Chapter 26
Lightning Fervor
Helltanz's notes:
Chapter begin
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For SHIELD this was not a good day. "Whats our status lieutenant?"
"Breach in 30, sir," Responded Fury's second in command, "We estimate sixty plus hostile contacts in the tunnels. The installation was too damned far to reach quickly to reinforce them, and this installation most of all would be hard pressed to explain to friends much less those were less understanding of the need for certain actions.
Still they should have expected something was up. Fury stared at the hated sigil, that damned mark, all bright read and harsh lines. They'd expected bullies, more barbarians, and criminals from the organization when the raid had started, and then that'd been when things had started going wrong. At first they thought they'd found the, or at least a, cache of Thanagarian wapons, but they'd been proven wrong. That'd tipped them off that something bigger was afoot.
He looked at the one guy from the warehouse they'd raided starting all this, "Do we have an idea who this guy is?"
"Hyuk, sir Korean national, graduated top of his class business management, vanished two years ago, resurfaced two months ago, though we think he was involved in insurgency operations against the Thanagarians." Which meant they had nothing, which meant they knew nothings.
Fury groaned, "Tell me you've got something,"
"We've got a tattoo picture, " The lieutenant responded, bringing up a picture of the Korean national, "When we got a hit from the symbol in the SGC database we were afraid goa'uld, its not its Ancient. The SGC believes it belongs to a group called the Alteran." She paused, "Sir they just breached the facility."
"Whats the symbol?"
"It means Order, sir." She looked back at the screen, "Sir we've got confirmed engagement, energy weapons, and conventional small arms."
Fury glanced at the screen, "Call the Farm, call Percy at the NID, tell them they've got a greenlight to go in," They were the closest, better to have to explain some things, than explain loosing the facility to the senators on the committee.
"Sir?"
"You said they've got alien weapons, and magic right? That they're not goa'uld, they took InterGang enforcers out who were equipped with Thanagarian weapons, now they've breached one of our classified complexes. Do we even know what they're after?" A shake of the head, "Then we need one of them alive, or forensics to start a back trace, and a bunch of techs, and a token security force," Damn he wished congress would stop dicking around with his budget. "working with Percy is the only option, we need to bring everyone in on this."
"Sir we have audio on the broadcast."
"What..." Fury deadpanned, "Put it on, record get it up!"
There was hissing, not like snake hissing, but like superheated air, coming from the speakers, probably whatever alien weapons the attackers were using. Plus the sound gunfire, and there was talking.
"Sir they're about to breach the vault, there in the network..."
Fury tore his eyes away from the screen, "What is it lieutenant?"
"They're logging something out of the vault!" It didn't make any sense, "I don't understand they're checking out artifact 2521 from storage.
Fury sat back, something they'd never been able to figure out, "Contact the SGC, send them all the fucking pictures we have on artifact 2521. We need to figure out what that thing is." He zoomed the camera in on the enemy leader. That same symbol, the Ancient word for Order blazoned on his jest, burnished gold color armor. What the fuck was going on, who the fuck broke into a classified military intelligence research initiative and told them what they were stealing.
The figure in what was probably powered armor pressed his fingers into the artifact, it started glowing. The man spun it around pressed in again, and waited ignoring the rounds flying past him. Then artifact 2521 popped out a small crystalline object roughly squarish in shape with lines going down it, the man in armor pulled it out of the artifiact, and dropped 2521 and said something in a language, and then turned and started leaving. That was when the cameras went dead.
"Sir NID strike teams are three minutes out. There planning to fast rope in, we might be able to catch them on the way out."
-scene break-
Raiden gripped his own sword in anticipation for the impending clash to occur with another of his hated enemies. The blade which despite its simple appearance was quite dangerous even at long range, indeed its simple appearance hid its true complexity. The system lord had always had access to magic even before his fusion which had led to his present form, he needed only to run a small jolt of his energy and the sword would become a small but high powered electro magnetically accelerated projectile weapon. To put such in laymen's terms a railgun, as well as it increased Raiden's magical attacks. Amongst the sword's other abilities was the capacity to releasepulses of Electromagnetic energy, which disabled unprotected machines, and interfered with the natural electric field of living organisms.
