Chapter 34

Lightning Fervor

Helltanz's Notes:

Part II

-Chapter begin-

There was a subtle shifting amongst the spread of the ships. The soft barely luminescent glow of red energy shields against belied the shield's capacity to withstand and shrug off tens of thousands of gigatons per minute. That was of course the mere testament to the power of the old races. Reports had filtered to them of the final confirmed destruction of the last of the replicators in the Galaxy inhabited by the Asgard sometime ago.

It was to be considered good news, though better for the Aedra to be sure. This region of space known on Earth as the Perseus Arm was the region of space the Goa'uld dared not tread. Coincidentally Sokar's present domain had been formed from a vast swathe of territory bordering this region. Before his return though during the height of the Pax Re, under Ra's reign some time in the late sixteen hundreds the border region between the two worlds had been tightly patrolled by the system lords. In this day and age that was no longer the case, not that it would have mattered.

This fleet, this massing of ships was of the Daedra. Of course to realize that would require an observer to know of them, and that had the potential to be a problem in this era, since if you knew of them well...

Whatever the case this ships proudly served Jyggalag. They served the Daedric Lord of Order upon whom a curse rested to be dormant much of the time. His Faithful knew of course that one day the curse would break in full. One day enough of his foes would meet their final death and he would be free of the curse. For now though they prepared merely for the end of an Era.

Cautiously the Admiral reviewed the sensor data, there was too much interference to get accurate reads from the bulk of the Perseus arm itself of course. The Old Gods guarded their demesnes naturally, and their technology certainly helped in jamming nosy sensors, but the rest of the galaxy did not have such systems. Thus for most the galaxy, as it was for the Asgard, it was easy to monitor. It had been nearly six thousand years since warships built within the Perseus arm had moved across the borders into the galaxy at large. Into the Milky Way at least, ships left the galaxy frequently, other galaxies were fair game after all.

So their gods played their game of chess, and faithful soldiers waited. Andre had been waiting for a long time. The admiral remembered watching Sokar's armies from his sensors seeing the ships flit across slowly, achingly slowly day to day across light years during what the Goa'uld had called the terrors. More importantly he remembered watching Hircine's forces, those fleets sworn swords in service to the god of the hunt. For a long time it had looked as if Hircine would cross and plunge the galaxy into war.

In the end though that had not come to pass. This time though, "It could be different," he stated quietly watching the massed ships tremble moving by, perhaps when this era breathed its last they would strike out once again across these borders.

-scene break-

Bill flicked his wand, Dumbledore was definitely going have a cow. It was another Alien whatever it was, but it was different than the ruins left behind by Utgard. This though was different, completely different trappings obviously a different culture had build it. It still was something the local wizards of the time would have built. The surrounding human ruins, and archeological evidence was also telling.

"Do you know what we're looking at?" Hermione asked, it was a rhetorical question she didn't actually expect an answer, "This is conclusive proof of at least a third alien presence on earth during ancient times," by which she meant the Thanagarians, the Asgard, and now these.

Bill nodded picking through the feedback from his charm. "Yeah I mean there was always the idea that maybe the gods are really powerful magical beings, and then Thor shows up with a bunch of starships," A lot of the more conservative purebloods outright denied the existence of aliens outright, or explained it away as some thus unknown magical phenomenon. Of course from a muggle perspective some of the examples of alien technology might as well have been magic.

"Hmph," Moody snorted, "its based off Cunnieform styled after Aedric script," He grunted examining one of the panels and the Alteran symbols around it. "I think its safe do you see anything on your end?"

The curse breaker shook his head, "Nope looks clear to me," He announced. "Besides the shields back the way we came, and the anti apparition, and portkey blocking charms there isn't really much in the way of defenses." Of which they had had no luck finding where those spells were anchored, "I mean the defenses are all fully intact we haven't seen any breaches in them anywhere," Which itself was amazing because wards tended to at least require some level maintenance at least every few hundred years, just minor tweaks because really the spells hadn't changed much in thousands of years. So finding defenses that hadn't compromised after thousands of years had a lot of potential for other fields of research as well.

