SG2 - What do we have here?
Posted on Fri Feb 27th, 2026 @ 7:52pm by Commander Aaron Wander & Lieutenant Colonel Jonathon Raynor & Master Sergeant Ezekiel Chambers & Scarlett Hayes Dr. & Captain Jason Tahana & Major Amy Ludd & Pilot Officer Aisling Quinn
Mission:
Echoes of the Fallen
Location: Abydos - Pyramid
3722 words - 7.4 OF Standard Post Measure
//ON//
"There's another chamber to the right of the gate room, we set up there. It gives us proximity to the gate, but we can also defend if something unexpected comes through." Aaron said as he took a look around the large gate room.
Even in the shade, it was hot and dusty. The stone pillars that stretched to the ceiling were weathered, but not seemingly to the level he'd have expected from the centuries. And while the stone looked old and worn, he knew from experience that there could be ancient and advanced technology hidden within. There was a silent strength in the stones. It was their task to make them give up whatever secrets they held.
"Quinn, use the manual controls to get the MALP over to the chamber so we don't have to carry the big stuff in." Aaron motioned to the young woman. "And to a diagnostics on it. It's been here a while and I want to make sure there's nothing affecting the electronics after this time."
"Tahana, you're with me to secure and clear the side chamber. Then we set up and get to seeing what this pyramid can tell us."
Aisling gave a sharp nod and moved to the MALP controls, palms settling on the sticks like she’d been born there. “On it,” she said, voice even.
She eased the MALP off the ramp and swung it toward the right-hand doorway, letting the camera pan a beat ahead of the wheels. There was a whisper of grit in the servos—more feel than sound—and a half-second of lag that smoothed out once she trimmed the throttle. “Minor stickiness on the drives,” she reported, eyes on the screen. “Likely dust. Nothing that’ll stop it.”
At the threshold she paused the unit, tilted the mast for a sweep, then threaded it into the side chamber. “Entry’s clear. Bringing it to the back wall for stow.” She parked the MALP just inside, angled to cover both the doorway and a slice of the main room, then opened the diagnostics panel and ran the health checks.
“Battery at eighty-seven and steady. Motor temps are up a touch from ambient—expected in this heat. No radio dropouts; telemetry clean. I’m seeing fine dust on the lens; I’ll wipe it before we move again.” A beat later she added, “No anomalous draw on the bus. Electronics look healthy.” she said more to herself as she looked over the details.
She glanced over her shoulder toward Aaron and Tahana, then back to the monitor. “MALP’s set as our eyes and relay in the side room.”
“No radio interference, so either they’re not actively blocking it or it’s so ‘low tech’ to them it doesn’t matter” Jacon commended, unloading the equipment he was carrying next to the MALP before throwing his LMG’s strap over his shoulder, “at least we have a place to get out of the sun and keep cool.”
Aisling huffed a quiet laugh as she set the MALP to a slow pan of the chamber. “Grand for comms, anyway,” she said, glancing Jason’s way. “And I’ll take any shade we can get. The sun does terrible things to redheaded Irish girls—freckles multiply like no-one business.”
She flicked a bit of grit off the console with her thumb and eyed the doorway, where fine sand traced every edge. “Speaking of, there’s sand in places sand has no business being. I’ll keep the kit off the floor where I can.”
Aaron raised an eyebrow at Quinn's comment and then shook his head. "Phrasing Quinn. Phrasing."
He walked over to the MALP and used his sleeve to wipe the sand from one of the light stands before pulling it off and setting it up. There was still daylight coming through from the main room, but that wouldn't last forever and they needed to be ready for nightfall. "Remember to keep yourselves hydrated, and take breaks as you need. The heat isn't going anywhere right now and we need all hands working steady to be ready for how cold it's going to get at night."
Aaron was about to continue when the familiar hum and grinding of stone from the gate room started. He looked around to the team and then tapped the comm on his ear. "Raynor, we've got incoming gate activity."
"SG2, Take defensive positions around the gate." The Commander called out as he rushed back to the gate room.
He made it to the far side and took cover behind one of the pillars with his rifle brought to bear as the seventh chevron locked into place. The event horizon formed with a momentary outward burst before settling back to the rippling portal. Aaron tightened his grip on his rifle as he waited for whatever was coming through the gate.
Taking position to one side of the chamber, Jason shouldered his LMG and levelled it at the active gate. They hadn’t expected company, but then again they were in another planet.
Scarlett was feeling somewhat in demand, between her duties with SG-1 and now being needed by SG-2 as well. The heat wasn't helping with all the gear she and the others were wearing and carrying, add the sand and she was wishing she had her beach clothing on instead.
