Stargate Through the Looking Glass and into Heaven.

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Well played sir. Well played.

Both how the Goa'uld went from being a bunch of ambitious up and comers who fought the Asgard, the Ancients and the Nox to a standstill to clowns who barely controlled a handful of planets by season two always bugged me.

That and how everyone spoke English.

Two birds with one stone here I guess.
 
Chapter 7: Histories and Discourses

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
New chapter up gents! The conversation between Skara and O'Neill redux and then the history of the Tauri!

Chapter 7: Histories and Discourses


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The storm that had so violently swept the surface of this world, whatever it was called seemed to have parted as swiftly as it first descended. Lasting only sixteen hours, gassing out and seemingly breaking over the mountains that lay beyond the city they now knew was called Nagada. O’Neill didn’t mind it; he didn’t mind staying here and the simple trinket Kasuf had gifted him would likely yield a treasure drove of information as soon as the boys back home finished analyzing it to say nothing of the samples of the quartz like mineral they had taken from some of the ore depositories. Assuming Jack let them have his knife, Skara and his father gave it to him. It was odd to be sentimental towards someone he’d just met but it seemed to be a recurring theme among his men. Watkins, who apparently had a great singing voice had taken to learning some of the songs the city priests chanting as the eye of the storm passed over Nagada and in exchange he sang some of the old Latin litanies, devout a catholic as he was it seemed he didn’t mind an exchange of faith-based hymns. Lahm had fallen asleep some hours ago after she had spent most of the night before helping their healers attend minor wounds and learning all she could about their herbs and medicine and showing them a few tricks, she picked up when she worked for a chiropractor while in med school. She’d fallen asleep with the girl with the odd mix of neanderthal and human features on her lap and Jack spent the evening smoking and drinking with Skara and Kasuf, none of them could speak the same language and yet much passed between them all the same. He’d nearly ruined that when Skara made a grab for his M27 but the look of terror and grief in Jack’s eyes caused Skara to nearly bolt from the room long before Jack had moved to slap it away.



Kasuf had admonished his son, Jack felt bad about seeing the boy get chewed out, but they had remained together for another hour or so before Kasuf finally excused himself. No one knew where Jackson had gone, he vanished with Shau’re and to who knew where after the ritual washing. “Figures” he muttered, noticing Kowalski had fallen asleep next to Lil’Bit and O’Neill couldn’t tell which was snoring louder and when he kicked Kowalski awake the weird space giraffe Muppet groaned in protest in unison with his major. “Found a girlfriend huh Kowalski.”



The man smirked “She minds me” the more Jack stayed the more he came out of his shell and the tall, muscular stoic was replaced by someone who sounded more like an eighties action hero, reluctant or otherwise. Sarcastic, funny, all too happy to admit he had no fucking clue what they were talking about half the time. “Have you seen Jackson?” Kowalski asked as he yawned and cracked his back, forcing O’Neill to suppress the urge to make a crack about him being married to that beast. “No, I was going to ask you the same thing” O’Neill remarked.





He’d found Daniel’s Jacket but little in the way of the man and when Kowalski offered to go looking for him Jack shook his head. “This city’s big enough it would take hours, better we talk to one of the kids to see if they’ve heard anything.”



“Heh talk.” Kowalski remarked. They communicated well enough and some of them seemed to even be able to understand Jackson albeit every four or so words, but they seemed to get most done because Skara, Shau’re and kadra were incredibly intuitive and smart as whips. So it was off to the teens, followed by a sleepy Lil’Bit who bounded along easily to his paddock with the other beasts they found out were called Mastages. The enclosure where the strange alien beasts were kept reminding O’Neill of a scene out of Jurassic Park, as they transitioned underground to a large garden area with cool water and fish and a bunch of mastages lazing in the surprisingly humid climate given how arid and plainlike the above was.



Skara was with a group of boys, showing off the lighter O’Neill had given him after the incident with the gun, the one that looked more caveman than man (Nebeh or Nebehua or something O’Neill couldn’t pronounce so he just called him lumpy on account of the shape of his head).



“Hey kids!” O’Neill called out, standing straight with his arms folded behind his back, looking every bit the muscular jock, he’d been in high school and the epitome of Marine training he was. O’Neill felt a sense of pride in Skara when he knew instinctively to get the little shits to form rank and then stood at attention in front of them yet in a position inferior to him. -What a damn fine soldier he’d make- Jack thought and then felt a twinge of regret, Sandra wanted to go into the air force whereas Sasha was probably going to be a turbo nerd like Jackson or that maniac Carter. How could he encourage her or think such thoughts about the desert prince when the memory of Charlie’s bloody body was so fresh in his mind? Shaking himself from his darker thoughts he prowled back and forth as his old DI used to do. “Alright fuckers, I’m looking for Jackson, have you seen him? The long haired dude?” he said gesturing to his head which they misinterpreted as a salute “No..No..wait..hrmm hey Kowalski do you think the word Dweeb means anything to these kids?”



“No, but I’d say Jackson’s more a dork than a dweeb.”



O’Neill rolled his eyes “Thanks for the help Kowalski” he muttered turning to gaze at the kids “the guy sneezes…Man I’m on planet ex looking for a dweb…who sneezes and”



Skara caught it “ehghhgh..egh..ahhh AHH! BWAH..BWAH BWAH BWAH”



“Yess!! Exactly!” O’Neill called “Chicken man!”



“Shiken’mayn!” Skara nodded and rounded on the chorus of clucks coming from the other kids who all stopped except for lumpy who needed a kick to the pants. -Maybe if we establish a permanent presence on this shithole, I’ll ask for a command assignment- O’Neill thought and he couldn’t believe that he was even thinking it. A permanent presence on another god damn planet close to the galactic core. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have good relations with these people given the fact that the mineral they were mining was the same quartz like weird substance the Stargate was partially built from. Skara approached tentatively, taking the jacket and shoving it into Lil’Bits face as the creature sucked greedily from some water gathering vines.





Lil’Bit let out a roar of protest then bolted rushing not up the stairs but further into the labyrinth below the city.





They had run behind the fast-moving Mastage for what felt like hours though O’Neill guessed it had only been something like five or six minutes. It had amazed him how swift it was and how lithe it could be. There was a moment where they passed from garden soil to sand and then from sand towards an arched doorway flanked by two statues of golden men with the heads of cobras that stood beneath an arch whose top was decorated with the eye of Ra. Several of the children hesitated, with Skara shaking his head and gesturing to the doorway which to their horror had been open.






“You don’t like this place?” The Colonel asked, raising an eyebrow.



“Think its forbidden to them sir” Kowalski added “I get the impression this is what remains of the original settlement the walls were here to protect” It was Lahm’s voice, she looked half asleep, but she was remembering something Jackson had said, that he believed this place had been built atop something. She nodded reassuringly to Skara, her dark hair falling over eyes that Kowalski found remarkably beautiful. “We can go and you can remain” she said gesturing to herself and the Colonel and pointing ahead, then tapping his chest and pointing to the ground.



To everyone’s surprise it was Lumpy who puffed his chest and began to saunter forward towards the door and not to be outdone by the groups beloved spaz, Skara proudly marched forward.



And so, Colonel O’Neill, Major Kowalski and ensign Lahm and O’Neill’s band of junior Marines made their way through the great doorway and through a corridor with walls that looked to be solid gold and filled with hieroglyphs! Writing! No wonder this place was declared off limits if writing in a scriptural or mythical sense was banned (O’Neill agreed with Jackson, other topics had to be acceptable to write down or else none of what they saw above would be possible). From there, it was into a great hall of some kind where they heard the voices of Jackson and presumably Shau’re echoing from another hallway. “Good acoustics” O’Neill remarked.





“I hope they aren’t having sex, we’ve no idea the bugs these people have” Lahm muttered dejectedly. She had figured whatever local bacteria or viruses that did exist weren’t all that different from their own and while the danger of so many millennia of isolation was always present, the fact that neither her team nor anyone here had erupted in sores or pox or anything else seemed to suggest whatever was here their immune systems could handle it (And theirs could handle what the Stargate team brought, or so she hoped). “visa versa as well, we could kill these people without meaning too. If we’re going to make a habit of this Colonel, we need to establish some kind of protocol.”



“Save it.” O’Neill remarked as they grew close enough to see the light of those artificial torches and he saw both Jackson and Shau’re looking disheveled, a thing that made him shake his head. -First base only dumbass- he thought. As they got closer he realized they sitting in front of an enormous mural that would have made a renaissance artist proud. He didn’t quite have time to stop and take it in however as he realized they were both speaking the same language.



“Thought you couldn’t speak their dialect.”



“Well, like any language theirs evolved over time and while I speak ancient Egyptian that language was a knock off of their original tongue and”



“Jackson, I asked why you’re speaking moon babble not a cure for insomnia” O’Neill remarked with a semi amused glint in his eyes. Much as he’d been annoyed with Jackson hours ago, the sheer speed at which he learned space Egyptian was well, mind boggling.



