The Master of Disaster

by Philip Hoyler

You know me as an indestructible cyborg, calculating, dangerous, a threat to all. You don’t see the pain, the hurt. You do not know the terror my life has been.

Imagine being very young, and having an alien being jump into your neck, and seize control of your body. This is what happened to me.

I was so young that I did not even know my own name when Nao-nak (pronounced: Nay O Nack) took me and I became his slave. Using my body, he set himself up as a god and hundreds of beings served him. Most of these beings were also his slaves, but in a very different way. They fought for him, died for him, almost willingly. All I could do was watch.

All I could do was watch when I saw my own hand stretch out with a strange glove on it, from the glove came a beam that tortured and killed anyone that Nao-nak felt displeasure with. I could do nothing as the leaders of enemies that fell to Nao-nak’s armies were tortured and killed by my own hand. I was powerless as four billion innocent lives—the entire population of a planet—were slaughtered without mercy.

I do not know how long I was Nao-nak’s slave; it was long enough for my body to become that of a teenager.

Nao-nak moved his armies deeper and deeper into Delta Quadrant, conquering every planet that they came across. Then he encountered something he did not expect.

The day Nao-nak’s fleet encountered the Borg cube was a day of pure terror. The jaffa in the service of Nao-nak were cut down left and right by beam weapons much more powerful then any staff weapon. Tri-tar, Nao-nak’s first prime, died in the fighting; when he went down, everyone—even I—knew that there was no hope of victory, and much less hope of escape.

As the battle started to come to a close, the Borg began to take prisoners. Spiriting them away with their strange instant transportation devices. Then the Borg came for me. The few remaining jaffa quickly rallied to protect their leader while Nao-nak panicked and gave frantic, indecisive orders. Even though I had forgotten how to move my own body through years of Nao-nak doing it for me, I am certain I could have myself better then Nao-nak handled himself in my body. The loyal guards were no match for even one Borg drone, much less the three that came. Nao-nak raised my hand and used that dreaded glove to send one through a wall. Then the other drones grabbed me and dragged me away.

We were assimilated into the Borg collective. Micro bots and nano bots were injected into me. Mechanical limbs were fitted onto my arms and legs. More mechanical parts were added to my face and neck. They tried to invade my mind with probes to destroy my consciousness and make it their own. Nao-nak fought back at this point, but it was not immediately visible.

I spent six weeks as a common Borg drone, carrying out the will of the collective.

Finally Nao-nak, using the radioactive substances that had been part of his blood and were now also part of mine, severed control of my body from the Borg collective. But could not get control of my body for himself. For the first time in many years I was myself. But not myself. I was a machine. I very quickly learned how to walk again.

The Borg suspected something and I was almost re-assimilated. But they found Nao-nak instead and took away some of the controls they had on me unwittingly giving me exactly the tools I needed. Now, Nao-nak was my slave.

From Nao-nak I had learned cruelty, brutality, analysis, wrath, terror, cunning, and strategy. But I had lost myself to him. Now I had all that he had taught me, I also had the other benefits that having a goa-uld in you entails, long life, perfect health, and superhuman strength. What is more, now I had myself again.

It did not take long for the Borg to notice their mistake, but it was too late. The four that were there in the room were no match for the combined strength of my nahquadah enhanced body and mechanical implants. Nothing could have stopped me. I broke free of them and then I broke them. With all the spite that had been building for my entire life I plugged into a port in the wall of the cube and overloaded their power core. Fully intending to take my own life and destroy these awful cyborgs with me.

My plans changed when I saw the next round of people who were to be assimilated, could I exact my wrath on these innocents as well as my enemies? “Yes!” screamed a voice inside me; Nao-nak’s will still haunting me. However now the decision was ultimately mine.

I fought and destroyed the Borg that were leading these helpless people to their doom and we all packed like sardines into several small escape craft.

The cube was destroyed, and every Borg aboard with it.

