Robotech: The Stargate Saga Version 2.1
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Chapter Eleven
Unnamed Planet Surface
A Short Time Later
Kanjon Plocspi, formerly captain of the Serrakin Commonwealth exploration vessel Clarion, sighed softly as nursing a cup of coconut milk he stepped out onto the small veranda surrounding the hut that had become his home ever since they'd crashed here. The by now familiar smells and sounds of the ocean that seemed to dominate vast areas of this planet – its dominion only broken by coral and volcanic islands and islets – greeted him and as with every day he had to throttle down an instinctive unease. Serrakin like him had evolved on a desert world where water was scarce and existed mostly in some rivers and lakes with few large bodies of water anywhere. Thus, they had never evolved an ability to swim - unlike the humans on his crew who could all swim but then while the location of the world the Goa'uld had first found them on was unknown it was obvious that it was a world with a lot of water on it – and large bodies of water like oceans made them very nervous.
"You would think I would be used to the ocean by now," he muttered to himself as he looked around the small group of huts that the survivors of his crew called home. Everyone was getting another day started, he could see Jaylen and Karyn heading down to the shore to check the pots for the fish and crustaceans that had become their staple source of protein as their ration packs had run out years ago. Beyond them on the opposite side of the thankfully shallow at this time of day lagoon he could see the partially sunken wreckage of the Clarion.
Not for the first time he remembered the events that had led to them crashing here on this unknown world. They had set out from the Commonwealth world of Hebridan four years ago aboard a state-of-the-art exploration cruiser created by Tech-Cons starship engineering division. Their mission to explore and map out new worlds and territories. It had been while they'd been surveying a world from orbit that they had been jumped by a squadron of Goa'uld warships consisting of three Ha'tak-class motherships with the markings indicating their allegiance to Sokar They hadn't emerged from hyperspace they had just appeared out of nowhere, confirming the rumours that had been circulating for years that the Goa'uld had finally succeeded in figuring out how to cloak capital ships, and started raining plasma bolts down upon them.
Naturally he had ordered them to run for it. After all, while the Clarion would have been able to see off one Ha'tak – admittedly with some difficulty – due to them having better plasma weapons than the Goa'uld three was far too much for them. Even a dedicated warship would have to be careful taking on three fully armed Ha'tak on its own. They had made it to hyperspace but not before three shots had penetrated their aft shields and hull as well as hitting their hyperspace window.
Which had had the effect of throwing them off course, while also damaging the hyperdrives primary control relay. The backup had held for a little while before it had failed, and they'd been violently thrown back into normal space. They had come into normal space far too close to the planet and while their damaged engines had been able to slow them down enough to survive the impact that had been all they'd been able to do. Nearly half his crew hadn't survived the impact, the lower most decks having been crushed and the engineering bay had flooded within seconds of them crashing as the emergency force fields that had previously kept the atmosphere in failed.
Since then, it had been all they could do to survive here, two other crew members had died since victims of razor-claw crabs which killed with a very potent neurotoxin, survive and hope that someone either from the Serrakin Commonwealth or one of the few other spacefaring societies in this galaxy like the Tollan heard the Clarion's distress beacon.
So far nobody had come, and they had all more or less resigned themselves to living out there days on this tropical hothouse of a planet.
The sound of footsteps approaching brought Kanjon out of his thoughts. Finishing his drink, he looked over to see his human XO Stebran Corr coming up to join him. "Morning," Kanjon said in greeting.
"Morning boss," Stebran answered with a smile. "You okay you seemed to be miles away as I was walking up?"
"I'm fine I was just thinking."
"And remembering how we ended up here no doubt."
"Am I that obvious?"
"To anyone who knows you well, which is all of us by now boss," Stebran said grinning before turning serious. "Seriously though you need to stop thinking about what happened four years ago. There isn't anything you could have done that would have changed what happened. Nobody knew after all that the Goa'uld can now cloak entire motherships or that the planet we were starting to survey was coveted by Sokar. No doubt as a base to mount a fresh attack on the System Lords."
