Barnabas tensed. The initial ten-kilometer invasion zone was only a kilometer away. The uninvited guests—the powerful Jaffa who had arrived with reinforcements—fought stubbornly, throwing their well-trained infantry into the fray. They resisted especially fiercely, retreating for the tenth time, leaving mountains of corpses in their wake. Their vehicles became prey for our cavalry, armed with heavy weapons. Even grenade launchers were no protection from sudden, swift raids: the enemy had no time to evacuate them, and their crews perished under fire. Our motorcyclists attempted to cut off the enemy's escape routes, but these daring raids were only successful half the time.
Whoever commanded the enemy Jaffa was undoubtedly skilled. Despite the loss of all their gliders and alkesh, they held their ground. Their knowledge of the terrain was a boon: the enemy found ravines through which to infiltrate, or even crawled in small groups, seeking to outflank us. While in close combat any Jaffa in Szarekh's army was superior to their opponents, in tactics... They were outnumbered, and they knew how to exploit this, thanks to their superior magic. But their opponents, numerous as they were, also knew how to exploit their advantages. The pressure was constant and from all sides. The enemy didn't rush head-on like fools—no, they were far more cunning.
Szareh taught that retreat is no shame if the task is accomplished. Their task was to destroy as many enemies as possible while preserving their own lives. They accomplished it. Only a bitter regret clouded their consciousness: due to a cunning enemy, their victory was not absolute.
A threader flew overhead, dropping several containers. A moment later, a veritable inferno erupted a kilometer away. Even through their helmets, the screams of the burning warriors could be heard.
"We'll stay here for another half hour and then withdraw. We've done our duty as best we could," the commander's voice came over the radio. Of the original twenty men in the platoon, only ten remained. Half were killed or wounded. The wounded will be treated, the dead will be resurrected.
It seems the enemy commander realized the same thing. Or perhaps scouts reported to him about a large influx of troops through the gates, and he urged his warriors to attack.
Jaffa charging are a terrifying sight, as they run at incredible speed.
Barnabas took aim and methodically began picking off the enemies. He was in a trance-like state as he fired.
Another warrior fell from his bullet. A second. A third. It took no more than one heartbeat to aim and fire.
The Threaders swept across the battlefield once more, dropping their deadly payload, incinerating dozens of enemies. But hundreds marched through the fiery hell, closing in with inexorable speed. For every one that fell, ten rose to take their place. They had torn apart an entire planet, and now it came for their heads.
The enemy troops were already ten meters from their trench. Barnabas prepared for close combat, drawing his blade. But then a barrage of plasma explosions simply swept away the enemy's forward units.
"GET IN THE CAR QUICKLY!!!!" the voice of the "Rhino" operator came through the headphones.
Barnabas didn't even notice the vehicles approaching. Ten armored giants raked the entire front with plasma cannons. The entire platoon and the remaining forces simply leaped onto the armor, wasting no time in climbing into the troop compartment, holding tightly to the special handrails. The drivers made a sharp turn and sped toward the gate at top speed. There, Barnabas saw the final hundred-meter line, guarded by a hundred warriors with the maximum number of plasma cannons. They were covering the retreat of the main forces. As soon as they sensed they were about to be overwhelmed, they would leap from their trenches, abandon their weapons, and disappear through the gates. All weapons, like the corpses of soldiers they hadn't managed to find, self-destructed. No information about the master was to fall into the hands of his enemies.
"So, kids, did you think becoming a brother to God was that easy?" the commander continued to mock them. Barnabas wanted to tell him to go to hell more and more. He'd already killed thirty-four enemies. That should have been a good result. For starters. He'd kill even more for Szarech.
"My worlds have been devastated! This is unacceptable! You, as my ally, must help me!" Agni shouted furiously at Vritra through the connection. This greatly irritated her.
