Chapter 12

Tyr pressed his control panel continuously as the sensors were probing the nebula. "Focus the Gravitic scans to these coordinates. He's undoubtedly cloaked."

"Commander," His detection officer interjected, "The Gravitic module will be hindered in the nebula, the stellar phenomena would give off too many gravitons to form a productive search pattern."

"Reroute power from the weapons to the module but keep the shields up at their current configuration." Tyr ordered, fingers flinching slightly in paranoia.

"If we remove the draw from your modifications, the module would certainly-"

"No." Tyr swiveled his head to face his bridge crew, "The modulation provided will ensure this ship's safety if Fenrir decides to-"

"Commander! Gravimetric distortions off port, coming to fore!"

"Open fire!"

[][]

Fenrir immediately decloaked the Wolf Glider and began evasive maneuvers to avoid the ion blasts, but could only gasp as the ship started its alarms when the shield was taken down merely from being only in the periphery of the weapons fire. He activated the general distress and spoke through the communication channel, "I surrender! Asgard vessel! I surrender!"

The searing ion bolts only continued apace, which forced even more drastic flourishes to avoid being vaporized, and just as he cleared the volley, a rogue (one could say nearly preternatural in its accuracy) bolt of ionized particles managed to sear past the glider, the armor melting and then a portion of the hull evaporating all in a eyeblink. "Ah! Bastard Asgard! You shoot me down; you won't make it through the nebula alive!"

The communications array must have miraculously still worked, despite losing what looked like half of the glider as he looked off starboard and saw barely anything of the wing remain and yet the Asgard ion bolts stopped their pattern of fire.

Fenrir sighed, "Here it comes…" The teleportation beam suddenly compressing his being into a quantum stream and rapidly 'tricking' the universe into thinking he was suddenly somewhere else, namely in the hold of a massive Asgard vessel.

The first-generation Clansman blinked his eyes tightly as his vision scanned the dull whites and greys makings of Asgard architecture. "I suppose you've already checked me for traps mid-stream?"

Tyr's bulbous eyes were nearly glaring at Fenrir, slits compared to the usual wide-eyed expression they constantly carried. "You assume correctly. We are still unable to ascertain the extent of injury due to Clan skeletal structure containing minerals and enzymes that limit such instruments, however." The Asgard commander responded behind him. "Tell me exactly what you meant in your warning, or I will be inclined to atomize you."

"A man of shrewd business…?" Fenrir groggily shook his head and turned around, holding his injured side, feeling a run of blood against his ribs. "Not even a hug? Asgards still know what hugs are? Especially for… old friends of the family?" He spread his arms out in front of the security field, seeing the pair of Valkyrie warriors flanking both of Tyr's sides in full battle armor, dwarfing the degenerated, ancient clone.

Tyr didn't reply, instead stared ominously before saying, "Explain. Now."

Fenrir's smile lessened only slightly, "Oh very well. Have been getting stalked by a group of Goa'uld Ha'Taks. More powerful then I could have expected from the serpents. Thus, the less then moronically designed glider you found me in, I was getting hitched a ride in the brig before I busted out and stole it in escape." He gestured to the opposing side of the hold, "The goa'uld have uncovered my harbor worlds, the bounty of technology has been theirs for seemingly years now."

"We have received reports that system lords in the area have been rapidly overcoming one another suddenly. We assumed it was bound merely to goa'uld treachery."

"Well… yes, but no. One primitive finds a lot of technology and errands to become an emperor of the universe. Typical, but nonetheless has been a hamper of trying to find a new home in the area."

"These motherships are still in the area?"

Fenrir shrugged, "Would be a wise gamble, and considering the noise your hyperspace window has made, it'd be wiser to leave as soon as possible or prepare for an uphill battle that I doubt you'd win."

Tyr ordered his vessel, "Helm, cut drives. Sensors, focus onto exotic particle emissions to that of a combination of goa'uld and Clan elements."

Fenrir tittered, "Why not notify the fleet? I assume you haven't destroyed that second one while I've been away."

Tyr's vision snapped back to Fenrir in fury, "Take what little comfort you have now, I will see to it that the Asgard High Council will extract whatever useful information from your mind that can be found, then I will personally see they put you to death or a fate so severely painful and lengthy, you would have desired oblivion."

Fenrir smiled as the security screen deactivated and the Valkyries paced to apprehend the clansman. "Promise?"

[]][]]]

"Are we in position?" Kanyto inquired, leaning over the navigator's station with her uninjured arm, focusing on the screen in the dim red atmosphere of emergency lighting.

"We are, godkiller." Helm replied in turn, "For better or worse." Gesturing to the viwer with her chin.