I was trapped shoulder to shoulder with eight people for ten days. There was no food and little water on the escape pod, and it was obvious that I was not well liked because of my resemblance to the Borg from which they had just escaped. They were grateful for my saving them from assimilation but there was still animosity there. I was not welcome.

We were finally rescued by an odd ship that no one could place the origin of. The people on board were civil and kind but rough around the edges. We were told that they would take us to the nearest space station with regular ships coming and going, from there we could make our separate ways to our homes.

Having no idea where my home was—for that matter, not really having a home at all—I inquired about what they did. They were a small team of misfits that felt it was their calling to fight the injustice of the galaxy. Specifically they wanted to stop the Borg and keep the Goa-uld from expanding further into the quadrant. When I told them of my past they agreed that I would make a fine addition to their team.

Then settled in the four best years of my life. I worked well along side the leader of the team. The Grand Templar, who had been repeatedly dosed with highly drugged radioactive sludge that gave him extraordinary powers, like telekinesis. There was also a young lady who called herself The Ruler of the Hawk, she could fly anything and could get it well beyond red-line without it flying apart. She was quick, and always had something witty to say. How could someone like that be considered a misfit you ask? She was born with one hand in a culture where any birth defect is a curse on the family. She came out into the universe for both hers and her families sake.

The other two were the ones that I built strong, close friendships with. The Dark Knife was the best assassin that could ever be found. Even now, ten years later, it is not possible to find one better then he. The Dark Knife was about my age and had a smile for everyone. He was the only one of us who knew his real name but he never told anyone what it was, not even me. He had been 7 years old when his house collapsed in the night. Out of a family of ten, he was the only survivor. The Dark Knife had needed 17 surgeries to reconstruct his broken bones and part of his face. He had a mechanical part as well, a strange capsule like thing that was attached to his right jawbone. It helped him to breathe as well as provided an always-available radio.

The final member had the biggest impact on me. We called her The Talon. She was an engineer without any doubt. She could handle any technical difficulty in stride and was the person solely responsible for removing some of the mechanical components that the Borg had added to me. She made me closer to human then I had been for my entire life. There were still some things that she left, the things that kept Nao-nak under control, as well as the implants that we deemed useful. Not only could I get another level of life because of her, we had an attraction to each other.

However, a crush was all that that attraction ever really became, we liked each other, that much was certain. If things had gone differently would it have become more?

The Goa-uld Anubis had moved into the quadrant and we intended to make him think twice before attacking the few planets that we could defend. The Grand Templar and The Dark Knife were going to attack toward the main bridge of the mother ship, The Talon and I would strike toward the main power core, overload it, then send the “get of here!” code. At which point we would all get onto our ship piloted by The Ruler of the Hawk, and make our escape.

It did not work that way.

The Talon and I made it to a corridor where she could access the main power grid through a panel in the wall. Anubis’s jaffa were pressing in hard, but were not match for me and I carried the battle forward, driving them down the hallway and around a slight bend so that any stray fire would not come near The Talon as she worked. But something was wrong, I could feel it somehow, and I returned to the place where The Talon was working. I got there just in time to see a Kull-Warrior come out of an access tube and shoot her in the back.

My wrath was aroused and for the first time since I had been under the control of Nao-nak, I let out my rage. The Kull-warrior was strong but I was stronger, I threw it straight through the bulkhead across the hall from where The Talon had been working. It did not get up.

I returned to The Talon, she was breathing hard but seemed at peace. What she told me then I will never repeat to anyone, for her words were very precious to me.

My personal defense shield glowed as shots ricocheted off it, but I did not care. For several minutes I simply held her; tears came to me for the first time in my life. She smiled weakly then died in my arms.

That moment will haunt me all my life.

So will the one that followed.

The Grand Templar arrived on scene, having not heard from us he had assumed that there was trouble. The look he gave me when he saw me was one of pure anger. It was plain that he blamed me for her death. He was right to, I had carried the battle too far forward and had I been there she would not have died. At that moment our attention was distracted by the jaffa that were still shooting at us. We slaughtered them all. We then returned to our ship while The Dark Knife figured out how to overload the power core. Neither of us had the presence of mind to do any more that day.

