What the Frell did you do this time Erpman!
Disclaimer: See chapter one
Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews. Your suggestions were taken into consideration for the forthcoming chapters.
Chapter 7 Flying Pyramids
John's sigh of relief turned into a curse as he checked his aft sensors.
There were two squadrons of coralskippers and a cruiser-analog traversing the inter-dimensional wormhole behind them.
"Look sharp sunshine, we're not out of this yet!" John exclaimed, hoping for a miracle to suddenly appear and save them.
He could feel Harvey starting to beat his head against an imaginary wall in their shared frustration and inability to escape the Yuuzhan Vong.
The Farscape shuddered from the stress of existing the wormhole and nearly ran into the small fleet that was waiting for them there.
John checked his sensors.
There was four pyramid-shaped ships surrounding the wormhole, one was larger than the rest, and inter-sped between the ships were swarms of golden fighters.
"Son of a BITCH! This is getting excessive!" John said, cursing their luck.
John did the only thing he could in this situation. He gunned the engine and shot straight at the unknown ships hoping for the best and fully aware of the utter chaos that would ensue when the Yuuzhan Vong ships entered the fray.
He did not have to wait long.
The coralskipper squadrons burst forth from the inter-dimensional wormhole followed closely by the cruiser-analog. The wormhole closed up behind it.
The Yuuzhan Vong ships all promptly opened fire on every ship in sight.
Golden fighters began disappearing by the twos and threes as the Yuuzhan Vong discovered that they were unshielded. The larger, less numerous assault ships that were the slightly larger than marauders, interspersed between the fighters, fared better against the coralskippers and survived the initial onslaught to return fire; most of which was intercepted and absorbed by shielding voids.
The assault ships and golden fighters learned to fight together quickly and some of the coralskippers began to break up under the massed fire.
The cruiser-analog on the other hand was faring much worse than the coralskippers.
Under the concentrated fire of four unknown warships, each one bombarding it from a different direction. They were unable to intercept all the blasts and hits were already beginning to register on the hull.
The cruiser-analog did not sit there and do nothing. Its commander chose a target and began concentrating all the cruiser's fire on one pyramid ship.
The shields on that ship began to flicker and weaken. The rain of magma missiles began concentrating on the weakened area and in short order the shields flickered one last time and died.
The missiles began impacting on the pyramid ship's hull and after 30 seconds of sustained fire the ship went up in a spectacular explosion of starfire.
But the cruiser-analog paid the price for its focus as the other three ships focused on its rear. The hull breached there and the cruiser-analog began venting atmosphere and flash frozen bodies.
In desperation, the cruiser released its last remaining group of grutchins and a squadron of coralskippers that the commander had been keeping in reserve.
The grutchins turned the starfighter engagement into a complete massacre and the golden fighters began disappearing at an even more alarming rate, freeing up more coralskippers to aid the embattled cruiser-analog against the pyramid ships.
The newly released squadron of coralskippers and the cruiser-analog converged on the nearest pyramid ship whose shields promptly failed on under the combined onslaught of magma missiles. Once the shield was down, several of the coralskippers immolated themselves on the unshielded ship hastening its demise. The pyramid ship in question began to break up.
Unfortunately, for the Yuuzhan Vong, the cruiser-analog was now on its last legs as more and more hull breaches began to pocket its surface. As more dovin basals were destroyed, fewer voids were available to soak up the enemy fire and more destructive plasma blasts reached the hull.
It was a viscous cycle that would end only when the cruiser was destroyed.
The last two pyramid ships were faring better than the cruiser-analog.
But not by much.
The smaller pyramid's shields were on the verge of collapse and the larger pyramid ship's hull was pitted with magma missile strikes that had gotten through momentarily weakened shields, but no hull breaches had occurred. Its shields were stable, for now.
The golden fighters were now almost all gone; but not in vain.
Working with the larger assault ships they had steadily whittled down the number of coralskippers to a single squadron of which several were badly damaged.
In one last ditch effort the cruiser-analog fired all of its remaining volcano launchers at the smaller pyramid in one massive salvo.
The ship's shields glowed brightly under the rain of missiles until the shield generator exploded through the hull. The coralskippers began strafing the unshielded ship.
Unfortunately, the pyramid ships finally got a break as the cruiser-analog began to break up, under the still continuous weapons fire from the larger pyramid ship's guns.
With the destruction of the cruiser-analog, the remaining coralskippers, now only six, turned as one against the weakened shieldless pyramid ship. They all focused their power on one area and under the relentless onslaught the ship finally came to a fiery demise taking four of the coralskippers with it reducing the remaining number to two.
These two coralskippers turned towards the last surviving pyramid ship, intent on doing more damage before their inevitable demise for the two Yuuzhan Vong warriors piloting them had no fear of death after such a glorious battle.
The assault ships picked off one but the last one managed one last act of defiance as it immolated itself on the shield area protecting the pyramid ship's bridge.
Finally, the battle was over.
And this dimension's native forces had triumphed.
Barely.
During this battle, John Crichton had tried to avoid being destroyed by both sides and for the most part, he had succeeded.
Halfway through the battle they had been hit a striking blow that pushed them out of the way of the battling warships but it had also succeeded in disabling the Farscape's already damaged systems.
The two opposing forces had left them alone during the battle, but now the last remaining pyramid ship was heading towards them and John did not think they were going to be very happy.
As the ship got closer they could see that the hull was pitted by missile damage that had pierced the shields during the battle.
The Farscape shuddered as the ship locked a tractor beam on them and pulled them into the docking bay.
"Hang on Aeryn, I don't think that these guys are going to be in a very good mood," John commented darkly to Aeryn.
