Crazy Train
Next up, O'Neill compounds the "terrorism" image by running armed through a Jaffa shopping mall, hijacking a train and unleashing an irate beastman/construction worker on the warriors of the stars!
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Crazy Train
Chulak
“You guys love your huge ass pyramids” O’Neill remarked once the group emerged on the other side of the ring transportation system. They were walking through a hallway of gray marble with a crimson carpet that stretched onward towards an exit that was an arch made of some kind of fine crystal that must have been as hard as steel. There were gardens and fountains and clear ponds on either side of the carpet, above their heads was the interior of the pyramid-colored gold and scarlet.
Turns out the outside was lined with some kind of glass like material because the pyramid became a prism. Hundreds of rainbows danced in each “block” and there was a courtyard filled with Jaffa watching projection, holographic screens that discussed the events of the day and the emergency lockdown of Bakhu. Apophis, it was said was making his return to Waset and would take his new consort and prince Klorel with him. “Waset?” Jackson asked curiously. “The Crown world of Apophis’ domain. The capitol.” Teal’c answered quietly, praying no one turned and noticed him as the news had likely either related that he’d been killed during the escape attempt or injured.
“Shako is now the interim Fist Prime until Teal’c is found or confirmed deceased.” The voice on the projections said and people began to murmur. Teal’c felt a slight swell of pride at that, Shako of the Winter Hills was a Prime who served as Teal’c’s master of logistics, he who handled the economic and material aspect of war. Many called him the pantry chief for he was eternally concerned about either food production, or the production of weaponry and vehicles. When O’Neill asked what was being said the man nodded “Ah, bean counter.”
“Indeed” Teal’c answered sensing the man’s implication. Shako was excellent at his job and personally he was an astounding master at the quick draw and a gifted knife fighter, but he was no battlefield commander. Appointing a scribe to lead a war effort was a mistake, appointing him to begin preparation for one on the other hand. “Either Apophis has errored.”
“Or he’s preparing for war.” Skara answered causing both men and Carter to nod in agreement.
“You said there hadn’t been an invasion of your nation for two and a half centuries, yet you said your mentor crushed an invasion from another Galaxy?” Jackson asked, still determined to try and poke holes in his story, both as a coping mechanism and because he didn’t want to believe what Ra had boasted to him and what he was seeing was real.
“Indeed” Teal’c answered.
“How can that be? Humans don’t live more than a hundred years at a maximum.”
“We are Jaffa, we were formed from the genetic material of the greatest specimens of your world and of a pair of Ori and of the flesh of Anubis and Apophis themselves. We were enhanced, selectively bred for health, vitality and strength..”
Jackson nodded mouthing oh, but a fascinated Carter cut in “Well, even then wouldn’t your body not last more than twice the optimal for a human?” they were entering a private tram station and then towards an automated vehicle that Teal’c accessed with a series of clicks and whistles. Once inside, Teal’c uttered a command and then turned to Carter. “In exchange for our service, the System lord’s bound themselves to us as we are to them.” He moved towards the armor on his torso, unfastening a clip and pressing one of the green gems the segmented armor melded away and then the fabric itself retreated, revealing a muscular midsection with those X shaped slits. Teal’c reached in and everyone groaned or backed up except Carter and Jackson who stared with fascination.
Teal’c pulled out a white, snake like thing with four sets of eyes that glowed faintly with that pink they saw in Amunet and Apophis eyes. Fang like pincers snapped but the creature lulled in his hand, dully, devoid of any sense of self. After a second Teal’c eased it back into the pouch and closed up the uniform. “That is a Prim’tah, the larval form of one of the lesser breeds of Goa’uld, even the lower ones can keep a body alive for centuries, enhance its strength and senses, repair the most grotesque of injuries and defeat all disease. The peers are merciless, forcing their parents to lobotomize them, leave them without personalities, blank slates that exist solely to service us and keep us alive. I am one hundred and seventy-seven years old, as is my wife. Our lifespans are quite long, four hundred years used to be the average. In times of peace…however, Jaffa have begun to live longer.”
