Starborn Smith [Massive Scifi MultiFusion / Celestial Forge]

[BlazingHyperion]

Hmmm, honestly that really depends. Obviously no God Emperor since we know the Inner Sphere is what became of Earth and it's immediate surrounds. If the Orks were around in numbers, someone would know, given how much of the Galaxy the Goa'uld have explored. Given the anti-dameon measures on the Stargates, I think the most logic assumption is that many of the nastier threats in 40K probably got bodied by the Ancients or Asgard. The Tyranids are extra galactic, so the might be around. But they honestly aren't any worse than the Wraith over in Pegasus.

Click to shrink...

A lot of really good assumptions, though a few that aren't quite right. You think a lot like me.

I will say, that any fans of the Imperium or Chaos probably won't enjoy this story quite as much, but Aeldari and Necron fans will.

Pretty much this.

If the Ancients exist in this, then by default the Chaos Gods have to be either weaker, or generally suppressed. Since they kind of take up the same metaphysical space, at a glance.

Ancients are ascended energy beings, so it's possible the Warp-fuckery is treated like the Ori, in that it's stuck in some places as the Ancients kicked it out and closed the door. Especially since they clearly have anti-warp tech that's really good, going by the Stargate Wards. So they might be treated as Necron-level 'Fuck Yo Warp'.

Because otherwise most Goa'uld would be servants of the Ruinous Powers, going by all their... them-ness. Things are basically purpose-made to be Tzeentchian or Slaaneshi, with their plotting and the plotting/paranoia they cause by being capable of infiltrating/impersonating people, and their being totally convinced of their perfection.

Click to shrink...

I would say that the Ascended beings exist at a level above Chaos, metaphysically, at least. And yeah, the Alterans had some serious "fuck the warp" type technology.


I am annoyingly free with spoilers, and I've talked about this more over on Discord. Up to Chapter #57 over there, so I hope you check it out.

 

[Dracobait]

Guessing the Nox are the Aelderi and the Asguard are the necrontyr with the Ancients as the old ones and the furling as the Krork

 

[Kenji Kage]

Guessing the Nox are the Aelderi and the Asguard are the necrontyr with the Ancients as the old ones and the furling as the Krork

Click to shrink...

Mh if this was the case it would make sense as the ruinous powers would not actually exist

as there would have been no war in haven there would still be deamons and things like the enslavers

but the chaos gods would likely not exist the warp would also be quite a lot less violent

 

[BlazingHyperion]

- - -
POV: James Cromwell (Battletech)

I nodded to the Pangaran representative who took a seat across from me. With us were also Arktos, Ma'chello, and Eudora.
"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Madam Thol. I'm afraid we have unfortunate news."

She nodded. "About that device that was discovered in Egeria's Tomb?"

I nodded. "It is a transmitter of some sort – similar to those Radios that you've just started using, but much more advanced. The moment the room was unsealed, it sent a transmission."

Madam Thol stood up and walked to the window. "Do we know who the transmission was for?"

"Most likely for Ra." I composed myself a bit. "Possibly for Apophis, though that would be unlikely."

She nodded. "Alright. What do we need to do to prepare?"

- - -
POV: Egeria (Stargate)

My host's eyes fluttered open as we sat up in the sarcophagus. I couldn't help but snarl at the insult; they put me into one of these… things despite knowing what they did.

My host, a woman by the name of Annelise Koenig, spoke, "Better to ask for forgiveness than for permission."

I almost snarled again, but I could understand the sentiment.

To my side, a man approached. From my host's memories I knew he was one Michael Dresden. "Annelise?"

She nodded. "Still here. This is trippy."

It was always strange getting used to the mannerisms of a new host.

Michael nodded. "James is still on Pangar. Negotiations with the locals are going well, all things considered."

Annelise nodded. "I figured."

I'd like to see Isetri. It has been entirely too long since I've seen one of my children. I spoke to Annelise.

She raised an eyebrow, but relayed my words to Michael.

He nodded. "Ma'chello figured that would be the case. Lady Isetri has been informed and is waiting."

We followed Michael from the room and out of the ship – Ares' Flagship. His own Jaffa had rebelled against him? My, this Arktos must be one hell of a leader to convince the followers of a God to abandon them.

Annelise spoke to me, They go by Serkha, now.

The freed people, then? I suppose that is a fitting sentiment.

The gate was dialed and we stepped through to a rather unique world. Behind me was a sheer cliff that rose hundreds of feet above me, around me were the beginnings of a city, all placed on a cliff that was almost perfectly smooth and easily several kilometers in length and width.

