When the attack came, it was with very little warning. Had the Jaffa been what they were pretending to be, they wouldn't have had any warning at all, and if not for the fact that the piloting group had a low ranged sensor that could keep track of the progress of the Wraith, they wouldn't have had anywhere near enough time to get into positions.
"They're coming!"
Sheppard had been manning the sensor that late afternoon – and they were all shocked to hear the news. From what the Athosians and others had told them – and what Sheppard and the Atlanteans had actually seen for themselves – the Wraith attacked at night when they could use the confusion of darkness to further disorient their prey. There was still plenty of daylight – and that was only going to work in the favor of the Humans.
"Already?" Jack asked, frowning, even as he lurched to his feet. He and Melony had been playing tic tac to in the thin layer of dirt on the floor of the lava tube – winner cooked dinner that night.
"Yes, sir."
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
"Let's move it, then, people."
He trusted Sheppard enough that he definitely wasn't going to waste the time to double-check him.
Everyone rushed to their darts, entering from the rear without even needing another order. They'd drilled in this for the last several weeks, and the last two days, especially.
The Jaffa would have their own warning of what was happening, and even now they'd be heading down the lava tube from the bolthole and would be expecting the darts to be there to save them.
Jack's dart was the first to fire up, and was the first to move. He had the most dangerous part of the mission; he had to drop the shields on the Wraith ships, and had to leave the planet to do it.
Mitchell on the other hand, was going to be the last to move her dart. While Jack had the most dangerous job, she had the hardest. She had to collect her own group of Jaffa – which would be the last group to go – and at the same time she would be triggering the explosion that was going to destroy everything within the entire solar system. Which hopefully wouldn't include Jack O'Neill and herself.
But if things went bad, she'd still blow the planet – and the Wraith – and her and Jack already considered it a price worth paying – although she mourned the potential loss of Jaffa life.
Because of the shielding properties of the lava flow there was no way of keeping in touch with each other, which was one of the reasons for so much practice. They wouldn't know until they actually returned to Atlantis how each pilot did.
Sheppard was the first to head for the cavern. He had the task of triggering the escape device and gathering his group of Jaffa – who were positioned in tents that were closest to the openings. They had been timed running the length of the tube and Sheppard would time his arrival perfectly to coordinate with them.
Only minutes after he arrived, he'd have to be gone, because while the cavern was huge, it wasn't big enough to hold his group and the next group of Jaffa – which would be picked up by Duck, who would only be a few minutes behind. Then Duck would have to get his group and get through the escape device as well, because the next group would be arriving, as would Teal'c. Who would promptly be followed by Tao, and then Mitchell, and then Jack.
Once Jack saw Sheppard's dart heading down the lava tube towards the cavern, he knew it was time, and like it had been shot out of a huge cannon, the dart he was flying streaked out of the parking ravine, and then upwards, scattering the Wraith darts which were piloted by very frustrated and confused Wraith, who were trying to figure out where their easy marks had gone so suddenly.
Without looking back, Jack continued the upward motion of the dart, and looked at his watch. Sheppard would be back in Atlantis in only minutes, and he was getting close to his target time. Dropping the shields would definitely alert the Wraith that something was wrong, and Jack and Melony had wanted to time things so that the others had as much time to get clear as they could give them.
OOOOOOOOO
Atlantis"Doctor Weir?"
The voice was soft, but held an urgency that pulled Elizabeth from her restless sleep quickly. She sat up, looking over at Grodin, who was crouched by her bed.
"What?" She asked, quickly, looking around for Kale. He'd been there when she'd gone to sleep, but she didn't see him now. "What is it?"
"The Wraith have reached Talonopolis."
Now she was on her feet, reaching for a robe and grateful that she'd been wearing a nightgown.
"Have they started the attack?"
"We don't know. We're not getting anything from Talonopolis, we just know the Wraith are there."
"Wake the others," Weir ordered, reaching for a shirt. "I'll be right there."
"Yes, ma'am."
Grodin left, and Elizabeth started to get dressed.
OOOOOOOO
Three minutes later, she was entering the command center, and almost ran into Carson Beckett, who had just entered from another door.
"It's started," she told him, although she knew from the fear in his expressive eyes that he already knew that.
"I know."
"They'll be fine."
He didn't believe that, and was pretty sure she didn't either. He'd only had Melony for such a little time – hadn't even had a chance to get to know everything about her – and he was positive he was going to lose her within the next hour. Half-hour, even.
He nodded, though, and headed for the main computer base, where Grodin was just sitting down once more. As Weir followed, the room started filling with others; Sam, McKay, and Ford… the list grew with each moment.
The screen was filled with a dual image. One side showed what little they knew of the activities on Talonopolis; mainly a lot of little blips that were representative of the Wraith ships surrounding the planet, and the other side showed a camera image of the empty space of air. This was the exit point of the escape device, and would be the first place they would see the darts appear – if things went well. And they all refused to say aloud anything about things going wrong…