They’d also begun to grow fat and go native. Something Teal’c never liked, even if they were more officers of the peace than warriors now, they were still Jaffa. Too many sleepy frontier worlds were filled with indolent wastrels enjoying confections and involving themselves in local affairs far beyond their duty. Obesity among the Jaffa was a literal impossibility, their organs were far too efficient, symbiotes made them more so, yet he’d seen his fair share of chubby Jaffa, and this was a thing he would not tolerate. Odd that adult Goa’uld and even the Peers and System lords could grow obese, yet it was unheard of for Jaffa. “The greatest among us are given the sacred privilege of incubating one of the offspring of the System Lords, an even rarer few are fortunate enough to incubate peers. The children, they are bound to us subconsciously.”
“Oh! I see!” Carter grinned. “Sir, basically they entrust the psychological development of their children to the Jaffa and their personal safety.”
It wasn’t slavery like she and Daniel thought, but a mutual bond that wasn’t exactly a bastion of morality either, but it held them together. -Loyalty bought with an exchange of blood, like in the bronze age I guess-. The tram began to move, many of the others were trying to communicate with Jackson and Skara and the other Abydonians, it grew easier as they each grew accustomed to their unique accents. All but the troll remained silent, seated and contemplative.
And then he disappeared, it didn’t happen before their very eyes, not exactly, not quite. One moment he was sitting there, the next, he was there, or they all swore he was, but he wasn’t and now no one had any idea where the hell he was or what he was. “This day is filled with twists.” Jackson said running his fingers through his hair.
“Indeed.”
Neither man could continue the conversation, the sky was a lit with roars even as they neared the stop for the gate station. “We have been discovered!” Skara called out.
“O’Neill they will fire on us.”
Jack nodded, turning he smashed one of the windows, the air howled and despite the velocity he managed to get his torso out and open fire with one of the staff’s. The blast impacted onto the tip of a crimson-colored wing, a vessel far sleeker in appearance than Ra’s gliders veered off and moved towards the other side. Purple bolts of energy lanced out and smashed into the ground along the side of the barreling train car, the energy blasts deflected by the electromagnetic field around the tram. Two others broke glass and began to open fire, but there were posts on the rails on that side and both men were cut in half by the suddenness, blood spraying into the cabin.
Again, there was a discharge of bolts and again they were deflected, though less so this time and the tram shook violently. “We’re getting rattled here! Teal’c! How do we strike back?”
“This tram does not contain defensive weaponry. However, those craft are atmospheric in nature. They’re mostly used to pursue criminals, drunken pilots and wastrels. Fire upon them, on the nose and between at the folds of the wings.”
“You want us to stick out heads out at this speed? We already lost two guys to that!”
Teal’c nodded grimly. ‘Indeed, but eventually they’ll disrupt the” the Tram shook, and Jack cursed, directing Skara and Carter to grab staff weapons while he longed for a rocket launcher. “Carter, you heard the man, continuous fire!”
“I get the energy musket? Hoooyeeaahh!” She’d dashed half her torso out the window, before Skara realized the Craft was flying almost beside the tram and the cockpit was open, a Jaffa who looked to be barely in his teens was sneering at her.
“Nanei!” If she fired this close to the Tram.
Carter didn’t hesitate (Something that disturbed O’Neill), she just opened fire and watched as the energy bolt smashed into what looked like a forcefield. The youth cursed and jerked the fighter to the side, trying to bank away but the wing dove too low and it dug into grass. There was a violent hiccup and Carter heard a wing splinter and something exploded, and she was hurtled into the tram laughing as she patted down an arm that was on fire.
“Carter! That was a kid for Christ’s sakes!”