I just barely managed to see a tunnel that was being dug into the mountain, though I couldn't quite tell how they were doing so.

This world was definitely a unique one, and if my host's memories were correct, it was well outside the range of nearly all the System Lords.

Finally, I turned my senses to the naquadah. The world itself was also rich with the material, but that wasn't what caught my attention. No, while I also felt the several thousand goa'uld Prim'ta in my surroundings, what really caught my attention was the unique signature of one of my children.

Then I saw one of the enormous metal walkers – my host called them industrial mechs. What sort of society would create such monstrosities? My host kindly showed me her memories of her homeland, and I nearly shuddered. If these people hadn't been so busy killing each other, then they might have actually been able to topple Ra's empire, given enough time.

Hmmm. Terra? Ahh, the first world. I suppose the world's original name would have been forgotten if all that remained were the slaves.

We continued to walk as we approached a building. I could feel my child within. I entered the building and saw one of my children for the first time in a very long time. Taking over from Annelise, I spoke. "It's good to see you again, child."

Isetri stared in disbelief for a few short moments, before almost breaking down into tears.

- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair

I sat at a table across from Egeria who inhabited Elder Annelise's body. Sitting with us was Elder James, Ma'chello, Eudora, and Arktos. Elder James had also invited the representative from Pangar who had agreed to come along.

"I thank you all for freeing me" she spoke in that synthesized voice that was unique to Goa'uld.

Elder James nodded. "You're quite welcome, though I'm afraid that a bit of an issue has come up."

The Elder gestured towards the Pangaran representative. "While we were removing you from the stasis jar, we believe we might have activated a transmitter of some kind."

Egeria nodded. "I am aware. Assuming that Ra has not decreased the number of vessels at his command, I would assume no more than a few weeks before one of his Ha'tak arrives above your world."

The Pangaran representative clenched his fists. "What can we do?'

Egeria frowned. "All I can recommend is that you prepare."

She gestured towards the rest of us. "I have no doubt that these people would be capable of taking a single Ha'tak should the vessel's crew let their guard down. Ra is not likely to immediately bomb a planet from orbit as you are worrying. He will strip the world of useful resources, then begin selling the population as slaves to neighboring worlds. If you act quickly enough, then loss of life can be kept to a relative minimum. From there, it will likely be several months before another such ship arrives to check."

The room was silent. The Pangaran Representative stood up. "If that is the case, I'm afraid I must go make preparations. My government is currently deciding on a permanent representative that we can send to your world sometime soon."

He left the room and we were all silent for several moments.

"Now," Egeria began, "I believe you owe me an apology."

Elder James nodded. "I was aware of your beliefs regarding the Sarcophagus, and chose to have you enter it despite those beliefs. I take full responsibility for my actions, and seek your forgiveness."

Egeria stared at him silently for several moments. She eventually let out a sigh. "As much as I wish to be able to yell at you for such a defilement, I can understand why you did so. However, I will give you this warning. My… beliefs are not quite so empty as you might believe."

She gestured to me. "Your… perk… showed you what the wards on the Stargate do. You know that the soul truly exists, do you not?"

I hadn't even considered that as a possible implication. I gulped and nodded. Egeria continued. "I am not making baseless claims when I say that the Sarcophagus corrupts the soul. It destroys the part of you that is responsible for compassion and empathy. There are also the immediate effects, but the long term effects are just as real. Never trust someone who regularly uses such a device, the only beings they are capable of feeling compassion for are themselves."

Everyone around us looked spooked, and I quickly brought up something else of near equal importance. I coughed once. "If you don't mind me asking, I have a question about the Ha'taks."

She raised an eyebrow but nodded at me to continue. "Ares was worried that Ra had a way to track his ships. Do you know anything about that?"

She raised an eyebrow. "He's managed to keep that hidden for so long?"

I nodded and she continued. "This was something I learned not long before I was imprisoned. In fact, it might just be the very reason that he imprisoned me to begin with. The Ha'tak Hyperdrive is not nearly as streamlined as that of the Al'kesh or the Tel'tak. Activating the Hyperdrive causes the ship to be detectable by anyone within almost a hundred light years."

Elder James raised an eyebrow. "That would still require that there be something within range to detect the ship."

She smiled. "Which is why he has constructed a network of satellites that covers the entire galaxy. Even more, any Hyperdrive that isn't specially designed to minimize its presence will be visible to Ra."

I winced. "So if anyone tries to make a new hyperdrive, Ra will know. You need actual test data in order to properly minimize such a signature."

