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.

Interlude Ten

Ba'al's Mothership

Sometime Later

Ba'al was more than a little puzzled as, accompanied as always by his favourite lotaur and escorted by a pair of Jaffa, he made his way through the brazier lit hallways of his current flagship towards the lab section that had been assigned to his newest lieutenant. He had been working in his chambers, carefully going over some of the more mundane administrative things that came with ruling over a sizeable domain, when his lotaur had come in and told him that Tharos was asking to speak to him, that he wanted to show him something. Both curious and relieved at the distraction – he hated doing administrative things they always made him feel like he was freeze drying his brain he would much rather be doing more fun things like torturing prisoners unfortunately such work needed to be done from time to time – he had decided to come at once.

As he walked Ba'al wondered just what young Tharos had to show him. He had only been at work for him for four days and by all accounts, he had had his servants keep quiet tabs on the newcomer something he did with all new Goa'uld in his service, he had been quite diligent and focused on something. Only emerging from the lab to eat, rest or use the bathroom. Tharos always locked the lab behind him whenever he left, along with strict orders to the Jaffa guards that they were to let no one in until he returned. As he walked Ba'al recalled that there had been a few occasions over the last day or so the amount of power being consumed in the lab had gone high enough to register as distinctly abnormal on the ships engineering monitors though it never lasted long and Tharos had always apologised for the power drain saying it was only temporary and he would explain the reason for it once his work was done. He hadn't pushed the issue though he had been very curious as millennia of experience told him how it was never a good idea to attempt to speed up a scientist, it only made them resentful and more liable to betray you to a rival System Lord at the most inconvenient for you time.

Maybe I am now about to get answers about what he's been up to, Ba'al thought as they arrived outside the lab section. Immediately the two Jaffa on duty outside stiffened at his presence and at a gesture for him opened the door, the door opened with the normal stone-on-stone grinding sound of a heavy door and let a puff of faintly acrid-smelling air come out into the corridor. The smell made Ba'al raise an eyebrow, even more confused than ever about what Tharos was up to in here as he recognised the smell as scorched metal, before accompanied by his entourage stepping inside.

To find Tharos waiting for him in the antechamber of the lab. The other Goa'uld was wearing quite simple clothing, a pair of brown trousers with Unas's leather boots and a brown sleeveless top which emphasized his hosts muscular frame perfectly.

"Ah my lord Ba'al welcome," Tharos said in greeting, "I am pleased you were able to come so promptly."

"It was no bother," Ba'al answered, he believed in being quite gracious to those in his employ well unless they disappointed or displeased him in some way. Then he took the greatest of pleasures in making them wish they had never been born. "What is it you wished to show me?"

"Please come this way my lord."

Ba'al raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow but nodded. Tharos turned away and began leading the way into the main laboratory area. Ba'al followed, now more intrigued than ever, until they came into the room. In the centre of the room, sitting on an elaborate rig he he saw what looked like a staff cannon like the ones that filled the weapons banks of every ship in the Goa'uld fleet yet there was something different about it. The bulbous head of the cannon was missing in its place was a open muzzle surrounded by a smooth ring, the main body of the weapon was also slightly more bulky than the cannons he was familiar with. Tharos came to a stop by the heavily modified weapon and turned to face him.

"My lord allow me to show you this prototype for a new anti-ship weapon for your fleet," he said, inwardly smirking as he sensed his hosts anger at how his knowledge and experience with robotechnology had been used to create the weapon he was about to show to his lord and master. While he wasn't able to recreate the weapons that Vincent had frequently serviced aboard SDF-1, as he didn't have the protoculture needed to fuel the beams, he had been able to adapt many aspects of them into the new weapon. Well not exactly new just a refinement and advancement of existing Goa'uld weapons technology.

Ba'al was taken aback somewhat by that statement. Tharos had used his hosts knowledge of robotechnology, whatever that was he would have to ask more about it later, to create a new weapon for him already? "And what is this weapon,"he asked intrigued.

"Allow me to show you my lord."

"Very well."

Tharos smiled, even though he got the distinct impression that Ba'al was merely humouring him at this point and turned to work a console. After a moment a whirring sound filled the room and a hatch opened in the ceiling and a thick panel of armour was lowered from above and placed a few feet in front of the muzzle of the weapon. After a moment an energy shield flickered into existence around it.

"My lord what you see is a plate of the same size and density as the plates of armour covering the hull of this ship, the shield is also calibrated to the appropriate level to simulate the ships shields," Tharos explained before retrieving a series of tinted goggles from an equipment bin and turning back to his master and his escorts. "Please put these on you will need them as the result of what I am about to show you is very bright."

Confused but willing to play along for now Ba'al did just that and watched as his lotaur and both Jaffa did the same. Tharos put on his own goggles before turning back to his console. "Watch carefully my lord."

Within seconds of speaking Tharos entered a command into the console causing the cannon to power up and lock onto its target. He then gave the command to fire before looking back at the weapon he had spent the last few days working on, mentally crossing his fingers that it would work exactly as it had the last few times he had tested it.

