"Mahes! Have you been innovating?"
Mahes grins as he approaches, then grabs him by the shoulders. Then they hug each other, which is… Just about the most ungoa'uld thing I've ever seen. I mean, sure, I fixed the lesion's in Agni's brain when he turned up for the meeting, but that wouldn't change how Mahes behaved.
...I take it they aren't usually so
jovial with each other.
"No!" They separate, and Mahes pulls Agni in my direction gesturing to me. "I got someone to do it for me!"
"You'd need to." His eyes take in Abrax and then move to me.
Ah, the true exercise of power:
Outsourcing.
"This is Lord Mammon. He has many interesting ideas. We're here to see if any of them are actually any good."
I nod. "I would not waste your time. If-."
It helps that he's not fixated on using
only their historical technology path.
Stomping armoured feet sound from the other direction, and-.
"Lady Heset?" I… Frown. I didn't even know that she was on Bubastis. I certainly didn't invite her here. I mean, we're feeding back to Bastet later-. "I… Didn't expect you."
Hmm... Bastet doing some spy-checking? OR perhaps the Tok'ra agent keeping an eye on the atypical fellow.
Her First Prime takes up station behind her as she moves to the edge of the observation area. "Lord Bastet asked me to observe on her behalf. She has high expectations for your work."
"Alright then. Second Prime?"
He breaths in. "Jaffa! Kree!"
Ah, the royal voice. Must be so hard on their throats.
And out march our training squads, each arrayed in different armour. Mahes and Agni both start staring at the new armour types, focusing on each of the points of novelty. Heset's eyes just sort of rove over the whole lot. I… Actually don't know how old she is, but it's a little surprising that she's as ignorant of military matters as that implies. Faking it, perhaps? Or more interested in the political implications?
Or maybe she has a cybernetic eye with a built-in camera she's using to record the various models? I mean, I don't know if that's a
thing...
I.. suppose that it doesn't really matter. Even if she lies to Bastet, that's easy enough to fix by just showing Bastet my results directly.
"Now, as you can see, this is the standard Jaffa armour. It is included for the sake of comparison. This-" I continue down the line. "-looks similar, but it's actually my recreation of the armour Supreme System Lord Ra issued to his soldiers. Step forwards, Jaffa."
Ah, yes, the kind with the movie budget for animatronics in the head.
They stamp forward, Ma'Toks at the ready.
"There are several differences between the two." Both Jaffa engage their helmets, lamassu masks extending over their heads. "Ra's soldiers have integrated sensors and air purifiers, sound and light protection. Their Ma'Toks are designed for more powerful energy discharges, though they do exhaust their batteries a little faster."
Lamassu... An interesting choice. I'm not hearing
anything about improved
body armour, though.
I nod to Abrax, and he releases a pair of test drones. Small balls with weak anti-gravity drives and force fields, they serve as a decent test target.
"We've reduced the power output for this demonstration. Fire."
Ah, a classic for good reason.
The Jaffa raise their weapons at the viffing drones. They've both practiced this exercise before, dozens of times with a variety of weapons. But whichever of them used the weapons and armour, this contest always had the same result.
WOOMPF-WOOMPF! WOOMPF-WOOMPF!
I'm guessing the upgraded guy always gets cleaner hits?
Ma'Toks aren't great against small fast-moving targets. They're slow firing, and the plasma moves relatively slowly.
WOOMPF-WOOMPF! WOOMPF-WOOMPF!
Peril of weapons designed for intimidation as much as damage.
When using the same weapons, these two Jaffa are about as accurate as each other.
WOOMPF-WOOMPF! WOOMPF-WOOMPF!
The impressive thing is if they're almost in sync, but the upgraded guy is that
little bit faster. In real combat, that speed edge would be
critical.
The chance of them hitting a slow moving target is about equal. The issue is that when the drone dodges out of the normal helmet wearer's field of view, he has to turn to reacquire it. The Jaffa with Ra's helmet on doesn't. He knows where it is even outside of his field of view. In theory he could just point the staff without turning, but everyone found that so counter-instinctual that we gave up making it standard procedure. Even so, he's more accurate and acquires the dodging target faster.
Although shooting without looking gives a much more fearsome aura. 'I can kill you without even
acknowledging you...'
