Wouldn't an effective Star Gate defence mechanism for Abydos, or any planet we can't put an Iris on, be to simply have the kawoosh side facing upwards? Thus causing everything that exits to fall right back into the event horizon and die. All that would need to be done would be to push it over once an unidentified dial in occurred or just keep it like that and pull it up when friendlies need to travel.
Wouldn't an effective Star Gate defence mechanism for Abydos, or any planet we can't put an Iris on, be to simply have the kawoosh side facing upwards? Thus causing everything that exits to fall right back into the event horizon and die. All that would need to be done would be to push it over once an unidentified dial in occurred or just keep it like that and pull it up when friendlies need to travel.
Fucking gravity. Sounds like a logistical pain in the ass since the Stargate is extremely fucking heavy - easy to knock over if forced, not so much so to prop it up. You'd need vehicles, or the mother of all pulley systems, the latter of which has shitall to anchor to that won't break carrying tons upon tons. Worse, it'd have to be reversed every time it's used, which at the moment is very often.
On a personal note, I'm soon starting a new job and the update schedule will likely have to go down a bit due to that. I'll try to stay at one update every two days at least.
Wouldn't an effective Star Gate defence mechanism for Abydos, or any planet we can't put an Iris on, be to simply have the kawoosh side facing upwards? Thus causing everything that exits to fall right back into the event horizon and die. All that would need to be done would be to push it over once an unidentified dial in occurred or just keep it like that and pull it up when friendlies need to travel.
Might work if you bust the DHD first, but I'm pretty sure a fully-functional stargate has a safety protocol for that, if only spitting travellers out forcefully a la the movie and earliest seasons (and busting the DHD has its own problems, like not being able to dial out).
Being badly equipped was partly a plot point because we chose Space Force as our service. After we procured new infantry weapons on a later turn we updated - standard issue is now SIG Sauer M17, M27s, M249s, and also FN P90s because it's still Stargate. Plus we have a crate of new XM5s.
Being badly equipped was partly a plot point because we chose Space Force as our service. After we procured new infantry weapons on a later turn we updated - standard issue is now SIG Sauer M17, M27s, M249s, and also FN P90s because it's still Stargate. Plus we have a crate of new XM5s.
I mean, even the space force would have the M4's issued to every army grunt just out of basic. . .
I mean, the US Military Budget is more than the next 9 countries spend on their militaries combined. We don't keep obsolete equipment in service with standing forces. Hell, we don't even keep obsolete equipment in service with the National Guard.
To put this in perspective, even if the Space Force only received 10 percent of the overall US Defense Budget, it would still have roughly twice the funding of the entire German Military.
I mean, even the space force would have the M4's issued to every army grunt just out of basic. . .
I mean, the US Military Budget is more than the next 9 countries spend on their militaries combined. We don't keep obsolete equipment in service with standing forces. Hell, we don't even keep obsolete equipment in service with the National Guard.
To put this in perspective, even if the Space Force only received 10 percent of the overall US Defense Budget, it would still have roughly twice the funding of the entire German Military.
The equipment being a weird and outdated hodgepodge was on purpose. Which is why SG-1 was using HK416s, the Abydonians had left-over MP5s from the mission two years ago and the SG-2 / SG-3 team had other stuff that was just laying around.
Now the infantry weapons were straightened out though, so you now have sensible equipment.
The equipment being a weird and outdated hodgepodge was on purpose. Which is why SG-1 was using HK416s, the Abydonians had left-over MP5s from the mission two years ago and the SG-2 / SG-3 team had other stuff that was just laying around.
Now the infantry weapons were straightened out though, so you now have sensible equipment.
I get that you did it on purpose, but it doesn't make sense in a realistic scenario.
It's why it felt off because there's no realistic way for an American Armed Forces branch to force one of it's key programs to operate off of decades-old stockpiles of equipment
Even the Coast Guard isn't using obsolete gear, and they're a mostly search and rescue branch these days
I get that you did it on purpose, but it doesn't make sense in a realistic scenario.
It's why it felt off because there's no realistic way for an American Armed Forces branch to force one of it's key programs to operate off of decades-old stockpiles of equipment
Even the Coast Guard isn't using obsolete gear, and they're a mostly search and rescue branch these days
You inherited the stockpile from Project Lodestone, which was a clandestine Air Force operation under Major General West, who also, somehow, got his hands on four armed nuclear warheads. This wasn't regular Space Force or even regular Air Force kit.
The weirdness is intentional and there is a reason you got an action to investigate West to figure how this state of affairs came to be. Because, yeah, this is all very strange and makes not a lick of sense.
I get that you did it on purpose, but it doesn't make sense in a realistic scenario.
It's why it felt off because there's no realistic way for an American Armed Forces branch to force one of it's key programs to operate off of decades-old stockpiles of equipment
Even the Coast Guard isn't using obsolete gear, and they're a mostly search and rescue branch these days
And the Space Force is just meant to be looking after satellites.
If anything that's even less than both the coast guard and national guard.
The coast guard deal with things like Smugglers and Cartels.
