Wait, don't run, I was joking (although there is some of the latter...).
More seriously, this is my first (and, to date, only) entry into fanfic and generally into creative writing. It was published originally on "another" forum, then on FF.net. I have recently gone through the first chapters again and it's an edited version, although not rewritten. I hope I've been improving on the way. I'll be posting chapters 1 to 11 (12 is under way).
Enough with the babble. Enter the lions !
Chapter 1 : A snake running with its tail between its legs
The system was very ordinary. An average, yellow star, a few gas giants with assorted moons, one of those being in the temperate zone and enjoying an inhabitable climate and breathable nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. The system was fairly rich in naquadah ore, and therefore a few thousand laborers mined the habitable moon's soil for a minor Goaul'd lord. Unfortunately, Karl'ac, as the Goaul'd in question was named, had chosen the (currently) losing side in the latest System Lord wars opposing Anubis and the Apophis-Yu alliance. As usual in that kind of war, the System Lords were much more inclined to attack and capture the systems owned by small fry like Karl'ac than their powerful opposite's. It was all part of the game, as alliances between the notoriously self-centered System Lords had only existed, since times immemorial, to keep galactic powers in balance.
Anubis' mysterious return from the dead (of course, Gods don't die, do they) with power and technology previously unseen among the Goaul'd had logically met a coalition of System Lords, of which Apophis and Yu were the leaders, with Baal keeping slightly apart, counting points and occasionally grabbing crumbs off the cake.
For Karl'ac, it had been an unmitigated disaster. He'd lost 3 of his 4 systems in the fights, his fleet was down to his command Hatak (an obsolete one at that), a handful of bombers and some depleted Death Glider squadrons. His remaining Jaffas were pretty demoralized, and some traitors had actually defected to Anubis. His First Prime, Chu'rel, was still loyal as far as he knew, but couldn't hide his pessimism. Karl'ac didn't even feel angry against him, as any sane Goaul'd would. He was too conscious of the realities of the situation and didn't even feel like torturing a few slaves for fun. He was currently sitting on his throne in the bridge of his Hatak orbiting the moon, trying to look bored and unconcerned and failing to.
“First Prime ! What's the status on my forces ?”
”My Lord, our remaining ships and Jaffas are prepared to die in combat, but I must respectfully advise a retreat if we're attacked. Anubis' fleet in this sector is too powerful, and we won't be able to stop it if they come in force here.”
Karl'ac almost winced. He knew it perfectly well of course, but he was still a God, even if a minor one, and couldn't afford to look defeated. On the other hand... he was pretty much defeated already, and all that was left was the mopping up. The next battle would probably see him either destroyed or fleeing, a homeless Goaul'd in an unforgiving galaxy. For a fleeting instant, Karl'ac contemplated running to the Asgard and asking them for protection... now that would be amusing, he thought. Never mind that they'd probably just vaporize him with one of their death rays. He snorted.
“My Lord ?” inquired Chu'rel.
“Never mind, First Prime... If the enemy comes, we will give them a taste of their own blood !” and then be reduced to atomic vapor, he didn't add, although he could see that Chu'rel was hiding his own doubts.
The gloomy thoughts were interrupted by a cry from on of the bridge Jaffas. “Ships exiting hyperspace ! Sensors count two, three... My Lord, there are five Hataks !”
“Jaffa ! Are they enemy ?” asked Chu'rel.
“Affirmative, First Prime ! Their signatures match those of Anubis' ships... the same ones that we fought in the Mandji system !” and which gave us a pasting, the Jaffa operator didn't quite said.
“Ra's feces ! This is not good” thought Karl'ac. “Jaffas ! Prepare to fight and destroy the attackers !” he said in his best command voice, eyes flashing. “Launch the Death Glider squadrons and have them in a supporting formation. Prepare the bombers for attack runs on the lead enemy ship !”
“Jaffa, Kree !”
On their lord's command, the Jaffas jumped into action. Bombers launched from the moon's surface, gliders catapulted from the Hatak's hangars and blossomed into a fighter screen, hoping to catch enemy small craft before they could reach striking distance. Teams of Jaffas ran to their combat stations, as gunners, damage control or counter-boarding squads.
