The Lieutenant Colonel was ready for action, wasn’t he? He sure hoped he was, since he was armed with a G36 and the damned Zat… thing. He wasn’t quite happy about using Goa’uld or whatever-the-everloving-bloody-fuck-spawned alien race tech the Zat was. It was details he didn’t care about. All he knew was that it wasn’t human tech, or even a properly human allied creation.
But for now, he had to be serious, and focused. He was getting on the field. The lives of the men and women were in his hands, as was his own. He’d be going on a two-man permanent mission kill/disable team with Lieutenant Cody, for his own reasons. He’d give the orders for secondary assist/recon/damage teams later, but for now, he and the Lieutenant were alone together. Or at least within speaking distance.
Now this wasn’t just for his own… well, the only way to put it was interrogation. A little less blunt though. In any case, this wasn’t for his own purposes, but for command purposes, and tactical reasons. The Lieutenant, according to whatever info he had available, which wasn’t the Library of Congress by any long bloody shot, was an expert marksman, and a top shot. He was going to use this resource in most of his maneuvers, because hell if it wasn’t a damned good asset.
He wasn’t going to get into the details of his reasoning for now, since he had a job to do. He had grabbed the Anti-Jammer backpack, something he deeply valued as a necessary asset for these kind of missions. All kinds of bloody high-tech shit up in here, he thought. At any other time, he’d have commented on how the “old wars were funner” in whatever irony he still had, but the thought didn’t occur to him in his focused mindset.
“Lieutenant, you’re with me. Get your candy ass with me, we’re getting planetside.”
Cody rolled his eyes at the mans comment. Candy ass? Everything the man made him sound like a complete egotistic fool. On top of that Cody was already bad at listening to the chain of command in the field due to how long he’d been solo, and now he was supposed to take orders from this man? Please. The Canadians intelligence network was too far behind compared to the CIA to even come close to Cody’s level, and they wanted him to listen to a Canadian soldier? What a joke.
He had a job to do though and right now that meant working with this worthless heap of garbage. What constituted using souch foul language, and such an obvoiusly unworthy ego in his eyes? If he didn’t prove useful Cody would just have to eliminate the threat to the ship. After all, if one cannot perform to the proper standards they put everyone else at risk. Williams was a diplomat so if he had to report the incident it might put him on probation with Williams for the fact that he did his job but not under the proper perameters...that of course is if Williams found out it was Cody who did this. For now though this man still had a chance to prove himself so Cody figured he shouldn’t think up the plans...not yet.
Cody turned towards the lieutenant Colonel and gave him a self-confident smile. “Don’t worry sir, I know you think my lack of armaments might seem laughable, and if you know about my ratings on the range then you probably think I should be using a rifle, but you won’t be disappointed I can promise you that sir.” Cody put his hand on his left side pocket and felt the Zat, but more importantly he felt his combat knife. He was definitely ready. “Shall we?” He asked simply awaiting Blaze’s command to beam them to the planet.
“I have no qualms against your arming, Lieutenant, because a pistol or Zat should work just fine.” the Colonel replied, moving forward in swift and long strides. “Command beam is completed. Lets get planetside.” He said once more, turning to face the others, and saluted to the Captain, and stood there, waiting for the other man to join him, with a hard face.
Cody sighed. This was going to be a long day, he could already tell. “Roger that.” A simple phrase, one that he used frequently when it came to orders and military duties. He had to make sure not to overstep his mission parameters on this one now that he was being watched, so no saving an innocent child here and there, no secretly overthrowning a hostile government unofficially, nope. This all had to be by the book now. He stepped next to Blaze and turned on the spot and began to think about Williams. Cody found the man boring, but he had to follow the man’s orders for now so that’s what he would do. Besides Williams was actually decent, and not a complete dim witted fool like most of the IOA. As the thought ran through his mind the beaming process began
As the pair beamed they both found themselves on a clearing high in the mountains above the Ancient Facility. The clearing was small, the treeline was only 5 metres away. The Facility itself was mainly built into the mountainside and only the entrance could be seen. Several figures could be seen outside the door of the facility. The whole thing was two hundred metres away.
The first reaction the Colonel had to the beaming was one of measured confidence, which was absolutely fake. He hated getting beamed, and he got… beam-sick? Was that the term for the utter sickness he would feel everytime he went through the process. He couldn’t quite care, except for the fact that it caused him operational distress. He’d see if this could be solved.
