@Harlock and
@Spartan303 This one's for you!
@Knowledgeispower And because you just love plotting ways to murder those snake bastards, here's a bit more of what their top tier psychics can do!
.........
Othalla- Dwarf Galaxy Orbiting the Super Giant Galaxy Ida- Month of Nu (Seventh month of the Imperial Calender), August by Tau’Ri reckoning.
“I should have you beaten and exiled for mutinous impudence..” There was no rancor in her mistress’s voice, instead a playfulness mixed with a bit of concern for her safety were detected by Ishta’s ears. Nevertheless, the Prime who would likely become First Prime for Hathor’s branch of the House of Ra soon. Bowed deeply, allowing her hair to fall about her eyes and in an accepting tone uttered “If that is your wish.” In the most melodramatic way possible while still sounding subdued. Her mistress let out a soft laugh, one that echoed in her chorus like voice. The voice the System Lords used, though Hathor seldom used it to menace or to reproach, the soft myriad of voices always seemed to fill the psyche of her Jaffa with confidence and discipline. Now was no different, but a laugh that personal was a unique gift.
“I consider you…” The dark-haired Goddess paused for a second in thought, she was adorned in all black indigo today, her save for the shimmering silver of her jewels and the crown of a trinium platinum alloy and small horns fashioned to resemble that of the bovine like beast she’d taken for her personal symbol. They rose out of her crown and glinted in the sun, a headset that looked like it should have been too heavy to wear. Her armor had retracted into her flesh leaving the tanned skin of her host exposed to air. Negotiations with the Asurans had concluded a day ago but her Jaffa had only just departed. Hathor, ordering them to return through the gate carrying their copy of the signed treaty remained motionless, looking towards the mountains as if, in a trance.
Ishta knew she was allowing her psyche to rest after the immense exertions that their task demanded. The psychic call no other System Lord living was strong enough to make, reaching out into the depths as she had. She’d probably end up sleeping this off in a resurrection chamber, the first time in who knew how long that Hathor will have visited one. “I consider you a friend, or the closest thing to that, which a being like myself can have to one.”
The word’s shook Ishta to her core, not only because it was a thing discouraged by the very social norms Hathor helped create but because she was so ancient that it was hard for the oldest of the Peers to really bond with anyone. Ishta swallowed and went to one knee. “You do yourself a disservice majestic eminence, to lower yourself to my level.”
Hathor turned absent mindedly pulling a strand of hair away from her Prime’s brow. “Disparity doesn’t equate with impossibility Ishta. Since before Horem’s death, you have obeyed every order I have ever given you, even when you protested. And that you did protest and offer intelligence in your protestations is why you stand beside me now. For all the years you served me, you listened to me, you have been my shadow and now you commit an offense nearly treasonous and in such a delicate situation solely to protect me? You don’t do that out of a sense of duty and we both know this is so.”
-If this one dies, I’ll burn a thousand worlds to avenge her- Hathor thought, a hint of the woman who obliterated an entire species of sentient felines for a lesser affront burning through the fog of years. Hathor smiled when she realized Istha was thinking the same but in reverse.
“I don’t know why you have shown me the deference you have, but it is an honor I don’t know if I deserve.”
“You do Istha and you will learn the true measure of your strength in the darker times ahead. You will abandon me then.”
“NO!” Ishta wanted to roar that out and she abruptly shot up “Majestic eminence if you truly believe this, then how can you call me friend? You should be calling me corpse!” It was horrifying! Was this some test of character?
Hathor laughed again softly. “Nonsense child, you will do a terrible thing to save Dakkara and you will know, when it is time to do this thing and when you do it. You will have not only remained my friend but proven yourself to be amongst the greatest living Jaffa. I have foreseen it, I knew it the moment we met. I call you friend, to assure you on that day, when you will wish for death. To know that I do not forgive you, for there is nothing to forgive and that I call you friend because only you would have the strength to do it. Teal’c has left us and Bra’tac was entrusted with the future of your mighty race. Only you remain, you, the huntress of pirates, the boy and that Tau’Ri first prime. ” She paused here and touched her lip with an index finger in a mock gesture of thought.
-The one who murdered Ra, whom Hathor saw slay Sek'Het in a vision.- Ishta looked into her eyes, confused. Sensing no betrayal, or cruelty, only a serenity of a sort in those ancient eyes that belonged to her liege. “Mistress..I…” she paused, for the skies above suddenly grew gray. The air about them humid and cold and within seconds, there was thunder.
Ishta looked up to see lightning roaring through clouds that suddenly grew darker and angrier. Wind howled and she could hear the terrified screams of the primitives that had lurked upon their periphery of their camp since they’d first arrived. Instinctively Istha jumped in front of Hathor as lightning continued to roil above and the storm clouds grew until the entire horizon was eclipsed by night. The sudden onset of the storm, provoking questions as to how the sensors in her amor hadn’t picked that up. “This storm, its abrupt…It must be.”
“Artificial” Hathor responded with a bemused smile.
Ishta’s blood froze.
An artificial storm, in
Asgardian territory.
Neither her liege nor she possessed any of the generators they’d used as the only one remaining had given up its ability to function due to the strain. They were stranded…Was this a
Baliskner? The dreaded Warship of the Aesir? Or perhaps the rumored
Sleipnir. The supposed newest class of Asgardian vessels, representing the bleeding edge of their formidable technology. As the storms and winds began to give way to a shape that caused the ground to tremble Ishta nearly lost hope.
The
Sleipnir was larger than anything the Asgard had ever fielded, nearly twice the size of the largest dreadnaught the Imperium fielded (which were several miles long.). It was not the usual hammer style but was sleek, almost resembling the stealth aircraft she’d seen in the picket fleets of the more sophisticated Lotar Worlds (Those who augmented Jaffa peacekeepers.), it was of a silver metal that was nearly clear and its blade like wings were to the rear as was common for Asgardian ships of war. This vessel was likely more than a match for four of their Dreadnaughts and it would likely take an entire battlegroup to bring her down. If this represented the pinnacle of Asgardian military might than she thanked Ra for their industrial advantage because if it weren’t for their ability to field overwhelming numbers, there wouldn’t have been a cold war like stalemate all these millennia. “Beautiful” she admitted ruefully.
“My dear Prime, we must part ways now. For I have another friend who I must visit, one who will give me a ride home.”
Unless he kills me because the message I sent him with the copy of the treaty came through garbled. Hathor wanted to shrug, she was a Goddess, not perfect.
Ishta blinked. “I cannot leave you with..
that..nor can I leave you without a proper..power.” Istha went silent as Hathor extended a hand towards the gate and with a sigh of effort that left her looking somewhat pale, the Gate bloomed to life, each Chevron properly locked.
Ishta found herself lifted into the air by the power of Hathor’s mind and she was soon flung through the gate in an almost comedic manner. Her last through before the wormhole catapulted her to a planet within Hathor’s domain was that she could have sworn her mistress was almost excited.
As the Gate closed a beam of energy matching the colors of a rainbow enveloped Hathor and she faded from the surface of the world just as the mighty vessel began its ascent into the heavens.
And a God of Thunder, champion of light and slayer of dragons, met a builder of Empires and Goddess of Creation.