Sarah showed her guests to the wardroom, it was furnished in polished Australian Jarra, tables, chairs and paneling on the bulkhead, at one end of the room stood an array of flags in stands, representing all the nations now involved in the Stargate program. At the immediate opposite end, was a large oil painting of an Australian DDG HMAS Perth, on the gunline, Veitnam, 1971. A long table was in the middle and the officers found their own seats. And as on all Australian warships, alcohol, in the form of a tiny glass of port was served to all, the stewards also bringing around platters of cheese, olives and crackers.
The ships com system crackled into life. "Attention on deck, flag officer aboard!"
"That his cue" Sam mused
Moments later, Admiral William MacGregor came through the door, closely followed by Captain Stewart. The admiral wasted no time, as all stood when he entered, he waved his hand casually for them to sit.
"Right then, we're all here." He said taking in the faces of each and every one of them. "Straight to business. Now my sources tell me there is a tad too much infighting, bickering and sniping going on between the various forces on Atlantis." He gazed at all of them, even his niece, and gave them a look that said, "I dare you to contradict me!"
"I'm here as fleet commander as some of you may already know, and my jurisdiction is up here." He lifted his hand for effect.
"But in that capacity, I'm also the ranking officer in theatre at the present until further notice, is that understood?"
All of them nodded or simply said "Yes sir"
"Now we have two problems, the first of which only you people here can resolve...discipline, there is no other word for it, do you understand me?"
"Yes sir, of course sir," and so on it went for about five minutes, each one giving their own interpretation of where things had broken down.
The Admiral shifted in his chair, and then slammed his hand hard down on the table. "It frakkin stops here!" He roared at them. All of them, even Sam Carter was taken by surprise. "Each one of you is held accountable by me and the IOA, for maintaining discipline, now I know you've had your hands full of late, but for God's sake, you're all professionals, the responsibility is yours, no one else's, do I make myself clear?" MacGregor said fiercely, but much more calmly.
As each one was about to reply, the ships claxon alarm sounded and then the pipe was heard.
"Action stations, action stations, this is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill. Captain to the bridge, pilots report to the hangar decks immediately."

The wardroom erupted, as chairs were pushed back. She Admiral, Sam and Sarah Connolly were first out the door. The wardroom was a quick elevator trip to the bridge, as they arrived, Sarah addressed her XO.
"What have we got Mr. Johansen?"
"Multiple contacts captain, I would say seven Wraith cruisers and a mothership, heading for this vector, eta, fourteen minutes!"

The claxons blazed as the officers flooded the bridge.
"I want all officers of ground units back on Atlantis. Prepare to defend the city. Portion out the quadrants between the respective forces."
Salutes happened, and the security officers disappeared.
"Sam, Sheppard and Lorne, we are short of pilots. Is there any chance you could pilot some of my 302's?" the question was more of a statement.
With little more than a nod, the US officers fled the bridge, heading for the carrier bays. MacGregor looked at the remaining officers, figuring out in an instant what needed to be done.
"Captain Stewart, prepare to beam back to the Lorcan," MacGregor said.
"Aye, sir," the Scotsman was suddenly chirpy, the thought of a fight foremost in his thoughts. A moment later, with the familiar sound and faint smell of ozone, Stewart was gone.
"Commander Connolly, launch all fighters. And launch as many 401's as you have aboard, please. Nows the time to test them out."
"Yes, sir. Lieutenant-commander, alert the carrier section and have all the birds fired up." Connolly relayed quickly.
The bridge was a den of motion, ratings and officers dashing to action stations.
"Major Trang, you will kindly beam down to Atlantis and then gate to Px5-876 and meet up with your Nightcrawler. Macara, head to Lorcan and be ready to repel boarders. You know what the Wraith want, and that isn't a bunch of dead humans."
"Of course, sir. Would you like some of my Marines to assist in defence. I noticed your compliment was rather depleted." Macara asked in return.
"Whatever you can spare major. Commander, beam him to Lorcan"

Macara appeared on the Lorcan.
"Nate, Hailey needs a gunner. Go to it, please." Stewart said even as Macara materialised.
"Sir? What about ship defence?" Macara was shocked.
"My Captain of Marines will handle it. I want one of ours aboard the 410's. I'll not have a bunch of foreigners handling my fighter-screen alone." he said sharply. "No matter how competent they may be."
"Of course, sir." and again, Macara found himself running through the narrow confines of a ship.

