Starborn Smith [Massive Scifi MultiFusion / Celestial Forge]

[BlazingHyperion]

I lay on the ground just outside the village of Veyna's Rest. Tonight had been a long time coming. A year ago, I had awakened my memories of my past life as a human on 21st century Earth; along with those memories came a special power; the Celestial Forge.

With the Celestial Forge, came my first perk, or at least that is what you would think; The forge missed my first perk; then it showed me a timer with a 365 day countdown. Apparently, this world has the exact same orbital and rotational period as Earth. Must be why the Ancients terraformed it – or maybe they moved the world into this position?

Anyway, here I am, waiting for that timer to hit zero. Finally, in my mind's eye, I watched as a star fell straight into the fire that I assumed was the Celestial Forge.

— — —
1st Perk: (Previous Points: 400, Subtracted: 200, Current Points: 200)
- Domain: Knowledge: Reverse Engineering
- Title: Dr Shen, I presume?
- Universe: Endless Space
- Description:
- You are really knowledgeable at learning from your foes. You always seem to learn something new whenever you salvage enemy equipment. New weapons, armor, agriculture, the works. Every piece of enemy salvage you obtain gives you new insight into fields of science you had not yet explored. Beating the crap out of a caveman won't teach you how to make new laser cannons, but it will give you new insight into obsidian knapping methods, or animal hide tanning. Knowledge gained is related to what you are looking at.
— —

My breathing became heavy and my mind went into overdrive as I read the description. I could not ask for a more perfect ability. After all, the world – or rather universe – I had been reborn into contained some very advanced technology; the stargates, FTL drives capable of traveling between galaxies in hours, self-guided kamikaze drones capable of entirely bypassing energy shields, galactic-scale brainwashing devices, and so much more.

There was so much technology in just this galaxy. The best part? I could steal all of it while doing a service; after all, the alternative is that the Goa'uld Empire gets their hands on the tech, and that's either genocide in the making or a waste of resources (depending on which Goa'uld gets what).

Slowly, I regained control of my beating heart. The sooner that I could begin testing my new perk, the better. I already had access to two (technically three) pieces of advanced technology that I could use for testing. Standing up, I looked down the valley at the Village where I had lived for the past 16 years. Farther down the valley, the clearing which held the Stargate and Dial-Home Device was barely visible in the dim moonlight.

The culture I had been reborn amongst were servants of the god (the Goa'uld) Athena. While she technically owned the village – the Jaffa reminded us of that whenever they came to retrieve their tribute – in practice, we were a protectorate of sorts. As long as Naquadah (a super-heavy metal that was used for everything from building indestructible alloys to explosives capable of destroying worlds) flowed from this world, Athena ignored us.

Sixty years after the initial settlement, the village, which originally held only about one hundred people, had grown significantly. Now, we just had to hope that she didn't decide to have a census completed. If she knew how much the village's population had increased, I have no doubt that the amount of Naquadah that she would demand as a tribute would increase by at least an order of magnitude.

I began hiking my way down the valley towards the clearing with the Stargate. The Jaffa would come once every three months to gather tribute. The last time they had come had been a little over a week ago, but six months before that one of the Jaffa had left a Zat'nik'tel – a piece of advanced weaponry used by the Goa'uld as a sidearm that the people of Stargate Command referred to simply as a Zat. One villager discovered it, after which the Elders spent several days studying the device, then returned it to where they found it and ordered everyone to pretend it didn't exist.

As I approached the clearing, I located the spot where the Zat had been left. There it was, just beyond the edge of the road between a couple of trees. The design of the device was reminiscent of a Goa'uld Symbiote, its curves and organic appearance unsettling to anyone who was unaware of its purpose. With my heart hammering in my chest, I picked it up. A jolt ran up my spine the moment I contacted the weapon.

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Zat'Nik'Tel (Zat) Liquid Naquadah Power Cell

The Celestial Forge had forced about a third of the Zat's schematic into my mind. The schematic omitted the energy discharge and trigger function, but I knew the power source: a small vial of Liquid Naquadah solution kept just above a supercritical state.

I returned the Zat to its place on the ground and began making my way to the other piece of technology I knew of; the Stargate. A short jog, and I stared up at the million-year-old ring of Naquadah Alloy. Reverentially, I touched the device; the instant my fingers brushed against the cold metal, my knees wobbled and I barely prevented myself from falling face first into the ground.

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Astria Porta (Stargate) Hyperspace Gradient Shifter

Another slight tingle ran up my spine before being replaced with the knowledge of how the Stargate isolated incoming wormholes. The device itself was suspiciously simple, but its construction was totally beyond me. It was an utterly fascinating device, but it was of absolutely no use to me at the moment.

There was one last thing that I could interact with, and hopefully it would be the more helpful one; the Dial-Home-Device, DHD, or Clavis to the Ancients who designed and mass produced them. The pedestal was about the size of a small coffee table and held the computational power equivalent to a 1990s supercomputer. To say that the device fascinated me would be an understatement. I walked up to the device and touched it. Once again, I felt ice being poured into my brain.

