Dragon Of The Ecplising Moon: * laugh* Gilgamesh is... hum... let's say he's a category all by himself.

Boyzilla: Yes, Hakuno has completely changed the story of the Pegasus Galaxy. For the better? It remains to be seen...

reynard9234: In fact, there are two other cases of gender-bending in the series... and one much better known: Jacob Carter. Samantha's father is a man (otherwise he would be her mother... logical!). But he is the host of Selmak... and the previous host of this Tok'ra was a woman. So in his previous host, he occupied a body of a different gender from his own. Otherwise, there is the case of Tanit. This Goa'uld is in a male body... but Tanit is the Carthaginian goddess of fertility and the moon.

Author's note: Thank you all for your comments and encouragement.

Switching

Asuras, City Shipyard S 105.

A feverish activity had replaced the usual placidity of the Pegasus Replicators. The crew of the Asuran City Shipyard S 105 was buzzing. In the main control center of the central Tower, each Ancient control panel was in operation. From a secondary console, Hakuno Kishinami gave shooting instructions to Sirius' Main Computer.

And the result was without comment. A new wave of Wraiths' Dart had just plunged towards the Asuran Shipyard and... the Pulse Weapons shots, coordinated by the Last Master of the Moon, relentlessly tracked down the biotechnological fighters. Almost every shot did the trick.

Although occupied with the artillery of the Sirius, Hakuno simultaneously gave instructions to all survivors of the battle of black hole GW234688.

The Asurans who received the Hakuno Update were the only ones who could fight the Wraith. The small fleet fought valiantly, defending the orbit of the planet. They managed to occupy a force much larger than themselves and had already destroyed several cruisers and corvettes. Unfortunately, their ships were damaged and would not withstand the full strength of the Wraith for very long.

Hearing a beep, Kishinami turned her head. A new virtual window had just opened above her control panel.

It was a loading bar. Within 5 seconds, it reached 100%. The window was replaced by a diagram of the Sirius. Operational systems were green... and one of them was flashing.

[Drone Launcher; status: operational]

While she was still thinking about how to use the Drone Launcher that had just been repaired, a rather violent noise startled her.

Turning her gaze to the main screen she saw that the Shipyard's shield was dripping under shots of blue-white energy. Each time, the shield vibrated and resounded like a gong.

Hakuno turned to one of the Asurans.

"Shield?"

"Nothing to fear, the shield oscillates around 98%. It would take much more than a single cruiser to knock down City-Ship-Class Shield."

Looking at another screen, Hakuno saw their attacker. The ship was rather large... but significantly smaller than an Asuran destroyer. She had the shape of an elongated triangle with two appendages at the stern.

Like all other Wraiths ships her techno-organic hull was as robust as trinium and able to 'heal' its wounds. But the cruiser did not have a shield. Her armament was limited to ten emplacements of medium-power energy cannons.

"Code Cast: Hack!"

Focusing on the console, Hakuno took control of the Sirius' weapons. While the Pulse Weapons' golden projectiles aimed accurately at the enemy guns, she directed the first swarm of drones to a point at the stern of the cruiser.

The breach caused by the first swarm was used by a second and... the Wraith's Spaceship exploded suddenly. The stern instantly turns into a dazzling plasma ball. The front part survived one more moment, but the expansion of the explosion dismantled it and the fragments exploded in turn.

Hakuno Kishinami had used drones to destroy the main Energy Cristal; the chain reaction had destroyed the cruiser.

Unfortunately...

Looking up, the Last Master turned to the main screen.

Swarms of spaceships clashed in orbit of Asuras... the Wraihs had a twenty-one advantage. In terms of tonnage, the advantage of the Wraith was even more obvious and continued to become larger since five new Hive Ships had just come out of hyperspace. One of them (with an escort of smaller ships) would arrive within firing range within a minute. And three other Hive Ships followed...

Opening up a secondary window, Hakuno nodded.

By then, repairs on another Drones Launcher would be completed...

