"Here they come," Chuck called out as he scanned his console's screen.
"Shields up," Weir called.
"Yes, ma'am."
The orange field enveloped the city, and the city's inhabitants prepared to fight.
"As soon as the hive translates, Target and open fire," Caldwell ordered Marks. "I don't want this to last long."
"Aye, sir." Major Marks replied.
"All hands, battle stations!" Caldwell tannoyed. "Prepare to Engage the enemy,"
The ship became a frenzied hub of activity, crewmen preparing for damage control and possible boarding actions.
"Sir, they're here," Marks said. Caldwell looked up and saw the ships translating. A hive with four cruisers appeared in battle formation. Almost as soon as they appeared an almost literal Wave of Wraith Darts poured from the Carriers, heading towards the lone 304 and the planet below.
"Launch fighters, bring the engines to military thrust, engaged that hive!" Caldwell ordered.
The second battle for Atlantis was about to begin.
Two 3/4 Hours later
The Nightcrawler translated near Atlantis space. There were frantic calls from aid from Daedalus, presumably, with equally garbled replies from Atlantis.
"How...ll did the...get into...ity?" Trang's comms officer picked up from the multitude of radio traffic.
Sheppard's voice suddenly could be heard, albeit broken and stilted.
"Darts flew at the shields, like last tim....slowed up before they hit, came through the shields at minimum velocity. We shot down dozens, but enough made it thro....got dozens of Wraith in th...ity..."
"Sir, Atlantis has no shields, and we can't detect any drone's firing, either," the comms officer said to Trang.
"Damn it. Nate, get ready to beam into the city with your Marines and my Black Ops. Help get the drone chair active again," Trang ordered.
"No problem, Vic," Macara's disembodied voice replied.
Trang returned his attention to the battle to their fore. The Daedalus was giving the Hive hell, but her APBW's weren't firing. She was also taking a lot of damage, the cruisers helping the Hive to pin the Earth ship down. Trang knew he had to run some interference.
"Sir, I don't understand, but we aren't detecting any Wraith communication at all. Of any sort," the comm's operator said suddenly.
"Well let's take it to them before they transmit anything dangerous," Trang smiled fiercely.
Without pause, Major Trang ordered the helmswoman to take the Nightcrawler to the fray.
Fighters launched, the Nightcrawler sailed straight for the nearest cruiser, first volley crippling its engines, before Trang directed the weakened IOA ship towards the next target.
The Wraith were in for a fight.
Macara and his company beamed down and discovered havoc.
Smoke was pouring form quarters of the city as Darts swept by, making strafing runs. A few 302's chased them, having followed the attack wave from orbit, and the City's railguns spat rounds into the sky. Wraith were fighting their way through the city to the control tower. All over, pockets of Human defenders fought bravely, but were ultimately pushed back.
Sheppard fired his P90 and urged his men back to the next make-shift barricade. The Wraith, some with regular stunners, others with these new lethal weapons, were driving them back up the tower.
"This is Sheppard, we are holed up on the stairs and require assistance!"
Even as Sheppard called, more Wraith pushed their way into the corridor and towards his stairwell...
Macara led his men forward, before making a choice that would either prove well chosen, or go badly wrong.
He left three sections, with his two GPMG's, to hold the base of the tower against any more Wraith reinforcements and led the rest up the tower.
The Marines and Black ops fought hard, clawing at the invaders, dropping entire groups in minutes of intense firefights.
The Wraith were far from useless though, using ambush tactics and their physic abilities to throw the humans off balance. Macara lost several good men as he fought his way up through the tower.
"Push on! I want at least two men firing at each Drone, but only in tight controlled bursts!" he ordered.
"You heard the major! Watch your spacing!" sergeant major Quincannon barked, his Northern Irish accent sounding fierce and guttural through the fighting, like Cuchulainn himself.
They could hear more fighting from the opposite end of a corridor they emerged on form the stairs.
"Sergeant Major, a section and one SF fire team to remain here, the rest with me!" Macara said, moving forward with F company's best men.
