A/N: So someone said this was good, something I didn't think when I looked through it some time ago, but maybe there's more people here who'll like this. But it's probably a bit rough around the edges.
Disclaimer: Nothing here is mine except the words and the way they are put together into sentences, the new original characters and lastly part of the concept. If I did own this I wouldn't have posted it for free to allow you to read it without paying. I acknowledged the laws of physics, math and other sciences, but as they might not fit into the mechanics necessary to make this story I reserve the right to make change to them if I find it necessary. This holds true for the entire story and so I'll only write this here.
From inside his suit Major Roger Knight could see the village in front of them as he and the rest of the assault force commanded by Colonel Danell continued to press forward against the Ori lines which weakened with each step the soldiers took. When they finally pushed into the village they begun to stun and subdue both the civilians and the Ori soldiers until they reached the town square in front of the largest building in town were an army of Ori soldiers were making their stand against them, but the Tau'ri soldiers easily dispatched them as their shields absorbed the bolts from the Ori staffs and their own stunners required one impact to take out one Ori soldier.
When all of the Ori soldiers were unconscious they tied up everyone of the soldiers before they stormed the building, but there wasn't a single human being inside the doors, so they spread out and searched through the building, Roger going with the Colonel himself. Down through a hatch in the floor they found a dimly tunnel which they followed to an open door. Behind it they could see a man standing in front of a white and red altar, behind him rows of people were sitting on their knees and throughout the room chanting could be heard. Not wasting a second the Colonel kicked the door which such force that it unhinged and flew into the room into the man at the altar and crushed him on the altar moments before he stepped inside the room and stunned everyone in the room with his weapon.
Before Roger had a chance to assist the Colonel a stray stun ball impacted the altar and a prior staff which was leaned against it. Then all went white for a few seconds before Roger's eyes begun to make out the shape of the door and the rest of the tunnel while the room beyond stayed dark for a few more seconds until he forced himself into the dark room and saw what had happened to the people inside. What was left of the kneeling people was only their skeletons which had arced back with the hands holding the skulls. Closer to the altar the Colonel was standing in a simillar pose and when Roger reached the altar he could see the man who had been crushed, his skeleton being the only thing left, lying on his back with his arms spread out, in one hand he clutched the Prior staff and in the other was a book of origin.
Even before he removed the Colonel's helmet his armours sensors had marked the Colonel as dead, something the skull looking back at him confirmed when he remove the helmet of his superior. Ignoring the rest of the room Roger took a firm grip of the Colonel, checked his ammo and then made his way out of the room and back into the tunnel, when he got to the hatch he had some problems with getting the Colonel out, but then he got some help when two pair of hands grabbed the Colonel's shoulders and pulled him out of the hatch so that Roger himself could get out too.
"Sir we have lost contact with the Nightshadow and the rest of the fleet." One of the soldiers said as the trio carried the Colonel away from the hatch.
"Set up a transmitter and try to contact them on the long range frequencies." Roger ordered as they put down the Colonel on a table. "When did we lose contact with them?"
"We lost contact with the fleet just as a white flash was seen in the entire village Sir." The second soldier said as he handed the first a part of the long range communicator.
"There's no reason for us to stay here the Colonel took out target." Roger said as he took the Colonel's supplies. "We'll fall back from the village and try to contact the fleet or the SGC from there."
"Sir, shouldn't we instead fortify ourselves?" The soldier said. "We've won here today, there's no reason why we should retreat."
"We didn't come here to win, we came here to kill an enemy and free the people. The rest is up to Tomin and his faction to fix." Roger said as the first soldier returned shaking his head, no contact with the fleet nor the SGC could be made. "We're moving out now, give me a hand with the Colonel."
"Yes sir." The first said as he helped Roger with the Colonel.
"Everyone, fall back to the square outside." Roger said into his radio. "We'll be falling back to the plains outside the village so leave nothing behind."
When they final managed to drag the Colonel out of the building most of the soldiers had already gotten there and the last of them got there in under a minute. Then they begun to move at a moderate pace to make sure that those carrying others would be able to keep up, there were three soldiers who's armours had stopped working so they had to be carried out of there and then there was another four who's armour had been sending sparks flying and their shields made sure no scans would get through. After some questions Rogers was sure the light was the source of the problem, but it had mostly hit the high ranking soldiers, such as the Colonel and the other two Majors in the strike force, leaving him in charge, at least until they could get them all out of the armours.
When they begun to reach the outskirts of the village a small Ori force flanked them and surprisingly the staff blasts took out their shields in one shot and melted through their armour with another, something four of the soldiers experienced, what was even worse was that when they begun to return fire their stunner balls simply impacted their target without them falling, so they switched to the PP-90 instead and killed their attackers before moving on, carrying and dragging the wounded with them.
When they finally got far enough from the village they set up several of their portable shield generators just to be on the safe side but only one of the generators powered up for more than a few seconds as the rest depleted the ZPMs in an instant, then they begun to tend to the wounded. Sadly the nanites refused to help when they medics tried to use them to heal the wounded and to remove the armour they instead had to use the brute force and strength of their armours. Near the middle of the shield Roger was counting up the officers still in fighting shape, which was two lieutenants, one sergeant and five corporals, far to few to lead the three hundred men who were still in fighting condition.
"We're in deep shit men. We've lost all contact with the fleet as well as the SGC. On top of that the Colonel is dead. " Roger said to the officers. "As it is we're sitting ducks out here, we need a plan."
"Sir, I suggest that we take an Ori fighter and get a pair of rings." One of the corporals said, Veva she was called if Roger's memory served him right. "Then we take one of their ships and get the fuck out of here, Sir."
"There's no way in hell that will work Corporal." The sergeant said, his name was James if Roger's memory served him right. "It's too risky without proper shields and stunners."
"SG-1 took out dozen of Gua'uld motherships and at least a few Ori ships." Veva said. "They were four people, we're almost three hundred soldiers."
"But we're not SG-1." The sergeant said.
"Unless you have a better plan Sergeant the Corporal's idea will be the one we follow." Roger said.
"No Sir." The sergeant. "I don't have a better plan."
"Then you have the orders to a ring platform for us Corporal." Roger ordered. "And if you can, a suitable target to ring to wouldn't hurt."
"Yes sir." Veva said and left the group to gather up her troops for the mission.
"This won't end well Sir." The sergeant said as they officers watched Veva and her troops leave. "I'll bet my rank on it."
