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.

Authors Note: I honestly cannot believe how quickly this particular chapter came together. It practically wrote itself over the space of two days – really love it when the muse cooperates like that. Anyway, let's crack on shall we.

Chapter Seventeen

Asgard Battlecruiser Skuld

Commander Audun would admit, if asked, to being somewhat nervous as he arrived at the main starboard airlock. A small delegation was waiting for him in the form of Tajer and Kaden, both looking quietly – in a subtle fashion that would be impossible for anyone other than another Asgard to spot – as nervous as he was. All three of them knew that they were taking a risk leaving the relative safety of the Skuld for the interior of the factory satellite – especially as the countermeasures built into the design by the Tirolians cut them off from easy rescue or evacuation via the transportation technology – especially as they knew very little about the people on this world. Not much more than historical observations of them, the last of which had been carried out just after they'd first cracked the atom, which was not that helpful to be honest as they had changed a hell of a lot in the decades since then.

Changed enough to have been able to reverse engineer the incredibly advanced technology of a Tirolian Sian Macross-class battlefortress after it crashed on their planet. Technology that was both impressively advanced and immensely powerful even by Asgardian standards. Technology that the Terrans had reverse engineered and learned to wield. Wield well enough to win a devastating war with the Zentraedi. And in the process do something that the Asgard had long thought to be impossible and break the chains of servitude that had bound the Zentraedi to the Robotech Masters. Something that now that they knew about it represented a seismic shift in the intergalactic balance of power, that had for centuries been more in the Robotech Masters favour due to both the size of the empire they ruled and the vast numbers of warships in the Zentraedi armada, between the Asgard and the Tirolians. Oh, it was still no guarantee that if it came that they would win a war with them - the Tirolian Empire was still far larger than the Asgard Federation and Tirolian weapons were every bit as powerful and deadly as their own – but it would be a far more even fight albeit not one they were currently looking for.

"Are you ready," he asked his two compatriots as he approached the airlock controls.

"We are commander," Tajer answered for them both. Idly Audun noted that, in addition to the small communicator stone they were wearing on their left wrists, both were armed wearing slim silver bets and an identical silver sash that converged on a small holster at their right hips. A holster that held a small energy hammer. He approved as it while it was a logical protective measure it was not the overkill that wearing a power suit would have been and thus unlikely to trigger an aggressive defensive response from any active security drones in the factory or their hosts.

"Then let us do this," he said before operating the airlock controls. The inner door opened and the three Asgard stepped into the chamber beyond, the door closing behind them with the outer door – since no depressurisation was necessary – to open immediately as only the safety systems that any spacefaring race with even the most limited of common sense built in preventing the outer and inner doors of an airlock being open at the same time. Beyond the airlock was the hexagonal transfer tube constructed from a pale cream coloured material. As calmly as they could the three Asgard began making their way along the tube and in no time at all were passing through the station side airlock.

Waiting for them in the chamber beyond was a single human male. Naturally he was much taller than the three of them, but then humans always were and always had been, and more solidly built. It was obvious that the human being was a male with dark skin. He was wearing what was clearly a military uniform though aside from a pistol in a leg holster he appeared to be unarmed.

"Commander Audun?" the human questioned looking at them and seeming to be surprised by how small they were in comparison to him, not to mention how lightly built they all were.

"Yes," Audun confirmed, not at all put out by the scrutiny from the human. He was used to it as human stock races never ceased to be surprised by how small Asgard were being not much bigger than a young human child.

"My name is Major Aiden Ford," the human said, "I am the second in command of security here. If you kindly follow me, I will escort you to the conference room. Doctor Weir and her delegation should have arrived by now."

"That is fine major please lead the way," Audun replied.

"This way please," Aiden answered before turning and leading the way, deliberately reducing his strides to allow the three aliens to keep up. Aliens that frankly looked like something out of pre-robotech science fiction, indeed matched the popular description of the aliens that had supposedly been encountered at Roswell. Maybe there is some truth in those stories after all, he thought. The faint sound of unbelievably light footfalls on the deck behind him let him know that the three little aliens were following him. "I am not moving too fast for you, am I?" he asked in concern guessing that aliens who looked so fragile wouldn't have that much in the way of endurance.

