Breaking The Siege
Part One: The Rescue
It happened so fast.
As the last few seconds ticked down and the puddlejumper approached the hive ships, John Sheppard fully intended to go out - and go out with a bang, and not a whimper.
His arms and legs tingled slightly, the faintest prickle of sensation, like goosebumps raised over skin. A restrained tremor quivered through his shoulders and chest as he inhaled deeply and blew out. He felt oddly calm, as though nothing could touch him.
Through the windscreen of the 'jumper, his target loomed huge and terrifying. Thousands of Wraith lived on that ship. Tens of thousands of humans had died aboard it.
John would make one more. The last one.
Another thirty seconds and he'd be charred radioactive dust out in space - and so would the hiveship. Twenty-nine seconds, twenty-eight, twenty-sev--
There was a splash of light from beyond the hive ship, bright enough to dazzle him, even as the viewscreen auto-darkened in phototropic response. He caught the glimpse of a huge ship, large and boxy, its exterior gleaming with greyish-silver menace, before his radio squawked loudly and the steady voice of a man accustomed to command rang through the channel.
"...nel Max Caldwell of the United States Air Force, in command of the Daedelus , contacting Dr. Elizabeth Weir, Major John Sheppard, Colonel Dylan Everett or their relieving representatives on a broadcast channel. Please respond immediately."
There was a moment of stunned silence across the radio before Elizabeth's voice came through the channel, slightly breathless, "Daedelus, this is Dr. Elizabeth Weir of Atlantis. Thank you for getting here."
"Thanks can wait for later, Doctor," the deep voice said dryly, "after we've saved your asses. Deploying Icarus Squadron now. Do you have any fighters up here that we shouldn't shoot?"
"Major Sheppard? Are you there?"
Fifteen seconds to impact.
John veered from his course, slipping beneath the belly of the hive ship instead of into what he'd guessed was a landing bay for the Wraith darts.
"Still here. Colonel Caldwell," he took a gamble on the man's rank, "welcome to Atlantis. Sorry about the welcome."
"Sorry we weren't here sooner, Major Sheppard."
"You wanted to know my status. I'm the only Atlantis ship up here, but my ship has a cloaking device and shields."
"Then I'll let my pilots know that if they can see it and it moves, they can shoot it." The man had a wry sense of humour, anyway, and John felt a smile touch his lips. "Will you be joining in the fray, Major?"
"Actually, I was planning to end it, sir. I have a nuclear weapon aboard this ship."
The silence that came through the radio was more than a little stunned, before the Colonel spoke again. "We do kamikaze now?"
"When the circumstances require it."
"Major, you are ordered not to detonate the weapon aboard your ship. I repeat, do not detonate the weapon aboard your ship. You may join the fray if you wish, or return to Atlantis, but my people are working on a solution at this very moment."
"Copy that, sir." John dragged in a deep breath, suddenly breathtakingly aware of the space around him. He was alive. He was going to live. His body liked that thought.
With awareness came the consciousness of the Wraith darts whirring through the vacuum of space around him, and he took the helm in his grip. He didn't realise he'd clarified his intent to fire upon them until he saw the flaming trails of the drones swerving through the air.
Two darts exploded in fiery death.
Two less to attack Atlantis. Nine-hundred and ninety-nine to go.
His radio crackled again, "Atlantis One, this is Icarus One. I'm guessing those were yours?"
John glanced up at the bulk of the Daedelus in the far quadrant of the sky. He could just make out tiny specks of a dozen ships slipping through the blackness of space. "Icarus One, this is 'Jumper One," he said. "Those were mine. Go get your own."
There was a short laugh over the radio. "All right, Icarus, you heard 'Jumper One. Let's go get 'em!"
Assorted responses came back from the other pilots in the squadron, and John grinned to himself. It had been years since he'd been part of a squadron like this, but the feeling of it was...well, nostalgic. For the first time since the death of Colonel Sumner, he felt the weight of responsibility of Atlantis lift from his shoulders.
Yes, it was still his responsibility - no matter how cavalierly some Colonel waltzed in and announced 'you are relieved of your command' - but he wasn't doing it alone anymore. He wasn't trying to save the city on a wing and a prayer.
