Robotech: The Stargate Saga

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Chapter Forty-Three

Bridge

Ancient Destroyer Aurelius

A Short Time Later

A silent, urgent alert through the ships data stream caught Rick Hunter's attention even as he sensed the sensor officer – through his own connection with the data stream – reacting to it. Interrogating the ships sensors for the reason for the alert sounding. Rick resisted the impulse to look himself, it would not do for anyone on his crew – something that he was frankly still having some trouble wrapping his head around as commanding a ship was a lot different to leading Skull Squadron – to get the impression that he didn't trust them to do their jobs. Thus, he wouldn't use his master access to the stream to override theirs unless it was an emergency.

"Sir our long-range sensors are picking up multiple ships in hyperspace closing on our location," the sensor officer reported after a moment, "multiple approach vectors."

"What kind of ships lieutenant," Vanessa asked from the first officers' station just beating Rick to the punch.

"They're Goa'uld ma'am," the officer answered, "the war book provided by the Tok'ra identifies most of them as Nar'kesh-class frigates, Ha'tak and Sha'ha'tak-class motherships but at least three are of unique designs – oh shit."

"What is it?" Rick demanded.

"Sir according to the Tok'ra one of the approaching motherships is the Ra'tak the flagship of the Goa'uld Supreme System Lord Ra."

Rick grimaced slightly at that. He had been reviewing everything they knew about Goa'uld starships, including everything the Tok'ra and Asgard alike had told them, and thus knew that the Ra'tak was unique among Goa'uld motherships. Not only was it much larger than any other ship in any Goa'uld's fleet but a lot more Ancient technology had been built into it during construction by the Goa'uld System Lord, inventor, and engineer P'tah. Technology that was rumoured to include at least one potentia module, something that if it was true would make Ra's ship an exceptionally powerful and dangerous vessel, especially as thanks to both Primus and the simulation of Captain Bonran he knew full well how powerful even one potentia module was. Any Goa'uld figuring out how to use even one of them was potentially very, very bad news especially as a regular strength Goa'uld warship was a foe to be respected he shuddered to think what one supped up by a potentia would be capable of.

"How long until they arrive?" he asked.

"Sir the first group of Goa'uld ships will arrive in ten minutes with the Ra'tak and its escorts arriving approximately four minutes later. The rest will arrive at most four minutes after Ra does."

"How many ships are we looking at lieutenant," Vanessa asked.

"In total the computer estimates a hundred and fifty ships."

Rick exchanged a look of concern with Vanessa at that. Even by robotech standards a hundred and fifty warships was a formidable force, something to demand both respect and caution, and one that was much larger than any Goa'uld force seen before. While they would be safe here on the Aurelius protected by their cloaking field the incoming fleets represented a considerable hurdle in successfully completing the mission to extract Vince so that either the Tok'ra or the Asgard could take Tharos out of him. All of the incoming Goa'uld were certain to try and grab him themselves to gain exclusive access to his knowledge of robotechnology and proven ability to adapt it to work with Goa'uld technology. There feudal nature, and voracious desires for power and dominance over others, ensured that they would do that and that it would probably be a violent attempt.

"Should we call the commandos back," Vanessa asked after a few moments of silence.

Rick shook his head. "No this is our best chance to get Tharos," he said before his expression turned grim. "Plus, my orders from both Admiral Gloval and the Defence Council are clear if we cannot extract Tharos then we're to kill him, to stop the Goa'uld acquiring anymore robotechnology secrets. If I call the commandoes back now, we would have no choice but to decloak, attack and destroy the base something we easily have the firepower to do. I don't want to do that if there is any way to avoid it."

"Claudia and Jean would be devastated if we had to do that," Vanessa agreed knowing that if they did that, they would be killing Vince as well as the thing, the parasite that had invaded and taken over his body. The mere thought of how that had happened and how Vince, who had already been one of the nicest of guys, was suffering as a prisoner in his own body was enough to fill her with rage. Rage and hatred for those AUL fanatics who had thought it such a good idea. "Though they would understand why."

