SGD Season 1 Episode 5 Rising Part 2

This is another "modified" episode, but with quite a few changes. More notes at the bottom- most are spoilers.

AESF Ranks

NATO pay grade/equivalent, name and description of insignia are given, in that order. Personnel are given AESF equivalent ranks upon transfer to the AESF. Rank insignia is worn on the sleeve or on the shoulder depending on the uniform. Some "Master" enlisted ranks share insignia.

General Officers

OF-9/10: General – four silver stars

OF-8: Lieutenant General – three silver stars

OF-7: Major General – two silver stars

OF-6: Brigadier General – one silver star

Officers

OF-5: Colonel – three silver stripes

OF-4: Lieutenant Colonel – three gold stripes

OF-3: Major – two silver stripes

OF-2: Captain – two gold stripes

OF-1: Lieutenant – one silver stripe

Enlisted

OR-9: Master Warrant Officer – two black stripes

OR-7/8: Warrant Officer – one black stripe

OR-6: Master Sergeant – three black chevrons

OR-5: Sergeant – three black chevrons

OR-4: Master Corporal – two black chevrons

OR-3: Corporal – two black chevrons

OR-1/2: Private – one black chevron

OOU- These were hard to do. The idea is to have a rank system that won't screw over transferring personnel, such as making a captain a lieutenant. The officer ranks were easier- those are similar in most militaries. The enlisted ranks were harder, especially since the AESF wouldn't have traditional air/sea/land elements. Officer ranks are the same as USAF I think. The idea for stipes for insignia came from the Canadian Forces ranks. Why are enlisted ranks black? It was the only colour I could think of that wasn't already used, is military-ish, and would show decently on a grey uniform. It was that or pale blue.

Athos

Lieutenant Ford was guarding the gate with a few other soldiers. Suddenly, the gate began to dial in. "Colonel, we have gate activity. Defensive positions!" He crouched behind the DHD as the others brought their weapons up. A sleek, organic purple craft flew out of the gate, and then two more.

Beside Ford, Corporal Ivanova brought her Star Streak/G missile launcher to her shoulder.

"Colonel, are we cleared to open fire?" Ford asked. The interlinked combat communications systems had already informed him of the presence of the three craft.

In the village, the people were panicking and starting to flee. Major Sheppard was the one to answer him first, however. "It's the Wraith, they are hostile, repeat they are hostile!" he yelled, he and Teyla already on their way back. He could move much faster than Teyla, of course, but didn't want to leave her behind.

"Open fire, open fire, you are cleared to open fire!" Colonel Sumner yelled, dragging an Athosian man up with him as the alien craft flew overhead.

The Star Streak missile system was designed for both space and in-atmosphere use. The cut down Star Streak/G missile is for use by ground troops and vehicles. The launcher and missile are heavy, in fact too heavy for unaugmented troops. Even though the Wraith craft were already over the village, they were still well within range. Ivanova aimed the launcher in the general direction and fired, the missile's targeting system locking on almost instantly. Powered by a "fusion torch" hybrid engine, it reached its target in seconds, the naquadah-enhanced warhead reducing the Wraith craft to pieces.

Sumner wasn't watching the fireworks. Another of the craft had sucked up several of the villagers with some sort of transport beam, and now they were all firing at them to no avail. He saw some sort of figure, some motion, in the corner of his eye and fired at it. "They're on the ground, all over us!" someone yelled.

Sheppard had also tried to shoot at the phantoms. Teyla had stopped him. "They are not really there," she explained, "Do not trust your eyes, the Wraith deceive they are not there."

"They aren't real!" Sheppard yelled over the communications net, "Trust your tactical displays, not your eyes!"

The craft had energy weapons that fired blue bolts in addition to the transport beams. One of them had circled around and was now strafing the team guarding the gate. Ivanova reloaded the missile launcher and fired again, straight toward the craft now heading right toward them. There was no cover in the clearing. She dashed behind the Stargate as an energy bolt hit her, partially draining her shields and causing her to stumble. The missile missed on the first pass, then circled back again and smashed into the craft and exploded, pieces of it peppering the entire area.

