Lucia
Milky Way Galaxy
"HE'S DONE WHAT?!" Ventrell roared, rising to his feet, sending the table and the drinks and food upon it flying in the process. Morall, Jesa and Sarra instinctively pushed their own chairs backward to avoid the resultant mess.
He had been enjoying a drink with one of the few among the Seconds he genuinely saw not just as an ally, but as a friend; Morall, of the Eighteenth Clan, when Sarra and Jesa had arrived. Their status as trusted allies, if not, perhaps, as friends, had been enough to earn them a spot at his table, inside his private quarters within the Pyramid. Once the home of the Goa'ulds who lorded it over their ancestors, it was now somewhat less ostentatious. Ventrell was a man of simpler tastes than many of his fellow Lucian commanders, not least the False Gods. Even so, the quarters were extensive, fine gold detailing covered the walls, depicting some presumably fake origin story for the God who called it home at the time. The thought of tearing it all down to be replaced with one telling the history of the Lucian Uprising appealed to the First, if not for him, then for whoever would come to occupy it next, to keep them mindful of their place in the galaxy, but, alas, there wasn't much call for such artisans on Lucia, mores the pity.
As were the now destroyed fine crystal glasses and the splintered wood of the table they had been sat at, irreplaceable, no doubt. But there were far larger concerns. The First composed himself, and ushered his guests into the adjacent room, as nervous underlings carefully entered the room as they left, to clean and salvage what they could.
"The Ra damned fool." Ventrell composed himself as best he could. "Attacking Earth, directly? It must be the most heavily defended world in the galaxy! What was he thinking?"
"He doesn't think." Quipped Morall, at least bringing a hint of laughter to the group.
"You say that, while I might be inclined to agree, this information was surprisingly difficult to come by." Sarra was coming dangerously close to giving her foe a compliment there, but Ventrell had to admit, as his rage faded and his ability to think clearly returned, he had made it his business to ensure he had well placed 'sources' among the Second Clan, yet none of them had told him of this action, never mind forewarned him.
"So he's cleaned house? That is surprisingly strategic for him."
"It would appear so, I received a coded transmission, nothing further, my other 'friends' within Terrin's Clan have gone quiet."
"That he could discover all the spies and informants aboard his ships, lurking in the shadows of his worlds… I find that unlikely."
"How else do you explain the silence? My men would have reported this idiocy, without doubt, had they been able."
"Could he have turned them?"
"I'll choose not to take that as an insult, Morall…"
"What of the rest? The Clans who support him?"
"They'll burn with him."
Ventrell silenced the other three with his intervention, breaking his own quiet as they had debated and discussed while he considered his next move. Events that were already getting out of hand were spinning out of any hope of control.
"You would have us wage war against them?" Jesa sounded shocked at the concept, Clans fought and squabbled regularly of course, but outright war between them was one of the few taboos all of them agreed on.
"No, of course not, we can't fight them while the Tau'ri come looking for blood, and we'd drive the moderates into his arms."
Ventrell rose from his chair, electing to slowly walk around what passed for the Goa'uld version of a sitting room, the ornate couches and chairs in the centre, the walls draped in fine purple silks, save for a single window looking out across the city below, he made his way towards it as he spoke.
"Terrin has attacked Earth, if this report is accurate, worse than that, he's crashed one of his damned ships into the surface."
"Did you know the people of the Tau'ri know nothing of the galaxy? Of us? Even the Chappa'ai itself?" He did not wait for any replies.
"They have been awoken from their slumber by a warship crashing from the sky. Remember the devastation the Tau'ri unleashed in revenge for Terrin's assault on a backwater world they had no reason to care for? Imagine, the people of Earth, they will be angry, afraid, as any civilians on any attacked world would be, but more, they will be angry at being lied to, afraid of the truth. Those leaders, so ready to attack us in secret, will now have billions calling out in anger, at us, and at them. What better release for them than an enemy to be attacked beyond the stars, to unite their world."