"We are fine," Audun replied though he was aware that without the mechanical assistance of their power suits his people didn't have the physical endurance to walk that far. There current bodies didn't allow it and when aboard their ships or even on their planets they used their transporters to get around. Walking like this was generally something that wasn't done anymore and indeed hadn't been for a few thousand years. "Will we have to walk the whole way?"

"Oh, good heavens no," Aiden replied as he led them out of the small airlock antechamber and into a wide spacious corridor, "it would take far too long to reach the conference room on the administration levels if we had to walk the whole way. No there's a station for the internal maglev pod network just down the hall from here. It will take us to the core shaft, from there it's a simple lift ride to the correct level."

"I see. While we travel major would you mind answering a few questions for us?"

"I will if I can and if the information is not classified."

"That is fine," Audun answered as they made their way down the corridor. "I merely wish to know how your people come to possess this station. These facilities are usually heavily guarded by the Zentraedi or by the Robotech Masters own forces."

"And this one was by the fleet of a Zentraedi officer named Reno," Aiden replied, "however with the aid of allied Zentraedi forces under Commander Breetai and a little bit of culture shock we were able to defeat him, destroy his fleet and take the station. Granted this place was quite beat up when we brought it here since the Zentraedi until very recently didn't know how to maintain or repair any of the technology issued to them – something we've been teaching them how to do – but as I understand it repairs are progressing well now we've got the repair systems back online."

"Yes we noticed that the station was repairing itself as we came into dock," Audun answered, recalling seeing the drones flying everywhere outside as well as the hull regenerating as advanced nanotechnology began sealing up holes in the hull with freshly fabricated sheets of the nanolaminate alloys used by the Tirolians. He was surprised to learn that until recently the Zentraedi had no known anything about how to do repairs or routine maintenance on the robotechnology issued to them by the Tirolians. Even the Jaffa knew how to do that on Goa'uld ships – at least to a point such as what control crystals went where in the computers and relays – though naturally the Goa'uld did not share with them the actual science behind their technology claiming it was all possible through their divine magic.

Though as he thought about it, he realized it actually made sense. The Zentraedi were far from stupid, and unlike the Jaffa knew that their masters – while they were immensely powerful – were not in any way divine but were flesh and blood beings just like they themselves were. Denying them any knowledge of how to maintain or repair any of the technology provided to them was thus a logical control method for the Robotech Masters to employ. It would be just another chain to use to bind the giant bioengineered humanoids in servitude to them. Another chain that was now in the process of being broken as the Terrans began teaching the Zentraedi what they should have been permitted to know the whole time.

"Major do you know what your people's intentions are now you have this station?" Audun asked, knowing that the industrial capacity here was enough to be able to build a fleet that could conquer much of this galaxy.

"I don't make policy – that's the politicians job – but I can say that right now our primary focus will be on creating the tools needed to repair all the damage, at least as much as possible, done to Earth during the Rain of Death."

"Rain of Death," Tajer asked curious even as the three Asgard clearly heard a mixture of intense pain, anger and above all grief as Major Ford said those three words.

"It's what we call Dolza's assault upon us," Ford answered at last as they arrived at the maglev pod station to find a pod already waiting for them with the doors open, "what else can you call a bombardment with reflex weapons that kills billions in nanoseconds and hundreds of millions more in the firestorms and geological disruptions that followed it. Even now we don't know how many died in that attack or its aftermath and we might never know."

"A poetic but tragically apt name," Audun said sadly as they all boarded the pod, with the three Asgard awkwardly lifting themselves up onto chairs scaled for humans. He couldn't help but feel sad at such a tragic and pointless loss of innocent life and anger at Dolza for committing such a crime against sentience. If only we had known he was coming here, he thought, we would have certainly attempted to do something to stop him even though we would have been hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. Not that such odds would have stopped the Asgard Fleet from attempting to stop such a horror taking place. "Where is Dolza now?"

"Dead," Ford said as he started the pod moving. "In spite of what he did to us we were able to defeat him, and ultimately use a mixture of reflex warheads and an omni-directional barrier inversion to blow him, his base and most of the Zentraedi Main Fleet out of the sky."

"Impressive," Audun said after a few moments of silence. "Though no comfort."

"No, it isn't," Ford admitted looking down, not for the first time in the last two years fighting down the impulse to both scream in rage and cry, expressing the inconsolable grief that his entire race was feeling over what that giant bastard did to them. Silence fell upon the interior of the maglev pod as it cruised through the interior of the station, the three Asgard sensing that they had asked enough about the Rain and silently agreeing to leave the human to his thoughts.