"It could be drawing off those recharging crystal batteries," Hermione remarked, "I mean they tend to recharge fairly efficiently from moonlight, and if there are enough of those they could power the facility for easily a thousand years." She speculated, "So what do you think all this means?" That was where the speculation started, and translating was probably going to depend on getting Moody to sit down after they documented every bit of the complex documented. "We should take photographs of everything," She suggested looking around. Not only would it be a good way of accurately documenting things, but it would give fellow muggleborn something productive to do for the Order. It wasn't intentional, but then again things that were institutionalized tended not be thought of consciously.

Bill shrugged, "Good idea as any. I'm just wondering if any of this will help us," He commented, "Don't get me wrong this is a find of the century, but I don't see anything that could really help us against Voldemort here." Then again Dumbledore was still absolutely positive the prophecy was the way to finish this whole thing.

-scene break-

O'neill growled as he endured yet another series of Pentagon wars. His new posting, that as commander the Earth Stargate, was already under fire this time from the Army. The only saving graces were he wasn't in the Navy's crosshairs. So it was Army engineers were getting moved to Cheyenne to start helping with processing offworld construction, which meant his problem was the Army's own officers. Navy seebees were all to busy with the Navy's terrestrial projects at the moment.

Of course then there was the planning, that they all had to sit through, about a possible expedition to Atlantis. Daniel of course was still doing the whole covert archeologist thing down in Antarctica, so it seemed a little soon. The Senate Committee was still breathing down their necks to compile a list of all alien installations on the planet so that plans could be drawn up to hopefully deal with them.

"We're concerned about the potentially deteriorating situation diplomatically," The head CIA guy was saying, which was weird because any diplomatic concerns, probably should have been coming from someone else.

O'neill perked up, maybe it was France again. The French had been pretty vocal about the whole situation, particularly after they situation with the British getting invited to have officers aboard the Illiad. Access to the Gordanian ship hadn't even quieted them down as much as had been hoped.

General Matthews, the army engineer brigadier who had been stationed to the Alpha site, piped up adding his two cents in, "What about the situation on the Korean Peninsula? Is that going to go hot any time soon?"

The spooks at the table took the time to glance at each other in turn, before the Defense Intelligence chief spoke up, "Not at present, the Chinese are making sure their little bulldog relaxes, though I imagine the bastards will want something for good behavior before long."

"What about the Russians?" O'neill asked, "Where are they in all this?" There were still reports about the Russians focusing in on their space program, especially with the current space station debacle going on. Allegedly, meaning there had been no confirmation of such a program, there was some new Star Wars style initiative for strategic defense, which could seriously alter the strategic perspective.

The Geospatial Intelligence officer looked up from his screen, "Basically we're looking at an acceleration of the same programs they've been doing. China, Russia, Iran, India, Brazil, Venezuela and several others are presently all talking," He popped up a series of high resolution satellite photos of what looked like transport containers, and started going on about coalescing intelligence from various sources along with transfers of material.

It took a minute to realize that all this language, especially on the news was sounding increasingly familiar. It was like it was cold war 2.0 all of a sudden. Then the NID director looked up, "Our special task committee should have our briefing ready on schedule." The NID and SHIELD had really dropped the ball in response to the attack on the SHIELD complex had gotten attacked, "We're still compiling our best advisement for dealing with alien weapon systems, but our preliminary statement right now is someone on Earth is conducting operations with what we believe are Alteran weapons, we have further evidence to indicate they may be metahumans. Then there are these weird energy signatures we've started getting. The first one we think we should be able to negotiate access to with the British after we talk to the Asgard, and the other..." Everybody looked at the map... there was an Ancient, as in the ruddy gate builders, on the freaking Sinai peninsula. That right there was a potential national security disaster from the moment congress got to see it.

-scene break-

Normally Raiden loved being here. This world was the gem of Raiden's empire. It was a legacy of the ages of glory of the alterans who were long dead. Today was not one of those days, he was furious. The rules regarding things meant he had to do much like Anubis had when it came to finding things, and then there was of course the condition of the galaxy.

