Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Stargate SG-1, Reign, or anything else I reference.
Chapter Ten: Strike an Enemy
"You have been gone too long." Nirtti said as she laid on the bed panting in exhaustion.
"I wanted to have an adventure, and you promised that I could have some time away." Danny said. He was brought earlier than planned and he was still a bit annoyed about it. He wanted to see how France was doing as it shifted its religion.
"You are still upset that you cannot micromanage your newest project." Nirtti said as she brought his hand to her lips and kissed it.
"I just want to know why they are bringing you into their schemes." Danny said. Kali and Amaterasu were System Lords in control of over one hundred worlds with countless Jaffa and human slaves that could accomplish whatever task they gave.
"Whatever it is if we stand together, we can come out on top." Nirtti said.
"You are certainly confident about this." Danny said.
"Fear is for the weak." Nirtti said.
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Danny watched as the Chappa'ai opened up and out walked forty armed Jaffa carrying the symbol of Amaterasu. She was carried behind them in a Palanquin by eight Jaffa that was stylized with symbols of flames and the sun. Her hair was black with two bangs that came down like fangs and framed her face. The rest was tied in a topknot. Her irises were golden and looked and had an ambitious look in her eye. She was wearing a robe of fine red silk with golden lining (1).
"We welcome you to Dinai goddess Amatreasu." Nirtti's Prime Kar'la said as she bowed before their visitor.
"Where are we?" Amaterasu asked as she looked around.
"We are in a forest in the continent of Alvarez." Kar'la stated.
"Why are we here?" Amaterasu asked as her eyes began to glow and her Jaffa began to raise their weapons.
"No need for threats. The Chappa'ai was placed here so that in case of an assassination attempt the enemy could not gain easy access to the castle. We are here to transport you and Kali to the castle." Nirtti said taking lead in the conversation as she was the one, they wanted to talk to. There were many upsides to being just a king of a place but there were downsides too. This was one of them.
"Very well." Kali said as her eyes returned to her host's color and the Jaffa lowered their weapons.
The Chappa'ai opened again and out of the swirling blue pool was Kali's group. Like Amaterasu she came along with forty Jaffa not counting the ones that carried her palanquin. Her host was beautiful as well. Even though her face was hidden behind a cloth the face was clearly beautiful. Her hair was a silky brown that looked like she had her slaves comb through it thousands of times a day. She was wearing a black top that covered her breasts connected to a dark silk sleeve covering her arm that probably hid the Kara'kesh she had. Her pants looked to be made of a similar material. There were two golden bracelets on her revealed arm(2).
"Welcome goddess Kali." Kar'la stated as she bowed before their second visitor.
"I see that we are not near your castle." Kali said in a sweet voice that belied the terror her slaves probably felt before they died.
"We were just waiting on you System Lord Kali. We will now begin travel to our castle." Nirtti said.
"Yes, you share your castle with your most favored slave." Amatersau said as she looked at him.
Danny was holding back his annoyance. Messing with Amaterasu would do nothing but bring the other system lords here bringing war. He was not ready to leave all of this behind.
"I am fond of him." Nirtti said.
"You have always been a strange one." Kali said. "Very well. Take us to your castle."
"Quarters have been prepared for you in the Ha'tak." Nirtti said as the transportation rings came down and began to pick up the groups.
This was certainly going to be a tense event.
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"Here are my recent slaves. You may choose which ones you wish to see fight." Nirtti said as she held up a group of ten people that had come from Cardea's world.
They stood before them in just gladiator kilts to prevent their private bits from flapping in the wind. They had no shirts but were not allowed to cover themselves up. They were to fight to the death against wild animals or each other for the pleasure of the Goa'uld.
Danny hoped that whatever fate they were given was pleasant because there was nothing, he could do for them. Kali and Amaterasu wanted there to be human sacrifices while they were talking as if they believed it was an omen to bring good luck. The only reason he was at the table was because Nirtti asked for him to be there and the two of them did not want to anger Nirtti before their talk.
