In Jennifer's quarters there was an air of frustration and worry. Woolsey kept glancing at his watch knowing the inevitable was only minutes away. When the door began to open Woolsey shut his eyes and gave a silent prayer. When he finally opened them he saw Young in the doorway, his face bruised and blood was trickling down his face.
"What the hell happened to you lad?" Carson asked as he hurried to the door.
"I'm ok. I just fell out of favour. Everything has gone tits up." He explained before looking to Jennifer and Teyla and saying. "Sorry, I mean it is all screwed up. I think we need a new plan."
"Where is Colonel Sheppard?" Woolsey asked as Carson examined the Lieutenant's face.
"He has been summoned by Dyson. Apparently McKay blocked an attempt by Dyson and co to breach the critical city systems. As a result Dyson is pissed. All of our guys have been removed from the gate room, which according to McKay has been secured and he can't overwrite the protocols. Furthermore access from the Jumper bay has been cut-off."
"Where is Rodney?" Teyla questioned.
"He is trying to stay not captured so he can prevent any further electronic attacks." Young said. "He refused to say where he was exactly."
"If the gate room is locked down, how do we get in?" Woolsey questioned.
"There are two ways I can think of." Lorne answered. "One is to blow the doors using C4, the other is to crash a jumper in."
"Let me re-phrase that, are there any ways that will nor involve destroying the gate room?"
"Well we could ask Dyson really nicely." Young sarcastically replied before quickly adding. "Sorry."
"I'll take that as a no then." Woolsey surmised.
"We need to blast our way in now?" Ronon said. "Sheppard could be in trouble."
"I have distributed C4 to the assault team and they are waiting for the codeword, but it is not clear if the Colonel will be able to use it. Even if he does it is not exactly a quick method, we need to blow our way through three sets of doors."
"How many in the assault team?" Lorne questioned.
"Ten."
"Ten?" Woolsey questioned in disbelief. "Is that it?"
"Yes Sir. Dyson has kept only half his guard in the control room with him."
"Where are the other half?"
"We don't know exactly. They spread out to different parts if the city. Everyone else is busy trying to locate them, whilst guarding the civilian population." Young explained.
"You should have just shot Dyson at the start." Ronon growled.
"It is my fault." Lorne replied. "I ordered Young to follow Dyson's orders. At the time it seemed like it would cause the least amount of casualties."
"You did the right thing Major." Woolsey assured him. "The last thing we need is a fire-fight taking out our defensive capabilities. As dangerous as Dyson is in his current state, the Wraith are worse." He finished as Ronon got off the bed and went over to the drawers in the corner of the room; he pulled out a large knife.
"Have you got anyone manning a Jumper?" Lorne asked Young trying to ignore the fact that Jennifer appeared to have a concealed stash of weaponry in her room.
"No Sir. We have a shortage of people able to fly currently on base. In fact it is only McKay, Beckett and you." Young explained his eyes fixed on the large knife that Ronon was passing to Jennifer.
"Don't look at me, I can't fly that bloody thing." Carson quickly protested.
"Technically you don't have to fly it, you just need to crash it." Young explained, not relieving Carson's doubts.
"It is ok doc, I will man the Jumper." Lorne said.
"Need I remind you that ya have a concussion?" Carson asked.
"Well as Young pointed out all I need do is crash it." Lorne shrugged before saying, "Young, stay here and look after the docs and Woolsey." Before turning to Ronon and Teyla. "You two join up with the main assault group. But Ronon, we need Dyson alive." Ronon just stared at Lorne, leaving the Major unsure of what Ronon would do to Dyson. "I'll make my way to the Jumper bay." He finished. The others nodded and left Jennifer's quarters.
Young looked to Jennifer and the knife. "Don't suppose you have anymore of those?"
Several minutes later Ronon and Teyla were outside the penultimate door leading to the gate room with the assault team, Ronon growing restless by the lack of progress. Teyla desperately tried to reach Sheppard over the radio. It had now been two minutes before the codeword had been given, since then no contact with the Colonel had been made.
"Fire in the hole." A marine shouted moments before the doors were blown apart causing the group to hurry to the final door. As the marines placed the C4 they were sure they heard gunfire from within the gate room.
Inside the control room Sheppard made contact with Dyson the trigger flew out of Dyson's hand, buying Sheppard a few moments longer. However, with the rate of blood loss he was not confident it would do much good. When the two men hit the ground Dyson recovered first and roughly threw Sheppard off him with strength that surprised the Colonel. Sheppard forced his eyes open and saw the trigger just beyond him. Not caring about Dyson or his men he dragged himself along the floor, stretching towards the trigger, fighting desperately to stay awake. When the trigger was a mere centimetre from his fingertip he saw the light fade around him. Shortly after a boot pressed down on his hand. Looking up he saw Dyson standing over him smiling. The Texan leaned down to pick up the remote trigger, but before he reached it he was surrounded by bright light and Sheppard felt the weight on his hand disappear. He looked towards where the trigger had been, as his eyes locked onto it he lost his fight against the darkness.