Not that this is enough to compensate for the unfavorable balance of power. Without ZPMs connected to the power grid, the shipyard's shields could not withstand the concentrated fire of four Hive Ships and their escort.

Asuras capital, gouvernement building.

Thena ran out of the Transporter Closet. She had used the transfer point closest to the Main Server and it only took a few seconds to get to the door. The two faction guards on either side of the gate had received instructions and let her in.

Surprisingly the room was small with only a luminous cylinder in the center (a Lantean computer) and three control panels along the walls.

Without taking care of the guard and the other three Asurans, Thena front of the computer. The millions of nanites that made up the Pegasus Replicator harmonized their subspace link to download a file to the Main Server... the Hakuno Update.

Asuras capital, spaceport

The immense terrain was covered with rectangular trenches surrounded by technical buildings. Each trench was occupied by a spaceship connected to the walls by bundles of cables or pipes carrying various liquids.

One of the ships preparing for departure was a Lantean frigate. She had the same overall appearance as an Aurora-class battleship, except that the frigate was significantly smaller but also stockier.

Sitting in the commander's seat, Liem turned to one of the men he commanded.

"Ready for takeoff."

Pressing a luminous crystal button, the Asuran looked at the virtual window floating above his console. The screen showed the articulated arms surrounding the frigate releasing their grip and entering the walls.

"Undocking achieved, Commander."

"Wait for my order to take off."

A minute passed, then two... suddenly, a very powerful impulse overwhelmed the subspace link that interconnected all the nanorobots.

All the hands of the frigate froze at the same instant in the middle of an unfinished act; their eyes were fixed straight ahead of them. All over the planet, every Asuran was immobilized in the same way, as if transformed into a statue.

The Central Server downloaded an update...

Asuras, City Shipyard S 105.

Not all Asurans were immobilized downloading the Hakuno Update. Indeed, those who had already received it, and Hakuno herself, remained perfectly active while the other Replicators were reset and restarted.

After only a few seconds, the Asurans resumed their interrupted movements. There was, however, a major change in the situation and the Wraiths soon noticed.

It began with clouds of squid-like drones shrouded in yellow light rising from the cities of Asuras to attack the Wraiths ships in orbit.

Then a mixture of space fighters and bombers (1) took off from ground bases, attacking the Darts and even small ships.

They were soon joined by frigates and destroyers identical to the models the Lanteans had used 10,000 years earlier in their war against the Wraiths. Crossing the shields of the cities, rising in the upper atmosphere, the Spaceships entered the battle against the invaders' fleet.

It took only a few minutes for the course of the confrontation to change irremediably. The Asurans regained the advantage.

Nevertheless, the Pegasus Replicators remained numerically inferior. 21 Hive Ships surrounded the planet and the Asurans had only 5 Aurora-class Battleships left.

Two minutes earlier four Hive Ships were bombing City Shipyard S 105, determined to destroy it. Hakunoo had managed to damage one of the gigantic spaceships but it was a lost cause. Fifty ships of all sizes were firing simultaneously on the shipyard. Even by diverting all energy to the shields, they have already decreased to 70%.

And then, suddenly, the reinforcements had arrived. About twenty small capital ships had just taken off from the planet, converging towards the shipyard, firing drones and energy projectiles.

Liem was leading this counterattack from the bridge of a frigate. The ship looked laughable compared to Hive-Ship, but her armament and her shields were far superior.

Moreover, the Replicators were highly coordinated. Indeed, the Central Server allowed all Asurans to communicate with each other in real-time.

When Hakuno pointed to the weak points of a Hive-Ship, the bomber squadrons made a dazzling demonstration of piloting, zigzagging nimbly between Wraiths fires. Realizing the danger, the Hive Ship dropped Dart Squadrons to intervene. But the bombers were not alone. The Jumpers that escorted them cut off their cloaking Device and reappeared in a ripple. They already had their pods deployed and each launched two drones.

The succession of explosions decimated the protective squadrons, the survivors dispersed to avoid further fire...

Taking advantage of the diversion, the bombers plowed towards the Hive Ship, targeting defense weapons with drones and launching plasma bombs on the hull.