"I want to see these three fight." Kali said as she pointed to Gannikus, Segorax, and Throkles(3). They were trained men that served in gladiator games on Cardeas's world, so they were probably used to killing opponents and fighting for their lives.
"What do you wish them to fight?" Nirtti asked Kali.
"I wish for them to fight a coalition of lions." Kali said causing his eye to wince. Thanks to Nirtti's experiments the lions of Dinai were a lot fiercer than the ones on earth. They were hard to corner and even harder to catch. Killing a coalition of them with just three men were going to be near impossible and he had a feeling that Kali knew that.
"Very well. Jaffa take the three selected by Kali to the field pens." Nirtti ordered and five of the group of twenty Jaffa watching the servants took the three men to the last place they would see before death. "Take these slaves away and bring the selection for Amaterasu." A group of four Jaffa began to lead the survivors away.
"I truly enjoy your castle." Kali said with a smile as she began to take a bite of her food. It was an egg that came from a bird that grew in the Alvarez mountains.
"Thank you." Nirtti said.
"What sort of technology built this?" Kali asked.
"It belonged to his people." Nirtti said gesturing at him causing Kali to turn to him clearly interested.
"Where do you come from exactly?" Kali asked.
"My people have long fled our home. There was a plague and all that is left is ruins." Danny said telling a mix of the truth and lies. He did not want any more Goa'ulds with Alteran/Lantean technology. Anubis was more than enough.
"This conversation bores me. I want to pick my sacrifices now." Amaterasu said with a pout.
"If you must interrupt." Kali said with a sigh.
He was not sure if she lost interest in his answers, but he could hold out hope.
The servants were brought in by the Jaffa and Amaterasu picked four. She picked Marcus Decius, Carrab, Nagda, and Tulius(4). Carrab and Nagda were former gladiators trained by the older men to have the pleasure of dying for their Goa'uld and the other citizens of the city.
"Who do you wish them to fight?" Nirtti asked.
"I wish for them to fight each other. It will be the four of them against each other and only two of them may survive this fight." Amaterasu said and Danny could see the group of four eyeing each other. The only bond that existed between this group was one of hate and the desire for revenge. This would certainly be bloody.
"As you wish." Nirtti said taking a bite of her food not caring who was going to die. It did not matter to her so long as Danny was not the one they wanted to die.
"Since the men have been chosen that are going to die in celebration of this meeting may I ask what this is all about?" Danny asked.
"There is an annoyance that we would like you to deal with for us." Kali said.
"Who is this annoyance?" Nirtti asked wondering who could be causing problems for two System Lords, yet they managed to live.
"Marduk." Amaterasu answered the question and stating the name with distaste and hatred beyond the usual for Goa'uld rivalry.
If any Goa'uld deserved, it thought it Marduk was probably a high name on the list. The problem was that Marduk was a System Lord and a well-protected one at that. He was given his position by Ra and he and Cronus prevented the other Goa'ulds from making a move on him. Before becoming a System Lord Marduk had been a simple Ashrak whose identity had been lost to time in the service of Ra. He had been the one to kill Asarluhi who had overseen Eridu. He rose to the rank of System Lord after he murdered Tiamat for trying to revolt against Ra and the other System Lords. After killing her son or consort Qingu (The stories were not clear on that) he claimed the eye of Tiamat.
"You want me to assassinate Marduk?" Nirtti asked in a shocked whisper, and he understood why. The thing that most Goa'uld hated and feared him for though was the fact that he was a cannibal. He ate the Goa'uld symbiotes he defeated in order to gain their knowledge along with their planets and Jaffa.
"That is not what we want." Kali said seeing the scared look in Nirtti eyes that replaced the usual pride and arrogance of their kind.
"What do you desire then?" Nirtti asked.
"We would like you to torment him." Amaterasu said. "Kill a few of his villages, steal shipments of naqaudah that is headed for him, make him think a rival Goa'uld is out to assassinate him, the point is to drive him crazier than he already is." There were rumors that Marduk was starting to go insane. Hearing voices and becoming so paranoid that he was killing his Jaffa no reason. If they drove him further until he snapped then Ra would eventually have to deal with him.
