Rebirth of Ares
It's Just Good Business
December 2004
Areya
The past six months had been hectic and chaotic in the galaxy. Ba'al was making his presence felt on many worlds held by other System Lords though he had been beaten back from many of James' worlds. With his anti-Kull weapons, James' Jaffa were able to repel most attacks made by Ba'al and with his fleet superior in number and quality to Ba'al's, Ba'al stood no chance. And yet he continued. The strikes against Yu and Camulus had resulted in Camulus being almost overrun despite aid from Ares, while Yu had resisted more thoroughly being more of an equal to Ba'al. That being said, Yu had lost territory as well. Camulus had therefore retreated deeper into his domain, running from Ba'al as many of his Jaffa and worlds abandoned him to join with Ba'al instead. Even now he retained only a small fraction of what he once had. Amaterasu and Kali had both joined Ares along with Yu as well as a handful of minor Lords but Morrigan had joined Ba'al under threat of orbital bombardment. Meanwhile the other two remaining System Lords, Bastet and Olukun, had been assassinated by Kull warriors and their forces claimed by Ba'al despite Ba'al's domain being distant from their in terms of galactic position. This meant that a number of fronts had been opened up which was spreading the various forces of the multiple System Lords thin. That said, James had thousands of ships to play with as Ares so he was not as thinly spread as the other lords. That he, as Ares, fought differently and more strategically meant that his engagements against Ba'al were typically more successful than the others, who in turn fought for territory while expending vast resources. Indeed Ba'al fought the same way.
James made a point of keeping most of the conflict away from his core worlds and letting them know what was at stake so they could get behind him and not be weary of the war. That James, posing as Ares, was strong and stable all while defending his domain vigilantly as the other Lords were killed or their territories seized meant his populace was far happier and capable of enduring the conflict longer than other populations around the galaxy. His industry, ship building and food production had already been the envy of many lords before this renewed conflict which Ba'al had started, who had believed that the Kull warriors could deliver the galaxy to him. Unfortunately for him it was proving difficult given Ares had excellent defences against such warriors and a large fleet. One particularly bad battle that had entered James' territory was over a world in Nirrti's former domain where Ba'al and Ares clashed in person...
James sat upon his throne on his flagship watching the enemy fleet enter the system. Athena was on her own command ship, an upgraded beyond normal Ha'tak, i.e. a super upgrade. Aphrodite had a similar one as a reward for her loyalty. Both ships still had overrides that James could use though, he wasn't that stupid. He saw on the holographic display as 23 Ha'tak entered the system, approaching a medium velocity. "Open a channel to the fool" he commands as they approach. A few seconds later Ba'al himself appears on the screen. "Ba'al, it was foolish of you to come here this day" James said regally.
"Pah, you think you're so high and mighty Ares but I can bring you down, I am a god and I will destroy you."
"You think so? You know not of what you face here. You can see my flagship, and its escort, you know you have lost. Surrender and we can end this destructive conflict and together, under my command of course, we can rule the galaxy as allies once more" James suggested, hoping he'd chose this rather than fight an unwinnable battle.
"Wrong, I will destroy you here and now." With that over the parley ended and the 23 ships of Ba'al began firing on his own 15 ships. James watched silently as the first hits impacted his fleet's shields and showed no damage. Thank you Asgard James thought smugly, so wishing he could see Ba'al's reaction. With the first shots now complete and the battle started James gave a nod to his First Prime. "Begin" he said simply. Out in space the 15 ships began rapidly firing their own staff cannons on the incoming fleet. The Ha'taks discharging them quickly led to them depleting the shields of their opponents. Space between ships became filled with staff weapon bolts as the sides exchanged shots. Unbeknown to Ba'al's fleet, almost two dozen At'ak frigates de-cloaked above them and began firing their plasma lances down upon the invading fleet. With this sudden appearance Ba'al's forces scattered with ships exploding or receiving heavy hits left and right. As he watched, James could only mutter to himself "nothing personal Ba'al, well maybe slightly but it's just good business."
