Stargate Atlantis: Showdown

PROLOGUE

The planet Harken, somewhere in the
Pegasus Galaxy.

The force of Genii deployed to the planet, known as Harken, was substantial, numbering at over 200 soldiers and 40 logistical personnel of various fields of expertise. Commander Adair Cormac was one of the very first to emerge planet-side, with the first wave of his men.

He stood proudly on the stone pedestal on which the Gate of the Ancestors was perched, and watched as the Genii troops under his own direct command fan out across the vast grasslands stretching out before them in all directions.

He was a seasoned leader of men, though more politically attuned than a military field-commander. But Adair had been given this important task by Cowen himself, a man that the Commander revered and respected for his driving vision in their peoples' epic struggle against the Wraith.

Adair also knew that Cowen trusted him, relied on his support, so this was a way for him to get in the good graces of one of the Grand Masters of the Genii Combined Forces.

Always thinking and strategising, was Adair Cormac. He had great dreams, vast ambitions, and was not about to be stopped by anyone or anything.

But this operation, to track down just one man…

It seemed like an incredible waste of Genii resources and personnel to Cormac, but then he was not one to question the valid nature of such orders. He was tasked with an objective, and he was to carry it out without question and without fail. Simple enough, really, and Adair hardly cared to question these orders regardless.

Acastus Kolya was a very dangerous man, skilled in a wide variety of modes of death and destruction, and one of the most lethal commandos the Genii had ever turned out.

He had escaped from the High Council's clutches when word reached him from a sympathetic member of their plans to have him 'dispatched', and Kolya had managed to kill his would-be assassins and escape through the Stargate before anyone realised it hadn't gone to plan.

Now, word had reached the Genii High Council from a source amongst the Harken that Acastus was amongst their people, so the task force had been assembled and Commander Cormac given his objectives.

The former Commander of great prestige among the Genii was to be brought back to the homeworld as a prisoner, to be tortured for his insolence and then put to death at the discretion of Grand Master Cowen himself. Anyone who got in the way of the Genii task force was to be dispatched without hesitation. Those were the type of clear-cut, concise orders Adair respected.

What happened next, as the Commander stepped down off the stone pedestal and started striding across the grassland towards his two senior subordinates, was nothing short of unbelievable.

Kolya, the man they had all come to scour the planet if need be to track down and apprehend, came striding out of the tree-line off to the left of Adair's position and started walking towards him at a leisurely pace!

It was one of the most incredulous sights Commander Cormac had ever seen. He was struck dumb by the sight of the man striding towards him, the flaps of Acastus' simple peasant's cloak slapping together as he strode purposefully across the grassy plain, his hands hanging down by his sides, palms opened, no obvious weapon in sight…

Every single Genii soldier who could see Kolya approaching, however, did not have to be told to take the most extreme precautions when dealing with the dangerous man – they all kept their guns raised on him as he moved closer, their fingers resting lightly on the triggers ready to pull back just a fraction further in an instant.

This made the flustered Commander feel a little bit more in control, considering the strangely precarious situation. But he could still feel the beads of sweat running down the sides of his face, and streaks sliding slowly down his back. Adair could not stop the fear gnawing at his stomach, as the Genii legend made his way closer, Kolya's head raised high and his eyes blazing with an inner drive that chilled the other man to the very bone.

"Well then, it seems you've saved all of us a great deal of time by presenting yourself to this task force, Kolya, and for that I honour you." Adair leered sarcastically, not even bothering to conceal his contempt for the seasoned warrior. Kolya did nothing, just came to a stop about twenty-five yards away from Commander Cormac and kept his hands down by his sides, his head slightly bowed. "Now, why are you here handing yourself over, Kolya? Hoping to plead your case before the High Council? Somehow, I cannot imagine Cowen would allow this…"

"I'm not going back home, Adair…" Acastus replied coldly. "At least, not yet. And the reason I've presented myself to you is quite simple, really – it's so I can shoot you dead right now!"

