Chapter 9
After a long series of meetings and a lot of research, Xander felt that he was ready to once again use the Ritual of Janus. The faint lingering weakness had passed weeks ago and he had taken steps to hopefully make the ritual less draining.
Mass sacrifices were a reliable method of generating large amounts of power and his memories contained numerous examples of such. He was able to create an elaborate setup within his Los Angeles base on a piece of property he had purchased for that purpose.
The stone ziggurat was covered in various sith runes designed to focus energy. The runes were inlaid in Naquadah and enchanted with a variation of the one laid on the Effigy of Proserpexa. The enchantment allowed the Naquadah to enhance magical energy to same way it enhanced electricity and other energy types. He had tested it and blood magic had thankfully not triggered an explosion.
Just in case he had paid to have a full hundred people sacrificed for this ritual. He realized he had been dangerously weakened the last time and was fortunate it wasn't permanent. He was taking no chances with this one. Especially considering what he was summoning.
He was planning on summoning a Sith. While he was also summoning many others, a proficient darksider was a terrible threat. Especially considering who he was summoning.
Sorzus Syn. By those who know of her, she was considered the mother of sith alchemy. She took it further then any before. She created creatures and artifacts that no other sith ever managed to replicate. The Telos Holocron was but one of her creations.
As much he wanted her working for him he couldn't take the chance. As such, the person wearing her costume was strapped down next to a cage of a Ysalamiri. Droids were also present and instructed to stun her immediately. The room she was in was also sealed from the outside and filled with explosives as a last resort. The last precaution was the use of a lucid host to make the summoning temporary.
When Xander conducted the ritual, he felt almost let down. The ysalamiri formed perfectly and Sorzus was stunned easily. He wasted no time in cutting off her head and walking out of the range of the ysalamiri. Before the head fully died, he used Dark Healing to keep the brain viable. He then used Force drain to copy every piece of alchemical knowledge she possessed.
As Xander walked over to another chamber he was glad for the cumulative memories of the Goa'uld he possessed. Otherwise he was sure that he would have passed out. While Sorzus had barely been over two hundred years old, the sheer breadth of knowledge she had possessed on the Force was staggering. Mentally she had incorporated everything she knew about the Force to alchemy so he had copied far more then intentioned.
Sorzus had not been the only Force wielder he had summoned, merely the most dangerous. Kor Vastor had been summoned for his mastery of Plant Surge and Beast Control. He had also been the one to create and wield vibroshields in battle. His fighting style would prove useful for Eric's project.
Rokur Gepta had been the other Force user summoned. The last and greatest of the Sorcerers of Tund, he was also incredibly skilled in Force Illusions. Fortunately he was physically frail and many of his powers would not work on droids.
After absorbing both of them Xander realized they both had the same problem as Sorzus. Worse, he realized their memories were more vivid then he was used to. Annoyed, he meditated after ordering everything else summoned stunned or restrained.
It took most of a day to integrate the memories. Some quick experimentation did reveal a benefit from it though. While he was far from complete mastery, he was already proficient with the skills he had stolen. Satisfied with the outcome he checked the other summoned beings.
He tore apart the half dozen instances of the Vuffi Raa droid he had summoned. While he wanted several of it's abilities, he'd rather be safe and try to study it's remains. Deeming the rest harmless enough, to took all of them back to the Tatooine base.
The Givin he released to Kooloota, who appeared overjoyed and bowed to him several times. The various species of engineers were kept stunned and the computers they carried, filled with the greatest inventions of their race were fed into the computer banks. The various other species, summoned for their biology were preserved and placed in storage.
That taken care of, Xander turned to the last two groups. The Sharu were a relatively unknown race mentioned only a few times in the books and comics. The few examples of their technology were incredibly advanced. They also didn't seem to use computers, so he had instead summoned a group of scientists and engineers from their race.
After draining them, a process taking a few days, Xander was largely disappointed. While their industrial capabilities were amazing, they didn't seem to possess too much else. They possessed little in the way of travel technology, having very primitive hyperdrives and sublight engines. They were pacifistic, so possessed almost no weapons.
The few advanced technologies they did possess were significant. They had mastered phase-shifting to the point of allowing them to use quantum armor strength materials into their architecture. They had also used crystalline circuitry, similar to the Goa'uld. The last technology was the most important from Xander's point of view.