"Indeed." Kanyto breathed out uneasily, the viewer in the front of the bridge showing only the Asgard mothership.. Placing a hand on the top of a console she followed the dot as it skulked through the hull of the asgard vessel. "The portal is still attuned to the signal?"

"Yes ser."

"What of the reactor? The engineers know what to do?"

"Everything is shut down and separated."

Kanyto and every Jaffa crewman onboard were terrified of the Asgard in any regard, those legends that could somehow outpower the gods, and now they had to contend with one of their largest vessels. Everyone, herself included, were holding their breaths from the tension for the trap to be sprung. Which, in an environmental preservation suit, was far from a bad idea.

[][][]

"Hey!" Fenrir yelled out of the isolation cell, "This psi-inhibitor was attuned incorrectly! I can still think!" He mocked the two Valkyries outside of the cell. "And why didn't you take me to medical? This wound-!" He released his side, presenting his bloody hand forward, "it bloody hurts!"

"Tyr advised that you'd live."

"I don't know, I think it'd be in your best interest if you run a scanner over it."

The guards didn't respond.

'Dear Tyr, so predictable.' "Oh very well, I'll check it myself." Fenrir took his bloody hand and pushed his digits inside of his very body, taking out a micro-emitter. Shaking the half globe free of blood before pressing the flat side of it onto the wall and pressing the center down, the device whirring to life, thin cords of attunement rods, something that could mimic quantum entanglement signature of the short range gate emitter on his nearby vessel. Red arcs of energy produced by its micro fusion battery carved, sparked and curled between the six sets of protruding out from the center of the globe.

Fenrir stood back as a small discharge scorched what was in front of the portable emitter, oh so similar to the world-gates he has used for untold centuries. Just as the guards outside heard the emitter come to life, a tight cluster of trained, lined spear guns fired through the isolation cell's energy field and diced the pair of valkeries to pieces before one could understand the situation. Immediately after their demise, the ship's lighting dimmed, deep, pulsing tones echoed throughout the vessel, notifying the crew that the brig has compromised.

As Fenrir deployed out his own spear gun and left the cell, the armored warriors still filling out of the portal, he asked the one in charge, "Everything is going to plan?"

A woman walked forward towards him, bowed slightly and replied, "Yes, my lord."

"Good thing we only had a skeleton crew. Now, we head to the primary generator. Kill any Asgard in our way." Feeling his body begin to heal from removing the teleportation-node, standing up straighter, but his voice betrayed a tone of hesitancy, of uncertainty of the task ahead. "Keep in formation fire, the spear-ammo has been laced with a radioactive isotope, but Asgard can key their shields to weaknesses quickly via internal sensor readings, so we must rely on coordinated, rapid weapons fire to deplete their shield matrix."

He quickly took a spear gun, placing it against his shoulder, Fenrir gave the order, "Move out!"

They would have limited amount of time between the boarding party coming aboard and them tracking the origin signal of his vessel.

[][]

"Alert! We have a boarding party in the brig, detecting quantum wavelength of a pattern of Hierarchy short-range teleportation."

Tyr's gaze snapped to the crewman, "Beam them to space!"

After a second, "No effect, boarding party has a variety of jamming signals emitting from some kind of-"

"Irrelevant." Tyr cut off, "Track quantum signal. When found, lock weapons and fire. Send security to life support and the hyperdrive."

These other Asgard were lucky to have lived only after the wars with the Devourer and the Hierarchy, the brutality of those conflicts have made Tyr who he was now, but could detect the mild insubordination of doubt or uncertainty from his bridge-crew. 'As long as they obey, I care not for their thoughts.'

"Signal origin detected, firing." The weapons officer declared before the front view screen was locked onto a seemingly empty spot of nebula, where the ion bolt was sent out and hit something, where a large explosion bloomed outward from a newly forming object, Tyr's vast reserves of memory identifying the vessel from ages long past. A large section of the underside of the starship was carved from both the bolt and it hitting something inside of the ship. "No life signs detected, energy readings negligible."

'It was but a whelp.' Tyr thought, internally sighing, realizing that with the limited power to weapons he had, he likely would not have been able to destroy a Hierarchy vessel of higher tonnage, shields off or not, seemingly striking their reactor. Even with a boarding party aboard, the elation of victory had filled Tyr's heart, along with the burning need to simply kill Fenrir now excusable and shall be sated. "Send any and all Valkyries to kill the intruders. No prisoners."