"Verry well, if she gets us a ring platform and a ship to capture you'll swap ranks, at least until we get back to the SGC or the fleet." Roger said. "If she fails you can have my rank for the duration of the mission."
"I didn't mean it that way Sir." The sergeant said.
"But you said it that way." Roger said in a final tone. "Now lets wait and see. I trust you will get us some proper defences in the meantime Sergeant." With those words Roger left the group and headed towards the area were the medics were doing what they could for the wounded
As he was walking Roger saw a man coming rushing towards him and his suit identified him as private Dax Clifton, science division.
"Sir, we have a small problem." Dax said as he came up to Roger.
"We have many problems right now Private." Roger said as he kept walking with Dax right next to him. "Tell me something I don't know."
"Part of our PP-90s seems to have broken down." Dax said as he stopped Roger and fired a shoot into the ground.
"That seems to be working fine to me." Roger said as he begun to lose his patience.
"But it's not." Dax said and knelled next to the bullet hole. "If it had been working as it should there would be a fire here, or embers at least. I don't know why, but the plasma chamber won't eject anything, same goes for most of our none mechanical equipment, the nanites included."
"So you're saying we have only the P-90 part of the PP-90?" Roger asked.
"Yes, exactly." Dax said as they continued on their way. "I think the reason why our suits are unaffected are because their shields protected them, but at the cost of themselves."
"Good work Dax." Roger said as they reached the medics. "See what equipment still works and bring me a list."
"Yes Sir." Dax said and hurried of to check the small amount of equipment they had.
"What can I help you with?" Roger asked the medic who was working on one of the injured soldiers.
"I don't need any help here." The medic said as she wrapped some bandages around the soldiers side. "But I think some of the other medics could use some help with removing the patient from the armours which are not responding to the opening command."
"Very well, I'll see what I can do." Roger said as he left the medic and sought out the soldiers who were still stuck inside their own armours and begun to pick apart the armours piece by piece.
A few hours as Roger and another soldier were in the process of dismantling the last of the armours and freeing its inhabitant a dull sound could be heard and it increased in volume until final a swarm of Ori fighters came over the horizon.
"Major." A voice came crackling over the radio. "We have the ring platform and some alternative means of transportation."
"Good work Veva." Roger said as he recognized the voice. "Drop it just outside shield and park the fighters on the other side."
"Yes Sir." She replied and a few minutes they flew over the shield and dropped the platform just outside before landing the fighters on the other side.
"Well then Sergeant." Roger said as he caught up with the rest of the officers who were on their way to the Ori fighters. "Looks like you were wrong."
"Not yet Sir." The sergeant said as they reached the fighters. "We still haven't captured a ship yet."
"But we will soon." Veva said as she and her men got out of the fighters and came to meet them. "They're in disarray after the loss of their leader and we've found out that at least one ship is completely unmanned at the moment, we can take it and be out of here before they know what has happened."
"Good work." Roger said. "It's your mission, so go and finish it along with the rest of the corporals and the lieutenants. Take half of the men along with you. Me and the Sergeant will lead the defense here to repel any attackers."
"Sir shouldn't one of the lieutenants lead the assault?" Veva said. "They have a higher rank after all."
"It's your plan and your mission Corporal." Roger said. "They lead these kind of assaults all the time."
"Yes Sir." Veva said with some hesitation before she signed for the others officers to follow so that they could gather up the needed soldiers.
About an hour later Veva and the rest reported that the ship was cleared and so the medics begun to move the injured to the ring platform for transport onto the ship. Just as they were reaching the platform with the first of the injured soldiers the sound of Ori fighters could be heard and before half of the injured soldiers were through they arrived and begun to bombard the shields they had set up, but thankfully they held firm around them and the injured were successfully moved through before the soldiers begun to pull back
"I'll get the ZPM and the shield generator Sir." The sergeant said and prepared to remove the ZPM and then rush back with it and the generator.
"On my mark. Three.. two... one.. mark." Roger shouted and saw the sergeant pull the ZPM and throw the generator onto his back a second after the ZPM lost power and the shield went down. From his position on the ring platform he fired at the incoming Ori fighters who had just made a pass in an attempt to keep them away, but as expected the fighters came back for another run and when the sergeant was no more than ten meters away they begun to fire on their position, but the sergeant pressed of and jumped the last three meters to the platform which Roger activated the moment he was inside.
"Everyone is on board, go go go." Roger screamed into the radio when they materialized on the ship. "And get me a medic down here."
"I'm already done for Sir." The sergeant said as Roger tried to stop the bleeding from the sergeant's lower back. "Veva. She was right after all, she deserves this." With those words he tore of the golden strips of his suit and pressed them into Roger's hand. By the time the medics arrived he was already dead.
After leaving the sergeant with the medics Roger hurried to the bridge were the rest of the officers were waiting.
"Congratulations Veva." Roger said and handed her the strips. "You've earned a field promotion."
"Thank you Sir." Veva said as she took the strips from his hand.
"Don't thank me, thank James he bet his rank on you failing, sadly he lost not only the bet but also his life." Roger said. "But we can mourn him and the others later. For now we should head for a safe location."
"Yes sir. We have put in a course to the supergate." One of the lieutenants said. "Dax thinks that he might be able to dial it."
"Sounds reasonable enough." Rogers said. "Do you know were I can find him?"
"He's down inspecting the power core." Veva said.
"Good, I need to talk to him." Roger said as he begun to walk out of the room, but turned in the doorway. "Try to see if you can get one of the engineers to tune the ship to our frequencies."
Just like Veva had said Rogers found Dax down by the power core.
"Hey, did you get me that list?" Roger asked as he stepped into the walkway.
"Yes, but I can't say for sure what works and what won't." Dax said. "Whatever that white light was it contained energy, at least enough to burn out any electrical equipment which wasn't shielded when it happened, but the energy shields themselves took quite a beating too, even the shield of this ship is severely diminished compared to normal values."
"So that's why some people got stuck in their armour?" Roger asked.
"Yes their shields must have been down when it happened." Dax said. "But as long as that white light doesn't return we should be fine with what we have."
"Good that's all I wanted to know." Roger said. "Now I need you to do something for me."
"Anything Sir." Dax said.
"I need you to connect me to the sensor network the Nightdiver placed." Roger said. "It should only transmit to the Nightdiver normally, but I'm sure you or one of your science division friends can fix that for me."
