Stargate:
Genesis
Written By: The Ascended Ancient
Chapter V: "A
Colony Falls"
To Ben Prince: Yes, characters from the show will be making appearances as the story goes on.
A/N: For those of you who don't remember, the Alterans are the Ancients, the race that built the Stargate. The "Alteran Ring" is another name for the Stargate (I made it up for this story).
Jeremy Spalding walked down the path towards the Alteran Ring as though nothing unusual was up. He didn't want any soldiers he came across to suspect anything, after all. Not with his plan just hours away from execution.
It had been several days since his creatures had attacked the colony, and Jeremy had decided that it was imprudent to wait any longer. The conditions wouldn't get much better than this, after all.
And so he walked towards the Alteran Ring, planning to put some of the final parts of his plan into place. Walking up a hill, he came into sight of the grand device… and the soldiers guarding it. In his opinion, the Alterans were geniuses to have devised and built such a magnificent thing. A device capable of instantaneously transporting someone to another planet. No Furling would've thought such a device was possible, and yet the Alterans had built it.
Jeremy growled in frustration as he realized that he was reminiscing on the past, yet another quality of this human mind that he hated. Of all the species who's minds he had melded with, the human mind was the frailest. Even though they were genetically similar to the Alterans, they lacked the highly evolved brain structure that mighty race had once possessed.
"Excuse me, sir," a soldier said, holding out a hand to stop Jeremy from approaching. "Where do you think you're going?"
"I just wanted to see the Stargate again, sir," Jeremy replied, walking over to the DHD. "It's a remarkable…" Before he could finish his sentence, the ring came alive. The inner track began to spin, and the chevrons started to light up.
"Don't worry," a soldier said reassuringly to Jeremy, who didn't need to be reassured. "It's just reinforcements coming from Earth."
"Oh, really?" Jeremy asked.
"Yeah," the soldier replied. "After those creatures attacked, the S.G.C. decided to send additional troops to help secure the colony."
"I'm… relieved," Jeremy said, forcing a smile onto his face. Maybe waiting was a mistake, he thought. Now there will be more military personnel to neutralize.
The Alteran Ring activated with a fwoosh, and, almost immediately, soldiers began to walk through.
"Maybe you should return to the colony with them, sir," the soldier Jeremy was talking to suggested.
"You're probably right," Jeremy told him before turning around and walking back towards the colony.
I must move quickly, he thought. Unfortunately, accelerating his plans meant abandoning his hope of controlling this planet's Alteran Ring. If the colonists reached it, they would be able to escape and report what had happened. But that was a risk he had to take. His future, his legacy, and his existence were at stake here. The Zetharian had to win.
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"So, what do you think we should do?" Governor O'Connor asked Colonel Crawford. He had summoned her to his office to discuss the growing unrest within the colony following the attack by those creatures several days ago.
"Well, sir, those that really want to leave should be allowed to do so," Leslie replied. "We can't hold them here without turning the entire population against us." Donald nodded.
"Better to loose a few than to loose them all," he said.
"Exactly," Leslie acknowledged. "With the additional security, all the ones who want to stay will feel much safer. The ones that are flat-out opposed to staying, we don't need them here persuading the people who want to stay that it's a bad idea."
"You're quite right, colonel."
"Thank you, governor," Leslie said. "If that's all, I need to work on integrating the new forces with our old ones."
"Of course," he said, ushering her towards the door.
On her way out of the governor's office, she felt a searing pain in her chest. The scratch marks there were healing, but it was a slow, painful process. Even worse, she had been expressly forbidden by her doctor to do strenuous exercises until they healed, leaving her with nothing to do in her spare time. And, of course, Daryl was spinning this as a sign that she needed to have something to do in her life that wasn't military-related. But she still didn't agree. She'd be fully healed in two weeks, and then it was back to the old regiment. There was no reason to try and, as he put it, 'live a little'.
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Later that night, Leslie Crawford walked through the heart of the camp towards her house. It had been a long day of re-organizing the colony's defenses and having people ask her if she was feeling all right (which was something she detested). Now, she just wanted to go home and go to sleep.
She walked up to her house and pulled out her keycard. But before she could swipe it, a voice called out, "Colonel Crawford!" Leslie turned around to see Jeremy Spalding walking towards her.
"Mr. Spalding," she greeted. "What are you doing here?"
"I have a question for you," he replied.
"Ok," Leslie told him. "Shoot."
"How do you feel about being my emissary?" he asked.
"Your what?" she asked, not understanding what he was asking her. Jeremy just smiled and raised his hand. From the tips of each of his fingers, long, silver, rope-like things shot out towards her. Before she could even think to move, they had wrapped themselves around her so securely she couldn't move.
"Actually," Jeremy continued, "I don't care how you feel about it. You'll be my emissary to the people on Earth, whether you want to or not. Because when I'm through with you, you won't have a choice." Jeremy smiled wickedly and raised his other hand. Out of that hand's index finger came another long, silvery rope. It slowly made its way towards her.
"You know, compared to my war with the Alterans, fighting you humans is going to be easy," he told her as the sharp tip of the silvery rope approached her temple. Suddenly, Jeremy was struck from behind by gunfire. He fell to the ground and the silvery ropes retracted back into his hands as Daryl Reynolds emptied an entire clip of P-90 ammo into his back. When the clip was empty, Daryl pulled it out and put in a new one.
"You ok, Leslie?" he asked.
"Now I am," she replied. Daryl carefully walked around the prone body of Jeremy until he reached Leslie's side.
"What was that?" he asked.
"I don't know," she replied. "But we should have Hailey look him..." Suddenly, a silver rope shoved itself into Leslie's temple before either she or Daryl could react. Leslie cried out in pain before collapsing to the ground. The rope is retracted, and Jeremy pulls himself to his feet. Not wasting any time, Daryl unloads yet another clip into the man. Once he's empty, he tosses the rifle to the ground and picks up Leslie, carrying her away as fast as his legs will run.
