Reviews
Evil279
Being a psyker isn't always hereditary and the warp is quite peaceful in the Stargate because the Ancients are psychic beings and so they don't want the warp corrupted since it's a realm of psychic energy, it makes sense that they interact with it in some way since they must draw power from somewhere and they are beings of the mind.
Besides, Thrax might be able to recover the child later on. He does have allies on Earth.
kirito emiya
Gears of War could be interesting as the humans there could surely use help as could those in Starship Troopers and they have some advanced technology.
Kulha
The intent isn't to purge the Jaffa just to ensure that it is humanity that rules the galaxy. The Jaffa can live in that galaxy as long as they don't challenge humanity's dominance.
IncognitoMinerals
Everyone makes mistakes.
ZhaWarudo
I could never get into WH Fantasy.
Rogue Trader CYOA Story 4
Part 12
"While the enemies of the Emperor still draw breath, there can be no peace" - Captain Gabriel Angelos, Blood Ravens.
Chairman's Office. Tagrea.
Tagrea, designated P3X-744 by the Tau'ri, a planet that was about 294 lightyears from Earth, which in galactic terms was barely any distance at all. However, since Miranda and I had arrived here via Stargate, along with a few of my bodyguards and a couple of squads of my household guard, the distances in space meant little.
I knew that this world was once under Heru'ur's rule. The System Lord Heru'ur abandoned the planet when its resources were depleted, leaving the Tagreans in a dark age. The Tagreans removed all historical evidence when they eventually came out of that dark age and developed an industrial society, so that they could have a fresh start and amazingly it worked.
They became a reasonably advanced society while other worlds abandoned by the Goa'uld never got past the medieval stage. Heck some were still using bronze tools despite not having seen a single Jaffa for a thousand years.
By the time that they were reunited with the Tau'ri, having been separated from the homeworld of humanity a very long time ago, when the Prometheus became stranded nearby, their recorded history was only 300 years old and all evidence of the long-buried Stargate was lost.
They'd progressed very rapidly in what was really a short amount of time. Something that made me wonder if like Jonas Quinn's people, the humans here were more intelligent than was normal.
Despite some disagreement within the Tagrean leadership about the wisdom of locating the Stargate, they eventually agreed to assist SG-1 in finding it so that they could get help from Earth. That had nearly resulted in a military takeover of the planet, but since then it looked as if the political situation had calmed down quite a bit.
The man that Miranda and I were meeting with now, Ashwan, was the Chairman, the elected leader of the Tagrean people, and he was eager to trade because Ashwan's public approval was sketchy at best. I got the sense that he was barely holding on to power.
In the past Chairman Ashwan had seen the potential for exploration by unearthing the Stargate, as well as benefit in maintaining a dialogue with Earth.
Not that it seemed to have worked out for the chairman as he was not a celebrated leader and I'd already been approached by several men who claimed that they would soon be running things. I could only assume that those trying to obtain the chairman's position were too busy undermining each other to actually overthrow Ashwan.
"Let me guess the people from Earth made lots of promises and none of it ever went anywhere" I said "Other than you getting some mostly useless Stargate addresses".
I knew this because the address I'd gotten from the SGC hadn't led to much of value. I'd gotten access to more profitable planets by trading for gate addresses with others who used the Stargate, such as the Lucian Alliance, the progressive Jaffa and human societies scattered across the galaxy that had begun using the gate network now the Goa'uld were no longer the dominant force in this galaxy.
"More or less" agreed the Chairmen "Things went well at first. Now they seem to have lost interest in our world".
Well that was because Tagrean didn't have any easily accessible Naquadah, as Heru'ur wouldn't have abandoned the planet if he could strip it of resources that he needed to fuel his conquests. Nor did Tagrean have access to any advanced tech since they were behind the Tau'ri in most areas by decades even if their military technology was more impressive.
"Their loss" I said "I see possibilities in your future".
Ashwan sat back at his desk. It was just him and I talking in a private meeting, as Miranda took notes and was no doubt already planning out how I'd want to trade with this world rather than try to conquer it.
They had the ability to fire missiles at ships in orbit and a fair sized army so direct conquest seemed unwise, not when there were much easier targets out there that had more of value to House Thrax.
