Ori Story

[SiphonTalvesh]

Finally, the Ori line has been released! After 5 months of working, several rewrites of key sections, and a few hours to determine line spacing, the Ori Story is ready to be released. For all who allowed me to use their characters for this, and my other lines, I thank you all.

DISCLAIMER SECTION:

This first post is a dual disclaimer for protection purposes, and to be lawful. Since this new story involves a number of items that are copyrighted, this is needed.

First let me state that ANY and ALL references to the Stargate Franchise, be it in the form of a character name, a species name, technology or the Stargate itself, are copyrighted and are owned by MGM and Sci-Fi Channel. I am not making any profit off of this, and it is written solely for a fanfiction entertainment purpose. Thank you.

Secondly, for all who I recieved permission to use characters for in my works: No, this line not everyone will be mentioned or have a part in it. However, future works that should change.

I sincerely hope that any who do read this enjoy, and I am always open to constructive criticism, suggestions and the like.

Without further delay, I shall get on to the line itself. As you can see, it is quite a long one, and requires quite a number of posts. Thank you all.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

The Kara hung in space in orbit over Earth. Siphon had just received a disturbing transmission from a Tokra ship. It seemed that the Helia, an ancient warship that Siphon had helped out before in the past had reported back an encounter with a much dreaded enemy. They called themselves the Ori, and had once been great enemies of the Ancients, Siphon's ancestors. From the transmission, it seemed as if the Helia had come across an Ori prior within the galaxy, indicating that somehow the Ori had found out about the humans in this galaxy. The prior apparently had come through the Stargate to another planet at the fringe of the galaxy, exactly where the Helia had been. According to the transmission, it seemed the prior had known that Helina and her ship were there. Siphon knew that meant that the Ori would soon begin trying to convert the galaxy to their side, and he couldn't allow the Ori to gain a foothold in the galaxy. He knew that once they did, Earth would certainly become a target, and as Earth had a hidden Stargate, Siphon knew that eventually the Ori would discover that. No one knew for certain where the Ori home galaxy was, but it was known to be extremely far away. All of what Siphon knew of the Ori had come from the memories of Helina, and even she admitted those memories were not complete. She had been quite young when the Ancients and Ori had gone their separate ways, and the Ancients had left that galaxy.

Pushing a button he began transmitting that same message to all of their allies, sending it to the Asari, the Wraith, the Tiberions, the Ingrali, the Tokra, the Gou'ald and the Asgard. After a few more minutes, he decided to send it to the Draque and Enoly as well, since things had gotten better with them after the Sentinels had been wiped out. Siphon then sent a message to his people, the Alverans, informing them of the current situation. After receiving his orders, to have a spy sent to one of the worlds that had already been visited, he then went to inform Daina, who set off to speak with the Asari council. Siphon knew of only one human that was really good as a spy, she was a human from a world they had visited over a year ago, as part of their war against the Enoly and their forces, a war that had severely depleted everyone's fleets in the galaxy. Siphon found it very convenient that the Ori were on the move so soon after the Enoly defeat, and most recently, the Necrons. He suspected that it wasn't mere coincidence. He had a sneaking suspicion that the Ori had worshipers as spies already in the galaxy, and that word had gotten back to the Ori that now might be a good time to strike. Nevertheless, it was useless to speculate now, the Ori were coming, and something had to be done about it. Siphon set a course for Velok Prime, the world where his hopeful spy would be waiting for him, and the Kara leaped into hyper-space, vanishing.

Not much time passed in hyperspace before the Kara silently slipped back out into normal space over a lush, beautiful Earth like planet. Lovely blue seas dotted with the occasional land mass dominated the surface of the planet, and not for the first time Siphon found himself in total awe of the beauty of this world. It reminded him very much of his own world as it had been over a hundred years ago. He stopped and smiled at this, as for most of his people it had been only a hundred or so years, but in his case it had been over one hundred thousand years after his time travel exposure. Siphon snapped himself out of the memories, reminding himself there was very important work to be done, and with a heavy sigh, he activated the transporter and beamed down to the surface, where he knew the Velokian named Vanessa would be waiting for him, most likely worried at how urgent his request to seek her services had been.

Mere moments later, Siphon appeared in a flash of sparkling white light in the middle of an otherwise dense forest. This location had been chosen for a reason, as Velok had a Stargate, and he wanted to be sure he was far away from it should a prior of the Ori choose to step through it while he was there. It was better that the prior did not see him and mark him as being out of place. His ears perked up as he caught very faint breathing, and he knew that she was out there, very close by. Despite his years of training, and his advanced tactics, Vanessa was the only being, human or otherwise that could ever truly challenge his ability to pick up their presence around him before they could sneak up on him. Only a moment later his feeling was confirmed as she gracefully and quietly just appeared only a few feet from him, off to the side. Smiling and bowing his head in Velokian style and greeting, he spoke. "Hello again Vanessa, it is good to see you once again. I only wish that it could be under better circumstances."

Vanessa smiled back and returned the bow before speaking slowly. "It is good to see you as well, and I agree. However, I am still not exactly clear on what the circumstances are as of yet. Your request to see me sounded quite urgent however, and that gives me pause for concern."

Shrugging his shoulders he pitched it all to her. "We've got confirmation that the Ori have begun sending their priors into this galaxy, to at least one planet, if not more, in an attempt to convert us to origin. Right now we know very little about them as a race, or what their intentions are should we refuse them. I don't ask this lightly Vanessa, and it pains me to have to ask anyone this, but I was hoping that perhaps I could convince you to help gather some Intel on their plans, their forces if any, and even possibly the location of their home galaxy. Of course this means you would have to be in the direct line of contact with a planet visited by a prior, if not in direct communication with a prior himself. I regret that I must even ask this of you given what you have been through, but believe me when I say if there were another way I'd be all for it. If you have another idea, go ahead and toss it at me, because I've got nothing else." That said, he took a deep breath, and braced for her reply.

She simply listened as he explained everything to her, not saying a word, only listening. Her heart sank though at the first mention of the Ori. What little she knew of them from before didn't bode well, and to hear that such a powerful, potential new enemy was encroaching upon their galaxy was bad news indeed. Finally as he finished, she thought for several moments about what he was asking her. Her mind flashed back to their first meeting, back with the Enoly.


Vanessa had been in one of the Velokian fighters, going all out toe to toe with the Enoly warships trying to ruin their world and wipe them out. The Velokians had a strong fleet, but they had never encountered such a powerful enemy, and even though they had manage to score one or two kills, the bulk of their fleet had been wiped out already. As she ducked in for another strafing run at an already damaged warship, her fighter rocked violently and was tossed aside from a direct hit impacting it. Barely managing to bring it back under control, she suddenly lost her engines, right at the worst possible moment. An Enoly ship had targeted her fighter, and was preparing to fire. She whispered a silent prayer for her people, and silently cursed the Enoly, hoping someone would stop them and destroy them. As she braced herself for death though, a flash of blue-green light startled her, and the bottom of some unknown ship filled her view right as the Enoly energy beam fired. A magnificent blue aura flared into existence as the beam struck some kind of energy shielding, seemingly not doing much damage to the newcomer. A second later, it banked away from her, firing back with a pair of blue energy beams. The first slammed into the Enoly's shields, flaring them up, and the second cut right through them, slicing the ship in half in the middle of it, causing a massive explosion. She bit back her joy, unsure of if this new ship was helping them, or if it was going to turn on them as well. A beat later she had gotten her answer when the Alveran called Siphon had appeared on the communications screens, ordering the Enoly to stand down their attack on the defenseless planet or face his wrath, and he had further sent a message to the Velokian ships to inform them he meant them no harm, and had come here because of a tip off from a race he called the Tokra. Of course the Enoly hadn't stood down, and they had ultimately met with an explosive destruction at the hands of what had seemed like thousands of bright yellow lights fired from the side of his ship. She had gotten to know him pretty well after that, and his wife Daina, whom she now knew to be an Asari. After getting to know her savior, she had to admit he seemed a very nice person, and she had just the slightest bit of a crush on him, but she had clamped down on that immediately, knowing he was a married man. She owed him for saving not only her, but her entire race.


Vanessa snapped out of the moment, almost ashamed to have drifted like that. Luckily though it didn't seem like she had spaced out for very long, and she quickly recovered. Thinking for a moment longer she finally responded to him. "Well, I must say this wasn't exactly what I was expecting you know. I can't think of any other options though myself. Really, this is quite something to be asking me to do, even for one of my standing. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there is much of a choice in the matter, and I can't sit by and do nothing while the Ori try to take over the galaxy. Besides, it gives me a chance to learn more about whats out there." She smiled at him and then forged a question to him. "So, how are things with you and Daina? I would have expected her to travel with you."

"She's off gathering the rest of the Asari council right now, advising them of the situation as it is now. Hopefully it won't come to an all out fight, but we want to be ready, just in case.

Vanessa nodded. "Sounds like a good idea to me."

"Indeed."

A small smile crept into her features as she nodded once, then walked up to him. "Alright. Hey, when this is all done, and these Ori aren't a threat, I'd be honored to get to know you both better and spend some time with you, maybe have you show me all thats out there? If you'd want to that is?"

He chuckled slightly, knowing she was trying to lighten things up, and to be honest, it was working. "I think that can be arranged, I'd like to get to know you and your people a bit better, and yes there is a lot out there you'd probably love to see. Once this is done and over with, I'll be sure to take a vacation and relax with a friend." Even as he said it, he was looking forward to some relaxing time with a friend, even if that friend didn't know much about him, but still, she could learn more about him, and that would be nice. He was sure Daina would like to spend time with her too.

She smiled and said, "alright, good, then it's a promise and a date then. Now I should go and get ready to travel to this other world and intercept this prior if I can. Just leave me a message with the gate address and I'll get back to you when I am ready to go."

Siphon held up a hand. "Before you go I want to install a tracking chip into you, one that can't be removed. That way you can keep in constant contact with me even if you end up in the Ori galaxy. All you'll have to do is think about contacting me and it will establish a link. Will take maybe five minutes to get it all set up."

She smiled and said, "install huh? Alright, I'll let you know when I'm ready then. See you in a few." With that she headed back off towards her village with a smile on her face.

Siphon watched her go, and then with a slight smile of his own, he activated the transporter beam and flashed out of existence, returning to his ship to brief their allies.


Captain Coraxus Lycaeus Kiavahr, or just Coraxus for short as he preferred his friends to call him sat aboard The Razors Edge, high in Earth orbit, and bored completely out of his mind. He was just about to give an order to take them out of orbit, and go looking for something interesting when one of his officers broke the silence.

"Sir? You have an incoming message, priority one from Siphon."

Coraxus didn't even blink, though he did wonder now what kind of trouble Siphon had stirred up this time to be sending a priority one. Standing up he said, "well put it on screen then." A moment later Siphon's face appeared on the main viewer, and Coraxus studied him for a moment.

At first glance one might think Siphon was extremely old by the traces of silver in his hair, and while it was true he was incredibly old, he certainly was not a frail person like most humans who looked old usually turned out to be. Of course Siphon wasn't human at all, and for him, he wasn't even half way through his life. What got Coraxus's attention though was the concerned look on Siphon's face, a look that said major trouble was brewing on the horizon. "Good god man what kind of shit have you gotten us into now?"

Siphon resisted the urge to send back a witty reply, now was not the time. Slumping his shoulders some he finally said to Coraxus, "I just received a subspace message from the Tokra about three hours ago. It seems that we were right, the Ori do in fact exist, and are aware of our existence. Apparently the Helia came across a prior on the surface of a planet near the outer fringe of our galaxy, P5W-292 if memory serves. It seems the prior is trying to convert the populace of the planet to their "religion". They call it origin, and I have the feeling it's going to be similar to the whole worship people as gods bit yet again. I've already gone to the lengths of acquiring us a spy to gather Intel on their intentions, and I'm finalizing that whole thing now."

Coraxus just shook his head. So the Ori were coming after all. Good, let them try to come anywhere near Tiberion space and he'd see to it they got slaughtered and sent back home crying. "OK so let me get this straight, your going to send a spy into their ranks to pull Intel up on them in the near future and all. Great, just fine and dandy, so what do you want me to do then?"

"Just keep your eyes and ears open for now with regards to planets that you know well that have a Stargate. I'm sending you a list of planets that have been confirmed to have active Stargate's as given to me by Helina. One more thing, I've been going over the listings, and it seems that both Earth and your home planet at least at one point had Stargate's. Now I have no idea where they would be located as of right now, but my guess would be either a remote location, or one thats in plain sight and easily accessible. It could be either given the time it's been since they were used, and taking into account continental drifts on other worlds. Right now we need to know if any more priors visit any other worlds, but as of yet we don't want to tip them off that we are prepared to oppose them if we can help it."

Coraxus swallowed back a retort. He wanted to cream these bastards right now if what they knew of them was indeed true. He knew however that it might not be the best course of action if it turned out their Intel was dead wrong, they'd be starting a war that could easily have been averted. Nodding once he said, "keep an eye and ear open for Ori activity under our noses and try not to rustle their feathers until we know what their true goals are, gotcha. I think we can manage that."

"Good, this could be a very key focal point for the galaxy Coraxus. I don't need to tell you that most of our allies forces are severely depleted because of the Necron war. If this thing turns sour, we're going to end up being outnumbered as things are right now. To the best of my knowledge, the Asgard have begun to rebuild their fleets in the now barren Ida galaxy, which is a good thing, but it will take them time to recover. The Ingrali have gone dead silent so I don't think we can count on getting in touch with them on a last second whim. My people are building more ships, but we're a bit concerned with Helina telling us there may actually be more human form replicators in the Pegasus Galaxy, so that splits our remaining forces. Ironically, the Gou'ald, the Draque and the Enoly seem to be in the best of shapes right now fleet wise, and we all know that their technology is inferior to yours or mine, which doesn't bode too well for us all. As soon as I get Vanessa, our spy all set up, I will be returning to Earth for a little bit and keeping low while she does her work. However I will be in touch with the other races of this galaxy, and perhaps I will try making first contact with the Vorians. According to the Ancients database they seem to be an advanced people and peaceful, albeit a bit cautious, so I may try to establish good relations with them in the near future."

"Very well, we'll inform you if anything comes up. In the meantime I'll handle talking to my government about the current situation so you have less to do." With that and a nod as the only reply from Siphon he would get, Coraxus cut the communications link, and ordered a course set for the Tiberion Capital, and his ship vanished as if it had never been there in the first place.


Siphon leaned back into his chair, and then sent an encoded message relaying everything he knew so far to all of their allies. The list was a long one to say the least. The Wraith, the Asgard, the Gou'ald, the Draque, the Enoly, the Asari, the Ingrali and the Tokra. To the Tokra he sent his current actions taken, and his recommendations to them, for the others he sent the entire package, including the original message sent from the Tokra to him. Finally he sent a high speed subspace transmission to his own people, informing them of the current situation, and then relaxed into his command chair, waiting for Vanessa to message him. He didn't have long to wait as soon his communications array beeped, indicating she was trying to contact him finally. Smiling ever so slightly, he answered the hail.

"Well hello again Vanessa, I'm taking it this means your ready to beam up now?"

A beat passed and then her voice came across the speakers. "Indeed I am. I guess the appropriate term is, one to beam up?"

Siphon chuckled, something he hadn't done for a while now, and then said, "I suppose that it is Vanessa. Initiating transport, standby."

A moment later, Vanessa appeared on the bridge of the Kara, and Siphon took in her new look almost immediately, his trained eye spotting the noticeable differences in her appearance at once. Clad in soft looking clothing, likely made of a silk compound, and seemingly very relaxed despite where she was about to be going, an untrained observer would likely mistake her for one of the general populace of any random world, thinking her no different from the rest of a species, other than perhaps the fact that her beauty surpassed that of most. The most notable change however was in her demeanor. While she had seemed quite serious before as she should have, now she seemed very quiet and relaxed, an almost playful yet curious look on her features, and he knew that this had to be how she always was on her missions. He nodded his head once in approval, quite impressed with the quick transformation. A quick check confirmed it had been less than half an hour since he had left her, which meant she had prepared quite quickly to have been ready to beam now. He stood now, smiling at her and once again slipping to formalities, as he was used to.

"Welcome aboard the Alveran ship Kara. I take it then your ready for phase two Vanessa?"

She smiled widely, almost playfully, unable to hide her amazement at the interior of his ship. "Yes, I'm ready for this device you were telling me about. I must say though, off topic here, that the layout and technology I'm already seeing on this ship is truly amazing. When this is all over, I would really like a chance to learn more about you, your people and this ship."

Siphon nodded once to her, and then smiled as she looked around the ship again. "When this is all over we shall have plenty of time to share cultural perspectives and a proper tour of the ship. I will be looking forward to it, and I am sure Daina will be more than happy to finally really get to know you. She's asked about you too. Anyway though it's off to the medical bay now, and the implant won't take long to fix up. I figure the best place for it would be right at the back of the neck, where your long hair can cover up any residual traces of the implant being there. While I am confident there will be no surgical scar left, it is best to be prepared in case you come across something that can actually detect the residual traces of the device I will be using to make the opening."

She nodded once, trusting him fully, not something many outsiders gained from her in such a short time, but with him it seemed to come quite natural. She suspected some of it had to do with her crush on him and her feeling of wanting to trust him, but she was still sure he wouldn't betray that trust ever. "Onward then to this medical bay then. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can all hopefully relax and have some actual fun."

"Very well, this way then Vanessa."

Soon they reached the medical bay, and he motioned for her to climb up onto one of the tables before speaking again. "If you'll climb on up onto that table Vanessa, I'll go and get everything we'll need to get this done with. You shouldn't feel any pain whatsoever with this, if you do, tell me and we'll stop and find another way."

Vanessa smiled again and nodded her head. "Alright, will do, but I trust what you say and if you say it shouldn't hurt then I don't really have to worry about it." She laid down on her stomach, brushing the hair away from the back of her neck, making it easier for him to find the right spot. She could hear him bringing the needed tools over to the bedside, and strangely she was very relaxed and calm, despite being on an alien ship, about to have some device implanted into her body, and not being able to see what was going on. Her thoughts were broken when he spoke again.

"Alright, we are ready to begin the procedure now. What I will be doing is creating a small opening in the back of your neck that will house the chip. The chip will contain a transceiver capable of transmitting over even the largest of distances, so that if you end up out of the galaxy you can still contact me, although there will be a definite delay if it's a really far distance. How long I can't say, but subspace messages travel at nearly ten times faster than the Kara can, so hopefully not too long. Once it's implanted I will use my healing gene to seal up the opening. This will involve my placing my hand on the back of your neck for a few moments, but once I am done it will be impossible to see any scar because there won't be one."

"Sounds like a plan then Siphon. Let's get this done with shall we? I'm not afraid to admit, I'm a little bit on the get it done as fast as possible side right now, not sure why."

He nodded as he brought the cutting laser to bear and said, "I can understand that. I'll go as quickly as I can and still maintain one hundred percent safety for you."

"Understood."

Siphon gently brought the device to bear, and then slowly used it to slice open the skin on the back of her neck, not for the first time marveling at how efficient the device was. It could literally slice a limb off and the subject wouldn't feel it cutting into their flesh until after the limb itself had fallen off. Soon he had an opening large enough to fit the chip inside, and he gently took hold of it, and spoke to her. "Incision is made, I am placing the chip inside now."

She gently spoke in reply, "alright, good, almost done then." So far so good she thought to herself.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

Taking a breath, he forged ahead and pushed aside the folds of skin, gently working the chip into the newly created hole. After but a few moments, the chip was securely in place, no chance of it dislodging at all or being removed. "Alright, I'm going to start the healing process, so remain still please, this shouldn't take too long to do. My hand is going to touch your neck now." With that, his right hand came down lightly on the back of her neck, his palm covering the small wound, and he closed his eyes, channeling his thoughts into healing it quickly, and properly. After about three minutes, the wound was completely healed, with no indication it had ever been there. Opening his eyes he gently removed his hand from her neck and stepped back before saying, "all finished, you can stand up now."

Vanessa stood up slowly, half expecting some kind of headache or something, but she felt nothing at all. Instinctively she ran her hand over the back of her neck, which was still tingling from his touch. A shiver went up her spine as she knew exactly what had been done, yet could feel no scar at all. "Impressive. I should very much like to learn how that device works, and how your able to heal like that some day. Alas though, it would seem to be time to head on off to the planet where I'm supposed to meet this prior."

A slight frown crossed his features as he softly said, "I would take you myself, but we have no idea if the priors can detect my ship in orbit or not, and since it's very similar in design to an Ancient ship, we can't take the chance of them spotting it. I'm truly sorry, I wish I could go with you."

She smiled and gently went over to him and gave him a hug. "It's alright, I understand. In your place I would do the same, just remember, once this is all over with you owe me some time together so we all can get to know each other better, OK?"

He found himself smiling at this, and replied automatically, with a hint of a smile in his voice as well, "I look forward to it. Safe journey, and good luck, we will see each other again soon, and speak sooner."

She nodded with another smile and then, "alright, I'm ready to beam again."

With a nod, he handed her a data pad with the Stargate address and then pushed a button, and watched her vanish in a flash of sparkling white light. He stood there in the medical bay for a moment longer before finally turning and walking out of the medical bay, heading for the bridge. Once there, set a course for Earth, looking to grab a few personal items, and speak to a few friends before he went out amongst the stars again, this time to search for much needed allies.


Talok and Narlina had just gotten back to the hive ship after yet another useless meeting with the rest of the Wraith council. No headway had been made as of yet with regards to the rebels, and even the two of them, perhaps the most patient Wraith alive, were beginning to lose patience with the way things were going. Returning to Narlina's chambers the two were just about to lay down on a bed together when a chime sounded at the door. Suppressing the urge to let loose a hiss or roar, Talok walked over to the door and opened it. One of the bridge crew stood there, looking a bit concerned at having to bother them, but pitched forward before he could lose his nerve.

"I'm sorry to bother you and the queen, however we just received a transmission from Siphon of the Alverans. I've taken the liberty of recording it for you and bringing you the pad so you can view it on your own time, rather than having to needlessly come to the bridge."

Talok nodded once, this particular Wraith was one of the few that didn't annoy him as of late, and once again he had made a situation that could have been long and drawn out very simple. "Very well, I'll take the pad, and good work on your part, it will save some time."

With a nod, the Wraith handed Talok the pad, and then left, leaving Talok to wonder what exactly was on it that the officer felt it couldn't wait. He didn't have long to wait, as once he informed Narlina of what had gone on, she wanted to look at it immediately.

With a push of a button on the pad, Siphons face came up on the screen, and the recorded message proceeded to inform them of the encounter with the Ori, and the current steps taken. It also sent a request for help to them, asking for them to keep an open eye and ears tuned to the chattering of the galaxies, to see if more priors showed up. Talok suspected more would, and soon. At the close of the message, Siphon gave a quick listing of those allies who had already been informed of the situation, and the dead silence from Ingrali space. Talok had a feeling that with the Draque and Enoly gone, and with the losses the Ingrali had suffered during the Necron war, that they had retreated to lick their wounds, and wouldn't be heard from any time soon. The Wraith too had suffered numerous losses, and those losses had depleted their forces enough that the rebels, once close to being flushed out and eliminated, had regained some of their lost control and momentum. Talok knew it would be hard to convince the council to send any hives to help should the Ori attack the Milky Way all out. He also knew that if the Milky Way fell, Pegasus would be next as it had strong ties and was easily reachable with the advanced technology the Ori surely had, after all, they were basically the same race as the Ancients, the only difference being in their beliefs, and several hundreds of thousands of years of development.

With a flicker, the transmission ended, and Narlina stood, her long flowing red hair dropping down as she did. After a moment of consideration she said, "well, I have to say, this doesn't come at a very opportune time. Actually, it reeks of being quite convenient these Ori would choose now to attack. Something tells me that Siphon is correct, they know of the losses the major powers of that galaxy have suffered, and are readying to strike now, when the opposition will be most vulnerable. Unfortunately, given the scope of the rebels recent activities, and our own losses, it will be difficult, if not borderline impossible to convince the council to spare any hives as of this moment. Let us hope Siphon can resolve this peacefully, and without the need for our ships, for I fear if the attacks begin soon, we will be unable to help the way we should be able to."

Talok nodded grimly, knowing the stakes. He however would not give up so easily. "We must talk to the council, and at the very least convince them to agree if a call is sent out, how many hives we can send to render aid."

"Agreed, however not at this moment. To call upon them now, right after adjourning would likely put them in too defensive of a mood to get us anywhere. Wait until the morning, and then we will make our pitch to them. In the meantime, we both should rest, I have a feeling we will need it, and soon."

"Very well, let us retire for now, and we will attempt to persuade them come morning. Maybe by then Siphon will have also gotten back some new information to us, or even solved it. It may be wishful thinking, but then again it wouldn't be the first time he's done it."

Narlina nodded and smiled, then gently tugged on his arm, leading him to their bed, before curling up with him. Soon sleep enveloped the both of them, although their dreams were far from peaceful ones.


The Kara silently emerged from hyper-space over Earth once more, taking up orbit and cloaking yet again, becoming invisible to any satellite or probing device the planet had. Standing up from his chair, Siphon took a deep breath. Soon, he would beam back down and gather everything he needed and then be gone once more, however before he did, he needed to see a few people. He owed some of them at least that much, and in some cases, much more than that. In the cases of Shade and Sho, he owed them much more than a simple hello, got to run off soon but it was good to see you bit. No, he had to tell them exactly what was going on, and he also had to inform them if things went south, that he might not return any time soon. Setting his jaw, his mind made up, he pushed a button and quickly vanished off the bridge of his ship, only to reappear just outside the school grounds, near the forest but a moment later, a flash of customary sparkling white light the only indication of his sudden arrival. The sun was just starting to set, meaning it was still early evening here, so Shade and Sho would likely be just returning to their shared room by the time he got there. The two of them had been sharing a room for nearly a year now, they had started just before the entire Sentinel war had gotten really heated.

Shaking his head, and taking a deep breath of the fresh evening air, he pushed those thoughts out of his mind. That was the past, a war long done. The Ori were a threat now, and he still had oath to uphold, and he would see that through until the day he finally was gone. His mind set, he began walking at a brisk pace towards the school, going over in his mind who he needed to see, what he was going to tell them, and what he would need to gather from his room before heading back out once again. Lost in thought as he was, he failed to notice that he was being watched from afar, by one who he had only met a few times. Standing unseen nearly a hundred yards away was Simon.


Simon watched as the night sky, and peaceful silence of the forest was broken by the flash of light, and he blinked for a moment as a figure seemed to just appear from nowhere from this light. After several moments of close observation, Simon realized who it was. It was Siphon, although he looked very different from the last time Simon had seen him. He remembered him as being a dark brown haired, powerfully built man from another dimension. Now though as he watched, he seemed to have traces of, wait, were those really traces of silver and Grey running through his hair? Simon stood and stared in disbelief as he walked through a patch of light that was still smiling down on the ground, and his thoughts were confirmed. Siphon looked much, much older than Simon remembered him being. His eyes were not misleading him, he indeed had silver and Grey in his hair, and his features were slightly less sharp than they had been before, though Simon could tell by the way he carried himself that his immense strength hadn't faded one bit. Siphon, despite having seemingly aged hundreds of years in less than two years was still an imposing figure for his height. Listening as he muttered to himself, he caught parts of his spoken thoughts, something about Shade and Sho, and something about the Ori, whoever the hell the Ori were. Shrugging his shoulders, curious, but not enough to want to reveal himself, Simon went back to trying to relax, something he had a hard time doing these days with that woman after him still.


Anastasia and Zaleia had just finished having supper with Shade and Sho, and the four were about to head out of the Cafeteria when Siphon walked in. Zaleia didn't really give him much of a glance, although her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the sight of silver running through his hair. Sho had told her Siphon looked different now, but she hadn't had the chance to actually see for herself, not that she would have actively been looking anyway. Most of her time was taken by the classes, and what free time she did have she preferred to spend with Anastasia. She did however notice when he started over towards the four of them, and out of courtesy she waved a hand slightly towards his direction as a greeting.

Anastasia on the other hand looked up and her eyes widened at the sight of Siphon. She remembered him as a well defined, muscular, young looking man despite the fact that she knew him to be well over a hundred years old, but now, he looked much older than before. Lines of silver in his hair and slightly tired looking features, she wondered if someone had put him through a time machine or what kind of undue stress he was putting himself under yet again. She quickly recovered though, and smiled, not wanting to seem rude to him, he had after all risked his life along with a few others to rescue her brother from hell over a year ago, and she had the feeling that whatever bond there was between the two of them, that Siphon would have gone alone after him, regardless of the dangers, and the unlikely odds of him actually pulling it off solo. With a nod over to her brother and Sho, she quietly said, "hey bro, looks like Siphon's come back to home finally."

Shade and Sho both looked up at Ana's words, and both of them stood and smiled in greeting as Siphon walked over to the table they had just about to vacate. A quick look told the two of them that something was up, no words being needed yet. A raised eyebrow was all from Sho for now, she wanting to hear what was going on first before jumping the gun. Shade however, was not quite as tactful, and his eyes narrowed for a moment before he blurted out, "OK, out with it man, what kind of big evil thing have you come across this time?" The answer stunned both him and Sho, and had even Ana and Zale looking a bit weird at him. For a two worded answer, it packed a ton of punch.

"The Ori." Siphon slumped down into a chair near them, seemingly exhausted from everything, but the four knew better than to underestimate his resolve or resourcefulness.

It was Sho that broke the eerie silence first, her voice shaking just slightly at first before clearing up. "So it's true the rumors you heard of them? Siphon, what the hell has happened, and don't sugarcoat it either."

Shade finally spoke a moment later, his voice slightly darker than normal. "Don't even tell me they're on the way here, I'll be very pissed if they ruin our weekend."

Anastasia and Zaleia looked at each other for a moment, and then Zaleia finally spoke to him. "Um, forgive my ignorance, but what the hell is an Ori?"

Siphon thought for a moment how best to describe them to her before finally saying, "well they are a race thats similar to my own people, only they apparently have the desire to be worshiped as the gods of all human life. Supposedly, any who don't follow their belief are sinners and must be vanquished. It's likely the Ori are ascended beings themselves, but apparently they share their advanced technology with their worshipers, creating a powerful army. Other than that, we really don't know that much about them. We don't even know where their home galaxy is."

Anastasia shuddered at the thought of an alien race trying to wipe them out just because they didn't want to worship them as gods. "They sound pretty nasty and evil, but I'm guessing you have a plan to keep them away, right?"

"Right now I don't know enough about them to know what to plan for. They could show up here tomorrow, next year, or not at all. No way of knowing, because we don't know for certain that the rumors of them are entirely true." He seemed to be quite frustrated with the whole matter, clenching his jaw, although it was evident he wasn't mad at any of them, but rather at himself.

Zaleia to her credit instantly picked up on his frustration, and for a change actually seemed a little worried. "Hey, come on, we've faced bad things before, the undead and hell for example. It doesn't matter what the odds are, only that we are willing to do the right things, or at least, you anyway, because I don't know how much use we'd all be in space fights."

Shade nodded and said, "hell, if need be just beam some of us over to one of their ships and we'll kick their heads in if thats what needs to be done."

Sho smiled ever so slightly and then pitched her say in. "Well lets just hope that we won't have to, but if it comes to that, count us in for whatever kind of help we can provide."

"Well if they do find their way to Earth, won't they be in for a surprise then huh? I know I'm not going down without one hell of a fight," added Anastasia.

Siphon smiled at them and just softly added, "I appreciate the support, I really do. It is my hope there will be no war, but if there is, I will make no promises about being able to stop them. I know I will resist them until my last breath, but as for if we can win, I can not say." He thought for a moment then truthfully added, "I came to say hello, let you know of what was going on since you are all my closest friends, and then I am afraid I must head back out into the galaxy. There is supposed to be a race called the Vorians out there somewhere who could become good allies if I can find them. I think it goes without saying the more allies we have, the better off we will be."

The four of them nodded, that making sense, even if they didn't know anything about these Vorians. Sho stood and finally said, "alright. Hey, don't forget, you still owe us a trip." She said this to lighten the mood, even though a part of her was being playfully serious.

This brought a smile to his lips as he replied, "I haven't. Once I get back from meeting the Vorians we'll go do that if all is quiet, promise. Zale, Ana, your both welcome to come along for the trip too if you'd like."

Zaleia looked at Anastasia, and saw the same wonder in her eyes. What would it be like on another world? A question that could be very easily answered if they accepted. She had her questions on how he planned to manage that, his ship would have to be very fast, and large enough to fit all of them, but she suspected that he'd already taken care of that. At Anastasia's nod she said, "yeah, sounds cool. Just let us know when it's going down and I think we can be ready to go really fast."

Smiling he stood finally. "Very well, I will be sure to let you all know when we will be going. I hate to run in and rush out on you folks, but I need to get some stuff from my room and get back out there to make that all work out. I will be in touch though soon, promise." With that he headed out, unaware of what was going on elsewhere, or that things were about to go all to hell on them quietly.


Vanessa stepped through the Stargate, amazed at the short amount of time it took to make the journey half way across the galaxy even now, years after she had been using it on a regular basis. Stepping away from the gate as it snapped off, she took in her surroundings. The area seemed to be a field about a half mile from the nearest town, and off in the distance she could see what appeared to be flour mills or something similar. A primitive planet she thought, one that would never be able to put up a decent fight against an enemy as powerful as these Ori were rumored to be. She knew however that these people must know of the Stargate, and other people out there as she spotted two adults coming over to her, evidently having seen her come through the gate. She slipped into her role instantly as a traveler from another world who had heard of the prior visiting them, and wanted to know more.

The taller and older of the two stepped forward and identified himself. "Hello traveler, I am Jacob, and this is my son Justin. Are you here to trade or here to explore?"

Vanessa bowed her head slightly and smiled at them. "I am Vanessa, and I'm here for exploration, and a bit curious actually. I have heard rumors of another visitor coming to this world, something of a religious fellow? Claimed to be a messenger from the gods? I admit, I am quite intrigued by this."

Justin stepped forward and was the one to answer her. "You must have heard then of the prior of the Ori then. Yes he visited our world nearly about a day ago. If you seek to learn more then you are welcome to stay at our village, he said he would return in three days time to hear our answer. You should speak to him alone and tell him what you have told us, I am certain he will be willing to speak with you."

Vanessa smiled at this, so this prior would be returning and soon, that was good. "I would be glad to, although I have nothing of value to offer for a place to stay, so I guess I will need to return."

Jacob shook his head and said, "you are not of this world, therefore you are a guest. I own a local inn just inside of the town, you are welcome to stay there as long as you like. We will be heading there shortly, so I will show you the way."