The Shinto kami fully intended to exploit the full power of his magic and that of his enchanted blade against the enemy that Saki had been tasked to finding on this world.
The TCRI Building was an impressive structure. Its defenses reasonably established to withstand an assault. He appreciated his enemies being prepared it made the victory that much sweeter.
Raiden slashed out at one of the Umtrom Exosuits, it split in half. Saki and the other foot ninja were making exceptional progress despite the heavy resistance put up by the Umtrom and their human gaurdians. It did disappoint him though that the progress was less than what the dark brotherhood regular troops would have been able to accomplish, outside of certain exemplary performances by members of the Foot. He was pleased by this performance, each of his commands had there own shinobi. Saki had his Foot Ninja, Talpa had his Hand, and little Aoshi had his Oniwanbanshu of course.
He spun around the tip of his blade severing three of the Umtrom's human protector's heads, the decapitation sending arterial spray across the walls. He, though, Raiden employed his own, but that he could expect some responsibility from his subordinates pleased him.
Raiden thrust his sword into the 'stomach' of an Umtrom Exosuit, the defender yielded a most satisfying spray of green blood. It coated his hand, staining the silk of his sleeve, the Shinto Kami smirked, as lightning crackled forth from the system lord as it passed all that was left were several charred corpses. Raiden raised his sword leveling it and sliding into a stance in the direction of a heavily reinforced security door.
"Uh master…" Hun, chains of purple fire curling around his arms, began to speak in an attempt to gain the system lord's attention.
Too little to late, from Raiden swords came two blasts of energy that flew outwards and struck the blast door, the first impacted destroying the door the second exploded well into the room showering the awaiting Umtrom and their mortal defenders with molten shards of copper.
"Shredder?" came a stunned exclamation as they walked through the destroyed door way. Raiden turned to face the voice true surprise crossing his face. The turtles from the mouser incident, and some others according to Saki. Then it would seem that answered that question, no matter though, they were of little concern, he mused.
Saki raised his new sword to defend himself. The sword glowed brightly, and the leader of the foot ninja swung, releasing a concentrated blast of sonic energy against his opponent.
The four reptiles scattered to avoid the blast. "Looks the shredder got an upgrade!" commented the purple masked turtle.
"Yeah no kidding." Agreed another sarcastically, "As if he wasn't enough of a pain without them." Groaned the nunchaku wielding turtle.
"Who's the other guy?"
"Who cares." Exclaimed the red masked reptile preparing to attack only for the hulking form of Hun to step forward. the red masked turtle accepted the challenge and rushed the massive blonde. It was clash, as Hun swung the purple chains of fire, causing the turtles to somersault over the wave of heat, and burning fire.
Raiden examined the four, the one who spoke first had a Bo staff. The second was armed with a pair of nunchaku and wore an orange mask. The third speaker wore a blue mask and wielded a pair of ninjaken. The fourth and last was armed with Sai and was wearing a red mask, who was now engaging Hun. "Saki." He stated,
"Master?" The leader of the foot ninja clan responded turning away from the turtles so as to face the Shinto Kami. In many situations it would have been foolish, but Saki would rather be attacked than show his liege order any disrespect by not turning and bowing, what ever the Turtles could do might hurt, but Raiden was lord of the storm, and Saki wanted no ire from the winds and the rain.
He also turned this time towards the alien foes, the umtrom, "Ignore the reptiles," He commanded, "You are to destroy the Umtrom device."
"As you wish Raiden-sama." The shredder gave a curt bow and turned towards the Umtrom teleportation device his sword glowed, clenched in his fist. The pulsing grew until it was a blinding white light. He swung the blade at the device. The sonic energy distorted the air and collided with the machine.
