Stargate - Rise of the Sun God

by Arvaus

5 - Not Alone

Time passed at a disorienting pace as SG-1 made their way through the ruined city. For a long while none of them said anything to each other, the events at the temple weighing on their minds, and as the sun still sat motionless in the sky it was impossible to tell how long they had been walking for. Jack kept glancing at his watch every few minutes, trying to count the seconds in his head, in the hope that giving himself something to concentrate on would stop whatever had happened to Daniel happening to him, but he knew he was grasping at straws.

Whenever they found a relatively intact building, Daniel would walk inside and look round for anything useful, but each time he would come out a few minutes later shaking his head, and then they'd set off again, Jack picking a new direction and the others following. He didn't say so, but he kept them moving in the rough direction of the area he'd seen movement in earlier, walking approximately toward the hiding moon. He still didn't know if he'd been imagining things, but if there was somepony else on the planet, then there was a chance that there'd be a means of escape as well.

Moving that way also had the advantage that it kept the sun behind them. Its light wasn't unpleasantly hot at least – although the air was so dry that they were going to exhaust their water reserves very quickly – but the way it just perpetually hung there gave him the uncomfortable feeling that he was being watched. If Sam's evaluation was correct, he really had more reason to worry about the moon, but at least it was easier to ignore.

After a deceptively long two and a half hours, he brought the team to a halt outside the remains of a small house, and called a rest stop, giving Sam the first turn sleeping and telling Teal'c to keep watch. The Jaffa nodded and took up a position by the door, while the rest of them went inside and settled down. After removing his backpack, Jack sat down in the shade of a half-collapsed wall and poked idly at the grass under his hooves. It was wilted and slightly damp, deprived of direct sunlight by the shadow of the wall, but for his part Jack was glad for the coolness.

After a while the silence started getting to him. Sam was asleep and Teal'c was… well, Teal'c, but he and Daniel had barely said a word to each other since their rather tense exchange at the temple earlier. Daniel was sitting on his own in the far corner, a pile of photos from the temple spread out in front of him, reading them over and over and visibly avoiding Jack's eyes. Morale was running low; with the way the mission was going they were going to be at each other's throats within the day, Ra'shek or not.

Figuring it was about time to rebuild some bridges, Jack stood up and walked casually over to Daniel, settling down on the grass next to him.

"How's it going, Daniel? Found anything interesting?"

The archaeologist closed his notebook and looked up at Jack through narrowed eyes.

"Do you really want to know the answer to that?" he said.

Jack sighed. "Come on, throw me a bone here."

"Okay," Daniel said. "I haven't found anything about how to leave, if that's what you're asking. It talks about the Stargate, but as far as we know that's just the one up there," – he pointed to the sky – "so we're still stuck here. Other than that, it's just history."

Jack pulled one of the photos over and looked idly down at it. "Anything about this 'demon' thing?" He asked.

"Nothing," Daniel said, reaching over and turning the photo the right way round. "It doesn't mention Ra's death either, so I think whatever happened here must've been very sudden."

"Entire fleets destroyed in a single instant?" Jack asked. "That sort of thing?"

"Yeah." Daniel sighed. "We haven't seen anything quite that powerful here, though. Just…"

He trailed off. After a brief awkward silence he opened his notebook again and went back to writing.

"Look, Daniel," Jack said, "I'm sorry about earlier. I get that you're excited about being here, but I just have to think about other things first. Now I love a good temple as much as the next stallion, but—"

Daniel gave a dry laugh. "You think this is about that?"

"…no?" Jack said awkwardly. "What is it, then? Just tell me what's up."

Daniel shook his head and stood up, pacing back and forth across the grass for a few moments. Then he stopped and looked down at Jack.

"You saw what I did back there," he said.

"Come on," Jack said, standing up. "That wasn't you."

"Yes it was!" Daniel snapped. "Everything I said, everything I thought… I can remember it all, and I can remember believing it all! I can remember wanting to kill my own friend! Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"No, I don't."

"But I do," Teal'c said. The two of them turned round and found him looking over at them from the door.

"Daniel Jackson," he said, "do you remember when you were captured by Apophis several months ago?"

Daniel nodded. "It's pretty hard to," he replied.

