Nick stood on a platform he'd had built in front of his temple home. It had camera's built in all around it along with microphones. They were all connected to holographic projectors all around the large open plaza he'd had cleared in front of the temple while reconstruction of the city was ongoing as well as to various open gathering areas throughout the city.
Looking out from his elevated position he could see over a hundred thousand people gathered before him. Beyond them was the ever growing skyline of his city. What had started as single story buildings had grown vertically into multistory domiciles.
Unlike in his last life, each 'apartment' was large and roomy whether meant for a single individual or entire families. He honestly loved the Lantean aesthetic and seeing the buildings gave his new home a very unique look.
He took it all in for a moment then slowly raised his hands into the air. The murmur of voices slowly died down until there was relative silence, “My people! Today marks the dawning of a new era! The culmination of the changes I have ordered to be carried out!”
His voice echoed in the silence. Despite his best efforts the damage done to the people by living as slaves for most, if not all, of their lives had left them docile and afraid of retribution.
“I have made these changes to your lives to make them better, to make what I do next, better. Today I grant all of you your freedom! Jaffa and slaves alike are now free to choose their own destiny!” There was shocked silence from the crowd, even the Jaffa looked completely taken aback, “Those who wish to leave may do so and with my blessing. But those of you who choose to stay will become the first citizens of my new empire! In my empire humans and Jaffa alike may choose their own destiny.”
He spread his arms, “Those who stay will need to learn the new laws I will implement. But there is one, the first one, that I will share with all of you now. The worship of all Goa'uld is forbidden. Even the worship of Pelops!”
That earned him the first major reaction from the people. Gasps of shock and surprise filled the area. One Goa'uld demanding the people worship only them is common enough, but a Goa'uld banning worship of himself? Unheard of.
He spoke over the commotion, “Pelops is no more! You've seen the changes I have brought. You've seen my new host! With my new host came a new identity. I am no longer the Goa'uld Pelops! I am no longer Goa'uld! I am now Aurelius, the radiant god of technology! Those who choose to worship me may, but they will not persecute those who choose not to!”
He raised his hands while sending a mental command to matter converters hidden throughout the area. Lights flashed causing people to shout or scream in surprise. He spoke over the shouts, “My first gift to my people! If you choose to stay within my Empire merely place your hands on one of the obelisks and I will gift you with my blessing!”
He gestured to one of the still being constructed objects, “Those who touch it will no longer become sick! Even grievous wounds and broken bones will heal in minutes! The old shall be returned to their youth! The young will grow old slower! Everyone within my Empire will enjoy health and happiness to their dying day!”
The obelisks finished materializing. Each one was twenty feet tall and covered in writing that laid out the laws of the land. Of course, the vast majority of the people in the city couldn't actually read. The obelisks would take care of that too!
Pelops was a genius. There is zero doubt of that in Nick's mind. The worm designed a nanite that could artificially age people from infants to adults to dying of old age in one hundred days. But that wasn't all the microscopic machines did! They also passed on information, educating the people as they grew. Giving them language to communicate, for example.
If they could age someone then doing the opposite wouldn't be very hard would it? And it wasn't. Giving it the ability to teach more than just language was also easy enough. Everyone who touched an obelisk would receive a dose of self replicating nanites that would put anyone twenty-one or older into a state of perfect health while giving them knowledge on the new laws, how to read, and more. In an instant he would have a society of people with an education equivalent to a high school graduate from Earth.
After that he expected people to learn more on their own. He'd be building schools for that in the near future. For now a basic education would have to do.
“Welcome to The Aurelian Ascendancy.”
-----Line Break-----
Aurelius sat in his throne watching his citizens through the many cameras installed throughout the city. The celebration was still going on even after two full days. He was impressed at the ability of his people to party.
Though, and this was pure speculation, it might have something to do with the mater converters creating infinite food and booze.
There were a few people here and there, mostly Jaffa, who weren't quite as happy as the others. They were mostly low ranked Jaffa who had only had authority over slaves and had lost that authority.
While his people celebrated he worked on building an economy from scratch. Creating one for a post scarcity society was a whole different ball of wax than a normal economy. But, he had some ideas.
First, the currency of the realm would be Energy Credits, or EC for short. Second, all the most basic necessities for living would be free to everyone. Basic food, water, clothing, and shelter. Anything beyond the simplest of basics would cost EC to create at a matter converter. By earning EC citizens could purchase a bigger domicile, better food, alcohol, and other items of interest to them such as things for entertainment.
Earning EC would be pretty simple, get a job.
Some jobs were easy enough for the government, himself, to provide. Jaffa obviously needed to be paid. Along with them any humans who joined his army... or was it a navy? Did he have both since he had ground troops and space ships? Nevermind that. Anyone serving in his armed forces would be paid. After that, a police force to enforce his new laws. Miners would get paid to dig up raw materials. Farmers would be given plots of land to work and paid for their efforts. His hope was that some of the farmers, or miners, or retired military even, would eventually earn enough to buy plots of land from him to farm or mine and sell their products for their own profit.
Why would he still want farmers and miners when he had matter converters? Easy. Grown food and mined minerals took significantly less energy to produce than using a matter converter. In the case of making things like Naquadah or Trinium they took ridiculous amounts of energy to actually create. In fact, it was far more energy efficient to actually build a spaceship, travel to the local asteroid belt, mine asteroids, and transfer the materials back to the planet, than to produce the minerals through matter conversion. To say nothing of the much more efficient method of mining planet side.
Then by letting farmers price food from their farms, or minerals from their mines accordingly, it would allow the farmers to have a competitive edge. Why pay 10 EC for a head of lettuce from a matter converter when you could pay 2 EC for one from a farm? With the technology at his disposal, farms and mines would be far more efficient than even modern Earth methods.