With gusto, he put his hand to his holstered Zat, and moved forward once more, and beckoning for the Lieutenant to come along. The G36 was at his back, next to the Anti-Jammer backpack, which was slightly weighty, but not too much.
Cody blinked and the next thing he knew he was there. It was actually kinda cool, and unlike every other time he’d been put somewhere without going there himself, he wasn’t knocked out to wake up somewhere knew! So this was actually quite pleasant for him. He had his left hand on his pistol ready to draw, but saw no immediate threat as he scanned the area. The trees and mountains here were actually beautiful to behold, and perhaps even picture worthy.
He walked up to the Colonel still scanning the area and then raised a hand and pointed to the entrance of the facility. “There it is sir.” He also noticed that there were people outside the facility and he pulled out the left pistol and readied the weapon. “Given our current fire power, if you’re a good enough shot, we can easily eliminate the targets before they can alert anyone else. Unless you have another idea...Sir.” He almost forgot to add the sir part in there. He hated that soooo much. It was one of many things he didn’t miss now that he’d become more independent.
The colonel reacted by raising his right eyebrow higher than Mount Everest. Obviously this kid was either an idiot, or testing him, and from everything he’d seen, the Lieutenant was not dumb, although he was short of a few nuts and bolts.
Now, according to Canadian Military Penal Code Section Fifteen, this kind of backtalk and insolence worked out as insubordination on the field, and he was damned sure that the Americans, with their bloody ass military, had a similar scripture. He could field-discharge the Lieutenant from here, temporarily, until he became fit for duty. Now, obviously, since he was American, he wasn’t fully under his command, but again, technically, the SG Strike Team was a Joint Procedure, therefore still making him a superior officer to him, and the C/AMPC rule applied to all superior officers.
But of course, current timing was not appropriate, and he’d rather not have to be impaired by a single, rather skilled man. What was more disturbing was the fact that the Lieutenant was testing, or at least thats what seemed obvious.
“Lieutenant, I was not brought on the ship and program because I have friends in high spots, or am some sort of genius. I have neither, but what I do have is a grasp of tactics. So yes, before your insubordination continues, I will inform you that I do have a plan.” he said, with an extremely controlled tone.
Cody smirked as he holstered the weapon. ’Congrats Colonel you passed the first test…’ he thought to himself. Instead of being compliant he just had to push his luck, to find out the colonels limits that is. “Oh well good! At least I can be comforted by the fact that you weren’t born yesterday, Sir! So what might this brilliant plan of yours be?” On the bright side of things he seemed to value the chain of command which meant he had loyalty to some degree. Though it was almost laughable that someone so stuck up would be on this mission. So much for easy going and pleasant times, brothers in arms and all.
Now there was no other options. The Lieutenant was testing him, and psychologically too. This wasn’t the work of some soldier who wanted to know what made his commander tick, that never happened. It was as if he knew that he could get off scot-free, somehow. He doubted, all of a sudden, that the Lieutenant felt that he had control over him, at all.
But insubordination, heavens was this what the Americans did? The man was several ranks below the Colonel, and Harry was getting rather irked. But he’d give the chap one more chance, as he tried to figure out what the Lieutenant was doing. Yes, what was he doing? Sure, he was a sharpshooter, but till date, he’d never seen a man chosen for such op’s because of combat skills, which weren’t extremely phenomenal either, while they were quite good.
“Well, Lieutenant, its simpler than tying your shoelace, assuming you Americans don’t use strap-ons. It should have occurred to you that shooting right from here, or one place is incredibly lacking in smarts. I shall explain that all you have to do is shoot from over that hill to your four. I shall handle to rest. I hope it was to your mind’s liking, Princess-chan?” he said, once more in his monotone.
Cody smiled. “Well if that’s what you had in mind I don’t see why not.” Honestly though. First thing he wants to do is shoot people without clearing it? Last he checked they were trying to make some friends, and try and get into the facility without causing trouble, but that didn’t bother him at all. This was what he was trained for. He chuckled to himself inside his mind. If this backfired what would the captain have to say to the oh so clever Colonel? Though Cody had to admit he was slightly disappointed that he left his rifle in his room. This would’ve been perfect for it.