"I swore my allegiance to Apophis once more," Teal'c continued, walking toward the others, "and I betrayed and imprisoned all of you. If Apophis had ordered it, I would not have hesitated to kill you all, and I would have been glad to do so. I will have to live with the memory of that for the rest of my life."

"You know I don't blame you for that," Daniel said.

"Indeed I do," Teal'c replied, putting a hoof on Daniel's shoulder. "It is for that same reason that I will never blame you for what transpired today."

Daniel nodded. "Thanks, Teal'c," he said. "I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with this, but that helps. I guess I'm just worried that it'll happen again."

"Yeah," Jack said, "but there's not much we can do about that. As long as we stay alert, though, hopefully we'll be able to spot anything odd before anypony does something they—"

"Not the neck…"

They went silent. All eyes turned to Sam, who had slumped over onto her side and was rolling about in her sleep like she was having a nightmare, pushing away invisible enemies.

"What did she say?" Daniel asked.

"No… not again…" Sam said, kicking out at something.

"Do you think we should wake her?" Jack said, taking a few cautious steps toward her.

"No!" Sam shouted, jolting awake. She continued to kick at the imagined enemy before realising where she was, freezing still and looking up at Jack in confusion.

"Never mind," he said. "Bad dream, Major?" He held a hoof out to her and pulled her upright.

"Sorry, Colonel," she said, shaking her head clear. "I… I think I dreamt I was being implanted with a Goa'uld."

"That makes sense," Daniel said; Jack gave him a confused look. "I mean, you're probably worried about being possessed. I know I am."

"I guess so," Sam said. "It was a very… vivid dream, though."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, massaging her temple.

"Headache?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," she said. Then, as if remembering something, she stopped and looked up again, turning to Daniel. "Can you remember what it felt like?" she asked. "I mean, what happened in the temple?"

"Can we not talk about that again?" Jack said, but Daniel raised a hoof, waving him back.

"No, it's okay," he said. "It didn't really feel like anything; I jut felt sort of distracted. Although, now you mention it, I did have a bit of a headache. Why?"

"Because," Sam said, sitting down again, "I can remember a strange feeling from the dream. It was like there was somepony else there with me. It was like..."

"Like you were being watched," Teal'c said.

"You too, huh?" Jack asked; Teal'c nodded. "Do you think this was the same thing that got Daniel?" he asked Sam.

"Yeah," she said. "It definitely felt the same – like there was another mind watching mine, saying things. It's all fuzzy, though. I can't remember anything specific."

"But no urges to kill any of us?" Jack asked. Sam shook her head.

"Whatever it was," she said, "it's gone now. I think it might know that I can sense it."

"Well the important thing is that we're still alive," Jack said. He checked his watch and glanced reflexively up at the sky. "Now that you're up," he continued, "we might as well move out. There's still a lot of city left out there."

"Yes sir," Sam said, standing up again. The four of them gathered up their equipment again, Sam helping lift their rucksacks onto their backs. Then, once they were all ready, Jack turned and addressed the team.

"Okay, if I remember correctly, the most in-tact buildings were north east of here," – he pointed at an angle half way between the moon and the direction which he had arbitrarily decided to call 'north' – "so that's where we're going next. Carter, you think you'll be able to fight this demon off if it attacks us again?"

Sam nodded. "I think so, sir, and I think I should be able to sense its magic if it tries attacking me."

"Good," Jack said. "So we can defend ourselves then. Now I know this hasn't been easy. We've only been here four hours, and we've already been attacked on one, possibly two occasions. We're all stressed, and things aren't being helped by the fact that something is actively trying to turn us against each other. But if we keep our heads and stick together, then it shouldn't—"

"Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said. Jack turned to the Jaffa, wondering what surprise he had found this time, but the look on his face was not encouraging. He was by the door again, and his eyes were fixed on a point in the distance, attentively watching something further down the street.

"Something out there, T?" Jack said.

"I am unsure," Teal'c replied.

Jack made his way over to the door and peered round the side of the frame, looking along the street in the direction Teal'c was staring. Behind him Sam and Daniel readied their weapons just in case.

"I don't see anything," Jack said. The grass was moving back and forth in the wind, and small wisps of dust were billowing off the stone walls, but other than that the ruins were completely still.