If anything to an outside observer who isn't cleared to know about the stargate programme the Spaceforce needing good weapons sounds ridiculous. They need them even less than the Coast Guard do. What a waste of funding.
And the Space Force is just meant to be looking after satellites.
If anything that's even less than both the coast guard and national guard.
The coast guard deal with things like Smugglers and Cartels.
If anything to an outside observer who isn't cleared to know about the stargate programme the Spaceforce needing good weapons sounds ridiculous. They need them even less than the Coast Guard do. What a waste of funding.
To put this in perspective, even if the Space Force only received 10 percent of the overall US Defense Budget, it would still have roughly twice the funding of the entire German Military.
The actual figure is closer to 2 - 3 percent ($18 billion out of $778 billion in 2022), and most of that goes to the satellite nerds (an aside, @Azel is SGC's cover story still "deep space radar telemetry?") rather than to SFs.
Deep-space radar telemetry always struck me as a really bad cover, since this is stuff that NASA should be doing and which has no easily discernible value to the military.
You are currently using the same one that the scientists and Carter used before the re-activation of the gate, which is "analysis and risk assessment of high-energy electromagnetic effects on military and civilian satellite components". Allegedly, you are sitting under that mountain to not bother other people when you try to toast satellites with simulated EMPs and charged particle waves.
Exploration: (-1 -1 +1 +0) + 1 (Yi Awareness) = 0 => only immediate surroundings explored
Random Event: (1 -1 +1 +1) = 2 => animals found
Success
The next planet from Dr. Jacksons list seemed at first to be just as much of a disappointment as the first. The MALP was showing the gate platform covered in snow, the view further away obscured by the heavy snowfall. Temperatures were still tolerable for humans, but well below zero. You nearly called off the mission then and there as pointless and needlessly risky due to the weather, but Sergeant Yi and his team were eager to go back out there after their return from training at Fort Bragg.
By the time the team moved through the weather had slightly improved, giving them the chance to move at least a short distance from the gate without the risk of getting lost. It was good that they had gone as against your first impression, the planet was not an ice world. Beneath the snow grew grass and ferns and Yi's team even had a brief run-in with some confused looking animals that vaguely resembled caribou.
It was very little that you learned, but it was at least evident that the planet was supporting life. But it was also far from a good place for refugees, especially the Abydonians who were used to arid climates, not what appeared to be a tundra in the middle of local winter.
UX-2 explored. Planet redesignated P4X-2
Exploration – UX-3 / Garden Planet – SG-1
Exploration: (-1 +0 +0 -1) + 3 (O'Neill Awareness) = 1 => only immediate surroundings explored
Random Event: (+1 +1 +1 +1) – 4 (The Danger Is Still Present In Your Time) = 0 => escaped unscathed
Success
In contrast, the last planet from the list looked not all that strange or uninviting on the first glance. The first videos showed an abandoned city surrounding the gate, overgrown with dark green vines and nigh-black mould. Dr. Fraiser expressed some mild concerns about the latter as a potential biohazard, but greenlit the operation under the condition that SG-1 would be wearing gas masks and all times and go through decontamination when they returned.
Four about a hour they explored the ruins, looking for writing or any signs of technology that would warrant further attention, but all they found were ruins and long broken pottery. They were just about to venture further from the gate when O'Neill noticed the vines to start acting strange. Like on an unseen signal, the began to roll in their leaves and turned black as pitch. Since there was nothing that had obviously changed, the Major quickly reactivated the MALP and looked over the sensor data. Radiation levels had started to rise and they quickly retreated to the Stargate to return home before they could become dangerous.
Captain Carter kept trying to learn more about what was happening from the MALP data and could learn at least two things before the radiation became so intense that the computers of the drone failed. It was a source of hard gamma radiation and, the far stranger part, it was located somewhere on the planet. There was immediately a lot of speculation in each and every report you got on the matter about what might have been the cause for this and why it seemed that the radiation was spiking and receding, but for the time being, the mission was deemed concluded and the planet marked as lethal to all visitors.
Work within the pyramid concluded as scheduled and the teams assisting Dr. Jackson were done with digitizing all carvings a day later. In total, you had retrieved nearly 800 gate addresses, which both gave you ample planets to explore, but also highlighted the staggering size of Ra's realm. It also gave you an estimation of what you were facing. The carvings mentioned the realms of other Goa'uld, the names Heru'ur, Hathor, Sokar, Nirrti, Yu and of course Apophis cropped up regularly, and while they were all depicted as clearly lesser than Ra, their holdings were still described as vast.
Lastly, you found one chamber in the pyramid that appeared to have been the private rooms of some figure of import, containing a golden writing desk, chairs, bed and various other items of daily use. More interesting than the gaudy displays of wealth though were a set of regular crystals and a lightly corroded steel tray with slots for them. There was no writing or other indicators of their purpose, so the team that discovered them made sure to painstakingly document their find and then packed it up for your scientists to puzzle over.
Gained Abydos address list (complete).
Gained Goa'uld artifacts.