Conference Room Sixteen

Command Section, Robotech Factory Satellite

A Short Time Later

Doctor Elizabeth Weir would, if asked, admit to being somewhat nervous as she sat waiting for Major Ford to bring the Asgard delegation to her. While her previous discussion over the comm with the alien commander had been very interesting and informative this would be the first time that she would be meeting an actual alien face to face. To her mind the Zentraedi didn't really count since everything they'd found out about the Zentraedi from studying their DNA indicated that they were a bioengineered offshoot of humans themselves, which raised all sorts of interesting and thought-provoking questions about where they actually came from and the nature of the mysterious Robotech Masters.

While she waiting, she scanned over the latest transcripts from the ongoing meetings between Admiral Chase and the two Tok'ra guests. Guests she would have to meet at some point in her capacity as an official representative of the United Earth Government. The reason she was scanning was the Asgard were bound to ask why a number of Zentraedi ships were moving close enough to the station to begin taking on supplies of fuel and weapons. Since she had been authorised to reveal why they were doing that she wanted to be able to give the Asgard as much information as possible, in the hope that the Asgard would be willing and able to offer some assistance against the Goa'uld Hades who'd attacked them without warning or provocation.

A grim look appeared on her face as she read about the fate that had likely befallen Sergeant Reed. The fact that an alien being, Charon if the Tok'ra's information was correct, had certainly invaded and taken over control of the poor man's body was horrifying. What made it even more terrifying was according to their guests Reed would still be aware of everything around him, would still be able to see and hear the world but not be able to do anything to interact with it. He would simply be a spectator, a prisoner trapped inside his own body unable to do anything but watch as this alien, a Goa'uld the Tok'ra had called it, did whatever it pleased with his body. It was horrific to say the very least. Though there was hope as according to the two Tok'ra the Goa'uld Charon could be removed from Reeds body without traumatising him anymore than he no doubt would have been already, that both themselves and the Asgard had the ability to do that.

"Are you alright, Doctor Weir," one of her fellow delegates, Doctor Kyle Richards from the Robotech Research Group, asked having seen the look on her face.

"I am fine," Elizabeth replied before grimacing. "I was just reading about what the Tok'ra think has certainly happened to Sergeant Reed – the army trooper – that the Goa'uld took back through the Stargate with them."

"Bad?"

"That's not the word for it, horrific is more like it. The poor man."

"Horrific as in he's being tortured?"

"No horrific in that he has likely been infected with a sentient alien parasite, a Goa'uld, that will have taken over complete and total control of his body," Elizabeth answered prompting shocked, horrified looks to appear on the faces of her entire delegation. "And the worst thing about it, Reed will still be in there, aware of everything but unable to do anything to interact with word, essentially a prisoner in his own body."

"Jesus," Kyle breathed, looking sick and horrified. "Assuming that the Zentraedi can capture him when they go to attack this Hades can anything be done to help the poor kid? Or is the only escape from such a tortured existence death?"

"From what the Tok'ra are saying yes. Apparently both themselves and the Asgard have the ability to remove the Goa'uld from the host without harming said host. We will have to ask Commander Audun about it when we meet with him."

"Agreed." As Elizabeth spoke there came a knock at the door to the conference room. "Come in."

The door opened and one of the security marines, dressed in full armour, who had escorted them to this conference room poked his head in. "Doctor Weir, Major Ford is here with the Asgard delegation," he said.

"Show them in," Elizabeth ordered straightening up in her seat and putting her official government representative hat on so to speak.

"Yes doctor."

The marine withdrew and for a few more moments the door remained closed. Then it opened again, and Major Ford came in escorting three child-sized willowy grey aliens with large heads that seemed out of proportion with their otherwise thin, delicate looking bodies. Two of whom were wearing and odd silver-sash and belt arrangement that ended in what was clearly a holster for an odd hammer-like weapon. Elizabeth was mildly surprised to see that Ford hadn't taken the weapons from them, then realized that the African American man was simply being diplomatic and probably didn't see the weapon whatever it was as a threat due to its small size.

"Commander Audun and two of his associates to see you ma'am," Ford said formally, straightening to attention.

"Thank you major. Would you mind waiting outside?"