"Oh wait," he said, as a shadow shifted for a moment in one of the buildings about fifty metres down the road from them. "There is somepony over—"

The wall above him exploded.

"There is definitely somepony else here!" he shouted as the four of them dove for cover behind what remained of the wall.

"Those are staff weapons!" Sam said as a long stream of blasts bombarded the ruins and threw clouds of debris up around them.

Teal'c jumped out into the doorway, firing a burst from his P-90 before pulling back as a staff blast flew past him and impacted against the back wall.

"Two Jaffa," he said, falling into cover. "A pegasus and a unicorn."

"Must be an advance scout," Daniel said.

"Indeed," Teal'c said, dodging a chunk of falling masonry. "It is a standard Jaffa reconnaissance team."

"Wonderful," Jack said. He pulled out his sidearm and leaned out through the door to try and line up a shot at their attackers, but another burst of fire forced him back into cover.

"We're sitting ducks here, Colonel," Sam said, pulling out a periscope and looking over the top of the wall. "I can't get a line of sight with this wall in the way, and they'll just keep blasting at us until our cover's gone."

"Yeah, I noticed that," Jack said, coughing in the growing cloud of dust. "Any ideas?"

"Just one," Sam said. "You do a cannonball run, and we use the distraction to move forward to the columns on the left."

She levitated the periscope over to the colonel, and he looked through it and surveyed the field in front of them, memorizing the layout, and spotting the two Jaffa for the first time; it looked like a master and student; an old red pegasus alongside a much younger, steel-grey unicorn. Their cover was light, and the ground leading up to them was almost completely clear.

"Yeah, I can do that," he said. "Good call, Major."

"Hurry up, guys!" Daniel shouted, as a large chunk of wall broke loose and fell to the ground next to him.

"Okay, Major," Jack said. "Can you give me some cover?"

"Yes, sir." Sam ran over to the doorway and fired a blast of magic out into the street. It hit the ground a little way short of the Jaffa's position, throwing a plume of dust and dirt up into the air and completely blocking their view.

At the same moment Jack leapt up, clearing the top of the wall and pushing himself forward with his wings. He aimed himself as well as he could at the spot where the Jaffa had been moments before, accelerating as fast as he could, and dove head-first into the dust cloud.

An instant later he was through the dust, and he saw the unicorn just metres ahead of him. They collided before the Jaffa had even had time to react and the two of them tumbled across the grass, chunks of earth flying up around them as they kicked at each other with their hooves. Jack tried to pin the young unicorn down, but he shifted out of the way, grabbing Jack's forehoof and pulling it out from under him. The colonel fell back-first onto the grass, and the Jaffa was on top of him in an instant, holding his hooves to the ground and summoning a spell.

Jack had sparred with enough unicorns during his training to spot the spell coming. He threw his head forward, butting the Jaffa squarely in the nose; the spell spluttered out and the unicorn fell backwards, a drop of blood running from his nose down through his grey fur.

Jack threw the dazed Jaffa off himself and took advantage of the moment of distraction to look around for the other Jaffa, spotting the pegasus hovering above him in the sky, staff weapon trained on him. The Jaffa fired a blast down, and Jack rolled out of the way just as it hit the ground where he had been lying. He leapt to his hooves and pushed off the ground, corkscrewing up toward the Jaffa and dodging the stream of staff blasts that flew down to meet him.

As he closed in, the pegasus tried to dodge out of his way, but Jack flipped over and stretched his neck out, grabbing the tip of the Jaffa's wing with his teeth. The two of them cartwheeled round in the air, the Jaffa screaming in pain, before they tore apart and the pegasus fell to the ground minus two feathers.

Jack pulled out of the roll and steadied himself, spitting the feathers out of his mouth, but he didn't get long to catch his breath as the unicorn was already on his hooves again and firing staff blasts up into the air. Jack shot some suppression fire down at them from the P-90 strapped to his side, but his advantage was gone, so he dove back to the ground toward the cluster of stone columns that his team were now sheltering behind. The other three were already holding the Jaffa back with sustained fire and Jack landed behind a pillar in line with them. As soon as he was in cover, the staff blasts returned, tearing chunks out of the columns above them.

"Thanks, Colonel," Sam called over as he landed. "That's raised our odds a bit."

