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Prologue2: Crusade

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Part 4

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mining outpost Haschug

Ra's Domain

Heavy mists descended from the nearby mountains, like they did every morning in this place, turning everything ghostly white. Only Lord Ra's magics kept Kole warm and comfortable, allowing him to see beyond an arm's length before his nose. The young Jaffa couldn't help but marvel at everything in this world whenever he left the barracks. He grew into a desert village, and everything here was new, if strange, but in a good way.

"Jaffa, Kree!" The Prime in charge of Kole's group barked, ensuring they all paid attention to what he was about to order. "We are escorting this morning shipment to the Chapa'ai. When we return, we will work on the fortifications until noon. After food and short rest, we will be patrolling the forests down-slope from the mines."

Kole was giddy at those orders and could barely contain his excitement. The Prime didn't like too much exuberance, and the young Jaffa wasn't keen on getting another punishment detail. Those were tough and, worse, boring! Kole marched smartly with his brothers, eagerly watching the mists clear before Lord Ra's magics imbued into his helmet. They soon reached the mines, and the sight always stole the youth's breath away.

Massive metal beasts rose from the ground, pumping its lifeblood away for Lord Ra to use in crafting even more incredible magic! Towers of metal breathed away steam and pulsed with the bounty they extracted, forging it into neat ingots that would make the best mortal smiths green with envy! Dozens of enchanted metal sleds floated nearby, waiting patiently for the beasts to load them with a heavy bounty of ingots of various colors.

A minor God stood beside them, taking stock of the tribute this place created day and night to gift their Lord Ra. Kole watched with reverence various sacred rituals and blessings needed to make the magic work as intended until loaded sleds began moving towards the Chapa'ai like obedient puppies.

"Jaffa, fall in!" The Prime ordered.

Kole and fifty of his brothers spread out, taking positions around the forming magic caravan. He kept looking around, absorbing everything he could about the magic surrounding him. This was a childhood dream come true, even better than his grandfather's incredible stories. Kole thought that that was impossible until recently and was very happily surprised.

The Jaffa marched proudly as honor guards to the magical caravan, leaving the mining site and all the metal beasts to work in peace. They passed by barracks and storage buildings and soon reached the defensive positions protecting the place.

If anything in this world made Kole uneasy, this was it. Little in grandfather's stories, those of others, and even his training as a proud Jaffa warrior told him of such things. Many of Kole's less fortunate brothers were busy digging holes in the ground or building earthen defenses around large staff weapons. Jaffa were meant to honorably meet the enemy in an open battle and smite it down, not hide like feeble old men and women!

At the same time, something was awe-inspiring in the roll of silver towers marking the edge of the mine, caped with Jaffa-manned enchanted weapons. Their very existence made it clear how important this place and the metal beasts working for Lord Ra were!

Soon, they marched out of sight of the defenses, walking down a well-trodden path. Forest critters chirped quietly, subdued and disturbed by their passage. At this point, despite the fog, Kole enjoyed all the greenery, the likes of which simply didn't exist back home. After being stationed here, one of his new dreams was to eventually build a family and retire as a glorious champion of Ra in a lush place like this one! If Kole didn't see a desert again, he would be happy Jaffa, though he would like to visit home occasionally. Did that make sense?

As they approached the Chapa'ai, Kole noted that the critters' songs and chitters died out. Was someone coming through that disturbed them more than usual?

A beam of light speared through the mists, leaving a smoking channel. It struck the Prime in the chest before anyone could comprehend what was happening. Ghosts from grandfather's stories moved through the mists and opened fire with blue plasma pulses.

"Show yourselves!" Kole roared a challenge, scared and angered by the dishonorable attack. He felt a stab of shame at his fear, too.

The Jaffa began shooting at the ghosts, more often missing by a wide breadth. Those things were moving quickly, and even Lord Ra's magic couldn't make them visible in the fog. If it wasn't for the white blanket over everything, Kole wasn't sure he could have seen any ghosts attacking them! As it was, they were like the haze in the desert at high noon!

The Jaffa fell one after another; their divine armor was overcome by treacherous attacks.

"Run to the Chapa'ai! Bring more warriors!" Someone's desperate shout turned into a pained scream.

