Interlude: Lord Yu

Lord Yu Huang Shang Ti, the Heavenly Jade Emperor, sat on his throne, his Kara-Kesh illuminating the palm of his hand with scrolling holographic script as he did so. There were many reports to read up on when administering his vast territories, and he could not wait for the various minor functionaries of his August Court to convene for a meeting. The business of state waited for none, not even a System Lord such as himself.

Currently, he was reading through several different reports. He'd had to rebuff a probing attack on one of his southwestern mining worlds by Cronus, who had thought to steal the world of Dajinshu and its rather large reserves of Trinium and Naquadah from him while he was otherwise occupied. Fortunately, the local governor he had put in place, Lu Ban, had seen off the attempt ably enough, allowing Lord Yu to continue his most recent hobby.

See, while the Goa'uld ruled largely unchallenged in the Milky Way, the Jade Emperor knew that such a rule was illusory at best. Ra kept the System Lords in line largely by fear and by pitting them against each other in consistent, low-level conflict and political power-jockeying. Such a thing would only hold for as long as Ra was around, and while no Goa'uld would dare attempt to unseat the Supreme System Lord, there were others who might.

Tok'ra assassins were one such danger, and the Asgard had already ably demonstrated themselves more than capable of wiping out vast fleets from the Empire without breaking so much as a sweat. All it would take was the right push and the Empire would collapse into petty squabbles and bickering. Yu understood that full-scale civil war would be the inevitable result of Ra's death or disappearance. If that occurred, he would be set upon from multiple sides. True, he'd pruned the threat that Olokun represented quite handily recently, but between Cronus' large fleets, Amaterasu's opportunism, and the smaller System Lords on his northeastern border such as Camulus and Svarog, he would find his resources stretched thin enough as it was.

Fortunately, there was another option. The Young Companion, one of the many dwarf galaxies that orbited the Milky Way, bordered his frontier. The other System Lords eschewed exploration, conquest, and colonization of such dwarf galaxies, largely due to the lack of Chappa'ai within them requiring the use of slower, hyperspace-capable, ships for such efforts. They were fools to pass up such a potential bounty. Lord Yu was no fool, and so he had spent careful decades building up resources to claim slices of the Young Companion for his own. After almost a century of mapping, scouting, husbanding resources, and preparation, Lord Yu had finally begun taking worlds in the Young Companion for his own.

Currently, he had seized control of three worlds to act as his foothold, the three most promising of the cluster of stars nearest to his border. Surprisingly, one of the worlds, dubbed Longshan, had a native population of what seemed to be an offshoot of the Un'as Race. These Un'as were more advanced than the ones the Go'auld had first evolved alongside, being in their bronze age as compared to the neolithic and chalcolithic Un'as of the Milky Way Proper. They had proven to be a nuisance, having retreated to the densely forested mountains once organized, large-scale, resistance had been destroyed, scattered bands of bandits coming down from the mountains to raid farmsteads, mines, or caravans staffed by Jaffa or Humans.

Honestly, if not for the wealth of Trinium and Naquadah in those mountains, Lord Yu would have been tempted to order orbital bombardment. However, any loss of material was precious, especially with his outposts on the world still in their infancy and in need of materials. Fortunately, the other two worlds, Dahu and Caoshan had no such Un'as troublemakers and were ripe for agricultural exploitation. Caoshan even had a moon that looked to be rich in the sort of minerals necessary for the creation of Crystalline Computer Systems.

He had just finished reading those reports when his eye caught a report from one of his spies in Moloc's Domain. Apparently, the fool's paranoia had finally caught up with him in the most predictable of ways. The previously backwater Hak'tyl Resistance that had sprung up after Moloc had declared that all female Jaffa must be sacrificed by flame to feed his chauvinism had managed a suicide attack on Moloc's Capital that had wounded Ra in the process!

The Jade Emperor's heart skipped a beat as he read that. It was too soon for Ra to be taken off the board! He wasn't nearly ready, it would take another few years just for his current foothold in the Young Companion to become self-sufficient! However, he kept reading before attempting anything rash. He was glad he did because the next part of the report said that Ra had survived and ordered a massive orbital strike to wipe Moloc's Capital City of Qart off the face of the planet.

This, seemingly, had predictable results as the center of governance and military organization in Moloc's Domains had evaporated overnight thanks to the anger of the Supreme System Lord and the guns of a Cheops-class Battleship. This, in turn, had resulted in the Hak'tyl Resistance gaining ground. Ra had sent Heru'ur to install a new System Lord in Moloc's Place, and Heru'ur had chosen Yarikh, a relatively minor Goa'uld who had been in charge of the fleets on Moloc's Border with Svarog, to replace Moloc. However, in the time it took for Heru'ur to install Yarikh into power, the Hak'tyl Resistance had gained ground and was threatening to turn into a General Jaffa Revolt on several worlds.