“I just had to learn how to pronounce it and then figure out their slang, which I’m still doing but yes! I do now”



“You did that between” he looked down at Shau’re who smiled sheepishly at him. “exertion”



Jackson turned red “I, it wasn’t..We just kissed and stuff” he murmured looking younger than Shau’re suddenly rather than a few years older than her. Kowalski whistling at the mural distracted O’Neill from any further teasing, and he gestured towards the wall “Doctor Jackson, if you’d be so kind?”



Grateful for the reprieve he turned and eyeballed the mural, recalling what he’d just translated hours earlier. “It says a terrible war raged in across the heavens, apparently Ra is or was some sort of High King or Emperor. His people won but the cost of that victory was terrible. Maimed, exhausted and depleted Ra roamed the stars searching for a way to cheat death both for his people and himself. Apparently, the body he was in was failing.”



“Body he was in?” Lahm asked with a raised eyebrow.



“Well, its not clear on that. There is a word here Goa’uld “Children of light” or Child of light, it’s almost interchangeable with the concept of a living Kami or with Ka and Pharaoh maybe, I’m not sure. Any way it delineates between Ra and this” he gestured towards a figure that looked pained, mad and desperate but also like the typical image of a Roswell gray.



“It seems like, Ra’s whole race was pushed to the brink of annihilation even though they won and Ra himself was grievously injured. Anyway, his ship the Mesektet reached a world filled with life and populated by many peoples, our world. It says, as the night turned into day the people of the valley and caves ran, all but one who looked up into the sky with curious eyes. He called to Ra who possessed him, a parasite taking a new host” Jackson walked along the wall touching different hieroglyphs and depictions. “He discovered that with all his powers and his technology he could use these people to breathe new life into his civilization. More so, he could extend their lifespans indefinately! They were taken here I suppose and made to work the mines. The mineral is clearly the building block of his entire civilization.”



Oh clearly” Jack muttered, his eyes narrowing at the implications here. His mind wandered back to the night of the storm and the weird lightshow they caught in the distance. “So, we walked into the king of space’s personal mining world” he muttered, just great. -Looks like I won’t be going home or getting that assignment- he thought bitterly, then again, he supposed he could just ride Lil’Bit back to the village and seek exile there. The thought of never seeing his daughters again made him enraged. How the hell could I have agreed to this damn mission?!



Major Makepeace had supposedly volunteered but was turned down, stupid, stupid! If he had just refused.



“Jackson! Come quick!” Kowalski’s voice echoed and the Colonel realized both her and Lahm had vanished from the room down into another. This one, was a room that was filled with empty walls save for an immense cartouche with. “Is that your legend Jackson?”



“Yes it is!” Jackson confirmed enthusiastically “I can do it! We can go home and touch base and report what we’ve seen here. Sir, this is worth a permanent presence here.”



-Fuck that- O’Neill wanted to say “Jackson, that wall implies this place belongs to some Darth Vader type.”



“Palpatine”



“Nerd”



“Anyway! Maybe, maybe not. Colonel it’s been forty thousand years at a minimum since this was inscribed here. There’s a chance his abduction of so many ancient humans and other hominids didn’t really do anything to help his kind recover. This could truly be the last outpost and these guys are mining for a dead civilization!”



“And ya don’t think they would have realized something was up when no one came by to pick up their space rocks?!”



“Well, Shau’re says they just send it through the Stargate” Jackson remarked rubbing the back of his head, evidently, he’d planned this conversation the clever little shit. “I asked her if anyone had ever come through the gate or well, landed a space ship” he laughed there and then grinned “Well I used the term sky boat, I’m not sure if..but anyway she says there hasn’t been a visitation in at least a century if not longer. Colonel, I think we’re in the clear, we’re left with more questions than answers maybe but we’re in the clear.”





“You sure about that Jackson?” The Colonel asked.



For a moment Doctor Daniel Jackson hesitated, searching the chiseled face of Colonel O’Neill, one that was inscrutable even when he was being sarcastic and informal. There seemed to be something akin to pleading in his eyes, what the hell was going on in that head of his? “I can’t say one hundred percent for certain, but everything we’ve seen so far suggests a people blossoming in the ruins of a civilization, long gone just going through the motions.”





For an interminable second The Colonel seemed to weigh his options before nodding. “Then we’re leaving.”
 
Chapter 8- Crisis

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
So, apologies for the tardiness, in recompense here's a bunch of chapters.

Starting with a bit of Kasuf's childhood and what the lesser Goa'uld are like in the empire.




Chapter 8- Crisis




Nagada


“What you are saying dear daughter is heretical!” Kasuf blasted Shau’re as he rounded the desk in his comfortable office above the city of Nagada. His purplish eyes darting along the ornately carved floor. A floor that, Kasuf’s father spent a lifetime trying to figure out how it had been carved. -We cannot make things as we once did my son, Ra saw to that- his father spoke with bitterness. -But father?! Ever Sobek has championed knowledge and efficiency-



-Sobek is a lord, great and mighty, immortal but he is no god nor is he the All father, the master god, the lord most high! Ra long ago determined that we must lose a piece of ourselves in order to regain his trust, that was in the time before memory-



Sobek, the lord of their “sector” whatever that meant, had visited often even though he spoke little of the domains in the world beyond the gate, if any beyond Dakkara crown world of the gods existed. The impression Kasuf got, was that even if more existed, that did not matter to his little world for his little world mattered little. Sobek had stressed that enough, that when he came through the Stargate, he did so to visit a place that was fond both to him and his great god. Sobek was their lord, he whom they paid taxes towards and who collected the precious Naquadah For Amun Ra. He was a hard lord, but a fair one capable of moments of remarkable kindness such as when he and his mighty Jaffa warriors remained with a farming village to do battle with the great desert wolves that could swallow a Mastage whole. Or when he saved Kasuf’s mother from plague long ago. He had great powers, but Kasuf never got the impression they were divine. Ra though, the Godhead, the Emperor and king of the heavens had descended upon the city of Lantesh some five generations back. They had done something to offend Amun Ra and he smote the city into a smoldering ruin as his warriors and his son Horus butchered anyone who managed to flee, with fire coming from their staffs and great gusts of wind from their hands. The ruins of Lantesh stood as a quiet monument to the power of Amun Ra.



Despite the growing population people opted to wander into the desert, or seek new lands across the seas than to dare settle that accursed place again. No, new cities had yet been built. They couldn’t not since the decree in a time before memory. Villages and settlements yes, great farming kingdoms but no new cities.



Lantesh was a fable, more than a memory and Sobek returned once, thirty years ago and wandered into the desert, saying that he would likely not return. Kasuf was barely a man then and he remembered the look in Sobek’s eyes, they were half mad. No one had seen the gods, no new immortal lord had come, no Jaffa had been seen since Kasuf was a boy. All these thoughts made him wonder if perhaps, just perhaps. But then he remembered the lights that came with the storm and what he as the City Master knew it meant, what was heralded and what had come.



“Father! I can show you the stories! I can teach you what Daniel taught me!” Shau’re implored her father.



He didn’t doubt that he’d harbored grave reservations and questions about the divinity of Ra ever since he was a child. But one thing Kasuf didn’t question was his power, that much was obvious and the signs last night. “That Ra is no god? Child, even if he is not, what does it matter when he commands powers that make him as great as one.”



“It matters father” She whispered. “Don’t you understand? Our forefathers, they bested him, drove him from our home…From Tau’Ri!”



Kasuf’s eyes lit up with memory. Of stories when he was a child, spoken around fires at the halls of the leaders of the lesser cities. Something about a mythical home for their peoples, the story involved Ra delivering from that world and from certain doom. Had that been a lie as well? Did it matter?



The thought filled Kasuf with a certain amount of indignation as he began to learn that the truth was worse than anything he could have believed. That truth, or interpretation of the mural filled him with enough terror and reluctance to temper his outrage at the possibility that his entire life and the lives of all his fathers before him were given in the service of a great lie. And with the great beacons atop the pyramids alight last night, with what they heralded. The other City Masters and the Farm masters had likely seen the lights as well and they would all come with a great host to celebrate. He knew, many held such doubts and yet.



Kadra and Skara, who had remained silent while the eldest sibling and their father discussed these issues both appeared to be sulking and in anger at his father’s reluctance Skara departed the room with a baleful laugh. “Father, what she says is true, I saw them myself and these strangers who we took as emissary’s of Ra, perhaps they come from Tau’Ri..Maybe this is fortune”



Kasuf sneered “So daughter, you would trade one deity for another solely because you are infatuated with that La-am!?” He asked his disapproval clear by his tone. Kadra turned reddish and shook her head, dark locks shaking about as she did so “I get the impression, these people would have found that improper, no she needed a friend and her knowledge as a healer interested me father that is all.”



Sometimes the deviousness that his youngest was capable of, even while kind bothered him. “They are leaving, perhaps it is for the best” If they were fortunate perhaps, they would pass through the Stargate long before Ra deigned to leave his sky palace.