The last alien craft sucked up Colonel Sumner and Sergeant Bates as they fired ineffectively on it, then turned toward Sheppard, chasing him and Teyla. Almost instinctively, he dashed forward, outpacing the now slow-moving craft and leaving Teyla in the dust. He dived to the side as the craft accelerated, but it did not give chase, having beamed up Teyla.

"Teyla!" he shouted, but new it was of now use. Worse, his HUD indicated that Sumner, Bates and several others had disappeared.

"Sir," the Lieutenant said over the comm, "They've taken the Colonel!"

"Damn it!"

It got better. "Gate's activating again! The last bogey's heading toward it."

"Do not engage, there are friendlies on board! Get a good view of the dialing device and make sure all lighted symbols are visible! Make sure your recorders are active!" In most cases the Aegis suit automatically recorded audio, video and tactical data for future use. If they knew the address, they could dial it, and possibly mount a rescue mission. Ford safetied his SCAR-H and looked at the DHD.

The last Wraith craft flew through the gate and it deactivated only seconds later. The first engagement with the Wraith lasted less than fifteen minutes. They had lost Sumner, Bates and a few others, and the Athosians had lost their leader, among others. The Wraith had lost two craft of unknown value.

Sheppard approached the burning, sparking wreckage of the Wraith craft carefully. Better to let searching through it to the scientists. Good, didn't seem to have any self-destruct devices. A piece of wreckage moved and something slid out from under it. It was a hand- almost human, with five fingers but had something covering parts of the fingers and knuckles. And it was moving! Sheppard smashed the butt of his gun down on it and it stopped. He picked it up and put it in a plastic bag, which went into an empty pocket. Maybe one of the scientists would find it interesting. He was glad the Aegis armour had gloves.

"Help me!" Jinto screamed as he came running up to Sheppard. "I can't find my father," he sobbed.

Sheppard put his hand on Jinto's shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll bring him back." He wasn't sure if they would be able to, but he was damn well going to try.

Atlantis

"How are we doing?" Weir asked McKay. They were both wearing their armour. If all else failed they could swim to the surface- but that was far from a desirable option.

"The city is sacrificing itself in order to maintain main areas but catastrophic failure is inevitable."

"Never, in my wildest dreams did I think we'd find the city of the Ancients so untouched- and we have no choice but to walk away from it?"

"We don't have any other choice," Rodney responded, "If we leave now we could save the city."

"Colonel Sumner and his team haven't come back yet. We have no idea what's out there!"

"We'll be back," Rodney assured her, "We'll find another power source in Pegasus. We can't stay any longer. It's time to go, NOW!"

Weir made one of the toughest decisions in her life. If it could be called a decision. It felt wrong to leave Atlantis but Rodney was right, they didn't have any other choice. "Attention all personnel," she began but was interrupted by the city shaking as another section flooded. "Standby for immediate evacuation. Dial the gate!"

McKay immediately began dialling but as soon as the first chevron was locked it began to activate. Someone was dialling in. He raised the shield.

"Receiving Lieutenant Ford's IDC!" he said, lowering it again.

Major Sheppard, part of the original team they had sent, and a group of Athosians came through. Sumner and several others were noticeably absent, and Weir noticed that their armour was dirty and dented. "Major Sheppard!" she yelled, "Who are all these people?"

"Survivors from the settlement. We were attacked," he answered, "Sumner and some of our people were taken. What's going on?" Weir was wearing full armour and a helmet. That couldn't be a good sign.

"We are in no position to help anyone right now!" she said angrily.

"What the hell's going on right now?"

"We're about to abandon the city. The shield is about to fail and the ocean is about to come down on top of us."

Rodney interrupted them. "Wait! I have an idea. No time to explain." He went over to a laptop and began to type furiously, accessing Atlantis's systems. Moments later, the city shook violently with a loud rumble and began to rise.

"What did you do?" Weir asked Rodney.

"No time to explain!" he repeated, "Get away from the windows! The shield's collapsing!"

The shields did indeed collapse about halfway to the surface. The windows in the gateroom cracked but did not shatter, and Sheppard was worried they would start to leak. "Get the Athosians into the control room!" He yelled. It was higher up and would flood only after the gateroom was filled with water. He pushed Jinto to the stairs, and the boy immediately scrabbled up them.

