Thy plans and thy might

Posted on Mon Jun 30th, 2025 @ 6:49am by Colonel Ashaan Vhau & Mana'i & Uhlan Vekthar & Warrior Choq, Son of None & First Prime Pindar & First Prime Thalistra
Edited on on Mon Jun 30th, 2025 @ 6:51am

3,044 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: The Serpent's Tooth [3]
Location: Great Hall surrounds - DS13
Timeline: 1955 - MD08 (After 'After the Dawn')

“Jaffa, kree!” Came a voice down a corridor of Deep Space 13’s docking ring, causing the lion-helmeted Jaffa who heard it to turn suddenly. It seemed in that particularly isolated part of the station, they were alone. In the distance the beckoned lionguard saw two Jaffa without helmets, beckoning them urgently around a corner. The helmeted Jaffa followed, and after turning a few more corners, found themselves on the receiving end of phase disruptor beams that stunned them unconscious. The Jaffa decoys repeated the trick again and again, until they had enough gear for two teams of four Jaffa disguised in lionguard armour.

As they prepared to set out again, a message came across one of the Romulan communicators. “This is Lieutenant Alph. I have interfaced with the main computer core at the Captain’s instruction, and I am beginning efforts to retake control of central operations. The Captain requests that retaking the CIC be given equal priority to any offensive against Hera’s forces. I will be relaying tracking data updates to the HUD of your armour. They might be a bit slow, but they should give you time to prepare if anything comes your way.”

“Understood, thanks Lieutenant.” The Colonel said as he activated the lion helmet of his purloined Jaffa armour, tucking his antennae in suddenly as it shut. There it was, everything they needed to stay one step ahead of the Jaffa. He had a staff and one of the stun weapons. Pindar had advised anyone who wielded the staff to aim for limbs or nearby surfaces to mitigate the deadliness of the weapon. Vhau took a few steps forward and turned back to face the teams, retracting the helmet once more.

“Listen up, I’m taking team A to the CIC. Team B, I want you to get to the nearest armoury and prioritise arming everyone capable. The rest of you have weapons but aren’t assigned to a team, spread out and secure ambush points along the patrol routes. Make sure we hold all the ground they’ve ceded, but don’t be afraid to retreat if more than you can handle show up.”

“Mr Choq, I believe. Glad to have you with us.” Vhau said to the Klingon who’d squeezed into one of the lionguard disguises. "I hear you've got hands to be afraid of."

"I am but a vessel for the wisdom of ancient warriors. Your trust honours me, Colonel." Choq told the Colonel.

“What’s your name, officer..?” Vhau asked the individual who’s origins he wasn’t certain of, other than that he’d volunteered himself as someone with combat training and the armour seemed to be a perfect fit for him. The glasses and the complexion made him think one of the kid's parents may have been Reman.

"Uhlan Vekthar, Free State Security." The smoother ridged Reman male with Romulan features replied with a Free State salute.

The Colonel turned to Mana’i. “Miss Mana’i, I’d like you to accompany us. Mr Pindar here has a plan to get us into the CIC. He’ll do all the talking. But if it hits the fan, I trust –“ The Colonel stopped mid-sentence, hit by the realisation that she may not have known what a fan was, and that as some kind of robot person she was even less likely to understood the ‘it’ that would be hitting said fan. “If uh, things get hot up there, feel free to cool them down as you see fit.”

“Alright everybody, Mr Pindar here will be taking the lead. We’re going to get as far into the CIC as we can peacefully. If we make it all the way in without trouble, the codeword that we’re about to start shooting is ‘daffodil’. Stun where possible, but we’ll be carrying staves so if that’s what you’ve got to work with in the moment, try to hit your target away from their torso or head. Miss Mana’i here will be on defence, and the lynchpin of our deception as we try to talk our way in. Any questions?” Vhau asked.

All were still.

“Alright, suit up.” Vhau said, and triggered the switch to activate his lion helmet once more.

They went quickly from where they’d assembled to the turbolift, and found that the Goa’uld trickery with the computers had authorised anyone wearing a lionguard outfit to access the internal travel systems.

When they arrived at the circular lobby leading to the CIC, they found eight Jaffa in the room, all with their staves pointed at the lift as it opened. Once they saw the lionguard helms they eased slightly, but their leader stepped forward. “Kree tal shal mak!” He was a bald, older man they learned as his helmet came down.

“All glory to Hera, brother. This one says she wishes to serve our queen, she strangled two of the Federation with her bare hands to prove her loyalty. She says she can show us how we can unlock their hidden armouries. She says there are weapons in there beyond comprehension that the Federation hesitate to use out of cowardice. By your leave, I would let Thalistra judge her claims.” Pindar said deferentially.

The leader looked between them for a moment. There was a dragging suspicion that led them to believe the jig was up, but soon he turned from them. “Very well. Beware her mood is ill.” The Jaffa relaxed, and became casual, resting on their staves and going back to their conversations.