The two vessels, Fraiser and Lorcan, moved away from the planet to keep Atlantis as far from the fighting as possible.
A cloud of fighters and tornadoes flitted about the larger ships. Fraiser was half the length of Lorcan, yet bristled with as much firepower. The sleek lines of Lorcan matched against the stout power of Fraiser.

"Yes, colonel, I understand," Teyla said through the comms. "We have major Valenski in the drone chair, and Major Trang has just gone through the gate. Colonel Haab is now organising the defenders."
"Very good, Teyla. Have the city cloaked, but ready to jump to shield at any moment." Carter's voice came back.
"Of course, colonel." Teyla replied. "Good luck to you all,"

Stewart stood on Lorcan, watching the blips come into sight.
"Activate subspace jamming," he spoke to his comms lieutenant. "They know we are here, but if we are lucky they haven't told anyone else about us." he said, more to himself than any of his subordinates.
The ship was prepared for the fight. He had five Marine fireteams aboard, each leading a section sized unit of Navy Armsmen(those Ratings who took advanced weapon handling courses).They should be safe from any potential borders.
His Sixteen 302E's and Hailey's flight of 401's were already launched; he could see the numerous dots of the fighter screen on his tactical display.
The enemy were drawing nearer.
"We have positive ID, sir," Lieutenant Commander Grant called out. "We have...seven cruisers and one...no, TWO Hive ships!" the LC looked round, a little fear in his eyes.
"Bring the Beam weapons up to full power. What's the status on B-turret?" the captain asked of the temperamental beam turret that chose which days it wanted to work properly.
"Aye, sir"
"XO, how do things look out their?" Stewart said as he hit a different button on his command chair.
Hesk was sitting in one of the 302E's. Despite his senior position aboard ship, the commander was ex-FAA and there was nothing Stewart could do to stop him joining the fighter-screen.
"All systems are green. A flight and B flight are ready to engage."
Stewart watched the tactical display as the Wraith ships closed to fight. the first Darts were being launched, dozens upon dozens of the things.
"All clear to engage, 104th Squadron. Good hunting," Stewart replied. "grant, open fire on the first hive with the beam weapons, before the damn things decide to break again,
"Aye, sir."
The Lorcan and crew were engaging the Wraith in battle properly for the first time. They were in for a hell of a fight.

"Fire plasma cannons, captain. Engage the same Hive ship as the Lorcan. We need to take them out first," MacGregor said as he gripped his seat. Two more Wraith blasts had his the fore shields, and although they were holding, the Fraiser took the dunts.
"Aye, sir." Connolly replied. She seemed to take no offence to the Admiral taking over, despite this being her ship. He was competent and knew his job well.
"Brace for impact!" the XO called again, and Connolly gripped the console tightly

The two Earth Ships moved into the fire, moving target being better than stationary ones. Blobs of Asgard plasma shot from the Fraiser, causing explosions and hull breaches all over the Hive. Return shots impacted on the shields, their dissipation causing ripples along the bubble.
Lorcan fired her beam weapons again, shearing through the Hive end to end.
This impact caused a rapid loss in atmosphere, causing the massive ship to spin in the vacuum.
Railguns spat more shots into the Hive even as it tumbled away towards one of the moons around the planet.
All around, the two opposing fighter screens attacked each other with unrestrained fury. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Earth fighters had shields and maneuverability at their sides.

"Leave that lobster, all Railguns should be firing at Darts!" Stewart barked. "We need to support the fighters."
"Aye, sir."
"Grant, target that second Hive. Bring it down."
"Aye, sir!" Grant smiled evilly.

As the Lorcan was about to fire, the Wraith ships, who had been flanking the two human ships, all targeted the British ship. They judged it, through size and weaponry, to be the bigger threat.
More than a dozen shots hit the Lorcan, caused shield fluctuations along the whole length of the ship. In more than one place, ship started venting oxygen.
The hive continued to ignore the Fraiser. That was a mistake.

"Bring us around the back of that Cruiser, please, helm. Have all starboard weapons fire on her engines." MacGregor said quickly, an edge of expectations creeping over him.
Another explosion rocked the Fraiser as one of the Cruisers directed some fire, but the Fraiser sailed on regardless
The target ship slowly turned to face the oncoming threat, but it was far too late. Fraiser's forecastle and flanks erupted with Asgard plasma rounds, and the Cruiser took the impact of almost every shot. For a few moments it seemed it might escape the fusillade intact, but after one particularly lucky hit from the Australian ship, the hull bulked in the middle and the Cruiser folded up before exploding outward.
"Five more cruisers to go, then," MacGregor muttered.

