Stargate: The Covenant Empire Chapter 10, a stargate: sg-1 fanfic

To VexMaster and Q8 – I'm sorry I made Picard seem like a coward. In both appearances he made, he doesn't really fight. I always felt like Picard was a diplomat than a fighter. He does fight in his first appearance (though it is a short battle,) but he has fought in the month-long war, which I didn't really go into detail. I'm considering having a side-story on the Covenant-Federation-Romulan-Vulcan-Klingon-Borg-Dominion-etc Wars.

Atheist – The Covenant is a Theocracy – what the Hierarch is doing IS something that a religious fanatic would do. He's using Salvation from God and the idea that he is God's Second Son to increase his power. Anyone who doesn't believe in him, must he purged since they are evil. Religion isn't all that bad… the constant struggle between Science and Religion has spawned so many philosophies and pushed people forward, but I admit, Religion can also be bad. I hope you enjoy the story though.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Stargate

Inspired by StarGate: Galactic Imperium » by VexMaster.

But, indeed, you are given the power of the Holy Covenant to erase those who have embraced evil, and kill in my name, the name of your God, the Lord.

Final Revelations 9:12

The Holy Bible

The world was white.

Alexander blinked and looked around, and saw nothing but pure white all around him, spreading across, like a box that's edge you could never touch. He wondered where he got that thought, and ignored it. "Where am I?" He said loudly, and realized, with a start of confusion, that his voice sounded older. He repeated his question, and indeed he sounded older.

He frowned.

"Hello?"

Nothing.

He looked at his hands and saw the wedding ring from when he married Caprica-Six and Boomer. It was a simple Trinium-Carbon ring with a rare Dumandi Crystal, one of the most prized crystals in the Milky Way (Stargate Galaxy,) and smiled. That had been one of his happiest days in his life.

"…"

He paused and looked around. He swore, thought it would be against his law of swearing in the Lord's name. But right now, he wasn't the Hierarch, he wasn't the ruler of a vast Covenant Empire, the Prophet of God, the Second Son, he was just simply the orphan Alexander Reed. That was all he was right now, and he could swear all he wanted to.

"…"

"Who the hell just said that?" He shouted.

Nothing.

He shook his head – what did he expect? However, after having beings look up to him, respecting him and listening to his every word, he actually did expect someone to listen and say something.

He growled.

"…"

Ahh… so now there were three different beings with him, one sounded feminine, the other sounded old, and the other sounded young. He looked around, expecting to see someone but saw and heard nothing anymore. He cursed and felt as if someone or, at the very least, something, was watching him. He felt uncomfortable – he was the ruler of the Covenant, the most power entity known. He abandoned his guess for a brief moment: "Who in fucks' name are you? Do you not know who I am? Talk, speak, the Son of God, the Lord of the Covenant and ruler of the Empire and brother of Jesus of Nazareth, commands you!"

He waited and added, "If you fail to obey, then the wrath of my Father shall be harsh and swift!"

That alone should have caused any sensible being to with a mind to reveal them and bow. But no one came, no one listened, no one bowed and no one appeared. They were ignoring him, and after so long, it was a strange feeling to be ignored, and he hated that feeling.

"…"

Suddenly everything changed.

A bright flash enveloped him and he covered his eyes as he felt cold water splash over him, yet his clothes didn't get wet. He felt a gust of wind, but at the same time, he didn't feel it. He coughed as black smoke drifted into his mouth, and he felt something latch unto his skin and wrap itself around it, before vanishing. He couldn't see, everything looked pitch black.

He stumbled back and suddenly he saw a world, one that seemed highly advanced with Forerunner spirals rising up in the distance and nearby, stone-like buildings that touched the sky, skyscrapers, all around him. He saw cars, and pavements, a extravagant church and a memorial.

Then he saw everything else.

"…"

"What the…" he whispered, his eyes wide in fear as he saw bunkers, ruined and blackened with plasma scorched, bodies sprawled, blood of all colors running on the streets, on the wall's, in every nook and cranny. He saw the remnants of a Covenant Assault Carrier, the most powerful warship in the Fleet (save his flagship,) sticking out of the ground a distance away. He blinked, and the church vanished, to be replaced by a crumbled building, the cross sticking out, and a stone hand reaching out from beneath it as if trying to get out.