“We don’t know that sir, given how long they live, that could be a twenty-year-old. Besides, you saw what one of their adolescents did on earth.” She added defensively, her hand reaching for the staff in case he ordered her back to the window.
“She is correct O’Neill even our children can disembowel an adult human with not but their hands. Your compassion is appreciated but dangerous, any Jaffa of any age in uniform will kill you and any around you if ordered too.”
O’Neill nodded, though he made a mental note to rip Carter a new one later over the risk she put herself and others by firing so close to the tram. “How close are we to the gate.”
“Another moment” Teal’c answered as the roar of two more aircraft filled the air.
“What are our odds.”
“Poor odds for you against two, but one will land when we disembark. Let me face that one, I shall defeat it easily enough.”
“No, we’ll handle that, you help handle those fighters. We’ve, killed Jaffa before.” Except, O’Neill didn’t realize he’d be shooting up teenagers this time around. -I really fucking these snake bastards. - Teenagers, that could apparently tear him limb from limb if the incident report at the mountain was anything to go by. There was another reason, O’Neill didn’t doubt his loyalty both to this “Imperium” and to himself. He knew Teal’c would follow, he wasn’t sure why, beyond a marine’s intuition. But that didn’t mean O’Neill wanted Teal’c to kill any more of his own men, at least not up close.
The giant seemed to sense what O’Neill intended and gave an appreciative nod. “Then I shall not fail you O’Neill.”
A sly smile crept across Jack’s face for a second, he kind of liked this space equivalent of General MacArthur taking orders from a lowly colonel. Turning he eyed Carter “you and Jackson go with Teal’c, rendezvous with Kowalski and rain hell on ‘em.” He paused, for a second wondering if telling Carter to unleash hell was a good idea. But shrugged, either she was going to kill them all, or kill the Jaffa, either way they needed to get the hell out of here.
Thankfully, backup didn’t take anymore potshots until the tram stopped at the gate station. Which was evacuated except for four Jaffa who looked to be in their teens. This particular group didn’t wait for the doors to open before they began raking the tram with fire as the roar of the Glider overhead was joined by a third, two landed, joining the fray while a third took off towards the gate and the tree line.
“Damn! They’re headed for our guys!” Jack roared and then cursed as the metallic looking alloy of the tram’s walls began to dent and then explode. O’Neill rolled across the floor hiding behind a rail angrily patting the fire that was burning on his jacket. “This is the second fucking time these assholes have set me on fire!”
Jackson rolled and grabbed a staff, O’Neill was about to yell at him to give it to Skara (Who was wisely hiding behind Carter), but Jackson was in a rage again and rose firing wildly through the windows, managing to hit everything except the Jaffa… Walls erupted in smoke, debris rained down on the youths who looked as though they were out of uniform and ordered out of their bunks. They were young, wide eyed and luckily enough inexperienced because they had no idea how to deal with an idiot with terrible aim who was spraying and praying with an energy staff. One was buried under flaming rubble, his legs pinned and a piece of stained glass like material the length of a construction rebar impaled itself in his shoulder. He let out a flurry of curses and pushed his weapon towards his companion who grabbed it and began dual firing to give the other cover while he pulled himself out of the rubble.
One of his legs was torn open down the calf and O’Neill could see the knee bones as well, a human would have gone into shock or bled to death, but this kid was limping with his mangled leg and howling obscenities and throwing out what Jack assumed were profane gestures. The little shit then proceeded to yank the glass out of his shoulder, a torrent of blood gushed and with the last ounce of his adrenaline he flung the shard like a makeshift spear, with it catching an abydonian in the chest, launching him forward into the wall.
Carter muttered something…under her breath and Skara fired the side arm he’d taken from a fallen Jaffa and finally brought the boy down.
