, are there no people in there, but machines doing all the work with no or little supervision by people?"

Hilda grumbled an answer 'I rode in a Jeep around Cheyenne Mountain. No roof, no sides, I almost thought I was going to fall out.' She'd had a happier time riding in a car on their trip to Colorado Springs, so it seemed she felt safer in a contained automobile.

"There is machinery in the mine, but it does not run by itself," Bar'tok replied. "Men were brought along to run the equipment. I was not one of them, though, so I don't know much about it."

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 144):

"Cholera!" Kaspar whispers harshly in Polish, after Bar'toks  response.

"No people at the mine, no automation, means there is no ready ore available for immediate conversion to fuel." Kaspar adds for everyone else, "We still have to check, maybe some small amount of ore got left behind, last visit. If not, we may have to do some mining ourselves."

Kaspar turns slightly to fully address the floating Asgard, "Freyda - first, do you know how to process naquada ore into fuel for this Ha'tak?  I'd really like to activate its defenses, if we should need them.  But, if you don't, do you have that info in your Asgard Database?  Then, if do know the process, do you think you can find the equipment you need here aboard the Ha'tak to do it with?"

Kaspar turns back towards Vasandra ... "Capt--" ... only to almost bump into Bar'tok, whom Kaspar had forgotten was standing there.

"Uh, please forgive my lack of attention, Jaffa." Kaspar apologizes, then looks over at Vasandra/Angrboda, "Ah, Supreme Mistress, perhaps you would care to take full possession of this Ha'tak, and maintain your omniscient observation of all things around us, while your ... technical? ... slaves? ... continue working for your glory?" Kaspar asks the Captain, casually resting his right hand on the pel'tak's sensor panel.

"Or working for a plate of lamb and gorgonzola pierogis." Kaspar adds sotto voce.

Kaspar draws himself to attention before Vasandra,

"Supreme One, it is the opinion of this one, your Senior Technical Slave, that, with your blessing, myself and Technical Slave Gavin should go to the mine and assess all materials and equipment found there. We would require escort by your new Jaffa Prime and the new Jaffa." Kaspar indicates Hilda and Bar'tok with a gesture of his left hand.

Hilda grimaced at the idea of having to mine like a thrall for this ore. She was not afraid of hard work, but she didn't have to like it, not when they had better things to be doing. 'How much of this ore would we need?'
This message was last edited by the player at 02:39, Mon 23 Apr 2018.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 146):

"Haven't the foggiest clue, my dear." Kaspar replied, "I'm hoping we don't have to do any digging, myself. But we won't know until we check out the mine.  Hopefully we don't need much; it's not like we're trying to refuel for an extended hyper-trip.  We just need enough to keep the lights on around here. Heh - I suppose Technical Slave Freyda would probably know."

"I will need two buckets of liquid naquadah," Vasandra states. "Depending on the quality of the ore, it should take about 20 buckets of ore to produce the necessary naquadah."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:25, Sun 29 Apr 2018.

In reply to Vasandra Tourmaline (msg # 148):

"Buckets." Kaspar responded, holding his hands up in front of himself and gesturing, "You talking water bucket sized, or something the size of a Skoda commercial lorry?"

'We don't have buckets.' Hilda pointed out wearily. She was starting to see herself living here, building a house, running a farm, and didn't like the idea at all. 'Or shovels or picks or even entrenching tools. Let us go back to Earth. Earl Hammond can send back a team with the right tools for this mining.'

Vasandra gives Kaspar an odd look.

"A water bucket. What a person can carry," she explains. "I could have given you an amount in kilograms or pounds or trins but half of you would not have understood that. So I used a common term."

"According to Bar'tok, the right tools are here. The only thing missing is manpower. Or woman-power, if you prefer. Depending on what type of tools there are, it should only take you about an hour to mine the required ore."

"Who do you think should do this mining, Hilda, if not you and the others?"

Once Vasandra explained it, the mining effort didn't seem so hard or time-consuming after all, and Hilda was the strongest one here. Moreover, Hilda remembered they were still playing at being servants of a goddess for Bar'tok's benefit. 'I will do it, your greatness.' she conceded with a bow.

She hadn't really been trying to criticize Hilda, but, for the moment, she was still playing a role... for Bar'tok's sake. The Jaffa did not appear to be stupid or particularly ignorant, but the Goa'uld kept their servants uneducated and in the dark as a matter of policy.

She tried to catch Hilda's eye when Bar'tok was looking elsewhere, and gave Hilda a wink. It had taken the Netjerian a long time to learn how to do that.

Following Hilda as she led the way out of the ha'tak, with Kaspar and Gavan, just behind him, upon reaching the rocks where he'd said the entrance to the mine is, Bar'tok walks over to the rocks and lifts a huge boulder and casually sets it aside.

"See? I told you they were fake," he says.

He moves the rest of them aside, being careful not to pile them in an odd way.

Thus revealed is a tunnel heading into the mountain.

"I've never been inside, so I have no idea what we'll find."

Noticing the wink from Vasandra, Hilda's heart skipped a beat. She had a chance with her after all!

*

Hilda was surprised and somewhat jealous to see Bar'tok lift the heavy boulder, declaring 'I can do that.' before he said it was fake and she realised it was probably plastic or something. She stepped in to help move fake boulders too, as well as some real ones.

She peered into the darkness of the tunnel, expecting dwarves and dragons to come crawling out. 'Well, let's go in and see.' Steeling herself, she ventured into the tunnel...

Some distance in, she realised the Tau'ri had invented flashlights for a reason.

About the time that Hilda realized a flashlight would be helpful, Kaspar moved up holding one. Shining it onto the walls, it can be seen that the tunnel had been cut with something akin to a laser as the walls were perfectly flat and smooth and straight. The flashlight also revealed that there was a switch for the overhead lights tucked into the upper corners.

Neither the walls nor the ceiling seemed to be braced or reinforced in any way, but it was clear that it was just the natural stone of the mountain.

The lights were triangular boxes stuck up into the corners. Each was about 6 feet long, staggered every 6 feet.

Flicking the switch turned the lights on down the whole length of the tunnel. It went about 200 feet into the mountain.

Continuing down the tunnel, it opens into a large chamber, nearly 100 feet across and 40 feet high. This is where the mining equipment is. Unlike the tunnel, the chamber looks like it was blasted out, and there are still small piles of rubble scattered along the base of the walls.

There is a rack in the middle of the chamber that has large 'coal' shovels hanging on it, with square plastic buckets underneath them.

There are only two pieces of machinery visible--a blaster and a smelter.

Hilda had led the way into the heart of the mountain, on the alert for slime-beasts and dwarves, dragons, or even the terrifying draugr, but was to find nothing as she finally made it to the mine-site. She surveyed the chamber, from basic equipment she understood, like shovels and buckets, to more complex machinery that must be part of the smith's magic.

'How will we know this ore?' she wondered as she sighed and went to get a bucket.

Gavan walks in and over to the equipment.

"I suppose this is better than jackhammers and pickaxes," he says as he examines the blaster, "but only slightly better than dynamite."

"It's essentially a staff weapon mounted on a carriage. I'm guessing it allows for better accuracy. Once a section of wall is reduced to rubble, the buckets are used to carry the raw ore over to the smelter. One of the benefits of fusion--the smelter doesn't have to be big and bulky."

He walks over to one of the walls where there is rubble on the floor of the cave, bends over and picks up a rock.

"It's hard to spot... depending on the richness of the ore... but this looks to be low-grade."

He shows the rock to Hilda.

"See this greenish shine here? That's the actual naquadah ore, called muv'ak. This is just a trace amount. Oh. See here? On the wall? That green shine is more. Unlike some metals, naquadah doesn't occur in veins. It tends to occur in large lumps, although there are usually several such lumps in a deposit."

"It looks like they were mining in that direction. I hope they knew there was another lump that way."

"Anyway, you'd better use the blaster on that wall," he added, taking the bucket from her with a sideways glance at Bar'tok.

"Grab a bucket, Bar'tok. We'll have to haul the ore to the smelter the old-fashioned way. I've seen mines with a scoop-loader and conveyor belt that picks up the ore, transports it on the belt to the smelter and then dumps it in. That's good for large-scale operations. This wasn't one of those, though."

"Hmmmm. I wonder why that is? Dragonlord competition?"

In reply to Gavan (msg # 158):

"Ah...I though that Naquada was a, wait, I have to think think of the English...." Kaspar taps the side of his head as he thinks, "Ah, yes!  I thought that Naquada was a 'power amplifying' material? That it increased the amount of energy directed at it, sometimes explosively?  I can see that it's obvious they were shattering the wall with this blaster -- with success, so far!  But, um, is it safe?"

"You are thinking of the refined mineral, Kaspar," Gavan replies. "What you would call 'weapons-grade naquadah'. In its raw form, it is mostly inert, and the plasma energy of a staff weapon is not amplified."

"It functions much like one of your nuclear warheads. It requires a small chemical explosion to trigger the much larger nuclear explosion. Because of its density, naquadah energy is unleashed from a small amount of stimulating energy. It's why the naquadah runs out as it's consumed while releasing all that stored energy."

"You'd be surprised at how much energy the ha'tak uses just to fly, let alone provide all the other aspects of its operation: shields, weapons, life support, sensors. Like your automobiles, the faster it goes, the more of its fuel it consumes."

"Blasting the wall is perfectly safe. I would not recommend doing it to a vial of liquid naquadah, though."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:45, Fri 04 May 2018.

Following Gavan's explanations, Hilda looked closely over the greenish bits in the rocks and in the wall, making sure she knew what to look for. Despite his promises, she began to share Kaspar's doubts that this was safe. She knew from her time as a thrall to Heru'ur that the Goa'uld did not particularly care for the safety of those who did the work. Regardless, there was no other choice.

