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 Twenty
Ascended Planes
That Same Time
Silence reigned among the handful of individuals standing around the viewing font in the recreation of the garden of the house where one of their number had grown up. They had all carefully observed the battle that had taken place in orbit of Abydos between the Free Zentraedi, their Terran allies and the fleet of Goa'uld ships dispatched by Ra to drive away what he believed to be people who were trying to steal one of his planets. Which from the point of view of a Goa'uld was a perfectly reasonable assumption to make, not that either Terran or Free Zentraedi had actually intended to take over Abydos - certainly not in the way a rival Goa'uld would - though they would soon learn from the Tok'ra Selmac that was what they now owned due to their victory in space.
A victory that had been achieved in spectacular fashion with weapons that even by pre-Ascension Alteran standards were incredibly powerful.
"What kind of weapons were those," Janus asked at last breaking the silence, though the slightly guilty look on Zor's face told him that the weapons were definitely a product of robotechnology. Which meant he might have had a role in designing them.
"Reflex warheads," Zor answered sadly recalling the horror he had felt the first time he had ever seen one of those things used during the brief Cv'onan conflict when republican elements opposed to the Robotech Masters tried to dethrone them and restore the previously democratic Tirolian Republic. They had failed and the colony world of Cv'on - the first world that Tirolians had ever settled beyond their own - had been glassed without mercy with both the projectile and beam versions of reflex weapons, "they use the exact same mechanisms that generate power inside a reflex furnace but instead of harvesting the vacuum energy when its released, and then compressing the plasma remnant for additional power they compress it all together and due to the unique properties of the exotic particles created during the reaction it results in quantum level fusion."
"Producing a blast of unprecedented power for a weapon that doesn't use naquadria in any way," Janus finished for him, having occasionally worked with naquada's highly volatile isotope - well unless you knew how to stabilize it as the Alterans did - a few times both before and during the war with the Wraith he was well aware of how dangerous and destructive it could be. Especially when its power was turned to the creation of weapons. Something that they had had to do during the last few decades of the war with the Wraith - though it had not changed the outcome of that war as the Wraith had just been too numerous for them.
"Exactly," Zor replied with a nod. "Though before you ask I didn't make those vile things, just like I didn't make the *beam cannon version though I obviously know how they work and since they use protoculture…"
"...you feel responsible for them," Ganos Lal said softly, understanding where he was coming from. "Zor we have told you before that while protoculture was your discovery you are not to blame for the Robotech Masters perverting it in the way they have. Though how did Earth get their hands on some of those weapons."
"They were on my ship along with the main cannon," Zor explained sadly. If it had been up to him beyond the main cannon - which was naturally integrated into the structure of a Sian Macross-class battlefortress - none of those weapons would have been aboard the ship, "all Tirolian warships carry reflex weapons for use in the event of Zentraedi rebellion, a run in with the Asgard - they're one of the very few weapons in the Masters arsenal that will immediately penetrate their shields - or, as what happened to me at the end, a confrontation with the Invid.
"Given that Terran missile technology was already advanced when the ship crashed on their planet it wouldn't have been hard for them to reverse engineer the warheads," he continued wishing, not for the first time, that he had had enough time to program the ship with a better course instead of just telling it to fold in X direction a few times. He had hoped it, and the protoculture matrix aboard it, would be lost in the eternal void between galaxies but the fates had had other plans, "thus they can now make them themselves and Captain Alverez clearly knew exactly how devastating they would be. And now that I think about it, that explains how they were able to beat Dolza. A storm of reflex missiles let loose inside the base when combined with a deliberately defence barrier inversion would produce a blast sufficient to destroy him and a sizable chunk of his fleet."
Which is what drew my attention up here in the first place, he thought remembering that it was the sudden massive deluge of protoculture-based energy that had accompanied Dolza's death and the majority of the Grand Fleet's destruction that had first alerted his ascended self to the fact that his ship had survived. Something that he had not been pleased to learn especially when he realised that the ships surviving had been both the salvation and then virtual destruction of another human civilisation.