"Absolutely Sir." Dax said. "But it will take us at least a day or two to do that."
"We don't have a day, we'll be at the supergate in a few hours." Roger said.
"I'll see what I can do." Dax said as he pushed his way past Roger and ran of to gather a group to solve the problem.
When Dax was out of the room Roger walked up to the power core and looked at it for a few minutes, just taking in the beauty, before he left to see how things were with the rest of the crew. To his surprise Roger found them to be in a good mood, they had after all only been away from the fleet for less than a day, some even questioned his orders to retreat to the ship, but before he himself had time to doubt his decision Dax sought him out.
"Report." Roger ordered when he had dragged Dax with him to the bridge and the other officers.
"Well you're in luck." Dax said. "One of the guys worked on the sensor probes and have plugged us in."
"Show it on the screen." Roger ordered.
"It'll just be a minute to interface our technology with the Ori's." Dax said as he opened a panel and begun to place wires. "That goes there... that there... and lastly that there." With those words the forward view screen turned from the sight of hyperspace to a top view map of the galaxy. "Well as you can see we seem to have lost much of the network, but there are no sign of the fleet, or any other ship moving at all for that matter. But as you can see from the green dots there are at least a few suits out there transmitting their identification."
"Set a course for the closest group we'll pick them up if we can." Roger said. "And see if you can somehow determine which suits still have living people inside."
"That'll be no problem, there's plenty of diagnostics I can run for that." Dax said and pressed a few buttons which sent a signal to the sensor network which relayed the signal and the order contained within to every suit in the galaxy. "It might take a minute or two for the diagnostic to run."
"We're waiting." Roger said as the minutes ticked by.
"There we go." Dax said as the dots on the screen changed color. "Look like there's only a single group of survivors."
"That can't be Dax run it again." Roger ordered.
"There's nothing wrong with it Sir." Dax said. "Look, the sensors are only working in a fraction of the galaxy, there must be hundreds of soldiers still out there which we simply can't see on the sensors."
"So what we can't located them?" Roger said.
"Sorry sir." Dax said. "My suggestion is that we pick up those we can and return to Earth for new orders."
"I agree with Dax sir." One of the lieutenants said.
"So do I." Veva said and the rest of the officers nodded in agreement behind her.
"Well then, lets go get that group then before we make our way to Earth." Roger said.
"We should hurry, I can't say for sure, but I think they're in a hostile environment." Dax said. "Their values are decreasing as we speak."
"We can be there in half an hour." Veva said.
"Good, you have the bridge Veva, it's your capture after all." Roger said as he left the room and turned in the doorway. "I'll be leading the rescue mission myself, but I want one of you ready to drop a ring platform for us if we need it."
From the bridge Rodger hurried to gather up a group of soldiers for the rescue mission and managed to gather them at one of the rings just before they dropped out of hyperspace.
"Veva, talk to me." Roger said into the radio. "What have we got?"
"Looks like a group of Ori four motherships the fleet incapacitated, but they seems to have lost power afterwards." Veva reported. "Looks like they have spread out across the ships and if we're reading the sensors correct there are no other life signs on board any of the ships."
"Send out a message telling them that we're coming over." Roger said and turned to the group. "We're splinting up in four groups with each clearing a single ship and bringing back all personnel on board." Then he stepped into the rings with his group and ringed out.
On the other ship they ringed into an empty room, so they spread out around the rings.
"Any response from the ship we're on Veva?" Roger asked over the radio.
"Yes, they're on their way to you right now." Veva answered.
"Good." Roger said and turned to his men. "I want you to search the ship for anything of use to us, since this might be the last time we get the chance to resupply if we fail to dial the gate."
As he watched his men move out Roger took up a position on one side of the rings while he ordered one of the men to take the other side. Then he waited and a few minutes later he saw one of the soldiers coming around the corner at the far end of a corridor.
"Identify yourself." Roger ordered as the man approached the two.
"Private Harvey Howes, Fighter division." The man said as he approached. "How about yourself?"
"Major Rogers Knight, Infantry division." Roger said.
"Pleasure to meet you Major." Harvey said and turned around and shouted back down the corridor. "You can come out guys." In response a group of soldiers came around the corner and joined them.
"I suggest you take you get on our ship men." Roger said as they ran past him and into the rings which activated.
About fifteen minutes later as the oxygen levels reached dangerously low levels the first of the soldiers returned from scavenging with a bundle of staffs on one shoulder and a bag thrown over his other.
"What have you got there?" Roger asked as the man approached the rings.
"I found a shielded armoury with working staff weapons and even a Prior staff." The soldier said. "But I haven't managed to test the Prior staff. And in the bag I've got some Ori stunners."
"What use would that be to us?" Roger asked skeptically.
"Oh, sorry. Private Charlie Sudworth, Science division. I thought we might be able to fix our PP-90s with parts from these."
"Good thinking Charlie." Roger said. "Return to the ship."
"Yes Sir." Charlie said before he ringed back to their ship.
A minute after that, when their suits had sealed themselves and were using its power to keep the soldiers alive, a majority of the soldiers returned with massive sacks either thrown over their shoulders or dragging behind them.
"Might I ask what you have there?" Roger said as they approached.
"Food Sir." The closest one responded. "We though the mess wouldn't need it's supplies any more."
"Good, board the ship." Roger ordered.
"Yes Sir." The soldier said and got into the rings with his loot, closely followed by the rest.
Last of all came three soldiers dragging what had once been the central power core of the ship, now depleted, and in their belts a large amount of small bags were hanging.
"Anything to declare to customs?" Roger asked as the men approached.
"The power core of the ship for study and parts if needed." One of them said. "And some control crystals and other spare parts for our use on the ship."
"Good, lets hurry up back to the ship." Roger said and help the trio with the power core. "We don't want to waste our energy more than we have to."
Once back on the ship Roger helped remove the power core from the rings so the next group from one of the other ships could return, then he moved of to the bridge were most of the officers were trying to manage the newly arrived and all of the equipment that had been scavenged while Veva and another officer was plotting a new course to the supergate while also keeping count of who was yet to return. Just as Roger was arriving the last soldier ringed aboard and Veva activated the hyperdrive as soon as he was on board.
"Dax." Roger shouted at the man lying halfway inside one of the side consoles. "What are you doing in there? The ship is fine as it is, don't mess around with it."
