The Wraith Hive ship emerged from hyperspace over a deserted world. It had once been home to one of the seven original Wraith broods who had first come into contact with the humans, acquired their genetics and transformed into their present bipedal physiology. With that change came a need for a different climate to live in, and the harsh, rugged, dry surface conditions that the old Wraith had thrived within had become undesirable. Thus the homeworlds were abandoned…along with their culling herds.

The new Wraith queen ordered her subjects to do a lifeform scan of the planet, and was pleased to confirm that it was literally overflowing with Vertarin…the first food source of the Wraith. In their absence, the spider-like creatures had multiplied and filled the planet. They now numbered in the trillions on this planet alone. A feast beyond measure awaited the Wraith…but at a cost.

When the Wraith fed on Vertarin, they would begin to absorb their genetics and transform back into what they had once been. Presently, such transformations were used as punishment and a means of resource gathering. The digger caste was a subsect of Wraith society that lived in burrows and fed off a lifeform known as the Ketarsis. It was more advanced than the Vertarin, but still vastly inferior to humans…however, it did provide the Wraith with several unique and useful abilities, and thus the diggers were used to harvest raw materials and transport them above and below ground to collection stations where human-form Wraith would claim and transport them to the appropriate locations. The diggers lived apart from the rest, placed on worlds rich in natural resources, then relocated when those resources dried up. They were used as biological mining units, lacking the intelligence for any cognitive thinking. They obeyed without question, and reproduced on their own…with a few downcasts added to their ranks when the situation warranted it.

The Vertarin-form Wraith was equally unintelligent, but physically weaker and vulnerable to nearly everything. They had lived within their biotech structures and upgraded them to the point capable of space travel, but they were societally useless, save for their queens. They alone possessed the intelligence to construct technology…while the rest were nothing more than mindless throngs.

The present day queens would not be devolving into their previous form, but a vast majority of the other Wraith castes would, on the queens' command. It was beyond distasteful, but it would allow the Wraith as a species to multiply…then when the war was won and the human food supply was stabilized, they degenerate Wraith could potentially return to their present form. It was a long shot, but if they needed to be sacrificed for the good of the Hive, they would do so willingly.

The new Wraith queen ordered the Hive ship to descend to the planet's surface. The massive vessel slowly broke from orbit and dipped down into the atmosphere. There was no rush, and such maneuvers were delicate with a vessel of this size. Slowly…slowly…the Hive decelerated and dropped down to the planet's surface. It eventually came to rest, hovering over the desert landscape with a scattering of Vertarin moving about on their stubby 6 legs beneath.

Off to the west was a large colony of the critters, and the Hive ship moved towards them. They were situated in a shallow depression where the ivitali crystals were most heavily present. Fluid would well up from beneath the surface and crystallize when it encountered the heavy, hot sunlight. The Vertarin ate the crystals, and thus flourished on the barren landscape. Set beside the depression was the remains of an ancient Wraith city, now half destroyed from the ravages of time. The Hive's sensors indicated that even more Vertarin scurried about within its confines.

When the Hive had finally cast its show over the depression and the thousands of Vertarin within, it activated its heavy collection beams and began transporting the creatures into the collection holds en mass. As it did so, swarms of darts emerged from the ship and flew down over the remains of the old city and began scooping up smaller numbers of Vertarin where they were exposed. Still other darts flew out over the desert plains and picked up more of the scattered creatures.

The Hive would remain on the planet until they had filled their holds. They would not be consuming any of them, however, nor would any of the other gatherers. This food was to be taken back to the inner core, where the largest number of Wraith slept. They would be the ones to transform…and the gatherers would gorge them until their numbers increased beyond measure. Then, they would have the strength and numbers to defeat this new/old threat.

In the mean time, the Hive would continue to sustain itself off the humans previously collected and others yet to be culled, while the expanding human farms fed the few Wraith in the other castes that were to be spared the degeneration. The gatherers had to provide for their own food, but the exchange was well worth not having to devolve.

The new Wraith queen was glad for that…because she didn't feel she had the strength to command such an unpleasant thing. She would need to grow considerably more powerful…then, and only then would she have full control. At which point, they would do whatever she required of them.

