Book 4 - New Horizons 10

22/05/2024 – 09.22

As the dust settled & things calmed down Dr Irving Licance, watched as the sedated Xuraa was wheeled out of the gate chamber towards the medi-bay, sighing he made to follow on. Of the remaining SGC personnel he was the person with any experience of leading a surgical team or with any knowledge of anaesthetics & therefore he would need to perform the required operation to remove the bloody remains of her right foot, fit the prosthetic plasteel & titanium cyberware replacement foot. It wouldn’t be anything special, SGC didn’t have the facilities for Realskinn or Skinweave but at least it would have the dexterity of the pilot’s original foot &, assuming her body didn’t reject it, be pain free. At least, Irving reflected, he would be assisted by Dungip which was fortunate as he was the only real expert on cyberware operation & mechanics that SGC had.

As he turned to leave however the ‘all stations’ alarm & beacons triggered as the Stargate powered up, glancing towards the viewing panel above he could see several troubled faces. As the tannoy confirmed that this was not a planned activation & therefore an external attempt to enter SGC via the gate, the squad of heavily armed IS grunts who’d greeted the returning SG2 members reformed in readiness for a forced entry. Not to be left out Jayne joined the line.

Seconds later energy impacts were noted against the iris valve erected in the early days of SGC’s operations directly against the face of the gate. Moments later the auto shutdown was triggered & the gate went into lockdown.

Over the tannoy Mahonney requested SG2 report for debriefing.

22/05/2024 – 09.47

With Irving & Dungip up to their eyes in Xuraa it was left to Rex to face the music with Mahonney even though he hadn’t been part of the latest jolly to Geb (this had been only undertaken by Jayne, Dungip & the injured Xuraa) Jayne, grateful that this wasn’t his job, reported all relevant information to Rex so he could pass it up the chain.

22/05/2024 – 15.42

Later that afternoon the members of SG2 sat around one of the formica tables chewing the fat in the canteen. They’d been joined by Irving & Dungip who confirmed that the graft appeared to have been successful & Xuraa was stable but it’d be a couple of weeks before she could even think of putting any weight on her replacement foot. On the upside Dungip reported she’d be up & about long before what could be expected had she gone into one of the stations regrowth booths.

Talking of regrowth added Irving, he’d approved the release of Dr Salem Kapek & JJ O’Harran from the regrowth tanks for tomorrow morning. The latter was still sedated & the former was still in an induced coma following the head injuries he suffered by SG1 on Wheat World. Physically the various injuries were sufficiently healed to crack the tanks seals & it was expected that O’Harran would make a full & speedy recovery however Kapek’s head trauma was a whole different kettle of fish.

Rex also confirmed that the monitoring of the part cleared lift shaft (lift shaft #2) had revealed that activity above the rubble line had virtually desisted.

For the rest of the afternoon, SG2 along with various other SGC movers & shakers, debated whether activities on Geb should simply be abandoned & they look for a new source of fresh supplies or an attempt be made to infiltrate Memphis (& maybe even Hermopolis) to establish what was happening & who they’d exchanged fire with. With no common consensus, the discussion eventually broke up for the evening but not before the alarms again chimed as for a second time the gate was activated externally from Geb. This time the external power up lasted nearly five minutes but at least this time there was no attempted breach.

Before retiring for the night Jayne wandered by the armoury to make sure the additional two recovered energy staffs had been added, they were making eight in total.

23/05/2024 – 08:07

The next morning Irving was kept busy during the process of extracting O’Harran & then Kapek from the regen tanks.  As expected O’Harran whilst still sedated immediately started to show signs of a soon expected awakening. Kapek’s vitals however weren’t didn’t look so promising & Irving instigated full telemetric monitoring.

Over breakfast the debate continued as to what should be done next however before matters got to heated Mahonney requested all SG2 members, Dr Helen Schultz & de facto Head of SGC IS Lieutenant Joshua G Hackett as well as several the SGC administrative & technical services team leaders join him immediately in the main SGC meeting room for a crisis workshop.

23/05/2024 – 08:16

Nine minutes later all sat around the long wooden table as Mahonney summarised their current predicament in terms of supplies. For the next couple of hours, the same options as the per the previous evening were hot debated. Added to this Helen Schulz gave a summary of her thoughts following study of the information retrieved from Geb.

Eventually Mahonney stood & to the dismay of some confirmed that as per Rex’s team’s recommendation a return to Geb would be put on hold & an attempt to reach the surface would be made.

23/05/2024 – 10.37

In the lift shaft lobby Jayne cast an eye over the barricade that had been erected around the lift doors over the last week or so. Two IS grunts stood behind the wall, one manning a tripod heavy machine gun, the second in control of a terrifying flame thrower. The east & west exits had been secured from the corridors leading away from the lobby area & armed troops were stationed in both corridors if needed. In addition, the security bunk rooms & offices opposite the lift doors had been commandeered by SG2 as a bolt hole & temporary isolation zone again in case the shit hit the fan.