"Sorry Sir." Dax said as he came crawling out. "I was just trying to unlock the control chair for the lady so she wouldn't have to control the ship with commands sent from a computer."
"Do you have any idea what you're doing Dax?" Roger said just as the power disappeared from the bridge and the ship dropped out of hyperspace. "Dax, what did you do now?"
"Sorry Sir." Dax said as the power returned three seconds later. "But I needed to bypass part of the control system. Veva, please try the chair."
"This better work Dax." Veva said as she sat down in the chair and the ship lunged forward again. "Good work Dax. I think I have full access to all the ships systems."
"Told you so." Dax said as he got out from under the console and reattached the panel on the front.
"Good work Dax." Roger said before turning to Veva. "How long until we reach the supergate?"
"Two hours at the most." Veva said.
"Good." Roger said. "I guess we can only wait then."
Almost half an hour before their anticipated arrival the ship dropped out of hyperspace, but there were nothing outside the view port.
"Don't tell me that we have lost the gate to?" Roger shouted.
"Seems like it." Dax said. "I mean it should be here but it's not, give me a minute."
"Look Sir, we're here." Veva said and brought up a map on the screen which showed the galaxy and indicated both the ships and the gates location. "And the gate is here too."
"That's not were we are Veva." Dax said and superimposed another map on the screen. "We're here, almost two degrees from the gate."
"So we have two different maps." Roger said. "Which is right?"
"Well the one I have is from the sensor network showing real time information." Dax said.
"And I have the one which is from the ships navigational computer." Veva said from the chair.
"Take us to the secondary gate site then, lets see who is right." Roger ordered.
"Yes Sir." Veva said as she swung around the ship and sent it into hyperspace.
About an hour later the once again dropped out of hyperspace, this time with the supergate in sight.
"Well looks like you were right Dax." Roger said. "Now dial it up and go through so we can get home."
"Yes Sir." Veva said as she ran Dax's dialing program and the gate activated. Once the gate was active the ship moved forward into the gate.
On the other side of the gate the ship stopped as they tried to make contact with the SGC through subspace, but after half an hour they gave up and Roger ordered the ship to jump to Earth. When they finally arrived they got the shock of their life. From their place just beyond Jupiter they could see huge amounts of debris flying around in the system and in the wake of both Earth and Mars came tails of debris, almost creating another asteroid belt.
"Approach Earth slowly." Roger ordered after a few minutes when he and most of the bridge crew had recovered from the shock.
"Yes Sir." Veva said after some hesitation.
"That's the next generation armour." Dax said as they flew past something which could have been part of a 304 bridge. "They're not supposed to even be a prototype yet."
"I can see at least four more over there." Veva said and pulled up four rings on the screen to indicate their location. "Clearly they're more than prototypes."
"Don't focus on what you can see and what you shouldn't see." Roger ordered as he saw several bodies float by without armours.
"Yes Sir." Dax said right before Veva increased their speed so that they arrived in orbit above Earth in a matter of minutes.
"Come in SGC, this is Major Roger Knight." Roger said after they opened a channel. "We are requesting permission to land."
"Sir. I'm not reading any human life signs on the planet." One of the lieutenants said. "But there's plenty of animal life signs all over the planet."
"Lieutenant, preform a deep scan of the last know location of Atlantis and Atlantia." Roger ordered.
"They seem to both be down there, but in a really bad shape." The lieutenant said. "No human life signs detected inside either but plenty of animals inside. It could be that it's flooded."
"Veva take us down into the atmosphere." Roger ordered. "Lieutenants, I want you two to get down there, take some men who have plenty of energy left in their suits, I don't want you drowning down there."
"Yes Sir." The two said as they hurried away to find the men they needed.
"Take over the sensors Dax, give me something to work with." Roger ordered.
"Well there's no energy signatures that I can see or any signs of humans on Earth at all." Dax said after looking through the data. "But from what I can see from the data when we approached Earth the supergate should work if we need it to. Other than that I don't know what to tell you."
"Start with a deep scan of the entire planet, piece by piece. All prof of human civilization can't disappeared during the night." Roger ordered. "Veva, you're in charge. The SGC still uses Cheyenne Mountain as a backup facility, there might be something there to indicate were everyone is, I'm going to check it out."
"Sir. As Dax said, there's no sign of any human civilization." Veva said.
"The facility should be shielded against even the sensors of Atlantis." Roger said. "I'll take a fighter and a ring platform so you can send me some backup once I'm there."
"Yes Sir." Veva said with some hesitation as he left.
From the bridge of the ship Roger made his way were he took a fighter which had a platform already attached to it and left the ship inside of it. Then he made his way to Cheyenne Mountain with it. Several hours later he dropped the platform and landed the fighter just outside the front door, or at least were he thought it would be there but all he saw was grass and large plains.
"I'm on site. You can begin to send through troops for a sweep of the facility." Roger said into his radio while he climbed out of the fighter.
"They'll be with you shortly." A voice came back.
"Good. Any news from the other away team?" Roger said as he approached the door.
"They have touched down on the outside of the city and are currently trying to find a way inside without flooding the entire city." The voice replied.
"Good." Roger said as the first group of soldiers arrived using the rings. "Now maintain radio silence until further notice." With those words he signaled for the newly arrived soldiers to follow him.
When all the soldiers had arrived Roger lead them up to the area were the front gate would be and after clearing away some plants and vines they managed to get through into the entrance tunnel, but instead of the cement and asphalt tunnel he was used to but instead it was the grey blue colors usually found on Atlantis or in other Ancient structures. But it had been long since he was there so he ignored it and moved on into the facility with his suits lights turned on, as they got deeper and deeper into the facility they didn't see a single sign of anyone having been there, but when they finally did, just a few levels above the gate room, it was in the form of scorch marks and bullet holes. Upon seeing the signs of battle they skipped the rest of the levels and hurried down to the twenty-eighth level were the gate room and much of the former heart of the SGC was located.
"Spread out and search this level for any information about what have happened before moving upwards." Roger ordered and ran of towards the control room, as he passed a junction he saw one of their armours lying in the ground and when he got to the control room he found more lying around, some with scorch marks and some which had cracks running around them. As he looked a bit closer at one of the scorch marks he saw he realized that he saw a skeleton through the plates.
"Men, how long would it take for a human corpse to become a skeleton?" Roger asked into the radio, no longer concerned about radio silence.
