Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate or any of the IPs from which any imported elements may originate.
The Wars of Legends
Book 4: War of the Ascended
Chapter Two: The Fighting Begins
Beta:
The world of Shang within the Celestial Jade Empire was ablaze.
A mob of fanatical followers of the new religion of Origin were torching everything they passed as they stormed through the world's capital en route to the palace of the world's governor, the Goa'uld Underlord Shòuxing.
Amidst this crowd was a young fiery eyed brunette human by the name of Azrel. Like his fellows this young man hollered praises to their new gods as they charged towards a firing line of Jaffa who had set themselves up at the far end of the square in front of the Underlord's palace.
Once upon a time, Azrel had believed that Shòuxing was a god and his superior, Yu-huang Shang Ti, even more so. The Prior had however opened his eyes to the truth and now he knew they were nothing more than demons masquerading as gods and that it was his righteous duty as one of the enlightened to free the galaxy from the grasp of these abominations. It was this knowledge that emboldened him to keep going forward even as the commander of the Jaffa line shouted at the crowd to disperse and return to their homes.
"Ignore him!" Azrel shouted. "We carry out the will of the gods! We have their protection!"
The young man was pleased to see his words seemed to help his comrades, some of whom looked on the verge of wavering.
"Damn you fools! You leave me with no choice." The Jaffa commander shouted, sounding genuinely torn. "Open fire!"
His men seemed to share none of their commander's hesitation and with impressive discipline unleashed a wave of plasma bolts at the mob of Origin followers. The sight of this had many of them cowering back fearfully. Azrel however was proud to say he wasn't one of them.
As if his faith was being rewarded, the bolts slammed harmlessly into an energy shield feet ahead of the foremost lines of the advancing crowd.
Smirking at this sign of the gods' favor, Azrel caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of the Prior who had brought them the truth standing amidst his faithful, his staff raised and its crystal centerpiece glowing white with power.
"Damnation! They have a shield." The Jaffa commander cursed. "Bring up the heavy weapons. The rest of you keep firing!"
His orders were too late though as the lead edge of the crowd had already reached the Jaffa line and had started fighting the demon's slave soldiers with their fists. Thanks to their enhanced physiology and superior training, the Jaffa held their own against the mob for a time. But slowly but surely their superior numbers overcame the warriors and they were dragged down one by one and trampled.
This was only the first line of Jaffa though and further back a pair of Staff Cannons were rolled out and leveled at the crowd.
Pathetic. Is that the best the demons can do? Azrel thought dismissively, confident that the Prior's divine protection would keep them safe.
He was proven to be mistaken though as just a few shots from the heavy plasma weapons shattered the Prior's shield, something that sent the holy man stumbling back as if he'd been struck across the face. This stirred doubt about his cause in the young man but he pushed it aside. Now was not the time for doubt, not in the middle of battle.
"Fire on the man with the glowing staff," the Jaffa commander shouted. "Kill him before he can do something else."
Over my dead body. Azrel thought even as she shouted as his compatriots. "We need to storm those cannons!"
His cry seemed to be picked up by a thousand mouths as the crowd roared in agreement and began chanting "Storm the cannons!" over and over again as they rushed as one. Ignoring the dozens of their fellows that fell to the deadly fire of the Jaffa firing lines, the mob literally used the weight of their bodies to trample over the Jaffa and seize control of one of the guns.
Unfortunately, the other cannon remained under the control of the Jaffa who proceeded to aim at the Prior and fire off a shot. The resultant blast left a sizable crater in the ground, in the middle of which stood said holy man protected by an aura of flame and surrounded by the corpses of dozens of Azrel's compatriots.
Why didn't he save them to- The young man began to think before the very thought was forcefully pushed aside seemingly by some outside force. This alarmed the man but this feeling too was washed away by the same unknown force and was instead replaced by a feeling of fanatical devotion to the Ori.
"Hallowed be the Ori!" Azrel roared at the sight of the Prior conjuring a fireball and tossing it at the other staff cannon, destroying it.