He and Teal’c leaped into action, joined by Carter who was grinning maniacally as they charged a group of fully armored Jaffa that got close. Teal’c tossed what Jack assumed was an energy grenade and pulled the other two down, he didn’t really have time to contemplate the wisdom of being that close to a detonation because the world turned white and Jack felt every sinew, every nerve contort and howl in simultaneous agony. The world seemed to slow and Jack staggered and was overcome with a wave of nausea and what he thought was exploding rainbow that slowly turned into a fist and he realized someone was taking a swing at him.
He reached for his colt.
He opened fire, someone staggered back, and O’Neill realized it was another Jaffa whose armor was torn from the hell Daniel was raining down on everyone. He managed to get a shot off into the dude’s eye, which put most of the back of his head against the “cheek” of the serpent helm of another Jaffa. Colt would be useless against someone fully armored, so he took aim with one of those nifty next gen weapons with the doorknob looking suppressor thing at the end of the barrel. The armor held up long enough for the Jaffa to reach and draw but not long enough for him to fire. He fell at Jack’s feet and O’Neill was quickly firing at the others who were overcome by a mix of shock, despair and confusion at the sight of Teal’c leading the charge against them.
Many questioned why and Teal’c asked them something that made them abandon their post, most were overcome with a despair induced rage and rushed at their former leading howling something that sounded like “Shoval!” or some variant of shovel, Jack popped a couple with his rifle, then abandoned it and returned to using the staff weapon.
Beside him the red skinned alien chicks with peacock feather hair and this hulking giant, cave man looking dude were laying into the Jaffa with amazing savagery. One of the females even managing to impale a female Jaffa through her left hip and stick her to a wall where she was left cursing and grasping at the staff weapon to try and fire it.
O’Neill blew her torso open with four quick shots.
The giant was the only one who seemed able to legitimately overpower the Jaffa, hefting one over his massive fur cloaked shoulders and bending the poor woman until he heard a snap, followed by a sick shredding sound as the beast man literally ripped her in half. The sight of the man, covered in entrails, dead snake and blood was a grizzly thing to behold and he threw an immense rock at several Jaffa and took a shot to the spine and kept on going.
It took nine, nine blasts with a staff weapon before he died and by then he’d killed some thirty Jaffa single handedly. Most of which were utterly bewildered by the sight even as they themselves were cut down.
“Tarneans” Teal’c remarked. “They were the first attempt at Jaffa, but they’re naturally quite gentle and prefer building things, so Ra spared them the fate of war. They function as construction workers, the great movers of our industry…it is..considered an act of blood treason for a Jaffa to harm one.”
“Explains why he lost it” Jack said as they ran, a bloodied mess through the fields.
“Did you capture him as well?” Skara asked.
Teal’c shook his head “It is a crime punishable by death to abduct a Tarnean from a Lord’s domain for the average Goa’uld, even a System would be forced to pay a considerable indemnity to the Tarneans clan and Lord of the world he or she was abducted from. Had Lord Apophis commanded me to abduct him, I would have been within my rights to refuse.”
“I spoke with him.” Skara admitted “his dialect was crude, but he said he knew of my world, that his forefathers helped erect the pyramid complex.”
Stealing from the house of Ra was bad enough, to do it both to Abydos and to a Tarnean was absurdity. “We must go.”
Tau’Ri it was found out, were not expected to have blasphemed Chulak with their presence alone, many of the Jaffa in the air and on the ground assumed that they received aid and comfort from the Jaffa traders and merchants who were part of the camp in the forest near the grand gate. In response, they had flown over Kowalski’s camp and had begun ruthlessly bombarding the largest pavilions, grain, alcohol, fuel cells, a myriad of chemicals erupted into the heavens, the skies ahead of O’Neill and his band of escaped prisoners and exiles.
The Colonel had no way of knowing this and so ordered his group to pick up the space. All he could hear was the roar of the Jaffa jets and the oddly blue-green flames that reached into the night.
Until a good’ol American rocket ripped through the heavens and smashed into the side of one of the fighter’s, a dark blood red plume of fire joined the other colors as Jack ordered his team to begin the dialing process for Abydos.
