Snakepit

A Draka – Stargate Crossover

As usual, the Stargate-verse is the property of, MGM I think, not mine in any case, and the Domination of the Draka is S.M. Stirling's.

Everyone knows Stargate, so I won't explain what it is. This story's going to be very AU therefore there won't be any SG1 with the familiar character set.

The Drakas are a creation of SF author S.M. Stirling, and they're not nice guys.

If you don't know anything about them, a good read is Wikipedia's page (.org/wiki/Draka). Another is the page on TVTropes, which I'll quote here :

"Gather around lads and lasses and I shall tell you a story of a good republic and an evil empire where the bad guys are vanquished and truth, justice, and the American Way prevail.

...Well, Science Fiction author S.M. Stirling said "Screw that". Apparently tired of seeing the same cliches being used again, and again; he created the Domination of Draka, an Evil Empire that doesn't intend to lose...ever. The Draka series is military science fiction and Alternate History at its best, and a must read for any Sci Fi fan.

(...)

The Draka timeline diverges from our own during the American Revolution, where American Crown Loyalists, due to the Dutch intervening in the war, are shipped to the new British Crown Colony of Drakia-named after Sir Francis Drake-on the southern coast of Africa. They are joined shortly by French Royalists, defeated Confederate troops, and generally the other losers of history. Burning with a desire for revenge, they founded the Domination of Draka: an Empire forged on conquest and slavery. Their goal is nothing less then world domination. Standing in their way is the United States of America and the Alliance for Democracy. And you just know this is going to be bloody."

Last disclaimer : if you enjoy "moral" stories where the good guys always win, don't go further :-D

And the story is rated M for good reasons.

Chapter 1 : A snake running with its tail between its legs

The system was very ordinary. An average, yellow star, a few gas giants with assorted moons, one of those being in the temperate zone and enjoying an inhabitable climate and breathable nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. The system was fairly rich in naquadah ore, and therefore a few thousand laborers mined the habitable moon's soil for a minor Goa'uld lord. Unfortunately, Karl'ac, as the Goa'uld in question was named, had chosen the (currently) losing side in the latest System Lord wars opposing Anubis and the Apophis-Yu alliance. As usual in that kind of war, the System Lords were much more inclined to attack and capture the systems owned by small fry like Karl'ac than their powerful opposite's. It was all part of the game, as alliances between the notoriously self-centered System Lords had only existed, since times immemorial, to keep galactic powers in balance.

Anubis' mysterious return from the dead (of course, Gods don't die, do they) with power and technology previously unseen among the Goa'uld had logically met a coalition of System Lords, of which Apophis and Yu were the leaders, with Baal keeping slightly apart, counting points and occasionally grabbing crumbs off the cake.

For Karl'ac, it had been an unmitigated disaster. He'd lost 3 of his 4 systems in the fights, his fleet was down to his command Hatak (an obsolete one at that), a handful of bombers and some depleted Death Glider squadrons. His remaining Jaffas were pretty demoralized, and some traitors had actually defected to Anubis. His First Prime, Chu'rel, was still loyal as far as he knew, but couldn't hide his pessimism. Karl'ac didn't even feel angry against him, as any sane Goa'uld would. He was too conscious of the realities of the situation and didn't even feel like torturing a few slaves for fun. He was currently sitting on his throne in the bridge of his Hatak orbiting the moon, trying to look bored and unconcerned and failing to.

"First Prime ! What's the status on my forces ?"

"My Lord, our remaining ships and Jaffas are prepared to die in combat, but I must respectfully advise a retreat if we're attacked. Anubis' fleet in this sector is too powerful, and we won't be able to stop it if they come in force here."

Karl'ac almost winced. He knew it perfectly well of course, but he was still a God, even if a minor one, and couldn't afford to look defeated. On the other hand... he was pretty much defeated already, and all that was left was the mopping up. The next battle would probably see him either destroyed or fleeing, a homeless Goa'uld in an unforgiving galaxy. For a fleeting instant, Karl'ac contemplated running to the Asgard and asking them for protection... now that would be amusing, he thought. Never mind that they'd probably just vaporize him with one of their death rays. He snorted.

"My Lord ?" inquired Chu'rel.

"Never mind, First Prime... If the enemy comes, we will give them a taste of their own blood !" and then be reduced to atomic vapor, he didn't add, although he could see that Chu'rel was hiding his own doubts.

The gloomy thoughts were interrupted by a cry from on of the bridge Jaffas. "Ships exiting hyperspace ! Sensors count two, three... My Lord, there are five Hataks !"

"Jaffa ! Are they enemy ?" asked Chu'rel.