Hopefully, from there, the people would start to produce products on their own for sale and build up the economy of the planet.
That... was pretty much as far as he had gotten, really. He was no economist and knew very little on the subject. It was only thanks to the Lantean knowledge that he'd gotten so far. Even so, it wasn't like they had put in lesson plans or anything for what he was trying to do. They were heavily focused on science and their repository reflected that.
So, he switched to a science subject. In this case, designing a simple device that would act as a citizens wallet complete with biometric identification built in so theft wouldn't be an issue. Of course, that necessitated building an entire banking system to go with it. Accounts, records, the ability to perform transfers from person to person or person to machine. He planned to link it all to a simple bracelet anyone could wear and have it run on simple things like voice and gesture commands.
Although... now he realized he was doing things a tiny bit out of order. He had no facilities that could produce the devices for his people. Sure the matter converters could do it, but he didn't want to rely on them for everything. If he did, then he would actually risk burning through his stockpile of Potentias. They might have more energy than anything else he knew of, but even they would run out of power quickly producing high cost things like liquid Naquadah to run the devices he wanted to make.
So, he needed to build a proper supply line with all the necessary steps. Mining was taken care of with the improvements he'd made to it. As was transporting the mined materials. They were split into their various elements automatically during transport, so that was easy. It was production facilities he was lacking. Thankfully, the Lanteans had amazing molecular furnaces that used precision force fields to assemble items at a rapid pace.
It was a step below matter conversion and took much longer, relatively speaking, but was very fast compared to other building methods. It's main restriction was providing the needed materials. As long as you had the necessary materials and kept a proper flow of them, it would be an excellent way to build anything as it was infinitely scaleable. It could build as small as the nanites he was giving all his people to as big as an Aurora-class capital ship.
He pulled up the schematics of the city as it currently stood and began designating where the industrial complex would be built along with massive warehouse spaces to store the huge amounts of materials he knew would be coming in from the drone mining fleet he was planning to construct to mine the asteroid belt.
He opened a subspace channel and connected with his hidden base. Well hidden from anyone but the Asgard. He set it to begin construction of a new ship construction yard of massive proportions. Once finished it would be capable of building ten capital ships at once. While it was being built, he would spend time designing the new ships he'd construct. He would stick to Lantean technology, more or less, but change the appearance to match his preferences.
…
If one ship just so happened to look like the Millennium Falcon, well that was pure coincidence.
He picked the design philosophy of the old Sith Empire for his ships. They might look like Star Destroyers on the outside, but they would be using the Lantean systems, armor, and shields. He also was only going in that general direction with wedge or triangular shaped ships, not trying to deliberately copy them to the last detail.
One of the major things he added that neither the Lantean's not the Empire used was ventral mounted rail guns of massive size. On the largest ships, his capitol ships, the diameter of the slugs being fired would be a full one meter wide and three meters long. The sheer amount of force they could impart would be devastating to anything they hit, even if that thing had shields. Then again a slug weighing approximately 19,000 kilos flying at 0.75c would impart roughly 209 GIGAtons of TNT, or roughly 4,000 times the energy of the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated on Earth.
Needless to say it was a terrifyingly powerful weapon of mass destruction.
He also included energy weapons and drones to round out the fighting capabilities of his largest ships. If some of those energy weapons happened to be particle beams that could carve through a Goa'uld Ha'tak's standard shields with ease... well that would just make his plans a lot easier wouldn't it? There was also the drones to consider. They could also ignore Goa'uld shields, even the improved and more powerful ones Anubis used on his massive mothership. No Goa'uld would be capable of blocking them giving his people a powerful advantage.
Then there were his standard beam weapons, similar to the ones the Ori used that could carve through even Asgard shields like wet tissue paper. Needless to say, there was nothing that currently existed within the Milkyway that would be able to stand up to his capitol ships.
His smaller ships, such as frigates, corvettes, and fighters would be less powerfully armored but still very deadly in their own rights. Though his fighters would be drones piloted by his people from within the carriers he was designing. He was willing to let his fighters be blown up, not his people. Even so, he put the best armor and shields he could on his fighters. Not needing anything for people gave him extra room to work with for a bigger power generator and stronger shields. Each fighter would also carry a compliment of twenty drones.
He got lost in the process of rearranging the interiors of his ships to match how he wanted the exterior to look. It was a lot of things to do. Hell, he even needed to account for plumping. Everybody poops.
Except him, if he doesn't want to.
-----Line Break-----
Ro'ak sat in his home watching his son play a game designed for young Jaffa to learn strategy. His home, given to him by his god, was greater than the palace within the temple used to be. Oh, it wasn't covered in gold or filled with luxurious silks, but it was far better than the home he once lived in.
He turned his head and looked out of the massive windows that dominated one wall of the room he was in. He was in what his lord called a 'penthouse' and it gave him a glorious view over the city his lord had built.
No longer did he understand his lord, his god. Though he didn't think that was a terrible thing. Before his god was much like the others. Cruel, capricious, prone to lashing out in anger. Happy to kill those he considered enemies or even just to have insulted him in some manner. Yet, not a single person had died since his lord had taken his new host. That day was the day everything changed.
Ever since then his lord had become almost a different being. If not for his knowledge he would have thought the host was in charge. The new buildings, the new laws, the new... everything. It was all so different from what it used to be.
Now he got PAID! If he didn't know his lord meant it as a reward for his loyal service he would have thought it an insult. As his lords first prime it was his honor to serve.