The 302E's of 104th "Dal Raida" Squadron were reaping a fearsome tally, along with the fighters from the Fraiser.
An Australian 302 erupted in a fireball as three Darts bracketed it. The Darts veered away from reprisal by Fraiser's railguns, only for one of the Australian 401's to wipe them from existence in a flurry of missiles.
"Major, two Darts, coming in from the rear!" Hailey's voiced called from the cockpit of the 401. "Sort them out, please."
"Yes, ma'am" Macara grinned. He sat at the control console of the dorsal railgun turret, sweeping it back and forth for target. the two Darts came into his line of sight, and with a slight depression of the thumb trigger on the joysticks, the Darts stopped being Darts and quickly resembled floating piles of scrap.
"Notch two more for the major," the Australian co-pilot, lieutenant Simpson laughed.
Macara swung the weapon around to the port side and drilled some rounds into a Wraith transport. It flared for a moment before the vacuum stole every trace of its explosive death, leaving the burnt hulk drifting into the flank of a nearby cruiser.
The rest of Hailey's flight came around on one of the Cruisers, whose fighter support was nowhere to be seen.
"Lead to 'Digger' Flight. Come around on heading; two-zero mark. We're making an attack run on that thing."
Hailey heard a round of affirmatives.
The four ships streaked towards their victim, point defence turrets firing at any Dart stupid enough to come within range. Macara had to hand it to these Aussies; they built a good strike-bomber.
The Dart protection of the cruiser, thought to be long gone, appeared as the 401's were entering weapons range.
"It was a bloody trap!" Simpson cried. The EWO, a Japanese man named Fujiwara, cursed in his own language.
The Wave of Darts before them was large; not so many that the four Tornadoes couldn't defeat them, but large enough to use up all their missiles in the process.
"Need any help, Digger flight?" a posh English accent sparked through the radio.
"I wouldn't mind." Hailey stated quickly.
"Not a problem lead. you have Blue flight on your wings. Let's take it to them," the Squadron leader of Dal Raida replied.
Missiles streaked by the flight of 401's, and Darts exploded all around. The 302E's broke away as they reached the Dart line, drawing numerous Wraith fighters away. The 401's had an almost free run.
"off load missiles on my mark," Hailey ordered. "Railguns fire on the main target,"
Macara heard the second command and brought the turret around. He began emptying the drum into the large cruiser, which itself was turning it's guns to fire on the 401's.
"Now!" Hailey called.
The powerful warheads sped through space, only a few being destroyed en route.
The rest impacted as the 401's flew by.
Explosions erupted along the flanks of the Wraith ship, striking interior secondary explosions. Whatever Hailey's flight had hit, they had done well. The Cruiser vented atmo, it's power flickered for a moment before failing and it just drifted away from the combat into the void.
Hailey was about to cheer when her ship lurched to the side. A massive shadow fell over them as the Hive passed by. They were being drawn inside.
"Controls won't respond!" she called.
"Wraith tractor-lock has entered our ops system!" Simpson called. "They're pulling us in!"
"How the hell are they doing that?" Macara radioed even as he emptied the railgun into the side of the Hive, causing little damage.
"They're inside our computer. They've over-ridden flight controls!" Fujiwara called from his console.
"There's nothing we can do," he said, eyes wide with fear.

The Wraith transport landed in the hangar bay a moment before Lorcan's shields flared back into life. Alarms wailed as the Wraith began to sweep through the corridors.
Almost thirty of the aliens were aboard, splitting into groups and moving quickly to the most important areas, almost as if they knew where they were going.
Captain Brady led his fireteam, assisted by nine Armsmen, against the first group they encountered. The six Wraith were taken by surprise, and the Brits took them out with abandon.
"All teams to carrier deck-3, port side. There are numerous Wraith aboard!" Brady radioed in.
His team engaged another group of Wraith, one that was much more cautious and led by a Wraith major. the two groups bedded down and began a withering fusillade.
Brady's unit was suddenly hit by stunner beams from behind as more Wraith joined the fight. Two marines and three ratings were able to fall back and continue firing, but Brady was partially stunned with the other men.
The Wraith advanced past them, blocking the corridor from assistance. The first Drones began to feed, draining the other marine and ratings in moments.
Brady was dragged to a sitting position. He raised his hand to his ear, before the wraith hit him, sending him reeling. Even as the Wraith major clamped it's hand on the Marine captain, Brady spoke out.
"Bridge, lock onto my transponder and beam every life sign within ten feet outside..." he struggled. The Wraith stopped feeding as he realised what Brady had done with his hand, activating the 'speak' button on his headpiece.
"Sir, what..."
"Now, that's an order..."
The twelve Wraith with the major, and the courageous Brady all vanished, before appearing outside where the cold and vacuum killed them in seconds. The surviving humans moved in and finished the surprised Drones, before policing the bodies and desperately calling for Brady to be beamed back.