"I know," Rick agreed and know he did. Before they had left, before he transported to the Aurelius to recruit Jar'un Claudia had come to see him. Gloval had quietly informed both her and Jean about the mission and the painful contingency orders. With tears streaming down her cheeks, and with only Roy's strong arm across her shoulders keeping her from falling, she had told him that if he had a kill her brother to stop Tharos then he was to do so and that neither she nor Jean would blame him.

It had been a heart-breaking conversation.

"So, what do we do?"

"The only thing we can right now and that's advice Colonel Lorne of the changing situation here in orbit," Rick answered, "and that if they are successful in nabbing Tharos they will not have time to retreat back to the shuttle. Instead, they'll need to take the bases shields down allowing us to transport them out of there. As for the shuttle we tell Max and Miriya to get their butts back up here, explain about the change in plans and why."

Rick nodded and watched with both his eyes, and through the data stream, as Vanessa got to work contacting both Max Sterling and Colonel Lorne to advise them of the changing situation here in orbit and with it the need to potentially change plans. While she did that, he began to review the scans of the base in his mind and enlisting the aid of the tactical AI programs to determine where and what in the base they would need to fire upon if the need arose. Locations and objects that if hit by their weapons fire would blow the whole place, and everyone in it, into the stratosphere.

He just hoped it didn't come to that.

Infiltration Team

Goa'uld Industrial Facility

Orisa Surface, A Few Moments Later

Behind the silvered visor of his Tristan powered armour Colonel Evan Lorne scowled as he listened to the updated mission parameters being relayed over secure hyperspace comms by Commander Leeds on the Aurelius. The situation in orbit was deteriorating, from the previous good position, with multiple groups of Goa'uld ships inbound to this planet. The incoming fleets – who were no doubt going to end up fighting over which System Lord recruited Tharos to their ranks now that Ba'al had fallen – had prompted Captain Hunter to reassess the situation and as a result change their orders.

"Understood commander," he said at last, "I believe that either or both of the two Tok'ra will know how to take the shields down after we've nabbed Tharos. How much time do we have before 'till the first of the Goa'uld show up?"

"Approximately eight minutes."

"Eight minutes?" Lorne replied utterly incredulous. He had heard of tight deadlines, he'd had to deal with a few over the course of his military career both when he'd been in the old US Air Force and later when he'd become a STORM Commando, but this was frankly ridiculous. Not to mention outright impossible as while all STORM Commandoes had genetic augmentations, they weren't superhumans, certainly not like the Spartans in that pre-Rain computer game series Halo had been. "Commander, I have to be blunt we can't do what you ask in that time. We've only just met up with the Jaffa Resistance operative Moroc. We were about to ask him where we can find Tharos when you comm'd me."

"We are hopeful that you will have more time than that," Leeds replied, "either way you will need to take the shields down to get out of there as we cannot risk having the shuttle linger there now and it would take you too long to get back to it from where you are."

Lorne silently swore. "I understand," he said at last, a note of resignation coming into his voice as he spoke again. While he could see and understand the reasoning for withdrawing the assault shuttle, while it was cloaked it was still potentially vulnerable and they didn't yet have the capabilities to replace it should the Goa'uld somehow detect and attack it. Though hopefully that would change soon as they learned how to use the Martian industrial facilities. Still understanding it didn't mean he had to like it. Especially as it meant that they would – once again – have to pull off the near impossible.

"We will get it done commander," he added at last.

"I know you will Colonel good luck, Aurelius out."

As the communications link closed down Evan sighed softly before turning to the others. He then activated his external speakers and relayed the bad news about the change in orders to everyone and the reason why Captain Hunter had seen fit to change them. Needless to say, it went down about as well as a lead balloon.

"The easiest way to take down the shields would be to disable the naquada generators," Anise said, "if Sokar has kept to the normal practice, they will be in the deepest part of the basement levels. If we can shut them down, then all primary power will go down taking down among other systems the shields and surface defences. Unfortunately, the only way I can see us doing that in a viable timescale is if we split up."

"We're going to have to if we're to complete this mission," Lorne answered. "Moroc, do you know where Tharos will be in this place?"

