A/N: I want to thank everyone who's been following my 'Fade to Black' story series over the last couple of months and for the very nice reviews and private messages you've been sending me, I'm extremely grateful to you all.
The following is the first story in a series of 3 or 4 that detail specific events that lead up to a very dramatic and action packed ending, featuring all our favourite characters from all three original Stargate series, introducing a new enemy, making new discoveries and travelling further across the universe than we've ever been before.
Hopefully these will be good for the new year.
I guess I need to put this here:
Warning: Character death and violence.
The Journey – Part 1
- Genocide -
A taste of things to come...
They came out of nowhere, sure, in all our years travelling through the Stargate we've encountered enemies before, the Goa'uld, Ori, Wraith, Replicators and Verdain, they were all powerful enemies who wanted to enslave or kill us but we always fought and defeated them, but this new enemy was like nothing we'd ever seen or could even imagine.
From the moment they appeared they began their rein of terror and destruction, within days hundreds of worlds were devastated, cities lay in ruins and billions of lives were lost, we tried to communicate and reason with them and find out why they were doing this, but they wouldn't listen, they didn't care about us, we were nothing to them.
Of course we didn't just sit back and do nothing, thousands of ships from hundreds of races in countless galaxies joined the fight against this new enemy, but they took out our ships like they weren't even there, even the power of those we called Ancients wasn't enough to stop them, they were unimaginably evil and as old as the universe itself, it's like they were motivated by a single thought, kill.
The fight, if you can call it that, it was pretty one sided, lasted for 8 days and in that short amount of time, everything we worked and fought so hard for all these years was wiped out, everything we loved and all that we knew was gone, those of us that survived now hide in a galaxy once teeming with life and fear for our lives knowing that they will inevitably find us.
We put together a database of all our combined knowledge and history and uploaded it in to this probe built from what little resources we had left and sent it out in to space, in the hope that one day in will be found and our species will live again, and to ensure the people that once populated the universe will never be forgotten.
My name is Dr Daniel Jackson, last known survivor of the Human race.
Four months ago
Location: Atlantis, Pegasus galaxy.
Sheppard and his team are in the briefing room with Woolsey and Dr Zelenka.
A few hours ago an off world team were exploring a planet designated M6H-592, they explored on foot in a two mile radius around the gate but found no signs of life or previous civilisations, they did detect a faint intermittent energy signal but couldn't locate the source, when they returned to Atlantis they informed Woolsey that they found no signs of life and told him about the energy signature but that they believed their scanner was just malfunctioning, Woolsey asked Zelenka to check it out.
When Zelenka examined the scanner he found it to be in perfect working order, on analysing the data he discovered that it did detect an energy signature, even though it was intermittent the data did show that the signature was quite powerful, he informed Woolsey who then called a meeting with Sheppard and his team to discuss his findings.
"So what are we talking about here, a ZPM?" asks Sheppard.
"No it doesn't match the output signature of a ZedPM." replies McKay, holding a tablet and going over Zelenka's data.
"It appears to be more powerful than a ZPM." says Zelenka, fiddling with his glasses.
"Is it something to get excited about?." asks Sheppard.
"Er..yes absolutely. It's definitely a power source." replies Zelenka.
"Let's just wait and see shall we." says McKay, not sounding confident with Zelenka's analysis as usual.
"Recommendations?." asks Woolsey.
McKay tilts down his tablet, "Well, from the data we have I'd say it's pretty far away from the gate. I say we take a Jumper and check it out." he says.
Woolsey looks at Sheppard, "Couldn't hurt to take a look." says Sheppard.
"Granted." says Woolsey, closing a folder on the table in front of him as everyone stands up and heads out of the briefing room.
Location: M6H-592
The symbols on the gate on M6H-592 light up and a vortex emerges and forms a stable wormhole, a few seconds later the Jumper flies through the gate and heads over the landscape, it's a typical planet filled with a dense forest and mountain ranges.
Sheppard activates the Jumper's display, "Alright McKay, where are we going?." he asks.
"Here." says McKay, checking the data on his tablet and pointing to a location North-West of their position on the display, "It's about 30 miles out." he adds.
"Doesn't look like it's inhabited." says Ronan, looking out of the window.
They continue flying towards the energy signature for almost an hour, they haven't see signs of a civilization on the surface, all they see is trees.
Sheppard glances over his shoulder, "So are you guys up for the game Friday night?." he asks.
"I'm in." says Ronan.
"How about you Teyla?." asks Sheppard.
"I will be spending the evening with my son." replies Teyla with a smile.
"Suit yourself." says Sheppard, "What about you McKay, you coming?." he asks.
"What?." snaps McKay.
"Are you coming to the game on Friday night?." asks Sheppard.
"What game?." asks McKay.
"The poker game." says Sheppard.
"That's a mugs game." says McKay.
"Listen you don't have to be embarrassed, if you don't know how to play, that's fine." says Sheppard, winding him up.