"Yeah, I hate a fair fight," Jack replied as he hunched down and pulled the spent magazine from his gun.

"Where'd they come from?" Daniel said. "Do you think they've got a ship somewhere?"

"I was wondering that too," Jack said.

"Are you considering commandeering their transportation?" Teal'c asked as he pulled back to reload his weapon.

"I am," Jack replied. He leaned out and fired another few bursts at the two Jaffa, forcing them down behind their cover again.

"We're not going to be able to take them out here," Sam said. "They've got too much cover to hide behind. We can push them back, but we'll run out of ammo eventually."

"Should we surrender?" Daniel said.

Jack poked his head out again but put pulled back as a staff blast clipped the side of the column. "I'm not sure these two would accept a surrender," he said. "They're more the shoot first, ask…"

The staff blasts stopped.

"…questions?" Jack said, poking his head cautiously out again and looking toward the enemy position in confusion. No fire came this time; instead he saw the Jaffa scrambling to their hooves and galloping away from them at a dead run.

"Maybe they realised who we are," Jack said, "and decided to cut their losses."

"I don't think so," Daniel said, standing up slowly, eyes fixed on something behind them. Becoming aware of a low rumbling sound, Jack turned round as well.

"Oh," he said, his eyes going wide. Over the top of the wall behind them he could see a great wall of fire rising up into the sky, the flames burning white-hot, and coming straight toward them.

"Holy Hannah," Carter said, seeing it too. "Where'd that come from?"

"Run!" Jack shouted.

The four of them scrambled to their hooves and followed the Jaffa, heading away from the advancing wall of flame as fast as they could run. They vaulted over a wall and wove their way through the interior of another building, then the ruins cleared and they found themselves running down a narrow street, the two Jaffa visible nearly a hundred metres ahead of them, making a break for the still-distant edge of the city.

Jack leapt up onto a large rock as they passed, using it to push himself up into the air. He climbed for a few seconds, then turned to get a better look at the firestorm. It was at least five hundred metres across, nearly a hundred high, and it was steadily advancing on the team. He could feel the heat radiating off it already, even though it was still a long way off, so he swooped back down to join his team on the ground.

"That's no brushfire!" he shouted over the growing roar of the flames. "This planet really doesn't want us here!"

"Can we get round it?" Sam asked.

"Negative," Jack replied. "It's moving too fast. And it's too hot to fly over, so don't bother suggesting that either."

Another stone wall appeared in front of them and they vaulted over it, Daniel stumbling as he landed.

"How long's this going to go on for?" he shouted.

"I don't know!" Sam said. "It could keep burning for days in theory!"

"Then we need to find shelter!" Jack said. "Hope we can wait it out!"

"Or not," Daniel said, pointing ahead of them. The two Jaffa had slowed, and appeared to be arguing about something, looking repeatedly back over their shoulders at SG-1. Then the younger one, the unicorn, slowed down and turned, galloping back toward them. He skidded to a halt just in front of them and started running with them, pulling up alongside Jack.

"We have a ship!" he shouted. "You can shelter there!"

"And why would we want to do that?" Jack said.

"You will die out here if you do not," the Jaffa replied.

"He's got a point," Daniel said.

Jack looked round at Sam and Teal'c. Sam gave him a confused look. He looked behind them at the advancing wall of fire; they probably had a minute at most before they were caught up in it.

"Any port in a storm, I guess," he said. He turned and nodded to the Jaffa. "Alright then, lead on, Macduff."

"My name is Koresh," the Jaffa said.

"Right. How silly of me."

The four of them followed the Jaffa as he pushed on ahead of them before veering right at a fork. They followed him round the corner, and ahead of them they saw the other Jaffa, waiting for them next to a collapsed building. As they got closer, he pressed a button on a device strapped to his leg, and a cargo ship decloaked next to him, its hull half-embedded in the remains of the building.

The ship's door opened and the two Jaffa ran inside. Jack stopped to make sure his team got in safely, then leapt through the door just as the flames engulfed the ship. He hit the button to close the door, stopped to beat out a bit of fire that had caught on his shoulder, then followed the others into the ship.

"Well, that was close," he said, brushing the dirt off his jacket.

"Uh, Jack…" Daniel said. Jack looked up to find two staff weapons levelled at him and his team.

