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.
Authors Note: Hi all sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter finished, bet you all thought I had forgone this story in favour of its AU counterpart Otherworld I haven't obviously it's just the chapter went and got itself stuck in that most annoying of quagmires writers block. After a readthrough of the story – something I do now and again with stories especially if they haven't been updated in a while – it worked its way free, and I was able to finish the chapter. So, without further ado let's get cracking shall we.
Chapter Fifteen
Amun-Ra Station
Ra's Domain, Goa'uld Empire
That Same Time
Sul'oa, current First Prime of the greatest of all the Gods Ra himself, hurried through the corridors of the gigantic space station that the Supreme System Lord called home. Unlike every other System Lord Ra did not maintain a planet as his throneworld/homeworld and hadn't for many millennia not since Heliopolis was lost in war to the Asgard. Instead, when not aboard his unique command mothership, the Ra'tak he resided here on the largest and most technologically advanced space station ever constructed by the Goa'uld. Floating serenely amidst the heavens.
As he walked at a brisk march towards the throne room, he mused on the reason why he was going to see his lord and master at this time. A few minutes ago, they had received an alert from a security sensor on Abydos that someone had accessed one of the treasure vaults without authorisation. Why anyone would want to do that was beyond Sul'oa's understanding as it could only be another System Lord. They would be the only ones even remotely bold enough to do so and even they would hesitate to do anything to court Ra's wrath in such a manner. He had annihilated entire civilizations for lesser crimes.
It was at that moment that he arrived outside the entrance to the throne room. Two Anubis Guards stood poised outside the room they immediately crossed their ma'tok staffs across the entrance at his approach. Sul'oa resisted, just, the impulse to roll his eyes at the display and the arrogance of the Anubis Guards for thinking they had the right to bar his way. Like many of the Jaffa in Ra's service he didn't understand why the Supreme System Lord choose to uplift humans of all beings to the level of elite guards like the Anubis, they were not Jaffa and didn't deserve to be given such an honour. Let alone be given the great gifts that Ra gave them; gifts that made them physically far superior to any regular Jaffa.
"I have an alert to pass on to our lord move aside," he said to them. For a few moments the two Anubis looked at him, the glowing blue eyes of their jackal-shaped helmets looking at him in a way designed to intimidate and put him in his place – as the mutual distaste between Jaffa and Anubis Guard went both ways after all, only the fear of their mutual masters wrath keeping them from coming to blows – even as they used an encrypted subspace comm link to communicate with Lord Ra. Sul'oa met their gaze defiantly since he had risen to the rank of First Prime – which was rare for a Jaffa in Ra's forces as traditionally the lead Anubis Guard filled the position, but he'd been killed early in the current civil war and to punish the Anubis for that failure Ra had chosen to appoint him as First Prime instead of the next highest ranked Anubis – he had learned how to deal with the Anubis. One of which was to never show them even the slightest hint of weakness.
After a few moments the two Anubis uncrossed their staffs and moved aside for him to pass, there mannerisms momentarily conveying their annoyance at having to show respect to a Jaffa. Sul'oa kept his expression impassive, even as he inwardly smirked in triumph, as he walked up to the doors which opened at his approach allowing him into the room.
The throne room was a vast, impressive room. Located near the top of the station's central pyramid the walls were all one-way transparent allowing a spectacular view out upon the universe beyond. The floor was covered in an obsidian-like material that was polished to a mirror finish. Placed tastefully around the chamber were a number of carved crystalline statues all depicting some great triumph of Ra over the course of his eight millennia long dominion over the Empire.
The throne itself was fairly simple and plane – Ra didn't really go in for elaborate throne designs unlike most other System Lords – albeit made from almost pure trinium. It stood on a slightly raised dais with the large red sun of this system in full view directly behind where Ra's head was. As for the Goa'uld himself he was sat on the throne his normal elaborate mask retracted revealing a deceptively young face – one that appeared not much older than Sul'oa's eldest child – though he knew the host was anything but young and indeed had been the vessel Ra had inhabited for the better part of nine thousand years ever since the discovery of the now long lost world of Tau'ri.
Sul'oa walked up to the dais and knelt waiting for Ra to notice him. Thankfully he did not have to wait long for the ancient being to turn his attention to him from the small stone-like tablet he had been reading.
