A/N: Sorry this one has taken some time to do, I am going through and rewriting my other fanfic Halo Mass Convergence as well as still writing this one so I appreciate all of you being patient! Love You All!
Also been debating on starting a Discord for my stories
PX5-3124
Large Underground Cavern
/§\
Jack blinked as he lowered his P-90 in response to the strange aliens statement, looking over to Sam and Daniel who just shrugged. "Well uh...I am Colonel Jack O'Neill with Stargate Command of Earth...take us to your Queen I guess, you guys don't mind that we leave a team to stay by the gate do you?" Jack pointed towards SG-8 with a soft smile, "Its kind of our standard procedure."
The Large ornate being tilted his head for a second before nodding, "Yesss, thisss isss exsseptable, I shall leave some of my troopsss and Reaversss to protect your men, the Hallow is not a ssafe place even to usss nativesss, I am a Theron of the Queen." The red armored being motioned them to follow towards an offshoot tunnel as it walked, a strange gun sat on its lower back, it had the same glowing orange cross as on its helmet and seemed to have to arms on it like a bow or cross bow.
"Ok SG-8 stay here, standard ops, keep command updated on whats going on. Oh by the way Carter, you win the bet." Kept his weapon at low ready just in case, these were a new species after all.
"Roger that Colonel, we will keep the exit secured for ya." Blackwell responded as he looked around still a bit in awe of this massive cavern.
SG-1 followed the leader of this squad of unknowns for a couple minutes, only one of his men following behind, eventually they reached a metal door that slid open. "Pleasse enter the barge, it will transsport us to the Nexusss."
Daniel ever the diplomat decided to speak up as he stepped aboard, "Is the Nexus your capital?" The Theron nodded as it took a seat, both sides of the almost train like barge had round porthole style windows. "So is this barge like a train?"
Their escort gave a small hissing laugh shaking its head, "No, look outsside."
Jack did look outside as they started moving and saw that they were on the ceiling of another cavern, and that their barge was attached to some form of giant creature, it had skin like a reptiles but the limbs of an insect. "Ok, that's a bit unsettling...but a new experience nonetheless."
Carter looked a little dumbfounded and Jack could see the calculations and theories passing through those eyes of hers as she tried to figure out how any of this worked.
The barge beast, best way Jack could describe it was traveling at a decent pace, and in a few minutes they could see the outskirts of a gothic stone city surrounding a giant lake of some golden colored liquid, it looked familiar somewhat but he couldn't place it. Carters eyes seemed to light up at the sight of it though so it was important. The beast landed at what looked like a train terminal, once the beast stopped fully the Theron stood and opened the door.
Daniel had a wide eyed look at the gothic underground city scribbling some notes down in his notebook, "Jack this place is magnificent! I'm not seeing any Goa'uld influence whatsoever." Jack had to admit that he was right, the dark stone with sharp angles was very different from any Goa'uld, the closest was Sokar but even his stuff didn't look like this.
"Thisss way Humansss, to the Palace," Their escort hissed as he led them to the a bridge going over to the lake of gold, it was then they noticed a massive Stalactite that went almost all the way into the liquid, stopping 50 feet from the surface, and carved into this Stalactite was a spire like palace, they could see more of the aliens they had encountered along the bridge. Armed and armored similar to their escort only with gold instead of red, one stepped forward stopping the group and pointed to a small checkpoint. "Weaponss"
Jack frowned a bit but nodded in understanding, they wouldn't let these guys be armed around the President so it made sense, so he walked over unclipping the P-90 from his vest and handed it to the guard behind the counter who bowed his head taking it before placing it aside. "Come on people, when in Rome." He also removed his two grenades and beretta. Daniel and Sam followed his lead pretty quickly with Teal'c being slightly hesitant but he did hand his staff weapon over. The weapon officer looked at the staff curiously giving a small sniff before nodding its head and placing it next to a few of the bow like weapons.
Their Theron escort bowed his head, "Here I leave you, I musst return to my posst at the Falssse God Gate."
"Thank you for the escort, we will see you again when we leave I supposed." Jack held out his hand to the much larger Theron who looked at it before mimicking the gesture so Jack finished it by taking the large scaled hand and shaking it.