Cody turned and began to walk and then stopped looking over his shoulder. “So what are you going to tell the captain?” Yet another test, man Cody had a million of the tests set up for people. More importantly though this one would also involve a test on the ship’s Captain. Something that he actually had to be careful about.
“Why, the exact same thing I would have if I’d done what you had suggested, and shot them up front. I mean, its not like we’re killing them, Lieutenant. We have these Zat’s for a reason.” he replied once more, in a slightly jovial theme.
Cody pulled out the zat in his left pocket. “I suppose we did bring these for a reason.” In his head he was shaking his head at the Colonel. Attacking them just to incapacitate the enemy? They’ll wake up eventually, but this was his call. So be it.
-Timeskip 1 hour-
The Colonel shot the last of the guards straight in the face, but only once. He wasn’t killing anyone on this op, or at least for now. He’d managed to take down several of the guards, and all of them with the Lieutenants obviously reluctant help. He grabbed the body, and dumped it in to locked steel structure, a guardhouse of some sort. He clicked his comms, the only thing he would do, due to his own ordered radio-silence, which was the signal for Cody to appear. He’d dumped all the bodies into the building, and no alarm had been raised, so they’d obviously completed their first objective. He waited outside of the camp, approaching the structure.
Cody was actually a little surprised. Despite the desine, and considering it was a pistol like weapon, the Zat had been fairly accurate. Though obviously not following the laws bullets were bound to made it interesting to use. When the Colonel gave the signal Cody came out from his spot and walked over slowly scanning the area just to be safe. They’d accomplished taking the area so now it was time for the clean up. Standard procedure for him really. Make sure no one finds the bodies till after one can get to safety if at all possible, which meant that they couldn’t have all the bodies of the enemies, which would eventually wake up to make noise to be found, lying where the next team would take over.
Cody walked up to the Colonel and just bluntly spoke. “Good idea putting them all in the same area, and since they’re all connected the Zat can spread across all of them getting rid of them all at once.” He slowly raised his Zat looking around one last time before he would dispose of the bodies. This line of work wasn’t pretty, and some might say there was no honor or dignity in it. But without people like himself in the world...well now that he knew about the Stargate Program, the universe. Things would be even worse for diplomacy matters.
The Colonel was extremely surprised by two things. The first was the lack of “sir”, in his words, which was just purely rule violating, raising all his suspicions. But then the second thing was the idea that he was going to kill them. “Stand down, soldier. We’re killing no one here. We have our orders, and as much as I’d like to do this, put the Zat down, Lieutenant. We’re not killing them, just locking them in here. The building’s made of steel and concrete, and I’ve removed all methods of outside communication for them.”, he growled.
“And a Zat shot, from the experience I have, will have them out for more time than we need for this, so theres no need. Do you understand me, soldier?” he once again said, to make it clear.
Cody didn’t lower the Zat, but he turned his head to the Colonel. “Colonel, just because they will be out long enough doesn’t mean anything. When they wake up they will be able to tell their comrades what happened, and then we can be identified. We used weapons that people on this planet can get ahold of easily and are very common in the galaxy from what I’ve read. Killing them gives us a better chance of deniability.”
This was common sense, at least to Cody. Why would the Colonel even care so much? They were the enemy. Until the day there is peace that will always be the case. So every soldier taken out helps, not to mention in scenarios like these it makes it easier to act like it wasn’t you. Especially when you know they won’t be able to do a lie detection test on you.
The Lieutenant’s ruthless and cold thought process was far too dissimilar from a normal soldier’s for the Colonel to not notice. All the more suspicion built up in him, against the Lieutenant. Too much of his life was blacked out, damn those higher ups. It seemed so… intelligent. The military tops didn’t do this, this was civilian work. And god damn, he hated blacking out.
“I don’t think you understood me, Lieutenant, we are under orders. Orders, from the Captain, the IOA Rep, and even my own self, to not take forceful measures. The second planetside team will deal with them, not us. Not only that, I don’t think you understand this well, but you’ve forced my hand. Constantly, I have doubted you, and I have found everything about you blacked out. I will confront you here, for mission safety. What, and don’t you apply spook tactics here, what are you doing here?” He said, letting his frustration and suspicion get the better of his military out-lying personality.