Yet, even that service had changed. His lord had made new weapons and armor. New vehicles and ships. Even new articles of war. In the past, he might have thought his lords new weapons and tactics to be cowardly. Until he saw just how effective they were. Just a single squad of his Jaffa could wipe out hundreds of standard Jaffa. That was only eleven men! Ten 'grunts' as his lord named them and a single squad leader.
Their lord had provided them with a place large enough to run full battle simulations. Then he went further and added fake soldiers made of light that could fight back. They held mock wars against enemy Jaffa who used standard tactics. The sheer slaughter was.. humbling. It made him glad he was loyal to his lord and not a Jaffa serving under a Goa'uld.
He felt some sympathy for what they would be doing tomorrow. His lord had decided who would be first to fall to his new army.
Moloc.
Ro'ak knew little of the Goa'uld Moloc. None of his lords people did. Yet what their lord told them of Moloc's depredations lit a fire in their souls. A little ironic since it was Moloc's despicable practice of sacrificing all infant female Jaffa. He did not consider himself an educated man, or at least hadn't until his lord's blessing granted him new knowledge, and even he could see how flawed such a thing was.
Without female Jaffa, how would more Jaffa be birthed?
Such a thing showed him why his lord declared all Goa'uld to be false gods. Only a false god could be so... short sighted. He wasn't quite willing call even an enemy Goa'uld an idiot. They had been gods to him for all of his life so looking down on their intelligence wasn't something he could quite bring himself to do.
He was looking forward to their march on Moloc, though he did not approve of his lords plan. Anything that put his lord at risk was a bad idea, as far as he was concerned. Still, his lord made a good point about the plan and he was willing to go with it.
Though if anything happened, his lord had assured Ro'ak that he could say 'I told you so.' to his lords face without repercussion. More than ever he hoped nothing would befall his lord so he never had to say that phrase.
-----Line Break-----
Aurelius looked over the data being fed to him by the hidden satellite he had hovering over Moloc's Throneworld. Despite being a complete moron, Moloc was a system lord. Though he was another small one like Pelops had been. There was also zero hope of him ever becoming more than he currently was as his population of Jaffa was growing far too slowly to be relevant.
Moloc had three Ha'tak in orbit and one on the ground, docked at his temple. His men weren't trained in the use of the new ships he was building... also the ships didn't exist yet. So, instead, he was having a nanomachine clone of himself pilot his corvette. It had more than enough firepower to disable three Ha'tak. His men would make sure the fourth on the ground never had a chance to take off.
He closed the feed, he'd gone over his plan a thousand thousand times and was ready, as were his men. He stepped out of his private chambers and entered the main area of his temple. There a squad of his retrained Jaffa were waiting for him along with his first prime, who would be leading the men on the ground.
His men appeared as if they were in their old Jaffa armor, but it was a hard light construct over their new armor. Unfortunately they were holding the shitty staff weapons, the real ones. Going into Moloc's territory to 'trade' while his Jaffa wore their new armor and carried their new rifles would have started a fight instantly. He couldn't have that if he was going to get nice and close to Moloc. However, he wasn't dumb enough to send his troops in with crap weapons and armor without some real protection.
Each of them had a personal shield emitter. The devices were the size of a mans palm and emitted a shield that would make his men invincible against the enemy Jaffa. They wouldn't last forever, but would definitely last long enough for reinforcements to arrive with their better weapons, at least.
Frankly, he wished he'd remembered about the little things a while ago. They were small and easy enough to produce. Hell, he even fixed the flaw in the original design that made them disposable items by not making it able to recharge or swap to a new power supply. His version could be recharged.
It brought a smile to his face knowing that his Jaffa would be a true terror on any battlefield.
“Jaffa, kree.”
He led his Jaffa through the temple to a private transporter based off of the ones used in Atlantis. There were public ones that allows for rapid transport throughout the city then private ones within multistory buildings for the residents to get to their homes. The private ones also included biometric security or an active invitation.
Once he and his Jaffa were inside, he selected one of the few restricted areas as their destination, the Stargate facility. He'd modified the security in the facility recently to make it a bit better. The room containing the Stargate could only be accessed via transporter beam. He did that to make it safer for people to visit his world. He didn't want to just kill everyone who came through.
He also didn't want to give them free access to his home either. Hence the transporter requirement. If enemy combatants came through, they would be trapped within the room, which did not contain the Clavis, or DHD to dial out again. Enemy combatants would be hit with a paralytic gas then captured and interrogated. Explorers, traders, and others traveling the network on their own would be questioned and let go.
It also provided protection against invisible intruders as it had a massive number of sensors that covered every square inch of the place. Even if someone did manage to evade the sensors, it wouldn't do them any good as they would remain trapped until they could sneak through an outgoing connection. Seeing as how this was only the second time in months that the gate had been used from this end... well they would likely starve to death before escaping at its current usage rate.
Upon arrival at the facility he remotely activated the Clavis and dialed the address to Moloc's throne world. He'd already sent a messenger a few days ago and made an appointment. System Lords did not just walk onto each others worlds without following proper protocols.
Once the Stargate activated, the transporter system shifted him and his Jaffa into the enclosed room. He glanced at his men, “Jaffa, be ready.”
They'd gone over the plan enough times that everyone knew their roles to perfection. So, without any more needing to be said, he stepped into the event horizon of the gate and was transported to another world. After stepping out he looked around with a small smile. Despite being in the Stargate universe for months, he'd only visited two worlds. The one he arrived on and Pelops world. This made his third and it still surprised him how Earth-like the planet was.
