Chapter 19

As I transported down to the surface of Kataki, I saw that my forces around Mgarpa Sacha had been arrayed precisely how I ordered them to. Everything was waiting on my command, but I had to be certain that this would work. I activated the built-in comms unit in my armor with an exercise of willpower. The Naquadah in my body allowed me to utilize many forms of technology without needing to physically interact with the tech. That wasn't to say that was a good thing, though. Most Goa'uld my age could only activate so many devices at once, as our bodies hadn't absorbed the requisite Naquadah for activating dozens of devices at a time.

While most other Goa'uld felt that a hard limit, I made sure to learn the manual activations for everything I needed to use, just in case. It was something that very few Non-Abnormal Goa'uld ever bothered doing since it smacked of desperation, which was why the Tok'ra tended to do it. There were a few who did, but I was the only Underlord. Lord Yu was another, and Ba'al was a third. I suppose you could also add Ra into the equation, but if I was counting the dates right, he shouldn't be a factor for very much longer. He should be in the process of getting nuked on Abydos, or about to be getting nuked on Abydos, right now, after all.

Regardless, as the comms connected with Shun's, I heard the sound of hovering engines and other Jaffa in the background as he answered, a good sign. Still, it was best to make sure. After all, that simply meant he was on his way and didn't necessarily mean he was already in position.

"My Lord?" Questioned Shun.

"Are you in position, Shun?" I queried.

"Yes, My Lord. This Tel'tak is remarkable. Not only is this the most advanced craft I have personally flown, but it is an incredibly smooth flight as well. I would hazard that I may even be able to face a squadron of Ptah-class Fighters in a dogfight in such a craft and come out victorious, even were in not equipped with the technology it has." Answered Shun.

"Am I detecting a request to be transferred from the Pel'tac of the Xiaotian Quan to fly the Fenghuang full-time?" I asked, amused.

"I would never suggest deserting your presence, My Lord." Responded Shun immediately.

"Relax, Shun. It was but a jest. There is no need for such scandalized vehemence." I chuckled.

"Of course, My Lord. Regardless, we are prepared and in position." Huffed Shun.

I think he was offended that I would even joke about something like that. I guess actually caring about your Jaffa and Human Populations instead of treating them like replaceable slaves, only born to serve your will, bred loyalty. Whoever could have predicted that? Oh, that's right, literally everyone not up their own ass about being gods, even though they ought to know better.

"Remember the plan, Shun. We will all win much glory this day, should it go well. Indeed, I will even authorize extra pay." I grinned.

"The men will be happy to hear that, My Lord. Especially Zhu here." Mused Shun.

"The Gunner you asked for?" I questioned.

"Indeed, My Lord. My wife is with child. Our first." Came a second, younger voice.

"Ah, congratulations, Zhu. I shall make sure to keep that in mind when tabulating bonus pay." I nodded.

"Thank you, My Lord. Though Yunzhu and I realize that you are busy with affairs of state and the Divine Bureaucracy, I would humbly petition for you to bless our unborn child, that it may be born healthy. I would be more than willing to forgo any bonus for such a boon." Pleaded Zhu.

"I would be glad to do so, once we return to Taiji. There is no need to forgo bonus pay in exchange, however." I agreed.

While I did not enjoy the bits about being a Goa'uld that forced me to roleplay a God, the simple fact that Zhu would ask that and be willing to give up Bonus Pay meant that getting a blessing from me would mean a lot to him and his wife, even if I knew that it was merely symbolic. I wasn't going to make him give up his bonus pay for it, though. I wasn't the sort of Egomaniac most of my Kin were, after all.

"Thank you, My Lord. Your benevolence humbles me." Insisted Zhu.

"It is no trouble. Now stay sharp, we have enemies to defeat and the appointed time arrives swiftly." I intoned before cutting the feed.

Then, I sent a signal to the Tiānlóng as I prepared to get this show on the road. Switching my armor comms over to the general, army-wide, comms frequency, I cleared my throat before going over the short speech I had prepared for my Jaffa.

