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Chapter 6: Sowing seeds

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Part 5

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Delmak

Sokar's domain

Milky Way galaxy

Of all the cursed places in the galaxy to end up at... Aris Boch bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood and knelt in front of Sokar's throne.

The pale corpse-like abomination sat on a black, spiky throne. It was somehow comfortable wearing a thick red cowl, despite the oppressive heat in the throne room. Blank-faced Necropolis guards lined the walls, nearly invisible in the flickering twilight caused by burning torches. The only proper light in the large room shone upon the throne, and it was simply wrong, making Sokar look even more of a monster than most Goa'uld.

"Mercenary, I have a task for you," Sokar spoke in a sibilant hiss. Speaking in such a way was ridiculous instead of creepy, though the Ilemperi wasn't crazy enough to point that out aloud. He was sure that Sokar's underlings, the ones who weren't screaming in torture chambers anyway, weren't about to enlighten their overlord.

"I live to serve, oh, Lord of Darkness."

Sadly that was the literal truth, thanks to the never sufficiently cursed Goa'uld and their trice damned roshta.

"That you do." The pale abomination hissed again, playing it particularly thick this time.

If Boch was any judge of character, Sokar had gone more insane than usual, even for something like him. That was an achievement requiring a lot of dedicated work. The bastard had been trying to live up to his claim of being the Devil for thousands of years. Unfortunately, for countless people, Sokar had proven quite successful in that pursuit.

"It came to my attention that a Minor Goa'uld innovated new ways to fight on the ground. A supposed imbecile managed to humble Ba'al's armies." Sokar let out a wheezing chuckle. "It simply wouldn't do for my Necropolis guard not to be as deadly as they're terrible to behold."

Boch kept his head down, wondering what did that have to do with him? He knew that most Jaffa made for subpar soldiers. Unfortunately, they had practically endless numbers and big capital ships on their side. Those facts made up for all kinds of sins, and incompetence, when the opposition couldn't counter orbital fire. His people were the living proof of that sad fact.

"You're an underhanded mercenary who wouldn't know honorable combat if a Jaffa strikes you over the head with a staff."

Did Sokar try for a joke now? Boch wisely didn't comment and kept waiting to hear why Sokar demanded his presence.

"Your people killed a surprisingly high number of Jaffa before we properly broke you." Sokar gleefully continued.

Boch bit his cheek again, to help himself from saying something that wold be particularly stupid under the circumstances.

"You're going to ensure my Necropolis Guard become death incarnate when I wish it." Sokar preened. "They're almost sufficiently terrifying already."

"What do I have to work with, Dread Lord?" Boch finally spoke.

"My First Prime will be at your disposal, alongside a cadre of veteran Necropolis Guard. Figure out this new way of fighting on the ground, and make my Jaffa even deadlier than anyone else! Succeed, and I'll give your people enough roshta to live for now. Fail me, and I'll keep you all screaming until the stars burn out!"

"May I suggest better weapons and armor first, figuring how to best use them second?" Boch asked, fighting to keep his voice from sounding as bitter as he felt.

It wasn't that complicated. It really wasn't! Give the Jaffa weapons, that can be properly aimed, train them to shoot straight, then give them proper armor. That by itself, would make them somewhat resemble competent soldiers, instead of the terror goons they were.

Boch wasn't certain if he should be elated, or despair that the Goa'uld, hadn't figured it out in thousands of years. The never sufficiently damned parasites were dangerous enough with their ships already. The last thing the galaxy needed was for those things to get a proper military too!

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The Jade Citadel
Lord Yu's Domain
Milky Way galaxy

Distant songs carried over the Jade palace. In the gardens, the singing mixed with bubbling sounds coming from fountains and the happy chirping of birds. Rare flowers from all over the galaxy covered the palace's gardens with sweet perfume.

Deep within the gardens, Lord Yu-huang Shang Ti sat on a regal wooden throne in the shape of two snarling dragons. Their heads acted as armrests. Jade scales and emerald eyes glittered in the afternoon sun. Bright red silk, and embroidered with golden motifs made the Jade God Emperor look as if he wore a shroud of fire.

The Goa'uld looked from the tall table in front of him, setting aside the endless work needed to keep his realm working in harmony.

Six of his primes stood at attention, two steps behind Shin Kun, Yu's First Prime.

"One we believed to be a foolish minor Lord of no consequence, humbled Ba'al in combat. Instead of suffering crippling, perhaps fatal losses, Kali and Bastet, now might have small yet unexpectedly dangerous ground armies. Ra stirs. Ba'al will plot bloody vengeance." Yu looked at his best and most trusted commanders. "I give you more authority than any other Goa'uld dares to offer his Primes. In exchange, I expect excellent results. What are you going to do, Shin Kun?"