Vanessa smiled gratefully at the two and replied, "oh, thank you very much. I guess then I'll go and sit down over by the ring then, unless you'd like my help with something while I wait?"

The two shook their heads. "Go have a seat Vanessa, we'll be ready shortly," Justin said. With that the two headed off to move what appeared to be a large stone, and Vanessa got the impression that it was a well cap, an impression that was confirmed but a minute later when a deep well was revealed.

She lost track after that of what they were doing, taking in the scenery around her. It wasn't long before they were ready and came over to get her, leading her towards the town.

Falling into step with them, she headed off for the village, and soon they had reached the outskirts of it. Taking in her surroundings as best as she could while on the move, she at first wasn't that impressed with the general area. It seemed to be yet another low level technological planet in a galaxy full of too many. Though she had to admit, these cultures did seem to make ends meet and survive despite lower levels of technology, and they were quite a bit better at keeping their planet clean from pollutants. She pushed those thoughts out of her head as they reached the Inn where she was to stay. After thanking the two of them and accepting the key to her room, she headed off to find it. It didn't take very long to find it, and when she opened the door, she was quite surprised. For such a low level society, the room was spotlessly clean and by their standards probably quite luxurious. Quite, and overlooking part of the town with a window, Vanessa couldn't have asked for much better unless it was back home on her world. Nodding to herself, she quickly bathed and changed clothing, and then laid down under the covers of the bed, getting some much needed rest.


Siphon had just gotten everything together for his trip and was heading out when he spotted Elissia again. Thinking for a moment, he figured he should at least tell her what was going on. Elissia seemed quite capable of handling herself, and he considered her a friend even if he wasn't sure the feeling was reciprocated. His mind made up, he quietly called out to her. "Elissia, you have a moment?"

She turned, spotting him, and wondered what he wanted with her. She was about to say she was busy, but something in his eyes, a haunted look compelled her to stay. "Yeah, sure, what's up? Better still, you OK? You look like hell."

Nodding once at her question of if he was OK, he took a moment before actually forming the words. "Yeah, I'm OK, bit tired but otherwise fine. Look, I know this will probably mean nothing to you at all, but right now theres some big stuff going on that goes way beyond any of us. I've received word from some allies of mine that an enemy far worse than what the imagination can come up with might be on the way on a holy crusade into this galaxy. They call themselves the Ori, and they have a religion they call Origin, and those who don't convert and worship them as gods must be destroyed by their reasoning. Now I'm heading out in order to see if there is anything to be done about preventing a major disaster, but I have to admit it doesn't look good. Shade and Sho have a way of contacting me if need be. I'd like to ask that if anyone just shows up out of the blue, spouting off something about following the path of Origin or worshiping the Ori, that you let them know and have them get in touch with me. I don't think the Ori will come for Earth, at least not yet, but I'm not sure. I'm entrusting you with this because frankly, your the only one that has no direct way of contacting me that I trust. That and I know you get around this place quieter than anyone, and right now thats what we may need. Will you help please?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

Elissia stood there for a moment, a bit stunned. If what he was saying was true, then these Ori had a serious problem in their heads, but were also a large threat. She was taken aback at his blunt method of asking for her help, and though she wasn't sure how she felt of him as a person, she knew that if he was telling the truth, which he seemed to be, then to say no might very well endanger things. Of course, either way it really wasn't causing any harm by keeping an eye open, she already was for her target anyway, it would just be one more thing, and such a minor chance it really would make no difference in the long run. Nodding with a small smile she finally agreed to it. "Alright, I'll do it, even though I'm not entirely sure of everything you just said, but it sounds like these Ori could be a big problem. Just take care of yourself out there, wherever there is. You won't do any good getting yourself killed, got it?"

Chuckling slightly he nodded at her. "Getting killed isn't a part of my plan, believe me on that. I will be careful though, and thank you very much Elissia. I owe you one for this big time." Bowing his head and gathering his luggage, he took a step away from her. "See you soon."

Elissia opened her mouth to tell him not to worry about it, but instead of words coming out only silence as something strange happened. A hum filled the air, and then he just simply vanished in a flash of sparkling white light before her very eyes. A moment later after her eyes had adjusted to the bright, abrupt light her mouth hung open. "What the hell just happened here?" Shaking her head at her outburst, she stood there for a moment longer. He hadn't seemed worried about it at all, probably meaning he had been expecting it, so she guessed it was a good thing. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she turned on her heel and headed out again, first to find something to drink, and then it would be back to her hunting.


Getting the council to agree to yet another meeting hadn't been easy, but Talok and Narlina had pulled it off somehow. Having gotten the council to agree to it, they had informed them of the situation as they knew it from Siphon. They hadn't been too happy at the prospect of another super powerful enemy coming so soon, but they had agreed with Siphon's initial thought that the Ori had a spy in the galaxy and knew of the fleet depletions. Despite this, the bulk of their ships would remain in the galaxy to help in the civil war, although they had agreed if the need arose for ships to come to the aid of Earth that they would send as many as they could spare. They had adjourned, agreeing to meet again if more information became available to them in the future. Satisfied with this, Talok and Narlina had left, and the council broke and went their own separate ways, no one realizing that one amongst them was a double agent.

Vekal had quickly left the council's chamber, admittedly stunned by these turns of events. Making his way out of the capital city to his personal ship as quickly as he could, he thought about what had been said. A plan began to form in his mind as to how they could use this to their advantage. If they slowed down their aggressiveness now and waited until these Ori made their move into Earth's galaxy, which he was sure they would, then the others would become overconfident in their success and send more hives to Earth's aid. Vekal knew the council's hive ship numbers were dwindling, and if they timed this right a larger chunk would be out of the way, too far out to return in time to stop the rebels from taking control. He hid his glee at this well until he finally had left the planet on his ship, heading for open space and a safe spot he could transmit.

As his ship cut through hyper-space, Vekal turned his thoughts more towards completing a plan to present to his superiors. If they broke off most of their heavy assaults now, and let it seem like they were losing numbers and ground, the council would undoubtedly press harder, seeking to crush them once and for all. However, if they seemed to be near caving in just when the Ori were about to invade, then the council would have a decision to make. It was Vekal's impression that the council would choose the greater of the two threats to give the bulk of their attention to, and that would seem to be the Ori. Vekal had no misconceptions that these Ori were pushovers, and he prayed that a way could be found to stop them, although not without it's costs to the allied fleets of the Milky Way. While he wanted the Ori to ultimately lose, he knew that a swift win for either side would be bad for the rebel cause, and his plans. His mind set, he dropped out of hyper-space and sent a secure hail to his superior, whom he only knew as Primtus. Vekal had a feeling that wasn't his real name, as it would be unwise to allow a double agent who risked exposure each day to know the real name of a major player in the rebellion.

After five minutes or so, Primtus's image came up. "What is it Vekal, we were in the middle of a strategy meeting."

Hiding his smile Vekal pushed onward. "Sir, I've discovered that an enemy called the Ori seek to threaten the Milky Way powers, and a request has gone out to the council for aid should the need arise. I believe these Ori will in fact make an attack, though I am uncertain of when. It is my belief that if we make it seem like we are on the losing end at the right time, the council will send more of their hives to the aid of the other galaxy. At that point we reveal we have been faking our losses, and crush them before any of their hives can return to render aid. If timed correctly, we can win this civil war much sooner than we thought."

Primtus seemed angry for a moment but then he started to consider the idea. It was risky to say the least, but if what Vekal was saying did in fact turn out to occur, then it would pay off greatly. After a moment longer of considering he said, "very well. Send us a subspace packet with everything you know of now, and I will propose it to the others. Good work."

"Thank you sir, I'm sending the pertinent information now."

It took nearly fifteen more minutes to send what needed to be sent, and when it was done Primtus spoke again. "Now, return to the planet and gather what Intel you can on this. We will be in touch soon enough. Make contact again in six days. Primtus out."

His image flickered off the screen, and Vekal was left to carry out his orders. Turning around he set a course for the planet, eager to put his plan into motion and be a hero.


It had been a quick three days, and Vanessa had actually begun to enjoy this planet's hospitality. On the dawn of the third day she had awoke with a start, an internal alarm going off in her mind to prepare for her meeting with the prior. Mentally going over her cover story in her mind to get it all down right, she had gone to get something to eat, and then back to her room to wait.

Now as she sat there, the silence was broken by the voice of Justin, coming from below her, outside.

"The prior of the Ori returns!"

Standing up she headed down to the ground level to stand amongst the growing crowd, not having to pretend to be eager to see what was going to happen. And sure enough, there he was.

A lone figure could be seen walking from where the Stargate was. Clad in purplish robes and wielding a large looking staff, with a light blue crystal on top of it, the prior at first seemed like any other human in the galaxy. It wasn't until he got closer that she could see he had strange patterns on his face, seemingly to be lines, scars or possibly even some kind of tattoos? She couldn't be sure, but they weren't natural markings on his face, that much was certain.

Jacob walked up to the prior, seemingly eager to speak with him. "Welcome back to our village prior."

The prior nodded in thanks and then spoke. "Have you and your village decided your path Jacob?"

"We have prior, and we have decided to hear more of your wisdom and teachings from the book of origin. I also wish to inform you that your word seems to have spread beyond our world through one of our traders. There is a woman here from another planet who would like to speak with you later if it is convenient for you."

"It is not my wisdom or teachings, but that of the true gods. Hallowed are the Ori." He inclined his head slightly at the mention of Vanessa though. "Ah, I see. I assume she is amongst those in the crowd?" At Jacob's nod he pressed on. "Very well, after I read from the book I will head for the Stargate, you may approach me at that point outside of the village and we will speak."

Vanessa nodded, more to herself than in reply, though she had a strange feeling the prior saw it anyway. She stood with the rest of the village for well over three hours while the prior read from the book, and her trained mind absorbed everything that was said. Some of it seemed vaguely familiar and not evil at all, which surprised her. Finally, the prior closed his book before issuing a few last words.

"Blessed are those that follow the path to enlightenment, and the word of the Ori. I will return a short time from now."

With that he made his way towards the path leading out of the town, and to the Stargate. After a moment, Vanessa followed, making sure they were outside of the town before picking up her pace to catch him. Finally she caught up to him, though as she walked up to him she had the feeling he'd known she was there the whole time and had slowed to make sure she could reach him before he made it to the Stargate. Turning to face her, he addressed her directly.

"You must be the one who wished to know more of the Ori. Tell me child, what is it you wish to ask?"

"I had heard of your visit to this world from a contact of mine, who seemed quite interested in it all, and got me curious about this as well. I do have to admit though, I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to religions, though you did get me considering things back there."

He stared at her for a moment, his gaze unmoving then replied, "I see. Perhaps then mere words is not enough for you, and in that lies no shame. The Ori do not shun those who need to see more than what is before them in a book, or mere words. Come, travel with me back through the Stargate, and all your questions and doubts shall be placed aside in due time."

She blinked for a moment, partly because she hadn't expected the offer, and partly because it seemed too easy. Still, the offer was there, and she would take it, though she had to play her part. "Where are we going might I ask prior?"

With a smile he replied, "to the Ori city of Celestis, in the plains of Celestis. There all of your questions shall be answered in due time, and the proof you seek shall be shown to you. Come now, and we will travel there."

She had never heard of this Celestis, which confirmed the thoughts the Ori planet was outside of their own galaxy. With a smile she nodded her head, not having to pretend to be nervous about it at all as the prior simply stood there for a moment, and then the gate opened suddenly, the unstable vortex of the wormhole shooting out with no apparent dialing of the D.H.D having been done. She wondered if he had done it telepathically or how he had managed that, but then there was no more time for thoughts as he motioned for her to follow, and stepped towards the puddle. Taking a deep breath she followed him past the event horizon, vanishing into the wormhole. A moment after they passed through, the Stargate shut off with a snap, leaving the planet in relative peace, and it's inhabitants to go about their day to day lives.


Vanessa emerged from the Stargate along with the prior, and immediately was stunned. The surrounding area was breathtakingly beautiful. The prior must have somehow known she was taking in the area, because he stood there with her for several moments until she finally tore her gaze away. With a nod over to the prior, they left the area of the Stargate, and started walking off into the mountains. It was not long until they reached a pass and valley within the mountains themselves, and there, tucked away in between two mountain ridges was a gigantic city. Vanessa's eyes widened at the sight of it, for not only was it a city of gargantuan design, it was incredibly beautiful to look at. Seemingly made of a sparkling material, the entire city fairly glowed under the sun. Golden lights lined the outsides of the city, and Vanessa had the wild thought that the entire thing might actually be made up of diamond or some other precious gem. It was then that she noticed that for a city, it seemed awfully domed in structure and not sprawled out. Of course there were spires and towers along the dome, but as she studied it more it suddenly dawned upon her what she was really looking at. Celestis wasn't just a city, but it also seemed to her memory of what Siphon had told her about structures like this, that it might also be a space ship itself as well. "Oh my god, it's beautiful. Is that Celestis?"

"Yes, and the answers to your questions and the proof you seek wait beyond it's doors for you. Come, and let us speak with the Ori themselves."

Without another word she followed him into the city, which surprisingly had it's own doorway like device that opened as they got close. She wondered if it would only open in the presence of a prior, or if it would for anyone on that planet. It obviously had sensed them around, that much seemed to be evident. Following the prior through the curving halls within the city, they reached a set of large double doors.

"Wait here and I will make the arrangements for you to see the Ori. In the meantime there is a basket of fruit in the room, you may partake in it if you wish. I will return shortly." With that he opened the doors for her, and then closed them behind her once she had entered, his footfalls echoing down the hall as he left the area.

Vanessa took in the room around her, and sat down in one of the chairs. Looking at the basket of fruit, she finally decided to take one that seemed like an apple, and bit down carefully into it. Her eyes widened at the taste, it was better than any apple she'd ever tasted before. She finished the apple in short order, then took a second, vowing not to eat the whole basket of fruit.

Some time passed, she wasn't sure how much but soon the doors opened again and the prior motioned for her to come with him, and led her down a brightly lit hall. Eventually they stood outside a pair of large double doors, and the prior finally spoke to her again.

"Go inside, and you will meet with the Doci. He is the one who will help you to speak with the Ori themselves. He is waiting for you inside, I will remain out here."

She nodded once and then said truthfully back to him, "thank you, it is much appreciated." Turning around, she entered the room, unsure of what to expect.


The Kara emerged from hyperspace at her first stop, cruising silently through space and into orbit over the fourth planet in the system. Instantly, Siphon detected some kind of weapon charging up, but it didn't fire. A moment later a face appeared on his screen.

"Attention alien vessel, I am Valon, first minister of the Tollan people. Please identify yourself and your reason for being here. I apologize in advance if our weapons activation seems a bit abrupt, however we have been attacked by marauders in the past few months and we can't take the chance of another attack causing more damage to our planet."

Siphon stood up, half understanding the man's position, and decided to answer rather than just leave. "I am Siphon/Talvesh of the Alveran vessel Kara. I am an explorer who is on a quest to find a race that once may have been allies to my descendants, who called themselves the Ancients. I seek a race that I only know of as the Vorians to establish communications with them. I intend you and your people no harm whatsoever, and if need be I am willing to leave this system now."

A brief pause seemed to indicate that perhaps this would take a moment to sink in, and then finally a reply came back. "That won't be necessary Siphon/Talvesh, welcome to Tollana. If you would like to set your ship down outside of our city you may do so without any problem. The council of the Tollan people would like to meet with you to discuss your quest regarding these Vorians."

"Very well, send me the co-ordinates you would like me to set down at and I shall be more than happy to meet with your council. Perhaps I may end up establishing first contact with more than one race today it seems."

"Indeed it is possible. We are sending you a transmission now with the landing co-ordinates. A transport shuttle will be waiting for you when you arrive to bring you to the capital."

"Understood, Siphon out."

The image winked out, and then a burst of data came through for his landing zone. Smiling slightly he maneuvered the ship onto an approach curse, and after about five minutes, the Kara landed upon the ground, and shut down her mighty engines. Standing up in his chair and setting his ship to slumber, he quickly exited and approached the small transport shuttle, and waved to the pilot inside.

The pilot returned the wave before speaking. "Good day there, I'm supposed to pick you up and take you to the capital of our city for a meeting with the council. It's been a while since we've had peaceful visitors from another world come. Anyway, get on in and it won't take long to reach the city."

Siphon sat down behind the pilot and the shuttle lifted off, banking away from the Kara and then picking up speed. Sure enough, it was only six minutes or so later that the shuttle began to slow down, and Siphon could see a large structure ahead, which he could only guess was the Tollan capital building. It was then that he noticed the Stargate not far from the building. Smiling he said aloud, "I see you have a Stargate here too, had I known that I would have just used that to make contact with your people instead of having to fly here."

"Ah, yes well it wasn't here when we first settled on this world. Our original home world's sun was dying, so we set out for another world and found this one. Our original Stargate was destroyed in an attack by the marauders you were told about, however we created another one to overcome the loss."

Siphon let out a low whistle at this. "It takes a heck of a lot to destroy one of those gates. You built your own? Very impressive indeed."

"Why thank you. Ah, we're here now, so if you'll follow me I'll take you to meet Valon in person."

"Very well, lead the way." Siphon exited the shuttle, following the man and soon enough they had entered the building. Standing in the center of a large room was Valon, and Siphon nodded to him as they approached.

"Again I welcome you to Tollana, and I do hope you enjoy your time here. Thank you Volten for doing the honors of flying him here."

"Any time sir. I'll be tinkering around with various items until you folks are all done and ready for my services again, good day to you both." With that, Volten left, and Siphon turned to Valon.

"Volten mentioned a tad about your past and how that Stargate I saw out in the courtyard came to be, and I must say very impressive that you made your own."

"Ah, yes thats good, it gives us slightly less background issues to cover then. Tell me though, how much of this region of space do you know of?"

"I'm afraid not much, originally I'm not from even this dimension. A few years ago my people were forced to leave our own home dimension to retreat from undead hordes of enemies that seemed to be completely immune to most forms of weaponry, and they attacked many different races, eventually wiping out all but my own. By nature my people are peaceful explorers, and it wasn't until we one day came across a slumbering ancient enemy that we began building ships for fighting purposes and focusing on offensive weaponry. Since coming here my people have left this galaxy for a small neighboring galaxy known as the Pegasus Galaxy."

"Ah, I see, and you are exploring now as your race's liaison?"

"In a way yes, my purpose since I stayed behind here was to establish contact with other races that might be interested, however a few days ago I received some disturbing news. There apparently is a race out there in another galaxy that has started sending religious representatives to convert other worlds. Now normally that wouldn't be a problem, I think they have the right to do that, but from what I know of this race, their ultimate goal would be to convert the galaxy, and those who don't convert are to just be wiped out. Now this information isn't top notch, or even recent, only from what was told to me by people who were once a part of that galaxy generations ago. As such, I'm hoping that we can make a peaceful first contact with them, and that is already being seen to."

"I see, and what do you personally think of the situation? Do you believe these rumors of how they are to be true, or do you believe there is the possibility for peaceful relations with this race? What do they call themselves, do you know?"

"I'm hoping that the rumors are nothing but that, rumors and untrue, however it is best to be prepared for any occasion. Yes, according to the information I got when I was first told of them coming to our galaxy, they call themselves the Ori."

Valon stopped walking abruptly at the mention of the name. "The Ori you said? Interesting, one of our allies said that they had been approached by a religious representative of a race called the Ori, and the man who visited them called himself a prior, a holy messenger. Ultimately they turned him down on his offer for joining them."

Siphon looked a bit startled at this then finally said, "ah OK. Well maybe then things will work out for the best, the prior left without any conflict?"

"As far as we know yes, however we haven't spoken to them in about two days or so. A supply ship is heading to them today actually, I'll be certain to have the captain ask them about the prior if you'd like?"

"If it isn't too much trouble please, that could come quite in handy later on in helping some of the skeptics amongst my people as to the true goals of the Ori. If this prior did in fact leave with no conflict then that would make me extremely happy."

They stopped outside the council doors and Valon nodded. "Very well, while you set up with the council and speak with them, I shall go send the communication to our ship, and join you all in short order."

"Alright, and again I must thank you, and I will look forward to speaking to you again soon." Nodding once as Valon took off, Siphon quietly entered the chambers after being ushered inside by a guard.

Entering a large room, Siphon spotted four figures at a table, two males and two females, who looked up at his entry. With a motion they indicated for him to sit down at the opposite end of the table, and with a polite bow he did so. One of the women spoke after a moment of silence.

"I am Nevasha of the Tollan, this is Darvek, Volen and finally Verala." Siphon followed her motions as she introduced each one, making note of faces and names.

"I am Siphon/Talvesh of the Alverans, and it is an honor to be able to meet you folks. From what little of your world I have seen since my arrival here, I am impressed already. Not only are you advanced in technology, but you all seem to be quite wonderful people and friendly, and that I like to see when I meet new races."

The four inclined their heads in acknowledgement of this statement, and a moment later Volen continued on.

"I understand from Valon that you first arrived in our system with you own ship, which has since landed and you were brought here. I also believe he mentioned that you were looking to establish contact with another race called the Vorians. Might we ask how you came to know of them?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

Siphon nodded at this, having expected the question. "Of course. In recent past since my people left this galaxy to resettle in the Pegasus Galaxy, we have come across the ruins of a race that seemed to be quite advanced, in some ways very similar to our own achievements. At first we wrote this off as mere coincidence, however as we were able to access some of the databases left behind by this race, we discovered that their language is almost identical to ours, as well as the names of several races they once had contact with. Since that time we have determined, with the help of another advanced race that was once their allies that the reason for our language being nearly identical was because we were in fact their descendants. The race that helped us to discover this are called the Asgard, and according to the database, they were all once in a great alliance that spanned two galaxies. Mentioned amongst the names in this alliance was a race called the Vorians, though we don't know for certain if they were officially members of the alliance or if they simply were a race that was being watched for their development. Either way, my people are interested in meeting new races, and it seemed like it would be a good idea to attempt a first contact with them, assuming of course that they are still around. The database is well over several million years old, so some things are bound to have changed since the time it was created."

Verala was next to speak at this, a look of curiosity on her face as she absorbed this. At the mention of the Asgard her face, like the others in the room brightened slightly, and she waited patiently for him to finish before speaking. "We have heard of the Asgard in the past, though we have never really dealt with them as of yet. It's interesting that you say your ancestors were once in an alliance with them, and advanced in some ways similar to your people. I've had the chance to look over the logs of your ship's arrival, something my fellow council members have not had a chance to do so as of yet. Might I pose this question then, your ancestors, did they happen to call themselves the Ancients?"

Siphon blinked at this, a bit stunned. She knew of his ancestors? "Actually they did, and in fact we recently helped to repair a damaged Ancient warship commanded by still living Ancients, whom are believed to be the last of their kind that didn't ascend."

Dravek placed a hand up indicating he would like to speak, and Siphon nodded his head to him, relinquishing the table so he might speak.

"While this is quite interesting news to hear, one thing stops me from following you. Please explain what exactly you mean by ascending?"

Siphon smiled at this, only too well familiar with the ins and outs of ascension. "The Ancients at some point during their evolution discovered a way of reaching a state of peace within so to speak, enabling them to eventually ascend to a completely different plane of existence from our own. Ultimately they didn't die when their life spans were up, but rather instead cast off the physical body, and moving onward to an existence of pure energy. The easiest way to describe it is to say they cast off the mortal shell that contains what life really is, and they became beings made up of pure energy, living on an entirely different plane of existence from us, another dimension might be the best term. Ironically it was through notes left behind on our original home world by a race that had been studying it that my own people were able to eventually accomplish this as well. We now believe that those notes may have actually been our first glimpse at relics left behind by the Ancients."

Dravek nodded at this, catching on quickly as to the details of what Siphon was laying out. "Impressive to say the least. Very well moving on to..."

He was cut off as the chamber doors opened again to reveal a worried looking Valon. The five in the room looked up, and at once Siphon wondered what had the man so worried looking. A moment later he found out.

"Pardon the intrusion, however I felt this could not wait. I just received word from the supply ship we sent to Galos two. They have reported that the majority of the planetary population has been wiped out, decimated by a plague that started soon after the prior of the Ori left the planet."

Siphon's heart leaped into his throat at this, and he quickly clamped down on it. No use jumping to rash conclusions just yet.

It was Nevala who finally broke the silence. "And you believe that this prior may have been responsible for the outbreak?"

"I'm not sure, although you have to admit it seems rather strange that so soon after they turn down an offer of salvation from a prior claiming to worship powerful gods, who also has powerful abilities of his own, a plague decimates the planet. Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions, but I have never heard of a plague that could kill over half a planet in less than two days time, have you Nevala?"

"I must admit no I have never seen or heard of such a thing happening before, neither in my own experiences or in our history records. However we can not assume that the prior did in fact have a role in this, or that even if he did, he knows of it."

Siphon broke in at this point deciding to make an offer. "With all due respect, at this point it's a moot point to figure out if this prior was responsible in any way or not. I'll assume they haven't been able to slow it down at all with their own medical technology, and if they, and you are willing, I would like to offer my own race's medical technology to help combat this plague in an attempt to save as many as we can."

Volen nodded at this. "I see no reason why you can't Siphon."

Verala however seemed to have one more thing to say. "Forgive me, it may be irrelevant right now, but Siphon it seems to me, and perhaps I am getting a wrong read, that you know something more about these Ori?"

Siphon nodded grimly at this, he couldn't very well not tell them now after the question had been posed. "According to the surviving Ancients we helped out some months ago, they left their original home galaxy because of the Ori. I didn't want to say anything about it at first because I truly was hoping that it was only a matter of perspective between the two races. Unfortunately, according to the Ancient captain it appears as if the Ori and the Ancients are in fact of the same race, but split down the middle. While the Ancients preferred to place their trust in their advanced technology, the Ori put most of theirs in this religion they call Origin. While both have advanced technology, the Ancients believed that to share their advanced technology with other races who weren't as advanced and ready for it was wrong. According to them the Ori believed that to withhold that technology from less advanced races was wrong, and the two sides had a falling out, eventually resulting in the Ancients leaving the galaxy, but not before reportedly inflicting a great disease upon their own people that chose to ignore their beliefs. It took the Ancients thousands of years to finally eradicate the disease, and by the time they finally did, they were all well on their way to ascension. I had hoped this to be mere coincidence, I still do, but the logical side of me is saying not to discount any possibility just yet."

The four council members shared a look at this, seemingly weighing options. Finally it was Nevala who spoke. "We agree that for now we must all remain open minded about possibilities, and we are glad that despite your information you know of these Ori that you are willing to look past it and give them a chance. However we are all in agreement that if this came from one of your ancestors, somewhere there must be a merit of truth on something within it. We are also grateful for your offer to help, and it is accepted. Now we must make haste to Galos two and see what we can do."

Volen shot a look to her and finally said, "Nevala I see no reason not to tell him of the Vorians at this point, besides if they can help we could use the extra hands."

She nodded and then turned to Siphon. "We do know of these Vorians you spoke of, they are our allies. In fact they too are in the midst of a civil war against a faction of their own people that call themselves the Kih Andari. It was in fact the Kih Andari who first attacked us, forcing us to begin aggressively using our planet wide weapons to track all unknown ships entering our system. It was they who destroyed our original Stargate. We will be summoning the Vorians to send help if they can, as well as a few of their military ships to help guard in case the Kih Andari decide to attack. You will get your chance to meet them and make first contact shortly, I will specifically request that they send Sivala as well, so you may speak to one of their highest ranking members."

"Very well, thank you very much."

"We will travel via Stargate to the planet rather than by ship. The Kih Andari would likely attack if they chose to before the Vorians could arrive if they spotted a fleet of our supply ships heading there."

"Understood, then I must gather supplies from my ship first before we go. Is this chamber shielded?"

Verala shook her head. "No, it isn't. Alright we'll get you a ship to get back to your own now then."

Siphon shook his head in reply. "No need, if this chamber isn't shielded then I can get in and out no problem. I will meet up with you all at the Stargate in fifteen minutes if that is fine?"

Nevala replied, "yes thats fine, but how do you plan to get to and from your ship that fast?"

Siphon smiled and said, "beaming technology. All Alveran ships come with a set of rings and an energy transporter. Thats why I needed to know if it was shielded or not. Since it isn't I can beam right out of here."

Volen nodded and said, "very good, we'll meet you at the gate then."

"Very well, see you soon." Hitting a button on his wrist device, Siphon vanished in a flash of sparkling white light, leaving the rest of them to prepare as they needed to.


Vanessa blinked in surprise as she entered the Doci's chambers, which seemed to have a large hole in the floor with flames shooting out of it. Shaking her head at the decorating, she approached the Doci, who turned around to meet her.

"You are the one called Vanessa, who seeks to learn more of the power of the Ori, and the one true path to salvation."

Vanessa blinked, obviously the prior had told him, as it hadn't been a question but rather a statement. "I am, yes. I've heard some of your religion and of the Ori's power, but I am one of those who needs to see proof of things before blindly following."

The Doci seemed to smile slightly at her words, almost as if he had been expecting them. "I figured as much. It is rare that we get visitors from other worlds here in Celestis, and this is usually why they come here. Very well, come close to the balcony, but do not look over it just yet."

Nodding her head she followed him, keeping her eyes averted from the pit, and focusing on him instead. His skin had the same markings as the other prior, and was of the same color, the only difference being his hair was brown instead of a strange grayish color. A moment later her heart almost leapt out of her throat as one of the tendrils of fire came rocketing towards him at impossible speeds, enveloping him instantly. Her eyes widened as instead of him turning away from it or burning, rather he opened his arms widely and seemed to glow from it. It was then she realized what she was seeing was an ascended being actually possess his body, something she hadn't thought was possible. Siphon was going to love this report, and she didn't think he'd be too thrilled with the idea that such a feat was actually possible.

The Doci turned to her suddenly, his eyes alive with glowing hell fire, and when he spoke, his voice had a demonic tone to it. "You do not believe in the power we have. This is plain, however something else is obvious as well, and that is you are not who you say you are."

She blinked at this searching for a response to that. "I don't understand what you mean."

"Your purpose for being here is not what you say it is. You have traveled from a galaxy we have only recently begun sending our priors to. A galaxy that has been touched by the hands of the Ancients, the traitors to all of human kind."

Oh crap, she thought to herself. This wasn't good, but she had to do her best. "I know of these beings you speak of, these Ancients as you call them, but what of them?"

"The Ancients were once a part of the same race as us, but they shunned the true path, forbade others to share the wonders of advanced technology with the lower beings. This in itself is an evil act, and all who fail to embrace the path of origin must be vanquished."

Vanessa decided to play devils advocate in this after hearing that. "Forgive me, I feel it is my duty to play devils advocate here, but if this religion is truly to help save one's souls by showing them to the path of enlightenment, should they not be allowed to choose if they want to without fear of persecution?"

"All who fail to embrace the path of origin are evil, and as such must be destroyed. The spread of evil must be stopped, and we shall be the ones to cleanse the universe of all who would embrace that evil."

"So then your telling me if they refuse or turn down the offer you'll just wipe them out? There's no choice in the matter then, and thats murdering, something I know in religion to be a sin!"

"It is not murder if they harbor evil, to destroy that evil is to cleanse the lands. It is not sinful to destroy all who are evil at all." A pause and then she knew she was in trouble. "You have been sent here by the descendants of the Ancients, those who call themselves the Alverans. Your goal is to find our true purpose and report back in so they might mount a foolish resistance. This can not be allowed."

Vanessa's heart began to race as she realized the damn thing could read her mind somehow, and faltered for only a moment before snarling at him. "So you plan to kill me then? I won't go out without one hell of a fight you bastard!"

"On the contrary, your death at this time would be meaningless, as we have plans for you."

"Plans, oh I don't think so, I will never serve the likes of you pathetic scum, those who would hide behind a false religion to justify murdering countless people, all in the names of false gods!"

"Oh but you will Vanessa, you shall serve the greater purpose more so than you think. Do you really believe you can fight us and win? You can not possibly hope to defeat us!"

As she opened her mouth to answer, she sensed another prior behind her, and tried to spin around to nail him, only to discover she couldn't move at all. A moment later she felt her vision beginning to black, and found it hard to even breathe. Her last thought before she passed out was wondering what they were planning to do to her, and that she would resist for as long as she could. And then she thought no more, blacking out, her body slumping backward into the waiting arms of a prior.

The prior caught her, and gently laid her upon the floor, turning to receive his orders from the Doci, and from the rest of the Ori. He didn't have long to wait.

"Evil has raised a great many followers in her home galaxy. Go forth and gather the masses. Great holy armies will shall be gathered and will be trained to fight those who embrace evil. In the name of the gods ships will be built to carry our warriors out amongst the stars, and we will spread origin to all the unbelievers. The power of the Ori will be felt far and wide, and we will vanquish all who refuse salvation. Leave the woman here with us, we have plans for her, great plans."

The prior bowed his head in acknowledgement. "Hallowed are the Ori."

"Hallowed are the Ori, now go."

Without a word in reply, the prior left the room, leaving the possessed Doci alone with Vanessa. Turning about, he carried her prone form to another room with a bed, gently laying her down upon the bed before returning to his own chambers. They knew they couldn't keep her out cold indefinitely, and she would certainly get her chance to send her warning, what little it would do anyway. By the time she got the chance, their plan would already be in motion, their foothold in that galaxy secure. Smirking to himself, he locked the doors to her room so she couldn't leave, and then set about preparing for the first stage in their plan. Conferring with the rest of the Ori, the decision was made that although they could not directly enter the galaxy for fear of the Ancients stepping in, they could send their human followers, and also get around the Ancients. They would use the woman as a containment vessel for one of their own in human form, thus creating the Orici. She would be one of them, born with powers surpassing the priors, yet not entirely one of them either so as to not draw the ire of the Ancients. Their minds made up, they channeled their powers and returned to the room with Vanessa, their intent rather clear to anyone who might have been watching.


Siphon breathed a sigh of relief. Even with the Tollan and Vorian's help, it had taken nearly three months to fully eradicate the plague on Galos two. Following the aftermath of that, it had been discovered that the virus responsible for it had been engineered, and by an extremely advanced race. It was the opinion of the Vorians after having heard of the war the Ancients had once had with the Ori, and the plague that had nearly decimated them, that the virus had indeed originated from the prior. Now, nearly two more months had passed since that discovery, and Siphon had gotten to know the Vorians quite well. He was still in a conversation over the long range crystal with his wife when a chime sounded at his door.

"One moment Daina, I'll be right back, someone is at the door."

"Alright, I'll wait for you."

Pushing the pause transmission button, he went to answer the door. Much to his shock, Sivala was standing there, and looking quite grim.