That ended the best four years of my life.

I tried to continue with the team but the ship seemed empty without The Talon. The Grand Templar was angry with me as well. Tensions between us almost escalated to blows once, had not The Dark Knife been there to stop us the ship would have been completely destroyed. After that I decided that it was better for all of us if I left. The Ruler of the Hawk did not care. She was still hurting and did not know what had happened for sure, what is more, no one intended to tell her. The Dark Knife was also kept in the dark, yet he was supportive of me, of both The Grand Templar and me really. He was hurting as well, but he saw the strong friendships we had had pulling apart and wanted to save the people who could still be saved. He was sad to see me go. The Grand Templar could not decide whether to let me go or kill me. For the sake of the others, he did not raise a finger when I left the ship at the next space station we encountered.

I was alone in the universe for the first time. Before I had been a slave and was not really alone, then I had been with a team. This time I was alone and directionless. I traveled the stars and did a bit of bounty hunting, but nothing really rewarding ever came my way. I found myself on a planet the natives call “Earth”, but that will forever be in my mind “The Ta’re Planet”.

I settled for a while in a region called “California”. In a city call L.A. to be more specific. Not many people there had seen a cyborg before and I was shunned. No one dared approach a being as evil looking as me. Not even the gangs would associate themselves with me; in fact none would even accost me. Yet I had never made a single aggressive movement on this planet.

As I drifted from one end of the city to the other, I approached another region. The people I found in the next region I moved to, called Hollywood, did not even give me a second glance. I was not hated there. I was not liked. I simply did not exist in their minds. They also seemed to be set apart from the rest of the planets population. Could it have been that they also were also outcasts of a world that would not put up with them?

One evening I walked into a bar. I could never tell what the attraction to these places was, a place for dim lighting, loud noise, and the consumption of liquids that would polish ones metal parts and eat away ones internal organs did not seem to be a logical place to have on such a peaceful, innocent world as this. I entered it because something drew me there.

There I met man who put purpose back in my life. I entered and simply looked around. There was no reason for me to look toward the corner I looked toward, but I did. I saw a man who appeared as though he had once been great sitting there. One of the drug dealers typical of a place like this approached him and asked him if he wanted to buy some of his “wares”. The man waved a hand dismissively and said, “You don’t want to sell me anything.” The drug dealer pulled back and indignantly stated that he had no intention of selling anything to him.

The man casually added, with another wave of his hand that the dealer should go home and re-think his life.

As the dealer left the bar, as walked past me I could tell for certain that he had full intentions of re-thinking his life.

This man was someone I wanted to meet. et.

Ever an impulsive being, I went over and sat down at his table. We both knew that he had a skill I wanted. Without a word spoken he made it clear that we could give each other something that we both needed. Working with each other we would find our purpose again.

As I worked with him and learned from him we both recovered some sense of vitality.

His story was a sad one as well, though not as tumultuous as mine had been. He did not say much; I do not think he remembered much. He mentioned that he had once been a great guardian of peace and order for a galactic government. But the government had started to crumble. He was leading and army into battle when the soldiers he had been leading turned on him. Trying to kill him. He barely escaped. He told me that for several hours his comlink had signaled him to return to his base but then had inexplicably told him that he must stay far away. He had come into this galaxy to escape. Here he had hit his head very hard and did not remember much, he had even forgotten his own name. He would have fit in quite nicely with the rest of the people on that team of misfits. He trained me a bit in some school of thought and combat that he could never remember the name of.

I was his student and his motivation for existence for 3 years, then his age, and cholesterol, caught up with him. He died of a heart attack.

Together we had fought injustice on the Ta’re planet. With him gone my thoughts again turned toward fighting injustice among the stars. I left the planet by building my own ship and flew it until I came across a stranded Asguard vessel. The Asguard captain was already dead by the time I got aboard so I claimed the ship for my own and dubbed her The Shinning Star.

