Just reread the series in honor of May being apoc season and all. I swear I am still so jealous of your writing. I cannot wait for the final showdown between the assembly and friends vs. the Ho-God.

Thanks for the review - glad you're still enjoying it. A few more chapters yet before the showdown, but it's going to be very nasty and apocalyptic (this one needs more than a wrecking ball and a troll hammer to kill her...)

I'm late reviewing this, and I see pretty much everything I'd say has been covered pretty good in the more timely reviews. So let me just say that I continue to love this series, and the descriptions were very nicely cinematic and vivid and tense and fun. You hit that nice balance between to little detail and too much for us non-military types to wade through. Well done.
Thank you very much for writing, and looking forward to future installments!

Thanks for the review and glad you're still enjoying it. I'm currently about three-quarters of the way through the next installment and hope to have it finished shortly.

Great chapter. Looking forward to the next.

Thanks for the review - working on the next one.

Lots of points for finishing the operation in one chapter, and not splitting it two with a nasty cliffhanger.
Reading this chapter was very similar to watching one of the original SG episodes. It was great!

Thank you for writing and sharing!

Sometimes it's possible to avoid the cliffie, sometimes it isn't, if it's going to mean a ridiculously short or excessively long chapter otherwise. This time, it was all about a raid which lasted less than an hour - hard to spread that into more than one chapter.

Great that you think I had the feel of an SG episode (even if SG-1 only played a small part this time). I try to keep the atmosphere, but writing the crossover can make it tricky at times.

Thanks for the review - glad you enjoyed it.

thank you for a wonderful chapter and the excuse for a reread of this fine tale.

Thanks for the review - good to hear your enjoying the story enough to re-read it.

Please don't recruit Freya for the Assembly.

Also, as ever, a very good chapter, and I eagerly await more. Any chance we can see more of Wesley? Just a little? :P

I haven't made up my mind what I'll do wth Freya, but probably won't recruit her for the Assembly. As for Wesley, he'll pop up every now and then.

Thanks for the review.

Outstanding chapter!
I liked the way you made it realistic, with deaths rather than Cordy's team jumping in and decimating the Jaffa. The Jaffa are formidable opponents, but the technology used against them, I mean claymore mines and 249saws, in the dark!

I would hazard to guess that Cordy may feel some distress about having people die under her command, but O'Neill, Carter and Teal'c will let her know that she did the nigh impossible and her somewhat crazy plan worked. Could also be that Buffy may confess that she also feels guilty about people she has lost in battling the dark forces.

Speaking of Buffy, the knitting thing was great, maybe helps keep her from going insane. Just thinking about how Dawn and Cordy would react to that makes me laugh a little.

I also like the way you updated what's going on with Tara, making her first take down of a criminal ... with a small amount of magic.

Saedria may feel bad about what happened with the bitch, but she should also feel elated that they caught the thing that killed her world and most of her people. The Varrini will finally get some payback.

Anise biting the dust is no real biggie since she was a pain in the ass from day one, but what will it do to Freya? Living with someone in you head for 20-30+ years ... Will she feel like she's been liberated or be greatly saddened by the loss and what will she do next? I remember at one point she was enjoying training for the mission, the excitement, adrenaline rush maybe. Or will she be more likely to take it easy now. Probably everyone she knew is now dead, not sure of her back history. Questions is can she live now without a simbyote(not sure how to spell that), or will she waste away health wise. Even more she could become a researcher for the Slayer Assembly or an adviser to the SGC or even the President on Tok'ra affairs. As an author it must be hard to write about what could happen to her since there are so many ways you could go.

A very busy chapter and one of the best in the series so far. Congrats!

Fighting the Jaffa was never going to be cost-free, but they do have their weaknesses. Their technological edge is mainly centred on their spacecraft and cut off from air support, they're simply not very well equipped light infantry - tough, but not always tactically wise. I must confess to feeling tempted to writing - far down the road in the sequel - what happens when a major Jaffa invasion force runs into a well-trained Talluran armured division. Might never happen, but it's tempting...

Cordy will feel guilty but, as you say, there are plenty of people to help her through it. Saedria will have similar issues, though she may also have lost people fighting the darkness even before her home planet was destroyed.

