EV: Chapter 23

I had been reading updates of the progress of the ground assault as it happened. Uildver was actually a fairly easy fight for some reason. Maybe it was just that Tengri had known he was dying and that there wasn't much he could do, but his Jaffa were surprisingly willing to surrender when pressed hard enough. I guess for some Jaffa, one Lord was as good as another, especially if they had lived their whole lives under the rule of one Lord and found him suddenly perishing in a blaze of glory in orbit. General Yan had already captured two whole regions, and while Generals Di and Tsao had only taken one apiece, Chen was reporting that he had taken three.

That was half of Uildver already taken under control, as Jaffa surrendered or fell back strategically toward the Capital Region of Altan Ordon, where the Capital City of the same name was situated. Uildver was weird like that in that the populations were spread out across a single, large continent. The Planet only really had two cities worthy of the name, and around a dozen smaller towns. Everyone else lived in villages spread out across the majority of the continent. It was shockingly reminiscent of how you would imagine a semi-nomadic people who had been forcibly settled would set up a settlement plan.

Regardless, the one major city that we had yet to capture was Altan Ordon, the capital, though our forces were rapidly encroaching on it. Most of the fighting had been done against our initial landings, and after a one-hour fight, the enemy had largely surrendered or fallen back, allowing us to land troops in all those regions using Transport Rings for rapid advancement, carving up enemy defenses with swift strikes deep into their lines to pocket large numbers of Jaffa. The first two hours of operations had resulted in the defense of the regions that we had taken practically collapsing from constant deep penetration attacks. Mass surrenders of large swathes of territory and pocketed troops followed.

Five hours after we had arrived in orbit of Uildver, we had not only taken command of the orbitals, but my strategy had effectively allowed us to enact our own version of Operation Barbarossa on Tengri's Jaffa. Not that I wanted to be compared to the Nazis, mind you. I wasn't a genocidal madman, but the similarities as regards the speed of our advance and the massive amounts of captured men, material, and territory were striking.

"My Lord, a Hyperspace Window has just opened up at the edge of the system." Called out Shun, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Is that so? Who is it?" I questioned.

"It appears to be a Single Ha'tak and Four Al'kesh Gunships, My Lord. Systems are registering it as the Shonkhor Khums, the Personal Vessel of Ulgen, Son of Tengri and heir to Tengri's Domains." Informed Shun.

"I wonder why he is here? He is a bit late to do much, after all." I queried.

"Unknown, My Lord." Responded Shun.

"Shall we find out, then?" I asked.

"Apologies, My Lord, but they do not appear to be willing to respond to hails. They are approaching the Fleet in Battle Formation." Reported Shun.

"Which Formation are they using?" I questioned, intrigued.

One Ha'tak and Four Al'kesh wouldn't normally stand a chance against an enemy with my numerical advantage, nevermind all of my other advantages. They must have some strategy or novel plan to be making for us in a battle formation. If I could find out what they were up to, I might be able to figure out a counter.

"That's just it, My Lord. It appears to be a standard Four Arrows Formation. Our sensors are not detecting anything different from the norm." Answered Shun.

"But that's insane. Is Ulgen that intent on throwing his life away?" I queried.

"Unknown, My Lord. However, it would appear so." Affirmed Shun.

The Four Arrows formation was an ancient battle formation from the time of the First Goa'uld Dynasty, back when the majority of Goa'uld still took Unas hosts. The Principle was that your lighter ships screened your heavier ship, one in each cardinal direction, so that it had the best coverage it could from incoming fighters and lighter ships. It was the standard formation for small flotilla commands throughout the Empire for a reason, such commands generally consisting of one Ha'tak and between four to six Al'kesh to best facilitate the tactics. An advanced version, the Six Arrow Formation, also existed that covered both sides of the Z-axis as well. That one had been innovated after the First Goa'uld Dynasty had fought its first major interstellar war with a power that no longer existed and was recorded only as the Fungal Chaos, a hint as to their nature, but nothing else of the war survived.

Regardless, both of those formations were bog-standard tactics which would not help Ulgen to overcome the sheer disparity in numbers and firepower that existed between my own fleet and his. If this was all he was capable of, then it was no wonder the Jaffa on Uildver were willing to surrender to my advancing forces. Ulgen would be a disaster as a commander. Jaffa didn't frag their own officers, however, as Taur'i soldiers sometimes did, so they were surrendering en masse after they'd put up token resistance to both satisfy honor and avoid being ordered by Ulgen to charge straight at our guns or some other such thing.