Now Baal had command of Anubis's assets, which did eliminate one threat of course. It meant... Baal was never going to be the scientific threat that Anubis had been. On the other hand Baal was far more defensive, protectionist mind set than Anubis.

"So the Lieutenant I assigned has finally located the ruins." Artemis pronounced her voice dripping with confidence. "I told you it was only a matter of time." She stated with a great deal of smug satisfaction. It was after all a key victory, certain to be useful in the present situation.

Raiden had no patience for the bragging of success. "Yes time is exactly what it took." he growled, "And those blasted humans still managed to keep Sithis's weapon from returning to optimum efficiency." That in itself indicated alone that the world was magically powerful. That itself was a problem, and coupled with the planet's problematic location relative to goa'uld controlled space was another one. He didn't have the resources to spare at the moment to go after the world. He might have the ability to, maybe in a century or so if his other half hadn't taken measures to secure the world, but not any sooner.
"But we did find it," Artemis protested scrambling to avert the Shinto Kami's anger. It was a find they'd been trying to locate for since before the terrors of Sokar, this all should have been good news. "We found the world all we need to do is find the Project and the Ancient Ruins complete excavations and be done with it."

Raiden's eyes narrowed in annoyance, and she made all that sound so damned simple as if he could spare the resources to pacify a world like that at the drop of a hat. "I think I know that well enough Artemis," He growled and if it was that easy. If it had been he would have done it as soon as they found the miserable little rock. He couldn't afford to expend the resources on a world that could two of Sithis's Speakers and whatever incomplete Weapon was there.

The system lord surveyed his dominion, or at least the projection of his dominion within the galaxy. The abrupt end to hostilities had caught them, the whole of the Empire, by surprise.

Kali and Shiva had both expressed some interest in Earth. That was certainly of little surprise, most Goa'uld controlled worlds were sparsely populated so the nearly one billion faithful were a very tempting asset. However even Baal would not be so brazen as to challenge.

For now though no doubt many of the system lords would be enjoying the return to the status quo, and of course picking over weakened holdings. Sokar by all reports was pressing Cammulus, and Mac Lir backwards at a concerning pace. Still it was only a matter of time before Cronus leapt in to gather his own share of the spoils. He would also have to move, further complicating his own fleet situation. There was no helping it at the moment though.

With Ra dead or out of power or whatever the situation was, because he certainly hadn't been seen in a decade things had radically changed. They would have changed anyway with Sokar, Shiva, and Anubis all returning. It'd been fortunate those three wouldn't have allied together.

-scene break-

Round nine hundred forty five of the Pentagon wars... or something, O'neill thought drearily as he sat with the other gathered leader's of the US's various intelligence and specialized service commands. "Yes" agreed another member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to something another of them had said.

They were talking about building up the fleet now that a number of the new shipyards were rapidly nearing completion. Heru'ur had brazenly offered apparently primo rates to the SGC to use some of his spare yard space. Yu Huang Shang Ti had not taken that well at all.

"The scientists at Area fifty one, and other bases, have established that we have access to the necessary raw materials to commit to the planned expansion of the fleet." Came the proclamation. "We're still trying to find a work around about the energy issue."

An admiral grimaced, the loss of the Nimitz had meant the entire Ford-class research budget had gone towards the new space fleet. "What is this going to cost?"

The generals from the regular Army, and the National Guard nodded. For the moment the army was getting relegated to being pulled out of conflict zones. Right now they were talking about pulling out of Iraq completely in two years maybe as soon as one, as well as pulling out of Afghanistan in the same time period. Then again alien invasions had that kind of effect.

The projector booted up, the choice to try and go back to dedicated gun ships had left some bitter feelings with some people. Congress though was rather insistent that obviously fighters weren't doing the job well enough, and that warships needed guns. The missile idea after the success during the invasion was getting mixed support too.

"We've demonstrated the ability to retain atmosphere through alternating force fields allowing us to launch and retrieve fighters in space," The projector swirled around giving a wide side profile of the hull design. The lines were a clear descent from the Daedalus-class hull. "Without the need to consider things like air drag," Shields, and anti gravity really helped with that, "We've completely fused the side pod features of the Daedalus-class into the hull expanding and enlarging the size of the ship over all."