"Yes, sir!" Quincannon replied, before assembling his blocking force.
Macara reloaded his L85A5 before moving on, his men ready to engage once more....
Major Trang had disabled, almost destroying, one wraith cruiser before moving on to the next, Nightcrawler's fighter escorts helping scower away the Darts that came screaming to the attack like a wave of enraged hornets.
The Daedalus engaged the Hive and was doing a valiant job, but the Hive's firepower was proving a major problem. Daedalus had scored several huge hits, but right at the critical moment, her new APBW have gone offline, not to enemy weapons fire but through as yet unknown circumstances.
"What's happened?" Caldwell shouted over the noise of exploding panels.
"No idea, sir! They were working fine one minute, then the next they were down. Probably a transducer fault," Marks replied, making a rather good guess.
"Get a team down to the section with the coils, get them fixed! And prepare another nuke for beaming," Caldwell ordered.
"Yes, sir. Sir, we still can't by their jamming...." Marks said.
"I know. Beam it amongst that new wave of Darts. Make sure our fighters are nowhere near it," Caldwell replied. Marks grinned slightly.
"Yessir!"
A half dozen 302's wheeled away from the approaching mass of Dart's, hundreds of the Wraith single ships streaming towards the human fighters.
A second later, the nuke appeared amidst them. One brave Dart pilot turned to try and take it out, but the fuse was far too short. The weapon detonated, taking a massive swathe of Darts. The shockwave went out for a moment more, before fading to nothing.
The Daedalus and a handful of 302's were in the gap created a moment later, nothing between them and the Hive ships.
Major Macara's team was beginning to get bogged down, but they had almost reached Sheppard's embattled position.
The Marines and Black Ops pushed on, tossing frags round corners and using 203's and AG40's to sort out stiff pockets of resistance.
"Push on! Push on!" Macara shouted, hearing fierce fighting further along the corridor.
Sheppard and a group of city security and US Marines were pinned down behind their makeshift barricade. Sheppard had about half the number of men left to him that he started the battle with. Almost a dozen were dead outright.
The US Marine's were putting up a fearsome defence, and for every human that fell the Wraith were punished. It was a tenacious and heroic fight, but it was one the Marine's were losing through firepower and numbers.
"Hold them back! I can here firing down the corridor! We've got back up, just hold on!" Sheppard called.
"Sir, they're rushing us!" one of the Security troopers called as a cry went up.
Almost two dozen drones started running towards them, and even the tight, accurate fire of the Human weapons couldn't drop all the Wraith. Several more USMC fell.
Sheppard took a stun blast to his shoulder, and it hit him with sufficient force to drop him on his arse.
The USMC lads began to fall back into the stairwell as the Wraith pushed closer, leaving the dead and wounded as they went. They continued to harass the horde of Drones, in the hope of getting back to their comrades.
The Wraith's own advance slowed now by the weight of casualties they had suffered.
Sheppard struggled to sit up, even as the first Drone reached his barricade.
Macara noticed the drop in volume of firing and urged his men on again, driving them towards the fading sounds of guns.
"Move it!" Quincannon bellowed, the Marines and Special Forces fearing him far more than any Wraith.
Trang watched the cruiser he had been sparring with try to move around the damaged Nightcrawler, the Wraith ship firing at both the Daedalus and Nightcrawler.
"Bring us about, a quarter impulse, then hit us up to three quarters and open fire with the APBW."
"Aye, sir," his helmswoman and tactical officer both replied.
Nightcrawler lurched to the side, even the artificial gravity struggling to compensate for the sudden maneuver. The weakened stealth ship groaned under the metal stress.
"Come on, hold together," Trang muttered.
The Nightcrawler, with her enhanced mobility and engine power, tore through space behind the Wraith cruiser, rapidly overtaking it.
The commander of the Cruiser had obviously thought the Nightcrawler had been taken unawares and left stranded from the rest of the battle. The cruiser didn't open fire on the human Stealth ship until the last second, and by then it was too late.
