A/N: Sorry for the very long wait. I was kinda busy updating my fic on , which has turned from a less important story to a story that hit me in the deepest parts of my soul and wouldn't let go anymore. And because I do not have any extremely clear ideas about what to do next I think my next updates will be slow as well (Especially with the first test week coming up.) I'll try to post another chapter or two in one of my fics before the tests start, though.
I hope this chapter is not as bad as I think it is.
Reviews are welcome! (If you think it sucks just say it, I can take it...)
Chapter 37 – Conference Call
"Greetings, Thor." Minos started.
"Greetings, Minos. To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Partially to my new subspace communication system and partially because the Ori have sunk even deeper into the pits of my despisal."
"What made you disdain them even further?"
"Well, I kinda sneaked into their galaxy without them knowing it, and looked around on the planet. Turns out that the Ori use their missionaries, called Priors, to enslave innocent civilians from all the planets in the galaxy."
"What kind of slavery?"
"From what I have seen, they were robbed of their identities and forced to do extensive physical labour in terrible working conditions. There were about ten-thousand 'slaves' in the mine I found. Ordinary humans like you an... Oh, wait, sorry. Ordinary humans like the general population of the Milky Way. They were being suppressed, for all I could tell."
"Hmm. That indeed sounds very negative. How do you propose we act to this new development?"
"Well, for now, nothing. If we do anything on a large scale I think we'll have a bit of trouble holding the Ori themselves on a distance."
"I take it that you have taken a smaller approach."
"Yeah, you could say that. But the slaves are free, and one of the weapon-producing factories is kinda blown to hell by now, I think."
"What has happened to the people on the planet?"
"They are safe, for now. I installed a device much like the hammer you installed on Cimmeria, but instead of focussing on physical attributes it focuses on certain thought-patterns. The ones overwriting the ethical centre of the brain, to be exact."
"Do you think it is effective?" Thor asked after a few seconds.
"Effective to normal humans, yes. But I'm not sure about the Priors, the missionaries from the Ori, and the Ori themselves though."
"Do the others know this?"
"Not yet, I'm about to call them now."
"Very well. Farewell, Minos."
"Bye."
Thor closed the connection.
"You do know that your solution is not going to withstand the Ori for long?" A feminine voice behind Minos asked.
"Probably, yes." Minos answered.
"And that the Ori are furious."
"When was the last time that I haven't infuriated an Ascended being?" Minos sarcastically asked, turning around to see Gannos Lal standing, well floating was more like it, in the halls of his palace.
"You have not invoked the wrath of the Others for quite some time now." Gannos said.
"And what about you?"
"You know that I am not entirely impartial when it comes to matters concerning you."
"Of course. That's only rational. Just like it would have been rational to let the slaves rot away in the mine." Minos said coldly.
"Why this anger?"
"I can't stand slavery. It's number three on the things I hate most."
"With number one and two being?"
"Children being hurt and needles."
"Needles still? I would have thought you would be over that by now."
"Sometimes having a good memory is a curse." Minos sighed with a pained look in his eyes. "But what brings you here?"
"A message from the others."
"An angry one or a boring one?"
"I am guessing you would find it to be both, If repeated in its totality."
"Can you summarize it please?"
"You are not to go to the Ori galaxy again until the conflict is over, you are not allowed to use or recreate the device you built on that planet and you are to be punished for your thoughtless actions."
"Is that all?"
"Depends on if you are going to listen to it."
"Probably not, though I don't think I have much choice. What would happen If I don't listen to it?"
"You will be punished."
"Punished with?"
"Needles." Gannos returned coldly.
"Ouch."
"Goodbye, Minos."
"Bye, Morgan."
Minos rested his head back on the chair. He had yet to call the other allies, to bring them up to speed on the latest news, but he was tired as hell. Fighting like he had done in the Ori galaxy took a lot out of you, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to repeating the same story often. There had to be a way to speed things up a little bit. Maybe he could hold a conference call or something?
He got an idea and immediately started working in the subspace communications device he had built himself. That was an advantage of being an million year old Ancient, you could build all kinds of complex and handy tools and things. Even for an Ancient he was quite crafty and liked technology. Probably because he was good at it, and because it had saved his life on numerous occasions.
Almost ten minutes later Minos was finished. He rebooted the communications device and waited while it was calculating things out. When the device had finished, Minos opened a comm to all the allies that he hadn't contacted yet.
"Hi guys!" he said cheerfully when the faces of the different allies opened up on his screen.
"Greetings, Minos."
"Hey, Minos. What can we do for you?" Colonel O'Neill said.
"Well, nothing so far but I'd like to tell you that I've done another scouting mission in the Ori galaxy."
"And?" Anteaur interrupted.
"Well, I didn't think I could hate the Ori more but they keep surprising me. They 'colonized' most of the planets in their galaxy, I think, and spread humans all over the place. Most of them, for all I have seen so far, haven't advanced much further than the average human population in this galaxy. But the Ori armies are what's concerning me."
"What's the matter with them?"
"Well, the armies are led by Priors, some kind of missionaries that hold a 'higher' connection to the Ori themselves. I haven't figured out exactly what connection. But the fact remains that they have certain 'gifts' that they haven't obtained in a natural way. Telekinesis and all that kinds of 'special powers'. And they use these kinds of staffs that boost their power."