Two of the Golden armored guards escorted them across the bridge and into the palace proper, many of the guards seemed to glare at them slightly which made SG-1 slightly nervous to be surrounded without any weapons. After going through many different massive doors they reached a small ornate elevator platform which lowered slowly. It was then their new escort finally spoke. "Bow to the Queen before ssaying anything...She may have requessted this meeting, but she is sstill the Queen of the Locusst."
{Locust eh? well finally got a name for our hosts now.} They walked into a massive room with dozens of ornate pillars that all led to a ornately carved thrown with a human looking woman on it in a regal looking white dress, she had a small crown with the same cross symbol they have seen everywhere. Jack bowed his head as low as he could, he couldn't kneel it was bad for his knees. Daniel bowed as well followed by Sam, it again was Teal'c who had the most issues with this but still bowed.
The woman looked over the group before speaking with a regal and commanding voice, "Rise humans, you came from Khepri's gate...that gives me little reason to trust you, however other than that one." Pointed directly at Teal'c, "None of you have any technology of the demons who snatch bodies, tell me why you have come."
"We are explorers, we travel the gate system looking for allies and technology to defend our world from the Goa'uld." Jack said with his usual confidence, "My teammate Daniel can explain more if you would allow it." The Queen nodded her head looking at the spectacled man curiously.
Daniel cleared his throat before stepping forward, "ahem, uh my name is Doctor Daniel Jackson, and I am assuming Khepri was a Goa'uld, they stole humans from our world ten thousand years ago and spread them throughout the stars to be their slaves...some genetically modified to be soldiers like our friend with us."
"Mmm yes, we know of the Goa'ulds penchant for manipulation...thousands of years ago Khepri came to this world with his slaves...bringing that gate with him, he experimented on his humans and the native Locust species...the Kantus, he began to splice the DNA with humans and a being called an Unas creating the Locust you see today, yet their still remains the original Kantus, he made the humans on this world stronger as well...to be better than Jaffa...his work also made me, and my mothers...enhanced Humans with a connection to the Locust...an almost psychic connection..."
"He is not the first, nor the last Goa'uld to try and make a superior host" Teal'C responded respectfully.
The Queen stood up walking to a wall that showed three massive worm like beings destroying a Ha'tak and burying the gate. "The great Rift Worms who made the Hollow we call home were awakened by the False Deity, burying the gate and destroying his chariot...but he released a plague that wiped the memories of the humans and locust...but we...the Queens of the Locust remembered...I am Myrrah, Queen of the Locust...and I ask for your assistance."
Jack frowned slightly, "And what can we help you with? You look stronger then us, and are decently advanced."
"The Humans of Sera, our world...we are at war with them, they planned to destroy us when they learned of our existance...so we struck first...then they used their Hammer of Dawn and scorched most of this world...we are winning the war but I do not wish the extinction of any species."
That took Jack for a loop as he blinked before holding up a finger, "Uh, your Majesty...could you perhaps give us a moment." Myrrah gave a nod as she returned to her throne.
SG-1 kinda huddled up as Jack looked to everyone, "Ok, who's all buying this story, I know we have been through some wild stuff before but this is kinda...pushing it...I mean so was the giant mist aliens Daniels grandfather went on about."
Teal'C, raised his brows remembering the odd mission. "Indeed...however I do not sense any deception...nor do I sense a Goa'uld within her."
"Well Colonel...I agree with Teal'c...I doubt she's lying to us right now...She could have just killed us right out of the gate." Carter replied looking around the room.
Daniel just motioned to the walls, "Their whole history is carved into this rocks...could they have done this in the what, half hour we have been here?"
"Damn it, I hate when you have a point Daniel...alright...so what do we do here? I need options." He looked over to the Queen giving a small smile and wave.
"Relocation...its obvious that the Locust have the edge on this planet...so we offer the Serans a new world, we know of many uninhabited worlds." Daniel brought up, "If they are close to extinction then it wont be difficult, their technology must be easily moved if they have been loosing since day 1 of this war."
Jack sighed, "Alright, well Queen Myrrah, we will try to help but let me radio my superiors first ok?"
