Sandur prepared for battle, eagerly anticipating the end of the absurd expedition Apophis had sent him on. The opportunity to establish his own domain was certainly appealing, but the nearly year-long journey to the enemy planet was quite tiring, especially far from the familiar comforts of the Goa'uld palace. Surrounded by only Jaffa and a few servants, the oppression only deepened. This was precisely why Sandur wanted Szarekh dead, primarily because of the inconvenience he'd caused him.
The fleet commander, however, had foreseen the course of events. He knew he would find the planet abandoned upon arrival, as the cowardly Szarekh would likely flee with his ships to Ra's domain. This wasn't cowardice, but rather common sense—Sandur would have done the same. But as soon as Szarekh returned to his master's fold, his life would be forfeited by the ashraks. Perhaps, with the ashraks' luck, the hapless Goa'uld would be brought before Apophis. After all, he had dared to expose Apophis's domain to the other System Lords as incompetent wretches, and such shame can only be washed away with blood. Furthermore, Sandur's master had seized Ra's ledgers, especially those concerning revenues from Urvashi. It was worth noting that Szarekh must have possessed remarkable talent for governance, to be able to maintain such a high tax rate. And the entire planet with its mines, of course, will go to Apofizu, and then will be passed on to his distinguished son - that is, Sandur.
The illusions of future wealth and power were shattered. The fleet commander was distracted from his dreams of satiating his sexual appetites in Szarekh's harem. The scanners detected something that shouldn't have been there. Sandur blinked, even rubbing his eyes to make sure his vision wasn't deceiving him. All intelligence indicated that Szarekh should have had three Hattaks and one Cheops. But not sixteen Hattaks, numerous Alkesh, and an entire Khasar station!
The Goa'uld's throat instantly went dry. He realized that a routine punitive expedition had turned into a battle for survival. Apophis's intelligence had failed, and they, caught up in some intrigue of Ra's, had foolishly walked into a trap. Perhaps this was part of a plan to legally destroy Apophis's forces, undertaken after the armistice. But it was unlikely that other Ra forces would have been dispatched over such a minor intrigue, and intelligence hadn't detected a decrease in ships in Ra's domain. This meant they had underestimated Szarekh. Sandur felt the noose tightening around his neck: if he retreated, Apophis would kill him, as the System Lord would be ridiculed again, for the third time in six years. The overlord would vent all his anger and disappointment on his unfortunate subordinate. He must fight to vindicate himself.
"Exit hyperspace," he ordered. Exiting at the system's edges always seemed like a sensible move. His sensors detected an enemy fleet 0.6 light-years away. Their ships exited hyperspace two light-hours from the target planet.
He'd barely exited hyperspace when he was contacted. When the fleet commander opened the channel, Szarekh appeared on the image. He'd chosen a rather masculine-looking host, himself looking menacing, clad in armor and seated in a command chair.
"You have violated my domain. Surrender or leave. If you engage in combat, you will be destroyed."
"I come from Lord Apophis, and you must pay for his humiliation. Surrender your forces and the planet to my command, and you will be forgiven." Yes, it was an absurd situation, considering their forces were roughly equal, but it was protocol.
"Your Master shouldn't have sent fools to attack my planet. So are you a fool or a coward?" Szarekh asked mockingly. Sandur understood where this was heading.
- I will crush your powers, and you will beg me for a quick death.
"Yes, yes, perhaps we should move on to the battle?" With a commanding wave of his hand, Szarekh added, "I still have much to do." This infuriated Sandur. How dare this insignificant junior lord speak to him like that?
- Your death will be measured in centuries.
His opponent rolled his eyes.
"I'm writing all this down, and when I capture you, I'll be happy to listen to it," Szareh pointed out meaningfully and hung up.
Sandur ordered his fleet to move toward Urvashi to escape the enemy fleet beyond the moon. With the help of scouts, he could better plan his attack. But he clearly didn't expect Szarekh's entire fleet to split into five battle groups and rush him while he was still pondering his tactics. Then something suddenly flickered on the viewscreen.
- Master, we are being fired upon from the surface of the satellite!
