Teaser:
Despite the numerical advantage of the Wraith, the team has wondered many times why Ancient technology could not defeat tem given such powerful tools such as the Asurans and the Arcturus project. When a Wraith in position of a Zero Point Module uses it to upgrade his hive and goes rogue, the reason becomes terrifyingly obvious. As it goes a on a rampage through the Pegasus galaxy, ultimately threatening earth itself, Atlantis must race to put a stop to this threat at any cost.
Episode:
The PA announces an unscheduled off world activation in the background as Banks reports that they have an incoming transmission. It's Todd, of all people, and he's come with a warning, one of his underlings has pulled a coup d'etat and usurped him. Woolsey however asks why they should care, to which Todd replies that it's not the what, but the how they should be worried about.
Later the team is assembled in an informal manner in McKay's lab, where Sheppard is retelling the story. Apparently one of Todd's lieutenants, who they'll call Kenny, was in charge of installing a ZPM on a Hive Ship when he decided to simply keep the fruits of his work to himself, and is now flying around in a ZPM enhanced warship- and Todd wants their help to take it out before it's completed.
The team however, expresses doubts to both the trustworthiness of Todd's claims an the existence of the ZPM, it is after all, a very rare resource. McKay however, speaks up for Todd in this case, saying that the Wraith suffer from terrible power generation, and if this Hive is powered by a ZedPM, then it poses a very serious threat, whether or not it's under Todd's control. Teyla remarks that it is rather odd that he would place himself under their custody if he was playing them.
Ronon doesn't buy it; what if it's all just a big ruse and the Daedalus drops out of hyperspace to face a fully upgraded Hive Ship or a fleet of Hive Ships, if the ZPM doesn't exist?
Sheppard remarks that they don't have to go in guns blazing, they could take a jumper under cloak and investigate first- and just as an extra deterrent, they could take Todd along for the ride. This seems to satisfy Woolsey, who walks out to attend to other business.
Inside one of Atlantis' isolation rooms, Todd is patiently seated, staring into space when Woolsey comes in. Todd remarks that the city is becoming quite familiar to him, almost a retreat from his hectic daily life, it would be a shame to see it destroyed. Woolsey isn't in the mood for threats however, and he gets straight to the point: where did the ZPM come from?
Todd folds his hands in front of him as if preparing to tell a long story and begins, Woolsey will recall that he was able to acquire some in the fleeting moments before the destruction of Asuras. Which Richard says were destroyed when Shepard and his team blew up his cloning facility. But Todd reveals that they were not the only ones in his possession; how many is not important, Woolsey has no way of verifying anyways. As to why now of all times? He explains that Wraith organic technology creates certain compatibility issues, a problem he'd assigned his best to solve, however the underling turned on him and… here he is. He warns Richard that the Hive is still unfinished, and if they strike now they may destroy it, before it's systems are fully adapted and it becomes night unstoppable.
Later on the Daedalus, Shepard walks into a spartan brig where Todd's been locked away; upon which Todd immediately remarks on the ridiculousness of the crew jumpsuit he's been made to wear. Shepard however is not in the mood for banter, and remarks on all their previous dealings, where things always went south because of that one little detail Todd forgot to mention, if there's something he's left something out this time, John says, there won't be a next time.
As the Dedalus drops out of hyperspace, Shepard and his team are ready to go in a jumper, they'll report back on a secure subspace channel when their in range.
Under cloak they rocket towards the Hive ship undetected. Inside, McKay remarks that the ship is giving off enormous amounts of waste energy, through he's no sure whether it's a ZedPM from this far out. As they get closer, McKay frowns, it seems the Hive Ship is growing both a thicker and denser outer hull, if they keep it up, soon it will be all but impenetrable to energy weapons fire. Suddenly, the Hive powers weapons and fires a shot, closely missing the Jumper. Apparently their sensors have gotten better too, and Shepard begins evasive maneuvers, trying to buy them more time.
