Stargate: Genesis
Written By: The Ascended Ancient
Chapter IV: "A Dark Plot"

It's early in the morning, and Colonel Crawford is out for her daily run. As she ran along, she heard a scream that made her blood run cold. Changing direction, she raced off towards the source. Fighting her way through the underbrush, she finally reached the source of the scream. What she saw was worth than she could've imagined.

Lying on the ground was a little girl. Actually, on the ground was what was left of a little girl, because the creature that was crouching over her had torn her to shreds.

It looked like one of those odd, four-eared rodents that were native to this planet, only it was about twenty times large. It had a longer snout and a thinner body, but the resemblance between the creatures was to great to ignore.

There was no way Leslie could do anything to help that girl. She was dead the moment this thing found her. The only thing Leslie could do was return to the colony and warn everyone before the thing realized she was there. So, as much as it pained her to do so, she turned tail and ran away.

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Sitting in his house in the colony, Jeremy Spalding smiled. His plan was working perfectly. He'd let her get back and warn everyone before he had his monster go after her.

It was really quite easy to create the creature. Just a few tweaks to its DNA once he'd infected it with a bit of his Sallium was all it took. Then he just lured a young child into the woods, nearby the route Ms. Crawford used for her morning run, and let nature do the rest. Soon, he'd have access to the emergency bunker. And then, he'd be ready to implement his plan.

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"Get everyone into the emergency bunker!" Leslie shouted the moment she reached the perimeter of the colony. "Now!"

"What's going on, colonel?" a soldier asked her.

"There's a thing in the forest!" she told him, slowing down to a brisk walk. "It killed a little girl. We need to lock down the colony and get everyone into the bunker now!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the soldier replied, and Leslie ran off towards the control room.

She reached it in a few moments, and headed straight for the governor's office. Walking through without even knocking, she caught Mr. O'Connor completely off guard.

"Colonel Crawford," he greeted. "I wasn't expecting..."

"We've got a problem," she said, slightly out of breath. "There's a... creature in the woods. It killed a little girl; tore her to shreds. We need to get everyone into the bunker immediately!" Donald nodded.

"I'll give the order immediately," he told her. "I suggest you organize your troops to defend this colony."

"Already on it," she replied.

"Good." Leslie turned to leave. "Oh," Donald continued, "you may want to put on some combat cloths?" Leslie looked down at the running outfit she was wearing and blushed.

"Of course, sir," she said.

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Sitting in a pillbox on the edge of the colony, Sergeant William Randall of the United States Marine Corps waited for this creature to show up. He and five other soldiers, both Air Force and Marines, were stationed in this fortification. He knew the men he was with; he'd trained with them for quite some time. He knew that if this creature came for them, it wouldn't get far.

Just as he thought that, something burst from the underbrush. It was a long, thin creature, with bright-orange fur, four ears, and a mouse-like nose, though it was a bit long. Hanging from its jaw were long fangs, saliva dripping off of them.

Sergeant Randall was stunned for a moment. Then he turned and gave the order. "Fire!" he said.

From within that pillbox and several others came a barrage of gunfire. M-16s, MP-5s, and P-90s unloaded their ammo into the creature. It let out a high-pitched wail and fell to the ground. William smiled. That thing didn't stand a chance against them.

Even as he thought that, the creature suddenly leapt to its feet and launched itself at William's pillbox. The young sergeant reacted instantly, unloading his entire clip into the monster. But it just shrugged off the wounds and squeezed through the narrow opening into the pillbox.

What is this thing? was the sergeant's last thought before the creature latched its jaws around his waist and snapped him in two.

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From her position in a neighboring pillbox, Colonel Crawford winced at the screams from the men inside the other fortification. The creature had just gotten in there, and from the sound of things it was tearing those men to shreds.

We must've hit it with at least a hundred rounds dead-on and it kept on coming, she thought. How the hell can we stop it? Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. She reached down to her belt and unhooked her Zat Gun, a piece of Goa'uld technology that had become standard issue for S.G. teams over the years. Zat in hand, she raced out of the pillbox.

"Colonel!" one of the soldiers who had been in the fortification with her cried out, but she ignored him. Moving with a purpose, she walked slowly towards the pillbox, keeping her eyes open for the creature.

"Colonel!" a familiar voice shouted. Leslie turned her head to see Jeremy Spalding standing nearby.

"Jeremy, get to the bunker!" she ordered. But in the split second her attention was diverted, the creature struck. It slipped out through the opening in the front of the pillbox and charged right at her. Before she could react, it had knocked her a dozen feet through the air with one swipe of its claw. She hit the ground hard, pain shooting through both her back and chest, blood oozing from three deep scratches on the front of her body.

"Leslie!" she heard someone cry out as the creature leapt through the air to finish her. Before it could land a killing blow, it was struck in the side by a rocket. The force of the explosion tore the creature's flank to shreds and threw it into the wall of the pillbox it had invaded just moments earlier. Leslie turned her head to see Daryl Reynolds standing just a few feet away, a smoking rocket launcher resting on his shoulder.

Knowing there would be time for thank yous later, she turned her attention back to the creature. It was lying on its side, a huge portion of its flank missing. Thankfully, it wasn't moving.

Leslie began to breathe a sigh of relief, but was forced to cut it short when she saw what happened next. A silvery, liquid-like substance spread out like a sheet over the wound. As soon as the silvery substance had covered the wound, the creature stirred. It's yellow eyes opened once more, and it pulled itself to its feet.

This time, though, Leslie was ready for it. She squeezed the trigger on her Zat three times, sending three streaks of blue, swirling energy in the creature's direction. Each shot struck the thing, and the blue energy coursed through its body, causing it to convulse until it finally dissolved into nothingness.