For a moment nothing happened then the cannon began emitting an upscaling whining sound as it built up a firing charge; a second before a dense but slender beam of golden-white energy shot out of the muzzle of the weapon. Immediately it contacted the shield surrounding the hull plate, which immediately flared and sparked and Ba'al's eyes widened as he realized instantly that the force fields energy matrix was breaking down faster than anything he had ever seen. A moment later the shield, completely overwhelmed, collapsed and the energy beam slammed into the plate it had been protecting instantly the familiar stench of burning metal filled the air as the plate failed, the beam punching through it nearly instantly. The beam vanished revealing the extent of the damage, over three quarters of the plate was simply gone completely vaporised what was left was scorched beyond all recognition a dripping molten naquada onto the floor.

"What in Ra's name," Ba'al breathed gazing at the display in amazement. Outside of the ion weapons possessed by the likes of the Asgard and the Tollan he had never seen a weapon defeat Goa'uld shields and burn through the naquada-based armour that had protected them for millennia so quickly before. "What is that weapon Tharos?"

"Believe it or not my lord it is our current weapons technology just applied in a new way."

Ba'al blinked. "It's a plasma weapon?" he asked surprised as going on that display he would have expected the weapon to have been some type of particle beam.

"Yes. As you know my lord all the plasma weapons ever used by the Goa'uld – and indeed every other known race with that technology – have fired distinct bolts of energy. While effective this is not the most efficient means of destroying a target a beam is far more efficient. Using my hosts knowledge of gravitational and magnetic lensing it was relatively easy to redesign one of our standard cannons to generate and sustain a beam instead of generating bolts."

"Impressive. Is this weapon reliable?"

"I have tested it several times my lord. It has functioned every time. The only downside is the weapon has a slightly longer recharge and cooling time between shots than conventional plasma cannons, though I am confident with a bit more time I will be able to correct this issue."

"It would only be a minor issue anyway," Ba'al commented before smiling evilly as he looked at the melted remains of the hull plate. He could already see how this new plasma beam weapon would give his fleets a huge advantage over not just the fleet of Sokar but the fleets of all the other System Lords up to and including Ra himself. It might even make his own, very long term, plan to dethrone Ra and become the Supreme System Lord himself feasible in a much shorter time frame than he had ever imagined. He looked back at Tharos with a smile. "You have done well young Tharos. How long do you believe it will take to refit some of the turrets on my ships to use the new weapons?"

"Thank you my lord. The modifications to the design are fairly simple and I have already written a program that can be loaded into the fabricators to make this new design. As for fitting time I would say depending on the class of ship and the number of cannons to replace the process would take anywhere from a day or two to three weeks per ship."

Ba'al grimaced slightly as that was not the most ideal of timescales. Still he could tell that Tharos was being honest in his assessment and he was willing to trust that the much younger Goa'uld knew precisely what he was talking about. Especially as many of the shipyard workers were barely literate human slaves who could barely follow a design schematic.

"Very well. Begin drawing up the conversion schedule for our existing ships and have the ships currently under construction modified. You will be in charge of this effort Tharos. Do not fail me."

"I will not fail my lord."

"See that you don't."

With that Ba'al turned and walked out of the room, with his lotaur and his escort following him. Tharos watched them go before turning back to the console he had been working on and getting to work on what Lord Ba'al wanted him to do. As he worked he grinned slightly Ba'al had been so easy to impress with just a basic application of the gravitational and electromagnetic lensing that gave robotechnology based particle beams their unheard-of range, he had to wonder how his lord and master would react when he revealed some of the other robotechnology inspired projects he had planned.

It was certain to be amusing.

From his prison in his own head Vince Grant mentally scowled as he watched Tharos work. He had tried extremely hard to keep the knowledge of the lensing technology that he'd used to create that weapon from the parasite but hadn't been able to. Though in failing he had learned quite a bit of very interesting, and potentially very useful, things about Goa'uld plasma weaponry and control crystal technology. Including the fact that the Goa'uld deliberately kept it simpler than it could be – which really limited its capabilities - so as to make it idiot proof and thus make it look like it was the work of magic to their slaves and worshippers.

It and everything else he was learning about the Goa'uld, their science – such as it was as the Goa'uld didn't seem to understand how half their tech actually worked – and technology was something he would enjoy turning against them when he was inevitably rescued. Rescued and freed from this tortuous existence as a helpless observer as a delusional, sentient snake piloted his body. He would just have to hold on and he would…

…to get back to Jean, their unborn child and Claudia he would endure anything.

A Short Time Later

Trobu looked cautiously around the barracks he was assigned to as he returned after spending a day escorting the false god Ba'al around the ship. Despite being eager to get back here he knew that he had to be careful, he had worked too long and too hard – which had included having to do things that profaned his honour as a warrior and made him feel sick to his stomach to prove his loyalty to his 'god' – to be accepted into Ba'al's elite Tempest Guard and from there to get onto the flagship to take unnecessary risks. Especially as he knew what would happen to him if he was caught; he would be dragged before Ba'al and no doubt be tortured to death numerous times for daring to not believe in the supposed divinity of the Goa'uld.