Now that he had a direction, Kole ran while still shooting at real and imagined ghosts. A beam burned through the mists, barely missing his head. Its passage was so close that it heated Kole's armor like it had been baking in the desert sun for a long time. The Jaffa cursed all the honorless demon-spawns attacking them and ran faster.

The mist before Kole shifted and ignited in blue fire. He wasn't a small Jaffa, but the monster in front of him was larger, taller, and damn ugly. Kole did as trained and swung his staff to bash the enemy off their feet. A glowing magic sword descended, cutting through the Jaffa weapon with ease. It slashed into Kole's chest like a warhammer, burning through his armor and bringing him to his knees. A kick shoved the air out of the youth's lungs and sent him sprawling to his back.

Kole saw the mists above them clearing up, revealing countless falling stars. Something vast beyond imagining was in the sky above them.

The massive form of the demon appeared over Kole, and the last thing he saw was the magic sword falling on his face, like the judgment of Lord Ra himself.

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bridge
Sublime Transcendence, Covenant Super Carrier
flagship of the Fleet of Divine Retribution
high orbit above mining outpost Haschug

"Cargo secure, awaiting pickup," A Sangheili Spec Ops commander reported.

"Charges set. Detonating…"

"Commencing assault on outer defenses…"

"Securing mining equipment… One high-ranked prisoner ready for retrieval…"
A flood of reports came at the Sangheili at many of the consoles on the bridge. They rapidly transmitted the relevant ones to Shipmaster Xytan 'Jar Wattinree or the Imperial Admiral beside him.

"Our landing craft are hitting the atmosphere now…"

"Seraph squadrons are providing air cover and ready to offer ground support…"

Explosions racked the heretic camps on the planet below them, visible in perfect clarity due to the countless sensors looking that way. Barracks and armories went up in bright explosions. Mines detonated near or even in the heart of trenches and heavy weapon emplacements. Fuel rods slammed into weapon and sensor towers, bringing them down in showers of fiery debris. The surprise on the ground was complete, and the Special Operations Sangheili took full advantage of it to crush the enemy's resistance before the Jaffa knew what hit them.

Meanwhile, in space, the Fleet of Divine Retribution was in full sight, deploying to cover the mining site below as well as it could in case of further enemy reinforcements. Years of war taught the Covenant many painful lessons any warrior worth their rank took into their hearts. Allowing a Goa'uld ship to enter orbit in range of their ground forces would ensure one more bloody massacre claiming countless valiant warriors. Today, that was to be avoided at all costs.

The so-called Naquadah, this wondrous material that was the heart of the Goa'uld technology, was exceedingly rare. In Covenant space, they could only find trace amounts for Hugarok and craftsmen of all stripes to toy with. They needed much more to properly figure out how to utilize it in the war effort, much less to equipment in useful quantities. Today's operation was meant to change this in part. Ideally, the Covenant wanted to hold this world until they could extract every bit of naquadah. Barring that, they would pillage everything of value in the enemy's operation and mine as much as possible before a potential counter-attack drove them out.

That was why the Hierarchs finally authorized the offensive deployment of Super Carriers.

Xytan had the privilege of participating in arguably the most crucial ongoing operation. He had spent the past few years studying the enemy's tactics and capabilities in preparation for finally facing them in combat. The Goa'uld ships didn't disappoint. They were as tough, fast, and deadly as all reports and countless losses indicated. The conduct of the parasites' commander, on the other hand, left much to be desired. Then again, by all accounts, those things tended to be arrogant and insane. Nothing else could explain their claim to godhood, and all the assorted madness the Covenant uncovered every time they stumbled upon an enemy world.

A new report reached Xytan's console. He glanced at it, quickly absorbing its contents.

"Imperial Admiral, we have a status update on the fleet of Furious Retribution. All surviving ships save for their Assault Carrier need extensive repairs, only possible in a proper dock, or the Unyielding Hierophant," Xytan dutifully reported.