"Orders, My Lord?" Asked Shun.

"We meet them in battle. If Ulgen does have some hidden secret weapon he is using this idiocy to disguise the deployment of, it would be wise not to give him the time to deploy it. I want his Ha'tak disabled, though. I will be leading a boarding party personally. If nothing else, it will give me a chance to ask Ulgen about this lunacy." I commanded.

"At once, My Lord." Saluted Shun, sending the orders out.

I paid the operation of the Xiaotian Quan no further mind, heading to my quarters to don my own armor. The battle was well in hand, after all, and if Ulgen did have some secret weapon that he could use, I was confident that Shun could handle it, and if he couldn't, then Gyalpo Pehar certainly could. As it happened, my faith in my Jaffa to handle such a small fleet had proved correct and by the time I had finished donning my armor and arrived at the Transport Bay of the Xiaotian Quan, not only had two of Ulgen's Four Al'kesh been destroyed, with one crippled and adrift and one boarded, but his Hat'ak, the Shonkhor Khums, had lost its shields and had its engines disabled.

As the Transport Bay filled up with Jaffa, I nodded to the Prime accompanying me, Shaokang, a Third Prime from Jinshu. He saluted back, then I turned to check the Comms Frequency. Everything checked out, and I gave the order to begin transport. We started, of course, without transporting any Jaffa, but instead transporting a pair of Neser Grenades. It was standard procedure for boarding operations like this, instituted by myself, of course. The moment after the timer reached zero on those grenades, we transported over the first wave, with me among them.

As had generally been the case thus far, the transported grenade strike had taken its toll on the Jaffa guarding the enemy transport bay, killing three of them and giving us an opening to press the assault through. I came out firing, as soon as I arrived in the transport bay, I fired blasts from my Tianyan Staff Rifle at the enemy, blowing the head clean off one Jaffa and turning the shoulder of another into superheated mush. Others were downed by the first wave of Jaffa Boarders, as my Jaffa mowed down more of the enemy, widening the opening created by the grenades. As we pushed out further into the transport bay, the second wave transported in behind us, adding to our firepower.

I downed one Jaffa with a blast from my Tianyan Staff Rifle before having to parry a strike from an enemy Ma'tok staff weapon with my rifle, bringing the enemy weapon out wide before smashing my helmeted head into the bare face of the enemy Jaffa that had tried to attack me. He fell back with his face a bloody ruin, allowing me to lop his head off with the blade of my Staff Rifle. I then fired a pulse into the chest of a Jaffa who was priming a Neser Grenade of his own. He fell to the deckplates, chest and mail armor a smoking ruin, and his grenade dropped from nerveless fingers, rolling to a stop near a pair of other Enemy Jaffa before exploding and killing them both.

On we pushed, and soon enough, we had the whole of the Transport Bay of the Shonkhor Khums to ourselves, as we had slain close to forty Jaffa and taken another sixty prisoners. The Maximum Troop Complement of a Ha'tak was two thousand Jaffa, which was why most invasion forces brought dedicated transports. Indeed, Ulgen had brought transports of his own, though they had stayed at the edge of the system instead of joining their Lord on his Mad Dash into suicide. Of course, most transports weren't armed, so that was a sensible move. Regardless, this meant that we had already defeated a twentieth of the maximum contingent of warriors aboard the Shonkhor Khums. We had also only been fighting for perhaps twenty minutes.

As we pushed up, I found that scene replaying itself time after time, with my Jaffa absolutely bodying Ulgens and taking large swathes of prisoners. It didn't help that it seemed as if Ulgen was a cheapskate, dressing his Jaffa in Mail instead of heavier armor and largely neglecting to invest much in their training. The Morale of his Jaffa suffered because of that, as did their performance. It was no wonder that the Jaffa on Uildver were surrendering rather than allow themselves to fall under his aegis.

If I didn't know better, I would think this to be some form of silent rebellion on the part of Tengri's Jaffa. I would later find out that was precisely what this was. Apparently, it was part of an Old Jaffa Tradition whereby Jaffa who felt their Lord was neglecting them too much would fight just enough to satisfy the requirements of honor before surrendering in the hopes that their next Lord would be more competent.