"My Loyal Soldiers, the time has come. The Lord of the City you see before you, Begtse, he of the Great Coat of Mail, has realized that he cannot defeat us. This is expected, as had not Begtse contested against the Exalted Jade Emperor, my Uncle, in the distant past, though in a losing effort? Instead, he seeks to deny us the City of Mgarpa Sacha for as long as possible. To do this, he has perpetrated an act so foul that I would not consider it even in my worst hours! He has rendered the City's Shields Impermeable, trapping the people of the City inside without the air they need to survive!" I began my prepared speech.

As I spoke over comms, two things happened. The first and most immediate was the chorus of unrest that echoed from the Jaffa under my command. After all, Begtse doing so would not deny us the city indefinitely, it would only ensure that when the city fell, it would have no inhabitants to live in it. It was an elaborate form of suicide by spite, morally repugnant to the honor-bound Jaffa and far too wasteful for most Goa'uld, even Non-Abnormal ones, to contemplate. Of course, the second thing to happen was that a shadow fell over the assembled army and the nearest part of the City of Mgarpa Sacha. The Tianlong had arrived from orbit around Kataki. The disk-shaped, circular, gun platform that was the Long-class Ship cast a shadow over the city as I continued my speech.

"However, our enemy does not realize that we have both the moral obligation and the means to crack open his City's Shield and save Mgarpa Sacha from the madness of its own Lord! They do not realize that when the Dragon roars, it roars in judgment! It roars to take Mgarpa Sacha from those who do not deserve it, who would make it a tomb out of petty spite rather than attempt to honestly contest the City, and give it to the worthy!" I continued my speech.

As I did, the rotary staff cannons on the Tianlong began to spin up before firing pulses of high-energy plasma at a rate that would shock the majority of onlookers. I grinned as the plasma pulses smashed into the City Shield of Mgarpa Sacha, the first few washing over the shield without breaking it, only for a follow-on pulse to do just that, shattering the City's Shield. My lips quirked upward in a grin at that. It even sounded like what I imagined a Dragon's Roar would sound like as the shield that was slowly suffocating the inhabitants of Mgarpa Sacha burst under the fire of the Tianlong. As the rotary staff cannons spun down, I turned to finish my speech.

"See the Judgment of the Celestial Dragon? The City lies open, its people no longer dying by degrees from lack of Oxygen! Now, all that remains is to claim it! I am planning on going in to do just that! Who is with me?" I called out over the comms.

The affirmative roar that answered me was almost loud enough to match the Dragon's Roar which broke the Shield as my army surged forth into the city with me at its head. . .

XXXX

Begtse was not having a good time. First, his Lord's Territory was invaded. That was fine. It happens more often than you might think outside of the Empire, where Ra kept a lid on most large-scale fighting. The most the Goa'uld of the Empire tended to War was in border skirmishes, battles to move the borders a few worlds one way or the other and seize contested territory. Such fights were limited in scope and rarely turned into something to threaten a Capital World. That was not the case here in the Borderlands, where an Independent Goa'uld might rise, wage war with his neighbors, then be conquered all in the span of a century or two.

No, the invasion had been expected. What hadn't been expected was the Traitor's defection. Gyalpo Pehar had brought the fleet over to the invader's side, and while his Lord might believe it had been done so that Gyalpo Pehar would save his own skin, Begtse knew the truth. Gyalpo Pehar had been close to the Fallen Mokosh before his Lord had decreed her capture and imprisonment in Canpotic Stasis. There had even been rumors that the two were secret lovers, engaging in the pleasures of the flesh with their hosts together. Begtse had never truly seen the need for such frivolities, after all, reproduction in the Goa'uld's true form was hardly an enjoyable experience. He much preferred games of skill, and truly, what required more skill that war?

Of course, that came with the downside that you could wind up on the losing side, which had been one of the reasons that Begtse had gone looking for things to equalize the odds. He had stumbled upon such a thing, seemingly at random. It was in his younger days, back before he had served his Lord's Father as Underlord. Begtse had been exploring Ancient Ruins when a tremor from the planetoid had cracked open a sealed room. Inside had been a treasure trove of items, from which his Lord's Father had taken his due and sent the rest to Ra as a Vassal should. Begste, however, had been allowed to take a single item from the hoard. He had chosen one of the armor pieces. It was incredibly energy-dampening and impact-resistant, made of links of some sort of incredibly potent black composite material. Wearing it, he had been invincible in personal combat, however, there were ways to lose that did not require personal combat, such as what was happening now.

