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Chapter 1: Nine months of toil, tears and progress
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Part 6
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Slavna Zemq
Perun's homeworld
Milky Way galaxy
The process of covert interrogation through blending took longer than expected – roughly one night for each Serrakin or Hebridans human. On the bright side, by keeping the target asleep with the Force for long enough that Lyda could take control, they remained none-the-wiser about what happened.
The tedious part of the exercise was that I had to spend a few hours every morning, and then in the evening, reinforcing my hold over Lyda's mind. I made sure the mental triggers I'd built within her mind were all right after their rigorous use. That cut into my available time, forcing me to re-evaluate my plans for the future.
The sad truth was that while the uplift program was going faster and smoother than it had any right to be, it simply wasn't advancing fast enough to matter in the grand scheme of things. At worst, I had three to four months before Ra left on his vacation. Depending on the timeline, he might run into an Earth team within months, and the galaxy would be burning within a year or two. That was a best-case scenario. It was entirely possible that without my intervention, Ra would manage to send back a bomb to Earth. That would neutralize the Tau'ri as a factor. Such an outcome would be unpleasant. Along with the Serrakin, Earth was one of the two industrial and heavily populated worlds I knew of, that were independent, that I might be able to trade with. More importantly, Earth was the one place where I could leverage knowledge and technology if I approached them to make a few covert deals. Further, I would need Earth as a distraction. The Tau'ri might help me ensure no one would be able to win the coming civil war quickly.
A protracted conflict for Ra's throne would give me time to expand while everyone was distracted with bigger prizes.
I needed more resources of all kinds, more industry, more people. In theory, the systems under my control might hold everything I needed, yet, I lacked the tools to properly explore the great amount of real estate under my control. Hell, I didn't have enough people I trusted, and capable enough, to delegate properly all the ongoing tasks I already had ongoing. Simply put, the bottleneck in trained personnel was crippling. The various education programs I had ongoing were going to mitigate the issues eventually, but until then, I was stuck.
As stop-gap measures, I might have to risk an aggressive reconnaissance campaign, using an empty world as a staging ground. First, my scouts had to locate various small military outposts, research bases, industrial centers, and mines of my fellow minor Goa'uld. Then, when the opportunity presents itself, strike hard, kill everyone but the odd scientists or engineers, plunder the places, and retreat, after covering our tracks. Such raids would offer various boons, like everything we capture, a good way to blood my overhauled army. They would be a source of items to trade to either Earth, the Serrakin, or both.
Doing so would be a dangerously high-risk gamble, though not necessarily one offering high enough reward. A bit of bad luck like a single enemy capital ship appearing in orbit could prove disastrous.
The other option was trading for what I needed. It was just that doing so with the people who could help me would be treason, making such an adventure equally dangerous. That was certainly true as far as the Serrakin went. Earth was an option. Fortunately, I did recall the vague form of its point of origin symbol thanks to seeing it so many times on TV what felt lifetimes ago. Conveniently, there was only one symbol on the gate similar enough to it. That gave me a point of destination. I obviously would have a point of origin on the gate I would use. With those two points set, in practice the only gate I should be able to dial through trial and error would be Earth. From them, I might be able to cut deals, get the address to Abydoss and make sure not only that Ra died there, but plunder any databases he might have on his pleasure yacht.
That plan had some merit. Using earth industrial goods would greatly increase the output of my mines, and in a few years would free a large number of farmers for more useful jobs.
My third option had the potential to derail the future as I knew it and would destroy my greatest weapon right now – obscurity. However, if successful, that gambit would greatly increase my power base and put me in a much better position to survive the wars to come.
That gambit was simple in concept – finish Lyda's indoctrination and use her to track down the Tok'Ra's current base. As far as basic plans went, going after them would be straightforward. I would need to park a few ships in orbit, then invade through the Stargate. I would have both surprise and overwhelming military advantage on my side. Crippling the Tok'Ra, and bringing a bunch of them to Ra would see me rewarded greatly. Such a stunt would also immediately win me many enemies – both among the surviving Tok'Ra, and in the form of envious peers.