"Siphon, I'm afraid we have some bad news. I just received confirmation that the Kih Andari have constructed an orbital satellite weapon, and whats worse is it isn't their technology. Here, I have schematics from one of our spies for you to look at."

"Thats really bad news to hear indeed. Alright lets have a look at these, come on in." Leading her into the room he spread the schematics sheet out on the table. He only had to look at them for a moment before recognizing the technology going into it. "Oh my god Sivala, that's Ori technology."

"We figured as much, but I wanted to see your reaction first. We can confirm the Ori visited the Kih Andari a month ago, and they accepted the Ori as their gods. Supposedly the Ori promised them vast rewards such as technology to help them destroy us, something about a holy crusade."

"Whoa, wait a second, now they're arming their followers? Sorry, but even though I've been hoping for a peaceful solution to all of this, that in my book constitutes a first act of war. If they're arming their followers then who's to say they won't give them access to ships to attack us directly?"

"I've already spoken to the Tollan and my own people about it, we're all in agreement so far that this can not be ignored. Something has to be done before it gets too ugly."

"Agreed, however I'd like to still think there is a chance to convince the Kih Andari not to use that weapon, to perhaps convince them to simply bury their Stargate and not have to deal with the Ori at all. However in the event we can't, we should have a ship waiting to blast the hell out of that weapon before it can do any damage. Let me speak with a few people before any decisions get made, I might be able to get a non Vorian or Tollan ship to agree to help us out."

"Very well, I'll inform the council, and I will check in with you in two hours. I'm afraid thats the best I can give you."

"Understood Sivala, and I thank you for the chance. I'll let you know as soon as I have something."

She nodded and then quietly exited the room, and as she closed the door, Siphon was already on the move to the communications device. Pushing a button on it he resumed his transmission with his wife.

"Daina, I'm afraid I have some bad news. It looks like the Ori have begun to arm their followers with advanced weaponry. They've given the Kih Andari what appears to be some kind of satellite weapon to use on the Vorians. I'm still praying that this can be resolved peacefully, but in my heart I fear we may have no choice but to destroy that device with force. If your up for it, I'd like for you to come out with the Normandy and help should we be able to establish a peaceful communication with them. If we can, I would greatly appreciate your help and negotiating skills."

Daina's eyes shot wide, and it was clear the whole situation had stunned her big time. "That isn't a good thing at all, but your right, we need to do everything we can to avoid a massive conflict. I'll come as quickly as I can, but at best speed it will be at least an hour before I can get there."

"Do what you have to, in the meantime, I'm going to be contacting the Helia. The Kih Andari have never seen an Ancient ship before, so they might not open fire immediately. I hope."

"Alright, I'll get on that, see you soon love."

Her image winked out, and as soon as it had, Siphon was already establishing a link to the Helia. It wasn't long before Helina herself answered it.

"Siphon, this is a surprise, what can I do for you?"

"Helina I've just received word that the Ori apparently have armed the Kih Andari with a satellite weapon of some sorts to wipe out the Vorians with. Now it is my hope that we can resolve this peacefully, but I fear we may need weapons in order to destroy this device. I need a ship that isn't Vorian, and that hasn't been spotted anywhere near their home world at all. Would you be willing to render assistance?"

Helina sat there for a moment, shocked beyond anything she'd ever felt before. When she answered, there was no hesitation in her voice. "It's my personal opinion that thing should be destroyed the second we drop out of hyper-space, but if you can convince the Kih Andari not to use it, we may gain some information on how much more advanced the Ori have become since we left them behind. I'll join you on this, my ship is at your disposal. There is a cluster of nebula not far from the Vorian planet where we can all meet up and set our plans without being spotted. I'm sending you the coordinates now, we'll meet there in two hours."

"Understood, and thank you Helina, it is greatly appreciated."

She nodded, sent the coordinates and then her transmission winked out. Siphon studied them for a few moments and then sent a copy of them to Daina with a subspace transmission. Finally he got up and went to inform Sivala of the news, uncertain of how things would turn out.


Two hours passed by surprisingly fast, and it wasn't long before Siphon found himself on board one of the Vorian ships. He and Sivala had been able to convince the Vorian council with relative ease on their plan, though with two stipulations. A Vorian ship, the one he had just left, would remain just outside of sensor range of any ships as backup, and a small number of Vorians would accompany them onto the Helia, bringing with them Vorian mini fighters for added power. Siphon had spoken with Helina, who didn't have a problem with the idea, and it had been settled right there. Now they had just finished transferring everything, and the Helia was about ready to embark on her mission.

"Alright, lets be sure one more time. The ship is ready to go, Daina is aboard her ship, the Vorian fighters are all set up and ready to launch if need be, and the pilots for those ships are ready to go on a moments notice. Oh, and the Vorian ship is waiting already just in case." After a quick checking of the list, Helina finally added, "alright, we're a go. Take us out helm, and let us get on with this."

Siphon was sitting at the controls for the helm and sensors for this, and with a smile replied, "yes ma'am, off we go then. Engaging sub light engines at one half power until we clear the nebula, then we'll go to full sub light."

"Very good, and in the meantime I've confirmation the Vorians have used their isotope that masks life signs on themselves so the Kih Andari will not know we have Vorians aboard once we get there."

"Good, and I also sent word to Talok asking him to bring a ship or two later on, just in case and to await Daina's signal before revealing himself. He should be in position very soon if he left immediately."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

"Good, hopefully we won't need him but it's best to be safe rather than sorry." Helina sat down in the command chair and waited, sitting up slightly straighter as the sub light engines went to max power, and very soon she could see the glowing bluish orb of the Kih Andari planet.

The planet was like any other earth type planet, the only defining features that could be seen that made it clear it was not earth were the different land masses, and the massive satellite weapon that was maybe three miles away from the Helia at the most. Also of note to Siphon was the fact that the Kih Andari planet was not very far from the Vorian planet, meaning if things went sour, they had a place of refuge with any luck. He also took note of a planet near the edge of the system that had massive radiation storms across the surface, and wondered how a planet got to be that way.

Tearing his eyes away from the sensor readings he finally said, "we have arrived in orbit, and we are being hailed by the planet. Sensors also indicate the weapon is charging up to fire. It seems they don't want us here."

"Let's put it on the main viewer then, and I'll have a talk with them."

With a nod he set the viewer up for her, and a moment later a slightly graying man appeared on the screen. Instantly he jumped at the chance to speak.

"I am President Velrok of the Kih Andari, you are in violation of our space and if you do not leave immediately we will open fire upon your vessel."

"Wait a moment please, we are here to communicate with your people after having heard you were visited by a prior of a race that calls themselves the Ori. We are seeking a bit of information regarding this."

There was a long pause and then finally the reply, "how did you hear of them and how did you know they had visited us?"

"We have our information sources along various worlds, and they reported that now a half dozen planets have had contact with these priors, and in one case almost the entire population was wiped out because they chose not to accept the word of the prior."

"I know nothing of this, however I am now curious of something. You have yet to identify yourselves, do so now."

"I am Helina of the Lantean vessel Helia. I'd be more than happy to beam down if you'd like so we can discuss this in person."

His eyes darkened as she mentioned her name, and then he practically leaped through the screen at the mention of what species she belonged to and the ship name. "Lanteans! We were told you might show up here, and we were told what you and your kind stand for, and we won't allow it." The communications link shut down abruptly and the screen went back to showing the satellite.

"OK I'm taking that isn't a good thing. Sensors indicate the weapon is almost fully charged and is targeting us."

Helina let out a short sigh. "Well, that could have gone much better, shields to maximum and bring the weapons on line, target that weapon and open fire."

Siphon raised the shields of the ship, and then brought their weapons to bear on the satellite, but a beeping noise caught their attention before he could fire. Glancing quickly he saw the reason why. The weapon had fired, and a second later the ship rocked hard as the beam of energy from it slammed into the shields. A moment later, the ship rocked even harder as the blast punched through the shields at the front of the ship, and out the other end. Sparks flew from a number of consoles, and several crew members were forcibly thrown out of their seats or across the bridge.

Helina barely managed to keep her seat, and when the shaking stopped, she barked out orders. "Evasive maneuvers, move us the hell away from that thing, return fire with all weapons!"

Siphon tried to comply with the orders, but nothing happened. "Engines aren't responding, all weapons systems are off line, and we've lost life support on decks six through twelve."

"Seal them off then! That blast cut through our shields at full strength like they weren't even there!"

"I know, they must have really upgraded since you last saw them them. Decks are sealed off and evacuated, but we are unable to return fire. Recommend we hit them with what we do have and launch the Vorian fighters."

Helina nodded and then thumbed a switch on the arm of her chair. "Attention Vorian fighters, you are clear for launch, target the satellite and use deadly force."

A brief reply came over the intercom. "We copy that and are launching now."

Mere seconds later fifteen Vorian fighters launched out of the docking bays of the Helia, and went right for the weapon, their energy blasts impacting off a shield of some kind. Banking away and circling, the fighters swung back around for a second run even as the weapon started to charge again.

"Fighters have engaged the weapon, ours are still down. With your permission I'd like to head down to the control room, I might be able to reroute power to the weapons and engines so we aren't total sitting ducks."

"Go then, and hurry!"

Siphon ran off of the bridge, and began making his way towards the control room as fast as he could, knowing every second counted now.


Daina had been following everything that had gone on with the communications, and for a moment it seemed as if it might just actually work. Then Helina had apparently said the wrong thing, and the weapon had fired on the Helia. Daina flinched when she saw the blast rip through the shields and cut a huge hole out of the front end of the ship, and barely resisted the urge to hail them. She watched as the fighters began their attacks on the satellite, seemingly to no avail, and her eyes widened in alarm when she realized the weapon was fully charged for a second shot. Her heart sank when the weapon fired it's second shot, taking a chunk out of the top of the ship, and then even further as she watched several bodies be ejected from the ship and out into space.

"Oh my god, what the hell kind of weaponry is this?" She shook her head, knowing nobody was going to answer that.


Siphon was climbing down one of the ladders when the second blast slammed head on into the ship, causing him to lose his hand grip and start plummeting down the shaft. "Son of a bitch!" With trained reflexes he managed to reach out and grab a hold of one of the ladder rungs, although he wrenched his left arm almost out of the socket in doing so. Luckily enough it would heal soon, and he somehow had managed to garb onto a rung not two feet from where he had to go anyway.

Opening the hatch and climbing out, he raced towards the control room, and upon getting there his fingers started to fly over the panels, assessing the damages to the ship. A quick internal scan showed that the Helia had taken a ton more damage from the last shot,the pathway to the bridge had collapsed completely, and deck three was open to space completely.

Feverishly working to patch key systems up, he was startled when Helina's voice came over the comm. "Siphon I need good news and I need it now."

"I need about three more minutes and we'll have at least the engines."

"I'm sorry we don't have it, that weapon is going to fire at any moment now. Give me all the power you can to the functioning transporters and take it from the shields if you have to, but I want those beams now."

"Understood, I'm on it. What about the bridge, internal sensors indicate the transporters aren't working there."

"We'll manage something, now lets get this evacuation going now!"

"Copy that, but I'm coming back to get you all out of there, Siphon out."

Managing to route the power from shields to the transporters and activate them, he then turned and made a bolt back for the bridge, not realizing that it might already be too late.


Daina watched in horror as fires raced across the ship, and then her sensors indicated multiple transporter beams a split second before Helina's voice came over her communications array. "This is the Helia to all Vorian fighters, we have begun our evacuations, I advise you get far away from the ship, and meet us at the coordinates I am sending to you on the Vorian home world."

A look of shock crossed Daina's face as she realized that meant the ship had suffered too much damage to be repairable, even as her sensors indicated that the weapon was fully charged. A moment later it opened fire, and she watched helplessly and in total agonizing horror as the beam slammed into the ship about mid section, and a moment later, she swore she could hear the ship groan in protest from it. For a wild moment she thought they would have one more shot at possibly doing something, but then to her dismay the front part of the ship began to slide.

As the front half of the ship began to slide apart from the back end of the ship, slowly at first as if trying valiantly to remain intact, small explosions ripped through the damaged area, and then in the blink of an eye with a sudden surge, the once powerful ancient warship fractured in half, and finally exploded. "No!"


Helina stood on the bridge, making sure everyone had gotten off the ship already. "Dammit Siphon, I thought I told him to get the hell off the ship. He must be trying to get back up here."

Her next words were cut off by one of the officers trapped with her. "Captain, the weapon is firing again, our hull can not survive another shot."

No sooner had he finished his words then the ship shook massively, and Helina saw a massive wall of fire coming at the two of them, and she knew that it was over, her ship had split in half from the feel of the deck plates. Her last act was one born out of defiance, and she slammed her hand down on two controls at once. The first being the activation for the transporters, beaming Siphon off the ship. The second was the comm, and she spoke a few final words to him before the beam safely got him away from the impending destruction.


Siphon slammed up against a wall as the ship was struck again, and he could feel the deck plates vibrating in a very bad way. As he stood up, Helina's voice came across the comm one final time.

"Siphon, I'm sorry, it's over. Take care of your wife, and I shall see you again someday when you finally ascend, good bye my friend."

Opening his mouth to say something, he was cut off as the transporter beam took him, and with a flash he vanished.


Daina sat inside of her ship, watching helplessly as the Helia first fractured in half, and then at last, after one final agonizing moment of hanging there, went up in a massive explosion, and then another as the hyper-drive core also exploded. The light was too bright for her to watch, and she tore her eyes away from the sight in both physical and mental pain. When the light had dimmed she glanced back over, and saw the Helia was completely gone. There was nothing left of the once mighty warship, nothing but some scattered debris from what had been blasted off.

She sat there silent for a moment, raw emotions playing through her mind. She chanced a glimpse with her mind, searching for Siphon, and only a fraction of a second later her heart completely sank. Nothing, not a single trace of him at all. "No. Oh god no, he was still on board? No!"

Slumping her head down onto the controls she sobbed quietly for a few moments before snapping to attention as a voice came over her comm. "Daina Eil'Mori, this is Sivala of the Vorian high command, if you can hear this please respond."

Doing her best to compose herself she hit the reply button and spoke shakily. "I'm here, what is it?"

"Be advised that one of our fighters reported that a single transporter beam activated just a split second before the Helia went up. We believe someone else may have gotten off the ship, but the tracking suggests that it went to the last planet in this system, which is toxic to human life under prolonged exposure. Massive radiation storms all over the planet."

Daina sat there for a moment, holding back a snappy comment as her mind processed things. Could it be possible that he had been the one to get off at the last second? It seemed possible knowing his flair for the dramatic, but why then couldn't she sense him? "Is it possible for these radiation storms you spoke of to block out telepathic links with another person?"

There was a long pause and then Sivala answered her finally. "I'm not sure Daina. I think it might be possible, but I honestly don't know for sure, we've never had reason to test that theory because we can't survive for very long on the surface of that planet. I only mention it to you because I remember something said about some of their people being able to survive that because of their physiology."

Daina shook her head. At least it was a start, but how could she find out? "I'm on my way back to the Vorian planet, once I get there we need to talk."

"Very well, we shall be waiting for you, land at these coordinates I am sending you, and I will meet you there myself."

Thanking her, Daina set a course for the planet, trying hard to keep her emotions in check as best as she could.


Mere moments after Daina had cut the transmission, four gigantic wraith hive ships and the Daina Eil'Mori burst out of hyperspace in front of her, and for a moment Daina's heart caught in her throat at the sheer size of each hive. Each one had to be a good eleven kilometers in length, at least five in width and two in depth. They were the size of a small city, she thought to herself, and a moment later Talok's face appeared on her screen.

"Greetings Daina, we came as fast as we could. Where is the Helia?"

Daina choked back a sob and composed herself long enough to reply to him. "The Helia has been destroyed by the weapon I told you about. Some of the crew beamed off, but at least the bridge crew went down with the ship, and we don't know Siphon's fate."

A dark cloud spread over Talok's features at this news as he clenched his fists in anger. He seemed about to reply to her when sensor alarms on his ship started going off. It took Daina a moment to realize that the Ori weapon, manned by the Kih Andari had powered up again, and was opening fire.

With a powerful laser blast through the empty space between it and the ships, the weapon fired on one of the hives, cutting through the unshielded ship's hull like it was nothing but tissue paper, fracturing the gigantic thing in half. Powerful, massive explosions dotted the hull of the ship as it went up in a huge fire ball, and Daina could hear Talok hiss in anger. A moment later she could hear him speaking something in Wraith, and the remaining three hive ships banked, their huge weapons ports suddenly glowing to life, targeting the satellite.

The three hive ships, which in Daina's opinion should have been called city-ships as well, spread out in an attack formation, and then without warning, all three ships opened fire on the shielded satellite weapon. Globs of blue colored energy pulses flew out of each hive's weapons ports at incredible speeds, slamming into the weapon's shields. For a brief moment it withstood the immense onslaught with defiantly glowing shields, but even it's shielding was unable to withstand the combined firepower of the three ships, and finally it exploded after a well placed plasma beam shot from the Daina Eil'Mori.

Talok's face came back onto the main screen as he finally seemed to have calmed down some. "We will meet you at the Vorian planet, apparently we all have quite a bit to discuss."

"Very well, Daina out." Cutting the channel, she fell in line behind the massive hives and the Alveran ship, and it wasn't long before she had landed near the Vorian capital city. Stepping out, she followed Talok to the designated meeting point, praying that Siphon was still alive, but knowing the chances were slim at best.


The eerie, dead silence of the planet was broken by the hum and flash of the Ancient transporter dumping Siphon on the surface of the planet. The second he was solid, he slammed into a rock face, his initial momentum still carrying even though he had been beamed off the Helia. It took him a few moments to realize he wasn't on a ship any longer, but rather on a planet, and a dead one at that.

"Oh for gods sake, where the hell am I now? I really need to start keeping a tab on all the different planets I visit."

Taking a look around he suddenly realized that he was the only one around, and despite the noxious fumes in the air, that had to be toxic, he was perfectly fine. "Oh crap, I'm at the edge of the Vorian system, this day can't possibly get any worse than what it already is."

Standing up, it suddenly hit him as to the only reason he would have wound up here after being beamed off the Helia. Something had happened before the beam had fully exited the ship, sending him elsewhere, and the only thing he knew of that could cause that would be if the Helia had been destroyed. "Oh my god, Helina must have beamed me off at the last possible second and gone down with the ship." His heart sank at this thought, and a burning rage unlike anything he had ever felt before in his life, at least that he could remember fully. Inwardly he cursed the Ori for this, and vowed to get his revenge on them. This had gone beyond the point of being able to negotiate, the first shots of a bloody war had been seen and felt, and Siphon was set on finishing it, and avenging Helina's death. He couldn't quite blame the Kih Andari for listening to the Ori, after all if Helina had been right, the Ori likely had threatened to wipe out their people if they didn't worship them. Still however, the penalty for their involvement would need to be paid, although he had no idea what kind of penalty would be fair at this point.

Beginning to walk, more so to keep himself from going insane looking at the scorched ground and thick air, he started to formulate what he could make out of his energy pistols and the communication crystal. He knew it was unlikely he could use the crystal in it's current state to get a message out with all the charged electrical activity in the air, and even less likely he could find any kind of food or water on this dead planet. He continued to walk and think, oblivious to what was going on elsewhere in the solar system.


Daina and Talok hadn't gone far when they were met by a worried looking Sivala. Running up to them, she quietly motioned for them to follow her inside of a small building. Once they had entered, Sivala finally spoke.

"From the sensor logs of our fighter that recorded the transport beam we have been able to determine that someone did in fact get off the Helia before she exploded. The beam appears to have gone in the vicinity of the last planet in our solar system, which as you both know is covered in ion storms, and massive radiation fields. For most humanoids, that planet is a death sentence to end up there, however, according to what I remember, Siphon shouldn't be affected by it at all because of his symbiote." A second as she paused and then she said with a slightly hesitant tone, "assuming of course that it is Siphon down there. If it isn't then whoever it was is almost certainly dead by now."

Daina blankly stared at her, wondering how the woman could remain so calm at a time like this before realizing that for her, watching friends, family and allies perish in explosive deaths like that probably was a recurring theme for her. She wondered if Sivala was totally numb to the pain, or if she felt it but would grieve later because there was still a chance one other may have lived that needed to be brought home. She suspected Sivala would mourn the dead later after carefully watching her for a few more seconds, and then she herself replied. "Alright, well now that we have confirmed that someone did get off that ship alive, and we know the likely spot they went to, what are our options? I'm guessing we won't be able to pick up his life readings from orbit because of the electrical interference in the atmosphere. How do we determine if he really is down there, and get him off even if we do?"

"I'm not sure, our sensors aren't capable of piercing that interference, and even if they were, none of our ships would survive long enough without shields to pick him up before being struck by the lightning and brought down." Sivala clenched her hand in frustration, nearly gritting her teeth before a sudden spark caught in her eyes. Turning to Talok she bluntly said, "is your ship, the one of Ancient design identical to what the Helia was?"

Talok inclined his head for a moment before replying, "yes of course, each Alveran ship is based off their designs. The only real difference is that the Alveran ships distribute their power more efficiently, and are therefore stronger in combat and more likely to survive a direct assault for longer than the Ancient warships are, why?"

Sivala carefully thought for a moment before replying slowly. "Well the only reason I ask is because the Ancient warship was said to have a set of what they called rings, capable of being activated for transport while a ship's shields were still active. If your ships have something similar to those, could they not be used to ring him up should you find him? Once you get low enough into the atmosphere your sensors may be able to penetrate through the electrical interference, at least in theory they should."

Daina shot a look at Talok, who for his part stared blankly at Sivala for a moment before finally replying.

"You may have a point there, the rings shouldn't have any trouble bringing him aboard through the shields, they were designed to beam with them up any way, and with the shields up we shouldn't have any trouble flying through that storm. The only question left then is can we make it there before the Kih Andari realize what we're up to. Considering the fact we just destroyed their weapon, I'm a little surprised they haven't already launched a counter-attack with a fleet. We have to assume they will at some point, and I'd like to have Siphon back before they decide to lash back."

Sivala nodded at this and simply stated, "agreed. We need to move now while we can, I'm telling you to go now, I will deal with the council regarding the matter, and as far as I am concerned, you are not of our people, meaning you can come and go as you please. I doubt they will give any problems with it, but you must go now, every second you waste is another second we lose to bring him back before all hell breaks loose."

Daina stood and started to walk out before turning back and adding, "wait, what if the Kih Andari attack while we are gone?"

Talok apparently had already thought of that, because his reply was almost immediate. "We only need the Daina Eil'Mori, not the hives. I'll leave the hives in a hidden orbit, and should the Kih Andari attack, each hive will dispatch sizable waves of darts to attack them. No matter the number they send at you, they will be out numbered vastly."

Nods were exchanged, and without any more words, Talok beamed both himself and Daina to his ship, while Sivala went off to speak with the council. As the Daina Eil'Mori broke orbit, forty plus Kih Andari ships began to head for the Vorian planet.


Sivala had just reached the council chambers and informed them of the plan when every single proximity alarm possible went off. One look at the screen confirmed what they already suspected. The Kih Andari had launched a massive counter-strike. Everyone in the room watched in awe as the massive hive ships suddenly just appeared, and launched their fighters, and it became evident that not only were the Kih Andari out manned in total fleet size, but they were also outclassed by the Wraith's more maneuverable darts. To make things even more unfair, the massive weapons that fired from each hive sent blasts of energy that were at least the size of the Kih Andari cruisers. Their fleet was reduced by half in a matter of minutes, and further smashed by the Daina Eil'Mori, who carved a path through enemy lines and made a small sub-light jump, pushing ahead and out of the pack, vanishing into the depths of the system with one final blue plasma beam to mark it's departure. The Kih Andari were unfortunate enough to have a ship directly in the path of the beam, and it was carved in half by the shot, and exploded in a massive fireball, not unlike what they had done to the Helia.

The fight raged on for what seemed like an hour, but when it was all over, Sivala was shocked to see the entire thing had lasted a mere ten minutes. The Wraith ships had thoroughly decimated the second largest fleet the Kih Andari had ever used in an attack, and in shorter time than the Vorians had ever seen. She whispered a silent prayer that they were on her side, and not her enemy before resuming her talks with the others.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

After having broken through the Kih Andari's lines, the Daina Eil'Mori accelerated to maximum sub-light speeds, and very soon it had reached the planet they wanted to search. Banking sharply the ship began it's descent into the planet's atmosphere, the shields absorbing numerous lightning strikes from the heavily charged air as they got lower and lower. Daina could literally see the flashing blue glow of the shields flaring up each time, and she swore she could hear a dull thumping noise each time, likely her imagination, but she couldn't be certain.

Talok sat at one of the consoles, constantly scanning for anything that might indicate the presence of someone alive on the surface, but so far nothing had come up. He silently seethed at how long this was taking, and decided to take the ship a little lower to increase the effectiveness of their scans. Pressing a few buttons, the ship altered course, and then suddenly, one of the sensors went off. Bolting upright out of the chair at the same time Daina did from her seat, he stared at the readout on the screen. Less than three miles from them, a single humanoid life reading, strong and constant. "Well it certainly looks like something, or someone is alive down there. I'm not taking any chances though, Daina take this stunner just in case. If it isn't Siphon we beam up, and it acts hostile, don't hesitate to shoot it."

Daina nodded once, not needing to speak for the wraith to know she understood him. Gripping the stunner, she silently prayed that whatever they were about to ring aboard was Siphon, and not a Kih Andari that somehow was down there.

Talok set the ship to fly to the proper spot, and once they were in position he fired up the thrusters to keep them in one spot. That done, and their position stable, he activated the rings and prayed.


Siphon wasn't sure how long he had been walking for before he finally decided he should sit down and rest some. He was preparing to do just that when a strange hum broke through the thunder in the air. Straining to hear whatever it was, he realized as the noise got louder that it sounded a lot like the thrusters of a ship overhead. Snapping his head upward to look, he spotted an Alveran ship cruise over him, and then take up a stationary orbit right above him, almost as if it were lining up for something. He considered trying to pick up a rock or something and toss it at the bottom of the ship, but he figured the shields were up and it would do no good. The point became moot a second later when he spotted a set of rings coming down at him. Shaking his head he muttered, "thats gotta be Talok, he's the only crazy son of a gun I know of who would try a ring transport in the middle of a lightning storm."

The rings dropped down around him, and for a moment he blacked out as the matter stream carried him from the surface into the ring room aboard the Daina Eil'Mori. His first sight upon becoming solid again was Daina, holding a wraith stunner out in front of her, not five feet from him. He smiled when he saw her, glad that she hadn't been targeted by the Ori weapon. "I'm glad to see you love."

The second he materialized, Daina's heart leapt into her throat, and she almost staggered at the sudden reconnection of their link. Once she had recovered she ran right at him and threw her arms around him, just holding him for a moment before saying, "dammit Siphon you need to stop it with these close calls! I thought this time I wasn't going to see you alive again."

He smiled and held her for a moment before reminding her, "I know, but remember, if I die, I ascend and you'll know if that happens, because I will come to see you before joining the others."

She just shook her head at him, trying hard not to smile. He didn't need to hear her speak to know she'd been very worried, and upset. It went unspoken between them how devastating it would be for her if she lost him for good, especially so soon after having lost Diana again. There was a long moment of silence before she finally broke it. "Well I guess you probably figured by now that the Helia was destroyed. You were the last one to make it off, none of the bridge crew made it off that ship alive."

"Yeah I know, Helina was the one that beamed me off at the last second I think. Despite their role in this, I can't find it in me to really hate the Kih Andari though. I understand that others may not feel that way because of the civil war, but the only real reason they attacked the Helia was because of the Ori. I worry though, with the loss of that weapon if the Ori return to find that, if they will wipe out the Kih Andari for failing them."

"We may not know for some time. Come, we should get back to Vorian and discuss our next move in this. It looks like we may not be able to avoid an all out war this time." Daina let out a long sigh, resigned to the fact this time not even her negotiating skill could help.

"Yeah, and once we have, I think if we catch a break in the action we should spend some time together. Gods knows it could be a long time before we get another chance."

This made her smile back at him and she whispered softly to him, "I look forward to it then."

Exiting the ring room, they returned to Talok, who was quite relieved to see Siphon, and made their way back to the Vorian home world, having no idea of what else was to come.


Word had come from one of their worshiper's not too long ago from the Stargate. The Kih Andari had destroyed the ancient warship Helia, only to lose the weapon to another, more powerful version of their ships, as well as three that called themselves wraith. The Doci had the sensor readings from the final minutes of the weapon itself, and had gone over them twice now. He grinned to himself as he realized their shielding could be fixed to keep those weapons from piercing through again, which would help the fleet currently under construction.

He then turned his attention to a more important task. It was widely known that the largest threats in that galaxy would be the Ingrali, the Asgard and the descendants of the Ancients, the Alveran's themselves. Somehow they needed to find a way of preventing the Alveran's from using their highly advanced weaponry against the Ori ships. While the Doci believed their shields would hold even under that kind of weaponry, he had been instructed to find a way of shutting them down, which would effectively neutralize the largest threat that existed. It was already figured that since the Alveran shields could withstand both the Asgard and Ingrali weapons, that Ori ships would have no trouble matching that feat. It took him a while, but eventually he found a frequency of sorts on an electromagnetic spectrum that would shut down the Alveran weapons, thus making them dead weight in a fight. Adding the design to the list of things to be built into the fleet, he returned to his chambers to meditate and consult with the others.


Vanessa woke with a start, in some kind of brightly colored room. She looked around rapidly, trying to understand what was going on before suddenly memories rushed back to her. Her eyes widened as she realized she must still be on the Ori planet, and her first thought was to make a break for it. After a moment to think though she realized she probably wouldn't get far, and even if she could make it to the Stargate, she had no idea how to dial the milky way galaxy from where she was.

She settled back against the bed, resigning herself to the fact that at least for now, she couldn't make a break for it. It was then that she realized her stomach was much larger than it should be, and her eyes widened as she semi-recalled the Doci, having been possessed by the other Ori mentioning that she would be the vessel for their human leader. Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle the scream she felt welling up in her throat, and she knew immediately they had impregnated her.

"Oh my god. No, oh god no. Dammit, those bastards really weren't fooling around when they said they had grand plans. Shit, and I can't even escape from here, what the hell am I going to do now." She warred with herself for a few minutes before realizing there was only one thing she could do. Settling her nerves, she started to speak low, and clearly, activating the transmission device Siphon had implanted into her body.

"Siphon, I hope to god that you get this, because the shit has really hit the fan. I don't know how much time I have to send this, so I'll be as brief and as fast as possible. You were right about the Ori, on everything. They are building ships of war to make a run at our galaxy, possibly even Alverus itself. Somewhere out there, the Ori have a working super gate, of that I am certain. Also, they seem to have found a way of getting past the ascended ancients to use their knowledge in our galaxy by impregnating me with an Ori in the body of a human. I'd guess I'm about five months or so pregnant at the time I am recording this, and I have no way to get out of here. I will assume if I haven't given birth by the time they invade, that I'll be on one of the ships that comes through the super gate. Siphon, it pains me to say this, but I want it to be clear, if the chance presents itself to prevent this abomination of the Ori from getting a chance to fulfill their plans, I want you to take it. Even if it means destroying those ships with me on board still. This can not be allowed to go any further than what it has."

She suddenly broke off as a strange feeling invaded her mind. She shook her head, trying to clear it, and when she opened her eyes again, there was the grinning, glowing face of the Ori in fire form before her. Vanessa's eyes widened in horror as the mass of fire, which was actually energy she realized, reached out for her. She tried uselessly to avoid it by backing up as far as she could on the bed, at least until her back brushed up against the headboard of it. She screamed when it touched her, waves of unimaginable, impossible pleasure ripped through her body, and for a moment she thought they were raping her. It was only after she had gone limp from the intense, impossible pleasure that she realized they were feeding energy into her, probably for her child and not her. Her last conscious thought before slipping into the blackness that rushed up to claim her was that the recording was still active, and she prayed to god that when she passed out it would send, or this would be all for nothing. After another moment or so, she thought no more as she passed out, her body spasming from the massive amounts of ascended energy coursing through her, and indeed, all around her, filling the room and her at the same time.


The Ori channeled their powers, manipulating the DNA of the young woman's child again, as they had done many times already since impregnating her. They weren't entirely pleased that she had woken up enough to send the message, or be coherent enough to realize what was happening to her, but in the long run it wouldn't matter. Let the message get through, it would do the evil in the milky way no good anyway. Though perhaps it would send a message to others and make things easier for them, though they doubted it. A quick glance around the planet, using their powers confirmed what they already knew. The first wave of ships were almost finished, and the super gate was in place. Soon the invasion would begin, and none would stand in the way of origin, or the Ori.

Refocusing on the woman and her unborn child, they continued to apply the next stage of changes in the DNA. When the Orici was born, she would age rapidly, becoming a fully grown woman in about a day or so time. Their only regret with this course of action was that the human body couldn't handle more power or knowledge than she would already get from them. While it was true she would be an Ori in a human body, she would not be invincible like they were. She would need the forces of the priors and their followers to help her reach her goals. This of course had been seen to, and a special amulet had been crafted that would protect her from any kind of harm so long as she wore it. The device would have a nearly unlimited power supply, although it was possible it could eventually be drained of it's power, but they were completely certain by the time that happened, the milky way galaxy would be worshiping them, or a smoldering pile of rubble should they refuse.

With one final shudder of her body, they released her and gently moved her into a sleeping position on the bed before leaving. There would only be two more of these channeling sessions, after which the alterations would be complete. After they were done, she would be placed on one of their ships, and sent back to her home galaxy to witness their conversion, or destruction.


The Kara emerged from hyperspace over Earth in a swirl of brightly colored lights, cruising into high orbit. Siphon smiled at Daina as they walked towards the transporter room. After the events surrounding the destruction of the Helia, things had been quiet for several months. The only thing of note had been a brief transmission a month ago from Vanessa, a message that had left his skin crawling. The idea that the Ori had a working super gate out there somewhere was troubling enough, but the scream of pleasure she had belted out just before it cut off abruptly was still giving him terrible nightmares when he slept. Daina had been with him when he had received it, and she had shuddered just as bad as he had at the sound of Vanessa screaming. Both of them couldn't shake the question of, if she was already pregnant with the Ori's child, then why had she screamed like that? Neither one of them had an answer for that.

Siphon paused a moment to reflect on all that had gone on in the past few months. First the Vorians had pledged their help should the Ori show, and the Kih Andari had been dealt with. The Tollan had agreed to help as well, and had helped Siphon install a few new things to his ship as a test. The Kara now came equipped with twelve rail gun ports that could fire bullet type weapons at incredible speeds, as well as four missile launchers. Each launcher carried an armory of Nevaria enhanced nuclear missiles, the idea borrowed from watching nuclear tests conducted on Earth. After testing them to be certain they worked, he had sent the designs to his people, and every ship in their fleet had been upgraded to include the cannons and launchers on them.