They had developed interdiction fields with vast ranges and power, making his current gravity well projectors look like toys. They had also found a way to concentrate the field to create the subnuclear 'knots' of space-time required to create repulsorlift generators. Without it, he would have had to create a truly massive factory space station around a blackhole to create them.
Overall satisfied with the Sharu, Xander imprinted the information on Willow. She ran to copy it into the databanks before experimenting with their new options. He then turned to the last group and the one he had wanted the most.
He took his time absorbing the Spaari. He didn't want any problem to arise from missing any detail. Their cloning technology had never been successfully replicated and from the books were capable of remarkable things. With their ability to rapidly grow and age clones several projects would become much more viable.
It would have been another month before they could see if Eric's Gargoyle project worked. Even with it's rapid growth and gestation, they were still left waiting for it to finish growing. The initial tests and all the simulations were positive, but were no guarantee of success. With the cloning tubes, they could be grown in hours instead of weeks.
Lilah was feeling very satisfied with herself. The ritual had gone off perfectly and Xander had seemed very happy with the results as he left. The prestige she had accrued within the firm for flawlessly pulling off a mass sacrificial ritual within city limits had been heady.
Another venture had taken off as well. Nightweave had proven to be immensely popular. The demand for it around the world was very high. Primarily used to create armored formal weapon, it was affordable only to the wealthy. It was fast proving to be a statement about status as well as fashion.
Pete had also expanded the options with providing the original thread. Much weaker then Nightweave, it still stronger then any other fiber on the market. It's looks more then made up for any deficiencies, resembling as it did spun gold. He promised to work on other colors, which would only increase profits.
The diviners had finally gotten back to her. It had cost quite a bit, but they had finally found something that met all of the requirements Xander had laid out. The game Starcraft was scheduled to come out at the end of next month and they predicted it would be a huge success. Starcraft was owned by a small company called Blizzard.
Even better, Blizzard was owned by CUC International. After a bit of digging and espionage she had found Blizzard to be a prime investment opportunity. It seemed CUC had been engaging in accounting fraud. With the right amount of pressure and blackmail, Xander could just buy Blizzard outright.
She smirked as she inwardly danced with joy. She loved playing such high stakes games and Xander had given her so very many pieces. The fact that he had managed to somehow acquire leverage over so many prominent businessmen was impressive. She had never realized how wide his net really was. From that perspective, the conversation when she informed him about the game was particularly intriguing.
Xander had made several odd requests, including the location of a Machida demon. She warned him of the danger of having your prosperity blessed by such a demon as they inevitably rebounded. He assured her he knew what he was doing and asked a series off odd questions concerning it.
Lilah ended up having to bring in a demonologist to answer them. She stood there and wondered why on Earth he cared about the demons eating habits and biology. Afterwards she ended up having to locate one for him against her better judgment.
She wondered what Xander was planning with the demon. He had started setting up a lot of meetings with it and she had been forbidden from attending any of them. She had seen him dropping off a number of droids that were well armed, presumably for it's safety. She hoped he was being careful. She couldn't afford for him to crash and burn.
Warren was ecstatic. With the first World Devastator completed it was only a matter of time before the Sith Imperium began expanding. Xander had promised to let him lead the first fleet that went out to conquer. He was looking forward to it and had been playing tons of RTSs in preparation.
He had also asked for and been granted the Executor. It seems that with all of the changes and new technologies he had been planning on scrapping it anyway. Warren couldn't believe him. It was the Executor! Darth Vader's feet had walked that bridge. Or Darth Xander's as the case may be.
As soon as Xander's new flagship was completed and the refit done, he would claim the Executor as his flagship. Thankfully he had kept the ship from being gutted and only had the bare minimum applied to the ship from the Uplift Protocols. Mostly those were the power plants and upgraded weapons and shields. He didn't mind those and could always scale them down to fit the originals specs.
He was going to be assigned a World Devastator to make him the more traditional manufacturing plants. They would be used to secure planets after he had conquered him. They were going to be enormous so he didn't have to spend weeks waiting for them to finish. They would primarily produce more Spartoi, but also be capable of making starfighters and orbital mines.
Another major item the internal factories would be setup for was Overwatch Droids. A scaled up version of the Watchman droids, they easily stood twenty feet tall and over ten wide. They contained an improved hypercomm relay and beacon. Both of which, thanks to the subspace communicator found on the Goa'uld ship, no longer needed relay satellites. The Holonet would life again! He was also looking forward to being able to still access Earth's iinternet.