"Our agents tell the same stories when we remove the expected embellishments. Perun had issued his Jaffa better weapons and armor. He has trained them to fight differently. In combination, these factors had proven to be extremely effective. Our scholars need to develop better equipment for your armies, my Lord Yu. We, your commanders, need to train your Jaffa better, figure out new and better ways to wage war."

"This is a prudent answer, my First Prime. Good." Yu's stern face showed a trace of a pleased smile. "However, this is what any of my peers who still have their wits about them will do. We must do more. I fear we have interesting times ahead of us. I won't have outside factors disrupt the harmony of my realm. We will prepare accordingly." Yu looked over the assembled primes, focusing on a familiar face.

This was Oshu, the latest, and for now, last clone of Sun Tzu himself, Yu's old friend, guard, and advisor. He was someone Yu raised as his son, hoping to finally ignite the spark that made the original Sun Tzu so special.

"I can see you have something you want to say, don't you, my son? Speak, Oshu." Yu decreed.

"Lord Yu, we do not have to reinvent the wheel. The Jade Empire you lead had to adopt various good ideas in the past. We will do so again. Instead of potentially wasting time trying to re-invent what Perun has discovered, why not make a deal with him? We trade for knowledge. In exchange, Perun will receive the resources and assets he might need. Our agents figured out that Lord Ra ordered Perun to accomplish a tall task. Perun can use any edge now, and we could provide him with a keen one in exchange for his new way of war. Then we will make it ours, and improve on it, so enhances our strengths, and mitigates any weaknesses we might find in your Jaffa armies."

"You speak with the wisdom of the ancients, my son. We will do so. Kun, see to it. I'll issue the necessary orders so our scholars focus on developing better equipment for my Jaffa."

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Part 6

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Kalighat

Lady Kali's domain

Milky Way galaxy

Kali relaxed on a sofa deep within her palace. A fireplace kept the autumn chill at bay, while scented candles threw flickering lights everywhere. Bastet sat nearby, sprawled like a cat on another sofa, strategically placed across a low wooden table.

"To our victory!" Kali proclaimed, waving her crystal glass of sweet wine like a banner.

"And to Ba'al's humiliation!" Bastet purred and sipped from her own glass of bubbling wine. "What are you going to do about your overly ambitious underling?"

"You just had to ruin the mood," Kali grumbled.

"It's an important question. I'm unsure if Ba'al is being a sore loser, like usual, or if it's another Goa'uld resenting us. Either way, my agents hear rumors from all ends of my realm. I'm sure you've heard the same, Kali." Bastet's pleased smile slowly shifted into a serious expression.

"That we only managed to defend ourselves because we had to rely on an underling, who had been building up his forces to betray us?" Kali pursed her lips. "I'm not sure if that's Ra rubbing it in, Ba'al thinking himself clever, or both. Not that it really matters. Under different circumstances, I might have overlooked Perun's actions. I would have kept him close enough so I could watch his every move. That way, he would have been still useful."

"Ra ended that idea. Now you have to either make an example of Perun or watch Ra reward him with a piece of your domain. Then you'll have to move against him anyway as soon as it's prudent to do so." Bastet commiserated.

"We can't have underlings get away with going over our heads this way. I already have two minor functionaries with ideas above their stations in the dungeons. They got it in their heads that going to Ra with half-baked schemes might get them rewarded." Kali growled. "I can see him using that as a pretext to further weaken us."

"I know you, Kali, dear. You can scheme with the best of them. What do you have in mind?"

"Well, first, there's the straightforward approach. We get Perun killed and ensure that when Ra looks into it, the assassination has Ba'al's fingers all over it." Kali lifted a carefully manicured finger and examined the blood-red nail.

"Ra might still blame you for being unable to keep your important underlings alive. Perun is still one of yours, in theory anyway. Ra can further punish you for allowing one of his agents to get assassinated. He'll call it either incompetence or try to twist it as directly acting against his interests."

"That's why the straightforward approach is going to be in case the better plans somehow fail." Kali smugly explained and sipped her wine. It was good, sweet, and slick, just like she liked it.

"I'm all ears." Basted cocked her head. If she still had her old host, then her feline ears would be pointing at Kali in anticipation.

"We make sure Perun fails his tasks for Ra. We'll send agents to derail his ongoing projects, and more importantly, we ensure he fails to take out the Tollan. Ideally, we'll later use his plans if viable to get ourselves rid of that pest, and gain a better reputation with the other System Lords."