[][]

A burst of plasma seared past the front of the party, slamming and scorching the end of the corridor, smoking a black pitch crater into the wall. "Focus fire!" Fenrir cried, a tone of fear leaking into the order. Aptly so, as a second globe of hyperheated matter hit the front of the phalanx, the Jaffa's shielding offering little to no resistance, only for the armor to evaporate, and briefly hiss when meeting the 'cool' exploding blood, flesh and bone from the wearer, then to evaporate all over again, all in the brief moments that separate the second between the weapon fire hitting the warrior and her hitting the floor, the head, shoulder and chest cindered and burned away. Fenrir gritting his teeth and refocusing his efforts forward, firing and taking a slow pace as the front row ripped the armored Asgard apart. "Reload!" He roared, his line of warriors quickly retreating back to the rear of the formation, ejecting their spent clips and packing in fresh ones, while the row behind marched forward, weapons fresh and continuing their fire of anything that moved.

"Left march!" Fenrir ordered as they came to a four-path corner, the formation quickly moving leading sides from the 'front' to the left side of the block. After several paces, they met a heavy door, "Charges!"

Three warriors broke from the formation, two covered the respective sides of the door while the third slung their weapon, took out a chest sized circle, clamping against the center of the entrance, cords springing out, slinging against the width and length of the door, grasped and secured by the flanking breach members, all the while the center took the left side of the door. "Form on the door!" The warrior declared.

The block that faced away from the door quickly broke apart and pointed their weapons in two pods, away from the center. "Firing!" A warrior clicked the remote, the plasma charge expelling both ways with solar-fire, burning and rending alongside simply exploding the sealed bulkhead, and even before the smoke began to clear, spearguns began to methodically fire into the newly open chamber.

"Forward!" Fenrir declared, he and the charge crew sprinting inside, quickly surveying the interior of the shield matrix housing, a spinning cylinder within an array of sparking, glowing pylons. "Take it down!"

"We have incoming!" A warrior outside of the shield emitter declared and was quickly overcome by the screaming-hum of coordinated speargun fire.

As Fenrir turned, he saw a large grouping of armored Asgard firing on his party, quickly clearing the tight formations with coordinated fire of their own, some two dozen men and woman being carved down to a handful as they retreated frantically into the emitter chamber. "Detonate!"

The primed plasma explosives clicked then cut the spinning cylinder in two, the safety mechanisms deactivating the emitter the millisecond it was destroyed, the centrifuge within being able to rip apart the entire deck from the momentum it carried. "On me!" Fenrir declared as he and his fellows began firing on the more tightly packed in Asgard, no longer capable of the coordinated fire outside the chamber. 'Your turn, Godslayer."

[][]][]

"Shields deactivated!"

"Initiate the secondary generator!" Kanyto ordered.

"Naquadah generator initializing!" She heard over the com network.

The initially dead vessel quickly blinked back to life, "Plasma cannon! Fire!"

With the entirety of the newly fashioned generator's power being focused away from life support or the cloak, the spinally mounted weapon quickly hummed to life, firing three green bolts of destruction towards the vessel at near light speed, splashing against first the horned head of the Asgard ship, then the 'neck' of it, and finally claiming the central body of the vessel. "Ionic activity ceased; they are toothless!" The weapon's office declared.

"Close in, charge the mass drivers! Take this beast's head!" Kanyto declared. Engines hummed to full power, the spinal mount growing cold and thirsty from new neglect, its resources shuffled to the vessel's other assets.

[][]

Tyr blinked unsteadily, black eyes blearily witnessing sections of his vessel's bridge on fire, numbness flowing from a kind of distant-deafness, where his mind instantly recalled, 'Concussion? Shock? Trauma?' With Asgard bodies as they are, could be have been all the above.

Unfeelingly, he felt the mechanical grasp of a Valkyrie's hands on his shoulder, quickly picking him up and taking the Fleet commander to the hangar bay along with any other surviving members of the bridge. Tyr's sapience quickly returned to him in a panicked burst, eyes opening fully and declaring as loud as his stunted vocal cords could muster, "S… status!"

The Valkyrie that cradled his superior didn't even look down as it explained, "We've initiated self-destruction protocol. The vessel is lost."

Tyr turned his head to see the emergency escape vehicle beaming the approaching Asgard aboard, far from ancient primitive escape pods, this will house all who are whole in cryostasis and has uploaded all those that had passed into a vast crystalline repository. Despite the safety that the vessel undoubtedly held, Tyr ordered, "You… you shall put me down and we… will kill Fenrir."

"Commander, this is inadvisable given-!"

Despite Tyr's response forming in his throat, he was quickly dropped like so much refuse, smacking the deck once more, forcing the clone to groan lowly. Looking back up, the Valkyrie was gone, but as he looked back to the hangar's opening and eyes opening wide.