The Goa'uld didn't have time to issue the order to fire on the identified firing points on the airless satellite. He was extremely surprised, as his race rarely deployed strategic defenses on airless bodies. The fleet commander realized his very first move had been a mistake. Realizing they were trying to squeeze him between orbital defenses and the space that was trying to encircle him, he ordered an immediate retreat.
"Retreat." Twenty ships, having reinforced their shields, began to retreat, keeping their distance. Meanwhile, sixteen ships had taken attack courses, separated by one and a half firing ranges. Technically, Szarekh had more ships due to the sheer number of Alkesh, but they could have been shot down if he had set his mind to it. Sandur also noticed a surprising method of transporting gliders: they were several times slower than Alkesh or Huttaks, so Szarekh's ships simply took them on board. Thus, he now faced far more gliders than he could field himself. Apophis had allocated him only 10,000 troops and 400 gliders, expecting this to be enough to destroy the overly presumptuous Goa'uld. And this was also supposed to become the garrison of Urvashi. Now all that remained was survival.
Suddenly, the enemy ships began moving, but not forward. They reformed into bizarre shapes, clearly battle formations. These formations were quite varied: wedges, spherical formations, extended flanks. Sandur had only experienced this when watching circus performers, low-class men, putting on a show and risking their lives for the good of their masters. The grace of years of trained body and hundreds of hours of repetition. He understood the message being sent: "My army is better." But retreat was no longer an option; he had to attack. Otherwise, when he hesitated during his next reformation, he might be attacked.
That's pretty much what happened. He'd just given the order to close in when flying objects launched toward him from each of the sixteen ships in Szarekh's fleet. They were traveling at maximum glider speed. Sandur immediately dispatched his own gliders to intercept them, thinking they were some kind of fighter attack. He realized they weren't fighters when they began crashing into his shields and exploding with great force.
— Retreat, retreat! We need to break distance, provide covering fire!
The enemy's final formation was a cross, or rather a conventional cross. The concept of top and bottom in space combat is just another convention. But relative to his own fleet, which prefers to deploy along a single axis, the enemy commander deployed his fleet in a cross: three ships on top, three on the bottom, three in the center, and three each on the right and left. It was from this formation that he launched a salvo of missiles—a primitive projectile weapon powered by the reactive propulsion of fuel combustion. But the scanners didn't detect any combustion. On the contrary, they identified it as an inertialess engine. This means Szareh had repurposed this engine to power the missile system.
He took the blow on his own ship's shields and immediately began to reorganize his fleet for a counterattack. But the enemy squadrons began attacking from all directions. Their goal was to encircle the enemy. Sandur decisively halted the retreat, intending to defeat the enemy piecemeal, first focusing all his fire on the center.
His fleet began firing at the central ships, just as the enemy ships did the same. The Goa'uld wanted to destroy the ships individually, so he ordered a concentration of fire on three ships. But they had already delivered their devastating salvo. Sixteen ships were firing at roughly 50% more fire—he noted this on the scanners, but didn't attach much importance to it. The enemy ships fired with their entire squadrons at his single ship. Shields began to crack. In the first minute, he lost shields on five ships, and enemy ships entered his formation, turning into a melee. The goal of destroying the ships was not achieved; the shields proved strong, and the other Hattak ships covered the retreat and reloading of the central squadron. His formation was filled with Alkesh and Hattak ships, so Sandur was confused which ships were even his.
- Sir, our ships report that they are being boarded.
Sandur knew that Szarekh had boarded two of Apophis' ships, and this was yet another insult to the System Lord. The House of Ra representative's plan had finally taken shape: to seize his ships.
"Bastard," the Goa'uld hissed through his teeth.
Gliders and Alkesh pounced on the ships left without shields like piranhas. The scanners also spotted Teltaks. They quickly disabled engines, then gnawed on the cannons like a pack of predators stripping the flesh from the bones of their prey. Sandur's own gliders turned out to be useless pieces of crap. Their purpose was to destroy the Alkesh, but they couldn't even do that. The fault lay not with the technology, but with the pilots. Szarekh's gliders were more numerous and better trained. Two Szarekh squadrons pounced on a single squadron of Apophis gliders, tearing the enemy to pieces. The squadrons worked in strict coordination with the Alkesh: some guarded them, and others destroyed the cannons on the ships.