On his own command ship Ba'al swore loudly and cursed Ares for this trickery, though he was equally impressed at his fellow System Lord's ability to summon endless supplies of ships and his tactics. By the gods he wish he could be supreme lord instead. Cursed be Ares for stealing that Asgard cache. He cursed again as he knew his master would not be pleased with this defeat, but he had no choice but to serve that...that parasite if he wanted to survive what was to come. "All ships retreat, Ares may have one this day but we shall return with a vengeance. Fall back" he commanded bitterly. One by one the invading fleet limped away before jumping to hyperspace and away from the system. Of the 23 Ha'tak to fight only ten made it back. James only lost four Ha'tak and three frigates. It would be an example to any who dared invade Ares' domain. Ba'al never probed that deeply into Ares' domain after that.
On the Earth front his company, Evans Industries, had gained vast praise for its green and clean energy from fusion power. They still suffered from the occasional bit of espionage but they were all caught fairly quickly thanks to the sensors he had placed on site as well other bits of Goa'uld or Ancient tech. His company's computers were defended in a similar manner with Goa'uld or Ancient ciphers protecting critical data while the advanced quantum computing and Ancient software was sued in the company's firewalls to keep out intrusions. Additionally his company had expanded into communications and satellite construction dealing with earth observation and the like leading to the launch of a few satellites for prototype purposes. That they had a subspace communicator on board to allow him to speak with his CEO anytime he liked from Areya or his command ship meant he could now maintained a closer watch on his company, aiding it in computer software development plus some hardware.
On another note, he had received a number of messages from the SGC in regards to what was happening in Atlantis. When they had first stepped through into the city they had secured the central spire quickly, with Dr McKay, some scientist placed in charge of the science teams, leading a group to the power centre once they knew where it was. There they replaced the two dead Potentia allowing the city to regain power along with restoring the shields to full strength. They had then switched out the dying module with a new one giving Atlantis 100% power. From then they had brought their full complement through and began searching the city and settling in. Apparently one of the first things done was activating a launch sequence to release the city to the surface of the ocean and thus dropping the shield. Their reasoning being that the wraith didn't know they were there and the didn't want to be under water the whole time no matter how pretty at first it is. Secondly with the new power modules a number of dormant systems reactivated including one to track Ancient ships during their war. The result was that they picked up on the location of three transponder signals, one was transmitting a distress call. Needless to say, Earth, or rather the IOA, had been quite excited at the prospect and had disregarded the warning Janus had left and ordered their reclamation. James had just shook his head when reading about that command.
Unsurprisingly, when they arrived at the first ship to be recovered, they were soon after met by a Wraith cruiser. It was fortunately destroyed by Atlantis, since they didn't have any ships there yet they had come in the city, before it could transmit anything. Apparently Dr Weir had been a bit peeved that they had shot first instead of trying to negotiate but the Colonel in charge of the military contingent argued that they couldn't risk being reported given the threat the Wraith posed. 'At least someone has a brain out there' James had thought after reading about the incident. With the cruiser destroyed they had then used some small shuttles that they'd found, called puddle jumpers by one of the expedition pilots. These ships were like his timeship apparently, space capable and they could also go through the stargate. After the cruiser's destruction they had used said shuttles to visually survey and then board the ship. Inside they had found the crew in stasis pods but severely aged. With full power restored to the city, they proceeded to use what could only be called Star Trek-like tractor beams to guide the ship onto one of the city's piers. After that they jumped to the next one and found a ship flooded with radiation but that was otherwise intact. For this one they had apparently used the tractor beams again to tow it to another pier before shaping the shield to go around the ship thus protecting the city and leaving the ship open to space while they figured out what to do about it. They then went to the third and final signature which came from under an inhabited Ancient facility. Deciding that for now two was better than risking discovery, they returned to Lantea, the planet they'd started on, and began studying the two ships in earnest. To say that James was surprised by how active the expedition had turned out to be was an understatement given how both himself and General O'Neill had been under the impression they would lay low for under a year before doing anything. James was suddenly glad he didn't have any annoying civilian overseers to tell him how to run his domain.
During one relaxing evening with his partner/girlfriend Carol he received a transmission from the SGC. It was General O'Neill and Colonel Carter. "General, Colonel, what have you done now?" he said with a sigh, annoyed that his private time had been interrupted.