"You fool! I warned you about the mercenary lord, but you didn't heed my words and now you're paying the price," the Goa'uld's voice boomed in the woman's body. "Indra will take advantage of this time and deploy his troops to the conquered worlds."
— The gates to my worlds are blocked.
"Of course it will be. She's forcing you to choose where to send reinforcements."
Vritra had already determined the tactics used by this unknown Goa'uld, as well as the technology at his disposal. The fact that the threaders had been converted into satellites, as well as the fact that he had pilots capable of passing through the gate, testified to the high level of training of his warriors. The battles fought by her allies confirmed the other characteristics of the mercenary lord: the high competence of his troops. Most of the information about his forces was revealed only because his troops retreated from two planets—two of the fifty-two that had been extinguished. Vritra didn't tell her allies that any Goa'uld on the captured planets had been captured and would soon become the mercenary's "friend," revealing their master's secrets. The lord was no fool, and certainly never trusted his subordinates more than necessary, not to mention that the Goa'uld had practiced for millennia methods of loosening the tongues of prisoners—be it bribery or torture. So she was forced to re-enlist all the unfortunates who had been captured.
Once the governors or ordinary employees were loosened, they would reveal the coordinates of other planets belonging to her allies, after which those worlds would also go dark. Just a few years ago, this mercenary lord had apparently been testing the elite portion of his army on her, and now the main force had appeared. Reports from conquered worlds suggest a standard attack contingent: a thousand Jaffa, all wearing skull helmets. Their entire armor was stylized to resemble a skeleton. Extremely ferocious and competent, none were ever seen without a helmet, so no one knew which god they served. All wore self-destruct systems. Several Jaffa paid for their foolishness when they tried to remove the helmets of a dead person. They carry away the corpses and fight with extreme meticulousness. The only retreat Vritra knew of was an attack on two planets where Jaffa were breeding. This could be considered a defeat for the mercenary lord: he left behind a huge amount of equipment (which exploded) and suffered defeat. Only a foolish Goa'uld or someone simply looking for bragging rights could consider this a defeat. After her fiasco on Prakitia, Vritra became much more selective about the battles she would participate in.
The mercenary lord's warriors gave no chance to discern who was fighting him: any Jaffa corpses were burned. Apparently, he understood that for additional information, the Lord could resurrect the Jaffa in the sarcophagus. He also used strange energy-field shields, capable of firing independently, with phenomenal accuracy, and... combat tracked vehicles. Vritra had only heard of such things on primitive worlds. Perhaps the mercenary lord had plundered some abandoned planet and used such machines. But they proved terrifying in attack. However, they could be destroyed. To defend against such an attack, she decided to employ the tactics of the minor lord Szarekh, who had recently humiliated Apophis when his troops perished under the effects of gravity. Vritra adopted this tactic and equipped all her planets with similar mechanisms. In the event of an attack through the gate, the mercenary, that bastard, would experience the power of gravity.
A message arrived at the lord's terminal, and according to the logs, it was coming through the gate. However, her gate was blocked by that bastard lord. After a moment's thought, she responded. An image of a majestic figure seated on a throne of fused swords appeared on the screen. The figure was clad in armor that made him resemble a large skeleton. A cloak was visible behind him, he held a tall scepter, wore gauntlets, and his face was covered by an ornate skull mask.
"Lord Vritra," he greeted her first. "Pleased to meet you."
"I can't say the same. Answer, are you the one who attacked me a few years ago?"
"Yes," the figure replied.
"Why did you contact me?" She knew he certainly wouldn't tell her his name, so she was curious to know the reason for the connection.
