A/N Hello everyone! hope you are having a grand September! Empires Unite is still continuing on and should be more regular updates now, got a little laptop so im hoping to get more done. Also found an amazing version of the Serpent Guard Helmet that looks more inspired by the movie, it was made by Warren Goodwin and it will be the style of Serpant guard helmet in this story.
Reviews!
Jawsonyou67: The Rachni did survive, though I did not explicitly include them in the Displaced group, Im toying with the idea that they came out in a different area of Space, and as for the Arachnids, I too am contemplating bringing them in as well.
Azai Jin: The Asgard limit contact with everyone, including the advanced human cultures. They never talked with the Tollan and their contact with their allies the Nox seems non-existant as well. The Tau'ri always seek out the Asgard, only a few Replicator incidents made Thor go to Earth for their more creative minds which might not even happen anymore now with the Forth, but we will see.
Morgriff: I fixed that chapter a bit for one, I think i made the battle scene a bit better and it will be explained more in this chapter. As for the Normandy, you are right, it doesn't have bulkheads, it uses mass effect barriers to seal breaches, but she does have armor. The Asari Silaris Armor is incredibly strong, Carbon-Nano tubes woven diamond Chemical Vapor Deposition then crushed with intense mass effect fields. That's strong armor, and it has its own teeth, disruptor and Javelin torpedoes and the Thanix are deadly weapoms, plus the Normandy is being used as a scout/first contact vessel. A UNSC or CIS ship are vastly more powerful, same with some Federation ships, but all in all the Normandy has advantages that the others don't. Its a stealth vessel that is incredibly maneuverable and has a more non-threatening look while also being able to defend itself with diplomatic facilities aboard.
Oasis
New Hope Research Facility
/§\
Halsey rushed in as soon as the meeting was over with, a dozen datapads in her arms, "Alright people! We have the go ahead! I want that shield generator installed as soon as possible, then any hybridization ideas needs to be brought up, time to make our group of refugees into a true galactic power."
The scientists and researchers immediately started rushing about, two UNSC scientists with a Quarian grabbed the Shield emitter from the Infinity and began to take it out of the room while two Sangheili grabbed some long cables to start hooking up power supplies. A Salarian brought over a datapad handing it to Halsey, "Doctor I believe that a physical barrier could also be integrated into the gate thus allowing for a defense in case of catastrophic power failure."
Halsey looked at the data, it showed a schematic of twenty overlapping blades similar to that of a leaf shutter they can tighten together closing and preventing anything to come through. Various materials were shown to the side, suggestions for the composition of the device. "This is good work Doctor, we can have the construction teams create this easily enough, the Titanium-A battleplate as the main body of this shutter...shield will give it the strength, but we need something to absorb any heat or energy that could still transmit...maybe a multi-layered system?"
"I will look into it Doctor Halsey," the young Salarian responded and bowed his head before leaving tapping away on his omni-tool.
Halsey had the best minds on the planet in this lab at her disposal, and the main goal was the survival of everyone on the planet. She was doing what she did best, ensure the survival of the Human race and their allies.
Oasis
United Military Headquarters
/§\
Lasky was going over the combat footage from the assault on the gate and he frowned then pulled up several personnel files. The Marines were as green as they came, with only a handful of veteran sergeants, the ODSTs were just as new with only their Lieutenant being a veteran of the Human Covenant War and he fell fairly early in the fight. His frown deepened seeing that while the Federation troopers were veterans, they were used to fighting the Arachnids from their Universe, aliens that had a focus on rushing in and using melee based attacks. The Turians skill showed, but so too did their complacency, they were used to being able to take a few hits thanks to their shields. Unfortunately while the Kinetic barriers stopped much of the kinetic impact of the staff weapon plasma bolts, but they were unable to prevent the plasma's heat to dissipate.
Cortana popped up on the holotable pulling up the footage herself. "We need to send combat training teams to the Federation, they have fought other opponents with energy and projectile weaponry, the Forth Republic from their Galactic North, the Ptolomeic hegemony in the galactic east, and this Coven in the galactic south. This fleet was on the way to the galactic west to the Arachnid Front so they mainly brought Bug war veterans as they call them."
"I agree, we can use Infinity's training deck to help with that, we can use their AIs to program their enemies as well just in case some of theirs ended up here." He said with a sigh, he didn't like having a bunch of people coming in and out of Infinity, but he had to get used to it due to them all being allies.
He looked out the window and saw a group of four people by the Stargate that did not match the security detail. A Quarian was setting up the emitter while two human scientists, UNSC by the outfits were doing something on a few computers. A few meters away two Sangheili were laying cables to the Emitter while talking to one of the Sangheili guards.
Lasky was about to go back to his paperwork and such when he stopped, the Stargates crystals were starting to light up, "Cortana! Send a message to those scientists to hurry up!" The two Sangheili saw what he did and began to run with cables towards the emitter sliding into place. He scowled as the great splash that was the event horizon stabilizing blasted out, but that scowl turned to a smile as a second later a golden field appeared above the shimmering blue wormhole. After a few seconds the shield flashed, then it did again. The gate was open for roughly ten minutes and he counted no less than two hundred flashes. Halsey had joined him in his office after the first five.