“Incoming transmission, My Lord !”
“Put it through.” I already know what it's going to be, anyway... mused Karl'ac.
A female face appeared on the screen. Oh great, it's that bitch Nirrti, thought Karl'ac. I bet she fucked Anubis to get this command. Well, provided Anubis even has a dick any more, contemplated Karl'ac. Whatever happened to him and gave him his new powers, didn't leave him much in the way of flesh.
“Karl'ac, you worthless worm, surrender at once and maybe I won't cut your balls and feed them to my pet Unas !” barked the goddess Nirrti without preamble.
Ever the lady, mused Karl'ac while considering his answer.
“Did the Naquadah-powered dildo Anubis gave you actually scramble your brains ? Or are you just mad that you can't suck his non-existent cock ? he replied in a contemptuous tone. Chu'rel and the other Jaffas internally winced. They could do nothing but fight to the death now. No way Nirrti would spare them torture and certainly a fate worse than death if captured.
Her face certainly expressed her furor, eyes flashing madly and features contorted in a snarling mask of unbridled rage.
“You filth ! You will die, I will flay you alive, all of you, then morph you into unrecognizable blobs of living rotten flesh ! Your bowels will be cut off to feed my...” her rant was interrupted as Karl'ac cut off the transmission. His Jaffas looked up at him, awaiting orders.
“Attack !”
“Kree, Jaffa !”
A stand-up fight was hopeless, one obsolete Hatak against five. A running battle was out of the question as well, as they could accelerate faster and had started with superior velocity anyway, while he was essentially immobile in orbit. They would overtake and envelop him, then pound his ship to dust. Fleeing was dubious, they would track him in hyperspace. Unless...
“Jaffa ! Set a direct course to the system's primary, maximum acceleration ! Order our gliders to...”
Karl'ac's Hatak leapt out of orbit, engines straining to accelerate the ponderous ship. Bombers and gliders followed behind, easily keeping pace. Nirrti's ships shifted course and raced to catch up while disgorging shoals of gliders and attack craft.
“Jaffa ! Time until we reach the star ?”
“Fifteen minutes, my Lord !”
It was going to be close, reflected Chu'rel. Nirrti's ships would be in range in no more than thirteen minutes, and her attack craft were already approaching their own screen. Well, they'd be in for a surprise.
200 000 klicks behind, Nirrti's lead Jaffa pilot was barking orders and urging his subordinates forward, 500 gliders in a close wall formation, Tel'tac bombers following behind. They would slice through Karl'ac's meagre fighter screen and swarm his Hatak, softening it before the main force got in range. It was almost unnecessary, so outclassed it was, but a Jaffa was always glad for the opportunity to fight for his Goddess. What he couldn't have foreseen was that Karl'ac, while utterly outpowered by his opponent's massive forces, had exercised a little creativity since his last losing battle, when attack crafts had similarly swarmed his ships.
“Enemy fighters approaching range, my Lord !” “Fine... prepare to fire a salvo and have our bombers coordinate their own fire.” “Jaffa... 4... 3... 2... 1... Fire main cannons !”
Karl'ac's gunners opened fire with the main antiship guns, sending powerful particle plasma bursts towards the enemy formation. As the shots passed through the screen, his bombers added their own fire, shooting energy torpedoes normally intended for anti-ground or anti-ship duty in a precise time on target salvo. Such fire was normally be no threat to nimble fighter craft, and their opponents got slightly puzzled at the apparently stupid move. There was no way any of them would actually be hit, after all. Just a slight maneuver pushed any craft threatened directly out of the line of fire.
“Pretty fireworks, eh ? Nice of Karl'ac's lackeys to entertain us !” snickered Nirrti's glider leader to answering laughs from his subordinates.
They didn't know and never considered the possibility that Karl'ac had found a way to degrade the plasma containment field o an energy cannon in a controlled manner, and that the combined salvoes racing towards their formation had been timed to lose containment exactly at the precise moment they would fly in the middle of it.
One moment there was a wall of Gliders, the next, space was raped by actinic flashes of energy detonations, capital plasma shots liberating energy intended to overpower a Hatak's shield in the middle of unshielded craft. The flak pattern ravaged the tightly grouped squadrons, vaporizing hulls and Jaffas alike before they could scream and blinding the bombers following them. Which meant they got caught with their pants down when Karl'ac's gliders tore into them right on the heels of the devastating flak strike.