Twelve wings, and a Earthship, maybe.
Still bad odds, but better than before. And he was evening the odds just a little, even now. Of course, with twelve other small, manuoevrable ships around, John didn't want to mistake one of them for an enemy ship...
A radar of some kind would come in handy right now. A moment later, the holoscreen appeared before his eyes - and not just a screen, but an actual 3D depiction of the space - complete with the faintest pulsing curve along the edge of the zone to show the planet's atmosphere.
His position was tracked with a small glowing, yellow spark, while the hiveship loomed scarlet and the darts were a swarm of tiny red mosquitos. The Daedelus showed up in blue, as did the dozen tiny fighter craft rapidly approaching the hiveship.
He fired another three drones and watched the Wraith darts light up the sky, even as he piloted his way through the debris of the last couple, and turned on his way out.
One of the other pilots whistled. "Whoa, baby! Dad, can I have one of them for Christmas?"
John blinked. The speaker was female - either that, or one of the guys had an impressive falsetto. They ran women pilots now?
"Yeah, when hell freezes over, Mickey. Approaching engagement area. 'Jumper One, can you keep out of our ranges? We don't want any casualties due to friendly fire."
"Copy that, Icarus One," John said. "I'd rather not go up with a bang now that you've arrived. I'll be headed planetside."
"Copy that, 'Jumper One. Drop your hot potato and go see your city. We'll try to cut these guys down before they reach atmo. Icarus One out."
He was banking, the hiveship and Daedelus coming into his windscreen, when he saw a beam of light cut through the darkness of space from Earthship to hiveship.
"'Jumper One, this is Daedelus. I sure as hell hope you're accelerating away from that ship, because the package we've delivered is hot and large. You do not want to be anywhere near it when it goes."
He spared a moment to wonder what kind of bomb they'd planted on the hiveship before survival instincts pointed the puddlejumper down towards the planet's surface and he arrowed back towards Atlantis.
As he fired more drones at the Wraith darts on his way down, he flipped his radio back on. "Elizabeth?"
"John." The relief in her voice was palpable and he let it wash over him.
"What's our status?"
"Hm, I don't know," interrupted another voice, grumpily. "How about, 'We're under attack'?"
He took pleasure in the sheer annoyance of McKay's words. Irritating as the scientist could be, it was a relief to know that he was okay. Still, his answer was short. No reason to give McKay ideas about how valuable he was. "Other than that?"
The silence on the other end of the radio probably meant Elizabeth was giving McKay 'the look' - the one she saved for when either man was trying her patience. Her response came a few seconds later.
"Major, our skies are still full of Wraith. We have Miller and a half-dozen other pilots who are about to take the 'jumpers out to join the fight."
"We're low on drones." He meant the city, but it went for his 'jumper as well. One of the screens flashed a status at him and he grimaced.
"Every dart down is one that won't be beaming the Wraith into Atlantis, Major. We need those ships out there."
A thought teased his mind as he fired off another round of drones and dodged some random fire. The Wraith had clued in to his presence, even if they couldn't see him beneath the cloaking, and one of them had evidently hit upon the idea of scattering random shots through it's ecliptic plane.
"Don't we..." He paused and rolled the ship, narrowly missing some shots that came very close to his stern, then continued acceleration down to the surface of the planet. "Weren't they bringing a ZPM with them? We can use that to--"
He broke off at the same moment as a brilliant wave of light washed through space. It splashed brightly over the hulls of the Wraith darts headed down to Earth, and John winced as the reflections lanced into his eyes, even with the momentary darkening of the windscreen. The flashes were all the brighter after the darkness of space, and his eyes had automatically adjusted to the dark.
"What's the status of the Hiveship?" He didn't bother switching the channels back to the Daedelus - in the background of her mic, he could hear the steady deep voice of Colonel Caldwell asking for Atlantis' confirmation of the destruction. A nice touch, considering the Daedelus must have sensors would be more than adequate to pick up the explosion - and better placed.
"Colonel, our sensors are just picking up the signal..." She trailed off and he faintly caught the sound of McKay reporting that the Wraith hiveship was gone from the sensors - as were a large number of the smaller Wraith darts that had been caught up in the explosion. This time, when she spoke, he could hear the smile in her voice. "The hiveship has been destroyed." He could certainly hear the cheers of the personnel in the background. "Thank you, Colonel - and thank the personnel of the Daedelus."