He continued walking after only a brief pause while his Jaffa came through right behind him. Standing in front of the gate was another group of Jaffa, all bearing the mark of Moloc. The welcome wagon. Still, at least the Jaffa greeting him did so with a polite bow of their heads. One of them stepped forward, “My Lord Moloc is awaiting the arrival of yourself Lord Pelops, and your two escorts.”
That had been a demand from Moloc. He was only allowed two guards to join him in his discussion with Moloc. It was meant to be a small insult to make him feel weak and defenseless, two Jaffa against all of Moloc's might should Moloc choose to attack.
Sadly for Moloc, Auerlius's two Jaffa were enough to take out all of Moloc's by themselves.
He turned to look at his Jaffa and spoke with the deep voice of a Goa'uld, “Jaffa, kree!”
Then he marched off with Ro'ak, his first prime, and another Jaffa Ro'ak personally chose. Moloc's Jaffa silently led them down a dirt path, through a run down town, and to a temple where Moloc would be waiting. With a glance, he could see Ro'ak and his other guard taking small glances and frowning. It might have only been a short time that their lives had been improved, but it was clear they would no longer wish to go back given the minor sneers they directed at the simple homes they passed by.
Aurelius was thankful they got to the throne room not much later. Moloc, in a minor sign of disrespect, didn't stand from his throne to greet a fellow system lord. Instead his eyes flashed as he spoke, “Pelops. Come to beg for my scraps have you? The depths to which you have fallen are divine indeed.”
That was what Moloc was meant to think anyway. Pelops's message to Moloc had claimed he needed Jaffa and was willing to trade refined Naquadah for the females that Moloc would burn anyway. He figured that even if Moloc had no intention of actually trading that the Goa'uld wouldn't tbe able to resist seeing Pelops in person to gloat about his 'superiority'.
Which was exactly what Aurelius wanted. It only took a thought to send the signal to his Jaffa still by the gate for them to get started. Their job was simple, kill the guards, open the gate, and send the signal for the invasion to begin. At the same time, his Corvette was dropping out of Hyperspace to attack the three Ha'tak in orbit.
While the engagement began with Moloc none-the-wiser, Aurelius replied, “An unfortunate accident has led to the deaths of many of my Jaffa. I merely wish to have some more to experiment upon.”
Moloc scoffed, “Ah, yes, your constant need to improve the Jaffa. I will never understand it.”
He paused as a Jaffa came running into the room shouting, “We are under attack!”
Moloc's gaze snapped to Aurelius and his eyes glowed brightly while his lifted his hand to aim his Kara Kesh at Aurelius, “You dare try to attack me?! I will destroy you!”
The Kara Kesh began to glow, yet neither Aurelius or his Jaffa made to move. Every Jaffa in the room, bar the new arrival and one other, fell to the floor. Moloc didn't fall, but he froze in place, unable to move an inch. He was unable to even attempt to leave his host.
The Jaffa who had just arrived went to raise his staff but was hit with three different blasts from Zat'nik'tel's accidentally disintegrating the poor guy. The last Jaffa left standing among Moloc's forces was a rather attractive blonde female Jaffa. She, rather wisely, made no aggressive moves.
Aurelius dropped the Goa'uld voice he'd used to speak with Moloc to address his Jaffa, “Block the entrance, no one else gets in. Kill only as a last resort.”
Part of his goal here was to gain more Jaffa for his army to make taking over more planets easier. While his two men moved to do as commanded, he turned to look at Moloc, still frozen in place. His lips curled into a smirk. His nanomachines were such a cheat. In this case he had them act more like a disease that infiltrated the bodies of the people he designated. En masse they were easy to see as a liquid metal, but a single one? Impossible to see without a microscope.
Every moment he'd been in the room he'd let out thousands of the machines to swarm, invisibly, to his targets where their brains were infiltrated. The Jaffa were put to sleep while Moloc had his entire nervous systems, both of them, frozen in place locking his muscles and making it impossible for him to move no matter how hard he tried.
He turned to face the only uninfected person in the room, “You are Ishta, Jaffa Priestess of Moloc, correct?”
The woman, appearing stoic but clearly confused and on guard, slowly nodded her head. Aurelius smiled as warmly as he could, “Good. I was hoping you would be here to see this.”
He calmly walked toward Moloc, intending to kill the Goa'uld, but paused and thought of something better. He stepped back and looked at Ishta once more, “Would you care to do the honors of killing the false god Moloc?”
Ishta looked completely flabbergasted and at a loss over what to do. So, he decided to help her out, “My name is Aurelius, I was once known as Pelops, but no more. It is my goal to free all Jaffa and slaves from the Goa'uld, the false gods. Moloc is a pathetic little worm with delusions of grandeur.”
He walked over toward Ishta without getting into her personal space, “I know of your Hak'tyl Resistance, of the risks you and others have taken to protect as many as you could.” It was only there for a brief moment before she expertly hid it, but he saw her shock at his knowledge, “Yes, I know, and I approve. I offer you this chance to destroy Moloc not just for yourself, but for what you represent, the freedom of all female Jaffa from his madness.”
The moment lasted until the sounds of screaming and staff weapons fire became audible. Aurelius looked in the direction of the entrance, “My men are crushing Moloc's as we speak, though death should only be by accident. They, like you,” he turned to look at Ishta again, “will be given a choice. Serve me, or wait for some other Goa'uld to come and claim them in the future. This offer is open to all, but first...” He moved back and gestured toward the still frozen Moloc, “His life is yours to claim, if you desire it. Either way, Moloc dies today.”
Ishta stood still, frozen with indecision, wondering if it was all a trap. The sound of combat growing closer finally drew her out of it. She hefted her staff weapon and aimed it right at Moloc's chest. When she fired it wasn't just a single blast but three in rapid succession that turned Moloc's chest into burned meat and bone.