She went over to the blaster, finding it to be just a staff cannon, essentially a larger form of staff weapon, like those mounted on Death Gliders. She knew how to operate a staff weapon, and guessed this own was already set to function properly. 'You might want to move out of the way.' she warned her companions before she would off a blast.

After everyone else steps back, Hilda tentatively lets a blast go at the wall. The result is both expected and strange. The blast slams into the wall and causes a rather large hole due to the brittleness of the stone. At the same time, it sends a lot of shards flying back at Hilda.

Not surprisingly, there is no protection for the user from the shrapnel-like stone fragments. The Goa'uld saw no reason to protect the user. They were supposed to be tough enough to take it.

Or to wear Jaffa armour and helms. Hilda ducked the blast-back of debris, covering her face and thankful for her own steel helm and kevlar vest. Next time, she would work behind her shield. Raising her head, she peered into settling cloud of dust. 'Is that enough?'


OOC: Any damage?

No, Hilda doesn't take any damage except maybe a few scratches. She isn't expected to take it if she doesn't have to.

Oddly, there's not a lot of dust. Apparently the ore does't produce a lot of dust when it's mined.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 164):

As Hilda experiments with using a plasma cannon as a mining tool, Kaspar breaks out his pipe and tobacco.  As the bits of ore fall on the ground, Kaspar puffs his pipe to life.

"Ah, memories." Kaspar says around the stem of his pipe, clenched in his teeth, as he grabs up a shovel and a bucket, "Reminds me of being back in the Soviet Army.  Scut-work, scut-work, scut-work."

Humming a tune and puffing on his pipe, Kaspar starts shoveling up naquada ore and putting it in the bucket.

Once she'd made a big enough hole, Hilda stepped away from the blaster and joined the others at the excavation. Fetching a bucket for herself, she began picking up bits of rock bearing the greenish shine. 'Skutr – hard work?' she tried. 'Reminds me of building pyramids for the Goa'uld, but I didn't have to cut the rock.'

In reply to Hilda (msg # 166):

"Scut is a Middle English word of unknown origin." Kaspar said, Pausing in his work to lean upon his shovel, "I suppose it could have come to English from the Scandinavian language, by way of either the Angles or the Saxon peoples.  It means something worthless or menial. But in the late nineteenth century, in Ireland, the word was adapted to mean a foolish person or someone of little usefulness.  Thus 'scut-work' were those jobs given to 'scuts' to keep them busy and out of the way, as well as being the menial jobs that nobody else wanted to do."

Kaspar reached up for his pipe, took a puff, then removed the pipe and grinned at everyone.

"Sorry.  I am a Professor and a Linguist, after all."

---

OOC: do you know that the closest thing I could come to finding a translation for your "Skutr" was the Czech word "Skútr"?  Yup, which means exactly what you think it means - "Scooter" ^_^

OOC: I was working on a joke, but the possibilities were too rude. ;)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scut


Hilda, meanwhile, was learning English from the basis of Old Norse, and the process had a fair bit in common. 'Ah, no, skutr has another meaning. I was being polite.' she added with a grin.

The quality of the ore in this location is a bit low, so it requires three full blasts for enough ore to be broken loose, and then hauled over to the processor and dumped in. The processor has several settings for making various types and grades of naquadah. Not surprisingly, though, there's no setting for extracting naquadria.

It takes about an hour to haul and dump all the ore into the processor, as the processor can only extract the mineral at a limited rate.


The resulting liquid naquadah is quite heavy, and requires two people to carry it back to the ship.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 169):

OOC: Hope you don't mind the small hijack, Hilda, but I thought the scene was too good to pass on ^_^

---

Kaspar looks at Hilda, who's looking at him expectantly.

Kaspar just looks back and happily puffs on his pipe.

Hilda frowns at Kaspar and nods at the naquada fuel containers.

Kaspar gets a confused look on his face and removes his pipe from his mouth, "What?" he asks with feigned innocence.

Hilda silently glares at Kaspar and points at the containers.

"Oh, come on!" Kaspar whines, "I'm an Old Man, you're a Heavyworlder! Back at base you were one-handing electric generators like they were grocery bags!"

"Besides, that's what Jaffa are for." Kaspar grins, raises his pipe and taps the middle of his forehead - right where a Jaffa's Goa'uld symbol would be - with the stem, "First Prime Hilda."

During her labours, which despite her high-G strength and fitness still worked up a sweat, especially behind a hot blaster, Hilda had stripped off her vest and jacket. Beneath, the busty Cimmerian was nicely upholstered in a black tanktop, with dogtags, hammer pendant, and wolf-fang necklace dangling around neck. Her bare arms displayed compact muscles, scars of blade and matching wolf bite around one wrist, an arm-ring, and Nordic-style tattoos of a raging dragon on a shoulder and lines of protective runes. The tattoos were blue-black and slightly blurred, indicating they'd been done the traditional way: hammered in manually with a bone needle over the course of hours and days. Getting them took rather more guts than modern-day tattooed bikers, soldiers, and gangsters had to go through. Swinging these guns, she used a pick to break up larger rocks and knock others out of the wall.

Once they were done, and Kaspar began his tirade, Hilda rolled her eyes; that human expression was universal. 'But they weigh less in this gravity. My grandfather could lift it, and he's gone to Valhalla... Oh, alright!' she sighed, and gestured for Bar'tok to take one bucket while she took the other. Between them, they could carry the load back to the ship.

'Are we done here?'
This message was last edited by the player at 12:23, Mon 28 May 2018.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 171):

"Thank you, Hilda. I appreciate your looking out for a frail old man." Kaspar responded, barely controlling a chuckle, "And yes, I believe we are finished.  Let us return to the Ha'tak and get it properly powered up."

The hard part of getting fuel was done, and even hauling the refined liquid naquadah back and pouring it into the fuel tank was easy by comparison.

No sooner have you emptied the naquadah than you feel the stargate activate!

A moment later, you get a radio communications from General Hammond.

"Hammond to SG-X1. We've run into a little... wrinkle. I'm recalling Staff Sergeant Rajip Mojdar. There's a family issue he needs to deal with."

"I've got someone else to send you. Unfortunately, he's not military. And he's a Scout. Like Hilda. He's all I've got available at the moment... and, I'm getting some pressure to put him on a team. Do not... I repeat, DO NOT get him killed."

"Once this mission is over, we'll see what happens."


The General waits until he gets a response from Kaspar before he sends Wilhelm through the gate. Once the gate shuts down, you'll have to dial home to send Rajip back.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 173):

"You're taking my Gurkha?" Kaspar snaps back at Hammond - and earning himself a glare from Rajip, "Okay, fine!  You're taking my Nepalese-American Ranger? Sir?  And replacing him with someone that needs special care not to get killed? With respect, General, że gówno jest szalone jak pijany kozioł!"

"Just who is this soft ... Commissar ... that we have to protect him, rather than he protect us?  As Sargent Mojdar currently does?"

---

OOC:
Z Polski: "...that shit is crazy like a drunk goat!"

"You misunderstand me, Major," Hammond replies. "He doesn't need special care to keep from being killed, only that you shouldn't try to get him killed."

"I assure you, Major, his credentials and skill set are just as formidable as Mojdar's."

To make matters not any better, Hilda quickly hopped on the radio as well, protesting 'But, my earl, I am the scout. And we are almost done here, I think. Can we not just go back to base now, please? I have much television I need to watch.'

In reply to Hilda (msg # 176):

"Why would you think I'd deliberately try to kill..." Kaspar stops mid-sentence, almost choking on his words.

"It's a Russian, isn't it?  You're sending us a former Soviet Officer, aren't you?" Kaspar shrugs, as if Hammond could see him.

"Why should that bother me, General? I'm a former Soviet Officer.  Granted, most of the modern crop of Russian military officers I've met aren't that much improved, but there is improvement. I wouldn't try to get them killed."

"Unless they're G.R.U., of course.  I'll kill those bastards without so much as a fake apology."

"He's not GRU, he's not even Russian," Hammond replies.

"Sending him through now. Make sure you send Rajip back ASAP."


A moment later, Wilhelm emerges from the event horizon of the stargate.

Wilhelm paused one step from the event horizon, his head twitching first left then right as if he was looking for threats.    In addition to the normal SGC deployment BDUs and Tac Vest, his eyes were covered by a pair of sunglasses.   His hair was cut short, not quite regulation but close enough to pass if one only gave a glance.   In addition, he sported a day or so growth of beard.  His appearance seemed to be the kind of slovenly acceptable that a mercenary might have, but didn't mesh with the normal elite status of those deployed on an SG team.

A Zat'nik'tel hung from his left hip opposite of where one might find a sidearm, of which was conspicuously lacking.  There was also no sign of the normal P90 submachine gun...in fact, the Zat'nik'tel was the only weapon other than the survival knife that was visible.

It wasn't until the distinctive hissing sound that signaled the wormhole closure that he moved again.  He reached up with his left hand and removed the sunglasses to reveal a set of hazel eyes, alert and reminding one eerily of that of a bird of prey.   "Bloody Hell."  His voice lacked any sort of an accent, which was usually the result of careful training rather than accident.   "So this is what another world looks like."   He added after a heartbeat as he put the sunglasses back on and strode away from the stargate.  His movements were efficient and precise, like that of a tiger on the hunt.

Defeated by the wyrd ways of the Tau'ri military, Hilda sighed, forgetting her radio was still on. It seemed they weren't heading back to base after all. It would be quite a while yet before she could again see Xena: Warrior Princess.

She faced Rajip and clasped his arm, feeling misty-eyed for losing a worthy battle-companion and drinking partner, and perhaps a friend. But if his family were in trouble, then so he must return to his family. Hilda well understood the importance of that. 'It was an honour serving with you, Rajip Mojdar. May Thor speed you to your family, and Sif aid you with them. I will raise a drink to you. Farewell.'