Up in the 'jumper, John destroyed two more Wraith darts and plunged into the planetary atmosphere. There were a few seconds when he wouldn't be able to receive any transmissions, but even once he passed into planetary atmosphere, the comms system was oddly silent.
"Elizabeth?" When he received no response, he felt panic lance into him. It was possible that the Wraith had gotten them. The central city wasn't shielded - it was just marginally less easy to fly over. That didn't mean it couldn't be done. "Rodney?"
Then she was there. "I'm fine, Major," she said, briskly. "Just a little startled. Two personnel and a ZPM have just beamed down into the city. Rodney's gone to meet them."
"Beamed down?"
"Beamed down," she affirmed, even as there were noises in the background and she addressed someone nearby. "Yes. Rodney will take you. Welcome to Atlantis." A moment later, she addressed him again. "Major, what's your status?"
"Inbound through the atmosphere," he replied. "City status?"
"We should have shields in a matter of minutes."
He nodded. Rodney might have ego enough for a squadron of fighter pilots, but there was no denying he was good at what he did. "Personnel status?"
Silence.
"Not so good." Her voice held a hesitancy that turned his flesh to ice. As the puddlejumper reached atmosphere, he absently fired a salvo at a Wraith dart that swooped in front of him.
"Who's dead?" The words sounded flat, even to him.
"We haven't received anything from Colonel Everett in nearly fifteen minutes."
It was bad. John didn't give a shit about Everett - and Elizabeth knew that. Which meant that she was breaking it to him gently.
He wasted two more Wraith darts. "Who's dead?"
She sighed - the merest breath of air through the microphone. "Lieutenant Ford headed up a group that went into a sector of the city from which we've since had multiple Wraith sightings. There's been no reports back from them in the last fifteen minutes. And we had gunfire at Teyla's position ten minutes ago and nothing since."
His team-mates. Shit.
At that moment, he was so very grateful that Elizabeth was tied to the central city as part of her duties; Teyla and Ford were fighters, they'd have put up a struggle before...before...
John wasn't going to think about that.
Neither Elizabeth nor Rodney would have stood a chance against the Wraith. As it was, Teyla and Ford would have had little enough...
He wasn't going to think about it. Atlantis needed him now.
The speck of the city appeared below him, a greyish splotch in the wide blue-green sea, still surrounded by the gleaming slivers of the darts, flying through the spires of Atlantis. He had four drones left - and a package that was still hot.
Better do something about that.
A quick glance at the cargo hold of the bay confirmed that most of the things behind him were stowed away. Good.
He glanced back at the city. "What else?" John asked, needing someone else to do the talking. He refused to ask who else was missing or dead. He could still take bad news, just not that kind.
Not any more of that kind just now. Not right now.
She couldn't hear his thoughts, but she seemed to divine them anyway. "We're getting scattered reports from the city," she said, and he heard the radio chatter behind her. "Rodney reports the ZPM is in."
John saw. The domed shield sprang up into existence around the city, shimmering faintly with power. It took countless lightning strikes to produce a shield for even a few minutes, and the ZPM did it in seconds - and could hold it for thousands of years, as the state of the city showed. "Confirm that," he said. "Visual on the shield."
And not just a visual confirmation, but also sight of how it worked.
It seemed that the guys had managed to get the 'jumpers into the air, because some of the shapes zooming around the city were too bulky to be Wraith darts. And now that the city itself was barred to them, the Wraith were going after the pilots, converging on them, firing on them as the guys tried to dodge and swerve.
One of the pilots was swerving and dodging gracelessly through the air over the city, trying to shake his pursuers, but never quite managing.
John accelerated through the air, well aware that he wouldn't make it in time for a rescue. There were too many darts and they were far too close...
So far, the pilots had avoided the shield, unsure of what it might do to their ships. But this 'jumper couldn't quite stay on track and drifted towards the shield.
There was a moment when John stared the flaming debris of the Wraith ships that had tried to follow the 'jumper into the shield. Then he veered up, away from the city, elated. The Atlantis ship had slipped through the shield without so much as a scratch or a wobble in the shield.