“the debate is pointless, for it is all conjecture. Where the strangers came from, where they are going or if Ra even still lives” Shau’re continued, bringing the conversation back onto the original topic. “What I do is that we should stand on our own and be rid of these lying monsters! Think of it! Father, no one has come in a lifetime, you are the last person in our village who isn’t an old man who remembers the emissaries of the gods! They aren’t coming, even the lights last night!”



“Daughter” Kasuf laughed bitterly “the lights mean only one thing, Amun-Ra.”



Shau’re’s eyes widened in fear..Lantesh was where her mind immediately went. The wind stolen from sails for a moment. “He…comes?”



“No child, he is already here.”



“Danyer” she whispered.





A servant came in at that moment, something was cried out in alarm regarding her brother Skara, but Shau’re could only think of the sweet little golden scribe and the death that awaited them back at the pyramids.
 
Chapter -9 A Clash of wills

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Whereupon Jack meets a First Prime for the First time!





Chapter -9 A Clash of wills




The Pyramid, The Journey and Mandjet


“We have no idea if they even still exist huh?” O’Neill asked as they finally made it across the dunes towards greener pastures, even before they got near the immense pyramid complex it could be seen rising out of the ground like three gigantic, lime washed white mountains. Or they were three, gigantic, pyramid shaped, limewashed mountains four nights ago. Now? Now there were four! The fourth being a gigantic silver and gold colored pyramid that rose out from the middle shimmering in the sun and later moonlight. To Jackson this merely represented a new piece of data, he kept assuring the Colonel that there was no way in hell whoever piloted the ship was the same person depicted in the mural.



“Yeah, but Jackson, didn’t the mural say Ra found a way to keep himself alive indefinitely?” Kowalski asked, voicing O’Neill’s concerns. “If the big honking spaceship has the big space king in there and he was a slaver and a pimp who plundered our planet wouldn’t that just be like walking into a lion enclosure at a Zoo with steak on your neck?”



Kowalski’s metaphors could be vivid and amusing and the large man had taken to walking beside Lahm, the two were closer now than before and Jackson was certain he wasn’t the only one who had been fraternizing. Watkins who had remained mostly silent learning well enough to let the others discuss these things shrugged when Kowalski looked to him for comment. “Biological immortality is impossible” Watkins added when pressed and Jackson nodded “Exactly! Scientifically”



“Scientifically?! Jackson these people fly around space in triangles and rip open holes in the universe to go pick up lunch! Has it occurred to you, that their science just might be a little…I dunno better than ours?” O’Neill asked, rounding on him in annoyance. Jackson might have been the one academic type he was willing to tolerate but that didn’t mean he found the guy any less grating sometimes.



“Granted, but wouldn’t biology still be biology?” Jackson asked the group, though the question seemed to be directed more at Lahm who shook her head. “It isn’t about that Jackson, we know certain species live insanely long lives, hell we technically are one such species. Then you have these less complicated lifeforms that renew their cells nonstop. I don’t know much about the fight against old age but from what little I do know is that it’s a question of energy. Our bodies oxidize and start to run out of steam. In theory if you could find a way to keep the cells from decaying, keep the energy going maybe you could achieve immortality. Though, I can’t even begin to imagine how someone would go about doing that.”







The rest of the walk was passed in silence until they reached the building where they’d taken up residence, using it as a partial basecamp. All they found there were weaponry and ammo, some of it missing, some of it discharged and most of Jackson and Lahm’s books gone as well as a lot of the scientific equipment that was sent through the gate on their last contact. O’Neill noticed his one of his sports rags was taken as well. -Bastards- they advanced cautiously, slowly making their way towards the grand steps of the main pyramid and then moving in. The whole time they tried and failed to radio anyone. Evidence of a struggle of some sort was seen when they entered the main chamber, where they thought Ferretti would have taken his group had they needed to abandon everywhere else.



“Dried blood” Lahm remarked, kneeling before a large almost puddle sized blotch of rust colored ichor on the floor. O’Neill nodded his jaw clenched, all he could see was dried blood and spent shell casings, something had massacred his men. “Something took out enough marines to overrun a small town” O’Neill hissed, venom in his voice as he contemplated the letters General West would have to send and the whole reason, he took this idiotic mission in the first place. “Kowalski take point..I..”



O’Neill had enough time to grab Jackson by the shoulder and yank him as a purple sphere of light streaked passed him and collided with Watkin’s midsection. O’Neill had seen someone’s stomach burst open after they’d been shot through the back, hell he’d seen people disemboweled by pressure before. But he’d never seen someone’s love handle just vanish, leaving only cauterized, gnarled flesh and red steam and Watkins collapsing onto his knees. To his credit, the marine managed to reach up and discharge his service pistol causing a flurry of demonic sounding curses from some asshole with a metallic bird on his head. The space bird man was wounded, his arm bleeding and what looked like blood running from under a breast blade, a hit in the armpit? It staggered slightly discarding the staff and pulling what might have looked like some kind of ray gun from its side.



To O’Neill’s surprise Lahm opened fire jumping on top of Jackson as Kowalski ran towards the space bird dude opening fire. O’Neill watched as something like a lightning bolt hit Kowalski dropping him.



No, no.





O’Neill darted towards the bird bro and pulled his new knife, tackling the bastard which let out a curse and a grunt of surprise as it hit the ground. Metal clanging onto granite while O’Neill jammed the blade into the creatures arm pit and when he found the upper part of the rib cage it was cover. O’Neill arose covered in blood and sheathed the blade. “Lahm! Fall back with Jackson towards the gate”



“Kowalski’s still breathing!”



“GO NOW” O’Neill ordered as he managed to grab Kowalski by the shoulder, pulling him and the staff weapon as more voices began to fill the temple air. -The fuck’s the point of grabbing Kowalski? I’m just going to nuke everyone any way-



Oh, right, because you didn’t leave one of your men behind and in this insane world, he needed to hold onto something. Somehow, he succeeded and after hefting the marine on his shoulders and making it into the gate room, he tossed Daniel the staff weapon “Kill anything that comes through that doorway Jackson! Lahm tend to Kowalski!”





There was a screeching noise, Watkins must have still been alive, somehow and that sound was someone butchering him. -Yeah? Wanna play serial killer with my boys’ you motherfucker, let’s see how you like a face full of a nuclear Eagle! - O’Neill frantically searched for the bomb, he was going to have a smile on his face when he pushed the button. Any second now, any second…Any



Oh fuck.



“It’s gone” O’Neill muttered. “It’s fucking gone!”



“S-sir” Lahm murmured causing O’Neill to look towards the entrance. A look of horror on his face as he saw Jackson on bent knee, blood streaming from his cheek where he’d been struck, the iron grip of a man larger than even Ferretti… Or dog man rather, as the creature had the robotic head of a great Jackal, its long eyes outlined with gold flickered as it held tight to Jackson’s throat.



It laughed in vicious mockery, the weird audio filters that made it sound demonic (Or at least Jack hoped those were filters), unable to cover just how little regard this thing had for him. Eyes flickered, taunting and O’Neill didn’t have to speak Space Egyptian to understand what that meant. -Go on Earthling, make my day-.



Colonel Jack O’Neill willed himself to drop his side arm. Though part of him still wanted to die fighting to atone for Charlie’s death, for allowing his wife to turn their home into a vortex of rage and for abandoning his daughters to come on this mission, for letting General West exploit his grief. But everything else, his love for his kids, his desire to be a father for them and his refusal to leave what was left of his unit to carnage and, the worry that Skara would be disappointed in him compelled him to march forward dropping his weapon.



The Jackal laughed contemptuously and kicked Jackson in the back hard enough to make him yelp, forcing him to his feet. Lahm did her best to help Kowalski stand but one of the bird men grabbed his arm and yanked him over its shoulder like a sack of meat. Jack heard what he thought was “k’su. Su” and he assumed that meant move it and so he did.



The group walked towards the gate, stopping some ten feet before it. In the shadows of the artificial torches O’Neill caught a glimpse of movement and internally cursed when he realized Skara and his band of junior marines had followed them here, even lumpy! -What the hell are you doing kid?!- Jack thought, a parent’s concern, thankfully the boy understood the look in his eye and held position in the shadows.





Turning the Colonel eyed the Dog man who pushed a large blue gem attached the gauntlet cover his hand. Above them a circle in one of the many swirls opened and a bright blue beam of light shot down to touch the floor, encircling the group. O’Neill heard a whirring around and four large rings that looked like a Stargate crossed with an elephant sized life preserver. “More Gates? What are these Gonna do send us to..wuuuhh”



He felt something akin to a tug through his guts and then he saw a flash of light and the rings vanished, revealing a massive chamber with intricately carved pillars. The floor beneath their feet seemed as much a stellar map as a surface to walk on and Jack took in everything he could. Trying to find Earth’s position relative to Abydos but then he realized he couldn’t read the writing and the one guy who could was busy looking wide eyed ahead towards plinths where two Pick up truck sized falcons with wings outstretched shaded a raised dais with a throne that he assumed was cut from one gigantic ass ruby. Around them, the walls seemed to melt away, folding into smaller and smaller segments until the bright light of the Abydonian dawn touched against whatever glass like substance counted for windows. Idly Jack wondered if the exterior was armored, or if the owner of this tub was insane enough to fly around in what he assumed was Space Airforce One without any sort of protection.