Kanjon nodded in agreement with that as they had had no way of knowing as intelligence hadn't reported that the Goa'uld could do that for sure. Nor had their allies among the Tok'ra reported such a thing but then again both were being run ragged by the civil war that had been raging in the Goa'uld Empire for the last few years. A civil war that had begun when Sokar – a Goa'uld so evil and cruel that even his own kind were disgusted by him, which said a lot considering what the megalomaniacal parasites could be like and how they wouldn't hesitate to glass a world that refused to bow down to them – had returned from nowhere after a thousand years or more of exile. Returned with a large fleet equipped with new technology and begun an attempt to dethrone Ra and the High Council of the System Lords so he could take the throne of the Goa'uld Empire for himself.
At the time they'd been attacked he hadn't yet succeeded. His initial push into Goa'uld space having been halted when the top System Lords had rallied around Ra and combined their forces. Creating an armada that had stopped Sokar's advance in its tracks. Ever since the war had turned into a slow grinding war of attrition – at least it had been when the Clarion had been attacked. Naturally they had no way of knowing the current state of the conflict if it was even still raging.
"I know," he admitted, "but every time I look across the settlement and see the ship. Broken like she is…"
"…it brings it back," Stebran finished with a nod of understanding a moment before a new sound reached his ears. "What's that?"
"What's what," Kanjon asked a second before he heard it as well. A rumbling sound that sounded like some kind of spacecraft engines. "Engines? Has someone found us at last?"
Before Stebran could answer two large spacecraft of unknown design and construction came screaming in from somewhere out to sea. Each was massive being as big as a personnel shuttle, vaguely bell shaped and painted green and purple. The two craft slowed and began circling their small hut village and the lagoon where the remains of their ship sat. Kanjon blinked at the sight of them and quickly went back into his hut and picked up his electro-binoculars from the upturned cargo crate that now served as a table and made his way back outside.
To see that the two craft were still there. They had stopped circling and were simply hovering over the lagoon the downward force of their jets whipping the shallow water into a foaming frenzy. Both human and Serrakin were willing to bet that whoever they were they were scanning them. Without hesitation he brought the electro-binoculars to his eyes and took a closer look at them. And felt a chill of unease go down his spine as it was immediately obvious that both craft were built for war. Each was heavily armed with a triple barrel energy weapon of some type in the nose and the dark circular maws of dual missile launch tubes on their armoured flanks. The cockpit windows were polarized so he couldn't see what beings were piloting them, but it was obvious that if they wanted to these two attack ships would easily have the firepower to wipe their encampment of the face of this planet.
He lowered the binoculars and handed them to Stebran so he could take a look. From the curse he emitted he obviously immediately saw the very same thing he did. "Definitely attack ships of some kind," Stebran commented lowering the binoculars a grim look on his face. "What are they waiting for? They could shred us in an instant from that position?"
"If they mean us harm yes but I don't think they do," Kanjon answered knowing that if the aliens – whoever they were – had any hostile intentions towards them then they would already be dead. Shredded either by energy blasts or blown into a billion smoking fragments by a missile. At that moment the two aliens began moving again; both ships turning their noses up and began accelerating back towards space, triple thrusters glowing with ion exhaust as they accelerated to escape velocity.
For a few seconds the two of them just watched until the attack ships were out of sight, heading for what was certainly their mothership in orbit. The two surviving senior officers of the Clarion looked at one another for a moment more then Kanjon spoke. "Get everyone together," he said softly.
"Will do. What do you think is going to happen next?"
"I think we're going to be rescued."
Zentraedi Dropship
An Hour Later
Colonel Ferretti blinked rapidly and took a few deep breaths that he let out slowly to clear the residual distortion of the in-system fold to the orbit of the third planet. While this was his first ever experience of them, he decided that he absolutely hated in-system space folds. The discomfort and disorientation that accompanied a normal fold operation was bad enough but somehow in-system folds – which certainly involved jumping between different Lagranian points to avoid graviton interference – made the disorientation a million times worse.
Ugh I haven't felt this bed since that time I let Kowalski talk me into an all-night pub crawl that time we were stationed in Ireland, he thought even as the discomfort finally began to fade away. Idly he smiled at that memory from so many years ago, from even before the conflicts – that had followed the partial collapse of the Soviet Union – that had ultimately become the Global Civil War kicked off back in ninety-five. It had been a really fun night, the hangover the following day had been less so. Especially as their CO at the time had been a sadist and given them the longest, loudest duty of the day despite the fact that their heads had felt like they were about to simultaneously explode and cave in. Needless to say, they had never done such a pub crawl again at least not when they had duty the following day.