Fenrir. He had used his newly required abilities to grasp the Valkyrie, hovering the soldier as the armored creatures by his side gunned it down before throwing it to the floor like so much refuse. The gentle glow of burning ember eyes bore in on Tyr, and that primordial strike of fear that even millions of years of carefully controlled evolution wracked through his cloned form as Fenrir began to approach, initially simple strides, then pacing up towards a sprint, blade in hand and slick in blood.

By the actions of another or the random machinations of fate, the hangar decompression door slid shut, where Fenrir roared in frustration, being cut off from his quarry, fist pounding against the screen, only to bounce harmlessly.

Tyr unsteadily stood on spindly legs, listening as the Loki-Child continued to maddingly pound at the door, now no longer feeling fear instead… revulsion that one of his own created such a beast. However, he was stilled frozen from some unseen force, his mind recalling such instances of communion between Altarans of days long past, but this felt… far different, more forced, prying Tyr's mind open to his own with crude efforts of hateful will towards the Asgard.

Fenrir touched his mind with, 'I did not slay your companion after the battle of the Trinity Worlds.' Smiling slightly as Tyr's eyes widened further as he continued with, 'I took its mind, placing it within the fleshy, lovely capsule of human-female-make. I then introduced her to every pleasure and agony I could greet her with, and only when she was so overcome with sensation to be barely even sentient, long after the former Asgard forgot your name, then… I slew Ran. Until we meet again, Tyr of the Two Fists.' Fenrir turning as soon as he disconnected his mental connection with Tyr, past a bulkhead with his minions.

Tyr was stunned, catatonic with horror, not even registering his crewmen guiding him to the escape vessel.

[]

Fenrir knew time was short, where he and what remained of his warriors quickly sealed themselves in vacuum gear, breaching the hull as the Asgard escape vessel opened a small hyperspace window just outside of the ship, being ignored by the Contender Hierarchy vessel as it tore apart the prone Asgard construct, awaiting the floating bodies of Fenrir and his team.

'This whole expedition has been one bad turn after another.', Fenrir thought as he and his boarding party wandered in the vacuum of the nebula. 'Maybe it's a sign that I leave this to those younger and luckier. Shit-fuck.' He cursed internally.

Not sometime after, the Explorer drew them aboard, being scooped up into the vacant wolf-glider hangar, the Asgard mothership exploding sometime after the Hierarchy vessel reentered Hyperspace to finally return home, the golden plains of Ix'Zary.

As he and his warriors took off their vacuum staving gear, he was approached by a broadly grinning Kanyto, the elation coming from her in vast waves. "Well, I think we've had a productive day."

"Tyr is still alive. Not as productive as I had hoped and… many good warriors were wasted against killing a people who've been nearly deathless for many thousands of years. What's the time to return home?"

"Just under half a day, but I hope that you have the endurance for one more bout of activity, bloodless as it may be?" Kanyto asked, uncertainty filling her tone.

"What is it?"

"We… may have picked up a couple of natives from the battle planetside. Bokal explained that one was severely injured and the other was in shock. They were taken during a medical evacuation and we… well, forgot to put them back."

"Remind me to upgrade Bokal when we get into dock…" Fenrir pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, "I see."

"You won't hurt them, will you?" Kanyto inquired.

Fenrir gave a small, reassuring smile to his companion, "Certainly not, but the Hierarchy owes the Ymorin system a wide berth until they contact us with their Stargate."

"So, what shall you do with them?"

Fenrir sighed, "They'll stay with us. I'll talk with them, care to come with?"

[][][]

Hassir was contemplating early retirement of her duties as Lord of the army, not only with making the return ceremony aboard the orbital dock into protocol acceptance (many of which she wrote herself), and the growing mystery of trying to track down this 'Claymore' group, but with constant reminders from the pile of paperwork of war-prisoners taunting her to make a final decision on those they had impounded, plus the odd new phenomena that many Jaffa and every human hadn't had much experience with: budgeting and bureaucracy. Mountains worth of it. Hassir herself made clear that each prisoner will be investigated fully, and no arbitrary decision shall be made on their fates. Especially with the case of one called 'Lord-Marshal', whom was a curious situation she has been procrastinating due to the convoluted nature of the whole blasted case. The paper work, however, was seemingly holding her prisoner from her other duties.

Lord Hassir and her awaiting dozen honor guard, clad in the gleaming bronze-copper of Apex armor recently polished by hand, stood ahead of the vacuum sealed harbor of the dry-dock's gate, a path of crimson fabric leading from the gate to the collected honor guard to the wider orbiter and the planet bellow.