Daina looked at him for a moment, tilting her head as if to remind him their allies, all of them, even the Ingrali were looking for the super gate Siphon smiled, and then his thoughts turned to somewhat happier thoughts.

They had returned to Earth after two months of silence, and no Ori activity to rest. Another month had passed and when nothing had been forthcoming, he had finally given Shade, Sho, Zaleia and Anastasia the chance to choose where they wanted to take their vacations. It had taken two weeks of planning and charting, but they had all finally managed to work something out. Shade and Sho had gone to Risal, a lush tropical paradise like planet, and for some strange reason, also uninhabited. It was only accessible by ship, and therefore a perfect hideaway for the two of them.

Zaleia and Anastasia on the other hand had finally decided on taking a trip to Velok Prime, Vanessa's home world That had brought up the thought of her yet again, but he hadn't said anything. They all had planned to take a three week vacation each, and then at that time Siphon would come and pick them all up and bring them home.

It was now about a week and a half into that vacation, and Siphon had taken the opportunity to have another Alveran ship come to Earth and restock his supply of Nevaria, as well as bring a few extra Z.P.M's. He had the feeling the defense platform he had set up in Antarctica would eventually be put to use against the Ori, and since it needed a Z.P.M to power it, he had jumped at the chance to have a few spares brought to him. The Diana was still in orbit for some reason, and he suspected that the crew was just relaxing some before making the trip back to Pegasus.

His thoughts turned to the present, and he smiled slightly at Daina again. He had convinced Elissia to come aboard and actually see what he did when he vanished from the school. It hadn't been easy, because she seemed to be a bit against him because of how he had once been towards her when he had been possessed by the rogue sentinel, but she had finally agreed to it under the condition that she come with her sword. Siphon had simply given in at that point and told her that was fine. He suspected she thought he might try to attack her or something, or that she was just coming prepared in case something went wrong. A quick glance at a sensor panel told him it was time, and he activated the beam, and Elissia appeared in a flash of sparkling white light.


Elissia blinked once, not quite sure what had just happened. One moment she had been tapping her foot against the floor of her room, and now she was staring at Siphon and the blue haired woman, who if she recalled correctly was his wife, Daina. She bowed slightly to them both, still a little stunned at the sudden change of scenery.

Siphon returned the short bow to her and said, "welcome aboard the Kara, Elissia."

"Thank you, I think. How did you manage that though?"

"It's a direct energy transporting beam. Basically it..." He was cut off when she raised her hand to him and spoke herself.

"Thats all I needed to hear, I'm familiar enough with some of the sci-fi stuff to understand what an energy transporter is. So then, you said you could take me to see other planets? I'll admit, at first I didn't care, but the more I think about it, the more I have to admit, I am curious to see how different some of these planets look compared to ours."

"Alright, we can get started immediately then." He turned to Daina and took her arm, motioning for Elissia to follow them before walking out of the room and to the bridge. It wasn't long before they made it there, and Siphon sat down in the chair, set a course for a planet only five hundred light years from them, and engaged the hyper drive.

Elissia's eyes widened as the space before them distorted, and suddenly they were enveloped by a green/blue colored tunnel. She had to admit, while it was disturbing to see, it was also beautiful in it's own way. "What is this?"

"It's called a hyperspace tunnel. We travel through subspace to reach our destination at faster than light speeds. With the current power supply we can travel from Earth, clean out of the milky way galaxy to the neighboring Pegasus galaxy in just about three hours."

Elissia didn't know much about faster than light stuff, but she knew full well that the distance he was talking about was huge. "Three hours? Wow, thats pretty damn fast. Not sure of how much distance we're talking there, but I know it's quite a bit."

"Three million light years." Siphon trailed off as the Kara dropped back out into normal space, taking up orbit over a lush, jungle type planet, with sprawling oceans dominating most of it's surface. "Welcome to a planet we have designated as P5X-777. It is five hundred light years from Earth."

Just as Elissia was about to reply, she was cut off by Daina speaking. "Siphon, if I'm reading this console right you have an emergency transmission coming in from a Tokra ship."

Siphon blinked, stunned at this and then said to Elissia, "excuse me one moment." Walking over to the console he hit a button and the image of a human came on the screen.

When he spoke, it was with a notable flang in his voice, indicative of the symbiote he carried, which was similar to Siphon's cralnek. "I am Tovan of the Tokra. We stopped to investigate an anomalous energy reading near the planet you call P3R-257. When we arrived the planet was gone, and this was in it's place." An image flickered next to his, showing a massive ring hanging in space.

It was Daina's turn to blink, and beside her, Elissia also seemed stunned, even though she had no idea what she was looking at. Finally Daina said, "is that what I think it is?"

Siphon set his jaw and nodded once. "A fully formed super gate Looks like Vanessa was right, and from all the readings your ship has taken Tovan, I'd say it's fully functional too. Alert the rest of our allies, we need to be ready for this."

"I've already sent a copy of what we have to everyone I can, and as we speak a fleet is being formed and will arrive here within the next ten minutes or so."

"Very well, we'll meet you there shortly, I have one stop we need to make first, and a call to put in. Siphon out."

Cutting off the transmission he turned to Elissia and said, "well, looks like your going to get more than you bargained for. We have just enough time to pick up Shade and Sho and then get to that super gate I'm sorry, I don't have time to drop you back off at Earth. By all indications that damn thing is fully functional, and the Ori could dial in at any time. We need to be ready if they do."

To his surprise she didn't protest, but rather nodded and said softly, "if what you told me before is any indication, any delay could prove costly, I understand."

He smiled gratefully at her, then set a course for Risal to get Shade and Sho before telling Daina and Elissia the plan.

"Alright, we're picking up Shade and Sho from Risal, we may need the extra two people to help patch things if there is a fight. Once we get them we will make all speed for that gate, and hopefully we can find a way of tying it up before they can dial in, or even destroy it."

Daina jumped in with a question fast before anyone could say anything else. "What about Anastasia and Zaleia though? Are we leaving them on Velok Prime?"

Siphon shook his head and said, "I'm going to be contacting the Diana, I'll have them pick up Anastasia and Zale on their way to the super gate Means they'll arrive after we do, but we'll have to make do."

After she nodded, he opened a channel to the Diana and informed them of the situation, and his request for them to pick up the two women. He also informed the captain of the ship when he had them on board to tell them Siphon had sent them, and why. After that, he signed off and waited for the Kara to arrive at Risal.


Shade and Sho had just finished taking a relaxing swim and gotten dressed when they heard a strange hum in the air. A moment later they both appeared in a flash of sparkling white light on the bridge of the Kara. Sho's eyes narrowed when she saw Siphon's face, and she opened her mouth to say something when Shade beat her to it.

"Jesus Christ man, you didn't even call us first, we could have been nude or something when you beamed us up." He trailed off his tirade though when he saw the look on Siphon's face, and felt the ship kick back into hyperspace almost immediately. "OK scratch that, what the hell is going on?"

Siphon pulled up the image sent by the Tokra ship onto the main viewer where they could see it and simply said, "we just got word from a Tokra ship near P3R-257. They were investigating a strange energy reading, and found this. It's a fully formed Ori super gate, and by all indications, it's fully functional. We're to meet up with them, and as many ships as we can muster to mount a defensive point should the Ori come through. I've already asked another Alveran ship to pick up your sisters, and meet us there."

Sho sat down in a chair near Siphon, and looked over to him, measuring for a moment. He was tense, that was for sure, and beyond that, he looked pissed as all hell. Finally she spoke and said, "so this is it then? They're going to try and invade?"

"It certainly seems that way. Guess we'll know for certain in a few minutes. Dropping out of hyperspace now."

The Kara exploded out of hyperspace and cruised towards the small fleet that had already gathered. Even as they moved closer, thirty more ships showed up at once. The allied fleet now numbered fifty, counting the Kara and the original Tokra ship. Twenty Ha'tak class ships, ten Asgard ships, ten Ingrali ships, four Vorian ships, five Tollan ships, and now the Kara lined in formation near the gate. As the five on the bridge stood, they were taken aback by the sheer size of the super gate.

Sho let out a low whistle and said aloud, "wow, that thing is huge! I wonder just how big that damn thing is."

A beep from an incoming transmission cut off any reply that might have been forthcoming, and Siphon opened a channel. The same Tokra who had hailed them before appeared on screen and spoke.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

"I am Tovan of the Tokra. It was my ship who discovered the super gate You should be aware that before you arrived we already made an attempt to destroy the gate. Our combined forces had no effect."

Shade briefly muttered, "oh shit," before shutting up and watching as multiple conversations went back and forth, as the fleet steadily grew larger, and Siphon continued to talk with the others. All the rest of them could do was take a seat, and pray that things didn't go to hell.


Anastasia and Zaleia had just gotten back from one of the shops on Velok Prime and returned to their room when the air was filled with the hum of a transporter activating. Zale immediately was primed for combat, and the second she materialized she was ready to move, but stopped dead when she saw a man sitting in a command chair, hands pointed out to her to show he was unarmed.

"I am Captain Soval of the Alveran ship Diana. Anastasia, Zaleia I will assume based on the locater beacons we got? Siphon sent us to pick you up, and said you would understand this message. The super gate has been found, the Ori are coming."

Both women exchanged a look, knowing what that meant. Zaleia stood down her stance and simply nodded before asking, "alright, what can we do to help then?"

"Right now, I'm afraid nothing, but if this goes sour, that might change. Best I can say is find a seat here on the bridge and park it until the shit hits the fan, which it probably will. Helm, set course for the super gate and engage the drive. Lets hope we get there before the Ori crash our party."

The Diana surged ahead into open space, and jumped to hyperspace, the crew unaware of what was taking place already.


Twenty hive ships had emerged from hyperspace only mere moments ago, bringing the total to seventy nine ships sitting at the super gate, ready for a fight. The Asgard had suggested replacing one of the crystals on the gate with a new one, in an attempt to dial out before the Ori could dial in. Not to Siphon's surprise, Sivala had offered to go. After some debate, the green light was given, and Sivala had been beamed onto the super gate

Now Sivala stood on the gate, having just replaced the crystal with their own, when something began to happen. The gate began to crackle with energy, and she lost the magnetic lock on it. "OK guys, something is going on, I just lost my mag-locks."

Siphon's head snapped up at that, and over the comm he heard one of the Vorians say, "it's an incoming wormhole, I've lost the lock on Sivala."

Siphon pushed the button on the comm and spoke, "Sivala how you doing out there? Sivala?"

A moment later, the super gate became charged, and a vortex larger than even the hive ships shot out as the super gate formed it's wormhole. A few seconds later the vortex slammed back inside of the gate, and when they could all see past the bright light, a wavering blue event horizon had formed, and it was clear the super gate had been dialed in.

Just mere seconds after the activation, the Diana exploded out of hyperspace, and instantly Soval was on the grid to find out what was going on.

"This is Captain Soval of the Diana, what's our status?"

Siphon was the one that answered him quickly. "We have an incoming wormhole, I would suggest you prepare for a fight."

"Understood, we'll keep the channel open. Here they come."

As all eyes of the fleet turned to look back at the super gate, the first of the Ori ships came barreling out of it. Sho's eyes widened in total awe at the size of it. It had to be at least the size of Alaska, if not larger, and her jaw almost hit the ground when three more just like it followed out, taking up positions in front of the gate, the center of each glowing a light blue color for some reason.

"Holy shit," breathed Elissia. "Those things are huge!"

A voice from one of the other ships came across the comm and said, "they've activated some kind of E.M.P field, the drones and plasma weapons are off line because of it. They also just powered up their weapons."

Siphon hit the button on his communications array one final time and spoke with a trace of both anger, and remorse in his voice. "OK, here we go, all ships this is Siphon. All batteries open fire!"

The sight was one to behold, as all eighty allied ships began firing their weapons. From the Alveran ships came blasts from the rail gun batteries and the nuclear missiles, since their energy weapons were being jammed somehow by the Ori ships. From the Gou'ald ships came orange plasma cannon bursts, green energy blasts from the Vorian and Ingrali ships, blue globs of energy from the hives, blue missile like energy projectiles from the Asgard ships, and bright red energy blasts from the Tollan ships. As the first of the shots reached the Ori ships, their shields flared into being with magnificent color, and then, the Ori returned fire.

All four Ori ships fired at once, targeting different targets. Bright yellow beams of pure energy flew out of the large indent on each ship, and the beam itself was easily the size of the Kara itself. One slammed into each of the Alveran ships, another into one of the Asgard ships, and still a forth into a Gou'ald ship. While sparks flew from the consoles of the Kara, she weathered the hit quite well, as did her sister ship and the Asgard ship. The Gou'ald ship didn't fare as well though as it's shields flared up, and ultimately were punched through, the pyramid ship exploding into a massive fireball from the single shot.

When the sparks had cleared, Siphon could hear various reports of damage coming in from other ships that had been fired on by a second and third round of fire from the Ori ships. Above all of them though he heard an officer on the Diana shout out, "shields down to fifty percent, we've lost main power. Switching to back-up generators now!"

The fight continued to rage on, their weapons seemingly having no effect on the Ori shields, and even the hive ships were taking a pounding. The Gou'ald and Tokra ships had been reduced to mostly rubble in space, and only two of them were still intact, but both of those were adrift and at the mercy of the Ori ships. Survivors from those ships that had been blown up had begun to ring over to other, less damaged ships that had rings.

From one of the Vorian ships he heard, "we just lost our sub light engines captain."

"Redirect power to the engines, begin evasive maneuvers!"

Still more shots flew through space, many of them striking the gargantuan Ori ships, but none seeming to do any real damage to them at all. The Ori continued their attack, blasting apart a few Vorian and Tollan ships in the process.

The allied fleet had been cut down to about twenty ships left when suddenly multiple hyperspace windows opened behind the Ori ships. Ten Draque and ten Enoly warships emerged and started firing on the Ori ships the second they could do so, causing each ships shields to flare up brightly. A voice cut through from one of the Draque ships.

"Apologizes for our late arrival my friends."

Siphon cut in and replied, "better late than never Sivok, heads up these ships are no pushovers."

"Understood. We are detecting fluctuations in their shields every time they fire their own weapons, but they don't seem to be enough for us to penetrate with weapons. However you might be able to use rings to beam explosives on board."

"Thanks for the tip Sivok, it's been forwarded to the fleet."

With that the battle continued on, as two of the Ori ships turned around to face the newcomers, while the other two continued to blast away at the original fleet. Three more Vorian ships and Six Tollan ships went up in fireballs, leaving the fleet with about eleven left, plus the twenty additional that the Draque and Enoly had brought to play.


As soon as Soval had heard Sivok's comment about beaming weapons on board, he had a plan. Turning to Zale and Anastasia he said, "you two wanted something to do, now is your chance. Follow Major Evans down to the ring room, and help her load some of the nukes for transport. It's time to go all in, we're just getting our asses kicked anyway. Helm take us closer to the nearest enemy ship!"

Anastasia and Zaleia nodded, racing after the Major to the ring room, even as four more of their allied ships went up in flames. A minute or two later they reached the room and began to load the nuke onto the ring platform, while Major Evans started working on the ring transport activator. They had nearly finished getting it set up when all hell broke loose.

The ship suddenly rocked violently, and sparks flew all over the place, followed by hissing air from a hull breach. The warhead was torn from both Anastasia and Zaleia's grips and they were slammed into the floor on top of each other, right inside of the rings. The last thing they saw was Evans hit the panel that activated the rings, just before the ceiling caved in on her, crushing her to death instantly.


Sho watched in horror as the Diana made a bee line for the nearest Ori ship, intent on beaming a nuke on to one of them. Suddenly though out of the corner of her eye she saw two blasts from different ships fly out, both targeting the Diana. Her shields flared up brightly as the first shot was absorbed, but before the shields could recover a second shot slammed into them, and with one last flare, her shields collapsed, and the ship exploded. Shade staggered as the ship went up in a massive explosion, and Sho dropped to the ground, feeling like someone had just punched her in the face. "Oh my god, Zale and Ana, no!"

Elissia and Daina both stared in horror, eyes wide and unmoving at the sight, and Elissia had to fight back the rage she felt. She didn't know these people well at all, but they seemed like they were doing the right thing and trying to help, and these Ori had just mercilessly slaughtered all of them.

Shade's eyes started to take on a demonic darkness to them, but he was rudely snapped out of it when another blast from the Ori ships smashed into the Kara, lurching the deck at an impossible angle and slamming them all into the floor.

Sho came down hard, hitting her head hard on the floor, and just before she blacked out from the pain, she swore she saw the lights on the bridge go out completely.

Elissia and Daina both slammed hard into one of the control panels behind them, blacking out from the pain, and even Shade went limp as his head struck the wall at full force.

Siphon fared slightly better, his head slamming at an awkward angle against the command chair, and for a moment he blacked out himself.


Outside of the Kara, which now hung adrift in space, the last of the attacking allied ships was blasted into oblivion by the Ori warships. After several moments pause, they left intact one ship of each species, barely operational to spread the word of what had happened. Slowly, as if daring the other ships to try and stop them, the massive warships moved away from the mass graveyard, and out into space.

Aboard one of the ships, Vanessa had woken up again, and had watched the entire fight take place. It had taken just under fifteen minutes for the Ori to completely smash the largest allied fleet she had ever seen, and she tried not to cry in frustration. Her anger and shock was interrupted however by a solid twinge of pain from her stomach, and she realized it was time finally. Her child wasn't going to wait any longer, the contractions had been getting stronger and closer to each other for almost a day now, and Vanessa knew she couldn't fight nature. She did the only thing she could do at that point. She cried out for help to the guard she knew would be outside the door, yelling that she was about to give birth before collapsing onto the bed in pain. What passed for Ori nurses rushed into the room, setting up fast and preparing to deliver their Orici, and through it all, Vanessa couldn't think of anything at all but the pain she was in, or the fact that she desperately wanted this child out of her, now.

Elsewhere on the ship, a set of rings activated and deposited two female bodies on top of each other, before retracting into the deck plating. Both stood shakily and looked around, instantly recognizing they were on board one of the enemy ships. Exchanging looks of worry, the quickly made for the door in an attempt to get out of sight before someone saw them, trying to figure out at the same time how they were going to get off of this ship, and more importantly, how they were going to get a message to their friends that they were still alive.

With one final sensor sweep assuring the ships their victory was secure, the four Ori ships opened hyperspace windows, vanishing into the blue tunnel of hyperspace, and leaving behind the mass graveyard they had created. Their concerns now turned to securing their first planet in the galaxy, and with the Orici about to be born, their crusade finally began.


Sivala drifted through space after having been tossed off the super gate from the massive amounts of energy that went through it. The gate had shut down about ten minutes ago, leaving her able to finally see what was in front of her. She started to weep slightly at the site of so many ships broken and smashed, and no sign of the Ori ships. A brief flash off in the distance caught her eye, and she realized they were hyperspace windows. "So the Ori won the fight, and moved on it seems," she muttered to herself.

She floated there for a long time, she wasn't sure how much time passed until finally there was a crackle of static.

"This is Sivok of the Draque, calling any other ships who are still out there and can respond. Please do so if you are able to."

Sivala wasn't sure if she could trust the Draque, but she figured she didn't have much of a choice. She was saved from doing so when another voice broke over the channel.

"Sivok, this is Siphon, glad to see your alive still. What's your status?"

"We've restored most of our basic operating systems, but the majority of our long range arrays are still off line, as well as the hyper drive You?"

"Main power is back up, most of our primary systems are back on line Hyper drive is a bit away, and the transporters are still down, but I think we will be alright. Most of the other ships have sent their survivors over here, the only other one that wasn't too badly damaged besides ours was the Asgard ship. It left a little while ago to track the Ori ships and find out where they were heading. I have to say though, life support systems are taxed as it is. We've got a day, maybe less with them without the main power fully functioning to it, and thats only if we don't take on more survivors."

Sivala broke in finally and said, "this is Sivala to either Sivok or Siphon, if you can hear me please respond."

There was a long silence before she got a reply. "This is Siphon, it's good to hear from you Sivala. Where are you?"

"I'm drifting about three hundred meters off the right side of the super gate I don't suppose there is any way anyone can get me over to one of the ships is there?"

"I'm afraid neither ship has beaming capabilities at the moment, we've got survivors from other ships helping to patch the systems up though. I'll turn you folks over to talking to Daina, I'll head down and work on the beam myself, see if we can get you over here faster."

"Alright, and no pressure, but I've only got about an hour of life support left. I'm going to shut the radio talk down for now to conserve what I have left."

"Copy that, we'll radio you as soon as we can, Siphon out."


Siphon closed the link and turned to Daina. "Keep an eye open for anything we might want to know about and call me if anything comes up. Elissia if you would please handle the influx of any other survivors and ask them to beam over to the Draque ship for now, and see if you can re-establish contact with the wraith hive ship thats still out there. Sho and Shade, you two come with me please."

Nods were exchanged and they all broke to do what needed to be done, with Siphon, Shade and Sho making their way to the transporter control room.

Elissia sat on the bridge, having to check with Daina every so often about how to work the channels properly, and finally made a breakthrough, getting in touch with the wraith hive.

"This is Elissia on board the Alveran ship Kara, calling the wraith hive ship directly in front of us, please respond."

A moment passed and then a reply. "This is Volok of the hive ship, we can read you now. We just restored main power. It has taken some time to get systems back on line, with the priority being hull regeneration."

"Thats good to hear, I don't suppose you'd be able to take on survivors and help take the strain off our life support systems would you? We're overtaxed as it is."

"Of course, as soon as you can beam them over we can take them over here. We'll route all the remaining survivors to come here instead, that way you save what you have."

"Thank you, I'll inform Siphon then, Elissia out." She paused a moment making sure the channel was closed then said to Daina, "OK that was strange, when I woke up today I honestly didn't think this would be what I was doing."

Daina nodded slightly, keeping an eye on the sensors and the subspace communications, which were barely working as it was.


Siphon had just finished routing power into the transporter systems and successfully tested them out when Elissia's voice cut over the comm.

"Siphon, it's Elissia. I managed to get in touch with the hive ship and they have agreed to send any other survivors to their ship rather than ours, so life support should be alright. I'm also sending one of the Jaffa down to you, he said that they had managed to recover the data recorder of the Diana."

"Thats good news Elissia, thank you. We're just about to finalize the patches on the transporters and hopefully beam Sivala on board. Standby."

Siphon ran one final test, and turned to Shade and Sho while he waited for it to finish.

Shade looked at him, then asked Siphon the question he and Sho were thinking about. "Siphon, why would the first wave leave us behind? They must have known there were survivors." He paused as Sho cut in.

"That, and well, sorry for sounding selfish but can we find out any time soon if anyone got off the Diana before it went up in flames?"

Siphon nodded at Sho and said, "the flight recorder will tell us if anyone got off using the beaming technology, and if they didn't have the Alveran transmitters implanted in them, which neither Zale or Ana did.

Sho nodded quickly, still shaken but trying hard not to show it.

Shade went over to her and gave her a hug, the two of them having done as much as they could, and now trying to stay out of Siphon's way so he could make the repairs he had to.

A beep from the console sounded and Siphon turned quickly to read the display. The results were finally good, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Hitting a button next to him, he opened a channel to Sivala.

"Sivala it's Siphon, we have the transporters working finally. I'm going to lock onto you and beam you over here, are you ready?"

He waited for several moments and all he could hear was dead silence. "Oh crap, her suit must be dangerously low on oxygen by now, she may not be able to reply. Shade, Sho, as soon as she's fully here, help me get that suit off of her please."

Both nodded at him and as one they replied, "got it."

Bracing himself to move as fast as he could, he pushed the button, and Sivala appeared on the floor, not moving and no sounds coming from the suit to indicate she was breathing.


Vanessa woke with a start, and then remembered the excruciating pain she had been in, the pain she should still be feeling for that matter. Blinking and running a hand over her stomach, she realized that the baby was gone, and from the feeling of things, someone had healed her completely. "Why would they heal me? What the hell is going on here?"

She was shocked when a prior entered the room, and as she started to back up from him, he simply raised his hand, apparently not intending to harm her. "You have questions, this I can tell. Speak child, and I will answer them as best I can."

She seethed for a moment at being called a child, then realized she'd heard the prior on that planet almost a year ago call them all his children, so it probably was something they were used to saying. Finally she started out with her first question. "OK, I just gave birth to a child, my child, and apparently my body is reacting as if that never happened. Why?"

"After you gave birth you were in extreme pain, as all women usually are after birthing. I healed you using my gifts, as I was instructed to do so."

She blinked, a bit shocked but recovered quickly. "Alright, next question then. Where's my daughter, whats happened to her?"

"Your daughter has been taken to her own private chambers to prepare her for her role. She will be the beacon of light that guides us in this dark region of space that has been covered in evil. She will be our leader in the war, and lead us to victory over any and all unbelievers. Ex uno disce omnes."

Vanessa just shook her head in disbelief. "Oh my god. I want to see her, now. I am her mother dammit I should at least be allowed to see my daughter!"

She was quite surprised when the prior stated back, "you shall. She is on her way here, having expressed her desire to meet her mother for several hours now."

Vanessa opened her mouth to ask just what the hell that meant when her door opened, and there stood a child of about eight years of age. She almost passed out in shock when she spoke to her.

"Hello mother. Are you feeling better now?"

The prior bowed to the young girl and then left the room, leaving Vanessa alone with her.

"I'm better thanks. So I guess they gave you a name then already without me?"

"Yes, they call me Orici." She tilted her head for a moment then says, "you are surprised at my age aren't you?"

"Admittedly yes. You are going to stop growing at some point right? At this rate you won't have a very long life span. They call you Orici? Thats not much of a name, I think I'd like to call you Adria." She bit her tongue as to why she was choosing that name, hoping she could somehow reach out to her daughter.

Adria tilted her head a moment, as if considering things. "Adria, I like that name. I'm glad you worry for me, but I will eventually reach a point where I am at the age I am meant to be at." She blinked for a moment before shaking her head and saying, "if you think you can humanize me, make me more sympathetic to your views you are gravely mistaken. I know what the truth is, who can and can't be trusted, and all I need to know for the upcoming fighting that will surely come soon. We will vanquish the evil in this galaxy, mark my words. As for you mother, I'm still holding out the faint hope that once you see around here and learn more that I can save you. In the end though, only you can determine the fate of your own soul."

She turned to walk out of the room, but Vanessa decided she had one final question. "Adria wait. The prior that was here before you, he said ex uno disce omnes. What does that mean?"

With a crooked smile as she turned and walked out the door she replied, "from one, all will learn. That's what it means mother, and the sooner you realize the truth of how things are, the better it will be for you." And with that she was gone, leaving Vanessa to shake uncontrollably in both shock, and anger.


Zaleia and Anastasia slowly walked down a barren corridor, trying to avoid being seen. As they passed by a window they suddenly realized they were still in hyper-space. As they reached this conclusion though, the ship shuddered and they were suddenly back in normal space, a small group of other ships directly in front of them. As the two shared a hug, the Ori opened fire, blasting through the small fleet in record time.

Recovering they just barely ducked into a hiding spot as no fewer than a hundred troops stormed down the hall, almost spotting them. They waited several moments after they were gone before peeking back out. Anastasia looked out the window again and her heart jumped into her throat.

"Zale, look. We're over Velok Prime again!"

Zaleia looked for a moment and a few thoughts occurred to her. "Ana, I think, not sure, but I think the heavier vibrations and the fact that planet is getting a little too close to us means we're going to land on it. If they do, they'll have to drop their shields to send out troops, right? So if they do, we might be able to sneak off the ship undetected and, well did Siphon tell you how to work that Stargate?"

"No, not yet. Well at least we'll be off the ship though, that's got to be better right?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

"Maybe, lets just get the hell out of here before we get boxed in, and we'll think about it when we can hide better."

Exchanging nods, they failed to notice Vanessa exit a room behind them, spotting the two of them, and silently following them.


The second Sivala was solid, Siphon began taking off the helmet to her suit. "Shade or Sho get ready we may have to do...." He trailed off as she gasped in a breath full of air, and groggily sat up.

"Thank god, I ended up having to hold my breath for a few minutes there!"

"I thought we'd lost you there Sivala, just about to have to try CPR here. Thank god your alright though."

Shade and Sho just exchanged a look, and everyone helped Sivala to her feet, right as Elissia came in, carrying a small data pad.

"This just got sent over to us Siphon, I was told it was the flight recorder of the Diana. Was told it should go to you."

"Ah, good, thank you." He took the data pad from her and turned the device on, milling over it a moment or two. His face hardened as he scanned it over.

Sho saw the look and her heart sank. "They didn't get off with the beams, did they?" She looked like she was about to snap, and held onto Shade tightly.

"I'm afraid not, however, it seems that the rings were also activated. Sensor logs show that the Diana was trying to beam nukes over after detecting fluctuations in the Ori shields each time they fired their weapons. According to this, Zale and Ana both were in the ring room at the exact time the rings went active, helping to try and load the nuke there. I won't promise, but there's a slight chance they got off using the rings, because the sensors don't indicate the nuke ever being armed, or ringed off."

Everyone in the room shared a look, and then jumped slightly when Daina's voice came over the comm. "Siphon, I just received word from a scout ship tracking the Ori fleet. They've been located."

Siphon hit a panel on the wall and just said, "where did those bastards go then?"

The answer stunned all of them. "Moments ago they emerged from hyper-space. Over the Velokian home world."

After several stunned moments of silence, Siphon finally choked out, "my god. We need to get there as fast as we can, Daina, there is a slight chance Zale and Ana may still be alive on one of those ships, and I think Vanessa might be too. I'm on my way up there now, we'll set a course and pray for the best."

"Understood, oh, and I think Coraxus just showed up here. A bunch of Tiberion ships just showed up out of nowhere."

"Oh that figures, he's late as all holy hell. Patch me through to him, I'll chat with him on my way up to the bridge then."

"Alright, and try not to be too mean to him."

"No promises, I'm in a really bad mood right now, and the Ori are number one on my list of folks pissing me off." He waited as the channel transferred, and in the meantime walked with Sho, Shade, Elissia and Sivala to the bridge.


Coraxus stood on the bridge of The Razors Edge as it flew past a multitude of derelict ships, some still on fire. After several moments, one of the officers spoke.

"Sir, according to sensors there are maybe nine ships still intact, some of them won't stay that way either. It seems one ship of each species, save the Asgard were left intact. I am picking up debris ahead consistent with the materials an Alveran ship is built out of."

He paused a moment and leaned over one of his panels before finally saying, "sir, incoming transmission. It's Siphon."

Coraxus stood now, "put it on then."

Only a few seconds later, Siphon's face came over the screen, and it was apparent he was moving at great speeds down one of the halls of his ship. As soon as he noticed he was live, Siphon spoke.

"Goddammit Coraxus, your late as hell. Where the hell were you?"

Coraxus stood there for a moment, trying to gauge the anger in Siphon's eyes. He could tell that the Alveran wasn't just pissed with him, but that he was pissed with himself too for not having stopped the Ori. The Tiberion government hadn't exactly been wanting to launch a ton of ships out immediately after Coraxus had told them Siphon wanted to try negotiating first. They had believed that if the Alveran thought that was an open course of action, that he could pull it off and they wouldn't have to send ships, therefore no reason to send them. Obviously they had been wrong, the smashed remains of what had once been over a hundred ships was testament enough to that. Fortunately, Coraxus hadn't taken no for an answer, and finally had been allowed to take a small fleet of forty Tiberion ships with him. So here he was finally, and late for the party.

"Had some trouble with the rest of my people as to if they'd even send ships or not. Luckily I wouldn't take no for an answer, but it was enough to delay us until now. What's the situation here now?"

"The situation is as follows. The majority of the fleet was wiped out, half the ships you see out here now have no power, and still two more after that have drives that could explode at any given time. Sivok's ship, the Wraith hive and my own are the only ones out here with main power on line, and some shielding. The rest of them are lifeless now, and have been abandoned. The Asgard ship that did survive has been tracking the Ori ships since they left here a little while ago, and they just reported in that they emerged from hyper-space over the Velokian home world. Also, Zaleia and Anastasia might still be alive on one of those Ori ships. Vanessa may be as well, but we don't know for sure. What we do know is that two people used the rings and ended up on one of the Ori ships. So I'd like to bring them back home if we could. That said, in about twenty minutes I intend to go after those bastards, and I could use a little back up if your willing?"

Coraxus snorted. "Willing? Hell just try to stop me from going there. We need to send these punks a message. I'd like to start by tearing apart their god damned super-gate too."

Siphon shook his head and said, "I disagree with that part. They'll just build another where we can't find it. If we leave this one intact, we can monitor if more ships come in. Plus, if we can find a way somehow of tying up that gate, chances are they won't be able to have a second super gate in the galaxy at the same time, meaning we can blockade them. Besides which, the damned thing is completely invincible to our weapons anyway, so the only way I can think of you could destroy it would be to smash it with your metal manipulation abilities, which right now, we don't have enough time to do properly anyways. Be ready to leave soon."

"Fine. Then at the least I'm going to start shooting at Ori ships once we drop out of hyper-space."

"Fine, and when we get there I'll start scanning for Nymph life signs, and get them out of there if we can. I figure Zale will stick closely to Anastasia, so we shouldn't have to worry about that at all. Let's get to it."

The channel closed, and Coraxus turned, beginning to bark out orders, getting the crew ready to go, as well as the mini fleet.


Anastasia and Zaleia ducked into a side room, looking for an exit off the ship, and instead found it to be a dead end. As they tried to double back, they ran into Vanessa, who had been following them. A worried look between them, and the two women prepared to fight.

Vanessa saw this and put a finger to her lips, sealing the door shut then turning to them. "I don't know who either of you two are, but I doubt your with the Ori." It was not a question, but rather a statement.

Zaleia nodded slowly and finally replied, "no, we're not, but how do we know you aren't?"

Vanessa slowly shook her head before telling them who she was. "My name is Vanessa. I was sent to another planet by a man named Siphon to spy on the Ori, but they captured and used me to sneak one of their own into our galaxy. Right now they are preparing to enslave my own home planet. At the very least, we need to get out of here and warn the others and stop this now. Though after what I saw at the super gate I don't know if we can."

Anastasia shared another look with Zaleia, and then she spoke to Vanessa. "We know who Siphon is, hell, we were just here on vacation when all this crap started happening."