Aisling felt the sound before she processed it—the low grind of stone and that rising hum that meant the universe was about to punch a hole through their room. Off-world activation. No iris here. Training slotted in where nerves wanted to live.
Ludd wasn't assigned to any team as of yet, she had been scanning the chamber. Taking in all there was too see. The heat was somewhat of a problem but she'd been in worse. She did make sure she was hydrated though. Her camelback was just water with some electrolytes mixed in. Good old army orange flavour which was not even remotely flavoured orange. It was while sucking on the tube that the order came to cover the gate. She spun into a kneel facing the gate, edging to her right a little so the pallor she found herself behind was to her right. She could peek around it and still be in full cover. While the chevrons lit and locked, she swapped out the standard mag for a box mag, she didn't know what they were facing and experience fighting the Jaffa made her on edge, she wanted the extra rounds at the start!
She moved right, using the pillar that flanked the DHD for cover—good sightline on the ramp, clean angle back across the chamber. Sand rasped under her knee as she dropped to a steady brace; she ignored it, settled her breath, and kept the rifle low but ready. “Comms up,” she murmured into the net, voice clipped and calm. Heat shimmered in the doorway, dust hanging in the dim like old memory, and for a beat she felt the weight of where they were—Abydos, the first step anyone from Earth ever took.
The seventh chevron thumped home and the blue surge blossomed, snapping back into the pool. Aisling set her cheek to the stock, eyes on the event horizon, pulse steadying into the familiar count: watch, wait, call it clean or call it trouble. Whatever came through, her job was simple—keep the team talking, and help get them home.The event horizon snapped shut behind them — and the world hit like a sledgehammer.
The kawoosh of the swirling vortex had barely snapped back into the settled pool before Major Lyudmila Sorokova stepped through. Although stepping was a bit of a stretch. She stumbled the first step off the raised platform which showcased the gate, and her hand clapped against the warm stone to the side of the steps to steady herself. Her stomach lurched in protest, the room tilting just enough to make her wonder if she’d been peeled out of her body and jammed back in sideways.
No one warned her that part felt like drowning and flying and being punched in the soul all at once.
She swallowed hard, forced her knees to stay solid and breathed shallow until the spinning eased. The heat hit next — a dry, ancient furnace built from centuries of stillness and grit. Her nostrils stung with the scent of dust and old stone. She blinked the quickly melting frost off her lashes, and let her eyes adjust to the dim ambient light filtering down through the carved ceiling. Behind her came a choked noise as another of her team stepped through — Junior Lieutenant Sergei Durov, holding his gut like he’d been sucker-punched, half bent over as he gasped: “Боже… what the— was that?”
Sorokova didn’t answer. She was too busy not throwing up.
The two remaining Russian operators stumbled through the æther-blue curtain immediately after — Starshina Gusev dropped to a knee, cursing between clenched teeth as he pressed a fist to the floor. Sergeant Voroshin staggered three steps too far, hand flat against a pillar to keep his feet under him. For three long seconds, no one spoke. It was like waking from a nightmare you weren't sure you'd survived.
Sorokova pulled herself upright, inhaled, then spat dryly onto the sand at her boots. “Well,” she rasped, voice strained but steady, “that was… delightful."
Durov, meanwhile let out a strangled groan. “I think my soul is bruised.”
She allowed her team a moment to collect themselves, but unfortunately she didn't have that luxury. She noted the defensive positions...hmmm. "Let me guess, our arrival was not logged in triplicate..." Mila paused as she gazed about the room. "I'm looking for Commander Vander." She called out in a in a distinct Russian accent.
Major Amy Ludd sighed, the anticipation of combat had flooded her system with adrenaline and she was now going to crash. She lowered her rifle a little, not fully as she had no idea who these people were...
Zek was the last one through the gate, the heat hit him the moment he stepped out of the gate and his boots hit the ground with a thud as he took a moment to breath in the fresh, maybe not fresh but fresher than the gate room, and he had to admit the heat felt damn good. He was taller than most and couldn't help but smirk as the Russians struggled with their first trip through the gate. In his hands was his M249E4, full kit including his back pack with plenty of extra belts of ammo and a spare barrel just in case.
"I thought you ruskies were made of sterner stuff," His Texas drawl a little thick as he looked over the group of them. He also wasn't going to mention that he'd been through the gate before. "Master Sergeant Chambers, bringing through our Russian friends."