"Anything from a few months to a couple of years." A voice responded. "But with a climate like it's down here I'd say around ten months, a year tops."
"Check all armours you find for skeletons." Roger ordered over the radio while he himself removed the helmets of all six soldiers in the stairs, all revealing skeletons beneath.
"We have at least a dozen skeletons who's been killed in action near the self-destruct plus another five inside the room itself with two laying over the controls with their keys inside and turned." A voice reported over the radio.
"Plenty of skeletons on twenty-six too." Another reported shortly after as Roger was trying to start up the consoles in the control room, without success.
"I need a technician to see if they can get the consoles working in the control room." Roger said as he moved on to the briefing room and then to the general's office. There he went straight for the file cabinet in the far right corner, but when he reached it he failed to open it simply because it was locked and a sticker on the front informed him that everything inside would be incinerated should he use force on it.
It was when he looked around for the key that he saw the armour which was leaning against the chair with most of the body hidden under the wooden desk. After a quick search he found the key in a tight grip in the man's hand and in the other hand a traditional pistol, both of which he took before returning to the cabinet to search through the files inside as he could hear a technician cursing the console in the control room.
After a few minutes of searching through the cabinet he only managed to find files from before the SGC moved to Atlantis and so he gave up and returned to the control room were another technician had arrived to lend a hand.
"What have you got here?" Roger asked.
"Nothing Sir." The first answered. "It seems that the console lacks the power it needs."
"I just arrived with the power source of an Ori staff." The second said and held out a miniature of the mothership power core. "With any luck we can get it up and running long enough to diagnose the power issue."
"Good thinking." Roger said. "Radio me as soon as you get it working and then start a diagnose of the gate. I want it operational if at all possible."
"Yes Sir." The two said as Roger got out of the room.
"Come in Major." A voice was heard over the radio as Roger was looking through the general's quarters.
"This is Major Roger Knights over." He replied.
"Sir we have some problems." The voice replied. "A member of the other away team has gotten stuck under some debris and her suit is leaking oxygen faster than it can replenish it."
"Then get her out of there." Roger said.
"We can't Sir. If we move the debris the water pressure will cause large parts of the city cave in." The voice replied.
"Then raise it, that way the pressure will disappear." Roger ordered as he thought back to a lecture McKay had held about emergency measures on Atlantis. "The city is inherently buoyant so we wouldn't need power to do it either."
"Won't releasing the clamps holding it in place require power Sir?" The voice asked.
"If anyone of them is from the assault team they should be carrying breaching charges." Roger said. "If they use them on the clamps the city should rise to the surface by itself, just make sure to stay clear of it with the ship so the city doesn't crash into you."
"Yes Sir." The voice said and then there was a pause for a few seconds. "The team is moving to set the charges now."
"Good, I'll return to the ship as soon as I can." Roger said.
"Yes Sir." The voice said as Roger changed the radio to his men only.
"Listen up men." Roger said as he made his way into the staircase and begun the accent. "I'm returning to the ship to fix some things but should you need anything I will be on the radio."
As he made his way up through the staircase and out of the tunnel he could hear multiple confirmations the last of which came in a few seconds before he ringed back to the ship. Once he was on the ship he hurried back to the bridge just in time to see the first spire of Atlantis rising above the water.
"Any readings on the status of the woman." He asked as the city emerged.
"She's been holding her breath for the last hundred meters, she's lucky the suit still managed to maintain pressure on the way up." Dax reported from the console just as several of the central spires collapsed. "And luckily for the rest of the group they're on one of the piers and should be fine."
"Prepare a fighter and a platform so we can bring them back." Roger ordered and only seconds later the fighter deployed and dropped the platform before returning.
"Platform deployed." Dax reported as the fighter returned. "And away team one is returning from Atlantis in a minute."
"Good. Have another team go down to the East pier with a platform to secure it." Roger ordered. "I want them to clear and secure a large enough area for us to set up a base."
"Yes Sir." One of the corporals said and begun to bark orders into her radio.
"I'll be returning to Cheyenne Mountain to see if they have found something to explain what has happened." Roger said. "Meanwhile I want you to scan the rest of the solar system, there has to be something out there which works."
"Yes Sir." Veva said as she begun to move the ship upwards out of the atmosphere while Roger moved of the bridge.
The moment Roger returned to the mountain his radio begun to sound.
"Come in Major." One of the technicians voices came over the radio.
"This is Roger over." He said as he begun to make his way down through the base.
"Please come to the control room as soon as you can." The voice said.
"I'm on my way." Roger said as he skipped the stairs and instead dropped down the entire stairwell three floors at a time. Once on the right floor he hurried to the control room were the two technicians were sitting in front of the console which was now powered up and showing information on the screen separating them from the gate.
"What have you got for me?" Roger asked as he entered.
"Well take a look for yourself." The technician said and opened a file on the screen.
On the screen a man appeared, a long beard hanging from his face as well as large bags under his eyes.
"General's Log day four hundred and sixty-eight." The man said. "The enemy is still pressing down on our other sites and we have just received word that Atlantis has been lost. We fear that we the enemy well detect us soon and with the gate still out of function we will be shutting of the generators and cutting all contact with the rest of our forces in the hopes of hiding our presence. This is Jack O'Neill Commander of Cheyenne Mountain signing of."
Then the screen returned to showing tons of information.
"Have you managed to date the recording?" Roger asked slightly worried about who the man claimed to be.
"Yes, you won't like this one bit." One of them said. "It will be recorded in five years."
"Check it again." Roger said. "That can't be right."
"I've checked it over and over again Sir." The other said. "Both on the console and through my suit, it hasn't been recorded yet."
"So what are you saying?" Roger said skeptically. "That we've time traveled?"
"Yes Sir." The first technician said. "It's the only explanation I can think of that seems probable, either that or an alternate reality which is slightly ahead of us in time."
"That is a reasonable explanation to you?" Roger said. "That's the worst reasonable explanation I've heard in my life."
"There's been over fifteen recorded time travels as well as at least seven or eight different time lines and over twenty alternate realities were the SGC exist, it's almost certain that there's thousands of other realities too were the SGC exists." The first technician said.
"Very well then, smart asses." Roger said. "Figure out which it is then so we can return home."
"We'll do our best Sir." The first technician said.
"Now what about the gate? Can you get it to work?" Roger asked and looked out over it.
"Well there's nothing wrong with the gate as far as we can tell." The second technician said. "But it won't lock any address we try to dial."