"What's that suppose to mean?" O'Neill said defensively.
"You only call when there's a problem. No body calls just to say hi any more."
"I said that not too long ago to Jacob I think" Jack replied with a small frown while Carter seemed to be trying not to grin too much.
"So, what happened?" James asked.
"Replicators. Or rather my...doppelgänger. She tricked us into giving her a way to beat the Anti-Replicator Weapon we had. Now they are all immune to it. We were hoping that your Repository might have more than one way to solve the problem or something" Carter said hopefully.
"In all honesty I have not encountered such a section on those things. Nor have I given you anything related to it" James replied, puzzled by their suggestion.
"I have though" came Carol's voice from behind him as she approached the view screen in his office. "General O'Neill, Colonel Carter. I sent some data related on the Replicators that the Ancients had in the Repository after hearing about your previous encounters. I'm assuming you or the Asgard used it to create your current weapon?" Sam nodded while Jack shrugged. "All I can suggest is to cycle through the frequencies the weapon uses till you find one that works" Carol suggested helpfully.
"Yeah, it's just it would take ages to try that and then there's the cipher. Without knowing what it is we can't anticipate how they might adapt next time." Sam sighs. "Well it was worth a shot sir, they suggested nothing I haven't already thought of" she said tiredly to General O'Neill.
"I'm sorry we could not help but they are in another galaxy we should be fine right?" James said confidently though it became somewhat of a more nervous look upon seeing the reaction of SG-1.
"We think they will likely invade. It's only a matter of time" Jack said cautiously.
"Crap" James spat out. The others had just looked grim while Carol had cursed as well. "Very well, I will devote some time towards looking in the Repository for any other defences the Ancients may have left for dealing with Replicators."
"That's all we ask 'Ares', good luck" O'Neill said and the connection cut off though not before another data file or two had been transmitted. It was another report from Atlantis.
It seemed they had found another person in stasis, a woman who was apparently an extremely old copy of Dr Weir, and they had also encountered an energy being that had been trapped in containment. They had released it through the gate rather than risk it getting out accidentally. The mention of the older Weir in stasis brought him back to the problem of those on the now identified Aurora. Apparently they had contacted the crew, who were in some kind of a dream state, and suggested Asgard clones since their real bodies would not survive revival. The Asgard, once they'd been informed of the situation, had said they would be honoured to help their old allies and that one off cloning was no threat to their genetics, unlike how the systemic cloning had been to the Asgard. Lyrena, the Ancient found in Antarctica, had been thrilled at the chance to meet her descendants apparently, though it would take a few months to grow the clones to appropriate ages and then begin transferring consciousnesses.
As for the ships, well the Aurora was simple repair job, if simple was replacing much of the hull, and powering it up with one of the spare Potentia. The irradiated ship, discovered to be called the Moros after their High Councillor, was trickier but they had figured out that by using some protected space suits, that they'd found on the Aurora, they could send a team in with portable shield projectors to allow them to contain the radiation allowing them to repair the ship slightly before then setting its auto-repair feature, a spider-like maintenance robot that stood three feet high, loose on the radiation leak from its hyperdrive. In fact James recognised the drone from the report about Destiny and its equipment he had read a few years ago.
It was during December that he got an unusual message from his CEO, Francesca. Apparently a group of business men wanted to meet to discuss things with him in regards to his business. According to the message they wanted the owner and real leader of the company and not her. He travelled upon his flagship, since he was on board it when he received the call, and came to Earth while ordering the ship to remain cloaked in orbit above Britain. He hadn't like taking his flagship but it was quicker than faffing around changing ships. He arrived for the meeting at one of his offices at EI the day before, giving him time to change clothes and read up on who he was meeting as well as relax somewhat.
Coming to the conference room he saw eight men seated around the table waiting for him. "Hello, sorry to keep you waiting. Thank you for coming here I'm told you lot want to talk to me about something."
"No worries at all, a pleasure to meet you. And yes, I'm William Blaylock of Procyon Media Enterprises and I and my friends here would like your co-operation" spoke one man confidently.
"What sort of cooperation did you have in mind?" James asked cautiously. He wasn't used to business dealing per se but even he had a bad feeling about this.