Emergency forcefields had sprung up in front of the windows, keeping the water out. Most of the city was flooded, but it was pushing toward the surface. It broke the water with a tremendous crash, creating miniature waves that flowed outward from the city. Sheppard walked up the stairs toward the window where everyone was gathering. The view was beautiful. Past the elegant Ancient architecture was a vast blue ocean, the sun bright in the sky.

"I was hoping for another day," Elizabeth said, "Looks like we just got a whole lot more than that. Let's not waste it."

"The last zero point module is depleted," McKay explained, "But limited power is available now that our generators don't have to hold back an ocean. Life support systems are working but the planet's atmosphere is breathable."

"So now can our generators supply enough power to the shield for defensive purposes?" Weir asked.

"Our naquadah generators won't even raise it. The two neutrino ion generators the Asgard gave us would last five minutes or two blasts from a Ha'tak's weapons, whichever comes first."

"What about our own equipment? Everyone and everything settling in okay?"

"That's more Radek's department." Dr. Radek Zelenka was the Czech scientist in charge of day-to-day operation of the city's systems.

"The nanoconstructors are set up and tied in to the power grid," Zelenka explained. The devices were Asgard in origin, using modified beaming technology to build things. It required a significant investment in energy and still needed raw materials. They were similar to the replicators in Star Trek, but that name had too many negative connotations to be used. "One neutrino ion generator and two naquadah generators are connected, the others kept in reserve. Computer network is fully operational." He left to go work on some issue or other.

"When can you tell me where the Wraith took Colonel Sumner?" Sheppard asked.

"Even with the six symbols Lieutenant Ford provided there are still hundreds of permutations-"

"Then you better start now."

"Major? A word." Weir said to Sheppard and they went outside.

"Let me guess. You're not going to let me rescue my people." Sheppard began.

"Major, we don't even know if they're alive."

"You don't leave people in the hands of the enemy! And the fact that we are having this conversation in private lets me know damn well that you know it's wrong. And it will totally undermine your leadership."

"All right, just shut up and listen to me for a sec. Come on, what do we know about the Wraith? One of the few things we do know is that they are the enemy that defeated the Ancients. When we first began to use the Stargate on Earth we got ourselves into serious trouble because they didn't consider the consequences-"

"How am I supposed to react? They took our people!"

"And we are defenseless. Going off on some half-assed rescue mission could lead the Wraith right back to Atlantis."

"Maybe it will. But it's the right thing to do. Our people are in the hands of the enemy, do you know what that means? They might already know we're here and even if they don't, the longer we wait the more time they'll have to find out."

Weir knew she was fighting a losing battle. "I just need more information. Maybe we can negotiate, reach a peaceful-"

"Peaceful? Are you kidding? It couldn't have been more than a few hours before they showed up."

"Is it possible you brought them there? And that one of the people we brought back-"

"They're not all bad people. If there's one thing in this galaxy we need, it's friends."

"Okay. But I want a well planned, well organized rescue mission, and I will not authorize the mission unless you can convince me it has a good chance of success. I'm not sending more people, including you, to their deaths."

"Okay," Sheppard said, turning to go back inside.

"Major," Rodney said as he came back inside. "We've figured out the address but there's a bit of a problem."

"What is it?" Sheppard asked. This was the last thing he wanted to hear.

"The gate is in high orbit above the planet. We lost a MALP figuring that out. But of course me being myself, I've managed to figure out a way to solve that problem. Come with me, Major."

"Doctor Beckett, what was it you want me to see?" Weir asked as she walked into the med lab.

He picked up the Wraith hand. "These cells have none of the normal human inhibiting proteins whatsoever. That gives them an incredible ability to regenerate."

"What does that mean for us?" Weir asked.

"If I was a betting man, I would say the thing this hand belonged to was old. Very old. It might not even die of natural ageing like we do. And it would be bloody hard to kill."

"That's it?" It was significant, and scared Weir a bit.

"Aye."

"All right, thank you."

The bay full of the small ships, above the gateroom, was Weir's next stop. Rodney had called her and met her on the way. "What's that noise?" she asked upon entering.

"What? I don't know! He was right here. Major!" Rodney called to thin air.

In front of them, one of the small ships decloaked and Sheppard waved from inside. "You said you wanted tactical advantage?"

"All right, you can fly that thing. Doesn't mean you can pull off a rescue."

"Doctor, this is why you brought me here."