Neither of his men moved at the sound of weapons fire. They knew just how invulnerable their lord was. Aurelius smiled at Ishta, “Feel better?”
In response, Ishta walked over to Moloc's corpse and spit on it. Then, for the sheer pleasure of it, she kicked him. Finally she turned to look at Aurelius, “I do now.”
Aurelius snorted at that. With Moloc dead there was only one thing left to do, get the Jaffa to surrender. The best way to do that? Prove Moloc was dead and not coming back even with a Sarcophagus. While Ishta watched in shock, he morphed his right hand into a long gleaming blade. A single swipe was all that the mono-molecular edge of the blade required to decapitate Moloc's host. Which, not-so-coincidentally also sliced the Goa'uld parasite in half.
He collected Moloc's head while shifting his hand back to normal. He spotted the look of slight awe Ishta had at the trick he'd pulled. It was something she'd never seen before. With the head in hand, he stepped past Ro'ak and headed toward the main entrance with the head held high. As he stepped out he shouted, his voice louder than any natural one could be, “JAFFA! KREE! LOOK UPON YOUR DEAD GOD! MOLOC HAS BEEN SLAIN AND WILL NEVER RISE AGAIN!”
There were screams of fear from slaves and shouts of denial from Jaffa, yet Aurelius stood tall with Moloc's severed head in his hand. He wasn't normally one for such brutal displays, but given the brainwashing Jaffa and humans went through for their entire lives, it was the most efficient way to get their attention and belief in their god's death. He didn't feel too bad about it either. While there was some pity for the host, he felt that after thousands of years as a host it was better off with the sweet embrace of death.
The parasite deserved to suffer more but he'd settle for its death allowing him to seamlessly take control of his forces.
Ah well, this would have to suffice.
-----Line Break-----
It took nearly a day get things calmed down. That included nearly six hours where his Jaffa used rings to transport up to the Ha'tak ships in orbit and take them over. Some of his people landed the Ha'tak outside the city where they would be disassembled and sent through the Stargate as raw materials.
His troops knew what to do and had begun the process of evacuating the people of Moloc's worlds onto his own. His world could support the large influx of people and he wanted to consolidate his people into a smaller territory to make it much easier to defend. Granted that also made it easier to attack at the same time. His air to ground ion canon defenses were scattered throughout the city and accompanied by drone bays containing tens of thousands of drones.
Ishta had retrieved the female Jaffa that had been spirited away. Needless to say, all of them were happy with their new accommodations where food and shelter were readily available. Then there were his nanites that he'd recently modified to remove the need for a Jaffa to carry a Goa'uld larva to maintain their health.
In the weeks since then, while his city grew and his people acclimated to the changes in their lives, he'd begun the construction of a ship yard above his planet. With it and the one in his hidden system he could produce ships twice as fast. However, that wasn't the plan. The plan was to produce weapons platforms he could seed throughout his entire home system to protect it from outside threats coming in ships.
The platforms had four methods of attack built into them, Energy Beams, Particle Beams, Drones, and Rail Guns. Totally overkill as the Energy Beams alone would be able to cut through even Asgard Shields, let alone anything the Goa'uld could come up with. Even so he wasn't taking any chances of anything being able to surprise him. On top of the weapons, he also designed a large storage area filled with enough raw materials to build a hundred thousand drones to add to the fifty thousand that would be ready for immediate use.
Each platform would use a trio of Potentia to power their shields, energy weapons, and production facilities. Again, complete and total overkill, but why the hell not? His home system would be the safest place in the galaxy if he had anything to say about it!
On top of making his solar system into a fortified bunker, he'd continued to have his hidden system build and deploy sensor satellites to go to populated systems to spy on the Goa'uld. Pelops might have been a minor system lord but he'd been around long enough to know where the major players generally were. Goa'uld didn't change things often. The throne world they had a thousand years ago was likely the one they still used to this day.
Aside from aiming for Goa'uld strongholds and planets, he was also on the lookout for planets from the series he could remember, such as the Nox home world. He honestly just wanted to know where it was to avoid it. He doubted he would get along with the Nox, even if they were alright. Their choice to be pacifistic and let the Goa'uld do as they pleased rubbed him the wrong way. He didn't know if it was a bastardized quote or not, but he believed that 'All it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.'
The Nox were the definition of good men doing nothing.
At least the Asgard had a reason for not being able to help given the Replicators trying to wipe them out. As for the Furlings, the last of the four races in the alliance with the Lanteans, he knew literally nothing about them. They could have just left the galaxy after the Lanteans died out and never come back, or they could be dead, or maybe they just didn't care.
Regardless, aside from the Nox he was also looking for the Tollan and whatever planet the Tok'ra were currently using for a base. The Tollan were condescending pricks he planned to avoid. Their own hubris led to their downfall in the show. As for the Tok'ra, he would very much like access to their spy network to help narrow down where to go to do the most damage to the Goa'uld.
On top of finding them, he also wanted to find their Queen, Egeria, before she was too damaged by the abuse she was undergoing at the hands of some humans. If he could get to her soon enough and save her, he could make the Tok'ra into his greatest allies. Not to mention it would allow them to increase their numbers. With them being proper symbiotes he actually approved of them and wouldn't mind his people having the option to become willing hosts to enjoy the benefits it brought. If he was still human he'd actually want to become a Tok'ra host himself.
Unfortunately, he didn't remember the name of the planet she was on so he was pretty screwed and had to just hope he got lucky and found her soon enough. He was pretty sure he could heal her from just about anything short of actual death. Still, it would be best to get her sooner rather than later.
