Chapter Seven
AJW
Well-known member
Chapter Seven
Goa’uld Mothership
That Same Time
Vo’ceg, First Prime to the great Goa’uld scientist, inventor, engineer, and System Lord P’tah walked with some urgency through the corridors of his master’s flagship. His destination being Lord P’tah’s private laboratory where his lord – arguably the greatest of his kind given he had created much of the magic used by the gods, or what most of his fellow Jaffa would believe to be magic as like every First Prime of P’tah that there had ever been he knew the truth that it was merely advanced technology – would be hard at work on the latest task he had been assigned by Ra himself. Something he knew made his master happy as P’tah was never happier than when he was tinkering with something or researching something sometimes for practical gain other times because it simply intrigued him.
Unfortunately, he would have to disturb him with the report that the pel’tac had received a few minutes ago. An extremely large, advanced, and completely unknown alien warship had just appeared near the orbit of the planet once known as Linkotis by its inhabitants. Inhabitants who had made the mistake of raiding one to many of both his master’s and Ra’s territories leading to him and Ra’s First Prime jointly leading the appropriate punishment expedition first through the chappa’ai then from orbiting motherships. In the near decade since the planet had been quiet – the handful of survivors that there were being constantly watched by one of his master’s surveillance satellites – until now that was. First the satellite had detected activity from the chappa’ai but before it could get in position to get a reading on who’d come through it had detected a previously unknown type of subspace distortion forming.
A distortion that had spiked before vanishing leaving behind a two-kilometre-long alien warship. A warship whose arrival so soon after an unknown force from the chappa’ai could not be a coincidence. Someone was definitely interested in Linkotis for some reason, someone that the Goa’uld had never encountered before but who were undeniably powerful if they were able to build warships that large. Something that Vo’ceg knew P’tah would not be happy to learn about as such a race was a new potential threat, which was the last thing the Goa’uld needed right now. Not with their entire empire engaged in the first large scale civil war for at least two thousand years if not longer, the war sparked by Sokar’s return after hundreds of years of banishment with a large fleet and army that had attempted to take over the Empire. While the attempt had ultimately failed Sokar had still been able to secure several strategically important sectors and in the seven and a half years since then there had been war with neither side able to make much headway.
Vo’ceg arrived outside the entrance to the laboratory and wasn’t surprised to see two Horus guards standing sentry outside. They’d arrived a few days ago along with a commission from Ra himself and Vo’ceg knew from experience that they would remain until the task was done. However, they didn’t impede him – bad things happened to lower ranked Jaffa who impeded a Prime let alone a First Prime without good reason – as he waved a hand over the door hailer.
“Enter,” a familiar voice said from inside prompting the door to open with the familiar stone-on-stone grinding sound though the door was not actually made from stone but the same naquada-trinium alloy as the rest of the ship. Vo’ceg set his shoulders and walked into the room, to see Lord P’tah working at the lab’s main computer terminal. His master looking over at his arrival.
“Forgive me for disturbing you my lord,” Vo’ceg said in greeting, bowing his head.
“It is quite alright Vo’ceg what is it?” P’tah asked knowing that Vo’ceg would not bother him here unless it was important.
“My lord we’ve received a priority alert from the sentry satellite deployed over Linkotis.”
P’tah raised an eyebrow. “Go on,” he continued, stepping away from the console to give the Jaffa his full attention. He was quite proud of the sentry satellite that he’d deployed over Linkotis after their punishment, it had been a great technological achievement and he had already received commissions from numerous System Lords – including from Ra himself – for many more of them to deploy above all the planets in Goa’uld space even those which like Linkotis had been punished by them for their insolence in attacking those who should be worshipped as their gods. Especially as Sokar had started using some of those places as staging areas for his attacks on the rest of the Empire, not to mention that the loathsome Tok’ra had also been known to use those planets as bases. Thus, he was quite interested to know what it had discovered that it had prompted the satellites computer to send an alert.
“My lord sensors on the satellite detected activity from the chappa’ai on the planet,” Vo’ceg explained, “however before it could adjust its orbital path for a more precise scan of the area it detected a subspace distortion forming nearby.”
“What kind of distortion?”
“The satellite didn’t recognise it my lord. However, it was obviously artificial as it spiked and dissipated leaving behind a large alien warship of unknown origin. I have taken the liberty of sending a copy of the satellite data to you.”
P’tah blinked and returned to the main computer console and opened up a new window showing that there was indeed data from the satellite there for him to analyse. He quickly pulled it up and noticed with considerable surprise that the subspace distortion that the satellite had detected had some properties in common with a hyperspace window while being distinctly different at the same time, for one thing hyperspace windows didn’t produce phased gravitons or beta-phase tachyon particles. Interesting, he thought his scientific mind already trying to work out just what the subspace distortion had been well beyond obviously a previously unknown method of faster than light space travel. Somewhat reluctantly he pushed the scientist back into his mental box, there would be time to pour over this data later.
“You said there was activity from the chappa’ai before the ship arrived?”
“Yes, my lord, I do not believe it to be a coincidence.”
“No, it probably is not. Dispatch a squad of Jaffa through the chappa’ai to investigate planet side. In the meantime, do we have any ships in that area?”
“Yes, my lord there is a small task force commanded by your deputy Fleet Lord Solec several light years away.”
“Tell them to intercept and board the unknown vessel we will learn who these latest trespassers are then.”
“Understood my lord.”
“Keep me appraised of their progress.”
“As you wish my lord.”
“Dismissed Vo’ceg.”
Vo’ceg bowed respectfully to his master before turning and leaving the room. P’tah watched him leave before turning his attention back to the computer and – somewhat reluctantly – returning to the original screen he’d been working on. He would have much rather have studied the scan data on the unknown alien FTL method, however his assignment from Ra took priority as it always did, and he knew better than to disappoint the Supreme System Lord. Doing that could have very unpleasant consequences especially as Ra had adopted his son Heru’ur’s favourite punishment for Goa’uld who disappointed or failed him. Though hopefully if Solec did succeed in capturing the alien vessel he would be able to learn more about it from the minds of the crew or from its databanks.
It was something to look forward to. Now if only he could figure out just how to beat the improvements that Sokar had made to cloaking technology.
~~//~~
Stargate Facility
Linkotis
A Short Time Later
The Eagle reconnaissance drone floated sedately near the high ceiling of the room housing this planets Stargate. While it had been quietly hovering here for the better part of two days, ever since being deployed through the Stargate as an advanced scout, it was in no danger of falling to the hard concrete surface below. The small protoculture flat cell that providing it with energy meant that it could remain in its position for several days if needs be and be almost undetectable to anyone without augmented hearing as its six small tilt-fan engines produced only the faintest of whirring sounds as the blade spun within their housings.
Thus, it was in a perfect position to notice when the Stargate began whirring to life again, the inner ring rotating quickly and the chevrons beginning to lock into place. Immediately the Eagle turned and pointed its small but extremely powerful multi-spectral camera at the gate even as the unstable vortex burst into existence and then receded back into the gate forming the wall of water effect that was the event horizon of the wormhole. For a few more moments nothing happened then tall humanoid figures in armour and carrying staffs began stepping through. All of them were wearing the same jackal-like helmets as the one that had been worn by the body that the drone had seen earlier though the colour was different shading more towards a dark blue with no additional ornamentation. The eyes glowed with a harsh yellow light.
Immediately the Eagle transmitted an alert to Colonel Ferretti letting him know of the new arrivals as the numbers coming through the gate slowed to a stop and the gate shut down. Leaving a dozen of the armoured individuals standing on the ramp, helmets moving back and forth as they surveyed the room. The drones’ external microphones detected one of the figures saying something in an alien language before one of the staffs was pointed in its direction and the bulbous end opened with a crack and flash of energy a moment before a golden bolt of energy birthed from the staff heading right at the Eagle.
The bolt of superheated plasma smashed into the hovering drone before it could even begin executing one of its programmed evasive action sequences. The plasma instantly cut through the thin skin of the drone and tore through its internal components before rupturing the protoculture flat cell. Now normally protoculture was actually a highly stable and non-reactive material unless exposed to either certain microwave frequencies – like in a reflex furnace or a reflex warhead – or a burst of intense heat or energy that would instantly vaporise the oily material triggering the normal vacuum energy release, plasma conversion and matter/antimatter pair bond creation that made reflex furnaces so potent a power source or a weapon devastating enough that just a handful of reflex missiles could lay an entire planet to waste.
The plasma blast from the Goa’uld ma’tok staff pushed the protoculture past that critical vaporisation point. With the predictable result that the Eagle drone exploded with immense force, sending out a burst of intense heat and generating a shockwave that knocked the newly arrived Jaffa sprawling.
~~//~~
Prime Jar’un grunted slightly as he picked himself up off the floor where he and the rest of the patrol sent through to investigate this planet had been knocked sprawling by the surprisingly powerful detonation of the alien device, that he had spotted observing them. Naturally he had shot the spy down though he had not expected it to have detonated with such force, force enough that the shockwave of its destruction would be powerful enough to knock them all off their feet.