Anise is a tricky one. As you say, living without a symbiote after many years - more than 20-30, by the way - will be hard. Her people are long since dead or scattered, so there's no going home and she can't combine with another symbiote, as I'll explain in the next chapter. There will be depression and a profound sense of loss, without a doubt. Whether she'll want to go down the action route, or find herself a quiet life on Earth, remains to be seen. After all, she's spent years hiding out in Tok'ra tunnels, running from planet to planet, so she might want somewhere she can call home.

Thanks for the review - glad you enjoyed it.

Sorry I didn't review this earlier... Knowing the size, I saved reading this for the weekend =D

Woah, you made me actually feel sorry for Anise. *sniffles and lets tear fall*

Okay enough of that, she was still an annoying #(*^%# ;P

Nice to see the plan worked, also nice to see it wasn't foolproof or without its own challenges. Typical Goa'uld, standing to taunt when she should be running for her life... (Apparently only Ba'al was enough of a coward to choose to live to fight another day.)

And Freya as part of the Assembly... nice. They can even sell it to Jack and Hammond that she'll be close enough to hand to assist or advise.

Wonderful to see more of this!

Don't get too weepy over Anise - as you say, she was still a pain in the arse! Freya might or might not join the Assembly. She'll have a choice, though the Tok'ra will probably pressure her into returning. I've also no intention of giving her another symbiote. What else happens? I'm still thinking about it. She might opt for a quiet life on Earth, after years of hiding from the Goa'uld and running from planet to planet. Or this jaunt might give her an appetite for more excitement. Not sure yet.

Bastet's taunting might have worked - only Saedria was still standing out of her team by the end. Anubis also ran on several occasions, as did Heru'uhr (is that how you spell it) when the Asgard destroyed his forces on Cimmeria, so some other Goa'uld have a yellow streak, too.

Thanks for the review - glad you enjoyed the chapter.

Beautiful chapter. Wonder if Bast will beg, plead, or deal to remain alive. Excellent chapte. Freya would be great with the Assembly.

Bastet will progressively threaten, try to deal, and then beg and plead. She has nothing to deal with, however, given that both the Varrini and SGC have access to witches with truth spells. Her goose is pretty well cooked - probably literally - once they've extratced every bit of intelligence. As she's a Varrini prisoner - that was the deal - begging and pleading won;t work, either...

As for Freya? No reason why she can't choose to join the Assembly - O'Neill was just making a point about them trying to recruit everyone in sight. I'm not sure what she'll want yet. Probably the Tok'ra would like her back, but it maybe that after all these years of moving from planet to planet and hiding from the Goa'uld, she might want to settle down and just have a normal life. Or maybe the mission will have given her an appetite for more action in her life. Losing Anise might also hurt her badly after so long together.

Thanks for the review - glad you're still enjoying it.

Saw this thursday, did a full series reread, yes your writing is that good that a new chapter can provoke a full reread.


Anise did manage to unplug herself. I've a few ideas for Freya - not sure which one I'll use yet. I'm not going to rejoin her with another symbiote - it's my thinking that the first bonding causes scarring around the brain stem, which prevents another symbiote from joining.


I saw this comment on someones review. Not an idea that agrees with cannon since it would mean that Carter would have been Goa'uld proof after Jolinar. She was goa'ulded at a later time.

That was a great deal of re-reading! Glad you're still enjoying the series.

Thanks for the reminder about Carter. I can probably get around that by saying it's a potential - though not one-hundred percent definite - side effect. After all, symbiotes are supposed to have multiple hosts during their lifetime, not vice-versa.

I'm hoping to have another chapter of Key to the Stars up by the end of next week, too.

Thanks for the review.

One skinned cat, indeed. Though the skinner got some scratches. Grievous losses for a people already so decimated. I agree with a previous reviewer, and you: Saedria will feel the pain of her mistake/inaction for a long time.

A realistically portrayed battle. The Jaffa show why they are feared, even in a terrible situation they keep fighting and trying until they are truly broken. That was frightening in its bloody effectiveness.

And just when anise decided to become useful again... I hope she managed to unplug herself. Freya rather grew on me. What's the opinion on rebonding? It might be difficult for Freya to live without the presence of a symbiote/parasite.

And despite the incredible success of the operation, Cordelia no doubt will feel guilt to.