"We have much to offer you" I was now saying "Gate address to worlds just as advanced as your own who might have surpassed you in some areas, but are behind in others. With them you can set up profitable trading partnerships and if you have any naquadah the Imperial Protectorate will purchase the mineral, we can trade information and technology for it".
When trying to decide what sort of empire to build out here I'd decided to call it the Imperial Protectorate because it sounded less aggressive than any other names I'd come up with when thinking this over.
I knew that a protectorate is a state which is controlled and protected by another sovereign state. However those states tend to have a great deal of authority over their internal affairs. Many of the human worlds in this galaxy needed protection and I could supply that, as well as a better standard of living, in exchange for them handing over some of their resources, but beyond that I could leave those cultures to run their own affairs.
This might be considered to be a fancy protection racket, only I actually intended to improve the lives of the people under my protection. I planned to use the fact that so many humans lived in squalor as justification to take over their worlds. This should make the more advanced human worlds and the progressive Jaffa less willing to interfere in my operations, or so I hoped.
"Heru'ur stripped our world of naquadah before he left" pointed out the chairman.
That might not be the case.
"The Goa'uld use slave labour and since they don't want their slaves to rise up against them they never equipped those workers with anything more the most simple of tools" I explained to Chairmen Ashwan "So there might still be deposits of the mineral deep underground that we can get at without too much trouble that your ancestors could not dig up for Heru'ur".
"If you allow us to bring people to survey the area around where you found the Stargate we might evidence of old mines in that area that can still be of use to us" I told the leader of this world "We can even survey other parts of this world to seek out the naquadah and any other metals we need".
There was still more for me to say on this subject.
"If we find that is worth opening up some mines here we can either rent the land from you or give you the means to do the mining and collect a percentage of the metals in exchange for the technology required to do the mining" I offered "Either way you'll have something we value enough to make it worth trading with you. We can advance your technology by decades in many areas".
Not by using Imperial tech, rather I'd offer them Fallout technology, such as simple computers, televisions stuff like that, technology that the tech-priests didn't control to the point they would be able to demand too much of a share of the mineral wealth that could be dug up here in exchange for sharing them with this world. They also tended to go easier with the religious stuff when it wasn't Imperial tech.
"And what if we don't have any of the metals that you want?" Ashwan asked.
That was highly unlikely given that they had an industrial society.
"We aren't just interested in naquadah" I mentioned "The Imperium makes use of a wide range of materials and I would like a treaty between you and the Imperial Protectorate, as well the Imperium as a whole, and as I mentioned before we are aware of other advanced worlds out there who were also have treaties with. Adding your world to the growing network of alliances would benefit the Imperial Protectorate and myself since it will increase trade".
I could sell the gate address of this world to human civilizations who were eager to meet other human societies that were above a certain level in development.
"Give me some time to talk to my advisors and the ministers" asked Ashwan "Once we've come to an agreement we'll contact you".
After that I could let some minion of mine handle sorting the fine details while I focused on more important matters such as the crusade that was soon to start.
(Line Break)
Ruins. Martin's World.
While everyone else referred to this world simply by its Tau'ri designation since they worked well enough as labels I knew that this world must once have had a proper name since it had been home to Martin Lloyd a human form this planet who now lived on Earth and while there had created the TV show Wormhole Extreme. Martin Lloyd wasn't important to me or the new Imperial Protectorate. The world he'd left behind did matter somewhat.
What was left of the civilization Martin came from had been reduced to ruin when it was attacked by the Goa'uld. When Martin Lloyd saw what remained of his world he realized that the rest of his people had been wiped out or transported somewhere else as slaves by the Goa'uld when they lost the war. After seeing the condition of his planet he'd decided to remain on Earth since there was no point in him staying here and living in the rubble.
Unlike the Tau'ri I was not content to simply write the world off as a loss, and since I had ships in my fleet whose crews had signed on with me in order to be able loot worlds we came across, or otherwise exploit them for profit, I'd decided to let some of the men and women from those ships dig around in the ruins.
The people who'd lived weren't as advanced as the Tollan, whose remains were being carefully picked through by the Ad-Mech, however there would be some bits of technology left lying around that was somewhat intact that would need be handed over to the cyborg worshippers of the machine god in exchange for a finder's fee.
