Pax Elysia Chapter 23: Chulak P1

Harry stood in the war room of Elysium, the holo-projection of Chulak’s star system rotating above the obsidian table. Around it sat the men and women Harry had summoned—battle-hardened wizards who had spent lifetimes in conflict against dark wizards, dark lords, and dangerous magical creatures.

Now their battlefield stretched across stars.

At the head of the table, grizzled and scarred, sat Alastor Moody. His magical eye whirred restlessly in its socket, scanning the room, the ceiling, even the floorboards for threats.

“Chulak,” Moody growled, stabbing a finger against the projected globe. “A snake pit of Jaffa, Goa’uld lapdogs, and temples to false gods. Our target—the Temple of the Gods. Guarded by forty-two Jaffa warriors. Inside lies the Eye of Apophis. An artefact Potter here values for some odd reason.”

“It’s an Ancient artefact, Moody.” Harry said with a roll of his eyes. “With the fall of Apophis, I’m merely securing the item before any ambitious System Lord lays a claim upon it.”

“So you say,” Moody growled.

The hit wizards gathered around the table shifted in their seats. It was no secret among them that Moody’s paranoia knows no bounds. It was ever prevalent and always active within the veteran auror.

Harry ignored the man’s utter paranoia as he knew it came part and parcel with Moody. Instead, he turned his attention to the hit wizards gathered around the table.

“Chulak is the throne world of Apophis. Even if the disappearance of Apophis now leaves a power vacuum, we should not dismiss the Jaffa warriors guarding the world. The advantage that we have is the element of surprise, and the enemy doesn’t know that we exist. So, we keep it that way.”

“So, this will be an undercover operation, not exposing ourselves to the enemy.”

One of the hit wizards asked curiously.

“Your mission will be undercover, but two more teams will be involved in this op with separate objectives.” Harry said.

“Two other teams?”

“What objectives are those?”

“I’ll explain.” Harry said, nodding at the wizards gathered around the table.

With a gesture of his right hand, the projected imagery shifted, showcasing images of Chulak’s massive number of pyramids hosting Goa’uld motherships. Then there were images of Chulak’s shipyards, where Goa’uld ships like Death Gliders and scout ships were arrayed neatly. The facilities on those shipyards showed it to be one of the major crucibles of the Goa’uld Empire.

“As you can see, there are several Goa’uld military assets on the planet, and we cannot afford to leave them intact. The chances of a rival Goa’uld taking command of those resources are too high. So, we must deny them these resources.”

“So, what’s the plan? We take control of the ships and fly them to Elysium?”

“No.” Harry said, shaking his head. “We already have fifteen Ha’tak ships from Heru’ur and one from Isa. Those lumps of metal might as well be scrap metal for our use.”

A few faces among the hit wizards looked comically at Harry for dismissing the Goa’uld motherships as scrap metal. Considering that those same ships were one of the reasons the Goa’uld Empire stretched across the stars, it was not lost on everyone gathered around the table.

“Therefore, we must destroy the shipyard and all Goa’uld ships in Chulak. We deny them the ships and the facilities to rebuild the motherships for at least a decade.”

Hearing that made the hit wizards sit up straight as they realised the scope of the mission was ambitious and dangerous at the same time. It was something they were trained for, as dismantling an enemy base of operations was a standard hit-wizard tactic used in large-scale conflicts. But they had not used their skills against an enemy like the Goa’uld, especially in hostile territory.

“We cannot afford a mistake in this mission. We cannot afford to have anyone captured in this mission. The mission won’t end until all of us have returned home to safety. Is this understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Harry nodded at the determined hit-wizards gathered before him. “The plan will be explained in detail by Auror Moody.”

A whole day was spent on gathering and debriefing the three groups bound for the mission in Chulak. In the end, Harry decided to form two teams comprised of hit-wizards and another group was pulled out of their newly formed werewolf regiment.

*****

The Spitfire cut silently through orbit, its cloaking fields masking it from Goa’uld scanners. In the hangar, Moody and his team prepared. Black dragonhide armour charmed to repel both plasma bolts and electrical charges fired by zat guns protected the teams, wands strapped in wrist-holsters, and enchanted short blades sheathed across their backs.

Moody stalked among them with a stern expression, his magical eye watching all three teams with greater scrutiny.

“Remember—Jaffa don’t scare easily. They’ll not be afraid to die, and if you give them the chance, they’ll take you out with their last breath. Staff weapons will burn through you if you stand still long enough without a shield. Keep moving, strike hard, strike fast. Use lethal spells. No hesitation. Constant vigilance.” Moody barked.

The Spitfire jolted as they entered Chulak’s atmosphere. Alarms started blaring inside the hangar of Spitfire, and that was the cue for the three teams to move out. One team was led by Harry, another by Moody and the third by the former werewolf leader William.

All three teams boarded their respective puddle jumpers before the hangar doors folded open. The puddle jumpers zoomed out of the hangar under cloak. The Goa’uld scanners remained blind to the three crafts going straight for the capital city of the planet.  

The puddle jumper carrying Harry’s crew went straight for Apophis’ temple, where the Eye of Apophis was safely kept. As they drew near the city, fires burned in the outlying villages, smoke spiralling into the early morning. The Temple of the Gods rose at the city’s heart—golden walls, obsidian pillars, serpent statues glowering under the twin suns of the star system.