Over the next few days, I kept my new routine going, while pondering my options. My Serrakin guests turned out to be a mixed bag, as far as Lyda's diligent reports were concerned.
We had a wet behind the ears ensign equivalent straight out of the academy. Her primary use was general education-wise. When Lyda was done writing down all she got from the girl, she would be busy turning those extensive notes into the basics of various advanced education courses. In the long run, that knowledge was going to be priceless. The same went for the rest of the crew – even those without specific technical vocations would allow my subjects to become significantly more useful.
The second Hebridan human was a pilot with a year of experience in the navy. From here, we would get insight into advanced Serrakin fighters, which would be invaluable for my future R&D research.
A marine equivalent would give me an insight into their ground forces capabilities, and a little more.
A machinist first class was the closest thing to a victory we got – there was a lot of engineering information in that man's head, and given enough time, we would be able to augment my industry with various knock-offs of what the Serrakin and their Hebridan allies used.
Last, but certainly not the least, was the First Mate. Mr. Flint was the XO of the patrol ship, and as such, his memories allowed invaluable expertise in Serrakin tactics and doctrine. He had been in the command track from the start, so there wasn't much technical knowledge of value he could offer, that the rest of the crew didn't already cover.
On the bright side, now I knew of various proved and tested tactics used by small craft heavy navy to make the Goa'uld bleed. Heavily upgraded Death gliders and Al'kesh might be able to stalemate, if not drive out even Ha'tak ships under the right circumstances. New, more powerful designs could kill them with the correct array of weapons.
While that was great news, it meant little while I had no way to make use of most of the knowledge I just got.
Industry, and logistics, they kept being my Force damned bane.
In the end, I decided to sleep on my options and left the decision on how to get myself a boost in the industry, for tomorrow.
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Part 7
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Slavna Zemq
Perun's homeworld
Milky Way galaxy
Officially, Project Chappa'ai was a go. After a night of fitful mediation, I decided that my time before something went wrong was running out. There were portents in the Force, or at least shivers and dark visions that didn't fill me up with confidence.
That's why I gathered the principal military commanders who were on my throne world right now. My Primes – Stephan, Orel, and Gorski each had a stone tablet in hand, and were busy absorbing my desires. Honestly, I was beginning to understand, why the Goa'uld fell for their propaganda in believing to be gods. There was something hard to describe when all it took to gather people's undivided attention was to proclaim that you had a divine revelation.
"I dreamed of the future, my Primes. An age of war is coming, the likes of which this galaxy had never seen. And we aren't ready to face the coming storm."
Three pairs of eyes stared at me with awe and worry.
"The other Goa'uld are greedy, treacherous creatures. They will never give us the magics and tools we need to prepare and prosper at a price we could afford to pay. We need to seek other ways to increase the scope of our industry, and the output of our mines. We need a way for fewer farmers to feed our people and growing armies, while the released workforce builds us better weapons and armors for the wars to come."
After that grave proclamation, I had to pause and wait for my Jaffa to stop geeking out, so we could get to work.
"My solution is Project Chappa'ai!" I declared grandly. "We will establish a forward base of operations on a nearby abandoned world. From there, the Lighting Legion will begin aggressive scouting for targets we can raid and loot for the vital supplies we need. Further, we will seek neutral human worlds that might be willing to trade with us – that is something we need to keep quiet for obvious reasons."
My Primes looked at each other in confusion at my last point.
"Use your brains, people! I didn't make you my highest ranked and most trusted commander because you look nice in armor! We don't have the time to go conquering human worlds – we can't spare the manpower when we don't know the nature of the wars to come. Our primary objective is to build up our forces, industries, and defenses so we could survive the coming storm. When we know what we are dealing with, then we will look for opportunities to expand!" I ranted at my commanders.
"You're wise beyond mortal ken, My Lord!" Orel stared at me, starstruck.
"Of course, Lord Perun is wiser than any mortal! He's divinity incarnate!" Gorski added in awe.