Then, in the light of the waters of the Well of Urðr that washed within the Ring of Stars, she turned and saw his replacement. 'This is not another world.' she told him wearily. 'This is inside of ha'tak cargo bay. It is nothing to sing poems of.' So said the Viking woman with the golden hair and pigtails.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:41, Sun 17 June 2018.

"I wondered why it looked rather . . . boxy.   The new arrival said, removing his sunglasses and tucking them into a pocket.   He looked over the gathered members of the group before turning his attention to what was referred unofficially to as the dial home device.   "I could use a sit rep, there was rather a rush to get me here."  He added dryly.   "It more like: he's your kit and this is the Stargate.   And watch the first step as it's a doozie."

Hilda looked puzzled. '"Sit rep"? The Jaffa do not have many chairs, but we can maybe find one in the upper levels.' she offered. 'And I did not see a "doozie".'

In reply to Hilda (msg # 182):

An older gentleman steps up to Wilhelm and, with hands on hips, glares at him.  The glare deepens as the old gent realizes that Wilhelm is about two-inches taller than he is.

The name tag on the uniform says "Gorski"; his hair is dark-blonde with much grey sprinkled through, and recently cut short in a military style popular in Europe.  The skin on Gorski's lower chin is slightly paler than the rest of his face, indicating a long-worn full beard had been shaven off recently; within weeks.

Other than looking like he was carrying a few extra pounds under his SGC field uniform, and that he smelled faintly of tobacco and vanilla, the old guy looked like any other dyspeptic career military officer Wilhelm may have ever met.

But there was something about those dark blue eyes.

Finally the old man speaks - from his accent he might be from the Chicago area.

"I'm Major Gorski. I want you to say 'opera' then say 'intercontinental' then say 'booger'. Now, if you please."

"In not a soldier and certainly not your lapdog, major."   Wilhelm meets glare coolly.  "Relax, I'm here to help, so..." he draws the last word out a bit, turning his body slightly away from the other and again looking around.  "Is someone going to fill me in or do I have to guess?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:31, Fri 08 June 2018.

"That is most unlike General Hammond not to have briefed you," Gavan says as he steps forward.

"I am Gavan, a Tollan. Hilda here is a Cimmerian. Asherrra is a cat-folk from the city we visited. Freyda in the floating chair is an Asgard. This is Bar'tok, a Jaffa now in service to Angrboda, as are we all. Rajip is being sent back to the homeworld."

He then glances to Vasandra, the purple-skinned woman, and bows.

"Our goddess, Angrboda."

He makes sure Bar'tok can't see his face before giving Wilhelm a wink.

"We have captured this ha'tak ship and restoring it to operational condition. We await Angrboda's decision on what to do next."

"Good to know.  Whatever the situation that required the recalling of your fellow was apparently quite urgent."   He offers a firm handshake to Gavan as he continues.  "And I suspect that there were, external pressures, to see me in the field as expediently as possible."

That accomplished, he turns to the hoverchair.  He bowed just slightly, a bit more than the nodding of the head.  "It is indeed an honor and a pleasure to finally meet an Asgardian.  I have read and heard much."

He turned to the Jaffa, pressing a fist to his shoulder in a sign of respect before nodding politely to Asherrra.   He then smiled just a bit to Hilde before speaking.  "The sun herself must be envious of your beauty."  Compliment, and a wink delivered, he finally turns to Angrboda.

"I am called Wilhelm, how can I be of assistance?"  He states directly, his glaze once again returning to that eagle-like attentiveness.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:57, Fri 08 June 2018.

"I am not a fool!" Bar'tok speaks up.

"You do not need to pretend any more on my account. I know Angrboda is not a goddess. Neither are the Dragon-Lords."

In reply to Bar'tok (msg # 187):

"Well Praise Holy Mother Mary for small favors!" Kaspar responds to Bar'tok's outburst, "Welcome to a universe that is far more exciting - and far scarier - than you could ever imagine while serving under the Goa'uld, my boy!  Hilda, I am sincerely sorry for this, but could you take the wayward young Bar'tok, here, in hand and explain the realities of the universe to him?  I know you'd rather cut your own teeth out of your head with a dull knife, but, after Freyda, you're the next best thing to a Jaffa expert we have - and you heard me ask General Hammond to send us a Free Jaffa to do this, but there just aren't any available, at the moment."

"So I'm afraid I have to ask you to deal with it, while I deal with..." Kaspar turns back to glare at Wilhelm, "...Rajip's replacement."

"Alright, buddy, let's clear a few things up, right now." Kaspar growls in his upper mid-west accent, "First, I know you're a fake.  I'm a Linguist, so I saw right through your 'pretending to hide a Euro-Trash accent' right off the bat.  I've been there, and I'm doing that, right now!  I've had the same infiltration training - maybe not as in depth as yours, but sufficient to the job.  I've also spent years working with KGB and GRU operatives, and while the smell is different, the stink is the same -- you're CIA.  Right?  Or one of the other Alphabet Agencies of the Americans?"

"They think it's bad enough that there's only two Terrans on a Team made up of representatives of our off-world allies -- especially an Asgard!  But it had to have been just eating at the CIA that a former Soviet Red Army Intelligence Officer was running the Team!  So they decided to pull the US Ranger they had watch-dogging me and replace him with a CIA Spook they're trying to pass off as a clueless civilian contractor."

"Well, okay, Mr. Innocent Civilian Contractor, sir, before we figure out how you can be 'of assistance' to our mission, here, perhaps you could tell us just what it is that you do?"

'Angrboða.' Hilda had corrected for Gavan, putting emphasis on the "ð".

During the introductions and compliments, Hilda stared blankly at Wilhelm, evidently immune to his attempted charms. 'Já, it probably is.' she finally agreed with an amused grin, speaking with an indeterminate Scandinavian accent.

She was surprised at first Bar'tok's declaration, and then Kaspar's haranguing of this Wilhelm. Some clan rivalry back on Midgard, it seemed. Not understanding a word of it, she did as she was bid and pulled Bar'tok aside. 'No, you are right, she is not a goddess. She is not even Angrboða. She is Vasandra, of Netjeria. I am not her First Prime, I am a free shield-maiden of Cimmeria. We come from many worlds, but we help the Tau'ri of Earth to explore through the Chappa'ai and fight the evil of the Goa'uld that goes a-viking across the stars. We also help the Jaffa escape their slavery.'

'And you're right, the Goa'uld are not gods, and the Dragon-Lords are not gods. They are just snakes that crawl inside the heads and bellies of better men. They are thieves and liars and scavengers.' she explained. Then she went on: 'No, the only true gods are the Æsir, who are called Asgard. They are mighty warriors and cunning craftsmen, foes to the ettins you call Goa'uld. They are wise and powerful, undying, and are kind protectors and teachers of humans. They do not even demand our worship. Behold, Freyda in her flying chariot!' She flung an arm toward the Asgard in the floating chair, ice-blue eyes gleaming with fervour.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:27, Fri 15 June 2018.

Wilhem either didn't hear what Kaspar said or simply choose not to react to it.  As far as he was concerned, this wasn't the time or place to cater to the man's ego.

Bar'tok takes in all that Hilda tells him, even though he's never heard of these places she mentions.

"There are tales of the Asgard," he replies, "but the Dragon-Lords never mention them. They speak of enemies freely, but never of the Asgard. It now makes sense with what you say."

"I can see by your clothing and your equipment, and hear by your words, that you are not kept in the dark as are the Jaffa. Perhaps that is why the Goa'uld have chosen the orak'tar as servants--they are nearly mindless yet obedient."

In reply to Bar'tok (msg # 191):

Kaspar waits, an expectant look on his face, but, after a minute, it's pretty obvious that Wilhelm isn't going to answer the last question Kaspar put to him.

"Hmm.  I see, your lack of an answer makes it pretty obvious you're an unskilled laborer." Kaspar says to Wilhelm, "No shame in that, my boy. Just why the SGC makes such a big deal about getting an unskilled laborer to us, I don't know. Well, we shall make the best of it."

Kaspar draws himself up, "Mr. Ashcraft, welcome to the Team. Your assignment and duty station will be here, at the Gate.  You will guard the gate, and inform us if it should activate.  You will remain here until relieved.  You will now verbally acknowledge your receipt of these orders and your understanding of them."

"Unless, perhaps, you believe that I have incorrectly interpreted your refusal to answer my question regarding just what it is that you are supposed to do here, with us -- that you are not an unskilled contract laborer, and do, indeed, have a purpose here. Because that was the last thing I asked you, Mr. Ashcraft.  And I am the assigned Team Leader, so I get to get an answer when I ask 'what do you do'?"

"So what will it be, Mr. Ashcraft?  Permanent guard duty here at the Gate, or giving us an answer as to what you are trained to do here?"

'Yes, the Goa'uld never talk of enemies who really threaten them.' Hilda agreed heartily with Bar'tok, suddenly gaining more respect for him now he'd declared his loyalties were not to the Goa'uld, though she could not yet quite trust the ettin warrior, who still had a snake in his belly. She almost felt guilty for leading his whole troop to their destruction. Almost. 'You must tell us more of the orak'tar later. We have not fought them before today. After we return to Earth, and have told Earl Hammond all you know, you will be taken to one of the Free Jaffa. They will find a home for you.'

Turning, she regarded Kaspar and Wilhelm and an impatient eye, and remarked 'But first, we wait for the Old Man and the New Boy to settle their clan feud and compare their manhoods. Then we can decide what we do next.' Her words were addressed at Bar'tok but pointedly aimed at the pair.

Finally reacting to Kasper, Wilhelm instead turns to him and steps right up to him.    He not only invades the other's personal space but moves so close that avoiding physical contact is nearly impossible.  In fact, he's so close that the other is forced to step backward or possibly be pushed backward by the proximity.

