Episode Twenty Five: Enemy of My Enemy (Part One)

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

0840
Hanger Bay
Lost City of Akrotiri

The Colonel listened to Captain Cromin's suggestion on using the chair but Cromin could tell that the Colonel was concerned about what the captain was planing on doing especially with all that was going on in the city. Captain Cromin assumed that he didn't hear the part about isolating the chair from the rest of the city's general power grid. Cromin wanted a modified mach 7 naquadria generator attached to the chair. The colonel gave him permission and Cromin got of the radio. He was going to get the scientists to connect the generator to the chair and then off to final briefing in the hanger before launching and then make his way back to the chair to coordinate the defense plans.

Just as he made his way to go get the scientists the city started to shake and vibrate so he ran to the control room to find out if they had any clue about what was going on. The screens had a countdown on it and the scientist said that the stardrive was initiated and a countdown for liftoff was on. Captain Cromin wanted to know how much time they had and the scientists could not tell because the countdowns were for various applications. Captain Cromin quickly got on the radio to the Colonel "Colonel What is going on, what are your orders, should I get on the chair to try and stop this?" Just as he was waiting for a response from the colonel a tech sergeant in the control room told him that his pilots were up in the planet's orbit and Cromin nearly took the sergeant's head off as he yelled at him "By who's orders" the Sergeant responded saying "yours sir"

Captain Cromin quickly asked to be patched into them and he soon found out that Tim was leading the 302's. Captain Cromin then said "Blue and Gold Flights this is Captain Cromin be ready to return to base when I give the order, we got all kind of craziness going on down here" Captain Cromin was was in a different role today, in as much as he would have loved leading the squardrons, he knew it was better for him and for them if he stayed down here. Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, he was informed by the tech sergeant that they underestimated the ETA of the four ships. The new ETA was 2 minutes, Cromin knew that was not enough time to hook up the generator to the chair. He immediately started making his way to the chair. He informed the Tim of the new ETA "Tim we don't have anytime, get your birds ready, the ships will be on you in less than 2 minutes. Remember the attack pattern, I will adjust the battle plans based on how the battle goes, be flexible, I will be on that chair in a couple of seconds and will be able to see everything and call the necessary plays." As he sat on the chair, it adjusted and everything lit up and the room got darker, it was ready for battle. Cromin could see the positions of all his birds which were behind some rock ready for ambush and the predicted arrival points for the enemy ships. Finally he got on the radio to inform the colonel "Sir the ETA of the enemy ships have been pushed forward and it is in less than a minute, I am ready down here, will keep you informed." Cromin gpt on the radio once again to Tim "Alright freefall hope you guys are ready, wish i was up there with you guys but i will be calling the plays from down here and I got a little surprise for those ships, you will like it . . . on my orders you will launch attacks, get ready"

<Tag Loveridge and Tim>

[Troy Loveridge]

0840
Eastern Pier
Lost City of Akrotiri

Having returned to the control room, Troy was quickly brought up to date by Chris, who'd taken charge once the Colonel had rushed to Pooja's aide. From the sounds of it, things had gone from bad to worst. They'd arrived in this small computer lab to figure out why the city's power grid keep spiking, what could now be considered a relatively minor problem considering the city's star drives were now firing up. The expedition had been locked out of the computer system, which had somehow laid in a set of mysterious coordinates.

Like it or not, the City of Akrotiri was about to take off, with or without them.

"Recall the survey teams," Troy called into his radio. There was a couple of small teams outside the base perimeter, continuing their work to try and uncovered the secrets that this planet still held. Despite having been based here for two and a half years, the expedition was still unsure why this particular planet was the only one in the Delian Galaxy to have a Stargate capable of dialling other galaxies. It was amazing to think that while they'd so far, they still knew so little.

From his very little understanding of Ancient technology, this city was designed to fly through space, and once inside everyone should be safe. Relatively. The city was probably constructed to be airtight, though it would be safe to assume that it's powerful shields would help protect them from hard vacuum. Troy watched as Cara and Amelia worked away at a console, swearing and shaking their heads in dismay. "It's no good," Doctor Coyle explained. "We're well and truly locked out of the system."

