"Is it dead?" he asks.

"The Goa'uld, I mean. I don't want to get close enough to it so that it might try to take me over."

'It soon will be.' Hilda answered, her intent perfectly clear in her raised sword...


OOC: I intend to coup de grâce it, unless Gavan has a better idea?

"Even with Freyda, I don't think we have the resources to safely transport a Goa'uld back to my home world where we could separate the worm from the host," Gavan commented.

"Even then, the host body may not even have a mind left... assuming it had one to begin with."

"One less Dragon Lord out here in the cluster seems like a good thing to me."

A flash of steel and the sword swept down. A wet chunk sound and it bit into the neck. A dull thud as the head hit the floor. Hilda looked back at Gavan, withdrawing a bloody sword. 'Sorry, what did you say?'


OOC: Full action: coup de grâce, critical hit, 11 wound points

Not knowing where in the host body the Goa'uld had taken up residence, mainly because Hilda wasn't familiar with this 'near-Human' species, she wound up getting lucky by beheading the host, for the Goa'uld had wrapped itself around the spinal column in the neck, presumably accounting for the thick neck of the host.

Hilda's sword stroke not only beheaded the host but beheaded the Goa'uld!

Hilda was gleeful as the decapitated serpent slipped from the bloody stump of the neck, wiggled with nerves, and finally fell limp. 'The Dragonlord is dead.' she proclaimed, wiping the blood from her blade on the corpse's robes and returning it to her sheath.

Now, with a rush of avarice, she knelt down and tugged the gauntlet from his hand, remembering its blast had hurled her back and feeling it could be valuable. She pulled it onto her own hand for the sake of a place to put it, then looted whatever gold and jewels she could spy. Finally, she retrieved Chu-Lung's severed head, with the serpent head inside. It would be grisly proof of her slaying of the Dragonlord.

Gavan couldn't help but look at the severed head with just a bit of disgust. Killing anything was anathema to him, his people and his very culture.

"I think that takes care of the Dragon Lord," he said to Hilda. "We should go report to the Major."

'Hold on,' Fishing about the bedchamber, Hilda hacked open a pillow, pulled out the stuffing, and then stuffed the head inside, having made a serviceable sack for the bloody severed head. It was certainly an ignoble end for the Dragonlord Chu-Lung. 'Now we go.'
This message was last edited by the player at 01:50, Wed 17 Jan 2018.

Gavan grabs Hilda, activates his phase device, and walks back through the sealed door.

Once on the other side, Gavan and Hilda and the Jaffa head back down to the cargo bay level where the others are waiting and guarding the gate.

'Couldn't we just use the door?' Hilda complained as Gavan dragged her back through the wall again. It wasn't that she disliked this phasing through things, though she did; it just seemed lazy somehow.

Once back in the cargo bay, Hilda bowed to Vasandra and opened the makeshift sack, which had now become brown and soaked. With most of the Jaffa dead, there now seemed little need for all the grand words and lies. But Hilda was, at heart, a skald, and could hardly resist it. 'Lady Angrboða! Your foe, the Dragonlord Chu-Lung, is slain!' From the sack, she produced the severed head; holding it by the bony crest, she raised it in triumph for all to see displaying the hairless red skin, large eyes, flat nose, and the bloody stump of the neck, from which, amidst drips of blood, dangled half a Goa'uld serpent.

"We should move the ship away from this location," she suggested. "I believe we have enough liquid naquadah from the staff weapons we've recovered that we can power the ship for a short trip."

"We don't know where the mine is, but if we move the ship far away, that should eliminate anyone accessing it."

In reply to Freyda (msg # 79):

"Accessing what, the mine or the ship?" Kaspar asks, "I thought, with this gate on the ship, anyone with another gate could access this gate, no matter where on the planet we were?"

"Accessing the mine, to get more naquadah," Freyda replied.

"The only other possibility that I can suggest is that we remove the DHD from the ship, hide it or bury it somewhere. That way, we could still use it to dial back, but anyone that came through wouldn't be able to dial out."

"Perhaps we can get the First Ones to take the DHD for safekeeping. That way, if we come back, we'll know where to go and get it."

Hilda was rather disappointed that her trophy had not garnered more praise. She stuffed it back in the sack; at the very least, Jarl Hammond's wise men would want to examine the strange inhuman creature. In the end, it had really had been a dragon, or a dragon mane. There was a disappointing lack of wings and fire-breathing, however.

'Can we not fly the ship back to Earl Hammond?' Hilda proposed with a viking gleam in her blue eyes. 'He would wish to add it to his fleet.'