"You apparently need to have your hearing checked when we return to base."  He replied in a calm tone of voice, and all the while his face is just a fraction of an inch away from the others.  "I said that I'm here to help, not be subject to interrogation or a victim of some kind of personal vendetta."   There's no give in his expression.  "One which you obviously have...comrade."

"I used to be Force Recon."  He said after a few more seconds, his point apparently having been made.  "As for why I'm here, that's because I kill people.  And I'm very good at it."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:51, Fri 15 June 2018.

In reply to Wilhelm Ashcraft (msg # 194):

Kaspar does indeed back off as Wilhelm steps forward - mostly because the younger man has to step down off the small dais the stargate is set upon - and he maintains his own calm demeanor as Wilhelm reads him the Riot Act.



"There you go!" Kaspar says pleasantly, giving a little 'golf-clap', "You finally answered the question I asked you. Now, was that really all that hard?"

"As for my hearing, if you had heard General Hammond -- which, of course, you couldn't, because you were in the gate room and he was in the control room talking to me on the radio -- you would have heard that he told me nothing about you, except that he was under pressure from above to place you on a Team.  Now, to me, 'under pressure from above' is not really a confidence inspiring statement, wouldn't you agree?"

"Other than that, I had no information.  So when you kept repeating the oh-so-information-packed statement of 'I'm here to help', and then I asked you to tell me just what it is that you do, so that I could decide how best to use you to 'help' … well, Mr. Ashcraft, I do hope that you can appreciate just how frustrating it can be to not only not get an answer to one's question, but to also be ignored after asking it.  I can tell you from recent experience -- just a few moments ago, in fact -- that it is not an experience which makes one exactly happy."

Once again Kaspar brings his hands up and makes a 'golf-clap', but when he speaks, gone is the Chicagoan/Midwestern American Accent, replaced by a Slavic accent,

"Oh, end zuch sarcasm vit de callink me 'Comrade'.  Efter all, International Communism, de Friends uf Humanity, heff taken diss vord for dere own, tak?  If I vas Soviet Russian, or efen Communist, I vould be emotionally deffastated, tak?"

"Howeffer, I must point out dat, for beink formar Force Recon Marine, you do nut pay much attenshun to yoor surroundinks, end you lissen ferry poorly, yourself.  You zee, vor me, you should nut haff said 'comrade', you should haff said 'towarzysz'."

"I haff said it a few times, now, but you are nut lissenink -- Jestem Polakiem, ty głupi Amerykanin! End I really hate it ven zum szarpnięcie try to make me out to beink zum kind uf Russian ass-wad!  Neffer … do dat … again."

Kaspar clears his throat, then continues in his Midwest American accent,

"Now, you've stated that your duties are to kill people and that you're very skilled at it.  Excellent.  Exactly what I needed to know, so thank you, Mr. Ashcraft.  You've also stated that you're a former US Force Recon Marine, also good to know, but that would seem to imply that you're no longer associated with any military service; that you're a Civilian."

"And a Civilian who claims that his job is to kill people is an Assassin.  Nothing wrong with that, if you've the skill set and the temperament.  I've known a few assassins in my time - as I recall, one of them was actually a decent fellow; had a wife and child."

"But that's neither here nor there. As I said, I've no moral objections to Assassins, but I do question the need of placing one on Team SG-X1, which is a Science and Survey team, not a combat or infiltration team.  But, you obviously have combat training over and above anything the rest of us have, so even though 'bodyguarding' may not be your primary job choice, that's what you are stuck with, here."

"So, my original orders stand. As long as all of us are aboard the Ha'tak, your duty assignment is here, in the gate room, guarding the gate.  You inform the Team if the gate starts to dial-in.  Then, with authorization from me, you kill everyone who comes through that gate."

"When someone goes outside the Ha'tak, we must inform you, and you will provide security for the excursion. However!  If Hilda is one of those going out, you and she can discuss whether you need to go or not."

"Trust me Mr. Ashcraft, you unenlightened macho young American male -- if she wanted to, Hilda, there, could pick you up off the ground and break you in half, over her knee.  And I am not exaggerating, Mr. Ashcraft; Hilda is from the planet Cimmeria, which has a gravity higher than Earths.  Despite her size, compared to you, she has a physical strength sufficient to allow her to compete in the Olympic Men's Weightlifting Competition on Earth.  While her skills with advanced Terran firearms are likely not as great as yours, she is likely your equal in hand-to-hand and melee weapons fighting.  Probably better than you with sword and bow."

"So, Mr. Ashcraft, is that going to work for you, or do I have to open the gate back up and send your civilian-assassin ass back to Earth for failure to obey orders?"

"Oh, and as you're making your decision, sir, I'm sure you will spend a moment or two considering the possibility of just killing me, right now.  I want you to know that since leaving the Soviet Red Army, I have prepared my soul to meet my God and answer for my sins.  And I am also confident that, should you decide to kill me now, that before the life fades from my eyes, I will have the satisfaction of seeing your head fly from your shoulders, when Hilda cuts it off."

"So what's it going to be, Mr. Ashcraft?"

As soon as Kasper starts his diatribe, Wilhelm simply walks away and leaves him to yell at him if he wishes to continue.   He walks around the room and heads toward the apparent exit, as if more interested in the room than the probable monologue.   When the major finally finishes, Wilhelm pauses again near the DHD and gives Kasper a blank look.   "Could you repeat that?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:13, Sat 16 June 2018.

In reply to Wilhelm Ashcraft (msg # 196):

"Why certainly, Mr. Ashcraft," Kaspar says in a pleasant voice, "I said … Gavan, would you please dial-up the SGC -- Freyda, he has a Zat! Neutralize it!"

"Everyone, listen! Probably in about two seconds that joker..." Kaspar points at Wilhelm, "...is going to produce some kind of authorization telling you that he can cancel any order I give, or at least try to convince you he has such.  Well, I am now ordering all of you that, until you have direct confirmation from General Hammond himself, and no other authority, you will obey no order or instruction that that man gives.  And if he attempts to interfere with you gaining such confirmation from General Hammond, or if he attempts to access the DHD, you will subdue him if you can or kill him if you must.  That is an order."

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, Wilhelm pulls the Zat from his belt by the barrel and offers it to Kasper.  "You thought I was kidding about not being briefed?  Well, I wasn't."   He continues only after the major accepts the weapon.   "And since you were too busy screaming at me to actually tell me what was going on, I had to try and figure out for myself."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:32, Sat 16 June 2018.

Hilda rolled her blue eyes at this ongoing argument over nothing, and stared in general bemusement. Was she supposed to be the belligerent one?



'Does that mean I am assassin?'



'So I am on the wrong team...'



'Um...'



'...Já.'



'Uh, what?'



'I never really "obey" orders...' Hilda decided.

Sighing, she faced Kaspar, asking 'What is this even about, Old Man? All this started when you demanded he say silly words. Is that you miss Rajip?' She considered the two men, Wilhelm a young strong warrior and Kaspar, well, not. 'Do you want to fight hólmganga? If you want me to fight for you, I need to know why.'

Freyda flies her hover chair so it is between the two men.

"He is an old man who does not want to be here... or anywhere else other than at home smoking his pipe, and he is angry at the world for dragging him out of retirement to go to the stars," the Asgard says to Wilhelm.

"I am Freyda of the Asgard. Exactly what the purpose of this team is had not been clearly established, for, as you can see, it is comprised of four off-worlders... non-Earthers. Out here, you of Earth are known as the Tau'ri. It is a Goa'uld word."

"Before I 'brief' you, perhaps you can tell me what you do know. You have just come through the stargate; was that your first introduction to it?"

"Do you know about the Goa'uld and the Asgard and the Ancients?"

"Do you know where we are in the galaxy?"

While she waits for Wilhelm to answer those questions, if he wants to, she turns back to Kaspar.

"Major, you are not in the Russian army any more. You are not even in the Polish army any more. You are a member of Stargate Command. While, technically, it is an American military operation, it is being administered by a civilian oversight committee. That is the reason you are on the team. You were place here for the same reason Wilhelm was... pressure from above. Had not some official insisted that more than one country of Earth be represented on the team, you would still be at home smoking your pipe."

"None of us hold that against you, not even your fear of adventure."

"Besides, it is time to send Rajip back through the stargate."

In reply to Freyda (msg # 200):

Kaspar heaves a heavy sigh,

"Freyda, there is a lot of truth in what you're saying.  I respect you and your fellow Asgard for everything they have done for my world, and the trust you have put in the people who live there.  But there's a darkness in my people that you just haven't seen yet - a darkness found in people like I once was, like the people he answers to, and I fear like you will find in him, as well."

Kaspar looks down at the Zat in his hands, then looks over at Hilda,

"Hilda.  Here.  Do whatever you want with it." Kaspar says, then tosses her the weapon.

"I have always maintained that my position here is more administrative, rather than commanding officer." Kaspar says, addressing everyone, "As I have always tried to do, I will acquiesce to the will of the experts."

Kaspar turns and walks over to where he had dropped his pack, earlier, and picks it up,

"Since General Hammond has seen fit to strand us here - thanks to my suggestion, which I now regret - I am going to go and claim some personal quarters.  If you get to talk to the General when you send Rajip back, tell him we still need household gear if we're staying here for a long haul."

His pack in place on his back, Kaspar turns to Rajip, comes to attention and gives him the salute of the Polish Landforces.

"Sargent Mojdar. Rajip. It has been a genuine pleasure to serve with you." Kaspar pauses a moment, then smiles, "Even if you are an American.  Good luck in your future endeavors."

Kaspar drops the salute, turns and walks out of the cargo bay-turned-Gate room, and heads for the central transit shaft.

But, no sooner is he out of sight, than his voice calls back, "And I've got my eye on you, CIA-Man!"

Wilhelm waits until Kasper is safely out of the room before shaking his head sadly.  "It's unfortunate, but I'm going to have to recommend to General Hammond that Kasper be replaced as team leader.   He's clearly unsuited for the job."   He shakes his head again, clearly unhappy about the situation.