The City of Mgarpa Sacha was falling, and they had scarcely delayed the invaders for half a day, most of that time having been a simple siege. Only in the last hour and a half or so had the fighting actively been occurring, and even with his delaying actions and surprises, the Enemy was making remarkably good time through the City. Begtse had to give it to them, their tactics, technology, and discipline were commendable, and their morale was seemingly bottomless. It was no wonder that they had managed to take down the City Shield. Begtse had to wonder if it had even been possible to defeat them here. Should he have withdrawn his Jaffa from the City and regrouped? Perhaps used his forces to support his Lord's counterattack against the traitor near Mar Khangpa? Would ceding Mgarpa Sapa to secure Mar Khangpa have been the correct decision? Would his Lord see it that way? All these questions flitted through Begtse's mind in the blink of an eye.

"My Lord? The evacuation skiffs are leaving in twenty-five minutes. We must leave now if we are to accompany the withdrawal from the City." Came the Voice of Begtse's First Prime, a Jaffa named Tsering.

"No." Intoned Begtse.

"My Lord?" Queried Tsering.

"I will not run from this upstart. If he wishes to have this city, he will have to face me in personal combat." Insisted Begtse.

"But my Lord, you will be stuck here against an army. Surely it is better to retreat and return to fight another day?" Asked Tsering.

"No. I am no coward. Besides, my armor will ensure that personal combat goes in my favor. Besides, I have one last trick yet to play that requires my presence." Reiterated Begtse.

"Very well, My Lord." Saluted Tsering before leaving to join the evacuation.

Yes, Personal Combat had always been a specialty of Begtse's. Even Kali had been unable to bring him down in personal combat, and she had once trained as an Ashrak. Her assassin's tricks had still been unable to penetrate his armor, and Begtse had managed to escape along with the young Shenwrab Miwo to the Borderlands. He had managed to perform the same feat when Yu had sent his Emperor's Hand. He refused to be driven from his home a third time. He would defeat this Erlang Shen in Single Combat, and when the Upstart's Jaffa made to use volume of fire to cut him down, he would activate the charges he had placed on the Citadel's Power Generator, the explosion of a Naquadah Generator would ensure that though the city might fall to the enemy, the enemy would not live long enough to celebrate their victory.

And if Begtse took out the Upstart Goa'uld Erlang Shen in the process, then so much the better. . .

XXXX

As I fought my way through the City of Mgarpa Sacha, it felt like the enemy was simply fighting a delaying action. Every time my forces surged forward after clearing a street, we would be assailed by Jaffa emerging from cunningly hidden positions. One moment, a Jaffa would be firing at a squad of enemy Jaffa that we had pinned down, and the next, he would trip over a wire that had been holding the activation stud down on a grenade. It was all very urban warfare and not at all what I expected of the Jaffa of a Non-Abnormal Goa'uld to fight like.

Fortunately, unlike some Goa'uld, I had no compunctions against using Go'auld Healing Devices on Jaffa. It might take me half a day to do it, but my wounded would be back on their feet quicker than the enemy's would. Wounds that would take their collective Prim'ta days to heal would be dealt with in just twelve hours thanks to just a little attention from me. I would need to rest afterward, but in two or three days, we would be able to finish this by attacking Shenwrab Miwo's capital, still a week ahead of schedule.

As I ducked around a corner, avoiding a plasma bolt from an enemy Ma'tok Staff, I frowned. Now was not the time to daydream. The enemy citadel was just up ahead. The Jaffa guarding it were only a small squad compared to the companies or battalions that would normally be present at a citadel like this. It told me that my strategy was working. I popped out of cover the second my Armor's Shields recharged. They'd been taken down by a hidden staff cannon blast earlier and fired my Diàn Jiàn Model Zat'nic'tel into the Leader of the Enemy Squad of Jaffa, notable by how he began to bark orders. He crumpled to the street, and I kept firing even as the Enemy shifted to react to my presence. I took down another Jaffa while taking a pair of Ma'tok blasts to my shields before I ducked back into cover.

