Hi people! This is something I have been and will try to continue working on. It's a prequel to my up and coming rewrite of Return of the Old Ones. I hope you enjoy and please review to let me know what you think!
-Spearhead
Lingbao Tianzun, hero of Erebus and destroyer of the Rer Consortium, sat on the small throne that his position required him to sit on. His surroundings were a fusion of gold and black, traditional of the Goa'uld. While his clothes were a gorgeous red silk robe with an intricate stitched design. On this mighty station, constructed by Ra, the Supreme Commander could meet with his underlings and discuss his domination of the known galaxy. This meeting was irregular and unscheduled. Lingbao wasn't meant to meet with Ra for another month, yet he was summoned and here he was.
The door to the meeting chamber opened and Ra entered. With one quick motion, Lingbao was on his bended knee with his head lowered. He hated this. He hated grovelling to this pathetic Goa'uld scum. But the fact that his two brothers, Yuanshi and Daode, were not here, meant only one thing. Ra had found out their plot against him and was coming to take his revenge. Lingbao didn't dare stand up, encase he was just being paranoid.
"Rise." Ra commanded. He did as he was told, like he'd done a thousand times before. He would continue to play his part, for now.
"My lord." Lingbao said as he reached his full height, continuing to look down to the floor.
"Report your progress. The Naquadah mines on Erebus have not provided the monthly bounty you promised." Ra demanded.
"My lord, shouldn't we wait for my brothers?" Lingbao asked, stalling.
"They have not been summoned. Their tributes have been paid in full, yours is the only one lacking." Ra informed.
"I apologise my lord, the mines have been poor and the slaves slow." Lingbao begged. How could his brothers have met the increased Naquadah demand and not tell him. He was funnelling every spare bar of Naquadah into their secret construction of ships on the distant moon of Tolic, that was once a Rer listening post.
"I care not for the condition of your slaves!" Ra barked, his anger was known for being easy to trigger.
"I beg your forgiveness my lord." Lingbao said, keeping his head low.
"You think I do not know where the Naquadah from the mines are going?" Ra asked, a smile creeping on his face.
"My lord?" Lingbao asked, faking confusion. Had Ra found out about the shipyards beneath Tolic? The shipyards that had yet to even produce a single vessel?
"My spies have told me of the increase in slaves on Erebus. You are trading it to your brothers in the hopes that they will provide you with more slaves to work the mines." Ra smiled.
"I am sorry, my lord, you are correct." Lingbao nodded. Ra had no idea, thank the ascended.
"A bold and wise strategy, young Lingbao. You trade the Naquadah for slaves and next tribute you will have double the quota, which means you can afford this one debt." Ra smiled, thinking he knew Lingbao's plans.
"I apologise, my lord, I should have sought your permission." Lingbao pleaded.
"Yes you should have, but I will allow you this one indiscretion." Ra chuckled.
"Thank you, my lord." Lingbao said, bowing.
"No leave, I expect you are needed on Erebus." Ra smiled.
"Indeed." Lingbao nodded, before quickly scurrying out of the room. As soon as he was around the corner, his grovelling posture changed into a stride of power and discipline. He hated this, he hated bowing to that pathetic, dishonourable scum.
Yuanshi and Daode stood on a metal balcony, deep underground and watched the construction of the Pyramid shaped vessel in the chamber in front of them. They both wore similar robes to their brother, however Yuanshi wore blue and Daode wore yellow. This was the only ship within the secret shipyards on Tolic that was over 50% complete. The rest were nothing but frame work, with one or two of the lower levels finished. Because of their entire slave labour force on their home worlds being assigned to the Naquadah mines, they had to fake deaths and tunnel collapses in order to get workers to Tolic in order to build these ships.
Tolic itself was unimportant and seemingly abandoned. The barren moon orbited a gas giant and was only known because it had been used by the Rer Consortium as a listening post during their war with Ra. It had been abandoned when the Rer had fled their planets and went beyond the galaxy's edge in order to escape the Goa'uld. But to the select few who knew where to look, the entrance to the hidden shipyard was easy to find.
With a work force of one hundred and whatever Naquadah they and their brother Lingbao could smuggle away from their tributes to Ra, the construction was slow going. Ra hadn't been stupid when he'd taken over as Supreme System Lord. He'd confiscated any ship that could be used to rival him. The only ships the System Lords were allowed to possess were Tel'Tak and Death Gliders. Even the ships being built here were based on ancient designs fused with several Rer technologies that they'd managed to salvage from the orbital outpost that was mainly used to intercept and decipher subspace communications.
"It is going too slowly!" Yuanshi growled, slamming his fist down onto the metal railing.
"Patience brother, they are doing the best they can." Daode reminded.
"If they go any slower, these ships will be obsolete by the time they're finished!" Yuanshi snapped.
"They already are obsolete." Daode laughed.
"Not with the Rer shielding." Yuanshi reminded.
"We don't even know if the shield technology will work." Daode informed.
"And at this rate we will never find out!" Yuanshi barked.
"What would you have us do? Smuggle more slaves more often to this operation? Funnel more Naquadah from our mines? Both run the risk of detection." Daode explained.
"I know that! But why can't we conquer one of the outer lying worlds under the control of another system lord and take all of those slaves?" Yuanshi asked.
"You know that is also too dangerous. If the System Lord informs Ra, he will have a ship there within hours, nowhere near enough time to get them here." Daode said, shaking his head.
"So we must go slow and risk dying of old age before we have enough ships to challenge Ra?" Yuanshi queried.
"Brother, you are already old." Daode laughed.
"I'm only a fifty years older than you!" Yuanshi said, slightly offended.
"And a hundred years older than me." The voice of their brother chuckled from behind them. The pair turned to see Lingbao stood in the centre of the Ring Platform, smiling.
"Brother, what took you so long?" Daode asked, smiling.
"I had a meeting with Ra, he wanted to know why my offerings were low this month." Lingbao replied.
"What did you tell him?" Yuanshi asked, immediately.
"I told him that I was trading Naquadah in exchange for slaves." Lingbao informed.
"That is partly true at least." Daode chuckled.
"Indeed." Lingbao nodded.
"Speaking of the increased slaves, do you think they'll help you gain more Naquadah for this endeavour?" Yuanshi asked, indicating to the half complete ship behind them.
"Naquadah isn't the problem, able bodies are." Lingbao said, crossing his arms. The silk pressing softly against his skin, it felt cold to the touch, which is just the way he liked it.
"We can't risk moving more slaves here. Ra may grow suspicious at the mounting death rates. They may be slaves to him, but he does notice when they begin dying in excess." Daode reminded.
"Yes I know, but I know of no other way to build ships faster." Lingbao nodded.
"There is no other way, unless we begin to increase the labour here, it will be years until we can overthrow Ra." Yuanshi explained.
"Then we will wait years." Lingbao nodded. Daode didn't say a word, he simply smiled at Yuanshi.
"You two are going to be the death of me." Yuanshi said, shaking his head in disagreement.
Well, there it is! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and let me know where I should take it from here. I was thinking I could leap forward to the point where they're ready to fight Ra and begin the rebellion, or I could go through the boring motions and show how they slowly build up their resources. Let me know!
-Spearhead