Welcome to the last chapter this year!
popupman: Good to know you enjoy this, and sorry I dragged you into Warhammer. If you don't mind me asking, how did you find my story in the first place?
starspawn07: Perhaps a little poor wording on my part. I have nothing against the Greater Good itself (aside from making it impossible to not think of tau when the words pop up); just the tau themselves really. Introducing a far worse enemy (i.e. Chaos) is exactly what's going to happen, and some goa'uld will be corrupted but not mutated into some second coming of tyranids.
Trife: I think you messed up Elarique's rank. I really must thank you for answering all of my questions, your answers really helped me. About SGA, though, I believe I'll end the story before that. I'm not going to include ascending in this story, at least on our protagonists' part, so Elarique won't be ascending but won't be devoured by Slaanesh either. No goa'uld possessing the warlock, though, because it would complicate my plans and I don't think a goa'uld would try to posses a near-dead body. In hindsight, might have been interesting.
Lunatic Pandora1: Well, the humans (and jaffa) did witness the fight, but didn't interfere because the eldar were handling situation quite well. Besides, if they did, they might have hit an eldar close combat fighter in the process, and that wouldn't have worked well for their image.
As you all might have already seen, I do not follow the episodes in this version, because... well, that really didn't work in the previous version. This time you get a plot that only sometimes refers to or includes an episode. Eldar won't, of course, start interfering until they have established where they are and have learned to somehow speak English (latter is not so mandatory).
Well, read on.
Last time on Stargate Eldar:
The Beast slammed its claws into the gates, blowing them open.
A monstrosity from the past broke free of its prison and escaped to the surface with Apophis' help.
"The monster is free!" shouted Captain Carter.
"I want power. Power to crush my opponents and conquer the galaxy," Apophis stated as The Beast stood in front of him.
"I shall tell you where to find power beyond your wildest dreams, Little One, if you so grave it."
The Beast attacked the eldar as the jaffa fled the world.
Sitting on his throne and clenching his hands into fists, Heru'ur cursed the fruitless journey while dropships retrieved the jaffa from the planet.
"Here it comes!" shouted Aluhrial. "Bring it down!"
A bitter battle began as The Beast showed no sign of stopping.
The Beast grabbed Quirath with its claws and squeezed, breaking his bones with its strength before throwing him away like thrash.
Only thanks to the sacrifice of Elarique was The Beast defeated before it could cause more trouble.
"No, Elarique! Please, don't..."
"I'm sorry, brother."
Light exploded from The Beast and when it vanished, the monster was dead.
And now, the story continues...
First Contact
Autarch Fetalque sat in his quarters, blankly staring at the wall in front of him.
After losing his sister forever to the ravages of the Warp, he was depressed. He tried to understand what had just happened. Elarique's spirit stone had broken apart on its own, releasing her soul within. It was hard to grasp the subject at hand: Fetalque knew spirit stones could crack and release the soul stored within, but this was different, far too different for his liking. The souls trapped within the stones weren't supposed to appear like his sister did, to have a form capable of talking or destroying a daemon before vanishing.
What was going on? How could this happen? How was this possible?
Fetalque sighed as he kept pondering what to make of this mess.
"He hasn't come out at all?" asked Farseer Aldreth.
"No, Farseer," answered Aluhrial. He had kept watch over the door to the autarch's quarters ever since they came back aboard. "He hasn't done much more than sit in there. I believe his mind is in turmoil."
"I am not surprised by this development. He did, after all, see his sister after her death, if only for a moment's time." She gave the door a sidelong glance before turning around. "There is no need to wait for him to come out. Let him be for the time being." She could sense Aluhrial nod and leave while she did the same, heading for her own quarters.
She had thought of today's events, and this was far too strange for her, too.
Aldreth walked down the corridors of Sword of Vaul, ignoring everyone who she passed along the way. Her mind was pondering about the strange events right after their ship had arrived here in this strange place. This whole new civilization, these daemons and Elarique's appearance.
Everything was out of place, even the Warp! It was so different than she was used to, with no raging currents or soul hungering daemons in sight.