“Is everyone alright,” he asked his fellow Jaffa. One by one they all confirmed that they were fine, just a little bruised from being tossed around like that by the shockwave of the alien devices destruction. A blast that, now that Jar’un thought about it, could only be the result of some kind of built-in self-destruct, designed to prevent the device from falling into an enemy/or potential enemy’s hands. It was something that he had seen the Goa’uld do in the past to prevent others learning the secret of their magic. Or more likely realize that the Goa’uld magic is not magic at all, he thought knowing that despite their claims to the contrary the Goa’uld were not all-powerful gods nor was their magic really magic instead it was merely advanced technology that they passed off as magic to the primitive masses of the galaxy. It was knowledge that he could never truly act upon though, nor could any others in the slowly growing movement among the many Jaffa armies who served the false gods, much as he wished otherwise – at least in the privacy of his own mind.
He put those thoughts out of his mind for now and focused on the reason why he and his squad had been sent to this planet. Calmly he used the enhanced vision mode of his helmet to scan around for the unknown aliens – likely humans but it was possible they were from another race since there were numerous other races in the galaxy, some ruled over by the Goa’uld others not – who had arrived via the chappa’ai a short time before a warship – one that presumably belonged to them – arrived in orbit. A warship that would hopefully soon be dealt with, either being destroyed or at least driven away, by the ships that would come out of hyperspace anytime now. He wished his brothers on those ships luck as one could never take any warship lightly, especially one from a civilization that they knew nothing about.
After a few moments of scanning, he found them. They had split up into two groups one of the levels immediately above this one and the other group on the level below. He guessed that they were or rather had been engaged in a survey mission of this abandoned bunker complex, but something has obviously changed as the two groups were moving back towards the bunker’s central stairwell, clearly intending to rendezvous with one another before confronting them. For a moment he wondered how they knew that they were here, before realizing that their device had to have alerted them somehow just before he destroyed it. Well, we cannot have them join up, he thought knowing somehow, that that would be a bad thing.
“Jaffa our opponents have split into two groups in the time since they arrived,” he said. “They are now moving back towards the central stairwell, presumably to rendezvous with one another in response to our arrival.”
“We obviously cannot have that,” Var’tu commented. Jar’un nodded.
“And we will not,” he said, “Var’tu take half the squad and descend to the level below us. The rest of you come with me, we’ll engage the aliens while they’re separated. Our orders from Lord P’tah are to capture them for interrogation if possible but kill them if necessary. Understood?”
“Understood,” his brothers chorused.
“Move out.”
With the ease of people who practiced such things from childhood the Jaffa split themselves into two teams and ma’tok staffs at the ready began advancing towards where the HUDs of their helmets revealed the central stairwell of this bunker complex to be. It was not that far from the room that housed the Stargate - a room that when the facility had originally been built by Linkotean national faction known as Vallarta had been a munitions storage room until that was, they unearthed their planets long buried Stargate, separated only be a handful of steel blast doors. Blast doors that the squad noticed had all either been opened of sliced through in such a way as to confirm that whoever their quarry was, they had access to advanced weapons.
Within moments the arrived at the central stairwell and separated with Jar’un leading his half of their squad upwards while Var’tu took his down. There heavy boots echoed loudly on the steel-grid steps as they ascended and descended respectively. Arriving at the landing for the level Jar’un took a moment to use his helmet to scan beyond finding that none of their opponents were within immediate range of the door, which would have been a natural choke point. Instead, they still seemed to be some way inside the level and off to the right. Not about to question his good fortune Jar’un mentioned for his squad to begin advancing towards the alien position – ma’tok staffs at the ready.
~~//~~
Colonel Ferretti felt like there were rattlesnakes performing a mating dance in his stomach as he could hear the hostile force that had come through the Stargate getting closer and closer to the position where he and his half of the squad and their technicians had taken cover the moment the Eagle drone was destroyed. Whoever the aliens were they obviously didn’t care about being quiet and stealthy as they made a continuous metallic clank, clank, clank, clank noise as they moved.
“Sheesh these guys make more noise than a destroid with faulty foot actuators,” Private Scott Peterson commented over the squad frequency.
“They are rather loud,” Ferretti agreed, “everyone take positions they should be here in a minute.”
“Colonel, should we try to talk to them,” Doctor Jack Hall asked before approaching him from where he had been standing among the technicians. “After all we don’t want to start another war, we’ve not recovered from the last one yet after all. Granted I know that these aliens destroying our drone is not a promising sign, but shouldn’t we at least try to talk with words instead of lasers?”
Ferretti blinked before frowning thoughtfully, though he knew that the scientist wouldn’t see that through the opaque faceplate of his helmet. It was true that it would be far more preferable to establish a peaceful dialogue with whichever race this was, a race who likely knew far more about the Stargates than they did. Thus, they could learn quite a bit from them if peaceful relations could be established. Though he was also aware that they didn’t exactly have the best of luck when it came to first contacts given what had happened when the Zentraedi had first defolded near the moon. Though you could argue we started that war given the SDF-1 did open fire on them as their scouts approached, he thought recalling seeing the searing yellow light of the reflex cannon beam streaking spacewards from a military base on a neighbouring island to Macross Island.
Maybe this time they would be able to do something different. Thus, he started to open his mouth to agree with the scientist, and to say that they would indeed try to talk to their uninvited guests with words instead of lethal lasers, but before he could speak two things occurred virtually simultaneously. First, he heard a voice from the entrance scream two words in an alien language words, seconds mere moments later a bolt of golden energy impacted between himself and Hall with an explosive crack throwing up a burst of smoke and flame.
Instinct and training seamlessly took over behind the sturdy looking concrete and steel benches that filled this room – which had clearly been a church or temple of some sort as all the benches pointed towards a raised dais on which sat an alter and various bits of religious paraphernalia including a shrine in which the figures of three deities were depicted - as the six STORM commandoes, dove into cover pulling the startled scientists and technicians with them. More bolts of golden fiery energy – which moved too slowly to be either laser or charged particle bolts, meaning that they were almost certainly a plasma-based weapon – flew towards them from their attackers who were coming into the room. Two stood on either side of the door holding staff-like weapons at shoulder height – firing into the room in a clear attempt to lay down covering fire – while the other four came into the room. Two dropping to one knee almost immediately while the other two stood behind them in a formation that frankly reminded Ferretti of an old-fashioned infantry square. All the while their staffs – which were a frankly ridiculous looking thing to wield as a weapon, let alone an energy weapon as none of the commandoes could see how they could possibly aim the things with any real degree of accuracy – spewed bolt after bolt of golden energy.
“Hold your fire we mean you no harm,” Doctor Hall called from beside Ferretti. The result was obviously not what the doctor had hoped for as plasma blasts impacted the metal and concrete pew, they were hiding behind melting the steel and crater in the concrete severely.
“Somehow I don’t think they’re interested in talking only shooting doc,” Ferretti replied even as he worked out the timing between plasma shots from the alien staffs. At the right moment he popped up just enough to bring his AR2 rifle to bear and fire. A brilliant lance of bluish-white laser fire shot across the distance and slammed into one of the aliens near the door, taking the alien high in the shoulder and dropping him to the floor with a very human sounding scream of pain, the staff clattering to the floor.
The other aliens obviously didn’t appreciate that for as Ferretti ducked back down, five plasma bolts pummelled the location where he had popped up. Showering both commando and scientist with chips of pulverized concrete. The other commandoes took advantage of the alien distraction to pop up themselves and catch them in a lethal crossfire. In an instant it was over the other five aliens going down under the ensuing barrage of laser fire.
“Well, that was bracing,” Ferretti commented as he stood up before, keeping his rifle at the ready, advancing along with Private Peterson to where the alien he had hit was lying near the door. Amazingly the alien was still able to move its wounded arm and was reaching for the staff as he arrived. Oh no you don’t, he thought as he kicked the staff away out of reach before pointing the muzzle of the rifle right at where the aliens face should be.
For a moment the alien froze, and he got the impression that he was being sized up before the alien raised its hands, touched something on the side of its helmet then raised its hands in the universal gesture of surrender. Before Ferretti’s amazed eyes the helmet undid itself and folded down into a thick neckpiece revealing the face of a young human-looking being of either Southern Mediterranean or Arabian descent with a strange silver ankh symbol in the centre of his forehead and wearing a metal skullcap. What the hell, Ferretti thought shocked to see a human face before wondering if it was some cosmic joke that every race that they ran into had to be related to them in some way.
“Can you understand me,” he asked.
“I can,” the alien-human answered in an odd accent.
“I am Colonel Louis Ferretti, United Earth Defence Force STORM Commandoes,” Ferretti said even as he wondered just how the alien understood him and seemed to be able to speak standard English if with a very odd accent. “You are now our prisoner. If you don’t resist you will be treated well but should you try any funny business or try to escape, we’ll kill you where you stand. Do you understand?”
“Yes. I am Jar’un, Jaffa Prime in service to the god P’tah. I won’t resist, though I will understand if you wish to bind me. I would do the same if our positions were reversed.”