Their armaments consisted of a single turbolaser and ion cannon. However, they also contained a tactical network to coordination up to a score of orbital mines. Paired with their sophisticated long-range sensors and they could monitor and defend a planet with ease.
The main starfighter the factories would produce were TIE Fighters. After much pleading, he had convinced both Xander and Willow to allow him to use their design. Upgraded and then augmented by Goa'uld technology they were much more advanced then before. With the Warmind project improving their performance, the aesthetics were almost irrelevant. At least so he had argued.
Warren knew the TIE fighters wouldn't be a match for any of the new small craft Xander had designed and was currently upgrading, but still wanted them. He just couldn't resist the idea of actually commanding the Executor and launching TIE fighters against his enemies. For that reason he had successfully argued to keep the most iconic of the war machines stored within along with their delivery shuttles. He was also planning on using the original Phase II Dark Troopers when possible for their resemblance to the original stormtroopers.
He figured the only reason he won his arguments was because of Xander's own decision to have a theme. Ancient Greece seemed a bit odd, personally he would have gone with a Roman theme. Just in case Xander ended up changing his mind, he planned on hunting down all of the Roman themed Goa'uld he can find as well as the Greek ones he was actually tasked to destroy. He figured Xander would thank him when he realized Rome was much better then Greece.
He had been tempted to construct a mechanical relay that resembled Darth Vader to act as his figurehead, but resisted, knowing Xander might kill him for that. He'd have to settle for a regular imperial uniform. At least they hadn't been replaced, even if they had been modified to use the new silks Eric had invented.
Xander checked over the status of the various projects. Things were finally beginning to pick up and he needed to make sure he stayed on top of everything.
Thankfully the process became self sustaining after a certain point, with the World Devastator working with the Architects to expand itself. Now that the first one was fully upgraded it was helping the Architects construct another. By the time the moon was fully consumed he expected he'll have at least several dozen of them.
He doubted he'll have that many any time soon. He fully planned on siphoning off several to start on other projects as soon as possible. He also knew they hadn't had any of the new technologies integrated into their designs yet. He had pulled Umak in order to work on the new design since he had created the originals.
The new version would incorporate both Goa'uld and Sharu technology fully into it's design. It would likewise be capable of creating them. In particular, it will possess the gravity engines necessary to create various phase-locked materials and incorporate much of the same material in itself. It would be much slower to replicate, but nearly indestructible. Umak, as much a political animal as a brilliant engineer, had named it Project Telchine.
The Architects meanwhile were busy resuming the construction of the Deepdocks. With the World Devastator briefly lending it's aid he fully expected them to be finished within a week. Once they were finished they could begin working on his newest ship.
With the Sharu technology he had an idea and had promptly pulled in Bevel to make it a reality. Bevel had worked wonders and the result was the Charybdis-class Battle Cruiser. There was still an enormous amount of work for Bevel to do, but much of the basic design was done. Kooloota and his team were working to help him finish the project.
The Charybdis was based upon a Hapan Battle Dragon. The dual disk shaped ship was expanded until it reached a full kilometer in size. A second ovoid, identical to the ovoid upper hull, was also added to the bottom. The now central circular disk was almost 700 meters wide.
The central disk housed the primary engines of the ship. Using Goa'uld technology the engines were housed completely internally. Even with as many upgrades as possible, it was still much slower then any star destroyer.
With the engines completely hidden the ship was much less vulnerable. Phase-locked material was to be used to armor the entire hull. It was also planned to be used in the support pillars and the rotational joints. They also protect the interdictor field generator.
The crowning achievement of the ship was the Sharu interdictor field generator that it carried. It was much more sophisticated then a gravity well generator in every way. It required much less room and wasn't limited to a single projection arc. It also outranged it, able to block an entire system instead of a battlefield.
Instead of a single rotational axis jointing the ship there was four connecting each disk to the next for a total of eight. Each rotational axis was smaller, housing half the weapons of the original. Despite this, they could fire even faster due to their faster recharge rates. The resulting stream of energy was almost a solid beam when aimed at a single target. It could even focus up to six of the eight axis turrets on a single target if needed.