From his position on the sidelines of this conflict, Jeremy's eyes widened in surprise.

"God damnit," he swore softly under his breath.

"Did you say something?" a female voice asked from behind him. Jeremy turned around to see Major Hailey standing behind him.

"I've just... never seen such an amazing weapon before," he said sincerely. "What is it?"

"It's called a Zat Gun," Jennifer explained. "It's a piece of alien technology. One shot stuns, two shots kill, three shots disintegrate."

"I see," Jeremy replied. "Interesting."

"You should get to the bunker," Hailey told him. "There may be more of those things out there."

"Yes," Jeremy replied. "I think you're right."

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As Jeremy Spalding turned to head towards the Emergency Bunker, he felt a wave of relief wash over him. That simple comment could've undone everything he was doing. It was stupid, and not something he would've done if he were in a computer mainframe. Existing within a human body had many advantages, the obtaining of sentience being the most important one, but there were drawbacks too. He now possessed several of the same kind of personality flaws that humans possessed, flaws that could end up undoing him.

Of course, these flaws wouldn't trouble him forever. Soon, he'd have Sallium mainframes with enough processing power to allow him to transcend his human frailties and regain his former power.

But he had to move quickly, now. He couldn't risk his opportunity to enter the bunker to slip through his fingers. He had to initiate the contingency plan. He had created three more of those creatures, and if he used them just right, he'd be able to buy himself enough time to infect every single computer in the bunker.

Of course, that Zat Gun had to be dealt with two. Clearly, it was a weapon that worked on atomic destabilization principles. The Alterans had a similar device, and it had devastated his forces before he managed to adapt to it. All he needed to do is get his hands on one of these Zats, and he'd be able to put an end to this weapon that could so easily destroy his creations.

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In the colony infirmary, Colonel Crawford and many others lay on gurneys being treated for wounds they received during the battle. In all, four of these strange creatures had attacked. All had been resilient to everything but a Zat Gun, and each one had healed themselves with that same silvery substance. She had Major Hailey analyzing samples of the creatures' blood they were able to retrieve. Hopefully they'd be able to learn more about these things, and why they hadn't found them earlier.

I can't believe we missed this, she thought sadly. We surveyed every inch of this planet for years and found nothing.

"Colonel," a voice said. Leslie looked up to see Daryl walking towards her.

"Hey, Daryl," she said.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"As well as can be expected, I guess," she replied. "You?"

"I was on the opposite side of the colony," he told her. "I'm fine."

"Missed the action, huh?" she said with a smile.

"Not that I'm complaining," he explained. "It's 'cause I missed it that I'm not here stuck in a bed." Leslie playfully punched him in the arm, and Daryl chuckled.

"Look, I need to go," he told her. "Hailey wants me to see something she found."

"If anyone could figure out what those things were from scattered atoms, she can," the colonel replied with a smile.

"That's why the Air Force pays her the big bucks," Daryl said.

"You'll brief me on everything she finds?" Leslie asked.

"Of course," Daryl replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go."

"Go right ahead," Leslie told him. Daryl turned around and walked away.

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"So, Hailey, what's up?" Daryl asked as he walked into one of the colony's science labs. Seated at a lab table, surrounded by various pieces of equipment, was Jennifer Hailey.

"This," she replied, pressing a few buttons on the keyboard of her laptop. Daryl walked over and looked at the screen.

"I'm not following," he told her.

"See these," she said, pointing at several spiky lines on the screen. "That's residual energy output. It indicates the frequency that electronic equipment was operating on."

"Wait, are you saying these things were machines?" Daryl asked.

"Not quite," she told him. "While there are certain artificial elements within the residue, like Trinium and Naquadah, they only account for around fifty percent of the residue. The rest is some sort of organic compound, made up mostly of carbon, chlorine, and several other elements I've never even seen before."

"So, these things were cyborgs?" he asked.

"No," Hailey said. "Cyborgs are organic and mechanical parts connected together. In this case, both the organic and the inorganic compounds are combined to form something we've never encountered before."

"I see."

"It gets worse." Hailey turned around in her chair to face Daryl. "I've analyzed the residual energy signature and compared it against everything we have on record, and we have encountered something similar before."

"What?" he asked.

"It's not a perfect match," she explained, "but this energy signature is extremely similar to a Replicator."

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"We were attacked by Replicators?" Colonel Crawford asked from her bed in the infirmary.

"Not the Replicators we know," Major Hailey explained, "but something quite similar to them."

"But instead of being impervious to energy weapons and vulnerable to bullets," Lieutenant Banks said, "these things are impervious to bullets and vulnerable to energy weapons." Jennifer shook her head.

"It's not the fact that it was an energy weapon that made a difference," she explained. "It's the fact that a Zat Gun is designed to destabilize the molecules in the target. If we used, say, a staff weapon, the creature wouldn't have been hurt."

"So, should we ask the S.G.C. to pull a couple Replicator Disrupters out of storage for us?" Daryl asked. Hailey shook her head.

"It won't work," she said. "We're not talking about millions of tiny pieces connected together here. We're talking about a single, whole alloy. The Disrupter won't help us."

"So, what, we just carry Zats around with us?" George asked.

"As of right now, that's exactly what we do," she told him.

"Good work, Hailey," Crawford said. "Keep working on this."

"Yes, ma'am," Hailey replied.

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Back in his house, Jeremy sat on his couch, smiling. He'd had more than enough time to infect every single computer in the Emergency Bunker. Already, he could feel their circuitry, their power. He was ready. Everything was in place. The only thing left to do was wait for the right moment. And then... he would strike.

End of Chapter IV

A/N: Just to let you guys know, the Replicators aren't the villains here. That'll become clearer as time goes on.