He stepped back, and walked into something.

Turning around, he stumbled away as a Centurion and several dozen other machines were placed in a pile, misshapen and bent, green blood, almost-acid like as it burned slowly through their Trinium armor, was splattered. Their pulsing red eye was gone, some were missing arms, or legs, or even heads. There was a sea of the green blood around them, but no bodies. He leaned forward and touched the Centurions, shocked and fearful.

What had happened?

"Do you truly wish to know, Hierarch?"

Alexander turned and saw a man, wearing the clothes of a prior although he wasn't a John Cavil Number One Model. As strange as it was, the Hierarch could tell what he looked like, it was as if his face changed a thousand times with each second, he could catch glimpses, but he was never sure. "What is this, place, where am I, and who the hell are you? Do you KNOW who I am cretin? Do you understand the power that I have, the legions of followers that obey me?"

The man waved his hand: "Such arrogance for a amusing being such as yourself, you consider yourself so powerful, Second Son of God? I wonder if you are becoming insane, or you are still partially sane. Alexander Reed, Hierarch, which are you, do you still remember? "

He did not have time for mind games. He grabbed the arm of a Centurion and raised it, pulling a wire in the shattered arm and the quadruple-barrel of the machine gun sprang out of the wrist and fired a hail of Trinium-Carbon explosive shells. He smirked as bullet holes riddled the insulting 'Prior,' and blood sprang out. The wrist weapon spat out the last bullets as the body finally fell, torn apart. "You cannot match the power of the Second Son of God," he sneered, walking towards the body, dropping the 'arm.' "I am the founder of the Covenant-"

"Arrogance."

"What?"

The Hierarch felt fear as the figure rose back up, the bullet holes sealing and flesh rebuilding above torn muscle, the strange opponent grinning. He raised his hand and he felt unearthly pain coursing through his body – as if he was dying millions of times all at once, as if his atoms were being torn apart, stitched back together, and then torn apart again.

It was….

Unbearable…

"What arrogance to call yourself God's Son. Hierarch, Alexander Reed, I have to come amuse myself with your future."

Alexander looked at him, panting, on his knee's like a pitiful dog, like the bitter orphan he had been not that long ago. "What do you mean? My Covenant is… unstoppable… We are unbeatable. No Empire, nor Republic, nor Democracy or other can stand up to my might."

The man laughed. It was a strange laugh, one that invoked primal fear within the heart and soul of the Hierarch, and he shivered in fear. "Nothing but I and your God last forever. Everything must, at one point, end. And soon, in my view, your Covenant will wither and die, slowly and painfully. It will tear itself apart and you shall be forced to die or start anew."

He laughed nastily.

"Oh yes, the choice seems obvious – to start anew. But you will find that the most obvious choice is the one that will not make you happy. But if the most obvious is not the most obvious, then does that not make it the obvious? If that is so, then neither is obvious, and neither will make you happy, and then so, what will be your future, Reed of Alexander?"

Glaring at the being, he rose to his feet and shook his head. "I have my own choice, and I decide my own future – do you dare assume you can control me, I decide what I am and how I live. The choices that I shall make shall bring me God Hood, and I shall assume power above all!"

The 'Prior' shrugged and waved his hand in a dramatic fashion that mirrored what the Hierarch usually did. The war-torn streets seemed to melt away, and then he covered his eyes as bright light erupted from the Prior and then dimmed, and ebbed away, all at once. "See what your possible future holds, see what is going to happen, God and Son cannot stop destiny."

Alexander paled and felt the urge to vomit at the scene before him. Fires raged around them, the ground was scorched and mutilated, vehicles of all sizes ands shapes from the bulky Wraith Tanks, to the hulking monstrosities of Star Wars AT-AT's and even some sort of Humanoid-type Machine were scattered about, as was blood of all colors. But not bodies, no, except for a few, the bodies from the chaos and shattered machines should have been numerous, and yet, they were all missing, or at least, most of them anyway.

Why?

"H-H-Holy One…"

Someone grabbed his leg and Alexander, suddenly realizing it, was back in his armor, his glorious and all powerful armor.