The raiders would also be on the lookout for bits of jewellery or any artwork that survived that could keep for themselves or sell at the great marketplace back on Thrax III. Since I paid my crews and warriors more than other Imperials did they needed something to spend their money on.
I would get my cut of course, but what really interested me was if this world had any mineral wealth remaining. They'd had spacecraft so that meant they would have needed the industry to support the spacecraft, that meant factories and mines that might still be usable, and warehouses that could have advanced alloys stored within them.
Naquadah wasn't the only mineral the Imperium needed and if I could recycle what was left here I'd have more to send back to the IOM in the transports, which would result in more support being sent to me that I could use to expand my operations.
Also since I had more workers, soldiers, tech-priests, and supplies heading my way from the IOM it was time for me to expand my operations in ways that didn't involve making treaties with other worlds or producing goods for others.
I didn't wish to alarm the rest of the galaxy about the Protectorate and my plans just yet, so taking over worlds that others had simply forgotten about that I could still profit from seemed like a good way of expanding my influence.
"There's a lot of ground here to cover," said Sarah Thrax-Lyons.
The second of my three wives had quite a bit of experience in fighting in ruins as well as looking for items of value in the rubble so I'd ordered to bring a few squads here.
The Sisterhood of Steel was focusing their efforts in the area around the gate while the raiders went further afield looking for plunder. They were less important so I didn't mind them wandering off and maybe getting hurt while treasure hunting.
"There's no rush," I replied.
It would still take some time for the troops from the IOM to reach this galaxy and so the garrison I planned to install here should be ready by the time they arrived and the Stargate would be secured by the Ad-Mech. The gate needed proper security given how simple it was to use one of them as a means of delivering any number of WMDs to a world.
Something I knew well from watching the show and I'd discussed using the gate that way with some of the tech-priests, who if they could do anything right it was building big bombs. However I was loath to start using such weapons as it would only encourage others to do the same and few gates were that well defended. I'd come here to profit from this galaxy not to burn it.
"Are you staying here for a while?" asked Sarah
It would be nice to spend time with her and the other members of the Sisterhood of Steel, who didn't act a lot like other Imperials, they were more relaxed around me while remaining respectful.
"I have another meeting today" I let the warrior know "This isn't the only world we're expanding our operations into".
My omni-tool beeped to let me know that it was time to return to the gate and head off to another world. There was no rest for the wicked.
(Line Break)
Capital City. Vyus.
This world, which was designated P2Q-463 by the Tau'ri, was home to the Vyans people, who like so many others were descended from humans taken from Earth by some Goa'uld in the past.
Like some worlds freed from their rule they'd advanced rather than remain primitive, up until the point that they'd become a small industrialised society. This wasn't so odd, but there was something interesting about them.
These people had suffered a horrifying cataclysm which they called the Vorlix. The Destroyer of Worlds, Linea, who was a mad scientist of sorts, arrived on Vyus, via the Stargate, and began studying ways to reduce, or reverse, her own aging process using some sort of chemical pesticides they used on this world to help grow crops.
The Dargol as it is called slows the aging process at the cost of fertility, resulting in the Vyans becoming a race of elders with few or no children. While this drug's side effects would be problematic if used on a large scale, I could imagine many who didn't want children, or who already had them, who would willingly use the chemical to extend their lives.
Back in the Imperium they had means of extending life without resorting to the kind of genetic engineering required to make space marines. However that was an expensive process limited to the social elites of the IOM.
Those methods were more effective than the chemical on its own, but the Dargol should be cheap to produce, at least according to the Ad-Mech who didn't make babies the old fashioned way and therefore wanted the Dargol.
Linea took things a step further, using two test subjects, she released the substance Dargol directly into their bodies rather than let it enter the body via food that was grown which had been exposed to the chemical.
Unfortunately, the Dargol spread into the entire population (including Linea), making the elderly revert to their twenties and thirties, while simultaneously completely losing their personal memories, although they retained any prior skills and knowledge of how to sustain themselves. If there had been anyone younger around they vanished or had never existed at all. No one knew for sure.
Eventually SG-1 arrived on that planet and they began to investigate the situation, and discovered one of the locals, Ke'ra, to have previously been the dreaded Linea. With her aid the Vyan people were able to regain their original memories. As for Ke'ra she took another dose of the chemical so that she would lose all memories of the Destroyer of Worlds.