"Let's move on from discussing this shall we before Zor starts another moping session," Janus said prompting Zor to mock glare at the other ascended who just gave him a 'well you do' look back. "They're going to be responsible for Abydos now and I think they'll accept that."
"How can you be sure," Zor asked.
"Let's just say I have a good reason to believe they will," Janus answered, "and when they do a full inventory of everything in not just the temple complex housing the Stargate but a few of the buried, abandoned complexes they'll find the next piece of the puzzle that will lead them to Atlantis."
"I'm still not sure that putting them on that path is the right thing to do," Oma commented, speaking for the first time. "They barely understand the technology that they already have to start them on a journey that could lead them to our old capital and all its knowledge and technology is dangerous."
"They carry the legacy of our people Oma," Janus reminded her, "at least some of them do. By the time they solve the puzzle they'll be ready for the responsibility. They'll make us proud, you'll see."
"I hope you're right."
Janus smiled mysteriously. "I know that I am," he replied, then teleported away before anyone else could ask him questions about what he was doing, what he had put in place and been quietly working on ever since they'd been forced to leave Atlantis ten thousand years ago.
Oma watched as Janus disappeared and sighed softly to herself. Janus was definitely up to something and she was willing to bet that whatever it was he had been at it for a very long time. She made a mental note to keep an eye on what he was doing.
She put aside those thoughts for now and turned her attention back to the viewing font, eager to see what happened next.
United Earth Defence Council
New Macross City, North American Quadrant
Sometime Later
Silence reigned in the meeting chamber of the United Earth Defence Council as Admiral Gloval finished speaking. The admiral had been revealing everything that had happened in orbit of the planet Abydos over the last couple of hours, starting with Captain Alverez discovering a ship with a cloaking device - an actual practical cloaking device right out of pre-Rain science fiction - eavesdropping on a conversation he had been having with Commander Neleya. After forcing the ship to decloak - under the threat of its probable location being pelted with energy beams - he'd "invited" the pilot to land aboard the Phoenix and proceeded to have an interesting discussion.
"Captain Alverez should have just detained this Selmac/Skaara person or should I say persons as how do you describe someone who is literally two separate beings in one?" Colonel Matthews said after a few more moments of silence. "They were caught essentially spying on our ships and should have been dealt with as a potential threat and not an unexpected guest."
"If he had done that we wouldn't have learned more about the wider galaxy," General Markwell pointed out though for once he did see where the other officer was coming from. Captain Alverez would have been well within his rights to have thrown the Tok'ra into the brig on the Phoenix and probably would have if he hadn't been so cooperative, "and while they ultimately proved unnecessary we would not have gained potentially valuable information on Goa'uld warships and tactics when Ra's forces attacked us."
"We also would not have learned that by withdrawing from the battle after the reflex missile strike Ra has effectively seeded control of Abydos to us," Gloval added before grimacing slightly. "Which is going to be more than a minor problem, we will struggle to provide any major occupation force for Abydos given that we are preparing for the colonisation of Mara. The first Angel-class colony ship will be ready to start taking on colonists within a week."
"A military occupation of Abydos might not be necessary," General Markwell pointed out, "from what Skaara said in the post battle conversation between him and Captain Alverez the native population will accept the change without much resistance. And if we play this right we could actually gain valuable allies. Yes the people of Abydos exist at a barely bronze-age level of technology due to a deliberate policy by the Goa'uld but we can rectify that."
"I suppose that is true," Secretary Anderson said with a frown, "though we won't want to erase their own unique cultural identity while we are helping them learn skills and knowledge that the Goa'uld have long denied them. There will be no Colonial era behaviour, both the Secretary General and the State Department are clear on that front."
"Then we will have to be very careful how we do it but I believe it can be done," Markwell answered, "plus the planet will be a useful testing and training ground for our desert warfare troops and units."