There were more things he was looking for aside from those speicfic examples along with any worlds with decent technology. He didn't need the technology, but smarter people could come in very handy for educating his populace. That was something he sorely craved. The more well educated his people, the better.
Honestly, he was waiting for the day when he could stop pretending to be a god. That day couldn't come soon enough.
-----Line Break-----
Aurelius stepped through the Stargate to arrive at his hidden base. He wanted to check on its progress in person and issue any corrections that were needed. As the gate shut down he experienced the familiar sight of a white white light with a musical tone to it. When the light cleared he found himself in a familiar setting, an Asgard ship.
“Greetings, Welcome aboard the Biliskner.”
Aurelius turned to see Thor standing at his command console, “Thor. It's good to see you again.”
Thor lightly tilted his head, “You as well Nicholas.”
“Actually, I changed my name. Since Pelops was no longer around and Nicholas didn't seem grand enough, I renamed myself Aurelius and my growing kingdom as The Aurelian Ascendancy.”
“I see. We have been watching your actions closely since our last meeting. Given your nature, we were unsure if you could be trusted or what your intentions might truly be. Your consistent actions have led us to believe your goals are noble and that you can be trusted.”
Aurelius nodded, “That's wonderful. But, more importantly, how did the device work?”
He might have imagined it, but it looked like Thor smiled before he answered, “It worked as you said it would. All Replicator activity within the Ida galaxy has ceased. We've searched and kept an eye out for any sign of their return, but there has been nothing for the last six months. It has given us a much needed break to recuperate and recover. For that, you have our deep gratitude.”
Aurelius gave a polite bow of his head, “It was my pleasure, Thor. The Asgard were good allies of the Ancients. I hope, once I have proven myself worthy, to become an ally of the Asgard as well.” He straightened, “Speaking of hope, I'd like to make a request, if I may.”
Thor considered Aurelius for a silent moment before he spoke, “Our resources are limited with the rebuilding of our race, but we will offer what we can as thanks for your help.”
Aurelius smiled brightly, “What I want isn't material in nature, but information.”
He lifted his right hand, palm up, and rearranged the nanomachines within to create a hologram projector that emitted an image of the Asgard as they appeared ten thousand years ago, when their information was last updated within the Repository. Unfortunately it was only a visual representation and didn't include full genetics.
The Asgard of ten thousand years ago were a little over five feet tall, on average, with a larger frame that made them far more physically imposing than their current form. He held the hologram up and looked at Thor, “This is what the Asgard used to look like ten thousand years ago, give or take a century. I want to fix whatever issue it is you're currently experiencing that's caused such a massive degeneration in your species.”
The image of the larger Asgard moved to the side and a string of DNA appeared next to it spinning lazily, “I don't know how she did it, but Nirrti managed to get a sample of Asgard DNA about a thousand years ago. If you can provide more from further back as well as your current genetic structure, I may be able to find a way to help.”
Due to the Ancients/Lanteans research into Ascension they had a all kinds of research on genetic manipulation and devices to do it with. Hell, he remembered one of their machines was sitting on a planet Nirrti was in control of currently. With the right information, he could reverse the damage the Asgard had done to themselves and return them to their prime, or close to it at least.
Hell, even in the worst case scenario where he couldn't revert the damage, he could at least repair it and modify their bodies into something sturdier and more robust. He highly doubted there was anyone or anything alive that knew more about genetics than him.
Thor studied Aurelius for a long silent moment before shifting his hand on his console. There was a white glow as something began forming in mid air. In seconds and Asgard stone sat floating in front of Aurelius, “All the information you need is contained within the stone.”
Aurelius collected the stone with a smile, “Thank...” White light filled his vision and he was back in front of the Stargate on his hidden outpost, “...you.” He sighed. Asgard manners left much to be desired.
Still, he had the data now so that would come in very handy. Hopefully, he could come up with something soon that could help them out. He didn't want them to end up dying within the next few years. Hell, he expected that even if he didn't cure them, and after a few years to recover from the Replicators, the Asgard would likely go to war against the Goa'uld. That could be interesting!
He wasn't going to count on it though. He'd continue his plans without taking them into account.
Speaking of plans, he moved deeper into the outpost to the main computer. It was a matter of moments for him to gain all the information it had on the progress that had been made. A smile slowly spread as he went over the information. He now had three Dreadnoughts 6,500 feet long and 3,200 feet wide at the rear, five carriers 5,000 feet long and 2,500 feet wide at the rear that each contained twenty squadrons of 24 fighters (480 total) 50 feet long with a wingspan of 65 feet, and ten Battleships 3,200 feet long and 1,600 feet wide at the rear.
To protect the larger ships he had a fleet of Frigates 1,600 feet long and 800 feet wide at the rear, Corvettes only slightly smaller, and some heavy gunboats that were a bit larger than the fighters but carried heavier ordinance.
Needless to say, he now had a fleet that any Goa'uld would happily murder anyone for. Even better, he had the men trained to pilot the ships. He'd had to make some modifications to them so they could be run by his people. Not to mention he'd had to design simulators for them to practice with as well as an entire education system to teach people how to repair them, if necessary. Those particular people weren't quite ready to deal with a real ship yet though. It wasn't easy to train uneducated slaves and Jaffa on the finer details of Lantean battle ships redesigned by a Star Wars fan.
Lucky for them, the ships were heavy on automation.
Aside from the military ships, there were literally thousands of small mining vessels swarming the asteroid field and local planets to mine Naquadah, Trinium, and all the other raw materials needed to build his factories and fleet. The whole system had more production power than the entirety of Earth, multiple times over. Half of the resources he gathered went into expanding his resource gathering capabilities growing it exponentially.