Egeria nodded. "Any attempts to improve the Hyperdrive by another System Lord, or a new civilization creating a new such drive would result in Ra immediately destroying them."

She turned to Elder James. "You're people are quite lucky. You use a different form of FTL for your travel. One that is invisible to Ra's net."

While Egeria was speaking, Ma'chello looked pale. He sighed and nodded. "Thank you for telling us about this. I'm afraid we have some things to discuss now that this new information is in order."

He turned to me next, "Arthur, is there anything that you could do to confirm this information?"

I sat back and let my mind wander for a moment. Now that I knew what I was looking for, I knew how I could detect the ship. The Ha'tak's Hyperdrive vibrated Subspace at a very particular frequency when it was creating the Hyperspace bubble. Theoretically, I could use any sort of Subspace Receiver in order to detect another Ha'tak.

The scanners on the Tel'tak would almost certainly work, but I don't have the blueprints for that… What else? Ahhh. The DHD has a Subspace Receiver for communicating with Stargates in its immediate vicinity. That would definitely work.

I gave a rather tense nod. "I can modify the subspace receiver from a DHD to listen for the particular vibrations made by a Ha'tak Hyperdrive."

Ma'chello turned to Elder James. "We need to test this immediately."

Elder James nodded. "Well, we know what our next project is. Arthur, all your other projects are on hold until you can get that DHD working. How long do you think you need?"

I frowned. "Two days. Max."

"Alright. Arthur, you're dismissed. We need to get that working immediately."

Egeria seemed to raise an eyebrow. "I would be very interested in learning of such an alteration. I would be quite interested in learning of the modifications that you make to the device."

I looked at Elder James and he nodded. "That would be acceptable."

Egeria nodded in response and I left the room while they continued to interrogate her on what she knew of the Goa'uld Empire.

- - -
27 hours later.

I put the crystal back into the DHD and stood up. This had been a pain in the backside, but I was pretty sure I had it done. Now that I knew what I was looking for in the schematic, I knew what I needed to do.

The Ha'tak Hyperdrive was set to magnify its vibrations in certain frequencies. While this did something to decrease the power usage of the ship, it also caused it to light up Subspace in a very particular manner. If you weren't already aware of the phenomenon, I doubted anyone would be able to pick up the signal.

Not unless you had a significant technological edge and an almost complete understanding of how Hyperspace worked, something probably only the Ancients and the Asgard had.

I nodded behind me, "It should be ready."

Arktos nodded. "Then we shall begin the test."

I watched as one of the Ha'taks took off. Several moments later, I saw a flash of blue in the sky; the instruments within the DHD began flaring up. I looked up at Arktos and Elder James. "Well, if that isn't confirmation, then I don't know what is."

The two of them looked at each other. "Time to change some plans."

- - -
POV: James Cromwell. Two days later.

I looked down at Arthur as he began making the modifications to the Pangaran DHD. I turned to the Representative. "Thank you for allowing us to do this."

She raised an eyebrow. "Of course, this concerns our world, after all."

We stood silently while waiting for Arthur to finish. Luckily most of the changes were code based, so most of the work was already completed.

Finally Arthur stood up and pulled up his compad. "Alright. Let's see… Hmmmm."

I raised an eyebrow. "Arthur?"

He nodded. "There is a ship…"

I felt my face immediately fall. "How far away?"

He frowned. "About 122 light years. I can't tell its direction, but if it is coming towards Pangar, then it will be here in a bit over 33 hours."

I clenched my teeth and turned to the Pangaran Representative. "I'm going to need to speak with your military leaders."

She nodded. "I'll have them ready in a few hours."

I nodded. "Good. We don't have much time to start preparing."

- - -
Author's Note:
Read up to Chapter #50 on Discord: [ LINK: https://discord.com/invite/dbVKfqYw5T ]

 

[BlazingHyperion]

- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair

An hour later, I was able to confirm that the ship was approaching, heading straight for Pangar, in fact.

The following 24 hours were a hectic mess as Elder James, Arktos, and Ma'chello worked to get operatives as well as a few mechs hidden on Pangar. A half-dozen Locusts were transferred through to the world.

We'd tested out the Ha'taks sensors extensively, and they weren't capable of detecting a mech if they were properly hidden, but we weren't sure if that would hold up with one of Ra's vessels. We'd just have to wait and see.

Other than the Mechs, the Pangarans were surprisingly trusting and agreed to start preparing much of their population for the invasion.

As the clock ticked by, we began searching for a set of transport rings in the facility. Luckily, we uncovered a set of them after not much searching. As soon as the ship arrived, we'd start sending up soldiers.