"Unlike your ships our long-range sensors will not have detected the incoming ships yet. Thus, the false god will be in the laboratory, he has claimed for himself," the rebel Jaffa answered immediately quietly stunned that there prospective new Terran allies had sensors advanced enough to detect the incoming Goa'uld fleets from so far away. While the Goa'uld had subspace sensors and could indeed track ships approaching from hyperspace they wouldn't, not until they were within about two hundred light years of Orisa – virtually point blank range when you considered how fast a hyperspace drive could actually go – giving them a scant few minutes to prepare for the unexpected visitors. What was even more amazing was that they had been able to identify some of the incoming ships including the Ra'tak – the mere mention of which sent a shiver of real fear down his spine as it meant that the Supreme System Lord himself was coming here – which again showed how advanced this previously unknown human race was.

The Jaffa Resistance would do well to establish at least a working relationship – if not an outright alliance – with such a power. Though it also made him wonder what their interest in Tharos was. The only thing he could think of to explain it was that the host came from this race, which would well explain some of the things he had heard about what that particular Goa'uld was up to. The sciences he was working with which were completely different to the Goa'uld norm, like all Jaffa in the resistance he knew full well that the Goa'uld did not have magic that all their 'divine' abilities were simply the product of advanced science and technology.

It could bring their mutual dream of freedom for the Jaffa after their millennia's old enslavement to the Goa'uld. Still be cautioned himself not to get too excited not just yet, both sides of this prospective partnership had much to learn about the other before they could think about committing to any form of formal alliance. There was also the fact that this human race might not really want an alliance with them, the things they had done in the name of the false gods – the worlds they'd raided and even outright burned to glass – had hardly done anything to endear the Jaffa to the human populations of the galaxy. There would also be the issue of supremacist sentiment among some of his fellow Jaffa in the resistance to overcome first.

"How close is that to here?" Lorne asked getting him back on track.

"It's in the main palace," Moroc replied, "there is a set of transport rings on this level that we can use to transport there. I have the access code to those rings as well as authorisation to access the palace. If we begin moving now, we can reach them in at most three minutes. The rings could also be used to transport a team down to the control room for the main power generators, several hundred meters beneath us."

"If we can access it and take out the guard there then we will be able to shut down all but auxiliary power in a few moments," Lantash commented speaking for both himself and Martouf. Freya/Anise nodded in agreement.

"Alright you two, Sergeant Chen, Lieutenants Wallace and Young will go and take out the power," Lorne decided even as he checked how long they had left before the first Goa'uld ships showed up. It wasn't good they had barely six minutes left. "Let's move out people we've not got long left before the first Goa'uld show up and make out job that much harder than it already is."

Everyone nodded and they quickly got moving again, heading deeper into the industrial complex and the closest ring transporter room.

Surprisingly they encountered no security patrols or anything as they made their way to the ring room. The corridors were silent with the only motion other than themselves coming from the flames in the oil-fuelled braziers that seemed to be everywhere. Sheesh what is it with the Goa'uld and having braziers everywhere, Lorne thought idly. It was bizarre as while there was a certain aesthetic appeal to them, much like there was from candles, it was not the most efficient and safest means of providing illumination. Not to mention that from the fact that there were glowing crystal lights in the ceilings here and there meant the Goa'uld knew it too.

"Where is everyone," Lieutenant Wallace said as they walked.

"I arranged the security patrols to keep this part of the base clear for as long as possible," Moroc replied, "unless Marnor suddenly decides to check the patrol pattern then we should remain undetected until it's too late."

"Marnor?" Wallace asked.

"He's the First Prime of Tharos. Young for the rank but capable according to our reports," Martouf replied.

"He is very capable and also sadly devoted to the service of the false gods," Moroc agreed with a slight sigh. It was always a sad thing to see other Jaffa so blinded by the supposed divinity of the Goa'uld. But then he had been himself when he had been that age, still he had hope that with time and experience Marnor would come to see and accept the truth.

"Will he be a problem," Lorne asked.

"Possible," Moroc confirmed knowing it would depend on if Marnor came to alert Tharos to the incoming ships when they were detected or if he just comm'd him. He hoped it would be the latter as Marnor would, depending on who arrived first, be more preoccupied getting the defences ready for a potential attack. Especially as most of their fleet had been recalled by Queen Qetesh to defend Ba'al's domain from the Asgard – and which were likely all dust by now, blasted to bits by Asgardian ion beams – with the few left landed on the various landing pyramids and grids for repairs after the battle with Sokar's forces.

