It is a quiet mid-afternoon on the Atlantis Expedition-designated planet P5X-434. Its rolling hills covered in a coat of the early morning's snowfall stand still as the oncoming sunrise reflects its beams to reveal the glossed symbols of the Dialing Home Device. A sudden energy surged the ground beneath as the inner ring of the Stargate began to rotate, and when the seventh chevron completed the dialing sequence, a violent cone of water flushed horizontally out of the Gate, shaking off the powdered snow. After the cone smoothed out into a rippling plane of water, Captain Evan Lorne emerged through with several biologists and armed military personnel following not far behind. Lorne tightens his padded gloves and proceeds with the mission objective.

"Alright, SG-7: You're following Banks and me east towards the gorge, and SG-8, you're going with Zelenka and Karlen into the north complex. Marines send the MALP back to base and guard the Gate until we get back. We'll check in with you in 8 hours."

They were approaching the complex when a mumble came from the fur-clad Zelenka:

"We should probably head back sooner." He activated his Lantean detection device. "I'm picking up foreign energy readings coming from the complex. There's no indication that they will cause any harm but we don't know what will happen if we're exposed for long time periods."

The creaking entrance opened to release the unusually warm humidity of the room into the dry winter. The armed soldiers scanned the darkness of the entrance to a hallway, while Zelenka's team cracked open what seemed to be a power conduit and worked to activate the electrical lights overhead.

The young Dr. Karlen used a computer cord to connect the power conduit to her research screen. After a few moments of flying gibberish, the screen uploaded the rigid structure of the room they were standing in, including the nine dots representing their locations. As her fingers danced across the screen, the blueprints of the room produced a more vivid image, revealing more detail. When the screen automatically zoomed out of view, it revealed that the complex actually spanned several hundred feet below the planet's surface. After this amazing discovery, she analyzed the data of the system's manifest further before calling Dr. Zelenka over.

He gazed at the screen and clicked on the side buttons for more readings only to be met with partial static. "Are the systems activated in the lower levels of the complex?"

"I can't tell, doctor" replied the timid Karlen. "The power conduit must have been damaged or rusted because most of the data on the lower levels has been compromised. We don't know what's down there; we just know there's more to this building than just this floor."

"Captain Murphy!" Zelenka called the head of SG-8 over to his position. "Dr. Karlen has just indicated that there are many more levels than what was detected by the Apollo. I would suggest that we radio Atlantis to call for another team's assistance before we proceed to the lower levels."

Captain Murphy agreed and immediately ordered the Marines to activate the Stargate to send a message to Atlantis. He then turned back to Dr. Zelenka.

"Alright, SG-9 and SG-10 are headed our way. They'll be here in about an hour" assured the Captain. "You think this was a Genii facility?"

"That's unlikely," murmured the slender Dr. Rink "seeing as how this facility isn't powered by nuclear fission reactors but rather by the planet's geothermal energy. I would say this was a Lantean research outpost if it wasn't for the rusty control panels."

Once the lights flickered to life, SG-8 followed a series of hallways accessed from the building's information database.

They were led to the control room located beyond a wall at the end of two perpendicular hallways. After the room was deemed vacant, the scientists walked in to discover a complex system of decaying wires and rusted conduit boxes. An elevated platform was located to their right and beyond a field a storage units were a set of blast doors covered in dust and cobwebs. The scientist team set up their research posts and began to analyze the structure and the one conduit box responsible for experiment data storage from this supposed Lantean outpost…

While standing guard out side the main control room of the complex, Captain Murphy heard a shuddering thump in the distance. He reached for the radio on his left shoulder.

"Gibbs: I caught a disturbance near your position. Do you see anything?" A chilling silence succeeded his call. He heard a shattering of glass, and called to the other officer. "Simon: Gibbs isn't responding to his radio - something's up in the northeast corridor."

The young mocking voice of Lt. Simon responded on the other line, "My east or your east?"

"You're hilarious, Joe," said Captain Murphy, not amused "just go check it out."

After a few moments of radio silence, Simon responded: "I got a broken lamp on the approaching hallway. But I'm not seeing any sign of Gib--"The transmission was interrupted by a loud groan and a thump.

Murphy rushed towards the intersection where he found the broken glass ridden on the ground next to the two unconscious soldiers. He turned his automatic weapon in the direction of the slight wind draft. With no doors or windows in sight, he crouched down to check Gibbs' pulse when he felt a sudden pressure wrap around his throat. After he fired a few bullets to defend himself against the unseen enemy, he experienced an intense surge of electrons through the nerves of his spinal cord. The paralyzing electric shock brought him to his knees and his body's numbness was followed by a slow slip into warm sleep…

The sound of automatic weapon fire echoed through out the hallways of the complex towards the main control room where the team of scientists turned in alarm.

When the youngest member of SG-8 poked his head out of the door to find no sign of the rest of his team, he handled his radio to attempt to reach the team leader.

"Sullivan to Captain Murphy: I'm reading gunfire. What is your current situation?" But all he and the research team heard was the chilling radio static. Lieutenant Sullivan took out the Lantean device, which had been adjusted by one of the scientists before the mission, and expanded the detection field to fit the entire complex. There were five visible dots located in the southeast corner of the complex where the scientist team was working, while four dots were situated only a few yards away from their position.

The roar of gunfire rang out once more. "Stay here!" barked the Lieutenant. Sullivan drew his Wraith stunner and sprinted down the hallway. Despite his earlier warning, the scientists quickly followed after.

When he reached the scene to find no trace of SG-8, he scanned for them using the detection device. The dots from that position still remained from his previous outlook of the complex. According to the readings, the team was right on top of his current position. He looked around trying desperately to find the other three men, when he saw a black stump protruding out from the grey stone wall. He peered closer to the stump and saw the partial letters of the Atlantis Expedition badge. Sullivan came to a conclusion, activated his device once again, and calibrated the settings to scan the density of the surrounding hallway. To his horrifying revelation, he detected a six-foot-tall human figure lodged in the depth of the wall, along with two other figures. He immediately reached for his radio and called SG-7.

"This is Lieutenant Sullivan requesting immediate assistance at 27° W 90° N at the north complex!! I've got three men down requiring medical assistance!" he smoothed his hand over the solid wall "…and deconstruction equipment!" At that moment, the four members of Zelenka's research team arrived at Sullivan's position, but immediately went silent. The lieutenant turned to see their frightful facial expressions.

"What are you doing, doctors?! The area's still compromised, get back to the control room!" But before he could bark any other orders, he saw what they were staring at. Inscribed on the opposite wall using automatic weapons fire was a two-word warning: "STAY OUT"…