WOOMPF-WOOMPF! WOOMPF-WOOMPF!
Agni looks curious as the Jaffa new helmet quickly acquires a lead. "How much more powerful is that Ma'Tok?"
Heh. This should be good.
"Jaffa, shoot the wall. Full power."
The both lower their Ma'Toks and fire.
WOOMPF! WOOMPF-BOOM!
Just the sound alone says it
is good.
The normal Ma'Tak leaves a blackened scar in the stone. The more powerful version punches a hole, sends stones flying and giving us a view of the interior corridor.
An extremely nervous chambermaid peers around the edge of the hole. I wave my right hand dismissively.
Perfect comedic timing. Though I shudder for the state of her undergarments after that shock.
"Carry on with your duties."
Agni grins. "I like it!"
Oh, I don't think he's done yet,
flame-boy.
"Why?" I shrug as he frowns at me. "Jaffa, switch."
The Jaffa with the regular staff puts it down and draws his Zat'nik'tel. They both resume firing, and while the Jaffa with Ra's helmet is more accurate, the increased rate of fire means that the Jaffa with the Zat'nik'tel is scoring hits more quickly.
Naturally, the pistol is faster than the long-arm.
"The heavy staff is more destructive, but against most targets it's inefficient. One shot from a Zat'nik'tel will disable a Jaffa in normal armour, and the second shot kills. We ran wargames where one squad would use Ma'Tok and the other would use Zat'nik'tel, and outside of long range engagements over open ground, the squad using Zat'nik'tel always came out ahead."
Especially in urban environments, I bet. The enhanced senses would be quite the hack in those situations.
"Surely their armour would weaken the impact?"
I nod. "It does." Sort of. It's more that the first hit isn't quite so disabling; the second hit still reliably kills the target. "But it's still disabling, and with the higher rate of fire the reduced lethality per shot doesn't matter."
Applying modern logic to their old-fashioned tactics. It doesn't matter how hard you hit if you hit more often.
I point to the Jaffa with the heavy staff, and send him back to line. Another Jaffa comes forwards. This one is wearing a far heavier version of the normal armour. It's not power armour, but the armour plates are about as thick as it's practical for a Jaffa to wear. On the left arm is a tower shield of similar thickness, and in his right he carries a Ma'Tak. He stands a short distance away from the Jaffa with the Zat'nik'tel and points his shield at him.
The Zat works on something akin to electrical current, yes? Presumably the shield is insulated against it?
"Fire."
The Zat'nik'tel pulses, bright crackling beam hitting the shield and doing absolutely nothing.
Heh. Tower shields for the win.
"This sort of armour is effectively immune to the Zat'nik'tel. It's also close to the form of armour our armies wore before we learned to work trinium well enough to create chain mail. Switch weapon."
The Jaffa reattaches his Zat'nik'tel to his bracer, then crouches down to recover his Ma'Tok. He fires, the bolts knocking the heavy armour Jaffa back a little but not appearing to cause an injury.
Extremely durable, though I expect only the biggest lads can avoid being forced back too much.
"The downside is that it's not practical to wield a normal Ma'Tok at the same time, and the wearer's agility is dramatically reduced." The armour-wearer tries balancing his Ma'Tok on the shield, but it's clearly awkward. "Combining it with a Zat'nik'tel works, but it makes things a little awkward when they face other heavy armour wearers. They can't hurt each other. But if we combine the two…"
You couldn't make a notch in the shield for the staff to rest on...
Turn it into a mounted weapon, of sorts? Edit: Ah, never mind, it does have one. But hauling the weight of the shield definitely makes aiming trickier. On the other hand...
The basic Jaffa raises his Ma'Tok in two hands and moves behind the heavy Jaffa, who ducks slightly behind his shield. He's effectively protecting his colleague, who is free to fire back.
"The armour will allow the wearer to survive a hit from a staff cannon, but they will be disabled by the hit. Thank you, gentlemen."
...Who says they need to fight
alone?

It might reduce their overall firepower a little, but not losing soldiers in engagements is more potent a force multiplier.
They both come to attention, and then return to their place in the line.
"The next is something inspired by the Tau'ri. It's called 'camouflage'."
Ah, a concept almost alien to Goa'uld tactics. After all, they want to be seen, to
intimidate. I wonder how the Jaffa using it feel?