"Looks like all we can do is sit back and hold on," the Colonel declared. With the flotilla of Titan ships bearing down on them, launching and getting out of here mightn't be the worst scenario. There was even a chance the city knew this, and was launching to protect itself. Tim and his boys up in the F-302s could only do so much against the overwhelming odds.

If they couldn't stop the launch, they might as well try to survive it. "We need to get those shields up ASAP, assuming they're part of the launch sequence," Troy called to everyone in the room. "And try and figure out these coordinates, give us some idea of where we're heading, and maybe why."

< Tag Base Personnel >

[Pooja Garcia]

0840
Eastern Pier
Lost City of Akrotiri

Trust him? Pooja thought, just like that? It was after all easy for him to say, yet harder for her to do. Trust wasn’t coming easily to her as it had once. And now it wasn’t something she gave to anyone at the drop of a hat, not anymore. On the other had he was right - she hated to admit - but he was right. She trusted him once now there was no reason for her not to trust him however small that trust was. If Okeavous was making her think she was a over a matter of trust, he had never so wrong his life. He hadn’t really dealt with the Tau’ri much. But it was Cromin’s information that had her most worried.

Looking at Dieter, “I have to get in there,” she was already moving to reach for her clutches, and was trying not to panic at the same time after Troy had left. As the ground shook under her, she could slowly recall her rescue and knew due in time she would remember the whole lot more, now that she knew where she was. With a little help from the man, Pooja tried to ignore the similarities between this place and the prison that had been her hellhole for two months. But the stark contrast wasn’t easy to avoid. Mustering all her strength, she stayed calm as they made their way to where the hallway ended.

Entering the small room Pooja could only gap at the surprise and it’s size, then hopped over to the hologram just over the chair and looked at the ships they showed in the space heading towards the planet at unknown speed. She recognized the one that led the other smaller ones behind it, as shock ran through, she nearly bumped into Hatfield after nearly losing her balance. Forget the fact they were coming, but the main question now was, how did they find the planet? The ever idea of being the clone for real now made her blood run cold; or the fact that she had somehow given up the location of their base, unknowingly.

Inhaling, “The ship is likely to be led by Okeavous. He’s their leader,” she spoke up as worry played on her face and as her eyes watched the ships inch closer and closer to the planet. She knew Kat wouldn’t have given away the location, so it had to be her. Even the idea of carrying a tracking device that worked over galaxies seemed spooky, “As to how he knows where the base is, I can’t answer that, as I don’t know how he obtained it.” She still had no idea about one Titan being under their custody. And moved only mumbling to herself over and over again the same question. What were the chances of her being a clone anyway? Okeavous wouldn’t come with a fleet of his men if she was a clone. He would leave the clone to discovered and possibly to be killed by Loveridge.

<<Tag Base Personnel>>

(( I posted this since I may not have time tomorrow to get a post up))

[Troy Loveridge]

0845
Eastern Pier
Lost City of Akrotiri

The rumbling running through the floor plates threatening to throw everyone from their feet, and the roar of the engines was close to blowing out their eardrums. All around people were grabbing on to what they could to stop being tossed around like rag dolls, their hands clamped over their ears. Troy had been informed by the scientists that getting off the ground would be the worst part of their flight - once the city-ship was clear of the ground the ride would settle out a bit. There would be another burst of turbulence as they passed through the atmosphere, though the shields would be able to dampen it for them.

Putting out unimaginable amounts of thrust, Akrotiri's star-drives lifted the giant city clear of the ground. In it's wake, a series of circular bush fires ignited across the surface where the city had once sat. Might you, the destruction could in no way match the destruction the Olympian Athena had unleashed when she's set off a nuclear weapon over a year ago in an attempt to destroy the expedition.

The rattling and noise died down a little, though was still hard to ignore. "HOW ARE WE GOING!?" Troy called over the commotion, still clinging on to a computer terminal. As he saw it, the expedition currently faced two problems that would determine if they saw the end of this day or not.

Firstly, they had to survive the launch of Akrotiri and their wild ride up through the atmosphere before jumping into hyperspace. Sure, the city had been designed just for this, but it had been built a couple of thousand years ago. The left over damage from the energy slug might hinder them, as well as the power fluctuations they'd been experiencing recently.

Secondly, they somehow needed to push through the blockade the Titans were establishing above. Tim had deployed with the F-302s, and Robert was preparing to launch their drone weapons, but it would still be a long shot. It'd be half their luck to survive the launch only to be blasted into atoms moments before jumping to safety.