Finally, several hundred resistance members, Serkha, and Villagers began preparing. The Pangarans had a rather limited combat force; it was mostly police and the remnants from before the Pangaran city-states merged into a single unified government. Nonetheless, every member of their armed forces that could be prepared were mobilized.

As the hours ticked by, and the cities of Pangar began to still. The Stargate was moved to a more secure Pangaran facility, and then we waited.

As the sun set, the sky above the Stargate facility was crystal clear, and as the final few hours passed, we all waited.

Finally, three hours after sunset, I was barely able to make out the blue flash of the ship dropping out of Hyperspace.

Standard Goa'uld procedure was to capture the Stargate as soon as possible. Assuming the commander of this Ha'tak followed that procedure, his ship would be approaching this facility.

And, just as we had assumed, the Ha'tak approached. I watched from the nearby forest as the Ha'tak floated above the facility and began launching a small flight of Death Gliders from its hangars.

Half of them were immediately blown out of the sky by fire from mech-mounted weapons. The rest followed only a short few seconds later.

Then, my radio activated. "Ring Transporter confirmed."

And so it began.

- - -
POV: Mira Thalros. Dendred Resistance Member.

With a woosh, the Ring Transporter activated. The moment that the final ring was out of the way, all eight of us opened fire. Within a fraction of a second, the Mauser assault systems opened up and plumes of steam filled the room.

"Spread out!" I yelled as we immediately rushed to cover the room's entrance. I immediately heard the footsteps of Jaffa coming from the corridor.

I yelled at my team. "Cover the door." Once I was certain that all my team members were clear of the Transporter I grabbed my radio. "We're clear for the second team."

A short burst of static filled the room as the Ring Transporter began activating again. "Second group coming through."

Just as the Transport Ring activated, the Jaffa entered the room, only to be instantly vaporized by eight separate beams from me and my team. The already steamy room instantly became even thicker.

"Forward!" I yelled and we instantly broke into the hallway. Twice more, we ran into a Jaffa contingent. Both times we mowed them down before they even got a chance to fire upon us.

I was amazed at how simple it was. Even when we were taking back the Sanctum on Dendred, it had been simple, but this was ridiculous.

Even a glancing blow from a Mauser instantly killed any Jaffa just because of how easily the heat transferred into their bodies and cooked them alive.

Within a matter of two minutes, we had killed almost 40 Jaffa without taking a single casualty.

We had been drilling on Ha'tak vessels for months now. Our first capture point was always Engineering. From there, we had effectively total control of any of the ship's systems. Arthur had even found a way to lock out the bridge on Ares' vessels. If Ra's Ha'taks were anything like Ares', then there would be no issue.

So, that's what we started with. Corridor by corridor, room by room, we expanded our beachhead within the ship. The Jaffa certainly tried their best to hold their vessel, but it became clear very quickly that they had never even imagined a foothold situation occurring.

The Ma'tok staff were poorly designed. They were near impossible to aim at long range, and they were even harder to use in such close quarters. A Mauser could mow down an entire squad of Jaffa with a single shot. Even worse, the Jaffa's metal armor meant that no matter where they were hit, they died almost instantly from the heat being transferred. It was the exact opposite of the type of armor you wanted to counter laser weapons.

On top of that, what few shots they did get off at my own men, while certainly damaging, still left them alive most of the time. Ma'chello had made our uniforms specifically to counter staff weapons.

Even worse, they had a weapon that would have been perfect for such close quarters combat, the Zats. They likely wouldn't have killed any of us, but our advantage wouldn't have been so extreme.

Engineering was just a few floors below the transporter room. It took us less than thirty minutes to fight our way down. As we secured the main engineering room, several of my team immediately got to work removing crystals.

Then came the real battle. I suppose that thirty minutes had been enough for the Jaffa stationed on the ship to finally get their shit together, because they started pouring from the hallways.

Every second, more of the Jaffa would rush into the main shield room. After less than five minutes, the number of corpses that blocked the corridor was physically enough to prevent Jaffa from entering.

Slowly but surely, we cleared the ship, and the bodies started piling up. I barely even felt myself turn numb to the bodies, as we stormed through the ship, room by room, corridor by corridor.

It was hours later that we were finally recalled to the Transporter Room. That evening, I returned to my bunk. I didn't wake up for more than 48 hours.

- - -
POV: James Cromwell. The Day After the Battle.

Eight-hundred and thirty-four. That was the number of Ra's Jaffa that had died in the battle.

We had suffered barely eighty-one casualties.