Orila Asgard Colony
Asgard Science Vessel Surtr
/§\
Thor stood next to Loki and a Forth scientist named Domren as they looked at the specifications for a torpedo, specifically a forced-universal displacement torpedo. The Forth scientist looked nervous as he spoke up, "This weapon is dangerous, and unfortunately it only has an effective blast radius of fifty to seventy-five kilometers, I do not believe it is the solution you are looking for."
Loki gave a nod, "I unfortunately agree with Chief Scientist Domren, this weapon could potentially take care of small concentrations but it is too resource intensive for practical mass production."
Thor closed his eyes for a fraction of a second longer than a blink, the Asgard equivalent to a sigh. "Very unfortunate indeed, well we will have to explore other options."
Loki walked over to another console, "Luckily the Forth DNA repository has been a boon to our research in curing our degradation, all we need is potentially an earlier form of our DNA before the mass use of cloning, Heimdall has claimed they have a potential lead on a genetic source."
"That is most wonderous news, please provide Heimdall with whatever assistance they may require." Thor nodded his head "Please place several Forth soldiers with them for extra protection."
Loki nodded his head, "It shall be done, however the Replicators still take precedant as the greater threat to the Asgard as a whole, the genetic degredation will still take decades to debilitate our people."
Oasis
New Haven Military Command
/§\
All the highest ranking members of the military, the Admirals, Fleetmaster, and Generals, of the Displaced Alliance sat around a table. Three Sangheili, a Jiralhanae, Asari, two Turians, and five humans, an odd bunch to be sure. Before them was ONI Colonel Blackwell, a well decorated member of the good office.
"Well Ladies and Gentlemen...we are in a world of hurt from what we have found out." He handed out datapads to everyone. "From our enemies basic Jondi foot soldiers we learned that the Goa'uld are an almost feudal interstellar empire that has lasted the last ten thousand years...they have also fought against themselves pretty much that entire time, their soldiers are humans taken from Earth ten thousand years ago and heavily modified genetically to be not only better warriors...but the perfect incubators to the Goa'uld."
A holographic image popped up with a larval Goa'uld and an adult symbiote. "My God..."
"Precisely according to the Jaffa, these Goa'uld have an ego, one bigger than even the Prophets I think, they have taken on the name, and personalities of Gods from Earth, Ra, Heru'ur, Zeus, Kronos, Shiva, etcetera etcetera, they rule the galaxy via a mix of fear and worship...worship by human slaves they have spread among the galaxy."
"So Earth is currently ruled by snakes?!" An enraged Admiral Chavez all but yelled out.
Blackwell shook his head, "No, it seems that the humans on Earth rebelled against Ra who was the supreme system lord of all Goa'uld, he didnt want to deal with it so he left, that is until several years ago when Ra was killed by the Tau'ri, members of the first world...we assume that means Earth." That got everyone's nods of approval, human tenacity. "Since then, the Tau'ri have been fighting against the Goa'uld, mainly against Apophis who seems to have been killed by them, unfortunately the Jondi proved...ill informed for anything else, even their Medjay their elite bastards with the animal helmets...know little more. Goa'uld technology is magic to the Jaffa...they know just enough to use it."
The hologram shifted to the different weapons they encountered. "As for personal weapons, they have daggers, some kind of stun pistol, and their staffs...that is it. They have a single class of heavy weapon turret which is an oversized staff cannon, they have no armor support whatsoever and their air support is one of two varients of something called a death glider, one is atmospheric only and had no canopy, the other is space capable." Images of the deathglider popped up. "Now these are images are made from the AI compiling the descriptions of these vessels and Jaffas drawings of them...their accuracy could be...dubious."
General Oaraka scoffed a bit at the images. "Those aircraft look pretty crappy if I do say so myself."
Blackwell nodded, "From what we gathered that's pretty accurate, they are decently fast but have no maneuverability or any form of missiles, just dual staff cannons, the Goa'uld do not innovate it seems, they just steal...and since no one has developed technology to even challenge them...their fighters haven't needed to change." He changed the images to three larger craft, one shaped roughly like a sand dollar, and two pyramids one with a superstructure. "Their main warships fall under three separate designs though variations may exist, we have Al'kesh bombers...which is more like a corvette scout craft to most of us here." The Sand dollar shaped vessel was highlighted. "It is shielded, with two staff cannons on a swivel turret on the underside of the nose and some kind of plasma bomb charges, probably why they name it a bomber, without knowing its shield strength or typing we cant even speculate on its effectiveness."