A quiet part of Azrel noted in horror that dozens of his fellow faithful were immolated as well, but underneath the overwhelming cries of fervor within and outside his mind, he could barely hear it as the crowd exploded into cheers at the proof of the gods' power.
An hour of ransacking Shòuxing's palace later, Azrel was among the crowd gathered in its central courtyard as they watched two Jaffa haul Shòuxing to the balcony on the highest tower of his own palace.
The Prior stepped before the defeated Goa'uld and solemnly questioned the demon. "Will you accept Origin?"
To this gracious offer, the disgraced Underlord spat on the holy man's robes. "I'll never stoop so low, maggot. Kill me if you dare but know that either way Lord Yu will avenge my humiliation this day."
In response, the Prior shook his head sadly even as he raised his staff and set Shòuxing on fire. "May the gods have mercy on your ignorant soul. Be cleansed by this holy fire as the infidel you are."
"Lord Yu will avenge me!" Shòuxing screamed defiantly even as the fire started to engulf him.
"Then he will face the same fate as he tries and fails." The Prior said with finality as he nodded to the two Jaffa on either side of their former liege who promptly proceeded to throw the burning, screaming Underlord over the edge of the balcony. His body hit the ground with a unnatural bang and collapsed into a pile of ash that scattered in the wind.
At the sight, Azrel cheered madly.
Inwardly though, in the last parts of his mind untouched by the corrupting power of Origin, he was horrified.
Is this how Origin deals with its enemies? If so, how is it any better than the worst of the Goa'uld?
Seated in her office within the New Water Palace on her throne world of Londinium, Nimue rubbed her temples in frustration as she reviewed reports of ever increasing Prior activity in her territories. Since the earliest reports about them, she'd pegged them as servants of the Ori and their emergence had sent her into a panic. However, as she began to move against them that panic had changed into a ice cold determination to see them and their masters vanquished. They may have come earlier than she'd feared, but she would face them head on. She was Nimue, she'd helped cause the demise of one unbeatable, ancient evil empire and despite the odds she'd see another fall. Or die trying.
As such, she had made the elimination of these priests of the Ori a top priority uncaring of the possibility that this would antagonize the Ori. There was no value to caution or subterfuge anyways. Unlike the Goa'uld, there was no way, none that Nimue could accept anyways, of ingratiating herself into their hierarchy and toppling it from within. She was thus left with no option but open war.
Despite her best efforts however, the Priors had still managed to stir up several minor uprisings. Thankfully, the generally content nature of her populations make them hard to rile up. However, the populations of her newly acquired worlds were more susceptible but the corresponding greater military presence on such worlds meant the uprisings were easier to contain. Even then a handful of worlds did fall, but were either already recaptured by response fleets or were in the process of being retaken.
"It isn't the rebels that concern me," Nimue said, giving voice to her thoughts. "But the powers of these Priors…"
Offensively, their primarily pyrokinetic based magic was impressive but not overly so. And defensively, more than one had learned that their shields were not able to withstand sustained fire from a heavy weapon. If only their bodies didn't auto immolate upon death, it would make studying them so much easier.
"What's really concerning though is their ability to brainwash my subjects." The Ascended Goa'uld noted with a frown as she read through the report on the matter once more.
According to her scientists, the ability was similar to a wizard's compulsion spells except slightly more subtle but much more pernicious. It required the victim to genuinely come to believe in Origin somewhat to work, but once they did it exerted a compulsion that made it impossible for them to stop believing in it. At least not without treatment.
Calling up the relevant documents on her computer, she noted that experiments so far suggested that exposure to a Healing Device or a stint in a Sarcophagus seemed to work.
"But that's hardly a good method of treatment considering the relative rarity of both," Nimue tapping her fingers against her desk in frustration as she tried to come up with a more practical solution. "We need a more easily disseminated method."
As much as that remained a problem at least those treated so far seemed to develop a deep, abiding revulsion to Origin and an immunity to the Prior's brainwashing ability as a side effect. This made them excellent spies in the ranks of the Ori's deluded faithful.