"Are you using the console or a DHD?" Roger asked.
"The console, but it should work just like any DHD." The second technician said.
"Well I know that the SGC had problems when they didn't use a DHD in the beginning." Roger said with a sense of pride over coming up with something the eggheads couldn't. "It didn't compensate for the stellar movement or something like that."
"Well this is an Ancient console just like the one used on Atlantis so it should do perform just like a DHD." The first technician said.
"Designed by the Ancients yes, built by the Tau'ri most likely." Roger said. "Look, Atlantis has a huge amounts of systems there's no guarantee it does compensate by itself. Hell if this is an alternate reality they might not even know that you need to think about it over time. So check to see if it does or doesn't compensate."
"Major we've found something you might want to see." A voice came over the radio before any of the technicians had time to answer.
"Get going." Roger ordered the technicians before he turned around and begun to leave the room while talking into his radio. "This the Major over."
"Sir, please come to the twentieth level." The voice said.
"I'm on my way." Roger said and made his way there.
When he arrived he was faced with a large blast door and three of his men.
"What have you got for me?" Roger asked as he approached them.
"Well take a look for yourself, there's a crack in the wall over here." One of the soldiers said and lead him up to the crack.
When he leaned in he could see in through the crack and on the other side of the two meter thick wall he could see a large dark room which looked like it would belong in Atlantis or Destiny. Along the walls he could see holes which disappeared into darkness.
"Well this certainly looks interesting."Roger said as he pulled back from the wall and walked over to the other side of the door were the lock was placed. "Have you tried to open it?"
"Yes Sir." Another of the men said. "But it won't accept any identification we have."
"Then try to see if the dead have any identification you can use. They don't really have any use for them any more." Roger said as he begun to search one of the dead. "Or you could see if there's a manual for the door somewhere on the base, your call just get it open."
"Yes Sir." The soldiers said as the begun to search the rest of the corpses.
"Major, there's a transmission coming through from Atlantis." The voice of one of the technicians was heard over the radio while Roger and the soldiers were searching through all of the corpses in the base.
"Can you patch it through to the radio?" Roger asked as he pushed his hand down the throat of a skeleton.
"We can, but it will take us longer to do that than for you to get down here." The other technician said. "Or we could simply tell you what they want."
"Then tell me what they want and get started on getting a permanent connection established between our and their radio." Roger ordered as he heard one of the soldiers screaming in triumph while the huge door opened.
"Well they want to tell you that they've secured a large section of the pier along the water were they'll be setting up a base and they're preparing to send out teams to search through the rest of the pier." The technician said.
"Tell them to be careful and focus on the more important locations which could contain information about what happened." Roger said into the radio as he approached the doors with the soldiers falling in behind him. "Tell them to keep me in the loop on anything they find."
"Yes Sir." The technician said as Roger walked through the large door into the room beyond.
Inside the room he could see a hole in the floor which seemed to go down for several floors while the room itself seemed to be five floors high with a total of eight holes on each floor.
"Check for some kind of staircase to the rest of the holes." Roger ordered as he begun to inspect one of the lower holes.
When he had gotten about three meter into the tunnel his weakening outwards lights got reflected in something further ahead and when he got further in he could see the window that had created the reflection, at first glance he thought it to be some kind of isolation ward or prison but then the light fell on the console just inside the window and he realised that he was looking inside the front window of a jumper.
"Looks like we have at least one jumper here." Roger shouted to the rest as he got out of the hole. "Any luck finding a way to the higher holes?"
"Over here Sir." One of the soldiers said and waived from one of the tunnels. "Looks like there's a jumper missing from this one."
"Well then." Roger said as he walked through the hole into a staircase with steps going in both directions. "See if there's another way inside, I find it hard to believe the only way inside is if one jumper is removed and if anyone of them has power we could certainly use it so check that too."
"Yes Sir." The soldiers said as they split up with some most going upwards and some going down.
"Major come in." A voice came crackling over the radio. "This is the Atlantis away team over."
"This is the Major over." Roger answered.
"We where told you wanted to be kept in the loop on what happens here and we've found clear signs of a large scale battle inside the city." The voice said.
"Inside the city itself?" Roger asked skeptically.
"Yes it looks like an infantry battle." The voice said.
"Thank you." Roger said. "Tell the lieutenants that we have reason to believe that the white light may have transported us either through time or to an alternate reality and so I want them to have you searching for anything which may confirm or deny any of the theories."
"I'll be sure to mention that to them." The voice said.
"Good." Roger said as he heard one of his soldiers shouting for him to come. "Keep me in the loop."
"Yes Sir." The voice said as Roger made his way up the staircase.
A few levels up one of the soldiers were standing and waiting for him.
"Sir." The soldier said as Roger approached. "I think I've found a jumper which still have a decent amount of power in it."
"Good work soldier." Roger said as he stepped up to the rear of the jumper. "Lets see what you've found."
Inside the jumper Roger could see the lights turned on and some of the roof mounted panels hanging down and in the cockpit the front screen huge amounts of information scrolling by.
"Looks like you did it." Roger said as he turned around and left the jumper to see if there were more of them left with power. "Shut it down so we don't waste to much of the power which is left."
"Didn't think of that." The soldier said and was just about to step inside when the jumper went dark.
"Well we probably couldn't have used it with that little power either way." Roger said a bit disappointed. "See if there's any more."
"Yes Sir." The soldier said as he continued further up the stairs.
After a few hours they had searched through the rest of the jumpers without any sign of one with a functional power source or anything else on the base so Roger called of the search and ordered everyone to get topside and ring to to Atlantis for some much needed sleep.
As Roger himself ringed to Atlantis the two lieutenants were waiting for him.
"So what have you found here so far?" He asked as he begun to walk towards the closest tower were he saw the rest of the men going.
"We have found several armours without inhabitants." One of them said. "But no signs of any humans or any human activity. But after being submerged without a shield I guess we shouldn't expect to find any either."
"Are there any signs of danger or none human activities?" Roger asked as they entered the tower.
"Other than the risk of everything collapsing onto us we should be fairly safe on the pier." The other said.
"Good." Roger said. "The sun will be setting soon so to conserve what power we have left I think we should order all none essential personnel to get some sleep."
"I agree Sir." The other said. "We need all the power we have for exploring the city and the white light drained most of the armours far to much."