The SGC reports on this world made no mention of the link between Ke'ra and Linea, and while it might be possible for the Ad-Mech to restore Linea I didn't want to risk that because the woman was too dangerous to be allowed access to Imperial technology. Best that only Ke'ra remain. In fact if Black Widow weren't off hunting Ba'al clones I'd have her make sure that Ke'ra had a nasty accident.
"Is this going to be another boring meeting?" I asked my first wife.
It was getting a little stale to keep meeting with heads of state in some attempt to barter for what we wanted.
"This Dargol could be important," said Dany.
Well I knew that I was just tired of diplomatic talks.
After leaving the gate we headed for a meeting room where two natives, called Layale and Nodal, were waiting for us. Like the rest of his people Nodal lost his memory and became physically younger during the Vorlix and during that time he took on the name Orner.
He volunteered to travel to Stargate Command and take part in the research to find a cure for the memory loss. The first attempt was unsuccessful but he regained his memory on the second try and realized he was married to Layale for over 43 years.
They were still husband and wife as well as important civic leaders. As I understood things this world did not have a proper government as most people would understand the term. Rather they were led by a council made up of volunteers who just tried to get things done.
"We've been speaking and it seems clear to me what these people need in exchange for the Dargol" said Dany "They have no children and so we must find some for them".
On the surface of things that sounded insane, but it was actually rather simple.
"Where would you find children for us?" questioned Layale.
I didn't need to use my psyker powers to tell that these people would agree to the offer as long as it didn't involve kidnapping anyone.
"From orphanages" I answered "We have contact with worlds were not all children have a family. We could match those children with couples in this world so you'll have someone to pass your culture on to and they will have better lives with you than they would otherwise".
The married couple exchanged looks.
"You wouldn't steal these children would you?" Nodal asked.
While that was certainly an option it shouldn't be too much work to have some of my diplomats work out a deal with a few of the more advanced worlds to relocate some children to this world so that they could be placed in what were hopefully caring homes. This process might take a few months, but it would be done without my involvement. This seemed more a project that should be handled by first wife who had more empathy than I did.
"Of course not," Dany assured. "We'd act as go-betweens, we'd make contact with the more advanced worlds on your behalf and explain your needs. Then we'd find something that would help those worlds in exchange for aiding yours".
I didn't doubt that there would be some leaders out there who would sell what they saw as burdens to another world. A sad state of affairs to be sure, but what mattered was that I could profit from it.
(Line Break)
Farmland. Volina.
"This wasn't much of a conquest" I commented.
Volina was a farming world populated by a population of humans in the tens of thousands who were scattered around their world as they worked on farms, growing massive amounts of food for themselves and the Aschen Confederation, or at least they had done until SG-1 had come along, screwing up the state of affairs around here. They were very good at that.
Originally the Volians were a peaceful and productive urban society of millions who had reached Earth's early twentieth century ivia their own industrial revolution. Their written language was similar to an ancient Celtic text at least according to the information shared with us by the SGC who did at least inform us of some of the worlds out here in great detail.
About 200 years ago, they were struck with their equivalent of the influenza pandemic. Then the Aschen arrived by ships, offered a vaccine and invited them into their confederation. The Aschen may have been the ones to infect them in the first place as to win the gratitude of an entire world. The end result was that the Volians were immensely grateful to these heroes and this began a friendship of sorts that lasted many years.
An unspecified Aschen drug, administered to the entire population (perhaps the flu vaccine, or something else like the life-extending vaccine they gave to Earth in another timeline), caused the majority of the population to become sterile. When the Volians realized what the Aschen had done to them, the people of this world began to riot and then civilization fell apart.
Years later the Aschen covered the urban areas in soil for farming and made certain no Volian remembered the truth about his or her people's history. Well they weren't directly enslaved by the Aschen they might as well have been since their entire population worked on the farms. Sure they fed themselves, and clothed themselves too, but they had no weapons, no medical support, no education beyond apprenticeships, and no defences.
They were helpless to the point that when Lady-General Gwynenya Ionael sent troops here as part of a scouting party the Imperial Guard ended up somehow conquering the planet despite them having come here just to look around.
"So they gave us rulership of their world?" I asked the Imperial Guard General.