The sound of giant footsteps approaching brought him out of his thoughts. And he looked up in time to see one of the dropships Zentraedi crew, wearing standard trooper armour, approach where they were waiting near the embarkation ramp. "Colonel Ferretti?" the Zentraedi asked his voice having the usual deep rumble that the voices of full sized Zentraedi tended to have due to the sheer size of their lungs and voice boxes.
"Yes," Ferretti answered looking up to meet the giant – literally – humanoids gaze without any fear even though he knew that if he wanted to the Zentraedi could crush him to paste in an instant even through his armour. Of course, he knew that the Zentraedi – being a proud member of the Free Zentraedi Forces – would never do such a thing.
"I have been asked to inform you that we have begun moving away from the side of Captain Serval's cruiser and will be entering the atmosphere in the next few minutes," the Zentraedi trooper answered. When they had finished emptying this dropship and boarded it for transport to the third planet the decision had been made not to dock with Serval's cruiser but just hitch a ride in its fold sphere to save time. "We will be landing in the lagoon next to the crashed vessel in approximately seven minutes."
"Thank you," Ferretti replied with a nod wishing, not for the first time, that their radios were compatible with the Zentraedi's internal communications systems. Unfortunately, for some reason that the robotechnologists still couldn't figure out, the systems refused to talk to one another for more than a few seconds before one or other would pull an electronic sulk and shut down. He had heard that the robotechnologists trying to solve the problem were practically pulling their hair out in frustration as they couldn't pin down and eliminate whatever Gremlin was causing the issue as it was never the same problem twice. Until they successful all communication between them and the Zentraedi crew would have to be relayed through a trooper acting as a messenger.
"Do we know anything more about the condition of the survivors?" Doctor Kyle Parker, the most senior of the medical personnel accompanying them on this unexpected mercy mission, asked.
"While we cannot tell with the reptilian micronians as their biology is unknown to us the humans appear to all be in reasonably good condition at least as much as a Gnerl's sensors can tell," the Zentraedi replied before grimacing slightly as he realized he may have inadvertently offended their allies by using the term micronian. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to use micronian."
"It's fine," Ferretti assured him as they were all quite thick skinned, you had to be in this day and age. The types of PC brigade people who would have taken offense at being called micronian had mostly perished along with a few billion others in the Rain. Plus, it was kind of understandable that a full sized Zentraedi would refer to beings their size as micronians as they were so much smaller than the giant bioengineered humanoids were. "Just be a bit more careful with your language in the future and you should be fine."
"Thank you," the Zentraedi trooper replied, relief in his expression a moment before a faint vibration began to make itself felt through the deck beneath their feet. "We are entering the upper atmosphere now. Three minutes to landing."
"Alright people you heard him let's get ready."
"Sir yes sir."
Survivor Village
Standing surrounded by the entire surviving members of his crew – including the three small children that various people had had since they'd crashed here, and nature took its course as some of the crew had paired off – Kanjon watched as an alien ship came into land. It was truly alien being vaguely disc shaped and had to be over a hundred meters in diameter.
"I wonder if that's the mothership for those two attack vessels that overflew and scanned us earlier," Stebran commented as the steadily expanding shadow of the descending vessel swept over them. The shadow bringing with it a welcome relief from the heat of the sun as it was rising towards midday. Normally this would be the time of day when they would all start seeking shelter inside – as while this planet was in the liquid water zone it was on the closer end to the star side of the zone and thus got extremely, uncomfortably hot during the middle part of the day – until the heat eased in the late afternoon/early evening and let them resume their daily activities.
"I doubt it. Given how big they apparently were they would take up a great deal of space inside the ship," Kanjon commented as the vessel's descent slowed to allow the finer control needed for a landing. From the looks of things, it was planning to set down in the shallowest part of the lagoon not far from the partially submerged wreck of the Clarion. "It's more likely to be an auxiliary craft of some kind like a dropship or cargo transport of some type."
"Meaning there is a much larger vessel in orbit," Stebran answered, "and given how well armed those attack ships were it certainly to be a warship – a big one."