He went over the data for hours making small adjustments here and there. After that it was time to transfer some materials from the outpost to Aurelia, his throne world. Goa'uld had to use cargo ships to move anything substantial around, because they were stupid. Aurelius had designed a simple system that used matter transporters through the Stargate.
On his command the Stargate was activated and a matter transporter, similar to a ring platform, began sending materials through the gate to a relay on the other side he'd set up beforehand. The relay then transferred the materials up to his shipyard and mining facilities above Aurelia where it reintegrated into matter and was stored away for use.
The boost in materials would allow him to produce more mining vessels quickly to ramp up production there as well. The transport of materials lasted for over twenty minutes, transferring nearly one million tons of raw materials. Not much in the grand scheme of things, but definitely helpful.
After the materials were transferred and the gate shut down, he did the final thing he'd come here for. He ordered the Virtual Intelligence's he'd created for each of the ships to pilot them to Aurelia. With his men having trained in simulators, it was time to have them train in the real deal. He was preparing for a real war, not a simple ambush against an cocky Goa'uld.
-----Line Break-----
Though he sat on his throne, Aurelius was connected to his primary computer and going over the information that his many probes throughout the Milky Way were providing him. It had only been a few days since his small fleet had arrived in his home system and his military were busy getting some real world practice in with them.
While they were doing that, he was trying to decide who to attack first. Over the past six months many of the probes had been built and deployed, thousands of them really. Thanks to them he had plenty of information at his disposal... Too much information, in fact.
For a group known as the System Lords their were many who were relatively weak, even weaker than Pelops had been. The problem was deciding who to take down first. There were many minor System Lords he could take out without being noticed right away. Hell, even months after his death no one cared about Moloc being missing. Then again, he was not well liked.
He was tempted to go after Apophis but that particular Goa'uld was well known and heavily watched. Not to mention he was one of the major players currently battling for supremacy among the Goa'uld after the death of Ra. Aside from that, in roughly six months it would be Apophis that forced Earth into using the Stargate to explore the galaxy, something he wanted for his home planet.
Apophis, along with Heru'ur and Cronus were the biggest ones battling it out for supremacy. He needed to avoid them if he didn't want to draw the attention of all the system lords at once.
He paused as he came to a name that Pelops hadn't heard from in nearly three thousand years, Ptah the Egyption god of creation. Ptah was the one to design the Tel'tak (transport ships), Ha'tak, and Death Gliders. While he held little personal power, he was left alone by the System Lords due to his knowledge of the ships and possible hidden weaknesses he might exploit if attacked.
That was not a fear that he had since he didn't use Goa'uld ships for anything.
He considered his options and slowly nodded. He wanted the knowledge that Ptah held and he had a good idea on how to get it. He just needed to strike and strike quickly. Ptah only had a single Ha'tak and a small number of Al'kesh bombers. A perfect soft target for his troops to get some practice on.
“Ro'ak.”
The first prime straightened and saluted, “My Lord?”
“I've decided who we will be attacking, the false god Ptah. I wish for him to see how his ship does against mine. I'm sending you all the information I have on him. I want you to plan the attack. Remember, we want as few casualties as possible.”
Ro'ak slammed his fist against his chest over his heart, “As you command, My Lord.”
Aurelius leaned back in his throne and smiled to himself. This would be the first time Ro'ak would be planning an assault on enemy forces. He knew he couldn't do everything on his own so this was a test to see if Ro'ak had what it would take to lead. If not, he would have to look for someone else. Perhaps Ishta? Although, Ishta had taken it upon herself to become his head priestess. She, like everyone else, knew he didn't require worship, but she chose to see him as her god.
M'reena had long chosen to go live her own life, find love, get married ,whatever it was she wanted to do. Frankly, given the memories of what Pelops did to her, he was surprised she didn't ask to leave the planet completely.
He paused at that thought. It hadn't really sunk in but... he was kind of lonely. Building an empire was fun as hell and very fulfilling, but it didn't leave him much time to make friends. Not that he felt he could make friends with the people of the Aurelian Ascendancy. Almost everyone thought of him as a god, even if they didn't worship him.
He considered that and decided that he would need to take a vacation after taking down Ptah. Maybe a nice visit to Earth. He did always want to go to Disney World!
-----Line Break-----
Aurelius sighed with regret. He knew this day would eventually come and he had not been looking forward to it at all. He wanted his world to be a utopia where everyone could be happy. Unfortunately, not everyone seemed to want the same thing he did.
He felt a weight on his chest as he stepped onto his platform and his image was projected as holograms throughout the still expanding city. Thousands of people stood within the plaza before him to see him in person. Most probably worshiped him, which was irrelevant and just him letting his mind wander to avoid the main topic.
Said topic was a large male Jaffa being forced to kneel next to him with his arms bound behind his back. He too was being projected on the holograms. He took a deep breath before he addressed his people, “My people, my fellow Aurelian's. Today I stand before you with profound sadness. I have done my best to provide for you all, to give you work, homes, and purpose. I've even allowed those of you who wish it to do nothing at all whether due to age, injury, or lack of ambition.”
The crowd cheered. He let it go for a moment before lifting his hands to silence them, “This man...” he gestured to the Jaffa kneeling at his side, “decided that what I gave was not enough. He forced a human to transfer all of his EC to his own account then murdered the human in an attempt to cover up his crime.”
The crowd was dead silent while Aurelius glared through the cameras, “My laws are few because I believe in freedom but this man broke two of those laws by stealing and murdering, the punishment for which is death.”
He let out a deep sorrowful sigh, “It brings me no pleasure and much sadness to carry out his sentence with my own two hands. Today the ex-Jaffa Mer'wa will die by my hands for the crimes of theft and murder.”