It was a master stroke. Nirrti's bombers, stripped of their fighter cover and too far from their own Hataks' support fire, were overwhelmed by gliders intent on getting payback for their previous defeats. Thirty seconds after the initial anti-fighter strike, all of Nirrti's bombers were either destroyed or fleeing with debilitating damage. In the Hatak's bridge, Karl'ac and his command team could hear the Glider pilots cheering and hollering, taunting their running opponents.
Karl'ac was quite pleased, but he knew his success didn't change the fact that he was outgunned. The enemy ships were creeping up, and they would soon be in range. They were already opening their formation in order to outflank him. Well, there wasn't much he could do against it. They'd just have to hold until...
“Enemy ships in range, my Lord ! They're firing at us !”
“Order our bombers and gliders to attack the leading Hatak on the right flank ! Return fire, concentrate on the designated ship !”
The plan was for the attack crafts to take out weapon emplacements and weaken the shields on the outermost Hatak, chosen so it couldn't get supporting defensive fire from its mates and hopefully reduce losses among its small attackers. It was a good plan, the best they could do. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Karl'ac could only watch on the display as his last pilots sacrificed their lives, merely scratching the paint and silencing a few secondary cannon emplacements in return. He winced internally as the last bomber exploded, its shielding as much paper against a Hatak's main battery.
“Praise, my brave Jaffas ! They fought well and I, your God, will richly reward them in the afterlife !” he boasted.
Several thoughts crossed his Jaffa's minds at the moment, like “Yeah, right” “Fuck me with a staff” “We're so screwed” or “I wonder if Nirrti will cut my dick or my balls first”. All very improper thoughts for Jaffas, of course. But they didn't think it would matter much longer as all five enemy ships started firing at the lone Hatak fleeing like a virgin during Chulak's fertility festival.
The Hatak shuddered as the first blasts hit its shields, joined by more, many more, until everyone aboard had to grab handholds to avoid falling as the ship heaved and pitched violently, rocked by the powerful blasts impacting it every second and straining the inertial compensators.
“Jaffa, report !” barked Chu'rel. “Shielding at 40% and falling ! 30% ! We're getting fire through... Hull breach ! We're losing air in several decks !”
All around, Jaffa damage control teams were scrambling in sealed armor, desperately trying to patch holes and repair energy conduits to keep their own guns firing – not that they made much difference.
“Time to the sun's chromosphere” asked Karl'ac. “15 seconds my Lord... it's going to be close ! We're losing shields !” The Hatak's external hull was now glowing in several places, ragged holes blasted into the strong Trinium alloy, air escaping along with the broken bodies of the Jaffas unlucky enough to stand at the wrong place at the wrong time.
“We're entering the sun's chromosphere... heat and radiation increasing inside the ships, my Lord ! The outer hull is melting ! We won't hold long !”
“Prepare to open an hyperspace window on my command !”
Karl'ac's Hatak was now a ball of fire plunging in the star's atmosphere, trailed by heavy bolts of energy. Inside the bridge, the temperature was reaching temperatures usually found in a cooking oven, and the ship's structure was creaking and groaning, loud booms signaling whole sections of hull plating popping out to be consumed on the inferno.
“We're losing the enemy ship on sensors, my Lady ! The star is interfering with our tracking !” advised Nirrti's First Prime. “Wait... is it breaking up ? The sensor readings are confusing -” “First Prime, I read a hyperspace window opening inside the star !” shouted another Jaffa. “I can't track it... too much interference !”
Nirrti's mood went from triumphant to fuming. That cursed little worm Karl'ac was escaping ! Here rage needed an outlet. Screaming imprecations, she raised her jeweled palm and blasted the offending Jaffa. He flew in a bulkhead, and she stepped forward. “Worthless traitor ! You let the enemy escape !” She proceeded to fry his brain until blood poured out of his nostrils and his eyes popped out of their orbits. She turned towards the rest of her terrorized bridge crew and thundered, eyes flashing “This is the fate of those who fail their Goddess ! Let it be a lesson for you !”.