"As long as it isn't a Goa'uld mothership," Karyn replied, "as I don't fancy leaving the sauna of a planet only to spend the rest of my life slaving in some naquada or trinium mine for one of those posturing egomaniacs or worse."
"That would be bad," Kanjon agreed inwardly shivering as he knew what Karyn meant by the or worse part of her comment. The only thing worse than being captured by the Goa'uld and made a slave to them was to be taken as a host by one. Something that was fully possible since Karyn was an attractive woman and the Goa'uld were known to be extremely vain about their appearance choosing the most attractive hosts, the finest cloth and more gold and jewels than anyone should ever want to wear. "But I don't think they're Goa'uld. Unless their technology has radically changed in the last few years the ships we saw earlier, and the descending ship, are not Goa'uld nor do they belong to any race we've ever encountered before."
It was at that moment, with a loud splash, that the alien dropship set down in the lagoon. For a few seconds nothing more happened then with a whirring of some extremely powerful motors a massive, ramp like door opened and fully bridged the gap between the interior of the dropship and the sand of the beach. For a few more moments nothing happened…
…then humanoid figures in some kind of black body armour came running down the ramp.
Keeping his laser rifle at the ready, just in case as this was an unknown environment with who knew what kind of hazards not to mention there was no guarantee that the survivors of the crashed ship would be friendly, Colonel Luis Ferretti led the way down the ramp. Boots thudding quite loudly on the hard hypercarbon-trinium alloy of the boarding ramp until he came to the soft white sand of a beach that looked like it could have been the beach of some Caribbean island back on Earth.
Sensors built into his armour detected movement in the fern-like bushes and palm-tree analogous that were beyond the beach. Thermal scan showed animals – meter tall things that stood on six crab-like legs – moving hunting something smaller that also appeared crab-like. Figures there would be something like a large land crab on a planet like this, he thought knowing that from the scans Captain Elixan had run this planet was nothing, but ocean broken the chains of islands and islets. Some like this one were built from coral while others were volcanic in origin.
Seeing no immediate threat, he looked back up at the dropship and nodded to the civilian members waiting inside to let them know it was at this moment safe. As they started down the ramp themselves, he began heading towards the cluster of people he could see standing near some crude huts that looked like they had been made from some bamboo-analogue, palm fronds and bits and pieces of metal and plastic likely salvaged from the interior of their crashed spaceship. He held the laser rifle as unthreatening as possible and, knowing that the Tristan armour could be intimidating even to people who weren't aware of its capabilities, he cleared his visor so they could see his face. It took only a few moments to reach them.
For a few more moments nothing more happened then a reptilian-looking humanoid in a battered, stained and in places torn reddish-brown jumpsuit – that honestly wouldn't have looked out of place on the set of a Star Trek or Star Wars movie – with some faded elaborate markings stepped forward. Hands held out in a seemingly universal calming gesture.
"Can you understand me," the alien said.
"I can," Ferretti answered inwardly smiling glad that one of the things that had quickly come out of reverse engineering the SDF-1 after it first fell to Earth had been neural translators. Most people wore them as a small patch behind their ears but like all military personnel he had been given a subdermal implant version. He decided to introduce himself. "I'm Colonel Luis Ferretti, United Earth Defence Force STORM Commandoes."
"Captain Kanjon Plocspi, formerly commanding officer of the Serrakin Commonwealth exploration vessel Clarion," the alien replied with a smile and held out a hand. Ferretti did the same and the two of them shook hands. "I am pleased to meet you, Colonel Ferretti. Assuming you're here to rescue us."
"I am," Ferretti answered. "I have to say we were surprised when our Zentraedi friends detected a faint subspace signal coming from this planet while beginning an orbital survey of the fourth planet."
"We weren't intending to be here," Kanjon admitted. "We got thrown off course after making an emergency jump to hyperspace to escape a Goa'uld ambush. Our drives failed and we crashed here after being violently thrown back into normal space."
"Ouch."
"What's a Zentraedi?" one of the humans, a powerfully built man wearing a similar uniform to Kanjon asked.
"You'll meet some of them soon, but I will warn you that they can be extremely frightening to see the first time especially for beings our size," Ferretti asked. "And you are?"
"Lieutenant Commander Stebran Corr," the man identified himself, "I was Kanjon's XO. What do you mean by beings our size?"
"I take it you've never heard or encountered the Zentraedi before."