However, with their gaze on me, the squad of Jaffa I was leading, forming the tip of my Army's spear, weren't being targeted. A mix of Diàn Jiàn Model Zat'nic'tel and Tianyan Staff Rifle fire lanced out, scything through the remaining Jaffa in a flurry of unconscious Jaffa and dismembered bodies, depending on the weapon. I popped out of cover and moved to the door, the Squad covering me. I frowned as I realized the blast doors had been locked into place.

"Defend me until I have bypassed this lockout. The rest of the Company should be along shortly to help." I commanded.

My Jaffa saluted, and I pulled open the door panel to begin fiddling with the Crystal Matrix that controlled the Citadel of Mgarpa Sacha's Entrance Blast Doors. As I did, however, two other enemy squads arrived from positions up and down the street where the Citadel was. I tried to ignore the sizzling of weapons discharging around me as I worked. There was something different enough about the blast doors that it was taking me longer to hotwire them than was normally the case. Long enough that two of my Jaffa went down, one dead, one wounded badly enough that it put him on his ass. However, in the end, I figured it out. It was just a reversed layout from the normal Crystal Matrix, which meant that if I did the reverse of what I would normally do to hotwire a door like this, it should open.

As soon as I did that, the blast doors to the Citadel ground open, even as one more squad came rushing up the revealed hallway, firing their Ma'tok Staff Weapons at me. My Armor's Shields were hit four more times before I ducked into cover, and I downed two out of the eight attacking Jaffa before I was forced to flatten myself against the door panel to avoid being hit again. Unfortunately, I couldn't allow the remainder of the enemy squad to reach our position at the entrance of the citadel. I reached down and plucked a Neser Grenade off of the harness of my dead Jaffa. The wounded one had already given his grenades to his comrades to keep the other two squads at bay.

I thumbed the activation stud on the Neser Grenade and lobbed it at the charging enemy squad, cooking it for a few seconds. With the aid of my Armor's HUD, my throw was perfect, and the Neser Grenade exploded in a ball of plasma that shattered the cohesion of their charge, killed four, and wounded the remaining two, which I stunned with fire from my Diàn Jiàn Model Zat'nic'tel. Turning, I saw that another of my Squad of Jaffa had fallen, wounded. It was time to go.

"Fall back into the Citadel! Now!" I commanded.

I grabbed my two Wounded Jaffa by the back of their armor and dragged them into the Entrance of the Citadel. They would live, thankfully, and my remaining five healthy Jaffa fell back into the Citadel's entrance in good order, laying down suppressing fire with their Tianyan Staff Rifles, downing some enemy Jaffa and keeping others at bay. As soon as we were all inside, I unslung my own Ma'tok Staff Rifle, holstering my Diàn Jiàn Model Zat'nic'tel and added my own fire to that of my Jaffa. My first blast of high-energy plasma blew the head of an enemy Jaffa clean off, while my second punched through the chestplate of another. We were holding them off, if barely, when the rest of our Company arrived.

I had sent them to clear out a small tavern that the enemy had fortified as a strongpoint, a sort of tripwire strongpoint to the Citadel. They had now returned, having done just that, and began firing into the backs of the enemy Jaffa. The Enemy didn't last long after that, as two reduced squads against a company was hardly an even match, even if that company had lost men as casualties in a prior engagement.

As the Company arrived under the direction of Fourth Prime Min, I couldn't help but feel like I let out a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding, even though that clearly wasn't the case. Instead, I turned my attention to the two wounded we had. One had a nasty burn from a Ma'tok Staff across his chest, which would take at least two days to heal normally with just the Prim'ta. Honestly, if not for his Tianjia Armor, he would have been killed. The other had just taken a much more minor wound to the leg. Without my help, he'd be up and walking again in around four hours, but I could easily speed that up with the Healing Device I kept on me. It was easily six times more powerful than the Prim'ta alone. I spent about fifteen minutes with the healing device fixing his leg, and he was up and limping again while his Prim'ta put the finishing touches on his wound.

That finished, I headed upstairs for the Command Center. A Citadel was not the same as a palace, though the latter could double as the former. A Palace was the home and command center of the Goa'uld who ruled a territory, though naturally, Underlord Palaces were small and provincial compared to the palaces of their Overlords. A Citadel, on the Other Hand, served a purely military function as a regional command center. It would only generally be two or three floors in height and would be dedicated entirely to the defense of a city. The City's Shield, if it had one, would be controlled from the Citadel, for instance. This place would ordinarily be a lot more heavily garrisoned, however.