It was at that moment that they arrived at the ring room. Marnor went over to the control panel and entered the symbols of the security code – which was a relatively new thing as the Goa'uld had only started using such security codes since the war with Sokar began – to unlock the rings. A moment later the small panel gave a crystalline bleep to confirm that the codes had been accepted and the rings were unlocked and ready for use.

"The rings are unlocked," he reported, "they will remain so for three minutes before automatically relocking."

"Not necessarily," Anise replied as she pulled open a panel and plugged in a small device she pulled from a pocket, she then moved a few of the crystals around and checked a small display on the device. After a moment she smiled, removed the device, and closed the panel. "I've just disabled the internal security sensors and scrambled the diagnostic and reporting programs It will be sometime before anyone will be able to reset it."

"How long?" Lorne asked knowing that the security sensors being down would be a huge help to them.

"At least half an hour. Likely longer since the Jaffa and Tharos are certain to focus on the incoming ships when they drop out of hyperspace."

Lorne nodded. "Alright let's go. Moroc send the Tok'ra and their escort to the power control level first," he said. Moroc nodded and watched as the two Tok'ra and their three armoured escorts went inside the rings, he then entered the destination and watched the rings activate and whisk them away.

"There are too many left to transport us all in one go," Moroc replied, "it will have to be two transports."

Lorne nodded and got inside the rings, Jar'un and four of his fellow commandoes doing the same. As soon as they were in position Moroc activated the rings and Lorne watched as five metal rings rose from the floor and formed a cylinder around them. Abruptly there was a brilliant light and a feeling of moving at tremendous speed without going anywhere, then the light faded, and the rings retracted into the floor to reveal a new location. Mentally he shook his head, getting teleported around like that was going to take a hell of a lot of getting used to.

Bringing his rifle up he moved out of the rings. The rest following all spreading out and bringing their weapons to the ready. Behind them the rings activated again and the rest of the team with Moroc arrived. So far so good, Lorne thought as Moroc opened the door to the corridor beyond.

Of course, it was at that moment that their luck ran out. As standing at the end of the corridor beyond were three Jaffa.

"Jaffa kree," one of the three shouted starting to bring up a zat'nik'atel to fire upon the strangely garbed intruders and two clear shol'vah. Lorne didn't let him, instead he fired the laser lancing across the intervening space instantly and taking the Jaffa dead centre in the middle of his chest. The force of the impact sending the Jaffa flying back, even as he gave a death scream as the beam flash vaporised his heart, to crumple into a smouldering heap against a pillar.

A bolt of plasma flew back from one of the other two Jaffa's staffs but only succeeded in impacting the wall next to his helmeted heat producing a puff of smoke and sparks. Then the two other Jaffa went down in a barrage of focused laser fire.

"Great someone is bound to have heard that," Lorne muttered.

"The lab claimed by Tharos is this way," Moroc said hiding his surprise at how quickly the Terran weapons – some type of beams though what they actually were he didn't know – had taken down the patrol. A patrol that should not have been there.

"Lead on," Lorne confirmed.

They immediately began walking again, everyone keeping an ear out for danger and more surprise Jaffa. They were climbing a set of surprisingly steep steps when abruptly an alarm began to sound and a Goa'uld voice began speaking over a hidden PA system. A moment later the translation appeared on Lorne's heads up display. The automated Goa'uld voice was summoning all Jaffa to stations as hostile ships were coming into orbit and summoning Tharos to operations.

Nobody needed to be told that they were out of time as they increased their pace, the STORM commandoes increasing the assistance provided to their limbs by the nano-muscle servos in their Tristan armour to let them move much faster. There increased speed seemed to take both Moroc and Jar'un by surprise before the two Jaffa matched it, exchanging a look of surprise that mere humans could move so fast when they wanted to.

Quickly they rounded a corner in the corridor…

… and found themselves suddenly face to face with Tharos.