The attack had severely damaged the Hive Ship, despite its size... it must be said that the Asuras targeted weak points that Hakuno had discovered during previous clashes.

Dispersing to meet further away, the bombers made only one pass. The next attack came from an outpost (2). The Weapon Platform launched thousands of drones into the sky, like tentacles of yellow light, which plunged into the wounds of the Hive Ship.

Inside the huge ship, drones spread in the corridors, destroying the interior partitions and blast doors to make their way to the vital areas of the ship: the thrusters, the Main Power Cristal chamber, and the bridge.

Ravaged by increasingly violent explosions, the Hive Ship suddenly disintegrated, falling to the ground in multiple fiery fragments.

The Wraith had divided into five squadrons with three to five Hive ships each. Similarly, the Asurans had formed fleets that circled the planet. Between each group, the sky was streaked with bluish or golden energy projectiles and swarms of drones. The squadrons were surrounded by explosions.

But the sky between the flotillas was not empty. In fact, between the high orbit and the ground, countless squadrons of fighters crossed at any altitude. When they met, the confrontation turned into swirling battles, a sort of gigantic swarm of furious hornets dotted with explosions and burning wrecks falling to the ground.

For any ordinary person, the battle looked like unspeakable chaos...

Yet Hakuno suddenly extended a finger to designate a Hive Ship on the main screen.

"Flagship."

The Last Master was certainly not 'ordinary'.

Simply by observing the movements of the wings, she had deduced which ship the orders came from!

The enemy leader having been identified, all available means were devoted to his elimination. It took another half hour of a violent confrontation for the flagship to explode. Two other Hive Ships were also eliminated in this clash. Without the authority of the queen who formed the coalition, the Wraiths were now completely disorganized and their losses increased drastically. A first group of ships fled into hyperspace to avoid destruction... one after another, each leading queen of a clan followed this example. Left to their own devices, the Darts chose a kamikaze ending... but without causing much damage given the precision of the Asurans' flack and the top grad shields of their ships.

The outcome of the battle was very much in favor of the Asurans. They had lost only one Aurora-Class Battleship, one Heavy Cruiser, and a dozen smaller ships. Opposite, the Wraiths had lost four Hive Ships, more than sixty cruisers and corvettes, as well as all their Darts.

Milky Ways, Dakara orbit.

The Pel'tak of Ba'al's flagship had become the most important communication node of the decadent Goa'uld Empire. All the news passed through it. In other times, the 'living god' would have been proud to have become so important.

But the news that reached him was able to shake even his legendary arrogance. Whenever the Jaffa standing in front of the communication console turned to him, Ba'al learned of the fall of a new planet or the loss of a fleet. Nothing seemed to stem the advance of the Replicators. Instead of rushing directly to the planet they wanted to conquer, these mechanical monsters took their time to advance. They had spread to all inhabited systems in the Dakara sector, eliminating garrisons, and devouring technical facilities. It was prudent and clever of them. In this way, they seized rear bases where they could replicate and build more warships. Simultaneously, they obstructed the arrival of Goa'uld reinforcements and any counter-offensive had to first liberate these planets before concentrating on Dakara.

Also when the console beeped, signaling the arrival of a new communication, the false god made an effort to hide his anxiety.

"My lord?"

"Speak!"

"Lord Yu's flagship was stormed by the Replicators. The last message from his First Prime indicated that he was leaving his ship's pel'tak to join a freighter and evacuate. But no cargo ship managed to leave the Ha'tak."

"I see."

Ba'al had never liked Yu-Huang Shang Ti, this old, senile Goa'uld had often been his enemy. Their two territories were neighbors and wars between them had been frequent. In addition, Yu had repeatedly helped the Tau'ri... against him.

But Lord Yu commanded at twelve Ha'tak, one of the largest fleets to be controlled by a single Systemlord. Most of these ships must now have been boarded and conquered by the Replicators, which further increased the strength of their fleet...