"Wickedly underhanded, like I expect from you. I'm in." Bastet purred happily. "Now, on a related topic, how do we properly overhaul our Jaffa to better face the future?"

"That's why I would have preferred to have Perun eating from my hand while keeping him on a tight leash. With that cheerful image out of the question, we'll have to figure out how to better equip and train our forces by ourselves. When we're rid of Perun, I'm sure his Jaffa would happily help teach ours all he taught them, All in order to avenge him against Ba'al." Kali's eyes sparkled in amusement at that thought.

"In the short term, Perun can still be somewhat useful then?" Bastet asked.

"His Jaffa will be. We'll need at least a handful of more open-minded underlings who can think outside the bounds of tradition. We'll have them try new ways of fighting, then use Jaffa to test what works, and what's an utterly ridiculous idea not to be repeated in actual combat." Kali nodded happily to herself.

"That might actually work, as long as we keep those underlings from following Perun's path," Bastet noted.

"That's why I would prefer to see him fail in completing Ra's tasks. Then I'll be able to make a very public and object lesson of him." Kali announced.

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Asdad
Ba'al's Fortress World
Milky Way galaxy

Ba'al sat in a comfortable office dug deep into to rock below his fortress. For once, he was in front of a large wooden desk covered with stone tablets and even the odd scroll. A bit younger clone of himself sat behind the desk, drinking fruit juice from a golden goblet.

'Who could you trust to be your faithful spymaster or lead scientist, but yourself?' Ba'al thought. He sipped spiced wine from his golden goblet.

The armored door behind him slid open, and a second clone walked in, carrying an arm full of stone tablets.

"Finally, we can begin." The original Ba'al declared. "How smearing Kali and Bastet go?"

"By now, there are Jaffa, and even humans across the whole galaxy whispering they survived only because of Perun." The spymaster smiled, looking very pleased with himself. "Even if Kali wanted to be reasonable, soon she will have no choice but to move against Perun, making the rift between them permanent." The spymaster's smile quickly vanished. "I must report that the rumors spread faster than expected. It is possible, even likely, that Ra had a similar idea and acted upon it."

"He created the rift between Kali and Perun. It only makes sense to deepen it and ensure that Kali won't be in a position to heal it. We will, of course, keep taking advantage of that opportunity." Ba'al announced.

"Will we move against Kali and Bastet? Perun? Both?" The spymaster inquired.

"Get one of our spies in Kali's court to try and assassinate Perun. Use one of the special ones."

"I'll have an agent use someone loyal to Kali. They will believe they're following genuine orders. I can see how that will work, no matter if the assassin manages to kill Perun or fails." The spymaster made a note. "I'll see to it. Do you wish me to ensure Perun meets an untimely death anyway?"

"Ra already did a great job isolating Perun from Kali. We'll keep working to make sure it sticks. Then, if he doesn't get himself killed, we will maneuver to be in a position to offer him an out. What else have you found out about our defeat? We still miss some crucial information about the battles against Perun's forces." Ba'al inquired. On one hand, he was impressed with what Perun had managed to think of. On the other hand, he was less than pleased with the result, no matter how useful the new paradigm might be in the long run.

After all, there were several System Lords who were certain to fail to adapt promptly, if they could adapt at all. Ba'al would make sure he would be in the best position to take advantage of their failures.

"So far, there are still more tall tales than actual information on the tactics Perun used. I can confirm he didn't win decisively just because he equipped his Jaffa with better weapons and armor, though that was a major factor as well."

"They knew how to best use them and did so to devastating effect." Ba'al agreed. "I already have our First Prime use Inarts to figure out how the Jaffa can use stronger armor and more accurate weapons to best effect." He looked at his scientist alter-ego.

"I've had my scientists discard the very idea of working with traditional Jaffa armor. We're working on building a new one from the ground up. The goal is to have high resistance to plasma and Zat'nik'tel. Weapon-wise, we're pursuing two avenues. One is making staff weapons smaller, and easier to aim and wield. The other looks at a rapid-fire primary weapon based on the Zat'nik'tel. That would offer better versatility, for when we want prisoners to interrogate or make example of."

"Splendid! I couldn't have done better myself!" Ba'al joked.

"What about vehicles to support the Jaffa? We know that Ra ordered Perun to design him some." The spymaster reminded them.

"We're looking on something based on the Al'kesh. There's no need to invent something completely new. The goal is to have two variants – a smaller, longer one able to pass through the Chappa'ai and a larger one we'll deploy from Ha'taks."

"Get it done, and keep me apprised of any notable developments. Now let's hear how our rivals are going to adapt to the new paradigm."

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