Unable to do anything, Troy held on tighter, praying for a miracle.

< Tag Base Personnel >


Expedition Forces:
One Ancient City-ship - Piloted by Captain Robert Cromin (Shields: 100%)
Twelve F-302 Interceptors - Lead by Third Secretary Tim Shultz

Enemy Fleet:
Four Inferno-class Frigates - Lead by Okeavos
Eighteen Heretic-class Fighter Bombers - Lead by Thia

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

0845
Eastern Pier
Lost City of Akrotiri

Captain Cromin felt like he was plugged into the city's computer systems all he had to do was think about anything and focus in and the city would make it happen. Having the amount of ancient gene he had in him made the process of adjusting to the chair easier than he thought of, but he kept fighting to overide commands that would be overriden soon later. This was not the best way to learn but it was all he had. As a special operator he was used to making his way as he went whenever the original plans did not come to fruition.

Cromin ordered the attack by the squardrons that Tim led as he fired away. Taking out the first ship was pretty easy because it was an ambush that was perfectly executed, timing was key and city weapons and 302 missiles did the trick, but that meant that the element of surprise was no longer an option for them. Their mission was to prevent the ships from destroying the city and not necessarily to destroy them. While all seemed to be going well, the power went out again and Cromin was blind, he couldn't do anything. Frustrated he started thinking of what to do but just then another problem arose, all they had thought of until now was stoping those ships but they had not thought of how they were going to get the 302's back in when the city was in orbit and the shields are up.It's going to take some flying from the Pilots and Captain Cromin flying the city to land them once they figure out how to go through the shields and they only had a couple of minutes to figure all that out.

Captain Cromin informed the Colonel of the pressing problem but he also offered a solution sort of " Colonel we need to figure out how we are going to get those pilots back in, I have an idea but I don't know if its going to work but since all i have to do is use my mind while i am on the chair, it is the quickest thing we can do, if we can't figure this thing out in the next couple of minutes we are going to have to leave them behind not by choice but that will be the reality we must deal with. My solution is to have the 302's show their ID's as they go through the shields, by ID's I mean IFF signals; anything carrying our IFF signals will be allowed in as an exception to go through the shields. Do I have permission to do this Sir?"
Cromin waited for permission, and as he waited the power came back on and immediately he got back on the chair to see the state of things and by his count they had lost one 302 and he shook his head pissed off he let a barage of the city's drone projectiles. The city at this time was off the ground and the shields were up and a second ship was taken out. Cromin immediately began on working to divert some power to the chair and working on the IFF plan to allow the 302's in so that as soon as he got permission all he had to do was activate it. The times were tense and a lot was going on.


<Tag Loveridge and Tim>

[Troy Loveridge]

0847
Eastern Pier
Lost City of Akrotiri

The city-ship of Akrotiri continued to shake violently as it slowly climbed through the lower atmosphere, its huge star-drives powering the Ancient vessel toward deep space and the safety of a hyperspace window. Still clinging to a computer console to avoid being through around like a rag doll, Colonel Loveridge had to clench his teeth in order to not have them shaken out of his skull. He'd been through turbulence before in all manner of helicopters and airplanes across all corners of the globe, through bad weather and under enemy fire. Yet nothing compared to the ride he was currently experienced as the huge city-ship made its way up into orbit.

The shaking began to calm down as they broke through the atmosphere. Now freed of the turbulence, Troy was able to stand up and release his grip on the console, his hands white from the effort of holding on. Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, his focus turned to the console in front of him. It looked to be a tactical display, brought online during Doctor Hatfield’s attempts to divert control of the city-ship down to this computer lab.

It showed an overview of the battle, pointing out the forces of both sides and the damage they'd done to each other. It seemed the sudden launch of Akrotiri had caught the Titans off guard, allowing two of their frigates to be quickly knocked out by a combination of the drone weapons launched by Cromin and the fighters under the command of Tim. With the element of surprise now over, it was back to a fair fight, one which neither side would escape casualty free.

"How long until the hyperspace window!?" Troy called out, desperate to know how much longer they had to hold out."Copy that Captain," he added into his radio in response to Cromin's plan. As they had no idea where they were going, leaving the F-302s behind was not an option.