With no mean of tracking where Karl'ac's battered Hatak went, the five ships turned around and headed back to the inhabited moon. Time for the laboring slaves to start fearing their new Goddess.
Chapter 2 : To boldly go where no snake...
Space ripped and whirled above the reddish planet. The blueish blossom of an incoming hyperspace vortex opened and closed immediately, leaving a battered and mangled ship behind. Karl'ac's vessel really didn't look much like a Hatak any more. Huge chunks of the hull were missing, its weapon emplacements and most sensor arrays were slagged or outright ripped out, Death Glider hangars had lost their doors and atmospheric containment, their interiors were charred by enemy fire and the star's incandescent atmosphere. Battle damage had opened whole decks to space, and their corridors had been flushed by superheated gas incinerating any living thing down to bacteria. In the remaining areas, lights were flashing intermittently and damage control teams raced to replace shattered control crystals, rescue comrades trapped behind sealed blast doors, and repair vital environmental systems. Tasks made more difficult by the gravity plating being off in several sections, which left Jaffas trying to swim around and curse the lack of handholds in a Hatak's interior passages.
“Jaffa ! Report !” barked the Goaul'd Lord.
“My Lord, according to preliminary reports, hull integrity is 40% with many decks open to space, we're still venting air although we're getting it under control, shields are down with no hope of repair, the hyperdrive is inoperative and we lost most of our maneuvering ability.”
“Weapons ?”
“We don't have any small craft remaining, we lost every capital cannon emplacement, and all we have left are two point defense guns in local control, as the main gunnery directors are offline.” concluded Chu'rel.
A naked Unas flinging rocks could bring us down, reflected Karl'ac. The Goaul'd hoped his desperate hyper-jump in the middle of a star had indeed been untraceable. Not only was his ship half-melted, but the hyperdrive had probably given up the ghost. He couldn't escape the system. Which brought him to the next question...
“First Prime, do the sensors recognize the star configuration ?”
“Yes, my Lord. We have travelled man hundred light years outwards the galactic arm, out of the contested zone. Uh oh... the navigation computer says this system's name is “Tauri” and it belongs to the god Ra, my Lord !” finished Chu'rel with a surprised look on his normally unflappable face, which meant he had a raised eyebrow.
Karl'ac's mind went churning. Ra's territory ! No one, not even Anubis, had encroached there, so strong was the Supreme God's aura, even after he mysteriously and abruptly retired from the galactic scene. Oh, sure, some enterprising minor Goaul'd had tried to do a little grabbing on the fringe of his space, in the first centuries after Ra had stopped sending invitations for his decadent orgies, about four thousand standard years ago. No one had heard of them any more. For all intents and purposes, the Goaul'd had been treating the whole area as a no man's land ever since. You did not want to incur Ra's wrath. He was, after all, the father of the Goaul'd civilization and that deserved some measure of respect, even among the congenitally scheming, deceiving, backstabbing and treacherous System Lords.
It also meant that Karl'ac had to step carefully. For all he knew, the sector could be crawling with unstoppable self-replicating robots bent on eating everything organic. Now that was a funny idea. Well, maybe not.
In any case, the fact that this system was once part of Ra's interstellar dominion meant one thing, and the thought made Karl'ac hopeful. There might well be a Chappai. He wouldn't be stuck, he could escape towards familiar territory... by Isis' tits, there might even be some leftover technology laying around for the picking !
Karl'ac's rosy thoughts were interrupted by his First Prime.
“My Lord, we have further assessed the inner system. Please bear in mind that our sensors are crippled and not performing at their optimum, but we didn't find any trace of naquadah. The system is undoubtedly inhabited. We have detected settlements both on the closest planet, and on the inner one, which has an breathable atmosphere. There are also primitive starships that don't even appear shielded. No trace of subspace communications... My Lord, whoever those people are, they are pathetically weak and ripe for the picking !”
“Excellent, my faithful servant...” Karl'ac smirked “Set a course to that third planet, it's the most likely location for a Chappai !”
The Jaffa crew resumed their activity, sending the ponderous half-wreck towards the tiny blue beacon of hope.