"Not at all ma'am," Ford replied even as he saw the three Asgard to their chairs, making sure that they didn't need any help to get up onto the chairs. He was surprised to see that they didn't as with their thin arms he wouldn't have thought they would have the muscle power to lift themselves up like that. Once he saw that they were all okay he left the conference room as bid to wait outside for the summons to escort the three aliens back to their ship.

"Commander Audun welcome to the Robotech Factory Satellite," Elizabeth said looking at the only alien who wasn't wearing a sash and guessing him to be Audun since the three aliens looked more or less identical as they had the same whitish-grey skin, androgynous builds and oversized pure black eyes. "Allow me to introduce my associates to my right is Doctor Kyle Richards from the Robotech Research Group and to my left is Colonel Paul Emmerson from the Defence Forces."

"A pleasure to meet you," Audun said his voice confirming his identity. "These are my two aides and security escorts Tajer and Kaden. On behalf of the Asgard Federation I thank you for this opportunity to meet with you."

"The pleasure is ours commander," Elizabeth replied. "As I said when we spoke earlier it is wonderful to meet a new race with words instead of lasers and charged particle beams."

"Indeed, your first encounter with the Zentraedi was most unfortunate though given how they were battle slaves at the time it was not unexpected in its violence," Audun answered. "The High Council of Asgard has asked me to extend to you our deepest and most profound sympathies for the hardship and pain you have endured at the hands of Dolza and in the long term at the hands of the Robotech Masters. They have also instructed me to offer our assistance in repairing the environmental damage inflicted upon your world in the event that Major Ford informs us you refer to as the Rain of Death."

"You can help us?" Doctor Richards asked.

"Indeed, we can Doctor Richards," Audun replied, "my people have the technology to clean up all the hyper phase radiation left behind by reflex weaponry which has no doubt been hindering your own – quite impressive given your situation – efforts to promote environmental recovery. We can also provide you with the means to fully regenerate the ground and even restore entire ecosystems that have been destroyed. The other thing that we can do for you is contact some old friends of ours on your behalf. They will be fully capable of completely regenerating the biosphere of the planet below."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "And who are these friends?" she asked.

"They are called the Nox and with the passing of the Ancients they are one of the oldest and wisest races in this part of the universe. Nox technology is organic, and they long ago developed the ability to regenerate devastated biospheres."

"I will have to discuss this with the secretary general and his cabinet," Elizabeth replied after a moment of quiet thought. "We will certainly need to know a bit more about these Nox before we consider allowing them access to our world."

"Understandable. When I return to the Skuld I will send you a few datafiles on the Nox so you may learn more about them and what they are capable of. Though I assure you there will be nothing to fear from them as the Nox practice the philosophy of complete pacifism, even when directly threatened they will not use violence only illusion and misdirection."

"We'll look forward to reading them commander. Before we continue is there anything that you wish to ask us?"

"As a matter of fact, there is. As we were coming in to dock with this station, we noticed a number of Zentraedi warships move away from their patrol positions and begin converging on the station on a course to dock with what we believe to be resupply cradles. We can only conclude that they are being prepared for an attack on somebody, can you confirm this?"

"They are," Elizabeth admitted, "a few hours ago now the Goa'uld System Lord Hades led an incursion onto our planet by a squad of Jaffa via our recently rediscovered Stargate. They killed several people before they retreated back through the Stargate, but not before taking one of our people a Sergeant Zackary Reed prisoner. We have been able to determine the location of the planet they came from as being Hades' throne world of Elysium."

"The Zentraedi have been asked to send a task force to Elysium to express to Hades the depths of our anger at his unprovoked attack upon us," Colonel Emmerson added. "They will also attempt to recover Sergeant Reed from his captors. However, we might need your help."

"How so?" Audun asked not surprised that the Zentraedi fleet they'd detected moving to dock with the stations resupply cradles was being sent to attack the Goa'uld in retaliation for an attack upon this planet by one of them. He was surprised however to find out that they were going to attack Elysium which was one of the most well defended of all the Goa'uld throne worlds, taking it down would be challenging even for people whose warships were as powerful as the Zentraedi's were.

"From two Tok'ra who we rescued after their ship crashed on the planet Linkotis we have learned that it is very likely that Sergeant Reed has been taken as a host by the Goa'uld Charon," Elizabeth answered, "the Tok'ra Martouf has told us that both his people and yours have the means to remove a Goa'uld parasite from their host without harming said host."