Ventrell stopped and looked out across the slums and buildings below from the window. They stretched out as far as the eye could see, the most populated world in the entire Alliance, perhaps the most populated world in the galaxy, save for Earth itself. "Lucia must survive, the Alliance must survive, but for that to happen, all the Clans will not."
"What do you propose?" Sarra was the first to interrupt, which was to be expected.
"Nothing, nothing yet. But the Tau'ri will be coming. They've never cared before when it came to our Clans and who did what, they see us as one and the same. One Tau'ri battlecruiser destroyed half a planet with a single weapon. Imagine their fleet, tearing through Lucian space, how many of those missiles can each carry? How many worlds could they burn? Shipyards, Kessa farms… They will cripple us. They will come, they will occupy our worlds and reduce us to pawns among their 'Protected Planets;' mere backwaters in the Tau'ri Empire.
No. If Terrin and any foolish enough to follow him wish for all-out war with Earth, let them have it, perhaps they'll do us both a favour and cripple each other…"
The discussions continued until the other Seconds could be summoned to the capital, though without any resolution. Ventrell was confident these three, at least, supported his view that Terrin and his faction would have to be sacrificed to ensure the survival of the rest, they even strongly suspected other Clans would back them, or at least turn a blind eye to such an event, but the question was how; feeding the Tau'ri's damned SG Teams intelligence to aim them towards the sacrificial Clans' holdings was suggested, but held little guarantee of success, or that the Tau'ri wouldn't still just attack any Alliance force it encountered anyway. Attempting a meeting with their leadership may be the only way to deliver the message, but would they even listen? It was a debate to be continued at another time.
Deciding exactly which Clans he might be willing to sacrifice was made somewhat easier, when instead of arriving to meet in person, the dogs of the Second, Fourth, Tenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth elected to attend via Goa'uld communication device, from Terrin's own palace on Oluk'ra. This act of ignorant defiance of tradition, and dismissal of the crisis that had been caused, could no doubt be of use to rally the more moderate Clans who had attended to support he and his allies, ensuring numerical superiority, making any risk of an attack on Lucia itself minimal, at least, an attack from within.
"Terrin of the Second Clan, you have launched an attack against the homeworld of the Tau'ri, in defiance of the views of this Council, you have endangered this Alliance with your reckless actions and, worse, you FAILED." The First's voice finally breaking into a scarcely controlled rage as he neared the end of his opening gambit.
For a moment, Terrin said nothing. Ventrell swung between wondering if there was an issue with the False God's technology, if nerves had consumed the little bastard or if he was attempting to goad him with the silence.
"Speak." Ventrell could command authority with voice alone when he wanted to, it stiffened the spines of those in the room, helped them to see the shit before them was insulting them all.
"I saw an opening, to attack our enemy, and I took it. We are at war, aren't we, First?"
Ventrell had steeled himself for any number of possible replies, but this one almost knocked him off his stride. The expected impudence, rage, defiance, that shit eating grin. But this? This was almost flat. Not defeated, just matter of fact. It was unexpected.
"What opening was that? To engage their fleet and leave burning wreckage scattered across the planet as a show of your strength?"
"Unfortunately, we miss timed our arrival. We had expected their fleet would have already departed to relieve Langara."
"Wait, what?" Sarra actually beat him to it, "You attacked Langara too?"
"Actually, we did." Narra grinned, before glancing at Latollen.
The anger was building around the Council, Ventrell might have taken the time to savour that if he hadn't been the angriest amongst them. "Ah of course, so after you pointlessly attacked that worthless dirtball that cost us all massively when the Tau'ri took their revenge, you band of ignorant pricks thought, 'let's do that again! But oh wait, what if we tried to attack Earth at the same time!'" He paused, shaking his head, the energy required to maintain composure was exhausting.
"How exactly did you FUCKING THINK THAT WOULD GO?!"
Silence again.
"SPEAK YOU IGNORANT LITTLE PRICK, before I come to Oluk'ra and BEAT IT OUT OF YOU."
"First, there is no point in this discussion."
The picture on the floating Goa'uld orb depicting Terrin's palace went blank.
Silence was no longer a problem on Lucia.