Halsey was looking at a datapad and was nodding to herself before putting the pad down. "Drain on the shield is negligible, It would take several hours of constant bombardment like that to breach the shield, and with the shutter idea Doctor Valdin proposed then we could make it even less penetrable. Though a particle accelerator weapon may be able to breach the physical shield given enough time, but we can tune the energy shield to the same frequency as the particles to make it more efficient."
"So what you are saying is that with them in tandem the chances of an enemy breaching the Stargate are minimal?" He looked back at the stargate giving a sigh of relief.
The elderly doctor nodded, "That would be correct Admiral, at least with any means we are familiar with, I am sure the Forerunner would have some way of doing it, so there may be a race or something in this universe who may have such technology."
Unknown Habitable world
Deep underground
/§\
Deep beneath the surface of a lush Garden world, or at least former garden world much of the surface was scorched after all, several beings in leather like armor with several red lights looked at each other strangely. What they had uncovered confused them, the large stone ring was covered in strange symbols, one of which all of them knew, it was the symbol of the Trinity their main religion.
The workers were not at all surprised when four flying insectoid like creatures landed nearby, what did surprise them was the larger insect that landed in the back. They all bowed their heads and kneeled, with a raspy voice one of them spoke. "My Queen, we did not expect your personal handling of this."
Their Queen wore a red set of armor with four tassels on the belt, she was flanked by three individuals. One was massive, clad in pure Black leather with metal implants on his jaw behind the cheeks. The second was Lithe a forked tongue slipping out slightly with a helmet that had many tassels resembling dreadlocks. The third was the shortest of the free, in more advanced looking red armor that bordered on robes. The first two were the Queens Generals the third being her greatest Scientist. None of the workers never let their head rise, none felt worthy.
"So you have found it...the Legendary Ring of the Divinity..." The Queen said, her voice in slight awe at what was before her, she turned to her Generals. "I want this under guard at all times."
The lithe General bowed his head, his voice was rough "Of course my Queen, shall we start expending the Nexus in the other direction then?"
She nodded as she let her hand touch the ring, "Yes..." Her mind went to all the legends on what was in front of her, some legends speak of it as the place of their ancestors, some say it is where the ancestors of their enemies came from. Supposedly a being of divine power named Khepri placed it on their world thousands of years ago, this act angered the great ones. In their enraged state at the attempt to control their world buried by this foreign being they buried the circle of stone. "Find out how old it is...and what it does." She looked to the smallest of her Generals who smiled a bit bowing his head not saying a word, it was not his place.
The Queen turned walking back to her gilded insect mount getting atop the massive beast and giving the ring one last look, this Chappa'ai as the ancient texts called it, would decide the future of this world.
Heru'ur controlled Planet
Stargate Site
/§\
As soon as Jack came through the gate he shivered, it was damned cold here as he saw the snow coming down. He didn't have time though to spare for the thought however as he zatted the two Jaffa guards at the base of the ramp. Daniel came through next followed by Teal'C and then Carter. "Two Jaffa down, we are on the clock."
He dropped the reddish grey pauldron of a Sokar Jaffa on the ground by the gate, it had a single staff blast mark to make this more realistic. Teal'C walked over to the two unconscious Jaffa and shot each with his staff. "Come, we must be quick."
The group moved as quickly as they could to a small pyramid with a dish like structure on top of it, likely some kind of sensor, who knows Carter will likely explain some time. Daniel was lagging behind a bit as he pulled at the mail around his crotch. "We are never doing this again, this armor pinches in all the wrong places."
Jack gave a bit of a laugh shaking his head as they snuck up to the entrance of the pyramid. "Well Daniel, I'll be sure to tell Sokar to make some armor adjustments."
"Thanks Jack, I'm sure the Goa'uld that takes the persona of the devil is open to constructive criticism." Jackson replied fairly dryly which just made him smile a bit more at his friend.
There were two more Jaffa at the entrance to the Pyramid, and undoubtedly more inside. "Ok T, you have structures like this with Apophis?" He asked as he aimed his Zat at the left Jaffa motioning Daniel to hit the right. Teal'C gave a slow nod.
"Indeed, O'Neill...many System Lords use sensor nodes such as these to store data, the data crystals should be stored in the far right corner from the entrance." He raised his staff the bulbous end popping open with the all familiar snap-sizzle. Jack raised his other hand with three fingers raised and slowly lowered each and once all three were down they struck.
Both Jaffa got hit quickly with the two blue lightning-like bolts from the zats and the one on the right took a golden bolt from Teal'Cs staff straight to his head, a bullseye to the falcon tattoo. They both dropped to the ground, one stunned, the other certainly dead. Several more Jaffa rushed out of the Pyramid, straight into their fire. Two more took Zat rounds, while a third took a staff blast. One Jaffa got close to them yelling loudly when Carter raised her hand and sent a concussive blast towards him sending him flying back knocking another Jaffa to the ground.
They fought for several minutes with probably twenty or twenty-five Jaffa rushing out. Once the Jaffa stopped rushing out they waited for a minute to make sure no more came through before slowly moving towards the entrance. "Well, if that ain't a better example of shooting fish in a barrel I don't know what is."