It was like they had appeared in another universe all together. Maybe... Could that be what had happened? It sounded impossible yet plausible. It would explain everything yet not all.
Aldreth needed to meditate and try to make sense of all this.
It was a sight to behold.
The ground was littered with dead jaffa - blasted apart, cleaved in two, blown across dozen of meters with great force or simply shot to death. The strange warriors and their weaponry were truly frightening, of that Samantha Carter couldn't argue. One of the most amazing signs of their power was what was left of the giant monster released from underneath the citadel.
They had all witnessed the battle against this creature from behind the gates, opting not to interfere in case they hit these strange warriors and caused bad blood between them before even meeting them formally. Sam wasn't so sure how they would react to the Tau'ri, seeing that they seemed to have a quite distrusting attitude towards humans which was another mystery to solve.
"I still can't believe something this weird can even happen," said Janet as she examined a dead body next to Sam. This one had been stabbed to death with a bladed weapon.
"You'd better," replied Sam dryly, staring at the monster's remains with disgust. "We may have to experience more stuff like this. Whoever these people are, they don't seem that friendly."
"Considering they are still watching us," commented Colonel Sawyer, deadpan, looking at the gates and walls of the citadel. His gun was leaning against his leg as he sat on a downed Death Glider's wing. He didn't seem that concerned even with his comment.
"What do you mean?" asked Sam, looking around in confusion. She noticed Daniel, Jacob, Teal'c and Ro'nak inspecting a large, round area devoid of bodies while talking about something. She saw Captain Webb, Captain Bannon and Lieutenant Parker talking to a group of jaffa near the gates, mostly ignoring the gruesome battlefield.
"Look up, Captain," said Sawyer simply, pointing towards the gates. "Up there, on the balconies. You see them?"
Carter did as told, squinting her eyes to see the balconies. True to the colonel's words, she could make out figures standing there, watching them. They didn't even try to hide themselves, standing in plain sight as if testing them to see how they would react.
"I see them," she replied, turning back to Sawyer who only nodded.
"I think we should return to Earth," said Janet, rising to stand upright. "There's nothing that requires our immediate attention here, and I need to check on Colonel O'Neill."
"Agreed," said Sawyer as he jumped down from the Death Glider. "General Hammond is probably waiting for us to return already. Besides I don't want to spend another hour on this planet come hell or high water."
That was true; they were only supposed to escort Ro'nak back to the citadel and return in three hours. Now it had to have been at least four or five hours. People would be worried in the SGC.
"Webb! Bannon! Parker!" yelled Sawyer, attracting the attention of his subordinates. "We're leaving!"
"Daniel! Teal'c! You heard the colonel!" yelled Sam, forcing her teammates to cut their conversation short.
As everyone gathered on their location, they said goodbyes to Ro'nak and Jacob and then made their way down the long street. The small community that surrounded the citadel was empty at the moment, the civilians having not returned yet after their evacuation. The buildings were made of wood and were quite old, showing clear signs of lack of repair. Some were falling apart already, seemingly abandoned by people.
Sokar's reign of terror had truly kept the civilians scared: all windows had been boarded shut and all doors had been reinforced with whatever was available to prevent anything from entering. It was sad to know these people had suffered so much before Sokar was finally killed off for good.
After walking down most of the street, everyone halted when they spotted someone standing in front of the Stargate, as if studying it. He was dressed in black robes with a bone white helmet and armor. A silver spear was leaning against the DHD.
"What should we do?" asked Captain Webb, preparing his gun.
"Nothing radical; we don't want to scare him," replied Sawyer calmly. He then turned to Daniel and asked, "Can you talk to him or something?"
"I could try, but I don't know what language he speaks. Besides, he could turn violent," Daniel said as he walked to the front of the group. "Anyone have a zat in case he does get violent?"
"I do," answered Teal'c, drawing said weapon from its holster.
"As do I," said Sam, doing the same. She didn't really know if this would work at all, considering the hostile attitude and the fact that robe wearing warriors like this one could do supernatural things - lightning, fire, fading out of sight, even super speed. There was no telling what this one could do.
