Part 3

The Next Day

It had been a month, a month of new experiences and challenges; I had been on 3 offworld missions and had encountered alien species on 2 of the three excursions, I was glad to see that I would now have a familiar face on my team, after our catch up last night we had gone to see the newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Shepperd.

He had assigned me a team and I was requesting Marks transfer to our group, Shepperd agreed and now we were planning for our next mission.

We were taking a Puddle Jumper through the gate to look for Ford; we knew he would be near the Wraith. He would most likely be shaking things up so we had to keep our guard up. We had grabbed enough ordinance to fight a long term war. I couldn't help but wonder, how dangerous could this one man be?

I sat in the pilots chair and the jumper started up, that never grew old. It was a mystical machine; it could sense the pilot's thoughts and respond to them. Mark activated the gate and I powered us through. We came out in orbit of a large blue planet. I turned the ship and headed into the atmosphere. At high speed we flew towards the ground there was snow all over it. I pulled up and we levelled out.

The sensors came on, I didn't think about them but they came on. Something triggered them; there was a large red dot on the screen and it was close. Very close.

I turned the ship to retreat but as I did 3 more dots appeared, smaller but still red and still coming towards us. The ship shook as each shot impacted on the hull.

I flashed back, I saw the Prometheus, I could feel the bumps, I could see the sparks and I could see the ships flanking us.

Mark snapped me out of it and I managed to manoeuvre, the first of the ships flew in front of us, I thought about shooting and three drones fired and locked onto their target, it went up in a blast of flame. The inferno fell to the ground and the dot disappeared from the radar.

The explosions inside the ship were getting worse. We couldn't take much more of this. I pulled up and flew towards space, still followed by two darts. One came alongside us and I knew it was almost in sight. I waited until it came into view and launched two more of the brightly coloured drones.

The second Dart went into flames and crashed into the side of our jumper. It damaged us badly, the shock blew out the console behind us and a marine standing there received an explosion in his face.

We shot out of the blackness of space. I saw the dart coming even with us. Was it trying to shoot us or was it hoping to blow us up by hitting us.

I looked at my radar. There were 6 more dots closing in fast, I gulped and looked back to the burnt marine. The fourth member of my team was there with him. She was also a marine but luckily had basic medical training with Atlantian equipment.

"We need to go faster!" Mark screamed in my ear, "I'm trying!" I replied. I thought about speeding up, going faster and we shot forward at immense speed. The dots disappeared quickly and we shot out into the unknown.

3 Hours Later

The ship ground to a halt and sped out of control, we had no idea where we were but there was a massive dot on the radar. This time however, it was blue. We were almost in flames; I had to bring us down so I headed for the dot.

As we drew close to the dot I could see the ship. It was a massive ship. It looked alive, still powered up. Could it be ancient? I hoped it was friendly.

We flew messily into the landing bay and were somehow immediately stopped. Eerily the back door lowered and the light shone in. I grabbed my weapon and lifted it; I walked to the door and looked out. There was a massive bay and I could see straight into space. There was some sort of force field there, preventing explosive decompression. I sighed and called out Mark and the marine, whose name was Sara, the other man was dead. The blast had burned through his skull and he had died an immensely painful death.

We stepped onto the ship and walked towards the door. It was shut and we had no idea of what to expect on the other side.

As we drew near the door opened. "Automatic doors... Well we know they are advanced now" Mark joked. None of us smiled, we were too worried. The corridor was immaculate. This ship seemed brand new. Almost like it had been just built and left here.

The corridor was empty, the ship seemed alive but the rooms were all barren, devoid of all life.

Once we all reached the corridor a massive flash appeared from the walls and we all collapsed.

When we woke up we were in some kind of cell. "Automated defences?" Sara asked, "I sure hope not" I said "Otherwise we are going to die in here".

To my relief the door opened and a man walked in, he was human and seemed to be too advanced to be from a culled world. "Oh good" he said "You're awake; the Commander has some questions for you. Please follow me" The cell opened and we walked out. We left the prison and went back into a corridor, now the corridor was teeming with life, full of crew members, walking to their next task. It was more comfortable like this.

We entered a room at what must have been the top of the ship and saw a man standing at a window. He was clearly of more importance than the others; he was wearing a much more official looking uniform and had a much more commanding feel to him.

"Welcome to the Battleship Virtue" the commander said "My name is Lucas Regis"
"Lucas Regis?" Sara enquired
"Yes"
"That's Latin sir" she told me "It means royal bringer of light"
Latin I thought, this just keeps getting more and more interesting. Could they really be living ancients? I hoped they were, the ancients were peaceful pacifists, they' surely take us back to Atlantis.
"Where did you find that ship?" he demanded
"In the city of Atlantis" I replied
"Atlantis?" he questioned "I was under the impression that the great city had been destroyed by the Wraith, when we returned there it was gone"
"You are ancients" I said
"Ancients? We have been known by that name. Long ago our people were under attack by the Wraith, I assumed Atlantis was another casualty."
"No, your people sank it to the ocean floor." Mark told him
"Is it still inhabited by Alterans today?"
"Alterans?" I asked
"That is the original name of our species" he informed us
"I am afraid not, they all left and went back to Earth. We came from Earth in search of you."
He looked puzzled by this information but allowed us to leave, he told us we could stay on the ship but we could never be returned to Atlantis. The ship was on a mission. A mission set off by hatred and the belief that the Wraith had destroyed the Alterans completely.

The Virtue was trying to destroy all of the Wraith. It had a full crew compliment and full stock of weaponry. They took the jumper in for repairs and activated some form of engine and we shot off. We shot off deeper into Wraith territory.

TO BE CONTINUED...