Aurelius turned to the kneeling Jaffa who glared up at him in defiance. Mer'wa was a transplant from Moloc's forces and had chaffed under the changes brought about by Aurelius. He believed all humans should be slaves and subservient to the Jaffa. He'd done nothing but drink and complain since his arrival which led to their current situation.
Mer'wa spit on Aurelius's clothes, “False God, I die knowing I will be rewarded in the afterlife and that soon, the true gods will come and DESTROY ALL OF YOU!” He ranted and raved, “Your weak world will burn beneath the might of the true gods! Your blasphemy will be punished! You will all be tortured and killed for your defiance!”
Aurelius turned to the two Jaffa standing guard over Mer'wa, “Hold him down.”
The two Jaffa grabbed his shoulders and held him down over a wooden block. Aurelius looked into the camera while his hand grew an executioners blade like he was holding it, “I now carry out the sentence.”
Without waiting any longer, he swung the sword down and cleanly decapitated Mer'wa. There was absolute silence as the mans head rolled. Aurelius let his head hang down as what he'd done weighed on him. He had to keep reminding himself that what he'd done was not cold blooded murder but was, in fact, justice being served. Brutal, ugly, disturbing justice.
He was doing his best for his people, but despite everything he'd done they were still barbarians, for the most part. It hadn't even been a full year since he took over and change, real change, would take time, years at the very least. Until then he was stuck doing some things the way his people expected him to. To not do so would foment dissent among his people and lead to worse outcomes in the future.
He hoped, deeply, that this would be the last time he needed to perform this act. Somehow, he doubted it would be. The only objectively good thing of this whole scenario was that the murder victim had been revived by his Sarcophagus. Revival had only been possible because he had his entire city under surveillance at all times. The entire city, interior and exterior of every building, was under surveillance at all times. The only thing that he paid attention to was the public areas. He would only review private footage if necessary for a crime.
As an American in his last life he felt it was a gross violation of his peoples privacy. Something he would have protested and even fought against before. As the leader of a group of people comprised mostly of ex-slaves and their abusers, he felt the need to watch over them to make sure they were protected. Saying he was doing it 'for their own good' left a bad taste in his mouth, but it was the truth.
His deepest hope was that his people would grow to the point where they would no longer need him hovering over them, watching them to make sure they're safe and protected, that no one is abusing someone else. Until then, he would have to suck it up and be a dystopian dictator with eyes everywhere and watching everything at all times.
Man, that kind of sucked.
-----Line Break-----
Aurelius sat in the command chair of his newest personal corvette, The Polaris, with the cloak up. He watched, through his advanced scanners, as Ro'ak led the assault on Ptah's Throne World. He'd seen and approved the mans battle plan and was now quietly watching as it played out in real time.
Ro'ak had gone with a basic two pronged assault via space and the stargate. Since Ptah only had a single Ha'tak it had been exceptionally easy for the Aurelian forces to disable it with minimal damage. Simultaneously, Ro'ak had led a ground attack force led by a mobile battle platform that Aurelius had designed to be similar in role to a tank. The hovering platform had a powerful plasma cannon as its main weapon along with smaller ones for point defense against ground troops. Along with it was another similar platform that had an anti-air cannon that fired plasma round that burst at a set height.
Along with that he led a battalion of Jaffa that had been fully equipped with the new weapons and armor he'd designed. They were practically invincible against the defending Jaffa. It was rare for one of his people to get hit and even if they did, they took no damage from it. It was... well it wasn't a slaughter since his people were trying to kill as few as possible, but it was definitely a one sided beating.
Things seemed to be going perfectly to Ro'ak's plan, until his sensors noticed something he was sure the ground forces would miss. A cloaked Tel'tak leaving the surface. His sensors showed two life signs on board, four if you counted the hosts and the Goa'uld separately.
While the ground forces had nothing to detect the small cargo ship, the Frigates in space had sensors that could. He quietly watched and grinned when the Frigates began to move to intercept. Judging by the sudden course change, followed by his people changing intercept course, the pilot of the Tel'Tak was surprised they'd been spotted. A single blast from one of the Frigate's particle cannons disabled the engines of the cloaked ship and broke its cloak.
After that it was a simple matter to capture the two Goa'uld onboard. It took a few more hours for the clean up, but Ro'ak called in a team specifically trained with helping people migrate through the Stargate to Aurelia and get settled in their new home. Of course, the nanites that they would gain from touching an obelisk would help them out tremendously with some basic knowledge as well as fixing any issues they had with their health.
This officially marked the second System Lord he'd taken down. Granted, Ptah and Moloc were minor players, but slow and steady won the race. Ultimately, he planned to be the last man standing. Then he could help found a lasting empire to keep the galaxy from falling into complete anarchy.
It would be wonderful.
-----Line Break-----
AN
9.9k words
Yes, I know, still not a chapter of Fabricator. Sorry about that. I got about 4k words into the next chapter of Fabricator, and then this story got to me again and wouldn't let go.
I think I know why.
We all know I tend to make my characters powerful, even if it takes a little while to get there. Aurelius here is no exception. Except... his personal power counts for very little. Sure, he's a nigh-immortal being with the ability to make any kind of technology he desires, but he's still just one guy within a massive universe.
Because of all that, it's forcing me to write in a different way than I'm used to and, honestly? I love it. It feels challenging, and like I'm actually growing as an author.
Anyway, sorry this isn't Fabricator, a little, but the next chapter might be more Machine God. We'll see if I can focus on Fabricator while planning Aurelius's first meeting with the Tok'ra.
Let me know what you thought of this chapter!