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Clavis (DHD) Memory Systems

I completely froze up at the sheer quantity of individual connections within just this portion of the device; within that web of connections was the interface with the processing systems and inputs. If I had a computer of some sort, I now had the knowledge to access the complete list of all Stargates dialed from or to this world.

As the knowledge settled into the back of my mind, I sighed. All of this was great, but it was like knowing how to code C++ while being stuck in Ancient Greece; it might help with problem solving, but the language itself was less than useless. I needed somewhere to start; some way to actually use the advanced knowledge I had gained.

The first rays of sunlight coated the valley as I strode back up to Veyna's Rest just in time to wake the younger children. After the age of six, all the kids lived communally together to make it easier for everyone to watch over them. They spent time with their parents during breakfast, dinner, and village events, but it was easier if there were a few people whose job it was to watch the children while the adults went about their jobs. Entering the communal barracks where the children slept, I began waking some of the younger children.

Before the age of five, children are raised by their parents with the help of a group of villagers who specialize in early childcare. At four, they spend some of their time with the older children to acclimate to the group. By five, they move into the barracks, where they stay until they reach sixteen. During this time, they train in archery, close quarters combat, mathematics, and language. At sixteen, they transition into an apprenticeship or trade, often moving to housing closer to their place of work, though many begin their training much earlier.

I walked over to the cot holding one of the older kids, someone just a year younger than I was. Yren Solvar was unlike anyone else in the village. She had taken up an apprenticeship with the village's Master Smith – Elder Tavik – at seven and had quickly learned all that she could. By the time she turned twelve, the Elder had nothing left to teach, and she had been given her own smithy/workshop. On top of that, she could defeat all but a select few of the village's warriors, and since everyone in the village received combat training from a young age, that was saying something.

There were only three warriors in the village that she was incapable of regularly defeating while in the ring, and that was only if she was actively fighting back; if she focused purely on defending herself, she could defeat anyone else in the village just by outlasting them.

All of that was possible due to three things. First, her drive for learning was fanatical. Second, she had a perfect photographic memory. Third (and most importantly), she barely slept. When I had left the village just a few hours prior, she had still been in her smithy.
Sighing, I grabbed a stick from beside the door and ever so gently poked her with it. Her hands moved faster than I could see and pulled; it was only through the knowledge that this was coming that I knew to drop it.

Blinking her eyes, she stared at me and then sighed. "Alright, I'm awake."
Slowly, she stood up and began stretching. When I didn't leave, she looked at me, annoyed; I chuckled.

"Alright, just don't go back to sleep. I'll go help the others." Leaving her to her stretches, I began making the rounds, slowly dragging the younger kids out of their beds so that we could begin our daily schedule. As the last of them made their way out of the barracks, the group shambled to the training grounds.
Elder James was waiting for us all there; he carried the quiet authority of a man who had seen more combat than he cared to admit – more than should have been possible in a small village like this one – his sharp blue eyes focused on the group as we approached him. "Good morning everyone. We'll begin with pushups. Meryn, you'll be counting." Like that, we began going through sets of pushups, situps, squats, etc. This was how Elder James had us start every morning.

After the warmup, the Elder began handing out safety equipment and paring everyone up. My first opponent was Toren, a kid my age. He was a solid fighter, but not amongst the best – then again, neither was I. As we stepped into the ring, we began circling each other, eyes locked, searching for an opening. He hesitated, and I seized the moment. I feinted with a jab to his side, drawing his guard before following up with a sharp hook. He blocked the jab easily, but the hook caught him off balance.
Toren staggered slightly from the blow. We both stepped away.

It was at this moment that I felt my perk activate again. The entire bout replayed in my mind with perfect clarity, and I knew everything that both of us had screwed up. I paused and indicated for Toren to stop for a moment. "Can we repeat that again in slow motion?" Toren shrugged, then nodded.

We went over the individual steps of the bout and corrected our mistakes, then we continued on. After fifteen minutes, the Elder had us all rotate to new partners. With each bout, I could feel myself improving massively. Things I had been struggling with before were now blatantly obvious. We continued this way for another half-an-hour before the Elder had us all take a break.

"Arthur, come here, please." I blinked, confused, then made my way over to the Elder. "Yes, Elder?" He looked at me funny. "What was that?"
"I don't understand, sir?"
He scoffed, "Your improvement in just one day is unbelievable, as is the improvement of everyone you've sparred with. What happened?"

I considered lying to him, but eventually decided against it. A half-truth will do for now. "Whenever I finish a bout, I can watch the entire bout in my head. I know what I have to fix and what my opponent can do better."

The Elder was silent for a few moments, then began walking to the ring and putting on safety gear. "Show me."