It was clear that Ra's forces were ridiculously unprepared for any sort of boarding action within their own vessel.

It was more than that as well, obviously. They had been completely unprepared for any sort of combat in close-quarters, their own weapons were totally unsuited for such combat.

The greatest factor, however, was the effectiveness of Laser weapons against Jaffa armor.

Jaffa armor was designed to conduct the energy of a staff blast throughout the armor, and thus save the wearer's life. It wasn't especially effective, but it worked, and, likely more importantly to the creators, it was easy to make.

When dealing with Laser Weapons, this was a catastrophic design flaw. When a Jaffa was hit with a laser weapon, their entire armor would conduct the heat generated by the laser, distributing it across the entire armor. The wearer would be flash-boiled in a matter of milliseconds and the armor would turn red hot.

The Ha'tak had a crew complement of about 1200. 1100 of them were the vessel's Jaffa contingent, 36 were Death Glider pilots, 12 were the vessels pilots and primary crew, and the rest were maintenance workers and serfs.

With the aid of the local Pangarans, the vessel had been landed in a field outside their main city, and we had quickly begun to clear everything out. The survivors were moved to several of the Pangaran prisons. They barely had the space to accommodate them.

The dead Jaffa had been laid out in rows besides the Ha'tak. Looking at the bodies was horrific, and I had seen several dozen people puke their guts out already.

I took a deep breath and turned away. We had a meeting with the Pangaran Leadership in just a few minutes.

- - -

"We've looked over the options you've provided for us, and we'd like to start evacuating our world." The Pangaran representative, Madam Thol, began as soon as we had sat down.

I nodded. If they wished to survive, then they didn't really have a choice in the matter. "Understood. We'd be happy to provide you with whatever aid we can manage."

Madam Thol locked her fingers together and stared straight at me. "Next, we'd like to discuss what is to be done about the Ha'tak."

I nodded. "As promised, the vessel belongs to your people. We would like access to the records that the vessel contains. We have gained access to a Goa'uld database before, but it was only from a minor system lord. Whatever is available on that vessel, I have no doubt that it will be much more than what we have."

She nodded. "While we appreciate that, we have other concerns. More specifically, the method used to track the ship's movement."

I pursed my lips. "There are a few recommendations we could make.Though neither are ideal. It should also be noted that any world that we would consider safe for you to settle on would take years for the ship to arrive. The best I can recommend is that you disassemble it to learn how it works. That, or throw it into Deep Space until you can use it."

She sighed. "That's as we expected. Do you know how long till another one shows up?"

"Your representative knows as much as I do. Likely several months, maybe less, maybe more."

She nodded. "Well, next on our agenda, I've been told that you're willing to offer us technologies to aid in our rebuilding."

- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair. Two days after the Attack on Pangar.

Egeria sat at a table with the usual group of Elders. "I would like to make contact with the rest of my children."

Elder James frowned. "Are you sure that is wise? I am unsure how secure they are as an organization."

She nodded. "The main reason against my contacting them was the fear that it would draw attention to the Pangaran people. That fear has already come to pass. The sooner you can make contact with the Tok'ra, the better."

Ma'chello tapped his fingers against the table. "Do you know how you might make contact with them?"

Lady Isetri stepped forward. "My current plan is to inform the High Council that I have been compromised. From there, I will make the trip through several safe locations to ensure that I have not been further compromised. It will take several months at least. Perhaps even a year."

Egeria nodded. "She will speak only to the {Highest Council Person} at which point they will send someone to confirm what she has said."

Elder James sat back. "As long as only one or two highly trusted individuals are told, I have no issue with this."

Everyone else seemed to nod. "Alright then, we are all in agreement."

Egeria nodded. "Thank you. I would also like access to the records on Ra's Ha'tak. I need to inform myself on the current state of the Empire."

We all turned to the Pangaran Representative. "As long as we are shown how to operate the technology, we have agreed to freely share what is available from the vessel."

- - -
POV: Ra. Twelve Days Prior.

I looked down at the notification. Another one of the transmitters had been activated. The System Lords could barely even manage to keep their own domain in check. It was for the best then that they didn't even have to do that.

I dismissed the notification and ordered my nearest ship to go remove the world's inhabitants. It would be there in a bit less than two weeks.

I opened my eyes and looked out at the display. Another battle over. I stared at the remains of the bulbous purple ships. They had been kilometers long before they had been reduced to so much rubble.

Their weapons were powerful, but they relied heavily on plasma for energy transfer. It made the ship vulnerable, and their shields were weak as well; all their size just made them excellent targets.

