Episode One: Calling Card

Just as her eyes began to scan the various NID documents, the Lieutenant informed them of 'company'.  Raising her vision from the screen, she felt the classic drop in her stomach from reading while in a moving vehicle.  She was a relatively lucky individual and didn't easily suffer from any sort of motion sickness - but could occasionally get a bit dizzy from the movement.  

Studying the scene they were approaching, Farrah paid attention to the men.  They clearly were comfortable with their roles doing...whatever it was that they were doing.  From her experience, she would place this as some sort of 'checkpoint' perhaps?  The others didn't put the event into words - but instead started stashing their various weapons.  

Smiling at Logan and Sheppard's back-and-forth, she shook her head slightly - quietly wondering if it was merely a joke.  Not exactly polite to walk up to your superiors and ask them if they had slept with each-other.  But if women could make babies together, they would make little goddesses.   

It was only moments before Sheppard rolled down her window to greet the men.  Farrah's eyes roamed around the SUV - noting everyone's reactions to the slight surprise.  Though it really wasn't that surprising.  Of course they would be searched in a country like this.  Farrah had personally gone through many while serving with the British Army.  They were a bit of a pain, but always served a purpose.  Unless...they weren't really a checkpoint and they were about to be all shot in cold blood.

Narrowing her eyes slightly at the thought, she watched as their fearless leader spoke Spanish, fluently back at the men.  Personally, Farrah didn't speak the language.  She could ask for where the bathroom was, greet someone, and inform them that she didn't speak Spanish.  She could do the same thing in a handful of other languages, as well...but English was her only fluent one, really.  Back in her school days, she had taken a bit of Latin because she thought it was interesting - but that was about it.

From her seat, she attempted to watch the men's faces to try to get a better understanding of them, without making her spying too obvious.  Just a general glance of 'hey the window's open I'm going to look'.  If they didn't buy it or found a weapon, Farrah being a civilian would likely get her killed.  She wasn't exactly a fighting machine.  A few soldiers had taught her how to handle a few firearms, after she had helped them through a lot (and didn't want her to get injured).  Realizing she should start taking trips to the shooting range, and perhaps start taking some self-defense courses, she played with the material of her seatbelt - mind slowly drifting to the fate of the NID agents.

<Tag: Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard, Aleksandr Kamarov, Katrina Logan-Walker, & Adam "Sly" Collier>

Alek's attention was drawn from his laptop by Lieutenant Collier's warning. "We have company."

Looking up, Alek spotted what their driver had: armed men stationed at a makeshift checkpoint. Kamarov gulped loudly. This was certainly not what the team needed. They were all members of an organisation tasked with tracking down alien life and understanding how technology from other planets worked. Whats more, they were based in America, and didn't exactly have official authorisation to be here. Alek was fairly certain the guards would not react too nicely to such an explanation.

Colonel Sheppard rolled down her window and addressed the men. "We are part of a research expedition based in Calamar. We mean no harm." At the same time guards were accosting Collier, asking for his ID.

Alek was quietly shutting down his laptop in the back of the vehicle, locking down its contents to ensure that if it was taken away from his its contents could never be opened. That was when an idea struck him. Firing up a search engine he looked for photos of Colombian archaeological sites and opened them up. He turned the laptop around and pressed it against the window so those outside could see.

"Dar, we are research team from university, here to make dig for ancient pottery," he exclaimed. He was about to say 'ancient treasure' instead of pottery, but figured pottery would be less exciting. If the guards heard the word treasure they might kidnap the team to try to extort its location from them.

The second part of his plan was his accent. Since working with the SGC and Homeworld Command he'd strived to make himself understood, and was developing a good grasp of English. Now he did the opposite, falling back into his native speech patterns and making himself difficult to understand. His logic was simple: a car full of Americans with a poor excuse for being might alert the guards, but if it was a multinational team, they might buy the 'research team' cover story a little more. He gently elbowed Doctor Byrne, hoping she'd catch on and play along.

0436 Hours
Civilian Suburban
En route to Location
3 klicks West of Calamar, Colombia

The Major's words caused Ayden to chuckle and she glanced back at her best friend, 'caught' the kiss and winked at her. "Oh, I know, Maor. Maybe once we're done with this mission I'll make that a reality." She joked back. Ayden was happily married but joking around with her best friend like this eased the tension of the mission, plus it was always fun to confuse the hell out of the other members of the team.

One of the main things Ayden was concerned with at the moment was the protection of her team. It was her job to make sure that they all got to their location safely and if that required a gunfight then so be it. Granted she wasn't as keen on the idea as an infantryman would be, she wouldn't mind it as long as none of her team were hurt. The distraction from the other side of the car was just what Ayden needed to slide her long arm down and her hand rested on where she had tucked her sidearm away. She could get the man beside her and another one in the Bronco before the others could realize what was going on. She knew Adam could get the one on his side and then they'd only have one more to worry about - unless there were more hiding. Her hand tightened on the grip of her weapon but she quickly let it go when Alek and the Doctor started to raise attention to themselves. 

Normally she would have called them fools - especially Farrah when she climbed out of the car but perhaps that she had a good plan after all. Ayden remained quietly, her gaze staying on the man outside her window before she stole a quick glance at Adam when the two men walked over to where Farrah was. They could easily shoot the woman in the back and Ayden was going to make sure that didn't happen. She translated what Farrah said into Spanish, her voice wavering to go along with the 'scared researcher' and kept her hands up. She climbed out of the car with ease, still keeping her hands in view as she came up to the only civilian on her team. "It is worth a lot of money." She spoke in Spanish. "If you let us through, you can keep it. Sell it." Ayden made herself tremble to go along with the act they had up. The man that had been by her window seemed to be buying it. A smug look crossed his face as he snatched the item from Farrah's hand and turned it over in his hands.

< Tag: Aleksandr Kamarov, Katrina Logan-Walker, Farrah Byrne, & Adam "Sly" Collier >

Katrina was basically a sitting duck. She didn’t understand a word any of the men were saying and she certainly was completely confused by what Alek and Farrah were conjuring up. More sweat began to trickle down the Major’s back and she felt and little flush in the face. Not being able to bear the hot waves swirling in mind to pass out, Kat took off her shirt leaving her exposed with only a tank top below. ”Damn it’s getting hot in here”, she roughly spoke praying and hoping she didn’t throw her lunch up of pass out. I wasn’t ready to come back. Get it together Major.

When Farrah left the vehicle stating she saw something outside, it finally clicked in her head. She managed to calm down somewhat from her comrade’s distraction and get back into the game. Wiping her head and back of the neck with her shirt, Katrina watched intently at the actions of her newest member of the team. ”She found one!” came out as an exasperated cry of joy so any other of foreigners could hear. Sure, it was English, but maybe the tone of her voice would bring them to believe they had found something of great value. Indeed they had as Farrah explained and Ayden translated.

But, things went from becoming an escape to disaster when a voice called over to bring Farrah over with the find. ”This doesn’t look good” she stated under her breath. Slowly, Kat slid back to her side of the SUV and nonchalantly opened the material underneath. Watching the foreigner’s as closely as possible, her hand gently went into the seat and grabbed a hold of her dad’s Starhawk. She only shot with this gun and took it to the range many times with her father for practice. This was the only weapon she felt comfortable with and could shoot pretty well with a pretty good aim. Hopefully, her nerves would not get in the way. ”Adam…what are you….” she whispered/half spoke when he left the vehicle, ”oh gotcha” she finished still having a decent hold on her weapon.

Eyeing the scene unfolding around the Major, her hand was unusually steady and would take out any one of those morons if they made one sudden move that would hurt her teammates.