Unto The Breach Once More... [Cochrane]
Rob Underwood
"On your left! LEFT!" A burst of fire rattled down the corridor,
ricocheting and howling like maddened hornets as they passed overhead.
"FRAG OUT!!!" Ki ducked his head and pulled back a second before the
grenade exploded; the pressure wave slapped into the wall, shaking the
breeching team. He looked left to see Sergeant First Class Sohl pull
out another grenade - this one a round cannister of smoke. Ki nodded
back to him and palmed another grenade from his pouch. On a second
nod, both pulled the grenade pins; Sohl tossed his grenade while Ki
counted in his head for a pair of seconds before throwing the grenade.
Rather than arcing it, he threw it overhand, as if it were a
baseball. The 'clang' of the grenade hitting the wall was overriden
by another powerful explosion.
If they had timed it right, people would have just been coming out
from cover from the first grenade, and be caught in the explosive
power and fragments of the second.
"Yalla, yalla, boys!" barked Staff Sergeant Berry, shouldering his M4
and moving forward slowly against the right-hand wall. Ki did the
same with the Mk 46 in his hands, flipping down the IR monacle to let
him see through the smoke as they approached. Each individual of the
assault team was wearing a specialized IR marker on helmets and
armbands to mark them as different from the intruders. Each point man
on the wall snapped a burst when an infra-red presence appeared around
the corridor. The breeching team moved faster, ears ringing from the
continuous loud noises despite the in-ear speakers to their radio
communications.
Ki paused at the corner, looking across the hallway at Berry, who
shook his head and pointed at his ear. Looking over his shoulder, he
saw the other two individuals, Sohl and SSgt Knighton perform the same
action. Ki returned the gesture, and began to give hand gestures in
place of spoken words. ~Spread out, 5 meters~ ~ Left and right
walls~ ~IR monoculars, shoot upon recognition~
They were almost positive that the corridors leading to the Gate Room
were held strictly by intruders; but there were numerous Security
Forces, Knowledge Operators and Space Command personnel still
unaccounted for. But the General's orders were to secure the Gate at
all costs - including their own. No matter how much Ki hated and
loathed the thought on an emotional level, he knew intellectually that
it was necessary - and even right. So it was a full throttle rush to
get into the Gate Room as fast as possible; shock tactics were going
to create the fastest entry against an opposing force that was
surprisingly good.
Shaking his head at the grenade that SFC Sohl had in his hand, Ki
barked "We're need to preserve equipment in the Gate Room if at all
possible!"
"DILLIGAF, Lieutenant." Sohl growled back. But he replaced the
ordnance at the officer's scowl, gesturing for Ki to move on. Each
man moved as smoothly and rapidly as possible without running; twice
Ki tripped over bodies. When he could he pulled the velcro name tape
off the uniform and tucked it into a pouch; at least they could
account for whomever it was, one way or another. But they were
approaching the entrance to the Gate Room.
Ki nudged the vault-style door with a shoulder - and received a hail
of rattling, heavy-caliber fire against the door. "Well, they've got
the Ma Deuces up and running..." It was something that they had
feared - the Gate Room assault had happened so fast that the Security
Forces troops did not have time to either carry out or disable the M2
.50 cal machine guns. Now they would have to fight against them - and
the suppressing fire from the heavy weapons was already starting.
"Bang 'em out, I guess..." SFC Sohl waved the pair of SSgts forward;
each of the four-man team began pulling and throwing their grenades
through the foot-wide crack left at the vault door. Within seconds,
the cacophany of explosions and the buzzing, humming pings of
destruction quieted. Ki ducked his head around the door quickly, then
ran pell-mell through, eyes fixed on an overturned MALP for cover. He
slid behind it, swearing at the burning sensation that he knew was
either a shrapnel wound, or more than likely, a bullet wound. He
jammed the barrel of the LMG over the top of the MALP and began to
spray fire in the general direction of the ramp. "GO! GO! GO!" he
bellowed into the mike, flinching as pieces of plastic and metal began
to pelt his body from the return fire.
Then a noise so loud that it didn't even register *as* noise jammed
him against the wall. His vision blurred; bright kaleidoscopes spun
and pinwheeled in one eye - the other was blocked completely.