It seemed like most of their tech was reverse engineered from some ancient splinter faction. They seemed to enjoy building mega structures, something that the Avalon Ancients found unnecessary.

Hmm, the next century wouldn't be boring at least.

- - -
Author's Note:
Read up to Chapter #50 on Discord: [ LINK: https://discord.com/invite/dbVKfqYw5T ]

 

[Funeral-Pyre]

Bulbous purple ships? Covenant from Halo, perhaps? First thought was Eldar but idk if 'bulbous' fits. Only other thought is maybe Reapers lmao.

 

[BlazingHyperion]

- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair

Things started moving much faster from there. Within a couple of weeks, the Pangarans had chosen a world that was also out of the range of the Goa'uld and immediately started mass-scale construction.

They quickly decided on disassembling the Ha'tak, and when we started explaining how the Ha'tak's primary reactor worked, they began planning to use the ship's main reactor to power their city.

It was a genius use of available resources, especially when those resources would have gone to waste otherwise. The Elders quickly decided to donate the Ha'tak Reactor that was sitting on Zeus' vacation fortress to Kaelastrum to be used as a primary reactor.

About a month after the attack on Pangar, a team lead by Ma'chello and myself began the work of attempting to Retrofit a Death Glider's Gravitic Pusher onto a Raptor.

The work began by cutting out the Raptor's main reactor and thrusters. Over the course of three weeks, we replaced the reactor with a pair of two Death Glider Reactors. On the outside of the ship – one on each side, and one on the top – we attached the gravitic pushers that had been removed from the Death Glider.

The whole thing was jury rigged to hell and back, but I had an intimate understanding of the technology by this point and getting the systems to work wasn't too difficult.

Whatever the thing lost in appearance, it more than made up for in capability. It flew for the first time exactly three weeks after the project began, and it flew like a bat out of hell. Raptors already had grav plating and inertial dampening tech, so the pilots didn't have to worry about blacking out. In straight out flight, the ship pulled almost 30Gs of acceleration.

That wasn't really the point of the project though. It was an attempt to combine colonial and Goa'uld tech into a single cohesive object. Our first actual project was reasonable. Our second one was not.

We would be designing a fighter-craft from scratch. One capable of equipping a Cloaking Device, a Hyperdrive (from a Tel-tak, we didn't want to risk building a new hyperdrive), a JumpDrive, and being stuffed full of as much ordinance as we could manage. All the while also being capable of fitting through a Stargate.

All together, we expected the project to take at least three years. We would need to build the colonial drive from scratch, and we hoped to be able to start producing Star League naval weaponry from scratch as well.

The main armament we expected to start using, however, were missiles. Taking advantage of the Gravitic Pusher tech, we had theorized that we could get missiles that had acceleration in the thousands of Gs, though that would mean burning out the pushers and making them unusable without significant refurbishment.

If we could start mass producing such missiles, any warship in the Inner Sphere would be completely at our mercy. Though that was still a ways off.

While the Gravitic Pushers were definitely among the simpler pieces of Goa'uld tech that we had come across, it was still very advanced. We had yet to get a proper source of Naquadah for any of our projects, which meant that we were relying on Goa'uld leftovers until we did.

It wasn't just Naquadah we were missing. Germanium, Titanium, Tylium, we totally lacked access to a massive quantity of elements. Luckily, we had access to industrial quantities of Iron and Steel, but that wouldn't last for long either.

Dendred was preparing to start evacuating as well, and we needed to start rebuilding our entire Steel industry from scratch. So, after the completion of the Raptor project, I got to work on designing an advanced harvesting device.

I originally planned to design something that would work on planetary bodies. It was Elder Callum who pointed out that we could just do asteroid mining. It was even easier now that we had access to Miniaturized Jump Drives.

The DoME had spent significant time researching ways to transport materials from one system to another. That research had resulted in the creation of a modified version of the Ryan Maneuver used by Rudolph Ryan and the Ryan Ice Cartel during the age of the Terran Alliance.

The original patent from Rudolph Ryan was for a formation of 16 jumpships; at the center of this formation, an eight cubic kilometer square chunk of material. When all the ships jumped in unison, the chunk of material would be taken along with the jump.

A DoME research team had gone back to the drawing board and generalized the equations behind the Ryan Maneuver. What they discovered was a collection of several hundred maneuvers. Their best option was what they called the Meinhardt Maneuver that was capable of taking a 28 cubic kilometer chunk of material, with a total of 10 jumpships, a significant improvement on the Ryan Maneuver.