< Tag Base Personnel >


Expedition Forces:
One Ancient City-ship - Piloted by Captain Robert Cromin (Shields: 98%)
Twelve F-302 Interceptors - Lead by Third Secretary Tim Shultz

Enemy Fleet:
Two Inferno-class Frigates - Lead by Okeavos
Eighteen Heretic-class Fighter Bombers - Lead by Thia

[Dieter Troy]

On:
0840
Eastern Pier
Lost City of Akrotiri



“Tartaros was the last I remember, but the planet I’m taken to I never got the name of it....”

While the Colonel was receiving an update from the control room, Dieter continued to keep an eye on the Scientist. She had calmed down a bit which was a hopeful sign, and while she was lucid she still appeared to be suffering from amnesia. As the Colonel got off the radio, Dieter was going to ask him about Tartaros when the ground beneath them shook. Obviously concerned, the Colonel quickly left the shuttle. At first Dieter thought it might be an earthquake, but as it continued the PJ reassessed the sensation. It felt less like an earthquake and more like thrust from a military jet. What it meant he did not know, but it did cause him to bring his rifle to a more accessible position.


“I have to get in there,”


Dieter stepped aside to allow the scientist a clear path out of the shuttle.
“I've made it a policy not to argue with patients. But let me take point, just in case.”


Returning to the control room, Dieter got quick update from nurse Ogawa.
“We've got hostiles inbound and the city has activated its engines.”

Setting down his pack, Dieter couldn't help but chuckle at the situation.
“Alien slugs and cities capable of spaceflight, now there's something you don't see on the Air Force recruitment posters.”

Off:

[Pooja Garcia]

((Time jumped us to move things along))

1346
Eastern Pier
Lost City of Akrotiri
Asphodel Orbit

Pooja could only stare at the screen as the ship followed them over to the another section of the galaxy, or the universe. She was only half sure of what Titans wanted, but then again they move their game faster ahead before anyone could take a guess as to what they were actually up to in anyway. Things with them moved at the blink of the eye. She knew her hatred for them was stronger than she, herself was aware of.

She wanted to help, but wasn't sure how to start or even where to start from. Inhaling she closed her eyes and tried to think of something. A frown drew on her face as something pulled her or at her. it was something she couldn't find a word for, but she for a moment thought she heard Okeavous speak regarding the ship that had left the planet where the Delta Site was stationed at. For a moment she didn't know how she had done it, till she heard herself, her clone reply in even more creepy voice about whatever it was.

Opening her eyes in cold fear, Pooja looked around to find Chris, Troy and others within the area. As it slowly it dawned on her that she was connecting to her evil twin without the wires and machines that were used when she had been on the planet. With hope that she was going to help, Pooja closed her eyes and tried to connect to her clone again. She felt the worlds blur and blend as she saw the other ships interior and the Lost City through the eyes of another.

"You are aware that she is going to have more advantage over you at the given moment?" Pooja heard her clone tell Okeavous and watched the Leader give out a slow blade thin curve of his lips.

"Not as much as she thinks she would have it. You see we have made her think she has the advantage, even though she doesn't, at least not enough to get a upper hand at anything." Okeavous spoke, slightly amused as well.

<<Tag Base>>

[Tim "Freefall" Shultz]

0859
Lead F-302 Fighter
Space
Asphodel Orbit

Tim cursed as another pass failed to penitrate the shields of the Frigate. He watched as his missiles and the rest of the small flights hit the shields, then he yanked on the stick to rejoin the engagement of the bombers. His plan as take a small group of four fighters to the main ships while the others engaged the bombers. But so far out of two runs they hadn't been able to get past the shields he just hoped third time lucky. "Okay I want Thompson, Walker and Cambells on me for the next run." he ordered through the radio. The city was raising and if they didn't distyract these enemy they weren't going to save anything. He had already ordered the actvation of the IFF's on all the fighters so that they could fly through the shields when the city got closer but Tim knew they also needed t get rid of at least one more Frigate to help.