She released her hold on the ceiling of her chamber and dropped to the floor, where she snagged another purple-colored piece of fruit. She ate it slowly as her mind was elsewhere. She reveled in the numbers of Vertarin being collected. Fulfillment of one's duty provided a Wraith with a deep sense of accomplishment and purpose. It was their reason for being, and at the moment, this Wraith queen's purpose was to feed the broods. And that she would…

"Well now, isn't that an impressive sight?" Sheppard asked from the cockpit of his cloaked jumper. "Must have something important to protect."

"So it would seem," Teyla echoed beside him. "Just make sure that we are not detected. We will not survive long if we are."

"No kidding," John said as he weaved his way around a cluster of 14 cruisers. They'd entered the Wraith-held system on a new class of Alterran scout ship, under full cloak, then left it parked on the edge of the system under the care of a small Lantean crew while they slowly crept their way inward.

They chose one of the other planets with a Wraith presence to snoop on, this one on the opposite side of the star from the gas giant where the Columnar/Wraith battle had taken place. This small planet still had a large number of ships guarding it, and according to basic sensors was covered with Wraith structures.

"Where do you want to start?" John asked.

Teyla thought for a moment. "Here," she said, pointing to a seemingly random point on the heads up display…not with her finger, but with her mind.

Both John and the jumper received her coordinates and the heads up display zoomed in on the spot in question.

"It's remote, with a large track of forest to the south. We should be able to land the jumper in a safe location and travel in on foot."

"For some reason I don't think anywhere does there counts as 'safe,' but why not," he said, altering course. They put down in the closest thing they could find to a clearing within the supple vegetation. Small blue-green plants bent under the weight of the puddle jumper and were pressed into the ground beneath the cloaked ship. The two Alterrans exited through the rear hatch wearing cloaking devices of their own.

Sheppard looked back and frowned. "Might as well be a Klingon Bird of Prey in the park…"

"A what?" Teyla asked.

"Never mind. Let's just hope nobody comes walking this way," he said, getting his bearings. "After you."

Teyla walked ahead of him, visible as a thin wire outline on his armor's heads up display, but he could also feel her presence, so staying together wasn't going to be a problem. John took one look back at the 'imprint' in the vegetation and shook his invisible head. Not his best work…

The pair of Alterrans moved quickly in a smooth walk/jog through the erratic forest. Moisture was everywhere, with frequent puddles to navigate around and an assortment of tree-dwelling critters visible on their lifeform sensors…but very few remained on the ground. Apparently this planet, or this area of the planet anyway, was an arboreal ecosystem.

Four dekmas later the first of the Wraith structures became visible. It wasn't situated in a clearing, exactly. It looked like it'd been built and the forest had then been allowed to grow up around it. The Alterrans split up, with each taking an opposite track around the roughly house-sized construct. Sheppard came across a narrow path leading to and away from the Wraith 'hut' and decided to walk up and ring the doorbell, metaphorically speaking.

The 'door' turned out to be sealed shut, and looked more like a low garage door than the typical doors found on a Hive ship, or even the surface facilities that he'd raided in the past. This was distinctly different.

The rest of the hut was straight up Wraith construct, and Sheppard glanced it over a second time as he waited for Teyla to make her way around the perimeter. He felt her walk up behind him.

"Nothing else in sight," she said through their comlink.

"Alright," Sheppard said, waving his hand in front of the door control.

Nothing happened.

"It has to be able to…" Teyla began to correct him.

"Yea, yea…I know," John said, deactivating his cloaking device. He quickly swiped his hand in front of the control and the low, wide door pulled open with a jerk. He recloaked to hide both his presence and his shame. He could feel Teyla smirking.

They walked in the door and found…an empty building.

"There," Teyla said, physically pointing to the floor in what essentially was a large Wraith barn.

They both walked up to a large hole that led to a dirt tunnel angling steeply down into the ground.

"Not what I expected," Sheppard commented.

"Same here," Teyla agreed.

"Let's try that path."