He set his radio to broadcast along the usual channel. "This is 'Jumper One, broadcasting in the clear. If you need a break, your ship will pass through the city shields. Repeat; if the pursuit gets too much, then fly beneath the city shields. There'll be less room to manoeuvre, but you'll survive longer."
And right now, it was all about continuing to survive.
"Copy that."
"Copy that, sir."
He got similar responses from the other pilots and was relieved not to hear Carson's voice among them. The doctor was fine at medicine, just shocking at flying.
Of course, the downside of their vanishing was that he was all alone in a sky full of Wraith darts.
And he still had a hot package.
Time to dump the hot potato.
He uncloaked the 'jumper with a thought, then opened the back of the ship. Gusts of wind buffeted him, ruffling at his hair and depressurising the cabin of the ship. Cool air pulled at him as he carefully tilted the 'jumper up to the sky and heard the bomb shift against the floor as the inside of the ship began responding to external gravity.
A small 'hop' and a complete change of angle, and he was pushed into the back of his chair as the Gennii bomb - unused - tumbled out and vanished into the wide blue sea below.
John closed the hatch, gave the ship a few seconds to regain its internal gravity systems, then dodged as a Wraith dart spun alongside him. A beeping noise indicated that the Wraith were converging on him. The other pilots had gone to ground in the city, to do what they could inside the city's shields. He was the only one out here, and now that he'd uncloaked the ship to open the hatch, he was a target.
There was only so much manoeuvring he could do, but he did his best. The 'jumper tumbled and twisted between the Wraith ships, like a fish nimbly swimming through the silver lines of a net.
"Major?"
"I'm kinda busy right now." He checked his drone count. Four left. And at least forty darts.
At least he wasn't going to lack for targets.
He fired off two of the drones as he sideswiped a dart. His action had the effect of making the Wraith dart veer, and it clipped another dart too closely as it flew by.
John was hardly breathing, concentrating too hard on evading the shots that were being fired around him. The 'jumper shuddered as it took a hit, and he fired another drone to take out one of the ones firing at him.
Not that it would make much of a difference in the end. There were too many of them.
The sensors informed him that his own pilots were on their way, targeting the Wraith darts with their own drones, but John was the centre of a maelstrom of enemy ships, swarming around his 'jumper without relenting.
Why'd he dump the bomb? He could have taken them all out with it if he'd held onto it.
"Major, if you can hold off, the Daedelus reports that its squadron will be with you in--"
"It's not soon enough," he said tightly.
"--three minutes."
"Still not soon enough."
"The other 'jumpers are on their way--"
They were at least thirty seconds out. He wasn't going to last that long. "Did you happen to hear the part about not soon enough?"
"John--"
He narrowly sideslipped another set of shots, but felt the 'jumper jolt with a direct hit. One of his first trainers had said that evading fire after being hit was like trying to play any game of skill while drunk. The longer it went on the harder it was to do. It could be done well, but it was damned difficult.
Tension crawled up his back and neck as he fired the last drone and dove up towards the atmosphere. If he wasn't going to survive this, then at the least he was going to put these guys in a position where they'd find themselves facing the Icarus squadron that much sooner.
Explosions dotted the sky about him. He had no peripheral view, but the compression of the blasts shook the 'jumper. Lots of explosions, and he'd fired nothing at all. The atmosphere was empty of the Icarus squadron, so it hadn't been them...
"McKay?"
"Well, actually it was Carson," came McKay's voice. "No, don't stop!" The exclamation was exasperated. "Sheppard still has Wraith all over him, you know!"
Distantly in the background, he could hear Beckett complaining about something.
"You're doing fine, Carson," Elizabeth said, her voice encouraging. "Just keep thinking about the defence of the city."
Up in the air and a long way from where the conversation in his ears was taking place, John kept flying. The pressure was easing a little as the other 'jumpers joined the fray, firing their drones for all they were worth. But it wasn't going to be enough. "No drones left."
"No," McKay answered. "But the ZPM is providing all kinds of unexpected benefits to the defence of the city--" There was a comment in the background from someone whose voice wasn't quite placeable. "Yes, I know that, doctor. Thank you very much."