A flash caught his eye as a bomber flew past chasing one of thier fighters. "Hang on I'm coming" he said and directed the fighter into the aft of the enemy bomber. He depressed the trigger as his fighter spewed out cannon fire on to the Bomber. Tim yanked on the stick to gain altitude after scoring a hit on the engine, the explosion rocked the fighter slightly but then was gone. "Nine, you look too hurt to continue this fight you and Twelve head back to the city, we can handle it. These bombers are tough but not to smart" he ordered the two damaged fighters. "Okay Thompson, Walker and Cambells. On me we're starting our missile run" Tim said as he headed for the Main ships again. The four fighters peeled off and headed owards the to lonely frigates. As he fighters got closer the Frigates came to life with weapons fire, trying to hit the fighters. "Keep it together guys" Tim said more to him self than to the other pilots, as his fighter gained a graze from enemy weapons fire. But after a few seconds the weapons lock came beeping at him. "Missiles away" Tim yelled as he fired his last two missiles. He watched the smoke trails lead off towards the lead frigate, six more quickly followed. Tim hoped as he watchedbut agin his missiles hit the shields, his heart sank untill a yell brought him back to the fight. "Sir they went through" Walker stated needlessly. Quickly beofre they were to far gone Tim ordered them to unlease everything on it. More missiles and cannon fire erupted at the frigate causing serious damage. Tim smiled and sighed with relief that something was going to plan at least.

But as Tim began to relax slightly he recieved word that Nine and Twelve had not made it back and tha they recieved word from Robert. Fall back to the city, they were leaving. Tim took a deep breath and made the call sending all the fighters back. They all made it past the shield and landed in the hangers. Tim exited the fighter and made his way straight for the control tower of the city.

<Tag All>


Expedition Forces:One Ancient City-ship - Piloted by Captain Robert Cromin (Shields: 98%)
Ten F-302 Interceptors - Lead by Third Secretary Tim Shultz

Enemy Fleet:
Two Inferno-class Frigates - Lead by Okeavos (One Heavly Damaged)
Fourteen Heretic-class Fighter Bombers - Lead by Thia

[Troy Loveridge]

0847
Eastern Pier
Lost City of Akrotiri
Delta Site Orbit

From the console he'd been using to keep himself from being knocked off, Troy was able to monitor the battle between Tim and the Titan frigates and bombers. With their usual courage, the expedition's fighter compliment charged head on as the overwhelming enemy forces, not giving an inch. Their courage was rewarded - four enemy fighter-bombers were taken out, though they lost two F-302's in the process. The element of surprise had faded, leaving Tim and his boys outnumbered and outgunned.

"One minute to jump!" someone called from across the computer suite. "Cromin, time to recover those birds!" Troy called over the radio. It would be a tricky and dangerous move to lower the shields in order to let their birds in, but they didn't have much of the choice. Leaving men behind wasn't an option, especially when they were so outnumbered.

Keeping a close eye on the screen, the colonel was at least able to half-smile as the F-302's dove under the shields and into their assigned hanger. A pair of enemy craft tried to follow them in, only to smash against the quickly re-activated shield. With all onboard there was only one thing left to do - hold on.

With a sudden lurk the ship jumped into hyperspace, leaving the Delta Site far behind.

1346
Control Room
Lost City of Akrotiri
Asphodel Orbit

Over the next five, the personnel who had been investigating the computer room in the eastern pier made their way back to the city control room on foot, and were reunited with Captain Cromin and the F-302 pilots. While it would have been a good time to mourn the pilots just lost in battle, everyone knew they had much bigger problems to worry about.

A diagnostic carried out on the computer core revealed that their destination was a planet known in the database as Asphodel, a planet that SD-1 had been tasked with exploring. The coincidence was beyond belief. What's more, it looked as though some powerful Ancient weapon or piece of technology was hidden on the planet. Still, there was no explanation as to why the city-ship had decided to come here.

With a lurk the city-ship dropped from hyperspace and moved into orbit above the planet. "Status report," Troy called across the bridge, keen to learn how well Akrotiri had handled her journey through hyperspace and why they'd been brought here.