Weir smiled, knowing she had been completely outmanuvered. "Okay. You have a go."

"Alright people, get ready to go," Ford said to the people in the back of the ship before taking a seat. They were the best the best from all over the world, eight in all. All wore Aegis armour and most carried SCAR-H rifles. Like last time, one person was armed with a Star Streak launcher, another with an M107 sniper rifle, and one carried an M240 machine gun. Everyone carried a silenced M91 PDW as a sidearm. Extra weapons were carried in the back of the ship, of course.

"Gateship One, ready to go," Ford said to Sheppard.

"Gateship One? A little puddle jumper like this?"

"It's a ship that goes through the gate. Gateship One. Doctor McKay thought it was cool."

"Oh, okay, it's official." Sheppard paused and Ford smiled. "You don't get to name anything. Ever. Flight, this is Puddle Jumper."

"Uhh, I thought we were going with Gateship," McKay responded.

"Negative flight."

"It's a ship that goes through the... nevermind," McKay said to Weir. "Fine. Puddle Jumper, you are cleared for launch."

"Dial it up, Lieutenant," Sheppard said to Ford. He began dialing the address on a DHD integrated into the center console of the cockpit.

Just after the gate activated, a door opened in the ceiling of the gateroom and the puddle jumper dropped through and disappeared through the gate.

"Be safe," Weir whispered as the gate shut down.

Wraith Planet

"Wow," Sheppard said as he flew. "A lot of fighter pilots would kill to fly this thing. It's like it reads your mind."

A map of the planet and several sensor readouts appeared in front of them. "Did you do that, sir?" the Lieutenant asked.

"Well, I was just thinking about where we go from here."

"I'll take that as a yes. So how do we find them when we land."

"I've been thinking about that too," Sheppard replied. Beside him, a compartment opened up. Sheppard pulled out the small, PDA-like device and put it in an empty pocket. "Now I'm thinking about a nice turkey sandwich."

Nothing happened. "Worth a try," Ford said, shrugging.

"Sir, are you alright?" Sumner opened his eyes. He had a pretty big headache. It was Bates. They were in some sort of Wraith holding cell, organic in appearance with some sort of web for a door. The aliens hadn't tried to take off their armour. Good. Sergeant Bates, Lieutenant Malach, and Master Corporal Bertrand were all there. Teyla and three other Athosians sat in the corner.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, getting up. "How long was I out?"

"Don't know, sir," Bates reponded, "The first of us only woke up ten minutes ago. Chronometer says it's been a few hours since I last checked back on the planet."

"Damn it. Everyone get your knives ready and check your armour. I want to give those bastards a surprise when they show up." Hidden in the right forearm plate was a small knife. The Wraith had stripped them of their weapons and tac vests, but missed the knives.

"You intend to fight the Wraith?" Teyla asked, surprised yet again.

"Why shouldn't we?" Sumner replied.

"Our fates are sealed. To attempt to escape would be suicide," Halling said.

"We aren't dead yet. I intend to get out of here or die trying. Of course you're welcome to stay here if you want."

They were interrupted by Teyla. "Someone comes," she said simply. She could sense the presence of the Wraith.

Moments later three Wraith appeared. They were vaguely human, but with pale greenish skin, and white hair- almost vampiric in appearance. Two were muscular, had their faces obscured by bone masks, and carried some kind of weapon insectoid in appearance.

"Who are you?" the unmasked one hissed, coming through the now open web-door.

"Colonel Marshall Sumner, Allied Earth Space Forces." The Wraith tried to hit him in anger, demonstrating his assumed superior strength. It had not occured to him that the human might be even stronger, although artificially boosted. Sumner grabbed the alien's hand, twisted it, and drove the knife through where his heart should be.

To his right, Lieutenant Malach dived out of the way of the masked Wraith swinging his weapon. She kicked his foot out from under him and the Wraith crashed to the ground. She drove her knife hard through his neck and twisted, severing the spinal cord and several major arteries. The last Wraith tried shooting Bates with his energy weapon to no effect. Bates grabbed it and impaled him on the sharp back end of the weapon.

"Make sure they're dead," Sumner growled, crushing the Wraith's skull with his foot. Malach pulled her knife all the way across and tore the Wraith's head off, and Bates used the Wraith weapon to smash his adversary's skull in.

