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Chapter 10:Rising storm

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Part 3

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Ra's flagship

in orbit of Nimrud

Milky Way galaxy

The holoprojector worked at full capacity, covering the whole Pel'tac in a holographic screen. The busts of several System Lords hovered nearby. They all looked at Ra with their best blank expressions.

"I've attainted Moloc due to his treachery and madness," Ra announced. He smiled thinly under his pharaoh's mask. "His Goa'uld servants have lost my trust due to the possibility of further Tok'ra infiltration. This is good news for you all." The Supreme System Lord looked at one of the thorns in his side. "Lady Kali, I can't properly reward Lord Perun without rewarding you as well. He is technically still one of your subordinates, so rewarding only him won't be proper."

Despite the red silk veil covering her face, Kali was obviously suspicious of Ra's generosity. Sadly, she wasn't a fool, or he would have dealt with her long ago. Nevertheless, she was in no position to refuse his gifts.

A gesture called up a smaller hologram in front of Ra so that the other System Lords could also see it. It showed Moloc's domain.

"I feel generous today," Ra announced happily. At that point, everyone was looking suspiciously at him. It was as if he was about to feed them poisoned food, which was true. "Lady Kali, congratulations, you are now the proud owner of thirty of Moloc's worlds. It's now your task to take control of the boon I'm offering and purge all fanatics following Moloc. You're to bring any Goa'uld overseer you find to my court for interrogation. The local populations and resources are yours to exploit."

"Your generosity has no bounds, Supreme Lord." Kali bowed.

Apparently, she didn't quite enjoy her prize, which was excellent.

"Further, with the assassination of Heru'ur, part of the Horus guard that served him and his armies have lost my trust." Ra continued. "As a punishment and a further boon to you, Lady Kali, you'll get several Ha'tak and Jaffa legions from the force that took Byblos."

Everyone in attendance wanted to see the strings attached to such a generous gift from nowhere.

"You do me a great honor, Supreme Lord!" Kali had to bow again. Ra was sure she grit her teeth behind her veil.

"Due to his diligent work and faithful service, I hereby reward Lord Perun with three of your worlds, my Lady Kali. I'm sure you would have done the same." Ra happily brought his fist down. "I hereby grant Lord Perun the Jaffa worlds of Varanasai and Ujjain, along with the armies raised from those worlds. Further, I grant Lord Perun the industrial world Rajgir, with all associated industries, artisans, overseers, and the garrison protecting the planet. Finally, Lord Perun will take command of seventy thousand of Heru'ur's Jaffa deployed on Byblos. I also grant him a contingent of the disgraced Horus guard and seven of Heru'ur's Ha'tak currently holding the System."

Just Heru'ur's Jaffa would nearly triple the armies Perun was supposed to be able to call upon. The small Ha'tak fleet would give him both ships to experiment on and at least enough assets to bleed Kali if they clashed anytime soon. Suppose Perun proved himself capable of gaining the loyalty of his new subjects. In that case, he might be competent enough to solve the Kali issue for Ra one day.

Unsurprisingly, Kali remained silent. Ra decided this wouldn't do.

"To ensure there are no misunderstandings," Ra spoke sternly, "you'll heed my words, Lady Kali. Lord Perun has my favor. Through his achievements as a scientist and warlord, he has served my dynasty well. Any acts of sabotage, defiance, or even attempted assassination aimed at him are something I will not take lightly. Lord Perun does my work! You will not disrupt his efforts! Do you understand me, Lady Kali?" Ra demanded.

"I hear and obey, Supreme Lord." Kali bowed for the third time.

After this public humiliation, Kali would have no choice but move against Perun the moment Ra removed his protection. Ra's public protection bound Perun to him through rewards and the need for survival. It also ensured the young Goa'uld would have no choice but oppose Kali out of self-preservation.

"Next, Lady Bastet. Your involvement in that spat with Ba'al was only through supporting your ally. Thus, I believe you deserve a reward for your restraint to balance the scales." Ra continued. "I hereby grant you twenty of Moloc's worlds."

"I thank you, Supreme Lord. Your generosity and wisdom are beyond that of lesser gods!" Bastet bowed deeply.

"Lord Ba'al. Despite your impudence, as of late, your agents did aid my agenda," Ra paused and chuckled. "Even if that might not have been their goal. Thus a minor reward is in order." Ra pointed at the map in front of his command throne. "I hereby grant you control of ten of Moloc's worlds."

Ba'al lowered his head, yet Ra was sure that his eyes glowed, betraying his fury. It was obvious why Ba'al was displeased. His new worlds burned in red on the map. Half of them were between the freshly extended domains of Kali and Bastet, and the rest were in an easy striking distance.