"That we do," Audun confirmed immediately. "If as you suspect Sergeant Reed has been taken as a host and you are able to capture him then I would be more than happy to assist you in freeing him from his enslavement to Charon. Might I ask how long it will be before the Zentraedi are ready to get underway for Elysium?"

"Colonel," Elizabeth said nodding at Emmerson indicating that he should answer.

"Providing that there are no hiccups in the resupply process the Zentraedi squadron should be ready to fold out in another eight hours," Emmerson answered immediately, reviewing the progress of the resupply on the tablet on the table in front of him. "Given that Elysium is over forty-five thousand light years from here it will take the Zentraedi approximately ninety minutes to reach the system due to having to execute two separate space folds."

"I see," Audun replied, already making a mental note to speak to the Asgard High Council about this when he returned to his ship. If they could somehow help against Hades and save this Sergeant Reed assuming he had been taken as a host by the Goa'uld Fleet Lord Charon, then it would go a long way towards building a good working relationship with the Terran race and who knew it might even improve their relations with the Zentraedi. Well at least those Zentraedi who were here, and which were no longer enslaved by the Robotech Masters.

He decided to change the topic for now.

"You said you have only recently rediscovered your Stargate," he said, "does that mean it was somehow buried."

"It was," Elizabeth confirmed before beginning to detail to the Asgardian commander just how it was, they had come to discover the existence of the ancient device…

…and from there how they had gotten it to work.

Eight Hours Later

Sitting in his quarters aboard the Skuld Audun watched the holographic display dominating one wall as the fleet of Zentraedi warships being sent to attack Elysium formed up and began moving slowly away from the planet. In another few minutes they would be fully out of range of the gravity wells of Earth and the giant airless rock that was its moon and be able to execute the first of the two space fold manoeuvres that would be required to take them to Elysium.

He thought back to the long discussion that he had had with Doctor Weir and the other two representatives of the government that most of the planet below belonged to. It had been a very informative and fruitful discussion for both sides and after a consultation with her superiors on the planet below Weir had given him provisional permission to contact the Nox on their behalf. They had also provisionally accepted his peoples offer of assistance in repairing as much as possible the damage done to their world though in the process they had somewhat surprised him as when he had said that they might not be able to bring back many animal species that had been rendered extinct by Dolza's bombardment they had pointed out that they had the means to do that as in the years between the last official Asgard visit here and the arrival of Zor's battlefortress they had been collecting DNA samples from numerous species as well as various seeds and storing them in deep freeze disaster vaults.

DNA and seeds that they were now slowly recovering and beginning to use to start the long process of regenerating damaged or destroyed ecosystems with the DNA being sent to be cloned in tanks that were first recovered from Zor's ship and the many more found aboard the factory satellite while hydroponic facilities worked to breed seedlings. The DNA and seed vaults would certainly make the job of his people and the Nox's bioengineers a great deal easier than it otherwise would have been when they arrived.

A bleep from the holoscreen caught his attention and he put aside his thoughts of the discussions they'd had. Instead, he watched as the hyperspace fold systems on the forty-two Zentraedi warships began powering up. After several minutes the sensors detected the presence of the subspace bubbles that were an essential part of how space folding technology worked forming around the warships until one by one, they vanished into the hyperspace domain referred to as fold space. In seconds they were all gone with only trails of phased gravitons and beta-phase tachyons leading into infinity marking where they had once been. A very slight Asgardian smile graced his lips, Hades was certain to be in for quite a rough time when that fleet arrived even if Charon had taken Sergeant Reed as a host.

And maybe he could just add to that rough time.

Moving the control stones on the arm of his quarters throne around her accessed the internal communications system. "Bridge contact both the High Council and Supreme Commander Thor," he ordered, "tell them that I need to speak with them immediately."

"Yes commander."

Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it; I know that there was not much action in the chapter but what is here is necessary for building this fusion world. I hope you all enjoyed the introduction of an older and somewhat more jaded Aidan Ford – though before anyone asks John Shepard will not be appearing as he's dead, killed along with many others during the rain though Rodney is still around just not the same as he was before – to the story. He will be appearing more often as the story goes on as he won't be acting as the deputy chief of security for the factory satellite forever but will be getting a different command soon. Next chapter will see the beginning of the Battle of Elysium so that should give you all something to look forward to, will the Asgard intervene to help? You will have to all wait and see. Until next time.