Chapter One Hundred And Ninety-Four

Jaffa Base. Hak'tyl III.

Looking around the sort of tent city, a sight which reminded me to have some prehab housing built for them if we couldn't take back their worlds any time soon, I was reminded that this was the Hak'tyl Resistance's third colony and two times before they'd been required to pack up and move to a different planet so it was no surprise that they travelled light and didn't set up more permanent shelters.

As for the Hak'tyl themselves, I'd met with Istar a few times and I'd learned some more about them. Such as with the collapse of the Goa'uld Empire and the emergence of the Free Jaffa Nation, the Hak'tyl have emerged as a force in the politics of the Jaffa High Council and were accorded a seat in the council, taken by a female Jaffa called Ka'lel.

When it came to deciding the future of the Jaffa the Hak'tyl usually ally with the progressives such Teal'c and Bra'tac in the support of establishing a democracy (despite the fact it could weaken their political powers) against the Traditionalists lead by Gerak,

The Hak'tyl had existed for decades and during that time they'd gathered many Jaffa formerly loyal to Moloc of both genders to their cause and now they'd gone beyond that.

Most Jaffa factions don't allow their females to fight so naturally many female Jaffa who did wish to be warriors had come to Hak'tyl which explained why the Hak'tyl had a place on the council which filled seats based on military strength. These women did not have ships, but they had thousands of warriors united under their banner.

They lacked the means to arm many of those women and with their increasing numbers they also were having trouble feeding everyone and keeping a supply of Tretonin, hence why they'd lured the garrison that Ba'al had left on one of Moloc's former worlds, they need weapons and symbionts just as much as they needed food.

At least the food part was easily solved, in the short term I could provide them with supplies in exchange for information about the world that had not so long ago been under Moloc's controls. That would be useful to me as Ba'al wouldn't have changed much about them, not when he had a whole galaxy that he was trying to dominate, as even with clones of himself he'd be busy.

In the long term they didn't all need to be warriors or be warriors full time so they could start farming and could do so well with the tools provided by me as well as knowledge of superior farming methods. If the new farms produced as well as hoped the Hak'tyl might even find themselves with a surplus that they could sell to other Jaffa.

As for the weapons that had also simple enough to handle and I was seeing the fruits of our labours as I watched from the top of a hill as warriors of the Hak'tyl rode on horses and fired their new autoguns at the practice targets that were dressed up to look warriors under the control of Ba'al.

The Thrax 2nd Regiment had a history of fighting on horseback that had proven quite successful when pacifying the Mojave Wasteland, but the cavalry hadn't seen much action while we'd been in the Mass Effect galaxy. Since you could send horses through the Stargate and I controlled more than one world to garrison the cavalry were seeing use again.

Supplying the Hak'tyl with autoguns had only taken a matter of weeks even with the other demands on our industry and during that time I'd been able to acquire horses, as well as other animals, from our off-world allies and mostly from Earth. Only the Tau'ri had required more than manufactured goods for payment, but since I had plenty of Naquadah coming in these days it hadn't been much of a burden on my coffers.

Overall I felt that this investment was well worth it as with the death of Gerak the traditionalist Jaffa had lost their strongest leader, and as hoped his former followers had divided into factions. With my support of the Hak'tyl they'd become a more powerful faction within the Jaffa Nation and that meant I had influence over them and via them the whole of the Jaffa Council, or so I hoped.

Soon I would have more influence over them as while it would take time to set up the industry I planned to become a major supplier of Tretonin. That way once I was gone Thrax III would still have a product it could sell to the Jaffa making them less likely to upset any Imperials who were left behind.

I might even start selling to the social elites in other universes as while you enjoyed great health and a longer life while taking it you had to keep taking it, as such people would have to keep paying for it. A great way to make money in the future. I would never bother with the stuff since I was gene-enhanced, but others would pay much for it.

As I looked over a data-slate, which contained future battle plans that I wanted to share with the army of female Jaffa, two of those warriors came riding over to where I'd set up so that I could watch the training.

"This is Neith, she will replace me as leader of Hak'tyl" Ishta told me as the two women dismounted.

Neith looked like the kind of woman you didn't want to mess with.

"She does not trust outsiders and dislikes the fact that I am stepping down once we have driven the forces of Ba'al from the worlds that Moloc one ruled" said my ally "But I have explained that I can do more for my people as the Jaffa ambassador to the Imperial expedition".

During our meetings I'd carefully messed with Ishta's mind so that she would become loyal to me. This was taking time as I couldn't lock her up and work my will upon her as I'd done with others.

It also didn't help that there was a stigma among the Jaffa about letting yourself get close to a human even as friends. Normally the two races lived apart as much as possible, and I no doubt that this was the work of Goa'uld who wouldn't have wanted their slaves to gang up on them during a rebellion.

"Then I'll have to earn your trust" was all I had to say to Neith before I turned my attention to Ishta "I have a battle plan ready".

The key to taking Moloc's domain for the Hak'tyl was the world called Goranak which was Moloc's old capital. There were two locations that mattered more than the others on that world, the Imperial Palace, Moloc's old home, and a temple belonging to Moloc.

Not that long ago an army of 2,000 people marched on the temple. Moloc had foreseen this, however, and had a fleet of Ha'taks in orbit to crush the opposition. Moloc never managed to send the order to attack as he was killed by a missile attack that came from the SGC.

After Moloc died, the Goa'uld System Lord Ba'al absorbed Moloc's domain, and when the Replicators struck Ba'al stripped the garrison leaving only one Ha'tak to stand guard and that ship was the problem. Hopefully one we could solve by taking my battlecruiser to Goranak as not only a display of force, but also to ensure that we'd be able to destroy that ship.

The guns of a Goa'uld mothership were reported to hit with the equivalent of 200 megaton nuclear warheads. However, judging from the fact that Ha'taks have shown to take no damage from 1,000 megaton nuclear explosions, their biggest staff cannons are possibly capable of several thousand megatons, although perhaps not for long given the sheer power requirements.

Which even for Imperial ships is a lot of fire power. Thankfully I had a plan for dealing with that. Assuming the the Goa'uld in charge of the ship didn't run when he saw my battlecruiser, given that the Goa'uld who now ran Moloc's world for Ba'al was called Yam, who I knew nothing about, I couldn't try to predict his actions I could only be amused by his name.

While the Hak'tyl failed to take Goranak they still had a large army so once the Ha'tak took off to face my battlecruiser or to run in fear, Jaffa loyal to Ishta would take the Stargate and signal the Hak'tyl to come through the gate and take the planet. Assuming that all went well it should be a simple enough task to then liberate the minor worlds of Moloc's old dominion.

"What if Ba'al sends a fleet to wipe us out?" Neith question.

A valid concern and one I'd considered well in advance.

"Ba'al might do that" I said "But he's going to have other problems as my people have been scouting out many of the worlds still under his control and I plan to have my people begin a series of raids against those worlds aimed at doing as much damage as possible while you liberate these worlds you should be calling home".

Taking down all of the Ba'al clones wasn't my job, best leave that sort of thing to the SGC. I just wanted to show the galaxy that you shouldn't mess with House Thrax and maybe get some good loot at the same time. Making sure that my new Jaffa allies became a stronger faction within the FJN was just a bonus and more worthwhile if the Jaffa ended up having a civil war between the conservative and progressive factions. I'd prefer it if the progressive won.

"We will show the galaxy that the female Jaffa are just as great on the battlefield as the men" promised Ishta.

More importantly everyone would soon know not to mess with us Imperials.