< Tag Base Personnel >

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

0848
Eastern Pier
Lost City of Akrotiri
Delta Site Orbit

The City made its way into orbit, Cromin was doing the best he could to control it but it didn't take long for his commands to be overriden by the city. It was like it was determined to do what it wanted to do. Cromin knew it was a matter of time before the city jumped into FTL and he knew it was time to get those birds in, it was then that Colonel Loveridge got on the radio. "Cromin, time to recover those birds!" Cromin responded saying: "my thoughts exactly sir" Cromin then directed his communication to the Tim, "Flight lead, time to get those birds back, break off all active contacts, you have one mission and one mission only now and that is RTB, return to base, you got thirty seconds and then the city is gone." Cromin overrode the city directives again and piloted the city in between the fighters and enemy cruisers.

He tried to implement the IFF signal bypass but it did not work and the only other thing that came to his mind was to lower the shields but that would kill everyother person, he quickly called up the city schematics and with the life sign detector, he noticed that the base personels were in a one half of the city so with quick thinking he recalled an Atlantis file that he had read about shields being colapsed over the control room, so he was able to collapse the shield over half of the city and that meant the other half was exposed. It was the exposed half that the 302's were able to land on and as soon as this happened the shields returned to its full protection and not long after that the city jumped but that was not before it took some shots from the ships remaining.

1346
Control Room
Lost City of Akrotiri
Asphodel Orbit


Cromin had tried to catch up with the events of the battle and also assess the strenth of the 302 fighter wing to see what they were capable of but also to prepare them for battle as soon as possible because as far as they knew they had no clue where they were heading to. They dropped out of hyperspace and the computer established their location and it was where some SD teams had gone to. They were all confused as to why this happened.

<Tag Loveridge>

[Pooja Garcia]

1347
Control Room
Lost City of Akrotiri
Asphodel Orbit

Even the Titans had planned to follow Pooja noted as she watched through her clone as the City which was occupied by Delta members jumped in hypersapce and away from the area. Titans had done the same. Making her clone turn her head she saw others who she hadn't seen while captive. Okeavos only seem to look with calculation before he ordered his own men to jump into the hyperspace as well. "We probaly have them cornered and with no way out. Their leader may think that the other Doctor Garica is a clone, we can let them believe that she is leading them into a trap more or less. Perhaps her elmination would help us destroy them faster than said." After all he knew the woman's husband had come with hell on his tail to rescue her, that alone told him that the man was capable of much more if anything did happen to his wife under care of their leader.

"You under estimate Loveridge," she heard her twin tell him, "he's not a fool nor he's stupid. He would no doubt take another route before he does anything with her. He won't take risks that would likely to question his trust and honesty."

Okeavous considered the words, "Of that I have no doubt. He after had his men and women helping out skillfully find and release her. After all a little amount of pressure in the middle of heated battle goes a long way. This Loveridge and I are men of war." Okeavous tilted his head towards the clone. "Just little doses of doubts to fuel him won't take long."

He walked over to the console, "Our men are down at the planet," a slow thin smile was on his face, "it won't be long before he crumbles to pressure. You said that there was another doctor the one of the head, not being around. How long would be before his doubts consume him? He and his men have only dealt with us on minor level. We plan on showing him the true nature and power of the Titans, in which he no doubt be running in fear at our very own name."

Knowing she had more then enough information for now, Pooja's own brain pulled back painfully and caused her to pass out in the floor of the control room.

<<Tag Base Personnel>>

((Pull back or keep getting more information?) For now I have her pulling back, if you want me to keep going with more information gathering, I edit out her pulling out part))

[Troy Loveridge]

1347
Control Room
Lost City of Akrotiri
Asphodel Orbit

While they may have escape the Titan fleet - for now - the control room was still a scene of chaos. The base personnel still had no real idea of why the city-ship had decided to launch from the surface of the Delta Site, or why it had arrived over this particular planet. Whatever the city-ship was doing, it seemed to have a plan in mind - the guidance system had swiftly brought them into a geo-synchronous orbit about a very large mountain, and has maintained his exact position ever since.

Despite their advanced scanning suite, they were unable to detect any forms of life, technology or communications down on the surface. A tech quickly surmised that there must have been something unique to this planet's atmosphere which was wreaking havoc on their scanners. This revelation only further added to the confusion of why this planet had been selected by the Akrotiri computer core as their destination.

An astrologer working in the control room had run a visual scan on the surrounding stars, and with some complex mathematics has figured out the Stargate address for the planet below. Nothing unusual there, but what was interesting was that just a few hours ago, SD-1 had been deployed to this very planet. Had the city-ship somehow known this, and launched into the stars to regroup or even rescue the team from a threat the expedition was unaware of?