"Affirmative, First Prime ! Their signatures match those of Anubis' ships... the same ones that we fought in the Mandji system !" and which gave us a pasting, the Jaffa operator didn't quite said.

"Ra's feces ! This is not good" thought Karl'ac. "Jaffas ! Prepare to fight and destroy the attackers !" he said in his best command voice, eyes flashing. "Launch the Death Glider squadrons and have them in a supporting formation. Prepare the bombers for attack runs on the lead enemy ship !"

"Jaffa, Kree !"

On their lord's command, the Jaffas jumped into action. Bombers launched from the moon's surface, gliders catapulted from the Hatak's hangars and blossomed into a fighter screen, hoping to catch enemy small craft before they could reach striking distance. Teams of Jaffas ran to their combat stations, as gunners, damage control or counter-boarding squads.

"Incoming transmission, My Lord !"

"Put it through." I already know what it's going to be, anyway... mused Karl'ac.

A female face appeared on the screen. Oh great, it's that bitch Nirrti, thought Karl'ac. I bet she fucked Anubis to get this command. Well, provided Anubis even has a dick any more, contemplated Karl'ac. Whatever happened to him and gave him his new powers, didn't leave him much in the way of flesh.

"Karl'ac, you worthless worm, surrender at once and maybe I won't cut your balls and feed them to my pet Unas !" barked the goddess Nirrti without preamble.

Ever the lady, mused Karl'ac while considering his answer.

"Did the Naquadah-powered dildo Anubis gave you actually scramble your brains ? Or are you just mad that you can't suck his non-existent cock ? he replied in a contemptuous tone. Chu'rel and the other Jaffas internally winced. They could do nothing but fight to the death now. No way Nirrti would spare them torture and certainly a fate worse than death if captured.

Her face certainly expressed her furor, eyes flashing madly and features contorted in a snarling mask of unbridled rage.

"You filth ! You will die, I will flay you alive, all of you, then morph you into unrecognizable blobs of living rotten flesh ! Your bowels will be cut off to feed my..." her rant was interrupted as Karl'ac cut off the transmission. His Jaffas looked up at him, awaiting orders.

"Attack !"

"Kree, Jaffa !"

A stand-up fight was hopeless, one obsolete Hatak against five. A running battle was out of the question as well, as they could accelerate faster and had started with superior velocity anyway, while he was essentially immobile in orbit. They would overtake and envelop him, then pound his ship to dust. Fleeing was dubious, they would track him in hyperspace. Unless...

"Jaffa ! Set a direct course to the system's primary, maximum acceleration ! Order our gliders to..."

Karl'ac's Hatak leapt out of orbit, engines straining to accelerate the ponderous ship. Bombers and gliders followed behind, easily keeping pace. Nirrti's ships shifted course and raced to catch up while disgorging shoals of gliders and attack craft.

"Jaffa ! Time until we reach the star ?"

"Fifteen minutes, my Lord !"

It was going to be close, reflected Chu'rel. Nirrti's ships would be in range in no more than thirteen minutes, and her attack craft were already approaching their own screen. Well, they'd be in for a surprise.

200 000 klicks behind, Nirrti's lead Jaffa pilot was barking orders and urging his subordinates forward, 500 gliders in a close wall formation, Tel'tac bombers following behind. They would slice through Karl'ac's meagre fighter screen and swarm his Hatak, softening it before the main force got in range. It was almost unnecessary, so outclassed it was, but a Jaffa was always glad for the opportunity to fight for his Goddess. What he couldn't have foreseen was that Karl'ac, while utterly outpowered by his opponent's massive forces, had exercised a little creativity since his last losing battle, when attack crafts had similarly swarmed his ships.

"Enemy fighters approaching range, my Lord !" "Fine... prepare to fire a salvo and have our bombers coordinate their own fire." "Jaffa... 4... 3... 2... 1... Fire main cannons !"

Karl'ac's gunners opened fire with the main antiship guns, sending powerful particle plasma bursts towards the enemy formation. As the shots passed through the screen, his bombers added their own fire, shooting energy torpedoes normally intended for anti-ground or anti-ship duty in a precise time on target salvo. Such fire was normally be no threat to nimble fighter craft, and their opponents got slightly puzzled at the apparently stupid move. There was no way any of them would actually be hit, after all. Just a slight maneuver pushed any craft threatened directly out of the line of fire.

"Pretty fireworks, eh ? Nice of Karl'ac's lackeys to entertain us !" snickered Nirrti's glider leader to answering laughs from his subordinates.

They didn't know and never considered the possibility that Karl'ac had found a way to degrade the plasma containment field o an energy cannon in a controlled manner, and that the combined salvoes racing towards their formation had been timed to lose containment exactly at the precise moment they would fly in the middle of it.