Knighton flopped down in front of him. "Holy Christ, sir!" he
exclaimed as he crossed himself. "That was the craziest damned thing
I've ever seen!"
Ki tried to grin, but vomited instead - causing even more pain and
bright lights. "Sorry..." he groaned as he tried to keep himself
upright against the spinning room... but the room won as he slid down
the wall and into blackness.
1Lt Malachi Cochraine
CO/Combat Spec
SG-5
* Glossary available upon request :)
Hilary Doda
"Judith!" Levitz shouted through her office door. He was early for a change this morning and had a coffee mug in each hand . Unfortunately he couldn't figure out how to knock without spilling scalding fluid on his hands or using his forehead. Kicking the door would just not have been professional. "Judith I brought you some wake-up juice!"
"You're a god among men, Matt," Judith called back, waited a moment, and when the door didn't open, actually got up out of her chair and headed over. She opened the door and grinned, and took one of the mugs. Purely as an altruistic gesture of rescue. "What's the occasion?"
"What?" Matt tried to look hurt, but failed. "A guy can't bring his friend a coffee without an ulterior motive?" He stepped into her office and took a quick glance up and down the hallway before closing the door behind himself.
"Actually, it's report and paperwork day and I'm just not ready to sit down and chain myself to a computer. Can I camp out here for... I dunno... a week or two?"
She laughed at that, the reaction coming more easily now than it had in a long time. She was getting soft in her old age. “You’re only two doors down from your own office; I think Hammond could track you down within seconds if it came to that.” She took a sip; it was a lot better than the crap from the lounge. She raised an eyebrow. “I was about to head down to the range, if you wanted to join me. Maybe putting some holes in things will get your day off to a better start.”
Matt was considering her offer. He wasn't really huge on the range practice thing. Wearing ear protection while firing bullets into piece of paper wasn't his idea of a good time or stimulating exercise. He did it because it was part of the job and it was needed far too often in the field. But on the other hand, signatures in triplicate....
Before he could compose a suitably witty reply, however, a deafening klaxon rang out. The noise in and of itself wasn't offensive in any way, other than its volume. It was the meaning behind the sound. Hostile Intruders. Matt got a sickening chill down his spine as he remembered the Alpha incident.
“Never mind,” Judith breathed out. The coffee went on top of the filing cabinet, and within seconds the door was swinging shut behind them as the pair of senior officers ran down CO’s Row at top speed.
--
The fighting had made it as far down as level 12, the secondary elevators a funnel point that they had to hold, goddammit. Benson gestured and the security team fell in behind her, and she ejected her empty clip. The radio in her ear was buzzing with chatter, panicked voices rising and falling, another calm one riding overtop it all.
She pressed the call button and sat back on one heel, waited for the next wave. “Matt; do we have any intel on these guys? Who the hell are they?”
"I can't get a straight answer." Matt replied, his voice sounding a lot calmer than he was. "Upstairs security is saying some paramilitary group or a really exceptional private militia. Downstairs surveillance has reports of them coming from offworld and are calling them Jaffa, militant colonists and NID. Basically, nobody has a clue. All I've got to work with is orders to shoot them before they shoot us. At least they stay down when you do that."
Matt stopped talking for a few minutes while he exchanged fire with some of the attackers. "Judith? This isn't making my day better. Next time just send me back to get my reports done, okay?"
“Deal,” she replied; was all she had time to reply before riot-helmets rounded the corner again and there was nothing but the sounds of gunfire and the narrowed discipline of battle.
--
Matt broke cover and fired a few rounds before making a motion with his hand, ordering the few men still with him to follow.
"Let's go let's go let's go!"
He heard one of the men behind him cry out and soon he was down to two escorts and an unarmed survivor. "Judith," he said into his shoulder mic as he saw the others into a stairwell, "I had to pry Wilkenson out of her lab with a crowbar, but she's with me and we're heading down. What's your twenty?"
"Right behind you," Judith dropped down the last few rungs of the ladder and landed on her feet, the tendrils of hair falling out of her braid and the hitch in her breath betraying what she'd been through in the past few hours. "We're clear upstairs; Vaughan's handling cleanup."
She slammed another clip home and kept her pistol in her hands, scanning the hallway behind him. A shot fired, Judith dove sideways and a bullet buried itself in the wall over her shoulder. She returned fire, three sharp cracks, and heard a yell through the smoke. "Looks like these guys haven't gotten the message yet."