They were nudged towards the Throne Room. Kowalski turned and insulted one of the bird space men when he hit Lahm a little too hard and was punched in the face for his trouble. “Easy Kowalski” Colonel O’Neill warned, the mocking laughter from the dog man suggested he was just waiting for a chance to humiliate O’Neill by slaughtering yet another of his men.



Or at least so he thought, there was something rather personal about how Dog dude reacted towards him and towards his men. Something in the body language he recognized from his time in some central African shithole he’d forgotten the name of. This warlord fancied himself an elite, a great personal warrior and he made a point of challenging Marines and Delta boys, not to defeat them but to make a mockery and humiliate them as if to prove to everyone his own inner doubts were wrong and he was the best.





Jack sensed that same ego driven loathing here.



His knee buckled as one of the Bird dudes nailed him in the leg and forced him down, Kowalski and Lahm needing no prodding, Jackson was too busy looking around and so a Bird man let out an annoyed growl and yanked him down onto one knee.





“What now sir?” Lahm asked.



“We wait.” O’Neill responded.



There was nothing else to do, damn it all.
 
Last edited:
Interlude: Lightning at Dawn

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Interlude: Lightning at Dawn





As Skara and the other youngsters cleverly exited the pyramid and began to walk back to the ruins of their new friend’s base camp, their raw determination mixed with a sense of fear as a great door opened in the Mandjet, The sky was pierced with a screeching sound of thunder as what looked like two giant arrowheads were shot out, accelerating as if propelled by fire! Soon, hawk like wings began to form, materializing segment by segment as they sped off towards Nagada.



“Father” Skara whispered, a sense of dread “Shau’re! Kadra” he murmured and whipped around to the other boys “Grab as many of their weapons and supplies as you can! We must return home!”



While it would take half a day for the band of aspiring rebels to reach home, it took the death gliders several seconds. The sky above Nagada cracked with thunder and the vicious roars and curses of the fabled Horus guard. They cursed the villagers, damned them for defying Amun Ra, damned them for faithlessness, damned them for their lack of shipments from the mines (Though those had been abundant). The twin Gliders unleashed a frenzy of bright red bolts of energy which tore through the makeshift buildings and tents, ripping people apart and toppling scaffolding on young and old alike.



There were twenty-two thousand people lived in Nagada, by the end of it twenty thousand remained among the living and Kasuf and the master’s from the other settlements looked on in confused terror.
 
Chapter 10- Amun Ra

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Chapter 10- Amun Ra
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Mandjet


They had been kept on their knees, for to Daniel Jackson felt like an eternity. Behind him, Lahm and Kowalski did their best to hold each other up and beside him O’Neill stood as tall and as stoically as a statue. Eyes gazing towards the staff weaponry and armor of the guards, something that filled Jackson with trepidation. His thoughts were interrupted by a series of chants which preceded the marching of a group of twelve teenaged boys, each clad in a simple tunic and barely anything else, each carrying a pole over which a banner attached. Jackson could make out the symbol of a golden cobra in one, its hood unfurled majestically and with menace. Another was a blood red flower whose petals shown like the sun rising on a field of white. Another was some sort of prehistorical cow, with a golden disk between her horns. Another was that of a scythe wreathed in lightening on a field of dark blue. Another yet was a bolt of lightning in the talons of an Eagle there were others, but Jackson’s attention was turned towards the dais.



Something had appeared there, as if out of thin air. It was a magnificently lifelike bronze statue of a young boy, or at least Jackson thought it was a boy, it was an incredibly feminine frame. Perhaps a eunuch? It was robed in sky blues and gold, orange and crimson along its slender features and trailing to the floor. It’s face, was serene and youthful, almost angelic but there was nothing angelic about its headpiece. Done up in the style of the great and ancient pharaohs this, statue rested upon a ruby throne and cast a shadow about the room that seemed to engulf everyone in its presence.





Jackson felt something touch the periphery of his mind, a foreign, almost alien set of emotions that weren’t his own and for a second his terror at the mental intrusion was eclipsed by his fascination with the sensation. Kowalski muttered “my god” under his breath and Jackson understood why, the moment he noticed that the statue, which was now being surrounded by barely clothed priestesses (some of which were young enough that Jackson shuddered with disgust), was breathing!



It raised a hand and to the surprise of everyone it spoke in English! Or broken English. “You…Come..here..to..destroy…” Jackson wished he’d never heard that voice. It was soft, subtle, but there wasn’t one voice, there was a dozen, each one echoing the last and each at a temp that seemed to dig into his subconscious, he felt himself overcome with awe and fear and a sense of immensity that made him want to kneel. As if there was something, alien in that voice, compelling him. “To destroy…me…” There was amusement in its voice and then it issued a command in what the Colonel called Space Egyptian -show them-.



The Horus headed men touched rubies on the back of their hands and slowly in segments the immense head pieces began to vanish into their breast plates and shoulders. They were human! Mostly, some seemed to have features more common in Neanderthals some might have had ancestry that wasn’t fully human either. Finally, the Jackal headed guard, the commander of Ra’s forces touched the sapphire on the back of his hand and his hood gave way to a man who appeared half O’Neill’s age, like the others his face was covered in the usual eyeliner and adorned with the symbols of Ra. He nodded his head to the Colonel laughing arrogantly at him and daring him to rise.



The room grew silent as something, compelled Jackson to look forward, the statue began to shift, where the armor covering the others came off in segments here, the metal seemed to merely “melt” back into the flesh revealing a young boy, around sixteen years of age physically. Jackson couldn’t tell what ethnicity he belonged too, for he had tanned skin and thick black hair, yet the palest set of blue eyes Jackson had ever seen. He realized it was stupid to try and compare someone born at the very least forty thousand years ago. Those eyes spoke to the futility of it, Jackson had never seen eyes like that. They were old, so incredibly old, and cold and intense and alien.



Several of the eunuchs brought out a three-foot tray where some kind of device on a tripod rested and suddenly Ra’s accusation made sense and Jackson’s eyes widened as he looked at O’Neill accusingly. “what is that? Is that a bomb? What the hell were you thinking?! Why did you bring that?!” his hushed urgency was cut off by a look of total agony in the Colonel’s eyes and he sighed, stowing his rage for the time being as he looked up to the Throne.



The room was quiet, everyone was either too scared to move or awestruck. Lahm was squeezing Kowalski’s arm like a vice, hoping to snap them both out of whatever held them. But it was O’Neill who made his move.



As soon as “Anubis” knelt in submission to Ra, Colonel O’Neill landed a blow to the side of his head that dropped him. Kowalski dove over Lahm as The Colonel reared on one of the guards and opened fire vaporizing his abdomen and blasting charred bone across the floor. Another turned and began to take aim, without any proper time to think Jackson rose and threw himself in harms way and a pulse of violet energy smashed into his side and he crumbled to the floor, blood erupting from his mouth as he looked down and saw a rib was gone as was a kidney, part of his stomach and his diaphragm and for one grizzly second, he could see his charred lung before he blacked out.



O’Neill didn’t waste time, he rounded on Ra and made to fire only for a dozen children and women to run around him in a great human shield. Jack hesitated, refusing to fire on the children and that moment’s hesitation was enough for “Anubis” to kick Jack in the ribs hard enough to send him sprawling. Recovering the staff, the commander of the alien forces began beating The Colonel over the head. They heard a crunch, blood sprayed, and Lahm was sure he had caved the Colonel’s eye and temple in. A harsh whisper from Ra stopped him in his tracks.



He moved back, afraid as the much smaller “God” rose and began to walk slowly, angled towards the carnage. Lahm was holding Kowalski and the two were crying, mourning the blond haired one no doubt. Ra’s eyes glowed slightly, and he hissed a word of chastisement in ancient Egyptian, one that the two who remained conscious understood to be both reprimanding and consoling, though they weren’t sure how. To their surprise the Sun God knelt by Colonel O’Neill first and touched him on the arm. Some, sort of energy flowed through him and the broken ribs and collapsed eye socket began to mend and knit until there was no sign of injury at all. Ra’s eyes glowed an eerie white and he rose and began walking towards the corpse of Doctor Jackson. Kowalski muttered something like “Leave him alone you son of a bitch!” which seemed to amuse the creature wearing that boy as a skinsuit.



The last thing Doctor Carolyn Lahm remembered was a Amun Ra, the Sun God of Egyptian mythology kneeling and touching Katherine’s medallion and smiling nostalgically.




Jackson was dead, The Colonel was unconscious and for all she knew everyone else was dead. She thought of her father and wished they could be friends again, make up, that she could have her big buddy back and years of baggage between them could go away, she wanted, she wanted Charlie Kowalski to be okay, she wanted everyone to be okay.



She wanted to go home.



Instead, she was sent into unconsciousness.
 