Hammond looked up, "Are we talking about suspending the Daedalus-class? Taking those yards offline could critically undermine the planned build up."

"No general we're not," Another General remarked, "The plan is currently to maintain Daedalus production, while both the Daedalus-class, and the first generation Prometheus-class were important first steps we need to create a ship that is capable of going tow to tow with the meanest ships in the galaxy."

"With all due respect, sir." O'neill stated, "I've talked with the eggheads at area fifty one and our intel guys."

The General nodded, "We're aware of the report, General O'neill." O'neill tablet blinked in front of him, its political realities, Jack. Most likely that had been from Hammond, "As it is stands General we consider the threats posed by the Goa'uld capital ships the key reason to build dedicated capital ships. The success of our enhanced missiles prove that it is possible to destroy Goa'uld warships."

-scene break-

Hermione was back in London. Bill had the site well in hand, and really there wasn't much they could do until they had an understanding of the language. So for the time being they were all waiting in London looking through the gathered up photographs as Moody laid out a rather crude rosetta stone to translate. There were already obvious dialectic differences but they had to start somewhere.

Actually managing to identify things was difficult, and while Hermione hadn't mentioned it a lot of what was in the ruins seemed more like technology than magic. Saying that though had problems, there was evidence that there had been magical habitation, they'd found magical items. So far they were really just basing off assumptions, and those assumptions were painting a pretty picture.

"So Lilith, as in like?" A nod in response.

Nobody really knew what to make out of it, and then Bill came tumbling through the fire place in a flurry of green. Whatever had happened with Hades and the underworld had caused some lingering issue with international floo travel, local floo wasn't really effected that much. "Uh," Bill was clearly lightheaded, which even with the problems international floo had been happening wasn't really an issue normally. He grabbed the table unsteadily, "Get Dumbledore," He grunted, "Muggles just raided the lab,"

The word had barely left his mouth before Bill dropped... from a bolt of red light from Moody's wand, "We don't know if he's compromised," He remarked unconcernedly, "Tell everyone we're shutting off floo access to headquarters for the time being."

When Bill had been woken up Dumbledore, and a number of other members of the order had gathered around the table. Pomfrey was not pleased for having been called in seemingly second to last. What Bill recounted though was more concerning, a lot of the order members thought what had triggered was some kind of blood ward mechanism. A kind of enchantment designed to respond to magic blood, though usually such things were family locked. Of course there was speculation that the ruins might just require wizard blood to prove one was a wizard.

A lot of what Bill had to say related to the latest round of discussions and then a bunch of guys in tan clothing, what Collin piped was military camouflage for the desert. The muggles breaking in though was surprising but it was the report of what seemed like a pensieve Bill had activated except that it projected the memories all around him as opposed to him going into device. Of course Bill didn't speak Alteran... which meant were he a normal muggle he might have understood one or two words, since he understood some latin he understood a bit more than that. It still wasn't really enough to really help things.

Dumbledore nodded, "Well I can't quite understand how the muggle government could find out about this place, but I am sure we could look into this," The muggle army had been defending the site under stonehenge, and more recently Glastonbury Tor as well, but this was completely different. "I suppose we should try and find out as much as we can, carefully of course."

-scene break-

The Gamma site was busy. O'neill had had to deal with a three hour long briefing of offworld command officers. Yu's August Jade of something or another fleet had swept into the relative western portion of the Goa'uld space. Ostensibly the movement seemed to be for dealing with some upstart minor goa'uld.

It was also why the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa representatives were here. The exact reason for Yu's fleet movements seemed a little circumspect. "The western fringe," The Tok'ra was saying, and Jack was only mildly paying attention, "Is a barren wasteland, it is the stomping ground of numerous minor goa'uld fiefs."

"A wasteland filled with thousands of worlds, and countless dying Jaffa!" One of the Free Jaffa... O'neill didn't like using the word but warlord was actually the Jaffa term they were using.