As he avoids one shot, another hits them and sends the jumper out of control, easy targets for the Wraith ship who fires and- the shots are blocked by the Deadalus who flies past decelerating.
Shepard thanks Caldwell for the save, and the balding captains orders full power to the Asgard beams, firing long streaks of energy at the Hive. Marks reports that they've done minimal damage, and Caldwell orders rail guns and missiles on target, they'll hit them with everything they've got; but he doesn't get to finish as Marks reports a lot of incoming weapons fire.
The hive fires it's guns at the Deadalus in succession, a massive staggered volley that flies through space diagonally and impacts dead on the battle cruiser's shields. On the bridge, several consoles spark as damage reports flood in from all over the ship. Caldwell yells to get them out of there but marks says they can't- the hyperdrive's offline- and the Wraith are powering weapons again.
Realizing the battle is lost, and their stranded, Caldwell orders a collision course, arming all the nukes.
Inside the jumper the team is watching the Daedalus turn towards the Hive ship with confused expressions when Caldwell's voice comes over the radio, he tells Shepard to get out of there, if he can get out of range, the Wraith won't be able to track him, and; as a storm of missiles erupts from the ship's VLS cells, he asks Shepard to tell his wife and kids…that he's sorry; it's been an honor. The channel cuts off abruptly and the team is left to stare in shock as the ship that's always been there for them, blocking that final shot, ever ready to spring them out of a tight spot, and faithful companion to Atlantis, breathes one last defiant gasp. It's final moments, before a volley of energy bolts tears it apart down the middle and scatters it's bones, illuminated by a titanic nuclear firestorm.
A shot narrowly misses the jumper and Shepard returns hastily to the controls. Gunning the throttle, the jumper races way in evasive loops while darts begin picking over the remnants of the once mighty Daedalus. Not that it'll do them any good McKay remarks, all the databases are purged automatically in this kind of situation.
A while later, the jumper is silent, the team asleep on whatever flat surfaces are available, through avoiding the area around what we realize is a small enclosed chemical toilet. Suddenly the jumper beeps an alarm. Ronon is awake instantly, years on the run having made him a light sleeper, he shakes Shepard awake and others begin waking up. As he takes a seat at the controls and brings up the HUD, the jumper's picked up a ship closing fast. As Shepard prepares for what may be his last flight, a familiar vice hails them over the radio. It's Larin, the Traveler who kidnapped Shepard some time prior to get her new Aurora class warship working. As the jumper turns, the twin hulled profile of a Traveler generation ship comes into view, opening it's hangar bay doors.
Inside Larin wrinkles her nose as the jumper door slides down. Everyone piles out of the tiny craft, taking in a breath of the comparatively fresh air aboard the generation ship. Shepard makes his way to the front and thanks Larin for the timely rescue. She says his people got worried when they didn't get any word back, so they sent her to check it out, so what happened? Shepard says he's explain on the way, they need to get to the closest Stargate as soon as possible, he has urgent information for Atlantis.
The team plus Woosley are assembled for debriefing in the conference room some time later. Shepard explains how the upgraded Hive Ship completely steamrolled the Daedalus despite not even being finished. Given that it shrugged off a full powered blast from an Asgard energy weapon, it's unlikely that other Hives will have much luck taking down their new competition. Woosley says that he's right, their already receiving reports of mass culling by a rogue Hive, shooting anyone that tries to stop it out of the sky. what he's concerned about however, is the nature of the culling, entire planets are being wiped clean of habitation with no regard to sustainability, it's as if their stocking up so to speak. McKay interrupts with rapid snaps of his fingers that signal an epiphany, the Hive has access to enormous amounts of power, with it they can boost their hyper drive by just overdosing it with power, without the need to more sophisticated energy efficient drives that they would otherwise require to cross the galactic void.