A Few Moments Earlier

Tharos looked up from the computer terminal he had been working on, his designs for the first ever Goa'uld battle mecha were coming along nicely, with a frown of annoyance at the urgent summons from Marnor in operations. Now what, he thought with a scowl even as he opened a new window on the computer and access the feed from the main sensors. And immediately saw the reason for his summons.

Eleven Goa'uld warships had just emerged from hyperspace in orbit of Orisa. There were six Nar'kesh frigates, four Sha'ha'tak-class motherships and another much larger vessel. It was roughly two kilometres long and had a triangular shape with large pincer-like prongs at the edges of the hull. A squat three sided pyramid sat on the upper hull. A shiver of fear ran down his spine as he recognised it as Sokar's personal command ship.

"So, the mighty god is afraid huh," Vince abruptly said from his prison at the back of Tharos mind, surprising the Goa'uld somewhat as his host had been quiet for a few days now and he had hoped that he had finally started to accept the great honour of being his vessel for the next few millennia at least.

"Silence," he snapped back as he stood up even as he wondered just why they hadn't detected Sokar's ships before they came out of hyperspace. They should have detected them three or four minutes ago, giving them plenty of time to prepare the bases defences. Not to mention get his escape ship ready just in case the base fell. He pulled up another feed and noted pleased that Marnor was already increasing the power to the dome shield over the base and had begun powering up the newly upgraded surface to space cannons. Tharos allowed himself a slight smirk as he imagined how much of a surprise those cannons, now that like the cannons on his ships, they fired beams would be to Sokar.

The comm chirped for his attention. He reached out and touched a crystal on the offending device. "Yes?"

"My Lord a fleet of ships has just dropped out of hyperspace in orbit," Marnor reported. "We had virtually no warning, just proximity alerts several seconds before their hyperspace windows opened."

"I have seen them Marnor," Tharos replied with a scowl even as he mentally made a note to check the sensor programs later. They should have had far more warning of the approaching fleet than that. "Have they hailed us yet?"

"They have my lord. My lord it's Sokar, he is here himself. He is demanding to speak with you at once or he will commence a full bombardment of Orisa."

"Stall him Marnor I will be right there," Tharos ordered as he saved his work, quietly transferred a copy to the database on his escape ship just in case, before standing up wincing slightly as he did so. He had been sat down in that position too long and the muscles in his lower back were reminding him painfully of that fact. Without hesitation he pushed the pain onto his host though he wasn't surprised when Vince did not respond by screaming or showing any discomfort at all.

"You will have to try better than that parasite."

"Silence."

"Bite me."

"Yes, my lord," Marnor answered naturally unaware of the latest round of the mental jousting match between Tharos and his admittedly impressively strong willed host. Tharos signed off, took one last look at the lab, before leaving. He would head to operations first, see if he could work out some form of bargain with Sokar – possibly even convince the insane Goa'uld to allow him to continue ruling this world in his name since he couldn't rule it for Ba'al now since the latter Goa'uld was as good as dead already having been apprehended by Ra to cool the Asgardian ire – that would satisfy them both. But if he couldn't, if Sokar began his threatened attack, then he would enjoy introducing him to the business end of his upgraded cannons.

Which should give him plenty of time to escape, who knew he might even succeed in killing Sokar with them. If that happened, then Ra was certain to reward him quite handsomely for doing so as the bounty the Supreme System Lord had placed on Sokar's head had only grown since the current civil war had begun. The thought of what Ra might reward him with if he did manage to kill Sokar made him smile…

…the smile disappeared from his face when he rounded a corner and got the surprise of his young life. Standing there in the corridor was almost a whole squad of Terran STORM Commandoes in full Tristan armour and holding laser rifles. He was so startled that he almost didn't see the two Jaffa who were with them, two shol'vah as there was nothing else, they could be.

For a moment nothing more happened as he and the commandoes stared at one another. Then Tharos eyes widened as multiple laser rifles were trained right on him.

"Freeze Tharos," the squad leader said his voice slightly distorted by the speaker on his helmet.

"You dare to point weapons at your god human," Tharos demanded even as he frantically tried to work out a means of getting out of this, there was no time to activate his personal shield or raise his kara'kesh to try and fight them. From his hosts memories he knew how lethal these guys were and that if he tried to do either action, they would gun him down without mercy.

