The Hall of the Slain (SG-1 fic)

[Chmee]

Ok kids, punch big glowing holes through the parts that are glaringly inconsistent with SG-verse canon ..... or just read & enjoy.


THE HALL OF THE SLAIN


Prologue

The SGC team fanned out from the Stargate, their expressions alert but relaxed. The area around the Stargate was just as the MALP had shown it, the gate sitting in the middle of a flat, roughly circular glade in a forest of towering conifers. The stone steps leading up to the gate were cracked with age, but no structures or paths were visible in the knee-high grass between the gate and the forest.

When the team had moved little more than 50 meters away from the gate, the ambush began. Staff-weapon and zat-gun fire erupted from the treeline before them, and as their leader barked orders to run back to the DHD, they saw Super Soldiers and Jaffa emerging from the forest behind them, more weapons-fire cutting into them. P90's chattered to life in staccato bursts, the team leader tossing grenades expertly, and slugs and shrapnel cut down many attackers.

The team was outnumbered heavily, and one by one they were dropped by energy blasts. The firefight was over in less than a minute, the glade suddenly, shockingly returning to silence, the smell of spent cartridges and the drifting smoke from smoldering staff-blast impacts the only remnants of the chaos -- besides the bodies.

Nine Jaffa lay dead in the grass, with eleven of their fellows and four Super Soldiers left to clean up. The senior surviving Jaffa stripped the SGC team of weapons, radios, and any other item of interest to his God. The human bodies were left as a warning for any of their comrades who might come through the gate.

A Super Soldier moved to the DHD and dialed the Stargate, something this patrol had been preparing to do when the gate first activated for the MALP. Carrying the bodies of fallen Jaffa, the patrol passed quickly through the gate, returning to their homeworld.

The glade returned to sombre silence, the normal sounds of the forest still hushed in fearful reaction to those moments of violence. The bodies of four humans lay motionless in trampled grass, their blood still slowly leaking into the soil.

Beside the body of the Major, the team's leader, silver-white light flared for a moment. When it subsided, a woman stood beside the Major. Long, curling blonde hair framed a face of elegant beauty, calm strength radiating from ice-blue eyes. She wore a skirt of silver mail below a breastplate of pale blue metal, matching bracers on her forearms, a light blue cloak draped over her shoulders though her long legs were bare.

She knelt beside the Major, gently caressing his cheek with one hand, the other clutching a slim spear. She looked around the glade and saw that the other fallen SGC members were attended by women similarly dressed. They shared a knowing glance and she nodded once, then silver-white light surged again to surround each woman and the corpse she knelt beside.

When that light faded, the glade was empty again, the trampled bloody grass and the lingering smell of gunfire the only evidence that its peace had been disturbed.

I.

General Jack O'Neill sat in the privacy of a stall in the washroom nearest the Gate Room, elbows resting on his knees as he held a newspaper before him. He heard the door of the stall next to his close, and looked down, tilting his head to get a look at the shoes of his neighbor. They were not military boots, but a comfortable brand of hiking shoe that might be worn by ...

"Daniel?" he asked.

There was a moment's pause before "Jack?"

"Yeah."

"What are you doing?"

"Besides the obvious?" O'Neill retorted. "Reading the paper ... good Ziggy today. You bring anything to read?"

"Um ... Toschi's A History of the Roman Empire."

"I know how it ends ... wouldn't want to spoil it for you, though," O'Neill said, but before he could add another comment an alarm rang through the corridor outside.

"Unscheduled offworld activation!" Walter's voice echoed in the corridor.

"Dammit, Walter," O'Neill muttered ... I hate wiping in a hurry."

Daniel said nothing as he pulled up his pants, and only exchanged a quick look with O'Neill at the sink as they washed their hands before heading for the Gate Room, where they found Teal'c and Carter already watching the Stargate glow behind a closed iris.

"Receiving Asgard IDC signal, General," Walter announced from the control room.

"Open it up," O'Neill ordered, but before the iris could open a holographic image shimmered into solidity on the ramp below the Gate, the thin form of an Asgard appearing.