The APBW fired, slicing down through the hull of the Wraith craft, scoring its flanks and opening several decks to space. After another second of firing, the beam having raked all the way along the cruiser, the Wraith vessel expanded outward for a moment before exploding with tremendous force.
"Good. Now, take us towards that Hive," Trang ordered.
The major noticed from his tactical display, the vast amounts of power he was using with his single APBW, but it is the only thing keeping the two human ships in the fight.
"This is Caldwell. Identify!" the hail came straight through to Trang's command chair, during a brief lull as both sides pause to regroup and attack again. The transmission was weak, and crackly, as if punching through some major interference.
Trang winced; he knew that coming to help the fight at Atlantis would reveal the IOA ship to the USAF forces engaged there. But what else could he have done? Left them to die?
"This is Major Trang of the IOA Recon ship Nightcrawler. Sorry we didn't mention anything a little sooner, but as you know we are a little busy," Trang said laconically, inwardly wincing again for the rebuke he knew was coming.
"Well, you are a sight for sore eyes, major, although I don't know what the IOA thinks it's doing building a damned...stealth ship, but that can wait. We think we have isolated the problems with the APBWs, and are ready to make an attack run on that hive. I would very much like your assistance,"
"Yes, sir. But if your beam weapons aren't on line, we are all in trouble....."
It was Caldwell's turn to wince, as consoles behind him sparked from earlier damage. "Yes, well, at least we won't be around long enough to complain if this goes wrong,"
Trang turned to his bridge crew and shouted the helm to bring her about and sail straight for the Hive. The Daedalus fell in beside her and the two ships prepared to open fire..........
In the battle scarred corridor on Atlantis, the Wraith had advanced to the fallen soldiers, some of who were starting to come round.
The first Drone fed on a struggling Marine, roaring with satisfaction as his strength returned. That first marine was dead and sucked dry when another layer of gunfire added to the close quarter combat. The Wraith leader took three in the back and fell next to a groggy Sheppard.
The Wraith drones turned to engage this new threat as they saw the forest DPMs and green berets of the RMC coming for them. Once again they made the mistake of turning their backs on their original foe, and the security forces and USMC charged out form the stairwell and fired into the Wraith, regaining their barricade.
The Wraith fell one by one, dozens of rounds used to fell them. The human soldiers didn't have it all their own way, and two Royal Marines, and another SF, were killed before the last Wraith was killed.
The Wraith leader was slowly crawling closer to Sheppard whilst the inferno of battle raged on behind them. The vile alien growled and spat, slowly raising a hand to feed and speed his regeneration. Sheppard glared defiance at the alien, but couldn't yet move strongly enough to stop it,
A single 9mm round blew the front of the wraith's face off, leaving only a tiny hole at its entrance point in the back of its skull. Splatter covered Sheppard.
"Hollow Point, technically against human rights, but hey, he's no human," an arrogant voice announced. Sheppard craned his neck to see Macara bringing his Browning HP up and firing the last of his clip at a Wraith drone who didn't realise he should be dead yet.
"Major….good timing…." Sheppard groaned, sitting up and checking he was still all there.
"Why is the shield down and the drone chair not firing?" Macara asked. "And our comms went dead as soon as we landed."
"McKay figured on a way to jam the Wraith's transmissions from here, but our own went with the bargain." Sheppard replied.
"How could the Daedalus still communicate?" Macara asked, curious now.
"I have no idea, major. If you want a technological discussion, ask McKay. As for the drones, we lost one of the generators in that area. The Wraith hit the ZPM room too; we have no idea how much damage was done,"
Macara thought for a moment. The situation wasn't good.
"Move in! Police the bodies and get the stunned or wounded men over to that doorway!" he pointed as he reloaded his pistol "Sergeant major! Get some men and strip the dead and wounded for ammo. Leave four men with the injured and prepare to move to the chair room!"
"Yes sir!" Quincannon saluted sharply before turning and bellowing at the men.
"You'll need someone with the gene," Sheppard croaked as he rose unsteadily to his feet.
Macara cocked an eyebrow. "You think you can manage?"