The explosion rocked the room sending plumes of smoke and debris flooding into the room as well as activating the sprinkler system.
Saki was forced to turn his attention to facing the Umtrom captain."Ch'rell!" Mortu rained three blows on the leader of the foot, knocking Saki's weapon, his sword from his hand.
The leader of the foot wiped the blood from his mouth, and clenched his fist slight glowing of magic across his hand as he did so. "My name is Saki," He hissed in reply to the shout, and then he lunged, "Mortu now you die!" the leader of the foot ninja plunged his prongs into the Umtrom and twisted coating his hand with the greenish blood.
Saki had been gloating over Mortu's body when the blue masked turtle leapt at the Shredder's exposed back only for Karai to succeed in intercepting him blocking his attack with the flat of his back. "Karai." He half growled,
"Leonardo. You must leave now." She urged. "now, before this gets work.
"Raiden!" shouted one of the three Umtrom councilors. "You will never win!" He declared with a confidence he wished he truly had. The goa'uld had been a threat, but a thousand years ago their hyperdrive had been so slow.
The Shinto Kami glared fixing the Umtrom with a loathing filled glare. "Win. Fool I have already won, you are the last of your kind we burned your world to dust long ago and with it the rest of your race. Soon this galaxy will be under my rule," the system lord boasted loudly to them, "there is nothing you can do to stop me, Seiryu." He uttered the word as a blue dragon reared a manifestation of his power it tore apart the area. Lightning cracked the air as thunder burst apart the area around. Raiden flicked his sword firing another blast before tilting his head and smirking. He wanted to laugh, but then he felt them, and he turned his head eyes narrowed. "Constantinos I leave the rest of this to you."
A flurry of shadows appeared from the mass of shadows arose a group of men swathed in black cloaks. The man called Constantinos nodded, "Thank you, we shall be quick, we do not need much." A thousand years ago an Aedra had reached his hand to the Umtrom, and Hircine had sent Sokar against them in response. The Umtrom had made the mistake of attacking other Goa'uld, and as such had brought their own doom on their heads.
"You must leave now if you want to have any chance of surviving this night." Karai urged with great urgency to the turtle she was facing.
"Karai." The system lord called to the Foot Clan's Japan branch leader.
She turned leaping away from Leonardo to stand beside the Shinto Kami, "Hai Raiden-sama." The ninja responded meekly, the system lord reached out with a gentle hand and ruffled her hair slightly smiling.
"-sama," The turtle echoed in surprise "Who is this guy Karai?"
"I am Raiden." Lightning surged around his sword.
"Raiden no Kami, the god of lightning what the Hell." Exclaimed the Sai wielding turtle in equal surprise to his 'brothers'. "What the hell is going on?" The turtle rushed past Hun and towards the system lord.
"I am the god of storms little turtle." Raiden corrected while knocking the charging turtle into a wall with a blast of lighting fired from the system lord's now outstretched palm. The system lord let his sword release its accumulated energy loose destroying a large cluster of Umtrom stasis pods even as Constantinos walked forward unimpeded by the battle. He, Raiden, didn't care what exactly Sithis wanted, it didn't matter.
Karai stopped the turtle. "Leonardo you and your brothers must leave," she urged again while the system lord and his other half set to destroying the stasis pods.
Raiden stood facing the last group of defenders, he paid no attention to the black swathed men who were waiting for him to leave. Then he uttered a single word and slaughtered the remaining Umtrom guardians. "Byakko." The wind whipped and tore, a vague shape of a tiger of wind visible in the swirling shifting debris, creating a mass of gore and blood.
"You!" A rat, albeit a humanoid rat, one which seemed naggingly familiar to Raiden, it was old, equivocating its lifespan to a human in his sixties or perhaps later, and the creature was glaring at the system lord.
Then it clicked eidetic memory was such a useful thing, "Ah you're that guardian's pet I remember. He was a geneticist like his father, who was also a traitor" He said recognizing where he recognized the creature. "Saki killed him, I remember this. This must have been how many years ago," He shook his head, what were a few years it was pointless to a system lord.