"There is another thing that the people of Abydos can provide us with even before we move on to both the planet's resources and the resources so far found on its moons," Matthews said thoughtfully, "an additional source of genetic data. As you all know we lost so many people during the Rain of Death," he shot a quick glare at Exedore as he said that letting the micronized Zentraedi know, not for the first time, that he would never forgive his kind for that attack and the billions it had killed, "that it has created a genetic bottleneck among our population on a scale not seen since the eruption of the Lake Toba supervolcano seventy-four thousand years ago."
"What are you suggesting, colonel," Anderson asked, quite aware of the genetic bottleneck that Matthews was referring to, though it was not a pressing concern as there were still enough people alive - a few million - to provide a viable genetic base for their species to continue. Certainly there were far more alive after the Rain than there were after Toba where the survival of their entire species had relied on a few thousand individuals.
"Nothing at the moment," Matthews assured him, "but it is something that we should bear in mind when determining policy for Abydos. Not to mention all the other worlds in this galaxy that are inhabited by descendants of Earth's children."
"I still find that hard to accept," Anderson admitted with a rueful shake of his head, "that so much of this galaxy is populated by humans taken from here thousands of years ago as slaves by the Goa'uld."
"It is hard to understand as even the Robotech Masters do not use slave labour so widely," Exedore admitted, "outside of the Zentraedi - who before you freed us were battle slaves for the Robotech Masters - there are no real slaves in the Tirolian Empire. Almost all menial work is done by advanced robotic servitors. For the Goa'uld to use slave labour so widely does not seem logical as such a slave using society would be very inefficient on a planetary scale let alone a galactic scale."
"From what our new Tok'ra friend has said the Goa'uld care more about pretending to be gods, presenting their advanced technology as magic to the primitive worlds than they do care for efficiency," Gloval answered with a shake of his head. "By keeping the worlds of the galaxy primitive, by denying them reading and writing and with it the ability to record and analyse information, they prevent them from advancing and allow the fiction of advanced technology being 'magic' to continue."
"Pragmatic and effective," Anderson admitted, "do we know anything more about the Goa'uld themselves?"
"Not much though Selmac has been able to expand a bit beyond the information Nathan Hunter provided us with during his debriefing with Colonel Davis," Gloval replied, "apparently the Goa'uld are a serpentine, aquatic creature about as long as an average human forearm. They burrow into a host body at the back of the neck and take over complete control of the body through neural override, leaving the original owner essentially a prisoner in their own body able to see and hear what's going on but unable to do anything about it or interact with the wider world in any way."
"That's horrific," Exedore breathed, getting nods of wholehearted agreement - even from Matthews - at that sentiment. "And they are the dominant force in this galaxy?"
"From what we have been told, the Goa'uld Empire is the largest single power in the galaxy. Controlling thousands of worlds," Gloval said grimly. The sheer size of the Goa'uld Empire, and their nature, marked it as a very severe threat. As if they didn't have enough to worry about with the Robotech Masters.
"But moving on, what are we going to do about Abydos?" he asked, changing the topic a bit. "Scans from both our own ships and the Zentraedi ships show the planet is rich in naquada - though paradoxically many of the mining sites are closed down with large deeper deposits of the mineral untouched - as are all three of its moons by name Edfu, Dja'Net and Nuturo. Dja'net also shows very sizable deposits of trinium and titanium and Nuturo is showing sizable deposits of monopole ore."
"Monopole ore?" Matthews questioned not having heard of that material before.
"It's what is used to make fold drives especially the spatial compression coils," Exedore explained, "when subjected to an appropriate charge of protoculture based energy it generates and focuses the type of phased gravitons necessary for folding space. It is one of the very few materials that is not very easily synthesised and any synthetic copy is always inferior in performance to a naturally sourced ore."
"Interesting," Anderson said thoughtfully. "So you would recommend that we mine this ore Exedore?"
"Indeed I do as large sources of the ore are very rare."
"Then we will have to negotiate with the native population of Abydos for mining rites," Anderson said firmly, "we will not take anything like that from them without asking for permission first."
"They could say no," Matthews said, "if this ore is as valuable as Exedore says should we not use any means necessary to ensure a steady source."