Daniel took a step forward from the group whilst everyone else tensed in anticipation, preparing for the worst. "Umm, hello!" he called out.
Sam resisted the urge to slam her hand into her face. Of course, she hadn't expected him to start a conversation in alien language immediately, but couldn't he at least sound a bit more confident? She hoped the alien didn't react badly to their unexpected presence.
The spear lifted itself off its leaning position and flew right into the alien's awaiting hand, glowing dimly as he turned to face them with the spear held in a battle stance. He eyed them for a moment, tilting his head to the side a bit as if asking them to speak.
"Can you understand me?" asked Daniel a bit hesitantly, eyeing the silver spear. "We mean you no harm," he said as he took a bold step forward.
Wrong move.
The alien spun his spear around him and brought it down on the ground in front of the gate's platform. The moment the weapon struck a shockwave traveled forth from the point of impact, blowing dirt and ground all around as it tore its way towards the shocked group of humans and a jaffa. Daniel covered his face with his arms, anticipating a painful impact, but to everyone's surprise the shockwave dissipated right before hitting Daniel, who lowered his arms with a confused expression on his face.
"What? I thought he was going to hit us..." muttered Daniel, taking a step backward.
Sam herself thought the same, and seeing the alien hold his spear and tilt his head in a confused manner told her that he really did try to hit them. So, why did the attack stop?
"Stop, we don't want to hurt you!" yelled Sam, activating her zat and aiming it at him in case he tried again.
The alien didn't react to her words as others aimed their guns at him, ready to fire if he tried the shockwave again. He stepped back a bit, his helmet's eyepieces staring at them - no, not at them but past them. He seemed hesitant, not because of guns pointed at him, but because of something else, maybe what had stopped his attack.
A loud noise broke tenseness of the moment, signaling the SG teams that Stargate was dialing the address; the alien didn't appear to notice this at all, holding his stance. He was standing right in front of the gate, oblivious to its engaging. The energy burst from the gate would easily send the alien flying, causing at least some minor injuries but nothing major since the area was pretty empty.
As the last chevron engaged, the alien, finally alerted by the noise, turned around to see what was going on just as the energy burst ejected from the gate before flowing back and forming what resembled a vertical wall of still water. The alien was sent flying backwards and slammed into DHD, hard. Everyone immediately rushed to his side and found out he was unconscious from the hit, the spear lying uselessly next to him, its glow vanishing.
"Well, that saves us the trouble of fighting him," said Sawyer with a slightly worried look on his face.
Carter remained silent, averting her eyes from the alien to see the men who emerged from the gate. SG-2, sent by General Hammond to see if they were okay, walked to them as the gate deactivated behind them.
Now, the only problem remaining was to get the alien to Earth for medical aid.
Maybe they could finally talk to him without him trying to kill them.
Korra dragged himself out of the wreckage of his Death Glider, bleeding from a gash on his forehead. His right leg was broken, forcing him to limp if he could even stand anymore. The crash had been worse than he had anticipated; the Glider was totaled and he could barely move anymore.
He leaned against the trunk of the tree his Glider had toppled when it crashed, resting his leg and holding his forehead. The bleeding had already stopped so he wasn't going to bleed to death. Good - that was good, right? But what would happen to him? The defenders would kill him if they found him, and Heru'ur would execute him for cowardice.
He looked around him.
The grassy field was peaceful, aside from the long trail of upturned ground where the Glider had hit the ground, struck a bunch of rocks and cartwheeled to its current location. The patch of trees was also mostly undamaged, save for a fallen tree or two. The citadel was in the distance, smoke rising from its surroundings. No one would find him here anytime soon.
"Korra..." came a low voice from the Death Glider's cockpit. A hand grabbed on to the side as the occupant started to pull himself up.
Korra hastily pushed himself to a sitting position while his hand reached for his zat, only to find an empty holster. The crash had dislodged it and flung it to floor of the cockpit. He was wounded and unarmed, unable to effectively fight against the co-pilot at this time.