"Thor, buddy!" O'Neill greeted their old ally happily. "Just in the 'hood? Thought you'd drop in to talk a little baseball?"

Thor paused for a moment to consider, head tilting atop his thin neck. "No .... I am sorry I have not been in frequent communication, O'Neill, but since the defeat of the Replicators and Baal's fleet at Dakara, the core of the Asgard fleet has been occupied securing the borders of our domain."

"Places to go, snakeheads to kill?" O'Neill asked. "Sounds good to me."

"Yes," Thor answered flatly. "The victory at Dakara has allowed the Asgard to regroup and rebuild our fleets while consolidating defense of our new homeworld. We have found no evidence of new Replicator activity within our galaxy ... it appears your victory was complete."

"Yes, well ... we don't like to toot our own horn ..." O'Neill began.

"But," Thor began.

O'Neill's shoulders slumped a little. "There always a 'but' with you guys!"

"But," Thor repeated, "we have maintained a close watch on the progress of the war between the Jaffa and the goa'uld. Baal continues to rebuild his forces in alliance with other goa'uld, but the fleet of ships the Jaffa captured at Dakara has been driving them back on all fronts."

"The hits just keep on comin'," O'Neill smiled.

"But ..." Thor said.

"You see what I mean?" O'Neill looked to Teal'c for support, getting a murmured "indeed."

"But one element of the goa'uld's forces is withdrawing into a remote sector of your galaxy ... a sector, in fact, that was once part of the Protected Worlds Treaty. Jaffa forces are pursuing them into this area, which is ... hazardous."

"You said it was once part of the Protected Planets Treaty," Carter observed. "But the Treaty must be over by now, isn't it?"

"Yes," Thor's holographic image looked at Carter. "The actions of Anubis and his allies abrogated the Treaty. But this particular section of the galaxy was withdrawn from the Treaty long before then."

"Withdrawn?" Carter asked. "You mean the Asgard agreed to stop protecting this area from the goa'uld? Why?"

"The area in question included a planet inhabited by a race which no longer needed the protection of the Asgard ... a group, in fact, which had grown powerful enough to constitute a threat to both the Asgard and goa'uld."

O'Neill winced. "Ok, that's a big 'but'."

"Indeed," Teal'c nodded. "A race powerful enough to threaten both Asgard and goa'uld would be formidable. It is difficult to believe we did not hear of them before."

"Yeah, these do seem like guys you'd mention," O'Neill agreed with more than a trace of sarcasm.

Thor's image shimmered slightly, then regained focus as he faced O'Neill. "It is not a topic that the Asgard are happy to raise. It is a source of ... embarassment. The race in question is, unfortunately, a result of experiments performed upon another species. Unsanctioned experiments. Performed by an Asgard ..."

"No .... don't say it!" O'Neill held up a warning finger.

"Performed by Loki," Thor sighed.

"I asked you not to say it!" O'Neill groaned.

"When we met Loki," Daniel interrupted, "he mentioned that he had gotten into trouble with the Asgard for performing unsanctioned experiments on humans. This race that became powerful enough to threaten the Asgard and goa'uld ... they're a result of Loki's experiments on ... us?"

"Yes," Thor admitted.

O'Neill grimmaced. "You know, after all the times we've pulled your cute little butts out of the fire, you'd think ...."

"Sir," Carter cut him off before he could get rolling, then turned back to Thor. "This planet that the goa'uld are retreating toward, where this race lives .... what's it called?"

"Valhalla," Thor answered in a tone that only an Asgard would recognize as misery.

"Valhalla?" O'Neill asked. "Wait, there isn't opera involved in this, is there?" A look of mild distaste creased his face.

"Valhalla was a sort of heaven in Norse mythology," Daniel explained, "the 'Hall of the Slain'. Except instead of clouds and harps and singing, Valhalla was a hall with hundreds of doors, each door large enough to pass an army, where warriors who had fallen nobly in battle feasted and drank themselves insensible every night with mead, served by beautiful Valkyries."

"Hey ... my kinda heaven!" O'Neill smiled, ignoring a glare from Carter. "Yet somehow, I'm guessing there's a 'but.'"