Woosley however doesn't buy it, why would they go out there when it was very possible that whatever galaxy they reached would be devoid of compatible life. McKay points out the fact that it was going over the remains of the Daedalus, it's possible that they got a very vague idea of Earth's location, not exact coordinates, but maybe the right galaxy- it's the only explanation he can come up with for the Hive's odd behavior or… more owrrienly, they might have it's exact location from he time Todd hijacked the Daedalus.
Ok, so what do they do about it asks Sheppard? The Daedalus barely scratched the thing's armor, and now it's had more time to adapt and grow, Earth's combined fleet is unlikely to score a victory over that sort of defense, they would have to wait for it to jump to Earth to use the Antarctic weapons platform by which time it could have wreaked unaccountable devastation thought Pegasus, and that might not even be enogh to destroy it.
Unfortunately the sate of the Pegasus galaxy is not something the IOA cares about unless it profits them Woosley concedes, he's already contacted Earth and their not willing to risk another 304 on a mission to take out the Hive. He will contact Earth again to appraise them of the threat of the Hive reaching the Milky Way, but he doubts they would reconsider. For the moment, Woosley agrees with them, if for no other reason it's because they don't have the means to do anything, all they can do is watch and wait for an opportunity.
Unless; McKay interjects, they have one ace up their sleeve. Atlantis is a mobile Drone Platform, it would take all three of Earth's ZPMs, but unlike the Antarctic outpost, their heavily shielded and armed at the same time, so they can take the hits, and they would have the advantage of surprise.
Woosley says he'll add that to his communiqué, in the meantime, they should get some rest, they've had a long few days and the team gets up more animatedly now that they have the prospect of action to think about, instead of standing there and waiting for something to happen.
They take their trays from the cafeteria to eat outside with McKay saying how famished he is for something not MRE when Sheppard notices Larin, with marine escort, eating at a table. Seeing him she motions for him to take a seat, asking whether the military escort was really necessary. She's not blindfolded or tied up is she? He replies.
He'd been expecting her to be gone by now, motioning for his team to take a seat at her table. She replies that she's not leaving until they tell her what's going on, Human ships are amongst the most powerful she's ever seen in action, yet she picked up debris consistent with wreckage from one near the location she picket them up at, and now her sources tell her, four Hives have been found destroyed around the galaxy, mostly around what used to be worlds with large human populations.
Wreckage? McKay asks, what sort of wreckage did she find? Not much, she admits, it looked like somebody beat them to the salvage, and not one of their of their units either she assumes since they were stranded?
Teyla says they may as well tell her, it's not like the information is of a sensitive nature, so McKay explains again. As McKay's finishing, Woolsey contacts Sheppard, the Odyssey is away on some secret mission, they don't have enough ZPMs to get the city off the ground, there's nothing they can do at the moment.
Shepard thanks Woolsey for informing him and cuts the link, digging into his food angrily.
Shepard catches Woolsey in the control room, dressed in full off world gear. The only ZPM they know of with certainty, is the one in the possession of the New Brotherhood. Richard however isn't so certain, didn't the Brotherhood go underground after they helped them retrieve the ZPM? Yes, replies Sheppard, but while it's a long shot, it beats doing nothing, he'd like permission to take his team to Degan to start looking for clues as to their whereabouts. Woolsey reluctantly gave him the go ahead and orders Chuck to dial Degan as Shepard moves to join his team on the embarkation area, but Chuck never gets to finish the dial out. The gate activates and kawooshes, the shield automatically being raised, Chuck says he's getting SG-3's IDC, should he lower the shied? They may be early muses Woolsey, but if they have an emergency, why aren't they transmitting? he tells Chuck to lower the shield anyways. After a few seconds, a metal canister rolls through the event horizon and stops in the middle of the room, the gate deactivating behind it. Fearing the worst, Shepard yells for the shield to be collapsed around the gate room, just like they did earlier when they were forced to contain the explosion of the Strargate (The Lost Tribe). However the metal canister doesn't seem to be doing anything at all, just... lying there.