The other person made a faint, dry comment, and fell silent.
John kept his 'jumper moving evasively. He wasn't out of the danger zone yet. The sky was still full of armed Wraith darts - although now they had more targets in the other 'jumpers soaring through the skies.
Another series of darts went up in explosion. "I think that's all the drones we've got, Major," McKay reported. "We're trying to persuade Carson to more fully explore the possibilities of the chair but--"
"Can the debriefing wait until later?" John asked.
McKay's voice took on an equally irritated edge. "I just thought you'd want to know that we're looking at all possibilities."
John tumbled the 'jumper through a series of twists and dives, ruthlessly using the fact that he felt none of the inertial force he'd usually feel moving a ship around like this. "I'd rather not be looking my death in the face if you don't mind!"
"We're working on it!"
"Then work faster!"
"I'm--"
"Gentlemen!" Elizabeth's voice cut firmly through their discussion. "Rodney, get back to work. Major, keep yourself and your ship intact."
"It's not like he's just going to--" Rodney broke off. "No, it doesn't. We tried it before." There was a murmur. "You know, I am the foremost scientist on this proj--" He broke off.
John could only hope it lasted.
He certainly wasn't going to.
The 'jumper slipped between the humming Wraith darts, drawing them higher, veering madly to avoid the shots that sliced past its hull. But John knew that, good as his flying was, there were too many of them. It wasn't going to last.
It didn't.
There was no mistaking the solid sound of a direct hit on his starboard 'wing'. The ship took on a distinct lean, relative to the surface of the planet, and although John tried to right it, he couldn't. "I'm hit." The words echoed in the lonely cabin of the 'jumper. "Going down."
"Major--"
There was no time to answer her, he was too busy trying to avoid the other shots that were taking the 'jumper in the body...
He spun the 'jumper directly into the thickest cluster of Wraith darts. If he was going to go out, then he'd take some with him.
He had a feeling he wasn't even going to make it to the sea.
Nope. Not even the sea.
Something sparked behind him, briefly reflecting in his windscreen. It would take only seconds for the heat to ignite something else and it would all be over.
He twisted one last time, saw the hull of the dart as the 'jumper careened into it, and braced himself for the crash.
Wraith dart and Atlantean puddlejumper fell like stones.
It felt odd to regret that he wouldn't see the full potential of Atlantis now that they had a ZPM...
"Sheppard, you are not allowed--"
There was a flash of light and a sudden feeling, slightly tingly. Then the world around him was no longer the browns and greys of the 'jumper, but the blues and greys of another ship entirely.
In his ear, McKay's sentence continued with only a slight break.
"--die on us. You still owe me for the last cards night and you are not going to renege on me!" There was a pause. "Sheppard?"
The woman standing behind the pedestal a few feet away looked as though she was trying very hard not to smile. She was vaguely familiar, although he couldn't quite place it. Probably met her when he first came to the SGC. "I'm here, McKay."
There was a moment of shocked silence on the other end of the radio. Then Elizabeth's voice came clear through the comms. "Major Sheppard?"
"I'm fine. I've been..." What was the word? "...beamed up to the Daedelus," he said. The woman glanced up from whatever she was doing to 'tidy up' after herself, and nodded, her lips still curved in a half-smile. "How are the other 'jumpers doing?"
"Corporal Sanchez is down," Elizabeth answered. "Crashed into the city, but he's reporting nothing more than a few bruises. The others are still out there, but they've got the Daedelus Squadron--"
"Icarus," he corrected her. This time, the woman grinned openly as she scraped blonde hair out of her eyes. He grimaced and shrugged at her in automatic defense of his correction.
"Well, whatever they're calling themselves, they're doing a good job of mopping up the Wraith darts still flying around." Elizabeth paused. "I believe we might have won this one."
John believed so, too.
He turned to the attendant, changing the setting of his mike so he wasn't sending down to Atlantis. "Is there anything else we can do to help them?"
A little voice that sounded a lot like McKay said, Anything else, other than arrive a day early, bring a ZPM for the city shields, send in a squadron to rout the Wraith, oh, and beam you up from the burning wreckage of your ship?