Predictably, Yarikh called on Heru'ur to aid him in putting down the burgeoning revolts. The Son of Ra had answered, but that meant that he would be busy for quite some time and unlikely to be able to do much to further Ra's power in his position as the Warmaster of the Supreme System Lord. If the Asgard were to strike now, they would find the Empire less than able to muster a coherent response. Lord Yu sent orders back to his spy in Moloc's territory to keep an eye on the situation in case a stabilizing hand was needed. After all, the Empire was likely at its most vulnerable point since the War with Anubis. With his preparations as-yet unfinished, it was not in Lord Yu's interest for the Empire to unravel at the moment, after all.

So concerned was he with the ongoing omnishambles that was Moloc's Former Domain that Lord Yu almost missed something insignificant. A report from his Grand Chancellor and Nephew, Erlang Shen, detailing the capture of five worlds in the borderlands. Normally, he would have set aside his nephew's report for later reading as he focused on the issue of what to do about Moloc's Former Domain. However, this was attention-grabbing

"He did what?" Demanded Lord Yu.

"My Lord?" Questioned Jiren, Lord Yu's faithful Lo'taur.

"My Nephew seems to have exceeded his mandate somewhat." Growled Lord Yu.

"How so, My Lord?" Queried Jiren.

"He has engaged in wars of conquest amongst the independents in the Border Regions! What's more, he has succeeded beyond my wildest conception, taking five worlds along the border!" Answered Lord Yu.

"Do you suspect treachery, My Lord?" Asked Jiren.

Lord Yu frowned at the question, sitting and thinking about his answer for a good few moments. As he did so, he idly stroked his goatee, pondering what he knew of the situation. Erlang Shen's behavior did not speak of a man seeking to conspire against his Lord, that much was true. Not unless five systems was just what he was willing to admit to, or he was a fool. His nephew was no fool, though, which made Lord Yu think he wasn't at the treason stage yet. Had he interpreted his orders broadly? Incredibly so, however, this could also be an opportunity.

"No. I do not believe my nephew to be that stupid that he would admit to having exceeded his remit so much if he were plotting treachery. There may be something to be gained from this." Intoned Lord Yu.

"Perhaps you ought to pay your Nephew a visit, My Lord?" Offered Jiren.

"Perhaps. Readying a suitable expedition will take time, however. I would estimate the month to be almost out by the time a sufficient force could be mustered. However, these reports speak of mines, workshops, Jaffa, farms, and even a shipyard. I shall give my Nephew a chance to render the proper tributes to me as his Overlord from these new acquisitions before I decide whether or not he is cut from the same cloth as his late, unlamented, mother." Pronounced Lord Yu.

"As you say, My Lord. I am sure you know what is best." Nodded Jiren.

Immediately, Lord Yu leaped into action, sending orders to Jaffa Commanders and Primes throughout the core of his Domain. His First Prime, Wei Han, was currently still with the reinforcements that he had sent to help Lu Ban handle Cronus' Incursion at Dajinshu. He would have to be recalled, while fleets would have to be provisioned and crewed. Lord Yu wanted his Nephew to understand the scope of what any attempt at treachery might bring down on him, which required a strong fleet as a show of force. He was confident that his Nephew would yield the tributes he was owed, however. After all, unlike Moloc, Erlang Shen was no fool.

Yes, Lord Yu would meet with his nephew at the end of the month, and if he did not receive his due tributes, then he would have a fleet with which to punish his Nephew's Insolence by force. If he did receive the tributes he was owed, then there would be no issue, and the fleet he would bring with him would not need to burn his Nephew's Force to ashes and cosmic dust. Lord Yu either received a tithe of Jaffa, Equipment, Raw Materials, and Agricultural Goods, or he destroyed a burgeoning conspiracy.

Either way this played out, the Exalted Jade Emperor would come out the better for it. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the Lord Yu Interlude. Lord Yu mentioned during one of the episodes where he met with the SGC that his interests lay outward and away from the Galaxy. Here I have taken that to mean that he is currently attempting to colonize one of the many dwarf galaxies that surround the Milky Way, the Young Companion, or as the SGC would know it, the Lesser Magellanic Cloud.

If you actually look at who borders Lord Yu, it's Camulus, who is young, ambitious, and willing to play dirty, Olokun, who hates Yu on a personal level, and Cronus, who Yu is locked in a sort of pseudo-rivalry with, along with Amaterasu who also could be treacherous if need be. No System Lord has the resources in the Domain allotted to them by Ra to fend off all those rivals and opportunists at once without being stretched dangerously thin. The Lesser Magellanic Cloud represents an area where Yu can get those resources.

Of course, now we also see that Lord Yu is going to be bringing a fleet to meet with Erlang Shen at the end of the month to demand tribute from newly-conquered worlds. That means that Erlang Shen is even more on a time limit to finish conquering various independent Goa'uld than he realizes.

At any rate, in the next chapter, we'll be back with Erlang Shen.

Stay tuned. . .