"Full access to your fusion project, use of your computers for decoding things and access to some of your facilities and warehouses. Admittedly less of the former due to your mostly UK based facilities but still" spoke up another man.
"Why would I do that for you? Also, you are?" James asked.
"Alex Jameson, Vice President of Farrow-Marshall Aeronautics. As for why, you will be richly rewarded or else we will ruin you" he said smugly.
"We want your access given to you by virtue of the fusion generators the US Air Force uses to get in to a US Air Force project" a middle aged man said.
"Why?"
"Aliens are real Evans, we need to stand up to them which the air force isn't doing, they aren't fighting them properly nor are they gaining technology as they should. Earth needs this or it will be destroyed. Plus it will make us filthy rich" another added with a chuckle.
"Who are you people and what have you been drinking or sniffing? I mean aliens? You're mad" James said as incredulously as he could, though also hypocritically.
"You can call us The Trust. For we are investing in Earth and it is our trust fund. And no, aliens are real and they do threaten this world. So will you allow us access or do we have to do this the hard way?" Blaylock said threateningly.
"No offence but you're in my building with my security and you're unarmed, please at least do it properly if you're gonna threaten me, so cease the theatrics" James returned sternly. He then heard the sound of a Zat charging and saw a tall dark skinned bald man bring one up from below the table.
"You were saying Mr Evans?" he said cockily. James was momentarily stumped by the Zat, wondering how it had gotten past security but also how they had one. Thinking back he had heard reports from the SGC about a Committee of businessmen they'd taken down a year or two ago and how some had escaped capture since the hadn't caught the whole group. Perhaps these were the remnants? "Will you grant us access Mr Evans?" the dark skin man said. Thinking things over he pondered for a moment.
"Can I make a call? I need to arrange some things then" he said, feigning reluctance. The group seemingly bought it as they grinned victoriously at him. He reached for his adapted phone and dialled a contact. "My lord, how can I be of service?" came the voice.
"Lock on to my position and transport everyone in the room. Have guards ready for arrival" he commanded quietly so those in the room could not hear.
"As you command. Transport will be momentarily." James ended the call and smiled at his...guests. "Transport has been arranged" he said and they nodded, packing up some folders and paperwork they had with them. Seconds later there was hum and the conference room glowed brightly with white light. When it died down the group found themselves in a large gold, brown and black coloured room surrounded by Jaffa. The dark skin man brought up his Zat but was shot in the leg by one of the Jaffa, all of whom wore the armour of the Elite Guard and held plasma rifles. The man cried out in pain as the seven others cowed down with most raising their hands in surrender but one or two glared at James angrily.
"You bastard! You sold us out?!" Blaylock shouted.
"I thought you didn't believe in aliens" cried another. Then James flashed his eyes and they stepped back.
"Silence you fools! Did you really expect me to, come quietly I believe the phrase is? Now for introductions, I am Ares and welcome to my flagship" he said grandiosely before he began to walk about the room like a predator stalking its prey. It was then the men showed true fear, knowing just who had caught them. "I hate spies, but I hate traitors more. Betraying your own people" he scoffs. "You should be working with Stargate Command and not trying to go behind their backs while carrying out attacks to get blamed on Earth" he lectured them. "Now, I will ring every last secret out of your minds by any means necessary, only then will you have my permission to die. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. After all, it's just good business to allow you the choice" he said with a smirk. "You will have five minutes to decide before I start interrogating you. Jaffa, take them to their cells. Allow none to share. They will have this time alone to think on their sins." The Jaffa then grabbed the men and took then roughly down to the cells.
Five days later the gate room of the SGC was filled with bright white light. Jack was standing in the control room looking out and blinked. When the light faded they saw seven men, bound and gagged and showing signs of torture. Jack ran out and then into the gate room and shouted "call medical teams to the gate room now!" He then bent down to see beside them, with a red bow on it, was a Goa'uld data pad with a note attached. It read: General O'Neill, I give you the Trust and all their secrets. Do with them as you wish. Regards, Ares. Jack just stared at the note and the injured men laying about as medical personnel entered the room not knowing if he should thank or curse Ares for the gift. He would learn a few hours later that none of them men remembered anything of the past several days.