"Well Jack, most Jaffa training is little more than march towards the enemy and shoot." Daniel responded dropping a Sokar colored staff in the pile.
Teal'C examined each of the Jaffa for life signs, "There is likely at least one more Jaffa inside, these are all Jondi, and 'Arif...what you would call Privates and corporals I believe." He fired a blast into a Jaffa pretending to be dead. "An Installation such as this would have at least a Raqib, a sergeant to lead these men."
Jack frowned a bit and entered the pyramid with the Zat aimed forward, clearing corners. "So, boss man is still up and kicking eh? Seems more like a Goa'uld then Jaffa, hiding behind his troops."
"Indeed O'Neill it is quite cowardly for the leader of such an important area." Fired his staff behind him without looking and from a dark corner a single Jaffa fell, his hands held a Goa'uld stun grenade. "It seems the leader used his men as bait O'Neill."
"So it seems." Jack relaxed a tad bit, "Carter, get a move on and secure those data crystals, I'd like to get back to the base, it's burger night." She gave a nod and ran off while Teal'C placed some Goa'uld explosives around the pyramid to cause as much damage as they could to keep up appearances.
Earth
Stargate Command
/§\
The gate shut off behind them as he immediately started to tear off the uncomfortable Jaffa armor. "General, may I suggest SG-8 for any undercover Jaffa missions that may be coming up."
General Hammond gave a small chuckle shaking his head as he walked up to Jack, "I take it the mission went well Colonel?" The General's eyes roamed over each member for any injuries, he truly did care about the men and women under his command. It's what made him such a good leader for such a unique operational command.
"That's right general, we have the data crystals and the base has been severely damaged, no survivors and we left clues that it was Sokar's Jaffa that attacked." Jack smiled as Carter rushed off with the case of crystals, likely going to the infirmary before the lab. "Carter will have the location of this new advanced race before you know it General, and I request that SG-1 be on the first contact mission.
General Hammond nodded relaxing his shoulders. "That shouldn't be an issue, debrief in twenty minutes, Major Carter is exempt to work on the data."
Oasis
United Military Headquarters
/§\
Admiral Lasky was sifting through more data, mostly the medical data from the New Hope medical facility. He frowned looking at pictures of the wounds produced by these staff weapons. He was used to the melting of covenant based plasma but each of these bolts had intense kinetic energy behind them and exploded upon contact. Giving a soft sigh Lasky closed his eyes, "Cortana, see if the anti-plasma coating that the feds have for their ship armor will be beneficial for our infantry, taking hits like these will cause a lot of casualties...luckily we have some of the best medical technology we can get thanks to the Citadel folks, most of our wounded will be able to return to the field in a few weeks."
"Of course Admiral, I can send the idea to Halsey and her team, they are already working on a potential coating for our armor." The metastable AI responded with her hand on her holographic hip.
"Good...good, I am glad she is on top of everything." He rubbed his eyes a bit, all these hoops with the different governments was proving to be very stressful. Though having an enemy united everyone more as they all now had a goal in mind. "Cortana...ONI have the go ahead with the prisoners."
Cortana's smile faltered slightly but nodded. "Right away Admiral, I'll have Blackwell on it." With that she winked out leaving Lasky alone in his office.
Planet Oasis
Secret Underground Complex
/§\
Deep in a secret facility a single room stood apart, it was furnished with just a single chair. The only way in was a single door and a one way glass window looked into the room. Currently it was occupied by a single near-human alien who was stripped naked. Currently he was blindfolded and had water slowly dripping on his head.
The door opened up and a man in black uniform walked in with a single guard in ODST armor. The man in the uniform snapped his finger and his guard turned the water off and removed the blindfold. "I am Colonel Blackwell Office of Naval Intelligence, you are one of the few survivors of the attack on our world. Now who are you and why did you attack."
The dark skinned man blinked a bit adjusting to the light before spitting, "I am a servant of Heru'ur Tauri dog, and he will conquer you."
Blackwell showed no emotion as he pulled up a datapad. "You are stronger than the others, they each broke. they say your people are called Jaffa...and you serve the God Heru'ur, who is one of those snakey things in your gut." He slowly nodded his head looking the information over. "They say they are low ranking soldiers, Jondi they said...but they say you are Medjay...the elite...we kinda figured that with the unique hawk headed helmet."
The Jaffa growled a bit and strained against his bonds, but the metal cuffs did not seem to give at all. "They are traitors to their God!"
"And you will break too...it will just take time...and our more unique methods. In the end you will tell us everything you know." He turned leaving and the lights went off with the water beginning to drip once more, but now a sound like nails on a chalkboard filled the room as the Jaffa begin cursing at them, the door shutdown behind Blackwell and he smiled slightly. "In the end, they all break under the boot of ONI."
Well hope everyone is having a good Holiday season, started this chapter in September and finished it in December. I hope everyone enjoys the Chapter and I am already working on Chapter Six of Empire Unites, and the twenty-third chapter of Halo Mass Convergence. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa, Happy Winter Solstice, and have a good Yule!