Despite officially the alliance well not really being functional there was still a lot of dialog going on, at least between the SGC and Teal'c and Bra'tac. The older Jaffa nodded at the exclamation, "Yu's fleet has best survived the war with Anubis, and the abrupt end of the conflict has left it both whole, and battle hardened. It is likely that with the situation on the fringe deteriorating he considers that the territorial gains away from the other system lords, or against those who have territorial borders along it will be vulnerable at the present."

"A series of border clashes between the systems lords is rather likely," Selmak commented finally speaking up, "He may be going after something other than those worlds."

Jack nodded, "Say like the Celtic Goa'uld,"

"No, whatever issues he might have with the likes of Mac Liir," The other Tok'ra said speaking up, "he's not moved against them, thats been left to Raiden, which has been... odd."
Selmak nodded, "What he means is its probably a pride thing, Raiden lost a lot of ships over Earth, and then the Asgard showed up, with the Celtic goa'uld faltering he's presented an opportunity. I'm more concerned about Cronus's actions recently, what have you heard so far?"

"That he's been moving through the last unclaimed remnants of Apophis's domain," Specifically worlds that Apophis had claimed from Ra, "and he's had a couple minor border skirmishes with Sokar," As far as Earth was concerned it was too far away to be a major issue. Sokar was well away from Earth.

Bra'tac frowned, "Cronus's power grows again, waxing in the wake of Anubis's defeat, and his armies march with some unknown purpose." The information that the Jaffa were bringing wasn't very detailed, only that Cronus was after something. The titan was still looking for Zeus but there was also his efforts during the war with Anubis to consider, and what that might play in regarding now. "The worlds he is invading are carefully chosen as if he is searching for something."

"We have not heard much from Chulak," Teal'c remarked, when Apophis's domain had fallen Chulak had been swallowed into Sokar's domain, "But now we hear that Sokar has plans to expand his hold over the world." Well that was news considering that when he'd taken it, he hadn't bothered doing much.

Selmak nodded, "What about earth's fleet?"

"We're building up?" Jack shrugged, "There isn't really much to tell, we're just now getting most of our yards to start working on hulls."

-scene break-

Things had in a way finally got back to normal, or close enough. There was the still ongoing senate debate over mutants, but given how much debate the legislature went through that wasn't likely to end any time soon.

The president's speech might have calmed things down, but the hearings were still going on. It was keeping Storm and Beast busy enough, and Xavier had left the manor some hours earlier, for some kind of emergency call from Scotland.

Rebuilding the institute hadn't really been an issue for Xavier. It'd even come with plenty of renovations, though they hadn't gotten the option to paint the walls. That had been left to a professional paint service.

The professor had even spent the money for the latest improvement in sound system technology, which Spike had taken liberal use of in his role as party DJ. Of course if the professor had had any neighbors would have earned a vocal noise complaint. There was no telling how long he'd be back in town, apparently he'd made friends in Dakota, and was eager to get back after the sentinel attack.

In normal circumstances none of this would have mattered to him. The politics of this world were largely irrelevant under normal situations, just as the music was irrelevant. The music, or at least what the humans called music, blared at what amounted to atrociously high volumes.

Sithis could have cared less. His magic coiled flaring as it pulsed. Gone were the flowing open black robes, or even the altmaterium mail armor, Daedric pauldrons. He dressed in dark business slacks and a matching black shirt. The dark clothes further accentuated his pale flesh, and his ebony hair was pleated at the nape of his neck. If anything he cut the picture of a stern late portion of the twentieth century businessman. "Should I take it upon myself to hazard a guess as to the reason for your distress?" he inquired, the almost serpentine quality of his voice cutting through the air despite the deafening tones of the music. It was a simple trick of magic not even worth conscious thought, merely the will to be heard.

Rogue looked up more than a little shocked. "Shouldn't ya think ta knock before entering a lady's room?" She had shut the door to avoid being any more disturbed to begin with.

This was the being who had originally Harry Potter, the boy who lived, transformed in the Age of Myth in the end becoming the Dread Father Sithis. He'd lived for millions of years, enough to see species rise, and die. "I am quite certain your music would have obscured any attempt to announce my arrival." He remarked. The comment was of course untrue, but she didn't need to know that.