That was a sign that despite the holding actions we had fought through, and that the other companies and battalions of my Jaffa in Mgarpa Sacha were still dealing with, the enemy was indeed falling for our plan. As I made it to the second floor, I only had to stun another four Jaffa, who were monitoring various terminals. It was on the third floor that I found my target. He had changed from the Host I knew him to have had, though he would have had to. After all, the Raksha of the Planet Lanka, who he had favored as hosts, had been wiped out six hundred years ago in a purge by Kali on suspicion of conspiring with Cronus to let his forces through their shared border.

Instead, Begtse was inhabiting the body of a young, male, human with features I would describe as Tibetan, but had to be from a Proto-Tibetan Population. He wore an elaborate helmet made of trinium alloy, which was decorated with silver dragons and flames inlayed with solid naquadah, indicating his status as Shenwrab Miwo's Most Loyal Underlord. It was the armor that I was interested in, however. Mail links of a strange black metallic composite that was augmented by black plates of the same material. My genetic memory told me it was of Ancient Make that he had stumbled onto in his youth, and my enhanced intellect told me that it was effectively the closest I was going to get to Kull Warrior Armor. It also told me I could reverse engineer it with enough time and effort.

"So, you are the Upstart, Erlang Shen?" Demanded Begtse.

"I am. Will you not surrender? Your city has fallen, and your Army will soon be annihilated. To surrender after being defeated is no shame." I offered.

"You are wrong. My army is evacuating. The troops you fought were merely a rearguard. You should not have left us an opening to retreat through." Refuted Begtse.

"If you think I left that opening for your force by accident, you will prove sorely mistaken. Even now, my forces are poised to swoop down on your retreating army and wreak a great and terrible harvest. Will you not surrender? It could very well save lives, your own included." I retorted.

"I will not. I think you are bluffing. There was no force behind the City, and Orbital Bombardment would only render the land worthless. You are not one to waste resources, your little speech you gave to your forces shows that much. Oh yes, I was able to listen in, though it was far from a simple matter. If you want my surrender, you will have to defeat me in single combat." Snarled Begtse, grabbing a Ma'tok staff weapon that he had placed against the wall.

"Very well." I agreed, moving to the center of the room.

"I will warn you. I have never been defeated in Personal Combat." Cautioned Begtse.

Then he moved to the center of the room and took up a stance opposite me. I did the same, and for a few, long, moments, nothing happened as we both stared each other down, each trying to analyze and find a hole in the other's guard or a flaw in their stance. It was a state of affairs that could not last indefinitely. Eventually, Begtse let out a shout and charged, swinging his Ma'tok Staff for my knee and forcing me to parry.

And the fight was on. . .

XXXX

Shun sat in the small Pel'tac of the Attack Configuration Tel'tak Fenghuang. Really, the small compartment was more akin to the cockpit of a Ptah-class Fighter than a proper Pel'tac, but as it sat more than two Jaffa, if only just, it still technically qualified. Regardless, Shun could not help the sense of boredom that had stolen over him. They had been in position for close to two hours already, and still no enemy troops had come through the feigned gap in the lines for he and Zhu to blast.

Of course, Shun was taking to the wait much more easily than Zhu. It was the benefit of both experience and age, Shun supposed. Zhu, though a talented Gunner, had still only just become a Sixth Prime after being a Regular Warrior for the past five years of his adult life. As a Jaffa, he had been implanted with his Prim'ta and become Jaffa at the age of ten, and spent the next six years training until he reached his Majority at the age of Sixteen. He had spent the next five years being a Regular Warrior before completing his trials to become a Sixth Prime in charge of a Squadron or Patrol of Regular Jaffa Warriors.

He was young, and if he did not die, he would still have decades of service ahead of him. Jaffa did not retire, after all, they simply took less active roles for the last three decades of their life as a Jaffa would generally maintain prime physical fitness into their hundred and tenth year of life, after which, the Jaffa would age as a normal, if elderly human, generally dying in the hundred and fortieth year of life. Shun had just turned forty this year. Zhu was still twenty-one.