The bald Jaffa led them across the room to the CIC entrance, but stopped most of the way there. “Oh, and before we enter, lower your helms. Thalistra insists on it. She thinks these pacifists could overpower the Lionguard.” He laughed as he spoke.

“Unfortunately, there is a flower I am allergic to aboard.” Pindar said.

“I must insist, brother.” The bald Jaffa responded.

“It is called the daffodil. Do you know it?” Pindar asked, surreptitiously loosening the zat at his belt and stunning the leader with it.

“Go hot!” Colonel Vhau ordered as he fell to one knee and activated his staff weapon, drawing his zat simultaneously. He balanced the staff along the back of his zat-held hand like a water with too many plates, firing both weapons simultaneously towards the other Jaffa, most of whom scattered into the nearby rooms found adjacent to the CIC, taking cover behind the doorway bulkheads.

Pindar swung the club end of his staff into the first of the guards at the door, stunning the other with his zat. He took cover where the sentry had stood, keeping an eye of the path past the CO and XO’s offices to the CIC. He fired his zat into a lionguard who approached from the CIC, alerted by the stir, causing him to collapse outside the door to Rovak’s office.

Choq used the club end of his staff defensively, using the club to take the impact of a shot that otherwise would have gone into his heart. He squatted in place to reduce his profile and zatted a pair of the Jaffa.

"We really are doing this, aren't we." A sigh whistled its way through Mana'i's Kanohi mask as she stepped forward and slammed the head of her icepick into the floor. Where the tool made contact, ice spread outward, covering the floor of the hallway in a thin, slippery surface, causing several of the attackers to lose balance and fall to the floor in various funny positions. "They didn't say I couldn't cause a nasty headache." She quipped airily as Vhau and the rest surged past her.

It was interesting to witness the ice spread out from ally Mana'i, Vekthar stayed behind her for fear of being frozen. He aimed his Zat at a Jaffa heading into another room and fired. The Jaffa spasmed and collapsed, he noticed not many were attacking thanks to the ice attack.

The Colonel wasn't sure what he expected when he read she had power over ice, but the reality hadn't quite crystallised in his mind. He felt a most unprofessional excitement as he realised he could use his countless hours in skateless ice-skimming in a tactical context. He slid with lethal precision and speed down the hall past the offices, continuing his successful zat/staff arrangement, taking out two Jaffa covering on either side of the CIC-end of the hall.

Behind him, Pindar followed boldly, assuming what he saw the Andorian do was something he could imitate, but he instead fell on his behind, momentum carrying forward. He continued to fire his staff as he realised he would not stop until he got off the frozen surface. He kicked one foot out into the edge of the door to the XO's office, and used a gap in the alcove to pull himself up, taking sparse cover in the doorway, firing judiciously around the corner as a flurry of staff blasts came down the frozen hallway.

Vhau fired zat shots around the corner as a staff blast narrowly missed him, he responded with a more successful zat shot, but there were still a dozen armed Jaffa across both levels of the CIC, all now firmly focused on stopping the intruders, who seemed from their perspective to ride in on a carpet of hoarfrost. Vhau had cleared the landing at the end of the CIC's walkway and took cover in a position where he could target most of the Jaffa present, but the fire was too intense for him to move out of cover, even with the covering fire from Pindar that seemed to be aimed at Thalistra, who sheltered behind the command chair, which rotated quickly every time a shot struck it.

The First Prime had a quartet of Jaffa with her at the rounded end of the walkway, and they were fighting like their lives depended on it.

In the circular entry room they'd come in from Choq finally took out the last of the Jaffa there, they were so fascinated by the sudden frozen surface they wandered into his firing range. Avoiding the ice-slick surface, he took cover against the corner of the hall through to the CIC and, when he saw an opportunity, he flung the staff weapon like a spear down the hall. Thalistra ducked under it just in time, but it struck another Lionguard behind her directly in the face of his helmet, toppling him over the edge. Choq knew he could do more with his hands, but he was unsteady on the ice, and they were too well entrenched. He fired covering shots with the zat towards the command chair which now had many holes blown out of it.

After he managed to hit one of them in the knee with a staff blast, the remaining dozen-or-so Jaffa seemed to focus their fire on Colonel Vhau, who was still seeking a rapidly-reducing amount of cover at the top of the stairwell closest to the XO's office leading down to the lower level of the CIC. A flurry of staff blasts exploded around him.

"Little help!" He called out to all his colleagues, trying to reposition himself to be as small as possible.

Choq grabbed another staff weapon from one of their fallen foes. He held it ahead of him and fired a sequence of shots along the hall past the command offices, aiming at progressing sections of the floor. He scarred the surface but the impact defrosted circular areas, allowing him to advance without risk of slipping. He charged forward with a series of splashing steps, shouting Klingon epithets as he released a barrage of staff fire at the Jaffa at the end of the mezzanine. He stood out in the open, unbothered by the risk of being hit, though he was ready to try and step out of the way of any incoming fire. A good day to die.

