Now I understand why Pelops was so easily robbed of the secret of Jaffa production, without even a peep from him. For all my virtues, war is not my forte. But even with this meager foundation of knowledge about the craft, I could see the abyss into which Pelops had fallen. Who in the name of all the gods would condemn their central military base to starvation? It may be on another continent, but surely there were civilians capable of providing food and posing no security threat. But no, Aegis was the sole source of everything Sparta ate. So let us shed a tear for the unfortunate Aegideans, who fed this army of one hundred and fifty thousand parasites, and without any marvels of agricultural technology like four-field crop rotation, tractors, and seeders. However, Isara was "slightly" displeased, receiving yet another planet deprived of an administration. Let me remind you that the administrators were Jaffa women, so reserves had to be found on Urvash and Pangar. Then she insistently asked for a few years to refrain from new conquests. The war, however, wasn't over yet: Pelops had deployed over a hundred gliders to Aegis to greet the Alkeshi with honor. What can you do? "Threaders" have gone out of fashion, but my maneuvers involving disassembling and reassembling gliders in disassembled form were a true tactical innovation. All the Spartans were transported to a desert planet, provided with every imaginable comfort: tents, water supplies, food, and they weren't even deprived of their nanite-control bracelets. The prison, therefore, had no walls—where could you escape in the middle of the desert? Guards were also few. The gates, installed on an antigravity platform hovering a hundred meters above the ground, became the most reliable guard for any captives. And whoever dared to go into the deserted distances was apparently too stupid to realize his place.
Helena's killing of the First Warrior was unexpected, but also predictable. The Jaffa women raised by Pelops were cowards; any other Jaffa would have simply told him to go to hell and gone into the final battle with their families. After all, under other System Lords, women were warriors—even if they didn't engage in direct combat, they raised men to be strong. Under Pelops, the Spartan women became administrators, slave overseers. They didn't see the potential of the Goa'uld, so they were terrified of the aerial detonation of a nuclear weapon. And yet, for all Pelops's great achievements as a scientist, his Jaffa had become jackals, preying on the weak. Not that I didn't carry out similar raids myself, but my warriors knew their place and understood why they were winning. Therefore, they trained constantly without any fancy gadgets, fighting against opponents of equal strength. The Spartans also trained against each other, but according to a completely different set of rules: more attention was devoted to individual skills rather than collective strength.
When the women chose to surrender, the men followed suit. Pride was all well and good, but under the influence of the belief that women had priority in certain matters, and in the absence of the First Warrior, they chose to submit to their wives.
Now I have a huge number of helots hanging around my neck. On the other hand, if I kill Pelops, I'll gain access to approximately 75,000 women who can be enhanced with the Tok'ra symbiont. A single ten-year cycle will produce a huge number of representatives of the new Goa'uld race. True, restrictions will have to be imposed later, because the very presence of hosts will become a problem. And hiding such a contingent from the Tok'ra would be difficult. The Jaffa are not stupid, and a minor lord can't have 75,000 Goa'uld servants. That could even be more than our entire race currently has... Although, no, there could be a million of us. No one can possess 10% of their race's population without arousing suspicion. And here I am, wondering how much training my Jaffa would need to avoid noticing a Tok'ra colony? And it's essential to preserve the carriers' pure genetic material so that, if Tok'ra couples form, children can be born through IVF using a pure gene pool. Fortunately, the captured equipment allows for this to be accomplished.
I will never stop praising Pelops; much of what he accomplished was truly unique. I will never stop admiring him as a scientist, but the urge to stab him never goes away. The laboratory turned out to be enormous; previous bases were only a pale shadow of what was hidden here. I can only imagine what I'll find in Sparta! The base beneath the local coliseum (incidentally, designed for 60,000 residents) occupied several floors, totaling several thousand square meters. It was crammed with samples, nanite production equipment, computers, biological analysis tables, and hundreds of instruments for all kinds of research. Here, Pelops created the ultimate weapon against diseases (those listed in the database); he created it, and I will be the one getting the credit for implementing it. Bad luck for the scientist, that's a shame. All equipment must be packed up and removed immediately. I won't be here, and neither will Egeria, so it's best to carefully pack everything up and disappear. Isara, taking advantage of her status as the god's wife, had already begun her campaign: she declared that the Spartans would no longer rule, that officials would be recruited from among the helots, and that henceforth all work would be paid in hard cash. In short, she was actively promoting liberalization. She was already beloved, but they remembered that her husband had planned to obliterate the city with the power of light.