If she was thinking the same thing, at least she didn't say it. Her lips pursed. "I'm keeping track of your 'jumpers," she said. "The most I can do is beam the pilots out before their ships explode - and that's not easy. Asgard transporters are usually used on stationary objects, and moving objects takes practise." There was a beep from what appeared to be a lapel mike, and her left hand reached up to her ear while her right kept moving across the board.
John flipped back to the Atlantis channel. "Elizabeth?"
"John."
"What's the status of the city?"
"With the ZPM, we're shielded, but the city appears to be locking down sections of the city where it detects Wraith life signs," she said.
"And they've got our people."
Teyla and Ford. The Wraith could have Everett if they wante--
John yanked that thought back. Considering the type of man he was and what we're up against, I wish he was still here. No matter how personally annoying the man was, they needed every man and woman they had. Even Everett and his glib assurance.
"We're going to have to hunt them out," he concluded. "Give me five minutes and I'll be back in the city." He swivelled back to the transporter attendant. "How long does it take to warm it up for another transport?"
Blue eyes regarded him with amusement. "It doesn't warm up, Major. It can go right now."
"Then send me down to Atlantis."
Her mouth quirked slightly. "I can't do that."
John frowned. "You just said--"
"You're to wait for Colonel Caldwell to arrive, Major," she said. "He'll be here within five minutes and you'll be transported down to the city together."
He didn't want to wait for Caldwell. "In case you haven't noticed, my city is under attack--"
"In case you haven't noticed, Major, your city is no longer under attack," replied the woman, meeting his gaze with cool composure.
"And you have our thanks," said John, rapidly losing his temper. She was military - her bearing gave away that much - and nobody of rank would be operating a transporter. That meant he had authority over her. "But I am giving you an order to get me down there right now. The Colonel can follow afterwards in five minutes or five hours."
Her mouth quirked slightly at his words and, incensed, John narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to ream her out.
The hiss of doors opening behind him made them both turn.
John's first glimpse of Caldwell was imposing; the man was broad-shouldered and reasonably muscular, not anyone that John would like to fight hand to hand. Caldwell carried his bulk using every inch of his six feet two inches, and a good-humoured expression graced his face as he regarded John.
"Major Sheppard."
"Colonel Caldwell." John drew himself up and glanced at the transporter attendant who was speaking quietly with a young dark-haired woman who'd arrived in the train of the Colonel. "I'm sorry we couldn't meet under less hurried circumstances."
"I'm glad we got to meet at all," Caldwell noted. "You've done well with what you had."
"Thank you, sir."
The Colonel seemed to see that John was in no mood for pleasantries. "I see you're eager to get back to your city, so if you'll give Corporal Arslett a chance to get things set up, she'll beam us planetside."
John had assumed Corporal Arslett was the transporter attendant who'd brought him up here in the first place, so he was more than a little surprised when the woman joined him and Colonel Caldwell.
"You're sure that this works?" Caldwell asked the woman, who turned amused eyes upon them both.
"I've been in these dozens of times, sir," she assured him. "And twice today in this one. It works."
John had time for a startled question - "Twice today?" - before white light coalesced around them. When it faded, they were in the centre of the Atlantis Gateroom.
"Down into the city and back up to the Daedelus." The woman grinned at him from beneath a tumble of short blonde hair.
"Major Sheppard!" The familiar voice made him turn towards the stairs where Elizabeth was coming down towards him, a man following swiftly behind her. John had a moment to recognise the man's face - he couldn't remember the name - before she reached them. "Thank you for that rescue, Colonel," she said.
Expecting her to address Caldwell, John was shocked to hear the woman answer, "You're quite welcome, Dr. Weir."
He turned to stare at the blonde. She might have been a few years his senior, but surely not a, "Colonel?"
He'd tried to order around a superior officer?
Colonel Caldwell looked from the still-amused woman to John. "I'm guessing you haven't met Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter then, Major?"
No, he hadn't. And such was his surprise - both at her rank and her identity - that he said the first thing that came into his head. "You're McKay's Carter?"
The man who'd followed Weir down the stairs grinned openly as he pushed his glasses back up his nose, but the blonde's expression darkened like the twenty-year thunderstorm over the planet.
John winced.
Oops.
- TBC -