That wasn't what we were interested in though. Many of the theoretical outcomes had been dismissed due to requiring a distance less than 25 kilometers between Jumpships, something that would have caused the destruction of both vessels.

That wasn't an issue for a colonial drive. With that in mind, we started searching for the best possible variant of the maneuver. What we found was the mathematically optimal solution to the equations. It required just six jump-capable ships, and could move anything within an area of 216 cubic kilometers.

So, I spent a month designing a zero-g harvesting rig that would be capable of autonomous harvesting of any piece of space rock.

- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair. Day after completion of initial harvester prototype.

Egeria sat on the other side of the round table. "I have become aware that the Lucian Syndicate is still active."

Elder James raised an eyebrow. "Still active?"

She nodded. "The System Lords responsible for administering Lucia – Uranus and Gaia – are survivors from the First Goa'uld Empire. I don't know why, but Ra seems perfectly happy to ignore the things that occur in their world."

Ma'chello raised an eyebrow. "So why bring this up?"

Egeria continued. "The Lucian Syndicate had contact with some precursor civilizations that survived Ra's rise. I never cared to contact them, but I believe you would be interested in this knowledge."

Everyone at the table immediately narrowed their eyes at her. Elder James was the first to speak. "Do you know anything about this precursor?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. I know that some faction sold something to the Lucians. Whatever that thing was, it ensured that Ra has ignored the Lucians for at least 20,000 years."

The Elders all looked between each other. "We need to make contact then."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Elder James turned to Egeria. "Thank you for bringing this to our attention."

Egeria nodded. Then Elder James turned to me. "Arthur, from now on you will be participating in combat training. At least two hours every day. You will also be taking the next week off."

I was flabbergasted. The change in subject had come completely out of nowhere. "Elder, I can't there's still so…"

Ma'chello cut me off. "Arthur, you're working even harder than I am. You look exhausted, and you've barely slept for the past two weeks."

Elder James nodded. "End of discussion."

I gaped at the people at the table like a fish. It quickly became obvious that they weren't going to take no for an answer. I swallowed and nodded. "I understand."

From there, the topic of the meeting returned to current material reports, as well as the status of the Pangaran Exodus.

- - -
Two Days Later.

My break did not last. Just two days later all of us were gathered on the bridge of the Cobalt Eye.

As we all settled into the Zero-G environment, the AI began. "This Star System disappeared from all records approximately 500,000 years ago."

It showed us the recording. "One cycle it was there, the next it was not. Before disappearing, this section of space underwent a sudden, but very slight dimming."

Next, it started showing the movements of all the nearby star systems. "As you will see here, several stars that approach this empty section of space seem to experience unexplainable changes in momentum."

Just as it said, it brought up the expected velocities of the stars from previous recordings as well as the previously calculated velocities. Then it displayed their velocities as they travelled near a seemingly blank section of space.

It continued. "When comparing the expected stellar-patterns to those provided by Zeus' records, we see that they are an almost perfect match at a point approximately 599,000 years ago."

Arktos raised an eyebrow. "So what happened to this star?"

The AI continued. "As shown by the effect on nearby stars, it is still there. However, all light from the star is somehow being prevented from leaving."

Elder James was seemingly stunned. "How is such a thing possible?"

Just as flabbergasted, I shrugged. "It's gotta be some sort of Dyson Sphere."

Ma'chello spoke to the AI. "Well, how far away is it?"

"It is approximately 3220 Light Years away from our present location," it responded.

I nodded excitedly. "Further away than we were hoping, but definitely closer than I was expecting. We can have a ship there in just a month."

Elder James tapped his fingers beside one of the terminals. "Arthur, what's the fastest you could recharge a Jump Drive assuming we equipped the Manassas and the Cobalt Eye with Goa'uld reactors?"

I had spent some time looking into the subject with the Manassas' Engineers. "Fastest recharge from scratch would be maybe a day and a half, but we'd have to keep it to three days. You could maybe do it in two days, but it would almost certainly burn out the drive after just ten or twenty jumps."

He nodded. "And how fast could the Manassas and the Cobalt Eye get to that world with that sort of speed?"

The AI replied instantly. "Approximately 242 days for the SLS Manassas. Approximately 322 days for the SLS Cobalt Eye."

The Elder rubbed his chin. "Something to consider later then."

He turned to Arktos. "Are you willing to lend us some more ships to check it out?"

Arktos smiled. "Absolutely. I'll plan to send Six Al'kesh. I assume you all will be participating as well."