"Wait, I believe I see something on the horizon!" Insisted Zhu.

"Are you certain? The last time you said that it was nothing but wishful thinking." Reminded Shun.

"No, truly, look!" Pressed Zhu.

And Shun did, looking out of the viewport of the cloaked Attack Tel'tak. There was something happening on the horizon, a cloud of dust, and not coming from the city, parts of which were even now being fought over. Shun frowned and commanded the Tel'tac's sensors to take an active scan. Such a thing could potentially give away their location, of course, but the Cloaking Device should mitigate that somewhat, and it would only be a problem if whatever they were scanning was running with sensors active.

After a few moments, the terminal chimed, and an image popped up, enhanced to show a closer look, with details scrolling along the side. Two dozen Bulk Cargo Skiffs, loaded up with Jaffa and Equipment, and comprising the remains of Two Divisions of Jaffa. That was the Fleeing Army they were waiting for. The Better Part of Thirty-Six-Thousand Jaffa, loaded down on Bulk Cargo Skiffs.

"It seems that you are correct, Zhu. Our targets are approaching. Have a look." Intoned Shun. Zhu looked at the sensor readout with a frown on his face.

"Only two dozen? Even for Bulk Skiffs, that's not a lot of room." He pointed out.

"Indeed. They must be crammed in there three-thousand Jaffa to a skiff. It doesn't matter, our task remains the same." Intoned Shun.

"Right, let's make this count." Nodded Zhu.

Shun reached for the controls of the Attack Tel'tak and pushed them forward as Zhu kept an eye on his terminal. As the Fenghuang moved up and out, toward the approaching column of Skiffs, Shun waited until the last possible moment to drop the cloak, trusting his young comrade to already have a target lock. As the Fenghuang decloaked, Zhu pressed the firing stud on his terminal, having clearly already input a firing sequence while they were flying out to engage the Skiffs.

To the enemy, it must have been sudden and terrifying. A loud roar from nowhere as a Tel'tak that hadn't been there previously materialized overhead out of the aether before the sky began to rain fire. What it looked like to Shun was that Zhu had put a high-energy plasma bolt into each Cargo Skiff, causing explosions, screams, and twisted, bloody wreckage. True to his reputation as the best naval gunner in their Lord's Fleet, Zhu had not missed a single shot, each bolt having struck its target.

In the blink of an eye, the better part of thirty-six-thousand Jaffa, two whole divisions, had ceased to exist. Combined with the division still in the City, which would either be dead or captured by the end of the day, and it was looking like they would have killed or captured a full fifty-four-thousand Jaffa along with the City. By any measure, this was a great victory. Even among the Empire, Jaffa tended to be fielded in field forces of usually no more than one-hundred-twenty-six-thousand Jaffa, or Seven Divisions. The idiosyncracies of Goa'uld logistics made it difficult to field much more than that in any one place at any one time. This victory was the equivalent of destroying or capturing half a field force.

And Shun had been instrumental in carrying out the plan that had done it. Very few Jaffa could have said something similar, even among the Empire. Bra'tac of Chulak perhaps, but most Primes had far less magnificent victories that they could claim to have been vital in their Lord's winning. Certainly none that were Second Primes such as he was.

And because of that, Shun would forever be proud of this accomplishment. . .

XXXX

I growled, parrying a staff strike that was aimed at my head. Once again, it seemed the Ancients Propensity to leave random shit lying around was coming back to bite people thousands of years after they'd all ascended. I'd put a Tianyan Plasma Bolt into Begtse's chest twice now, but it hadn't worked. That was no surprise, the stuff was likely what Anubis had looked at when making Kull Warrior Armor. It was, however, really annoying to fight against. Fortunately, my own Armor's Powered Underlay allowed me to overpower Begtse physically, which had gotten me out of multiple checkmate scenarios so far.

The first time had been as he had locked in an arm bar. Had he been able to break my arm or dislocate my shoulder, I probably wouldn't have been able to win. As it was, however, I had been able to use the enhanced strength from my Armor to lift Begste up bodily and slam him into the floor, head first, forcing him to drop his grip. The second time had been after being cornered by Begtse in the corner of the room, I'd been able to grab Begtse and toss him across the entire room, twenty-five feet or so to the opposite side. He was more skilled at hand-to-hand combat than I was, though, which was how he kept disarming me and getting me in those situations.

