Segue to our Snakes...And because this ain't dead and I'm almost through with this ep.
For
@August who enjoys the politicking of the snakes... and for
@Gladiator whose history and taste in fiction inspired the Greek pantheon scenes and for
@Harlock and
@adam417 and
@Spartan303 who enjoy the characterization.
And for
@bullethead who oft chronicles the SCOTUS and its love hate with the 2A and there is totally not a Goa'uld RBG...one would hope
Helios System home to the Crown world of Apollo’s domain – Month of Tartarus (September by Tau’Ri reckoning.)
If there was one thing that her family did wrong, was the fact that it sometimes took sixteen hours for anyone to get down to business. Upon their return home a group of Jaffa received Cygnus and Eurydice as though they were returning conquering heroes. Even the
Geminas Castor and Pollux the only instance of twin peers born in recorded history, who served as her father’s Prime and a fleet Captain respectively arrived in splendor. Both Goa’uld inhabited bodies that seemed to be more Tau’Ri than anything else, but their metallic purple eyes and oddly feather like black hair made her wonder if they also had chosen beings of Kelownan stock so long ago.
Her uncles were younger than Cygnus and yet he bowed to them as to defer to an elder member of the dynasty before the four embraced and then proceeded to get horribly drunk as they walked through the halls of the Palace of the sun on Helios. The Sprawling ten million square foot complex that served both as the administrative center of the domain of Apollo and as her Lord Father’s personal residence. Its golden walls filled with carvings and holographic weavings, the living tapestries that told the tales of the deeds of their most celebrated Jaffa, honored Lotars and of course of their family.
It made her well up with pride and brought her near to tears to see her trial of wit wherein she outfoxed Aris Boch of all beings to catch a bounty depicted above the hall of weapons, the expansive room filled with her father’s trophies from all the battles he’d fought in his long life.
‘While you were on your progress, your Jaffa managed to route the pirates who’ve been attacking trade fleets along your border.” Pollux remarked slapping Cygnus on his shoulder, the two were rivals and competed fiercely over who could produce the better navy, who could train the better Jaffa marines and who could do the most damage to the constant influx of criminals who sought to prey on the Imperium. They might also have been the only Goa’uld fleet Captains who didn’t resent Drey’ac for being a better pilot than they were, corresponding with her frequently on matters of starship design or sharing intelligence regarding the antics of the Lucian pirates, or Scarran remnant raiders or whatever else. “You train your men well..”
“As do you uncle! Tell me, will grandfather and uncle Herakles be here? It’s been too long.”
Pollux shrugged. “Zeus hasn’t stirred from Olympus in eighty years, as to Herakles, he apparently befriended some Tau’Ri warriors on Avalon and spends much of his free time making friendly with the former rebels.”
“Ah, so Zeus is deadest on establishing relations with the Tau’Ri? When last I heard, his majesty was intent on ignoring them unless they strayed out of line.” Eurydice remarked. The battle at Avalon changed many things and their highest court determining that the death of the emperor, great Amun-Ra was justifiable did much to win the Tau’Ri renown. Of course, it wasn’t just the word of Horus that opened so many gates for the Tau’Ri, rather that his championing for their cause in tandem with their killing of Yahata (Which he knew her gallant father considered no small favor.) meant that they were swiftly establishing themselves as a problem solving force that had no agenda save the betterment of their species and had none of the baggage nor weight of history behind their deeds (Which was ironic as they were technically former rebels.) that could be relied upon to handle matters that were to..delicate for conventional System Lord politics.
It had been quite some time since the Imperium had reliable proxies, one that showed incredible potential to one day stand as allies. The last time didn’t go so well, but that was alright, there was no gain without risk.
Castor gave a nod. “Indeed.” His said, his eyes glowing a faint lime color, subtle hints that he and his brother were conceived by Zeus on Tiamat during one of their tristes. “He changed his mind when they managed to earn Thor’s affection. All three of the surviving great races in the span of single year? The Tau’Ri are upwardly mobile, and your divine grandfather is no fool, he sees the utility in people willing to bleed for their own, while playing the great game.”
“You mean, considering that they’re a bunch of primitives. After all, what you’ve described is expected of every species.” Cygnus remarked, his hands folded behind his back his shadow stretching ahead of them as doors shut behind the group.
They were called to dinner somewhat later than Lord Apollo ordinarily summoned his guests and not to the reception hall where he would ordinarily have waited them with a party to welcome them home but to his personal dinning room within his apartments inside the palace. All of this was irregular but not enough that the two siblings separated by the ages were over worried, until the Jaffa who had escorted them to the dining hall turned, bowed and exited.