"Control Room!" he screamed into his radio, but his only reply is static. "Control Room, please respond!" Static continues to sound from his radio. "God damnit!" he swore. He'd have to worn them directly.
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In the Control Room of the Genesis Colony, none of the officers on duty knew that anything was wrong. To them, the colony was completely secure.
Suddenly, all their monitors went blank. Surprised, soldiers and civilians alike punched buttons on their keyboards, wondering what the problem was. With their attention focused on their screens, no one noticed the many silver swellings in the walls at first. Then, someone noticed, and let out a scream. But it was too late. As thin, silvery ropes shot out from the walls, everyone in the Control Room was as good as dead.
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Standing outside the control room building, Donald O'Connor paces back and forth, staring out at the three moons of this world. He was in charge of these people, it was his duty to keep them safe. And he was doing the best job he could, he knew that. But ever since those creatures showed up, he had begun to feel helpless. It was as if things were spiraling out of control, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Even as his dark thoughts plagued him, he heard a crash from above. Spinning around, he saw a soldier fly out of a window and crash to the ground below. His gun, an MP-5, clattered to the ground next to him.
The soldier was a bloody mess. He was bleeding from at least a dozen holes all over his body, and there was some strange silvery stuff mixed in with his blood. Donald just stood there, staring at him for a moment. Behind the body, the wall of the control room building started to churn. Silvery blotches could be seen spreading out across it.Realizing he was low on time, Donald took action. He raced to the body and grabbed the MP-5 and all the ammo the soldier was carrying. Then the governor of the Genesis Colony raced away from the building to the nearest house. He was going to save as many lives as he could, even if it cost him his.
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Daryl Reynolds was almost to the control room when he heard gunfire. Fearing for the lives of the other colonists, he gently placed Leslie on the ground, un-holstered his 9mm, and ran off in the direction of the gunfire.
Racing around a building, he found himself face-to-face with a disturbing sight. Governor O'Connor, an MP-5 in hand, was shooting like a madman to keep silvery tendrils, much like the ones that came out of Jeremy's hand, at bay. Daryl raised his pistol and supported the governor until the tendrils finally pulled away.
"Governor," Daryl greeted.
"Captain," the governor replied. "We need to get these people out of here. Where is Colonel Crawford?"
"She's been incapacitated, sir," Daryl replied. "The others are, as far as I know, on the other side of the colony."
"Then it's just you and me," Donald said. "Let's go."
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On the other side of the colony, Major Hailey and Captain Banks were doing everything they could to keep the enemy at bay. Jennifer had exhausted half the ammo she had for her P-90 fighting off the strange tendrils, but George's M-40 had far more ammo in each clip, and he had a great deal left.
"We need to get to the armory!" Hailey shouted to her teammate.
"And maybe find some more people!" George shouted back. "Let's go!"
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Over the next half an hour, the fighting was fierce all over the colony. On one side, Governor O'Connor and Captain Reynolds fought hard to keep the silvery tendrils at bay, collecting civilians as they went along. Reynolds had passed on the prone figure of Colonel Crawford to several of the colonists to carry, allowing him to focus entirely on the threat of the enemy... whatever it was. They met a handful of other soldiers along the way, providing added protection to the civilians they were escorting. But all around them, people they couldn't get to in time were being torn apart.
On the other side, Major Hailey and Captain Banks were doing the same thing. They had hooked up with a contingent of soldiers at the armory and were now working to evacuate as many civilians as they could.
Neither group could get to everyone. The enemy focused its full strength on them, and they were forced to withdraw. Both groups fled the colony and made a break for the Stargate.
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With slow, deliberate steps, Jeremy Spalding walked into the ruins of the colony's control room. Of course, it wouldn't be ruins for long. Already, the technology was finishing the conversion process he had begun days ago, the primitive alloys and circuits transforming into Sallium. The bodies, of course, had only been infected for less than half an hour, and were no where near transformed enough to be useful.
Which means I can't pursue those who are fleeing, he thought angrily, regretting that he had been unable to infect the Alteran Ring earlier that day. This means I will have to move quickly, he realized. They will have no trouble getting back to their homeworld. Once there, they will send their troops and their ships to destroy me. That cannot be allowed to happen.
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As they left the clearing and approached the path to the Stargate, Daryl noticed another group of people heading the same way.
"Governor!" he said. "There are more survivors!"
"Good!" Donald replied. "And thank god," he said quietly to himself. Ronald looked through the other group, and when he spotted Hailey and Banks with them, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"They don't appear to be pursuing us," Donald commented.
"Let's keep running anyway," Daryl replied.
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It did not take them long to reach the gate. Captain Reynolds was the first one to arrive, and he dialed the gate and transmitted his IDC. Once that happened, everyone raced through and back to Earth.
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If someone had been flying a ship over the Genesis Colony at this time, they would've been shocked by what they found. The many buildings of the colony had turned a silvery color, and tendrils of silver alloy stretched between them. Every second dozens of additional tendrils shot out and connected the various buildings. As such, the entire colony were slowly becoming one, giant structure. And in the heart of it, Jeremy Spalding was grinning from ear to ear. His plan was not going perfectly, but it did feel good to be powerful again.
End of Chapter V
A/N: Well, colony go bye-bye! And, folks, if you think things are bad for the good guys now, you ain't seen nothin' yet!
Oh, and for those of you who like seeing familiar characters, the next few chapters... actually, a large portion of what's left of this story, you're going to like. You'll be seeing a lot of General Landry and one other character, as well as occasional appearances from others. Who is this other character we're going to be seeing a lot of? I'm not telling!