While Ba'al was still calculating the consequences of this new defeat, the pel'tak window became a screen. A line of Goa'uld symbols flashed, superimposed on a scheme of the planetary system with a blinking red dot.

"My lord, a hyperspace window with the energy signature of Asgard technology has just been formed. Our sensors detect the presence of several small ships... it's.." The Jaffa stopped and swallowed the face suddenly pale as chalk. "They are Replicators!"

Under Gilgamesh's amused gaze, Ba'al rose from his throne.

"Get out of the way!"

"Yes, my Lord."

The Jaffa bowed and walked away a few paces as the 'god' passed his hand gloved with a golden Kara Kesh hand weapon on the touch keyboard. Simultaneously, he was looking at the sensor readings.

"A ship equivalent to a frigate... and she just launched some fighters or bombers."

Ba'al frowned.

The Free Jaffa had fortified a nearby asteroid, and a squadron of Tel'tak and another one of Death Gliders was part of the defense. The 'god' turned to the Jaffa behind the communication console.

"Tell the Shol'va (traitors) to engage the enemy, I come to their rescue. May my personal fleet accompany me!"

The six Ha'taks emerged from the hyperspace not far from the asteroid and immediately began to deploy. Still behind the navigation altar, Ba'al personally led his flagship. It was one of the few things one could admire about him. This Goa'uld did not hesitate to risk his life at the head of his forces, guiding his Jaffa by example...

Looking up at the screen, the false god watched the ongoing clash between the Free Jaffa and the invaders. The ship that the Ha'tak computer had classified as a frigate was of a strange shape, a bit like a bird with outstretched wings. The outer hull was made of some sort of shiny metal (probably neutronium alloy) with three ovoid constructions on the back, one tower above and another below. The "belly" was a large opening where a violet light shone (3).

The Tel'tak had just plunged towards the strange frigate and dropped plasma bombs. But the projectiles only highlighted a translucent shield slightly bluish... As the hyperdrive the technology of this shield had been stolen from the Asgards.

Gilgamesh also watched the skirmish, but he was especially interested in the fight between the starfighters... the Replicators fighters were strange metal constructions that reminded him of the aluminum mobiles that Hakuno had attached to the chandelier of 'My Room' to decorate the place. But a violent shock got him out of his melancholy.

A ray of bluish ray fired from atop one of the frigate's towers had shaken violently the shields of Ba'al's Ha'tak making them vibrate.

The false god immediately accelerated and another shot fired from the second tower was lost in the void.

Ba'al then gave his orders.

"Circle the frigate and destroy her. Do not stand still, change places continuously. If a ship is attacked and her shields fall below 50% it is necessary that another Ha'tak interpose herself. Protect each other!"

Caught under the fire of six Ha'tak, the Replicator frigate did not resist very long. Her shields wavered and then disappeared. But Ba'al relentlessly continued firing until the ship turned into a dazzling expanding plasma sphere.

None of the ships in Ba'al's fleet had been seriously damaged, mainly because the false god had interposed his own ship (whose shields had been improved) between the frigate and those of his ships that were in trouble.

Gilgamesh had witnessed the whole battle as a spectator, without giving any advice or doing anything other than smiling and nodding his head. He greeted the destruction of the ship with unconcerned applause.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead Ba'al let the helmsman resume his post and sat down on his throne... or rather dropped himself on the cushion before turning to his neighbor.

"Thank you for cheering me, I feel it strongly!"

The corrosive irony of his host could not escape Gilgamesh. The First Hero of Humankind lost his smile.

"I have not forgotten our agreement. I will help you. I have only one word. But when and how I choose it. I am the king and the king is me."

The battle of Dakara took place in a strange way. Ba'al had thought that the Replicators would attack en masse sending all their ships at the same time. Instead, the early hours of the confrontation had alternated long periods of stressful waiting and incursions by small groups of scouts.

Ba'al had assembled a small fleet directly under his command. During the clashes four to six Ha'tak were instructed to surround each Replicator ship, reusing the tactics that had allowed their first victory. Until then, the scouts had been quickly eliminated. Of course, the losses of the Goa'uld gradually increased, but the change of tactics had made it possible to contain the enemy.