It usually didn't happen in the Empire, as the System Lords punished such actions harshly enough that it wasn't feasible. By decree of Ra, such actions were to be treated no differently than an overt rebellion, and any Jaffa caught engaging in such acts was to be put to death and their family decimated in the Roman Sense. Here in the borderlands, however, where no Goa'uld owed fealty to Ra, it still occurred from time to time. The independent Goa'uld had no incentive to put a stop to the practice, as it meant occasional easy victories against rivals.

Regardless, I would not find out about that until after the battle was finished. For now, we pushed up through the Shonkhor Khums, taking decks hall by hall and room by room, and taking large numbers of prisoners alongside them. By the time the Battle of Uildver reached its seventh hour, we had already killed three hundred Jaffa and taken another five hundred prisoners. We also had complete control of the bottom half of the Shonkhor Khums, including the Transport Bay and the Engineering Deck.

It was as we pushed into the upper decks of the Shonkhor Khums that I found a surprise. In the detention level, a man sat, bleeding and unconscious. A bit of medical attention later, and I found he was another Goa'uld.

"I have been saved? That was lucky." Intoned the other Goa'uld.

"For now. Who are you, and why are you in this Cell?" I questioned.

"I am Pales, and I was merely looking out for my Jaffa. I only recently bent the knee to Tengri, who sent my Jaffa and I to serve his son and heir, Ulgen. Ulgen is Mad, however. He spends Jaffa lives like water, and any who speak out against such are punished. His only true care is for his Elite Horsehead Guards, whom he employs as torturers more than true warriors." Lied the Man.

Shaokang seemed to believe him, of course, because the lie fit with what we had seen so far about the poor equipment and training of Ulgen's Jaffa and the Abysmal Performance they had been putting out, but I knew better. Pales was a known alias used by various Tok'ra Agents over the many years. He had used the name to test me and see if I truly was an ally, at least that was my theory.

"Shaokang, leave us for the moment." I ordered.

"My Lord?" Queried Shaokang.

"I will be fine. I wish to speak with Pales alone." I insisted.

"If you say so, My Lord." Bowed Shaokang.

Then he exited the Cell, and I turned to 'Pales' the moment the door shut once again. Retracting my helm into my Gorget, I looked the Tok'ra dead in the eye and let him know I was in on his true identity.

"You are fortunate I am an ally. Some of my subordinates are not yet as understanding about our shared goals." I informed.

"Davos wanted to be sure. I told him that there was no use questioning the High Council on this, because if you had them fooled, then there wouldn't be a point." Responded the Human Half of the Tok'ra.

"Indeed. However, I do wonder what you would have done if I had chosen instead to simply destroy Ulgen's Ha'tak?" I asked.

"We were out of other options." Admitted the Human Half of the Tok'ra.

"You have me at something of a disadvantage. You know who I am, and I can infer that your blended partner is named Davos from your prior statement, but you have not given your own name." I reminded.

"Manners?" Questioned the Human Half of the Tok'ra.

"They are important when speaking with allies, no?" I queried back.

"Fair. My name is Heim, and I was on a mission for the High Council before all this." Admitted the Human Half of the Tok'ra.

"And what has the High Council sent you to do here?" I asked.

"That is classified." Intoned the Voice of Davos.

"I could leave you in this cell for the duration before shipping you back to the High Council, if you prefer?" I questioned.

"Fair enough. We were looking for an ancient device. One that was most recently in the possession of the Goa'uld Pekko, whose father, the Goa'uld Ilmarinen, found the device and sent Pekko with it to the Borderlands ahead of his inevitable demise." Answered Heim, having tagged back in.

"Ilmarinen? I have heard the name, though only briefly. His lands now belong to Svarog, yes? Something about a rebellion against Ra and Illicit Cheops-class Battleships?" I queried.

"Yeah, he put those together using the Ancient Device. The records call it the Sampo Device. It was a matter reconfiguring device. You could put anything in there, dirt, rocks, water, anything, and so long as the molecular patterns for the materials and the schematics for the finished product were programmed in, you could turn the input material into damn near whatever you wanted." Nodded Heim.

"And you think it is here?" I asked.