"Good on Eldarose for spotting that," the former witch said as she allowed a smile at the thought of her daughter while making a note to reward said child for her insightfulness at the next opportunity.
Eldarose's observation was fortunately also not the only advantage that they seemed to have in the fight against the plague that was Origin. It also appeared that blending seemed to make individuals immune to the Prior's mind control and a Jaffa's Prim'ta provided them with some degree of resistance though this varied depending on the maturity of the larva they carried.
"Hmm… The scientists are suggesting that by studying this phenomenon perhaps we can come up with a new treatment?" Nimue considered the matter and nodded in approval.
"That seems reasonable," She agreed even as she sent a message to Kalwart to see that the project received the resources it required.
Satisfied that she had handled the most pressing matters for now and feeling the need for a break, Nimue stood to grab herself some coffee when her computer beeped to indicate an incoming hail.
"Yu? And with a priority code?" Nimue noted as she retook her seat and accepted the call. "I wonder what's going on."
"Greetings Nimue," the Chinese-themed former System Lord greeted gruffly as his face appeared on her hardlight display. His normally cold eyes glowed with the warmth of long camaraderie though, something which Nimue returned with a warm smile.
"Hello Yu," the Ascended Goa'uld returned with far more overt friendliness. "What can I do for you today?"
Others might have been offended by her decision to jump straight to the point but Yu knew her well enough after millennia of association to not take it to heart. Besides, he was the one who had contacted her through a priority channel. That alone spoke volumes about the urgency of the matter at hand.
"I require your assistance against the Priors," Yu said unabashedly. "In particular I would like you to deploy some of your Magi to help me root them out."
The Magi were the magic users that she'd recruited from her populations to serve in the ranks of her armies. They were few in number, the majority of magic users having been protected by the Others and remained in hiding. However, over the millennia Nimue had managed to recruit some thanks to her own nature as an Ascended Being allowing her some leverage in tracking them down. Through this she'd built up a small force of combat capable magic users. Too small and too precious to be used in any of her wars so far, she'd instead limited them to covert actions or support operations but now against the equally limited Priors it seemed the time had finally come for them to shine.
"You have been having trouble with the Priors for weeks." Nimue observed with a smirk. "What took you so long to ask for help?"
"I did not understand the scope of their threat until now," Yu countered, sounding flustered. "I had dismissed them as mere rabble rousers. Ones which failed to gather much in the way of military strength. But they have began to spread like a cancer throughout my Empire. One that I am having real difficulty eradicating. Seeing the relative success of your Magi in doing so, I'm appealing to you for assistance."
"Very well," Nimue agreed easily. "Tell me where you want them and my Magi will be there within the day."
"You have my thanks, old friend." Yu said with a bow.
"Think nothing of it," Nimue waved away his gratitude. "We need to stand together to face this threat."
Or we won't survive.
The day after Nimue's conversation with Yu, Ruilan led a team of five Lake Knights accompanying a Magos, Falman, as they prepared to step through the Chappa'ai to the Jade world of Kunlun which had fallen to the blasphemous Origin fanatics.
After the Jackal War, Ruilan had transferred over from the regular army to the elite Lake Knights even though it meant a relative demotion from division commander to a mere squad leader. She didn't mind though, she'd wanted a break from the heavy responsibility of leading a whole army of men. Besides, since becoming a Lake Knight was considered incredibly prestigious it didn't impact her advancement all that much.
Seeing that her men were doing their equipment checks by the book, she took a glance at her superior. Falman was dressed in armor indistinguishable from her or the other Lake Knights but was surrounded by a aura of crackling power.
He was one of the specially selected children of her goddess trained in the mystic arts. The goddess had always cultivated the talent among her children and people, but since they were always so few in number she had never dared send them into battle instead keeping them secret and utilizing their talents away from the frontlines. The times had changed however and now those powers were needed to face the newest enemy to threaten the peace of the Milky Way.
The goddess' foresight is truly divine. To foresee that there would come a time where the Magi would be needed and keeping them in reserve until then. Truly brilliant. Ruilan thought, brimming with pride that she served such a truly worthy divinity.