"Whatever a limey marine can do, I can manage fine," he growled in return, eyes narrowed.
"Very good. Sir." Macara made the 'sir' sound about as impudent as any insult would have.
"This doesn't make things even, major," Sheppard gestured to the carnage.
"You know what? I don't care! Okay, everyone, and that means Atlantis teams too, saddle up, let's move!" Macara bellowed, leading them off towards a transporter. Sheppard glared malice behind them, but checked his magi and followed on.
The Nightcrawler and Daedalus came along their approach vectors, ready to hit the Hive with their APBWs. The Wraith ship blazed blue plasma bolts in return, the shields of the Earth ships flickering as the energy hit the force fields, creating rippling waves in the undulating surfaces.
The surviving Wraith cruisers were coming about as quickly as possible, to try and save the Hive.
They didn't reach it in time.
The Earth ships sailed along the length of the gargantuan vessel, spitting APBs at it, their shots gouging great tears in the organic armor. They took several more hits each, and Nightcrawler lost her shields once more. But the damage was done.
At full military thrust, the Earth craft came apart and away from the Hive, Daedalus firing a few more shots.
The Hive didn't explode, but its power flickered and died, many sections were open to space, and the great vessel started spinning, drifting away from the planet.
Trang was about to cheer when his tactical officer gave a warning.
"Sir, we have another three ships translating. Wraith." The captain said.
Trang cursed, a moment before Caldwell's voice came across the comm.
"Major, do you read?" the transmission was still a little fuzzy.
"Yes, sir,"
"You're Special Forces, right?" Caldwell asked, his voice cold.
"Yes, sir," Trang said again, knowing the best way to get past a senior officer was a series of 'yes' and 'no' sir answers.
"Get down to the City and get the chair operational please. We'll need the drones if we are going to make it through," Caldwell said candidly.
"Yes, colonel. Right away. Good luck, sir." Trang said, leaving his seat. He directed the ADF captain at tactical to take over as the command chair, before beckoning his last few SF and heading to the armoury.
The teams moved quickly now, through corridors scarred by battle, dead humans and Wraith littered the area.
Sheppard and Macara were about to lead through to the next area, when light materialised before them, and figures appeared. The sound of Asgard beams echoed through the hallway.
Trang stood with a small group of his special forces. Macara walked over
"Shouldn't you be up there killing Hives?" Macara asked jovially. Trang grinned and took his hand.
"I'm fairly certain Caldwell can manage fine."
All the while Sheppard simply stood glaring at the two.
"Well, are we going to clear the last pockets of Wraith resistance?" Trang asked, ushering his men into the lead.
"My team will lead here major," Sheppard growled. "This is still my command."
Macara looked at the body-language of the two men and interceded.
"Colonel, maybe if major Trang's men led the operation, with you accompanying them due to your intimate knowledge of the city, and I will support with your men and my own. Trang's men are special forces, after all."
Sheppard looked Macara up and down, then nodded. "Good point. Okay, we will drive along the peer to the chair room. You major, will round up all forces in the area, get to the ZPM room before continuing on to meet us. Is that clear?"
Macara saluted sharply, palm outward "Of course, colonel."
The two forces broke apart, and Macara led the fifteen men he had left, a mix of Marines and RMC to start collecting up groups of defenders.
"Lieutenant Hardy, have any of the stunned Marines come to yet?"
There was a brief crackle on the radio, before a younger voice replied. "Yes, sir. I had the city security team take the wounded to that new doctor, Keller, and I've brought a fair mix of men down to the pier. We're trying to find you."
Macara looked at his life-signs scanner. There was a group of maybe twenty in one direction, with another, roughly equal sized group heading towards them. He didn't know who was who.
"Lieutenant, you have potential hostiles moving your way. Prepare to engage, but remember the rules of engagement, in case they are ours. I don't want any blue on blue."
"Yes sir."
Macara looked at the men he was with. Three Marines, two city security and ten more RMC. Not a fair fight for the Wraith at all, he thought.
"Move out," he out simply.