The co-pilot pulled himself from the cockpit and fell to the ground on his back, only rise to his feet despite Korra's wish for him to break his neck in the fall. He slowly limped forward with his injured legs, drawing his zat from its holster and aiming it at Korra, his face twisted in an angry scowl. He fired once, sending electricity coursing through Korra's body.
"If you hadn't been such a coward, Korra," the co-pilot growled as the spasms stopped. "We would still have our Glider and honor. We could have destroyed our enemies and led our comrades to victory! But you had to ruin everything by fleeing from certain victory!" He fired again, sending Korra spasming again. "I will kill you in Heru'ur's name! Only then have I regained my lost honor!"
Korra's spasming stopped right in time for him to lean to the left and avoid the next shot. This, of course, didn't let him dodge the second shot that send him twitching again. Electricity coursed through his body as he desperately tried to drag himself away from the mad co-pilot.
He didn't succeed in the slightest.
The co-pilot's mad laughter echoed in his ears as he was hit again. The zat fired again, keeping Korra electrified and preventing him from trying to fight back.
The sound of a breaking branch distracted the co-pilot from the torture, allowing Korra to crawl behind the tree stump while he was aiming at the trees, calling for anyone in there to come out and surrender. He fired a few shots into the foliage as intimidation, hoping to hit whoever was hiding there.
Korra crawled away from crash site, dragging himself away to the shadow of the trees, hoping to get away. He stopped to gather his breath behind an ages old tree that towered over all the others. His muscles ached, the electricity having fulfilled its purpose, and he collapsed to the ground behind the magnificent tree, breathing heavily, his goa'uld larva screeching in the pain.
Korra closed his eyes for a moment as he forced himself to sit against the tree, listening closely to the co-pilot's frantic shooting. He hadn't noticed that Korra was gone - excellent! He still had time to get away, but his injuries were slowing him down far too much for his liking.
A soft green glow attracted his attention.
"What is that?" he asked himself as he followed the light to its origin, underneath the tree, in a pit among its roots. There was something there, something small. Korra lay down and tried to reach for it, wanting to know what caused such a beautiful glow. His hand only touched roots so he crawled closer and tried again, this time lightly touching the source of the light. Korra inched a bit closer, leaning on to a root as tried again. Just as he managed to grab the object, the root he was leaning on gave way, and he fell to the pit.
Groaning in ever-increasing pain, Korra forced himself up to a sitting position so he could examine the object held tightly in his hand. It was round, made of unknown metal and cold as ice to the touch. It was at least a twenty centimeters in diameter, and the glow came through numerous small cracks in the object's shell. He could feel something pulsing within, like it was alive. He stared at the sphere, mesmerized by its arcane design, bathing in its light, until he remembered where he was and what was going on.
He quickly climbed back out of the pit, pulling himself up with his arms since his injured leg pretty much useless right now. He held the strange sphere close to his body, convinced that it was his and his alone and no one would ever dare take it from him. He was so focused on the strange device that he didn't hear the co-pilot stop shooting. He could only stare at the sphere even as he heard footsteps coming ever closer to his hideout. It was like it was talking to him, whispering words into his mind, promises of great power.
He was so blind to his surroundings he didn't see a man walk next to him with a knife in hand. He didn't hear him demand "That belongs to me, jaffa," either. He didn't see him raise the knife nor did he feel it stab deep into his chest, puncturing his lung and heart. Only when the sphere was torn from his hands did he realize that something had happened to him, but it was too late. He didn't even notice his killer walk away like nothing had happened as he died with a knife in his chest.
Korra fell down to the pit, sliding to the bottom to be forgotten, never to be found again.
Nareleth knew he should have tried to delay the humans until Keconrith had finished studying the strange ring. Now, he could only watch in horror as the humans carried him through the ring's strange watery surface. He hadn't been fast enough to get to his current location to see what exactly had happened, but he saw a group of four humans come through the ring to meet up with the other humans as they gathered around a knocked out Keconrith. This same four-man group stayed behind as the others went through the ring and disappeared.
Nareleth needed to do something, but what? He couldn't start shooting up the place or try to rush after them. No, those ideas wouldn't work at all. He needed something else, something to go after them unnoticed.