"But," Daniel went on, "every day the warriors of Valhalla woke to go to battle, training for their final battle of Ragnorak, the end of the world. Most of the warriors would die in these battles, but be miraculously healed at dusk in time for the night's feast."

"Ok, that's a big 'but'," O'Neill frowned.

"Thor," Carter asked, "are you saying that there's a real planet called Valhalla?"

"Yes," Thor answered.

"It was a place where Loki performed experiments ... involving a lot of fighting and bringing dead warriors back to life?"

"At the time, Loki thought that he might find a solution to the problem of Asgard genetics in the sarcophagus technology used by the goa'uld," Thor explained.

"Oh here we go ..." O'Neill rubbed his forehead with one hand, a headache coming on.

"At the same time, he thought that the technology might be used to create warriors who were both experienced and durable enough to make good soldiers in the war against the goa'uld."

"Let me see if I can guess the 'but' here," O'Neill nodded quickly, "just let me see if I can guess: the soldiers didn't appreciate these experiments, and took over Valhalla and kicked Loki's little grey butt out of there."

"That is a fair guess, although Loki has never been as forthcoming as we would like about the exact circumstances that led to the revolt of the Einhar," Thor said. "Unfortunately, they captured a great deal of Asgard technology, which Loki had been training many of them to use against the goa'uld."

"Instead, they used it against Loki to gain their freedom," Carter finished.

"Yes," Thor sighed.

"How long ago did all this happen?" Daniel asked.

"Just over nine hundred of your years ago," Thor said.

"We're just hearing about this now?" O'Neill's eyebrows rose. "After nine hundred years? Thanks for that news flash. Any predictions on who's winning Super Bowl III?"

Ignoring the obscure human cultural reference, Thor continued. "When the Einhar revolted, the High Council took steps to contain the damage of Loki's activities. There is a Stargate on Valhalla, but we introduced a device into the Valhalla system which affects the structure of local space-time in a way that prevents a stable wormhole from forming, either into or out of a Stargate."

"Wow," Carter blinked. "That's some device ... but it wouldn't isolate these Einhar if they had access to Asgard starship technology, I suppose."

"No, it would not," Thor nodded. "However, the Einhar showed no interest in expanding into other parts of the galaxy. In fact, their 'revolt' was not a true rejection of the Asgard, or even of Loki, who they still regarded as a ..... god." Thor said the last word with distaste that was obvious, even to the humans. "They continued their training in daily combat, preparing for their final war ... presumably against the goa'uld."

"But, something changed?" Daniel asked.

"Yes. We suspect that the Einhar have discovered that the resurrection technology taken from Loki has limits ... that a warrior can only be revived from death a certain number of times before they cannot be restored to full health."

"I'd call that a 'limit' all right," O'Neal noted.


"As a result," Thor continued," their population may be declining. "We infer this ... because the Einhar appear to have disabled or destroyed the Stargate Inhibitor deployed in the Valhalla system."

"Appear to?" Carter asked.

"This must be the case ... because Valkyries have once again begun appearing on planets with Stargates .... taking dead warriors from the field of battle," Thor said.

"Okay .... sounds a little weird," O'Neill nodded, "women taking dead guys off to some world where they can't die ... and they're not named Oma and they haven't grabbed Daniel yet ... and these guys like to kick goa'uld ass, so I guess you're going to get to the 'but' that makes this a problem big enough that you finally got around to mentioning these guys to us?"

Thor turned to look directly at O'Neill. "An SGC team was killed this morning in a fight with goa'uld forces, and have been taken to Valhalla. We believe the Einhar are aggressively trying to increase their numbers in response to the goa'uld retreat toward Valhalla."

O'Neill frowned. "Carter?"

"I was going to tell you at the morning briefing, sir ... SG-6 is two hours overdue on their check-in. They were on a recon mission to P3X-9904."

O'Neill directed his frown at Thor. "Let me guess: we have to organize a mission to go save SG-6 from an army of the Undead. It's been a while since I've seen this movie ... but from what I remember, I'm going to need a chainsaw and a shotgun."

Silence hung in the Gate Room for a moment, finally broken by one word from Teal'c. "Indeed."