DocSolarisReich

Esoteric Spaceman
Aannnddd we meet the big guy! Also @DocSolarisReich You wanted to know more about the Goa'uld, well I'll reveal a little bit about the system lords.

Or Ra at least.

That subordinate system lord seemed like a competent ruler without any mustachio twirling melodrama. I wonder what caused him to walk into the desert at the end? Sounds like he lost out in a political maneuver at court and decided to die on his own terms.
 

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
That subordinate system lord seemed like a competent ruler without any mustachio twirling melodrama. I wonder what caused him to walk into the desert at the end? Sounds like he lost out in a political maneuver at court and decided to die on his own terms.

Perhaps, or perhaps he got tired of life or perhaps he was seeking ascension.

I'll get into exactly what happened with Sobek later!

Edit- Sobek wasn't a system lord by the way, there are only a handful of system lords and they're the only Goa'uld who call themselves gods. They're special as Ra demonstrated by healing O’Neill without technology.
 
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Chapter 11 – The God and the Scribe

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Alright boys and girls, new chapter up. Ra and Daniel clash, you'll get a little info on the system lords and some commentary from the First Prime of Ra and some info on the Jaffa and how long they live in this setting, Ra's ego and abilities expounded on and a little shoutout to another franchise etc.

Chapter 11 – The God and the Scribe

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Mandjet

Daniel, Daniel.



Grandpa?



Damnit boy, you’ve got work to do, get your ass up out of bed!




Jackson shot up in a panic his ears almost catching on sides of the lid of the sarcophagus like chamber that he’d been placed in. A silken shroud resting over his face caught in his mouth and started to choke when a strong hand caught the back of his head and another pulled away the fabric. Perhaps, this was the feeling every newborn experienced when they breathed in cool air for the first time and felt the nurses intrusive suctioning of mucus and amniotic fluid from the nose. Perhaps this was the unnatural howl of a resurrected man, perhaps so before for a moment he’d felt something warm and then a brutal coldness that overwhelmed him as he awoke inside a tomb filled with an unnatural light. It was wrong, felt wrong, felt oddly seductive and empowering, as the fear of the tomb wore off, he began to feel a rush of energy. The hand that gripped the back of his neck belonged to the most exotic looking woman he’d ever seen. Her hair was long and green, and he could make out what looked like feathers in some parts of her hair, it was done with a gold sash holding it in place, raising it above her back, she was likewise adorned in the headpieces common to depictions of clerics in the temples at Heliopolis. Her skin was a copper color, almost reddish and her eyes were a golden crimson color that made Jackson wonder if this was the first true alien he’d encountered since Ra. As if sensing his thoughts, she smiled and answered in what the Colonel called Space Egyptian that she was “mostly human”. Her companion was an equally attractive female with indigo hair and violet eyes, she too looked mostly human, but Daniel noticed the same features as some of the Abydonians, as if she were descended from other types of hominids as well. He asked her if she could read minds and she shook her head, answering that only Ra possessed such a gift on the Mandjet. “Come, come his eminence, his majestic personage awaits you..come”



Jackson was led from the hall where what they called “the chamber of eternal life” rested and soon found himself accompanied by two boys, each one physically powerful and athletic, each one adorned in a style of armor similar to the Horus headed guards. Their protégé’s perhaps? Replacements? Idly, he fingered the medallion that Katherine gave him, it was still on his person and glowed brighter than ever before as though the days spent here amongst all the mysteries of Abydos had energized its core.



They passed columns and the throne room, arriving a pavilion assembled between the banner of the rising flower and the Scythe, where Jackson beheld two eunuchs preparing tea and Ra himself, shrouded in indigoes and purple, a corset made of threads and lace that looked to be a sort of smart metal and resting upon his slender shoulders a sun affixed between two horns. He looked, beautiful but there was something serpentine about his posture that Daniel Jackson would have found off putting even if he didn’t know what this creature truly was. “I was dead” Jackson said in Space Egyptian and the two girls beside him giggled and Ra turned in a disturbingly feminine way. “Your accent…a..atrocious” It spoke slowly and measured, its voice at once deep and distorted and yet he could hear the soft voice of a child within, a particularly deranged child and it made Jackson shudder.



“You’ve learned my language well” Daniel Jackson responded in English. The being nodded “First, from the minds of the ones called Ferretti and Jen..sen…Not helpful for eloquence” It added with some measured distaste in its tone, its shoulders contorting in a way that made it almost teasing and that only served to make Jackson’s instincts screech at him to run. “But, they served a purpose in the..end” It waved a slender hand, covered in the brass that made him appear statue like towards a table. There Jackson noticed his books, their manuals and some of the research notes and physics papers, history books. “Egypt” Ra murmured. “this civilization of charlatans seems to have stolen my works and passed it off as theirs. I find that amusing, for it was not far from that land where your kind engaged in their blasphemous rebellion.”





That was the chief problem Ra found himself facing. It wasn’t uncommon for a regional governor or a sector administrator or a minor Lord to lose contact with a planet or two, his empire was immense and spanned three galaxies after all. In the intervening millennia those worlds, left to develop on their own either bombed themselves back into ruination, necessitating their eventual deliverance or began to explore their local solar system. Eventually they’d develop crude instruments and determine what the Stargate actually was and open it to explore, seeking new knowledge or new worlds. After many failed attempts (Attempting to use the gate without a proper understanding of its network was dangerous in and of itself), if they survived, they would inevitably find their way to an imperial world and contact would be reestablished. The local minor lords would ascertain which System Lord ruled the domain their homeworld was located in and they almost always made a peaceful integration back into the imperium. There were some exceptions, Ra vaguely remembered Amaterasu ended up having to annihilate a civilization of twelve planets that worshipped empty temples dedicated to Prometheus and Egeria. Typical of Amaterasu that sullen little girl managed to fail at integration so thoroughly that she ended up in the middle of a civil war between homicidal robots and the heretics and glassed those worlds when she failed dismally to put a stop to their conflict. That had been, some four thousand years ago, what a shame. Ra would have liked to see the look on the faces of their leaders when he descended in the Mandjet and announced himself as the father of Egeria and the executioner of Prometheus. But that was Amaterasu, what could one expect from a stupid child who still resented the death of her paramour and kept gigantic apes as her first prime and honor-guard instead of Jaffa. She had been the first System lord born in sixty thousand years, the first one born on earth and the youngest until recently. -thirty-eight thousand years old and still a sullen little girl- Ra thought with disappointment.



He wasn’t sure what he disapproved of more, Egeria’s rebellion or that she fell in love with that depressive animal lover.



Earth was different. It technically rested between one of the borders of his Empire, unclaimed space and protected space and more besides, the parent species were a bunch of ungovernable savages whose ingratitude cost Ra politically as well as personally. While that world had obviously changed much, the fact that this “United States of America” entered into the Stargate with an atomic weapon as a guarantor told Ra that while the peoples and cultures who overthrew him may have been long dead, the spirit of their assertiveness and defiance still resided in abundance in the blood of the humans who remained. The arrival of Tau’Ri back on the scene added to his already sullen mood and he decided to send a message to their homeworld that he would not tolerate their presence amongst the stars. But that still left the impression of the man, Daniel Jackson that Ra had ripped from the mind of the one called Ferretti. That of an inquisitive soul who would have no doubt discovered the underground temple and no doubt told the heresies buried below to the Abydonians.



“Isn’t that why you chose our kind O’great king” Jackson asked, a mix of confusion and awe in his voice. “Because of our resilience”



Ra laughed a cruel laugh in that distorted voice of his and he heard the madness of his host and the ancient alien being within and it terrified Jackson. Ra swayed, sitting across the table and in an almost flirtatious way, snaking towards him. Jackson felt his skin crawl at what was before him, but he didn’t step back. “No, boy, because your bodies are so easy to restore and repair” of course, there were other reasons but Amun Ra would not deign to divulge them to this interloper however much he was amused by him. “My kind are naturally long lived, my breed are virtually immortal, the resurrection chamber stops what little aging we endure and reverses it…we can last forever but the flesh as they say is” Jackson didn’t know when the figure on the table stopped being sprawled out on the table and appeared behind him, but he felt a hand trace his chest and he wanted to scream. “Weak” Ra murmured, this time sounding far too much like a mad child for his liking.



It walked away, beckoning him to follow. “No other species takes to our resurrection technology so readily as our own save yours. Together, I ensured an eternal empire for my species.”



“Why would you tell me any of this?” Jackson asked breathlessly.



The creature shrugged. “Because you will forget most of it, perhaps you will one day work it out as your kind says for yourself and your subconscious may guide yourself to those conclusions again. Because I enjoy toying with you and because I wish you only to remember the part about the weapon and” It paused, effecting a stillness in motion that made it look less like a three dimension, fully living creature and more a drawing cast by some foreign hand. It’s eyes glowed a bright white “And what I intend for you to do with your friends”





……..