McKay rushes to the control room and starts typing away at one of the laptops, he'll see if he can redirect the internal sensors, maybe they can get a clear picture of what's inside the thing… then he stops, that can't be right. He runs another sweep, checking for biological or chemicals contaminants but comes up clear, so in a rare example of reckless bravery, he goes through the shield and picks up the canister despite his team mates shouts, screwing the cap off to reveal something that silences all their protests. Taking the object fully out of it's container, he reveals a ZedPM. As Woosley orders the shield lowered, the team rush around, looking at the Ancient device more closely, he notices a unsigned note tied to it, stating, in long cursive writing "Bonne Chance". Confused, Teyla asks what it means, to which Sheppard replies that it says "good luck" in French, an Earth language that no one in Pegasus should know how to speak.
Ever practical, Ronon asks where did it come from? They have no way of knowing however, any gate in the galaxy could have been used to send it, and, McKay speculates, it may not have even come from the galaxy they know, there have been instances of using the Stargate to send things and even people through time (The Last Man).
Woolsey is not as happy to see it as the rest, he tells McKay to check it in every possible way to ascertain it isn't some sort of trap, a free ZPM is too good to be true. Muttering to the affirmative, McKay goes off, cradling the ZPM like it's some sort of mechanical child.
Perhaps now, if the ZPM checks out, Shepard says, Earth will send them the Antarctic ZPM?
A week later the Apollo jumps out of hyperspace in orbit over New Lantia. In the city, Woosley welcomes Ellis over the radio. Onboard the 304, Ellis informs him with a grin that Christmas has come early this year.
Inside the ZPM room, McKay is pacing restlessly much to Zalenka's chagrin, when a marine detail walks in with the ZPM.. Readying the final one besides the two others, already set on the pedestal; the "gift" has obviously checked out; he asks Zelenka to start the sequence.
In the control room, Woosley asks McKay if they're ready, to which he replies they need a little time to make sure everything's in order. Woosley tells him to hurry up, they've just received word: the super Hive is headed for Balora, formerly known to us as Eldred's planet, the home of the only other city ship they know of. It's likely that Kenny believes he can overcome it's defenses with his new Hive, and take it's advanced technology for himself.
And now that it's ZedPM is depleted, it's completely defenseless, McKay finished, he'll get on right away. In the meantime Woolsey asks Amelia to put him on the PA, he informs the city that they will be taking off shortly to engage the Super Hive, all non essential personnel are to evacuate to the Alpha Site, where most of their belongings have been stored by now, and all department heads are to make their way to the conference room.
In the chair room, Mckay's telling Shepard over the radio that he'll be monitoring his progress from the control room, the city's defense grid is ready, it's up to him now. Muttering that the time is long overdue for a counterattack, Shepard closes his eyes and activates the chair, beginning the city's takeoff sequence. Beginning to turn, the control chair is bathed in light as the star drive warms up, and outside, the ocean around the city starts steaming around the raised shield.
As Shepard concentrates, the star drive flares, and from a distance, Atlantis climbs into the sky, the city's drives flare and rises on a column of light, sending out a wave of water and steam racing away form it's previous location and enveloping the camera.
The Super Hive, now completely covered in a thick layer of armor, slowly approaches a blue green jewel that subtitles identify as Balora. As it inches closer to the little world, a wave of dart departs, no doubt to test it's defenses before the Hive engages.
On the planet's surface, a young boy is looking up at the stars, when he notices a few getting brighter and brighter. As they rocket across the sky, we realizes that these are energy bolts from the Hive ship, carving out huge craters all around the central tower, apparently targeting the dormant city ship's drone launchers. In the distance, the trademark whine of Dart engines becomes apparent as they race to cull the population. Their scans of the city complete. Suddenly however, they break off, their whine disappearing high into the sky. Following them with his eyes, the boy sees two particularly bright light in the sky, exchanging smaller bolts.