They didn't notice the heavy bursts of radio and laser energy directed from the red planet to the blue one. Those means of communication were too limited and primitive to have even caught their attention, had the Hatak's sensors been fully operational. Besides, the locals could panic all they wanted, it wouldn't change anything to their eventual enslavement to the god Karl'ac. And the Jaffa crew hadn't cleaned their tubes for ages.
As the ship set towards its destination, both the Goaul'd and his First Prime wore smug airs of satisfaction.
***
Anticipation was running high on the Goaul'd Lord Karl'ac's last remaining Hatak – or what was left of it. He might be able to build a Death Glider out of the salvaged functioning parts and fly it through the Chappai... if there was any.
The Hatak settled at last in a high orbit over the planet and the sensor operator strained on his instruments, trying to pick up any trace of naquadah that would indicate either a Chappai or Goaul'd technology. Suddenly, a loud bang resonated on the hull and made everyone aboard jump out of their armor.
“Jaffa ! Report at once ! What was that noise ?” exclaimed Karl'ac.
The sensor Jaffa looked at his screen in trepidation, then steadied himself and looked up with a slightly more composed face. “My Lord, it appears that our hull was hit by a large rock or debris. There are many objects floating in orbit... looks like some largish things got smashed not too long ago here.”
“Anything else, Jaffa ?”
“Affirmative my Lord ! Some of the objects in orbit are definitely active... they're changing trajectory... Lord, they're slow... They're using... chemical reaction thrusters ?” Unbelievable ! thought Karl'ac. The locals were using primitive technology, they wouldn't be difficult to subjugate and ply into obedient, god-fearing subjects. Perfect.
It was just then that the first laser struck. On a shielded Hatak, it would barely have registered as a pinprick, but the last battle had been a thorough thrashing. High energy pulse lasers and now kinetic impactors made the hull ring and tore holes in the weakened trinium alloy armor plates.
“My Lord, some of the large orbital platforms are firing on us ! And the maneuvering crafts are matching our orbit... they're on an intercept course to hit us !”
“Jaffa, fire ! Destroy them ! Prioritize those weapon platforms !”
The Hatak's two surviving cannons spat energy bolts towards the closest attacking battlestation, an ugly slab-sided construct covered in drab grey material, whose pulse laser was digging holes dangerously close to the main naquadah reactor. The first bolts missed, then the Jaffa gunners corrected and the next volley blew chunks off the station's covering. A few more volleys ablated the grey armor in clouds of rocky dust, then a fresh one hit bare metal with devastating results. Whatever those people used to build their battlestations, it wasn't as strong as trinium. The metallic shell was pierced, atmosphere and coolant vented explosively, shoving its muzzle away. Its last laser pulse went wide, before a last canon blast on the weakened section triggered secondary explosions that made it fall silent.
Inside the small armored capsules next to the guns, the Jaffa gunners hollered and switched their aim . “For our God Karl'ac ! Kree !” Unfortunately, their fire had revealed them as priority targets as well, and the attackers were already switching their bombardment. A first laser found its mark, then a second. The temperature started to climb in the gunnery capsules as the exterior plating turned dark then cherry red. In less than fifteen seconds, the air inside reached the water boiling point and the Hatak's fire started to falter as the Jaffa gunners now breathed with difficulty. Another twenty seconds later, their skin was blistering, their own armor was reaching critical temperature, cooking the flesh inside. Their lungs burned and they began to suffocate. The first gun fell silent, its Jaffa servants unconscious, soon to be dead. A last stubborn Jaffa clung to his firing controls until they no longer worked, his exposed skin blackened and blistered, pieces of his armor burning through his flesh until they reached the bone. He finally expired, the obscene hole of his charred mouth opened in a last snarl of defiance, eyes burst and melted in their sockets. The intense heat eventually became too much and both cannon emplacements exploded outwards, shoving glowing superheated debris into space.
The Hatak was now defenseless, and the battlestations relented. Their fire was not hitting the ship any more, but another danger was creeping closer.
“My Lord, those craft are decelerating – they'll come to a rest close to us ! Sire, I believe they will board the ship !”
Karl'ac's mind worked furiously. He hadn't escaped the wrath of Nirrti in order to die at the hand of primitives !
