Season Three Finale: Sacrifice (Part Two) - Volume Three

[Troy Loveridge]

1500
Lost City of Akrotiri
Colonel Loveridge’s Office

< Continued from Olympia >

It had been a fortnight since the Battle of Olympia, and all around the base, change was afoot. With the Olympians and Titans taken out word had come from Earth that the expedition staff was to rotate. For three long and hard years the same small group of brave and skilled individuals had battled and explored all across the Delian Galaxy, but now they were tired and broken. Pushed beyond their limits, the expedition had seen too much carnage and loss. It was time for the next generation of fresh faced explorers to take over. Troy had agreed with this assessment; personally he was a far different person to what he’d been when he’d first stepped through the gate, and not in a good way. It was safe to assume that he wasn’t the only one who felt like this.

As such, Troy was cleaning out his office. A new commander had been appointed, an up and coming NID case officer who’d been recommended by General O’Neill himself. She’d be bringing with her a brand new team to run the expedition. Some of the current personnel would rotate back in a few months, but all their immediate futures held an extended shore leave with their families and loved ones. As Troy packed up his files, possessions and occasional souvenir, the events of the last three years came back to him.

It felt like yesterday when he was first recruited to the expedition from the Gamma Site. He could clearly remember his first day in the Delian Galaxy, when together with his team SD-1 he’d helped rescue members of the expedition who’d been captured moment after stepping through the gate and were being held in a nearby crashed alien spaceship. Soon after had been his first mission off-world with SD-1, which included Captain Samarra Blackwell, Doctor Beatrice Cutter (at that point, Beatrice Honicott) and Doctor Chris Hatfield, who were tasked to hunt down the mythical Nemean lion. The missions off-world had continued; soon the team encountered an Iron Age civilisation, who only a few months ago had only been a Bronze Age civilisation. The team, along with new member Corporal John Cutter, had only narrowly escaped an ambush. Next month on the planet Smyrna, along with their newest member Lieutenant Matthew Keller, the team encountered the Amazons, an all-female tribe of warriors who would go on to become of the expedition’s greatest allies. Just before the expedition’s sixth month mark SD-1 met with an advanced alien society who thought an impending supernova was part of their evolution, only just managing to escape the planet before it was confused in flames.

After celebrating six months of operations the team, including new members Major Will O’Malley and Staff Sergeant Andy Buchanan, were separated off-world after a landslide and experienced flash backs to important times in their lives. The team’s next major mission was when they took part in large-scale invasion of the enemy occupied world of Bactra, where along with SD-3 they captured the local governor. The mission was not without cost; Chris was shot and ascended to a higher plane of existence. A month after the Battle of Bactra, Troy and SD-1 visited an alien world in search of Chris, only to discover that Andy shared a more than passing resemblance of the Olympian god Apollo, putting the team in a tight spot. Shortly before the expedition’s 12 month point, SD-1 (minus Troy) appeared before the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to discuss recent developments at the expedition. After the briefing Troy rejoined them and attended Honey and Cutter’s impromptu wedding at the SGC, before gating back to the Delta Site to help organise the defence of the base from a major Olympian attack by repairing an alien ship being held at the Alpha Site.

In some regards, the expedition’s second year had been much like its first, with Troy and SD-1 continuing the narrow escape certain death every time they stepped through the Stargate. While attempting the expedition’s first journey back to Earth, the team traveled to an alternate reality, where they used their knowledge of the Olympians to help Earth repel an attack in return for sending them home. Not long after, together with Penthesilia, the Queen of the Amazons, the team took part in a feast with potential allies off world. Hoping to help out, they tracked and killed a cow nearby, only to learn that the beast was sacred and worshiped by the locals, and only just escaped with their lives. While exploring the water world of Helios with new member Doctor Ian Wright, the team were attacked by pirates and left stranded, giving them an opportunity to get to know one another better. After 18 months in the Delian Galaxy the team helped play host to an ally trade delegations visits the Delian base. However, it was an Olympian ploy, with Athena revealing herself and planting a bomb on the base. After a failed interrogation Troy executed her in cold blood moments before her bomb destroyed the Delta Site. The team was captured and taken to the prison planet Tartaros, where they enlisted two inmates to help them escape, not knowing this would come back to haunt them

