Ariadne nodded quickly at the command to begin her plan. Much as she wished to stay on the Pel’tak of the Tau’ri ship and witness how they waged war first hand, she had a task of her own. It was unfortunate that the Ha’tak had been destroyed, but even an Al’kesh was a powerful tool in the right hands, and indeed, a far more versatile ship. Her running was slightly encumbered by the unfamiliar Tau’ri armoured vest she was wearing, but not enough to meaningfully slow her on her journey to the Ring Room.

Once she arrived, she immediately located the control panel for the rings and pulled the front facing for it off, smiling slightly at the amusing fact the Tau’ri had incorporated the original golden paneling rather than making their own interface. She wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Goa’uld world somewhere with a ring shaped hole in one of its pyramids. A nearby technician made a noise as if to both question what she was doing and express outrage at not consulting him before poking around in the systems innards, but Ariadne simply held an outstretched finger up to him with a stern glance and he was silenced. She began pulling some of the control crystals out - ring systems didn’t have many, at least not in this panel, and re-arranging them.

It was a simple enough reconfiguration, one she had used numerous times before. It would override the rings security features, including any code on the keypanel, and order the rings to seek out the nearest receiving platform. While there was a similar function as part of the rings base systems, it did not always account for cloaked ring platforms. Her modification would. It would also make it very easy for someone else to send to this ring platform the same way, since security codes would be down, but the Tau’ri could handle it.

Once she had the crystals arranged as she needed them, she replaced the front panel and looked at the technician. [i]“Once I leave, deactivate this ring platform. Pulling any control crystal out should be sufficient. Then make sure these control crystals are returned to the standard configuration. If you cannot do it, find someone who can.”[/i] The man looked slightly intimidated by her unnatural voice, but he swiftly nodded all the same. With that taken care of, Ariadne stepped into the ring platform and drew her Zat. The man she had just given orders to then activated the rings, and the familiar sound and sensation surrounded Ariadne as she was transported across space to another vessel.

She arrived on the other ship, to the sight of an empty Ring Room. Clearly the locals did not consider this to be a likely form of attack. First she opened up the ring control panel and removed the crystal responsible for incoming travellers, pocketing it. Then she opened the door to the corridor and peered out quickly, withdrawing as a staff blast flew past her head. They may not have had guards waiting, but they at least had some ready. The moment there was a pause in the shots, she looked out again, this time with her Zat aimed already. She quickly spotted the shooter, hiding poorly behind one of the angular golden struts. She fired a pair of blasts at him, the first taking him in the shoulder, causing him to tense up in pain, and the second catching him dead center, ending his pain permanently. From what she knew, the Tau’ri often just stunned targets, but she saw no reason for leaving any of these men alive. They would just have to be disposed of later anyway.

She kept moving, picking up the fallen mans staff weapon as she went, making her way to the pel’tak. The ship suddenly shuddered then and Ariadne staggered. Of course this was one of the ships currently engaging the Langford, as the rings had taken her to the nearest one. That shuddering had probably been a near miss from the langfords weapons. She had to act quickly to get it clear of the battle at least, being destroyed by friendly fire was not on her agenda. There was no more opposition before the pel’tak, but the moment the door slid open a Zat blast flew right past her head. She immediately stepped to the side of the door, back into cover. There was one man at the controls for the ship and another taking cover behind a seat and firing at her. She couldn’t fire back to supress them without risking damaging something important. Instead, she lifted the liberated Staff weapon to a shoulder braced position and prepared for an aimed shot. Normally staff weapons were terribly inaccurate, but a millennia of experience wielding one had given her a fairly good aim.

Peering around the door just enough to poke the staff out and sight down it, she fired a shot at the pilots head before retreating back into cover. The resultant thud of a mans body hitting the ground and the feeling as the ship simply flew straight ahead instead of manoeuvring told her her shot had struck true, no doubt both frying and liquefying the poor mans brain. At least such a death was instant. She tried to poke the weapon around the corner again, to deal with the second man, but had to withdraw as Zat blasts struck the bulkhead. This man seemed to be a decent shot. From her safe position, she threw the staff weapon out into the corridor, where the man would be clearly able to see it. It would probably confuse the man long enough. When no more zat fire came, she rolled out of cover, keeping low, and came up on her knee, firing her own Zat into the man, delivering a second shot as quickly as the first.

Just as the elation of victory was filling her, she felt the tip of a staff weapon roughly shoved into her back before the wielder opened it. “Its over lady. Drop the Zat.” The man said confidently. Ariadne did as asked, dropping the weapon to the ground. “Now get up slowly.” Again, she did as the man said, rising from her kneeling position, still feeling the staff pressed against her back as she rose. “Uh-” The man hadn’t thought this through obviously, and the moment of indecision was all she needed. Trusting the Tau’ri armour would deflect any staff blast he might manage to get off, she spun about and pushed the weapon aside with one hand, grabbing hold of the shaft as she did so. A blast discharged, but far too late, merely impacting the wall to the side of her before she caught the man's throat in her other hand. Her eyes flashed and terror spread over the man's face before she threw him down the corridor, making full use of her augmented strength. He lost grip of the staff weapon as he went, and Ariadne quickly spun the staff around in her own hands, aiming it at him. She was tempted for a moment to force him to move as she had, but rather than waste time gloating she just shot him twice instead.

With the bridge taken, she retrieved her own Zat and shut the pel’tak door, once again locking it down with a deft crystal removal, just in case there were more people on board. Pushing the corpse of the former pilot to the side, she climbed into the pilot's chair and began to steer the ship well away from the battle. For just a moment, a thought touched the minds of both Host and Symbiote - to take the ship and flee, to leave behind the Tau’ri and the Tok’ra and all their big causes and simply explore the galaxy alone, with no-one to complicate matters.

The thought passed quickly though, she had tried that before, and even with Idalia’s help she would probably still do a poor job of it. She just was not cut out for an entirely solitary existence like that. Once she had taken the ship far enough away, she opened a hyperspace window and jumped a short distance, away from the system into deep space. Standing again, she yanked open the crystal rack for the control systems and removed the one that would allow for hyperspace, adding it to her growing collection of vital control crystals. Knowing the ship would not be going anywhere, she now had to make sure no-one was left onboard. That was simple to do from the engine room. A quick run with weapons ready saw her in the room, where stacks of large control crystals regulated the ships many systems.

After locking the doors, she found the life support rack and pulled it open. it did not take long to find the right combination that would vent all air from the ship excepting that in the engine room. It was a harsh thing to do, but neither Ariadne nor Idalia wished to show mercy for those that had no qualms with killing them. Quickly arranging the crystals, she left them that way and began to check over the numerous other racks. These ships were old and hadn’t been maintained in some time, and before embarking on a long journey she had to ensure she would actually get to where she was going.

An hour later, when she had discovered that everything was in remarkably good working order for an unmaintained ship, she put the life support crystals back where they were meant to be and returned to the pel’tak. Turning the ship towards Earth, she activated the Hyperspace drive and sat back to relax for an undoubtedly long journey.