We both entered the ring and took our positions. The Elder beat me into the ground, but with each bout he had me walk him through everything he had done, and he would first ask me about my mistakes; not once did he correct me. After fifteen minutes, we finally stopped. "Fascinating. You say that this is new? My, if nothing changes, you'll be giving Yren a run for her money in just a few months' time."

The kids had English, German, Japanese and Math lessons after sparring. I had tested out of those even before I had unlocked my memories. Thinking back on it, that may have been knowledge from my past life bleeding through, or maybe not considering that I didn't know German or Japanese in my past life. I still attended Goa'uld language class, but the Elders limited what we learned to what they could steal or trade for. I spent most of my free time that day.

That evening, we began our second round of CQC training. Elder James paired me up with Yren for the duration. She spent the time pounding me into the ground, but I knew every mistake I made and by the end I had improved significantly.

I wouldn't have the chance to get any more blueprints until the Jaffa return. Until then I was more than happy to learn from Yren and Elder James. It took me two weeks, but eventually I reached the point where I could defend myself against Yren and Elder James. That didn't mean that I could beat them, only that I wasn't in danger of immediately being flattened.

It was after three weeks that the Elders had organized a large-scale combat drill. Elder James was the primary overseer for the event, with Elder Callum and Elder Elias acting as team overseers. I was the first one to notice a hunter running towards us. Elder Elias, my team's overseer, saw him coming as well. The Hunter approached and immediately began speaking with Elder Callum in a hushed tone. "Elder! The Jaffa have come through the gate, and these Jaffa do not belong to Athena!"

My heart froze at the implications. At the back of my head I always knew this was a possibility, I just never really believed that it would actually happen.
The Elder turned to me. "Arthur, we're canceling the games. Round everyone up and meet at the other team's flag." I nodded to him in response.

The Elder turned back to the hunter. "What else do you know?"
The Hunter immediately continued. "They claimed to be servants of Ares, and that they were rounding up the villagers to take for—"
That was all I heard, but it was enough; I stumbled as I ran off towards my team's flag. Ares never appeared in Stargate SG-1. All I knew about Ares came from Fan-fiction and guessing about what he would be like from what little I knew about Greek Mythology. It didn't paint a great picture. I vaguely remember that there was a rebellion that had grown due to him conquering a technologically advanced civilization somewhere, but I didn't remember the specifics.

My mind went into overdrive. There were only two ways off this planet; ship or Stargate. I hadn't seen any ships land, and any ship capable of carrying the population of the village would have been visible. That meant that they were using the Stargate. If I had access to a computer, then I could interface with the DHD to get the address the Jaffa dialed after they had left, but without that, I would likely never know where the villagers had been taken.

On top of that, this was a massive opportunity. The villagers' destination would almost undoubtedly be the Goa'uld's homeworld or a forward operating base. There would be a lot of technology for me to get my hands on, and unlike with Athena's homeworld, I no longer had to worry about drawing retribution back to the village. All I would have to do is fight off the Jaffa on the other side… yeah, not happening. It didn't matter, I needed that address. Without it everything was lost. With it at least I had a chance to defeat Ares in the future.

With my decision made, I rounded up all of my team members and ordered them to meet up with Elder James. Then I skulked away towards the village. It took me thirty minutes of hiking before I spotted the first home. The Jaffa had already carted off all the stored naquadah, and were still in the process of rounding up the villagers. I wasn't too late. Using the trees as cover, I slowly proceeded towards the clearing in which the Stargate stood.

Before arriving at the gate, I picked up the abandoned Zat. If I was lucky, then I wouldn't have to use it. A few hundred meters later and the Stargate was within my sight. The clearing was mostly empty, except for a few people – presumably slaves – who were all waiting by carts filled with naquadah ore. I crept towards the edge of the clearing where I picked a tree with especially thick bristles and climbed. Then I began waiting.

Slowly, the villagers and their 'escorts' began to arrive in the clearing. It was at this time that unusual things started happening below me. The first thing I noticed was the bending of foliage on the ground, as if someone was pushing the bushes aside, but there was nothing there. I froze up and steadied my breathing as I had done a thousand times before. I watched with rapt attention, afraid to miss any details. Several minutes later, the bushes began moving again and there were suddenly two people in black armor standing below me. They began a brief discussion in Goa'uld.

"What have you uncovered?"
"There are no Symbiotes hidden on this world. The Tok'ra is not here."
"As expected. We will continue to the next address after these Servants of Ares have finished their plundering."
With their brief interaction finished, they both recloaked. To my relief, I could see their footsteps as they both left in different directions.

There was only one group that had access to cloaking technology and who regularly hunted Tok'ra; the Ashrak – the assassins of the Goa'uld system lords. It hit me then; those cloaking devices could change everything. With them I would be almost completely unstoppable; I could walk right into Ares' palace and shoot him in the head; absolutely no one would be able to stop me.