In orbit, Atlantis is a deadly angel glowing by the light of the moon reflecting off it's shield, trading clusters of drones for volleys of energy fire with the Hive Ship. In the control room McKay tells Shepard not to go skimping on him, swarm the bastard, their shield is down half a percent already, their wasting precious energy. Turning to his console, he tells Sheppard to aim for the dart bays, sending targeting information now…
As Atlantis pounds away at the enemy, the darts engaged in culling are finally closing and opening fire with their weak energy canons, like mosquitoes attacking a rhino. Limited as their effect is, it's completely shattered when they move to intercept some of the drones headed for their mother ship- as they rise above Atlantis' "waterline" where they're cut down by the city's railguns, whose fire is far more deadly now, apparently having been networked together.
Telling his faceless enemy to 'have a nice time in hell' Shepard lets loose with a torrent of drones, three columns rising from the city's drone launchers, breaking up and reforming to avoid the Hive's fire, which now seems of a more defensive nature, trying to vaporize as many drones as it can. As the vanguard of the done force slams through the dart bay doors, the hive's engines flare and it turns drastically- in a split second, it's pointing straight at Atlantis as it engages it's hyperdrive and disappears.
The force of the gravitic wave makes the city quake, forcing the control room staff to hang on to something, before McKay announces their Ok, nothing's broken.
In the chair room, Shepard is pissed, can Atlantis follow them? Checking the long range sensors, McKay says he's not sure…wait… yes. They've dropped out of hyperspace, while it's unlikely their hyper drive was hit, maybe a few power conduits were severed, their relatively dead in the water- for a short while anyways, before they repair it.
"So what are we waiting for?" Asks Sheppard, "go get them".
On the planet, the little boy watches bright star in the sky that's Atlantis flickers and disappears, just as the first of the debris from the battle begins reentering the atmosphere, creating a dazzling meteor shower.
The Super Hive floats basked in red light above a red giant. Debris trials off from it's hull and two of it's cruiser hooks have been torn off altogether. Urgent repairs are obviously under way when Atlantis drops out o hyperspace underneath it. Silhouetted by the red star behind it. It's shield catches the red light, wreathing the dark heart of the snowflake in a halo of fire. It is an avenging angel, a harbinger of death and retribution. Even the light in the chair room has changed from a pure white to a bloodier pink as Shepard opens a channel to the enemy ship, asking who's in charge. The Wraith commander angrily snarls to who he's speaking to. Who? Sheppard asks. He is the angel of vengeance, here to pay back the Wraith for all the pain an suffering they've caused, and he would like to know who's in charge, so he can tell them to the face, that they will die without honor, without dignity. They will be hunted down and killed like pack animals, their remains will burn in the heart of the sun beneath them till it goes dark, their end, forgotten forever, save as an emphasis to Atlantis' victory today. The Wraith snarls in fury and yells at his subordinates to open fire.
Shepard replies in kind, long columns of drones rising from he city, weaving and dodging darts and weapons fire as they streak towards the Hive ship. Hundreds, if not thousands of them create an orange firestorm that thunders towards their enemy as their yellow light mixes with the red one of the star.
The Hive shudders and heaves as the full might of Lantian war fighting technology smashes into it. On the bridge, the Wraith commander snarls at his subordinates in anger, yelling at them to get them out of there, his blind fury towards the Humans dampened by the fact that his ship was being destroyed around him.
In the control room, McKay radios Sheppard telling him that he's detecting a build up of energy, they are trying to engage their hyper drive. Shepard tells him not to worry, their not getting away this time.
As the flicker of a hyperspace windows form and collapse in front of the Wraith Hive Ship, the city's star drive flares and they begin rising rapidly towards the Wraith ship. McKay asks Sheppard what he's doping, when he doesn't respond, he yell it out, as the two ships continue to close on a collision course. Shepard frowns in concentration, the contrasting blue and pink lights from the chair and overhead lights lending him an unnatural appearance as the city closes the space between him and the enemy, tilting the city edge on to the Hive.