Aisling kept the rifle shouldered until the shapes coming through were clearly people, not problems. She let the muzzle dip and keyed her mic. “Four with Chambers—Russian team. All friendly,” she said, easy and low.
She leaned out from behind the pillar just enough to be seen. “This way if you want the shade,” she called to the woman in front, a quick, reassuring smile. “First trip’s a bit like getting tumble-dried, I promise it settles. Water’s over here if you need some.”
She nodded toward the ramp instead of names. “Our commander’s up by the gate if you need him.” Then she relaxed, her eyes on the pool until it winked out.
Aaron walked out from his cover and motioned for his team to lower their weapons but keep them ready. "I'm Commander Wander, what's your identification?"
Sorokova pivoted smoothly toward the voice identifying themself as Commander Wander. Her spine straightened, posture aligning into crisp military form despite the lingering inter-dimensional turbulence in her gut. “Major Lyudmila Sorokova, Russian Aerospace Forces,” she responded, her accent clipped but clear. “Assigned on temporary operational exchange to SG Command for joint support operations.”
She paused just a beat — letting the weight of her being there settle into the space — then continued, tone neutral but unyielding: “My team is Starshina Leonid Gusev, Sergeant Nikholai Voroshin, Lieutenant Sergei Durov, and MSgt Ezekial Chambers ‘along for ride.’ Orders are to support SG-1 and SG-2.”
"SG2 at your service. And SG1 doesn't have that much of a head start." Aaron tapped the comm on his ear. "Loop into the comms and set up a rendezvous point. For the extra hands, we're setting up base camp in the adjoining room before beginning the recon."
Amy shook her head to her self and replaced the standard magazine in her rifle, picked her pack up and returned to reviewing the room.
Scarlett was busy studying everything she could, to her this was one amazing adventure albeit it could be a risky one, there was no telling what they could face at any point. “I don’t know about anyone else but I’m loving this.”
"Good to hear." Aaron said as he came back into the room. He slung his rifle over his shoulder before walking over to Scarlett. "Find anything of interest? Once we get set up we'll do a full recon of the other rooms in here as well."
“Oh there’s plenty of interest” Scarlett nodded as she looked at Aaron.
Aisling had drifted back into the side room with the hieroglyphics, happy to trade the oven-dry glare by the ring for shade and the scratch of sand under boot. She nudged her earpiece and frowned—there it was again. Not a drop, not a real crackle… just a thin hiss under the net like a kettle five seconds from the boil.
She slid in behind the MALP, brought the screen up, and let her hands do what they always did. Antenna seated, power steady, camera sweep clean. She trusted the system—she’d written the playbook for it and the little repeater pucks were her own design—so if something was off, it wasn’t the kit being fickle; it was the room. She kicked off a quiet spectrum snapshot and a quick health check anyway, eyes on the numbers as they settled, and kept her voice off the air until she knew whether the hiss was just heat… or something worth saying out loud.
The base camp was set up in short order, which meant it was time to start finding out what they could about this pyramid. Aaron motioned for Scarlett. "The MALP detected there was another antechamber off on the other side of the gate room. Care to join me in surveying it?"
“I’d love to” Scarlett nodded enthusiastically. “Let’s go see what we can find.”
The antechamber was still partially filled with sand, but even with the miniature dunes there were clear signs of hieroglyphs carved into the walls. Aaron walked over to a vertical set of four and began brushing the sand away from the base. "Dr. Hayes, do these symbols look familiar to you? I know I've seen them."
Scarlett walked over studying the hieroglyphs. “Yes, they do. I’ve seen these amongst the ton of paperwork I was studying in my office back at the SGC.”
Aisling stared at the readout like it had personally offended her, then gave the MALP console two firm thumps with the heel of her hand—one, two—followed by a flat-palm smack for good measure. “Don’t be clever,” she muttered at it, watching the bars twitch and settle. The link was fine, power was fine… and that faint hiss was still there, like sand in a seashell.
She keyed her mic. “Commander, quick heads-up: I’m getting a light layer of interference on comms—more ‘shh’ than crackle. It shifts when I swing the mast, so it’s the room, not our kit. We’re good to carry on; I’ll keep an ear on it and I’ll find where it’s coming from.”
“Don't go too far, or we’ll leave you to the mummy’s” Jason joked over the coms.
Aisling snorted softly. “Grand, I’ll wave if I see bandages,” she came back, easy.
"Quinn, is it better or worse in this chamber?" Aaron asked as he moved from set of carved glyphs to the next. Some were worn or even chiseled away while others were simply allowed to be partially buried.