"It should be. Pekko fled to Tsaiz to establish an independent colony in the Borderlands. We couldn't find it there, and went snooping in the Archives of the Palace there looking for it. Unfortunately, Ulgen caught us not too long after I got access to the Archives." Affirmed Heim.

"In that case, it may be in Tengri's Trophy Room." I intoned.

"Wouldn't he have used it if it were?" Questioned Heim.

"Not necessarily." I responded.

"And why not?" Queried Heim.

"Tengri had Wha'daw Syndrome. His host was dying, and he was unable to take a new host." I informed.

"And he doesn't have a sarcophagus? He used to be a System Lord, didn't he?" Asked Heim.

"He does have a sarcophagus, it was damaged in his retreat from his former Capital and finally broke down for good. That's why he sought death in battle. It's why he left his Domain to a fool like Ulgen. He had no other choice." I explained.

"If that is true, then we will find out shortly, I suspect." Spoke up Davos, chiming in once more.

"We will. For now, though, you need to maintain the ruse of being a Goa'uld subordinate of Ulgen's. At least until we can secure you more than temporary privacy." I warned.

"I suppose that is sensible. Very well, lead on and we shall follow." Agreed Davos.

With that, I stood up, re-extended my Helmet, and we pressed on into the upper levels of the Shonkhor Khums. It wasn't until we reached the command deck that true resistance began to show up. The Horsehead Guard of Ulgen had arrived on the field of Battle. They clearly had better training and far better equipment than the regular Jaffa of Ulgen. Similar to Ra's Horus Guard, they had full helmets, though theirs were worked in the shape of horseheads rather than Falcons, apt given their name. They also had heavier armor, with breastplates, vambraces, greaves, and so on, rather than just mail. They still died in one shot from our Tianyan Staff Rifles, but their training meant they died slower and didn't surrender easily.

It had taken us two and a half hours to reach the Command Deck of the Shonkhor Khums. Clearing it took an hour and a half all by itself, as the Horsehead Guards refused to surrender. They took a toll on our forces as well, with the hundred or so boarders I had led onto the Shonkhor Khums whittled down to about seventy by the end of things. In the end, we had made it to just outside the Pel'tac and prepared to push inside to finish the taking of the Shonkhor Khums.

When we entered, we were immediately assailed by a hail of staff blasts. My shield had only just recharged before we breached the Pel'tac, and it soaked up several hits in the hail of Staff Fire before popping. I fired back, squeezing off three shots in rapid succession and blowing off the head of a Horsehead Guard, coring the chest of another, and blowing the leg off a third. Beside me, Davos fired his pilfered Zat'nic'tel stunning three Horsehead Guards before second shots from the Diàn Jiàn Model Zat'nic'tels of some of my boarders finished them off. I took a pair of Ma'tok staff blasts to the torso even as I charged forward to engage a pair of Horshead Guards who had somehow managed to wheel a staff cannon onto the Pel'tac and were trying to manhandle it into position to fire. My Tianjia Armor took the blasts like a champ, the energy-dampening metal scorched but unbroken.

Then I was among the Staff Cannon Pair, lashing out with the blade of my Tianyan Staff Rifle and hacking into the shoulder of one of the Two Horsehead Guards with a screech of tearing metal and the thunk of a blade into meat. He screamed and fell to the deckplates, dead, but did so before I could extract my Staff Rifle from his corpse. The rifle was ripped out of my hands as his partner reached for his Ma'tok Staff, swinging for my head. I ducked, pulling my Diàn Jiàn Model Zat'nic'tel and firing a pair of electric blue bolts of energy into the Second Horsehead Guard's stomach, killing him. A discharge of energy behind me rang out, and I spun around to see a Horshead Guard with a blade slump to the deckplates before he could ram his dagger through any gaps in my armor. Davos was behind him, pilfered Zat'nic'tel lowering.

I nodded at the Tok'ra agent before removing the blade of my Staff Rifle from the corpse of the Horsehead Guard it had been stuck in. Davos may be standoffish, but at least he was competent in a firefight and could tell friend from foe. The battle for the Pel'tac did not last much longer, as the back of the resistance had been broken by our assault. Five hours after beginning our boarding of the Shonkhor Khums, and ten hours after the beginning of the Battle of Uildver, we had full control of the Ha'tak, and thus the orbitals once again.