“Jaffa ! Can we maneuver ?”
“Impossible, my Lord, our engines are destroyed ! We're dead in space !”
His Jaffas were frantic, but showed no sign of panic. Good.
“My Lord, I found something ! There's a Chappai down there ! Its naquadah signature is unmistakable. And I believe there are ring transporters as well !”
Ah, things are looking up at last, a relieved Karl'ac thought briefly, before giving new orders. “Jaffas ! All surviving personnel are to converge in the ring transporter room. Set the main reactor to overload and prepare to abandon the ship !”
As the orders were relayed inside the vessel, damage control teams stopped trying to repair systems and instead rushed to free their comrades trapped in locked compartments, while other collected all the weapons and survival equipment they could carry and headed to the transporter room. On the bridge, the operators shot up every station with staffs and zats, preventing anyone from accessing them again. Upon Karl'ac's confirmation, the self-destruct had been activated with a ten minute countdown.
A first squad of Jaffa in fully enclosed armor stepped into the perimeter before their leader activated the rings. They worked flawlessly, sending them downwards towards the planetary surface and whatever awaited there.
Ten long seconds later, the leader called and gave an all-clear signal for the evacuation. Groups of Jaffa proceeded to beam down in orderly fashion. It took seven minutes until the last group remaining on the doomed Hatak was Karl'ac himself, his First Prime and his four bridge operators. As they stepped into the rings, they heard several loud clangs resounding across the empty, open corridors, followed by the drumming of feet that indicated boarders.
“Hope they enjoy the present we left them” smirked Karl'ac before activating the rings, his Jaffas grinning along.
Thousands of kilometers above the planet's atmosphere, an ancient, battered, ruined Hatak and the small stubby parasites that had latched themselves to its bulk disappeared in an eye-searing silent explosion, leaving a scattering of debris, not one bigger than a hand, to impact other objects in orbit or burn up on reentry.
Chapter 3 : In the snake's lair
“This way, my Lord !”
Have I gone blind ? thought Karl'ac. No, it was only pitch black. He groped blindly and felt one of his Jaffas grab his arm and lead him away from the transporter. He had to walk carefully on the slightly irregular stone surface. He took a breath, and the next moment exploded in a fit of coughing. “I'm sorry, my Lord, there's obviously a lot of dust here and our arrival disturbed it”, explained the Jaffa. “My helmet enables me to see in the dark, but...”
“Right, Jaffa...” The Goau'ld brushed away some of the dust from his tunic. “What else can you tell me ?”
“My squad checked the immediate area for threats and found none. We're apparently inside a temple, and from the look of the hieroglyphs around, it was one of Ra's. There are many rooms beyond, but we haven't gotten to exploring them yet” concluded the warrior.
Karl'ac was puzzled. From the look of things, this temple had fallen out of use a long time ago. He hoped they would find something useful, beginning with light. He couldn't do anything blind though.
“Jaffa, give me your helmet” “At once, my Lord !” He heard the metallic clanging of the retracting helmet, then felt the Jaffa fumble around and place the thing in his hands. Putting it over his own head, Karl'ac then pressed the switch and the shell deployed in place. He could see at last. Most of his Jaffas were standing around, not moving lest they trip or bump each other. The room he was in was medium sized, and a bit congested right now. There was a passageway in the far wall, obviously leading to the rest of the temple.
His visual scan finally found what he was looking for, a particular pattern of glyphs carved in the stone wall. He strode there and waved his hand device over it. He was pleased to see a panel of stone start to move and recede into the wall, leaving a set of controls in view. He pushed the largest one, a red crystalline square. Nothing happened for the next seconds, then, just as he started to fret, a buzzing sound came out of the panel, and feeble light came into being, weakly illuminating the room. He could see his Jaffas stand to attention, eyes on him, their God and leader. He switched the helmet back in stowed position and handed it back to the warrior it belonged to.
“Now let's see what else we can find.”
The next room was small and empty, nothing more than an anteroom for the transporter. Karl'ac ordered a squad to stay there and keep an eye on the ring room. The rest followed him along a low dark corridor decorated by the ubiquitous glyphs extolling the feats and glory of the god Ra. They climbed up a short flight of stairs into a much larger room, with a high ceiling supported by stone pillars at two meter intervals. It was square, about 40 meters per side, with a doorway set in the middle of each wall. Karl'ac had arrived from the southern one. Upon reaching the centre of the room, he paused, his Jaffas in tow.