Caught between two fires and a damn frying pan, just like old times!
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Crazy Train
Chulak
“You guys love your huge ass pyramids” O’Neill remarked once the group emerged on the other side of the ring transportation system. They were walking through a hallway of gray marble with a crimson carpet that stretched onward towards an exit that was an arch made of some kind of fine crystal that must have been as hard as steel. There were gardens and fountains and clear ponds on either side of the carpet, above their heads was the interior of the pyramid-colored gold and scarlet.
Turns out the outside was lined with some kind of glass like material because the pyramid became a prism. Hundreds of rainbows danced in each “block” and there was a courtyard filled with Jaffa watching projection, holographic screens that discussed the events of the day and the emergency lockdown of Bakhu. Apophis, it was said was making his return to Waset and would take his new consort and prince Klorel with him. “Waset?” Jackson asked curiously. “The Crown world of Apophis’ domain. The capitol.” Teal’c answered quietly, praying no one turned and noticed him as the news had likely either related that he’d been killed during the escape attempt or injured.
“Shako is now the interim Fist Prime until Teal’c is found or confirmed deceased.” The voice on the projections said and people began to murmur. Teal’c felt a slight swell of pride at that, Shako of the Winter Hills was a Prime who served as Teal’c’s master of logistics, he who handled the economic and material aspect of war. Many called him the pantry chief for he was eternally concerned about either food production, or the production of weaponry and vehicles. When O’Neill asked what was being said the man nodded “Ah, bean counter.”
“Indeed” Teal’c answered sensing the man’s implication. Shako was excellent at his job and personally he was an astounding master at the quick draw and a gifted knife fighter, but he was no battlefield commander. Appointing a scribe to lead a war effort was a mistake, appointing him to begin preparation for one on the other hand. “Either Apophis has errored.”
“Or he’s preparing for war.” Skara answered causing both men and Carter to nod in agreement.
“You said there hadn’t been an invasion of your nation for two and a half centuries, yet you said your mentor crushed an invasion from another Galaxy?” Jackson asked, still determined to try and poke holes in his story, both as a coping mechanism and because he didn’t want to believe what Ra had boasted to him and what he was seeing was real.
“Indeed” Teal’c answered.
“How can that be? Humans don’t live more than a hundred years at a maximum.”
“We are Jaffa, we were formed from the genetic material of the greatest specimens of your world and of a pair of Ori and of the flesh of Anubis and Apophis themselves. We were enhanced, selectively bred for health, vitality and strength..”
Jackson nodded mouthing oh, but a fascinated Carter cut in “Well, even then wouldn’t your body not last more than twice the optimal for a human?” they were entering a private tram station and then towards an automated vehicle that Teal’c accessed with a series of clicks and whistles. Once inside, Teal’c uttered a command and then turned to Carter. “In exchange for our service, the System lord’s bound themselves to us as we are to them.” He moved towards the armor on his torso, unfastening a clip and pressing one of the green gems the segmented armor melded away and then the fabric itself retreated, revealing a muscular midsection with those X shaped slits. Teal’c reached in and everyone groaned or backed up except Carter and Jackson who stared with fascination.
Teal’c pulled out a white, snake like thing with four sets of eyes that glowed faintly with that pink they saw in Amunet and Apophis eyes. Fang like pincers snapped but the creature lulled in his hand, dully, devoid of any sense of self. After a second Teal’c eased it back into the pouch and closed up the uniform. “That is a Prim’tah, the larval form of one of the lesser breeds of Goa’uld, even the lower ones can keep a body alive for centuries, enhance its strength and senses, repair the most grotesque of injuries and defeat all disease. The peers are merciless, forcing their parents to lobotomize them, leave them without personalities, blank slates that exist solely to service us and keep us alive. I am one hundred and seventy-seven years old, as is my wife. Our lifespans are quite long, four hundred years used to be the average. In times of peace…however, Jaffa have begun to live longer.”