Ferretti nodded and gestured with the rifle for Jar’un to stand up. As the Jaffa did so Peterson stepped forward with a pair of hypercarbon-titanium handcuffs to bind him. Jar’un kept his word and offered no resistance as he was turned around and his arms brought down to be bound behind his back. Ferretti watched the whole time, laser pointed ready to gun him down if he tried anything though he was relieved that he didn’t have to.
Once their prisoner was secure, he spoke into his helmet radio. “Captain Chandler what’s your status,” he ordered. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, sir we are,” Chandler answered, “I was actually just about to call you and ask the same question. Sir I have to report that we were just attacked by unknown hostiles with the most god-awful aim and the most ergonomically useless weapons I’ve ever seen.”
“So were we captain. Any injuries?”
“Aside from some frayed nerves among the civilians no sir. All hostiles were terminated, there armour doesn’t seem to withstand laser fire that well,” Chandler replied, a moment before the radio picked up a dull thud as though something had impacted his helmet. “Hey what the?”
“Captain?”
“Sorry sir but something just bounced off my helmet. Some weird snake-like thing. It’s now twitching on the floor I’d say it was stunned by the impact. Wait its stopped moving, I think it’s dead now.”
“Have one of the scientists bag the remains. Our people back home would certainly like to look at it,” Ferretti replied, “once that’s done head towards the motor pool the Eagle found earlier. We’ll join you there with a prisoner.”
“Understood sir.”
“Ferretti out,” Ferretti finished before closing the comm link and turning to their prisoner, determined to get an answer as to what it was that had tried to attack Captain Chandler. “A small snake-like thing tried to attack one of my people after they killed the rest of your squad, thankfully it bounced off his helmet and died a few seconds later on the floor. Do you happen to know anything about that?”
“It would have been the prim’tah of one of my brothers,” Jar’un answered, blinking somewhat in surprise as he realized that these humans did not know of the Goa’uld otherwise they would have recognised the creature for what it was.
“A what?” Doctor Hall asked.
“A larval Goa’uld. All Jaffa carry one in an abdominal pouch until it reaches maturity and is able to take a host,” Jar’un explained, “in exchange for doing so we get perfect health, enhanced healing, and a long life. The one that attacked your man must have attempted to take a host out of desperation as its Jaffa’s life expired.”
“Host! What is this Goa’uld some kind of parasite or a symbiotic lifeform?” Hall asked fascinated.
“Doctor there will be time to ask questions later,” Ferretti interrupted.
“Right colonel sorry.”
Ferretti mentally shook his head. Scientists, he thought with a fond smile before once again activating his comm unit, this time selecting the fold comm and calling the Zentraedi cruiser in orbit. “Captain Serval this is Colonel Ferretti can you hear me?” he asked.
“I can indeed Colonel,” the Zentraedi answered immediately. “Is everything alright down there?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Ferretti replied before quickly summarising everything that had just taken place for the Zentraedi officer. “I have ordered that everyone rendezvous at the motor pool our drone located earlier. Can you have a dropship sent down to pick us up from there?”
“Of course, I will have the dropship and an appropriate escort launched at once. Expect them sometime within the next fifteen minutes.”
“Understood. We’ll be waiting.”
“Serval out.”
As the Zentraedi signed off Ferretti turned to his team and their prisoner. “Alright people let’s get moving, Serval is sending down a lift for us,” he said.
“Sir yes sir,” the commandoes acknowledged while Hall and the other scientists just nodded in acceptance. Then without further ado they all began moving, heading back towards the stairwell.
~~//~~
Zentraedi Cruiser
Linkotis Orbit
The moment he signed off with Colonel Ferretti Serval looked over at his first officer to see, to his pleasure, that the other Zentraedi was already organising the launch of a dropship to retrieve the STORM commando team, their prisoner and the scientists who’d accompanied them through the Stargate to this planet. Given that they had apparently been attacked by unknown hostiles, who had come through said gate, he approved of and understood Colonel Ferretti’s decision to request extraction via dropship instead of trying to activate the gate back to Earth.
While it was true, they had been able to determine roughly what the planets coordinates would be thanks to cross referencing their navigational charts created after they’d arrived in this galaxy with the gate symbols. Symbols that weren’t actually star configurations at all but geometric representations of certain key astronomical features that could be observed or detected anywhere in the galaxy such as pulsars, large nebulae, and quantum singularities. Opening the gate back to Earth would have involved a bit more trial and error than anyone would be comfortable with, especially as there was no telling when another wave of attackers would come through the Stargate.
Still how did the attackers know that we had people down there, he mused wondering if the mysterious scans were to blame. Scans that despite their best-efforts source they could not pin down, it was almost as if whatever had made them was invisible to both their sensors and the mark one eyeballs of their Gnerl pilots. Something that was, to the best of his knowledge, utterly impossible as nobody known to the Zentraedi – not even the Robotech Masters themselves – had the technology to render something invisible.
“Captain the dropship and an escort has been launched,” his first officer, Trel, reported. “They will reach the atmosphere within five minutes.”
“Excellent,” Serval replied with a smile a moment before proximity alarms rang out throughout both the command blister and the main level of the bridge. “Report?”
“Captain sensors indicate a spatial distortion forming on a bearing of zero, two, zero mark zero, zero one. Distance thirty-five megametres,” sensors reported making Serval blink as not only was that nearly bang on with their bow, but it was practically on top of them.
“Show me,” he ordered.
“Yes sir.”
Immediately a projector field powered up and a holographic screen pixeled into existence showing an image of the spatial anomaly as it appeared. Serval blinked in surprise as it wasn’t like any anomaly, he had ever seen in all the centuries that he had lived. It looked for all the world like a purple-blue bruise in space. What in Zor’s name is that he thought a moment before the anomaly pulsed…
…and a group of ships came shooting out of it. The anomaly vanished as if it had never been present at all, clearly having been generated by the unknown alien ships possibly as a means of faster than light travel as Serval was well aware that, while it was the most efficient means known, space folding wasn’t the only way to travel faster than light.
Serval studied the newly arrived ships curiously. They were strange looking vessels, the largest of them being composed of a large golden pyramid structure surrounded by a black vaguely triangular structure. There was no visible exhaust plume or thrusters of any kind indicating that the vessel achieved motion another way possibly by manipulating gravitational and magnetic fields in much the same way that the Masters Azashar-class motherships did. Though the ship was considerable smaller than a Tirolian mothership and indeed was even smaller than his own being only seven hundred meters across though it was a little bit taller at six hundred and fifty meters. The six smaller ships clustered around it were also pyramidal in shape but squatter and all had thrusters glowing at the back and a large visible dual turret on their underside.
An additional holographic screen pixeled into existence showing a tactical analysis of the vessels. Serval frowned slightly as while their power levels were a bit lower than a robotech warships they were still concerningly high. Not to mention that all seven vessels appeared to be surrounded by defensive energy barriers similar to the one that Zor’s battlefortress had had, and which had been incorrectly repaired by the Terrans making it dangerously unstable, and which Tirolian ships did. Though at the same time it looked completely different as it was invisible to start with.
“Captain we are being hailed by the primary ship,” communications reported. Well, that’s promising, Serval thought.
“Put it through,” he ordered.
“Yes sir.”
A third holographic screen pixeled into existence bringing in an image of the bridge of the alien ship and Serval blinked in a combination of surprise and confusion. The bridge was manned by two human-looking aliens in chainmail and wearing skull-caps, with a third human in a gold-coloured version sitting on a throne-like chair on a raised dais at the back of the bridge. On either side of him two statues rose high into the air, where they met holding a burning brasier. Additional brasiers lined the bridge, a bridge whose walls were gold and engraved with line after line of strange alien text. It looked more like the tomb or throne room of some ancient king than the bridge of an advanced interstellar spacecraft.
He was even more shocked when the human on the throne’s eyes glowed with a whitish-gold light – almost as if he had lights behind his eyes – before he spoke. Spoke in a deep, oddly resonant voice that was in no way human and was in its own way as creepy as the quasi-synthetic voice used by Tirolian triumvirate clones.
“I am Lord Solec,” the human, if that’s what he was, said. “You have encroached on the domain of my master the great god P’tah. Surrender immediately and I shall ask him to be merciful. Refuse and I will destroy you.”
“Lord Solec I am Captain Serval of the Free Zentraedi Forces,” Serval replied, a little irritated by the arrogant tone the being before him had used and the fact that he seemed to just to expect them to surrender to him. He obviously didn’t know anything about the Zentraedi otherwise he would have known that they did not surrender to anyone. Still, he would try to be diplomatic. “I apologise for any intrusion into your space. We are here on a simple survey mission and are prepared to leave peacefully once our survey team is retrieved from the surface. There is no need for violence.”
“Your reason for being here is irrelevant Captain Serval,” Solec answered. “What is relevant is the fact that you are in violation of sacred Goa’uld territory. You will surrender immediately, or I will be forced to open fire.”
“I cannot do that,” Serval replied resolutely. “But as I said we will leave peacefully once our ground team is retrieved from the planet. However, know this if you fire upon us, we will defend ourselves.”