"Master Splinter!" The four turtles exclaimed,
The leader of the foot approached"My lord the Umtrom are dead." The Shredder declared kneeling behind the system lord.
"We're leaving then. There is no reason to stay." The Shinto Kami commented, allowing Karai to breath a sigh of relief. "Come along," He didn't want to be here any longer, certainly not for whatever the Dark Brotherhood were here for.
-scene break-
Moody sat back, "Well the latest pictures are in." he declared, he was a lot more relaxed now. "Tepes got sidelined by who we think is the Speaker responsible for Europe, we think that she, and Tepes, and the kid, the vampire hunter have settled in a house near Derby, we know this because its crawling with the brotherhood, and a bunch of death eater corpses." It'd been all over the muggle news, and the Ministry had tried to cover it up, but when an Executioner killed someone and intended to make a statement out of it, you didn't get to cover it up. Muggle police had been all over it, the news too. "then there is all of what is happening elsewhere, its the end of an era the Daedric lord of Order is rising," His gods had told him to relax, and that was the only reason Moody was this damn calm.
"So?" Bill asked, "Whats next."
Hermione looked up, "I think we should start looking at other angles, found this in Greece," It was a picture, muggle security camera, it was Artemis and Raiden. "Its not a whole lot, but I think its better than anything we have." She added another set of pictures, "then there is this, right now we're only getting cooperation from Europe. Japan is pressuring America not to cooperate with our investigation, and without Ministry cooperation we're not going to get very far."
"And what do you suggest miss Granger?" Dumbledore prodded, "As it is the Order is largely occupied with the matter of Voldemort."
She spread the pictures out, "Bill should set up a branch office in Egypt," Raiden did not have a lot of Egyptian underlords, which saying something as most Goa'uld, had at least a few given Ra's reign. Amongst the Goa'uld Yu, and Ra had always had the most underlords, because of the goa'uld they had controlled the most territory. Yu was patient, and Ra was about dominance. For Raiden he wanted trust, he wanted to know each of his underlords personally. He'd carefully poke and prod, to the point of obsession. "I think that this woman is probably the best lead that we have."
Moody shrugged it wasn't like he had any better suggestions to make. Sirius picked up a photograph and wolf whistled low and long, but didn't say much.
"I see, and Bill do you think that'd be a good idea then?" Dumbledore asked, as it was Voldemort was occupied, he'd been trying to branch more into international, or at least further into Europe as of late. Specifically parts of eastern and central europe. "We know that Voldemort has decided he does not have the resources he desires to contest the ministry, especially in the light of recent defeats of dark forces." Moody snorts, "So perhaps if Bill feels up to it we should consider our own expansion."
Bill flicked through the photos, "That might be the best headmaster, Gringotts is serious about this next series of excavations, and I'll be busy, I'll look into though, I was actually considering taking a guest lecturer opportunity at Cairo that was coming up," He shook his head, "I'll look into it."
-scene break-
In stargate command Carter was currently occupied conversing with the Asgard scientist about recent developments, "Kvasir I don't understand why Raiden was able to make such strides over the other Goa'uld?" She stated, "Wouldn't they have noticed he was advancing over them? I mean if Raiden went to war with Susanoo, and Ra, should they have seen that kind of shift."
"It is because the Goa'uld treat everything the same," He replied "they respond to things the same way," The asgard gave his race's equivalent of a shrug, a gesture so subtle it was largely missed, "they see Raiden as one them, they think he will act the same way they will if he has a better ship he will use them immediately in an attempt to secure an advantage over the others." He paused for a moment, "Instead Raiden bided his time, just like Yu has done rather than conquering his opposition he used weapons that were only a fraction more powerful than what the other system lords had and kept his most powerful ships, with the exception of the Shinku Rai Tatsu's in reserve, up until half a century ago, the other system lords, were only aware of the Shinku Rai Tatsu, the Type Three Ha'tak, the Skyborne Calamity and its two subclasses. Of these it was the Skyborne Calamity they concerned themselves with, three times the system lords petitioned for the design, and he refused three times. The last time was two hundred years ago, when Yu Huang Shang Ti began to produce them at his homeworld."