They’d also begun to grow fat and go native. Something Teal’c never liked, even if they were more officers of the peace than warriors now, they were still Jaffa. Too many sleepy frontier worlds were filled with indolent wastrels enjoying confections and involving themselves in local affairs far beyond their duty. Obesity among the Jaffa was a literal impossibility, their organs were far too efficient, symbiotes made them more so, yet he’d seen his fair share of chubby Jaffa, and this was a thing he would not tolerate. Odd that adult Goa’uld and even the Peers and System lords could grow obese, yet it was unheard of for Jaffa. “The greatest among us are given the sacred privilege of incubating one of the offspring of the System Lords, an even rarer few are fortunate enough to incubate peers. The children, they are bound to us subconsciously.”
“Oh! I see!” Carter grinned. “Sir, basically they entrust the psychological development of their children to the Jaffa and their personal safety.”
It wasn’t slavery like she and Daniel thought, but a mutual bond that wasn’t exactly a bastion of morality either, but it held them together. -Loyalty bought with an exchange of blood, like in the bronze age I guess-. The tram began to move, many of the others were trying to communicate with Jackson and Skara and the other Abydonians, it grew easier as they each grew accustomed to their unique accents. All but the troll remained silent, seated and contemplative.
And then he disappeared, it didn’t happen before their very eyes, not exactly, not quite. One moment he was sitting there, the next, he was there, or they all swore he was, but he wasn’t and now no one had any idea where the hell he was or what he was. “This day is filled with twists.” Jackson said running his fingers through his hair.
“Indeed.”
Neither man could continue the conversation, the sky was a lit with roars even as they neared the stop for the gate station. “We have been discovered!” Skara called out.
“O’Neill they will fire on us.”
Jack nodded, turning he smashed one of the windows, the air howled and despite the velocity he managed to get his torso out and open fire with one of the staff’s. The blast impacted onto the tip of a crimson-colored wing, a vessel far sleeker in appearance than Ra’s gliders veered off and moved towards the other side. Purple bolts of energy lanced out and smashed into the ground along the side of the barreling train car, the energy blasts deflected by the electromagnetic field around the tram. Two others broke glass and began to open fire, but there were posts on the rails on that side and both men were cut in half by the suddenness, blood spraying into the cabin.
Again, there was a discharge of bolts and again they were deflected, though less so this time and the tram shook violently. “We’re getting rattled here! Teal’c! How do we strike back?”
“This tram does not contain defensive weaponry. However, those craft are atmospheric in nature. They’re mostly used to pursue criminals, drunken pilots and wastrels. Fire upon them, on the nose and between at the folds of the wings.”
“You want us to stick out heads out at this speed? We already lost two guys to that!”
Teal’c nodded grimly. ‘Indeed, but eventually they’ll disrupt the” the Tram shook, and Jack cursed, directing Skara and Carter to grab staff weapons while he longed for a rocket launcher. “Carter, you heard the man, continuous fire!”
“I get the energy musket? Hoooyeeaahh!” She’d dashed half her torso out the window, before Skara realized the Craft was flying almost beside the tram and the cockpit was open, a Jaffa who looked to be barely in his teens was sneering at her.
“Nanei!” If she fired this close to the Tram.
Carter didn’t hesitate (Something that disturbed O’Neill), she just opened fire and watched as the energy bolt smashed into what looked like a forcefield. The youth cursed and jerked the fighter to the side, trying to bank away but the wing dove too low and it dug into grass. There was a violent hiccup and Carter heard a wing splinter and something exploded, and she was hurtled into the tram laughing as she patted down an arm that was on fire.
“Carter! That was a kid for Christ’s sakes!”
“We don’t know that sir, given how long they live, that could be a twenty-year-old. Besides, you saw what one of their adolescents did on earth.” She added defensively, her hand reaching for the staff in case he ordered her back to the window.