"I know, it's completely nuts!" he replied, taking up position opposite her and covering the hallway with the nearly-empty P90 he'd collected on the way. "They've lost, it's just a matter of time now and there's no sign of any drop in morale, no reports of deserters, nothing. What do they know that we don't?"
The hallway was clear, they just had to make it another section and they'd be at the secondary armory; they had to take the chance.
Wait.
The hallway was clear.
Judith had about a second and a half to process that, to dive and take Matt out at the knees, to roll and try and flatten them both against the floor, corner, bottom of the wall-
The world flared red; the sonic boom seemed to take years to happen. The floor trembled, shook, broke.
The last thought that made it through Judith's mind before things went dark was 'oh. that.'
-----
"Wake up, sleeping beauty." Matt called gently to the prone and bandaged form of Judith Benson. He stood beside her in the infirmary, his arm wrapped in a sling and except for a few mild burns and superficial scrapes and cuts, otherwise unharmed.
"She will kill you if she hears you do that," Jake replied lazily from his chair on the other side of the bed. He'd shown up with the backup forces from Area 51 about halfway through, despite his knee, a marshalling force on the other end of the comms. He'd emerged unscathed physically himself, and had been camped out at Judith's bedside since he'd been cleared, feet propped up on the second visitor's chair. He seemed entirely uninclined to move them to give Matt a seat. "Judy's really more of a Maleficient. Or Cruella de Ville."
"And who are you?" Matt said with a half smile - a half smile meant to conceal the petulant glare he knew would otherwise have appeared. He'd never been fond of Griffin. "The half-wit minion? Have you been here all night?" he changed the subject, preferring not to get into a snark contest with the pilot. "You must be exhausted."
"I prefer to think of myself as the adorable-yet-merchandisable sidekick, but whatever works for you," Jake grinned, letting the rest of it drop. He couldn't help looking over, though, unable to entirely hide the flicker of concern at the sight of Judith, still unconscious, her hair dark against the white hospital pillow. 'Simple concussion' his ass.
A flicker of movement caught his eye and the curtain opened, followed by one of the cute little nurses, holding a clipboard. "Sorry to disturb you, Commander, Colonel," she apologized - Bronwen, that was her name. "Commander, since Colonel Benson's not awake yet, I need you to sign these-" and she passed him the clipboard.
"Sure," Jake flipped the pen over in his fingers, scanned the document on top. Consent for testing, blah blah, signed by patient or patient's official legal standin... god, he hated Tricare.
Matt's brows raised. He leaned over slightly to peek at what Griffin could possibly be signing on Judith's behalf. CONSENT FORMS? How the hell did Griffin get authorization to -- wait... He glanced at the man's fingers, then Judith's...
"I'll be back for those in a minute." Bronwen slipped out, leaving the three of them alone again.
Jake looked up, met Matt's eyes, tracked where they went... and laughed out loud, scribbled his name in the blank. "Yeah, no. I don't think God himself could convince Judy to tie the knot again. My conscience there is clear." He debated whether or not to explain further, or watch Levitz twist in the wind. "You think I should try and convince her to make an honest man of me?"
"Medical power of attorney," Judith muttered, blinking to clear her head as she swam back into full consciousness. "Seemed appropriate, given our stupid-ass lifestyle choices. And no-one on the planet could make an honest man out of you, Griffin." She tried to sit up, the pulsing behind her eye sockets arguing against the move.
"For the love of all that is holy, Judith Benson..." Matt sighed. Now that he knew what was going on between them anger gave way to resignation. "...THIS guy?" He gestured comically to Griffin. "I never thought of you as someone who could ever be described as desperate until now."
“It’s amazing what looks good when you’ve been celibate for a while,” Judith grumped, not meaning a word of it. Jake was out of the chair and onto the side of her bed within moments, sliding his hand behind her head to help her sit up. His fingers were cool, his touch soothing, and she leaned her head back into the support.
“You okay, Gidget?” Jake asked, a hint of fondness in his voice, and she squeezed her eyes shut to try to focus.
“I’ll live,” she replied dryly after a moment’s evaluation, then opened her eyes to look up at Matt, taking in the sling and scratches. “Regrettably. Sitrep? What happened?”