These people are entirely ignorant of the malice the Aschen had directed toward the Volian people, or that they'd once had cities of their own, and without the Aschen they were having trouble functioning as a society.
"Yes my lord" the Lady-General confirmed "There are a few matters for me to handle here before the world can be considered compliant".
While none of the locals had seen any of the Aschen for years and therefore had no information on how they were doing there was some evidence that the advanced humans had suffered a great loss. This was shown by the technology that they had left behind.
A number of tech-priests were inspecting the massive anti-gravity barge built by the Aschen, which were designed to collect and store crops obtained from the farming lands of Aschen-controlled planets. When active the Harvesters would gather the crops, and then transport them to the Stargate which would then be opened to reach the Aschen homeworld or maybe one of the other Confederation planets.
The gate on Aschen farm planets such as Volia, assuming that there were more one such worlds, is attached to a portable, multi-directional platform, which the ship can activate to automatically lay the Stargate flat. The Harvester then dials the gate remotely, and dumps the crop through the event horizon. A very clever design.
The Aschen might utilize hundreds of Harvesters on any given world, though they are used for more than collecting grain. Aboard each ship is at least one conference chamber suitable for conducting meetings, such as negotiations. The vessel is also equipped with an Aschen matter transporter, by which individuals may come and go while the ship is in flight.
These Harvesters are even capable of launching Aschen bio-weapons through the same dorsal orifice by which goods are sent through the Stargate.
The barges had stopped working some time ago according to the locals the scouts had questioned. For a time they just floated around the gate with their holds full of crops until one by one they dropped to the ground as they ran out of power. The native farmers had cleaned out the barges and then left them alone in case the Aschen ever came back.
Given that the more advanced humans hadn't returned, that meant the food here was no longer required because there were far fewer mouths to feed or they'd found some other way of feeding their people. Somehow I didn't think that it was the latter.
"Even without Stargates these barges could be useful on farming planets back in the Imperium" I commented.
Assuming that the Ad-Mech didn't employ them for some other task.
The only other bit of technology my followers had been able to find was a platform and pedestal which allows instantaneous transport to different locations on a planet that are significant distances apart.
Judging by the size of the pad a few people can be teleported at a time. I figured that a user interfaces with the pedestal, locking in the desired coordinates. Immediately after, bright light envelopes the travellers and projects them to the intended location.
Like the barges these devices had stopped working, but that wasn't stopping the cyborgs from taking great interest in the technology.
The tech wasn't the only concern here. There were some other matters to deal with such as securing the Stargate, deciding where the garrison would be built, and this world would need a centre of government along with a large hospital so that the farmers could be provided with the medical care they'd been promised in exchange for accepting Imperial rule.
However that was for the Lady-General to concern herself with since this was her conquest, or more likely she'd do what I would and pass the job on to some who was better qualified for such work.
(Line Break)
Estate. Thrax III
After so many meetings recently and lots of matters that involved a great deal of organisation to deal with, I found myself frustrated and annoyed.
This was something that my consort Jack had picked up on and because she was a kinky bitch she'd pushed my buttons just enough to get me to lose control for a moment. This was odd for me, as I wasn't normally one to make such aggressive outbursts.
I ended up pushing her up against the wall of my private armoury, a place I'd come to because the Russians and the Chinese members of the IOC had sent the new Russian controlled B-303 to the trade outpost with the first of the non-classified military technologies.
These minor bits of tech were things that they'd agreed to trade with me, with the promise of more on the way as long as I was willing to loan them enough naquadah so they could trade for more advanced weapons with other factions.
To start with they'd sent me what looked to be hand guns from as far back WWII. They weren't worth much compared to the tech my people had recovered out there in the rest of the galaxy, but the Ad-Mech loved getting to drool over ancient tech like this.
Besides I wanted something to trade with them now that I'd heard about them making some progress with ring platforms which they knew to be Gatebuilder technology and therefore the rightful property of mankind or something like that. I didn't know why they deemed certain Goa'uld technology safe to try to emulate while other bits of technology were not, but it seemed likely that there were theological as well as practical reasons.
Not that I was thinking too much about that right now as I Jack pinned against the wall on which I planned to display my new toys. The Russians and Chinese had been generous, sending me crates of everything from pistols so small you could fit in them in a pocket, to rocket launchers that looked as if you'd need to be a space marine to handle them. Which meant I had a lot of things to bend Subject Zero over should I desire to.