"I'm a mercenary, and I bear you no hatred. You trusted the wrong person, and this someone hired me. It's simple. A word of advice for the future: next time you think you've found a Gate Builder vault, use more technology in the excavation. And as a mercenary, I must report that Lord Indra has violated her contract with me, and I will inform her of this shortly. On the planet of System Lord Nirriti, the attack Lord Indra insisted on, Ashrak infiltrated through the gate along with my troops. I consider this a conspiracy against me and a violation of the contract signed between me and Indra. I will pass on all supporting information to you, Lords Agni and Surya, and each of the captured Goa'uld. I'm a mercenary and have invested certain resources in the attack. Of course, I have ample loot, but mercenaries still work for a fixed fee. I could ignore what Indra did for the sake of future payment, but that allowed leeches to prey on my adherence to a certain Code of Honor. I can't ignore that. So I ask directly: Lord Vritra, do you wish to hire me?
A multitude of questions swirled in Vritra's mind, especially the shadow of Indra, intertwined with the enigmatic Nirrti. Their fragile alliance seemed to serve only one purpose: to contain Indra's growing power. And now, the information that Indra had neglected even an Ashrak for the sake of a mythical mercenary lord, who, in turn, had vanished without a trace, only raised new, even more ominous questions. Not to mention the veracity of such sensitive claims. Nirrti's betrayal, however, was not surprising—for the Goa'uld, it was commonplace. But the thought that she might have supported a powerful lord posed a real threat: the domains of three such ambitious rulers could become easy prey for neighbors eager to expand their empires by exploiting their depleted armies.
— You understand that I can't believe the unfounded accusations and the lack of evidence in your words?
"The crystal with the data will cross the gate. It contains images of my warriors killing the ashrak, a copy of the treaty, and the moment Indra signs it."
Vritra couldn't shake the feeling that this was just a cleverly devised ruse, though she didn't rule out the possibility that the mercenary was genuinely seeking a lucrative contract. The problem was, she'd never hired an entire army before.
"Treachery is in the nature of the Goa'uld, but I consider myself above petty political ambitions," the mercenary lord continued. "I command the most fearsome Jaffa army in history. And if I am betrayed, such a fool will never hire me again. Indra is no exception. Her failure has forever barred her from turning to me again, but I will not seek revenge. As I said, petty squabbles do not concern me. My only goal is money. If I am not paid for the assassination, I will not move a finger. It is up to you to decide whether to hire me or not. The gate blockade will be lifted in four hours."
After these words, he disconnected, leaving Vritra alone with her tormenting thoughts. She had no intention of sharing this information with anyone—traitors lurked everywhere, and she had to make the decision herself.
When she reviewed the crystal data, she was struck by the paranoid mind she had to contend with. To ensure the detection of invisible enemies, he had constructed an ingenious device that continually sprayed water on soldiers returning from beyond the chapaai. And when the ashrak was discovered, the mercenary lord, without flinching, sacrificed twenty of his warriors, sealing the entire area with an energy shield to destroy the enemy. Considering the relative prices, the sacrificial Jaffa became the most expensive in Goa'uld history. Yes, the evidence was irrefutable, especially considering that the ashrak had quickly destroyed all the warriors and then committed suicide. The contract even contained a clause obliging the mercenary to attack this particular planet, Nirrti, leaving no doubt that Indra was playing a game against his own mercenary. All that remained was to figure out how to turn all this to his advantage. Oh, and she also needed to design a similar system to screen everyone arriving via the chapaai—she certainly didn't want to die at the hands of an ashrak. However, the idea of hitting Nirrti with the news of her ashrak's failure, considering how much had been invested, seemed quite tempting. All that remained was to decide on the price—how much was this mercenary lord asking for his army?
Vritra quickly glanced at a copy of Indra's contract and snorted. These clearly weren't the rates for Ashraks, even though the army had conquered planets. But especially striking were the clauses stating that the mercenary would not fight on planets where Hutta'ki were present and would not hold territory for more than ten hours. All spoils were his, and anything he couldn't evacuate within that time would remain with his employer, assuming, of course, they wanted to take the planet.
Vritra leafed through her operational reserves—the amount she could spend without risking the ruin of her domain. Yes, she had the means to hire an entire army of highly trained assassins.