[Crazedwraith]

Very nice. A couple of mini nigglying points for me to punch big glowing holes in It MALP not MALF and you said Loki was using Goa'uld tech to bring them back to life. In "Point of View" The AU Asgard ressurect an AU Hammond. I think it unlikely that they used goa'uld tech for it.

So one misspeling and a slight inconsistancy but not exactly a voilation mere a different interpretation than i would have used.

More a incandescant pinprick rather than a glowing hole.

Asides from that I like the mythology references I like the plot the characterisations are good. Keep it up. I'll read and make comments if I can.

[Ender]

intriguing.

[Chmee]

Very nice. A couple of mini nigglying points for me to punch big glowing holes in It MALP not MALF and you said Loki was using Goa'uld tech to bring them back to life. In "Point of View" The AU Asgard ressurect an AU Hammond. I think it unlikely that they used goa'uld tech for it.

So one misspeling and a slight inconsistancy but not exactly a voilation mere a different interpretation than i would have used.

More a incandescant pinprick rather than a glowing hole.

Asides from that I like the mythology references I like the plot the characterisations are good. Keep it up. I'll read and make comments if I can.

MALP edit made, thnx.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Given my passion for norse culture, I'll be watching this closely. Am I to understand you have advanced a norse viking culture to ASGARD levels of technology?

[Chmee]

Given my passion for norse culture, I'll be watching this closely. Am I to understand you have advanced a norse viking culture to ASGARD levels of technology?

Well, there's an issue to resolve in writing this. Is Valhalla a purely Norse institution, or is it a legend in Norse culture with its roots in an experiment of Loki's that touched many other cultures? That is, should all the immortal warriors in Valhalla be Norsemen, or heroes plucked from various Earth cultures over the last millenia? I lean toward the latter, because it gives me a lot of interesting characters to choose from when SG-1 finally gets to Valhalla.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Given my passion for norse culture, I'll be watching this closely. Am I to understand you have advanced a norse viking culture to ASGARD levels of technology?

Well, there's an issue to resolve in writing this. Is Valhalla a purely Norse institution, or is it a legend in Norse culture with its roots in an experiment of Loki's that touched many other cultures? That is, should all the immortal warriors in Valhalla be Norsemen, or heroes plucked from various Earth cultures over the last millenia? I lean toward the latter, because it gives me a lot of interesting characters to choose from when SG-1 finally gets to Valhalla.

Careful, you're getting very close to "riverworld". Also remember that nobody from recent "earth" should be there, since there doesn't seem to be much close contact with aliens, and I don't think the Valkyries would come here for fear of attracting Asgard attention.

This could finally answer the question of Vikings vs. Mongols, though.

[Chmee]

Given my passion for norse culture, I'll be watching this closely. Am I to understand you have advanced a norse viking culture to ASGARD levels of technology?

Well, there's an issue to resolve in writing this. Is Valhalla a purely Norse institution, or is it a legend in Norse culture with its roots in an experiment of Loki's that touched many other cultures? That is, should all the immortal warriors in Valhalla be Norsemen, or heroes plucked from various Earth cultures over the last millenia? I lean toward the latter, because it gives me a lot of interesting characters to choose from when SG-1 finally gets to Valhalla.

Careful, you're getting very close to "riverworld". Also remember that nobody from recent "earth" should be there, since there doesn't seem to be much close contact with aliens, and I don't think the Valkyries would come here for fear of attracting Asgard attention.

This could finally answer the question of Vikings vs. Mongols, though.

Well, Riverworld without all the non-heroes, lol ...

You raise another issue, though. If the Einhar 'revolt' happened 900 years ago, did Valkyrie recruitment of heroes stop then? Or did the Einhar lurk near Earth to pick up more heroes until the Stargate was un-buried? We know Loki lurked under the Asgard 'radar' enough to clone O'Neill and other humans.

[Soontir C'boath]

I really like this concept of Valhalla and these warriors.

There is one thing that is bothering me.

"No .... I am sorry I have not been in frequent communication, O'Neill, but since the defeat of the Replicators and Baal's fleet at Dakara, the core of the Asgard fleet has been occupied securing the borders of our domain."

