A/N: Sorry for the late update. Writing three fanfics at the same time pretty much slows down my posting speed. I hope you like it!
Reviews are welcome!
Edit: Ok, a friend at school told me this chapter sucked, especially the end. I agree, so I've rewrote it. I hope it is better now. BTW the official title of the Ori soldiers is 'Guards of the Ori' in this story, so that's why I keep calling them guards.
Chapter 36 – A Solution
Minos was happy. Although he hadn't been able to steal and search the entire facility for useful items, the mission was over. It was kinda hard to sneak almost ten thousand slaves unnoticed through a facility. Luckily there had been few guards that posed a challenge to Minos. Ok, there were no guards that posed a challenge to Minos, but the Prior had been the hardest to defeat.
Minos was carrying the Prior's staff now, and he had distributed the weapons from the facility among the slaves. They were walking towards the hideout of the resistance.
"Wait here. I'll notify the resistance." Minos said as he walked towards the cave entrance.
The resistance headquarters was built into a mountain. Well, built, it was a natural cavern for as far as Minos could tell. The cavern itself was huge, multiple rooms and hallways spanning multiple miles. The entire cavern system probably ran through the tall hill in which it was built.
"Minos, are you finally back?" Tarus asked with concern seeping into his voice.
"Yes. Things took a turn I wasn't expecting." Minos answered.
"Which turn?"
"The Ori used slaves to work in the facility."
"Slaves? What kind? How many?"
"Humans, just like you and me, and about ten thousand, for as far as I could tell."
"Ten thousand?"
"Exactly. They held them in a huge mine that was hidden beneath the surface of one of the woods north of the facility."
"Are these people from here? We've had an awfully large number of disappearances over the past few years."
"They are from here indeed. I spoke to one of them, their leader. He doesn't remember his name, so long has he been there. They all gave them numbers, for identification, but nothing else."
"That is terrible! Can we do anything to help at all?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, you can. This cave system is quite a bit larger than you might think on first glance. It would probably be able to house all the people for a short while."
"But how will we get enough food and water for them? We don't have enough supplies here."
"They had enough supplies in the facility, and we robbed them."
"You robbed them?"
"Yes. All the useful things we could find after the guards were slain are waiting in big carts outside this cave."
"Everything? How much is that?"
"A lot. And on that account..." Minos reached in his pocket and got some kind of remote out. "This." He pressed the button. "Is the rest." He said while an enormous amount of crates and racks appeared, filling most of the cavern floor.
"What is all of this?" Tarus asked after he got out of his surprise.
"This is about one month of production for the entire facility. There's armour, weapons that aren't finished and some processed metals, but most useful things are outside."
"Do you know what good exactly?"
"No, I don't know the exact amounts, but I figure there is enough food to last a month or so, several big stacks of staff weapons, some armour like the one the soldiers use and a few of these nifty little buggers." Minos said as he held up one of the explosive devices.
"What is that?"
"This is an explosive device used to blow up things like walls, doors, and Priors in some cases."
"You blew up the prior?"
"Yes. And I stole his staff. But it's ugly as hell, so I'm not planning on using it more often."
"We owe you thanks, Minos. Great thanks. Is there anything you want in return?"
"As a matter of fact, there are a few things that you can help me with."
"Like what?"
"First of all you can house the slaves in here, and try to give them a place in your society. They all come from villages nearby for as long as I can tell, so that shouldn't be too difficult. They have enough food for a few weeks, and they are used to work."
"Consider it done. Is there anything else?"
"Eh, yes. I may have alerted the other soldiers of the Ori a bit by killing the prior, so they'll be arriving tomorrow-evening or so. There will be more armies to come later on, but I think I can counter them..."
"So what do you want us to do?"
"Well, I need you to arm the resistance with as much weapons as you can, and defend the villagers against the soldiers of the Ori."
"I'll send out word as soon as possible. Can we help with anything else?"
"No, not really. I'll try and set up a defensive system against anything Ori-related that comes either through the gate or by ship to here, but you can't help me with that."
"All right. We'll do everything you ask."
"Thanks. I'll let the others know they can come here."
Minos left the cave and walked towards the enormous mass of freed slaves that were waiting outside. They entered the cave in an orderly fashion, and quickly spread out to all the hallways and rooms of the cave system.
Minos decided that he might just as well start building the defensive parameter immediately. He could perhaps use the kind of device the Asgard were using to defend their planets from the Goa'uld. Okay, not their planets, but the planets under their guard. He would just have to modify it a few little bits.
He only hoped that the ascended Ori wouldn't decide to start interfering on this scale, otherwise he'd be pretty much screwed. There wasn't much he could do to protect himself from an attack of that magnitude or power. On that account, it'd probably be best if he didn't linger to long in this galaxy.
It had almost become morning when the last of the slaves had finally found a place to stay in the cave-system. They used a few explosive charges to make some extra entrances and exits, with a little help from Minos to secure the mountain on top of them and prevent it from falling down. Minos had finished the device he'd wanted to make using a modified version of another Ancient device, the power source from a few staff weapons and the energy-barriers from multiple armoured plates.
That afternoon, the other armies of the Ori reached the village Tarus was from. About a hundred soldiers, armed to the brim with staff weapons, marched to the front of the village. Minos, who had anticipated their arrival, had expected their arrival and made plans to do something about it.
"We dare the one that destroyed our factory to come out!" The leader of the attacking soldiers shouted.
"If you do not show yourself, all will die!" The man added after a few seconds.