Both SG2 & the two IS gunners were attired in the best HAZ suits SGC could offer, whilst they weren’t battledress standard & did restrict sensory perception they would at least give some protection from being doused by bodily juices. Helpfully Irving had also provided surgical masks to give added protection to mouth & nose. With the area as secure as they could make it SG2 set to clearing the last of the rubble from the blown shaft.

23/05/2024 – 11.13

After maybe half an hour or so sufficient rubble had been dug out such that the rubble had dropped in level so there was a gap of maybe 6” at the top of the debris and below the lift door head so they could see into the shaft itself.

Shining lamps through the gap they could see three tangled figures through the settling dust. All three were still able to slowly move but all were clearly starved. The virus riddled figures looked remarkedly like desiccated mummies, all were a mess of cuts, bites, ripped flesh & exposed bones but despite all this there was a feral look to their clouded eyes as they ravenously looked at SG2’s appetising faces.

Rex was keen to keep one alive however after discussion with Irving & pressure Jayne they were quickly dispatched although samples were taken & secured in isolation as best as Irving could accommodate. With the infected dispatched the remaining rubble in the shaft was quickly cleared leading to the discovered of numerous other gnawed bones.

23/05/2024 – 12.17

With the shaft cleared Didimos was called in to run the drone up the shaft. The drones cameras showed the shaft to be a mix of reinforced concrete walls but with some sections through natural rock, at around 70’ it was clear that this was where the lift had been detonated, the rock sides were fragmented where they’d succumbed to the explosion & the lift steelwork was a twisted mass. At this point the shaft ladder was wrecked with a 10’ section missing (NB forget to say that the blast had ripped through the rock into the second shaft suggesting that whoever blew the lift knew where to detonate to disable both shafts)

At the top of the shaft the drone just entered the top lobby chamber. In the dim light filtering through the double doors could be seen those watching on the laptop below could see maybe a dozen corpses & plenty of evidence of gunfire. Carefully Didimos guided the drone back down the shaft.

23/05/2024 – 12.39

Agatha, the lithest out of SG2, volunteered to ascend the shaft, she had no experience of climbing but was confident in her natural athleticism. With a coil of webbing from the stores she began to shin up the ladder. As she reached the damaged section of the shaft her luck ran out & she slipped of the ladder, fortunately she was tied to the latter but she still fell around 10’ suffering minor bangs but ripping her HAZ suit as well as dislodging rubble & debris which fell noisily down the shaft. After struggling for 10 minutes she managed to get back onto the ladder & descended under instruction from below where she was checked over by Irving & changed into a new HAZ suit.

Rex, concerned over their ability to ascend the shaft after Agatha’s incident put a call through to Mahonney to see if anybody on base had any climbing experience, after a few minutes there was a hesitant knock on the west door to the lobby where Dr Henricus Agrippa, the bases IT & Gate coordinator nervously stood.

For the next couple of hours Dungip & Agrippa worked together to bodge up the equivalent of carabiners, pitons & hooks out of whatever they could find on base.

23/05/2024 – 14.56

Ill prepared but willing SG2, led by Agatha, entered the shaft. It wasn’t the easiest of climbs but eventually, using a pair of ‘A’ frame steps from the cleaner’s store, they managed to cobble up a temporary ladderway over the blown section without anybody being seriously injured. At one point Dungip did fall & hung suspended slowly spinning in a circle unable to do anything but scream helplessly. Fortunately, he’d only been fifteen or so feet above the bottom of the shaft when he fell so he hung like a beached whale only 5’ above the base where he could be easily assisted.

23/05/2024 – 15.49

Eventually SG2, accompanied by a pair of IS grunts stood in silence the upper lobby staring at the carnage around them. The weapons on the floor were checked & found to contain only a few unused rounds however from the number of empty shells on the floor & strike marks on & around the doors to the main chamber it was clear those who’d barricaded themselves into the top lobby had put up a hell of fight.

One of the doors to the vast natural cavern that had been turned into the main circulation area was ajar, a body lying across the threshold stopping it from closing. Listening at door all was silent beyond. Gingerly the corpse was dragged out of the way, allowing the door to be locked, & piled with all the others at the far end of the room.

Peering through the doors security windows the chamber was in chaos, there were at least five abandoned vehicles, one, burnt out on its side, as well as many crates & pallets of equipment. What couldn’t be ignored were the numerous savaged corpses of those overrun when the virus had struck as well as several blasted infected.

About to return to the shaft to make plans all heard a loud metal on metal scraping noise from beyond the doors.

23/05/2024 – 16.14

Everybody froze, the only noise that of weapons being readied, when the noise didn’t repeat nobody relaxed.

Crowding around the doors security windows there was no sign of movement until a further clunk suggesting a box had been dropped or pushed over confirmed that, whilst unseen, something was on the move; a few seconds later 3 figures came into view. They were clearly infected. Whilst thin, gaunt & unhealthy looking they were in considerably better shape that the three who they’d found in the bottom of the shaft suggesting they still had a source of food.

SG2 went silent. They’d clearly been making some noise in the lobby which presumably had attracted/alerted the infected but now that all was silent the three simply stood, dormant, waiting.

With the door, out of the top lobby secured, SG2 silently moved back to the lift shaft &, trying to make as little disturbance as they could, descended.