He hated these “Marines” as his God Amun-Ra called them. He couldn’t explain why, exactly but he hated them, their audacity perhaps, the fact that they snuck onto a backwater that his great Liege lord and God only visited because it was the first experiment with the ancestors of his host body. Perhaps it was their weaponry, which while primitive and crude was shockingly effective against his men. Perhaps it was because they had wounded his pride when that behemoth of a man let loose with that monstrosity, he held with two arms and all but sawed one of his men in half with metallic projectiles. But he hated them, he especially hated the one who had been healed by Amun Ra. That one, the contemplative baleful gaze, the defiance it reminded him that bastard Warmaster. Yes, he thought, it was the same look Bra’tac had in his eyes as a youth, the weight of the ages in one so young and a grim resolve to rise above any personal loss to be a leader. The bastard upstart had defeated one hundred of the finest warriors in the known universe at the last grand convocation at Helios before Titan’s rebellion and Sek’Het was among them. That had been two centuries ago and though he would one day outlive Bra’tac he would never defeat the old master and that had left him in a sore mood for two hundred years. This, Tau’Ri reminded him too much of his defeat and as he sneered down at O’Neill in his waterfilled prison, and the man looked up at him Sek’Het swore he would not only defeat O’Neill but utterly humiliate and destroy him.



He hadn’t known many of the strange tongue these Tau’Ri spoke, this Yingrush but Amun Ra in his infinite wisdom had mindshared with Sek’Het and taught him enough to read the helpful diagram that came with their atomic weapon, it was enough of the language for him to try and read some of the guttural books, they bored him, but he remembered one word and looking down he flash a sadistic smile and gestured towards what was left of O’Neill’s men



“Wyurr..th..le..esss”



O’Neill without missing a beat flashed some gesture with the middle fingers of both hands in what was no doubt some mongrel’s obscenity and mouthing back. “Fuh-uh-k Youuuuu”



Sek’Het turned and stormed off… Yes, he would kill that bastard.

……..



He’s going to modify my memory? Daniel Jackson thought horrified, leaving enough in his mind that one day he might piece together what was confessed here only to use it when it would likely be too late. It was like some tale from England during the dark ages about the fair folk and how their boons often came at terrible cost. But more than anything, it was what came next that horrified Daniel Jackson.



“Tomorrow, a procession of..my..” his eyes flickered as he seemed to search for the word. “serfs, will come to honor my arrival. It has been some time since our royal presence graced this little world. Tomorrow, you will execute your friends in front of ten thousand Abydonians and you will then return here to serve me for the remainder of your days. Then I shall depart this world, but not before I send your weapon through the Stargate with a shipment of my mineral, it will amplify its effects a hundred-fold.” Ra paused again, canting his head slightly, he had to assume the Tau’Ri had the gate in some location deep underground from the memories he pulled from the minds of what passed for warriors on Tau’Ri. It would likely not be enough to do more than poison the area around the facility, but it would be enough to send a message.



“Why, would I agree to any of this?” Daniel asked, numb from the sheer nonchalance Ra displayed when discussing what amounted to a terror attack on his home planet to send a message to the Whitehouse. Kill his friends? Jackson was horrified, disgusted, why did he think he would do such a thing?



“Because, if you do not. I shall destroy Abydos, there are one hundred million soul’s on this world, and I will make them ash and turn this world into debris in the void. A monument to arrogance of your wretched planet and to the price of defying my will.” It snaked closer to Jackson now, turning in a way that made Ra look more like a figure in an Egyptian temple than a man and he took the medallion in hand and pulled it, yanking the chain loose. “There can be..only..one..” His eyes lit up a blinding white and his cheek seemed to glow an odd blue as his voice let loose a psychic attack nearly shattered Daniel’s psyche “Amun Ra
 
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bullethead

Part-time fanfic writer
Super Moderator
Staff Member
There were some exceptions, Ra vaguely remembered Amaterasu ended up having to annihilate a civilization of twelve planets that worshipped empty temples dedicated to Prometheus and Egeria. Typical of Amaterasu that sullen little girl managed to fail at integration so thoroughly that she ended up in the middle of a civil war between homicidal robots and the heretics and glassed those worlds when she failed dismally to put a stop to their conflict.
I see what you did there.

Also, which three galaxies does Ra rule? Milky Way, obviously, aside from the area that seems to be the equivalent of the Asgard Protected Planets. But what are the other two?
 

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
I see what you did there.

Also, which three galaxies does Ra rule? Milky Way, obviously, aside from the area that seems to be the equivalent of the Asgard Protected Planets. But what are the other two?

Ra is half jerking himself off, the system lords rule about 70% of the milky way Galaxy and then rule a few thousand light-years in the Andromeda Galaxy and Lord Yu/Aker controls the Triangullum galaxy.

He just translates that into "me rule galactic cluster!" Because while he is more pragmatic and far older and more "civilized" than OTL he is still a preening Diva and a self absorbed cunt.

There's also something in the Pegasus Galaxy but that'd be spoiling later chapters and he certainly wouldn't consider himself part of Ras empire and if Ra knew he was alive he'd have found a way to glass every habitable world in Pegasus.

The Asgard are more tolerant of the Goa'uld than in the "prime universe". Because the Ori/Alteran blood feud and something else fucked the known universe up so badly Ra was the closest thing our galactic cluster has had to stability in a million or so years.

Ra has had 3 civil wars in 105,000 years of rule. And I'll get into his war against the alliance of great races...but suffice to say it's a bit more complex as to why that happened.

The Asgard show up to slap them around when they cross certain lines but other than that they've been forced to tolerate the System Lord's because they were the least shitty of a bunch of terrible options...
 
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The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Expect the First volume to conclude either tomorrow the day after!

After that, Apophis makes the mistake of shit talking Hammond of Texas Admiral of the US space force! Then he compounds that Blasphemy by stealing one of his "Guardians".
 
Chapter 12: Opening the ball on a God.

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Alright folks it begins! The March to the fateful rebellion on Abydos.



Chapter 12: Opening the ball on a God.


The Pyramid complex



“All this for us?” O’Neill asked with an amused chuckle as they were led out into the grand courtyard of the pyramid complex, the brilliant silver of the Mandjet shown, almost like a mirror yet oddly reflected no heat. The Dog dude had gone and grabbed him, Ferretti, Lahm, Kowalski, Brown and Simmons who managed to survive despite the grotesque third degree burn on his side from catching a glancing blow from one of those staff guns becoming infected in the damp, waterlogged prison they’d been tossed in. Simmons could barely function though; he was feverish and had to be dragged along by one of the bird space dudes.

“Heh what do you expect Colonel? We’re fuck’n Marines!” Simmons slurred, he was barely aware of his surroundings and his shivering body was probably more grateful for the sun than anything else.

“Ooorah!” Kowalski called out, earning a kick to the ribs from the Dog man who laughed through his cruel mask. “Ooorah” it mocked back and that was probably the moment O’Neill decided that he was going to rip that fucking dog man’s head off and shove a grenade down his neckhole. “Hey, kibbles” O’Neill turned, his eyes a mix of despair induced fury and spite that seemed to match the glow of the helmet’s eyes. “You better not miss” O’Neill was pretty sure the Dog bro didn’t need a translator to get what he meant given he was back handed rather severely.


They were out on their knees, the crowd that had gathered was enormous, it packed the gardens and courtyards, and the noise was such that he suspected thousands more were out and about the pyramid complex in the grass and sands, perhaps going all the way down to the river. Honestly as far as executions went, nothing said “These people are a threat to me” quite like inviting every big wig amongst your subjects to watch some foreigners get got. -He’s not stupid, that thing inside the kid’s skin. He has to know this makes the big time ruler of the space lanes look like a panicky chump-.

Maybe Jackson was right about the rest of his kind so he could get away with this, the last vestiges of a mega power out in the stars. But that was pathetic and while it might have been true. O’Neill had his doubts, so all this fanfare. -Son of a bitch!- Jack found himself laughing “He’s taken it fuck’n personal” Jack muttered. Kowalski turned raising a curious eyebrow “Guy’s not thinking because us Earthlings daring to show our face here after our caveman forefathers shitkicked his crying game ass out of our solar system has pissed him off. He isn’t thinking.”

Damn Jack thought. He’d been wrestling with suicidal thoughts the entire time he was here, then that kid and his old man knocked that out of his system (He owed his daughters an apology for that). And then everything went to hell and he was back to wanting to blow himself up to take out this Ra dude. There would have been no way, realistically that he would have been able to lead even a legion of desert rebels successfully against the calm, collected monarch he saw up there. Had been a dictator on earth, one of the many tinpots in the middle East or the Africa of his early years in the service, O’Neill didn’t want to even think about what it would take to dislodge him. Ra had the aura of a bureaucrat, a governor, an administrator, someone who ruled by the pen and the text message and made them just as deadly as any nuclear weapon. But he was clearly so ticked off by their presence that his big brain got possessed by resentment. -Must have burned a lot of his political capital back then getting overrun by some beast men- Jack thought.