In addition, Ba'al continued to receive reinforcements. First, Osiris arrived with four modernized Ha'taks. The lieutenant of Anubis had followed only a few minutes later with a reinforcement that had not been announced: Apophis. The snake king had immediately contacted Ba'al. Despite the situation, he had shown his usual morgue. But Ba'al had hidden his anger under almost kind words. Because it was a welcome help. First, the pretender to the pharaonic throne had come aboard his own powerful flagship, then he was escorted by dozens of Ha'tak, including the version he had recently created. These vessels resembling bronze bowls surrounding a pyramid were better armed and armored than the ships designed 10,000 years earlier that were still in use by the others Systemlords.

The three Goa'uld split the tasks. Ba'al and Osiris commanded Task Forces that intercepted the Replicators just after they exited hyperspace. Apophis commanded the bulk of the forces that remained in orbit from Dakara.

Soon after, the Replicators changed tactics.

Now they were not sending one raid after another, but two to four simultaneously. In addition, their largest ships (Asgard's Bilskinir, Upgraded Ha'tak, and Replicator Cruisers) participated in the attacks. From that moment on, Ba'al and Osiris did not have a moment to catch their breath. They fought, opened a hyperspace window to join another group of invaders, and started again.

More and more often, Replicators escaped their vigilance and crossed the planetary system, ravaging the positions defended by the Free Jaffa before colliding with the snake king. The Apophis' Ha'taks played a major role in stopping the first offensives. Not only their Staff Cannons were more powerful than ordinary models, but their range was impressive, even superior to Asgard weapons.

While Ba'al was resting after stopping an nth offensive, Gilgamesh suddenly spoke.

"Nice fight but... You have no chance of winning."

As Ba'al turned to the king of Uruk, to look at him in surprise, the hero shrugged his shoulders.

"Isn't that obvious? Your manpower isn't infinite and your losses increase over time. Moreover, you are beings of flesh and blood, subject to fatigue. How long can you continue to fight at this rate? Five or six days? Meanwhile, the Replicators devour all the technical installations of the planets they have conquered. Every minute that passes, they construct more Blocks, more Replicators, and more spaceships, they Replicate, hence their name. They multiply according to a geometric progression."

The three Jaffa present on the pel'tak turned to their 'god'. They dared not speak, but their attitude showed that they had understood Gilgamesh's explanation. They were visibly expecting... a miracle.

Bal'al had an inner thrill in understanding how tense the situation was... and on several levels. For without a miracle, they could not defeat the Replicators. Moreover, the position of the Goa'uld had been seriously eroded since the death of Ra, the uprising of thousands of Jaffa could amply. So it also required a miracle to restore the devotion of the armies that served the gods.

But Bal'al had a mocking smile, his chin resting on his hand.

Fortunately, he was able to perform a 'miracle'. In fact, the only type of divine act he loved to commit.

"Well, it's genocide time!"

Dakara.

The planet was a world covered with red sand, the dunes stretched to infinity. The landscape had a harsh beauty especially with the sun descending to the west, burning with its rays the ruins of a city.

Built by the Ancients millions of years earlier, it was only ruins, some walls rising no higher than the knee.

For a very long time, the dunes had buried these few pitiful remains, one of the last testimonies of the civilization of the Ancients in the Milky Way.

But the time was not for melancholic contemplation of the setting sun or philosophical reflections about the inevitable decline of any civilization.

In the crumbling streets, Free Jaffa fired towards a tide of metal spiders that covered the ground to the horizon. Although all enemy ships had been destroyed in orbit, a few Replicators survived the crash. The characteristic of these monsters is their ability to replicate. The survivors had found ruins of the Ancients and had devoured the metal, multiplying again, again, and again...

Sheltered behind a wall, a Jaffa fired several times with his Ma'tok Staff. He aimed for a mechanical spider in the front row of the horde running to the ruins. But each golden plasma sphere that touched the mechanical monster pushed it back slightly and disoriented it for two or three seconds.