Vanessa's eyes seemed to light up and she spoke very fast. "Alright, first thing is first. We need to get the hell off this ship. Once we do, I can activate the Stargate and take us somewhere that can contact Siphon. He has to be made aware of Adria." At their looks she said, "Adria is, well, she's my daughter. The Ori themselves impregnated me with one of their own in human form. By now she's almost certainly near fully grown. She's the key to this whole thing, the Ori armies will follow her. If we could somehow turn her against them we might be able to end this."

"Thats assuming we can even get off this ship to begin with," Zaleia said.

"I know how to, but we may have to stun a few of the guards at the exit. We'll need to get weapons."

Zaleia shook her head and smiled. "No need, I can zap them with enough electricity to knock them out, or kill them, depends on which one you think works best."

Much to both Zaleia and Anastasia's surprise, Vanessa nodded and said, "if you can kill them and leave no bodies, that would be even better. Can't have them waking up and reporting us before we can get away. Let's do this."

The three women exchanged nods, knowing what needed to be done, and made their way towards the only exit the ship had to offer.

They had soon made their way near the exit, and Vanessa indicated that she would go first to distract the guards, making things easier. Moving quickly towards them, she made certain they noticed her as she headed away, and as expected, both left their posts to stop her.

"I'm afraid we can't allow you to exit the ship per the Orici's orders. Turn around and walk back in."

She turned back to them and spoke softly, "well, I figured if I'm supposed to convert here that I should at least be allowed to witness just how things go, so I decided to go check things out."

The other guard stepped forward and spoke. "The Orici's orders were quite clear. No non-soldiers allowed off the ship as of right now, and you specifically were not to be allowed off this ship unless she herself takes you. Turn back now."

"I see. Well I'm afraid that just isn't acceptable to me." She spun around and headed off, knowing somehow they wouldn't risk shooting her, but rather would come after her themselves.

"Hey! Get back here!"

Both started after her, and at this moment Zaleia came out from hiding and blasted both perfectly in the backside with enough electricity to leave very little doubt it had killed them instantly. The three exchanged looks and decided mutually that there wasn't time to hide the bodies, and made their way off the ship.


Everything was finally set after nearly an hour of repairs. The Kara and Coraxus's small fleet powered up, having already sent the other salvageable, less fortunate ships back to Alverus for repairs. Engaging their hyper-drives, the Kara and her escort leapt to hyper-space, heading for the Velokian home world. On the bridge of the Kara, Siphon paced, trying hard not to just throw something across the bridge. Sho, Shade, Elissia and Daina all sat at stations, quiet and knowing there was nothing they could do until the got to the planet. Talok had beamed over and stayed behind, giving the Kara someone who could pilot her in Siphon's absence. Narlina had returned with her hive to the Pegasus galaxy, hoping to gather more ships, even though he knew the Wraith weapons would likely have no effect a second time around.

Siphon turned to the others and finally broke the silence. "Alright, the plan is this. Once we get there, Coraxus's ships will break formation from us and try to piss off the Ori ships in orbit. Once we have a somewhat clear path, we'll sweep the area and try to beam Zaleia and Anastasia, if they are on board any of the ships. In the event they somehow have made it to the surface, Shade, Sho, Elissia and I will beam down to the planet. If we make contact, the Kara will get the hell out of here, Talok flying her and hightail it for P4R-272 to pick us up. Coraxus has been told once the Kara makes the jump to back off for now, until we can better analyze the technology they have been using, and hopefully find a way of hurting them. Either way, by that point, Coraxus's ships should at the very least have gathered valuable Intel on how their shields and weapons fare against the Ori's. Daina, I ask that you stay here, since there is a possibility the Kara will take some damage, and if that happens, having a second person who can at least repair systems somewhat will be very helpful."

Daina shook her head, not liking the fact she had to stay behind and wanting to argue, but the look on his face said it all. He already had some sort of plan set to go, and bringing her up to speed on how deployment would work would take too long, even though she could read into his mind.

The others only nodded, knowing that in this case, when it came to the planet layout, Siphon had the advantage. There was no question if this became a landing party beam down to rescue, he had to go.

Within minutes, the ships emerged from hyper-space, the Kara hanging back for the moment. "OK let's do this, Coraxus, you know what to do!"

Indeed he did, he thought to himself as he closed the distance between his ship and the first of the gargantuan Ori vessels. A spread of weapons fire erupted from The Razor's Edge, slamming into the Ori craft's shields, causing a nice light show, but seemingly nothing more than that. The rest of his ships followed his lead, and managed to lure the three ships in orbit away.

The Ori ships returned fire as they pursued, great beams of some kind erupting out of the front of each ship, one of them making contact with a Tiberion ship. It's shields flared up, and Coraxus's sensors registered a thirty six percent drop in the shields of the ship that was struck. So the Ori could in fact hurt them. So be it then, he would make them pay for that. That's when he suddenly realized Siphon had said four ships came through the super-gate, yet only three had engaged them, leaving one uncounted for.

"Where the hell is that fourth Ori ship?"

A moment later, he got his answer. "Sensors indicate one of the Ori ships has landed on the planet, and seems to just now have raised their shields, but they are not attempting to join the fight."

So much for blasting a defenseless ship off the face of the planet from orbit and leveling the odds some then. Oh well thought Coraxus, it didn't matter as long as they eventually did win. And so the battle raged on, the Tiberions finally suffering a loss as one of their ships took two Ori beams directly at the same time, collapsing it's shields and destroying the ship in a massive fireball.

In the meantime, the Kara had moved into position and cloaked to run their sensor sweep. Siphon smiled slightly as he looked over the results. "One of the ships is on the surface, so it's only three ships against Coraxus. No nymph life signs on any of the ships though, so I will scan the planet." A second later he let out a yelp of victory. "I got them! Nymph life sign reading about half a click from the Stargate, and she's with two other people it seems. One must be Zaleia, and oh my god, the other is transmitting a tracking signal. It's Vanessa!"

He stood now, his eyes flaring up as he barked out, "Talok, Daina, you have the ship, everyone else, let's go get our friends out of there. Talok I'll contact the ship once we have the gate dialed."

As Siphon, Shade, Sho and Elissia vanished in a flash of sparkling white light, Daina wished them the best of luck through her link with Siphon, then turned to view the fighting in space. Her sensors indicated that the Ori ships had destroyed three of the Tiberion ships, but one Ori ship's shields seemed to have weakened slightly. It was then she noticed the fluctuations every time the Ori fired, and she formed an idea.

"Talok, can we get close enough to one of those Ori ships to beam a nuke on board with our rings? We might be able to get it through when they fire!"

Talok grinned and moved to intercept the already weakened Ori ship. "I can certainly try, get the warhead ready!"

Daina nodded and in only a few moments had run down to the ring room, moving one of the smaller warheads onto the platform. She hit both channel controls in the room, signaling the bridge and Coraxus both at once. "Coraxus, we're trying to ring a nuke aboard the aft Ori ship that's already weakened some in an attempt to destroy it. Talok, tell me when they fire."

Coraxus stood on the bridge, smirking slightly. If this worked, they could take out all three of the orbiting ships and then blast the crap out of the one that had landed and keep it pinned there, and eventually they might be able to collapse it's shields and destroy it. "Copy that, beam away."

Talok monitored the Ori ship, and then found the opening. "Daina send the nuke, their firing now!"

Daina hit the controls for the rings, and let out a short victory cry as the rings came down, took the nuke and beamed it away. "Package sent!"

Several moments passed, and nothing had happened. The Ori ship fired again, destroying a fourth Tiberion ship, and when she heard Talok's words, she knew they were in trouble.

"It should have gone off by now. They must have explosive dampeners. I'm checking into that, to see if we can counter it."

Coraxus of course was hearing all of this, and silently cursed. "Prepare to send a life eater to their ship!"

One of his crew nodded and scampered to get the device ready, but before he could activate it, Talok's voice ruined Coraxus's fun time.

"Shit, their ships are only designed to allow organic, living things onto the ship. Our nuke never materialized on the other side."

So much for that idea, the life eater would suffer the same fate then. Gritting his teeth, he silently willed Siphon to get his ass in gear and give the order to pull out, or this would end ugly. He hadn't expected the Ori to be as powerful as they were turning out to be, and he was growing angrier by the second.


Siphon, Shade, Sho and Elissia appeared in a flash of white light, and immediately fanned out. Securing the immediate area, Siphon pulled out his scanner and cursed. "Shit, they've set up a jamming field the second we materialized. Looks like sensors won't work now, and we won't be able to beam out if this gets ugly. They must know we're here, we need to move, now."

There was no argument from the others, and they quickly made their way west, towards the Stargate Siphon somehow was tracking Zaleia and the other two women without the device, and Sho suspected it had to do with his military training.

Reaching a hill, they peered down and spotted the three women, and Elissia raised her sword, reflecting the light off of it, catching their attention.


Vanessa caught a glimmer of light out of the corner of her eye, and spun, opening her mouth to tell the other two to run, and then closed it. Standing on the hill were two women and a male she didn't recognize. She did however recognize the second male as Siphon. "Zaleia, Anastasia, we have help."

The two women turned as one and followed her gaze. Anastasia instantly felt relieved when she spotted her brother, and Zaleia smiled at the sight of her sister. Their reunion was cut short though by the angry hiss of some kind of weapon nearly taking off Elissia's head.

Elissia heard something and instinctively moved, spinning around to face the threat, and that motion saved her life. Some kind of blue energy shot whizzed past her head, close enough she could feel the heat on her face. "Siphon we have incoming!"

He turned, his shield already up and pushed Sho aside, taking the blast meant for her against his shield, the energy sizzling across the barrier, creating a brilliant flash of golden light.

Sho to her credit used her wind power to keep from falling too hard, and then used it to create a small wind storm near them, keeping their attackers at a distance, but not stopping the energy weapons. "How are we going to play this?"

Shade let loose a growl and bellowed, "we tear them a new asshole, that's what we do!"

Siphon shook his head and said, "no, there's too many of them for us to take on without evening the odds out with weapons of our own. Fall back to the gate, Vanessa, dial P4R-272!"

They took off at a run for the gate, energy bolts flying over their heads as they retreated. Soon they had reached the gate, and Vanessa started dialing.

Siphon hit a button on his arm control and spoke into it. "Talok, Daina, we're dialing the gate now and taking fire. Get the hell out of here and meet us at P4R-272 fast, the Ori soldier's might be right behind us!"

Not waiting for a reply, he closed the channel and moved just in time to keep a blast from hitting Vanessa in the back. Suddenly, the shots stopped, and a single female stepped out into the open. She was clad in light Ori armor, and appeared to be roughly twenty six years old.

Vanessa looked and her eyes widened. "Adria?"

She turned and smirked at her mother, before replying. "Of course mother. Surrender, now."

Shade growled and roared back, "fat chance of that happening!"

Energy sparked from her fingertips as she sent what seemed to be an energy blast of some kind in his direction. Siphon moved in to take the blast with his shield, and let loose a grunt of surprise and pain as the blast passed through his shield and tore a chunk of his left shoulder out.

Sho saw this and cried out, "Siphon!"

Adria frowned, apparently not having wanted to injure him for some reason, a frown that Elissia caught and filed away, just in case.

Putting her hand forth again, Adria unleashed another blast, this time for the DHD of the gate, trying to cut off their escape. Again Siphon moved into the blast range, only this time he let loose his own shock wave blast back, causing the energy she had released to crash against his own, stopping both for the moment.

Elissia moved the others back with her motions then turned back to Siphon and said, "come on, let's go!"

Grunting with exertion, he was taken aback at the sheer power this woman had. He couldn't break off yet until the others had gotten through. "Go through the gate, I'll be right behind you!"

She nodded, steering the others to the gate. Zaleia was the last to go through, turning back to call to Siphon as she stepped through. Just before the wormhole claimed her, she saw the one sight she didn't think she would ever see.

Siphon had spent everything he could into keeping the blast going, and it was starting to weaken. He could hear the others going through the gate, and he had started backing up, heading there himself when suddenly Adria seemed to unleash more power somehow. He staggered as the extra energy crashed into him, and ultimately, canceled out his blast and slammed into him with incredible force. He was lifted clean off his feet and slammed hard into the DHD itself, the pain intense enough, he blacked out.

Zaleia's eyes widened as she opened her mouth to say something, tried to stop her momentum from going through the gate, but it was too late. The last thing she saw before her body fell through the Stargate was Siphon slam into the DHD at an impossible speed to have survived, and slump to the ground, not moving at all. Adria moved as if to do something, and that was the last thing she saw of the Velokian planet. Moments later she emerged on the surface of P4R-272, and as the gate shut down, her sister turned to her and searched her eyes.

Sho saw Zaleia come through the gate, and then it shut down without Siphon being there. "What the hell? Where's Siphon?"

Zaleia shook her head, too stunned to speak for a minute. When she finally spoke, she said meekly, "He didn't make it. I think Adria killed him."

The others shared a blink at this. Siphon, dead? It didn't seem possible at all given what they'd seen him go through, but the simple fact he hadn't made it through the Stargate seemed to put some merit to that. While they all were stunned, Vanessa seemed to have the news hit her the hardest.

Vanessa slumped to the ground, shaking uncontrollably. Before anyone could say a word to her, the telltale tingling of an Alveran transporter enveloped them all, and they vanished off the planet's surface.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

The second Siphon's words had broken over the air, and the weapons fire had been heard, Daina's first thought was to stay there and try firing on the surface. She had thought better of it when she realized with the jamming field up they were just as likely to hit Siphon and his group than they were to hit the Ori soldiers. Nodding to Talok and opening a channel, she spoke. "Siphon has given the word, let's get out of here. Meet at the designated planet."

The channel closed, the Kara made the jump to hyper-space, becoming visible for only a fraction of a second before vanishing.

Coraxus heard the message, and made certain that the Kara was able to make her jump safely before ordering his fleet to retreat for now. Inwardly he swore they would return with greater numbers and teach these Ori a major lesson. After the last of his ships had made the retreat, he ordered his own officer to do the same, but as he was doing so he noticed several things. One, the Ori ships had allowed them to retreat when they had shown signs of fleeing. Second the jamming field had gone down on the planet surface, meaning they could scan it, which he did so. Third, and most disturbing, was the Ori ship that had landed was lifting off the ground. As he was about to give an order to speed up, his sensors indicated the ship had opened a hyper-space window while still just barely above the ground of the surface, vanishing into it in mere seconds. Coraxus was stunned at this, he had been told by Siphon that such a feat was impossible to manage. He filed that away for reference, and then The Razors Edge made it's jump, leaving the Velokian home world behind, as well as the Ori.

It wasn't long before the Kara exited hyper-space, found a few life signs on the planet beneath them, and moved into orbit. Talok moved over and activated the transporter, not noticing that Siphon's locater beacon wasn't amongst the group.

Mere moments later, Sho, Shade, Elissia, Anastasia, Zaleia and Vanessa appeared in spectacular fashion, although as both Talok and Daina scanned the group, they realized one was missing. Siphon wasn't amongst the group. More disturbing was that when Daina went to scan for him, she couldn't sense him at all, yet she hadn't sensed his death either.

Talok recovered first and spoke with a growl. "Where is Siphon?"

Anastasia spoke, the only one who seemed to have a voice at this point and quickly recounted what Zaleia had seen. Just as Daina opened her mouth to scream, or something, she was cut off by a short, almost harsh laugh from Vanessa.

"He isn't dead. Adria wouldn't dare kill him, and because of me, she has what she wants."

As a group they shot her a look, not understanding. Talok started to move first, but Daina beat him to it.

"What the hell do you mean she has what she wants because of you? What did you do?" Daina was shouting by this point, the anger bubbling over and her eyes starting to take on a voided look. "Oh, and who the hell is Adria anyway?"

Vanessa seemed like she was barely fighting back rage, but it soon became clear that her rage wasn't at them, but rather at herself. "Adria is my daughter. The one the Ori impregnated me with. She's pretty much one of them in the body of a human. As close as she can be to them anyway. They used me to sneak one of their own into our galaxy, one that the Ancients wouldn't interfere with because she isn't an ascended being. As for what I did, I gave birth to the bitch. Because of me, and sharing my thoughts, she knows about the location of every world in our galaxy, the location of all the wraith planets, Alverus, and something of more interest to her."

She seemed to stop for a moment, fighting back tears. "She knows Siphon is the only living being she can get to right now that has the knowledge of how to create another version of the weapon you used on the Sentinels to wipe them all out. She wants that weapon to herself so she can use it on the Ancients. Now that she has him, she's one step closer."

Talok broke in by this point. "Siphon will never give her that knowledge, he'll die first!"

Vanessa shook her head. "You don't understand. Listen to me. Adria is not just incredibly powerful, she is also telepathic to a certain degree. I'm not sure if she can rip the information out of his mind or not, but she might try. She won't kill him until she has what she wants. I have a bad feeling that she may try to convert him to the Ori cause. What's worse, I think she may be able to do it too. She can tell when someone isn't being truthful, and she can warp the minds of non-believers."

It was Sho who broke in now, asking a question that had been overlooked by the others. "I thought you said she's a newborn? Just how the hell is she this powerful for an infant?"

"She was genetically altered to mature within a few hours at most of her birth. That woman you saw on the surface was Adria. The same one I gave birth to only three hours ago, if even that. God, I've completely given the Ori everything they need to soundly defeat not only us, but to destroy the Ancients as well."

The darkness in Daina's eyes threatened to swallow the whole room, though oddly, for someone who had to be monumentally pissed, her voice was devoid of anger now. "So then, where would this Adria take him then?"

The sensors chose that moment to go off, alerting them to the Tiberion fleet's arrival. Talok went over to speak to them on a private channel, and after only a few seconds he bellowed, "that's impossible!"

Turning back to them Talok said, "Coraxus just told me right after we left the Ori ship on the planet lifted off and engaged their hyper-drive. While inside the atmosphere, and vanished."

Vanessa hung her head, having expected something like this. "Then Adria took him aboard her flagship. Find that ship, and you can find him. The only problem with that is they have sensor masks that prevent them from being tracked while in hyper-space, and no I don't know how to get past them. They made sure I didn't get to see any of the vital parts of the ship. Bastards!" She slammed her hand down into the floor, and then winced slightly at the sound of chipping bone.

Daina simply turned to Talok and spoke in cold measured words. "Find a way."

Talok could only nod, knowing it wasn't likely, but refusing to give up.

Vanessa looked up, tears running down her face as she spoke softly, "I could have stopped this if I'd been willing to destroy myself instead of sending that message. I had the chance to kill both of us, and I didn't take it. Adria won't kill him, she'll try to convert him into one of her minions, any way that she can. If you find them, kill her please."

Daina nodded her head, not very surprised at her words. "Commendable considering she is your own flesh and blood."

Vanessa looked as if she was going to snap off some kind of reply then realized it was meant as praise. "No matter if she was born from me or not, she's still a threat that can't be contained or converted. That only leaves one option. Terminate her before she causes too much damage."

Sho broke in at this point. "Wait, can't we just follow that ship with Siphon's locater beacon?"

Talok shook his head. "The beacon won't transmit while they are in hyper-space, and by now they would be well outside of the range on them. We'd have to luck across the ship now. I'll send out a message to all ships to be on the lookout for Ori activity."

Sho nodded grimly, and Shade just held her. "We'll find him love. We'll get him back and kick their asses."

He turned to Daina and nodded, although Daina didn't return the nod.

Elissia had remained silent until now, but now she gently spoke to Vanessa. "You could have had no way to know that Adria would go after him so soon. It isn't your fault that they used you. Now we should get your hand looked at and then figure out our best course of action."

Vanessa moved away. "No, I'll be fine, just make your plans, and when you have a working one, let me know so I can kill the bitch. Until then, I'd prefer to be left alone." She stood and walked off the bridge, vanishing at a run down one of the halls of the ship.

Shade shook his head. "This day just keeps going downhill."

Everyone in the room shared a nod, and then went back to work.


Siphon awoke, as he had done so for at least a week now, a prisoner of the Ori. He knew by now that Daina and the others would have been looking fruitlessly for him, the beacon unable to transmit while in hyper-space, and even though they had dropped out at least fifty times since his capture, it couldn't transmit over the distances they had traveled. He had at first thought the Ori would conquer the Milky Way galaxy, but instead they had gone outside of it, heading into the Pegasus Galaxy. While they hadn't attacked Alverus yet, his people hadn't come to the aid of any planets the Ori had been to yet. He suspected they didn't have any ships to send by now.

The Ori had swept through a large chunk of the outer fringe of the galaxy, taking planets that were unable to fight back, or that were looking for "god." They had amassed a huge number of followers, and he had heard a rumor that a second super-gate was in the works. He figured it was nothing more than just a soldiers rumor designed to boost troop morale, since it was unlikely the Ori could use two gates at once, even with their advancements.

He stopped to reflect upon how things had gone since his capture. He had refused to even speak with the one they called Orici, although she had mentioned she liked the name Adria better for the most part. Unfortunately, he hadn't exactly been in a position to ignore her. He knew she wanted the specifications for the sangraal weapon that had been used on the Sentinels, though how she knew of that he didn't know. When he had spoken to her about it, he had told her bluntly he couldn't do it, but she had known instantly he was lying about that. So he had gone a different tactic, telling her he could, but even if he would do it for her, which he wouldn't, he would need access to materials she didn't have. He had been surprised when she had told him she could get whatever he needed for the device, if he asked for it, and then left him there.

So here he sat now, truthfully trying to think of what he would need. A plan was forming in his mind, with help from Talvesh. If he could somehow manage to make the device and get her to trust him enough to make him a prior, then he could steal her ship and use it to send the device to the Ori instead of the Ancients. The question was, how could he pull that off?

Talvesh seemed to think that he could shield Siphon's mind from Adria's probes, preventing her from seeing if he was telling the truth or not and fooling her into thinking he was at all times. Siphon was willing to test this theory out when Adria returned. If he could, then he could plan an escape. If not, he'd have to find a way to make sure Adria didn't get the information. So he sat there, waiting for her to return. He didn't have to wait long before the door to his cell opened.

"So Siphon, have you made your mental list of what you need and are you ready to talk finally?"

Allowing Talvesh to take control, but use his voice, he answered her this time. "I think so, although it's quite a bit. I'm going by memory, and I think you know how faulty the memory can be at times?"

All he got as a reply from her was a small nod, and then she spoke again. "What would you say then if I told you there was a way around that?"

This did startle him, and now he was interested. "I'm listening."

"We have a device on board that can sift through your thoughts, allowing you to photographically construct the device, test it in simulation as to if it works or not, and then assemble it piece by piece perfectly."

"Interesting. I've never heard of such technology actually working out."

"Help us now, and I can make certain you have access to it at any time you want."

He mulled it over for a moment. It was time to pull out a complete lie and see what happened. "I'm considering it, but, I want to learn more about the Ori and Origin from you, and whatever material you have. If I'm going to be helping for a cause that you say is just, I'd like to be certain I'm not following blindly and if I am asked about it by a non-believer that I can give them an appropriate answer instead of nothing." The truth was, he could give a rats ass about the whole thing, but by bringing this up when he was blatantly lying would determine if he could fool her or not. One thing he was certain of was that she couldn't detect a lie without outwardly showing some sign she knew. He had seen it every time, the slight quirk of her mouth each time, as if she were amused. There were other signs, but he kept those out of his mind.

She did smile, but it was a warm and genuine smile this time. "I had planned on showing you anyway, but I'm glad you have volunteered to do it willingly. You will soon come to realize that it is the Ancients, not the Ori who you should be worried about. They who hide things from their own children, who embrace evil. Soon it will be clear to you. I will return soon with some material for you to look over, and when you are finished, we will get you some clothing and a shower. I'm certain you would appreciate that."

"I look forward to it then."

With a final, almost happy nod, Adria left the chamber. He waited for several minutes after she had left before letting out a small breath of air. It had worked, she had bought the whole thing, though he felt like he was going to be sick for even playing such a dangerous game. Unfortunately, he saw no other way out of this. Siphon allowed the symbiote to assume full control over his body and mind now, sealing himself at the very back where Adria couldn't penetrate, and began making plans of how this would work.


Primtus was pleased. Vekal's plan had actually been accepted, and was coming to fruition The Ori had indeed come through the super gate, and even Primtus had been appalled at how easily the Ori had smashed through the allied forces of the milky way. Smashed though might not have been the right word he thought, but perhaps decimated fit better. It had given him pause for concern though, since now there were rumors of the Ori spreading into this galaxy as well. In the end, it wouldn't matter, he was certain at some point they would find a way of defeating them. For now though, it was time for the bulk of their fleet to begin their culling.

A planetary group had been chosen, and all but a small portion of their fleet had moved out to cull a human herd. This would ensure they had enough fresh bodies to feed upon for their grand assault. The plan was to stock up on enough humans to feed their troops for several months, and then directly assault the reeling high council.

Primtus stood now, alongside Vekal. Their fleet had just come out of hyper-space in orbit around one of the chosen worlds. As he gave the order to launch the darts though, there were numerous explosions around him.

As soon as the wraith hives had emerged and encroached upon their new planet, three Ori ships opened fire on them. Two hives had been utterly demolished, while the third, seemingly the flagship, had sustained heavy damage. Despite the wraith having the advantage of eight hundred hive ships compared to the three Ori ships, it was quite clear already who had the advantage.

Primtus was totally enraged. The Ori had dared to trespass on their feeding grounds? He wouldn't tolerate this at all. "Return fire on those ships!"

Only seconds later the powerful wraith batteries opened fire on each warship, the bright blue globs of energy slamming into the Ori shields. There was a flare of light in front of each ship, as their powerful shields absorbed the entire first volley of shots the wraith threw at them, impacting harmlessly.

Then it was the Ori's turn to retaliate. They did so with another volley of bright yellow beams, carving three more hives into debris, and then launched another volley. Three more hives went up in explosions. Yet despite suffering the heavy losses, the wraith refused to retreat. It didn't matter much to the Ori commanders. They would eventually crush the wraith, and if it happened sooner because they were foolish enough to attack them, then so be it.

Vekal was thrown against a bulkhead, and nearly blacked out. Managing to hold on and keep conscious, he shakily stood. "Primtus, I recommend we launch our darts and try to get more shots in, this isn't going so well."

A curt nod was the only reply he got, and then Primtus gave the order. "Launch all our darts, target those Ori ships! I want them destroyed for defying us!"

The hives launched their darts, and even with the added shots coming in from them, it didn't seem to be helping. It did however serve to convince whoever was leading the ships to speed up the decimation of the wraith fleet, and each Ori ship launched countless mini fighters. Unfortunately, these too were also shielded by smaller variants of the warships shielding, and their pulse weapons simply cut through the more maneuverable darts with ease when they connected.

The battle raged on for several more minutes, and soon Primtus began to realize this was a battle they simply could not win. Slamming a fist into a console, he finally gave the order he now realized he should have given right from the start. "Order the remaining hives to fall back to our ship yards. We need to regroup and find out why our weapons aren't working on them."

As his order was being carried out, still more hives were relentlessly obliterated by the marauding warships of the Ori. Some of the ships managed to make the jump to hyper-space, but many did not. Just as their own hive was powering up for the jump, it was struck by another Ori blast. This proved to be too much for the ship to handle, and the last thing Primtus saw before he died was a massive explosion, and the backdrop of space itself rushing inside of the ship. Then with a spectacular light show, the hive he had been in command of exploded into hundreds of burning pieces.

Once again, the Ori ships did not pursue fleeing targets, even though they did fire parting shots, scoring several more kills on hives that attempted to retreat. As the last one made a hyper-space jump, the remains of almost seven hundred sixty hive ships continued to burn in the space before them. It only took several more well placed shots to ensure there were no survivors aboard them, and then the ships returned to their patrol routes in orbit.


Adria had returned after nearly three hours of making him wait with several data pads for him to go over. Even with his impressive reading speed, it had taken him several weeks more to go over it all. In the meantime, he had garnered enough of an idea of what was going on outside to know things were picking up steam for the Ori. When he had been informed of the rebel wraith massacre, it had stunned him, but he wasn't exactly upset about it either. Obviously they had been amassing their fleets for some time now, and had thought they could strike now. Bad luck for them to start their culling at the exact time the Ori were at their feeding grounds.

Shutting down the last pad, he leaned back for a few moments, closing his eyes and relaxing. His plan was all set, now all that was left to do was to get Adria to trust him. He didn't have to wait long before she returned, it seeming as if she had known when he was finished.

"I see you have finished the materials I gave you. That is good. Now then, what do you have to say?"

He blinked in surprise, not having expected her blunt approach just yet, but quickly recovered. "Well, I must say that it was rather enlightening for me. There were many things I read that amazed me. I understand now what must be done, why the need to help the Ori is so great."

She smiled again, genuinely pleased. "I am glad to hear that. So tell me, will you create the weapon for us?"

He nodded tiredly. "Yes, I can and will create the weapon to serve the Ori and their just cause. However, I am fairly certain even with your device, that it will take some time in my weakened state."

To his surprise, she didn't seem to mind. "That is fine, it gives us more time to bring followers to our cause. We will need them for when we strike."

"Then it is settled Orici. When do we begin construction?"

She didn't even move, she simply waved a hand and the bonds keeping him there were released. As he started to stand she finally replied, "we begin as soon as you have eaten something that will sustain you, and have cleaned up. Oh, and call me Adria, I like the name better."

He bowed his head slightly at her before replying. "As you wish Adria. Let us get moving then and expedite the downfall of those who embrace evil. Hallowed are the Ori."

She returned his words with a smile again. "Hallowed are the Ori. Follow me."

She led him out of the chamber, and down the halls, giving him a quick tour of the ship before they headed off to get him food, and a bath.


Talok growled in frustration. Despite his best efforts, he hadn't been able to find a way of tracking the Ori at all, let alone locating Siphon's position. Daina had gone off to be alone, and the others had returned to Earth to keep up with their lives, though he suspected they hadn't wanted to. Vanessa though had locked herself away somewhere on deck nine, refusing to come out or speak to anyone.

He of course had been in contact with every ally they had, but so far nothing had been heard at all. He now stood at the bridge of the Kara, the ship having become his own unless Siphon could be found and brought back alive. As he shut down the tracking sensors, resigning himself to the unthinkable, the communications array lit up, signaling an incoming transmission. He glanced over, and jumped when he saw it was coming from Alverus.

Julia's face came on the screen as he accepted it, looking quite grim. "Talok, I'm afraid I have some unsettling news. We just confirmed the destruction of a very large rebel wraith fleet near the edge of the galaxy."

Talok tilted his head, not understanding why this was bad. "Forgive me Julia, but shouldn't that be a good thing then? If my people took them out, then that means they are one step closer to finally getting off their asses and helping us!"

She shook her head at this, seemingly upset. "I wish it had been your people that did it. Unfortunately, we have confirmed that they were destroyed by Ori weaponry, specifically the same weaponry seen on their warships. Not to mention every planet that was in their collective feeding ground has now embraced the side of the Ori as their saviors. It seems the Ori are using the crushing victory as a catalyst to win over these people who were cowering from the rebels. With their destruction, these planets are now hailing the Ori as their protectors, their gods."

Talok let out an unusually long hiss of anger at this, both because the Ori had gained followers, and because now there would never be any hope of his people rebuilding the relations they had once had in that galaxy. The days of the wraith empire were gone, and soon, so might the wraith themselves. He was snapped back to reality though, when Julia spoke again, obviously having more Intel for him.

"I have also heard rumors that the Ori have begun the process of creating a second super gate, somewhere in this galaxy. To complicate things, we have reason to believe their ships are now on a course back to the Milky Way galaxy. Since you said you haven't been able to find them, or Siphon, I thought you might want to know they appear to be coming right back your way. Why, we don't know."

Talok ground his teeth at this, half angry and half pleased he had another chance. "Very well, I will keep this information in mind and see what I can do. Thank you Julia."

"Your welcome Talok, and please, for all of our sakes, find that ship and get Siphon back asap. This entire war may hinge on if the Ori gain the information for the sangraal weapon or not."

"Understood, Talok out." Cutting the channel, he went back to work, making certain to send a subspace message to Daina's ship. He would leave Vanessa and the others alone unless he found something useful.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

Siphon wasn't sure how much time had passed since he had agreed to help Adria and the Ori. What he did know was, even with the breaks he had for daily mass, food and hygienic reasons, he was still feeling quite drained from the device. It took a tremendous amount of mind power to operate it, and despite his own advanced brain, he was beginning to fear it was beyond his ability to complete the weapon using this device.

He had finished his work for today, feeling more drained than he had yesterday, barely managing to stumble his way to the room Adria had given him. As he entered, he was surprised to see her already there before realizing she was there for their nightly "prayers."

She looked up as he entered, a brief questioning look crossing her features. "What's wrong?"

He sat down across from her and was silent for several moments before replying to her. "I'm not sure I can complete the weapon using that device. It's perfect in every way, except for one. Even for me, it's heavily taxing my mind and body. Being unable to utilize the meditation for as long as it's been hasn't helped either."

She shot him a questioning look before asking, "what do you mean? You meditate every day at the masses, and the readings from the book of origin."

He shook his head, having to catch himself from toppling over face first. "Different kind of meditation Adria. For me, I need to enter a deeper state of meditation to allow the symbiote to heal and restore my body, to refresh like humans would by sleeping. Unfortunately, something on this ship is preventing me from doing so, maybe it's the power source, I'm not sure. The truth is Adria, because I can't enter the meditative state I need to, I am dying. Eventually my immune system will begin to break down. I've been hiding it well, but the truth is, it started when you brought me aboard. That's why the shoulder injury took so long to heal. I fear that with the device exacting the toll it is on me, that I have maybe another three or four days before I am unable to even move."

She seemed truly surprised by this, having apparently not known that. "You should have said something sooner to me. I was planning on this eventually, but now I must speed up my plans. Stay still a moment."

He was taken aback when she suddenly embraced him, yet he was in no position to argue about it anyway. A white glow briefly washed across his face as she seemingly brushed his mind and body, and he could somehow tell she was trying to repair some of the damage. It was noble of her, and certainly selfish of her for the reasons, but in the end it wouldn't be enough. While she might be able to restore him fully now, continued use of the device would ultimately kill him even with her healing him.

After a few moments she drew back, seemingly staring deep into his eyes. "I think I see now what draws mother to you."'

This stunned him, and he couldn't hide it. "Wait, what? What do you mean Adria?"

"Mother has some feelings for you that she keeps locked away deeply, because she fears how you and that Asari may react to the knowledge. It's very important to me that we save her soul. I ask your help in this."

He sat in stunned silence for a few moments, the impact hitting him hard. He had suspected as much a long time ago, but hadn't read much into it since nothing concrete had ever come up. He wasn't sure if he believed Adria about that, though it did open a new opportunity for his plan. "Then we shall save her. I only ask then that you help me save Daina, the Asari you spoke of. She is quite important to my existence as well."

