"Remind you of anywhere?"

Ronon did not usually initiate random conversation so Sheppard took the question seriously. Focusing on the unusually ornate architecture, he considered for a long moment before answering. "Not really."

"Look at how the debris is arranged. Not the small stuff - the big pieces." Ronon's comment was soft and his stance more than usually wary. "The line of sight to those taller buildings."

Sheppard continued looking and for a long moment, saw nothing. Then, like a magic picture, it shifted. The largish blocks forming defensible positions with overlapping fire zones, each one with clear retreat behind cover; the near-flat rooftops with parapets, useful to snipers or observers. Old, appearing derelict but the shells were solid. "Training ground."

"Kill zone."

Sheppard pulled out the life signs detector. Four little dots - himself and Ronon here, Teyla and McKay just inside the building to his right. "Maybe you're right but it's just us right now." They started towards their team mates, Sheppard sliding the useful ancient device back into a vest pocket. "Found it yet, McKay?"

"Doctor McKay has found something. He is not sure exactly what." Teyla appeared in the doorway, her expression quietly amused.

"It's a relay device. Not unlike that necklace thing Teyla had, back when she first came to Atlantis, but rather than just transmitting a signal, it actually appears to be receiving instructions from somewhere else on this planet, through something low tech like radio."

Sheppard looked over Teyla's shoulder. McKay was standing 4 meters away, beside the far wall, investigating a dusty collection of small objects, most of which appeared to be junk. "The Ancients used radio? We haven't come across that one before."

"Like radio. Not radio but it doesn't use subspace and seems to have something to do with EM radiation so like radio." McKay carefully didn't touch it but his fingers were moving over his tablet at high speed.

"So something else is telling it to broadcast. Any hint as to what? Or where? Or even why it started chattering?"

"Doctor McKay, the amulet I had broadcast a signal to the Wraith. Is this device also doing so."

"No no no and no. It's transmitting directly and quite specifically to Atlantis. Unfortunately," McKay paused as they heard a crash from outside, some distance away. "I don't know what it's saying, what was that?"

"Stay here. Teyla, stay with him."

Ronon was already moving, uninterested in McKay's chatter. "You think we're still alone?" he snapped as Sheppard came up beside him, their pace smooth, wary but confident.

Looking at the life signs detector momentarily, Sheppard riposted effortlessly. "No one else within a hundred meters, this thing doesn't have a bigger range than that, you know that."

Twenty seconds later, they turned back down the avenue to the gate and stopped in their tracks. A wall had apparently collapsed, not all the dust was settled yet. No one was in sight but both men felt the prickling sensation of being watched.

"You still think we're alone?" Ronon paraphrased his question again, instinctively moving closer to a wall, to somewhere less exposed.

"No. Let's get back to McKay and Teyla." The city that had seemed indifferent before presented far too many places for someone to hide now and Sheppard wished he hadn't split their team up. Silence lay heavily on the ground, almost enough to smother. No insects buzzing, nothing. Ronon moved a few meters away, obviously at home in this kind of environment as even Sheppard was not. Most of his fighting hadn't been done in places like this. Deserts. Jungles. Wilderness. Primitive little villages even. But cities were never this empty on Earth and there were precious few in Pegasus, empty or populated.

Ronon would not have called himself comfortable here but in an odd way, it reminded him of Sateda. These people who built the place had obviously been fighters and the technology level (albeit long abandoned) was closer to his homeworld than most places they visited. The emptiness disturbed him. There! The smallest of visible movements, the stance unmistakable. He dove for Sheppard knocking both of them down and towards a gap between buildings – towards cover.

An instant after Ronon moved, gunfire exploded around them. This, Sheppard knew. Dodging bullets was depressingly familiar and sharp stings in his shoulder and across his buttocks was a reminder. The alleyway provided cover but not much of it and without hesitation he flung himself close to the edge and returned fire.

Silence returned for a long eleven seconds of stillness. Sheppard waited, behind him, Ronon cautiously slid the only unblocked door open.