Base Improvement - Better Infirmary – 3 Command Point
Progress: 3 + 3U1 => 3 + (1 -1 +1) = 4 => 10 of 10
Random Event: 4U1 => (0 +0 -1 +0) + 2 (Ample Funding) = 1 => nothing out of the ordinary
Finished
While the extra space for patients and especially isolation wards was welcome, the most important change that had come to your infirmary were all the new machines. X-ray, CAT, PET, MRI and other increasingly incomprehensible abbreviations were now part of Captain Fraiser's repertoire and you quietly wondered if she had given her a bit too much of a budget. She had also expanded the team of surgeons and even found a way to acquire some sort of printer to produce skin grafts to deal with the number of heavy burn wounds the battles with the Jaffa had so far sent to her.
Basic Infirmary upgraded to Well-Equipped Infirmary – With a large number of beds, dedicated isolation rooms, state-of-the-art diagnostic machinery and a large, well-educated staff, your infirmary can give a level of care equal to any hospital.
There were many drawbacks to the secrecy around Stargate Command. Recruitment was hard. Your whole unit could be gutted at moments notice without risking public backlash. Each movements of your soldiers and their equipment had to be meticulously planned to not give away what truly happened between Cheyenne Mountain. But sometimes, it had advantages, like getting the fancy toys that first that were not supposed to actually be in use yet.
While the regular procurement process went on, or at least as regular as procurement for Top Secret programs could get, you made some careful calls to see if somebody else would be interested to have their newest systems tested under combat conditions. It was a success. By the end of the same week, you had multiple crates of the cutting edge ENVG-III / FWS-I night vision and gun sight package.
Target highlighting. Movement tracking. Shooting around corners with your rifle's camera. The brochure looked like empty boasting, but after trying it yourself, you could not say that they boasted too much. The teams were a bit sceptical at first, especially the older soldiers like O'Neill. Though after a bit of time at the range to used to them, they were quite enamoured with their new sights.
Armoury stocked with ENVG-III night vision goggles and FWS-I gun-sights.
Ironically enough, the procurement of the ballistic shields turned into an utter mess. You had planned to just buy them from the next best police supplier as the goal of the exercise was to have something that could take one staff blast and would then fall apart. Yet despite these very simple requirements, the matter was delayed quite a bit. The company you wanted to buy from failed the security checks due to the FBI investigating them under suspicion of selling equipment to anyone from organized criminals to known violent militias. You would have to try again with some other supplier.
Despite the losses of your SG Teams and despite the fact that they had just been in a firefight with a whole platoon worth of Jaffa, one squad of your defence force on Abydos immediately volunteered when you sent out calls for more frontline personnel. You did not have time to pry too deeply about their motives, but they and three other recruits from the Army passed muster by your SG team leaders and that was what mattered in the end. It was quite a boost. Enough to get SG-2 back up while the other specialists recuperated and some more to either bolster the teams or even form a fourth.
Gained 6 Specialists ready for SG Team assignment.
While learning more about the helmets of the Serpent Guard would have been useful, the resources spent on the matter were much better spent elsewhere at the moment, so you told the team to pack up everything and move it into storage for the time being.
Technology Analysis – Staff Weapon – 3 Research Points
Progress: 3 + 3U1 => 3 + (1 +0 +0) = 4 => 12 total
Random Event: 4U1 => (0 +1 -1 -1) = 1 => Minor Mishap
Finished
Captain Carter was very animated and quite happy with herself when she gave you her report even though both her hands were wrapped in bandages due to a mishap with the disassembled staff weapon. For her, it didn't matter though. The burns were mild and would heal, making them inconsequential in the face of having figured out how the weapons worked. The specific details were above your ability to quite understand, but you could follow her as far as that they did in fact consume ammunition, just so little of it that it was imperceptible.
In addition to a minuscule amount of naquadah that was suspended in the liquid of the power cell, the head contained a series of prongs that were coated in the material. When high voltage was applied to them, trace amounts of the naquadah would sublimate and form the basis of a plasma that took a lot of very complicated Greek letters to explain. And that was her version of a simple explanation. It was, of course, actually not quite that straightforward as she had made it out. You would just take her word for it.
As it stood, you did not know how to make the energy cells or how to manufacture the firing mechanism of a staff weapon, but your scientists had learned enough that they felt confident to modify the design. It would take captured staff weapons to cannibalize parts from, but you had already a storage room full of them and despite some interesting properties, they were not something any of your soldiers would be willing to lug around instead of a good rifle. Maybe some additional effort could create something useful though.
Analysis completed. Unlocked further Research and Development actions.
Unlocked Base Expansion – Workshop.
AN: Overall a very good turn, even though SG-1 nearly got toasted.
Sweet. Pity about the shields, but I'll take six extra recruits, high quality sights and a finished infirmary. Sounds like we might be able to develop energy guns instead of staff weapons, which would be a sweet best of both worlds sort of thing!
Idea for cheap scouting: what if we make a cheap sensor pod we can attach a weather balloon to? We send a Malp over and then it releases the Balloon sensor to go up and survey the surrounding area while gathering weather and atmosphere data.