"Knights," the Magi said, drawing Ruilan from her thoughts. "Before we step through the Chappa'ai, let me remind you that we will be facing quite the tough fight on the other side. The Jade forces have forced the Prior to hunker down in the ruins of the Underlord's palace and have him surrounded, but the abomination is still powerful and will not go down easily. So we will need to be careful. Is that clear?"
He was met with nods from the whole team.
Satisfied, he nodded back in return.
"One last warning," Falman said as the Chappa'ai began dialing the address for their destination. "Leave the fighting with the Prior to me. Just focus on keeping his brainwashed minions from interfering."
"Yes, my lord." The team responded in unison as behind them the last chevron locked and the wormhole stabilized. "Then let's move out."
Falling in behind him, the squad stepped up the stairs to walk through the Chappa'ai.
Stepping out the other side, Ruilan was confronted by a scene of devastation. It wasn't something new to her. Having fought in her goddess' wars for years, she'd seen her fair share of war torn vistas. However, there was a different air to the sight before her now. A certain sadness that lingered in the very air.
"Did the Jade forces do this?" One of her men asked over their team's private comms as they fanned out into an escort formation around Falman. "Seems a little excessive."
"It is," the Magus agreed. "And no, this was not the work of the Jade troops. This was done by the crazed followers of Origin when they took the world."
Why would anyone do this to their own planet? Ruilan thought, disgusted by the knowledge.
"Greetings," a Jade Second Prime said as he walked over to them from the cordon of Jaffa surrounding the Chappa'ai. "We have been expecting you."
"Then you know why we're here." Falman addressed the man. "Where is the Prior?"
"This way," the Second Prime said with a nod and began leading them through the massed ranks of Jade Jaffa. They walked in silence for quite some time, giving Ruilan a chance to assess the considerable numbers of Jaffa standing ready to take action and the substantial equipment at their disposal.
"We have him pinned in the ruins of the Underlord's palace," the Second Prime spoke up as they neared the edge of the Jade encampment. "We had intended to kill him via orbital and artillery bombardment before we'd heard that Lady Nimue was sending specialists to assist us."
"Why not just storm the palace?" Ruilan asked curiously. It was what she'd done in the man's position. Considering the number of troops he apparently had at his disposal, surely they could do so successfully.
"Because my men are too terrified to do so," the man said as they approached the edge of the encirclement and within view of the ruined palace.
Looking at what the Jade forces were facing off against, Ruilan found she couldn't blame them. Their opponents weren't men. Not anymore. Instead, they appeared to be animated corpses whose eyes were glowing with demonic orange flames and clutching salvaged weapons in their often rotting hands.
By the goddess! Ruilan thought as her men recoiled at the sight.
Falman however just growled at the horrifying sight. "Rest assured soldier, we will deal with this."
"I hope you have better luck than we had," the Second Prime said with a sigh. "We've tried skirmishing with those things. To try and test their abilities and we've learned that they don't die unless we utterly destroy their bodies. Hence, advanced Zat'nik'tels with their disintegration effect are the best weapons against them. Unfortunately, they are in short supply."
"Rest easy, I know how to deal with wights." Falman assured the man.
"You've dealt with them before?" The Jade commander asked, sounding shocked.
"Yes, though not the same type of wight. But close enough."
The Second Prime nodded, satisfied and Falman turned to the team. "Are you ready?"
He received nods in reply before once more addressing their local liaison. "Would you be so kind as to provide us with some suppressive fire as we close the distance to the palace?"
"Just give the word," the man nodded.
"Now would be nice," Falman said as he led their team towards the very edge of the Jade encirclement. Behind them they heard the Second Prime begin barking orders.
"Be wary of the wights," Falman said through the squad's comms as they walked through the Jade ranks, who had began firing on the ruined palace in the distance from all around them. "They are at least twice as strong as a human, untiring and as the Jade officer said can only be killed if they are disintegrated."
The team replied with a series of affirmatives just as they reached the edge of no man's land. Exchanging a look, they all nodded and as one began sprinting across the distance towards the enemy position amidst the deadly crossfire of plasma bolts flying in both directions.