"You are hardly a god," the Terran answered, "just a parasite inside a man and your time is done."

As he spoke Tharos abruptly felt a sharp sting in his neck. What, he thought as his hand shot up and grabbed something a dart of some kind. He removed it and looked at it and then back at the Terrans in confusion noting that one of them had swapped his laser rifle for a dart pistol. They had just dosed him with something.

He started to open his mouth to ask what that was supposed to accomplish when abruptly a wave of dizziness washed through his head, and he stumbled suddenly off balance. What in Ra's name, he thought a moment before it came again and he felt himself falling to the floor, the darkness of unconsciousness beginning to encroach upon his vision.

"You will p…p…pay for this in…in…insolence," he slurred out as he tried to fight against the effects of the drug only to find that there was nothing, he could do to combat its effects. He was losing all feeling in his limbs and knew that the only reason he was still in control of this body was Vince was already out cold from the effect. He didn't understand this, he should be able to neutralize any such drug with his healing ability – unless it had been engineered by Egeria's blasphemous offspring specifically to disable. That realization was the last thought that passed through his head before the darkness enveloped him completely and he knew no more.

Evan Lorne smirked slightly as he observed Tharos succumb to the effects of the Tok'ra supplied tranquiliser. Despite its clear attempts to fight the effects of the powerful sedative, and a melodramatic statement about how they would pay for their insolence in doing this to him, the Goa'uld had not been able to defeat it. Now he was out like a light laying in an unconscious sprawl on the floor.

"Nice shot Jarrik," he said looking over at the only micronized Zentraedi warrior among his squad.

"Thank you, sir," Jarrik replied and while his face naturally couldn't be seen due to the silvering of his helmet visor anyone who knew him knew he would be smiling. Jarrik had worked very hard to earn his place among their ranks, to prove himself to them. He hadn't needed to though Evan knew Jarrik hadn't seen it that way, had believed he needed to prove himself to make up for the terrible crime the Zentraedi race had committed against his own at the direction of Dolza.

Lorne smiled back, though the other naturally wouldn't see it, before opening a new channel on his secure fold comm. "Lieutenant Walker, we have Tharos what's your status?" he asked.

"We've just reached the main power control room," the other commando replied immediately. "There were a few more Jaffa in there than expected but we've dealt with them. Anise is hacking into the system now and estimates we will have the power off in the next minute or two."

"Understood comm me when you're about to shut it down."

"Yes sir."

As Walker acknowledged the order there came a loud rumble like a particularly loud clap of thunder and the very air itself seemed to suddenly vibrate. Now what, Lorne thought as it came again and again.

"What is that," he wondered aloud.

"Someone is firing at the dome shield over the base," Jar'un answered, "certainly Sokar."

"Great that's all we need," Lorne muttered before hailing the Aurelius to inform them of their situation and to advise that they would need transport out as soon as the shield went down. Well, if they wanted to avoid getting blown up as he doubted that Sokar would stop firing when the shield went down.

Pel'tac

Sokar's Mothership

Sitting on his throne in the command centre of his new flagship Sokar allowed himself a small smirk as he watched plasma bolts begin to rain down on the now tainted industrial facility. Not that he intended to lose this facility he would simply take down the shield and then begin sending down Jaffa to reclaim it for their god. He would also have them capture Tharos as that youngster had a lot of promise and useful knowledge, knowledge that – once he had been properly encouraged to serve him, a month or so on Netu should do the trick – would finally allow him to win the current civil war.

"My lord the shields around the facility are holding," one of the Necropolis Guards reported a moment before a powerful impact shook the ship. "We're coming under fire from the surface. Plasma beam weapons. Shields at seventy percent." Another blast shook the ship. "Correction sixty percent."

Sokar growled. "Pull us out of range," he ordered both irritated and impressed by the power of the plasma beam weapons Tharos had made for Ba'al. "Instruct all our Al'kesh and Nal'kesh to begin bombing runs of the base. They're to focus all fire on the shield emitters."