"I don't mean to interrupt...but do they really fly around in pyramids?" Admiral Hackett asked a little dumbfounded as the first pyramid was highlighted.
"Yes, the first one which is called a Cheops seems to be mainly a supply and additional carrier vessel and troop transport. Its their jack of all trades ship, its also more numerous then their mainline capital ships...Cheops can be found even in the employ of the most minor of system lords. We unfortunately don't know its armament, same with the next vessel, the Ha'tak." The pyramid with the odd superstructure around it became enlarged. "This is their main warship, and supposedly...there are thousands of these ships across the galaxy...we are vastly outnumbered...and if their staff weapons power scales up to capital ship grade...a bit outgunned." This resulted in some murmuring between the command staff.
"Luckily, only Heru'ur knows our gate address...and he likely doesn't know our planetary coordinates...and hes unlikely to share the gate coordinates of a massive military failure such as this, because we killed what is called his First Prime...essentially his greatest warrior." Blackwell said finalizing the report.
R'tas pursed his mandibles, "It would be showing weakness to the other System Lords...like blood in the water for Razorfins." The ONI colonel nodded in agreement, that seemed to cause the rest of the command staff to let out a breath of relief.
Lasky leaned forward his elbows on the table hands clasped together. "So we have time...time to build up and gather more intelligence...I say we send teams through this gate system...once we find a gate on another world to use as a...junction of sorts...always gate there before gating home."
Blackwells eyes went wider, "Like a stargate form of the Cole Protocol...gate to a known safe address before heading back here...just incase we run into another Goa'uld."
"Well I second this...we lost people to these Goa'uld...our people are afraid that they will be back." Admiral Chavez said adjusting his cap, "Through the gate and take the fight to these snake bastards! Use our best soldiers, and brightest minds to help, who else agrees!" He got a resounding yes from the humans, Turians, and Asari. From the Sangheili a battle cry, and from Atriox, the lone Jiralhanae just laughed darkly.
Location Unknown
Beyond Galactic Rim
/§\
"Oh this is most troubling indeed...none of my galactic readings are matching known records and I am unable connect to any communication channels, I must institute defense protocols."
Deep Space, Zeta2 Reticuli System
SSV Normandy SR-2
/§\
Alexia was walking around the War Room, her team arrayed around her...well most her team. Several had died in the Reaper war, Mordin Solus, Legion, and Thane Krios. A single tear rolled down her cheek. In their place was Maelon Mordin's assistant, Captain Kirahe a Salarian STG specialist, and a specially made Geth platform similar to Legion called Legacy.
Legacy was made from a few remaining programs and data left over from Legion, the closest organic term would be that Legacy was Legions child in a sense. Maelon was taking Mordins place in the lab while Kirahe took his place in the field. They had yet to find someone to fill the same skills as Thane but they were still reorganizing.
"Ok people, here's the mission, we are going to be scouting out nearby systems for life. This one," pointed at the galaxy map at a single star system. "Is the Zeta 2 Reticuli system, in our home universe it is unexplored as there is no Mass Relay there, our Federation and UNSC allies have scouted the system and what they found was a big load of nothing, no habitable worlds, which makes this." Tapped her omni-tool playing a strange signal, "Signal coming roughly from a gas giant...it could be from one of its three moons, strange. Now EDI and some of the other AIs haven't got a translation for the signal but they have decided it is likely some kind of warning beacon."
Garrus raised his hand, "Uh...so potential hazardous ghost ship? Really jumping back into the old ways right Shepard." That got a laugh from the crew, even a few of the newbies from their allies.
Kirahe rubbed his chin, "What else do we know about the system?" Shepard looked to EDI who spoke up.
"From our allies reports the Zeta Reticuli system is a binary star system, we will be going to Zeta 2 Reticuli which has five planets and a number of moons, it seems that they are entirely gas giant class planets as well." EDI reported quick and to the point to which Kirahe nodded.
"With this information we can surmise that either the signal is in orbit of one of the gas giants, specifically this one named Calpamos, or on one of its moons." One of the gas giants was highlighted, it was a standard ringed gas giant similar to Saturn with three rocky moons. "We are moving into the system under stealth just in case, I want everyone ready for combat operations, dismissed!" Everyone dispersed in their own ways, the military members saluted, civilians nodded their head, but all respected her.