We found Ulgen's Corpse in his Quarters. He had torn himself apart inside his host out of spite when he saw he was about to lose. In the process, he released enough toxins into his host's body that death happened within seconds for both Symbiote and Host, a final act of cruelty from a Goa'uld who seemed to do nothing but relish inflicting such pain on others. Once his death was confirmed, it only took one more hour for the rest of Uildver to surrender. The surrenders of Tsaiz, Gan, and Budaa followed some two hours later, once a transmission stating the facts alongside a demand to surrender could be sent out with video evidence. It had only taken fourteen hours to conquer the whole of Tengri's Domain. Four worlds had become mine in that time.

And that, I reflected, had to be some kind of a record. . .

XXXX

Four hours later, I transported down to Tengri's Palace in Altan Ordon City to meet with my Generals, Davos and Heim, alongside me. The Palace was on the edge of the city, which in turn was on the edge of the vast northern steppe that crossed much of the large single continent of Uildver, near the Foothills of the Northern Mountains. It was pretty much what you would expect from a society of Proto-Mongols, architecturally. A lot of pagodas and stout, defensible architecture. Honestly, if they had made us fight for this city, it would have been the bloodiest campaign I had fought thus far. I was lucky that I didn't have to slog my way through this fortress of a palace, at least.

As we entered the throne room of the Palace, I was even more impressed. Several Trophies of long-gone victories stood on plinths in the throne room, with expensive mosaics along the wall and a throne inlayed with pure solid Naquadah. I saw battle standards taken from Goa'uld long vanquished lining the walls, the sigils of Former Goa'uld like Hanuman, Athena, and Nanna-Suen hung on the walls, wall treasures from several worlds stood on plinths with plaques engraved with descriptions like the 'Trinium Urn of Vishnu' and the 'Golden Chalice of Dionysos'. It was all very impressive, and I had to wonder just what fighting a Tengri who was in his prime and determined to win would have been like. Fighting a dying, suicidal version of Tengri hadn't been the challenge that would be, for certain.

However, Davos was somewhat less impressed. In fact, he let out a blistering set of curses in various languages, most of which I didn't speak as he stared up at a particular trophy, one large enough to take up a whole corner of the throne room. Making my way over toward what he was looking at, I saw it was an octagonal device of crystal and dark metal.

"What is it that has you so worked up?" I questioned.

"Do you not see this?" Queried Davos, gesturing at the thing frantically.

"I see it, I do not know what it is. I ask again, what is it?" I asked.

"What do you think it is? It's the Sampo Device!" Scowled Davos.

It had been sitting in Tengri's Trophy room the whole time, ever since he had conquered Tsaiz from Pekko. Apparently, Tengri could never get the damn thing to work and it had been gathering dust ever since. Davos was apparently, pissed that he had taken the wrong approach in infiltrating Tsaiz when he should have gone to the heart of Tengri's Domain and infiltrated Uildver. It was one of life's little ironies, apparently. One that Davos didn't appreciate, though Heim certainly did. He laughed about it the night after while he and I shared a drink and Davos had retreated to the back of their shared mind to sulk. On reflection, I think I liked Heim better. At least he wasn't a pompous, standoffish, asshole.

Either way, Davos and Heim left thirty-six hours after my Conquest of Tengri's Domain, heading out to presumably report back to the Tok'ra High Council. I'd given them the OK to send a scientific team to Uildver to study the Sampo Device, though they would have to wait a month to do so. After all, I had that visit from my Uncle to my domain soon. I would have to return to Taiji in order to officially receive him. When I did, I would try to bargain for independence from him in exchange for an alliance.

And we would see just how persuasive I could be. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the last chapter. With this, Erlang Shen has amassed a realm of twenty worlds, which makes him powerful enough to be considered a System Lord in his own right, as he has one more world than Camulus, the least powerful of the System Lords. Now, he just has to convince Lord Yu that he should be granted independence so that he can have a free hand to develop said worlds as he pleases and chart his own destiny.

Speaking of which, that meeting is coming up next chapter. I'll also have more images from this last chapter and a Galaxy Map out before then, as well, which will show various Domains, including the relative location of Earth and the Domain that the Asgard were given as part of the treaty stipulations imposed on Ra after he lost his war with them.

Stay tuned. . .