After some time I found some refugees for a war torn system of planets that were looking for a new home. I helped them beat off their pursuers—the Cylons—for a time and learned about administration and leadership. Some skills that had been lacking from my previous experiences. Colonel Tigh of their flagship was most helpful. It was also while I had attached myself to their fleet that I began my own organization to battle the major evil entities of the galaxy. Secretly one of my person goals was the destruction of Anubis, who was responsible for the Kull-warrior that had killed The Talon. I started with 4 divisions that I called Elchons (pronounced L- kons). Each one was a group of twelve to eighteen of the best operatives the galaxy had to offer.

Two of the Elchons were sent out specifically to gather information on and thwart certain enemies; the other two were general troubleshooting units that I would lead into direct combat when the need arose.

This small force carried the battle to the territory that was once part of a great star government. One greater then any other that had ever existed. It was called The Commonwealth and at one time it had spanned six galaxies. It had fallen and been restored, though it was now only half as great as it had once been. I worked alongside some of those responsible for restoring it and was impressed by their loyalty. Although I never met their leader himself, he still impressed me. I found more people who wanted to battle injustice in the universe and they joined my organization. Adding four more elchons to my forces. I also gained more enemies.

Through my travels my forces grew to include 50-odd elchons and more then a dozen ships of various shapes and sizes. However, there was something that drew me back to the Ta’re planet.

The goa-uld built their armies, they fought each other and their armies fell. They would start to show signs of threatening one of the worlds that I have protected. I would attack and thwart their plans. One case in ten would escape my notice and the resourceful people of the Ta’re planet’s SGC would defend themselves valiantly.

Years went by. They were not overly memorable. I was contacted and threatened by more arrogant militant group leaders then most ‘normal’ people could count. As my organization grew I allowed my second-in-command, a capable agent, Agent 03-01 Alpha (Elchon 3 agent 1, in-Elchon code name Alpha) to take over many operations. I learned to delegate. Perhaps that was my mistake.

It was in the fall, when the 52nd Elchon was commissioned that my world was destroyed again.

Anubis and I had had many encounters over the years and had both sworn death to other on our next meeting. He also learned that the Ta’re planet was under my protection. Anubis hated the Ta’re people almost as much as he hated me and set in motion a plan to destroy us both. He sent a squad of twenty Kull-warriors—super soldiers, almost completely invincible beings—to the Ta’re planet, leaving just enough information out in the open that I knew where they would be.

Anubis knew that I would have to go myself to end the threat of the Kull-warriors. He knew that no single Kull could defeat me but he was certain that twenty would be enough to take me out and then ravage the planet. It was not an unreasonable plan.

I went to the the Ta’re planet and fought the Kull-warriors in the hills of a region called Tennessee. Over the mountainous I was able to break them up into groups, ending their threat one, two, or even six at a time.

It took me about ten days to isolate and destroy them all. When I returned to The Shinning Star, the Asguard vessel I had first come across, chaos reigned. Immediately upon my entrance 20 of the 21 agents in the 52 Elchon attacked me. I was forced to fight my own men. They were no match for me. But why did they attack me?

I found the body of Agent 03-01 Alpha later that day. The rest of the 3rd Elchon was gone, as was every other Elchon that had been station abroad my flagship. The only other person alive on my ship was Agent 52-21 Beta, a weakling, but an amusement. I have yet to discover how he managed to pass his basic training. Still he was able to see and hear enough of what happened from his hiding place under his desk that I was able to discern that somehow the 52 Elchon, as well as two others, had rebelled. Somehow they had overpowered the other elchons stationed on board and then sent out a message in my name, telling the other elchons to disband. In short, over the course of one week I went from having a powerful fleet and an organization of more then 1000 agents to having one ship and one agent, a next to useless agent.

There was one glimmer that kept me going though. Before the order to disband had gone out Agent 01-11 Foxtrot, whose sole mission was to keep me one step ahead of Anubis, had done his work and very well. Anubis was trapped on one planet and all his forces with him. He would not be trapped for long, but the opportunity to remove a threat to the galaxy and exact vengeance upon him for the death of The Talon was very appealing. Yet all I had was one ship and one agent.

