Chapter Nineteen: Along Came Talyn
The Goa'uld assault vessel detected a new Leviathan approaching from deep space. It moved slowly into orbit, on a rough vector approaching them and Moya. Although it was a different design, they weren't concerned. The first Leviathian showed itself to be an unarmed creature with no offensive capabilities whatsoever. In his arrogance, the Jaffa captain planned to capture this second ship for his Lord.
From his bridge, the Jaffa captain hailed the Leviathan. "Attention approaching ship, you will surrender in the name of our Lord Apophis."
As the red Leviathan drew closer, filling their bridge viewscreen, they got their answer.
Talyn opened fire.
With its shields the Goa'uld ship could absorb considerable punishment, and to it's credit it withstood Talyn's opening salvo for all of four seconds before the overwhelming bombardment punched through.
The Goa'uld ship was staggered as an angry Talyn continued to pound away at them.
In Talyn's command area, Crais surveyed the damage. The aliens had been foolish to let them get this close to their ship. Now their shields were down, but Talyn's sensors showed the aliens were rerouting power to their weapons. Judging by the power level of their armaments, they could do serious harm to Talyn if given the opportunity.
Crais wasn't going to give them that chance. "Talyn, they're preparing to fire, finish them off!"
The young Leviathan obeyed without hesitation, and fired another devastating salvo. The Goa'uld ship was ripped apart in a massive explosion.
***
The creature is lying, Apophis thought. It has to be. He activated the comm unit on his wrist, hailing his ship. He waited a moment, but they failed to answer. He tried again, but still his hail went unanswered. His people should have responded instantly on pain of death. Either communications were jammed or this creature called Pilot was actually telling the truth.
"And if you're thinking your remaining men on this ship can help you, you can forget that too," Pilot informed him mildly and with a tiniest of smiles. "Jool and D'Argo have taken out a large number of them coming here to rescue you and I have reactivated my DRDs and they're gluing your men to the deck where they stand... So to speak."
John stepped forward, keeping his weapon trained on Apophis. "In others words, you've lost, King Tut!"
Apophis looked at John, then to Aeryn, Chiana, Pilot and to finally Sheba who was crawling back to her feet, still looking slightly stunned. The System Lord looked back to John, his voice bubbling with rage, saying.
"Tell me, man of Earth..."
John's eyes widened. Earth! He knows about Earth?
Apophis aimed his gauntlet, to fire. "...How can I loose if you have yet to defeat me!"
"Scatter!" Chiana screamed.
John, Aeryn and Chiana darted off in different directions, but Apophis fired a wide blast that struck them all with a powerful concussion wave, knocking them all off their feet.
With a satisfied smile, he turned on Pilot who was little more than a big stationary target. He enjoyed watching the terror in the creatures eyes as he took aim.
"Be thankful you will die quickly, more so than your friends, monster!"
"Leave him alone!" Sheba screamed as she threw herself at Apophis.
It was an act of desperation. The Colonial warrior couldn't find her blaster and saw Apophis was about to kill Pilot who couldn't move an inch to escape. So she charged at him, intending to take the hit for Pilot, but she was shocked when she penetrated the shield protecting him. If she had known that she could have done that, she would have done more than simply plowing into him.
Apophis grabbed Sheba by the top of her head with his gauntlet hand. "You are annoying me!"
Then he started to fry her brain in typical and painful Goa'uld fashion. Energy crackled from his gauntlet, down about Sheba's head, and into her brain.
"Lt. Sheba!" Pilot cried, as he helplessly watched Apophis killing the Colonial warrior before his very eyes. John, Aeryn, and Chiana were only now beginning to stir back to consciousness.
It felt like a giant drill was burrowing into her brain. Sheba collapsed to her knees as Apophis continued to grip her head as his gauntlet energy beam assaulted her mind. She couldn't even move to defend herself.
"So you are Apophis!" a voice said.
The Goa'uld System Lord looked up from his gloating over Sheba to see Rygel moving up close on his hover throne, seemingly out of nowhere. The Hynerian eyed him with a contempt equalling his own.
"I am Rygel XVI, Dominar to over 600 billion subjects and you are nothing compared to me!"
With that, he spat in Apophis's face. The Hynerian's aim was true and spit struck the Goa'uld in the left eye, blinding him. Apophis cried out and jerked as it stung his eye, causing him to release Sheba.
With considerable effort, John struggled back to his feet to go after Apophis. The Goa'uld was still struggling to see when John cocked back a fist and struck him across the face. Rygel backed out of the way and moved to check on Sheba.
Apophis lashed out blindly, but John ducked under his swing. Straightening back up, John hammered him repeatedly. He was determined to stop this Goa'uld before he could harm anyone else or do any further damage. John landed a solid upper cut, connecting on Apophis chin, knocking him backwards towards the edge of the ramp.
John moved up for another punch when Apophis managed to land a solid blow of his own. With his incredible Goa'uld strength, John was knocked flat.
"You will all burn, Human!" Apophis howled. "I will make you watch as I kill everyone and save you for last!"
Slowly, John shook the cobwebs from his eyes before noticing a little DRD maneuvering up behind Apophis. It was the Moya DRD.
Crichton smiled. "There's someone you'll have a hard time killing and she's just as big as your ego, King Tut!"
Apophis yelled something about to killing the Human slowly, but the DRD barrelled forward first and slammed into the back of Apophis feet, knocking the screaming Goa'uld System Lord backward and over the ledge.
John hurried over and stared down into the abyss, unable to see Apophis or even the bottom of the shaft. With a sigh of relief, he glanced to the little heroic DRD. John reached out and petted the machine, smiling.
"And her name is Moya," he muttered towards the pit.
"John!" came a familiar shout.
The Human turned to see D'Argo and Jool racing into the den. The two quickly surveyed the area and were thankful to see that everyone, including a badly shaken Sheba, appeared to be safe.
"It's over, Crais has destroyed the Goa'uld ship and their leader has taken the final plunge." John told him before collapsing with exhaustion.