That said, he turns fully to face Freyda.  "I have been keeping up with the mission reports filed by the various SG teams and any other supplemental information as of approximately three weeks ago.   Unless there's been new information in that time, I feel confident that I'm about as up to date as I can be.   And to answer your other question: No, I don't know where we are."

He turns his head to look at Hilde.   "I would appreciate it if you'd return that, though I can understand if you're prefer to hold onto it.   I'd really rather not be moving around in a potentially hostile environment without it."

'The goddess is wise.' Hilda praised as Freyda thankfully intervened in the feud between Kaspar and Wilhelm, glad things seemed to be settled, at least for now. She didn't want to have to fight a battle on behalf of the old man.

She caught the zat with surprise, then heard Kaspar say he'd find quarters. 'Does that mean we're staying?' she called after him, slightly annoyed she wouldn't be returning to base and her wondrous television just yet.

Watching him go with a sigh, she turned back to Wilhelm. 'Kaspar is a good leader.' she insisted, with clear loyalty and respect for the Old Man. 'Your coming just surprised him. And maybe he has good cause to be wary.' she wondered, wary herself. 'We've been a team for a while. We've gone a-viking, we've explored worlds and fought Jaffa and beasts, and raised drinks together. Now Rajip is gone, and we have the new boy we don't know. So, give him time.'

She passed the zat gun back, saying 'It is too small for me anyway.'

"Technically, we are no longer in the galaxy," Gavan offers to explain to Wilhelm where they are.

"As I understand it, an error was made on your computers when searching for new gate addresses. Much to everyone's surprise, an address beginning with the letter X was entered and it turned out to be a valid address. When the location was plotted, it was found to be a world in a globular cluster on the edge of the galaxy."

"Many more addresses were then discovered that began with X... and they were all out here in the globular cluster."

"Things are different out here. The Goa'uld are still here, but they call themselves Dragon-Lords. One of our contacts explained that they were all exiled by Ra some 3,000 years ago. Apparently one of the reasons for that is that the Ancients had altered all the species out here to be poisonous to the Goa'uld, so that they cannot take over any of them."

"The Ancients also upraised several species. The First Ones, of which Asherrra here is a member, may very well have been the first species so up-lifted. Or they may just be the first on this planet."

"Our directive was to commandeer this ship and bring it back to Earth since we thought it was abandoned. Out here in the cluster, though, the trip would take years."

"We are considering other options, as, I'm sure, is General Hammond."

"The other thing that is different is the DHD. In the rest of the galaxy, the DHD's are circular, with a big red button in the middle. Here, they are triangular and have no big red button."

As he talks, he walks over to the DHD and begins 'dialing' in the address for Earth.

"There are fewer symbols on this DHD, which means it can go to fewer destinations.... perhaps another limitation imposed by the Ancients. Or maybe this was just an older model."

The stargate opens, and Gavan identifies himself to Hammond, and then Rajip steps through and is gone. The stargate closes again.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:14, Mon 18 June 2018.

Wilhelm accepts the returned Zat'nik'tel with a grateful seeming nod to Hilde before returning it to his belt.   "My life has depended, on more than one occasion, upon my ability to correctly interpret a situation that I've just walked into.   Your own reaction suggests that while he might be a good leader, that he might not be the right leader."  He then gives Gavan's explanation and demonstration his undivided attention.

"As Freyda said, Major Gorski is here against his wishes, and somewhat against General Hammond's... preference," Gavan said to Wilhelm.

"On the other hand, I don't believe Hammond would have accepted the Major if he wasn't qualified. The Major wants to live long enough to enjoy his retirement, so he's a bit reluctant to endanger the team. He has nothing against a little joy ride in an alien space ship, but he would never go into battle with it."

"Anyway, there's not enough fuel in the ship to do much with it. We'd have to mine some more naquadah. None of us are really the miner type."

"We're kind of waiting for Hammond to assemble a tech team to take over for us. In the mean time, we're on our own. I was thinking that we should explore a bit more of this planet."

He glances over at Asherrra... the First One cat-folk.

"Poor Asherrra. I think she may be getting a bad impression of us."

"In any case, they live in a city built by the Ancients just for them. There seems to be an AI there that has been slowly bringing them into a modern, technological society. But, they have not been very far from the city. So, there's a lot of world out there that they don't know anything about."

'Or maybe it is because the globular cluster is smaller?' Hilda speculated. She might be primitive, but she was no idiot.



With a final hearty slap on the back and a farewell, Hilda watched Rajip disappear through the Ring of Stars.



Afterward, she looked to Gavan and Wilhelm and the others, remarking with resignation 'It seems we live here now. We must make this pyramid our fort until Earl Hammond calls us back. We were going to turn on the ha'tak's defenses and make them work for us. We must also watch out for slime-beasts.'

"It's certainly a good guess that we're not going anywhere anytime soon."  Wilhelm waited until Hilde had her say before speaking again.  "If the ship moves away from the planet then we'll no longer be able to dial in or out.   Gate addresses are fixed by planetary bodies, which makes gate travel an interesting experience from a starship."

"Unfortunately, the major is partially incorrect about the nature of the mission given to Stargate Command.   The mission is to locate allies and collect technologies to defend Earth from the Goa'uld and any other hostiles entities."   He gently reminded the others.   "And as it's my first time on another planet, I'd certanly want to see more than the inside of the ship."   He gave Gavan a lopsided smile.  "So, shall we take a walk outside and see the terrain?"

"Sure, that's not a problem," Gavan said. "We're not too far away from the First City, so the First Ones have probably been in this area. Looking to see what the Goa'uld were doing here." He glances at Asherrra who gives him a nod of confirmation.

"In any case, we're not going to see much of the planet on foot. I was thinking we could fly around it a bit."

"One of the odd things is that this gate was not originally on this planet. According to the First Ones, this planet's stargate has been buried for a thousand years. The First Ones know where it is, and are considering digging it up because of us."

"The Dragon-Lord was bringing this gate here to make retrieving the naquadah from the mine easier."

"The ha'tak was sabotaged by another Dragon-Lord and crashed, though it was none the worse for wear. That was the situation we stepped into. That, and the slime creature. The slime was some sort of coalescent organism that has natural counters here on the planet. We think it may have got taken aboard the ship the last time it was here and then just multiplied."

As he talked, he led Wilhelm out of the cargo hold with the stargate, then down the hall to the center of the ship, around the central ramps to the opposite corridor, and then down the ramp and out the still open cargo hatch.

"This is what another world looks like. Hard to believe that it looks just like Earth. Well, I've seen lots of pictures of different areas of Earth, and some of them look far more alien than this. Here, though... if you look closer, you can see the alien difference. The birds don't look quite right, the insects are odder, the wolves look more feline and have horns... you get the picture."

Wilhelm first looked at them pointed to the various members of the group then toward the exit in an unspoken invitation to follow.   He had to trot a bit in order to keep up with Gavan as the invite took a few seconds longer than he might have thought.    "It's not that surprising that planets should look more or less like Earth,"   Wilhelm finally commented when Gavan pointed that out.  "Humans need certain conditions to survive, so I'd expect most planets to fit the same criteria."

In reply to Wilhelm Ashcraft (msg # 210):

Kaspar went up to the pel'tak level, before he took off his pack and started rummaging through it for the SGC-issued manual on speaking the Jaffa/Goa'uld language.  In case he needed to reference it.  Then he went over to the command console and powered it up, accessing the ha'tak's database and, using his recently learned skill with the Jaffa language, looking at the crew assignments logs. Specifically, he was looking for the location of the quarters for the First Prime, or at least, the Lead Jaffa Aboard.

Kaspar had considered moving into the Goa'uld's quarters - after all, he was the Team Leader, and thus now the de facto Base Commander - so the best quarters should go to him.  But after a few moments consideration, he realized that, if there was anyplace where there might still be hidden knowledge or tech, it would be in the Goa'uld's personal quarters.  So, nobody moves in there until after the whole Team has thoroughly searched it.

Locating the "Chief Jaffa's" quarters - as expected, not too far from either the pel'tak or the Goa'uld's chamber - Kaspar grabbed up his pack and went there.  Inside he found a fairly stark, utilitarian, soldierly space.  Of course, anything that was of organic origin, as well as a few synthetics, had been consumed by the "Slime God", but there were a few metallic features and furnishings that were built-in parts of the Ha'tak, itself.

Even the Goa'uld understood that rewarding good service brought better loyalty and greater service, so Kaspar was not surprised to find there was a minimal, but still private, washroom off the small chamber, along with a tiny closet that held a ruined suit of Jaffa armor - the majority of the non-metallic components having been dissolved away by the slime - and a Zat-gun in a receptacle on the wall inside the closet; that would have to be tested to see if the slime had damaged it. There was also another, slightly larger receptacle, which Kaspar guessed was probably for a Staff weapon.; it was empty.

Kaspar placed his pack down on the metal pallet that had once held a mattress and bedsheets - but was now completely bare - then unclipped his P-90 from his vest and put it on the bed, then took off his tac-vest - removing, first, his pipe, tobacco pouch, and radio - then added it to the pile on the bed.  His helmet was the last on the pile.

His trusty old Makarov was in it's leather holster, with the fading Red Star on the flap, hanging from his web-belt, on his right hip, rather than hanging from the tac-vests attach points, like most.  He placed the pipe and tobacco in the left-side cargo pocket of his trousers, and the radio in the right-side cargo pocket, and headed back to the pel'tak.

"Yes, I suppose that is another way to look at it," Gavan replied to Wilhelm.

"We've no indication that the Ancients terraformed worlds, so it follows that they put the gates only on worlds that were human-habitable."