"Yes, my lord." The guard acknowledged even as he engaged the engines and moved the ship up into a much higher orbit of Orisa. High enough that the next plasma beam to come at them from the surface splashed ineffectively off their ventral shields. "My lord we are now out of effective range of the surface cannons. Commencing power transfer from reserves to regenerate shields All Al'kesh and Nal'kesh bombers are launching and are preparing to commence their bombing runs."

"Excellent," Sokar said a moment before urgent proximity alarms went off. Now what, he thought. "What is it?"

"My lord sensors indicate multiple enemy ships emerging from hyperspace," the Necropolis Guard reported, a clear note of fear entering his voice as he began to list them off. "We read eight Nar'kesh, six Sha'ha'tak and…"

"And what?"

"The Ra'tak my lord."

The moment the Jaffa said that Sokar immediately went pale and almost couldn't breathe due to a sudden onset of fear and dread. The Ra'tak being here meant that Ra was here and while he had brought a powerful fleet with him, he was no match for the force Ra had at his command. Especially since he had brought that monster of a flagship, a flagship whose power and capabilities were far beyond the Goa'uld norm to the point that many Goa'uld knew that a lot of Ancient technology had to have gone into its design and construction. Ra was known to hoard Ancient technology only releasing – or allowing P'tah to – bits of it piecemeal to other Goa'uld as a sign of favour or a reward for loyalty.

"My lord we are being hailed by the Ra'tak."

"Show me," Sokar ordered already knowing that this was going to be bad, "also begin an emergency power transfer to the hyperdrive."

"Yes, my lord."

The viewport at the front of the pel'tac shimmered as holographic projectors powered up a moment before a holographic screen appeared over the viewport. A scream showing Ra sitting imperiously on one of his many thrones. Floating next to him – suspended in a force field and getting periodically zapped by rings of energy – was Ba'al who looked distinctly the worse for wear from the experience. Sokar couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the other, much younger Goa'uld. He had dealt with Ra many times in the past, both before and after the death of Apep at the hands of Anubis and was thus well aware that he could be as cruel and sadistic as he could be charming.

"Sokar," Ra growled his eyes glowing in menace and glee at having his long term nemesis at his mercy at long last. "You cannot escape, surrender now and I will be merciful. Resist and be annihilated once and for all."

"Surrender myself to your mercy Ra I think not," Sokar replied knowing that they were both merely following the ritual way these things went in the empire. The way that had been set out all those millennia ago before the First Dynasty had even collapsed following the murder of Apep. Thus, for a Goa'uld it was a ritual as old as time itself. "I will however accept your surrender."

Ra chuckled slightly. "You never change in your over-optimistic assessment of your chances Sokar," he commented a note of wry approval in his voice. "But this time there will be no escape for you. May you die with honour."

"Same to you Ra."

Ra smirked slightly and broke the connection from his end. A moment later a violent impact shook the ship as the first bolt of energy from the Ra'tak smashed into the shields making them flare with strain. A second bolt followed, then a third and a fourth making the ship shake fiercely under the fury of bolts whose power few Goa'uld could hope to challenge.

"Shields down to fifty percent my lord," one of the Necropolis Guards reported as more fire from the Ra'tak slammed into them. Simultaneously the rest of Ra's fleet opened fire upon his forces, firing a mixture of bolts and worryingly plasma beams.

"Hyperdrive status?"

"It is coming online now my lord."

"Then get us out of here at once."

"Yes, my lord," the guard acknowledged but before he could issue the command to the navigational computer to engage the hyperdrive and take them to pre-programmed fallback coordinates a tremendous impact shook the ship as the shields failed under another volley from the Ra'tak. A change in the readings made his heart sink. "My lord they've taken out our hyperdrive."

Sokar's eyes widened in horror a second before multiple blasts, this time accompanied by the piercing shriek of tearing metal and the concussive rumblings of internal explosions shook the entire vessel. Sparks began to rain from overloading power conduits and the acrid stink of burning, melting control crystals filled the air. As more plasma bolts from Ra's ship came in, each blast punching deep into the hull leaving utter ruin and devastation in its wake Sokar suddenly felt a strange calm settle over him. The kind of calmness and acceptance of someone who knew that their time had come, that there was no escape for him not this time.