"Let's go," Sumner ordered, shouldering the Wraith weapon.

Sheppard landed the ship in a clearing near the Wraith compound. It was dark and stormy outside. "All right, team one with me, team two stay here and hold the ship. Do not engage the enemy unless absolutely necessary." He grabbed a small silver cylinder out of the back of the jumper. "Let's do this."

"Major Sheppard, this is Sumner, we are inside the Wraith structure but have escaped confinement, over."

"Solid copy, receiving your transponder signal. We'll be in there soon, sir." Two guards stood in front of the entrance. "Silenced weapons only," he said to his team. "Vega, left one, Peretz, right one. Take them out on my mark. Three... two... one... mark!" The Wraith recoiled from the first three-round burst but did not fall. Immediately they opened fire and emptied the entire thirty-round magazines. Two more Wraith appeared in the doorway. Even the Wraith had guard shifts.

"Damn, they know we're here now. Forget stealth, open fire!" Sheppard brought his SCAR up and pulled the trigger, sending a hail of bullets into the Wraith's chest. "Aim for the head if possible from now on, and make sure they are dead!"

"Sheppard, get your ass in here! There's some sort of alarm and the place is crawling with Wraith now!" Sumner shouted over the radio. Sheppard could hear Wraith weapons in the background.

"Move! We'll rendezvous at this location," Sheppard said, picking an area inside using the arm-mounted interface. The location was immediately sent to Sumner. "Can you make it there?"

"We can, but it won't be easy," he replied, smashing a Wraith in the head with the captured weapon.

Sheppard pulled out the device he got inside the ship. It showed his team as blips, and a whole bunch more blips inside. Lifesigns detector. Neat but nothing special- the Aegis sensors were better- not so much better at detecting but they were fully integrated. Disappointed, he put the device away and led his team inside.

"Sheppard, where the hell are you!" Sumner said. The Wraith were everywhere. The stun weapons were pretty much useless against their shields and armour, but an Athosian had been hit. They couldn't move fast enough. He fired the Wraith weapon at the closest one, making sure to hit him twice. The Wraith weapons were crap- big, inaccurate, slow to fire and only stunned. But they were damn effective for what the Wraith did- they didn't want them dead. The Wraith fed on people. Everything they knew about the Wraith could be brought up and displayed on his HUD- it was transferred from the rescue team's suits automatically. He shot the same Wraith a third time.

"This better?" Sheppard said, kneeling down beside him and handing him a Desert Eagle handgun and four magazines.

"A little," he said, tossing the Wraith weapon aside. He aimed it at the Wraith's head and fired. The .50 AE round hit slightly to the right side of the forehead, smashing the skull into fragments and literally scrambling the Wraith's brain.

"Come on, this way!" Sheppard yelled (unnecessarily) and led them through another door- a reasonably solid one, not a web-door. What looked like a Wraith female stood in their way, and without pausing Sheppard shot her in the head three times. Lieutenant Petrova, their tech specialist, shot the door controls with her rifle. It was crude and not the best use of her abilities, but it seemed to have worked.

At almost the same time, hundreds of Wraith woke up, awakened by the death of their queen, appearing on their sensors. "Oh shit. We've got to get out of here, now!" He started to run, but Sumner didn't follow.

"Go!" he shouted, "I'll hold them off."

"Sir-"

"No time for it now!" The Wraith were about to break the door open.

"Take this, sir." Sheppard gave the cylinder, about ten inches long and four in diameter, to Sumner. "It's the new mark fourteen micro-nuke. Should take out the whole place. Same controls as the mark twelve." He ran to catch up with the rest of his team, who had gone on without him.

Sumner had only a moment to reflect as he set the timer for five minutes. So this is how it would end. A hero's death. The door burst open, and the unfortunate ones doing the bashing died in seconds.

"Get in!" Sheppard yelled, urging the people into the jumper. "Sumner's probably set the nuke for only a few minutes, we gotta go now!" He sat down in the pilot's seat and immediately took off, leaving the people in the back to close the doors manually.

Sumner ran out of ammunition before even half the time was up. He tossed the pistol aside, kicked aside the Wraith trying to stab him, and grabbed the nuke. He tore the safety cover off the detonate button and held it down.