"Still, it seems like an extraordinary number of such worlds exist. It's not that Earth or Tollan are exceptional examples, but the theory of them coming into existence has to be revised to account for that frequency. Tollan-like worlds might come into existence in more than one manner. That seems to be consistent with the universe that we do understand."

He turned to Asherrra then.

"Asherrra, do you know anything at all about the rest of your world?"

While Gavan spoke with Wilhelm, Hilda decided it was a good time for a rest, after a hard day spent fighting orak'tar and mining for naquadah. She was starting to feel rather tired. She headed back to what she knew was the finest room in the pyramid, which still had a bed with pillows, silk sheets, and everything – the dead Dragon Lord's quarters. It would be lovely once she washed the blood out.

"I did not know much about the worrrld beforrre you arrrived," Asherrra replies. "When I decided to go with you, though, I spent some time in the arrrchive looking at wherrre we might go."

"The arrrchive has not been updated in overrr 500 rrrevolutions. Therrre werrre no hostile species within 600 diameterrrs. I did not pay attention to the actual terrrain."

"The Alterran's sensorrrs do not appearrr to extend to the otherrr side of the worrrld, so, no, I do not know anything about this worrrld otherrr than the immediate arrrea."

"Will we go therrre? I will be the firrrst of the Firrrst Ones to see it!"

"Sounds like a plan to me."   Wilhelm said after Asherrra gave her input, still following Gavan.

She's been dying to fly something since she arrived on planet, so while Kaspar rested/slept (he was an old man, after all!), she took the suggestions of the others as a mandate to explore the other half of the planet.

She needed to be able to report on the condition of the ha'tak, didn't she? How could she do that if she didn't fly it? It had been sabotaged and crashed, so who knew what problems that might have caused.

Although the primary mission had been to 'recover' the ha'tak, finding out what was on the other side of the world was a no-brainer, as the Tau'ri liked to say. There was something to be gained (maybe?) by establishing relations with the First Ones. She wondered if the Ancients had anticipated early contact with another species?

"I'll take the ship up to a close orbit so we can do a scan of the other half. Then we can decide where to go from there," she informs the others.

In reply to Vasandra Tourmaline (msg # 216):

OOC: Whoa!  Sorry about that, I hadn't realized so much time had gone by. The past couple of weeks just got away from me.

---

As Vasandra begins powering up the pel'tak for flight operations, a voice comes from up near the viewport/command display.

"Y'know, I never tried to maintain a rigid discipline," Kaspar says, flicking his lighter to life and pausing to draw on his pipe,

"Just the minimum needed to keep us together and focused on the job." Kaspar continues, after his pipe is going, "But, I mean really, would it have taken all that much effort to let me know you wanted to flight test some of the ha'tak's systems, now that we have enough fuel?  Ha'tak systems and operations are your field of expertise, Captain.  I would have deferred to your knowledge and agreed to the flight."

Kaspar puffs contemplatively on his pipe for a moment, then turns to look out the viewport.

"I don't think they heard you, Vasandra - or maybe the CIA-Man is keeping them from listening - but they are all standing just outside the landing ramp.  And they don't appear to be in any hurry to come back in."

Kaspar turns back, "Maybe you should mention your intention to launch to them again.  They may have forgotten that, as a Captain, you are, basically, second in command of this Team, after me.  Of course, by now, the CIA-Man may have convinced them that that doesn't matter."

Kaspar puffs silently on his pipe for a moment, filling the pel'tak with a faint scent of cedar and vanilla.

"I suppose I must deal with this disruption in the chain of command -- but tomorrow, I think.  Now we are all too worked up, especially after my puffed-up agitation at the SGC sending us an Intelligence Operative.  For what do we need an Intelligence Operative?  Bah!"

Kaspar waves his pipe around in annoyance, "Never mind.  Tomorrow for these things.  Calmer heads will prevail, tomorrow."

"If I might make a suggestion, Captain?  The City of the First Ones has Ancient-built defenses, but they function only if it appears that a hostile force is approaching the city, as I understood it.  Perhaps, should we detect the presence of any large-scale communities on this flight, we should avoid any over-flights, in case such might be interpreted as a hostile act?"

Returning to the Dragon Lord's luxurious chambers, Hilda disposed of the headless body (mostly by dumping it outside the pyramid before it took off) then, with a little (especially little) effort, she mopped up the blood. These rooms had been sealed off, not devoured by the slime-beast, so all the goa'uld's clothes, sheets, and pillows remained intact. The worst of them she could use to mop up blood.

Finally done, she stripped off and filled the golden high-backed claw-footed bathtub, and slid her toned tattooed body into the warm bubbly water. Ah! This was some well-earned comfort!

He had no idea how long it would take to reach the other side of the world. He figured it'd take a few hours, even allowing for a polar or sub-orbital course. This ship could probably exceed mach 3, but since this was an exploration effort, they'd want to go slow enough that they could actually see what they were flying over.

He made a mental note of Kasper's comment about the First Ones' city.

He also kept looking at Asherrra... trying hard not to stare, but still trying to get used to the fact that she was an alien... a feline humanoid. Naturally he'd seen such representations on TV and the movies, but that was all fiction. THIS... was real.

He spent the first hour of the flight roaming through the ship. It was his first starship!

Vasandra was in her glory now--flying! She took the ship up to 10,000 feet and set a course around the planet's equator. The ship had sensors that she thought would pick up anything unusual, but she wasn't really sure what the Goa'uld might consider 'unusual'... or worth their attention. So she watched the viewscreen, shifting the course a bit if something caught her eye.

"So, Wilhelm," she said to the new team member when he found his way to the pel'tak, "how are your observation skills? Any thoughts on what we should be looking for?"

No sooner had Vasandra asked Wilhelm about his observation skills that both of them spot something even as the ship's sensors register it.

It's a stonehenge... tall standing stones in a circle with lintels spanning across each pair.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 221):

In response to both the pinging from the sensors at finding something, as well as the reaction of the others in the pel'tak, Kaspar gives the henge a looking over.

"Hmmm." Kaspar hums, holding his pipe with his right hand as he puffs on it, "I do not recall any mention of the use of stone henges in Ancient architecture *puff* though, they would make an excellent place to put a Goa'uld Ring Transporter, wouldn't they *puff* Oh, what is that Celtic Goa'uld fellow's name? *puff*puff* Ah, yes! Camulus, that's it."

Kaspar turns to Vasandra, "Captain, I think it may be productive to have that young Miss Asherrra come up here and take a look at this *puff* would you be so kind as to page her to come up here? *puff* Perhaps this is something she has seen before."



Kaspar turns back to the screen to observe the image of the henge again, but after a few moments of silence, turns back to Vasandra, removing his pipe as he does.

"Captain Tourmaline, I asked you to page Asherrra up to the pel'tak, please." Kaspar repeats himself, "Vasandra, are you alright? Do you hear me?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:36, Tue 14 Aug 2018.

"I am rrright herrre, Majorrr," Asherrra responds.

"I am not awarrre of any such strrructurrre within the spherrre of the Firrrst City. I have not even such in the Arrrchives."

In reply to Asherrra (msg # 223):

"Hmmm.  So, Asherra, your people have no record of such structures in the information the Ancients left with you." Kaspar confirms, "From what I have read in the SGC database on the Ancients -- and I admit my studies are by no means complete, yet -- I have not read of the Ancients using any such structures in the places we've been, so far.  With the exception of the realm of this Camulus fellow; the Goa'uld System Lord who has adopted a Celtic divine persona."

"So, short of acquiring direct, empirical evidence to the contrary, we can theorize that there is a good chance that this may not be of Ancient construction, but is rather likely to be of Goa'uld origin, with a slightly less chance of being of a completely unknown origin, which just coincidentally looks like a classic Celtic stone henge."

"It only appears to be similar, but it is not," Freyda spoke up.

"The original Stonehenge, if, in fact, it was original, was constructed with concentric circles. I see no evidence of that here. Nor is it anything known to have been built by the Goa'uld."

"You have uncovered much about the Ancients that was not known to us. I would not rule out the Ancients having built it. There were factions that did not agree with each other."

In reply to Freyda (msg # 225):

"When I suspected it might be of Goa'uld or some unknown origin, I was intrigued." Kaspar says to Freyda, "But, my dear Freyda, if there is a chance that it might be of Ancient origin, I am excited by the possibility."

"Captain Tourmaline, would you mind terribly if we interrupted your, ah, test flight of this ha'tak, and landed for just a little while, to take a look around that interesting looking henge?"

---

OOC: have we travelled far enough away from the naquada mine site that it's night time, locally, or are we still in the day-side of the planet?  Vasandra had said she was flying around the equator, but hadn't specified if she was heading towards the dawn or twilight terminator.  Also, I don't remember, but I think that "today" is the day after we mined the naquada.  I think.  We had time to rest and recuperate after spending a few hours of mining...or maybe it's just later that day, and we just took some down time after the work at the mine but before we made our scheduled report to SGC.  I dunno.

While the ha'tak's sensors are quite good, it was preferred to inspect the planet visually, so Vasandra flew toward the 'west', on the premise that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.. But, yes, this was a day later, after everyone had a chance to rest.

At Kaspar's direction, Vasandra steers the craft towards the henge, spots a clearing that will handle the ship's size, and sets the ship down about 100 yards from the henge.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 227):

"Excellent piloting, Vasandra, thank you." Kaspar says, frowning at the console of the pel'tak, and after a few moments, hesitatingly reaching out and pressing a button.  He is rewarded with a click that echoes through out the ship.

"Ha!" Kaspar exclaims in success - and his voice is repeated all over, "Baczność! Każdy wyposaży ... Ah! Sorry.  Attention! Everyone please kit up.  We are going to investigate a possible Ancient site.  The ha'tak will be located very close, so supplies for an extended wilderness stay -- camping gear and such -- shouldn't be needed.  Everyone gear up and assemble in the gate room in twenty minutes, please.  Gorski, out."

