Teta Prime
Written By: The Ascended Ancient
Chapter VII: "The Weapon"

In the forests of Teta Prime, the man that was Colonel John Sheppard moves stealthily through the foliage. His shirt gone, his pants cut off above the knees. He still wears his Kevlar vest and his 9mm pistol. He ran out of P-90 ammo and grenades last week in a confrontation with the Wraith.

His hair is long and disheveled. He has the beginnings of a beard. There are cuts and bruises up and down his arms and legs. And every inch of him is covered in dirt. Sheppard has spent one month stranded on this planet, running from the Wraith, and it shows.

As he moves through the forest, he stops to pick some berries. Sheppard had run out of rations after his first two weeks. Shortly thereafter, in a moment of extreme hunger, he decided to risk trying some of the indigenous plants. Not only were these berries delicious, they also filled you up after eating only a small amount, and they appeared to have no negative effect on his health.

After stopping to eat, John continues to walk through the forest. He couldn't risk staying still for too long. A moving target was harder to catch.

Suddenly, Sheppard spies light up ahead. In this dark, dank place, light is something that is almost never seen. Curious, Sheppard heads towards the light, which is coming from a break in the forest. The colonel steps out of the woods for the first time in a month, and takes a deep breath of fresh air. Then he looks at his surroundings. He's standing on the edge of a valley where there are no trees. The reason for the lack of forestation is quite obvious, because in the middle of the valley are the ruins of what must have been a beautiful Ancient city. Sheppards face falls. He had hoped vainly that there were still Ancients on Teta Prime that could help him. Now, that hope had been crushed.

The colonel's despair, however, only lasts for a moment. He takes a deep breath and starts to walk down into the ruins.

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In one of the badly damaged Ancient buildings, Sheppard walks over to a Wraith corpse. Bending down, he picks up a Wraith Stunner Pistol. Then he continues on through the hallway. With every step, Sheppard is stepping over the corpses of Ancients and Wraith. Interestingly, the bodies do not look like they're even a hundred years old. He looks at them sadly as he walks on. Finally he stops at one of the Ancient bodies and searches him for anything he may have. The colonel finds a life-signs detector, and his face lights up when he realizes that it still works.

Sheppard walks through the blown-open doors of every room in the building he's in, searching for supplies. He has no luck. Finally deciding that he wouldn't have any success today, Sheppard heads out of the city and crawls into a fissure in the ground to sleep.

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The next day, Sheppard continues his search. This time, however, he starts with the central building, which looked somewhat like Atlantis's control tower. He once again searches every room with no luck. Right when the sun starts to rise, indicating that the colonel should seek shelter in the forest, he spots something sticking out of a doorway several yards away. It looks like the muzzle of a gun, and it definitely isn't Wraith. Sheppard walks over and finds another dead Ancient, but he's clutching a weapon tightly in his hand. The weapon looks like a short assault rifle with a scope. Sheppard picks it up carefully, brushing the dust off of it and looking it over. Pointing it at the far wall, the colonel fires it. A golden burst of energy shoots out from the muzzle and burns a hole into the already carbon-scored wall. Smiling at his new discovery, Sheppard decides to check out the rest of the room it was in.

It's a good thing he made that choice, and Sheppard realizes that very quickly. This room is the city's reactor room. In it is the power hub of the city, a device that holds three Z.P.M.s. Sheppard walks over and confirms with his own eyes that the Z.P.M.s are in place. His eyes widen as he realizes what this means. If the Z.P.M.s aren't dead, they could definitely help Atlantis. Suddenly, Sheppard's life-signs detector starts to beep frantically. He looks at it and sees a circular blip has now appeared at the far corner. The blip is move towards him, and it's moving fast.

End of Chapter VII

Author's Note: So, is it a Wraith that's about to attack Sheppard, or is there a living Ancient on Teta Prime? Why are the bodies so fresh? And will Colonel Sheppard get off this planet with the Z.P.M.s? Find out in "Answers", Chapter VIII of Teta Prime.