A brief smile crossed her lips, which had slightly puffed out in an attempt to, wait, was she actually trying to make herself look attractive to him? Before he could grasp at that she spoke. "That can be arranged then. Together we shall save the two of them. First though, we must ensure that you are no longer greatly weakened by your inability to meditate properly and regenerate. For that, and because you have earned this, I will let you in on a taste of what your ultimate power will eventually be for helping us."

He opened his mouth to ask what she meant by that, and closed it as she removed the tops to her clothing. In his confused and somewhat unstable state of mind, he failed to realize exactly what this was leading up to until she had actually laid herself on top of him.

Adria had quickly stripped all of her clothing, and had simply used her mind powers to will Siphon's to come off of him elsewhere, rather than risk moving him in his weakened state. It would be taxing enough on him to complete the transformation this way, but it was the only way she could do it. Pulling him close to her, she pressed her lips against his, pushing her tongue into his mouth even as his eyes widened in surprised recognition finally.

Unable to really do anything but stiffen in total shock, Siphon lay beneath her, completely taken aback by her sudden shift of personality. When she briefly broke the kiss to let him breathe, he took the chance to speak. "Adria, what the hell?"

She grinned widely, with an almost predatory smile. seemingly enjoying his surprise. "I can't have you dying on us when you mean so much to everything. So, you shall become one of us. A prior, immune to the draining effects of the device. For that, certain events must occur to complete the transformation."

He was left with no time to process that or object, though even if he had, he wouldn't have been in a position to do much of anything anyway. She lowered herself completely on top of him, a single soft gasp coming from her as she forced him inside of her. Pure strands of energy formed into wings, seeming to come out of her now arching back, and then suddenly wrapping around his own back, pulling him even closer to her. He could feel dozens of sensations ripping through his own body, almost unbearable even for him. The most prominent of them though, was not the pleasure he was forced into feeling from her body grinding with his, but rather it was more the strange feeling his DNA was being re-written. A quick glance at his arms confirmed that suspicion, as his skin began to take on the patterings and color of a prior.

Adria could tell that despite his initial shock at her boldness, he was enjoying every moment of it. Truth be told, she herself was enjoying the one trait she shared with the inferior, evil worshiping humans. It was amazing the sensations she could feel from this seemingly simple, yet pleasurable action. Though she was enjoying it, she knew it was unlikely she would ever have the desire to do this again. So, as she continued to alter his body to become a new prior, she allowed herself the satisfaction of truly enjoying herself this one time, her body already beginning to quake from the unfamiliar sensations that gripped her, threatening to steal not only her breath away, but her concentration as well.

The transformation continued despite the now frantic movements of their bodies on the floor, and it wasn't long before it was completed fully. Siphon could feel the alterations to his face as she ran her hands across it briefly, before bringing them down to his chest. He had thought she was finished, but she proved him wrong when she aggressively started rocking her hips against him. The last thing he remembered before completely blacking out was Adria letting out a moan of what had to be pleasure, and then he simply passed out, his mind shutting down as the final changes began to take place.


Four weeks had passed since Adria had made him a prior, and he had to admit, he had accomplished far more work than he had ever thought possible. The weapon was nearly completed now, and Siphon had been getting ready to finalize it when Adria had stopped him, telling him to wait.

Naturally, he had protested this, saying that the weapon was almost ready to be used, but she had somehow already known this. He had been instructed to go out and help bring more followers to their army, so they would have the power to distract the Ancients long enough for the weapon to fire and take effect. So he had set out, this adding a whole new dimension to his plan.

He had tapped into several networks he knew of, and had discovered that an Asari ship was near a planet Adria wanted him to convert. He had purposely left it off his list until he knew the Asari would be there. Naturally, the Asari had spotted a prior, though they had left him alone. He knew however that they had taken note of his "soft sell" approach, and he only hoped that it would get back to Talok or someone before he had to leave here.


Talok stood on the bridge of the Kara, having located three of the Ori ships in the galaxy, but had been unable to locate the fourth one. He had called Daina and Vanessa back here, so they could put their minds together and come up with something. As he opened his mouth to go over sensor arrays yet again, there was a chirping noise, signaling an incoming priority one transmission. Activating it so the others could see, they were stunned to see another Asari on the screen.

"Greetings, I am Krenla of the Asari, I have an urgent message to deliver for you Talok."

"Go ahead, I am Talok," he replied.

"I was just informed a short time ago that Remdun five has been approached by a prior of the Ori, only this one seems to be angling a different approach to things. No threats, just a promise of what's to come if they accept. The prior is to return later today to speak with the village leader and get their answer."

Vanessa stepped forward, puzzled. "Soft sell? That's a new approach."

"It is, and it is very disturbing as well. Our sources indicate that this prior has demonstrated no aggression, hostility, though he has in fact healed several people as proof of his "god given" powers."

Daina herself even seemed puzzled, though she was still raging on the inside. "This warrants investigating I think."

"I agree, we need to find out what exactly is going on, and if the Ori have changed tactics. If they have, this could be bad for us all."

Talok nodded grimly. "Agreed. We'll leave as soon as possible, I need to get a few people first."

Krenla nodded on the screen. "Very well. Good Luck Talok, and Godspeed to you all." Her image flickered out, leaving a momentary stunned silence hanging over their heads.

Vanessa spoke first. "I wonder if Adria has anything to do with this?"

Daina shrugged before replying, "no way to know just yet, though I have a feeling your right."

"I think it would be best to enlist Shade, Sho, their sisters and Elissia again. Any prior there wouldn't have much to go on with them, and they'd be able to blend in better than any of us except you Vanessa." Talok seemed certain of this, based on his posture.

Daina nodded her head. "I have to begrudgingly agree. Let's go get them then."

Nodding, Talok set about contacting them on the crystals, and one by one, beamed them to the ship. When they were all on board, he set a course, and engaged the hyper drive The Kara leaped into hyperspace, and vanished.


Shade and Sho had beamed down to the planet and awaited the arrival of the prior. They had been completely stunned to discover who the prior was though. When he had returned, and the village had accepted origin, the prior had removed his hood, revealing himself to be Siphon. It had been even more disheartening to hear him mutter the words, "hallowed are the Ori."

They had beamed back to the Kara, and they now made their way to the bridge, where instantly Daina asked them to report.

"Alright, what are we looking at here?"

Shade's jaw was clenched in anger, and so it was left to Sho to reply. "Daina, we know the prior."

Daina blinked for a moment. "We do? Who the hell is it?"

Sho hung her head and said only two words. "It's Siphon."

Talok's eyes bulged out. "What? Siphon is a prior and working for the Ori? Impossible!"

Shade shook his head and finally spoke. "Unfortunately, it was him. I agree though, Adria must have done something to him, because he would never do this willingly. The question now is, what do we do about it?"

Sho looked at him blankly, but it was Daina who answered. "We do what we set out to do from the start. We go down there and we get him back. There has to be a way of undoing whatever she's done to him, I refuse to accept any other possibility."

Talok finally interjected with his own thoughts. "Yes but the question is, if he's working for her right now, how the hell do we get him back without him attacking us? As messed up as it sounds, he might just attack us."

Elissia stepped forward and added her thoughts. "Well, you folks have the stun devices, just shoot him with them and stun him. Failing that, Zaleia has the electrical attacks, that ought to at least put him down, and Sho, can't you just cut off oxygen to his brain long enough to render him immobile?"

Sho nodded, as did Zaleia, but it was Anastasia who brought up a valid point. "Those priors, didn't Vanessa mention something a bit back about they could prevent weapons and powers being used against them?"

Vanessa had been listening in, and had remained unseen until now. Finally, she broke her silence. "Yes, they are able to, but they have to be focused on it. Meaning if you had someone attack him from behind, he probably won't be able to stop them. My suggestion is to have one person with a stunner on each side, and someone with another power of their own next to them. Split his attention and try to catch him off guard."

Daina nodded. "Then it's settled. We'll use the fighter launch bay since it's more open and easier to maneuver for us. Let's get this started. Talok, you bring the remote beam unit, the rest of us, let's get armed."

A collective nod from the group was the only answer she needed, and she led the rest of the group to the armory, and when they were ready, then to the fighter bay.


The village was still gathered around the prior, listening to the tale end of his reading from the book. A moment after he had read the last passage, he closed the book.

"Blessed are those that follow the path to Origin." He appeared to open his mouth to say something further, and then without warning he was claimed to the heavens by a mysterious flash of sparkling white light that left the village gasping in awe, uncertain of what had just happened before their very eyes.


Siphon appeared in the fighter bay of the Kara, blinking. Before him were Sho, Shade and Elissia. The three all had weapons drawn at him. Another blink and he spoke. "Finally, what the hell took you guys so damn long?"

He got no answer, as a stun blast slammed into him, knocking him out.

The group shared a collective look of shock at his words after he had been rendered out cold. It was Vanessa who spoke first though. "Did he just say what I think he just did?"

Anastasia nodded. "Yeah, what took us so long? That sounds to me like he was trying to get caught. Something isn't right here."

Talok nodded. "I agree, we need to move out of this system now, Adria might have had him get caught by us to draw us out and kill us now." He ran for the bridge, and soon the ship made a jump back into hyper-space.

Daina shook her head, wanting to believe it was really him, but knowing that could be exactly what the Ori wanted. "We need to move him elsewhere, or at least get him set up so he can't just waltz out of here."

Sho and Shade nodded, and while Shade got something to restrain him, Sho kept him a float in mid air. Quite quickly, they had him set down in a chair, bound by metal restraints. They discovered that it wasn't a moment too soon.

Siphon snapped awake as they stepped back, and instantly went to rub his aching head. Of course, he didn't go far with the metal restraints. "OK, guys, this is not needed."

Zaleia blinked. "Have you looked at yourself in the mirror there Siphon? Cuz you sure as hell look like a prior to me."

Siphon nodded once. "I sort of am. Let me explain. You remember back on the Velokian home world when I stopped Adria's attack?"

Sho nodded and spoke this time. "Yes, thanks for that by the way."

He nodded and continued. "Yeah well it's a good thing you got out when you did, she was way too much for me to handle. After I woke up on her ship, I found out why she hadn't killed me there. She wanted the sangraal weapon. Naturally, I refused to give it to her at first, but the longer I was there, the more I began to realize I could make this work to my advantage if I could get her to trust me."

"How so?" Shade asked.

"Well for one she needed me to make the sangraal weapon for her. Apparently her knowledge is limited even given her vast powers. My guess is the Ori made her as close as they could to themselves in human form so they could sneak her past the Ancients. Bad thing for us is, it worked. Anyway, I knew by that point that she could see right through me when I tried to lie to her, so I needed a plan. Talvesh gave me that plan."

Daina crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. "What plan would that be?"

"Talvesh believed that he could take control of every part of my body and mask my own thoughts from her, as well as his being we are two separate beings. He figured if we could pull that off, we could create the weapon, then find a way of backstabbing her later. For that, we needed her to make me into a prior."

Anastasia looked at him like he had two heads. "Why the hell would you need her to make you a prior?"

A smirk and he revealed the last of the plan. "I needed her to trust me and make me a prior so I could finish the weapon and steal the ship with the weapon on it and fly it to the super gate, then send it to the Ori home galaxy and wipe them all out. Of course, that may not stop their followers, but if we can give hard proof that their 'gods' are dead, we might have a chance to win this. She needed me at full strength to complete the weapon."

Talok by this time had returned. "So the weapon is complete, and in her hands?"

Siphon shook his head. "No, but it is close. Adria knew that the Ancients might interfere with it's creation, and wanted more power for the Ori. Their plan apparently is to draw enough energy to fuel them long enough to distract the Ancients while Adria detonates the weapon in our galaxy. For them to have that power, they needed more followers."

"Well that explains why she wanted to turn you, not why she had to." Vanessa had spoken for the first time now, seemingly trying to gauge him.

"Actually, she had little choice after we had proved ourselves to be 'trustworthy' to her cause. As I said, Talvesh was in fact able to protect me from her mind probes. Unfortunately, things didn't go exactly as planned with that whole idea. I had hoped to earn her trust and not have to ask to be turned, but something aboard those ships blocked out my ability to communicate properly with the symbiote during the regeneration process. Adria saw this, and I was forced to admit the truth. I was, for a time, dying."

Daina's eyes widened at this. "Dying? How?"

"In order to enjoy the advanced immune system and strength I do, it is a requirement to enter a healing meditative state at least once a day. Something on that ship, we're not sure what, prevented that. Adria seemed to not know, or maybe she knew that it would weaken me and figured she could exploit that weakness and further break me. I'm not sure which. Either way, Adria believes she has broken me to be her loyal servant, and my intention is to use that against her."

He seemed to pause for a moment before adding, “additionally, I'm doubtful that the Ori followers will simply just stop after we kill their 'gods', so we may have to convince them. Ideally, the best course of action if they come back after us would be to destroy the super gate I would have done it sooner, but I figured we would need it. Looks like I was right, though I am worried of a rumor I heard.”

Daina narrowed her eyes at this remark. “What rumor?”

“From what I was able to overhear, there has been talk amongst the soldiers of the priors promising re-enforcements to their armies. I can only assume that means more ships, but I also overheard talk that there might be a second super gate in the construction phase somewhere in the Pegasus Galaxy. I pray to god that it's only a rumor, but I have a very bad feeling it isn't.”

Sho shook her head at this. “How do we even know that we can trust you though? Believe me, I want to but...” She trailed off.

“I know, I'm not exactly looking trustworthy being a prior and all. So I'm willing to tell you something that a prior would not. I believe there is a way to create a device which will temporarily knock out a priors special powers from them, and I am willing to let you test it on me. If that will help convince you. I know full well your not going to let me just walk out of here unless you trust me, but you should also know that by now, I could have easily forced my way out of here, and you wouldn't have been able to do a thing about it. Now that is not a threat at all, but you have to admit, given the powers I have access to now, were I wanting to simply kill all of you like Adria wants me to do, I could have done it several times by now.”

Shade now cut in at these words. “Adria wanted you to kill all of us? What the hell did you tell her?”

“Not all of you. She wants all of you but Vanessa dead as you pose a threat to her. She wanted me to help her bring Vanessa back to her ship and convince her to join her. To keep with my cover, I told her if I happened to see any of you, I would act in accordance with her plans immediately and show no quarter. As you can see, that was an outright lie to her.”

Zaleia chimed in with a thought of her own now. “Alright, well even if we did help you with this plan, why the hell did you even bother coming to us to begin with? Surely you could have managed to do this by yourself and then come back to us.”

He nodded his head with a small frown. “While normally yes I could have, even as a prior Adria is far to strong for me to combat without an edge. That is where the prior inhibitor device I told you about comes in to play. I know enough about them now that I think we can make a device capable of making them human for a brief period of time, even Adria. With an edge like that, all I have to do is worry about getting past her shield, which I have several ideas on how to do that with weaponry now. Unfortunately, we don't have much time to implement and execute this plan.”

Vanessa cut in before anyone else could. “Why is that?”

“The longer I am gone the more likely Adria is going to get suspicious of my absence. If she does it's all over, she'll move the weapon elsewhere and we'll lose our chance. Plus, Talvesh and I were able to come up with a serum that I have taken already. In about two days or so, I'll revert back to how I was before Adria turned me. The same way I was when we took the serum. Of course, this means I will be completely human, with none of a priors special abilities. So right now, I need each of you to input everything I tell you into data pads regarding Ori technology, as well as the jamming field they used, because once I turn back, we'll lose access to most of that. Having that kind of knowledge will be very handy if and when we have to fight their ships again.”

Elissia spoke finally. “Talvesh can do that?”

“I hope to god he can. It's a test serum, this isn't exactly something that can be experimented with. Worst case scenario, it doesn't work I end up a prior for the rest of my damn life, but still on your side. Best case scenario, I turn back to how I was, we keep the information, and kick the Ori's asses back to their galaxy and defeat them, freeing any world under their influence.”

The others shared a look, and then it was Talok who finally spoke. “We're going to have to discuss this Siphon.”

“I understand. Go and do what you need to do, and we'll talk when you get back. Leave a guard or three here if you need to, but I'm not going anywhere.”

Talok smirked just slightly. “I'm holding you to that, got it?”

Siphon smiled back and nodded, then leaned back in his chair, seeming to relax as the others left the room to speak privately.


As soon as they were out of range of his hearing, Vanessa spoke up. “I hate to say it, but I think he's telling the truth.”

Talok shook his head. “We can't be certain of that. There is no way to know for sure.”

Daina slowly shook her head. “No, there is a way, if he'll let me, but it's risky.”

Sho looked at her with some concern as she asked, “what do you mean it's risky?”

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

Daina took a breath before replying to the question. “If I link to his mind and share thoughts, I can tell if he is telling us the truth or not. The problem is that it could in theory, since he's got to be linked somehow to the other Ori, tip off Adria. If he is telling the truth, doing so could inadvertently destroy the plan he has.”

Vanessa had a sudden thought as she remembered her time amongst the Ori. “Daina, I'm almost positive that the Ori keep in contact through the crystal in the staff. That's how they were able to tell all the priors on the planet I was in to congregate for the activation of the ships. If we keep that staff away from him when you probe his mind, it very well likely would allow you to do so without tipping Adria off.”

Daina closed her eyes for a moment before answering. “Alright, let's do this. Talok, head back up to the bridge with Elissia and call Coraxus, inform him of what is going on. Vanessa, you know the most about that staff, so take it wherever you think it won't cause a problem. Zaleia and Anastasia, I need you both to come along with Sho and Shade inside with me, just in case. I don't think he will attack me, but since I haven't touched the mind of a prior, it's possible it may drain me more than I would normally be. I need the four of you there in case I have to rest, and for safety reasons. We can't be too cautious, though I think it's safe to say if he was going to outright attack us, he would have done so by now.”

The group exchanged nods, and everyone moved off to where they were needed, Daina entering the room where Siphon was.

“Siphon, I need you to do something for us, just to confirm your telling the truth. Please?”

His eyes opened slowly and he looked at her. “Of course love, what is it?”

She seemed to hesitate a moment before finding the courage to press onward. “I'd like to link with your mind and see everything you've been through since we lost you, just to confirm what you have told us. Vanessa said she can remove the staff from the room so it won't tip off the Ori.”

Her heart began racing as he blinked back at her, and for a moment she thought he was going to refuse her. Then he nodded slowly and spoke. “Alright, I'll do it, but you need to be aware that some of the things you will see won't be pretty. Some of them will most likely downright piss you off and make you angry. You can blame Talvesh for those, and my weakened, dying state for those. You'll know what I mean when you see them, and I apologize in advance for what you will see.”

This took her aback, even as she motioned for Vanessa to remove the staff. Once she had, she turned back to him with a curious look. His features had slackened some, and he almost seemed upset or ashamed about something. She wondered what had happened that had him so upset about what she was going to see.

“Daina, I love you, and you know I always will. Let's just do this please.”

Now she knew something had happened to him. For him to bring up their relationship, she knew something awful had happened to him. Steeling her nerve, she sat on his lap, stroked his face, and then linked to his mind.

A flood of thoughts slammed into her all at once, and inwardly she gasped. She could see everything that he had gone through in the cell, then Adria coming to see him. Her eyes narrowed as she could see the thought patterns Talvesh had regarding fooling Adria, and then pulling it off, the sense of accomplishment of doing so. She frowned as she watched him working on the weapon, growing weaker and weaker as he did so, until finally she was amazed he could even still stand. Her eyes widened at about the time the memories got around to showing her just how bad he was the night Adria had turned him, her heart crying as he was much closer to death than he could have known. A fit of rage cut through her as she watched what Adria did to him for him to become a prior, trying to steal him from her.

She broke the link at this point, having seen enough to know he was telling the truth now. She smiled at him, but knew that he knew she was upset. What killed her inside though was when he responded to her, he mistook it for her being upset with him.

“Daina I'm sorry. If I had known what the process entailed I would have tried to find another way, or just let myself go. I just...”

She cut him off by kissing him, breaking it after several long moments and putting a finger to his lips, silencing him. “I know Siphon, I know. I understand what happened wasn't willing on your part. I'm just glad to have you back with me.”

She stood now, and walked towards the door. “I will be back shortly.”

Sho and the others stared at each other as she left. “I'm going to follow her and find out what's going on, stay here.”

Shade nodded at her and watched her go before turning back to watch Siphon, who seemed despite whatever Daina had said to him, to be quite down now.


Sho caught up to Daina not too far down the hall. “Daina wait up, what's wrong?”

Daina turned to see Sho and tried to smile, but it wasn't quite convincing. “Nothing really. Siphon is telling the truth yes, but I saw what Adria did to him when he couldn't stop her. If we come across her, I am going to tear her insides out of her before I kill her.”

Sho's eyes widened at this. “What the hell did she do to him Daina?”

Daina's eyes were threatening to void out again, but she managed to control it. “She took advantage of how weak he was when she turned him, and used that as an excuse to fuck him. What's worse, is he couldn't stop her even though he wanted to. He was so close to death, I don't think he would have lasted another day if she hadn't changed him. I suppose I have her to thank for him still being alive, but I won't tolerate her having done that to him. I don't care if it was the only way to or not. She's going to pay dearly for that, I will see to it!”

Sho stopped dead in her tracks as these words sank in, her mind racing to what it had to be like for her. She didn't have to try very hard, her mind wandering to how she would feel if it had been Shade instead of Siphon, finding that she too was growing quite angry. “You won't be alone with that Daina. That's just, I don't even have words to describe how awful that is.”

Daina nodded again. “That is why we're going to utterly destroy that bitch. Now, if you will excuse me, I should probably tell Talok that Siphon's plan is a go and legit. Unless you want to join me?”

Sho shook her head. “No, I think I'll go back and let him off that chair so we can get started then if that is alright with you. Faster we can move, the better yes?”

A quick nod from Daina and then, “do it. We'll join you shortly.”

Daina was already through the doors and gone by the time Sho had turned around, and she couldn't help but wonder if Daina would be alright. Shrugging, she started back for Siphon, reminding herself that they needed to move, now.



Talok and Elissia had just gotten Coraxus on the main screen and told him of Siphon's plan when Daina made it to the bridge.

“He's telling the truth Talok. God help us, he's got a plan that if we can pull off, would mean the end of the ascended Ori for good.”

Coraxus stared at her over the screen for a moment before saying. “Alright, Talok and Elissia brought me up to speed, now you say he's telling the truth. All I want to know is, how do you know?”

“I linked with his mind and relived what he went through, including the fact Adria used his weakness and the fact he was dying to change him. Let's just say I want to her the bitch for some rather personal reasons.”

Talok and Elissia both blinked at this, and Coraxus was silent for several moments before he replied. “Good enough for me then, when do we move out?”

“Sho is setting him loose as we speak, once he is we'll have him upload everything he knows into the computer systems and send a copy to your ship. Then when his test weapon is ready to go, we'll implement part one of the plan and steal the ship. Once we steal it, we'll meet at the super gate with you, and go from there.”

“Very well, I'll be in touch then. Coraxus out.”

His image winked off, leaving the three in silence. Elissia was the one who finally broke it. “Well, I guess we had best get moving then before we run out of time, huh?”

“Indeed,” both Talok and Daina replied at the same moment. Sharing a look between themselves for a moment, they chuckled slightly, and then made their way to Sho and Siphon's position.”



Siphon had managed to input all the information he had into the ship computer, and had now finished his device, testing it briefly on himself. He was pleased, the device was working exactly as he had hoped it would. Now all that was left was to execute the final stages of the plan. He now turned to the others and said, “it works. My prior powers were neutralized when I turned it on, so it will work on Adria too.”

Daina smiled back. “Good, so we can move onward with the plan. I've discussed things, and it seems our best bet is going to be to have us beam over to this ship, take it and go to the Ori gate. Once there, of course the Kara will be with us, and we will dial it up and send the device through. Just before the ship enters the wormhole, Talok will beam us all off of the ship and we will get the hell out of here to a safe distance. Coraxus has already arrived, and he will join us on the Kara here. Should we need the backup, his fleet will be very close by.”

He nodded quickly. “Perfect. Now if we move now, there should be enough time to steal the ship before Adria and the prior return to it. Locking down the systems will be easy and I can lock out the rings as well. After we commandeer the ship, we should have no trouble whatsoever of flying it. I'll set the course, pre-program us to drop out of hyper-space at the gate, and then head down to finish the final parts to the weapon. I'll take the anti-prior device with us just in case as well, but with any luck we won't need it.”

There was a moment of silence as he considered something else, then turned to Talok. “You should remain cloaked at all times once we drop out of hyperspace. That is purely as a precaution, but when dealing with Adria and the Ori, I don't think we can be over cautious at all.”

Talok slowly nodded his head. “Agreed. The rest of the group will be going with you. You will need to use the rings to get over there though.”

“Perfect. Alright, let's get going before we run out of time. I can't have much more than a day or so of time left before I change back. By then, it will be too late if we hit a snag.”

A collective series of nods was shared, and the group set about preparing to move out. Talok sent the ship into hyperspace, and they were on their way.



It wasn't long before they had come out of hyperspace, and less time before they had ringed aboard the ship.

“Alright, we'll go this way. Crap, soldiers. I can't let them see me just yet.”

Daina smiled. “Leave it to us then.”

Siphon stepped into an alcove, hiding himself from the soldiers. The others however were quickly spotted by them, and there was a shout in the Ori language, and then the sounds of Ori staff weapons being fired in their direction.

Elissia ducked behind a corner to avoid being shot by the weapon, and shouted a warning to the soldiers. “Gentlemen, we are taking control of this ship. We would like for you to throw down your weapons and surrender please!”

Shade stuck his head around the corner, and nearly got it blown off by one of the blasts that came back as an answer. Smirking he said, “that's a no.”

With a nod, Zaleia crackled electricity from her fingertips and then sent it around the wall, slamming into the soldiers and killing them all in a relatively short period of time. As they all moved onward, stepping over the crispy remains of the bodies, Siphon and Zaleia both muttered at the same time, “we did ask nicely.”

The two shared a small grin and a light laugh, and then moved onward again. Soon they had reached the bridge of the ship, Siphon taking his place in the command chair. “This won't take long. Ah, got it.”

A moment later the massive Ori ship banked and jumped into hyperspace, the Kara following suit seconds later.

“Alright, I have locked out the rings and set the course. I've also sealed off this deck, so no more guards will be bothering us. I'm heading off to finish the weapon, will meet you back here when it is finished.”

“Alright, good luck,” Sho replied, saving the others the need to.

A quick smile from him, and he was gone, leaving the others to go over the treasure trove of information inside the data banks of the Ori vessel.


It wasn't long before the Ori ship came back out of hyperspace, taking up an orbit near the super gate. Shade turned to view the gate, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Sitting there in front of them was a second Ori ship, and it didn't seem like it was there just for the sake of being there. “Uh, guys?”

Daina nodded. “I see it, I'm trying to raise shields but I can't seem to.”

Elissia started to speak. “Looks like we have company.”

Her words were cut off by weapons fire, and she ducked back into the room. “Dammit, I thought Siphon said he sealed this deck off?”

Vanessa nodded and replied back quickly, “he did, I watched him do it. Something isn't right here.”

Her worst fears were confirmed when Adria stepped into the doorway, her eyes glowing a crimson red, betraying her anger.

Shade immediately moved to attack, but was sent flying backward by a look from her, slamming into the wall hard.

“I think we're in trouble,” Sho said plainly, somehow remaining cool sounding.

Adria glared back at them, and for the moment said nothing.


Siphon had just finished putting all but the timer for the weapon in place when the doors slid open. His mouth opened to ask why the others had come to get him, and for a moment he paused when he saw fifteen soldiers come into the room, weapons already drawn. “What is the meaning of this?”

The lead soldier, who Siphon did not know spoke to him directly. “This ship has been boarded by intruders, we are here to secure the weapon.”

Siphon nodded once. “Of course. However as you can see, I am here to guard it myself. Busy yourselves finding these intruders and deal with them now.”

He shook his head. “The Orici told us to come here and remain with the weapon prior.”

Inwardly Siphon's heart sank. Adria had figured part of this out, though he wondered how much. “Obviously the Orici was not expecting me to have returned so soon to this ship, I converted the planet she asked me to, and then returned here.”

At the young soldier's look, he added, “are you questioning my ability to guard this device from a bunch of mere mortals?”

A shocked look crossed his face as he hastily answered, “no of course not prior. However I am bound by duty to obey by the Orici's orders until she instructs me otherwise.”

Siphon sagely nodded before replying. “Of course, I understand that. Unfortunately, it isn't these intruders you need to worry about stealing the weapon from us.”

Another startled look crossed his face. “I don't understand prior. What do you mean, who are you referring to?”

He hadn't wanted to do this, but he was left with no choice. With a slight frown he said, “unfortunately for you, it isn't the intruders you needed to be worried about. It is me you should have been worried about.”

Without warning he extended his newfound prior abilities and lifted them off their feet with his telekinetic powers, and quickly began to choke the life out of them, causing them to gasp for air and drop their weapons. He wouldn't forget the look of terror on the young soldiers face as he died, the look of complete shock as he realized his prior had turned against him, and was the enemy. “You should have left when I gave you the chance. Now I am afraid none of you can be allowed to live.”

It took only a moment more to kill them all, their lifeless bodies dropping to the floor even as he turned away from them once more. Placing the timing crystal into the weapon, he set it to go off in ten minutes. He knew either way, this ship would be going through the super gate, even if he did not make it off of the ship alive. With the device armed, he set off for the bridge, his pace almost demonic in speed.


It didn't take long for him to reach the bridge and spot Adria in the doorway to the main control room there. He had the device he had created armed and ready to go against her, and had already made certain he had been exposed long enough to become immune to it. He would only get one shot with this, and he needed to make it count. As she seemed to open her mouth to speak to his friends, he spoke from behind her. “Adria, I'm pleased you are here.”

She spun around, her face glaring with anger. “I should never have trusted you!”

A slow frown crossed his face as he slipped into his part now. “Whatever do you mean? I converted the planet just like you asked me to. I led the others here so you might kill them yourself, and so you could be with your mother again, just like I promised you. I have done everything you asked of me, and I have done all of this for you.”

Sho's face burned with anger at this. She had been certain he was telling the truth, and how had he fooled Daina with her mental probes?

Daina's face registered the same anger and betrayed look, and she shook her head in total disbelief. However, it seemed as if Adria wasn't so sure.

Adria stared at him for a moment, her face unreadable. She suddenly shook her head as if to clear it. “What? Your mind is closed off to me, what is this?”

Siphon seemed stunned for a moment as he replied to her. “What, oh really?”

A moment passed and then without warning his face broke into a sly smirk and his hand rushed forward. “Yeah, I know. Go to hell you worthless piece of rapist shit, Daina's better than you any day.”

A beat later a blast of pure energy slammed into Adria, causing her to crumple to the ground, completely out cold. She hit the floor hard, smashing face first down.

Everyone including Vanessa jumped at this, and turned to him, stunned. It was Sho who finally broke the silence. “Siphon, what the hell is going on?”

He turned to them and smiled slightly. “Oh, sorry, had to make certain this was working on her first.”

From behind his back he pulled the anti-prior device, and waved it to them before flopping it to the ground.

It took Anastasia a moment to make the connection, and she spoke even as the others seemed to realize the same thing. “You got past her personal force shield?”

Again he grinned, widely this time as he answered, “yeah. That took a hell of a lot.”

Without warning he slumped against the wall, almost collapsing to the floor.

Shade, who had recovered by this point, as well as Daina and Sho rushed next to him to keep him standing, then helped him over to the chair.

He shot them a thankful look then said slowly, and weakly, “I'm running out of strength to do this. The weapon is armed, get everything together and prepare to have Talok beam us out.”

Even as they nodded and moved to comply, he had already begun to dial the super gate. As it began to glow with blue energy, the other Ori ship wisely decided to move out of the way, though it was unable to do so enough, and got caught in the unstable vortex shooting out, obliterating it in a second. A smirk crossed his face as he muttered, “one bastard down.”

The gate finished fully dialing, and Siphon set the ship to move through the gate, knowing full well that the weapon would go off less than two minutes from now. He had taken longer than he had wanted to in getting this far, but it wouldn't matter. Satisfied, he started to get up when a wave of pain and nausea unlike anything he had ever experienced washed over him, and he instinctively knew his time as a prior was up. His last alert thought was Sho coming over to tell him they were ready to go, and smiling at her with a maniac like grin and muttering something that even he didn't understand, before he blacked out.

Sho shot a worried look at him, but he had already passed out by that point. “Uh guys, Siphon's gone to sleepy land here!”

Vanessa came over and looked him over, lifting his face upward and studying him for a moment. “His features are rapidly returning to normal, he's becoming human again. He must have been too drained to stay awake through the transformation again.”

Elissia nodded, though she spoke as she did so. “That's all fine and dandy, but can we please get out of here before we end up in the Ori galaxy?”

Daina opened a channel to Talok and spoke fast. “Talok, we need emergency beam out now!”

Not even a second later, they vanished in the sparkling white light of the Alveran transporter, even as Shade was trying to ask, “what about super bitch?”

It was too late however, they were already on board the Kara when he finished his sentence, and not a moment too soon it seemed. A half second later, the Ori warship vanished into the super gate, and it shut down behind it.

Zaleia sat down in one of the chairs and let loose a sigh. “Well, that was definitely interesting. So what do we do now then?”

Talok shook his head as he replied, “I'm not certain. For now, Siphon is in the medical bay with Daina, it would seem he will need some time to recover from this. Until then, I guess we should simply stay here and see what happens.”

Coraxus, who had been standing there silent until now finally spoke. “Well it seems at least up until the Ori ship went through that Siphon's plan worked according to plan. Let us hope that the Ori themselves were destroyed, and that we can convince their troops here that their 'gods' are dead now.”

Those on the bridge shared a collective nod, and finally Sho spoke. “Well I for one am going to head down and see how Siphon is doing. Truth be told, I think he may have over done himself when he took out Adria.”

Elissia shook her head. “I don't think she was dead Sho. She seemed to still be breathing, albeit slowly. I doubt we've seen the last of her.”

Shade nodded slowly. “I hope not. I have a score to settle with that bitch.”

Talok frowned at this, but it was an understanding frown. “We all do Shade. I suspect we will get the chance to even that score out, most likely sooner rather than later. I suggest that we be prepared to do so when the opportunity arises, and not waste it.”

“Agreed. I think we will all be ready when the time is right Talok. I know I will be,” replied Vanessa, almost coldly.