“A warrior then. I can respect that even as I regret your stubbornness. May you die with honour and know if you do, I will personally escort your souls to a place of honour in the afterlife. Kree’shak chell Jaffa.” The holographic screen pixeled out of existence as the communications link was closed down from the other end.
“Captain the alien ships are powering up their weapons,” sensors reported, “the main ship is also launching fighters.”
And so, we fight again, Serval thought with a mental sigh. “Very well if a battle is what this Lord Solec wishes not only will we oblige him, but we will teach him the foolishness of crossing the Zentraedi right before we destroy him,” he said. “All hands to battle stations, launch all fighters and prepare to engage the enemy.”
“Yes sir.”
Immediately alarms began to ring throughout the length of the cruiser, across every deck and compartment summoning the vessels four hundred strong crew to their battle stations while sending the remaining Gnerl pilots – and the battlepod pilots – scrambling to man their craft. Simultaneously engineering brought the power output of the reflex furnaces up to combat levels and energy began to flow into the cruiser’s heavy particle beam turrets while across the hull gun ports opened and fang-like combination cannon turrets and blister-like missile turrets rose into firing positions.
Seconds later launch doors on the port and starboard sides of the cruiser opened and the rest of the cruisers entire complement of bell-shaped Gnerl fighter pods began launching into space. For their part the Goa’uld also prepared for battle with the Ha’tak warming up both its heavy and standard staff cannons, increasing power to its defence shield and scrambling its entire armada of death gliders while the already deployed Al’kesh primed their own staff cannon turrets and loaded plasma bombs into their bomb racks. For a few more moments nothing happened beyond both sides completing their preparations…
…then the Goa’uld opened fire.
~~//~~
Bright whitish-gold balls of superheated naquada-generated plasma burst from one of the dorsal heavy cannon arrays of the Ha’tak and streaked towards the alien warship that was daring to defy them. The bolts slammed with white hot force into the green and purple hull of the Zentraedi cruiser and immediately broke apart and dissipated in a rainbow blaze of light as the advanced armour covering the hull immediately reflected over half the energy of the bolts back into space while dispersing the rest of it over a wider area of the hull reducing the damage. Though it did nothing for the physical impact of the bolts that made the cruiser ring like a bell and made Zentraedi crewmen stumble as the cruiser shuddered under the enemy fire. More bolts of plasma shot out of the Ha’tak slamming into the Zentraedi vessel shaking it violently but not currently doing any damage beyond scorching and pitting the dense outer armour band.
Simultaneously the death gliders and Al’kesh swooped towards the Zentraedi ready to commence strafing and bombing runs. Only to run headlong into a barrage of missiles and pulse particle cannon fire from the Gnerl scrambling to defend their mothership. Several gliders vanished immediately in balls of flames and energy though the handful of Al’kesh shrugged off the attack their shields glowing softly as they deflected or absorbed the energy of the assault.
Their attention grabbed, and their ire roused, by the destruction of some of their fellows the gliders broke formation and began engaging the Gnerl in high-speed dogfights. An arena where, somewhat to the Zentraedi’s surprise and displeasure, they were surprisingly capable as due to their advanced inertial engines – based on an understanding of gravitic science and gravitic engineering that the Robotech Masters would have been envious of if they’d been present – they were both faster and more agile than the Gnerl which relied on a scaled down version of the same largely Newtonian ion-fusion propulsion systems used by their capital ships.
While the fighters of both sides began fighting for their lives in a complete free-for-all space brawl the Zentraedi cruiser at last returned the Ha’tak’s fire. Dual heavy particle beams burst from the vessels particle beam turrets and slammed into the shield around the mothership with searing force making the shield flare with an orange light and ripple revealing the quasi-crystalline structure of the force field as its absorbed or deflected the powerful beams.
Shaken and startled by the powerful beams striking and damaging the shields, the Ha’tak burst into motion beginning to accelerate and manoeuvre with a speed and agility more comparable to a fighter than a seven hundred long capital ship. Simultaneously it opened fire with every staff cannon – both heavy and standard – array that could be brought to bear upon the larger, but slower and more sluggish in manoeuvring Zentraedi opened up pounding out endless streams of plasmatic death. High powered lasers and particle beams streaked back at it from the cruiser though, much to the frustration of the gunners, most of their shots missed the agile Ha’tak with only a handful of lasers hitting it and sleeting off the shields which glowed slightly more brightly each time a shot hit home.
Essentially the battle between the capital ships became a race to determine who would disable or destroy who first. In an attempt to assist their God, the Al’kesh made a bombing run at the Zentraedi cruiser, dropping dozens of plasma charges over the hull triggering numerous explosions as the charges detonated on impact blowing away chunks of the outer armour band and even disabling a number of the secondary combination cannon turrets.
It was the only run they were able to make as the cruiser’s missile turrets opened up sending a massive barrage of plasma missiles into space. Missiles that immediately swarmed the Al’kesh detonating against and destroying their shields before doing the same to the hulls beneath.
Even as the Al’kesh died the Ha’tak landed a full barrage of heavy plasma bolts on a section of the hull already weakened by the bombing run blowing through the outer hull and even penetrating the inner hull in two places causing numerous fires to erupt as atmosphere around the affected compartments was superheated to flashpoint. It was the Ha’tak’s last hurrah for as it pulled away several particle beams broke through its weakened shields and slammed into the hull.
The effect was far more devastating than what the victorious Zentraedi gunners had ever seen, or thought would happen. The reason being that – as with all Goa’uld spacecraft – the Ha’tak’s hull was made from an alloy of trinium and naquada, an alloy that was normally highly resistant to damage albeit damage from the plasma weapons of rival Goa’uld, weapons that the Goa’uld had long since optimised their ships to withstand as part of the near ritualized method of warfare that was part and parcel of the Goa’uld Empire’s normal feudal nature.
Against particle beams however it was the worst possible armour to use.
Instead of simply soaking up the heat and energy of the particle beams in the way it would a plasma blast the naquada in the alloy actually both conducted and amplified the energy of the blasts even as it destabilized due to the atomic disruptive effect common to particle weapons. The result was both predictable and utterly devastating as the Ha’tak exploded with appalling savagery, vanishing in a rapid series of explosions that sent debris flying in all directions – including into the hull of the Zentraedi vessel where it punched deep burning holes in already weakened hull sections.
Its opponent dealt with the cruiser, despite its own grievous wounds, turned to aid its Gnerl fighter pods against the annoying fast and evasive Goa’uld fighters. Unleashing another barrage of missiles from its missile turrets as well as a storm of laser fire that finally tore the last of them from the stars.
~~//~~
“Captain the last of the enemy ships have been destroyed.”
“Very good,” Captain Serval replied before coughing and waving a hand at the thin, but quite noxious, cloud of smoke that filled the bridge. Evidence of the numerous fires that were burning all over the ship, the result of the intense heat of the Goa’uld plasma blasts that had penetrated the hull. “Damage report?”
“Sir damage control reports heavy damage to the outer hull with breaches in sections twenty-seven, twenty-eight, thirty-one, thirty-two and thirty-five across deck one with the breach in section thirty-two reaching down to deck two – automatic hull repair has begun but it will be at least three hours before all the breaches are sealed,” one of the bridge crew reported
“Port lateral combination cannon arrays three, five, seven and nine are destroyed,” the officer continued. “Cannon arrays ten through twelve are offline due to damaged power conduits as are port side missile launchers thirteen, fourteen and sixteen. There is still a fire burning on the port hangar deck and fires are still burning in sections twenty-six and twenty-nine. Fire control crews and drones are getting them under control however and estimate that they will have them completely extinguished shortly. Engineering reports that the fold drive is offline due to a severed coolant lines they are working on it now but have had to completely power down the fold system to prevent it overheating.”
“Damn it,” Serval cursed knowing that kind of repair was a long, dirty job though thankfully they were better able to repair things these days thanks to their Terran allies providing them with numerous lessons in ship repair and enhanced damage control techniques. “How long?”
“Engineering estimates one hour to repair the damaged coolant lines. After that it will take thirty minutes to completely repower the fold system.”
“Tell them to work as quickly as they can.”
“Yes sir.”
“Sir we’re receiving a signal from the dropship,” communications reported, “they have landed and have recovered Colonel Ferretti’s expedition team. They should be leaving the surface momentarily.”
“Finally, some good news. Let me know when they’re about to dock.”
“Yes sir.”
“Communications establish a secure communications link with both Commander Breetai and UEDF High Command,” Serval ordered knowing he needed to report everything that had just happened to his superior officer and their Terran allies.
“Yes sir.”
~~~///~~~
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope you like the balance that I have struck between the various parties, especially the fact that the Zentraedi cannot just steamroll over the Goa’uld but actually have to work to defeat a Goa’uld mothership. Personally, I felt it better this way as it better represents the fact that the Goa’uld are actually quite a powerful and dangerous opponent even for someone with access to robotech weaponry. Now before anymore asks Jar’un while he has the same beliefs as Teal’c will not be taking his place as a member of the eventual SG teams, as for Teal’c himself he will appear eventually in the story though right now he is kind of busy leading a campaign to boot Sokar’s forces off one of Apophis’ largest naquada mining planets. Until next time.