The defensive weapons were replaced by boosted blaster cannons and ion cannons. The cannons were placed all along the hull in three concentric rings. The heavier weapons were removed to allow room for extending the hangers.
The upper and lower disks housed extensive hanger bays. To take advantage of the interdictor field a new series of repulsorcraft was designed. It was basically a starfighter with a repulsor engine instead of a sublight drive. Through extensive use of loading racks several thousand of them along with hundreds of additional small craft would be carried.
The repulsorcraft, named Scylla-class Interceptors, were based off the Slave 1. However it was significantly smaller, only standing twenty feet tall. Due to it's large repulsor engines, it was incredibly fast, outpacing the Harpy Fighters by a significant degree. It was also almost as tough since it didn't need space for a sublight drive.
The weapons consisted of six twin-barreled autoblasters. They were lined up in pairs along the body underneath the cockpit. The turrets housing them were angled so that when it was floating on its back they could still be used. The wings were also able to fold back and housed additional maneuvering jets. Combined with it's ability to float on it's back it was easily capable of traveling through a stargate.
He planned to have them replace most of the other war machines housed in the garrison bases. He also planned for it to be used as a supporting war machine for his own planetary forces. These included his planned gate assault squads.
The SGC didn't realize it, but he had began running his own Stargate missions. So far they were primarily follow up missions to the SGC's own missions. Most of the time he sent a few Watchmen droids through and followed it up with an Overwatch droid.
Several dead worlds, rendered uninhabitable for one reason or another he had marked. He planned to eventually terraform or harvest those worlds. The Stargates were still remarkable pieces of technology that Willow had yet to reverse engineer.
Although she hadn't had any luck with the Stargates, Willow had successfully studied the equipment gathered from Antarctica. The metal throne was a neural control interface and the squid robots were actually missiles. Testing had revealed them to be incredibly sophisticated missiles. The warhead seemed to consist of a mixture of Baradium and a new metal based upon Naquadah.
The Baradium seems to have been artificially engineered. Which was a remarkable feat considering they didn't have molecular furnaces. The new metal however, was terrifying. Initial testing of it had destroyed the moon Deimos. Without the Baradium lining to contain it, the explosion had been enormous.
Other tests had shown the new metal to be both unstable and volatile. All further testing was halted until a new facility could be constructed further away from his only base. The remaining missiles had been loaded onto a shuttle and stationed in deep space. Willow had dubbed the new metal Naquadium after all the other radioactive metals.
She had also woken up the female who was frozen. Creating a cure for the disease she carried proved almost impossible. Testing of it shown it to be remarkably virulent and adaptive to an unusual degree. In the end even Pete couldn't cure her. Since she had asked, Xander used alchemy to slightly alter the woman to remove the disease. The physical changes were slight, other then instilling a variation of Nish'ta permanently inside her.
The woman was incredibly intelligent, learning Basic in only hours very friendly. The changes had held true and while she was friendly she did sound a bit like a religious fanatic at times when it came to Darth Xander. Willow had named her Zinnia after the sister she had always wanted.
She didn't seem to be decreasing her learning rate and was studying the various tech bases without problems. Willow had gotten Xander to implant the various tech bases into her mind and Zinnia had adapted to that knowledge almost immediately.
Interestingly Zinnia had also displayed several psychic powers. They were varied and seemed to encompass the full spectrum of abilities only excluding telepathy. Willow was currently working with her to study them. Xander was looking forward to the results.
It was in the midst of this that he received a request from SGC. Xander didn't mind aiding them and promptly sent a shuttle. A bomb growing spontaneously within someone sounded like Belia's technovirus and he wanted a sample.
The bomb was easily extracted from the little girl, whose name he never bothered getting. He sent her back after erasing all of her memories after she landed. They could already view his base so that part wasn't secret.
Experiments revealed that it didn't convert flesh. Instead the entire device was present, but so finely distributed that it didn't resemble a machine at all. Instead scans would just show elevated amounts of trace elements lodged in their tissue. Disappointed, he sent everything to Eric.
Realizing that Earth was definitely not safe, Xander began making plans. While it would take a long time, he sent an Architect droid through the Stargate to each of his marked worlds with instructions to replicate. He sent a pair of Overwatch droids and several defensive satellites to watch over his investments. He also instructed them to bury their Stargates for now. He didn't want anything finding them by accident.