Another shot struck and a new sound began to be heard. A deep rumbling roar that began to shake the entire ship and Sokar knew. Knew that that shot had struck the antimatter conversion generator, which was now overloading. In seconds the ship, and everyone aboard it, would cease to exist wiped away in the simple but devastating reaction of matter-antimatter mutual annihilation. And I was so close to winning this time, Sokar thought as he conceded his latest and final defeat in their ages long rivalry to Ra and the System Lords. Then he closed his eyes…

…a second before the pel'tac dissolved into screams and fiery fragments as the ship exploded.

Bridge

Ancient Destroyer Aurelius

That Same Time

Sitting in his command chair Rick blinked as Sokar's flagship exploded, erupting in a titanic fireball that seemed to completely rip the fabric of the space-time continuum apart. The speed with which its shields had failed under fire from a handful of the Ra'tak's batteries was frightening but not particularly surprising. The sensors had already confirmed that there was indeed a potentia module present and active aboard Ra's vessel, a module that coupled with a number of highly sophisticated naquada-based generators gave that ship more power for shields and weapons than any ship in the Goa'uld fleet.

"Any sign of escape pods from Sokar's ship," Vanessa asked looking over at sensors.

"Negative ma'am there's nothing. Just dust, plasma and radiation a lot of radiation. It has a really odd profile though," the sensor officer replied, and both Rick and Vanessa could sense him giving a command to the data stream to compare it to the ships database. Surprisingly the results came quickly but not from the Ancient database. "Sir, ma'am the explosion matches those produced by the detonation of a Tollan antimatter-conversion generator, albeit quite a crude copy of one."

Rick blinked. Where the hell did Sokar get that, he thought as while they had had no contact with the Tollan as yet themselves the Tok'ra had filled them in on that particular human race. They were perhaps the most technologically advanced human-based society in the galaxy one that had long since mastered generating and controlling antimatter. A technology that the Tollan guarded jealously, especially as the one time they had allowed another world to possess it that world – their own neighbouring planet Serita – had nearly destroyed itself would have if an orbiting Tollan ship hadn't reacted quickly enough to stop it. The ship using a master override code to deactivate the set to overload antimatter conversion generator that one of the Seritan nation states had been firing at another.

Needless to say, at least according to the Tok'ra, after that near disaster the Tollan had become much more cautious with giving out any technology to other worlds. Especially worlds that, like Serita, we're much less technologically and socially advanced than they were. So how the hell had Sokar gotten his hands on one of them? After a moment he mentally shrugged he had no answer, and it wasn't really his place to look for an answer to that puzzle. He just hoped that the generator that had been on Sokar's flagship was the only one that particular Goa'uld had had.

"It's no concern of ours either way," he said at last. "Are the STORM Commandoes back aboard yet?"

"Yes, sir they are. They've all just been beamed back aboard as have the Tok'ra and the Jaffa. Sir Colonel Lorne reports they have Tharos. They're taking him to a stasis chamber as planned. Captain Sterling is also just landing in the hangar bay."

"Excellent. Helmsman, take us home."

"Aye sir."

Authors Notes: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. Earth now has Tharos and the Tok'ra will soon remove him from Vince's body though that doesn't mean that the threat of the Goa'uld having access to some robotechnology has gone away. There is still Tharos incomplete plans and notes in his lab on Orisa which Ra will find and turn over to his scientists for analysis and potentially completion – he might even draft P'tah into it – which could make things interesting in the long. Sokar is now dead though that does not mean that the Goa'uld civil war is over yet, many of Sokar's allies will continue to fight as they know what will happen to them, what Ra will do to them, if they surrender. Some might run and fall either into the hands of Anubis or Hades, but most will continue to fight as they have no real choice as Ra is mad enough with them that it is fight or die a few hundred times as he tortures them to death repeatedly.

The fact that the civil war is however now entering its final stages might not be good news for Earth as they'll have to be more careful as they go around the galaxy from here on out. And of course, there is the threat of a division of Guardian Zentraedi waiting in the wings and they will soon start coming into play and causing all sorts of mayhem as they have almost finished setting up their forward operations base. Until next time.