"Ranger! What are you doing here this far from your appointed position?" demanded a voice from behind him, causing Nareleth spring up from his hiding place behind a small human house.
"Warlock Colnir! What are you doing here, Honored One?" asked Nareleth, not sure how to explain his reasons.
"Save it, Ranger! I came here to investigate why Keconrith hasn't responded or returned. Somehow, I feel you have something to tell me, do you not, Ranger?" There was no real anger or malice in his voice, but still seemed agitated by the fact that Nareleth was here and not in the citadel with the others. Not surprising since Farseer Aldreth had given them specific orders to stay there and keep an eye on its inhabitants.
"I was only trying to stop the humans from leaving until Keconrith was done here. I was too late, I'm afraid, and the humans took him with them through the ring. I am hoping to be able to help save him from the mon-keigh. There is no telling what those primitives will do to him."
Colnir listened to his explanation closely, until he finally nodded. "Return to the citadel and contact the Sword of Vaul; tell them of this development."
"What about you?"
"I'll try to infiltrate the place they took Keconrith to." Colnir looked around corner to observe the humans, with Nareleth doing the same. The humans were observing the area around the ring with their crude weapons at the ready, the ring's water-like surface disappearing. These humans would activate it later to return to their base of operations when they were ready here. This was Colnir's plan: to go with the humans under illusion and try to free Keconrith while the eldar here would try to find a way to operate this ring.
"Are you sure it will work?"
"No, but I must at least try." Colnir turned and gave one clear order, "Go, now!"
Nareleth didn't need to be told twice and he took off running back to the citadel. There was no doubt Colnir would be able to fool these humans with his illusions.
Hopefully Colnir would save Keconrith and return before the humans sliced him apart to know what made him "tick". And if that didn't work then the eldar would strike fast and hard against the humans and save the warlocks from their grasp.
Nareleth hoped the former would occur.
Daniel Jackson sat next to the unconscious alien's bed in the infirmary of the SGC, reading his notebook and making notes every now and then.
He had asked to stay with him while the others went to the debriefing with General Hammond. Janet had checked on the alien and then went to check on Jack when she didn't see any injuries that would need immediate medical attention. She said she would give Jack some leave from work, to give him time to recover from his injury. He was living on pure willpower when he was brought through the gate back to the SGC, after all. Janet had said she'd return to check on the alien again after the debriefing.
Turning to stare at the alien, Daniel couldn't help pondering about his mysterious powers and outfit. The robe and armor he wore were something Daniel had never seen before and wondered why he wore them in battle in the first place; they didn't seem to offer much protection. The alien's weapon was just as confusing: a silver spear, about a meter and a half long.
The alien began to stir, groaning as he rose to a sitting position.
Daniel closed his notebook and put it down to a table next to the bed. He pushed the chair a bit backwards to get a little bit of more distance to the alien; he wasn't restrained to the bed since he wasn't a prisoner and that would just upset him. Who knew what he could do if he felt himself threatened.
"Umm, hello," greeted Daniel, unsure if the alien could understand him.
His greeting made the alien jump, clearly startled by his surroundings.
"Can you understand me?"
The alien didn't respond, he merely stared at him in confusion. Daniel could bet that without that helmet, he would be making a near perfect imitation of Teal'c when he raised his eyebrow. He then looked around the infirmary, deeply confused.
Daniel was quite happy that the alien's spear was taken to the debriefing by Teal'c, because General Hammond wanted to see it and it would have been dangerous to leave it here. The security guards just outside the door also calmed him down.
"What is your name?" asked Daniel, testing to see how he would react. "Who are you?"
The alien turned to stare at him and tilted his head, eyeing him. He turned to stare at the closed door, as if pondering escape, and then looked at Daniel again.
"Mon-keigh," the alien uttered with such disgust Daniel was taken aback. It sure wasn't his name; he seemed to refer to Daniel with his statement.
"What does that mean?"