"Fleetmaster Beno Jak'Riva's fleet has been practically destroyed then. It was a worthy sacrifice to destroy nine Goa'uld Hat'ak and fifteen Cheops. I'll speak with the Fleetmaster himself. Account for adding his ship to our fleet for now in your plans, Shipmaster," The Imperial Admiral gestured, and a communications channel opened, complete with a new hologram popping up near his head.

Wattinree ignored the brief conversation between the Fleetmasters, focusing on his own tasks.

The ground assault went off without surprise. The landing craft were about to touch down, and by now, no trace of organized resistance was left. The Special Operations teams were going to hunt down the surviving Jaffa and other slaves before additional forces could deploy and begin establishing proper defenses. Salvage crews would soon be swarming everywhere, securing critical material.

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Part 5

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Command center

Basestar 98

exploring beyond Cylon space

A Number 8 model Cylon led a fact-finding expedition outside of Cylon space. Lately, she was getting the nagging suspicion that the other models, and many of her own, had conned her into taking the job, along with her sisters going stir-crazy back home. To be honest, Cylon space could get rather dull. There was only so much you could take from your sisters being everywhere when you were more or less the same person. Being around the other models often grew stale and boring fast, if not oppressive. The less said about many Ones, the better. And the Twos, with their obsession with God, were something to behold from a safe distance on most days.

Sadly, the truth of space was that it was mostly empty and very boring. There were only so many asteroid fields you could see before you've seen them all. Most were spread out over vast distances with odd valuable asteroids here and there. Only groups, often drawn together by a vast asteroid, were somewhat interesting to observe. The rest were just a bunch of rocks you could find on any planet. Hell, the rocks on a planet usually were prettier, too!

Scratch that; Eight was sure she and her sisters got conned into accepting this assignment. They were spread thin to cover a big area, so she didn't have most of them to talk about until they all occasionally gathered at pre-determined meeting points to compare notes. Only three other Eights were on board, and Eight was sick of their presence. They were sick of being around each other, so everyone was in their own corner of the ship, clawing at the walls, gazing at their navel, or even trying to speak with the Centurions, hoping they might talk back.

The Hybrid was no help. Everyone was so done with her nonsense that they drew lots to leave the loser in command.
Eight lost four times in a row now, and something was wrong with that! Her luck couldn't be that bad!

Well, she agreed to come out here, looking for what might be more alien ruins. That should have been fun and exciting!

"What am I even doing here?" Eight mumbled to herself. Unsurprisingly, there was no one but the Hybrid to hear her, and the poor ship wasn't paying attention. At least the Hybrid was reasonably happy if her babbling was anything to go by.

"Optimizing fuel flow… Heavy Raider 10199-B needs maintenance; logging it in… The stars sing pretty songs…"

Well, there was that—watching solar radiation and the "songs" of the stars through the ship's sensors was a good way to lull yourself to sleep. It was surprisingly relaxing yet did nothing to chase away boredom.

"How could you stand it just sitting there doing nothing day in, day out!? Eight reached the end of her rope and snapped at the Centurions stationed near the command center. She glared through the open door to see two placidly moving red "eyes" that told her nothing. Predictably, the machines failed to answer constructively.

"Raider 10191-B returns…. The prodigal children will be judged for the sins of their fathers…"

"What was that?" Eight perked up at the odd-non-sequitur from the Hybrid. Those were frequent enough, though she was desperate for any distraction now.

A message from the just-returned Heavy Raider reached its mothership, and Eight froze, trying to process it. It had found a strange ship near one of the gas giants in the system! Eight's squee was fit to awaken the dead and drive Centurions to murder just to make the noise go away. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Centurions were currently unable to perform higher brain functions and had to merely endure. The same was true about the poor Raiders in their bays or patrolling around the ship.

The other Eights should have been pleased by the distraction. However, they didn't look it when they furiously burst into the command center, demanding answers.

"What's up with you, sister?!" An Eight demanded.

"I was chatting up that nice Centurion in the loading bay! He was about to answer, I'm sure of it!" The other Eight snapped.

"Aliens!" Eight ignored her sister's demands and shoved data in their heads. It wasn't Eight's fault that they were too pissed off or careless to check up for anything new in the network! "Recall all raiders! We are going to say hi! We can talk with someone who isn't us! Isn't it great!?" Eight exclaimed and began bouncing off the deck and wall in glee while her sisters stared gobsmacked at the data brought by the raider.