The downside of your people thinking you were a god, was that even if I was talking absolute nonsense out of my ass, they would have bought it. The odds of someone noticing a flaw in one of my plans and talking about it were remote at best. Perhaps I needed to get an impressionable kid, one of those showing most promise among the classes in the capital, and have it ask questions?
"Orel, I have another task for you. I have the destination point of a promising world. I want you to investigate it. We obviously will have the origin point of the gate we'll use. I want you to get a unit to run the possible combinations until they find an open gate leading to a somewhat advanced human world. Get a unit working on that address, after the preliminary defenses on the forward base are in place. For a safer recon, I've got Lady Lyda building a few flying scanners for you. You should be able to see and hear what's on the other side. You're to inform me immediately if the unit finds something of note."
"I'll see your will be done, my Lord!" Orel looked like I just handed him the holy grail.
"Now, give me options for the disposition of the forward base. What forces we should station there, defensive measures, ways to ensure evaluation in case we garner unwelcome attention. When all is said and done, that site will be disposable. Our Jaffa and material, both invested and recovered from rival operations are what matters."
I left my Primes to plan, and went to discharge my many pressing duties, including putting the finishing touches on Lyda's indoctrination. Soon, she would need only semi-frequent maintenance, instead of regular sessions of mind-fuckery.
It was late that evening when I finally found the time to meet with my Primes, who had stone tablets and parchment laying all over the table in the meeting room. When I got back, my commanders were close together, looking over various sketches of defensive positions. Those eventually lead into an underground base built with our bootleg Tok'Ra crystals – all courtesy to Lyda's contacts.
The base would have a well-masked hangar for Tel'tak and Al'kesh far away from the gate. A large armory, living quarters, a laboratory to study artifacts before risking bringing them in my domain, a large storage space for whatever our troops might bring back after successful raids, the works. The solution to seal the gate was an ingenious one. I would be implementing it as soon as possible on my principal worlds in case I needed to prevent outside access.
The solution was either a stone column or a large trunk with an attached anti-gravity unit. Those were the same units used by the Death gliders. My fabricators were more than capable of building those as spare parts. All it would take to render a gate sealed was to shove one of those within the ring, and the gate would refuse to work just as if it was buried. While that defense wasn't as versatile as a shield or a bootleg iris, it had its advantages. In the future, I would be using it if I wanted a gate shut, in conjunction with the other systems when they finally came online.
I had to remind myself, that whatever else the Jaffa were, both mine and those working for the enemy, they weren't stupid. Just ignorant and tradition hidebound. If you could break them out of the outdated ways of thinking, they could come up with all kinds of useful ideas.
Case in point, Various bunkers full of heavy weapons would cover the gate and offer a high degree of protection to my Jaffa. They would have small extraction tunnels available to go back to the base proper, which they would be able to blow up behind them if an enemy somehow brought an overwhelming force through the gate. The base itself was the next best thing to a death trap from the look of it, too. I might just use this template, with various changes to give ideas for upgrades of my existing military facilities.
"You've done well. How much personnel would it take to make this reality?" I inquired.
"With the crystals, we can have a bare underground structure in place within days. Turning it into a proper operational facility would take longer, My Lord!" Stephan explained with shining eyes. "As far as preliminary defenses go, they will be in place within days, and then we can start limited scouting operations. A bottleneck is going to be the creation of signaling devices to ensure it is our people who are going back. I've spoken with Lady Lyda. While she should be able to do something similar to the scout drones," he stumbled under the unfamiliar word, "our industry is maxed out. If we want more than a few such devices, we'll have to slow down another project, and that is up to you, my Lord!"
"I'll give it a look. We can provisionally go without the devices at the start, however as soon as we have a device to keep an active gate covered, then our returning teams will need it for a safe return." I mussed. Another item on my agenda was buying some good old-fashioned radios from Earth if I could find the place and open trade relations. The idea of risking it and damn the changes to the timeline grew more and more, every time I faced yet another industrial bottleneck. That was a state of affair that rose it's ugly more than once every bloody day!
"Now, personnel-wise, we suggest..." Stephan continued.
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