Jack sat up a little straighter, that was definitely news to him. "Woah woah, woah Kassie Two?" He pressed, "We only knew of one."
"There are two the second are sixty meters longer than the Dark Heaven Harbringer subclass, they are kept mainly regaled to defense of the middle rim and inner worlds. And the other ships are the Rashomon, and the Type Four Ha'tak."
The colonel groaned, "Rashomon?" He inquired, "Type Four?" He really didn't like the sound of that, "We haven't encountered either of those."
"With good reasons no doubt the Rashomon is easily mistaken for a space station," Kvasvir responded, "the type four is a rarely produced sub class of the Goa'uld Ha'tak Battleship, it is almost entirely utilized by Raiden, they are about the size of the regular Ha'tak Flagship model but is similar in design to the type three, both the Flight Four and the Rashomon are regaled for defensive duties of Raiden's inner worlds. In fact the Rashomon unless it is one of Raiden's allies, or Ra is regarded as a myth amongst the Goa'uld System Lords." He continued bringing up the system schematics for one of Raiden's worlds, "In fact a great portion of Raiden's technology does not appear to be from the Goa'uld technological 'tree'. These systems like Anubis's designs appear to be heavily influenced by ancient technology," Kvasir paused. "It is strongly suspected that Amaterasu's design bureau developed the Tun'cma'le Ha'tak from the Type four Ha'tak."
"Tun'cma'le?" Jack groaned, he recognized the name of course, but he really hoped it didn't mean what he thought it meant.
Doctor Jackson confirmed causing Jack to groan again, "Super or great, Those new ships Yu has started deploy recently." Stated Daniel.
"Indeed that is correct Daniel Jackson. The Type four and indeed the Tun'cma'le Ha'tak share several several features including an extended and modified Hangar structure," He declared, "originally the Asgard were unsure of the purpose, when we originally encountered such structure changes onboard Raiden's type threes and his other warships, it was not until we first encountered the mobile suit that we realized what the new hangars were for, like the type three the two Ha'tak classes share another feature improved amarments and defensive technology. The first type fours showed much higher shield capabilities than we beilieved the Ha'tak designs at the time were capable of."
"What do you mean Ha'tak?"
"We are unsure why but the Ha'tak and Raiden's other warships are much different in their shield capabilities, as I suggested a different technological base deriving from the ancient technology, though the source of resources has eluded us." The Tauri were, quite appropriately in shock at the news. For something to elude the asgard's powerful sensors spoke highly of the other side's countermeasures "Yes we were as noticeably distressed." Kvasir's head bobbed up and down
"That is distressing." The pentagon liason officer swallowed, "Uh General Hammond, shouldn't we ask Kvasir about you know what?"
The Texan nodded. "You're right Major Davis. Kvasir we were wondering, one of our worlds Governments, the People's Republic of China, is very insistent about revealing the existence of alien civilizations."
The Asgard paused, "I am unsure of this course of action, a large percent of your world's population are in some way direct results of the Goa'uld, to say nothing of the fact that they in fact already know about the existence of alien civilizations,"
Hammond nodded, they knew this, "and there was one other thing Kvasvir, I know your not supposed to interfere, but recently a military intelligence facility was attacked," He began reaching for a folder, "And we thing that maybe the Ancients had something to do with this," He broke the security seal, and gingerly handed it to the skinny gray alien, "if you could look at these pictures, maybe see if our translations are correct about the ancient."
"This is not Alteran, this is Ayelied. The mark does mean order, and it is as in your language a proper noun, but it refers to a House, a noble lineage if you would understand it that way."
Chapter Conclusion
Helltanz's Notes: So I gave some additional information