Kaspar shuts down the intercom, then turns to Vasandra, "Thank you, Captain. Finish shutting down the ship, and I'll see you in the gate room in twenty."

Kaspar started to turn away, then paused and turned back, leaning closer to Vasandra to whisper in her ear,

Having only set of clothes with her, and those the BDUs she'd been wearing two days' straight, Hilda had gladly riffled through the Dragon Lord's wardrobe for substitutes. Hence, she'd been seen wearing fine silk robes and slippers stitched with depictions of oriental dragons. The Cimmerian, raised in a poor wooden hut on a rustic farm, did not hesitate to help herself to the Goa'uld's luxuries and riches, which she'd earned and paid the iron price for.

But as Kaspar's call came over the speakers, she was both annoyed to leave the luxury and glad to have something to do again, because she'd been getting very bored. Her old Tau'ri clothes were clean now, after going through a washing machine she'd found. Unhurried, she dressed and armoured up, before going down to the Gate Room.

After Vasandra shuts down the ha'tak, the group heads down to the gate room, where Gavan removes a crystal from the DHD. There's no way to disable the gate to keep anyone from coming through, but if the DHD isn't working, then they can't dial back out.

Then the group goes down the hall to the cargo door, opens it, and exits out.

The henge is clearly visible only a hundred yards away.

Hilda leads the way over to the henge.

Up close, you can see that the stones do not appear to be weathered in any way... no chips or cracks or marks on the stone, though there are a few weeds growing up from the cracks between lintels.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 230):

Kaspar approaches the ring of stones carefully, mentally comparing them to everything he knows about the English Stonehenge.

"Be careful, please." Kaspar admonishes everyone, "This may look harmless, but there is a chance it's of Ancient origin.  That stuff tends to pop out and surprise folks."

"No power signatures were detected by the ha'tak's sensors as we came in, so -- Freyda, Gavin?  Any of your equipment detecting anything, now that we're here?"

"Everyone be on the look-out for symbols or inscriptions, and please, please -- nobody step inside the ring of stones until we've looked around the outside, first!"

---

OOC: As an Anthropologist, Kaspar has the Knowledge to know what the Celts built Stonehenge out of, but the closest thing he has to a skill that will let him confirm if these are actual Sarsen stone is (maybe) Appraise.  So, just in case...
Kaspar Radoslaw Gorski rolled 20 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 17.  IDing (guessing) composition of the stone using Appraise Skill.

Approaching the henge, Hilda looked upon the standing stones with awe, at once impressed by the grand scale of the megaliths and disturbed by their otherworldly aspect. The Norse Cimmerians raised runestones, but they were single megaliths inscribed with runes meant to be read. This was far bigger, and far more mysterious.

'Ancient?' she echoed Kaspar's warning. 'It's not that old.'

She looked again at the ring of standing stones. 'So what do they do?' she wondered.

Freyda did not have the complex and powerful sensors of an Asgard ship, and most of what she did have was oriented to biology, but she turned her personal sensor upon the stones.

"You are correct, Major," Freyda informs Kaspar. "These are, indeed, of Ancient construction, perhaps even before the Asgard encountered the Ancients."

"It is a ring transporter... the largest I have every encountered. Given the size, this might well have been a cargo transporter. You could easily transport the stargate via this ring."

"Of course, I am not sure how you would get the gate into ring."

Vasandra remained aboard the ship as security, and was startled when the gate activated.

She quickly picked up the radio signal from SGC, though.

She listened to the report. And request.

She then moved down to the open hatch so she could radio to Kaspar.

"Vasandra to Major Gorski. I've just received a communication from General Hammond. It seems there's been a development."

"He's sending two new people through the gate... from SG-X3. I reported our situation. He's also sending a crew through for the ha'tak. He wants me to bring it back to Earth. Wilhelm will be joining me, so he's got the replacement for Wilhelm."

"He wants you to finish exploring this Stonehenge that you found, and then return through the gate on the ship."

"He also suggested that Asherrra be given a means to contact Earth, and if the First Ones want to dig up their gate, then they can contact us."

"The alternative is if Asherrra returns through the gate with you, it might be a long time before we can return her to her home."

'Slaves.' said Hilda knowingly. 'Always slaves.' She wasn't at all surprised to hear the henge was a ring transporter though; she'd grown up in the shadow of Thor's Hammer and had been a slave in the construction of pyramids for the landing of Goa'uld spaceships after all.

Then Hilda overheard the relayed commands from Vasandra with surprise. 'More people?' she remarked, bemused by all the comings and goings. She hoped there'd be less argument this time. But at least they had a promise of returning to Midgard now.

'Tell him to send one of those little boxes with the naked people on the top, like they sent us. It's weird, but it'll work.'


OOC:
https://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Sagan_Institute_Box
This message was last edited by the player at 01:26, Wed 12 Sept 2018.

As Sarah and Lucky step through the wormhole, it takes about 8 seconds for them to traverse the distance back to the globular cluster.

They reappear on a ramp in front of the receiving stargate currently standing upright in the cargo bay of a ha'tak.

Two people are waiting for them: a purple-skinned humanoid female and a 'normal-looking' human male. The man is dressed in typical SGC black t-shirt, OD-green BDU pants, and an OD-green tactical vest. The woman appears to be dressed in form-fitting jumpsuit.

"Greetings! Welcome to X2U-238!" Wilhelm greets Sarah and Lucky.

"I'm Wilhelm Ashcraft, heavy-handed bodyguard for the team. Well, former heavy-handed bodyguard, as I believe Lucky is my replacement, just as I was Rajip's for all of two hours or so."

"This is Vasandra... from Ta-Netjer. She's our designated driver for this... starship."

Sarah steps out of the gate and steps to the side so that Lucky, following her, doesn't bump into her.   She'd gone first as she'd seen Lucky's previous trip!  On being welcomed to the ship, she smiles. "Well, thank you Wilhelm.  Sadly I'm not Lucky... give you'll be leaving."  She sighs dramatically, "But I'm sure you and Vasandra will make it home in good time."

Lucky stepped through the stargate portal witha shake of his head, sputtering something under his breath before smiling as they were greeted. He shook his head slightly as Sarah commented she was not him, then turned his attention to Wilhelm, "Gunnery Sgt. Lucas Wheeler. Hopefully I don't have to be too heavy handed on security detail. Nice to meet you booooo....," he trailed off as he turned to Vasandra. Though the fact she had purple skin was a bit of a surprise, it was what Wilhelm said registering that gave him pause, "... did he say starship?" he asked nervously quick while pointing to the other man, "He did say starship, didn't he? As in in space starship? Holy crap!" He looked at Sarah with a nervous smile , then at the others, "Sorry."

"Hello," Vasandra spoke up. "Yes, this is a starship in that it is capable of traveling between stars."

"The Goa'uld have been doing it so long, though, that it is just another ship to them."

"The others are already outside looking over the Stonehenge. Feel free to join them. This is a cargo bay, and outside is the hallway to the cargo ramp."

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

"Oh, we're on the ground? Ohkay." It was hard for Lucky to hide his disappointment. He still looked around in wonder, with childlike amazement. "Do they put Stargates on ships alot?" He asked, then looked at Sarah, "I know, we have to get going. But this is way cooler than a mountain full of dwarves on ice." He smiled at Vasandra and Wilhelm again, "Sorry, I'm still new at this."

Vasandra frowns a bit at Lucky's comment. Did not Hammond brief these new people?

Perhaps not. Perhaps Hammond was in a hurry to get these people re-assigned.

"There is a stargate on this world, or so we have been told. It was buried by the Ancients to protect the First Ones, even though there is an Ancient defense system."

"This stargate was being brought to this world to make the mining of naquadah more efficient. One Dragonlord sabotaged the ship, which belonged to a different Dragonlord. The original owner was eaten by a slime creature. Then we came along and disrupted the second Dragonlord's plan and killed him. Now the ship and the stargate are ours by right of conquest."

"Sorry. The General briefed us," Lucky said, rubbing the back of his head as he looked around the room again, still amazed, ", but this is just a little overwhelming. Talking about there being ships is one thing. Being on one it totally different, even if just parked on the ground."

He looked at Sarah, "Ready to get to work?"

"Certainly am."  She looks to Vasandra and Wilhelm, "Thank you for the introduction.  And best of luck flying this ship home."   Once pleasantries have been exchanged she leave the ship though she lets Lucky take the lead.  That is, after all, his job!

Once down the hallway to the exit ramp and then down the ramp to the ground, Lucky and Sarah can see the stonehenge only 100 yards away.

The rest of SG-X1 is standing just outside it, scouting and examining it.

You see the team leader, Kaspar, two other 'humans', and an Asgard sitting in a floating chair.

Approaching the stone circle, Sarah might have remembered the Cimmerian shield-maiden Hilda from an early-morning meeting in the Base Mess a few missions ago. Hilda certainly remembered her. Turning away from her inspection of a menhir, she spied the two new team-mates coming their way, and waved enthusiastically 'Sarah! Hail!' Forgetting the menhir, she hurried to meet her. 'It is good to see you again.'

Sarah headed for the group.  She'd certainly met several of them but focused initially on the approaching warrior.   "Hilda!"  Sarah smiled brightly at the open welcome the woman was showing them.  It really was a welcome change from the recent stand-off-ish behaviour from some of her team mates.   "It is good to see you to!"

She'll embrace the woman in greeting before introducing Lucas.   "Hilda, this is Sergeant Lucas Wheeler.  Though we all call him Lucky."  And then a trifle conspiratorially she adds, "I'm told that, should the need arise, that he'll share his Luck for a kiss."   She then resumes her normal voice adding, "And Lucky, this is Shieldmaiden Hilda, daughter of Erik and Inga.  You have a lot in common.  I'd wager the pair of your could scout any situation together and I'd rest assured that between you no stone would be lie un-turned and no foe could approach without you seeing them first."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:27, Wed 12 Sept 2018.