A small frown pinched between Aisling’s brows as she swung the mast toward the glyph-heavy wall. The hiss thickened, a soft, steady shush that crawled over the net like surf.
“Worse in there, Commander,” she said, keeping her voice easy. “It spikes as I face the cartouche wall. Kit’s fine; it’s the room. Could be something in the stone or behind it singing at us.”
She shifted the MALP a half-meter, watched the noise rise and fall. “I’m dropping a booster at the threshold and running a short hardline inside. Keep traffic light while you’re near the carvings, yeah? If it builds again, I’ll pin the source.”
Digging down into the sand, he caught a glimpse of a familiar symbol. "That's the gate symbol for Earth." Aaron glanced back at Scarlett. "Are all of these gate addresses?"
Scarlett crouched down to have a better look. “You're right that is the symbol for Earth, so these could well be gate addresses. Question is where to? We should get video evidence of everything, it’ll help later on.”
Aaron took a step back and then walked to another set of symbols that had apparently been chiseled off. Now he could hear the static on the comms as well. Quinn had the main rig, so she'd be able to figure out what was going on. "Quinn, come here. There seems to be a bad spot here. Tahana, let our Russian friends hold down the fort and come over as well. Could need the extra firepower if this is Go'auld."
Aisling crossed over at a clip, shoulder strap shrugged off so she could get her hands free. She cupped her earpiece with one hand and waved the handheld in a slow arc along the stone.
“Yeah… it’s here,” she said, keeping it low for the small circle. “Right on this patch. Take a step either side and the hiss eases off, but straight on it? Loud as you like.”
She nudged the MALP mast to match her sweep; the numbers climbed the way her gut said they would. “It’s not our kit, Commander. Whatever’s giving it socks is in the wall or tucked in behind it.” She laid her palm to the carving, more habit than hope, and gave a small, wry huff. “Feels like someone hid a radio under a holy stone.”
Aaron walked to the cartouche and felt along the edges for a seam. "Let's find a way to get through without breaking it first. Otherwise, we blast it."
Amy had been watching over the team while they did their thing! She was only just starting to understand the basics of the tech, the culture and languages they were encountering; but her job to date had been diplomacy and base security. Wasn't very often she got off world. Thus, she watched and listened following most of it.
When the Commander spoke she looked around, she was about 10 meters from the rest, with their light sources positioned where they were it cast the wall into stark relieve, short and harsh shadows and there was something not quite right. There was a shadow that seemed... odd? Out of place? She wasn't sure which.
The Major took a few steps forward and turned on her own light pointing it at the spot she had spotted. "Ah" she muttered moving closer.
"See something Major?" Commander Wander asked as he noticed her attention become focused.
"Something" she muttered again. "Right there!" now just a few feet away she noticed a shimmer, not a heat haze but... well she wasn't sure. Like a heat haze she conceded but is was a very contained and localized spot. she moved from side to side in an arc but the haze persisted.
She reached forward with a gloved finger and pushed at the spot.
“Be careful” Scarlett looked up seeing what was happening. “You don’t know what could be there.”
"Well, thats odd" pulling her hand out again she flexed and wiggled her fingers. Half shrugging she stuck her hand back in this time with purpose. She depressed what she had thought was a solid section of hidden wall, it was not. It was the fabled button the Commander had been looking for.
Ludd glanced over at Commander Wander with a questioning look but yanked her hand back as a rubble grew under her feet, dust and sand cascaded down from the top of the solid wall as it grinded open. Rock sliding on rock was not a pleasant sound, only her ear plugs saved her hearing this close and she stepped back. Throw the falling sand and drifting dust she glimpsed the other side.
"Everyone back!" Wander shouted as he took a cautious step back and raised his weapon.
A long corridor stretched away from her, lit by flickering lights imbedded into the walls at chest height. Electric lights, a stark contrast to the apparent building materials and techniques around them. She brought her rifle up and thumbed the flash light off and flicked the thermal scope into place.
"Commander" she said over the grinding door "We have a corridor, and its lit."
Scarlett was there in an instant paused at Ludd’s side looking down the corridor. “Might I suggest that from now on no one touches anything? That could have been a well laid trap.” She gave a smile.
"Still could be..." Wander replied as he looked down the newly discovered corridor. The light flickered and buzzed as if waking from a long nap. "Only one way to find out though."
//OFF//
Aaron Wander, Commander
SG-2 Leader
Scarlett Hayes
Chief Archaeologist
SG-2
Major Amy Ludd
Off World Diplomatic Liaison
Aisling Quinn, Pilot Officer
SG-2 Member