Rapidly analyzing the battlefield, Sandur noticed that ten Huttaks were frozen with damaged engines. Realizing that Apophis would severely punish the losers, he decided to destroy at least the remaining enemy ships and retreat. The ships, raining fire on their recent allies, immediately became targets for Szarekh's entire fleet, which suffered no critical damage, even seemingly without losing a single shield. However, according to sensors, half of Szarekh's ships had only 20-30% shields. Seeing that his "trophies" were about to be destroyed, Szarekh's ships instantly reorganized to protect them, opening fire to kill. The focused fire of one hundred and thirty-five plasma cannons pierced the Huttaks' shields and reduced them to vapor.
Seizing the opportunity, Sandur ordered his ship to retreat. Perhaps he could lure the Jaffa to his side, find a rundown planet, and rule there. However, the Alkesh didn't appreciate his attempts to escape and immediately opened fire to block his hyperspace jump. At the same time, they were sapping his shields. Entering hyperspace required lowering the shields, which was extremely dangerous. At that moment, his ship's shield was breached, and something slammed into the hull, but the hyperspace window opened, and the ship made the jump.
Sandur breathed a sigh of relief, believing it was all over. He'd survived, and that was all that mattered. But then he noticed someone trying to contact him using the communications system. He answered, and Szareh appeared on the screen.
"Don't bother answering, I'm just a recording. I see you've escaped me into hyperspace, but since you're listening to this recording, that means there's a bomb attached to the hull of your ship. As soon as it detects you're one light-year away from Urvashi, it will detonate. To be clear, I spent a lot of time making sure this bomb couldn't be disarmed quickly. For example, it took my designer six hours, and you only have sixteen minutes. Oh, and if you slow down, another timer will start. If I don't disarm the bomb myself within an hour, it will explode. Anyway, come back. Don't worry, I won't kill you. I don't need that. I can even send you to any planet you choose."
Sandur immediately began scanning his ship and tracking the source of the transmission. Indeed, an object had magnetically attached itself to the ship about five meters away. If it exploded, the ship would be doomed. Moreover, he saw the unmistakable signature of naquadah—meaning it was a naquadah bomb. The Goa'uld immediately became lost in thought.
"Master, what should we do?" the loyal Jaffa of Apophis asked inappropriate questions.
Sandur raised his hand with the tape device in a sharp motion and, with a series of shots, instantly killed three Jaffa, then locked down the bridge. After exiting hyperspace, he sent a communication request to Urvashi. Fortunately, he didn't manage to fly too far, and Szarekh appeared in his original position.
"I'm ready to surrender, but I need guarantees that I won't be killed."
"Good. Besides Urvashi, there is one more planet suitable for human colonization. I will move my gate there, and my forces will retreat. You must transmit the codes to the rings near the bridge, and you can go to any planet you choose."
"Because of you, I lost everything I had."
Szarekh bowed his head. "And why did you come to me?" the lord remarked reasonably. "Isn't that the law of the Goa'uld? I'm not trying to deceive you into taking your life. I don't care about you. You're nothing more than Apophis's weapon, just like a khattak. If you honestly hand over the ship to me, I won't care about your life. But if you deceive me... You understand that my version of events will prevail, right? And I can tell you how the House of Ra offered you prestigious holdings for your betrayal. Apophis would simply want to hire an ashrak to kill you on principle."
Sandur shuddered.
"Now you can pass through the gate, find a new host, and hire yourself out to that same Zeus or one of the other System Lords. I'll tell you the truth, I blew up your ship, and you died. So know this: if you think about betraying me, I can make your life significantly more difficult. Is that a deal?" Molokossos acted as if he were at least a System Lord, but Sandur understood why. Goa'uld duels were rare, and Szarekh had won one. Simultaneously calculating and adventurous—a terrifying combination. But he didn't come across as malicious; he was frankly honest—a rare quality in the modern era. Such calculation was something the older Goa'uld were acquiring.
Having locked all the blast doors and deactivated all the rings, the Goa'uld headed for the planet. There, at a considerable distance, was only a single Alkesh. The ship's scanners detected the gate but nothing else in the area—it was an ordinary clearing, with no traps. He contacted Szarekh's Alkesh and then departed in an escape pod, setting it to land near the gate.
Five minutes later, he dialed the address and simply walked out through the gate. No one followed him. Sarek kept his word.