"I know how to play poker, alright." says McKay.
"Sure." says Ronan, sarcastically.
"It's a stupid game for mugs who want to lose all their money. It's all about math anyway, I'd probably take you for everything you've got." says McKay.
"Really." says Sheppard.
"Yes, really." replies McKay.
"Then why don't you prove it." says Sheppard.
"...oh I see, I see what you're doing. You're just egging me on and trying to get me to play aren't you, well it's not going to work buddy, I have better more important things to do than play stupid card games." sasy McKay.
"I'm not doing..." says Sheppard, who's interrupted by Teyla, "John" she says, pointing out of the window.
As the Jumper flies over a mountain top they look down into the forest below and see a large ship about a mile across and crashed in the forest, the front of the ship is buried in dirt, behind the ship is a long trail of dirt and broken trees, the ship is covered in burn marks and it's hull is severely damaged, it's clearly been in some sort of battle and crashed on the surface of the planet.
"Wohw." says McKay, stunned at the sight.
Sheppard flies the Jumper over and around the ship as everyone looks out of the window, "Are you picking up anything there McKay?." he asks.
McKay gets on his tablet, "Not getting any life signs or noticeable activity, the disturbance of the surface looks fairly recent, I'd say the ships been here for a couple of months tops." he says.
"Look at all the blast damage, it must have been one hell of a fight." says Sheppard.
"Yeah, and lost." says Ronan.
"Is this the source of the energy reading?." asks Teyla, leaning towards McKay.
"Yes this is..." says McKay, then his tablet displays something he finds concerning, "Oh no." he says.
"What?." asks Ronan.
"I thought the structure of the ship looked familiar." says McKay.
"Well what is it McKay?." asks Sheppard, getting inpatient.
"That's a Furling ship." says McKay with concern.
"Are you certain?." asks Teyla.
"Yes. Not just any Furling ship, that's Venori's, it's the one that saved us from the Verdain." says McKay.
Everyone in the Jumper remains briefly silent while they think and take in the news.
"Sheppard." says Ronan.
"I know." says Sheppard, then he turns the controls to the left away from the ship.
"Wait what, what are you doing?." asks McKay.
"I'm turning around, we're heading back." says Sheppard.
"What?!, No, no no...we should land, we...we need to check this out." says McKay.
"I have orders Rodney." says Sheppard.
McKay is confused, "Orders, what orders?." he asks.
"I have orders, if we find anything related to the Verdain we have to report it to General O'Neill immediately." explains Sheppard.
He takes the Jumper back to the gate, McKay isn't happy that they're heading back without even taking a look or that Sheppard had secret orders he didn't know about, when they get to the gate they go through back to Atlantis, once there Sheppard informs Woolsey of what they found.
Location: Stargate Command, Earth.
Daniel is casually walking down the hallway holding a note pad, he's spent the last couple of weeks on board the Alteran ship, the Lantis and going through the ships database translating as much information as he can, he came across some information that was scientific in nature and as that's not his field of expertise he's looking for Carter so she can take a look at it for him.
He walks around the corner and heads in to O'Neill's office, "Hey Jack, have you seen...OH." he says, then turns around quickly facing the other way, "Sorry, sorry." he says.
"Daniel." says O'Neill in shock, as he stands up straight from leaning over the corner of his desk.
"Oh Daniel, hi." says Carter, sliding off the desk and standing up straight when O'Neill gets up.
Carter straightens her hair and tucks in her shirt and then composes herself.
O'Neill shuffles around behind his desk, "*Cough*..Daniel...err...what's up?." asks O'Neill, blushing.
Daniel turns around and sees them both grinning and trying to pretend like nothing happened, "I was just looking for Sam." he says.
"Me, really. What do you need?." asks Carter.
"I found some data in the Lantis database and I wondered if you'd take a look." says Daniel, holding out a memory drive.
"Sure." says Carter, taking the drive and smiling, "I'll look at it right now." she says and she heads for her lab.
When Carter leaves, Daniel and O'Neill just stand in silence at opposite sides of the desk looking awkwardly at each other.
"Anything else?." asks O'Neill.
"No, no...that's..that's it." replies Daniel.
"Okay then." says O'Neill.
"Okay." says Daniel, he turns and starts walking out, then turns back around when he reaches the door, "You may want to err..." he says, pointing and wiggling his finger.
"Huh?." says O'Neill, he then looks down and sees his belt isn't fastened correctly, "Oh..right." he says.
Daniel walks out smiling and shaking his head.
The gate at the SGC activates and O'Neill is called to the control room, it's Atlantis, Woolsey has dialled in to inform O'Neill of what they found on M6H-592, it's not the news he wanted to hear, he's ordered M6H-592 off limits for the time being and no one is to be allowed anywhere near that ship until he's spoken with the President, but no doubt the hardest thing he now has to do is break the news to Alisana.