Goa’uld Mothership
That Same Time
Vo’ceg, First Prime to the great Goa’uld scientist, inventor, engineer, and System Lord P’tah walked with some urgency through the corridors of his master’s flagship. His destination being Lord P’tah’s private laboratory where his lord – arguably the greatest of his kind given he had created much of the magic used by the gods, or what most of his fellow Jaffa would believe to be magic as like every First Prime of P’tah that there had ever been he knew the truth that it was merely advanced technology – would be hard at work on the latest task he had been assigned by Ra himself. Something he knew made his master happy as P’tah was never happier than when he was tinkering with something or researching something sometimes for practical gain other times because it simply intrigued him.
Unfortunately, he would have to disturb him with the report that the pel’tac had received a few minutes ago. An extremely large, advanced, and completely unknown alien warship had just appeared near the orbit of the planet once known as Linkotis by its inhabitants. Inhabitants who had made the mistake of raiding one to many of both his master’s and Ra’s territories leading to him and Ra’s First Prime jointly leading the appropriate punishment expedition first through the chappa’ai then from orbiting motherships. In the near decade since the planet had been quiet – the handful of survivors that there were being constantly watched by one of his master’s surveillance satellites – until now that was. First the satellite had detected activity from the chappa’ai but before it could get in position to get a reading on who’d come through it had detected a previously unknown type of subspace distortion forming.
A distortion that had spiked before vanishing leaving behind a two-kilometre-long alien warship. A warship whose arrival so soon after an unknown force from the chappa’ai could not be a coincidence. Someone was definitely interested in Linkotis for some reason, someone that the Goa’uld had never encountered before but who were undeniably powerful if they were able to build warships that large. Something that Vo’ceg knew P’tah would not be happy to learn about as such a race was a new potential threat, which was the last thing the Goa’uld needed right now. Not with their entire empire engaged in the first large scale civil war for at least two thousand years if not longer, the war sparked by Sokar’s return after hundreds of years of banishment with a large fleet and army that had attempted to take over the Empire. While the attempt had ultimately failed Sokar had still been able to secure several strategically important sectors and in the seven and a half years since then there had been war with neither side able to make much headway.
Vo’ceg arrived outside the entrance to the laboratory and wasn’t surprised to see two Horus guards standing sentry outside. They’d arrived a few days ago along with a commission from Ra himself and Vo’ceg knew from experience that they would remain until the task was done. However, they didn’t impede him – bad things happened to lower ranked Jaffa who impeded a Prime let alone a First Prime without good reason – as he waved a hand over the door hailer.
“Enter,” a familiar voice said from inside prompting the door to open with the familiar stone-on-stone grinding sound though the door was not actually made from stone but the same naquada-trinium alloy as the rest of the ship. Vo’ceg set his shoulders and walked into the room, to see Lord P’tah working at the lab’s main computer terminal. His master looking over at his arrival.
“Forgive me for disturbing you my lord,” Vo’ceg said in greeting, bowing his head.
“It is quite alright Vo’ceg what is it?” P’tah asked knowing that Vo’ceg would not bother him here unless it was important.
“My lord we’ve received a priority alert from the sentry satellite deployed over Linkotis.”
P’tah raised an eyebrow. “Go on,” he continued, stepping away from the console to give the Jaffa his full attention. He was quite proud of the sentry satellite that he’d deployed over Linkotis after their punishment, it had been a great technological achievement and he had already received commissions from numerous System Lords – including from Ra himself – for many more of them to deploy above all the planets in Goa’uld space even those which like Linkotis had been punished by them for their insolence in attacking those who should be worshipped as their gods. Especially as Sokar had started using some of those places as staging areas for his attacks on the rest of the Empire, not to mention that the loathsome Tok’ra had also been known to use those planets as bases. Thus, he was quite interested to know what it had discovered that it had prompted the satellites computer to send an alert.
“My lord sensors on the satellite detected activity from the chappa’ai on the planet,” Vo’ceg explained, “however before it could adjust its orbital path for a more precise scan of the area it detected a subspace distortion forming nearby.”
“What kind of distortion?”
“The satellite didn’t recognise it my lord. However, it was obviously artificial as it spiked and dissipated leaving behind a large alien warship of unknown origin. I have taken the liberty of sending a copy of the satellite data to you.”
P’tah blinked and returned to the main computer console and opened up a new window showing that there was indeed data from the satellite there for him to analyse. He quickly pulled it up and noticed with considerable surprise that the subspace distortion that the satellite had detected had some properties in common with a hyperspace window while being distinctly different at the same time, for one thing hyperspace windows didn’t produce phased gravitons or beta-phase tachyon particles. Interesting, he thought his scientific mind already trying to work out just what the subspace distortion had been well beyond obviously a previously unknown method of faster than light space travel. Somewhat reluctantly he pushed the scientist back into his mental box, there would be time to pour over this data later.
“You said there was activity from the chappa’ai before the ship arrived?”
“Yes, my lord, I do not believe it to be a coincidence.”
“No, it probably is not. Dispatch a squad of Jaffa through the chappa’ai to investigate planet side. In the meantime, do we have any ships in that area?”
“Yes, my lord there is a small task force commanded by your deputy Fleet Lord Solec several light years away.”
“Tell them to intercept and board the unknown vessel we will learn who these latest trespassers are then.”
“Understood my lord.”
“Keep me appraised of their progress.”
“As you wish my lord.”
“Dismissed Vo’ceg.”
Vo’ceg bowed respectfully to his master before turning and leaving the room. P’tah watched him leave before turning his attention back to the computer and – somewhat reluctantly – returning to the original screen he’d been working on. He would have much rather have studied the scan data on the unknown alien FTL method, however his assignment from Ra took priority as it always did, and he knew better than to disappoint the Supreme System Lord. Doing that could have very unpleasant consequences especially as Ra had adopted his son Heru’ur’s favourite punishment for Goa’uld who disappointed or failed him. Though hopefully if Solec did succeed in capturing the alien vessel he would be able to learn more about it from the minds of the crew or from its databanks.
It was something to look forward to. Now if only he could figure out just how to beat the improvements that Sokar had made to cloaking technology.
~~//~~
Stargate Facility
Linkotis
A Short Time Later
The Eagle reconnaissance drone floated sedately near the high ceiling of the room housing this planets Stargate. While it had been quietly hovering here for the better part of two days, ever since being deployed through the Stargate as an advanced scout, it was in no danger of falling to the hard concrete surface below. The small protoculture flat cell that providing it with energy meant that it could remain in its position for several days if needs be and be almost undetectable to anyone without augmented hearing as its six small tilt-fan engines produced only the faintest of whirring sounds as the blade spun within their housings.
Thus, it was in a perfect position to notice when the Stargate began whirring to life again, the inner ring rotating quickly and the chevrons beginning to lock into place. Immediately the Eagle turned and pointed its small but extremely powerful multi-spectral camera at the gate even as the unstable vortex burst into existence and then receded back into the gate forming the wall of water effect that was the event horizon of the wormhole. For a few more moments nothing happened then tall humanoid figures in armour and carrying staffs began stepping through. All of them were wearing the same jackal-like helmets as the one that had been worn by the body that the drone had seen earlier though the colour was different shading more towards a dark blue with no additional ornamentation. The eyes glowed with a harsh yellow light.
Immediately the Eagle transmitted an alert to Colonel Ferretti letting him know of the new arrivals as the numbers coming through the gate slowed to a stop and the gate shut down. Leaving a dozen of the armoured individuals standing on the ramp, helmets moving back and forth as they surveyed the room. The drones’ external microphones detected one of the figures saying something in an alien language before one of the staffs was pointed in its direction and the bulbous end opened with a crack and flash of energy a moment before a golden bolt of energy birthed from the staff heading right at the Eagle.
The bolt of superheated plasma smashed into the hovering drone before it could even begin executing one of its programmed evasive action sequences. The plasma instantly cut through the thin skin of the drone and tore through its internal components before rupturing the protoculture flat cell. Now normally protoculture was actually a highly stable and non-reactive material unless exposed to either certain microwave frequencies – like in a reflex furnace or a reflex warhead – or a burst of intense heat or energy that would instantly vaporise the oily material triggering the normal vacuum energy release, plasma conversion and matter/antimatter pair bond creation that made reflex furnaces so potent a power source or a weapon devastating enough that just a handful of reflex missiles could lay an entire planet to waste.
The plasma blast from the Goa’uld ma’tok staff pushed the protoculture past that critical vaporisation point. With the predictable result that the Eagle drone exploded with immense force, sending out a burst of intense heat and generating a shockwave that knocked the newly arrived Jaffa sprawling.
~~//~~
Prime Jar’un grunted slightly as he picked himself up off the floor where he and the rest of the patrol sent through to investigate this planet had been knocked sprawling by the surprisingly powerful detonation of the alien device, that he had spotted observing them. Naturally he had shot the spy down though he had not expected it to have detonated with such force, force enough that the shockwave of its destruction would be powerful enough to knock them all off their feet.