"Rise," Ra ordered beckoning him to stand with a perfectly manicured hand. "You have something to report?"
"Yes, my lord. We have just received a signal from one of the alarms that monitor your treasure vaults," Sul'oa replied. "There are intruders."
Ra blinked surprised it had been after all been a while, at least a hundred years, since anyone had tried to steal from him. The other Goa'uld well remembering what he had done to the last Goa'uld who had thought to do such a thing. "Someone dares to try to steal from me. Where did the alert come from?" he demanded instantly incensed that someone would dare to attempt such a thing. Clearly some minor Goa'uld was getting ambitious above their station – no doubt hoping to use the fact that he and the other System Lords were distracted by this damned thrice damned war with Sokar and his traitors to notice – he would have to be sure to make an example of them. To remind all of his kind that he was not to be crossed.
"Abydos my lord."
Abydos whoever is behind this probably thinks they're being clever choosing such an out of the way location to raid, Ra thought. That or whoever it was knew that he had a habit of hiding some of his more valuable and important treasures in his more far flung vaults like the ones that were hidden beneath the main pyramid on Abydos. Treasures that included both the Eye of Ra and one of the handful of Ancient power modules either he – or his Queen Mat – had recovered over the millennia. Modules that they still hadn't quite figured out how to use, thanks in no small part to those blasphemous spawn of Egeria, though he knew P'tah was hopeful he would soon finally have an answer to the issue. Ra didn't hold out much hope, P'tah had been saying a breakthrough on using the modules was imminent for the last three hundred years give or take a decade, of his succeeding but he knew better than to rule it out entirely. Especially as most modern Goa'uld technology had come from P'tah's labs.
"This cannot stand. Take a squad of Jaffa to Abydos at once and detain the thieves. Do not kill them I want them to answer to me. Also send a message to Tarril tell him to return to Abydos at once with his Ha'tak. Anyone foolish enough to try to steal from me will no doubt send a ship to attempt to carry off their booty quickly. He is to intercept and destroy it."
"I will see to it at once my lord."
"Very well you may go."
"My lord," Sul'oa replied with a bow of a difference that he – like many Jaffa who reached his rank – no longer truly felt. Like many senior Jaffa he had long ago come to understand that the Goa'uld were not all knowing, all powerful gods that they had been raised to believe in. Though there was no denying that they were very powerful beings. Then he turned and marched out of the throne room to summon his most elite Jaffa and prepare to lead them through the gate to Abydos.
Ra watched him leave, before turning to look out on space and the sizeable number of warships he kept around the station at all times. Once he knew which Goa'uld or other was behind this attempted theft he would detach some to deal with them, to communicate once again that nobody could cross him or try to steal from him without enduring the most severe of consequences even if they were engaged in the biggest civil war for the last fifteen hundred years. Hell, he might even decide to board his flagship and go make the example himself. Yes, he thought he would do that…
…it would be a nice change of pace.
Abydos Pyramid
A Short Time Later
"Think we're going to find anymore vaults at the end of this?"
Behind the silvered visor of his helmet Delwin Watkins smiled at the question from Lieutenant Kenshaw. It was an understandable question given all that they had so far discovered on this planet – whatever it was called – so far. After investigating the one underground passageway – and finding both that massive vault of treasure and with it a crystalline alien power source of some kind – they had gone down the other passage. There they had found another armoury and four smaller but still filled to the brim with gold and precious stones, vaults before finding a stairwell that led down to a passageway that ran under the desert floor.
A passageway that they were currently cautiously making their way down. After all, just because they hadn't encountered any booby traps or security features so far did not mean that there would not be some.
"I don't know," he admitted as they passed another one of those odd self-lighting flame torches that whoever had carved this passageway, and built the pyramid and everything else beneath it, seemed to love to use in place of more conventional lights. Torches that somehow didn't produce any smoke despite the light source being flames. "Whatever is on the end of this has to be important as you don't carve a tunnel like this under the desert without a very good reason."
"It will be interesting whatever is on the end of this assuming it's not a dead end," Kenshaw pointed out, "what did command say about what we discovered?"
"Well as you know we sent the power source back through the gate," Delwin replied, "as for the rest of it there are people coming aboard the Zentraedi warships that Commander Breetai is sending. They'll be arriving soon. The people they're bringing will go through the vaults and armouries we found, inventory everything that's there."