Matt softened his suspicious eye when there seemed to be a modicum of genuine concern coming from Griffin. He knew the guy was slick and didn't trust him as far as he could throw a Buick, but at least for the moment, Judith appeared to be in the care of someone who... well...cared. He had mixed feelings about having to shift his paradigm a little, relief that he wasn't the only one Judith could go to, embarrassment in thinking that that might actually be the case, and hurt that he wasn't at the top of her list of confidants after all. Dammit Matt, he thought to himself, you've got to stop defining yourself through your relationships to others. And get out more!
He shook off the internal monologue and glanced down at the sling on his arm, focussing on the question at hand. "Oh, uh... They rigged one of the armouries to blow. We were lucky to have been partially sheltered by the stairwell door. I was sheltered by you and got out of it all but scott-free, save for the guilt. The bad guys were vanquished. All of them died fighting. None of them tried to escape. No prisoners. Last I heard we don't know any more about them now than when the whole things started. There've been a lot of casualties on our side and the brass are all shaken up. There's definitely going to be some serious changes around here when the dust settles."
Not what she’d expected to hear – that was putting it mildly. “Son of a bitch,” Judith replied, utterly inadequately. She glanced up at Jake, a look passing between them. “Remind me never to complain about ‘routine’ again.”
“So noted,” he replied, a faint grin crooking up one corner of his mouth. He was exhausted, dark circles under his eyes that matched Matt’s, and the grin came out more as a grimace because of it. “I’m going to go and let them know you’re up,” Jake squeezed her hand and stood. “And see how long before I can legitimately spring you.”
Matt nodded an acknowledgement as Jake slipped out. He maintained an awkward silence for a moment then spoke quietly. "So... you and Jake Griffin, eh? How long has that been a well kept secret?" For Judith, he reminded himself, was an expert at telling NOBODY anything.
It was a fair question, she had to remind herself, no matter how much it made her squirm internally to get called out on it. “About six months, give or take,” Judith shrugged after a moment. “Depends how you want to pick a starting point.” She felt the colour rise to her cheeks for a second, then clamped down on the embarrassment.
“Matt-“ she paused, tried to reframe. “It’s not you. I’ve been the subject of gossip here before-“ she hardly had to remind him of that, of the evening her ex-husband had made his threats all too real, and the humiliation of the aftermath. “Hell, I don’t even know if it’s anything. It’s not anything. Friends with benefits. And some paperwork.”
Matt put up a hand and smiled at her. "Hey, you don't have to explain yourself to me Judith. I know you, remember? I know what you've been through and I only wish the best for you. You've been more relaxed and happier than you've been since our days back at Area 51 and I think that's wonderful." He rubbed his forehead with his good arm "I'm just... slightly appalled that you've found that in Griffin. Probably says more about me than him I suppose."
She laughed, which hurt, but not as much as opening her eyes had hurt a few minutes before. That was an excellent sign. “Jake’s a good guy, Matt. He can be abrasive as hell and he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but I know someone else who fits that description.” Birds of a feather, and all. She grinned self-deprecatingly, a flash of a smile which softened, got more pensive. “And he knew me before.” Before Kevin started drinking, before her marriage fell apart, before the Stargate and all the secrets, and the losses. Jake looked at her, and saw the girl she used to be.
For fuck’s sake; she really had hit her head too hard.
Judith sat up more fully, grateful that the nursing staff had left her in her t-shirt and pants instead of giving her a hospital gown. “What’s the cleanup looking like?” she changed the subject abruptly.
Matt's mood dropped as he considered how to answer that. "It's not good from what I've seen. And I've only been getting what they'll filter down to me while under observation. I've been mostly recuperating in my office since they needed bedspace for the really injured. Mimi's been going non-stop. She's so exhausted she looks worse than some of her patients. Entire sections of the complex were destroyed and lots of research was permanently lost. Your tech Sergeant, Demetrios, told me he's been set back at least five years." He shook his head. "The area where they picked us up looks like something even Sonya Wilcox would have avoided." He thanked God silently that she and Dr. Yates had been on leave, but then he gave himself chills wondering how far-reaching this attack force was. He made a mental note to try to give her a call as soon as outside communication was restored.