"You're such a rude slut" I told her.
Some of the things that came out of her mouth made me very glad that she never tried to spend time with any of my children.
"What the fuck are you going to do about it?," she challenged me.
I kissed her. She let out a pleased growl after that and soon kissed me back, straining against the hand I still held at her throat. We were both gene-enhanced and had powerful biotics that were boosted by the naquadah in our blood. If she'd wanted to she could easily defend herself and maybe even kill me, which meant she wanted me to strangle her a little. Hardly odd for Jack and she knew me well enough to know that I needed to vent on someone.
As for the kissing it was hot and intense and it stoked the fires inside both of us. She growled into my mouth and her nails dug into my arm making me glad that I wore my greatcoat as it protected me from what felt like claws at this moment.
I stepped back and used my hands to wrench her jacket off. She just let it happen, again understanding that I needed to be in control of her, to dominate her. Something I helped along by turning her around and making her face the wall so that I could pull down the leather trousers she wore and begin slapping her ass.
Once she would have asked me to slap her across the face and do even worse to her because she craved that sort of treatment. She'd mellowed out somewhat since then, accepting a good spanking and rough sex over what I considered physical abuse. This way we both enjoyed ourselves and her gene-enhancements had made her body curvier, giving me a bigger target.
I popped open the front of my trouser and shoved her down to her knees in front of me. She put up a little resistance but we both knew she wasn't really trying. If she had been she could have thrown me across the room with a blast of biotic power. I could have gone into her mind to better control her, but there was no need for that either. I'd tested her mind and her loyalty to me had remained strong, and it was me personally that she cared about.
"Suck it," I ordered.
She started slowly, lips opening just enough to let her lick the tip, then sucking just a bit. The touch was light and playful, almost tender for her, yet I knew this blowjob would end as others had with her mascara running like dark tears down her face and slobber covering her mouth and running down my balls. This was just how we did things. I had other consorts for more gentle sexual activity. Jack was here to be used and she loved it. Soon there were a few tears and ruined makeup as she did her best to abuse her own mouth for my pleasure.
"You're a good little cock sucker, Jack" I praised "But I want to fuck you".
I let her up and pointed over to one of the containers that was still full of weapons.
"Go bend over that crate" I ordered.
She did as she was told without delay and I removed what passed for her underwear. Calling it a thong would be generous.
"Good girl" I said "Now get that ass up".
Her hips came up, giving me a fantastic view of her pussy and asshole. My dick was so hard it hurt a little and I considered jumping right to the main event as it were but decided against it. I gave her ass some more slaps knowing that it would make her even more aroused. She'd be the first to admit that she needed a firm hand
"Please. Please fuck me" she begged.
Over the years she'd learned well how to make sure I'd give her the hard fucking that she so desired. The poor woman hadn't had much to do since diplomatic meetings and trade deals required talents outside of her skill set so hopefully when the extra troops got here there'd be some action for her.
"You ready, bitch?" I asked.
She did her best to wiggle her butt at me.
"Yes, Master," she replied.
I slipped my cock an inch into her ass. She let out an explosive cry of "FUCK ME!" and I felt her entire body grow rigid. For a second she tried to pull away and I slapped her ass hard. She stopped and I started to move back and forth slowly. She was tight as ever.
"Fuck, give a girl a little warning will you" she said.
Jack enjoyed anal sex and of course she'd been prepared for it when she'd entered the room since she knew how much I loved her backside.
"If you're going to fuck my ass, at least do it right" she said.
The attitude surprised me as she was normally more submissive when I was actually fucking her, but I was more than happy to accommodate her. I picked up the pace, and as I did I felt my stresses begin to melt away. I drove into Jack, using her body as nothing more than a way to make myself feel better and for sexual pleasure.
While the fucking didn't last long since I'd used my consort as a toy she couldn't move for a while afterwards, yet she lacked an anger about that.
"I love it when you treat me like a toy" she let me know "I love being your bitch".
That was nice to hear.
"I love you too," I told her.
"Don't get all sappy on me now" she said as she managed to roll on to her stomach "Save that for your wives, I'm just your slut".
She was more than that and she knew it, I found ways to show her and would do so again soon.