"So do I." The first said. "We should set up a schedule for when they should sleep and when they should be exploring the city."
"That might be bit much, but I get your point." Roger said. "Some of the engineers said they might use the power source from the Ori staffs, I think we should have at least some of them working on that. We might not get the power of a ZPM, but at the least we should be able to recharge some of the suits."
"A good idea sir, but I'd much rather have them working on a generator so we can have a sustainable energy source." The other said.
"Well that wouldn't hurt either, but I think we're a bit low on parts at the moment." Roger said. "But we'll let them decide which is the better choice."
"Yes Sir." The first said. "I'll make sure we have some guards posted during the night."
"Good." Roger said before the lieutenant walked away and he turned to the second. "Have we had any contact with the ship?"
"Yes, they're on their way back to Earth." The lieutenant answered. "But they couldn't find a single sign of human activity on Mars except for the changed orbit, the atmosphere isn't even breathable for any sustained time. Dax claimed that this strengthens the theory of an alternate reality since they most likely didn't have the time to fix the atmosphere there or build anything."
"Good. I want them to sleep as soon as they get here." Roger said. "They might have plenty of power on the ship but we shouldn't waste it either."
"I'll see to it that it's done, but in the end forcing the men to sleep will not solve anything." The lieutenant said.
"I know that already." Roger said as the lieutenant left and waited a few seconds before he added "And I'm already worried about it."
When he was alone Roger made his way up two stories and walked down the halls he was familiar about until he reached the quarters which were his in their own reality. When he found it it looked just like if it had been his own, completely empty except for the rock hard bed which had lost its softness and the console which sadly was both without power and badly damaged. Since it was just like his own quarters Roger his counterpart in this reality was just like him and spent most of his of time on the mainland with his wife.
But before he had time to think any further he yawned and suddenly the bed looked much more inviting than it had before, so he pushed aside all other thoughts and lay down. Barely had the back of his helmet hit the bed before he drifted of into the realm of dreams. But it wasn't a refreshing sleep and instead he woke up just as wet as if someone had thrown him into the ocean. Despite that he left the room to see what the day had to offer. What the day actually had to offer was a thunderstorm from hell but thankfully the grounding stations where doing what they should and channeled the energy into the water instead of into them, but it meant that the ship had left the atmosphere just to be on the safe side.
After grabbing some food from the dry rations they had raided from the Ori ships Roger in the makeshift mess he sought out Dax whom he'd been told had been looking for him and he found him sitting on the edge of the pier looking at the lightning which struck around the city.
"They told me that you where looking for me." Roger said as he sat down and begun to eat the dry bar.
"Yes, the lightning storm woke me up." Dax said as another blast hit the city and was channeled into the water bellow. "There's large amounts of power in every bolt you know."
"So why aren't you working on harnessing that power then?" Roger asked.
"Because of those grounding stations. As long as they work we can't take harness that energy and if they don't everyone in the city will get a lethal shock." Dax said. "We need another way of generating power."
"So what's our options then?" Roger asked. "Cause we need to have power soon, the suits are using up more than they should and we can't recharge them, then we have a number of jumpers in Cheyenne Mountain without power which would be a great help for us."
"We could try solar power, but days like this we won't get any power from them, we could do try to harness the waves, but it's to much work in my eyes, of course we could try wind power, it would probably work rather well here out on the ocean if the city itself wasn't stopping much of the wind in the area." Dax said. "Geothermal is another option but unlikely here on the ocean. We could build a nuclear reactor, but without proper materials and a uranium mine it's not safe nor probable that we can do it. So with the old generators out of the picture my personal choice would be a cold fusion generator, but sadly I'm not sure if any of us have the knowledge to build one. That leaves us with one last generator we could try to build, a Naquadah generator of even the simplest design would be able to provide enough power to at least load our suits over time and we have at two of the engineers who worked on the Mark IX so if they can recreate one of them we should have plenty of power, the only problem would be to find Naquadah but there should be large quantities of it in the self-destruct in Cheyenne Mountain. If we're lucky we might even stumble upon one in some part of the city."
"So you think we should simply keep exploring the city while also disassembling the self-destruct of Cheyenne Mountain?" Roger asked.
"Yes that's pretty much it." Dax said.
"Well what about the Ori staffs?" Roger asked. "One of the engineers thought we could use their power sources to recharge our own gear, the Ori power core for that part, you're telling me we can't use any of them? Or to maybe put a cable between the ship and the city?"
"We could give it a try, but to create an adapter between two separate species technologies isn't as easy as he or she would have you believe." Dax said.
"The engineers who powered up the console in Cheyenne Mountain managed to do it in a really short time." Roger said. "You might want to talk to them."
"I guess I should do that and if they did it that fast then there's a good chance that it's inherently compatible." Dax said. "You know if the highest ranking in the science division now. So I'm pretty much in charge of ever scientist and engineer we have."
"So I take it you're not used to leading then?" Roger said as he heard the worry in Dax voice.
"No, I'm not." Dax said.
"Don't worry you just focus on getting us power and solving any problem we face and I'll make sure that we all get out of this alive." Roger said.
"Thank you Sir." Dax said.
"Call me Roger." He said as he got up from the edge with the lightning bolts still hitting the city. "But lets get started, I need see about were to send exploration teams in the city and you need to get started on the self-destruct and the generator."
"Well then Roger I'll see to it that we have a few generators up and running as soon as I can with materials taken from the self-destruct, we might even be able to use it as it is to generate some power if we remove the part which causes it to go into overload." Dax said as he too got up from the edge. "But I think we should have Veva and the ship on the lookout for more Naquadah or broken generators which we might be able to fix."
"Sorry but I need Veva to return to the Ori galaxy as soon as possible to pick up any other survivors they can find." Roger said as the two returned to the tower.
"She can still keep an eye out for both of those things on her way and if it's as easy as your friendly engineer thinks they might as well bring back any power cores from Ori ships, working or not." Dax said.
"I'll tell her to do that then." Roger said as he parted ways with Dax and went to what he thought had looked like a command central the night before. And sure enough he found the lieutenants and some logistic personnel rescued from the Ori ships standing around a crude map of Atlantis drawn on the floor.
"Major." One of the lieutenants said as he saw him entering the room. "We're just planing were to send the exploration teams Sir."
"Good, show me what you've gotten so far." Roger said as he joined the circle around the map.
