Author's Note:
This is set after Season 5. So there's spoilers for all the whole show. And a few very little minor ones for "Air," the Stargate Universe pilot. Obviously this is going to be AU if or when the SGA movie comes out, possibly even before that with SGU. But at the time of this writing it's a sequel to the show.
This isn't primarily a romance story. I consider it more an action/adventure one, but there will eventually be some romantic subplots. However, I'm trying to keep at approximately the same level as the series. I'm trying to keep the story essentially to the tone and canon of the TV show. So Teyla and Kanaan are together. Rodney and Jennifer are together (although they won't be as focused on). I'm writing Ronon and Amelia as being "close". And more relevant for this fic's story, Sheppard's feelings for the women he's known in his life, primarily Teyla and Weir, will be covered; and specifically more so with the latter.
It's a primarily Sheppard-centric fic, but most of the characters will also be heavily involved.
The Price of Struggle
The worlds of the Pegasus Galaxy had seen many centuries of warfare. Since the fall of the Ancients, unbroken domination by wraith culling had created a galaxy living perpetually in fear. But when the Tau'ri ventured forth from their distant galaxy and disrupted the long cycle of death, they triggered a new conflict on a scale not seen for almost ten thousand years. Now unprecedented levels of destruction have befallen both human and wraith alike. The old order was slowly being wiped away in the vicious struggle for supremacy over dwindling resources. The wraith civil war was proving to be more and more devastating to not only the wraith but the entire galaxy. Yet all those in power continued to vie for dominance, in whatever future would be realized by the victors, in battle after increasingly brutal battle.
It was one especially populated world that was the site of one pivotal such battle. Against the infinite night of space, the lonely green planet seemed almost like the epitome of tranquility. That picturesque image was broken by a Hiveship bearing down upon the beleaguered world. Its weapons were mercilessly bombarding the formation of wraith ships that had been left to defend their territory. Wraith Darts followed up the unceasing assault by relentlessly harassing the enemy Hiveship in close quarters. A cruisers sent to escort the invaders' Hive moved in to engage the defenders' clustered flotilla at point blank range. Darts and capital ships threw caution to the wind and decimated each other unforgivingly, all in a desperate bid to gain the advantage in this battle. The disputed world they both coveted was a strategically crucial feeding ground. The wraith factions would pay a great price to posses it. Down on the planet itself the humans watched with trepidation as the battle raged across their skies, knowing that whoever triumphed, the wraith may come for them at any time. Above the planet, aboard the wraith vessels, ranks of upon ranks of wraith fought on with the unbridled rage of their species, desperate to retain their hold on a galaxy that was perhaps beginning to slip from their ancient grasp.
But for reasons none of them could yet know, their destruction had already been assured. And it was just as the attackers had finally begun to grind down the faltering defending fleet, when a greater menace suddenly appeared before them all and a grave new threat struck...