“All hands on deck, then,” Judith replied grimly. Who had she seen, who was up above before the world had whited out? West had been in the thick of things, Dutton as well, Matt had seen DP – but what about Hunt? Grayson? Serra? She needed to see casualty lists, damage reports, get her orders- “I need to get out of here,” she growled, her expression closing inward at the thoughts. “What’s keeping them?”
Matt clucked his tongue. "Don't be in such a rush. You'll want to be steady on your feet when you start looking around."
"I'm going to have to get going." he said with a glanced at his watch. "I've got an appointment with optics. Nothing serious, just the routine checks." He started to turn toward the doorway. "Look me up when you're up and running and feel free to call me anytime." He grinned and pointed at the seat opposite her. "Someone's already got your six, so I'll officially mind my own business for the time being. I promise I'll report in if I hear anything else, okay?"
“Hook me up with a tablet with network access, and I might promise to stay in bed for another hour or so,” Judith offered, deadly serious about the first part of the request and not at all about the latter. She reached for the glass of water sitting on the tray beside the bed, then met his eyes again. Words. She sucked at words. “I’m glad you’re safe,” Judith offered up after a moment. Then, because she was incapable of letting these things lie, “it would suck to have to break in another coffee boy.”
Matt, on the other hand, had no trouble letting his feelings show; sometimes to his detriment. He gave her a genuine smile to show that he was touched by the sentiment behind her words. All he said, however, was "Thanks. You too." And then he left.
--
"Judith!" Levitz shouted through her office door. a mug of coffee in each hand. "I've got your re-animation serum here!" He wondered briefly if he should be a bit less familiar and more respectful now that she'd been promoted above him again, but this was Judith Benson, after all. He dismissed the thought.
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,” Judith called back, briefly considering the notion of getting a plaque that said that to put above her door. Maybe that would be a little too on-the-nose. She saved the file she’d been working on and got up to get the door with a smile. “To what do I owe the pleasure today? More paperwork avoidance?”
"Me?" Matt replied, handing her one of the two cups, "Shirk my responsibilities? Never. Why it's always been a career ambition of mine to be sat behind a desk scribbling my name over and over for posterity." He cast a glance up and down the corridor before slipping inside her door. "Actually I came here to congratulate you on your promotion. COLONEL Benson." He raised his now-free hand in salute. "Couldn't have happened to a better person."
“I think it has, many times over, but thank you,” Judith flashed him a smile and returned the salute. She let the door close behind them and headed back to her desk chair, dropping into it with easy grace. “And to yours, technicalities aside.”
Matt waved a hand dismissively. "Thanks. It's pending, but I'm in no hurry." he said, sitting opposite her. "Besides, I like to let you test the water before I plunge in."
“Oh, is that how it works?” Judith laughed, bringing her mug to her lips. “And here I thought I was just naturally always one step ahead of you.”
"Comes of being that much older than me." Matt said with a shrug and a cheeky grin.
Coffee didn’t quite go up her nose, despite Matt’s perfect timing. Judith choked and coughed for a second, and shot him a dirty look over the rim of her mug. “When this old you reach, look this good you will not,” she replied, deadpan.
Matt laughed heartily at Judith's remark, as much at the idea of Judith Benson making a Star Wars reference as much as at the reference itself. When he settled down, however, he grew more serious. "There've been a lot of changes around here. With all the consolidating of resources I've all but lost track of the comings and goings of our personnel. Fulci's been sent back to base security and SG7's been redistributed between Keiko and me. How's your team doing? You've got Sasha Timorov now, don't you?"
Judith nodded, taking the cue to shift into something closer to work-mode. “West took a couple of shots during the fighting,” she shook her head with a tight frown. “He’s been repatriated back to the UK for now; the SAS is a little less than thrilled. So I’m down one combat expert and up one spook. You had Timorov for a while, didn’t you? Fill me in.”
Lt.Colonel Matthew Levitz
CO - SG6 "Pathfinders"
"They've got their war, and we have all of space to find a home... somewhere." -John Koenig (Space:1999)
Colonel Judith Benson
Commanding Officer
SG4 Wild Cards
"Get the monkey gun."
"Is that a gun for shooting monkeys, or a gun that shoots monkeys out of it?"
"Uh..."
"Because we don't have either." - MacHall