With a newly discovered purpose, I waited. As the last of the villagers arrived, one of the Jaffa approached the DHD and began dialing. The Stargate activated, and I watched with rapt attention as the Jaffa herded the villagers through. After barely a minute, the clearing was devoid of life. Almost immediately, the two Ashrak appeared beside the DHD and began dialing an address.

I struck just before the gate was activated. Two concurrent Zat blasts, one to the backs of each of them, was all it took to knock them down. I ordered the Zat to fire four more times, twice into each of the bodies. The first blast stunned them; the second killed them; the third turned them into a mist that was swept away by even the slightest breeze.

I waited for a moment, but I didn't get any notice from my perk. Maybe it didn't work like I thought it did?
Carefully eyeing my environment, I clambered down the tree and entered the clearing, making a beeline for the Stargate. It was only when I was a few meters away from the DHD that I finally heard the shuffling of gravel behind me. Throwing myself forward, I aimed the Zat behind myself and ordered the weapon to fire three times, each hitting nothing but air.

As I stood from my leap, I turned my head. For a brief fraction of a second, I saw nothing, then I noticed it; the ever so faint imprint of a foot on gravel, then another, and another. Taking aim once more, I fired; once more I failed to strike anything but air. My heart pounded as I shifted my stance, digging my foot into the gravel before letting the gravel scatter in the general direction of my target.

In one particular area, the gravel disappeared, presumably due to interacting with the cloaking field. Again, I fired. And this time I struck. The air shimmered as a third Ashrak fell over in front of me, his cloak deactivating as he fell.

I took a deep breath as I relaxed, only to tense as I heard Elder James yelling at me from my right. "Behind y–" I turned back just in time to see a lance of red light strike a target not feet behind me. In a brilliant flash, I watched as a fourth Ashrak appeared, a hole seared through the left side of his torso and burnt flesh melting from a gaping wound.
The dead body fell forward and my perk activated again.

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Zat'Nik'Tel (Zat) Neural Crystal, Particle Emitter

First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Zat'Nik'Tel (Zat)

With it came a flood of information about how the fight went, and what I could have done better, but more importantly for me, was the rest of the schematic for the Zat'Nik'Tel. With a great deal of effort, I ignored it and turned to Elder James as he marched up to me.

"Goddamnit boy! What the hell were you thinking?" Again, regaining control of my breathing, I watched the Elder holster a firearm in his belt; that was definitely not something he normally carried around. I lowered the Zat that I had unconsciously raised and replied "I thought there were only two of them."

The Elder scoffed, "What the hell did you think you'd be achieving from killing those two?"

I blinked at him, "Elder, we need their technology."

He scowled. "And what are you expecting to do when these four don't report in with their superiors and someone sends more after them?"

I stared at him, not comprehending his words. "I didn't, I just know we need their cloaking devices." It was at that moment that both of us saw something by the head of the dead Ashrak. It appeared similar to a snake and we watched it – Elder James in bewilderment and me in a brief moment of confusion – as it slowly crawled its way out of the corpse's mouth.

"What in the blazes is that!?"
I returned my gaze to him for a few moments, "Elder, that is a Goa'uld." Thinking quickly, I searched the ground nearby for a large stick. I quickly found exactly what I was looking for.
The Elder appeared thoughtful for a moment as he watched the symbiote crawl, inch by inch, out of the mouth of the dead Ashrak. "Are you telling me that the Goa'uld aren't human?"

I cringed. I should have realized that the villagers wouldn't be privy to the true nature of the Goa'uld. "The Goa'uld are a race of parasitic snake-like-creatures. They burrow into the body of a living creature through the back of the throat or neck, wrap themselves around the spinal cord, and take control of the host's body."

The Elder snapped his head to me, before he realized what I was saying. "So that," gesturing to the snake, "is what a Goa'uld truly looks like?"

I nodded. "You don't happen to have anything you can put it in, do you?"

He frowned. "Not with me. If we can make it to camp, we can get a crate and lock it in that."

I frowned, but I wasn't surprised. "What about some rope?"

The Elder pulled off the sack he carried on his back and retrieved a collection of zip ties. Those should not have existed on this world.

I shook my head; best not to look a gift horse in the mouth; I'd have my answers later. "Alright, we can tie it to this branch. What do you want to do with the other one?"

Elder James froze for a moment as he turned back to the third Ashrak. "Isn't it dead?"

I shook my head, "Just incapacitated. It could be like that for anywhere from five minutes to an hour."

He winced. "Let's get this one first."
With that we approached the symbiote. In one swift motion, I grabbed the now clearly injured symbiote with both hands and placed it lengthwise alongside the branch I had picked up. Elder James then used more than a half-dozen zip ties to secure it to the branch. With the first one secured, we let out a sigh of relief.

Then we turned our attention to the other Ashrak. It hadn't even been two minutes since I had incapacitated this Goa'uld and luckily he was still unconscious. We turned the body over to confirm that he was still breathing. The Elder turned to me. "Well Arthur, what do we need to do here?"