"You'll naturally have to garrison and secure those worlds, purging them from Moloc's mad fanatics." Ra twisted the knife.

"I appreciate your generosity, Supreme Lord." Ba'al managed to sound as if he meant it. However, his eyes told the real story.

That was good. If Ba'al could not contain his ambitions, Ra would make sure he would choke on them.

"Apophis, brother." Ra continued in a lighter tone. "It would be a slight and a foul betrayal not to offer you a gift befitting your station while rewarding many other System Lords. Honored Lord Yu, the same is true for you, my honored ally. Hereby I reward each of you with fifty of Moloc's worlds. My dynasty will retain control of the rest of the mad Goa'uld's domain. Some of it will serve as a future gift to my new heir when one of my children proves worthy of Heru'ur's mantle. The same is true for Heru'ur's domain. I'll take direct control and purge it from Tok'ra infiltrators."

Ra allowed himself a content smile. He put some of his rivals on a collision course their nature wouldn't allow them to avoid. Apophis and Yu would be distracted in the short term, giving Ra time to consolidate his new gains and control of Heru'ur's realm. After that, he might even be able to enjoy a short rest away from the duress of running a galaxy-spanning empire.

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"By dividing Moloc's domain as he did, Ra created more crisis points that would help ensure the start of the Goa'uld Civil War after his death. He set up Kali and Bastet to clash with Ba'al over controlling resource-rich systems. By granting Apophis and Yu the right systems, Ra greatly extended the small border they shared, increasing the odds of direct conflict. He also confirmed Heru'ur's death and the lack of a clear heir. That by itself set up his children on the warpath. By promising Heru'ur's realm to whoever proved worthy enough to take up the Conqueror's mantle, Ra all but guaranteed a bloody conflict."

from "Prelude to War," by Dr. Catherine Langford and Dr. Daniel Jackson

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Part 4

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Slavna Zemq

Perun's Throne World

Milky Way Galaxy

I finally returned to my capital, only to face a traffic jam. I found the area around the Stargate packed with Jaffa. A few Primes from my Lighting Legion and the Custodes were busy trying to impose some order to the chaos.

My arrival initially served only to make the situation even more chaotic. At least I knew why it took three tries to connect with Slavna Zemq.

"Can someone explain this to me?" I waved at the Jaffa milling around.

A stir went through the assembled warriors, with many pushing and shoving each other to get a better look at me.

Behind me, the Stargate began dialing, so I had to get out of the way.

"Lord Perun!" Prime Vallentian exclaimed. "It's good to see you back home, Lord! We've got a bit of a mess on our hands, my Lord!"

"The last I checked, you were supposed to be deployed on Byblos. Explain." I pointed out. Vallentian was the commander of my first mechanized formation to come online. He distinguished himself during the fighting on Byblos. He should still be there, dealing with the counter-attacks of Moloc's dispersed garrisons.

"Lord Ra's orders, my Lord. His Jaffa are taking direct control of Byblos." Vallentian looked uncomfortably at Mel'chan and Re'ol. Both wore Horus' guard armor, though there was no trace of their helmets. "We received orders from Ra's Horus' guard that are somewhat unusual." My Prime tried being diplomatic.

"Supreme Lord Ra himself confirmed that even the sarcophagus could not restore Lord Heru'ur. He was displeased with the inability of the Horus guard to protect his son and thus keep their god alive. The same is true for Lord Heru'ur's forces deployed on Byblos…." I summarized Ra's latest decrees, and weren't they devious?

"We're in your service now, Lord Perun." Mel'chan bowed. "We will not fail again!"

"I sure hope so. Get our new brothers to the training bases and set up field camps to accommodate them until we have proper barracks for our new warriors. I believe your families will follow as well?" I asked Mel'chan.

"Yes, Lord. We're to dispatch warriors to bring them in as soon as feasible." Mel'chan quickly answered.

"Get me a rough number of the people we're talking about. We'll need to build proper housing for them. More schools and temples as well. On a related note, as soon as you're set-up, I want you to test your new weapons and armor, comparing them to the standard equipment my Jaffa use. Whichever is better will become the standard for my expanded armies until we can develop even more potent gear. Mel'chan, you're now in overall command of the former Heru'ur Jaffa serving me. Re'ol, you're in charge of the Horus guard. After training in new tactics, we'll see if you can earn a place among my Custodes."

"You honor us, Lord Perun!" The freshly promotes Primes chorused.