Thus he carefully checked the barracks for any sign of someone who could reveal him. Fortunately there was nobody else here, all the other Jaffa assigned to this barracks would be at evening meal, which meant he had just enough time to do what he had come to do before joining his brothers for food. Quickly, but still carefully, he made his way to where his bunk was against one of the gold and hieroglyph encrusted walls that the Goa'uld loved so much. Once there he carefully opened a hidden panel, that to anyone watching would have just seemed like one of a million other such panels on the ship that were there to allow access to the crystals beyond though this panel was no control crystal tray, and withdrew a small, heavily modified subspace communications device.

It took only a few moments for him to record his message and send it, the resultant pulse of subspace communication lasting only a few nanoseconds, too quick really for the ships computer to detect it and notify whoever was on duty in the pel'tac. Once he was certain the message had been sent he returned the device to its hiding place and closed the panel. Then he left the room a slight smile on his face as he knew that soon his friends in the slowly growing Jaffa Resistance and their allies among the Tok'ra would learn about the devastating new plasma beam weapon Tharos had created for Ba'al.

Learn about them and hopefully come up with a plan to neutralise them, and the false god that had created them, before Ba'al – who was known to be extremely ambitious even by the standards of the System Lords - could put them to use. And make the war that had been waging across the galaxy for the last several years, and which had already killed thousands of his fellow Jaffa and who knew how many human slaves, worse.

Ascended Planes

Standing before his viewing font Zor frowned sadly as he observed the goings on aboard Ba'al's flagship. From the moment the Terrans had rediscovered their planets long buried Stargate – when he'd first ascended he had been beyond surprised to learn that the ancient legend of the devices or Star Portals as his ancestors had called them were real and indeed that a long since forgotten Stargate was sitting half submerged in a flooded chamber in the deepest levels of the catacombs beneath Tiresia – he had feared that something like this would happen. That the Goa'uld would learn at least some of the basics of robotechnology and begin applying them.

He quietly glared at where Tharos was working at the Goa'uld computer, drawing up the plans for fleet wide ship refits that Ba'al had ordered him to oversee. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor Terran that the Goa'uld had taken over, especially as he knew that the man would still be in there and aware of everything that was going on but be unable to stop the Goa'uld using his knowledge to perpetuate its species evil. He wished that he could do something to help him, something to get rid of that thing inside him. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do to help the Others would stop him.

They had already made that clear when he had wanted to step in and destroy the derelict Zentraedi cruiser that Hades had found, granted the vessel was out of protoculture but still the watered down robotechnology issued to the Zentraedi was enough to give Hades a distinct advantage as naquada was capable of powering some of it. It wasn't like he would have used his ascended powers to destroy it, he would have simply restarted one of the secondary fusion generators and used his Robotech Master override code to set the vessel to self-destruct. Unfortunately he'd interfered a bit too much recently and one of The Others little errand boys – who though himself of so important because of his role as a mouthpiece for those frightful old bores – had let him know that he, Oma, and Janus were now being watched and that any further attempts to affect the lower planes would bring their wrath down upon them.

Zor sighed softly and dismissed the image…

…it was times like this that he wondered what the hell he had been thinking when, as he lay dying in the aftermath of an Invid raid, he accepted Oma's offer of ascension.

Abruptly he sensed a familiar presence appear behind him. "What do you want Janus," he asked turning to face the other ascended, who like him had a quite sour look about him after being told by The Others to stop as they called it 'meddling with affairs that are not our concern'.

"I came to see if you were alright," Janus answered, "I know the little errand boys The Others use can be annoying."

"Annoying is not the word for it," Zor replied with a scowl of distaste at the mere thought of the overly officious and pompous little sycophant who had popped in, delivered the warning in a condescending manner that had had they still had physical bodies would have seen him punch him on the nose, before leaving again.

"I know what you mean," Janus agreed with a nod. "Though I did have another motive for coming to see you beyond checking if you were alright after the visit by one of those sanctimonious little pricks – to borrow a delightful Terran phrase."

"I figured as much," Zor answered even as he chuckled at Janus description of the representative who had come to see him and delivered the warning, a warning that he knew was based in ascended politics as the more conservative members of the leadership – those who thought and believed that they should have no interaction whatsoever with the lower planes, that it was beneath their dignity as ascended beings – had been caught by complete surprise by some of their recent moves and what they'd managed to get the rest of The Others to agree to start doing. The warning had been them striking back.

"So what did you want?" he asked after getting his chuckles back under control.

"I wanted to see if you will join me in a plan I've been working on, on and off since just before I first ascended. I have been updating it and working on it periodically ever since and think it could help us both right the wrongs of our respective races."

"I'm listening."

Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it. Events in the wider galaxy are beginning to spiral especially with Tharos and Ba'al which is setting things up for a major confrontation with a far more powerful System Lord than Hades far sooner than Earth would really like it to be. Until next time.