"What would I get out of this?" Nirtti asked wondering what her reward for such a task would be.
"We plan to give you twenty thousand human slaves, twelve thousand Jaffa, five crates of jewels and the blueprints to build a cloning platform." Kali said.
Her offer was a very good one. So good that normally it would have put a smile on his face. The cloning machine was something that would be very useful for his plans. He could also finally get Nirtti to stop taking sentient humans as hosts. All they would need was the D.N.A. of her chosen host and they could make a blank clone for her to inhabit. There were other uses but that was a major one.
"That does sound tempting but I would need to think on it." Nirtti said.
"Very well. We can talk more after the slaves have been sacrificed." Amaterasu said.
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"What do you think?" Nirtti asked as her servants took off her dress and started replacing it with her the robe she used to sleep. It was a dark robe with green accents that brought attention to her red hair.
"I will admit that I am tempted." Danny said while scrolling through his tablet.
"What are you looking at?" Nirtti asked as she sat on the bed and sent the servants away.
"I downloaded a thousand years of human history while on Earth. I am selecting something to watch." Danny said wanting to know more about the history of the world from people that were actually living in it.
"I want to watch to put on something tragic." Nirtti said causing him to nod as he connected the pad with the viewing screen in their room. He selected the memories of a witch that had seen the story of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. He had already edited it all together to get rid of the useless bits and put it together like it was a movie or a series of episodes.
"Who are these people?" Nirtti asked having no clue about the figures on the screen.
"That is Mark Antony a general that helped his friend take power over their country called Rome and Cleopatra is descended from the people that ruled Egypt after Osiris and Isis were gone." Danny said being careful with his words.
"It ends horribly for them, right?" Nirtti asked.
"No spoilers." Danny said.
"Fine but anyway how do you wish to deal with Marduk?" Nirtti asked him knowing that if she was going to be risking her life than she wanted Danny to be overseeing the operation.
"I will probably need two Ha'taks and a couple thousand Jaffa." Danny said thinking over what he would need to terrify Marduk. Marduk was a System Lord and that meant he had a hundred worlds at his disposal to fight with. On those hundred worlds were probably millions of slaves and hundreds of thousands of Jaffa warriors. He wanted to start small. Ideally just causing rumors here and there whispered by Jaffa that would set Marduk into a panic. Send him off in spirals that would cause him to target people that he viewed as enemies and cause a fear that in the Goa'uld that he would attack them next. Create the image of a possible slave revolt like what had happened to him in the show. His son Bel had rebelled against him, and his own Jaffa priests had locked him in a sarcophagus with a beast that would eat him alive. That would be a good goal to work towards.
"You shall have whatever you need." Nirtti said.
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Danny sighed as the Jaffa led the bodies of the dead men away to be disposed of according to Dinai funeral rites. Their bodies would be burned until all that remained was their bones remained which would be fed to whatever beast was chosen by the selection wheel. Their head though were to be preserved and placed in one of the temples of a thousand eyes where all those sacrificed for the glory of Nirtti were held. They were seen as a place of worship by the people that lived on this planet.
"Congratulations to the two that have managed to survive." Kali said as she stood from her seat and look at Dagan and Tulius. Dagain had killed Decius and Tulius had managed to kill Carrab. He had thought that both of the former gladiators would have been the ones to survive but seemed that Tulius was full of surprises. Kali's own choices to be sacrificed had not been so lucky. Nirtti had not wanted any chances of them surviving and upsetting Kali and so she had sent them a coalition of the meanest lions he had seen in a long while.
The lions had made quick work of them.
"So have you thought on our offer?" Amaterasu asked.
"Yes. I will accept your terms." Nirtti said back to her.
"Wonderful. To give you an idea of where to start Marduk is having a new ship built for him on Viek. Do with that what you will." Amaterasu said.