This line just doesn't jive with him and it really threw me off for the rest of the chapter. I don't think Thor would ever say he's sorry.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I really like this concept of Valhalla and these warriors.

There is one thing that is bothering me.

"No .... I am sorry I have not been in frequent communication, O'Neill, but since the defeat of the Replicators and Baal's fleet at Dakara, the core of the Asgard fleet has been occupied securing the borders of our domain."

This line just doesn't jive with him and it really threw me off for the rest of the chapter. I don't think Thor would ever say he's sorry.

He's said it before. "I'm sorry" "I regret" "It is regrettable".

[Chmee]

I really like this concept of Valhalla and these warriors.

There is one thing that is bothering me.

"No .... I am sorry I have not been in frequent communication, O'Neill, but since the defeat of the Replicators and Baal's fleet at Dakara, the core of the Asgard fleet has been occupied securing the borders of our domain."

This line just doesn't jive with him and it really threw me off for the rest of the chapter. I don't think Thor would ever say he's sorry.

He's said it before. "I'm sorry" "I regret" "It is regrettable".

That's one of the things I like about the Asgard's deadpan delivery ... they would tell you they're sorry they haven't called in a while in exactly the same tone that they tell you they can't do anything about an asteroid wiping out your civilization ....

*Edit: here's a question for readers: is the prologue needed? I wrote the first chapter without it, then went back and added it during editing because I wanted that scene.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Nah, the prologue is like the before-the-credits stuff you see on an episode.

[JME2]

Thus far, very nice -- and coming from a relatively recent inductee into the world of Stargate, that's something. It'll be interesting to see how you expand the Norse elements of the Asgard culture.

[Soontir C'boath]

He's said it before. "I'm sorry" "I regret" "It is regrettable".

That's one of the things I like about the Asgard's deadpan delivery ... they would tell you they're sorry they haven't called in a while in exactly the same tone that they tell you they can't do anything about an asteroid wiping out your civilization ....

I think I know why it's bothering me now. The delivery of it is too quick which makes it really unusual for Thor to say it in that matter. Usually Thor would address the person he would say sorry then continue on. I haven't watched Thor's episodes again lately though.

Something like this is what I was thinking.

"I am sorry, Colonel O'Neill. I have not been in frequent communication since the defeat of the Replicators and Baal's fleet at Dakara. The core of the Asgard fleet has been occupied securing the borders of our domain."

*wondering if flames will come about*

[Chmee]

[Isn't it always the way, you start one of these things and then don't have time (or make time) to work on it. A brief addition, and then a question for readers:]

II.

As SG-1 stepped out of the Stargate, Carter was still disputing a point with O'Neill.

"Sir, you're a General now, you should be ..."

"Carter," O'Neill shook his head slightly, "I'm coming! If that little weasel Loki is behind all this, I have a few things to say to him. And he's going to have a few things to say to me ... starting with 'Ow!'"

Thor waited until Daniel stepped through and the wormhole collapsed before addressing the group. "This is Muspel," his thin arm waved at their surroundings. The Stargate stood on a raised circular platform of pale stone, under a blood-red sun that blazed down onto a flain plain stretching to the horizon in all directions.

"Nice place," O'Neill squinted, pulling his sunglasses on and tugging his cap lower.

"Muspel?" Daniel asked. "That was the 'flamelands' -- the realm of fire in Norse mythology?"

"Yes," Thor nodded. "The Asgard conquered Muspel in a war before ever encountering the goa'uld, but the conquest left the planet ... rather barren."

"You think?" O'Neill's eyes swept the horizon again looking for any mark or feature besides the Stargate, finding none. "This place makes the Mojave look like the Amazon."

"But it has the closest Stargate to the realm of the Einhar," Thor continued.

"You said there would be a ship for us to use here?" Carter asked.

"Yes," Thor nodded, and all five figures disappeared from the surface of Muspel in the flash of an Asgard transporter.

