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Chapter 12
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Ha'tak
In the grand scheme of things he was not an important Goa'uld, he had never reached system lord status, acting only as a servant of Apothis before he was killed. With the death of Apothis he had gained a, he snorted sardonically, loyal following of Jaffa and his two ships and began planning for revenge on those who brought his master down. In this he was unique, most Goa'uld have little, if any loyalty to those they call master, but not this Goa'uld. His master was his power, the source of what little he had. It was taking time but he was slowly rising in the ranks, gaining more power, more trust.
One day, he would destroy Apothis himself and assume his mantle. That day was likely another hundred or more years away… then Apothis had died. No, not died, been killed by these Tau'ri, with it went his power.
Admittedly, he had escaped the turmoil and ransacking that engulfed his master's old holdings with two warships and all the Jaffa needed to crew them but that just made him extra vulnerable.
It meant he had enough power to draw the wary and contemptuous attention of the other Goa'ulds but not enough to have any hope of resisting them, of even remotely being considered an equal instead of simply a bug to be squashed.
No, he had to make the Tau'ri pay and in such a way as to make the other Goa'ulds grateful and welcoming. Merely wary of attacking him would be a bonus but to do that, he truly had to be bold.
He had no option other then to roll the dice.
His chance had finally come when he had discovered an abandoned mothership on the edge of what little space he controlled, it was damaged, mostly beyond repair, but its cargo, a trio of advanced Hyper drives were intact. Two went into his Ha'tak 's; the third was being built into a new mothership he was constructing using parts from the ancient wreck. With these new drives he felt he could catch Earth totally by surprise, before any of their allies could intervene, and then leave.
“My Lord, we have arrived.”
He resisted the urge to kill the Jaffa for the implied insult, like he could not see that himself! He did have eyes after all.
“My Lord” a dark skinned Jaffa said, his voice strangled with suppressed laughter, “We are picking up a number of unarmed craft; they are ballistic and powered down. They think they can hide from us!”
He snorted with contempt, unarmed they were no threat; he would deal with them later.
“My lord, the Tau'ri have built themselves a spacedock!”
He perked up, a spacedock, such facilities were always heavily defended with the best weapons and ships available, it might actually be a threat. He was interrupted in his thoughts by the Jaffa bursting into outright laughter, he glared at the Jaffa, such conduct was unbecoming the servant of a God such as he, but the Goa'uld noted, considering the crew of mutinous dogs, dregs and banished Jaffa he had as a crew, hardly surprising.
“My Lord” the Jaffa added, not bothering to even say My Lord with respect, “the spaceyard, it has no heavy weaponry, nothing that could challenge us!”
That was unlikely, unlikely enough to make him rise from his throne and take a look at the sensor readings himself. But for all it was unlikely, it did in fact appear to be true.
“These Tau'ri defeated the great Apothis!” he said, disbelief echoing through his voice, then his eyes caught another icon on the screen and his breathe caught.
The Jaffa spoke again, this time all laughter and disrespect was gone from his voice, “My Lord, we have a sensor contact you should see!”
He glared at the Jaffa as he turned from the sensor display, mentally cursing. The only good part about it was that the Asgard vessel appeared to be far weaker then most, a valuable prize if it could be captured but frankly, he wasn't sure the risk was worth it given his minimal strength.
Not after what happened to the last Goa'uld who actually managed the unusual feat of capturing one of their ships. Perhaps it would be best to keep things simple.
“Order the fighters to engage that facility, we will engage the Asgard!”
“Yes, My Lord”
Within minutes swarms of Udajeet fighters left the Ha'tak 's, and moved with deadly grace towards Thundersdawn , the Ha'taks moving aggressively towards Earth, and the waiting Asgard vessel.