"We dare the ones that call themselves bringers of justice and righteousness, but enslave our own people, to attack us!" Tarus screamed from the edge of the village.
"Your impudence will not be tolerated!" The leader of the soldiers screamed.
"Your slavery, your rules and supression will not be tolerated anymore! You will leave this planet now, or be killed."
"Ha, and what do you, miserable little farmers without a backbone, want to do about it?" He said while aiming his staff weapon at the village
Suddenly, he stopped mid-movement, looked strange and fell flat on his face, landing in the mud. There was a long arrow sticking out from the back of his head which had killed him immediately after impact.
"Attack the village, or you will all die like you pig-headed leader!" A voice shouted from the tree line.
Minos had kept himself hidden in the trees of the forest towards the east of the village, waiting with an bow and a quiver of arrows for the first guard to attack the village. He was going to eliminate them if they dared to move. He was sitting on one of the larger branches of a large tree on the very edge of the forest. It was hidden out of view, but still had a nice position to fire from.
A few of the more aggressive soldiers moved forward, thinking the attack had come from the village. Six of the soldiers on the front line (seen from the village) moved out, charging their staff weapons and taking aim.
Minos saw his chance clean and fired five arrows in just under six seconds. The first one hit the last two soldiers square in the head, but it was shot with so much force (and coated with a special mixture of things that allowed it to pass through the armour of the soldiers with ease) that it flew straight through and landed in a tree opposite of Minos.
The other guards dropped like flies too, and the remaining soldiers kept their distance, backing away from the bow-armed danger that had already taken seven of their men with ease.
The interim-general of the soldiers started barking orders.
"Charge weapons!" "Take aim!" "Fire!" He shouted in a time span of just under ten seconds.
Minos had already seen that the soldiers were aiming at his position, so he had moved away as fast and as stealthily as he could. With his usual, extremely agile movements he jumped away before the guards started firing. He grabbed a branch, swung himself around it and launched himself further. He landed smoothly on some kind of platform in a large tree, where the branches formed a flat surface broad enough to stand on.
He fired a few more arrows at the still-firing soldiers before he decided that it was time to reveal and use his plan. It would present the soldiers with a choice. Either reject the Ori, or die. And it would show off his newest creation to the villagers.
He grabbed his swords and jumped down from the high tree he was standing in. He charged full speed from his position in the woods, swords raised and ready for battle. This kind of suicidal actions were his favourites, they always made him smile if they worked.
When the guards finally noticed Minos was attacking them, five had already fallen by the razor-sharp swords Excalibur and Durandal. Minos swung his swords around, slamming them full-force into the armoured plate mails the guards were wearing, breaking them into oblivion. The guards inside the armour fell just as easy. Because of the extremely limited use of the staffs as close-combat weapons, and Minos' agility and evasive manoeuvres, they couldn't hit him. But it wasn't until a group of other guards started firing on him from further that the thought of leaving sprung through his mind.
Minos jumped backwards and evaded all the shots fired at him by making a double back flip in midair. He landed smoothly and before any other guards could take aim at him he was away already. After a few seconds, they took aim at the relatively small form sprinting away from them at full speed while simultaneously running after him. Minos darted around, making sure he wasn't hit by any of the staff blasts. He made somersaults, barrel rolls and saltos in midair to evade them, and it worked.
Within a few minutes he had run so far ahead that it was useless to fire at him. The soldiers increased their pace, seeking revenge on the kid that had killed many of their own.
Minos was waiting patiently in front of the device he had just built, sitting relaxed on a small stone in front of it.
The guards entered the relatively secluded area, and when they saw no-one but the kid that had killed a few of their men, they started to laugh. Many of them charged their staff weapons, and took aim at Minos.
But the kid had seen this coming, and was ready to dodge all the shots until the guards were close enough to activate the device. He curled, twisted and moved his body like he had no bones, he jumped and rolled like there was no gravity and he circled the device, wanting the soldiers to come closer. Eventually they did, and Minos saw his chance clear to activate the device.
A soft ringing started, and the large orb on the stone pillar began to glow faintly. The soldiers stopped firing to see what was happening. Once the device had finished its starting sequence, it started doing what it was supposed to do. Large beams of white light shot out from the orb, leaving nothing behind but the armour and weapons of the soldiers. Within several seconds, all the guards had disappeared because of the light, and Minos had returned to his position on the small rock in front of the pillar. A few minutes later, Tarus arrived at the scene, followed by a lot of the villagers.
"Are the soldiers gone?" Tarus asked.
"Yes. But they're not dead, yet." Minos answered.
"Yet?"
"If they are too stubborn to see that the Ori are nothing but a bunch of lying, cheating bastards they'll eventually succumb to either hunger or thirst."
"And what if they do see that the Ori are false gods?"
"Than they will be able to cross the barrier. They'll find a pretty open pathway leading directly out of the forest towards your village."
"How does the barrier know they are to be trusted?"
"It doesn't know it, but it can detect lies. And I know only of a few people that would be able to mislead the device."
"So this is a permanent solution?"
"In the essence, yes. Everyone coming through the gate will be tested by this pillar, and everyone who believes in the Ori to the point of violence will be transported away."
"Only to the point of violence?"
"Yes. It is not my intention, and neither is it completely possible, to destroy the religion of Origin. Traders from other planets can still come here to trade, as long as they do not put so much faith in the Ori that they are prepared to kill a man for his ideas."
"Then we have found a solution."
A/N: Whaddya think? Better? Please leave a review with comments!