With a quick nod, Sho, Shade, Elissia, Vanessa and Zaleia left for the medical bay to join Daina in checking in on Siphon. Talok, Anastasia and Coraxus remained behind on the bridge to monitor various instruments. Talok began placing long range calls to their allies, Coraxus sat down in a chair and seemed bored waiting, and Anastasia kept an eye on the sensors, almost half expecting something major to pop onto the screen at any second.


Siphon wasn't sure how long he had been out of it, only that it had to have been a while from the number of people crowded into the room with him. Blinking he managed to mutter out, “hey guys. What happened?”

Daina smiled warmly at him before gently kissing his forehead. “It seems that the plan worked. The Ori ship went through the gate about two hours ago and it's been quiet since then.”

He slowly nodded, moving himself slowly to sit up. “Good, now we wait and see what happens.”

Zaleia cut in with a thought that had been bothering her for some time now. “Alright, now here is the question of the hour. How do we know the Ori were actually destroyed? How do we know that their followers won't just keep attacking anyway?”

He shook his head at both questions, and answered them as best as he could. “If the Ori were still alive, they would have retaliated by now by sending the weapon back here to kill the Ancients. I think we can be safely assured the Ori are dead. As for their followers, they probably will keep coming until we can prove to them their gods are dead and weren't really gods at all. While it won't be easy, it isn't impossible either. I'm actually amazed no more ships have been mentioned as coming through the super gate. It's been completely silent since the weapon was sent through?”

“Too quiet if you ask me, I have a pretty funny feeling something is going to happen soon,” replied Sho.

As if to prove her point, the comm system chose that moment to cut in on their thoughts, and Anastasia's voice filled the room. “Hey guys, you might want to get up here, that huge gate thing is starting to glow again.”

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

Siphon was already to his feet and half way out the door when he heard the word gate spoken, and the others were not far behind him. It only took several moments to reach the bridge from where they had been, and as he stepped onto the bridge, the gate became fully active. He watched in silence with the others as the unstable vortex subsided, and then the gate was still for a moment, the gigantic puddle that had been formed rippling slightly being the only movement in the space between the gate and the Kara. Then, to his dismay, Ori ships began coming through. He continued to count and his heart sank as the wave of ships pouring through seemed never ending. Eventually they did, but not before he had counted at least eighty of them having come through, which meant there were now eighty two of them in the galaxy. As the gate snapped shut, the gargantuan ships turned and moved away from the gate, each opening a hyperspace window and vanishing. He leaned against the wall, even as he felt the gaze of his friends wash over him. “Well, we knew that getting rid of the Ori might not stop their followers. We may have made things worse for ourselves right now, but in the end, this may have been our only shot at winning this war.”

Coraxus just looked at him and bluntly stated, “we can't let any more ships come through, and you know full well they will send more when they have another huge grouping like that.”

He nodded, a grim tone to his face. “I know Coraxus, I know. Coraxus, you have a go on operation gate buster. Get rid of that damn thing, I don't care how you do it, just get rid of it now.”

He turned to Talok and the Wraith moved to a control panel to beam Coraxus over to the gate. “I thought you would never ask me to do that.” A grin spread across his face as he vanished in a flash of sparkling white light.

He reappeared standing on a section of the super gate, and immediately went to work with his powers. He wasn't sure how long he had been there twisting and smashing parts of the gate, when it suddenly started to crackle with energy. He was sure this wasn't going to end very well for anyone since he wasn't done, but that was the last thought he had before he was once again beamed away.

As soon as he was solid on the bridge of the Kara he glared at Siphon. “What the hell is going on?”

“Apparently they decided to send more troops through already. How much damage were you able to do?”

“Well the thing will open if that is what you want to know. Twisted out some parts to it pretty good, but no where near enough to prevent it from becoming active.”

Vanessa smiled suddenly. “If enough of it is damaged, we may not have to have you go back out there then, the wormhole might do it for us.”

He opened his mouth to say something back to her, and then closed it in awe as the vortex shot out, only to flicker in and out, and then without warning the super gate simply exploded into hundreds of pieces. “What the hell?”

Siphon by this point was laughing hard, and when he had recovered enough he finally gave them all the answer they were looking for. The damage you did to the super gate was enough to destabilize it's ability to contain the energy of the active wormhole. In simplistic terms, it overloaded and exploded. Congratulations Coraxus, you made a larger explosion than anything my people have ever made out of something that normally wouldn't explode.”

He grinned for a moment, and then was silent, taking in the still smoldering remains of what had once been the super gate.

Talok set the Kara on a course to head back to Earth, and Siphon began to process information he had added to the ship data banks. The rest of them headed off to get some sleep, not sure of what their next move would be, but content with the minor victory for now.


Less than three months had passed since the super gate had been destroyed, and now it was the Ori who were on the defensive. Siphon had managed to figure out what kind of field they had been using to jam Alveran weapons and protect themselves against Tiberion weaponry. Once they had modified their weapons to combat this, it had proven fairly easy to go toe to toe against single Ori ships. There was still the trouble of going up against more than one at once though, as their weapons still packed a hell of a punch, but the field was more level now. Not a sight had been seen of Adria though, despite having their spies searching everywhere. She seemed to have vanished completely, and Siphon had begun to realize something was not right. The priors they had seen acted as if they were still getting orders from some higher being, and Siphon now began to worry that perhaps Adria had been killed in the super gate explosion and had managed to ascend before she was vaporized. If she had, then she would have done so after the other Ori had been wiped out. He paused as a transmission came up on his screen.

“Siphon, it's Sivala. We just got word back from the Ingrali. They have had a spy amongst the Ori army for about a month now, and he just reported back in. They have created a second super gate inside the Pegasus galaxy. What's worse, they are planning to launch a full scale attack on Earth any day now. Ships have been seen gathering near Ventos Prime, which as you know is only six hundred light years from Earth.”

Siphon was stunned into silence for a moment by this news. Slowly he nodded and then spoke. “So it has begun, the final push to end this war. Any clue how many ships we will be facing?”

“We're not sure, but chances are they will throw at least thirty of the fifty they have in the galaxy at us all at once, and that's only if they don't get more sent here. We know that the ship the Ingrali operative was reporting from was due to head back to the super gate in Pegasus to await more ships. A single Tiberion ship has recently attacked them and had been destroyed easily.”

This again made him pause. “Just the one ship against the Ori ship? That is a bit odd to see only a single Tiberion ship, usually they travel in packs. Why the hell was this one acting solo against the Ori?”

“We have no idea, only that they were utterly destroyed after firing some kind of weapon at the Ori that apparently did no damage.”

“Alright, then here's what I suggest. We get as many ships as can be spared to fend off the Ori at Earth, meanwhile I will take the Kara to the Pegasus super gate along with Coraxus and we will destroy that one as well. Not before we go through it however and try to find some way of stopping the Ori armies. I'm going to start working on another Sangraal, since I suspect that Adria may have been killed and ascended after the destruction of the other Ori. If she did, that explains where the Ori are still getting their orders from.”

“That is quite risky. If she senses you coming she may just obliterate you with her powers and never give you a shot.”

“No, she won't. She needs to keep as much as she can to take on the Ancients herself now. If she uses any of her powers now she'll set herself back. No we'll only have to worry about her soldiers and the priors as far as threats go, well, them and her ships.”

“Very well, just be careful about this. We have no idea what you can expect.”

“Understood, and we will be careful Sivala. As for what to expect? Oh I'd say a bunch of ships or warriors coming down on us like a bag of hammers tossed off a six story building. Not much different than some of our normal day to day lives.”

She chuckled at this, unable to help herself. “True enough. Good luck Siphon, and come back safely and with a win.”

He smiled as a reply, knowing this wasn't the cakewalk it would sound to be, and ended the transmission. Leaning back into his chair, he started making preparations, and calling the people he would need for this mission.


Coraxus had not been terribly pleased to hear of the attack on Earth forthcoming, however he had hid his glee at having the chance to possibly blow up another super gate. So happy in fact, he had decided to just bring his own ship along with the Kara to the super gate so he could do it, then come back to Earth and help defend it.

Siphon had just finished filling in Daina, Zaleia, Anastasia, Shade, Sho, Vanessa, Talok, Elissia and Coraxus of what he had found out from Sivala, and that there was already a movement being mounted. As he finished, the bright colors of multiple hyperspace windows flashed in space, and a large number of Wraith, Alveran, Ingrali, Gou'ald, Tokra, Tiberion, Tollan and Vorian ships all emerged. It was nearly impossible to say how many there were, but it wouldn't matter. The more they had, the better.

Sho turned to look as the ships showed up. “Wow, that is a pretty impressive fleet. Way larger than what we had at the super gate battle.”

“Much better upgraded too now that we know what we are really up against. The Ori won't get through our lines so easily this time around.” Siphon seemed quite certain of that.

Inwardly though he still had some doubts, which was why he had confided in Ian and Barry, to be the final line of defense, just in case. His thought was the Ori would likely land troops at the School first, knowing from what Adria took from him of it's magical and supernatural background. His hope was, if the students who were super powered knew, they might be able to at least slow the Ori soldiers down.

He turned back to them to outline the plan. “Alright, the plan as it is right now is as follows. Talok will remain aboard the Kara at all times to pilot her. We will pass through the super gate in the ship, at which point Coraxus will destroy the gate after we go through. With that done, Coraxus will head back to Earth and hook up with the fleet and kick some ass like he always does. When we reach the Ori home planet, I will set up shop in one of the underground tunnels where I will begin working on another Sangraal weapon using the Ancient technology left behind there. This is where the Ori got the technology to create that interface device I made the first weapon with. From there, we will get close enough to Celestis to activate and detonate it, making sure Adria is destroyed. Hopefully that will convince the priors that they were being lied to, and we'll be able to convince them to call off their troops from their attacks. Otherwise, we just blow the living crap up out of their city, and do this the hard way. It will take all of our determination, all of our dedication, and all of our combined efforts to pull this off and save Earth, and the entire Galaxy. If we are successful, then we will use the hyper-drive to return back to Earth, since there will be no super gate left. I think that just about covers everything. Any questions or ideas?”

The group shook their heads, having nothing, and wanting to get this started and over with as fast as possible.

“Very well, I'll head back over to The Razors Edge and we'll get this party started,” Coraxus said. With a nod to Talok, he was beamed back over to his ship.

Moments later, both the Kara and The Razors Edge jumped to hyperspace, heading for the Ori super gate in the Pegasus Galaxy.


Several hours had passed uneventfully at hyperspace, and they were now finally reaching their target drop out point. A moment later, both the Kara and the Razors Edge exploded out of hyperspace, their sensors instantly going off as they detected a single Ori warship in close proximity.

Shade had been sitting at the controls, bored out of his mind, and was the first to see the warning. “Uh, Siphon? There's an Ori ship parked out there!”

Siphon quickly put it up on the viewer, shields already to full power, and studied it. “What the hell? It's just sitting there, doing nothing. They had to have picked us up by now.”

Elissia ran her fingers over one of the other consoles, knowing just enough to run the one scan she wanted. She blinked several times before answering. “I think I know why Siphon. I'm not picking up any life signs over there. It's a ghost ship.”

Standing he walked over to her, looking down at the panel, then back to the ship. “Why the hell would they abandon it? According to these readings it is perfectly functional, albeit not doing anything. All their fighters are still aboard too. Something isn't right here. Daina, hail Coraxus.”

A moment later his image came up on the viewer, split with that of the image for the Ori ship. “Siphon, what the hell is going on? Our sensors show that ship is completely devoid of life.”

“I'm not sure, but our sensors are showing the exact same thing. I think it's safe to say if the ship was going to pose a threat, it would have done so by now. Anyone up to taking a little trip over and see if we can access their logs and find out what happened? Maybe why they abandoned ship?”

“I think that might be a good idea. We'll remain parked here in case anything comes up for now.”

“Very well. Vanessa, Talok, stay here for now. The rest of you, let's have a look shall we?”

Sho nodded, steering the others towards the armory first, preparing for the worst just in case. While the sensors showed no life over there, Sho had a bad feeling something was going to happen, and she wanted at least Anastasia and Elissia equipped with something a little more potent than their fists or Elissia's sword. Once they were all geared, they met in the ring room, deciding to use that instead.

“Alright, we're ready to go then. Step into the center of the rings please.”

Once they had, Siphon set a short timer to activate, then stepped in with them, his pistol drawn. Ten seconds later, the rings came down and transported them over to the Ori ship.


The eerie silence of the ship was broken by the hum of energy as the rings came alive, and then deposited it's occupants in the ring room of the Ori ship. As soon as the glow from them had faded however, the group quickly realized that while life support was active, the lights were oddly at only one quarter power.

“OK, this is quite odd,” Zaleia said.

Siphon looked around the room for a moment before finally answering, “indeed. Something bad must have happened.”

Sho and Anastasia had already stepped out with Shade, and suddenly Sho let out a gasp of surprise. “Siphon!”

He bolted out of the room, pistol drawn and turned the corner. He stood there in shock for a moment, his mind taking a few seconds to register what he was seeing. Bodies, broken and battered all over the place, some missing arms or legs, as if they had been burnt off, and long marks of walling that had been just ripped out it seemed,with no indication of where the missing parts had gone too. It was evident now that the Ori soldiers hadn't abandoned ship. Something had attacked them and slaughtered all of them, and from the looks of it, none of the attackers had been killed, or if they had, their bodies had been claimed later.

Daina blinked in shock. “OK that's disturbing. What the hell could have done this to them?”

Siphon slowly shook his head. “I have no idea. Some of these burn marks look almost like acid, but there is no species in this galaxy that can excrete acid as an attack.”

Elissia seemed slightly on edge as she added, “let's just get to the bridge and get their logs shall we? Then maybe get out of here, something is very wrong here.”

“Agreed, let us keep moving then, and try not to trip over the bodies. Seems to be quite a number of them, doesn't look like whoever killed them bothered collecting any bodies as trophies or vaporized them either. This appears to be just a simple annihilation attack.”

Sho huddled close to Shade as they picked their way through the halls, while Anastasia and Zaleia also kept close to each other. Only Siphon, Daina and Elissia remained spread out. Of course, the three of them were trained to be some variant of military, so they were somewhat more accustomed to the idea of coming across slaughterhouse scenes such as this. Still, not one of them wasn't at least slightly unaffected by this, and it was visible despite their best efforts not to show it.

They had made it about half way to where they needed to go when Siphon suddenly stopped. As one, the rest of the group did as well, unsure of why until they felt the slight hum of the deck plates beneath them.

“We're moving,” Siphon whispered. Reaching over his shoulder, he activated his comm. “Talok, this is Siphon, what the hell is going on?”

The reply came across quickly. “The Ori ship suddenly powered it's engines and raised shields. The super gate is becoming active, it seems to be an outgoing wormhole.”

Sho shot him a worried look even as he replied. “What the hell do you mean? Are you saying this ship just came to life on it's own, raised shields, and dialed the goddamn gate?”

“That is exactly what I am saying. We can't beam you out of there now, Coraxus wants to know what you want us to do.”

“We're going to be through that gate before we can make it back to the ring room, but we might be able to stop the ship if we can get to the bridge quickly. If we end up going through, bring the Kara through with us and tell Coraxus to proceed as planned with the destruction of the super gate. In the meantime, I'll see what I can do about getting us all control of the ship.”

“Copy that, good luck.”

Siphon cut the channel, and they started moving faster now, no longer worrying about disturbing the bodies on the floor. Only scant moments later they were outside of the bridge, blocked by the doors. Siphon walked toward them and nearly pile drove his face into them when they didn't open.

“Oh you have to be joking. Tell me you can bypass that?” Daina looked slightly concerned as she spoke.

“Of course I can, just probably not before we enter the damn gate.”

He started to work on it, and then for a moment, things seemed to flicker around them. His fear was confirmed a moment later by Talok's voice.

“I'm afraid you folks entered the gate and have emerged on the other side, we're now in the Ori galaxy. What's more, five warships are approaching our position.”

“Well crap. We're just outside the bridge now, I'll see if I can get us to jump away from them for now.”

“That I fear may not help, the five ships are charging weapons.”

As if to punctuate his statement, the ship they were on rocked slightly from weapons fire. Siphon growled slightly as he spoke again. “Talok, prepare to beam us off of here when the shields fail then.”

He was stopped when Talok let loose a whistle. “Your ship is returning fire, it just took out two of the other Ori ships with a pair of shots.”

Shade blinked. “It did what?”

Sho turned to face both Daina and Siphon. “How the hell can it do that? I thought their technology level was equal each ship and couldn't be used against each other?”

“They can be used against each other, but they shouldn't be cutting through the others like that. Something is very wrong here.”

Talok cut in once more. “You folks just took out five Ori ships in about twenty seconds flat. My sensors indicate your powering up for a hyperspace jump. I'll follow as best as I can, but we will be out of contact for some time if you make that jump.”

“We'll see about that,” Siphon growled. Finishing what he was doing, he slid the doors open to the bridge.

He turned with the others to walk inside, and stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes, like the rest of them, bulging out of the sockets at the sight. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of spider form replicators crawling all over the place.

Siphon said the only thing that came to his mind even as the replicators took notice of them and started moving their way. “Oh holy fuck, run!”

They didn't need to be told twice, taking off back down the hall. Zaleia looked over her shoulder and slowed some after a little bit. “Hey Siphon, I don't think they're following us.”

He slowed and turned, noticing she was right. “Well what the hell?”

Daina shook her head as she came to a stop with the others. “I don't know, but at least now we know what the hell killed all those soldiers and how the ship moved and fired on it's own now.”

Siphon just glared down the hall. “I hate those damn things! Where the hell did they even come from?”

Elissia shook her head slowly. “Does it really matter right now? We need to figure out how the hell to get out of here now that we made that jump. I'm assuming we can't ring off in hyperspace?”

Siphon nodded glumly. “I'm afraid not. Alright, maybe we can access something from the engine room, maybe at the least shut down the hyper drive. Preferably overload the damn thing and blow these bastards sky high. If they do have a collective elsewhere, we can not allow them to accomplish their plans here and return back home to our galaxy. They've assimilated the Ori technology now, and that makes them extremely dangerous, even more so than the group Daina and I got rid of three years ago.”

Anastasia had heard about that and spoke. “So I'm going to guess that swallowing them into a black hole won't work this time then?”

“Most likely not, the Ori have the technology to manipulate and create time dilation fields which are similar. By now these replicators have almost certainly become immune to the gravity well of a black hole. We might be able to blow them up though if we can overload the hyper drive. Nothing can survive an explosion of that magnitude.”

Shade had another idea. “What about rigging one of those anti replicator fields out of the emitters of the ship? Disintegrate the little buggy bastards.”

Daina shook her head though. “Normally a sound plan, but the Ori are similar in technological level to both the Ancients and Siphon's own people. Chances are these replicators are immune to that technology now.”

Siphon nodded, glum looking again. “Unfortunately, that is more than likely to be correct. Our best bet at this point is to blow up their hyper drive after we drop out. Of course, we have no idea when that might be, so until then, I suggest we carefully make our way there. From there I should be able to at least give us some kind of view as to where we are in this galaxy, and maybe even determine our target drop out point.”

Slowly each of the others nodded, not liking it, but dealing with it in their own ways.

“Let's not waste any time then. Lead on Siphon,” Shade finally said.

“Alright, this way then.”

They took off down the hall, sticking to the maintenance shafts rather than the on board inter-ship transporters, for fear the replicators might have control over those.


Nearly fifteen minutes later, they were standing inside of the engine room of the powerful warship, the core glowing with energy behind a containment field. Siphon pulled up a list of commands on one of the terminals, and finally a map came up of the galaxy, as well as a locating beacon showing where they were targeting to drop out.

“Oh crap, they're taking the ship right into the center of Ori activity. We're heading right for Celestis, the Ori city and their planet.”

“I take it that is a bad thing?” Elissia looked a bit confused.

“Well yes and no. With luck the replicators will destroy it, but unfortunately they are more likely to try and capture it and use the city-ship as their new base of operations. If they target it and try to blow it up that actually helps us, but if they try and assimilate it, that is a very bad thing for us.”

“How long before we drop out?” No sooner had Sho finished her sentence than the ship shuddered slightly.

“We just did I think,” Shade said, looking at Siphon for confirmation.

“Indeed we did. Alright, I'd going to start working on stuff in here and try to overload the damned drive. I need some cover in case the replicators decide to come peek in on us. Zaleia, Sho, you two ladies are up, you've got perhaps the only attacks these things aren't immune to right now. Though if they work similar to the human forms, you may have some trouble Zale. My suggestion is for you to lift them up Sho, and then smash them into the ground while Shade and Elissia smash them to tiny bits with foot and sword. Most likely they won't reform, although if they do we might have some trouble.”

Daina smiled before replying. “What about me? Have you forgotten me?”

A grin crossed his face before he replied. “Of course not. I'll need you to help them out, but your on call if I need an extra hand over here. I doubt I will, but best to have a plan for backup just in case.”

“Alright, let's do this then,” she replied back to him, turning to watch the outer corridor along with the others.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

He quickly got to work on the systems while they covered him, and it wasn't long before he had gained access to the hyper-drive control systems. He quickly removed all of the safeties, then began channeling as much power as he could to the drive in an attempt to overload it. As the power started building, he could hear the metallic clanking of replicators coming down the hall, only a split second before the energy rifle Shade was carrying starting firing off.


Shade had been watching down the hall when the first of the little bastards had taken a sudden aggressive turn towards their location, and hadn't hesitated to open fire on it. Much to his chagrin however, the energy blast seemed to have no effect on it, and it kept scuttling towards them.

Zaleia had already begun throwing out electricity at them, and while it didn't kill them, they did seem to freeze for just a moment after each strike, as if it stunned them briefly.

Daina seemed to void out for a moment, her body taking on a strange blue glow before flinging a few of the replicators into a wall with a motion of her hands, despite not touching them physically., smashing them to pieces, though the majority of them seemed to resist the assault.

Sho however had a bit more luck as she created a small tornado in the hall, whipping the spiders against the walls, smashing them into tiny pieces, although a few of them were beyond the vortex already.

Those than managed to get away from Sho's tornado were quickly smashed apart under Elissia's sword, rendering the first wave neutralized. Unfortunately, more were already coming down the hall.

“Hey Siphon, you want to speed things up there? We're going to get over run fairly soon!” Anastasia turned back around after yelling to him, just in time to duck some kind of projectile that looked an awful lot like bile.

The liquid the replicator had tossed out began eating a hole in the wall where her head would have been, and she shuddered. “Oh god, they can spit acid!”

Sho again slammed a good majority of them against the walls, making it easier for the others to deal with the stragglers, but even as those were taken care of, still more of the things were pouring down the hallway. There were now too many to count, as if perhaps all of them were charging. She didn't bother turning as she yelled, “OK this is going to turn ugly real fast here, there's too many of them to take out at once here!”

Siphon by this point had finished, and was suddenly standing at her side, tossing a shock blast of his own into the group, sending a good number smashing into the walls, and the ones that were fortunate enough to not be flung far and wide were driven back by the sheer force of it. “I'm done, overload is in progress, we just have to keep them at bay long enough to let the drive go critical.”

“How long will that take?” Shade asked.

“Two minutes, maybe three.”

Elissia smashed another replicator to bits and then said, “I'm not sure if we're going to be able to hold out that long!”

Siphon quickly opened a channel to Talok and spoke. “We have to. Talok, this is Siphon, the Ori shields are down. On my mark, beam us directly to the bridge of the Kara, and not a moment before.”

The reply was slightly delayed, the Kara obviously having to move into position and decloak. “Understood, we are waiting on your command.”

Somehow they managed to hold the line, even as the drive behind them started making high pitched noises, building to an explosive overload. Anastasia looked to Siphon and said with a bit of fearful question, “now?”

He was silent for another ten seconds or so and then suddenly yelled, “Talok, now!”

They were suddenly claimed by the brilliant white flash of the transporter, just a split second before the replicators would have over run their position.


A brilliant flash of white sparkling light covered the bridge as Siphon, Shade, Sho, Anastasia, Zaleia and Elissia were deposited on the bridge of the Kara. As soon as they were solid, Talok raised the shields, and not a moment too soon. A second after he had, the massive Ori ship exploded into a huge fireball, it's hyper-drive having gone critical and exploding, the replicators seeming to have not had enough time to stop the overload from occurring.

Siphon watched for a moment as the debris finally began to lose it's glow, although there was hardly anything left of the ship by now. “Well, there's that, let's just hope none of the buggers survived. Running a nanite scan.”

Sho shot him a look. “A what scan?”

Talok answered her, saving Siphon the time. “A nanite scan. It's what the replicators are made of. If we detect any, then some of them survived. If we don't then it means we are in the clear. Pray we get a zero reading.”

Sho nodded, understanding at least enough to know a zero read would be good, and that was all she cared about at this point. She, like the others, nervously waited several minutes while Siphon worked with the sensors.

Finally, after almost six minutes, he looked up and spoke. “Looks like we got all the little bastards. It also seems that perhaps no one detected the explosion either. No Ori ships are moving to intercept us at all, so I think we just might still be good to go.”

Vanessa smiled finally. “Good, then shall we proceed down to the planet and get that sangraal weapon started? The sooner this is over, the better I will feel.”

Shade nodded in agreement. “Yeah, let's go get this thing started so we can be rid of Adria, if she's actually there.”

“She has to be, there is no other way the priors and their soldiers could still be getting orders otherwise. No, she definitely ascended, though we will need to move quickly now. While the Ori haven't noticed the explosion yet, eventually they will, and when they do, that place is going to come alive with soldiers all over the place. If everyone else is ready?”

A quick collective nod went up amongst the group, and they started moving towards the center of the bridge. Siphon looked over to Talok as he moved into position.

“Alright, Talok, you have control of the ship here. The rest of us will beam down and take care of creating the weapon. I should only need a little while now that I know how to get past the draining toll that kind of technology will put on me. Shade, Sho, Elissia, Ana, Zale, and Vanessa, I need you folks to keep watch around strategic points when we get there. I'll show you where. Daina, your going to play dual roles again here. Guarding, and I need you close by in case I make a mistake and have to take a break from making the weapon to ensure that I don't go too overboard.”

“Alright, then I guess we are all set to go here. Shall we then?” Daina smiled back at him, turning to the others as she addressed them with her words.

“Indeed, let us go. Talok, beam us down.”

“Good luck to all of you, and see you soon. We shall celebrate victory soon enough.”

Talok then hit the control panels, activating the transporter beam, and the eight of Siphon's group vanished once more in a flash of sparkling white light.


The Doci and his army of soldiers were waiting as the Orici had commanded them to, at the exact spot she had indicated. She had told them the nonbelievers were sending people into their territory, attacking their most sacred city. She had said a group of eight would arrive, and that the oldest appearing amongst them was to be shot on sight, while the others were to be rendered harmless by their new stun grenade technology.

A flash of white light, the unbelievers transporter it seemed, deposited eight people into the opening in front of them. The Doci grinned slightly, all was going according to the plan laid out by the Orici. He quietly armed the grenade, and motioned to the soldiers to take aim at their predetermined spots, and then nodded for them to fire. They took aim carefully, and then opened fire quickly, and at the same time they did, the Doci moved, and rolled the now armed grenade into the area in front of them. It wouldn't matter if they saw it coming or not, they couldn't outrun it's radius with the time they had before it went off.


Siphon and the others appeared in a flash of sparkling white light, and almost immediately all hell broke loose. Siphon had opened his mouth, and raised his arm to show them where to go when energy blasts came screaming at them. He had his back turned to where the shots came from, and was immediately cut down by six shots to his backside, two to the spine, two to the back of his head, and two more around kidney level.

Siphon felt the blasts impact him, and was spun around twice by the sheer force of each ripping through him, his eyes flaring red once even as he dropped to the ground, unmoving and smoking blood pouring from his body. He was pretty well dead before his body smashed into the ground.

Daina saw what happened and her eyes voided. “Siphon! No, god no!”

Sho and the others were too stunned by what had happened to really do anything more than dive for cover, weapons already coming up to return fire in numb shock. Daina though had barely gotten to cover, her eyes going completely black as she started to gather in energy to retaliate. Unfortunately, she didn't get the chance.

Elissia saw the grenade a split second too late, though she did manage to get off a warning. “Watch out, grenade!”

At that exact moment, it unleashed a wave of energy, slamming into Sho, Shade, Zaleia, Anastasia, Elissia, Vanessa and Daina's bodies. Everyone but Daina and Shade immediately went down, and even as they tried to move, a second blast emitted from the grenade, and that was sufficient enough to finally put them both down, out cold.

The soldiers instantly moved in, kicking the discarded weapons away from the now prone forms of the seven left alive. When they had secured the area, the Doci and the rest of those chosen to carry the humans came forward. He turned now and spoke. “Gather the unbelievers and let us make haste back to Celestis. The Orici will be quite pleased.”

One of the soldiers stepped near and asked, “what of the old man?”

He looked down at the body of the older man and viciously kicked it with his foot, turning it over several times. “He's dead, leave the body here. If the Orici wishes us to dispose of it later we can always return for it. Dead unbelievers aren't going to move their own corpses anyway.”

The soldier bowed his head politely and in recognition. “As you command prior. We are ready then.”

“Good, then let us move now.”

The chosen soldiers grabbed the bodies of the seven who were unconscious, and proceeded to march back toward Celestis, leaving the body of Siphon behind.

Once they were out of sight however, the body they had chosen to leave behind began to glow ever so slightly, as if something was starting to happen to it.


Narlina sat aboard her hive ship, currently in orbit over Earth. Only a few moments ago they had gotten word that the massive Ori fleet they had been tracking for nearly a day now was finally on the move, heading directly for them. Current estimates put them arriving in a little less than three minutes, and she signaled the rest of the allied forces. “This is Narlina, queen of this hive to all ships. The Ori vessels have begun their final approach towards Earth. We must not, we can not fail to hold the line here, or all will be lost. We fight until they, or ourselves are no longer alive, right down to the last ship. There will be no retreat for us, no surrender for us. This is our final stand against the Ori, fight well, fight proudly, and kick their asses!”

She closed the link when she was done, and in response to her little speech, the rest of the fleet took up attack positions, waiting for the Ori to be in range and make their move. They didn't need to wait long, for only a few seconds later, the warships were in range, and charged their weapons.

Another voice broke over the comm systems, this time from Coraxus. “This is Coraxus to the fleet. The Ori have armed their weapons as you can see. Let operation ass kicking begin. Coraxus out.”

Bursts of various energy weapons started flying across open space, some striking the Ori shields, some not. Scant seconds after the Earth fleet fired their first shots, the Ori ships fired back, scoring numerous hits, and only a single kill against a Gou'ald ship. The Ori ships that were struck in the meantime suffered quite a bit of damage, and the battle was quickly joined, raging on for some time, each side trading blows, trading shots and trading kills.

At some point, several of the Ori ships launched their smaller fighters, and they made a beeline for the planet itself, breaking past the larger fleet with their faster speeds. Narlina, seeing this sent down the order she had known she would need. “All hives, launch darts and target those fighters. Try to take out as many as you can before entering the atmosphere, and pursue them if you must. We already have a fair idea where they will attack first, so use that to your advantage.”

The large doors of the dart bays on each hive opened, and countless darts flew out, each one targeting an Ori fighter, pursuing them into the atmosphere of Earth even as their larger companion ships continued to attack and be attacked by the Ori warships.


Simon had been watching Ian and Barry talking just outside of the main building of the school about something involving Ori, whatever those were. The two had seemed about to head inside when their heads snapped upward to the skies. Simon too turned his head upward to look, even as the first screeching sounds of engines made their way to his ears. What looked like some kind of strange grouping of two distinctively different fighter squadrons tore across the sky, some shooting at the others, while still others seemed to be spitting out troops onto the ground.

Simon hadn't a clue as to what was going on, but his shadow was antsy, and he didn't think that ground troops armed and aiming their weapons with the seeming intention to shoot at Barry and Ian was a good thing, and as such, ducked down for cover.

Barry and Ian dove for cover as shots rained down from energy weapons, narrowly avoiding being shot. Barry shot a look as he started working on one of his spells and said, “I thought Siphon said there was a damn fleet in orbit to prevent this?”

“So did I mate, something must have happened to it, or those fighters managed to break through,” Ian replied with a slight Australian accent.

“Figures. Well, I guess we'd better start fighting back somehow, how does that sound?”

Ian's only response was to reach out with his telekinetic power and grab a cinder block sized stone from the ground, and send it flying right into the face of one of the soldiers, shattering his nose and causing him to go down with a yelp of pain. He was still alive, but he wasn't going to be shooting at them again any time soon.

Barry smiled crookedly at this. “Nice one, but any chance you could steal us a pair of weapons from here?”

Again, the only reply Barry got was a visual one. Ian closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating hard, and then suddenly two of the Ori soldiers got the barrel of their weapons rammed into their guts by some invisible force, and then the weapons came right at Ian and Barry, landing about six inches in front of Barry.

Barry took the opportunity to grab one and toss the other over to Ian, who caught it and looked at it.

“How the hell do we work these things anyway?”

Barry shrugged. “It can't be that hard, just point and squeeze the trigger.”

Barry demonstrated, and fired a shot over his shoulder instead of in front of him, taking a chunk out of the side of the school foundation. “Oops!”

He turned it around and fired again, this time blowing a hole in a soldiers chest in one shot, killing him. “Oh yeah, I definitely am keeping this baby!”

Ian simply shook his head as he too started firing his own weapon back, managing somehow to strike down a few of the soldiers even as more landed. He shot a look to the skies, and noticed that the dart like ships had managed to take out a good chunk of the other fighters that kept beaming down troops, which sat well with him.

Matt chose that exact moment to come out of the building, spotting the chip in the side of the building, and started sputtering while holding what appeared to be a large scale revolver. “What the hell is wrong with you students? My god, now your throwing pipe bombs at the side of the building?”

His rant was cut short by a blast of weapons fire from one of the Ori soldiers, who apparently had decided he wanted the gun toting human to shut up. Luckily for Matt, the shot went wide as he bent down to look at the damage, and the shot sailed over his head and took out another chunk of the wall.

Matt bellowed at this, turning around to see a soldier clad in armor taking aim to shoot him again, and his instincts took over. Diving for cover behind a tree, he barely got out of the way of the second shot, which took yet another chunk out of his precious building.

“Welcome to the shootout at the school Matt,” Barry said sarcastically and with a sadistic grin, ducking his head back down as another shot came whizzing past him.

Matt quickly assessed the situation. Two students, armed with the same kind of guns the armored soldiers were using, firing back at them. The soldiers seemed to be responsible for the damages to the school, and the students obviously were trying to defend the place from them. Matt shrugged his shoulders, deciding this time he'd side with the students and help them. His mind made up, he took aim and fired his revolver at the closest soldier, pretty well blowing off half his head with the shot which had been aimed for his chest. He shrugged it off, figuring the bastard had been trying to kill him, so he got what he deserved, and continued firing his revolver, stopping only to reload when he had to.