I had been considering this for the past few minutes. "I'll be honest Elder, if you want the symbiote alive, the best bet is to just kill the host and wait for the symbiote to leave the body, but if you want the greatest chance to get information from the Goa'uld, you'll want the host alive. The only way I could see that working is if you manage to trick the damn thing out, and I don't know of any readily available methods for that."

In one swift motion he pulled a box from his sack and removed a syringe. "Well, guess we'll just have to kill him and hope that the thing leaves his body before he suffers from any permanent brain damage." Quicker than I could react, he struck the syringe into the host's heart and injected the entirety of its contents. With that, the elder pulled his sleeve up well past his elbow to reveal a well hidden watch which gave a beep, presumably to start a timer.

I asked, "Elder, what was that?"

"Thanarex—designed to mimic the effects of sudden-onset hypothermia, stabilizing brain function for hours after cardiac arrest. What condition should I expect the host to be in if the Goa'uld departs their body?"

I winced, "I don't know. Maybe he's totally brain dead, or maybe he was trained from birth as a Goa'uld Assassin and is loyal to the symbiote. Best case scenario, he suffers from total amnesia, but he retains access to the Goa'uld genetic memory."

The Elder raised an eyebrow, "Genetic memory?"

I nodded calmly, "The Goa'uld Queens can decide what memories to pass onto their children; it makes the children quite loyal to their parents. As far as I'm aware, the memories don't affect humans quite as much."

The Elder's watch beeped once and he turned his attention away from me and to the Ashrak host; very suddenly, a visible wave passed over the Ashrak, starting from the fingers and moving up the body to the head. He placed his hand on the host's throat and nodded. "His heartbeat is gone. I'm assuming that if that… thing is going to be coming out, then it will be soon."

Placing my hand on the host's wrist, I almost jumped; the temperature must have been well below freezing.
We waited with bated breath for anything to happen. It was about five minutes after the initial reaction that things began. We saw as the skin of the host's throat began to churn in an odd manner.

Suddenly, the symbiote popped out from the man's mouth. So fast that I could barely see him moving, the Elder grabbed the things head with a vice-like grip and ripped it out of the man's throat. The thing screeched like a banshee, but it was unable to escape from his grip.

"Arthur, hold this please." Carefully, he passed the goa'uld to me, first the head, and then the tail. I made sure that I had a proper grip on the parasite, while the elder prepared a second needle and injected the former host with another substance.

With that, he quickly packed away his medical kit and turned to me. I lay the significantly more active Goa'uld against the same stick and didn't let go until the Elder had it well and truly secured.

At that moment, my perk activated again; with it came an influx of knowledge on Goa'uld biology and anatomy.

First Perk Activated. Partial Biology Acquired: Goa'uld Nervous System, Respiratory System

From that knowledge came a reminder of something I had completely forgotten, something that should have been much more obvious.
I groaned. Elder James sent me an inquisitive glance. "Goa'uld are aquatic. They can't survive outside of a liquid for more than a few hours. Even with the right habitat, adult Goa'uld can't survive without a host for an extended period."
Elder James' eyebrows twitched, "That's going to make this even more difficult. Do you know what would be necessary to prepare a habitat?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "I do, but it's not like we have any way to actually prepare an environment for them."
Elder James grabs something from within his robes, and presses a button on the side. The object – a radio very similar to ones from 21st century Earth – produces a short burst of static before the Elder speaks into it. "James to Camp. Come in."

There is a moment of silence before I hear another voice. "This is Camp. Report."
"Preparing to secure primary objective. Found Arthur. We also have prisoners. One human, two non-human. You'll have to prepare special-accommodations."
There is a moment of silence. "Please confirm. You said non-human prisoners?"

"Confirmed. Non-human prisoners."
Another moment of silence follows. "Copy that, I'll have Callum here in a moment."
The Elder turned to me. "You'll have to tell them what they need to prepare."
I nodded. Then I begin stripping the former host of his equipment. The Elder pulls out two pairs of handcuffs, placing one set on his ankles and one set around his wrists.

"This is Callum. Come in James."
"This is James. Have you been informed of the situation?"
I hear a clear snort through the radio. "Something about non-human prisoners. Explain."
Elder James handed me the radio.
I took it from him and pressed the button on the side, activating the microphone. The Elder twitched slightly at my apparent familiarity with the technology. "The prisoners are aquatic-snakes. They can survive outside of water for extended periods, but they will require special accommodations to survive for more than four hours."

The radio is silent for a few moments. "Alright. Tell me what we need, kid."
I took a deep breath, choosing my words carefully. "We need two containment tanks, at least a cubic meter each. 35000 PPM of salt and 1000 PPM of Naquadah. The tanks will need to be constantly oxygenated."
There is a moment of silence before Elder Callum responds. "If that's all, then I can have the tanks completed in two hours."