A man clutched at his armored leg, and kneeled. The man looked pale, his left eye was gorged out and his right arm was a bloody stump, while his left arm was but bare bone, and ligaments. His body, the parts that were not covered by the skin-tight leather shirt and trench coat, were slowly burning away, he could see the ribs, and the muscle as they were eaten away by the Green Blood.

He recognized the man, because he had watched the DVD's before the Buggers – he was amazed that he still remembered them and his world - invaded and conquered his Earth.

This was Neo.

The Hierarch eyes widened, and he looked down at the broken and dying man, and wondered how Neo knew him, and he was here. He had not yet acquired him, having not found a Matrix Dimension. He had found several possible candidates, but they were all simply variants, none of them truly Matrix Dimensions. The man clutched at him with the bony hand, coughing up blood.

"This will, if you should choose him to be, become your Network Infiltrator Spy, the most lethal and effective, for lack of a better word so I will use your pitiful little world, Hacker. But against your greatest foe, something that I can easily destroy, but if I ever did, well then, where would the fun be? Let me show you," he grinned, "what occurred a few moments before… "

There was a bright flash and the Hierarch felt Neo's grip vanish as well, and suddenly heard explosions, plasma ruptures as well as shouts and screams and roars. The light vanished, and he saw chaos all around him. "They cannot see you, nor can you interact with them. Simply watch this game, watch as the fruits of your Covenant end in one glorious and amusing blow."

"What do you mean?" He demanded.

The man wearing the Prior clothes grinned impishly.

"For the Lord and for Salvation, to the death!" A Sangheili roared bravely, brandishing a Plasma Blade as he pointed to a flood of misshapen figures, deformed and twisted, stumbling and skittering in the shadows as the sky turned grey and black, casting them all in darkness. A Century of Kig-Yar, 100 Kig-Yar in total, and two Squad's of humans (20 in total,) all armed with Covenant Carbines and Staff Weapons and Zat'nik'tel's, firing desperately.

A Century of Centurions jogged, more or less ran actually, into the fray and leaped into the shadows, brandishing their wrist weapons and extending their metallic claws as they ripped apart the shadows. But in quick, succession, they too, were tore apart and their Trinium armor was melted away.

"What heresy is this?" He whispered angrily.

"A plague that will shall and most definitely destroy your Covenant."

"Silence!"

The man smirked.

"Let me shine some light upon your enemy…"

He raised his hand and a beam of light shot down from the sky and illuminated the shadows. He felt sick as he saw the unknown foe – a withering mass of what used to be Sangheili, but deformed and mutilated. Tendrils withered in the center of their chest, their skin grayed and decayed. Sinewy tentacles were clustered around their right arms, and their claws were extended.

The warrior's head was pushed aside, hanging limp and pulsing veins covered its silver armor. It held an Energy Pike in its hand, and pierced a Centurion, pulling the extended blade upward, ripping it in half. The creature, the former Sangheili, tore the blade out from the sides and fired at the Covenant warriors.

A Kig-Yar flew backwards; its body from the neck down up to its knee's, burned away instantly.

A Wraith rumbled behind the small Covenant Force and fired a bolt of high-intensity plasma in a smooth arc, and splashed on the engaging monstrosities and Centurion's, boiling them both away to a small number.

"See the resolve of my Covenant!"

The man in the Prior clothes simply yawned. "God will punish you, the way you act and insult the Covenant of the Chosen, and when I learn of where you belong, what world you exist in, you shall burn in a thousand hells. I know not how you infiltrated my mind, but I will push you out."

"So you say… so you say…"

Alexander growled in response.

"To the distance!" A Kig-Yar hissed, it's Xeno-Communication Translator, part of the Neural Implants, activating. The Kig-Yar pointed to the sky as a shattered hull of a Centurion was thrown and smashed into the bird-like alien.

The Hierarch looked, and raised his hands to his sides, his cloak bellowing as a large starship, an Executor-class Star Dreadnaught, burning and its hull blackened, rushed down from the sky, and smashed into the ground. "Do you understand now? This is your future, I decide your fate. This is all amusement for me, nothing more, and nothing less."

The Hierarch felt sick.

But as a Son of God… he was strong. A blade shot out from his wrist armor, razor thin and made of Trinium-Naquadah-Carbon composite. There was some Neutronium mixed into it as well.