"Sir! We've got a ship approaching!" called a panicked sensors officer, who had turned his attention to deep-space after being unable to detect anything on the surface. "And it's a big one! Wait... communications incoming," Making his way over to the sensor console, Troy finally go to say something he'd always wanted to say.

"On screen."

A large view screen which dominated a wall of the control room came to lift, protecting a larger than life image of Colonel Chapman, commander of the USS Iliad, which had been tasked with transporting SD-1. After an exchange of pleasantries, Paul explained the hyper drive malfunction his ship has suffered, and the deployment of SD-2 to the surface to try and call for help.

"Well they're not along, SD-1 is down there too," Troy replied, explaining the team's mission to the planet, and the still-unexplained computer glitch that had brought the city-ship to it's current location. After a quick conference the two colonels decided it would be prudent to send a shuttle down to the surface and try and make contact with the two teams.

"Mount up!" Troy called across the control room. He was about to move into the adjoining hanger when he noticed Pooja was down and out, again. "How is she?" he asked the attending medic. Her strange health problems could not have come at a worst time, and it was hard to imagine who they'd couldn't be related to the current spring of coincidences the expedition was experiencing.

< Tag Base Personnel >

OOC: Once we get Pooja back on her feet we might fly down in a shuttle with Tim and Robert escorting, find the teams and wrap the episode. Any objections?

[Pooja Garcia]

1347
Control Room
Lost City of Akrotiri
Asphodel Orbit

Price looked up to see Loveridge bending by her side with concern written on his face. Dieter had told him that she had already passed out before entering this room. "Pulse seems steady, but really can't explain why she passed out again. We may get Doctor Fawkes to run some tests on her real soon again. Her body temperature is high, but she's not running a fever." Price replied as he flicked the light on her eyes, "She's responding just fine."

Coming around for the second time to the world wakefulness, Pooja groaned as her head pounded inside her skull. Then less then a second later she felt someone fingers under her neck for feeling the pulse, she tried moving her arms or head but wasn't able to do so. Another thing struck her was the dry throat from lack of water. Giving it a moment or two as Price gave her a look over, she darted her eyes to Troy, and tried speaking, but wasn't able to find her voice just yet. The only thing she felt was tired, even more tired than she had been while captive. She knew she was close to weak at this point and all she wanted was sleep but she tired to get up anyway.

Price seeing what she was trying to do, held her in the place where she lay, "I don't think you should try getting up just yet, ma'am." Only to see her frowning, and getting angry, Price looked at Loveridge before complying with her order, "If the Commander gets on my tail, I have you as my witness," he spoke as he lifted her to sitting while supporting her position, then offered her the canteen he carried for emergencies.

Taking small sips of the cold liquid, which helped her pounding as well the sitting eased some pressure off her brain, "Titan's are down there as well," she got out before a short round of spinning started.

<<Tag Troy>>

[Troy Loveridge]

1347
Control Room
Lost City of Akrotiri
Asphodel Orbit

Crouching down beside Pooja, Troy listened patiently as the attending medic described her current condition. This was the second time Doctor Garcia had passed out today, and both times seemed to be linked to her being in close proximity to Titan forces. Could it be that something else had happened to her during her captivity with the enemy? From what he'd revealed during her debriefing, they'd done little other than hold her and question her, but it was starting to look as though other forms of foul play may have been carried out.

Regardless, if what she was saying was true, both the teams down on the surface were in danger. When she declared that the Titans were down on the surface weakly, his first instinct was to ask how she knew, but in her weakened state it might just be best to accept the fact and push her for how she knew at a later time. At the moment their mission was too critical to risk having Pooja pass out again.

"We're going in to rescue the teams," he explained to her slowly. "If you're strong enough we might need you. Do you understand?" In her confused state the colonel had no way to knowing if she was prepared to or even capable of going down to the surface, but he needed to act now and rescue the two teams stuck on the surface behind enemy lines.

Gathering some weapons and equipment, Troy made his way into the adjoining hanger and the awaiting shuttle. Once everyone was onboard, the X-305 lifted off and streaked out of the hanger, orientating itself for approach to the planet and throwing all power into the main thrusters.

< Continued on Asphodel >