"Drop your weapons," the older Jaffa said. "Immediately."

"Right," Jack said with a sigh. "Should've seen that coming."

A minute later, their weapons and equipment confiscated, Jack and the others were herded into the cargo bay. He turned and marched back to the door, but the young Jaffa was blocking his way, a triumphant smile on his face.

"And we were getting on so well," Jack said.

"Quiet," Koresh snapped. "You will remain here until told otherwise. The cargo bay has a magic dampening field," he added, looking over at Carter, "so do not try anything."

With one final smirk at O'Neill, the Jaffa hit a button by the door and it slammed shut between them, locking SG-1 in.

"That's fine!" Jack shouted. "We'll just be in here, enacting our cunning escape plan!"

"We have a plan?" Sam asked.

"No," Jack replied, "but they don't know that."

He walked back into the room, taking a look around at their prison but not really expecting any surprises given how many cargo ships he'd been in over the years. The floor didn't look as comfortable as the grass he'd been resting on previously, but at least they'd have air conditioning now.

"Well if it's any help," Daniel said with a smile, "I've found us a ship."

Author's Note:

Writing this chapter was a bit odd; as it just felt so at odds with the setting for the Jaffa characters to appear to stand a chance against SG-1.

Also, writing combat sequences is fun.

Comments

[Oporst]

5356590 Arvaus has it at about 70,000 words right now

[ShadowShrike]

When the Jaffa offered SG-1 help, I started thinking thats reeeallly out of character (or pony helpfulness, but then, NOPE they get captured. Good ol' Jaffa.

This is turning out to be a GREAT story. a ponified SG-1 utilizing Pony lore combined with that of Stargate's? Hard to do. But this guy has done a great job (so far). He has also capture SG-1's personalities well. Why do I only get one Thumb?! I NEED MORE thumbs.

On one note, I have yet to hear Teal'c say his iconic "Indeed."

Current theories

1.Discord has something to do with the twilight.
2.The sun and moon are frozen due to a lack of an entity to move them.
3.The Goa'uld that crashed took host of one of the Celestial sisters.
4.Or Goa'uld killed Celestial sisters.
5.one of the The sisters of Discord killed Ra and his army
6. SOmething ELSE happened and we have yet to find out.

[Arvaus]

5375246 I can confirm that at least one of those options is correct. Quite possibly 6.

[Arvaus]

5374629
5356590
To clarify, the story is fully drafted, having been done during NaNoWriMo, so that's the finished length. And given how FimFiction counts words, it'll probably be closer to 80,000 on here.

[QuietNightBrony]

OK, you have cut down my theory that Jaffa are only Earth Ponies. I had half expected that the Goa'uld would have established a sort of "value rank" based on the perceived usefulness of each pony tribe, and other races of Equestria. Earth Ponies, Donkeys, Griffons, Zebras, Minotaurs, and Diamond Dogs being used as base servants with Jaffa variants serving as soldiers. Pegasi and Unicorns, with their more obvious magical abilities, would have greater value and be the desired hosts of the Goa'uld.

Still trying to figure out how Dragons would have worked in there, or if a Goa'uld could even take over the mind of a dragon? I mean bodies that can survive lava, flight, fire breathing, armored scales, long life spans, and the greatest size and strength make them the most logical choice for a System Lord next to the Alicorns. But would a Dragon's physiology be too much or too strange for a Goa'uld? And could they control an adult dragon whose brain is probably the size of a pony?

Anyway, rare to see such intelligent Jaffa, or to be more precise, Jaffa capable of such trickery. Love to see where that is going with SG-1 being trapped.

The fire wall seems to strengthen my idea of Celestia, but then again that could just be bait to lead us readers down the wrong trail. Discord is still in the running. But Luna's potential has also increased because of Sam's dream. Damn, there more I think about it, the more possibilities there are. About the only one I feel I can discard is Twilight, because you already confirmed she was dead.

[Black--Soul]

Ok... Celestia or Daybreaker are still around. My best guess is that Ra somehow banished Celestia and if we are lucky Luna.

This Jaffa must be extreamly well protected with plot armor, why did guns don't take them out otherwise.
Especially Sam Carter showed how precise she can be with a P90!