With quick precision, he plunged the blade into the man's chest and twisted, enjoying the look of shock in his face. He grabbed the blade, cutting his palms against the sharp edge. His eyes widened as the Hierarch grinned savagely, and pushed the blade upwards, blood trickling down his hand and his arm. He cut through bone and flesh, and watched with glee as the man kneeled, gasping for breath as images flashed all around them.

With great reluctance, he retracted the blade and let the body fall. He looked at it with disgust and shook his head. "As for a rogue, his weapons are evil; He devises wicked schemes. To destroy the afflicted with slander, Even though the needy one speaks what is right," he sneered, "Isaiah 32:7"

He turned around and looked around at the new whiteness that replaced the images, emptiness.

"Evil, evil, Good, Good – do you really believes those foolish words that come out of your mouth? You are not God's Second Son, you are simply a Orphan from another Earth, one you are still afraid to go to, because you cannot bear the pain of seeing your devastated world."

Alexander turned in shock. It was impossible – the man should be dead! And yet before his eyes, the man grinned and rose up, the deep slash he had made in his body sealing up, and his blood evaporating. "What heresy is this?" He said angrily, "How can you still be alive? You are dead, are you the spawn of the Devil? What blasphemy is this?"

"You are a foolish man, an idiotic mortal-"

"I am GOD'S SECOND SON!"

"Of course you are…"

Alexander growled in anger. "I will amuse myself with this – why do you not go back to your Earth? You have, if I remember correctly… no wait, I'm positive, near 2 million followers on it. These Prawns, or Buggers, or Aliens, whatever you want to call them, although they are simply a different evolution of the Reetou, have begun to make your people slaves."

The Hierarch froze and paled beneath his mask. He remembered his home… his life…. Was it only just a quarter of a dozen years ago? He remembered when he left it, the state it had been in before, the half of the Bugger… Reetou… ship crashing into the US, and the destruction and genocide of his people. He hated them, the Reetou from his Home Dimension. They had wiped his people out… but then again, was it not for them, he would not have formed the Covenant, soon to be the most powerful entity in the known dimensions and galaxies.

But still…

For all his power, he still was afraid to go back. He had failed there, failed to destroy God's enemies and save them. He hadn't returned because, if he did, how would the people accept him? Devastated by alien invasion, the leaders of the world's religions dead, would they embrace him? He still harbored his memories of it, his life as a orphan, all still fresh and too recent.

He sighed.

How could he be so weak?

"Hmm, time's up," the man said slowly, "Seems that my little game is starting to take a turn far from what I expected… no wait, I did expect that." He laughed, "The Imperium… against the Goa'uld, the Empire and the…. Well, what a interesting game, so much… amusement."

"What are you spitting out now demon?"

The man waved his hand.

"Remember that for your arrogance and too far dream, you will pale to the power, my power, as Keeper of the Void."

"What?"

He grinned. "What you saw is just one thing… see others, the finest and the worst, although eventually, it will come to this."

The Hierarch saw a bright flash and he saw glimpses…. Flashes… images that moved… all of them passing by before he could really see them, melding into each other as they changed, slightly, or dramatically. He saw himself in one, with millions, possibly more, of different species bowing before him as his flagship loomed overhead escorted by twenty Executor-class Star Dreadnaughts at its flanks. He felt awe and power emanating from him, and smiled.

Then the image changed, and it was almost the same, except that there were fewer alien species, most of them Jaffa, and the sky was filled with Ha'tak's and such. "All Hail our God!" The crowd roared as one, "One God above all, Conquer of the Old Gods and defeater of the First Son, the Hierarch!"

Alexander paled.

"What in blazes is this?" He shouted.

The man snickered.

"Possibilities…"

The Hierarch looked at the Keeper, confused by this vision. Then the image changed, and he was on a world that was slowly being burnt away, legions of Covenant Sangheili led by Horus Guards, dozens of humanoid-machines leaping and flying into combat. A crisscross of plasma and bullets and bombs filled the sky, smoke rising up into the sky, holy warriors dying as their shields were overwhelmed and drained away within mere seconds.

Their opponent was – to his shock and pain (he wondered how many times he would be surprised,) he saw humans wearing a stylized blue uniform. On their arms, they had a Starfleet insignia with the words 12th IMPERIAL OFFENSIVE FORCE around the edges. "Heretics, you shall die!" A Sangheili roared as it threw a plasma grenade. "You and your Imperialistic Empire shall fall!"