The flow of Replicators overwhelmed the position occupied by the shooter and he died in a few moments.

Fortunately, not all Free Jaffa had Goa'uld weapons. Many of them had been armed and trained by the SGC and used assault rifles.

Bursts of bullets shattered the metal spiders, breaking the magnetic bond that bound the Blocks together. Sometimes a Replicator would reconstitute the scattered Blocks. But most of the time a spray of bullets was enough to destroy the mechanical monsters.

Suddenly, near the Chappa'ai, three rings of Naqadah descended from the sky, followed by a ray of light. Between the rings had just appeared Ba'al, Gilgamesh, and four rather worried Jaffa dressed in their traditional chainmail and skullcap.

With a scornful pout, the Golden King turned towards the fighting noises.

"Let's hurry, we arrive almost too late. Where is the control panel?"

Ba'al held in his hand a tablet of what seemed to be stone. But the text in the Goa'uld dialect changed with every movement of the hand of the false god.

He stopped and looked around, comparing the transcript of Anubis' explanations with the ruins around them. Yes, it was impossible to be wrong. The Goa'uls had repaired only one building. The temple was the central point of control of the Jaffa, the place where the first slaves had been created by the Systemlord Pelops.

"There, in the temple of Dakara."

"Are you sure? We will not have time to search a second building before these monsters are on us!"

The Goa'uld clothed himself in dignity.

"My divine intuition tells me so."

Gilgamesh looked at him in disbelief for a few moments, and then laughed, hiding his eyes and turning his head back. For him, a true demigod having received a divine intuition from his mother, it was an irresistible joke. After a moment, the 'One and Only King' caught his breath.

"Congratulations my dear Ba'al, your king has just appointed you court jester."

Kneeling in the sand, the 'god' had forgotten all dignity. Helped by his Jaffa, he shoveled the sand with his bare hands, lifting the blocks of stone eroded by the passage of centuries. He suddenly uttered an exclamation of relief.

Under the sand, there was a flat surface, a keyboard made of luminous crystals.

"I was right. My divine wisdom cannot be faulted."

This time Gilgamesh smiled briefly. Turned towards the staircase that led out of the underground chamber, he listened to the noise of cylinders and connecting rods that amplified.

"In this case, I can only hope that your 'divine wisdom' will allow you to find out very quickly how to adjust this machine because the energy released by the transporter rings has been detected. Unfriendly visitors come to us."

Behind Gilgamesh appeared several circular golden openings. In each opening was a sword, spear, or axe. The weapons quivered as if eager to leap free.

The first Replicator that went down the steps was pierced by a sword. But others were following the first one. Fortunately, Gilgamesh had countless Noble Phantasms, the first windows spewed death in the form of electric weapons, or ones that froze what they touched. But other openings appeared and the wind, the fire, and magestaffs spewing rays of energy were put to use.

Replicators' ability to absorb energy was limited to the forms of energy they knew... and they had never faced magic before.

The underground room was made of carefully carved stone. In fact, the walls were assembled in blocks of different sizes and shapes, and geometric stripes formed a kind of decorative pattern.

On a wall a stone plate covered with inscriptions in the language of the Ancients gave instructions... in the form of a rebus.

There was also a kind of large stone table with a keyboard that Ba'al had cleared. On the other side of this table (when the back was routed to the entrance) there was a kind of screen that -for now- only showed columns of text that scrolled vertically on a blue background.

Fortunately, Ba'al did not have to guess how the device worked or solve the rebus; Anubis already knew how to operate the weapon.

Holding the tablet in one hand, he followed the instructions, pressing some crystal-clear keys, until the screen changed, showing different texts. The computer asked for the weapon to be adjusted.

That was the only difficulty.

To destroy a living being, it was necessary to emit on a frequency that corresponds to it, each life form had its own. Fortunately, the Tau'ri and Asgards had broadcast several messages explaining everything they knew about the Replicators. Samantha Carter had said that the Replicators were in permanent communication through a subspace link.