Elder James takes the radio back from me. "Understood. We'll be getting back around that time. Callum, I cannot stress enough how dangerous these creatures are. Under no circumstances can they be allowed out of containment. Understood?"

Another moment of silence. "Understood. I'll be in contact if we need you for anything."
The Elder clipped the radio to his belt, then turned to me. " I have to grab one thing. I'll be back in a couple of minutes." He threw me a leather sack. "Go grab all of their equipment. Be sure not to leave anything behind."

With that, he strode into the nearby forest and disappeared. I started by stripping the equipment from the body of the surviving host. With every piece of technology I picked up, my perk would activate. When I was done stripping the prisoner, I moved onto the equipment that was now laying on the ground. By the time I was done, my perk had activated almost a dozen times.

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprints Acquired: Reetou Karesh (Ashrak Cloak) Neural Crystal, Selkium Crystal Core, Cloaking Field Generator

First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Reetou Karesh (Ashrak Cloak)

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Hara'Kesh (Ashrak Hand Device) Emitter Crystals, Control Modulation Circuit, Structural Framework

First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Hara'Kesh (Ashrak Hand Device)

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: A'tar Blade (Ashrak PhaseBlade) Neural Crystal, Selkium Crystal Core, Phaser Blade

First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: A'tar Blade (Ashrak PhaseBlade)

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Nesret (Ashrak Clothing) Naquadah Fibre Weave, Neural Interface, Visual Interface

First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Nesret (Ashrak Cloak)

I now had the complete blueprint for the cloaking device, a high frequency vibrating knife, naquadah fibre clothing (wasn't all that helpful, but it did show me how I could go about creating some more advanced fibre weaves), and most importantly, the Hara'kesh – a miniaturized multitool that only the Ashrak used.

By some massive stroke of luck, of the four Ashrak that I had killed, only the two I had killed in the initial ambush had carried Zats. As I finished with the last of the loot, Elder James returned. He carried a slim, rectangular device with a smooth, reflective surface and a metallic frame. One side was producing a dim light and was covered in changing text.

I stared at him for a moment. "Is that a computer?"

He raises an eyebrow at me, "It is."

"And how long have we had access to those?" I ask him, mildly annoyed.

"I've had access to them my whole life. You shouldn't even know what a computer is."

I grit my teeth as I felt my irritation spike. "If I had known we had those I wouldn't have bothered coming here. Do you have any connectors?"

He raised an eyebrow and passed me the pad and a number of probes. "Then it's probably a good thing that you didn't know. If you had known then we wouldn't have been able to capture these fellows." As I grabbed the computer, my perk activated.

First Perk Activated. Source Code Acquired: Terran Hegemony Operating System (THOS)

So Elder James is from the Terran Hegemony. The last time this device was updated was 2760, so it would have been a few years before the civil war. This could mean anything from this device being out of touch with the Hegemony, or that they simply only updated their software every few decades. Questions for later.

Walking over to the DHD, I pressed my finger up against a hidden latch, causing it to pop open. I pulled out one of the crystals, pushed the pair of probes into the socket, and began trying to get the DHD to cooperate with what I now knew was called a compad. It took me barely thirty seconds; the DHDs were designed specifically so that they would connect with any technological level – even the most basic of computers. When the DHD's internal computer had deciphered the basic text document, I had it unload its internal storage into the compad.

Finally, I gave the DHD an order to always interpret any input from the dialing buttons as the point of origin, meaning that someone who didn't have an interface for the DHD would be unable to dial out.

With that, I handed the compad back to Elder James. He looked at it, and began scrolling down the list of addresses.

"What is this?"
"A list of every single address that has ever been dialed to or from this address."

Elder James froze for a moment. "Ohhh." He looked down at his compad with significantly greater interest, before sighing and placinging back onto his back. "Well, let's get going. We've got a bit of a hike ahead of us."

It was an hour's walk from the gate to the secure caverns, but we didn't stop there. It was a further hour before I noticed what would be our destination; a large empty patch of forest. It wasn't until we were much closer to the area that I finally saw it; a massive building, twenty meters tall, seventy meters long, and fifty meters wide. Except, buildings didn't have wings… or rocket engines.
I turned to the Elder, my face blank.

"Why is there a ship in the middle of the forest? No, more importantly, why didn't anyone know this was here."

"You didn't know this was here; that doesn't mean other people didn't know it was here. You would have been told after you proved you weren't liable to reveal anything." I followed him through the massive twenty meter tall door to the interior of the ship. The moment my foot touched the floor of the ship, my perk activated.

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Leopard-Class Dropship Hull Framework

The hull blueprints for the Leopard-class Aerodyne Dropship had been shoved into my head. That confirmed that Elder James was definitely from the Inner Sphere then.