"Hallowed be the Ori!" A crazed cultist cried as he leapt down from the top of a ruined stairway at Ruilan as she laid down a withering barrage of plasma from her Rotary Staff Cannon at the trio of Staff Weapon equipped wights that had been blocking her team's path deeper into the building.
"I've got the cultist," one of her men shouted as he raised his Staff Rifle and easily blew the head off the falling man. The corpse kept falling though and the whole team took a step to the side as it fell into the center of their formation, where it promptly began rising to its feet with a ghostly flame sputtering where its head had been and clutching the kitchen knife in its hand menacingly.
In response, Falman slashed his kara kesh equipped right hand at the man and muttered "Putesco (Rot)" under his breath, sending a dark purple light at the newly animated wight that caused it to decay away into nothingness in moments.
"Looks like that's the last of them," Ruilan said as the wight's knife clattered to the ground. "My sensors are reading all clear."
"For now," Falman said ominously. "Until we kill the Prior there will be no true end to this nightmare."
"Then let's go do that shall we?" Ruilan asked.
"Agreed," the Magus said with a nod. "Which way to the dungeons?"
"If the floor plan the Jade forces sent us is correct? This way." Ruilan said indicating the passage that had previously been blocked by the three Staff totting wights.
"Uh, Magus," one of Ruilan's men spoke up as they cautiously began moving forward once more. "Don't you think this is a trap? I mean, it almost seems like the Prior is luring us to him."
"I'm afraid you're correct, soldier." Falman replied with a sigh. "However, if we intend to defeat this menace we have little choice but to walk into the lion's den."
"Well, shit." Ruilan cursed, voicing the squad's collective thoughts on the matter.
"Do not fear," Falman said reassuringly. "The Mother Empress protects."
"The Mother Empress protects." The squad repeatedly dutifully, taking comfort from the short prayer even as their sensors pinged new contacts inbound on their location from every direction.
"Stand fast!" Falman ordered as the whole team readied themselves for yet another wave of enemies.
The rest of the journey through the ruined palace to its lowest dungeons was the same relentless slog. Wave after wave of the enemy, both crazed cultist and abominable wight alike came at Ruilan and her squad as they marched ever closer to the Prior's lair.
A lair that as they stepped into the darkened dungeon, she couldn't help but think fitted the accursed charlatan perfectly in its horrific appearance. It was a slaughterhouse filled with the mutilated corpses of dozens, no, hundreds of people. There were so many bodies that they literally covered the floor like a terrible carpet.
"Greetings, servants of a false god." The Prior said almost amicably as he stood at the heart of the macabre scene. "I am glad that you have managed to make it here."
"Enough talk, time to die foul necromancer." Falman shouted as he raised his right hand and with a fierce cry of Avada Kedavra sent a sickly green light screaming towards the bald, albino man.
In response, the Prior just smirked and with a pulse of light of his staff raised the entire horde of corpses that surrounded them. One of which coincidentally taking the Magus' spell for him and collapsing back to the ground like its strings had been cut where it remained inert.
By the goddess' mercy, how can someone see these madmen do something like this and still consider them holy? The veteran Jaffa warrior thought as she fumbled with her gear to draw out something that would even up the odds somewhat.
"Grenade!" Ruilan shouted as she tossed a pair of plasma grenades into the stirring masses of undead, the powerful explosions that followed reducing dozens of them to ashes before they could even fully raise to their feet. Around her, her squad mates did the same, quickly thinning the enemy's numbers. But despite their best efforts, this was just a drop in the bucket and the wights still seemed endless.
That is until Falman roared out a new spell, "Catena Fulgur (Chain Lightning)!"
At his incantation, bolts of lightning leapt from his hands and slammed into the leading ranks of the advancing undead swarm before arcing to another and then another, quickly turning whole swathes of the enemy's ranks to naught but piles of ash.
"I leave the rest to you," the Magus said as he strode pass his escorts. "I will deal with the Prior."