Pindar used the sudden arrival of Choq to step out from the office door alcove, firing around him down towards Thallistra and her closest Jaffa. He caught one of them in the shoulder with a staff blast, knocking him back off the platform.

He watched the enemy Jaffa hold up around the command chair dais, Vekthar thought it was time to push. He put his body into a sprint ready stance, fully prepared to use the ice path to his advantage unless ally Mana'i decided to stop or go on the offensive. The Reman/Romulan hybrid grinned, he had noticed at least two Zat weapons left in the hallway and easily collected by his planned advanced.

He only had one, and so he waited another second or so before just incase Mana'i decided to do anything. Vekthar was given the go ahead since nothing was forthcoming. He launched into a run and once on the ice crouched down, he swept up a fallen Jaffa Zat gun and readied both as he passed through the hallway's to Ops' arch while still in a crouched stance.

The ice path allowed the Uhlan to get far all the while firing off Zat bolts in nearly every direction to cause confusion and cover for his allies. He hoped that his efforts contributed enough as he began to focus fire towards the command chair dais Jaffa. He did consider if Zat'nik'tels ever ran out of energy for only a moment before his concentration returned to those who he fired on.

When Vekthar's shots took out the remaining Jaffa alongside Thallistra, Pindar charged out past Choq towards the centre seat. "Thalistra! Ket mattet!" He called out in challenge, and any Jaffa who might have thought of firing at him aimed their weapons elsewhere. So too did Thalistra drop her staff, and emerge from cover.

"Kal kek m'al, Pindar?" She asked as she approached at a casual pace despite the continuing fire around them, though she was the last active Lionguard Jaffa on the upper level. Thallistra lowered her lion helm, and the two rushed at one another. Pindar brought his arms down to strike her from above, but she sidestepped him and struck him in the face with a knee. As blood began to flow he swung again at her, but the smaller woman was faster, and she ducked under his blow, reaching her leg back to hit him in the face again with a scorpion kick.

Pindar roared, spitting blood across the terminals, and finally grabbing and grappling with her.

Confused by why the other Jaffa weren't targeting Pindar, Colonel Vhau began slowly down the stairs with his weapon drawn, successfully zatting the Jaffa hiding on the other side of the stairway. By his count, there must be fewer than six remaining, Thalistra notwithstanding.

Choq watched the struggle between the two first primes for a moment, until his priorities reasserted themselves. He went to the other side from where Vhau had descended, ducking quickly under a staff blast that came in his direction. He ducked out of cover for a moment and managed to take down the Jaffa that had fired at him with a zat shot, though two more staff blasts came his way, and he avoided them purely from luck. He remained in cover on the stairwell.

Thalistra had got the better of Pindar, and thrown him off-balance with his own weight. She struck him three times across the face, then a final hard fourth. She could feel that any more would do permanent damage, but he was beaten. Her Amazon skills had proven superior once again. She stood, holding her zat, trying to follow the continuing fire as it emerged from different sources.

Thalistra reactivated her helmet and called out loudly through its amplified speakers. "Jaffa, stop! Throw down your weapons. We are beaten." She threw down her own zat with a clatter, it fell between two of the unconscious lionguard.

Vhau had been exchanging fire with one of the Jaffa on the other side of the room through the underpass through the upper platform, but when his opponent obeyed and threw down his weapon, he deactivated his own zat, and held it away.

Choq gripped his serpentine weapon tightly, it was against his instincts to drop it, or to cease combat while opponents still stood, but that was the Starfleet way. It was already a strange enough experience to be doing battle with projectile weapons, the shame of his birth meant they had always been forbidden for him, even if he had practiced secretly. He put the Goa'uld weapon into its inactive mode, and held it at his side.

Vhau made his way back up the stairs. Pindar had got himself back to his feet, his fury was obvious but the Colonel knew the look of a man restrained by his honour. He wondered what rituals Jaffa would have for such shame, but didn't have time to think about it right now. On the viewscreen, something exploded out the side of one of the Ha'taks.

"You want us to take your surrender seriously, you better tell us what that is." Vhau told Thalistra as strange blocks began to emerge from the hole.

"This is not my mistress' design, that is Akhenaten's vessel." Thalistra said. In truth she had not known any of her mistress' plans ahead of time, but this seemed profoundly unlikely.

"Can you adjust what we see to let us see into the damage of the ship?" Pindar asked, wincing as he moved, appearing to have broken a rib.

Vhau looked around for a terminal that hadn't been destroyed or disabled. He tapped in a few commands, and the perspective changed slightly, showing some kind of shimmering aquatic surface through the hole in the side of the Ha'tak, which seemed to be the origin of yet more blocks.

"Chappa'ai." Thalistra said.

"And the pieces. Chappa'ko." Pindar added.

"Meaning what?" Vhau asked.

"Stargate. A portal for instant travel across vast distances." Thalistra said, realising then what the blocks were forming. "And a supergate. The same device, but large enough for ships to pass through. Someone is coming." Both she and Pindar looked troubled by the discovery, as did the conscious Jaffa.

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