A lovely scene with Buffy. I would have tried to keep the sketching up too, might have been useful to help identify demons. (And she could always have said this particular lady didn't get any Latin...)

Thanks for writing

It was never going to be an easy operation and losses were inevitable, but Saedria will feel tremendous guilt (but no sense in a debriefing holding her to trained Special Forces standards, because she's just an amateur hastily trained for a specific operation). The Jaffa will never be an easy enemy to deal with.

Anise did manage to unplug herself. I've a few ideas for Freya - not sure which one I'll use yet. I'm not going to rejoin her with another symbiote - it's my thinking that the first bonding causes scarring around the brain stem, which prevents another symbiote from joining.

Cordelia will feel somewhat guilty, but she has plenty of people to talk her through it.

I liked the idea of Buffy having a quiet, secret hobby. She'll take a little stick on the Latin thing, but ultimately - even in canon - she was the one who did the bulk of the regular cemetery patrolling and also the only one who faced down each of the Big Bads, so they ought to cut her some slack.

Thanks for the review.

Only one rhyming comment per author.

Brilliant addition. Looking forward to more. Nice send off for Anise. Would be nice for Freya to stay around.

James

This author can't rhyme to save himself!

I'm not sure what Freya will do yet, but she might hang around.

Thanks for the review - glad you enjoyed it.

Good to see story going strong. I just wonder what kind of post operation briefing Saedria and sentinels will receive. If Saedria were in military she would face serious repercussions for not securing Bas'tet and her men (with restrains, hoods and maybe tranquilizers) before those reinforcements came from secret passage, possibility that should have been foreseen. This is not hindsight 20/20, this is how special forces plan and prepare. How would Saedria take serious criticism for her command performance could be interesting.

Saedria won't be receiving a full Special Forces post op briefing, for the simple reason she isn't Special Forces. The Sentinels only had three months to train for this mission, purely as temporary volunteers, and only time to hone their combat and parachute skills. For the most part, they won't be taking part in SGC operations in future, unless there's a purely supernatural threat. She will, however, be acutely aware that her actions - or lack of them - might have led to the death of one of her people.

Glad you enjoyed the latest chapter and thanks for the review.

Fantastic update. It's been a long time coming but well worth the wait. I truly enjoyed seeing how Buffy and Tara are developing and changing as they age and gain yet more experience. I particularly emphasize with Buffy as i myself and in my early 20s and things that would have embarrassed the hell out of me in high school don't phase me one bit any more.

I really loved reading about the mission to the Gao'uld's base and really appreciated that you gave the good guys fairly moderate casualties considering what they were doing. I also appreciate that unlike the TV shows, you do give a far more realistic image of the damage that these weapons do to a human (or Jaffa) body. Frankly the only thing you could have done to top things off would have been a final tomohawk with a multi-megaton naquidah enhanced fission warhead being launched like half an hour after all the SG and HG teams had left. Still, you did a great job of building up to this moment and a fantastic job executing it. I can't wait for your next update where we find out what bastet knows and see what's next on the horizon.

The idea of Buffy having a relaxing secret hobby just appealled to me and it seemed like a good idea to have her left with something - even if it isn't useful - from Halloween (I'm sick of Xander-centred YAHF).

SG-1 always seemed to have too easy a time of it, taking on entire bases with a little C4 and a few P90s, so I tried to create a major battle scene. There was no need for a Tomahawk strike - they blew the fusion reactor (I'll make this clearer in the next chapter).

Bastet knows a lot of things - and they also have her computer core data...

Thanks for the review.

Yay! Cordyfan's back with a vengeance!

The bitchtet finally gets her comeuppance and the SGC strikes a major intelligence blow against the System Lords and their vast empire. Tara grows as a Fed with a mystical edge and makes her first arrest. And Buffy does needlepoint.

So what's the latest juicy intel on Glorificus? She still skulking about in the shadows? What else does she/it need now to get "home"?

Don't stay away long...

Bastet won't get her compeuppance just yet - lots of questioning to go first. The SGC has her computer core, too, so yes - a major intelligence coup. Tara won't use her magic very often in crime fighting, but it'll always be there as a back-up. I liked the idea of Buffy with a relaxing, secret hobby.

Glory? She'll arrive on schedule and there's nothing to either find her before then, or stop her now.

Thanks for the review - glad you enjoyed it.