I knew that there must have been others who would like to see Anubis dealt with and I contacted a few that I knew of.

The Free Jaffa and I had two things in common, we did not like Anubis and we did not each other. However, fortress on the they did hesitantly agree to take the battle to Anubis’s planet of Tartarus.

Marinata Jones was another who I asked for the aid of. Much of what she does is still somewhat of a mystery but she readily agreed to lend some aid, finding several hundred renegade pilots, bounty-hunters, and hot-shot-wanna-be’s who would gladly take this chance at glory.

The wild card was Kyle Katarn. For several months a Probe 2218 #1 had been trying to convince me that he was a force to be reckoned with, telling me that the empire to which he was loyal could not be defeated. Rather suddenly he revealed himself to me as a military leader of the “New Republic”. Despite this abnormality he was willing to aid my cause and I was not being particularly picky about who I asked to help me fight.

I knew that these would not be enough. So I contacted my old teammates and asked for their aid. The Dark Knife very quickly agreed to help, as I had known he would. The Ruler of the Hawk was willing enough to help me for old times sake. The Grand Templar, the one I most feared and needed, still held the death of The Talon against me, but saw this as the best chance at avenging her and came as well. Thus my old team, my former friends, came abroad my flagship.

The day of reckoning was a bloody one. All the people I had counted came in force.

The spacers that Marinata Jones had called upon fought long and hard in the skies above the planet keeping Anubis’s few flyable ships pinned down on the ground.

Kyle Katarn’s forces quickly cut off the landing platform from the rest of Anubis’s fortress and pressed into the base. Sustaining heavy losses yet still going forward. I do not even know if these brave soldiers knew what they were fighting for but they fought as though their cause was a powerful driving force.

The Free ree Jaffa took the blow the hardest, losing most of those who engaged the Kull-warriors on the northern front of the battle. Yet not a one of them wavered. They more then anyone else had a cause to fight for there; they desired to end the oppression and slavery of their people by the goa-uld. For this they fought, for this they died. Without them the battle would surely have gone very differently.

The Grand Templar and I went after Anubis himself. As the forces of our allies began to break the armies of Anubis, he, with his personal guard of about 20 Kull-warriors and 30 jaffa, made his way to the planets stargate. The Grand Templar and I met them there. Never before and never again could there have been battle so intense. It would not be of any relevance to describe the details of that struggle to you. It will suffice to say that working together the way we had always used to, The Grand Templar and I permanently ended the reign of Anubis.

The battle was a victory; one of the most dangerous goa-uld had been destroyed. What is more, my friendships with The Ruler of the Hawk and The Grand Templar were almost restored. The two them admitted that they no longer hated me and were willing to try to rebuild our friendships, if distance permitted it. They returned to Delta Quadrant, where they believed was their place. They will continue to fight injustice in that corner of the galaxy, as will I in this corner. Now I am not alone in my fight, The Dark Knife, my best friend from the days with the team, offered to stay with me and help to rebuild my organization.

Over the time since then most of my operatives have been found again although I still do not know who was behind the destruction of my organization. I have continued to hold back the goa-uld, the Borg, and other threats to the people of this and other worlds to the best of my abilities.

My life has been a series of highpoints followed by disasters. Can you imagine what it is like to live each day knowing that there are many people who want you dead? How would you have felt if all you had worked for in the last years was suddenly taken away? What would you do if someone you cared deeply about breathed their last in your arms and you were hated by one of your best friends because of it? And if your body was taken away from you and you were made to do things that you could never do? What if you never even knew your own name? Then, then you could judge me.

You ask who I am. Surely even someone who is nameless must have something that they are called. I received my title, which is as close to name as I will ever come, from the few friends I have had. The Dark Knife and The Talon called me The Master of Disaster. They called me this because no matter where I went or what I did, disaster overtook me. Yet it cannot seem to break me. When disaster comes, I face it. And I always win.

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