“Is everyone alright,” he asked his fellow Jaffa. One by one they all confirmed that they were fine, just a little bruised from being tossed around like that by the shockwave of the alien devices destruction. A blast that, now that Jar’un thought about it, could only be the result of some kind of built-in self-destruct, designed to prevent the device from falling into an enemy/or potential enemy’s hands. It was something that he had seen the Goa’uld do in the past to prevent others learning the secret of their magic. Or more likely realize that the Goa’uld magic is not magic at all, he thought knowing that despite their claims to the contrary the Goa’uld were not all-powerful gods nor was their magic really magic instead it was merely advanced technology that they passed off as magic to the primitive masses of the galaxy. It was knowledge that he could never truly act upon though, nor could any others in the slowly growing movement among the many Jaffa armies who served the false gods, much as he wished otherwise – at least in the privacy of his own mind.
He put those thoughts out of his mind for now and focused on the reason why he and his squad had been sent to this planet. Calmly he used the enhanced vision mode of his helmet to scan around for the unknown aliens – likely humans but it was possible they were from another race since there were numerous other races in the galaxy, some ruled over by the Goa’uld others not – who had arrived via the chappa’ai a short time before a warship – one that presumably belonged to them – arrived in orbit. A warship that would hopefully soon be dealt with, either being destroyed or at least driven away, by the ships that would come out of hyperspace anytime now. He wished his brothers on those ships luck as one could never take any warship lightly, especially one from a civilization that they knew nothing about.
After a few moments of scanning, he found them. They had split up into two groups one of the levels immediately above this one and the other group on the level below. He guessed that they were or rather had been engaged in a survey mission of this abandoned bunker complex, but something has obviously changed as the two groups were moving back towards the bunker’s central stairwell, clearly intending to rendezvous with one another before confronting them. For a moment he wondered how they knew that they were here, before realizing that their device had to have alerted them somehow just before he destroyed it. Well, we cannot have them join up, he thought knowing somehow, that that would be a bad thing.
“Jaffa our opponents have split into two groups in the time since they arrived,” he said. “They are now moving back towards the central stairwell, presumably to rendezvous with one another in response to our arrival.”
“We obviously cannot have that,” Var’tu commented. Jar’un nodded.
“And we will not,” he said, “Var’tu take half the squad and descend to the level below us. The rest of you come with me, we’ll engage the aliens while they’re separated. Our orders from Lord P’tah are to capture them for interrogation if possible but kill them if necessary. Understood?”
“Understood,” his brothers chorused.
“Move out.”
With the ease of people who practiced such things from childhood the Jaffa split themselves into two teams and ma’tok staffs at the ready began advancing towards where the HUDs of their helmets revealed the central stairwell of this bunker complex to be. It was not that far from the room that housed the Stargate - a room that when the facility had originally been built by Linkotean national faction known as Vallarta had been a munitions storage room until that was, they unearthed their planets long buried Stargate, separated only be a handful of steel blast doors. Blast doors that the squad noticed had all either been opened of sliced through in such a way as to confirm that whoever their quarry was, they had access to advanced weapons.
Within moments the arrived at the central stairwell and separated with Jar’un leading his half of their squad upwards while Var’tu took his down. There heavy boots echoed loudly on the steel-grid steps as they ascended and descended respectively. Arriving at the landing for the level Jar’un took a moment to use his helmet to scan beyond finding that none of their opponents were within immediate range of the door, which would have been a natural choke point. Instead, they still seemed to be some way inside the level and off to the right. Not about to question his good fortune Jar’un mentioned for his squad to begin advancing towards the alien position – ma’tok staffs at the ready.
~~//~~
Colonel Ferretti felt like there were rattlesnakes performing a mating dance in his stomach as he could hear the hostile force that had come through the Stargate getting closer and closer to the position where he and his half of the squad and their technicians had taken cover the moment the Eagle drone was destroyed. Whoever the aliens were they obviously didn’t care about being quiet and stealthy as they made a continuous metallic clank, clank, clank, clank noise as they moved.
“Sheesh these guys make more noise than a destroid with faulty foot actuators,” Private Scott Peterson commented over the squad frequency.
“They are rather loud,” Ferretti agreed, “everyone take positions they should be here in a minute.”
“Colonel, should we try to talk to them,” Doctor Jack Hall asked before approaching him from where he had been standing among the technicians. “After all we don’t want to start another war, we’ve not recovered from the last one yet after all. Granted I know that these aliens destroying our drone is not a promising sign, but shouldn’t we at least try to talk with words instead of lasers?”
Ferretti blinked before frowning thoughtfully, though he knew that the scientist wouldn’t see that through the opaque faceplate of his helmet. It was true that it would be far more preferable to establish a peaceful dialogue with whichever race this was, a race who likely knew far more about the Stargates than they did. Thus, they could learn quite a bit from them if peaceful relations could be established. Though he was also aware that they didn’t exactly have the best of luck when it came to first contacts given what had happened when the Zentraedi had first defolded near the moon. Though you could argue we started that war given the SDF-1 did open fire on them as their scouts approached, he thought recalling seeing the searing yellow light of the reflex cannon beam streaking spacewards from a military base on a neighbouring island to Macross Island.
Maybe this time they would be able to do something different. Thus, he started to open his mouth to agree with the scientist, and to say that they would indeed try to talk to their uninvited guests with words instead of lethal lasers, but before he could speak two things occurred virtually simultaneously. First, he heard a voice from the entrance scream two words in an alien language words, seconds mere moments later a bolt of golden energy impacted between himself and Hall with an explosive crack throwing up a burst of smoke and flame.
Instinct and training seamlessly took over behind the sturdy looking concrete and steel benches that filled this room – which had clearly been a church or temple of some sort as all the benches pointed towards a raised dais on which sat an alter and various bits of religious paraphernalia including a shrine in which the figures of three deities were depicted - as the six STORM commandoes, dove into cover pulling the startled scientists and technicians with them. More bolts of golden fiery energy – which moved too slowly to be either laser or charged particle bolts, meaning that they were almost certainly a plasma-based weapon – flew towards them from their attackers who were coming into the room. Two stood on either side of the door holding staff-like weapons at shoulder height – firing into the room in a clear attempt to lay down covering fire – while the other four came into the room. Two dropping to one knee almost immediately while the other two stood behind them in a formation that frankly reminded Ferretti of an old-fashioned infantry square. All the while their staffs – which were a frankly ridiculous looking thing to wield as a weapon, let alone an energy weapon as none of the commandoes could see how they could possibly aim the things with any real degree of accuracy – spewed bolt after bolt of golden energy.
“Hold your fire we mean you no harm,” Doctor Hall called from beside Ferretti. The result was obviously not what the doctor had hoped for as plasma blasts impacted the metal and concrete pew, they were hiding behind melting the steel and crater in the concrete severely.
“Somehow I don’t think they’re interested in talking only shooting doc,” Ferretti replied even as he worked out the timing between plasma shots from the alien staffs. At the right moment he popped up just enough to bring his AR2 rifle to bear and fire. A brilliant lance of bluish-white laser fire shot across the distance and slammed into one of the aliens near the door, taking the alien high in the shoulder and dropping him to the floor with a very human sounding scream of pain, the staff clattering to the floor.
The other aliens obviously didn’t appreciate that for as Ferretti ducked back down, five plasma bolts pummelled the location where he had popped up. Showering both commando and scientist with chips of pulverized concrete. The other commandoes took advantage of the alien distraction to pop up themselves and catch them in a lethal crossfire. In an instant it was over the other five aliens going down under the ensuing barrage of laser fire.
“Well, that was bracing,” Ferretti commented as he stood up before, keeping his rifle at the ready, advancing along with Private Peterson to where the alien he had hit was lying near the door. Amazingly the alien was still able to move its wounded arm and was reaching for the staff as he arrived. Oh no you don’t, he thought as he kicked the staff away out of reach before pointing the muzzle of the rifle right at where the aliens face should be.
For a moment the alien froze, and he got the impression that he was being sized up before the alien raised its hands, touched something on the side of its helmet then raised its hands in the universal gesture of surrender. Before Ferretti’s amazed eyes the helmet undid itself and folded down into a thick neckpiece revealing the face of a young human-looking being of either Southern Mediterranean or Arabian descent with a strange silver ankh symbol in the centre of his forehead and wearing a metal skullcap. What the hell, Ferretti thought shocked to see a human face before wondering if it was some cosmic joke that every race that they ran into had to be related to them in some way.
“Can you understand me,” he asked.
“I can,” the alien-human answered in an odd accent.
“I am Colonel Louis Ferretti, United Earth Defence Force STORM Commandoes,” Ferretti said even as he wondered just how the alien understood him and seemed to be able to speak standard English if with a very odd accent. “You are now our prisoner. If you don’t resist you will be treated well but should you try any funny business or try to escape, we’ll kill you where you stand. Do you understand?”
“Yes. I am Jar’un, Jaffa Prime in service to the god P’tah. I won’t resist, though I will understand if you wish to bind me. I would do the same if our positions were reversed.”