"We haven't," Kanjon confirmed. "Who are they?"
"The Zentraedi are a race of bioengineered, giant humanoids," Ferretti explained, "they're from another galaxy, one we know as Andromeda, and were used as tools of war and conquest by a group we know as the Robotech Masters. We recently liberated them from their long enslavement."
"I see," Kanjon replied instantly drawing mental parallels between these Zentraedi and the Jaffa used as foot soldiers/enforcers and living incubators for their young by the Goa'uld. "But is the giant thing literal?"
"It is your average Zentraedi is approximately fifty feet tall with some members being as tall as sixty feet."
"These Robotech Masters could bioengineer beings that size?" Karyn said incredulously. Being a xenobiologist and geneticist by training she knew that to do something like that would require a knowledge of bioengineering that was scarily advanced. In fact, it was downright terrifying, it certainly blew anything they knew about bioengineering – not that they used bioengineering much as Commonwealth law was very strict on when it could and couldn't be used and even the corporate magnates on Hebridan knew better than to try and get those rules changed – out of the water.
"Yes."
"How did you ever encounter them?" Kanjon asked, "have these Robotech Masters begun an invasion of our galaxy?"
"No, they haven't. How we came to encounter the Zentraedi is a long and complicated story and one I am not currently authorised to tell you about even if we had the time," Ferretti answered, "I just mentioned them so you would not be too startled as both the crew of the dropship and the Thuverl Salen-class warship in orbit that will fold us back to one of the moons of the fourth planet are Zentraedi."
"I see."
"So, are you ready to leave this planet?"
"More than ready," Kanjon answered, "though what do you mean by fold us and why only to a moon of a planet in this system?"
"By fold I mean a space fold. As for why we are going to the moon of the fourth planet – which is a gas giant – we have a base there plus this systems Stargate is there."
"There is a gate in this system. That is wonderful news we can return to Commonwealth space through it," Stebran commented grinning like a loon at the thought that he might soon get to see his homeworld again. "Well as long as you let us use it."
"I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be allowed to use it," Ferretti replied. "Though we would certainly be open to further diplomatic meetings with your people. And anything you can tell us about the Stargates the better as we only recently rediscovered ours after it was buried by our ancestors thousands of years ago after the Goa'uld were driven from our world."
"That can definitely be arranged," Kanjon answered, "I can tell you the Commonwealth Senate will be more than grateful to you for rescuing us. Diplomatic talks are certain to be agreed to."
"Good. So, if you are ready, please follow me and I'll take you to the dropship and we can leave this hothouse."
"By all means lead on Colonel."
Ferretti smiled back then turned and began walking back towards the waiting Zentraedi dropship. Since there were three very small children with the survivors of the Clarion, he deliberately kept his pace slow so as not to exhaust them. Thus, it took a good few minutes for them to reach the dropships. He was about to start leading them aboard when one of the children emitted a terrified scream prompting him to spin around…
…to see the smallest child, a little girl, had gotten separated from the group and was being menaced by a meter-tall crab-like creature with two sets of claws. A smaller inner set on either side of its mouth and a larger outer set, which glistened and dripped with fluid that he didn't need his helmets sensors to know was poison. It was snapping the pincers at the girl who was trying desperately to get away from it while two of the human survivors – her parents - started running towards her in an attempt to save her from the carnivorous razor-crab.
Knowing they would never get there in time as the sand was making it hard to run, Ferretti brought up his rifle and trained it on the menacing alien crab. A perfectly straight lance of bluish-white light emerged from the muzzle and instantly struck the crab which shrieked in pain even as it was knocked over by the beam. Its legs thrashed for a moment then it went still and lifeless, its small brain and internal organs cooked by the intense heat of the laser.
It gave the little girl's parents all the time they needed to reach her and scoop her up. Frantically checking for any injuries or stings from the crab's poison-laced outer pincers.
"Is she alright," Ferretti asked as they returned carrying the shaking, crying child.
"She's okay," her father Lyden answered smiling in relief. "Thank you for killing that razor-crab it would have gotten her otherwise."
"It looked nasty," Ferretti commented. "And you're welcome."