“Chu'rel, take twenty Jaffas and head to the North passage. I will explore the Western one and you will accompany me” He gestured to another group of warriors. “The rest of you will investigate the Eastern one. Kree !”
The three groups parted and went their separate ways. Karl'ac marched through another low corridor and emerged into another stone room. The first sight he caught there made him smile : the Chappai was here ! The unmistakeable dark gray circle was standing in the middle of the room, slightly elevated on a flight of wide steps. He approached to see better in the gloom, then stopped, almost paralyzed, a look of disbelief on his face, his Jaffas murmuring behind him. By Hathor's cunt, this was unfair. He had escaped death at the hands of Nirrti's superior fleet, burrowed into a star, made it out of his destroyed ship by the skin of his teeth and now this twice-cursed Chappai had a broken dialing stand. He looked closer. The big red dome was smashed, some keys had been bashed out and broken crystals laid at the device's feet. All of it was covered in a thick layer of dust. No way to repair it out of the material he had, especially since he wasn't an expert on this particular technology.
Karl'ac was pondering the implications of the Chappai's state of disrepair when a Jaffa ran in the room, came to attention and bellowed “My Lord ! Our First Prime found something ! He calls for you to please come and look !”
Judging from the warrior's precipitation, it had to be something important. “Lead me there, Jaffa !”
They came back through the central hall then turned north, stomped through an unremarkable corridor and emerged in a richly decorated room. Even in the dim artificial glowlight, the glitter of gold-plated walls and precious stones was dazzling. There were even richly carved pieces of furniture, but Karl'ac finally saw what had made Chu'rel send for his God and had every Jaffa present gaping.
There on the royal bed, obviously made by the best artisans of Ra's time, fine wood, ivory and gemstones, and sculpted corner stands, laid a body. Even under the eon-long dust, the outfit was recognizable. It was Ra... but it was impossible ! Karl'ac came closer until he could see the head. It was desiccated and bore little resemblance to the former Supreme System Lord. Karl'ac bent in order to look at the back of the head. Yes, through the dried skin, he could see the unnatural set of the neck bones and the trauma inflicted to the skull. He straightened, stunned, eyes vacant. If this was indeed Ra, then the most powerful God had had his head bashed in and his neck broken, terminating both symbiote and host body. But who could have done that ? No other Goaul'd, for sure, or he'd have boasted about it all the way to the Ida galaxy. He took another glance around. Another surprise... there was another body, crumpled in a heap at the foot of the bed. He leant over it. It didn't wear any clothes and... oh oh, it had been a female. This body was in much worse shape. His close examination revealed that “she” was not a Goaul'd host and had been beaten to death as well. Her limbs all showed open fractures, her face was a flatten dried mush, not a single tooth was visible in the grimacing maw and to top it all, there was the unmistakeable burn of staff blasts.
Had it been a Jaffa rebellion ? But it wouldn't make sense... Ra's body hadn't suffered any outrage apart from his fatal injuries. He was laying on his back, on his bed, hands joined in the classic position of the honored dead.
A picture started to form in his mind. Could Ra have been killed by one of his sex slaves... yes, that was a possibility. Then his guards would have found the culprit and executed her in a most brutal fashion, leaving her broken corpse as a last tribute to their God. That made sense. As for the smashed dialing device, the assassin could certainly have done it either before or most likely after her traitorous deed. Then she'd come back into the bedroom and been found by the vengeful Jaffas...
All that was quite sobering. Karl'ac wondered what surprise would come next. Right on cue, another Jaffa dashed in the room, panting. “My Lord... you need to come... we found the temple's exit... ”
Brilliant, then why do I feel there's a catch somewhere, thought Karl'ac. He wasn't disappointed as the Jaffa caught his respiration and spoke again. “Sire, the exit... it's caved in, there's no way out !”
“Screw me.”
Only a second later did Karl'ac realize he had spoken out loud.
Disclaimer here : scenes of torture and rape follow.
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