She waved the god off. "So what makes ya think I need your help?"

Sithis raised an eyebrow. "Something has caused you some amount of distress," reiterated the Daedric lord. He had considered ordering Constantinos to bring him the offender, but had decided against it... for the moment.

"Ah it was nothing." She stated in a feminine southern Drawl. Seeing that the death god didn't seem to believe the statement Rogue elaborated. "It was just some anti mutant hooligans at school."

Sithis nodded. "Then it is decided." It was as he thought. His magic curled furious and cold within, he knew that those same problems had been an issue for Arkay's sworn as well, enough that Arkay had manifested twice. This was an offense, a heresy against them, a crime against the gods themselves as the priests would say. It was a trespass against his own... it would not stand.

"What?" Rogue exclaimed, "What's decided?" she asked the inquiry partially tinged with annoyance.

"I shall be accompanying you." Sithis stated as if it was an obvious conclusion

"The heck you are." Rogue responded. She'd heard enough of this, there were enough problems going on between the yet another alien invasion clean up, and the mutant haters, never mind all the other mess that constantly cropping up.

Sithis raised a perfectly crafted eyebrow at the protest, "I fail to see the reason for the objection to my accompanying, they offend you," he commented. "It is either that, or Constantinos will bring me their heads," Being attached to their bodies was completely optional. He would take their souls for this offense one way or another. It would settle the matter one way or another. Even through all the noise that was reverberating through the rebuilt mansion. It was entirely possible everyone on the same floor or the wing might end up feeling it as it flowed. There was the unsettling cold of magic, and his irritation made palpable. He had been considering his options for sometime as it was. Little fault could be laid at Constantinos's feet for this. It was true that while it was annoying the man could not be present constantly. He'd settle for laying the fault on the responsible party in the first place. "This was not up for debate," He commented, "I would sooner fix this, rather than wait, and eventually have it force Arkay's hand as well."

"I-," There was a groan, the name got bandied about... and originally she'd figured it was just one of Logan's friends, but that had gone out the window soon enough, "What about him?" The guy had been popping in more recently than before so something had to be up.

His face set in an unreadable expression, "Do you think that these fools, that they challenge only adolescents?" Sithis questioned rhetorically, "They are a folly ridden lot insistent to challenging their betters." The dark god grunted, "They make perhaps as much trouble, or more for the others, Hircine would have me believe it merely natural selection,"

"I don't want to know," Her response was met with a nod, better that she didn't meet the lord of the hunt just yet in his opinion. "In fact the whole situation is enough of a mess..." Rogue sat back down and crossed her legs indian style, "alrigh' so what now, what are you going to do? I mean Xavier thinks that," She trailed off the Xmen were all divided on were they stood on Xavier's position. Every day it seemed like the situation got worse.
Sithis raised an eyebrow it was the most normal gesture she'd seen him do, but then a being billions of years in age was so far from normal it was understandable. He was a grim patrician growing from infant to man in another epoch of humanity all together alien from this one. What did she expect his response was going to be, "Xavier's wishes on the matter are inconsequential to us," He murmured softly. Let them scramble about of these genetic oddities it was such a waste of time complaining about it.

"Well," She wasn't sure whether he was just using the royal we, or if he honestly believed she should ignore what the professor wanted. Still the notion of him showing up at Bayville High... well Constantinos was at least a thousand years old and he stuck out like a sore thumb. The chances of well Sithis being anything remotely resembling inconspicuous while at the school was slim to none in her opinion. "thats all well and good, but the professor is off in Scotland so we should give him time to get back, and its the weekend so no school until Monday. So you don't need to worry about it." She really hoped he bought it, tomorrow storm was supposed to be getting back from DC, but there was no telling when Xavier would be getting back. All she could really hope for was that there wouldn't be any incidents in Bayville over the weekend. If something did happen she'd never hear the end of it if this was any indication. If they were lucky Duncan Matthew and his band of idiots would have the good sense not to do anything stupid come monday.

-Chapter Conclusion–

Helltanz's Notes: The wizards are finally on the road to meeting the SGC.