"By your command, my lord." Ruilan replied even as she disintegrated a wight with her Zat'nik'tel. "We've got these walking corpses. Go deal with the heretic."
"With pleasure," Falman said even as he raised his arms and sent a pair of lightning bolts at the Prior who had stood seemingly unfazed as all this transpired.
Being under direct attack once more however seemed to drag him out of whatever reverie had gripped him and with a pulse of light from his staff, he threw up a shield that protected him from the lightning. It shattered however when with a cry of "Bombarda!" from Falman, the empty air in front of his barrier spontaneously exploded. This sent the albino stumbling back and created an opening that the Magus exploited by sending another of the sickly green curses he'd started the fight with at the Prior.
Unfortunately, the priest of Origin reacted quickly and managed to use his staff to deflect the spell though he seemed shocked to discover that the curse had left a scorch mark on his weapon. This seemed to enrage him however and he was engulfed in an aura of flame and with a roar of inarticulate fury, sent a massive fireball at Falman.
Ruilan lost track of the duel at that point, as a wight rushed her with a cleaver. Unlike the others, this one was not only armed but was also wearing armor. This meant that it took three shots from her Zat without so much as breaking stride.
Shit! Ruilan cursed as she hurriedly put away her sidearm and brought her main weapon to bear. I won't make it in time!
Thankfully, Ruilan wasn't working alone and one of her men was quick to fire over her shoulder with his Staff Rifle and managed to blast the wight's unarmored head off. This didn't kill the damned thing, but the force of the impact was enough to break its charge and send it staggering back. This gave Ruilan enough time to level her Rotary Staff Cannon at the abomination and unleash a barrage that melted through its armor and finally disabled it.
Giving her subordinate a thankful nod, she drew her Zat to finish the creature. Satisfied that the armored undead was reduced to nothing more than ash, she drew a bead on another of the creatures while once more watching the epic confrontation between Falman and the Prior from the corner of her eye.
Both of them were currently stuck in a clash of powers. The Prior was shooting a column of fire at Falman, who in turn was sending a stream of water back in return. Where the two opposing forces met, a cloud of steam had formed but unlike normal steam it did not spread out and instead clung to the point of contact between the two elemental streams belying it's supernatural nature.
"I am Nollis, Prior of the Ori!" The albino madman roared, as if his name meant anything. "I will not die here! I will not fail the gods."
"Your gods care nothing for you," Falman countered. "To them you are nothing but a replaceable pawn."
They look like they're at a stalemate. Let's give Falman a helping hand. Ruilan mused as she disintegrated yet another wight and hastily took a shot at the Prior. She wasn't the only one who had the same idea though and three shots slammed into the distracted man in quick succession.
Contrary to what that normally should have done, namely the disintegration of the target, the Zat shots only seemed to cause the Prior some mild irritation. That was enough however and his concentration was broken and his stream of fire disappeared as if it had never been there, allowing Falman's water jet to hit him dead on. The force behind the stream must have been immense as the effect of the impact was so great that the Prior's entire upper body practically exploded into gore as the water blasted its way through it like so much paper.
As their animator died, the various wights that remained collapsed earning a sigh of relief from Ruilan and her men.
"It's over. Finally, over." One of her subordinates said with a sense of relief that the whole team shared.
"For now," Falman said grimly as he walked over. "But this was hardly the only Prior in the galaxy. I fear that this was only the beginning."
"Maybe, my lord. But for now at least, let's savor this victory." Ruilan advised the Magus.
"Yes, I suppose you're right." Falman conceded. "We shall worry about tomorrow when it comes. For now, let us celebrate."
This pronouncement was met with cheers from everyone.
Done!
Hope you guys liked it.
The only bit that I think really deserves mention this chapter is why Nimue wasn't as flustered here as in her first scene in this book. This is thanks in no small part by the passage of time. By this point she's had some time to cope with the problem and has transited from panicking about it to actually dealing with it. So she's a lot less stressed about it. She's used to dealing with seemingly insurmountable problems. Did I convey this properly? Let me know.
Well, beyond that, there's nothing to say. So till next time, peace.