They almost always remained within the rooms functioning as guards or attendants given the massive amount of food they consumed when they did dine together. Her eyes glowed a soft blue concern emanating from her as she tried to sense who and what was in the room waiting for them only for her eyes to widen in shock when she realized that she couldn’t sense anything. “Someone’s blocking me.”
The automatic doors opened and when they stepped through she let out a breath in relief. Her father was seated in a large ivory chair with gilded designs and cushions she knew were comfortable but also contained anti-gravity devices, as the Lord Apollo enjoyed feeling weightless during his meals. He was shirtless, as he usually was this hour of the night his body was hale and strong and she remembered him saying that the person chosen as a host had been a fierce warrior of the northern frozen wastes on Tau’Ri, who sustained a lethal injury and offered himself to Apollo, her divine father of course never spoke of his original Ori host. Over the tens of thousands of years, the Tau’Ri’s form had bene enhanced, molded and “fit” to the will of her father.
Such was the power of the System Lords.
As with Herakles, the body had bright orange eyes, no whites and only two black dots for pupils. His hair was fiery orange-red, that was braided in part and loose everywhere else. Beside him sat a tall woman with thick black hair and leonine features. Gallant, strong, pale and with the same, orange-colored eyes, the host being a blend of different Tau’Ri hominids and looking like a living statue. Adorned in furs and leathers that showcased her as the Junior Goddess aligned with Horus and was in charge of dispensing his blessings to hunters and athletes. the chamberlain of Athena’s realm Artemis was a System Lord in rank even if, like Thoth she held no worlds of her own (Though with Athena eternally away at Dakkara she ruled her mother’s systems for her.).
Which meant, her eyes shifted to Athena and beside her, Hera. Both with six-foot bodies, belonging to a species that was supposedly a genetic offshoot of the Asgardians, they were grey-green and Tau’Ri like in appearance, with slightly leaf like ears and canines that were slightly longer than most Lotar.
Hera and Athena both here and both smiled sweetly, their eyes glowing that sky blue of the house of Aether, flashing in greeting. “Sorry for the secrecy little ones.” Hera spoke up her voice a chorus of a hundred different voices, each more elegant and matronly than the next. Lady Hera, eternally protective Hera who was the chief justice of the highest court in the Imperium (That it was supposed to operate outside of the authority of the System Lords and that this might have been a conflict of interest was never discussed.). And in the Imperial cult the patron Goddess and spiritual mother of all scribes who specialized in lawfare (Did that make her more devil than Goddess?), contracts and marriage. She had been the one to craft the laws that made codified and separated the different sub species of Goa’uld, who made the Jaffa separate but equal and who was famous for a twenty-hour debate with Amun-Ra wherein she tried to strike down his desire to grant the Jaffa’s citizenship status that would allow them some influence in the governance of the Imperium. She had lost that debate, humbled she had set to the mighty task of crafting the laws that Amun-Ra proposed that would make them better than the Ori.
Athena, who shared pantheon space with Apophis as the Junior Goddess of War, the patron of strategy, subterfuge and stellar combat. Among the first fleet Captains in the Imperium, she whom all the Ashrak and pilots in much of the known universe prayed to for luck. And if they were here.
“She was more worried that something happened to her father, weren’t you girl?”
That voice, the voice that sounded as if a million barbarian chiefs were chanting in a chorus of doom all at once…She turned, Cygnus fell to one knee, and she quickly did the same.
Ahead of her, seated on a sofa, lounging comfortably was a behemoth of a sentient, it was said that he had left his Unas host after it had been mortally wounded by a titan among the ancient and primitive Tau’Ri, a huge and ancient warrior who somehow managed to mortally wound a Peer as powerful as he. Dwarfing the others in the room, with arms so thick they could have been support beams for the armored dome around a Hatak’s command center. A lion like mane of thick, bone white hair and a beard that was done into three massive braids, each one with armored plates and bells woven with ribbons into the braid, faint blue glowing eyes that sparked with power.
With the Amun-Ra dead, only Hathor and Izanagi possessed power greater than Zeus who was equaled in personal esoteric might by only Yu and Apophis. He was one of the oldest as well, having been born several decades before Amun-Ra. Their patriarch, the head of their house.
She suppressed a laugh, every intelligence service in the universe must have been losing its mind. There hadn’t been such a high concentration of Peers in one room since the end of the Titan’s rebellion and the power here was enough that combined, they could probably render this world uninhabitable (Though the strain might kill them.). The situation with Apophis was this serious..that it required nearly the entire leadership of house of Aether in one room. Her eyes flickered to Zeus, and she swallowed. “You are not going to put yourself forward as a candidate for the Throne..are you..Lord Grandfather.”
He laughed and outside, she told herself the rain was mere coincidence. “How perceptive of you, no, no I won’t. In fact, neither will your father. I aim to make this as one sided for that preening, psychotic lech as possible.”
Ja’mah!