As we entered the ship, the remaining villagers came into view. The kids were wandering around the hangar bay, examining a pair of what I recognized to be BattleMechs. Elder Callum sat in a chair against one of the walls. The first thing I noticed about him was a sense of old age; as if he had gained twenty years of life in the few short hours since I had last seen him. He wore a jumpsuit; a welding helmet and a pair of heavy duty gloves lay on the ground besides him. As we entered the large bay, his eyes first focused on James – presumably on the man he was carrying – and then his eyes shifted to me before narrowing at the Goa'uld parasites.

"These would be our non-human prisoners, then."
Elder James nodded. "Aye. Are the tanks ready?"
Elder Callum stands up. "They are. We had a couple of reinforced tanks from when we first landed. Wasn't hard to move them down to the Brig."
We followed the Elder down several corridors until we eventually arrived at a heavily locked door.

We followed the Elder inside, where we found several cells, one of them containing a set of tanks, each filled with water, air bubbles floating up to the top of each tank.
First, we placed the former host into one of the other prison cells – after swapping his remaining clothing for a prisoner's outfit. Finally, Elder James and I placed the stick holding the two symbiotes on the floor. I held down the more injured one while Elder James removed the zip ties. Then, careful to not let it escape, we placed it into a tank and closed the hatch. The symbiote swam to the bottom where it lay mostly motionless. If not for its tail flicking back and forth we might have assumed it was dead.

We did the same with the second symbiote; this one resisting with a much greater fervor. With our work finally done, we all let out sighs of relief.
Elder Callum slapped me on the top of the head. "What the hell were you thinking, brat? Why the hell would you run off like that?"

I winced. "I wanted to find out the address that the villagers were being taken to."

Elder Callum raised an eyebrow. "And you didn't think to ask anyone else what we were planning?"

I sent the elder a death glare. "Four hours ago, I was under the impression that this village was in the pre-industrial age. I've lived here for my whole life and I didn't know about the dropship in our backyard."

The Elder smiled. "Then we've been doing our jobs! You're not supposed to know about the ship. Means that the Jaffa won't hear about it from anyone in the Village."

I let out a scoff. I could understand their reasoning. That didn't mean that I agreed with it. If I had known we had access to more advanced technology I could have properly started using my first perk weeks ago.

Elder James turned to Elder Callum. "We need to debrief the others."
We followed Elder Callum out of the brig. "They've been waiting for a few hours now. The whole 'non-human prisoners' really put a stopper on all of our current plans."

I followed the Elders down several twisting corridors. We approach one particular round door. It opens to reveal Elders Dorian, Elias, and Tavik all standing together around what I recognized as a Holotank – basically a table which projected holographic images. They all wore their normal village robes, but all three of the Elders had a weight to them, as if they had aged decades in the mere hours since I had last seen them.

"Well James, are you ready to explain these non-human prisoners?"

Elder James chuckled lightly. "It's as unbelievable as you'd expect. Arthur, tell us about the Goa'uld."

I froze. Of course he'd have me do the explaining. Why else would he have brought me here? So, once again, I explained the nature of Goa'uld. By the time I was done with my quick overview, the Elders were looking at me like I was insane.

Elder Dorian turned to Elder James. "Is he serious?"

Elder James nodded. "As far as I can tell. Of the two we captured, one of them slithered out of the corpse of a man I killed. We forced the other one out of the body of our prisoner. We had to stop his heart to make the thing leave his body."

Elder Callum grimaced. "That's horrifying. What happens to the people whose bodies they inhabit?"

I responded. "Some are capable of completely incapacitating their host so they're effectively asleep. Some Goa'uld – like Ra and Apophis – enjoy letting their host's watch what's happening to them. Considering that Ra and Apophis have both had the same host for the past several thousand years…" I didn't finish the thought. I didn't need to.
There was a moment of silence. "What do we know about our Human prisoner?"

"Absolutely nothing. If he ever awakens, I can say that there is a greater chance than not that he will be conscious. The Ashrak practice complete personality suppression, so the host likely has no memory of what has happened to them since he was last awake."

Again, another moment of silence as everyone processed what I had said.
"Alright. Now, tell me… why did you think it was a good idea to attack an enemy that didn't even know we existed?" Elder Dorian's voice was sharp, but beneath it was an edge of frustration.

I looked him in the eye and nodded. "There was good reason." I placed my bag of loot on the table, and pulled out one of the cloaking devices. Pulling it over my wrist and onto my arm, I activated it. All the Elders except Elder James intake a deep breath. I take a step around the table, in that silent method I had been taught by the Elders during training. I tap both Elders on the shoulder – they both jump in shock – before I deactivate the cloak.

"Is that sufficient?"

Elder Dorian shudders. "'Sufficient'? I would gladly walk into Ares Palace for a chance to get tech like that."

I let out a sigh of relief. "The group that uses these devices are called the Ashrak. They're the Goa'uld's Assassins' Guild. They operate either independently or in small groups only."

Elder Tavik spoke up now, "I'm sorry but what is your source?"

I winced, unsure of what to tell him. I pulled off the cloaking device while I thought about how I wanted to answer his question. I couldn't think of any convincing lie I could tell. Actually, why would I lie? I just killed four people because information was withheld from me. Hmmm.. I must have read too many isekai novels.