"Be interesting to find out what exactly is there," Kenshaw commented even as he inwardly frowned at the knowledge that there were some Zentraedi ships incoming. He had to admit that he wasn't sure how to react around the giant bioengineered humanoids, especially given what they had done to humanity at the behest of Dolza and the Robotech Masters. It was quite a common conundrum as on one hand he had to pity them as for so long they'd been nothing but slaves, weapons of war and conquest for the Masters. On another hand though it was hard not to hate them for the Rain of Death, especially when cities like his native San Francisco no longer existed – literally reduced to dust and glass – by a reflex cannon blast. "Though it's strange that everything is left unguarded like this."
Delwin frowned at that, though naturally the other commando couldn't see it. He had to admit that was bothering him as well as back on Earth armouries especially were never left entirely unguarded or unprotected by some form of security. Even today and with the separatist states and EBSIS such facilities were always protected as nobody wanted someone to sneak in and say help themselves to things like missiles or machine guns.
"It is odd," he agreed as they came to the end of the passageway and found a set of stairs leading upwards. He sent a light drone on ahead revealing a quite steep but wide stone staircase. Moving carefully, they began ascending, heading towards the desert surface.
The staircase soon gave way to a landing at the other end of which they could see a huge stone door though, unlike the other doors it wasn't concealed and was wide open. Slowly, carefully, the commandoes made their way to the doorway and into a vast room beyond. For a moment all they saw was complete and total blackness, though the sensors in their armour confirmed that they were in yet another room roughly comparable to a European football pitch in size.
Then along the central line of the room giant stone bowl braziers lit themselves, banishing the darkness in a wave of flickering yellow-orange photons. It revealed a large room, on the wall opposite the entrance they'd come in from was a huge version of the Eye of Ra symbol. Spaced equally around the perimeter of the rooms were stylized statues that Delwin vaguely recognised as the gods of Ancient Egypt with the notable exceptions of Anubis, Osiris and Isis for some reason. Behind and beside each statue on the wall were what appeared initially to by hieroglyphics at least until Delwin used his helmet sensors to zoom in and see that they were Stargate symbols, and all were arranged in groups.
"What the hell is this," Kenshaw wondered aloud as he looked at the symbols. "These are gate symbols but why group them together like this? Unless…."
"…it's a map," Delwin finished for him. "Everyone start moving around the room and use your armour sensors to record all the symbols, make sure you don't miss any, command will really want to see all this."
"Sir yes sir," the other commandoes acknowledged and began spreading out to begin methodically recording all the various Stargate symbol combinations. Delwin was about to join them when his helmet comm crackled to life.
"Major Watkins this is Lieutenant Davis," came the voice of one of the two commandoes assigned to watch the Stargate itself.
"Yes lieutenant?"
"Sir someone is dialling in from off world."
"Are you in cover?" Delwin asked preparing to switch channels to order the other STORM Commandoes assigned to different locations throughout the pyramid and its underground complex to head to the gate room at once.
"Yes sir," Davis replied "the gate is open now sir. What the hell?"
"Lieutenant?"
"Sir the figures coming through they're wearing chainmail and plate armour of all things. They appear human but have Eye of Ra tattoos on their foreheads most are black, but one looks like it's literally made from go… they've seen us were under attack."
"Shit," Delwin cursed before tapping a command on his one vambrace, causing his suits computer to send a signal to all the other commandoes to tell them that some of their number were under attack at the Stargate and they needed to get back pronto. Then he looked at his companions. "Come on."
Then he turned and began running back the way he had come, the rest of his men following.
A Few Moments Earlier
The moment he emerged from the gate Sul'oa knew that this mission was not going to be a simple thief apprehension mission like he had thought it would be. The largely underground chamber – buried as it was beneath the pyramid above that served as a mothership landing pedestal – was quiet, too quiet. There was no sign of an enemy Jaffa, who would have blockaded the Stargate ready to intercept any response force sent by Ra, in the room. It was just still and quiet though footprints on the floor, visible in a layer of fine sand that always seemed to get everywhere on this wretched planet, showed that someone had been here.
A lot of someone's in fact.