The fact that he was still bent out of shape even now, after forty thousand fucking years was what made it comical. Ra was brilliant, it was obvious even if he did end up being the last of his kind. But that brilliance was not at work against him and his men, now would have been the perfect time to strike, to start something even if they lost out. These people, who’d been enslaved to a monster wearing a boy as a suit for long enough and while it wasn’t in his mandate, O’Neill wished he could do something.

To his surprise, The Dog headed bastard walked out in front of him and stood by one of the many Obelisks in the courtyard. And the gathered crowd began to go from noisy and filled with discourse to hushed silence. In the distance, Ra in all his metallic glory walked forward adorned in crimson robes, a long silk cape trailing behind him, flanked by his usual retinue of eunuchs and scantily clad women and the bird bros. Except, one of the people pushed forward, ahead of the entourage was Daniel Jackson.

“I thought you said the kid was dead?” Ferretti asked before he got kicked again.

“Guess our nerd came back" O’Neill thought aloud.

Ra was as magnificent as usual, and O’Neill got the impression a part of that cynical old demon wanted to do this for the pageantry as much as the vendetta. His eyes darted from Ra towards the crowd, and he could make out Kasuf. Who sitting on a litter born by some of the villages and Daniel’s squeeze and…Skara? His eyes narrowed at the boy, trying to discern of he was carrying any weapons below his robes, when he found the telltale bulge his eyes narrowed protectively. -Damnit kid! I told you not to play with those! - mentally he began berating himself until Jack O’Neill felt a sort of odd twinge in the back of his mind. As if something was pushing against his head and he found himself blinking. Was this what screwed Ferretti up so bad? He sounded half dead last night and now his face was contorted in a mix of rage and shame. “He’s doing it again Sir”

“I know” O’Neill muttered his square jaw clamped as tight as a snapped bear trap. What came next was curious, he didn’t understand the language Ra spoke, nor the words but he didn’t seem to need too. The outrage, the contempt and the narrative was spun more in a sequence of images and O’Neill silently noted not only did the crowd within the court yard but Ra was able to reach the minds of everyone present.

Ten thousand fucking people, he was broadcasting to ten thousand fucking people. He’d silence a crowd with a thought and told a story of depravity, treachery and propaganda, enemy lies and apostacy. About how the Scribe and his warrior chief (O’Neill noted with some smug satisfaction that Dog breath was seething at the honorific.) were sent by the Thunder God who in his hubris and bitterness had never gotten over his defeat at Cimmeria and sought to undermine the faith and the bond of fidelity and honor between Abydos and the All-mighty Ra.

Okay O’Neill had no idea what the fuck Ra was babbling about, and he could tell the man lost some in the crowd who gazed with uncertainty up at their bronze star god. O’Neill saw images, ships that looked like silver hammers locked in a titanic battle with enormous vessels that looked like ancient triremes albeit with engines in the rear instead of oars and what might have been solar sales tucked inside. Given the blank looks on the faces of the crowd, O’Neill was convinced Ra was sending the image solely to himself and his team. The battle was horrific, five thousand space triremes and some weird spearhead shaped vessels and what looked like flying pyramids in a hexagon went up against five hundred of the Hammer ships, space was practically on fire from savagery of the battle and in the end only a lone hammer ship was able to escape. Thousands of Ra’s vessels burned and O’Neill blinked, so there were powers in the stars that could check Ra’s? At least once, the impression O’Neill got from the memory was that it was distant, remote and the sentiment that went with it seemed to imply Ra was virtually unchallenged. O’Neill tried to examine it further, trying to see if that was an accurate picture of his Empire or if it was a visage of what was long ago. In the end he concluded that Jackson was probably right and that Ra was the last of his kind, if that battle was any indication of how that war went then it was likely both sides fought themselves to mutual ruination.

Years later, Jack would find out how wrong his assessment was, but for now he laughed darkly. Ra was good, no Ra was great but like any politician who spent too much time in the offices of power and not enough in the world he had lost most of the crowd with examples of enemies they had forgotten existed.

Senile girly man, if you’re gonna blow up a people’s history and culture you probably shouldn’t evoke the name of some guy they forgot while we were still scratching at your ruins….To justify your over compensation.

What a powerful mind, could that thing read thoughts while broadcasting? He’d torn them from Ferretti’s skull like he was tearing through a wet tissue.


One thing of note, that gave O’Neill hope was that Ra wasn’t able to pick out that Skara and the junior marines were armed and that had prevented Jack from lunging at Ra so that he could force them to kill him before Ra figured the fix was in. He could broadcast thoughts, even custom his speech but he couldn’t read while doing that and when he caught the look of resignation on Jackson’s face O’Neill gestured with his eyes to crowd.


Daniel turned to Ra was made to bow and then he turned to the crowd and caught the glint off O’Neill’s knife which had been gifted to Skara. His eyes sparked with hope and when he turned towards O’Neill instead of blowing the Marines head off, he opened fire the foot of Ra’s throne. The crowd screamed, Ra stood up enraged and Jack thought he saw a sort of bubble of distorted energy around Ra. The “Sun God” was suitably pissed, he hadn’t broken the mental link with the crowd and everyone heard his psionic scream of rage. For some, it was enough to cause them to collapse and beg. For others, they would remember it as the exact moment they realized their God was not a God at all, but something far unnatural. Ferretti was up, lunging towards one the bird guys just as Skara and the others unloaded with automatic fire. Whether they were naturals or just lucky Jack wasn’t sure but one of the other bird dudes got hit by two of the kids unloading from two shotguns and given that it was point blank they sort of turned him into a hollowed out carcass. Dog boy was howling in rage but rushing to flank Ra while a Bird dude smashed Simmons in the back of the head with a metal fist so violently his brain matter splattered on Jack’s face.


Kowalski and Ferretti even Lahm were either lunging at the bird guys or grabbing their discarded side arms or staff weapons and laying into them. This close, it was all they could do to protect their God (Not very godly to need protection) and O’Neill shot up and ordered everyone to run into the crowd.


The chase through the garden happened to fast for Jack to remember, Ferretti managed to fight one of the Bird dudes in hand to hand, throwing him into the space between Ra’s spaceship and the side of the artificial lake slash fountain it’d landed in. It evidently had artificial gravity tech because when the guy fell between the vessel jerked lightly to one side bumping the other end and then on the rebound everyone heard the crunch. Brown caught a staff weapon blast in the chest from behind and his heart burst out of his chest on fire and was dashed into a tree a few feet from Daniel who was hastily flinging a robe over his shoulders. Kowalski, Ferretti and Lahm were already being disguised and Jack, Lumpy and Skara got separated from the group and ended up needing to fight through enraged loyalists among the villagers and one of the bird dudes before they reconnected with the group.

They didn’t cross the river, instead diving into barges that were pulled by a hairless breed of Mastage that looked like an unholy cross between a manatee, a Walrus, a river otter and a dinosaur. They hauled ass, used to pulling tribute in large quantities of food and precious metals the group of twenty kids, Lil’Bit and two other Mastages must have seemed light because they almost tore their bridals pulling them through the water. They were out and away before the enemy combatants could find them. Before Jack knew it, Lahm was cleaning a wound on Skara’s shoulder and the boy gave O’Neill a look that would have made any father proud and certainly any XO. He was contemplative, certainly it was the first time the boy killed anyone. He was also not beating himself up over it, recognizing that it was a him or them situation. O’Neill stayed silent, his mind wandering back to the bomb and Jackson’s accusing look. They traveled for another hour before ending up on the sands, hiking with the Mastages through a sandstorm that brought with a cold harsh enough to make O’Neill’s bones chatter. Jackson nearly collapsed into the freezing sands but Shau’re dragged him forward, a look of passionate resolve on her young face.

His dweeb had become a man!
 
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The Wrath of Ra

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Alright, @DocSolarisReich and @bullethead you wanted more on the Goa'uld and their history? Some of it is alluded too here, including their origin in the universe this fic takes place in. In this gruesome intermission

@Gladiator Would love your input here even if it just to tell me not to quit my day job 377906135971397634.png


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The Wrath of Ra


Mandjet


Sek’Het was nearly eight thousand years old, he replaced Heremur as Ra’s first prime after Heremur grew too old to take more than one or two new hosts. In honor of fourteen thousand years of service Heremur had been allowed to take the body of one of Ra’s child slaves and permitted to retire in wealth and glory on Memphi one of the agro-worlds within Ra’s domain. Without a sarcophagus a Goa’uld of the lower species had a lifespan of about four thousand years, those who were the children of System lords (Like Sek’Het who was the illegitimate product of Ra’s son Osiris making sexual congress with a female from a lesser breed) lived longer, much longer. twenty thousand years, assuming they weren’t born with the gifts of the system lords themselves (Sek’Het much to his ever-lasting shame was not born with the unique abilities and enhanced powers that Amaterasu or Set were born with). Heremur was the bastard son Cronus and lived to a ripe old age keeping his retirement host alive nearly nine centuries before he died quietly in his sleep on the vast estates he’d been granted for his service.