=IFF=

bridge
missionary ship Star Raider
uncharted system

Chur'R-Ren munched on dried fish while waiting for a spread of probes to scan the deeper layers of a nearby gas giant. Her exploration ship was well beyond the fringe of Covenant space, looking for novel exotic resources, troves of regular minerals and gasses, or even better, relics for the great rewards offered by the Prophets. In a pinch, she would take the reward for finding a primitive human world for the military to deal with. What Chur'R-Ren didn't want to encounter was those infernal Goa'uld. The crazy parasites were harmful to business, and there was no greater transgression in a Kig-Yar's dictionary!

The Shipmistress dainty picked her teeth with a carefully sharpened and intricately carved claw, wondering if this system would be a bust like the last four she explored when a ping startled everyone on the bridge.

"An Unknown contact just appeared on the sensors!" Chur'R-Ren's sensor operator squeaked, startled by the sudden disturbance. "Unknown configuration! It didn't arrive through Slipspace or Hyperspace! Stealth?!"

"Are we being targeted or hailed?!" Chur'R-Ren demanded. "Shields at full power, warm up weapons! Kick our pilots out of their ready room and get them in their Seraphs!"

"I think it is scanning us. That thing is odd and emitting odder energy pulses at us. Low power, they aren't a direct threat… Energy spike! It's gone?" Lig's confusion was evident in his voice.

"Helm, get us up to speed! I want us ready to spin up the Slipspace drive at the first sign of Goa'uld!" Chur'R-Ren hissed irately. Was she looking at opportunity for trade and profit or ruin here? This wasn't the kind of pleasant surprise she had been hoping for!

Long minutes passed with no trace of that small ship. If it silently snooped around, its stealth was better than Star Raider's sensors. That prospect didn't make Chur'R-Ren a happy Kig-Yar.

"Energy spike! Much larger! Contact!" Lig exclaimed. "We've got a large… bizarre ship just floating nearby. It partially matches that thing we detected before!"

A holo image of a large metal star designed by someone with no sense of how ships should work formed before Chur'R-Ren.

"We are getting a similar reading as before, though much more powerful. I am reasonably sure we're being scanned."

"We are doing the same, aren't we?" The Shipmistress demanded.

"We are, Chur'R!" Lig rapidly nodded, bobbling his long spiked hair. "That thing… it appears to be biomechanical!?"

Chur'R-Ren wasn't sure if he was informing her or asking. Such things weren't unheard of; the Engineers were a prime example, and the insects loved them on a small scale, but fighters, much less whole ships?! This was certainly new. Chur'R-Ren's profit instincts came back with a vengeance.

"Hail them! Send first contact package," Chur'R-Ren ordered.

"If they're human despite the obvious?" Lig asked.

"Nothing forbids us from trading with them for all we can buy before making more profit by selling them out to the Covenant. It's hiding making contact with humans, or just finding them and failing to report it that can be bad for business in the long run."

"We are receiving a transmission, radio only. Downloading it in isolated system…" Chur'R-Ren's operations officer reported smartly. She knew getting the youngster on board had been a good investment, and he kept proving it! He was worth all she had to pay his Matriarchs to get him on board!

"That thing has no armor to speak of, no shields we can detect. However, it packs many missile launchers and has spots to dock at least two hundred more small craft we can detect. There are possible internal bays in these sections at the base of the crossed spines…" Lig narrated what his sensor sweeps revealed.

"A carrier then. This isn't a frontline ship. Anything made to fight directly would gut it like a fish," Chur'R-Ren decided.

"Those are a lot of fighters and bombers this thing can carry. I don't like that we aren't seeing more," Lig warned.

"That's why we have shields and pulse lasers," Chur'R-Ren reassured her crew. Weapons, if there is trouble, make sure you hit them fast and hard."

Despite all the initial excitement, Chur'R-Ren could only wait for the computer to finish its work and figure out how to talk with these people. The Shipmistress ran a mental inventory of everything she could sell to the strangers to distract herself. If they had anything, she was willing to take off their hands, tentacles, or whatever they used to manipulate things.