Ferretti nodded and gestured with the rifle for Jar’un to stand up. As the Jaffa did so Peterson stepped forward with a pair of hypercarbon-titanium handcuffs to bind him. Jar’un kept his word and offered no resistance as he was turned around and his arms brought down to be bound behind his back. Ferretti watched the whole time, laser pointed ready to gun him down if he tried anything though he was relieved that he didn’t have to.
Once their prisoner was secure, he spoke into his helmet radio. “Captain Chandler what’s your status,” he ordered. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, sir we are,” Chandler answered, “I was actually just about to call you and ask the same question. Sir I have to report that we were just attacked by unknown hostiles with the most god-awful aim and the most ergonomically useless weapons I’ve ever seen.”
“So were we captain. Any injuries?”
“Aside from some frayed nerves among the civilians no sir. All hostiles were terminated, there armour doesn’t seem to withstand laser fire that well,” Chandler replied, a moment before the radio picked up a dull thud as though something had impacted his helmet. “Hey what the?”
“Captain?”
“Sorry sir but something just bounced off my helmet. Some weird snake-like thing. It’s now twitching on the floor I’d say it was stunned by the impact. Wait its stopped moving, I think it’s dead now.”
“Have one of the scientists bag the remains. Our people back home would certainly like to look at it,” Ferretti replied, “once that’s done head towards the motor pool the Eagle found earlier. We’ll join you there with a prisoner.”
“Understood sir.”
“Ferretti out,” Ferretti finished before closing the comm link and turning to their prisoner, determined to get an answer as to what it was that had tried to attack Captain Chandler. “A small snake-like thing tried to attack one of my people after they killed the rest of your squad, thankfully it bounced off his helmet and died a few seconds later on the floor. Do you happen to know anything about that?”
“It would have been the prim’tah of one of my brothers,” Jar’un answered, blinking somewhat in surprise as he realized that these humans did not know of the Goa’uld otherwise they would have recognised the creature for what it was.
“A what?” Doctor Hall asked.
“A larval Goa’uld. All Jaffa carry one in an abdominal pouch until it reaches maturity and is able to take a host,” Jar’un explained, “in exchange for doing so we get perfect health, enhanced healing, and a long life. The one that attacked your man must have attempted to take a host out of desperation as its Jaffa’s life expired.”
“Host! What is this Goa’uld some kind of parasite or a symbiotic lifeform?” Hall asked fascinated.
“Doctor there will be time to ask questions later,” Ferretti interrupted.
“Right colonel sorry.”
Ferretti mentally shook his head. Scientists, he thought with a fond smile before once again activating his comm unit, this time selecting the fold comm and calling the Zentraedi cruiser in orbit. “Captain Serval this is Colonel Ferretti can you hear me?” he asked.
“I can indeed Colonel,” the Zentraedi answered immediately. “Is everything alright down there?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Ferretti replied before quickly summarising everything that had just taken place for the Zentraedi officer. “I have ordered that everyone rendezvous at the motor pool our drone located earlier. Can you have a dropship sent down to pick us up from there?”
“Of course, I will have the dropship and an appropriate escort launched at once. Expect them sometime within the next fifteen minutes.”
“Understood. We’ll be waiting.”
“Serval out.”
As the Zentraedi signed off Ferretti turned to his team and their prisoner. “Alright people let’s get moving, Serval is sending down a lift for us,” he said.
“Sir yes sir,” the commandoes acknowledged while Hall and the other scientists just nodded in acceptance. Then without further ado they all began moving, heading back towards the stairwell.
~~//~~
Zentraedi Cruiser
Linkotis Orbit
The moment he signed off with Colonel Ferretti Serval looked over at his first officer to see, to his pleasure, that the other Zentraedi was already organising the launch of a dropship to retrieve the STORM commando team, their prisoner and the scientists who’d accompanied them through the Stargate to this planet. Given that they had apparently been attacked by unknown hostiles, who had come through said gate, he approved of and understood Colonel Ferretti’s decision to request extraction via dropship instead of trying to activate the gate back to Earth.
While it was true, they had been able to determine roughly what the planets coordinates would be thanks to cross referencing their navigational charts created after they’d arrived in this galaxy with the gate symbols. Symbols that weren’t actually star configurations at all but geometric representations of certain key astronomical features that could be observed or detected anywhere in the galaxy such as pulsars, large nebulae, and quantum singularities. Opening the gate back to Earth would have involved a bit more trial and error than anyone would be comfortable with, especially as there was no telling when another wave of attackers would come through the Stargate.
Still how did the attackers know that we had people down there, he mused wondering if the mysterious scans were to blame. Scans that despite their best-efforts source they could not pin down, it was almost as if whatever had made them was invisible to both their sensors and the mark one eyeballs of their Gnerl pilots. Something that was, to the best of his knowledge, utterly impossible as nobody known to the Zentraedi – not even the Robotech Masters themselves – had the technology to render something invisible.
“Captain the dropship and an escort has been launched,” his first officer, Trel, reported. “They will reach the atmosphere within five minutes.”
“Excellent,” Serval replied with a smile a moment before proximity alarms rang out throughout both the command blister and the main level of the bridge. “Report?”
“Captain sensors indicate a spatial distortion forming on a bearing of zero, two, zero mark zero, zero one. Distance thirty-five megametres,” sensors reported making Serval blink as not only was that nearly bang on with their bow, but it was practically on top of them.
“Show me,” he ordered.
“Yes sir.”
Immediately a projector field powered up and a holographic screen pixeled into existence showing an image of the spatial anomaly as it appeared. Serval blinked in surprise as it wasn’t like any anomaly, he had ever seen in all the centuries that he had lived. It looked for all the world like a purple-blue bruise in space. What in Zor’s name is that he thought a moment before the anomaly pulsed…
…and a group of ships came shooting out of it. The anomaly vanished as if it had never been present at all, clearly having been generated by the unknown alien ships possibly as a means of faster than light travel as Serval was well aware that, while it was the most efficient means known, space folding wasn’t the only way to travel faster than light.
Serval studied the newly arrived ships curiously. They were strange looking vessels, the largest of them being composed of a large golden pyramid structure surrounded by a black vaguely triangular structure. There was no visible exhaust plume or thrusters of any kind indicating that the vessel achieved motion another way possibly by manipulating gravitational and magnetic fields in much the same way that the Masters Azashar-class motherships did. Though the ship was considerable smaller than a Tirolian mothership and indeed was even smaller than his own being only seven hundred meters across though it was a little bit taller at six hundred and fifty meters. The six smaller ships clustered around it were also pyramidal in shape but squatter and all had thrusters glowing at the back and a large visible dual turret on their underside.
An additional holographic screen pixeled into existence showing a tactical analysis of the vessels. Serval frowned slightly as while their power levels were a bit lower than a robotech warships they were still concerningly high. Not to mention that all seven vessels appeared to be surrounded by defensive energy barriers similar to the one that Zor’s battlefortress had had, and which had been incorrectly repaired by the Terrans making it dangerously unstable, and which Tirolian ships did. Though at the same time it looked completely different as it was invisible to start with.
“Captain we are being hailed by the primary ship,” communications reported. Well, that’s promising, Serval thought.
“Put it through,” he ordered.
“Yes sir.”
A third holographic screen pixeled into existence bringing in an image of the bridge of the alien ship and Serval blinked in a combination of surprise and confusion. The bridge was manned by two human-looking aliens in chainmail and wearing skull-caps, with a third human in a gold-coloured version sitting on a throne-like chair on a raised dais at the back of the bridge. On either side of him two statues rose high into the air, where they met holding a burning brasier. Additional brasiers lined the bridge, a bridge whose walls were gold and engraved with line after line of strange alien text. It looked more like the tomb or throne room of some ancient king than the bridge of an advanced interstellar spacecraft.
He was even more shocked when the human on the throne’s eyes glowed with a whitish-gold light – almost as if he had lights behind his eyes – before he spoke. Spoke in a deep, oddly resonant voice that was in no way human and was in its own way as creepy as the quasi-synthetic voice used by Tirolian triumvirate clones.
“I am Lord Solec,” the human, if that’s what he was, said. “You have encroached on the domain of my master the great god P’tah. Surrender immediately and I shall ask him to be merciful. Refuse and I will destroy you.”
“Lord Solec I am Captain Serval of the Free Zentraedi Forces,” Serval replied, a little irritated by the arrogant tone the being before him had used and the fact that he seemed to just to expect them to surrender to him. He obviously didn’t know anything about the Zentraedi otherwise he would have known that they did not surrender to anyone. Still, he would try to be diplomatic. “I apologise for any intrusion into your space. We are here on a simple survey mission and are prepared to leave peacefully once our survey team is retrieved from the surface. There is no need for violence.”
“Your reason for being here is irrelevant Captain Serval,” Solec answered. “What is relevant is the fact that you are in violation of sacred Goa’uld territory. You will surrender immediately, or I will be forced to open fire.”
“I cannot do that,” Serval replied resolutely. “But as I said we will leave peacefully once our ground team is retrieved from the planet. However, know this if you fire upon us, we will defend ourselves.”
