Chapter One Hundred And Seventy-One

Fortress. Thrax III.

When the Ad-Mech had taken custody of the Stargate they hadn't just taken it up to their ship, although it should still work if it was in orbit, instead they'd moved it to a suitable part of the planet that was further away from its population centre and then they'd built an entire fortress around it just to be on the safe side.

To be precise they'd constructed a Fortress of Redemption which is a towering Imperial bulwark built to withstand the ravages of planetary invasion. Each is virtually impervious to conventional firepower and the lower levels, bunker annexes and sub-crypts can house entire platoons of battle-ready warriors, or in this case a Stargate and the teams that would be deployed through the gate. Since it was underground the Ad-Mech could expand down there, making more room for operations, without any sign of it on the surface.

This model of fortress was first used by the Astartes of the Dark Angels Legion during the days of the Great Crusade, they have since been used by every military force in the Imperium of Man and proven invaluable in its defence. I hoped that the same would prove true in this galaxy, and to be fair such fortifications had proven their worth during the war with the Reapers.

Like the ones I'd seen before, this Fortress of Redemption was adorned with symbols depicting angels of death and the skulls of ancient heroes. Someone had once told me that the Gothic grandeur of this unyielding edifice is matched only by its uncompromising and efficient lethality. When the Reapers had attacked the colony worlds under Imperial protection this had been put to the test.

This Fortress of Redemption normally housed a twin-linked Icarus Pattern Lascannon that was capable of destroying enemy voidships in low orbit, a missile silo outfitted with Fragstorm and Krakstorm Missiles and a profusion of four Heavy Bolters to repel ground-based invaders. However since I was worried about replicators I'd ordered them to replace the Lascannon with a massive autogun since the replicators don't handle kinetic attacks very well, and there was always a chance one of their ships would try to land somewhere around here.

Since we'd be using the Stargates for the most part when visiting other worlds I saw no reason to keep a large Imperial regiment onboard my battlecruiser and so garrisons were being set up along with a number of different forts. I was turning this world, which we were calling Thrax III into a bastion of Imperial might and while this wasn't cheap I considered it all to be a worthwhile investment.

As for the Stargate it had been placed in a chamber that was at the end of a narrow tunnel, a feature that would force any invaders to march down the passageway single file if they in power armour or two at time if they were less bulky, while coming under fire from automated defences. The Stargate Chamber could also be filled with toxic gases and sealed off if need be. And I felt sure that the Ad-Mech had other defences that would be installed over time.

I wondered if they planned to create an even more impressive fortress to hold the Stargate as the Redemption type was an easily deployed STC design and therefore quick to build. However the gate would need greater protection and it would be logical for the Ad-Mech to provide that protection. Perhaps we'd discuss it later.

"Less than three Terran hours ago we sent a servo skull probe to the world that the natives of this planet have been shipping samples of the element known as naquadah to for hundreds of years" I was informed by Thea Maxind, who had handed over command of her frigate to someone else so that she could take charge of this project in person "This is what we found".

A hologram displayed here in the fortress's briefing room showed that over on this other world the gate was not properly secured and it was only guarded by a few Jaffa who must not have been expecting trouble. One of the warriors who served the false gods, or maybe they were free Jaffa, somehow managed to shoot down the servo-skull using one of their staff weapons. Given how terrible those staff weapons could be in a fight that guy had to be either damn lucky or an expert marksman.

"We can't say if these are real Jaffa like the ones that once served the Goa'uld who ruled this world centuries ago" said Amberly Vail "But we should assume that they are".

Superficially they looked the same as humans aside from having a pouch so with their armour on there was no way to tell them apart from well built humans.

"Since they destroyed our probe they now know that we exist '' said Thea Maxind.

I hadn't wanted to make contact with anyone out there until this world was more secure, but the Ad-Mech hadn't told me that they were going to test the gate, since they were my allies rather than ny minions I couldn't really order them not to do something and it didn't shock me that they'd been unable to resist trying it out.

Not that this was such a bad thing as we did need more information about the state of the galaxy. If we'd been knocked off course both in time and space then we might not be in the season I'd wished us to be.

Hopefully we'd arrived after the System Lords, the replicators and the Ori had been dealt with, and Asgard had blown themselves up, because then all I'd have to contend with were the Tauri (humans from Earth) and the Lucian Alliance, whose organisation could have been set up by a Rogue Trader given how it was run. I knew that I could handle such people.

Since Shayla was queen and hadn't seen Daniel for a few years I figured that we were in a time covered by one of the later seasons of SG1, so I would have to move carefully until I had more information and then plan accordingly.

"We need more information," I declared.

More than likely if there was a Goa'uld ruling the world the Ad-Mech had scouted, if there was then he or she would know that a technologically advanced enemy had shown an interest in his or her world. The false god might answer a System Lord who could send a fleet after us. If he or she already had then we needed to know about it or prevent such a call from being made if still possible.

"Then bring me the person in charge of that settlement" said the Inquisitor "I have people on my staff who find out everything a person knows".

It was risky to move openly, but an attack could provide us with resources and information.