As they entered the docking bay John could see that it was in complete ruins with collapsed bulkheads and even the ceiling had collapsed in certain areas. Clearly the ship had taken a beating at the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong even with 4 to 1 odds.
And waiting for them was a group of fierce looking angry warriors in metallic green body armor, skirts and heavy boots. Some of who had weird looking serpentine helmets with red eyes, while the rest appeared to be either human or sebacaen. Each warrior held a long heavy staff in their hands.
As the Farscape landed the warriors surrounded the ship and pointed their staff at the it and John could now see that some sort of barrel was present at the pinnacle of each staff.
John could now see their faces, faces that were both stoic and intimidating.
"Gee, look at all the happy faces, they're really happy to see us, ain't they Aeryn?" John sarcastically commented to Aeryn, who snorted at his statement.
A warrior stepped out from the group and gestured for John and Aeryn to exit their ship.
"Well here goes nothing…" John said as he reached for the hatch release.
Aeryn sincerely hoped he was just joking.
A short while later after exiting the Farscape and being disarmed, they were lead through half-collapsed corridors to what appeared to be a combination Throne Room/Bridge.
One that had seen better days.
Much better days.
That last coralskipper had definitely done a lot of damage with its suicide run.
There was debris everywhere and metal girders jutting out of all the walls at various degrees and angles.
But what took up both John and Aeryn's attention was the enraged dark skinned man that sat on what was left of a throne staring malevolently at them. His eyes were dark and shone with malignant intelligence and power; they reminded John of Scorpious on his worst days. He was dressed in a gold version of the warrior's armor (without the skirt) and was wearing more eyeliner than a drag queen.
"You might want to cut back on the makeup a little, people might start taking," John sarcastically commented aloud.
The man eyes flashed with recognition.
Then they glowed as he stood up.
"Cool," John muttered.
"So this is the famous Tau'ri wit I have heard so much about," the man's voice resonated unnaturally.
So he's definitely not human or sebacaen, thought John.
The man continued, "Who are you? Where did that wormhole come from? Who just attacked my ships?" he demanded.
"Me?" John pointed innocently at himself, "I'm Butch and this is Sundance," he pointed to Aeryn.
"Well Butch, you had best answer me if you wish to see tomorrow," threatened the man angrily.
"Well, lets see, the guys that attacked you were the Yuuzhan Vong, really nasty bunch by the way, you should probably stay out of their way next time. As to the wormhole… well… I can't tell you," John answered.
One the nearby warriors struck John in the back with his staff, sending John to the floor.
Aeryn went to strike that warrior but two others grabbed her before she could do anything.
The man motioned for them to release her as he moved towards her. He stood face to face with her and looked her directly in the eye and said softly, "Defiant are you." It was more a statement than a question.
She glared at him.
She never even saw the backhanded blow that came at her. It sent her skidding across the floor while giving her a bloody lip.
He was incredibly strong.
"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size! And while you're at it why don't you cut back on eyeliner!" screamed John at the man.
The man turned and faced John, the man knew an insult when he heard one, "You think you are a match for me insolent human? I am the great God Tutu! Who did you think you are?" proclaimed the man
John, standing once more, heard the proclamation and was about to retort when the man's name registered in his mind.
Surprise blossomed on John's face, "You're who?"
The man proclaimed again, "I am Tutu, the great god Tutu!"
"Your name is Tutu? The Great God Tutu!" John could not keep the laughter in anymore. He broke into hysterical laughter, he laughed so hard he felt tears run down his cheeks.
Tutu stood there becoming more and more enraged at John's insolent manner.
Aeryn watched John with trepidation while she wondering what was so funny.
When finally John stopped laughing, he wiped the tears from his eyes and said to Tutu, "Now that is the stupidest name I have ever heard in my life," John proclaimed.
Tutu finally reaching the end of his tolerance of John, he raised his right gauntleted hand. The crystal in the middle of the gauntlet glowed and suddenly John felt himself flying through the air.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he flew through the air, he heard Aeryn scream out hysterically, "Nooooo…", and then he felt a sharp pain in his back that spread through to chest as he was jerked to a stop.
He looked down at his chest to find several pieces of metal sticking out of his chest, he reached out with a shaking hand towards the metal, his mind trying to come to terms with what had happened. He could hear Harvey in the back of his mind, insanely howling in denial at this cruel twist of fate.
John Crichton was finally going to die.
Killed by an unknown alien in an unknown dimension and no one was going to know what had happened to him and Aeryn.
NO ONE.
I can't go out like this! I can't leave Aeryn and the baby alone in an alien dimension! I CAN'T! NOT LIKE THIS! John's mind screamed out in silent denial.
He felt hands on his face and looked up into Aeryn's eyes.
He saw a look of profound loss on her face, one he knew he had caused, "I…I'm sorry sunshine…," he managed to croak out before he died.
Aeryn shook John's corpse and screamed her everlasting defiance of this oh so cruel twist of fate.
"I can't lose you again Crichton! I've already lost you once before! I can't continue on without you!" with each passing statement she became more and more hysterical, fixated only on John Crichton's cooling corpse.
So fixated was she, she never even saw the blow that knocked her out.
Author's Notes: Next time things get very interesting…and RELAX remember this is the Stargate Universe; Sarcophagi abound. Also as to the timing this is somewhere in season 7, I haven't decided when yet.
Please, please, please Read and Review!
I DID NOT make up the name of this Ancient Egyptian God/Goa'uld!
If you want to know more about the god; go to
http/ www dot godchecker dot com slash pantheon slash egyptian-mythology dot php ? deity TUTU & name tutu & Submit 2 dot x 30 & Submit 2 dot y 2 & pantheon Egyptian
Also to prevent any forthcoming confusion, Farscape's Ancients are NOT Stargate's Ancients. Its just a case of similar names.