"We won't be taking it without permission, Colonel," Anderson repeated, looking firmly at the former NID officier. Somehow he wasn't surprised by his particular mindset as while he had never had much dealings with them he was not unaware that they had had a reputation for both ruthlessness and willingness to discard international law and even basic human decency in the name of the 'greater good'. "Am I absolutely clear on that?"
"Yes sir," Matthews said, sounding sullen and almost rebellious, making Anderson and Gloval both make mental notes to keep an eye on him and those he tended to associate with to make sure that they didn't try anything unsavoury behind their backs.
"Good. Now then gentlemen I am open to suggestions on how we go about setting up mining operations on and in orbit of Abydos assuming we can get the native population to agree to allow it. Is it possible to send ships from the Factory Satellites automated mining fleet?"
"No," Exedore replied, "the fleet is not capable of space folding. Even if another ship folded them to Abydos they would be cut off from the Factory Satellites control signal and would automatically shut down. However, there may be another way."
"What do you mean Exedore," Gloval asked.
"There should be a program in the Factory Satellites computer that will allow the construction of a long range mining control vessel," Exedore answered, "they are large vessels - easily rivalling a Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class command dreadnought in size though of course not in armament as they only have defensive anti-debris cannons - but are designed to run with a small crew of about a dozen Zentraedi. Though the design could be modified for human size beings with little difficulty. Each could support several dozen automated extraction drone ships."
"Interesting how long would one of these and its extraction drones take to build?" Gloval asked.
"Provided the design specifications are in the satellites database and reconfiguring the interior command and habitation areas for - no offense intended - micronian use proves easy then at most two weeks. And that is only due to the complexity of the ore processing systems onboard as well as the molecular harvester beams used by the extraction drones."
"Harvester beam?" Markwell asked, confused as he didn't recognise the term.
"It's an energy beam that is designed to dematerialise selected ores and transport them to a holding area either on the drone, on a command vessel or a Factory Satellite," Exedore explained, "to the best of my knowledge it is as close to viable teleportation technology as has yet been developed by any of the science or engineering triumvirates in service to the Robotech Masters. Rumor is the base technology behind it was acquired from a crashed Asgard vessel."
"Asgard?" Gloval questioned wondering what the heavenly realm of the old Norse Gods had to do with this.
"They're a highly advanced spacefaring society from the Ida Galaxy," Exedore explained, "the Zentraedi have encountered them on a number of occasions they have never been particularly pleasant experiences for us."
"This mining control vessel and its drones sound like the best option," Anderson said, moving on, though making a mental note to ask Exedore a bit more about these Asgard aliens later. "Minister Exedore once this meeting is concluded will you shuttle up to the Factory Satellite and see if you can find the design?"
"Of course it will be a pleasure. If as I hope the design is present I will also tell the computer to adjust all crew area dimensions for humans."
"Excellent. Well then gentlemen is there no other business?" Anderson asked when no one spoke up he smiled. "Then this meeting of the defence council is adjourned."
Amun-Ra Space Station
That Same Time
Ra was brooding.
He was sitting alone in his private chambers, having dismissed all his servants and even his lotaur for now, gazing out an expansive window at the space beyond the walls of the station that he had long called home. The view outside would have been spectacular if he had actually been paying attention to it but he wasn't. Instead his thoughts were dominated by the battle that had taken place in orbit of Abydos a few hours ago now.
Specifically the fact that it had been an unexpected and spectacular defeat, something that he was really not used to his forces suffering at the hands of anyone who wasn't called the Asgard. He did not blame Terril for the defeat, the other much younger Goa'uld had fought and commanded his ships well against any other foe - well aside from maybe the Asgard, the Serrakin or the Tollan - he would have stood a very, very good chance of being victorious. But against the Zentraedi and whoever their ally was he had faltered and ultimately been defeated. Defeated by weapons of unprecedented destructive power. Weapons that used quantum energies in a way that had never been seen before by anyone in his entire genetic lineage. Weapons that had wiped out a sizable chunk of his fleet as if the ships had been mere toys and not a fleet capable of cleansing a planet of life in hours..