Something about the footprints bothered him. While it was obvious that they had been made by boots they didn't look like any of the tread patterns Jaffa boots left behind. No, these patterns were different there were more ridges, and the tread was noticeably a little bit lighter than that of the heavy boots of Jaffa, boots that produced the distinct clank, clank, clank noise that slaves and infidels across the galaxy had learned to fear.
Something faintly visible out the corner of his eye, some reflection, caught his attention. He spun bringing his ma'tok staff around as he did so, searching for what he had seen. What was out of place. There a flicker of reflection of the firelight from the few torches in the room off some type of black armour.
"Jaffa," he cried out to alert the others as he fired, a blast of golden-white plasma – eye searingly bright in the gloom of the room – erupting from the bulbous tip of the staff. It hit nothing but the wall as, in the moment between the bolt being generated and impact his opponent in the sign of a highly disciplined and capable warrior just moved, creating a blast of smoke and flinging chips of semi-molten sandstone everywhere.
The figure, who appeared to be human or Serrakin it was hard to tell as they were clad head to toe in some black metallic armour that wasn't anything like Jaffa armour, reappeared pointing some type of weapon at him. Sul'oa moved just as the intruder fired, sending a brilliant bluish-white lance of some kind of energy, right at where he had been. If he hadn't moved it would have taken him dead in the centre of his forehead. As it was the beam hit the ground sending up its own pulse of smoke and flinging tiny flecks of suddenly molten sandstone flying.
Additional beams came at him and his fellows. One from the other side of the platform that housed the Stargate, with two more from the cover of the entrance to the other room in this temple. It was a well-executed crossfire, one that would have proven lethal to almost any other group of Jaffa in service to the Goa'uld. As it was Sul'oa and his fellows, like all of Ra's Jaffa, had an edge in training over any other Jaffa and were able to evade the worst of the barrage though Sul'oa heard one of his fellows cry out in pain as they were hit centre mass. The unfortunate Jaffa collapsing into a lifeless heap as the alien beam burned right through his armour, to cut through the flesh beneath and flash vaporise his heart.
Sul'oa didn't have time to mourn the fallen warrior, there would be time for that later when they took his body home for proper cremation, as he was already exchanging fire with his first opponent. This time his plasma bolt hit the alien, the being staggering back but not going down as the plasma seemed to spread out across his armour in a crackling display as whatever the armour was dispersed the energy of the blast. Not giving the being time to recover he fired again this time the alien or whatever it was went down and lay still on the floor.
He didn't have time to celebrate his victory. Even more beams began streaking towards him and his brothers from the entrance to the next room as more of the thieves responded to their arrival. Sul'oa screaming in pain as a beam took him in the right shoulder, bringing with it a searing pain followed by a terrifying numbness, and knocked him over with the force of the strike. His ma'tok fell from a suddenly numb arm. Sul'oa glanced at the injury seeing a surprisingly narrow hole in his armour but the flesh beneath was also burned through he could see the bones of his shoulder scorched and cracked by whatever the beam was. He could feel the prim'tah in his abdominal pouch already beginning to work to repair the damage though with the practice of someone who had fought dozens of battle campaigns in the name of his god he knew it wouldn't be able to heal a wound like this fully on its own. Thankfully the priests back on Amun-Ra had the means to fully heal the injury with no visible scar.
He quickly used his still functioning left hand to draw his zat'nik'atel and activate it. More beams came at them, and he saw and heard some of his fellows go down even though they were fanning out and attempting to use the columns as cover. The amount of energy beams coming at them overwhelming. Though like his brothers Sul'oa tried to fight on, sending crackling blue blasts of energy back at whoever the enemy was. An alien staggered as he was hit twice in rapid succession but did not go down as the alien armour dispersed the worst of the effects of the blasts.
Sul'oa couldn't help but be impressed. He had no idea which God these unknowns worshiped – he had never seen anything like their blue-white beams before – but whoever they were they had equipped their warriors with very powerful magics. They were also very, very foolish as there was no way that Lord Ra would let such a blatant incursion on one of his words – to say nothing of a treasure vault being raided – go unpunished. The viciousness of the divine retribution that Ra would unleash upon whichever Goa'uld was responsible for this outrage was sure to be biblical in scale.