.
An hour later the Normandy was approaching Calpamos under stealth, "Commander, we are not reading the signal anymore, it is estimated from the degradation that the signal was decades old, however I have picked up some old radio signals, coming from one of the moons, the language is similar to an old Earth dialect and I am translating, it seems the Moons colonized under the name Acheron."
"What language EDI?" Alexia crossed her arms as she looked at the hellish world that was below her.
"Greek Commander, I am also showing evidence of the moon being terraformed for colonization, a massive energy source is on the surf-alert Cherenkov drive engine detected, a ship just jumped in." the war room hologram pulled up a sip that looked like a giant rifle, it had a cylindrical rear section, and a fin on the "belly" of the ship. The front had quite a few antenae like structures jutting out, what made Shepard nervous was the large gun emplacements clearly visible, she was only about 140ish meters longer than the Normandy but this was obviously a front line warship.
Alexia ran to the cockpit to get a direct look at this behemoth of a vessel and along the side of the ship were big white letters spelling out the ships name.
SULACO
Forced Universal Displacement Torpedo
A unique form of weapon that when detonated will create a maelstrum of unstable subspace energies that will pull anything within a 50-75 Kilometer radius, it was created as a potential final weapon against the Arachnid Hordes yet they were unable to increase the area of effect and was deemed far to costly for mass production.
Zeta Reticuli System
The Zeta Reticuli System, also known as the Reticuli System, was a binary star system located in the Reticulum Constellation. It contains two yellow dwarf stars, designated Zeta1 Reticuli and Zeta2 Reticuli, and was located at a distance of roughly 39.16 light-years (12.01 parsecs) Trailward from the Sol System. The system has at least five gas giant class planets and an unknown number of moons, none of which in the surveys of the various Displaced Alliance members have detected life.
Goa'uld System Lord Political structure.
Slaves: Slaves of the Goa'uld are used as anything the Goa'uld wish, playthings, workers, even soldier, though never given weapons.
Servants: Little more than slaves they have more standing only due to the fact that they are willing to serve and often are given better positions just as palace attendants and such.
Civilians: Civilians are those Jaffa and few humans do not fit into a military role, this includes Jaffa and human priests.
Lo'taur: Lo'taurs are most often humans and the most trusted servant of their Goa'uld, and take many different appearances, usually tailored to the god they serve. They are fit and often possess an appealing physical appearance. It is believed that Lo'taurs are typically human so if their lord's body becomes injured or is in a life-threatening situation, the symbiote can transfer into the Lo'taur to safety. To ensure loyalty, Lo'taurs are often raised from birth for the role. They believe serving their god in such a position is a privilege, and few are willing to risk damaging their relationship with their god, even if they know the truth about the Goa'uld as parasites.
Jaffa: The main military force of the Goa'uld, utilized in every role of Goa'uld society, from a measly guard to the commander of Fleets. They are stronger, healthier, faster, and live longer than normal humans due to intense genetic modification and the Goa'uld symbiot that they carry.
Lesser Lord: Lesser Lords of the Goa'uld mainly serve higher Goa'uld and might have a single planet under their domain and a single Cheops.
Greater Lord: Greater lords are usually lieutenants of System Lords and command several world and usually command their own Ha'tak Mothership, they may even possess several.
System Lord: System Lords are the ruling cast of the Goa'uld, with hundreds of planets and thousands of ships they meet rarely to discuss major issues to the Goa'uld Empire such as dealing with major threats. They are constantly fighting amongst themselves and those below them who vie for their power.
Supreme System Lord: The leader of all Goa'uld only the strongest, most cunning of the Goa'uld could hold this title. Very few have held this title most notably Ra however the First leader of the Goa'uld was Apep who was slain by Anubis who declared himself Emperor. Soon enough Ra and other System Lords deposed him and Ra took over, he briefly lost the title to Sokar before defeating him and claiming his title once again, he held it for thousands of years until his death. After Ra was killed no other Goa'uld took the title.
Hope everyone enjoys this chapter! Things are spicing up! Oasis Stargate ops are approved, Shepard gets a shock, SG1 meets with the Queen! Chaos reigns.