With her strong arms, Hilda returned a hearty and crushing hug. At last reluctantly releasing Sarah, she looked to this Lucky Lucas Wheeler, and was bemused by her idea of a kiss for his fortune. 'Umm...' Hilda began, not sure what to say. But then Sarah went on, saving her the need to explain. 'Hail, Lucky. If Sarah sings your praises, then I am honoured to have you follow me on the hunt.'
This message was last edited by the player at 01:13, Thu 13 Sept 2018.

Lucky smiled as Sarah introduced him to the others, "Hi. I..wait, I'll what?" Lucky looked at Sarah in disbelief, "That is not how I got the nickname. Don't be telling your friend crazy stuff about me like that!" He scolded despite a smile. "Hilda, I earned the nickname for a habit of making shots as a sniper others thought I had no business making. Sarah makes it sounds as though the honour is mine to follow you lead, should we get a chance." 

In reply to Lucas Wheeler (msg # 249):

An SGC officer in green uniform with a white-over-red shoulder patch that has a white eagle on a red shield in the center, approaches from the henge.  About average height and a bit on the stocky side, his dark brown hair is greying at the temples.  Though his features are a bit on the craggy side, his blue eyes are bright and attentive.  The briar pipe he's smoking adds to his air of being older, but not elderly.

"Witam, tam! Witamy, witamy." the officer calls in a Slavic-sounding language while waving, "You must be the new personnel we were told were coming."

He steps up to the group and produces a kerchief, which he then wipes his brow with--afterwards shoving the kerchief into a trouser hip-pocket near where a leather holster with a faded red five-point star and some Cyrillic lettering hangs strapped to his right thigh.

"Ah, hello.  I'm Major Kaspar Gorski of the--well, I suppose of StarGate Command, now, yes?" Kaspar says around the pipe, with a clearly Chicagoland accent, "I see you already know Hilda and you must have met Captain Tourmaline when you arrived through the gate.  Allow me to introduce the others--this is Gavin of the Tollan, a Technology Expert, and over there, in her hoverchair, is Freyda, an officer of the Asgard Fleet who is accompanying us, and this delightful young woman..." Kaspar gestures towards a feline-featured humanoid standing nearby, "...is our local liaison, Asherra of the First Ones."


Kaspar offers his hand to Sarah, "Welcome to..." Kaspar suddenly frowns in puzzlement, and reaches up to remove his pipe from his mouth, "You know, I don't recall if we ever asked the local name of this planet.  Asherrra, what do the First Ones call this world you live on?"

Sarah grins at Hilda as Lucky does his best to 'recover' from her tease before looking to Kaspar.   "Cześć "cześć.  Miło znów cię widzieć, Kaspar."   Her Polish was, much as one might expect, flawless and she continues to greet Freyda, "Adyerf, niaga uoy ees ot doog."  and then in Tollan to Gavin, "A pleasure meeting you, Gavin."

She then looks to Asherra speaking in English as her briefing had not included the native language of these people and Kaspar had just spoken to her as such, "Asherra.  It is certainly a pleasure to meet you.   I look forward to getting to know you and your people."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:38, Thu 13 Sept 2018.

Relieved to hear the truth of his magic, Hilda said to Lucas 'Ah, good. I do not need such luck.'

Stepping back, she listened to the introductions and greetings going around. She was sad that Rajip had gone, and could only hope that this Lucky could match him. And she was glad that she would get to work with Sarah and get to know her better. Although her ears were deaf to the different languages used, she was certainly impressed by Sarah's command of them. 'How many tongues do you know, Sarah?'

She grins as Lucky 'recovers' from the tease.   He really should have played along as a kiss from Hilda would probably have been the highlight of this tour!   "Fluently?  Twenty one at last count.  Though many have dialects and offshoots which would increase the number considerably.  I've focused on mastering the root languages - for obvious reasons."

In reply to Sarah Morgan (msg # 253):

"That is good to hear, Sarah." Kaspar says, "Since joining the SGC I've spent my time learning Goa'uld, so your Ancient is probably better than my very, very basic skill.  And fortuitous, as well, for our Asgard-in-Residence, Freyda, has identified this structure as being of likely Ancient origin.  She thinks it may be an over-sized ring-transporter, probably used for moving large cargo lots."

"However, so far, we haven't located anything that looks like a control panel.  I know that, for those ring-transporters built into Goa'uld structures, like the Ha'tak, the controls tend to be mounted on some nearby wall, or wall-like surface--as well as controlled by a hand device.  Now that you are here, you can help us try to locate whatever controls there are for this system."

Hilda was in awe. She didn't even know twenty-one languages. 'Wow. You must be skilled with your tongue.' she offered with a wry smile. 'I know what Daniel Jackson calls Norse and Thracian, as well as Goa'uld, and now English.'

She looked over to Kaspar, chiding him 'We haven't found anything yet because you won't let us step inside... Maybe the controls lie inside an altar stone?'

In reply to Hilda (msg # 255):

"And I won't allow anyone to step inside the ring of stones until we do find the controls," Kaspar responds, "On the chance that if the ring-transporter should activate automatically when someone does step inside, those of us left behind may be able to pull you back."

Kaspar frowns and clamps his pipe back in his mouth, puffing it back to life before he continues, "If this is a cargo transporter, as Freyda suspects, then there is a possibility it is ranged for a ship in orbit--and since there haven't been any Ancient ships up there to receive a transit beam for several thousand years now, that would put you floating in orbit.  Without a space suit."

"No.  Better safe than sorry.  We find the controls first.  Maybe they are inside the ring of stones, but we confirm they are not out here before we go in."

"Good to meet you sir." Lucky replied to his new CO, then nodded to each team member as they were introduced. It was then that he realized that being on this new team would get him over his timidness around aliens quickly. He turned his attention back to Sarah at the suggestion she was good with her tongue, and smirked slightly as he had to bite his own to keep any innappropriate comments from slipping out.

He turned back to the major again, "I guess before we get to work, I need a little more  details, Major. What sort of control panels did the Ancients use besides the standard Stargate controls? I mean if they used touch panels or keypads, it could be concealed  anywhere. Also, had you considered using the Ha..... ship," he stammered a bit trying to pronounce the name of the ship they had arrived in, " to dial in to this location to activate it? If I remember my crash course in training, the control panel should activate and reveal itself. If it works like a regular gate." He shrugged, hoping his idea wasn't making him look like an idiot.

"That is a good idea," the Tollan replied to Lucky's comment. "We can certainly try that as a last resort, but the ha'tak uses a Goa'uld ring transporter. This stonehenge was probably built by the Ancients."

"It's the one thing that the Goa'uld have never been able to duplicate--the stargates. My people have worked with the Asgard and the Nox to build a gate, but the Goa'uld have never been able to take over any of those species."

"But, yes, the Ancients did use a variety of touch pads. It depended entirely on what era the device was built. They also used push buttons, such as the DHD. That way, a random leaf falling on it wouldn't accidentally activate it. Many devices could also be activated by thought. Those usually only work if you have the Ancient gene, though modern gene splicing has been able to get around that."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:43, Mon 01 Oct 2018.

"Asherrra... how do your people activate the Ancient devices in the city?" Freyda asked the cat-folk First One.

"I am endeavoring to use the chair's sensors to find such a control pad," she informs the others, "but even Asgard science may not be up to the task."

While the others talked and theorised, Hilda began a more practical course of investigation, walking around the henge while peering inside between each pair of standing stones. It might not be safe for humans to enter unwisely, but surely animals went in all the time. What happened to them?

Meanwhile, she looked for a large rock she could hurl into the ring, to see what happened to it.


OOC: Hilda will check for animal tracks, signs of animals inside the ring, etc. I can add bonuses depending on the terrain type, but this is good.
21:02, Today: Hilda rolled 25 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 20. track.

With everyone turning to the search, Sarah does too and will scan the area (both visually and on her tablet in case there's some electronic emissions Freyda hadn't picked up) but didn't find anything immediately obvious.

OOC: Rolled 12 on a search.

Lucky watched the others focusing on the search, and decided that while staying on his toes, he should be helping. It occured to him that since this gate was much bigger than the others he had experinced, then the controls might be a proportional distance away. He remained on his toes and his weapon at the ready, just in case.

Unfortunately, no one has enough familiarity with the ring gates to fully understand how they work or what their limitations are, but but Lucky and sarah had recently used the one on Aerielle, so at least the concept is fresh in their minds. The one on Aerielle seemed to have a receiving pad.

Here, there is none visible... just grass and dirt. There could be a pad--it just may be covered over with dirt and grass, indicating that this ring gate hasn't been used in a very, very long time.


Hilda manages to find a stone that she can throw into the inside of the ring, and it lands with a thud, but nothing happens to it. She does find a few animal tracks, but they seem to be rather old. They wander in and then wander out again. She does spot a lot more that venture near the henge but then skirt around it or veer away.


As Sarah looks around, she does spot something... if she wasn't so versed in ancient languages and scripts, she might not have spotted it at all, as it mostly just looks like worn stone. Since she's actually had to read a few ancient texts that were carved into stone, she recognizes a symbol when she sees it.

On the inside edge of the lintels there are carved a lot of such symbols. At least, she thinks there are. She only saw one, and that appeared to be half-obscured by the accumulated dirt of centuries, but based on the dirt that she can see, there are bound to be more.


Perhaps prompted by where Lucky was looking--around the ring rather than within it or on it, Hilda continues to search for a control panel of some sort and, half way around the henge, she spots a smaller standing stone about 20 yards away from the henge. It looks just like an ordinary stone sticking up out of the ground; its only anomaly is that it is a solitary stone.

Approaching it, she sees that it appears to be worked... carved by tools. There is also a rather flat slanted area near the top on the outside of it.