Simon meanwhile, was watching with interest. It seemed to be a pretty evenly matched shootout despite the terrible odds against his friends. He decided against joining the fray, since it seemed for the moment to be fairly well under control. The noisy dart like ships had blown up the last of the other ones, and no more seemed to be forthcoming any time soon, so he figured that was a good thing. His thoughts were confirmed when the darts angled back up to the skies and moved far out of sight, maybe going out into space. Dismissing it, he went back to watching the interesting fight from his safe vantage point.


Sho awoke with a start, and looked around. Anastasia, Zaleia and Vanessa were all just beginning to stir, while Daina, Shade and Elissia were already moving into standing positions, checking out their surroundings. She too started to stand, and then spotted the large non reflective mirror on one wall of the room they were in. She also noted, the Doci was in the room, glaring at them and keeping watch.

As Anastasia, Zaleia and Vanessa finally stood, the Doci looked over to them and spoke. “Your all awake now, good. The Orici will see you quite soon.”

As if to add punch to his words, the mirror on the wall chose that moment to catch fire, or so it seemed at first. It remained that way for several seconds before a female figure, dressed in Ori robes, emerged from it. Despite seeming to be made of fire, the woman was unmistakably Adria. The Doci immediately lowered his head in a gesture of his respect.

She glared at them, a mix between an amused and pleased look on her face. “Well, look what we have here in front of their goddess. I should thank you to begin with, you saved me a lot of trouble by destroying those replicators for me. Unfortunately for you, that will be the last thing I allow you to do in my territory. There will be no last chance for any of you to give in to origin. You will all burn in the fires of eternal damnation.”

Daina glared at her, her eyes voiding out but nothing happening. “Just what makes you so sure of that?”

Adria stared back at her for a moment, then studied the others. Suddenly a grin spread across her face. “As your well aware, with the energy of followers channeled into us, we gain more strength. It used to be that it was spread out amongst many of us, but that of course as you may have guessed is no longer the case. Somehow you pathetic beings managed to take out a group of very powerful beings.”

Shade sneered at her and replied sarcastically, “well you don't seem to all cut up or shedding any tears about it.”

Again that eerie grin just before she replied, “no, I'm not. You did me a favor, for once I ascended to their pillar, I assumed all of their power. Very soon, with your help, I will be powerful enough to take on all of the Ancients myself and destroy them once and for all.”

Anastasia voiced the question they all were thinking. “What makes you think we're going to help you at all, or that we even could if we wanted to?”

This time there was no grin, but instead a creepy laugh. “You all have special powers, be they magical or something a bit more natural, you all have them. I'm simply going to take that energy from each of you, one at a time, save for you mother. You are the only one in this room without any kind of super special power. For you, and only you, death will come swiftly, but not before you have witnessed my power, and the deaths of your friends.”

It was now Elissia who tossed a question at Adria. “Just how do you plan on gathering our energy if there is no way you can ever get us to worship you?”

“That is simple, I will just rip the energy out of your bodies and consume it. This of course will kill each and every one of you, although for you it will be much worse. Once you are dead, there is one final thing you have that I want. Your sword contains the energy of countless souls, and I intend to harness and consume those as well. Once I have, I will be unstoppable, the true definition of a god or goddess, don't you agree?”

Elissia just stared at her dumbfounded. There was no way to harness that kind of power, was there? She had to admit, she wasn't sure, and that scared her.

Sho began creating a large scale wind storm in the room in her anger. There was no way she was going down without one hell of a fight to be remembered. Unfortunately, she didn't get very far before Adria noticed what was happening, or perhaps she had been expecting it. She was suddenly lifted off the ground, struggling for air as Adria began to choke her, cutting off her breath and effectively killing her power formation.

Shade and Zaleia immediately moved forward to help, but were met with some kind of barrier, and were literally thrown back against the wall with bruising speed. Shade grunted, while Zaleia yelped in pain as she struck her head. She looked up after clearing her head, and finally spoke. “You bitch, what the hell are you doing to my sister!”

Adria forced Sho to float in mid air, keeping her unable to use her wind power by choking her just enough to let her still breath and stay awake, but at the same time groggy enough that she couldn't do anything. “Since she foolishly tried to stand up to me, she will be the first one I absorb. Then I will move on to the half human woman you so cherish, and then the Asari. After that, you will die, followed by the half demon, and finally to the knight. After that, you will be granted a quick death mother, and I will destroy the Ancients, assuring that I am the only being around to be worshiped!”


Siphon's body had taken on a strange glow to it some time after the Ori soldiers had left, and now without warning, he jerked upwards, somehow alive, or was he? Several smaller animals had come over to inspect the body, but when it began to move they ran in absolute terror, not bothering to look back. As he sat up, his eyes took on a completely dark tone to them, dark enough that it seemed as if the pupils of the eyes had completely swallowed the rest of them. It wasn't long before he stood, and began walking with a purpose towards the city of Celestis.

While he walked, his body continued to undergo rapid changes, many of them visible. His eye color darkened even more, threatening to rival Daina's eye voids, and his body took on a strange black tone to it, complete with what appeared to be strange symbols on it. By the time he had reached the city, he had returned mostly to normal, save for the fact that he still had mud all over his face from being face down on the ground.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

He was greeted by several Ori soldiers opening fire on him, and the blasts only served to slow him down slightly this time, and anger him further. He simply waved a hand in their direction, and their heads exploded like ripe melons being dropped off a two story building. He pressed on, killing anything and anyone that got in his way, as he stalked the halls of Celestis, searching for the chamber of the Ori, where he knew Adria would be found. By now some of the soldiers had begun running from him, perhaps suspecting what he had become now.

It didn't take him much longer to find where Adria's chambers were, he simply followed the stench of her power once he noticed it, and arrived outside of the doors to her chamber just in time to hear her mention about killing Daina and the others in a specific order. His eyes narrowed, and he didn't bother concealing his presence from them, simply walking in.


Sho struggled as best as she could in Adria's vise-like hold over her, finally managing to spit out, “go to hell you evil bitch.”

Adria just smirked at her before replying, “your going in my place Shoni Meheven, I will take great pleasure in killing you and your friends. Starting now!”

She was cut off from her attempt by another voice entering the fray, and the voice Sho heard, while it was Siphon's, sounded scarily demonic, and sent a chill down her spine even before Adria dropped her and allowed her to turn to see him.

Siphon simply strode into the room, cutting Adria off with only a few words. “Of that, you are gravely mistaken.”

The Doci stood now, poised to attack him, and Siphon simply looked at him and sent him flying across the room, shattering the mirror Adria had come out of earlier as the Doci flew through it.

Adria glared at him, annoyed by the intrusion. “You are weak compared to me Siphon, you have no hope of standing up to me! Your absolutely no match for me.”

What happened next stunned not only Sho and the others, but Adria and the Doci as well. The Doci froze in mid movement as Siphon's body suddenly began to glow an intense white color, and suddenly he simply no longer had flesh, but rather seemed to have grown wings of light. His entire body all at once became encompassed in a pure white light, and both Daina and Vanessa let out amazed gasps, while Adria actually took a step back, either in surprise or fear, Sho couldn't tell.

When things had finished, Siphon seemed to exert control over himself, a secondary aura blanketing him, increasing how bright he was glowing. His eyes, or what passed for them now took on a stern look, a mixture between an amused smirk and an angry frown crossing his pure white, glowing face. “I am now super bitch. Hit me with your best shot, if you can hit me.”

For a moment Sho couldn't process what had happened, until Elissia, who was just standing there in awe muttered, “my god, he ascended right before us.”

Adria however, was much less impressed, and much more angry. Her eyes burning with hatred and fire, she changed her form to resemble more of a glob of energy instead of a person, and then charged at Siphon.

Following suit and taking on the exact same form as her, Siphon charged back at her, and they met in an explosion of light in the center of the room, the sounds of what seemed to be clanging swords or something similar filling the room as they clashed. It was impossible to determine who was winning, although from the sounds of it they were quite evenly matched, since neither one vanished immediately.

Zaleia had taken the time to stand and finally shook her head. “What the hell is going on, what just happened here?”

Vanessa answered her with complete awe in her voice. “Siphon just ascended to the same type of form that Adria is, and is now battling her. Whoever wins the fight will control this planet. Let us pray that it is Siphon who wins, because I think he's our only shot at surviving right now.”

Daina took her eye off the fight for a moment to observe the Doci, who strangely enough had sunk to his knees, eyes wide with a mixture of fear, surprise, and betrayal. “What about him?”

Vanessa followed her gaze to the Doci and shook her head. “Leave him, he's just as stunned about Siphon ascending as we were. The priors and he were always told that non believers in the path and the book of origin could never ascend. To witness one that is both a non believer, and one who he killed, he now realizes the truth of what happened. See the crystal on his staff glowing? All of the other priors, regardless of where they are right now are witnessing all of this, they see what he does, know what he does now. Adria may have just lost a huge chunk of her power with the loss of belief from all the priors. We won't have to worry about him attacking us anymore.”

Shade nodded once before speaking. “Well that is good, one less guy to worry about trying to kill us. What about the soldiers though?”

Anastasia jumped in at this point, cringing as a particularly nasty clanging sound came from the direction of Adria and Siphon's fight. “When Siphon wins, let Vanessa and I talk to him about calling off the soldiers across all galaxies, I can't imagine he'll be too opposed to it now.”

Daina smiled at Anastasia's words, and took note that she said when Siphon won, not if. “That sounds like a plan to me. For now, we can only watch and try our best to focus our own energy into believing Siphon can win this. If the Ori can gather energy from being worshiped, why can't Siphon?”

Elissia snapped out of her funk and nodded. “She's right, it makes sense to me anyway. Everyone knows what they need to do then!”

They shared a collective nod, and each of them turned to watch the battle, doing their best to channel their faith in Siphon's ability to defeat Adria towards him. At first, nothing seemed to happen, and then with a flurry of rapid movements, it was over.

The battle had been raging for nearly five minutes, and suddenly both lights moved towards each other, and multiple explosions of bright red and white light filled the room, blinding them all momentarily. When their respective vision's had cleared, and they looked back, there was no sign of either Adria or Siphon. Just like that, both of them were simply gone.

Sho looked over to Daina and Elissia, quite alarmed. “What the hell happened? Where did they go?”

Daina shook her head, possibly remembering something of her time when she was ascended. “I think Adria lost and was destroyed, otherwise she would have reappeared here, albeit weakened. Unfortunately, I think Siphon may have been destroyed in the process as well. They both may have perished in this fight, there is no way to know.”

Elissia shrugged at the same time, knowing nothing of this particular form of ascension.

Sho's eyes drooped as the realization that Siphon might have just sacrificed his own existence to save not only them, but three galaxies sunk in. “Well if he did survive, wouldn't he have shown back up here?”

Daina shook her head. “I'm not sure. Since he's ascended to become an Ancient and not an Ori, he may be bound to return to our own galaxy or the Pegasus galaxy upon his victory. Though if he did survive it and made the trip, he's going to be extremely weak. Either way, I doubt we will see anything of him again, at least not for quite some time.”

Shade moved over to Sho's side, his own features registering the same shock as her own, but still he tried to comfort her. “Siphon is one tough son of a gun love, if anyone can walk through the jaws of hell like that, take on an evil energy psycho bitch who might have been more powerful than he was and come out alive, it's going to be him. I for one am not going to give up on his returning. It might take him time to recover and return, but I do believe we have not seen the last of him.”

Elissia nodded at Shade, impressed. “Agreed, I too don't believe we have seen the last of him either. The only question is, when will we see him again, not if we will.”

Zaleia nodded herself at all of them, then quietly spoke up. “As do I. I just can not believe anything else. However, right now, would it not be prudent to talk to that Doci fellow and call off those damn soldiers before they storm the place and try slaughtering us all?”

“Agreed, we're on it,” Vanessa replied even as she and Anastasia went over to softly speak to the Doci, who had begun to shake now.


Barry, Ian and Matt had just begun to give up hope of winning the battle against these Ori soldiers when a prior stepped into the open, his one open eye glaring towards them as he planted his staff into the ground, and seemed to be gathering energy to toss at them.

Ian shot a look to the other two, knowing their luck had just run out. “Oh, I think this is going to be just a little bad for us now. For what it's worth, been a pleasure fighting alongside the two of you.”

Barry opened his mouth, seemingly about to say something when the staff the prior was holding started glowing, seeming to take the prior by surprise. His hand motioned for the soldiers to hold their fire, and his eyes widened at whatever he was seeing in the staff's crystal.

Matt looked over at Ian and shrugged, about to open fire when Barry stopped him. “Wait, look at him, something obviously isn't right here. Let's wait and see what happens.”

“Are you nuts? This might be the only chance we get to kill those bastards!”

Ian shook his head at Matt. “No, Barry is right. Siphon told us that if they managed to kill the one responsible for giving them orders that their staff's would all glow at once no matter where they were, showing them that happening. If that is what he is seeing now, we may not have to fire another shot at them.

Almost as if that were a cue, the prior suddenly looked away from his staff, a shocked expression of betrayal on his face. He suddenly turned to his thinned army and spoke with a commanding tone. “The Ori lied to us, they were not gods. I have seen their death occur with my own eyes. We leave this planet at once and return to Celestis. I have signaled our ships to ring us aboard, prepare to depart.”

Much to Matt's surprise, only a moment later a set of large rings came down out of the sky, surrounded the soldiers and prior, and then they just simply weren't there anymore.

“Well what do you know, Siphon actually pulled it off, how about that?” Barry seemed to be only slightly sarcastic, as if he had known all along Siphon would, and was annoyed it had taken him so long.

Matt just shook his head as he stood up, inspecting the damage done to the building again before letting out a loud groan. “God, this is going to take months worth of paychecks and time to fix! Why does this always happen to me?”

Ian couldn't help but start chuckling, and it wasn't long before Barry joined in with him. Matt shot an angry glare back at the two of them, and they just started laughing even harder, glad this was all over.


The fleet in orbit had been taking a gigantic pounding, although they were still holding their own when things suddenly went silent. Every Ori ship had just stopped firing all at once, causing large amounts of radio chatter to suddenly spring up as to why the Ori suddenly had stopped their attack. Sivok's face suddenly broke onto the screen's of everyone else's ship, and when he spoke, it was with a half depressed tone. “Attention all vessels, I have just received a short subspace message from Talok in the Ori galaxy. Siphon and the others were able to kill Adria and call off the Ori attack. However, according to Talok, it came with a high price. Siphon is dead.”

Narlina, who had been sitting aboard her hive, waiting to see what happened, leapt out of her seat, her eyes bugging wide. Siphon had been killed? She activated her comm system, and hailed Sivok. “This is Narlina calling Sivok. Is there any mention as to how he was killed or why?”

There was a brief pause before he responded. “Apparently he was killed while taking out Adria. Talok said that Sho and the others saw Siphon ascend to take her on, and then both of them vanished without a trace.”

Sivala cut into the chatter and added her thoughts in. “So let me get this straight, Adria was killed, and the Ori armies are being called off at the price of Siphon's life?”

“I'm afraid that is the case Sivala,” Sivok replied.

“I see. That is most unfortunate to hear. When the Kara and her crew return, we must have some kind of ceremony to honor his death and what he has done then. He's not only saved our galaxy, but two others as well, and that can not go unnoticed.”

“Agreed, we will coordinate when they have returned to our galaxy. In the meantime, my sensors are indicating the Ori ships are powering their hyper-drives. They are indeed leaving.”

Narlina checked her own sensors and saw that Sivok was correct. With the order to come home given, the Ori ships had wasted no time collecting their remaining soldiers and hightailing it out of there. “I wonder if we will ever hear from the Ori priors again, or their vast number of worlds they controlled?”

“I suspect we will, they will probably need help establishing a new way of governing themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if we hear from them some time down the road with a call for help. The question is, will we be willing to answer that call?” Sivala seemed to be quite confident as she spoke, and truth be told, she was. She had seen this happen on other worlds, similar instances where a government had been wiped out, and the people had floundered around for guidance. Luckily for them, they had been given assistance by her own people to set up a working government body, and since then they had thrived.

“I see no reason why we shouldn't help them. It isn't their fault they were misled by powerful beings posing as gods. My people can relate to that on more than one level, and I for one would be willing to give them the same chance that your people gave mine after the fall of the Sentinels,” Sivok stated.

Narlina cut in finally. “I think we are all in agreement we will lend whatever aid we can to them if they are willing to accept it. However, now is not the time to be discussing this. We must first go over the casualties of this war, and ensure that those who did not survive it are properly honored, and those of us that did survive are seen to if they need aid.”

Sivala smiled just before cutting the communication. “Agreed, let us get to it then. Sivala out.”


The newest member to join the ranks of the ascended had arrived only moments ago, and the debates had promptly begun. Many amongst the council felt that because this member had broken several of their laws, that he should be punished, and that a fitting punishment was to let his energies simply phase out and cease to exist. Still others felt that because he had done them a favor in breaking those laws, and that it hadn't been in their own galaxy, that they should render assistance to him and save him.

Kara was in a class of her own with this. On the one hand, this was Siphon, and he shouldn't even be here now, so she wanted desperately to save him. On the other hand, he had broken their rules, and that was going to weigh heavy on the majority of the Ancients. She desperately was trying to find something that would tip the balance of the voting in his favor, but coming up dry. She was surprised when one of the oldest amongst them, Moros, spoke up with something none of them had even considered.

Moros had been one of the first to ascend, and while he wasn't exactly the first Ancient to have done so, he carried a lot of weight with his opinions amongst the few who were older than him. He was counting on this now as he spoke clearly, and decisively. “My friends, let us not bicker like children here. The facts are before us now. We have a new ascended member here, and yes, he did break our rules regardless of if it occurred in another galaxy or not. However, what I have failed to hear from any of you is, Adria, the one he fought and broke the rules in doing so, forced him into ascension by breaking the rules herself and using her powers to have him killed. Granted, this caused him to ascend, but since he was the only one of our kind in that galaxy, would this not be a case of him enforcing our rules against Adria, who broke them herself? This must be taken into consideration. If any of us were there, would we not have used our own powers to stop Adria from breaking the laws of ascension as we see them? How is this any different? I say he didn't break our laws, but rather he enforced them in the only option possible to him, and for that, he should not be punished! At the very least, if you feel that he must have some form of atonement for using his own powers, then here is my personal thought. Allow him to be saved, and brought back to full strength, and then make him retake his natural form. When the time comes for him to ascend again, let us see how he handles it. I believe this is fair, and appeals to both sides of this debate. Each of us gets to be pleased and uphold our laws in doing so. If we punish him any worse for doing what I believe was the only option to enforce out own laws against Adria, then we are no better than she or the Ori were. Think of this carefully before you vote.”

Kara looked over to him, a look of careful appreciation on her face. She didn't know if it would be enough, but at least Moros had given her the chance she needed to save Siphon. It was the best she could ask for, to have a fighting chance.

A murmur went up amongst both groups, as they talked it over. Finally, the talking and voting began, the council unwilling to make this decision without garnering as many opinions as they could. It took some time, but in the end, the decision was made to proceed with the thought and plan laid down by Moros. However there was one stipulation. Moros and she would have to be primarily responsible for bringing him back far enough to allow him to retake human form. She didn't argue, especially since it was more than she had hoped she would get out of them. She knew as well as they did that it would take time to do that, and that it would not be easy, but she was willing to do what it took, and she could tell that Moros was as well.

The council began filing out, leaving Kara and Moros alone with the fading entity that Siphon now was. She looked to him and softly said, “shall we begin now Moros? I fear he may not have long.”

He smiled warmly back to her and spoke kind, reassuring words. “Yes, let us start now. Do not worry Kara, this is not the first time I have done this, and you will learn from me as we go. He will be fine, granted it will take time, but he will pull through. However, when he returns, he will not have any memory of his time or what happened to him when he first returns. That is to protect his body from the changes it will undergo. He will get those memories back at some point, though I suspect you know as well as I do, that his new wife will be able to unlock those for him.”

She smiled, tears threatening to fill her eyes but she fought them back and focused. They had work to do, and she needed to be clear and level headed. They soon began the process of restoring him, a process that they knew would take time and considerable energy, but both were willing to devote whatever it took to see it through until the end.


Daina smiled at Sho and Shade from across the table they were seated at. It had been eight months since Adria had been killed and the Ori defeated. Eight months of continuous torture for her, not knowing if or when Siphon might ever return, assuming he had even survived the battle to begin with. While she didn't want to give up hope, and neither did any of the others, each day that passed the possibility that he would be back faded some. Three months ago they had conducted several ceremonies honoring the dead as well as Siphon at the capital city of the Vorian home world. She had half hoped that Siphon would just suddenly appear from nowhere and ask them why they were mourning his death, but she should have known it wouldn't happen. Talok and the others had done what they could to keep her hopes up, but even they had to be feeling the same doubts by now that she was.

She thought back of how things had been the last month and a half. Narlina had returned back to the Pegasus galaxy without Talok to help the wraith council rebuild and finish off the rebels, who were on the final verge of defeat after the pasting the Ori had given them. Zaleia and Anastasia had moved in to the same room with each other, and spent most of their time together, which Daina couldn't blame them for, even if it was a little upsetting. Elissia had gone back to being her normal self, and continued her hunt for whatever it was she was looking for, while Vanessa had, after careful consideration, returned to her home world, still feeling partially responsible for Siphon's death. Talok of course had taken command of the Kara for now, and the Daina Eil'Mori had been set to patrol Earth for now by itself.

She turned her thoughts back to the present, looking over to Shade and Sho, who were just finishing their meal. They came to see her each day, and she had begun to consider them the closest friends she had here at the school, though truth be told, she had been pondering the idea of leaving for nearly a week now. Eventually she knew she was going to have to do something with her life, there simply wasn't anything holding her interest besides her two friends now, and while she cherished that, she didn't want to drag them down with her when her hope finally ran out, which it soon would do.

Things were surprisingly normal around the school, even after half of the students had seen the Ori and wraith ships in the skies. She marveled at how quickly they seemed to get over and forget it all, wishing in some ways she could do the same. It was late, and they were the last three here in the building, so it was no big surprise for anyone when suddenly the three of them were beamed away by the telltale sign of an Alveran transporter.


Daina, Shade and Sho appeared on the bridge of the Kara, looking right at Talok, who had an unreadable expression on his face. Sho picked up on it quickly, and beat Daina to the punch.

“What is it Talok? What's going on?”

He thought for a moment on how to answer, and then when he spoke, it was slowly. “About ten minutes ago the gate here on the ship activated and I received a short message from Vanessa and her people. One of their people was coming back from taking a walk near the forest nearby, and came across what he thought was the body of someone who had been killed by the Ori and left for dead. He quickly discovered the person was in fact alive, and managed to get him to come back to the village with him, where Vanessa went to greet him to their village. She was quite stunned when she saw who it was, she's one hundred percent certain that even though he has no idea who she is, that it is Siphon.”

Daina's head snapped over to look at Talok, fresh hope radiating through her again. “She's absolutely certain that it is him?”

“She said she is completely certain that it is him, but that he doesn't seem to have any memory of who she is, where he is, or of any of our names. I can only assume he retook human form and his memories were either locked away or wiped completely. Either way, she wants some of us to come and have a look, see if we can do anything.”

Shade nodded at this. “Just to be certain before we go spreading the word that it isn't some look alike?”

“Yes, that is the plan right now. We can leave now if your ready to go?”

Daina spoke again, saying what they were all thinking very quickly. “How long before we get there?”

“Ten minutes, I'm engaging the drive now.”

Talok banked the ship away from Earth, and then the Kara made the jump into hyperspace, the occupants of the ship trying hard not to pace around the bridge while they waited.


It hadn't taken long once they had arrived in orbit to beam down to the surface and speak with Vanessa. She had been concerned that having too many people in the room at once would set Siphon off in his current state, but that had become a moot point when he had gotten up and walked out, spotting them.

“Oh, hey there folks, am I interrupting anything?”

Vanessa frowned towards Daina and then turned to face him, the frown gone by the time she was facing him. “No, not at all Siphon. We were just trying to figure out why you can't remember us at all here, these folks are a few of your friends, and the blue skinned woman there is rather close to you, more than just a friend."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Ori Story

He studied Daina for a moment, and her heart stopped. She had a bad feeling that he was going to laugh it off, and she wasn't sure if she could take that at all. His reaction wasn't what she expected, and was more than she had hoped for.

“I can't honestly say that I remember you, I'm sorry. Though something inside of me says you folks are telling the truth, that I should remember you, and that you are trying to help me. I'm sorry, what were your names? I know Vanessa here since she has introduced herself, but the rest of you I am afraid I can't remember.”

Vanessa nodded once, and set about introductions. “This here is Shade, he's one of your closest friends on Earth, and the woman standing next to him is his girlfriend Sho. The taller man is Talok, he is a wraith, and is a very close and old friend of yours that you served with in your military before coming to Earth. Finally, the blue skinned woman is Daina Eil'Mori, she is an Asari, and she is also your wife.”

Again, Daina's heart caught, unsure how Siphon would react to the last part.

He looked at each of them, shaking hands with Shade, Sho and Talok as they were introduced. When he got to Daina though, he paused for a long, uncertain moment, seeming to be thinking of something. Finally he spoke, and when he did, he sounded somewhat disappointed with himself. “I just can't remember anything about any of you, and it is so frustrating because I know deep down I should be able to. Though for some reason, I know full well your telling the truth, all of you.”

He suddenly tilted his head, and his eyes widened slightly. “Daina Eil'Mori, you have a ship called the Normandy right? It took you dying to before I realized how I felt about you?”

Daina stiffened at these words, a shiver of hope rushing up and down her spine. “Yes! So you do remember something at least?”

“It just kind of popped into my head right now, along with the fact that I know for certain that even though I can't remember much of anything, I know I am still attracted to you and my feelings are still there. They were there when I first saw you here, but I thought at first it was just my body responding to you being attractive, then I realized if it were just a typical male response that I should have felt that towards either Vanessa or Sho too, but I don't. It's only towards you, and it's strong.” He seemed happier now that he had remembered something, though she could see he wished he could remember more.

Shade said nothing, knowing full well that Siphon was trying desperately to remember things, and that he had nothing to worry about from him when it came to Sho. Had it been anyone else, he probably would have punched them in the face, but this was Siphon, even if he didn't know it.

Sho and Vanessa both raised eyebrows at the compliment, but chose to say nothing about it, however Sho suddenly had an idea. “Excuse me a moment, but could I have a word with you alone for a moment Daina?”

Instinctively she looked over toward Siphon, and then mentally kicked herself in the rear for it, but he caught her look and smiled. “Go ahead you two, maybe while your talking I'll remember something more!”

That brought a grin to everyone's face, and Sho walked outside with Daina for a moment. As soon as they were out of earshot, Daina looked at her. “What is it Sho?”

She hesitated slightly, not sure if she was right or not, but figuring she might as well say it anyway. “Well, I just got to thinking that if he's starting to remember things that it could mean that his memories are only suppressed, perhaps as a way to protect his mental well being from any kind of strain caused by retaking human form, instead of being erased. So I was wondering if maybe you could help him unlock them faster, if he'll let you try?”

Daina stood there for a moment, half stunned at the idea, and half stunned as to why she hadn't thought of that herself when he had first mentioned that he remembered her ship and her death. “I think I might be able to do that Sho. The question will be will he let me or not? I know he says that he trusts us, but trusting what we say and trusting someone to telepathically link with your mind, even if your remembering certain things? That is a completely different story. I can try though, wouldn't hurt to ask him. Worst he can say is no to it, and then we just wait however long it will be before he returns to normal.”

Sho nodded slowly, before speaking again. “I think he'll let you do it only because he remembers something about you. If it were Shade, Talok or myself, I doubt he would let us because he hasn't remembered anything really about us.”

Daina nodded fiercely. “You might be right on that, luckily it is me that can do that. Let's get back in there and ask him, though if he agrees I think it would be best if we were left alone while I do this. When those memories come back, he will probably want to be alone with me for a little bit to sort through rapidly shifting emotions.”

“Alright, that is no problem. Let's go get the Siphon that knows us back shall we?”

Daina smiled and turned, walking back into the building, announcing herself quickly. “Hey, we're back! Anything come up while we were out?”

Siphon turned back to them and pointed towards Sho. “Well I think I remember that Sho has a sister named Zap or Sparky, or something like that, and she's dating Shade's sister, who sadly I can't think of the name for, though I think it starts with the letter a?”

Sho had to stifle a laugh at this, glad Zaleia wasn't with them right now, she probably wouldn't have liked that very much. “Her name is Zaleia, and her girlfriend is Anastasia. Just a word of advice, don't call her Zap or Sparky, she might want to hurt you for it, and probably would.”

He blinked for a moment then said, “I'll definitely keep that in mind, thanks.”

Daina looked at him for a moment then quietly said, “Siphon, I have a question for you, and you must feel free to say no to this, please don't feel like you have to say yes for any reason other than you wanting to, OK?”

He turned again to face her and tilted his head slightly, a small smile on his face. “Alright, what is it?”

She hesitated a moment, trying to figure out how to best phrase her question. “One of my special abilities is that I can link to the minds of people and share thoughts with them, as well as potentially review and unlock memories that have been locked away inside of another person's mind. I was wondering if you would be interested in letting me try to unlock yours for you, although I can't promise it will work.”

He just stood there for nearly a minute, considering her question. Finally he nodded his head very slowly, and smiled again. “Well, I need to remember things at some point, and I already know that I can trust you and what you say. If it doesn't work then we're on no different ground than if I say no, and if it does work then I'll be able to remember all of you, and maybe get back on with my real life instead of having to learn it all over again. I say let's do it, and see what happens.”

Vanessa seemed to sense Daina's next remarks before she had even opened her mouth. “There is a room at the back of this house where you can do what you need to in private, and not be disturbed. We will wait out here for the two of you, and pray for the best.”

Siphon looked over at her, and then back to Daina. “Good call there Vanessa, I think we both were about to actually ask about that. Actually, come to think of it, Daina, I think I just picked that thought up off of you instead of it being my own. Do I have some kind of telepathy myself?”

Daina turned to him and nodded. “You and I had, rather have a telepathic link to each other. It must have relinked with your mind once you became aware I had that ability, because I can see into your mind now too, whereas before I couldn't. That is a very good thing, this makes what we will need to do much easier, and more likely to go smoothly.”

“Well then, that is great. Shall we get started then?”

She smiled and nodded again, then took his hand and walked with him into the back room Vanessa had told them about, closing the door behind them.

Sho looked to the others as Siphon and Daina closed the door behind them. “Do you think it will work?”

As one, Shade, Talok and Vanessa all said, “yes.”

Sho chuckled slightly, then sat down with them to wait it out.


Siphon sat down on the bed in the room, motioning for Daina to sit beside him as he did. “I have a feeling this will be easier on both of us if we are sitting down, am I correct?”

“Yes, it would be, thank you.” She paused long enough to take a seat next to him, collecting herself for what she was about to do. She took the time to study his features, and was surprised that he didn't seem to have any hint of being nervous about what might happen showing.

He caught her thought pattern and smiled at her. “Don't concern yourself with me, I'm ready for this, otherwise I would not have agreed to it in the first place. I am ready whenever you are Daina.”

“Alright, then here we go. I'm going to need to establish physical contact to begin with for this to work, so my hands will be cupping your face.”

“I understand, do what you need to, and don't worry about telling me, I can pick most of it up just from your thoughts, so at least I have a slight advantage there.”

She simply smiled, then placed her hands in a cupping motion around his jaw, looking at him long and hard for a moment before closing her eyes, taking a deep breath, and establishing the mental link between their minds.

He could feel the meshing of their minds, and he welcomed it. It felt right and familiar, even though he couldn't say why it did. He closed his own eyes, and allowed his mind to drift free, searching through hers while she did what she had to, opening his mind up to her as fully as he possibly could.

It took her several minutes to find the memories she wanted to unlock for him, and she pressed forward, beginning to unravel the barriers that were keeping them suppressed, barriers that had begun to weaken already. She could tell now that it would have been months before he would have remembered everything he once knew, and she realized now that simply shattering the barrier and allowing them all to rush back at once wouldn't be safe. She also knew that he already knew that she was going to release them slowly, although it would take far less time with her method than naturally.

Slowly, memories of his life before coming to Earth returned, quickly followed by his first months on Earth and his encounter with her. Next came his memories of her death, and the destruction of the replicators in the Ida galaxy, along with the agony he had felt of losing her. Then her return, and their relationship, how it had grown and how close they had gotten. The memories then moved on to the war with the sentinels, and how they had been defeated, his first meeting with Vanessa and her people. Finally all the memories of everything they had all been through with the Ori attacking, his near death experience and what Adria had done to him, the destruction of the Ori using the second sangraal weapon, the destruction of the super gate, the ambush on the Ori planet, and his ascension and victory over Adria.

By now, the barriers holding back his memories had shattered, and everything else flooded back to him. Daina was afraid he would buckle under the flood, but he weathered it exceptionally well, a tribute to how powerful his and Talvesh's minds were. When she finally broke the link, he stared at her for several moments before breaking out into a huge smile, taking her into his arms and passionately kissing her while she was off guard.

When they finally parted for air, Daina grinned widely. “It's good to have you back my love.”

“It is good to be back, believe me. This is still a ton to process, and it will be some time before I can readjust to being back amongst all of you, but in a good way. I suppose we should let everyone know that I am back and well.”

Daina smiled again and then added, “the priors of the Ori are wanting our help to set them up with some form of governing council, interested in helping?”

He seemed to consider it for a few moments before saying, “probably, but right now what they need are people more experienced with that kind of ground work laying. I think Sivok and his Draque along with Sivala can do that just fine. Of course later I'll want to visit and see how they are doing, but I think, after all of this, that I want to take a long vacation with you. Make up for some of the time we lost.”

“I'd like that, I really would. When can we then?”

“How about we get all those messages saying I'm back out of the way right now, and then we go take a trip to Risal and not come back until we're damn good and ready to?”

“That sounds like a plan to me Siphon. A very nice plan too, let's go get started!”

He stood and kissed her one final time, and then took her hand into his own. “We do this together then. Off we go!”

They left the room, happy to be together again, and set out to accomplish their new goals.

 

[Copper]

Re: Ori Story

Sweet Jesus, man, that's a lot of words! One helluva story, though. Bravo! *claps*

 

[Bartnum]

Re: Ori Story

I want my 3 hours back!

Seriously though, you did a superb job. Epic Story is Epic, for lack of a better way to describe it.