Ba'al pressed several keys on the keyboard, setting the Dakara Superweapon to emit on the same subspace frequency. Then he pressed a button as wide as his hand, in the center of the stone table.

There was a click, and then a sound swelled, becoming stronger and stronger.

Outside, the Stargate suddenly opened, spitting out its usual water-like geyser before its contents froze in the form of a shimmering, luminous mirror.

Unlike any 'normal' opening the Gate was not connected with ONE door, all the Gates of the galaxy had just opened simultaneously...

A phenomenon that had only happened once before, millions of years ago.

At the same time, the top of the mountain opened like the petals of a flower. A dazzling ray of blue-white light burst forth in a column brighter than the sun, dazzling all that looked in that direction.

In orbit, the battle continued.

The waves of Replicators' ships succeeded each other without a moment of rest. Around the planet, the Goa'uld fleet (more than eighty Ha'taks) had increasing difficulty resisting a fleet of ships much more advanced... and more and more numerous.

And then suddenly, a wave of energy surged into the cosmos. The ships of the Goa'uld-Free Jaffa coalition were not affected. The Bilskinirs and Ha'aks infested by the Replicators found themselves adrift. Outwardly they were intact, but...

As for the Replicators, they disintegrate in an instant.

In fact, throughout the galaxy, the Stargates had scattered the energy wave set to the Replicator-specific subspace frequency.

And throughout the galaxy, everywhere, at the same moment, the Replicators stopped and then collapsed into heaps of Blocks deprived of energy and inert...

Within a second they had been killed to the last.

Author's note: You may find it a bit surprising that Ba'al didn't rush to activate the Dakara Superweapon.

But, finally, he is far from the only one to hesitate to use it.

Anubis controlled the planet, knew the existence of the weapon, had even found it, studied it, and therefore knew how to use it... and he canonically never uses it.

The Jaffa tradition, cited by Teal'c in a previous chapter, indicates that the Goa'uld never found the weapon... but I think this is unlikely. Pelops rebuilt the building in which the weapon was located... which is at the bottom of a staircase connected to the main room of the temple, just hidden by a simple stone wall. I believe (note, it's only my own hypothesis) that Pelops rebuilt precisely this ruin and made it a sacred place because he had found the weapon. And that even the most arrogant Goa'uld would think twice before ordering his Jaffa to smash the walls of the 'most sacred temple of the Jaffa's faith' and that it was the best way to hide his discovery.

And why did Pelops, Anubis, and Ba'al, while coveting the power of the Dakara Superweapon, hesitate to use it?

Well why on Earth the number of Nuclear Warheads is considered an important criterion for judging the military power of a state... yet no one uses such weapons?

For fear of consequences.

It's like wearing a board around your neck that says, "Kill me, I'm a dangerous lunatic playing with Weapons of Mass Destruction."

This last point is more than just a hypothesis.

Do you know Anubis' story?

This Goa'uld had found an Ancient Superweapon (the golden lightning emitter that is the main weapon of his flagship). He proposed to Ra to use it to defeat the Asgard.

But on the contrary, Ra reunited all the other Systemlords and attacked Anubis!

After defeating him, Ra dismantled the lightning emitter and dispersed its components between the Systemlords so that the weapon will never be used again.

(1) Of the same model as the one which went to free Hakuno detained on Atlantis (See chapter 5). They are the Lantean equivalent of the Goa'uld's Al'kesh.

(2) Outpost: typical Ancient's defense base, serving either as a support for an Atlantis-class City ship when it is laid on the ground or as a landing ground for spacecraft. The most famous outpost in the Stargateverse is the Antarctica Outpost.

(3) In the Stargate encyclopedia, the affiliation of these ships indicates that they have 'unknown creators'. This indicates that it is not a type of ship built by the Replicators, They are not, moreover, built in Blocks. Probably the Replicators boarded this ship and then modified her. It is important to note that the creators of these ships are people of the Othala galaxy. This is the only clue implying the existence of another space-age alien race in this galaxy.