"Holy fuck! Sorry sir," Lieutenant Ford said. The entire Wraith complex was blown apart in a bright flash, and a mushroom cloud was beginning to form.

"It's okay, Lieutenant. But we're not out of the woods yet." Several of the Wraith craft were in orbit, guarding the stargate.

"Should we dial Atlantis, call in fighter support?" Ford suggested.

"No, last time I checked the F-306s weren't even unpacked yet. We'll uncloak, draw them away from the gate and double back."

Sheppard uncloaked the ship and four of the Wraith ships immediately gave chase. "Be prepared to dial the gate on my mark!" He did a barrel roll and pulled hard to the left, but the Wraith ships followed easily. One opened fire, hitting their ship several times.

"See anything like a weapons console over there?" Sheppard asked Ford. The thing was probably armed. Drone launchers popped out of each side of the ship and one flew out, destroying a chasing Wraith ship. The remaining ships opened fire.

"Try to go invisible again!" Ford suggested as they took another energy blast.

"I tried, it must be damaged! Dial the gate," Sheppard ordered. He flew the jumper directly toward the active gate and destroyed one of the two ships guarding it with a trio of drones.

"Transmit your IDC on the next pass," he said, destroying another Wraith craft and drawing fire from another in the process."Now! Hang on!" He turned the ship toward the gate. The last two Wraith ships fired wildly, some of the bolts going through the gate. The Wraith ships followed them through the gate.

Atlantis

The energy bolts came through the gate. The security team scrambled for cover as soon as the first person was hit. As soon as the jumper came through, Weir ordered the shield reactivated. The two Wraith ships disintegrated against the shield, and then the gate shut down.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Atlantis," Sheppard said, "Please remain seated until the puddle jumper comes to a full and complete stop."

"Major, Lieutenant, I thought the occasion merited opening this," Weir said, handing Sheppard and Ford stainless steel mugs with champagne in them. "Complements of General O'Neill."

"Cheers," Sheppard said, and drank it all in one shot.

"You did good, John," Elizabeth praised.

"I don't know about that."

"Colonel Sumner chose to stay behind to give you and everyone else a chance. He's a hero, and we'll remember him as one."

"Yeah. But I still have to live with that." John paused for a moment. "I'm beginning to think you're right. I have made things much worse. Haven't made us many more friends out there."

"No. Look around you." John looked. He saw Jinto and Halling embracing, Teyla and the other Athosians around socializing.

"I agree, Major Sheppard," Teyla walked over and put her hands on his shoulders and bowed her head. He nervously did the same.

"A traditional Athosian custom. You have earned both my friendship and that of my people." She smiled. "With our help we will make many more friends."

"One more thing, John," Elizabeth said, "Something to sleep on."

"And what will that be?"

"Who the members of your team will be. You're the ranking military officer now. That means you'll be in charge of our flagship team- in addition to the rest of the military contingent. We need to get back out there, do what we came to do." She left, leaving Sheppard to his own thoughts.

He looked out over the ocean. His thoughts drifted to the SGC back in the Milky Way. Helping others become free from oppression. Defending themselves and others against incredible odds. Discovering new worlds, new knowledge, new cultures. In general, making the galaxy a better place.

It was the same here. The Wraith were an incredibly powerful enemy, but that hadn't stopped them before.

First off, this is the first thing I've written that broke 4000 words! (it breaks 5000 with notes, rank information, and formatting) I know, some people write chapters longer than this whole fic, but I think this is a nice length.

Wraith stunners are almost completely useless agains the Aegis armour. It will drain the shields a little, but that's about it. Of course the Wraith will come out with something better in the future. I didn't want Sumner to survive- I want Sheppard the military leader of Atlantis. The original death would not work at all. This was the best I could come up with. There would have to be a reason for him to stay behind- it was originally to guard and detonate the nuke (a la Virmire) and the part about holding the Wraith off and giving Sheppard time to escape came as I was writing it.

I do realize that this is another "rehash X episode" chapter. The next episode will be Assault Part 1, an all-original, SGC-focused episode featuring lots of the SGD technology, more open warfare, and focusing on some new characters. SGD is like the real show- every episode is different, there's something for everyone. Stargate Domination isn't a very good name- compared to Rise of the Tau'ri or even Reaper's Origin there isn't that big an advantage.