She and her comrades quickly stiffened in their stances as they saw the Explorer fit into the docking section, the encapsulation extending from them to the disembarkation chamber on the vessel, the seemingly wild netting seeking the starship loosely before its ends of cillia felt the magnetic properties of its docking signal, quickly becoming alive, solid and snagging onto the approaching vessel, an electrical cascade forced the mesh to become fully rigid and vacuum tight, and when fully aroused the AI flooded the dock with atmosphere, and the Explorer opening to disembark all its waiting crew.

"Hoplites! Present arms!" Hassir ordered the entourage, lined at the entrance and pointing their plasma lances upwards and towards one another. As the airlock opened to reveal the bridge crew, Fenrir, Kanyto and those few that showed attitude or had experience crewing the leadership of a star-vessel, pacing slowly beneath the loose welcoming of fire arms. Hassir bowed as they approached her, the orbiter's main acces directly behind her, with the first few members of the Carmine Guard to protect their King. "My lord."

"Lord Hassir." Fenrir bowed his head towards the elder Jaffa, "Good to see gou again my friend, but I'm afraid I come back with poor news."

Looking to an injured Kanyto, Hassir looked quizzically, "You've failed in retrieving the chappa'ai?"

"That and worse." Fenrir sighed, "We've run into Asgard."

Hassir gaped at the words, "How… are you still among the living? I thought they were just a myth!"

Fenrir grimaced, "Too much left to chance, fate wanted us dead. We prevailed but we do not know what those sexless cretins will do next, we keep to this system for the time being, no one leaves."

Hassir nodded in agreement, "I understand, should we mobilize armed forces?"

"If the battle is to be had, it'd be in space. I doubt what naval elements we have will stand much of a chance, and if Asgard reach planetside, shipboard weapons will prove too powerful for even the most well entrenched and hidden force on the world." Fenrir ran a thumb over an eyebrow slowly in deep, dreadful thought, "And that's from what only I've experienced thousands of years ago. No doubt they've refined some things."

Kanyto walked closer to the pair, smiling, "We destroyed an Asgard warship, something even the false gods can't proclaim, and from what remember of lore taught by my mother; only Ra himself was able to eliminate a handful, many thousands of years ago and they still beat him and all goa'uld under him to a standstill."

Fenrir stared down Kanyto, sternly informing her, "The Asgardians are clones, their minds continuously placed into their machines by remote, to either be copied or placed into new bodies in their places of power. To truly kill an Asgard, one must destroy nearly atom of their civilization."

Kanyto looked back, bewildered by such information, "Then why haven't they destroyed the Goa'uld? If they are truly so powerful, and able to avoid death in its permanence, one would think they would have been able to conquer the stars long ago."

Fenrir pondered the question, "I'm beginning to wonder that myself… but we have many dead to mourn, and plan how to use their sacrifices to their fullest. Let us return to the palace."

Hassir held up a hand, "I'm afraid I cannot join you; I must attend to other duties I cannot avoid this day."

Fenrir nodded, "Of course, be well." The Lord of Armies gave a quick nod to her former pupil before leaving, "You all may go." Speaking to the honour guard that still placed themselves at attention, whom then quickly departed and allowed Fenrir and Kanyto to speak more privately, with the former telling the latter, "I want you to contradict the orders I had just given the Lord just now."

She stared at him, uncertain of the context of this demand. "I... don't understand."

Fenrir nodded, wryly biting his own lips in uncertainty, "I cannot have this isolation continue for too long, we need to find a Stargate, but we also need some way of shuffling the status quo of what is to be expected in our new society. Tell me; what would happen if a minor jaffa had found a solution, superior and immediately beneficial to whatever their tasks may have been, but it contradicted with a superior or a goa'uld?"

"Punishment. Severe punishment."

"Death?"

"More then likely, sometimes the risks are too great, depending on the situation, and we cannot so... crudely defy superiors, it would possibly spread discontent amidst fellow warriors and cause issues with orders that may cost lives, or worse, victory." Kanyto scrunched her brows together tightly, "What does this have to do with anything?"

"I want you to publicly humiliate me and Hassir, of course." Fenrir smiled.

Kanyto looked so aback by the statement, mouth hanging open, eyes nearly crossed trying to process all of this, that Fenrir was momentarily worried that he had caused a jaffa unique, conundrum induced stroke, but quickly reassured her with a chuckle, "We will speak more of this later, we have guests to find lodging for."

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I'm in the process of rewriting several chapters, one of which I left a solid chunk unwritten. So, expect to see a few more updates in short order.

I missed writing this fanfic ^-^