"In the short term, as your brothers complete training, they begin moving into the existing barracks. Lord Ra saw fit to reward me with three of Kali's worlds, and I'll need trustworthy Jaffa to hold critical locations. That will keep most of my existing army busy." I looked at Vallentian. "What's Stephan's status? The last I saw my First Prime, he got badly injured by the assassin who murdered Lord Heru'ur."

"The medics managed to keep him alive for a time. However, he succumbed to his wounds before they could heal him. He is now in the sarcophagus in your palace. His fate is in the gods' hands." Vallentian explained.

"Damn the Tok'ra and the mad queen that spawned them!" I snapped, and it wasn't just for show. Stephan was a surprisingly capable administrator who was also open-minded. His skills were invaluable in getting my small army as good as it was so fast. "You all have your orders. Carry them out!" I looked around, and seeing one of the APCs guarding the area, I decided to commandeer it. It was high time my Custodi got their vehicle pool, including transports, to be my personal ride.

I spent the trip to the palace plotting. Ra's latest stunts stirred the pot something fierce. His public humiliation of Kali would ensure she would gun for me. Any theoretical chance of her being reasonable flew out of the airlock. Ra made sure I was on the bridge, hidden in the shadows and listening to how he rewarded me, placing me like a dagger aimed at Kali's back. He also gave her poisoned gifts, ensuring future conflict with Ba'al.

Realistically speaking, if Ra died anytime soon, I would be in a bad position, a deadly one if I was a regular Goa'uld. I couldn't rely on my warning to Earth to stick. With the Force and Ascended assholes around, it wouldn't be bad luck if Ra went to Abydos to chill after the recent upheavals just in time to run into an Earth expedition.

If that happened, I would have to be there to ensure I retained a valuable asset and Ra didn't discover my dealings with Earth. That, of course, would be an opportunity not only to take out Ra at a place of my choosing but get some information from him about hidden caches for a rainy day. Further, if I were the one to kill the bastard, I would have a rough estimate of when the civil war would begin.

Then I would be the one to start it by taking out Kali by unleashing all my Sith powers upon her court. The resulting chaos should allow me to consolidate my position of strength. Ideally, I would need an alliance with a System Lord or two, exchanging protection for service until I could grow my realm and military large enough.

Those were my medium-term goals. In the short term, I had an expanded realm to consolidate. I was sure there would be sabotage on my new worlds. If it wasn't Kali, who might heed Ra's warning for the time being, then it would be either the Tok'ra or Ba'al, aiming to throw a wrench in my work or discredit Kali. At any rate, I would act as a good little minion and blame any setbacks on Kali. Ideally, Ra would keep her off my back while he still lived. I had the nagging suspicion that he now eagerly waited for an opportunity to sanction her further. After all, his glee was something to behold while rewarding Kali with a tainted gift.

In that regard, at the first opportunity, I needed to visit Pobeda, then Prolet and Lyda to see how the agri-uplift was going. I would need much more food to feed my new subjects soon, which was just a part of the logistics issues my improved situation imposed. The seven Ha'tak from Heru'ur's fleet Ra gifted me would help in that regard. However, they would need to get resupplied with food and other consumables before taking the long journey to my realm. With their maximum speed of 500 light years per day, it would take them just over a month to get to my domain.

Before I could arrange proper resupply, Ra would need to occupy Byblos while sending Heru'ur's 'mistrusted' armies to Kali and me. My Jaffa deployed on Byblos would also need to return alongside their equipment. I looked at close to two months before having the core of a good fleet to play with. I wanted to have at least a few upgrades ready for testing when my new ships arrived. That is why I headed to my palace's research wing first so I could give Maatt'iss her marching orders. Then I would have to put Che'nub in his place. Ra wanted better gear for his guard, and it was Che'nub's job to deliver.

That was why I had to be at Abydos when Ra and Earth almost inevitably clashed. I highly doubted that even the best Earth light infantry would stand a decent chance against properly outfitted and better trained Horus guard.

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"Shin Kun, the events on Byblos proved that Perun's ideas are useful. I order you to meet with Perun and do your best to reach an agreement with him. Our Celestial Realm will not be left behind in these interesting times we're cursed with."

Lord Yu authorizing a deal with Perun in the aftermath of Heru'ur's assassination

"All we knew at the time was that Moloc was an insane B-movie villain, the kind even the System Lords would not tolerate for long. Our intelligence came from stories we heard from Perun's people. While they were chilling, we believed all we heard was embellished by propaganda. Indeed, such madness wouldn't fly in an interstellar policy. Or so we thought at the time.

It took us years and the spread of NID agents across the galaxy to find out the truth about Moloc, his fall, and how it contributed to the Civil War and the rise of Perun."

Dr. Daniel Jackson, in front of a joint International Oversight Committee and UN Security Council Commission

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