“She is correct O’Neill even our children can disembowel an adult human with not but their hands. Your compassion is appreciated but dangerous, any Jaffa of any age in uniform will kill you and any around you if ordered too.”
O’Neill nodded, though he made a mental note to rip Carter a new one later over the risk she put herself and others by firing so close to the tram. “How close are we to the gate.”
“Another moment” Teal’c answered as the roar of two more aircraft filled the air.
“What are our odds.”
“Poor odds for you against two, but one will land when we disembark. Let me face that one, I shall defeat it easily enough.”
“No, we’ll handle that, you help handle those fighters. We’ve, killed Jaffa before.” Except, O’Neill didn’t realize he’d be shooting up teenagers this time around. -I really fucking these snake bastards. - Teenagers, that could apparently tear him limb from limb if the incident report at the mountain was anything to go by. There was another reason, O’Neill didn’t doubt his loyalty both to this “Imperium” and to himself. He knew Teal’c would follow, he wasn’t sure why, beyond a marine’s intuition. But that didn’t mean O’Neill wanted Teal’c to kill any more of his own men, at least not up close.
The giant seemed to sense what O’Neill intended and gave an appreciative nod. “Then I shall not fail you O’Neill.”
A sly smile crept across Jack’s face for a second, he kind of liked this space equivalent of General MacArthur taking orders from a lowly colonel. Turning he eyed Carter “you and Jackson go with Teal’c, rendezvous with Kowalski and rain hell on ‘em.” He paused, for a second wondering if telling Carter to unleash hell was a good idea. But shrugged, either she was going to kill them all, or kill the Jaffa, either way they needed to get the hell out of here.
Thankfully, backup didn’t take anymore potshots until the tram stopped at the gate station. Which was evacuated except for four Jaffa who looked to be in their teens. This particular group didn’t wait for the doors to open before they began raking the tram with fire as the roar of the Glider overhead was joined by a third, two landed, joining the fray while a third took off towards the gate and the tree line.
“Damn! They’re headed for our guys!” Jack roared and then cursed as the metallic looking alloy of the tram’s walls began to dent and then explode. O’Neill rolled across the floor hiding behind a rail angrily patting the fire that was burning on his jacket. “This is the second fucking time these assholes have set me on fire!”
Jackson rolled and grabbed a staff, O’Neill was about to yell at him to give it to Skara (Who was wisely hiding behind Carter), but Jackson was in a rage again and rose firing wildly through the windows, managing to hit everything except the Jaffa… Walls erupted in smoke, debris rained down on the youths who looked as though they were out of uniform and ordered out of their bunks. They were young, wide eyed and luckily enough inexperienced because they had no idea how to deal with an idiot with terrible aim who was spraying and praying with an energy staff. One was buried under flaming rubble, his legs pinned and a piece of stained glass like material the length of a construction rebar impaled itself in his shoulder. He let out a flurry of curses and pushed his weapon towards his companion who grabbed it and began dual firing to give the other cover while he pulled himself out of the rubble.
One of his legs was torn open down the calf and O’Neill could see the knee bones as well, a human would have gone into shock or bled to death, but this kid was limping with his mangled leg and howling obscenities and throwing out what Jack assumed were profane gestures. The little shit then proceeded to yank the glass out of his shoulder, a torrent of blood gushed and with the last ounce of his adrenaline he flung the shard like a makeshift spear, with it catching an abydonian in the chest, launching him forward into the wall.
Carter muttered something…under her breath and Skara fired the side arm he’d taken from a fallen Jaffa and finally brought the boy down.
He and Teal’c leaped into action, joined by Carter who was grinning maniacally as they charged a group of fully armored Jaffa that got close. Teal’c tossed what Jack assumed was an energy grenade and pulled the other two down, he didn’t really have time to contemplate the wisdom of being that close to a detonation because the world turned white and Jack felt every sinew, every nerve contort and howl in simultaneous agony. The world seemed to slow and Jack staggered and was overcome with a wave of nausea and what he thought was exploding rainbow that slowly turned into a fist and he realized someone was taking a swing at him.