Since it was early morning, the streets were vacant with no one in sight. Only the Jaffa guards staying vigil inside the temple’s compound were present.

The puddle jumper gently settled against a corner of the street outside the temple premises. The cloak remained engaged, and that kept their ship invisible to the eyes of the Jaffa guards.

“Set up the ward perimeter.” Harry ordered. “I don’t want any nasty surprises from more forces. A strong notice-me-not should do the trick.”

As four of his people went to erect a notice-me-not ward encompassing the temple and its ground, Harry addressed the rest of his team.

“The temple also serves as a stronghold for Apophis’ wealth. There’ll be gems, gold, silver and more treasure once we access the deeper vaults. I want all of you to pack everything we can into these boxes.” Harry said, handing over several shrunken boxes to the men in his team.

“Expansion charms?” one of the hit wizards asked.

“Yes. So, fill them up with as much as you can before the other teams call it in. Then, the real show begins.”

They moved out of the puddle jumper under a carefully woven bubble of disillusionment charm. Within the bubble, they could see each other, but anyone outside the bubble could not. Together, they easily sneaked into the temple compound, bypassing the Jaffa guards stationed inside the compound. The temple courtyard was alive with torchlight and chanting as some of Apophis’ priests did their morning religious rituals. The Jaffa moved in disciplined patrols, their armour gleaming under the morning sun.

The Temple of the Gods loomed ahead—golden walls etched with serpents, a towering entrance flanked by braziers.

Harry led the team through the entrance without any opposition. The silencing charms on their bodies kept them out of the keen senses of the Jaffa.

Harry placed the wand on his palm and cast a simple locator spell to find the stairway leading to the underground vaults. The wand in his hand spun and pointed left. He signalled the others to follow his lead, and together they traversed through several long corridors and chambers until finally they came before a massive golden door. There were four Jaffa standing guard before the door.

Harry signalled for the team to be in position. Four wands were raised in unison against the unsuspecting Jaffa.

Four stunners left the wands, and the Jaffa didn’t know what hit them. They fell as if they were puppets with their strings cut.

Harry dropped the cloaking spell, cancelling out the bubble of invisibility that protected his team.

“Set up a notice-me-not ward around the doorway. We don’t want any last-minute surprise and have one of us stand guard behind the door.” Harry ordered.

As his team set up the ward, Harry unsheathed the Sword of Gryffindor and pricked the hands of the fallen Jaffa with the poisoned blade.

“They’ll be dead within a minute.” Harry said, upon receiving questioning looks from his team. “We’re not taking any prisoners.”

Everyone nodded at that and proceeded to open the huge doors into the underground vault. The huge gold-plated door swung open under the power of magic, which led to a spiralling staircase that went further down.

Harry conjured a globe of light at the tip of his wand and let it drop downward. The globe lit the dark vaults below, chasing away the darkness.

“Wow! That’s massive.”

Harry had to concur with his fellow wizard. It was as if the temple was built over a giant chasm—pillars carved with hieroglyphs that seemed to glow with an ethereal shine lined up ahead in rows. Ancient Egyptian language adorned the walls, and there were murals in gold, all extolling Apophis’ greatness.

As they finally reached the bottom of the stairwell, a long number of vaults lined up before them.

Harry raised his wand and let the magic cover the entirety of the vaults. With a thought, he pulled the doors of the vaults open. The locking mechanisms of the vaults stood no chance against magic.  

“Oh Merlin!”

“That’s a lot of gold.” Harry muttered.

There were mountains of gold, silver and gems within the vaults as expected. But there was a pleasant surprise waiting for them in one of the vaults. The teams spread out and inspected each of the vaults, but only after making sure there were no traps.

“Sir, there seems to be some large containers of unrefined Naquadah in one of these vaults.” One of the hit wizards said after inspecting one of the vaults.

“The slave population must’ve given them as offerings, or this is a reserve stock,” Harry said, taking a peek at the many containers inside the vault. “Haul them all. Some free Naquadah will be useful for us.”

Harry left the vaults and walked straight towards the far end of the chamber, where a colossal statue of Apophis was erected. As usual, there was a lot of gold on the statue showing the Goa’uld’s obsession with gold and self-importance.

‘More gold for us.’ Harry thought, his eyes tracing the fine craftsmanship that could be seen on the statue.

His eyes then fell on a crown on the statue, and at the very centre of the crown, he saw a golden medallion.

Harry reached out with his magic and gently lifted the golden crown from the head of the statue. He gently lowered the crown to his eye level. His magical sense could easily discern the presence of a dense energy from the medallion.

He wasted no time in dislodging the medallion from the crown. Once the medallion was safely in his hand, he flipped it over and there it was – the Eye.

“The eye of Apophis.” Harry whispered as a bright red light lit up the chamber.

He could feel the overwhelming power bound inside the crystal with his magical sense.

Harry carefully placed the crystal inside an enchanted container which warded away its energy signature from the outside world. The raw aura of power vanished once he sealed the container.

“We have achieved the primary objective. Open our com channels and inform Moody’s and William’s team of our status.” Harry ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

Harry pocketed the container inside a mokeskin pouch and set his eyes on the mountain of treasure inside the vaults.

‘The wealth of an empire is in our grasp. I think Apophis just funded ten more Merlin-class warships for Elysium.’ Harry mused with a wide grin.