“A warrior then. I can respect that even as I regret your stubbornness. May you die with honour and know if you do, I will personally escort your souls to a place of honour in the afterlife. Kree’shak chell Jaffa.” The holographic screen pixeled out of existence as the communications link was closed down from the other end.
“Captain the alien ships are powering up their weapons,” sensors reported, “the main ship is also launching fighters.”
And so, we fight again, Serval thought with a mental sigh. “Very well if a battle is what this Lord Solec wishes not only will we oblige him, but we will teach him the foolishness of crossing the Zentraedi right before we destroy him,” he said. “All hands to battle stations, launch all fighters and prepare to engage the enemy.”
“Yes sir.”
Immediately alarms began to ring throughout the length of the cruiser, across every deck and compartment summoning the vessels four hundred strong crew to their battle stations while sending the remaining Gnerl pilots – and the battlepod pilots – scrambling to man their craft. Simultaneously engineering brought the power output of the reflex furnaces up to combat levels and energy began to flow into the cruiser’s heavy particle beam turrets while across the hull gun ports opened and fang-like combination cannon turrets and blister-like missile turrets rose into firing positions.
Seconds later launch doors on the port and starboard sides of the cruiser opened and the rest of the cruisers entire complement of bell-shaped Gnerl fighter pods began launching into space. For their part the Goa’uld also prepared for battle with the Ha’tak warming up both its heavy and standard staff cannons, increasing power to its defence shield and scrambling its entire armada of death gliders while the already deployed Al’kesh primed their own staff cannon turrets and loaded plasma bombs into their bomb racks. For a few more moments nothing happened beyond both sides completing their preparations…
…then the Goa’uld opened fire.
~~//~~
Bright whitish-gold balls of superheated naquada-generated plasma burst from one of the dorsal heavy cannon arrays of the Ha’tak and streaked towards the alien warship that was daring to defy them. The bolts slammed with white hot force into the green and purple hull of the Zentraedi cruiser and immediately broke apart and dissipated in a rainbow blaze of light as the advanced armour covering the hull immediately reflected over half the energy of the bolts back into space while dispersing the rest of it over a wider area of the hull reducing the damage. Though it did nothing for the physical impact of the bolts that made the cruiser ring like a bell and made Zentraedi crewmen stumble as the cruiser shuddered under the enemy fire. More bolts of plasma shot out of the Ha’tak slamming into the Zentraedi vessel shaking it violently but not currently doing any damage beyond scorching and pitting the dense outer armour band.
Simultaneously the death gliders and Al’kesh swooped towards the Zentraedi ready to commence strafing and bombing runs. Only to run headlong into a barrage of missiles and pulse particle cannon fire from the Gnerl scrambling to defend their mothership. Several gliders vanished immediately in balls of flames and energy though the handful of Al’kesh shrugged off the attack their shields glowing softly as they deflected or absorbed the energy of the assault.
Their attention grabbed, and their ire roused, by the destruction of some of their fellows the gliders broke formation and began engaging the Gnerl in high-speed dogfights. An arena where, somewhat to the Zentraedi’s surprise and displeasure, they were surprisingly capable as due to their advanced inertial engines – based on an understanding of gravitic science and gravitic engineering that the Robotech Masters would have been envious of if they’d been present – they were both faster and more agile than the Gnerl which relied on a scaled down version of the same largely Newtonian ion-fusion propulsion systems used by their capital ships.
While the fighters of both sides began fighting for their lives in a complete free-for-all space brawl the Zentraedi cruiser at last returned the Ha’tak’s fire. Dual heavy particle beams burst from the vessels particle beam turrets and slammed into the shield around the mothership with searing force making the shield flare with an orange light and ripple revealing the quasi-crystalline structure of the force field as its absorbed or deflected the powerful beams.
Shaken and startled by the powerful beams striking and damaging the shields, the Ha’tak burst into motion beginning to accelerate and manoeuvre with a speed and agility more comparable to a fighter than a seven hundred long capital ship. Simultaneously it opened fire with every staff cannon – both heavy and standard – array that could be brought to bear upon the larger, but slower and more sluggish in manoeuvring Zentraedi opened up pounding out endless streams of plasmatic death. High powered lasers and particle beams streaked back at it from the cruiser though, much to the frustration of the gunners, most of their shots missed the agile Ha’tak with only a handful of lasers hitting it and sleeting off the shields which glowed slightly more brightly each time a shot hit home.
Essentially the battle between the capital ships became a race to determine who would disable or destroy who first. In an attempt to assist their God, the Al’kesh made a bombing run at the Zentraedi cruiser, dropping dozens of plasma charges over the hull triggering numerous explosions as the charges detonated on impact blowing away chunks of the outer armour band and even disabling a number of the secondary combination cannon turrets.
It was the only run they were able to make as the cruiser’s missile turrets opened up sending a massive barrage of plasma missiles into space. Missiles that immediately swarmed the Al’kesh detonating against and destroying their shields before doing the same to the hulls beneath.
Even as the Al’kesh died the Ha’tak landed a full barrage of heavy plasma bolts on a section of the hull already weakened by the bombing run blowing through the outer hull and even penetrating the inner hull in two places causing numerous fires to erupt as atmosphere around the affected compartments was superheated to flashpoint. It was the Ha’tak’s last hurrah for as it pulled away several particle beams broke through its weakened shields and slammed into the hull.
The effect was far more devastating than what the victorious Zentraedi gunners had ever seen, or thought would happen. The reason being that – as with all Goa’uld spacecraft – the Ha’tak’s hull was made from an alloy of trinium and naquada, an alloy that was normally highly resistant to damage albeit damage from the plasma weapons of rival Goa’uld, weapons that the Goa’uld had long since optimised their ships to withstand as part of the near ritualized method of warfare that was part and parcel of the Goa’uld Empire’s normal feudal nature.
Against particle beams however it was the worst possible armour to use.
Instead of simply soaking up the heat and energy of the particle beams in the way it would a plasma blast the naquada in the alloy actually both conducted and amplified the energy of the blasts even as it destabilized due to the atomic disruptive effect common to particle weapons. The result was both predictable and utterly devastating as the Ha’tak exploded with appalling savagery, vanishing in a rapid series of explosions that sent debris flying in all directions – including into the hull of the Zentraedi vessel where it punched deep burning holes in already weakened hull sections.
Its opponent dealt with the cruiser, despite its own grievous wounds, turned to aid its Gnerl fighter pods against the annoying fast and evasive Goa’uld fighters. Unleashing another barrage of missiles from its missile turrets as well as a storm of laser fire that finally tore the last of them from the stars.
~~//~~
“Captain the last of the enemy ships have been destroyed.”
“Very good,” Captain Serval replied before coughing and waving a hand at the thin, but quite noxious, cloud of smoke that filled the bridge. Evidence of the numerous fires that were burning all over the ship, the result of the intense heat of the Goa’uld plasma blasts that had penetrated the hull. “Damage report?”
“Sir damage control reports heavy damage to the outer hull with breaches in sections twenty-seven, twenty-eight, thirty-one, thirty-two and thirty-five across deck one with the breach in section thirty-two reaching down to deck two – automatic hull repair has begun but it will be at least three hours before all the breaches are sealed,” one of the bridge crew reported
“Port lateral combination cannon arrays three, five, seven and nine are destroyed,” the officer continued. “Cannon arrays ten through twelve are offline due to damaged power conduits as are port side missile launchers thirteen, fourteen and sixteen. There is still a fire burning on the port hangar deck and fires are still burning in sections twenty-six and twenty-nine. Fire control crews and drones are getting them under control however and estimate that they will have them completely extinguished shortly. Engineering reports that the fold drive is offline due to a severed coolant lines they are working on it now but have had to completely power down the fold system to prevent it overheating.”
“Damn it,” Serval cursed knowing that kind of repair was a long, dirty job though thankfully they were better able to repair things these days thanks to their Terran allies providing them with numerous lessons in ship repair and enhanced damage control techniques. “How long?”
“Engineering estimates one hour to repair the damaged coolant lines. After that it will take thirty minutes to completely repower the fold system.”
“Tell them to work as quickly as they can.”
“Yes sir.”
“Sir we’re receiving a signal from the dropship,” communications reported, “they have landed and have recovered Colonel Ferretti’s expedition team. They should be leaving the surface momentarily.”
“Finally, some good news. Let me know when they’re about to dock.”
“Yes sir.”
“Communications establish a secure communications link with both Commander Breetai and UEDF High Command,” Serval ordered knowing he needed to report everything that had just happened to his superior officer and their Terran allies.
“Yes sir.”
~~~///~~~
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope you like the balance that I have struck between the various parties, especially the fact that the Zentraedi cannot just steamroll over the Goa’uld but actually have to work to defeat a Goa’uld mothership. Personally, I felt it better this way as it better represents the fact that the Goa’uld are actually quite a powerful and dangerous opponent even for someone with access to robotech weaponry. Now before anymore asks Jar’un while he has the same beliefs as Teal’c will not be taking his place as a member of the eventual SG teams, as for Teal’c himself he will appear eventually in the story though right now he is kind of busy leading a campaign to boot Sokar’s forces off one of Apophis’ largest naquada mining planets. Until next time.