Indeed, as I parried his Ma'tok Staff Weapon, he tried to do that again, but I was wise to his tricks now. Instead of letting him smash his staff butt into my gauntleted fingers, jamming them up and allowing him to rip the Tianyan out of my grasp, I instead, pivoted, sliding the barrel of my Tianyan up and swinging the rifle butt into Begtse's face. He dodged aside from the rising vertical swing, but not before my Rifle butt knocked off his fancy helmet, the butt catching on the flared dragons on the right side. He came back in with an energized thrust of his Ma'tok Staff, the head split open and crackling with plasma, but I pivoted around the strike, turning forty-five degrees. As the lunging Ma'tok staff head slid past my armor chestplate with millimeters to spare, I swung the spike hanging off the barrel of my Tianyan for Begtse's now unarmored temple.

Surprisingly, that worked. The spike of my Tianyan punched into his temple, cracking bone and spilling blood and gray matter as Begtse led out a wordless scream, leaping out of his host's mouth and abandoning ship. I dropped my Tianyan and drew my Diàn Jiàn Model Zat'nic'tel as Begtse tried to leap for a console off to my right. I pumped the firing stud twice in rapid succession, my first blast stunning Begtse and tossing him sideways to land against the base of another console with a thump. My second shot missed accordingly, but my third didn't, slamming into the stunned Begtse and killing him.

With that done, I let out a sigh of relief. I hadn't been sure that was going to work, and to be fair, it almost hadn't, though I was curious what had been on the console that Begtse had been leaping for. I holstered my Diàn Jiàn Model Zat'nic'tel, removed my Tianyan Staff Rifle from the corpse of Begtse's Host, and flicked the blood and bits of brain matter off the spike. Then I made my way over to the console. What I found didn't make me happy. Apparently, Begtse had wired the City's Power Generator to blow in some pointless attempt to take my army with him. All he had to do to send the detonation signal was tap a single key on the console.

"That son of a bitch! He really would have taken an entire city with him!" I spat, immediately setting about disarming the detonation remotely using the same console Begtse would have used to set it off.

Partway through that, Fourth Prime Min returned with news. It seemed that the Mgarpa Sacha was ours now. Apparently, the remainder of the division of Jaffa in the City acting as a rear guard, which hadn't been killed or captured, had just watched the better part of two divisions annihilated as they tried to withdraw from Mgarpa Sacha. The battle was won, and given that I had taken two brigades up against a Division in a city fight while also annihilating two divisions trying to flee, that was a damned impressive achievement. We had some fourteen thousand prisoners and killed a further forty thousand enemy troops. That was close to half a Goa'uld Field Force, which was the Goa'uld Equivalent of an Army Group. A striking accomplishment for one so young, especially against an opponent like Begtse.

In return, however, we had lost some three-hundred-sixty dead Jaffa and a similar number wounded. Six percent casualties, though the wounded would all eventually recover. It was, however, quite a one-sided victory. On the one hand, that was something that guys like SG-One would pull off against Clueless System Lords. On the other hand, in Goa'uld on Go'auld Warfare, that sort of thing was extremely rare. It may just put a target on my back as soon as word that Ra has died spreads. I would have to figure out how to survive against potentially multiple neighbors attacking me once the Civil War Started, if only to remove the threat.

First, though, I had to finish the fight here. Luckily, by the time I was ready to continue operations two days later, the only remaining enemy stronghold on Kataki would be the Capital of Gser Pho Brang.

And once I took that, the war with Shenwrab Miwo would be over. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, I promised you guys action, and here you're getting it. Erlang Shen's Plan has gone on without a hitch, though it could have very nearly resulted in the destruction of the city and the death of him and his entire army if he hadn't been quick enough on the draw at the end there. Now, all that remains to deal with on Kataki is Shenwrab Miwo's Capital City of Gser Pho Brang. Of course, not only will Erlang Shen meet with and fight Shenwrab Miwo there, but that is also where Mokosh is being held in Canoptic Stasis.

That battle will happen in the next chapter.

Stay tuned. . .