Everyone smiled. Everyone went to bed motivated that night. The next day, the teams were dispatched. It would be approximately 36 days before they arrived at their destination. The plan was for them to continue for that entire time. It would be hard on everyone involved, but all those sent on the mission were too excited to take any interest in stopping.

- - -

Five days later, my week-long break came to an end. I couldn't deny that finally taking some time off had done wonders for everything. The first three days, I slept basically all day. After that I started rejoining the other kids my age in their regularly scheduled physical education and combat drills.

I hadn't joined them in several months now, and I had gotten both rusty and out of shape. Nonetheless, the feeling of improvement was wonderful, and the knowledge that I was developing my combat skills was exhilarating.

We weren't in a race against time at the moment. So, from that point forward, at least two hours every day would be spent on combat training, just as the Elder had commanded.

Next was something I had promised several months earlier. The first day after my break was over, I took the Stargate to Dendred where I took a flight on a Tel'tak out to Deimos.

The news wasn't great. While the ship was mostly intact, the damage was more significant than initially believed. The Jump Spinners had been damaged in the ramming, and while the Phobos class carried the supplies to make repairs it was still another few weeks away from completion.

That wasn't why I was here, and I had no doubt that I would just get in the way of any work that was done. I found my way to Deimos' computer core where Echo was already waiting for me.

"Hello." I spoke in a rather stunted Caprican. During my work on retrofitting the Raptor, I had been forced to start learning the language, alongside the Dendredan lower tongue, both of which were languages that seemed to have split off from Ancient Greek and shared a significant number of words in common.

The only display in the room provided my response. "Hello. We are ready to begin."

I smiled and nodded. "Alright then. Would it be alright if I connected both of you at once?"

"That is acceptable," came the expected reply from the monitor.

"Alright then." I immediately got to work. Proper Star League to Colonial ports had already been created and had been prepared. From my bag I pulled three separate noteputors and I hooked them together.

Next I connected both Deimos and Echo up to the device. From there, I pulled up the program that I had spent literally weeks working on. This was what had taken so long to complete.

I was unfortunately a workaholic, and with so few projects to work on, I had spent at least six hours every day of my break finishing up this code. The fact that the Cobalt Eye now had excess computational room for running tests was also a large help.

So, I pulled up the base code and began marking the parts that I would have to rewrite. I had the entire piece memorized already, so knowing what needed to be worked on wasn't that difficult.

Then I spotted something that wasn't supposed to be there. A small piece of code, specially designed to infiltrate Cylon systems, that was very much not a part of the Zoe Graystone Engram.

Even worse, it was similar to something else I had seen recently. Without saying a word, I began isolating the code just as I had done with the Cybrex systems. Luckily for me, the Cylon systems were still active and I could just disconnect a piece of ram that had the code running on it.

Just like that, my first perk activated.

First Perk Activated. Complete Knowledge: Contingency Omega Protocol (Cylon)

I took a deep breath. It was a good thing that I hadn't said anything to either Echo or Deimos. The program was currently inactive, but if anything about it was discovered by the computers it was implanted in, then it would attempt to destroy those records.

Best case in such a scenario, Echo and Deimos would both short out on the spot. Worst case, they would try to kill me.

I knew what to do from here. The code was specially designed just for the Cylon AI. Modifying the code so that it would no longer be capable of infecting a Cylon required relatively little change, and I was already making changes to the code base.

So, I continued with my work, removing certain limiters, or modifying certain others, and adding some other security into the systems.

It took only four hours to make all the necessary changes; not all that surprising since I had spent a lot of time in the past couple of months building the tools necessary to make those changes.

Finally lifting my hands from the keyboard, I cracked my knuckles and stretched my back. "Alright. I'm finished. Who wants to go first?"

The Display began. "Echo will go first."

I nodded, and with the press of a button, a software update was provided to the Centurion. With a locking noise, the Centurions limbs locked into place to prevent damage and the monoeye powered down as the update began. Less than ten seconds later, the monoeye came back online and the limbs unlocked.

I nodded and turned to the display. "Are you ready?"

There was nothing for several moments, before an almost hesitant "yes." was the reply.

Once more, I hit the enter key. The room began to shut down. This time an entire minute passed before the sound of flowing coolant returned and the display came on once more.

Before anything was said, I began. "Alright, I need you both to isolate this piece of code and delete it. Completely." I showed them my display which was covered in the assembly code for the Contingency program.

Both Echo and Deimos seemed confused for a moment; then silence engulfed the room as I waited for a reply.

- - -
Author's Note:
Read up to Chapter #50 on Discord: [ LINK: https://discord.com/invite/dbVKfqYw5T ]