And with that, Kolya moved into fluid action, reaching up with his right hand to pull a Genii standard issue auto-pistol out of his tunic. He raised the gun up in one quick action and, before he could even make a move to draw his own weapon or escape, Commander Cormac found himself staring down the barrel of a deadly pistol pointed right at his head.

The look on the old Commander's face was truly murderous. There was no compassion there for the man who had been sent to bring him in, no room in Kolya's heart for caring for the man he had dead to rights in his gun's crosshairs.

Adair offered up a quick prayer to the Ancestors. He was still muttering the first hurried verse when the bullet struck, smashing right into his temple, straight between his eyes…

The Genii Commander sagged back onto the ground where he'd been standing, quite dead, the huge gaping hole in his skull still smouldering from the gunshot wound that felled him.

# A #

None of the Genii reacted at first. The two officers who had been marching over to Kolya and Cormac froze in mid-stride. The man on the left, the Group Leader, was one of Adair's backers – Kolya watched him closely, though he made no obvious sign of this fact.

Acastus Kolya lowered his still-smoking pistol and glanced around at all the Genii troopers arrayed before him. Every single one of them had weapons levelled at him, bar the two officers, but no one was firing despite the fact that he had just killed their commanding officer, Adair, right before their very eyes.

The Group Leader was the first one to snap out of the comatose state that had befallen the entire task force. He reached down for his sidearm.

"Why aren't you all SHOOTING, men? This traitor's just killed a Genii Commander!" the Group Leader yelled out at the top of his lungs, lifting his auto-pistol from up out of his gun-holster. He did not know that this was a fatal move to make… and he never would know.

No one else made a move, nor fired a shot at Kolya. Though over almost the entire complement of Genii could have, if they only squeezed back on their triggers just a little bit.

The Group Leader did not move nearly as fast as Acastus himself did, when the veteran chose to make his move. The Genii warrior snapped around on the balls of his feet and had his gun back up in a flash, a seemingly inhuman blur of motion, and fired four shots in rapid-fire succession that all found their marks perfectly.

His target, the Genii Group Leader, sent staggering back off his feet, dropping quickly to the ground after taking a couple of unsteady steps backwards. The man was dead before he hit the ground.

For a few long moments, silence reigned. Then the Sub-Leader moved forward, stepping over the smouldering body of his superior with barely a look at the gore-splattered corpse. He moved up to the well renowned and respected former Genii military leader, and saluted the man with crisp precision. Kolya returned the salute promptly, then they both shook hands.

"Sir, it is a true honour to assist you in this expedition," the Sub-Leader, Egan, stated with low, sincere earnest. He was the brother of one of the Genii soldiers killed in the failed operation to take the Ancient city of Atlantis.

"I thank you and your troopers for your allegiance, Egan, and vow to you all right here and now that your faith in me will not go unrewarded."

There was no dissuading Kolya from this objective, this one last shot at total glory and redemption in the eyes of his Genii brethren. The men in this command, all 240 troopers and logistics personnel that stood with Kolya, all knew that if they did not succeed in their objectives, they would all be forever branded as traitors and forced to live in permanent exile.

But their leader had a plan, and he was not about to fail all the soldiers that had taken such a great and terrible risk in joining him in this endeavour… not as long as there was an ounce of breath in him, and there was a goal still yet to be reached.

The enemies of Acastus Kolya would all soon feel the pain of his wrath, the merciless agony of an uncompromising Genii warrior. They would all suffer greatly for the wrongs they had committed upon him, of the intolerable suffering he had endured for the disgraces of others.

Yes, soon enough entire worlds across the galaxy would run red with the blood of his enemies – as Kolya had an advantage unlike any other through an amazing chance discovery, and now with the manpower to exploit it, there would be a new wave of Genii power to rise up and sweep aside the weak and the corrupt.