The last of his brothers fell, another victim of the alien beams. He was about to fire the zat'nik'atel again – to go down fighting as honour demanded of him – when one of the alien warriors was suddenly standing over him. An unbelievably powerful kick – that with a loud crack shattered the bones in his forearm – that had beyond Jaffa strength behind it knocked the weapon from his hand. Then he found a few of the alien weapons pointed right at him. The message was clear; surrender or die.
Sul'oa glared at his foes before, somewhat reluctantly, nodding to indicate that he surrendered. After all, as long as the was alive there was a chance that he would be able to escape, escape and bring knowledge of the strangers' powers to his lord and master. Something that Ra would reward him very handsomely for.
For a few moments nothing more happened and Sul'oa wondered if the aliens planned to kill him regardless. Something that he would certainly have done if he had been in their position and even suspected that one of them was going to use captivity as an intelligence gathering opportunity. After all Lord Ra could always revive the prisoner later for proper interrogation. Then abruptly the aliens withdrew their weapons...
...another came behind him and picked him up. The armoured being held him up, seemingly without effort as another produced some type of restraint from a pouch on its belt and bound his hand. The jolt to his broken arm making him hiss in a mixture of anger and pain. The unknowns didn't seem to care before another produced something from another pouch. A metal canister of some kind. They held it near his currently limp right arm, right where the beam had struck him, and pressed something. A softly glowing pink mist emerged from tip and settled on the wound. Immediately Sul'oa felt some sensation return to the arm, it was just pins and needles but it was a start, and he looked to see the wound appeared to be healing quickly far too quickly for anything other than the pink mist to be repairing the damage. Certainly, the larval Goa'uld in his belly couldn't work that quick.
The being holding him dragged him off to one side. Sul'oa watched as another went to the Stargate control pedestal and began entering an address, while two others went to the one, he'd killed and gently, with the reference for their dead of true warriors, gently picking him up.
The Stargate came to life with its usual ethereal roar. The unknowns didn't speak, Sul'oa didn't doubt that they were using some other method to communicate in much the same way the Anubis Guards did, instead the one holding him started walking him to the gate. The ones holding their dead colleague already going through the portal back to wherever their world was.
Sul'oa considered trying to resist. But he didn't really have any leverage to work with and both his arms were still useless as well as being bound. Thus, resistance would be pointless and would certainly only result in him getting shot dead, so he did nothing offered no fight as they walked him up to the event horizon and then through it...
...and into captivity.
Delwin watched, keeping his laser rifle at the ready just in case, as Kenshaw marched their prisoner through the Stargate back to Fort Minotaur and Earth. Lieutenant Sterns and Sergeant Edwards had already gone through carrying the body of Lieutenant Davis. To say he was incensed to have lost one of his men would have been an understatement and he had to admit that he had been very, very tempted to kill their prisoner where he stood. None of the others would have said anything against him as he could tell in their body language that they were as annoyed as he was, but he'd restrained himself. They needed more information on the Goa'uld and what was out here, and their prisoner could give them that – which was why he had spared him.
Plus, the guy surrendered and really there was no honour in killing a surrendered prisoner.
A strange sound behind him caught his attention and he spun around. Just in time to see five metallic rings descend from a hatch in the ceiling at the far end of the room. What on Earth, he thought as the rings stacked themselves leaving only small gaps visible between them. Light abruptly flared in the rings before they retracted into the ceiling...
...leaving five more aliens holding those odd staff-like weapons standing there. Clearly teleported in somehow from somewhere. The aliens moved stepping out of where they had been standing even as they levelled their weapons and opened fire forcing the STORM Commandoes to take cover. The rings returned, flashed and retracted again leaving behind another group of the aliens.
Delwin sighed as he and his fellows began returning fire. Beams of coherent, supercharged photons lancing out from their rifles towards their foes. Round two of the battle for this planet, whatever its name was, was apparently getting underway.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. Sorry about the cliffhanger ending but I couldn't resist, and the chapter was getting a bit too long for my taste so the next chapter will feature the conclusion of the First Battle of Abydos as while there is a Ha'tak in orbit it is only one ship. One ship that will soon find itself confronted by the Zentraedi warships that are inbound to Abydos and will defold very soon. Will Delwin and the others of his squad still be there when the Zentraedi show up or will the Jaffa overwhelm them through sheer force of numbers? You'll find out soon enough. Until next time.