That was a little over seven thousand years ago, this would be Sek’Het’s ninth host. Use of the resurrection and immortality technology was very strictly controlled and only the System Lords themselves had the right to use them from birth. The right to own a resurrection chamber was never reserved for warriors such as himself, but more for scribes, administrators, and scientists. Sek’Het ordinarily didn’t mind this, he served his grandfather happily and with honor. Ra even allowed him to take a wife (Goa’uld Queens were exceedingly rare, but the first queen Mother’s Nu and who ever was the mate of Hathor’s father Tartarus had through immense will modified and repurposed their own offspring, creating male and female Goa’uld.). Though it was exceedingly rare for a coupling with a female who wasn’t a queen to produce more than one or two viable children, he’d been hoping to ask his grandfather for his blessing and the right to procreate.

Or he would have, after the execution of that damn Muir-yn, that one irked him more than the scribe who received the honor of resurrection (Sek’hat had become violently angry when his grandfather ordered him to dump the scribe in the chamber), who reminded him too much of the one stain on his otherwise flawless record, his defeat in a contest of cunning and skill and strength against Bra’tac. Ra was usually in a foul mood when the topic of the Tau’Ri came up, foul enough that Sek’Het was afraid Ra would destroy this planet just because Tau’Ri had set foot on it. But being able to send a message and execute some of them seemed to bring out lighter spirits in the old God. Ra had even invited him to take breakfast with him at his table. Sek’Het had only been granted that honor twice before. He was planning to make his request that day and then that damned Scribe and those impudent children! And the damned commander who managed to cause the death of even more of his men had ruined it all.


“Why weren’t they screened?!” Ra queried, his voice deep, menacing and frighteningly cavaliere. That was what made Sek’Het truly afraid. Ra was never one for open emotional outbursts unlike Zeus whose tirades were legendary and had nearly gotten him hauled before Ra for treason more than once. Yet today, at the ambush, the outburst, that psychic scream of rage terrified Sek’Het to the point where he wanted to put a staff weapon to his mouth and end it.

He came to the royal chambers, fully expecting to be slaughtered by his own grandfather. The question would have been absurd on any other day, when Ra did these century long imperial progresses, it was ordinarily up the local Governors and the First Prime of whatever system lord ruled those systems to see to it. Though, in the eight thousand years Sek’Het had worn the mantle Anubis he had never once experienced an issue with security until the Titan’s revolt over a century ago. Abydos fell under the Jurisdiction of Sobek, a territorial governor under Hathor who ruled this region of Ra’s domain in his name, which meant as First Prime security fell to him, but Abydos was a backwater, its people rustic even by the standards of some of the most backwards parts of the Empire. Furthermore, when the City of Lantesh had rebelled (And had the misfortune of engaging in their idiocy when Amun Ra had come on his imperial progress), Sek’Het had so thoroughly crushed the rebellion in Ra’s name that they hadn’t even bothered to try and rebuild in the ruins, such was their fear. Sek’Het never understood why Ra came here, Sobek had apparently killed himself thirty years ago, no one even realized it such was the irrelevancy of the worlds he ruled not until six years ago. Hathor could have been more vigilant of her holdings, but the role of Imperial chamberlain meant she dealt with the administrative duties of the Empire for Ra and that meant she barely left Dakkara anymore.

His master, his Grandfather, his God was placed in danger for nothing but a sense of nostalgia he couldn’t comprehend.


“I had advised them to use different protocols, to search all who would enter the main garden complex, your Majestic Eminence. “He bowed deeply, Amun Ra’s blood was up and the room seemed to shudder at the measure of his rage.

“You advised?” Ra asked, his tone caused Sek’Het to hope the Sun God would remember their shared DNA and kill him quickly.

“I did, Majestic Eminence. I should have ordered it, but Tau’Ri and on Abydos?! I, we”

“Peace! Grandson!” Ra spoke, it was rare for Amun Ra to address him with such familiarity, unsure whether to lower his guard or panic Sek’Het gazed at him confused. The God’s back was turned to Sek’Het, but the First Prime could tell Ra was reaching into an ornately carved box to retrieve a velvet glove, studded with jewels and threaded with metal “yarn”. While other Goa’uld would have needed a version of the hand device that was more of a weapon that was fueled by the Naquadah and other rare superconducting elements in the blood of the Goa’uld, the wrist devices used by System lords were more a focus for their inborn psionic powers. Ra, who was the most powerful of them all and one of the nine warriors arrayed here was about to experience that power firsthand.

“It’s absurd enough that Abydos would rebel against me twice, it was beyond the scope of fantastical indulgence to assume it would be at the hands of Tau’Ri agitators” Amun Ra reassured him, there was genuine affection in his voice. The Sun God could still care for his subjects, that was what made his ability to kill without hesitation all the more horrific. Ra could love you unconditionally, as he had with Egeria if the legends are to be believed and yet he still tortured his own daughter to death. “But, I do not..Appreciate that you were the only one to recognize how unusual this was” . He turned, his long silky black hair shimmering with the precious dust from precious gems slicked into it. His posture became somewhat feminine, and he held his gloved hand close to his chest. “How did they escape?” he asked at last.


A dark-skinned Jaffa named Rornac answered that some of the kids from Nagada were helping them.


Slowly, Ra nodded.

A thought perhaps more absurd than anything that had transpired today entered Sek’Het’s mind, what if the Commander managed to rally the peasants here? What if he got them to rush the pyramid compound, had that not been how Ra was driven off Tau’Ri in the first place? “Majestic Eminence, should you not make preparations to depart? Leave me here with a thousand Jaffa and I”

Ra turned to him affixing him with that cold stare and a vision of Egeria’s death played out before him and Sek’Het wanted to vomit. The message clear, he held his tongue and chose to ignore his instincts. -I’ll have to hunt down that Commander myself- Sek’Het thought, he would not rest until that bastard was in his grave.


The Sun God’s hand slid from his chest and fell limply at his side as he seemed to sway backwards, an uncomfortable reminder of what they truly were. “Children and Tau’Ri vermin using crude projectile weapons, have undermined me. I, Amun Ra! Who led the rebellion against the Ori! Who slew the last of their kind! I who united the races of the Goa’uld! I who held noble Anubis as he died, a victim of treachery! And I who cast the nameless one into the void! Amun Ra! Who took a cosmos ruined by ten million years of war and beset by anarchy and at the mercy of barbarians and built out from it an empire!” He hissed, the last bit, his disembodied voice echoing about the entirety of the Mandjet “Amun Ra! The ever living, the master of death! He who owns the stars! The God of Gods, the Most High, the exalted! I am undermined by interloping terrorists and peasants!” the air grew cold, and the air began to taste metallic and Sek’Het noticed something sparked in Ra’s gloved hand.


“Undermined because my Jaffa have forgotten how to be adaptive” He threw his gloved hand forward, Toralak a new Jaffa whose father was of the legendary Kordai plains on Chulak. The poor Jaffa let out a scream as an unseen force launched him into a column, the violence being enough to crack ribs and rupture his pouch. That alone was enough to kill him, as the symbiote within would have likely been killed by the concussive force, but Ra wasn’t willing to wait until he died of his injuries! Ra walked towards the gasping, mangled Jaffa and his shadow seemed to take up the entire Throne Room. Ra knelt and rested the gloved hand upon the warrior’s head and all around the room strings of energy seemed to be drawn towards Ra whose eyes glowed.


Only the System Lords held the right to be called Gods, only the System Lords were worshipped as Gods, all the others were merely seen as demigods, immortals and spirits given flesh.


The poor warrior began to seize as arcs of energy flew out of the palm of Ra’s hand, the spasming of the warrior below was accompanied by the splitting of the scalp as it peeled back, skin roasting from the heat within. The skull cracked yet it did not explode, as the spine began to glow and flesh began to split seemingly along seams.

Only the System Lords could be worshipped as Gods.


But as Sek’het stared at the heap of ash and carbonized bones that remained when Amun Ra rose from his position beside the corpse, he wondered if the most dangerous branch of the Goa’uld species wasn’t something else entirely.



Ra inclined his head slightly eyes glowing. “Tomorrow, they will bring tribute and their quota of Naquadah, I will depart on the rest of my progress” reaching into the sleave of his left arm Ra pulled out the medallion he’d taken from Daniel Jackson and he extended his arm towards Sek’Het “Take this, it belonged to my first Priest, a warrior from a tribe of sloping browed savages on Tau’Ri, before Anubis convinced me to permit him and Apophis to create the Jaffa. Yu made it, he said it would replicate a facsimile of our kind’s regenerative powers. A poor facsimile, but it allowed them to live long enough to serve me for a century or so. It was a sign of my authority on Tau’Ri, I believe it is fitting that you should kill their world’s First Prime bearing the badge of office his forefathers so coveted”


Sek’Het, feeling some of his confidence restored, took the necklace and bowed. “Majestic Eminence, I will slaughter them all in your name and send the device through the stargate myself when you command it so”

“Of course, have I not decreed that it shall be so?” Amun Ra turned and departed towards the pleasure gardens in the lower levels of the Mandjet.


The System Lords were worshipped as Gods, they called themselves such.

Sek’Het was once again reminded why.
 
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