The rest of the Wraith were hunted down quickly, but not before accounting for twelve ratings and seven Marines, including Brady's group. It would have been much worse if the Wraith utilised lethal side arms.
Lorcan came about, firing her beam turrets at the Cruisers who were running interference for the Hive ship. She had lost five railgun turrets, two missile launchers were damaged and she was limited to half impulse, but Stewart wasn't giving up. The beams sliced through a cruiser, completely destroying it, before the warning claxon rang again.
"Failure in the turrets, sir." Grant said. "We're down to missiles."
Stewart swore long and loud. "All missiles, target that Hive!"

Fraiser was no longer faring well either. The three remaining cruisers were pounding her shields, several shots getting through and causing large areas of damage. She had been boarded multiple times.
"Admiral, we have engine failure! We're dead in the water!" the helmsman cried.
"Shields at ten percent. We can't hold on, sir!" Connolly said, looking up from the tactical console.
MacGregor swore as Stewart just had. "Prepare to beam the crew to Lorcan, and..."
"Sir, we have another contact!" Commander Connolly shouted suddenly. "We have IDC, it's the Nightcrawler!"
"About time," MacGregor sighed in relief.

Nightcrawler shot out of hyperspace, launching fighters and it's Jumper compliment a moments later. It's single beam turret sliced through the nearest cruiser, and Trang moved his stealth ship to engage the Hive.
Before he could do anything to it, the remaining Wraith ships turned and jumped to hyperspace.

"What the hell?" MacGregor breathed. It took him only a moment to regain his composure. "Finish off the Darts, and then take stock for me!" he ordered.
"Sorry I'm late, sir. We had the engines at max." Trang's voice came across the comms.
"Better late than never. You can help tidy the party away."
"Yes, sir."
MacGregor looked proudly at his crew. First blood.
"Well done everyone. Well done." he said, and they all cheered him.
He shared a look with the ships captain. That was damned close

Little more than an hour later, they had the butchers bill.
Eighteen dead sailors, seven RMC, three Australian 302's, one British 302E both with crew, and two 410's. The latter had proven their abilities in combat beyond a doubt.
There was one problem. One of the 410's was just, gone
"Sir, there is no transponder or wreckage. Just nothing." Stewart reported.
"We're not picking anything up either," Trang said.
MacGregor sighed. What had happened to Hailey's bird?
"We can only assume they have been destroyed, or captured. Trang, we can't search yet, we need serious repairs. Can you follow the Hyperspace signature?"
"I'll see what I can do, admiral, but any enhancements will take time. I will report in after we're done. Out"
"Gram, can you handle patrolling the system with your engines?"
"No problem, we have half impulse. I'll set out just now and let you know what we find"
"Thanks, Gram. I don't want anyone left behind."
"Sir,"
MacGregor rubbed his temples. "Commander, I am going to the briefing room. your ships is yours again."
Connolly stood and took the Admirals salute, before retaking her command chair.

"Shit..." Simpson breathed, staring at the gargantuan Dart bay.
"Don't talk, just get ready to fight." Macara said, slipping his Fairburn-Sykes into his boot. It didn't quite fit, so be bloused his fatigues over the top. It was demanded uncomfy.
"You think we have a chance?" Hailey asked, worried beyond measure.
"No, not with side arms. But I'd rather take a few of them with us before I'm fed on." Macara muttered. He held one of two P90s aboard. Fujiwara had the other.
"Here we go..." he said as the rear hatch opened.
A Wraith grenade rolled in.
"Now that isn't even funny," Macara spat before the weapon flashed and knocked the whole crew out.