Just as a stable hyperspace window begins forming, Atlantis slams into the Hive, edge on into it's top; forcing it's ends up. The two titans seem to float suspended there for a second, locked in eternal battle. The organic amour begins to stretch under the stress, then with a resounding crack heard through the city because the two ships are touching, a fissure at the bottom of the Hive rips open and the entire structure snaps, allowing Atlantis to continue on her thundering course as the two halves are consumes in fire form secondary explosions, killing the Wraith commander as he bellows his rage.
Inside the city, everything is unnaturally quiet as they watch the remnants of their foe cascade all around them, things and people having been scared all about by the shock of ramming the Hive. Then suddenly somebody starts clapping, and everyone begins cheering and hugging each other in happiness. Sheppard lets out a sight on the chair and the lighting returns to normal.
McKay and Zaelenka exchange a hug before realizing what their doing and breaking it off quickly, which is all the same, as a beep from the console draws McKay, he yells at everyone n the control room to quiet down... their receiving a transmission… he'll see if he can see where it's coming from. Searching through the debris, the finds the source to be a Dart, heading towards the city. Putting it up on screen he can't help stare open mouthed. It's Todd, assumed dead with the Daedalus. The Wraith scientist seems amused by this and explains that his compartment retained pressure after the Daedalus was destroyed and he survived by going into hibernation, to be retrieved by his underling and... having gone through a few rounds of excruciating questioning before their battle allowed him to escape. Not that it will do him any good, Shepard interrupts over the radio. That's the last time people die because of his inaccurate information. On Atlantis's screen, three icons begin heading towards the dart at high speed.
Todd nervously tells John not to do anything rash now, the Hive ship was far more powerful than he could ever have suspected, the destruction of the Daedalus wasn't his fault.
Then why did he of all people survive? Asks Sheppard. It's Woolsey that steps in on Todd's behalf, saying softly that sometimes, bad things happen to good people. They need Todd, he's their only contact inside the Wraith, and his alliance stands to crumble without him, depriving them of the only wiling test subject for the retrovirus. He asks Sheppard to stand down, eying the screen as the drones approach the Dart…
In space, Todd grimaces and turns aside as the drones streak towards him- and swerve around the dart, decelerating to match speed with it. Breathing out a sight of relief, Todd says an escort really isn't needed, but it's fine as the three drones form up around the Dart.
As they clear the shield, the city's drives flare once again and it disappears into hyperspace.
Later on, McKay and Shepard are walking along a corridor in Atlantis dressed in black, and Shepard is asking why they moved again. Well, since they were already airborne, and Todd knew Atlantis's past location, they decided it was safer to disappear once again. So what are they going to name this planet? New New Lantia? Ah well, that can wait, the memorial starts in a few minutes.
Sheppard join the sting of military heads and Rodney goes over with the rest of the civilians as the military memorial begins in the Gateroom. The US flag is folded, Woolsey says his little speech, honoring the men and women of the Daedalus, and finally Lorne and Sheppard take the reef and pass it into the Stargate.
Meanwhile on some far flung desert world, Todd approaches what seems to be a wall of solid rock- and passes right through, revealing a dark cave. Moving further inside, we come up on a multitude of equipment and devices stacked on either side of the cave, evidently some sort of cache. Suddenly he stops and sniffs the air, rushing forwards he stops when he sees his secret hideaway has been ransacked, screaming his rage at the world, he gabs the nearest box and shatters it against the wall. The form fitting foam in one of the empty boxes makes it al too obvious that his last ZPM has been stolen.
Production Notes:
This episode was born out of my dislike for the weakness Atlantis demonstrated in the original Enemy At The Gate and the ridiculously convenient subspace message detailing Earth's coordinates and defenses.