One moment there was a wall of Gliders, the next, space was raped by actinic flashes of energy detonations, capital plasma shots liberating energy intended to overpower a Hatak's shield in the middle of unshielded craft. The flak pattern ravaged the tightly grouped squadrons, vaporizing hulls and Jaffas alike before they could scream and blinding the bombers following them. Which meant they got caught with their pants down when Karl'ac's gliders tore into them right on the heels of the devastating flak strike.

It was a master stroke. Nirrti's bombers, stripped of their fighter cover and too far from their own Hataks' support fire, were overwhelmed by gliders intent on getting payback for their previous defeats. Thirty seconds after the initial anti-fighter strike, all of Nirrti's bombers were either destroyed or fleeing with debilitating damage. In the Hatak's bridge, Karl'ac and his command team could hear the Glider pilots cheering and hollering, taunting their running opponents.

Karl'ac was quite pleased, but he knew his success didn't change the fact that he was outgunned. The enemy ships were creeping up, and they would soon be in range. They were already opening their formation in order to outflank him. Well, there wasn't much he could do against it. They'd just have to hold until...

"Enemy ships in range, my Lord ! They're firing at us !"

"Order our bombers and gliders to attack the leading Hatak on the right flank ! Return fire, concentrate on the designated ship !"

The plan was for the attack crafts to take out weapon emplacements and weaken the shields on the outermost Hatak, chosen so it couldn't get supporting defensive fire from its mates and hopefully reduce losses among its small attackers. It was a good plan, the best they could do. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Karl'ac could only watch on the display as his last pilots sacrificed their lives, merely scratching the paint and silencing a few secondary cannon emplacements in return. He winced internally as the last bomber exploded, its shielding as much paper against a Hatak's main battery.

"Praise, my brave Jaffas ! They fought well and I, your God, will richly reward them in the afterlife !" he boasted.

Several thoughts crossed his Jaffa's minds at the moment, like "Yeah, right" "Fuck me with a staff" "We're so screwed" or "I wonder if Nirrti will cut my dick or my balls first". All very improper thoughts for Jaffas, of course. But they didn't think it would matter much longer as all five enemy ships started firing at the lone Hatak fleeing like a virgin during Chulak's fertility festival.

The Hatak shuddered as the first blasts hit its shields, joined by more, many more, until everyone aboard had to grab handholds to avoid falling as the ship heaved and pitched violently, rocked by the powerful blasts impacting it every second and straining the inertial compensators.

"Jaffa, report !" barked Chu'rel. "Shielding at 40% and falling ! 30% ! We're getting fire through... Hull breach ! We're losing air in several decks !"

All around, Jaffa damage control teams were scrambling in sealed armor, desperately trying to patch holes and repair energy conduits to keep their own guns firing – not that they made much difference.

"Time to the sun's chromosphere" asked Karl'ac. "15 seconds my Lord... it's going to be close ! We're losing shields !" The Hatak's external hull was now glowing in several places, ragged holes blasted into the strong Trinium alloy, air escaping along with the broken bodies of the Jaffas unlucky enough to stand at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"We're entering the sun's chromosphere... heat and radiation increasing inside the ships, my Lord ! The outer hull is melting ! We won't hold long !"

"Prepare to open an hyperspace window on my command !"

Karl'ac's Hatak was now a ball of fire plunging in the star's atmosphere, trailed by heavy bolts of energy. Inside the bridge, the temperature was reaching temperatures usually found in a cooking oven, and the ship's structure was creaking and groaning, loud booms signaling whole sections of hull plating popping out to be consumed on the inferno.

"We're losing the enemy ship on sensors, my Lady ! The star is interfering with our tracking !" advised Nirrti's First Prime. "Wait... is it breaking up ? The sensor readings are confusing -" "First Prime, I read a hyperspace window opening inside the star !" shouted another Jaffa. "I can't track it... too much interference !"

Nirrti's mood went from triumphant to fuming. That cursed little worm Karl'ac was escaping ! Here rage needed an outlet. Screaming imprecations, she raised her jeweled palm and blasted the offending Jaffa. He flew in a bulkhead, and she stepped forward. "Worthless traitor ! You let the enemy escape !" She proceeded to fry his brain until blood poured out of his nostrils and his eyes popped out of their orbits. She turned towards the rest of her terrorized bridge crew and thundered, eyes flashing "This is the fate of those who fail their Goddess ! Let it be a lesson for you !".

With no mean of tracking where Karl'ac's battered Hatak went, the five ships turned around and headed back to the inhabited moon. Time for the laboring slaves to start fearing their new Goddess.