"They are nasty," Kanjon replied, "they've killed a few of us over the years we've been here. There outer pincers deliver a quick acting and incredibly potent nerve-toxin. A single small sting is enough to kill a grown man in a few minutes. A child wouldn't survive more than a few seconds of exposure. They're opportunistic hunters when little Kaira got separated that crab must have seen an easy meal."
"Nasty critter," Ferretti answered glaring at the still slightly smouldering body of the razor-crab. As he watched two more appeared out of the jungle, advanced on and began tearing apart the dead crab. For a second he considered killing them too but ultimately decided against it. "Okay everyone on the dropship and remember do not be afraid. The Zentraedi won't hurt you."
Quickly but carefully, everyone walked up the ramp and entered the cavernous interior of the Kitsune-class dropship. Kanjon looked around curiously noting numerous alcoves in the curved walls that were clearly meant to hold and service some kind of machines. Then he saw it a giant figure towering fifty feet above his head and wearing enough armour to build a frigate.
"Great maker," he exclaimed gaping in shock as it was one thing to hear about the Zentraedi being such massive creatures but quite another to actually see one in the flesh. It sent a very real shiver of unease, and even fear, down his spine something that not even the likes of the Goa'uld could normally do to him. If these extra-galactic aliens – what had Colonel Ferretti called them? Oh yes, the Robotech Masters – could create beings on such a scale then what else could they do? Did their mastery of bioengineering extend to other areas of science and technology? How big a potential threat to not just the Serrakin Commonwealth but to the entire galaxy – even the never to be damned enough Goa'uld – were they?
The need to answer those questions would certainly ensure his people would contact whatever Colonel Ferretti's people called themselves.
"Are you alright," Ferretti asked him.
"Yes, it's just a shock and there are more like him," Kanjon asked.
"Many more," Ferretti confirmed before looking around and noting everyone was aboard. He turned to look at the Zentraedi trooper who had squatted down to look at their guests and was smiling reassuringly at the children especially who were looking at him in a mixture of fear and amazed fascination due to his sheer size. "Trooper everyone is aboard. Tell the cockpit crew to close the ramp and take us back up into orbit."
"Yes sir," the Zentraedi acknowledged standing back up and relaying the information and the order to return to orbit via his helmet radio. A moment later, in a sign of acknowledgment, the ramp raised and sealed with a whirr of powerful motors and heavy hydraulic locks. A second or so later a rumbling sound filled the air as the fusion turbine engines started up and with a sensation like a lift beginning to move the dropship began its ascent to orbit.
"Colonel we are on course," the Zentraedi reported, "Captain Serval indicates that he will fold us back to our original position over the base as soon as we get within the perimeter of his ships fold sphere."
"Understood give us a warning just before the fold please."
"Of course."
Kanjon watched the conversation with the Zentraedi in amazement. Despite being many times smaller than the Zentraedi Colonel Ferretti was showing no sign of unease at being in the presence of the giant. He knew he wouldn't have been as comfortable talking to something that could easily squash him to jelly just by stepping on him. He watched as the Zentraedi withdrew and their rescuers began shepherding them to a small seating area. As he allowed himself to be led Kanjon wondered just how this was all going to go down with his superiors when he got back home. All he could think of was one thing…
…it was going to be very interesting.
Authors Notes: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust I hope you all enjoyed it. This chapter is actually quite crucial to the development of a relationship and friendship that will be quite important going forward, especially as Earth and the Zentraedi will eventually encounter the Goa'uld especially as the Linkotis arc – with some changes from the original version – is yet to come though that might be in the next part of the story I haven't yet decided yet.
Before I go, I feel I should explain the Serrakin Commonwealth. In Stargate canon we know that the Serrakin liberated a number of different worlds from Goa'uld rule – though we only ever see Hebridan – in the centuries and millennia before the show begins. All these worlds are now united in the Serrakin Commonwealth and while each world is more or less free to govern itself however it wants – hence the capitalist utopia of Hebridan – they all obey some common laws and send representatives to a Senate on the Serrakin homeworld which makes decisions that affect them all, they set things like general foreign policy, defence policy against threats like the Goa'uld and so on. They're a relatively minor power in the galaxy being far smaller than the Goa'uld Empire is but are slightly more technologically advanced than the Goa'uld and thus crushing them is more trouble for the parasites than its worth. They'll be valuable friends to Earth going forwards. Until next time.