"The first away team which was sent reported that the central tower seems to be largely intact, even if there were plenty of bodies lying around with large amounts of burns and bullet holes around them. So we thought we'd try to clear a path to it so that we can see if the ZPMs simply have been removed or if they've run dry." One of the logistic personnel said while another pointed with a metal rob on the map. "Meanwhile we'll be sending out people to secure the rest of the pier while the engineers begin repairs on the city."
"Good thinking." Roger said. "But I've ordered Dax and the engineers to focus their efforts on building us a few Naquadah generators as well as on Cheyenne Mountain since they believe that there is a large quantity of Naquadah inside the self-destruct which we could use in the generators."
"But we don't have enough personnel to man Cheyenne Mountain while sending out patrols both on the pier and to the central tower." Another of the logistic personnel complained.
"But we don't need to man the entire base, we would only need to post men at the entrances to the levels they will be working on, no more than five soldiers in total." Roger said. "Then we should still have enough people to both send patrols to the control tower and the pier while Veva returns for more survivors."
"I have to advise against sending Veva back to the Ori galaxy." One of the lieutenants said. "At least not before she searches through all of the debris floating around in the system, there has to be something we can salvage out there."
"A fair point Lieutenant, but our first priority has to be to find and rescue as many survivors as we can." Roger said. "But the fighters on the Ori ships shouldn't be needed on their mission and instead they could be used to search the debris."
"They would do just fine, I will personally be leading the sweep of the debris, with your permission." The same lieutenant said. "I'll have Dax give me a list of needed materials and parts before we take of."
"Great." Roger said and looked at the other lieutenant. "I take it you will be leading the exploration team then?"
"Yes Sir. That was the plan." The lieutenant said.
"Then keep a lookout for anything we can use not just power sources, even if that's our first priority, and then call them in so we can send someone to pick it up while you press on." Roger said. "It's great if we can find something which works but you need to reach the control tower in time to get back before it gets dark, because we don't know what might come out at night and we don't want you burning more energy than needed."
"As you say Sir." The lieutenant said.
"Good, I will personally be patrolling the perimeter and helping the men set up some better protection." Roger said. "Dismissed."
With those words Roger left the room closely followed by both of the lieutenants who quickly ran of to prepare and perform their respective tasks while Roger went on a quest to find the long range communicator to reach Veva and the ship, a quest which brought him back to the same room he had just left.
"Veva, do you copy?" He said into the radio when he'd hooked up to the long range communicator.
"This is Veva over." Her voice came back.
"I've got some new orders for you." Roger said. "You're to hand over all fighters the lieutenant needs, but keep at least one, they will be sweeping the debris field in the fighters while you return through the supergate to look for more survivors. Dax also wants you to keep an eye out for any Naquadah or Ori power core you come across, working or not."
"We'll keep our eyes open for anything like that." She said. "But why not give them all of the fighters?"
"You might need one to land rings on a planet." Roger said.
"I understand Sir." She said.
"Good. I expect you back in three days for a status report." Roger said.
"We will leave as soon as the fighters have been picked up and we will return in no more than three days." She said before Roger shut of the long range communicator and made his way to the perimeter.
Along the perimeter the soldiers had put up a small barricade around a meter high made from whatever they had found lying around so Roger gave them a hand in strengthening it and adding towers while also ordering all entrances from bellow to be sealed. Doing this work he spent most of his day, sporadically hearing a call from the lieutenants exploration team who called in something of use after which Roger would send a couple of men to retrieve it. And further into the camp he could hear the soldiers and engineer working at Cheyenne Mountain ringing back to either get more tools or to bring back something of use they had found.
As the sun begun to set he could see the lieutenants exploration team coming topside outside the barricade only a few minutes before the other lieutenant returned with his eight fighters which all carried quite a large amount of debris. Then the corporal who would be in charge of the night watch relieved him so he left his post to meet with the two lieutenants in the command central.
"I want a report about what you've found." Roger said as the three entered the room and joined the logistical personnel already there. "Fighter squadron first."
"Nothing to be confirmed yet." The lieutenant said. "We need some of the engineers to look at it first. But we might have found several smaller energy sources, nothing mayor according to the sensors, but they might be enough to power the lights in this tower and along the barricade if we connect a few hundred of they, one by one they should power our suits lights and nothing else."
"Sounds like you might have found a treasure up in the sky." Roger said. "Now what have the exploration team found?"
"Well we're making progress towards the tower, a large section of the pier closest to the tower has collapsed but we're looking for a way around it, otherwise we'll have the fighter squadron deploy a ring platform for us." The other lieutenant said. "In terms of loot we got at least two Naquadah generators which should work if we only add some Naquadah to them. We also found some lab equipment and medical equipment, but we need power for any of that to work."
"Good work both of you, with the power sources from the debris it should be easier for the exploration team to get to their objective." Roger said. "And with some Naquadah from Cheyenne Mountain those reactors could give us some systems to work with."
"Is no one going to ask what we have for you?" Dax said as he entered the room.
"Didn't know you would have some results for us already Dax." Roger said. "But please tell me what you've got for us."
"Well we've followed up on using the power source from the Ori staffs to power something." Dax said. "And as long as the equipment doesn't require to much power, like our armour it should run on it for at least a few hours."
"That's great news Dax." Roger said, quite amassed at how fast he had done what was asked.
"Yes, it was actually rather easy, the Ancients and the Ori seems to have used the same power configurations and power plugs, so to say, so it works by just plugging it in." Dax said. "We hope that something similar might be possible with ZPMs and the Ori power cores but we've yet to find an output on the power core which we can use."
"You'll find it soon Dax." Roger said. "Any luck with the self-destruct?"
"Yes we've begun to disassemble it, but it will take us a few more days to get by all the security which is built specifically to stop anyone from taking it apart in a hurry." Dax said.
"Great work from you and your crew Dax." Roger said. "I hope you can spare a few engineers tomorrow who can check the Naquadah generators and take a look at the small power source that the fighter squadron found."
"Sure, I can have the ones who worked on testing Ori power in Ancient equipment do that." Dax said.
"Great." Roger said. "If there's nothing else I suggest we all get a good nights sleep and rise with the sun to get the most out of the day tomorrow."
When no one said anything more Roger left the room and made his way to his own room several stories above.
THE END
So it's a start of a brand new story which I hope will grow into something great, hopefully even better than its parent story Stargate The Million Years War.
Give me some love or hate, but mostly love since hate will be ignored.