"That was the original idea," Gavan explained to Hilda. "It was one of the reasons Va... Angrboda was... um, here."

"It depended on the condition of the ship, of course. There is not enough liquid naquadah to take it all the way back to... Angrboda's home. And it would take months to cover that much distance."

'Then we must leave it here, broken so it cannot be used, until we find enough liquid naquadah or the First Ones claim it.' Hilda agreed. 'But we don't have to move it. After all, we can't hide it anywhere.'

"There was not enough room in the First Ones' city to set the ha'tak," Freyda responded, "so that isn't an option."

"Nor do we know what the city's defenses would do if we tried that."

"However, a planet is a big place. Merely putting the ship far away from here would suffice."

"There is still the problem with the gate."

"I believe we can use the DHD to open the gate to Earth, then remove a crystal from the DHD and take it with us when we go through the gate. In that way, anyone else that comes through the gate will not be able to return from whence they came. I do not believe they have any way to communicate through the wormhole the way that the SGC does, so those stranded here cannot tell others what they need."

"Will that work, Angrboda?" she asks, but looks at the Major.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 85):

Kaspar ponders for a moment,

"If we move the Ha'tak we lose quick access to The First city. And even if we do disable the DHD, we're not stopping Goa'uld forces from coming here by gate, we're only trapping them here."

"No, let's dial up the SGC and consult General Hammond. After all, I did ask for military support last time we called. At the least he might have a Tactical Squad ready to come over to guard the gate. At best he might have some kind of portable iris system we can install over here. Let's ask him, shall we?"

"Go ahead and dial, Freyda..."

'They can spend a few hours walking out here.' Hilda pointed out, remembering in time not to pay the Asgard too much respect in front of the remaining Jaffa. Who didn't seem all that worth worrying about now.

She agreed with Kaspar, remarking 'Even if we move the ha'tak to the other side of the planet, the Jaffa may still come here in death gliders. Or call for another ha'tak. And Jaffa stranded here will cause trouble for the First Ones.'

She looked over to the quiet Asherrra, wondering what thoughts she had about what was left on her world.

"Possibly, but with the ha'tak on the other side of the planet," Vasandra responded, "they may not find it."

"You have two of these self-styled Dragonlords destroyed. It could be awhile before another Dragonlord realizes that something is amiss. Those two Dragonlords had the gate address, but they may have been the only two."

"As it is, the gate had to have come from somewhere nearby for the gate address to have still been able to dial it. Once that was done, of course, it updated itself."

"We don't really know the political situation around these parts. We've probably only scratched the surface."

Gavan went ahead and dialed the Earth address on the strange triangular DHD, after making sure that none of the Jaffa could see the address.

It was up to Kasper, Rajip or Vasandra to transmit the code, although it's possible that Freyda could have done it as well.

Kasper is now able to report to General Hammond.

Hilda shrugged to Vasandra, unable to disagree. She watched as Gavan opened the Ring of Stars and waited for Kaspar to contact Earl Hammond. 'Why don't we just go back now?' she whispered to the others. There didn't seem to be much else to do here, apart from get rid of the last Jaffa.

Asherrra said little, but watched everything that went on.

"Am I to be permitted to travel through the gate with you back to your world?" she asked.

"There is much the First Ones wish to know about the universe that our teachings may not have prepared us for. As it is, I will be the only First One to have traveled through the ancient Alteran portals."

"We do not venture out much from our city, but the Elders realize that a time will soon come when it will be necessary for us to do so. Thus, where the Goa'uld craft resides does not matter to us, as we will not go anywhere near it, nor will the Goa'uld come near us. Do not be concerned for us on that matter."

"The Goa'uld have been coming to this planet for the power mineral for centuries. There is no one here for them to enslave, so they have little interest in it. They have learned to keep their presence low for fear of activating the Guardian."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Mon 12 Feb 2018.

'You could be the first of the First!' Hilda laughed, clapping Asherrra on the shoulder. She called to Kaspar where he was working out how to communicate with Earth. 'Kaspar! Ask the earl if Asherrra may come back with us as emissary.'

In reply to Hilda (msg # 92):

Kaspar nodded acknowledgement (to everyone talking at him), as he keyed his microphone,

"SG-X1 Actual, calling SGC." Kaspar sent, "Repeat: SG-X1 Actual, calling SGC. All loose ends have been cleared up on this end, now, General. Ready to discuss next phase of mission. No matter how I look at it, General, it looks like we've got our hands on an unfueled but otherwise operational Ha'tak as well as another working Stargate."

"What do you want us to do with all these goodies, General?"