"Are they dangerous?"
"Well, not to me but to the average population of this galaxy I'd say they're rather deadly. They have bags of magic tricks but most of them aren't used to wield their powers. They lack the skills that come with those who have the powers since birth."
"So the Ori armies are a bunch of losers with magic tricks?" O'Neill asked.
"In a way, yes. But the Priors are only the leaders of the armies. The average soldier is human in each and every aspect, but they have staff weapons and fancy armour. The staff weapons look like this," Minos held one of the staffs in front of the screen, so that everyone could see it, "and they're different from the staffs of the Priors."
"Different how so?"
"The staffs from the Priors boost 'superhuman' powers like telekinesis and such. But the other staffs are quite normal, in fact, they work in the same way as the jaffa staffs, but they are slightly more effective. The power source is an energy crystal that looks a lot like the things that power Alteran technology, but then smaller. The armour the soldiers were wearing has a force field that renders is nearly impossible to breach using common energy-based weapons. Arrows and high-quality or very powerful energy weapons will still do the tricks. It's a bit compatible with the Kull armour that we see in the warriors from Anubis, I think."
"Will the new gun work against them?" O'Neill asked.
"I don't exactly know. I couldn't detect any flaws in the energy patterns, but it was overloadable using Excalibur or Durandal."
"What new gun are you speaking of?" Ambassador Varta from Galara asked.
"An energy weapon, not much bigger than a normal gun, designed for and capable of killing a Kull warrior with one shot. It's currently in production with the Tau'ri, but we haven't been able to test its efficiency in the field."
"What is the army size of the Ori?" Ambassador Gren, from Oannes, asked.
"On the planet I scouted were not more than a few battalions of soldiers. Currently there are none left, and the Ori lost one weapon factory on that planet."
"A weapon factory?"
"It was making these staffs and the armour. I discovered it and blew it up after stealing some useful items. The Ori use slaves to work in their facility, and I liberated them."
"What items did you steal?"
"Weapons, armour, resources, all that kind of stuff. It's still back on that planet, which is now in the hands of the resistance."
"Would the Ori have not intervened?" Anteaur asked.
"They would have, and I think they have, by now. But I installed a device like Thor's Hammer on the planet to safeguard it from attacks by ordinary humans. And it gives off a radiation that ascended beings don't really like."
"Thor's Hammer? Like the one on Cimmeria?" O'Neill asked.
"Yes, that one."
"You mentioned that the weapons factory produced these staff weapons, but where are the Ori starships produced then?" Garshaw from the Tok'ra asked.
"I'm not sure. I've heard a few stories from the people of the resistance about huge ships being built on different world throughout the galaxy, but I haven't seen them for myself. And with the message I got from my 'superiors', I don't think it's a very good idea if I repeat this stunt anytime soon."
"Your superiors?" Anteaur asked.
"The Ascended didn't like my intervention into the balance between the galaxies."
"I can understand that." Anteaur said.
"Anyway, I just wanted to send you a warning that if you hear of any stories of magic and wizardry on any planet in this galaxy, it's probably the Ori. Their religion is called Origin, and from what I've seen it was, once, a pretty ethically-based religion, but now it has taken a turn for the worse. The soldiers and priors are pretty much uncaring for the consequences of their actions, as long as they're meant to destroy the infidels."
"Can you give an example?" O'Neill asked.
"Well, when I was on the planet a large force, about two hundred soldiers or so, was marching towards a village, where they thought I was hiding in. They threatened to kill all villagers and destroy the village unless the entire resistance, including me, surrendered."
"What did you do to them?" O'Neill asked.
"Most of them are alive, I guess, though they are all trapped in a contained cave until they are ready to accept that there are other people that do not believe in Origin, and are able to live in peace."
"What happens when they can't?"
"The same thing that happens when a jaffa stumbles on Cimmeria and comes in contact with Thor's Hammer."
"Would the Ori have not intervened?"
"No, I kept hidden pretty well. Besides, I didn't use a lot of 'special powers' that they can detect from large distances."
"I always presumed the Ascended were all-knowing." Ambassador Varta said.
"All-knowing might not be the best way to describe it. It's more like being able to learn everything you wish in an instant. But you have to know it exists before being able to learn everything about it. And if they didn't know I existed in that galaxy they wouldn't have found me. And apparently they didn't find out I liberated a planet there."
"Would the resistance be a valuable ally to our cause?" O'Neill asked.
"I'm not sure. They're not extremely widespread in the galaxy, they're not advanced enough to compete with the technology from the Ori and they don't have much resources. Any large scale mining operation or production plant would immediately be destroyed by the Ori before it could be of use."
"And what about guerrilla tactics?"
"I'm not quite sure yet. If done on a very small scale, and only sporadically, then maybe. But if we cause too much damage to their plans they could wipe the entire resistance out of the galaxy in the blink of an eye. So no, I don't think the resistance could be an valuable ally in terms of weapons and manpower, but I do think we could set up an intelligence network through their contacts. I'll start working on it soon."
"Is there anything else you wanted to share with us?"
"Not really, no. Goodbye."
"Farewell, Minos."