Which was quite frankly terrifying.
Clearly there was a new power on the rise in the galaxy. A power that could potentially challenge his kinds ages old dominion over this galaxy and the populations they'd seeded over their long reign. A power that they knew absolutely nothing about beyond the fact that one of the human races that apparently made it up was called the Zentraedi. What the other race called themselves, the race who had fired those weapons, he didn't know but they are their allies were obviously dangerously powerful. This was something that he, and the rest of the High Council of the System Lords, didn't need right now.
New powers rising was not unheard of; it had happened several times over the millennia. A race would rise and begin to challenge them for dominion over the galaxy. Challenges that the Goa'uld almost always won as few ever advanced enough to be a threat that a few Ha'tak couldn't deal with. Almost always there were a few that had escaped them like the Tollan and the various human inhabited worlds that the Serrakin had liberated during one of their infrequent military clashes. Still there was something about these races, and their technology, that had him especially concerned.
The sound of the door to the room opening caught Ra's attention. But he gave no sign that he knew that his lotaur was approaching him. "I told you I wished to be left alone," he said without looking away from the view out on space.
"Forgive me for disturbing you my lord but Lord's P'tah and Ashur just arrived through the chappa'ai," the lotaur said and Ra didn't need to turn to know that the human had gone down on one knee. Showing him the respect that he, as the greatest of all the gods, was due. "You asked to be informed upon their arrival."
"Ah yes I did," Ra replied remembering that after recalling Lord Terril - who was still in hyperspace heading for the nearest major outpost of his to Abydos, a journey that with his heavily damaged ships would take at least another day - he had sent for both his fleet lord and his old friend - well as much a friend as any other Goa'uld could be - who had been the architect of all current Goa'uld technology. He wanted to review the telemetry of the fleet battle, as well as sensor data recorded by Terril's flagship as the deadly alien weapons detonated data that had been forwarded to him, with them both. Get both their impressions and start P'tah to work on developing possible counters to the weapons. "Have them taken to the meeting room off the throne room. I will be there shortly. Make sure that appropriate refreshments are provided."
"I will see to it at once my lord."
"Dismissed."
"Yes my lord."
Ra listened as the lotaur stood and left the room, to begin attending to his bidding. No doubt the highest ranked of his human slaves would soon have other lower ranked servants begin preparing refreshments appropriate for an emergency crisis meeting with both his most loyal underlord and his most loyal friend. He waited another few minutes, took one last look out at the great sea of stars - almost all of whom had belonged to him for millennia - before standing and leaving the room.
Anubis Guards fell into formation around him as he began walking through the corridors of the station. Human servants in the halls stopping what they were doing and going to one knee in reverence when they saw him. Ra paid the short-lived creatures, creatures whose bodies were so easy to repair and maintain, as he walked heading for the nearest internal ring transport platform that would take him up to the level of the throne room. He hoped that his two fellow Goa'uld would have some positive things to say - that P'tah would have some idea on how to protect their warships from the exotic and deadly alien weapons - during their meeting and the follow up meetings that were sure to follow over the next few days and weeks.
Because he had a horrible feeling that the Goa'uld Empire was about to be challenged in a way it had not been in a very long time.
Author's Note: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed this first aftermath chapter from the Battle of Abydos. Ra certainly isn't going to take the defeat lying down as to his mind it presents an untenable challenge to the eons long rule of the Goa'uld - a challenge that must be answered and the challenger crushed less the Goa'uld Empire fall - over the galaxy. He's not to know after all that at this time Earth has no interest in toppling the Goa'uld - as disgusted by them and their practices as they are - as they have much bigger concerns like the Robotech Masters and will soon be distracted by Janus' little game. There is only going to be one or two more chapters left of part three of this story which will mostly still deal with the aftermath of the battle from various perspectives and an important meeting or two for the future, then we will move into part four which will itself be mostly a bridging part for the next major arc. Until next time.