When SG-1 materialized, they were on the bridge of an Asgard ship, though smaller than the bridge of other ships they had been aboard. Another obvious difference was the presence of furniture suited for humans, a set of four richly upholstered reclining power-chairs with control consoles built into the armrests, arrayed in an arc facing a large flat display screen that showed the view of Muspel from orbit.

"Niiiice," O'Neill smiled, peeling off his sunglasses and running fingers over the back of one of the chairs. "Real Naugahyde?"

"We needed a vessel of exceptional speed for you to reach Einhar before the goa'uld fleet. The most suitable that could be brought to Muspel in time is this one. We had been building it as a gift for you ... this is the Samantha Carter, the first of our Carter-class corvettes."

Carter's jaw dropped as she blushed. "Wow ... I mean ... thanks!"

O'Neill smiled. "A gift for who? Carter?"

"For ... all of you, actually," Thor answered.

"What's the occasion? Carter, is it your birthday?" O'Neill's eyes widened slightly in alarm.

"No, sir, not until April ..."

"Actually," Thor interrupted, "we were in no rush to deliver the ship until it had undergone more testing ... we were waiting to give it as a ..... wedding gift."

Carter and O'Neill looked at each other and then at the floor and then at Thor. Behind them, Daniel and Teal'c suppressed smiles with little success.

"Uh ... who said anything about a wedding?" O'Neill finally asked.

"No one," Thor answered calmly. "However, we have run a statistical analysis which says that there is a 87.7% probability that ..."

"Ok!" O'Neill held up his hands. "Ok, that's all I want to know. Unless ... Carter, did you want to know more?"

"No sir," Carter shook her head, that blush still not quite gone, shooting a glance at Daniel that became a glare after she saw his expression.

"The Samantha Carter is currently the fastest ship in the Asgard fleet, and has been outfitted with shields and weaponry superior to that used by Anubis's ships. Although we had not intended to deliver it to you quite so soon, we believe it is the ship that will give you the greatest chance of successfully reaching Valhalla."

* * *

[Ok, sorry ... that's it for now. Here's where I could use some helpful input: what would the Samantha Carter look like, and what would you want its main features to be as a corvette designed for humans with cutting-edge Asgard technology?]

[CaptainChewbacca]

A corvette should have speed and guns, with not the best defenses. No fighter-capability, and it should be smaller than an O'Neill class.

[Crazedwraith]

bwahahahahaha. 'Wedding Gift' 'ship as it should be done.

[JME2]

Heheh, very nice.

[Darth Yoshi]

Very nice. I can just picture the awkward silence after Thor tells them the Carter is a wedding gift.

[HSRTG]

The Carter should probably look something like the Dedalous (sorry about spelling) from the second season of SG-Atlantis. The outside looks like replicator tiles, while being almost square in overall shape. Though still a bit rectangular; at least, that's how it would look without the hanger bay(s?).

Armament would be (probably), again, like the Dedalous's, which I believe were called "railguns" by captain Whatshisname.

Hyperdrive is Asgard standard.

Shields...well, not much was said about them. Depends on if the Samantha Carter has a ZPM onboard. Without it the Dedalous's shields fell rather quickly against the Wraith onslaught.

Maybe a cloaking device, if they were giving it to Earth. Maybe not. The Dedalous doesn't have one.

I might add, however, that the Dedalous is probably a light-heavy cruiser. It holds..umm...HELD..1-3 squadrons of fighters, and was heavily armed with even some nukes in the hold.

On an very serious note, how are those four going to fly something like that? Wouldn't they need an engeneering crew, a qualified helmsman (woman?), and a gunnery staff? The gunspeople would be critical if they were expecting to hold off the Goa'uld at all...



Wedding gift

[HemlockGrey]

I think this fic will be cut short due to Chmee's untimely demise.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Ah well, too bad. I liked it.

[HSRTG]

Oh. I'm sorry; I didn't know. I apologise for stupidity. Again.

[Shroom Man 777]

In "Point of View" The AU Asgard ressurect an AU Hammond. I think it unlikely that they used goa'uld tech for it.

Think of it as lightspeed surgery. Which is a bit different from making you live for thousands of years. I think.

I read the first chapter, the Prologue, and it was cool. I'll read more later.