Both of them backed out of the odd structure, closed the door, and ran off down the path. They found it interconnected with a number of other dirt paths, and explored many of them. They found more of the empty huts and a larger 'roadway' comprised of some firm moss coating. It was too smooth and linear to be random, which meant the Wraith had engineered it this way on purpose. A few minutes later they found out why.

"Hold up," Sheppard said, stopping mid run.

"I hear it too," Teyla said, referring to the sound of scampering feet.

"Off the road," Sheppard suggested. He took the right side, Teyla the left, and they moved back into the vegetation.

The sound grew louder and louder, but thanks to the Alterrans' enhanced hearing it took some time for the source to finally pass them on the moss road. A large lifeform, the size of a horse and looking all the world like a giant ant passed them carrying some kind of package on its back. Behind it came another, and another, and another in a long train of creatures, all of which were moving faster than the Alterrans had been jogging. Teyla stopped counting after a hundred and it was well over five minutes before the last of the train passed them by.

"Ok," Sheppard said, stepping back out onto the path. "That was weird."

"Yes it was…and what's even more disturbing is I think those things were Wraith."

"I thought you'd lost your Wraith sense?"

"I did, but did you see their mandibles."

Sheppard cringed. "Yea, I was kinda hoping I was imagining things."

"I'm pretty sure those were feeding orifices," Teyla said. "Let's see where they came from."

"Alright, but we're getting pretty far away from the jumper. Let's not take too long."

"Agreed."

Three hours later, still unable to backtrack the supply train, John and Teyla came across a larger structure…one with Wraith males wandering about, interacting with the giant ants as they offloaded their small packets into the hold of a grounded cruiser. More moved about, doing other things…and it looked like the smaller male Wraith were definitely the ones in charge.

Screaming sounds were also audible over the commotion din, and Teyla mentally nudged Sheppard in that direction. They worked their way around the edges of the open areas, making sure not to accidentally run into one of the scurrying Wraith. As they got closer to the building, they realized the noises were coming from the other side. They slipped past two Wraith males and circled around the building until they came across a thin line of the ants carrying wriggling creatures on their backs out of the building and down a nearby trail. It was the ones being carried that were making the screaming noises.

"More Wraith?" Sheppard asked.

Teyla shook her head. "Wrong color."

"How do you know there aren't brown Wraith?"

"Let's say we find out," she said, moving toward the entrance/exit to the building.

Sheppard mumbled something and followed her. The ants coming out were well spaced, but the doorway wasn't much bigger than the others they saw. One more of the ants came out and suddenly Teyla sprinted down the tunnel into the building.

Right, John thought, waiting.

He got Teyla's mental thumbs up and waited for the next ant to come out, then turned the corner and ran into the Wraith building. The tunnel was longer than he thought, so he pressed his muscles to their limit, moving across the ground faster than any human could manage. He ducked off to the left side and pressed his back against the wall while Teyla stood in a similar position on the right side. Another of the ants with a wriggling passenger scurried into view and out of the building.

They stood in a long, curving corridor that disappeared to the left and right, while the ants were cutting across it from straight ahead. Teyla headed off down the right corridor and Sheppard followed. They snooped around the interior of the building for more than ten minutes before they came upon a large holding cell. They stood on a platform that looked down into a large, arena-like circle filled with the smaller ant-like creatures. They had the same 8 legs and bulbous head, but the rest of their physiology didn't match up. Their movements were lethargic or nonexistent…until one of the Wraith ants climbed down a side ramp, grabbed one of the little things and lifted it up. The thing shrieked and moved in a flurry of twitching, kicking movements until the ant bit into it and held on.

A moment later it's movements settled down a bit and the ant released its feeding hold and tipped the thing up onto its back, using two of its 8 legs to hold it in place while it climbed up and out on its other six. Apparently the smaller creatures couldn't climb the steep ramps, because they all stayed in place.

"I did not need to see that," Sheppard commented.

"It didn't finish feeding," Teyla noted grimly.

"Snack for later?"

"Or just a means to subdue them…" Teyla said, unsure. "There's a lot more going on here than we thought."

Sheppard nodded. "Let's get back to the jumper. Then let's see how much of their movements we can track from the sky."

"Good thinking."