After the destruction of the base the expedition went on the run, jumping from planet to planet, trying to stay one step ahead of the enemy. During this time the expedition took their first trip back to Earth to spend time with their family and loved ones, a difficult experience for some. While returning to the Stargate after a successful off-world mission with SD-1, Penthesilia was abducted by the Olympians. With the assistance of Silia’s rival Kendra, Troy and SD-1 apprehended the villager who betrayed them, but weren’t able to stop Silia being taken. Upon returning to their temporary base Troy was arrested for executing Athena and taken back to Earth to face trial. In his absence, the team, which now included Kendra, Doctor Cara Coyle and Doctor Vanessa Collins continued exploring the Delian Galaxy while Troy faced a JAG hearing back on Earth. Thanks to his lawyer and timely intervention from Christ Hatfield, he is able to walk away a free man and return to the Delian Galaxy. Shortly before the expedition’s two year mark, and following a failed attempt to take out the remaining Olympian ‘gods’, the expedition learns that an Ancient city-ship - The Lost City of Akrotiri - had been hidden on the far side of the planet which had housed the Delta Site. Returning to the planet, the expedition uncovered the base and repelled an enemy attempt to capture the city, finally having a new home in the Delian Galaxy.

When the Asgard had become extinct a task force was sent to the Ida Galaxy to maintain order and track down Asgard technology. When they were captured six months after the Battle of Akrotiri, a number of SD teams were deployed to rescue them, while also curing an alien disease and stopping an Ori invasion of the galaxy.

During the third year of the expedition, a lot of things had changed. Frank Kepler retired to a position within the IOA, seeing Troy promoted out of the field to expedition leader. Shortly after he’d taken charge the expedition uncovered evidence of a race of powerful and deadly machines known as Titans, built by an unknown creator to fight the Olympians. Believing the Titans to be allies, the expedition headed to the prison world of Tartaros to free them, learning too late that they have been manipulated, and that the Titans pose as greater threat to the galaxy as the Olympians. A month later an energy-based creature was detected burrowing toward Akrotiri, forcing the expedition to decide between defending themselves and killing the last member of an endangered species. Shortly after the expedition launched a raid on the Titan world of Tellus Mater to free Doctor Pooja Garcia, during which Troy oversaw the interrogation of a captured Titan soldier, and began to learn the true nature of their newest enemy.

Later, while relocating the crystal slug to its new planet, Akrotiri become infected with a computer virus which took control of the city-ship and launched it into orbit and then into hyperspace, transporting it to the planet Asphodel. Unknowingly, through a series of accidents both SD-1 and SD-2 were already on the planet, unaware they were fighting each for control of the same powerful alien weapon. While battling both the Titans and the Olympians, the expedition uncovered a data crystal left behind by the Ancients that would later help in the downfall of both their enemies. With Akrotiri stranded in orbit over Asphodel, SD-1 and SD-2 were forced to raid a Titan laboratory on a nearby planet for spare parts, and in doing so come into contact with a failed science experiment which turns their skins the same texture and colour as the last thing they touched. Weeks later, while limping Akrotiri back to the Delta Site, the expedition came across an abandoned space ship that looked to hold parts needed to repair the city-ship and complete the long journey home. Upon boarding the ship they awaken the vessel’s crazed artificial intelligence, only just managed to not be killed by it.

Troy’s final mission off-world had probably been the most important of his career. Having learned the secret of Ambrosia, the mysterious substance that gave the Olympian gods their powers, the expedition infiltrated the heavily fortified planet of Olympia. While SD-1 and SD-2 neutralised the Ambrosia and eliminated the remaining enemy leaders, Troy let the fleet against the Titans in orbit over the planet, destroying their fleet. With both enemies not longer a threat and the Delian galaxy finally liberated, the expedition returned to Akrotiri, their work in this galaxy finally complete.

There was a knock at the door, and Master Sergeant Lacey entered, informing the colonel that it was time to go. Sealing and labeling his final box of personnel effects, Troy took one final look around the office. As he’d only occupied it for sixth month it was hard to feel too much sense of loss, but he did know one thing; after 3 years the Delta Site had became his home. Leaving it would be difficult to say the least.

< Continued on Earth >