"Just make sure it does not lead back to you." Kali said joining the conversation as she waved at the servants cheering for her. They knew better than to do anything else as Nirtti had instructed anyone that she ordered here to be on their best behavior, or they would not like the punishment that she would bring down. She would probably ask him to bring down a lightning storm on them like he had that group of gangsters that had decided to steal three casks of her favorite wine and sell it to villagers so they could have a taste of wine favored by the gods.
It had not been a pretty sight when he had been done with them and stories were still told of it. The story was given the title A Night of A Thousand Strikes. It was used as a lesson for children to not steal.
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(Space)
"My King I know that you have given your orders, but you are not here. There have been riots about me changing the official religion of France." King Henry said using Queen Catherine's contact orb. Now that they have been given back Prince/King Francis and King Daniel kept had kept Prince/King Francis's pair of the object they could contact each other even if he was far away. The Protestants and the Catholics were in an outrage. The Pope and the Cardinals or Rome were threatening to excommunicate him and replace his family with Louis of Conde. The Catholic church may have disliked Protestants, but they would prefer that to him that was removing the influence of Christianity in France to worship this pagan goddess. They were already word that they were gathering cold and coin to build an army. He might soon be dealing with a crusade on his hands.
"Sounds difficult." Danny said as he leaned his head into his hands that were lying on his desk.
"So, you must understand this task is too risky." King Henry said trying to get his Overlord to change his orders.
"Continue with your mission. I want all the churches in Frances preaching the word of Nirtti if anyone disagrees, I want you to burn down their homes." Danny said. He was going to be dealing with Rome eventually, but he was still undecided how he wanted to do it. Destroy the city completely or send someone to watch over the area for him.
"Very well." King Henry said depressed but unable to deny his orders.
Danny waved his hand and the contact orb powered down ending the conversation.
"He looked panicked." Ilithyia said as she rose to sit on the bed in his quarters. She was going to be a guest on his ship as long as he was on this task.
"I did place him in a tough position." Danny admitted as he walked back to his concubine. Ilithyia came from the same city that Nirtti's current host did. She and her husband had been visiting them as the husband of Nirtti's host had been meeting them for patronage. Luck had not been on their side. Their husbands now held the same position of working in his fields and tending to his animals.
"Do you think he can hold his position if it comes to war before you are finished with this mission?" Ilithyia asked him.
"It will not come to that." Danny said. He would be sending a duplicate to watch over the situation while he was dealing with Marduk.
"Then focus on something sweeter." Ilithyia said as she pulled the covers away revealing her naked body.
"Let's start the main course." Danny said as he pulled her up so that she could sit on his lap and insert his tool inside of her.
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(Viek)
Danny looked down at the planet below. The planet served as a factory for supplies. Supplies and slaves were sent to this planet to build ships that would be added to Marduk's fleet. There were hundreds of bases scattered around. Each one of them was defended by two hundred Jaffa that would probably shoot strangers on sight. It was a good thing that he was not planning to step a foot on the planet. Instead, he and his Jaffa were infiltrating the space station that floated above the planet.
It was there to monitor activity on the planet. Any signal sent from the planet was sent to the station to be viewed and recorded before being sent to its destination.
He was here to hack the system and have the station transmit a virus to all the ships on the planet. Whenever one of Marduk's ships was blown up while he was doing this operation it would play 'Another one bites the dust'. Hopefully the ships on this planet would be sent to others and spread the virus until the whole fleet was infected.
The song would hopefully enrage Marduk in ways that he had yet to experience.
Author's Note:
(1) Kali looks like Kyra from Charmed.
(2) Amaterasu looks like an older version of Azula.
(3) Gannikus, Segorax, and Throkles are Gannicus, Segovax and Theokoles from Spartacus.
(4) Marcus Decius, Carrab, Nagda, and Tulius are Marcus Decius Solonius, Barca, Dagan, and Tullius from Spartacus.
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Edit: Lemon has been moved to Questionable Questing.