He reached for his colt.
He opened fire, someone staggered back, and O’Neill realized it was another Jaffa whose armor was torn from the hell Daniel was raining down on everyone. He managed to get a shot off into the dude’s eye, which put most of the back of his head against the “cheek” of the serpent helm of another Jaffa. Colt would be useless against someone fully armored, so he took aim with one of those nifty next gen weapons with the doorknob looking suppressor thing at the end of the barrel. The armor held up long enough for the Jaffa to reach and draw but not long enough for him to fire. He fell at Jack’s feet and O’Neill was quickly firing at the others who were overcome by a mix of shock, despair and confusion at the sight of Teal’c leading the charge against them.
Many questioned why and Teal’c asked them something that made them abandon their post, most were overcome with a despair induced rage and rushed at their former leading howling something that sounded like “Shoval!” or some variant of shovel, Jack popped a couple with his rifle, then abandoned it and returned to using the staff weapon.
Beside him the red skinned alien chicks with peacock feather hair and this hulking giant, cave man looking dude were laying into the Jaffa with amazing savagery. One of the females even managing to impale a female Jaffa through her left hip and stick her to a wall where she was left cursing and grasping at the staff weapon to try and fire it.
O’Neill blew her torso open with four quick shots.
The giant was the only one who seemed able to legitimately overpower the Jaffa, hefting one over his massive fur cloaked shoulders and bending the poor woman until he heard a snap, followed by a sick shredding sound as the beast man literally ripped her in half. The sight of the man, covered in entrails, dead snake and blood was a grizzly thing to behold and he threw an immense rock at several Jaffa and took a shot to the spine and kept on going.
It took nine, nine blasts with a staff weapon before he died and by then he’d killed some thirty Jaffa single handedly. Most of which were utterly bewildered by the sight even as they themselves were cut down.
“Tarneans” Teal’c remarked. “They were the first attempt at Jaffa, but they’re naturally quite gentle and prefer building things, so Ra spared them the fate of war. They function as construction workers, the great movers of our industry…it is..considered an act of blood treason for a Jaffa to harm one.”
“Explains why he lost it” Jack said as they ran, a bloodied mess through the fields.
“Did you capture him as well?” Skara asked.
Teal’c shook his head “It is a crime punishable by death to abduct a Tarnean from a Lord’s domain for the average Goa’uld, even a System would be forced to pay a considerable indemnity to the Tarneans clan and Lord of the world he or she was abducted from. Had Lord Apophis commanded me to abduct him, I would have been within my rights to refuse.”
“I spoke with him.” Skara admitted “his dialect was crude, but he said he knew of my world, that his forefathers helped erect the pyramid complex.”
Stealing from the house of Ra was bad enough, to do it both to Abydos and to a Tarnean was absurdity. “We must go.”
Tau’Ri it was found out, were not expected to have blasphemed Chulak with their presence alone, many of the Jaffa in the air and on the ground assumed that they received aid and comfort from the Jaffa traders and merchants who were part of the camp in the forest near the grand gate. In response, they had flown over Kowalski’s camp and had begun ruthlessly bombarding the largest pavilions, grain, alcohol, fuel cells, a myriad of chemicals erupted into the heavens, the skies ahead of O’Neill and his band of escaped prisoners and exiles.
The Colonel had no way of knowing this and so ordered his group to pick up the space. All he could hear was the roar of the Jaffa jets and the oddly blue-green flames that reached into the night.
Until a good’ol American rocket ripped through the heavens and smashed into the side of one of the fighter’s, a dark blood red plume of fire joined the other colors as Jack ordered his team to begin the dialing process for Abydos.
Caught between two fires and a damn frying pan, just like old times!