"About a year ago, I gained memories of another person. That person lived on Earth – Terra – in the 21st Century. In that world, there was a TV-series called Stargate. That show was about a team of 21st century soldiers from earth and ."

Elder Tavik's eyes narrowed. "A show? You're basing all of this on some entertainment program?"

I nodded firmly. "Yes. Everything I've encountered matches perfectly— the Stargate, the Jaffa, the Goa'uld. Some things don't match, but the broader strokes of the Goa'uld Empire's internal politics, structure, and technology. I have no reason to doubt any of that information."

Elder Callum asked the next question. "What things don't match."

"You. Leopard-class dropships come from a completely different franchise."
The Elders stiffened slightly at my recognition of the dropship. Elder James raised an eyebrow. "So you know about the Star League, then?"
I nodded. "I know of the general history of the Inner Sphere from the years 2100 to 3025."

All of them froze. Elder James smiled at me weakly. "You can tell us what happened to Kerensky then?"
Once again, I nodded. "I can. There is more, though. When I regained my memories, I also gained an ability called the Celestial Forge. It–"
Elder Callum scoffed. "Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait! The Celestial Forge? Are you being serious kid?"

Everyone looked at him blankly for a moment. "What? It's a pretty basic concept. There's an extensive list of abilities from different pieces of fiction. Then the main character of a novel buys perks with points or the Forge picks them randomly."

I smiled. "So you're aware of how the Celestial Forge works. My first perk allows me to reverse engineer any salvage I get my hands on. Just by touching it, I get a part of its blueprint. If I get my hands on enough versions of it, then I can get a whole blueprint."
The Elders sat in stunned silence for several long moments as they processed my claim. Elder Tavik was the first to break the silence. "Arthur, that is a big claim to make. With that kind of ability you're spitting in the face of engineers."

"I am aware. I have already proven it to Elder James."
His brows furrowed for a moment before the light of comprehension appeared. "You're saying that's how you managed the interface with the dialing device?"
That got the other Elder's attention. "Wait-wait-wait. James, what are you talking about?" Elder Callum was the first to respond.


Elder James pulls out his compad and plugs it into the Holotank. A wall of text appears in midair. "According to Arthur, this is a list of every address that has ever been dialed from the Stargate on this world."

I nodded. "The perk gave me a breakdown of the dialing devices' internal computer and an understanding of the source code used by the compad. From there, –" I froze mid sentence as Elder Elias started coughing. I turned to him, questioning.

He quickly regained his composure. "Brat, if you got a copy of the THOS source code then you can stop talking. Amaris destroyed all copies of the code when he started nuking worlds. There are no copies left anywhere in the Inner Sphere."

That… made some sense. "Well, as I was saying, it wasn't hard to convince the dialer to disgorge its internal memory. If you want more proof, If you give me an hour, I can transcribe the blueprints for the hull of this dropship."

Elder Tavik smiles, then bursts into a chuckle. "Well, I guess that'll make replicating these aliens' technology a piece of cake."

"Especially if we can steal their industrial technology." I replied. That idea got them nodding.

"Alright. So what would you have us do?" Elder Elias spoke up.

"You've taught me – no, you've been teaching everyone in the village how to engage in military combat. Even the most competent military would be capable of defeating a force of Goa'uld. They enforce their will first through fear and then through power. Their infantry weapons are about on par with what the Star League had, but they use tactics straight from the 1700s on Terra. They stand in lines and fire at targets. As long as we can disable their ships, we will have an absolute advantage on the ground. If you can reteach everyone how to use laser weapons, then we can win."

Elder Dorian closed his eyes. "I have been training the villagers in the art of military combat for the better part of three decades. If what we have to do is give the children weapons of war then so be it. How do you plan to deactivate the enemy ships?"

"Goa'uld fighter craft – at least the ones used by Apophis – have an emergency recall order. When activated, the vessel will fly back to their nearest base. If I can infiltrate the enemy base – which is child's play with the cloaking devices – then I can use my perk to activate that protocol in all the vessels. That will give us a certain amount of time. If I can completely rewrite all the passwords and protocols – the ships will basically belong to us already. After that, capturing Ares will be nearly effortless. Worst case, we shoot him."

Elder Callum raises an eyebrow, "How certain are you that you can access the systems?"

With more confidence than I felt, I replied. "Certain. If it exists, I can use it."
Elder James nods to that. "Alright then. We'll begin preparing the villagers for combat. Arthur, you will write down everything you can remember about this TV-show. After that, you will go straight to Ares' world for recon. Is everyone in agreement?"

Elder Elias chuckles. "Does that mean that I can finally start carrying around a Mauser again?"
Elder James smiles at that. "I suppose it does."

A comfortable silence passes over everyone in the room; the weight of missing family is not quite so great when hope is restored.


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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading.
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