On the other hand, the explicit tax policy was universally welcomed. For an undeveloped planet, feeding 150,000 parasites from the ruling class is an exorbitant burden. For Urvashi, after two years of "my" rule, taking into account tractors, new varieties of wheat, and so on, such expenses were insignificant. The growth in food production on the graph resembled a parabola. Such a result is "easy" to achieve, if we incorporate all possible technologies. But the people will be happy: many laws were amended, and holographic projectors for announcing new orders and news appeared in every village. Isara had experience, she knew what to do, so in the few days while the Alkeshi were flying towards us, she managed to accomplish a lot. Due to the specific programming of the orbital defense, it couldn't turn toward the planet, but it vigilantly monitored friend-or-foe signals, and my gliders couldn't rise above a certain threshold, otherwise they would have been shot down.
But the Alkeshi will have to reclaim this planet from me. It won't be easy, given the hundred gliders at my disposal. So what? We haven't wasted any time! True, in this scenario, and specifically from Pelops, I fear a bacteriological attack. Something along the lines of "if it's a planet, don't let anyone have it!" However, he must be certain the planet hasn't fallen yet. To counter such an attack, the Alkeshi should have been intercepted upon entering the atmosphere and then analyzed the debris. If the hull is damaged, the bioweapon will burn out from atmospheric friction. As a last resort, there are grafting technologies: unlike the Goa'uld, I can produce them quickly, after all, it was part of my promise to the people of Urvashi. It's unlikely that if something happens, something extremely powerful will be used. In the Middle Ages, something ordinary is sufficient. That is, of course, if Pelops decides to resort to such methods.
"Sir, the alcoholics have arrived, they will enter the atmosphere in 5 minutes."
"All squadrons, to arms!"
Let me explain a little about space travel. Usually, all reasonable people, knowing nothing about the system, exit at some distance from it, scan the planetary motion, and analyze the situation to avoid entering directly into the planet. Of course, there are gravity scanners and a whole host of technologies that ensure a safe exit. Like the Prometheus, which reached the right location despite the accident. But in general, no one exits close to a planet. The formation of a hyperspace window can be detected, and ships are defenseless for a while, so preemptive systems can be adjusted for combat. Pelops knew this, so he decided to play it safe. A correct and sensible decision. He deserves nothing but praise.
As soon as the six Alkesh entered the atmosphere, 32 gliders rushed to intercept them. Each had four gliders, or two pairs. While the guns were focused on one target, the other three would deliver a crushing blow. Tapping into the cameras, I saw the pilots encounter the Alkesh in the upper atmosphere, where they usually switched power from the shield to the engines to prevent the enormous 60-meter Alkesh from crashing into the planet. And it had to maneuver, too.
The first encounter wasn't the most effective, for the simple reason that caution was required. The Alkesh had shields, so they could simply ram the gliders and they wouldn't be harmed. So it was best to come from behind and target the engines. The turret was trying to hit the gliders—the seven-meter cannons. The operators reduced the power settings for rapid fire, but for now, my pilots were evasive. Then missiles were launched from the pylons, and immediately my gliders scattered. Lights flared. I used naquad-potassium explosives in my NURS. I managed to stabilize it for the missiles, and even though I had a lot of Third Reich technology, making a homing missile proved difficult. Moreover, if a glider or Alkesh detects a missile launch, it can quickly soar into the stratosphere. Speed is reduced for combat, and to avoid crashing into the planet's surface, but as for evasion—climbing upward—it's not that difficult.
Deadly birds, each carrying 1,300 kilograms of explosives, tore into the silent sky. But their metallic core hid a saving mechanism: a miss, and the missile would crumble to dust before it could cause any harm. I managed to tame the unruly naquadah and kalium—the missile's cores, more expansive than those of the soulless cluster munitions. This allowed me to integrate ingenious safety systems that prevent premature destruction. While these are still just unguided rockets, paired with the glider's navigation systems, they achieved near-flawless accuracy. Of course, if the Alkesh had managed to dodge, the missiles would have missed. However, the impacts were devastating: explosions pierced the shield and incinerated the engine compartment, where the inertial dampening and gravity control systems usually resided. The smoking dots, having lost control, rushed down like stones, into the embrace of oblivion.
To protect the crew, I issued a general air raid alert, ordering everyone to take shelter in the basements. No one must be killed by falling debris. Calculations showed that the debris would fall into the fields, so I ordered fire-extinguishing equipment—simple foam bombs—to be prepared for the gliders. Although a fall from such a height without inertia-damping systems would be certain death, I will send Teltaki to check for survivors. And, of course, to scan for any unexpected surprises, like biological weapons.
With Helen's help, it became clear that this was half of Pelops's fleet, that he had no trace of any Hattaks, and that any "naquadah" he had on his ships was obtained in daring raids. A valuable and, hopefully, willing source of information. She should be rewarded, but this should remain a secret from the others, lest she appear weak.