He blinked.

Imperialistic Empire – was this the Mirror Universe of the United Federation of Planets, the Terran Empire?

Interesting…

Very Interesting….

The image blurred and he was in orbit, on his flagship, except that it seemed different, larger and more ornate. He looked around as the Keeper of Void smirked, and gazed out of the large 'window.' He saw a hundred Assault Carriers, Baseships, Destroyers and Battlecruisers, Federation and Klingon Starships, Star Destroyers and Star Dreadnaughts, Borg Cubes and Ha'tak's of all types engaged in a enormous and terrifying battle, against a equal number of ships of impossible design, as large as his Carriers, and many more even larger.

Plasma weapons, drones, and drone-like weapons crisscrossed open space, swarms of fighters blasting across hulls and shields alike. It was terrifying, and awful, horrible and intriguing at the same time. "You can hail your opposing vessels if you so desire," the Keeper of the Void said, "You can interact, if you want to."

"Truth?"

"Truth."

Alexander cleared his voice: "Hail opposing vessels-"

In the name of the God-Emperor, for the Galactic Imperium, you and you pathetic Covenant will crumble!

"What?"

The Great Emperor, conquer of all that stands before him, will decimate your Covenant as he has done to other Empires. No one can withstand the fury and the desire of the God-Emperor, for what he wants, he shall get for he deserves it, and only he.

"Impudence!"

DIE!

"Time to go."

The image changed, and they were back in emptiness. "In the name of the all-seeing Father, what just occurred?"

"Possibilities."

"What do you mean? Answer, do not use cryptic remarks!"

The Keeper waved his hand, brushing him aside. "I have overspent my time here little insect."

"How dare y-"

"Wake up," he thundered.

…

"Sir?"

…

"Holy One?"

…

"Illustrious and Exalted Hierarch?"

…

"Great One?"

…

"Are you awake yet?"

…

"Perhaps this is a good time to kill him – we do not need another Goa'uld to take over… yes… now is a good-"

…

The Hierarch awoke abruptly and sat straight up in his Gravity Chair in the bridge of his flagship. "Tok," he caught himself quickly, "what brings you here? Have we arrived at the selected system? Have we made contact with those who embrace God, and the heretical Orbital Weapon as of yet?"

The Tok'ra spy bowed.

He saw a small syringe slid in a pouch at her waist; no doubt she intended to kill as he slept. He blinked – when did he fall asleep? He did not remember falling asleep while traveling…

He sighed.

"Yes Holy One," The Tok'ra said, "we are coming in orbit around the world known as Tegalus, and the heretical Orbital Weapon will come into view in one minute. The probe orbiting the Tau'ri Homeworld detected a Hyperspace window, they are sending their flagship, this Prometheus to this world. They will arrive within two hours, minimum, Holy One."

The Hierarch smiled behind his mask.

"What occurred in the series… shall not happen here," he muttered to himself, soft enough so that only he heard, "Prometheus shall survive Ethon, and soon, when the time is ripe, shall willingly join the Covenant when I finish all tasks. I shall let them have their glory, it amuses me…"

The Tok'ra looked at him, confused. "Holy One?"

He looked at her – had she heard him?

She looked back.

"Sir, what shall we do now?"

Ah… she had not noticed him… that was excellent. If she found out, well, he would just kill her.

"Contact Field Marshal William Tek'nor," he ordered to the Tok'ra Spy, "Prepare all Troop Ships for planetary deployment, and begin to bombard the heretics with all Strikecraft."

Then the Hierarch dismissed her, and the Tok'ra bowed and left. "I will toy with these heretics's long enough for the Prometheus to arrive, so I can show them the strength of the Covenant – by destroying the Ori Orbital Weapon. Thus they will understand the folly of believing in False Gods, and rejecting the hand that I gave to them, to save their souls."

He smirked.

All was falling into place.

He paused and remembered… the dream?

He paused.

…

"Keeper of the Void…" he whispered, watching the Cold War-era planet below him, "Soon, God will take his vengeance and burn you, cleanse you of evil. You will suffer eternal damnation."