The alien didn't respond. He looked towards the door and rolled off the bed, keeping his eyes at the door. It was like he was afraid of something that was going to come through the door. He was beginning to hold the side of his head with his hand while leaning to the wall with his other one. Was he having a sudden migraine?
The door opened, and Janet walked in, wearing her traditional white coat. Her being here meant the debriefing was over already and the others were coming here soon. It was calming to know that Daniel didn't have to be with the alien all by himself.
"Oh, he's awake!" said Janet. "Ummm, is he alright? Headache?"
Daniel rose from his chair and moved to stand next to the doctor, "I don't know. It started right before you came in."
"Hmmm, that's weird. How long has he been up, anyways?"
"Couple of minutes. He hasn't done much more than stare at me - until now, that is."
Janet walked closer to the alien, making sure she didn't seem threatening to him. She reached out with her hand as the alien stumbled over a chair and fell to the floor. "Come on now, we don't want to hurt you."
Strangely the alien only sought to get more distance between them, even throwing the chair at her and speaking in his language. His headache also seemed to worsen, causing him to hold his head with both hands as he tried to move to the furthest corner of the room. It was like he was having this reaction to Janet's presence.
Maybe that was the case.
"Wait, Janet!" called Daniel, stopping her a meter away from the groaning alien. "Come here for a moment; I wanna test something."
Clearly not understanding what he meant, Janet did what he asked and backed away. To their surprise the alien's headache was clearly lessening in size. Janet backed away more, and the alien was getting better with every step Janet took away from him.
"What is this?" asked Janet, just as confused as Daniel was. They could only stare at the recovering alien with wide eyes, pondering this strange moment in their heads.
"I don't know," replied Daniel after a short pause. He had never seen anything like this.
Klaxons began to alarm around the base as the Stargate activated downstairs.
Farseer Aldreth sat cross-legged in her chamber, meditating.
She had foreseen what had happened to Keconrith and had sent troops to the surface to find a way to rescue him. She had also foreseen Nareleth and Colnir's conversation.
With the Warp strangely calm, nothing would prevent Aldreth from looking into the future, to observe the twisting strands of fate. She couldn't find a reason nor an explanation for this extraordinary occurrence, no matter how she searched.
The Warp also didn't give an answer to her many questions. Where were they? Who were these human-like aliens who used these pyramid-shaped ships? What was the strange ring that the humans used?
Where exactly was the Webway gate she and many other seers had sensed before the Sword of Vaul had gone after the invading fleet?
So many questions, and not a single answer.
Aldreth stood up with a heavy sigh; her meditation didn't give her any answers, only more questions. It did allow her to sent troops to the surface to mount a rescue operation, unless Colnir had already taken action. Then the situation could easily escalate into a rescue operation for two warlocks.
I wonder if Quirath has recovered, she thought, casting her mind over the Void Stalker class vessel. The warlock had been in critical condition when he was brought on board, having been almost crushed to death by the daemon on the planet. He only lived because Autarch Fetalque had arrived just in time to catch him in midair before he smashed into the ground and broke more of his bones. Quirath's wounds were grave, and combined with his excessive use of his super speed he would stay out of active combat for a long time. He had been unconscious ever since he was taken to the medical.
A few other Aspect Warriors had also been injured battling the daemon, but thankfully their wounds and injuries weren't that serious or lethal. Some would remain out of active combat for many weeks, however.
"Autarch, you must compose yourself," she whispered, sensing how Fetalque was still in his quarters, grieving his sister's soul. "Elarique wouldn't want you to fall into despair, not after what she's done for you today."
To her relief, she could see something in the immediate future, something that would help the autarch cope.
But what was it? What could help him?
And that's all for now.
Okay, my questions: What languages does Daniel speak? He says over twenty but what are they? How did you like revelation of the psychic null? When should I make that character list? Should Jack become a daemon prince for the final showdown with him? I really ran out of questions, so this is all I got. If you have a question, feel free to ask.
The poll has been closed and here are the results: Undivided 9, Tzeentch 9, Khorne 7, Slaanesh 5, Nurgle 2. So the winner is Undivided!
Well, I hope you guys had a merry Christmas and have a happy New Year!
Bye!