The halls of the virtue seemed identical to that of the other ship. I could still hear Sara's screams as the Wraith stole her life. Fed upon a member of my team.
I could have saved her! She could have made it to the jumper with me. We could have all got off that ship. Instead I left her there; I hoped she had been killed by the blast and not the Wraith. She deserved a quick death.
I saw the men running into the jumper and coming out with the still paralysed Mark. I wished I could talk to him, explain what happened but I wasn't ready for it.
Lucas approached me. "Well done" he congratulated me "You did it! The Wraith lost all of their acquired ships and we struck a significant blow to their numbers. You did well and what you did was the most brave and admirable act I have ever seen", "Lucas it was nothing" I said, "You and your team have saved millions, with our technology at their hands, they would be invulnerable. You did the best anyone could have asked for.", "No I didn't!" I snapped, "I lost Sara! She was fed upon and then she sacrificed herself and my other man is currently paralysed! Don't tell me that mission went well!", "I'm sorry, I didn't realise" Lucas said "I will heal your friend personally, believe me when I say I understand losing someone. Everyone outside this ship that I ever knew are dead.", "I'm sorry Lucas, I forgot what you guys had been through. I just need some time alone" I told him as I left the light hangar.
I climbed onto my bed. I tried to rest up before the big day tomorrow, I thought today was tough, tomorrow was going to be worse. We now had no fleet, only a large group of Puddle Jumpers to make two jumps. Two jumps into Wraith space, it was going to get ugly. We had less than a 10 chance of surviving.
The Puddle Jumper dived down into the planets atmosphere; we were flying for the supplies. It was going surprisingly well. We flew back up to the ship. As we drew near it seemed to transform. It shrunk down and became very dark. It was a hive ship! I pulled us away and called for Sara "Sara! Hit the weapons controls, launch everything we got at them!", she wasn't there, of course she wasn't. She was dead! I expected to see Mark when I turned to his chair. Instead there was a skeleton. I screamed and pulled back into the atmosphere. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I swung around. I saw it, the Wraith! I went for my gun. I couldn't find it anywhere.
The Wraith grabbed me by the neck and lifted me from my chair. I gasped and screamed as his hand impacted my chest. I felt the life being pulled from my body. I was dying.
He turned me and I saw that the ship was hurtling towards the ground at lightning speed. We impacted as I felt my death cries escape my throat. I was glad he would die with me.
I shot awake. I gasped and stood up. I needed to calm down. I ran around the deck for hours. I was hoping I could forget the dream; the skeleton, the Wraith and the Jumper impacting on the floor.
The alarm sounded across the ship before we shot off into the Virtues top speed. I was forced to abandon my run and head back to my room. The speed had begun to affect me, I now felt sick. I looked out of the window at the stars speeding past. It reminded me of the journey to Atlantis on the Daedalus; the feeling that my stomach was kilometres behind me and the fear of jumping into a battle worried me.
I wasn't ready for this.
I decided to go and see how Mark was. He had been healed but I hadn't been to see him yet. I arrived at his quarters. I knocked on the door and it swung open, Mark greeted me with a sombre face. I couldn't believe how upset he looked.
"I hear Sara didn't make it." Mark said, "That's right, she broke her legs and was caught by the Wraith. I killed them all but a swarm of them were heading towards the destruct controls. She told me to go and she told me she would hold them off. Once I got to the hangar I realised the supply of explosives I had saved were gone. I felt the ship shake as the explosives went off and then the destruct started up. I got out on a new jumper, beamed you out and got us back to the virtue." I informed him, "She saved us" he said, "Yeah, she was a hero" I told him "She was fed upon and I couldn't get her out in time. We had less than a minute to get from destruct controls to the jumper bay. I'm sorry. I messed up.", "I understand, thank you, you saved us both" he told me. I was reassured for a while and he invited me in for a drink.
Almost 3 hours later the loud intercom informed us we were less than 10 minutes from dropping out near the planet and everyone was to report to their duty stations.
We both hurried to our jumper completely armed. The plan was to raid a Wraith supply station. We wouldn't be leaving the jumper. We'd be trying to beam out the supplies from the air. Taking it in turn to change between raiding and covering the other jumpers we should only take around 20 minutes to gather enough fuel for the next jump.
We entered the jumper and I powered it up, Mark took the targeting controls, he would be in charge of aiming the teleportation sensors. We were lowered into the bay along with around 20 other jumpers and we prepared to be released at high speeds.
With a jolt the ship pulled out of extreme speed and released our anchorage. We flew out of the hangar and adjusted our trajectory to get us into the atmosphere.
As we reached the supply area we began our plan. The first 5 jumpers flew down and beamed up the first of their fuel containers and came around for their second pass. As they came back down the Wraith defences shot into action. The large gun emplacements that surrounded the supply area prevented us from going too low. We had to try and get them through the cloud of fire from miles up.
The hangars opened and the Darts flew up from them. Now came the difficult part. We swung towards them and let fly a drone. I saw it impact but the dart managed to stay in the air. Again I thought about it and fired. This time the dart erupted into a flaming inferno of heat and light.
The group of jumpers finished their third supply run and pulled up to cover the next five. They shot down at high speed and began to beam up their supplies. I managed to shoot down another dart but I noticed on the now active sensors that 2 of the first group jumpers were hit. If we kept loosing ships at the rate we were we would barely have enough to supply the ship. Another went up and I heard an order through the radio. The first two groups were breaking off and heading back for the Virtue, it made sense, there was no way we could manage to get away without all of that fuel. We needed at least another 6 Jumpers to get away with the fuel, 6 of 8.
The three ships left in our group were now severely outnumbered. I decided to clear the way for the group. I flew towards the first of the gun emplacements and launched twelve drones. It exploded and made a small clearing in the fire, revealing the fuel that was left. I pulled the ship around and headed for the next one. I prepared to fire when our jumper was clipped by a shot from a dart that managed to get behind us. Shocked I launched drones at the ship shadowing us, I managed to successfully hit it.
The group of ships that were on the collection pulled into a formation and headed back to the Virtue, it was our turn now.
I pulled us up and Mark began to attempt to aim using the sensors. He found a target and locked on. It materialised behind me and I pulled up to prepare for the second pass. The second jumper successfully managed to get alongside us and turned for the next pass. The third however was struck by three darts, we had to get one more ship through. I saw the three darts form up and once more come on the attack. Both of our jumpers successfully managed the second pass. We both geared up for the third.
We flew towards the zone but our jumper received a hit from the dart. It wouldn't be easy to keep us up if we were hit again. The jumper alongside of us was hit and it burst into flame and flew into the nearest dart. Surprisingly the whole group impacted the bringing wreck.
We now had to get back up to the ship with our third canister. Mark aimed and hit the beam button. Nothing happened.
Surprised and confused I prepared again, I knew that the chances were against us but I ordered him to try again. It failed again. The hit must have knocked out the system. Our radio began to speak again, it was Lucas "We need those canisters more than ever! One of the ship's cloak failed in high orbit and it was destroyed by the two hive-ships we are currently engaging."
Great, I thought, my day just got a little bit worse. Pointing the ship downwards I engaged our cloak. The cloak meant we couldn't use the beam to scoop up the fuel but it was our best chance to get to the floor. I swung through the gap in the firing zone. I landed us next to the main fuel depot and headed in.
"Mark, wait here and defend the ship. I am going to get a new ride and the rest of the fuel." I told him, "Sir, there are sixteen left, with ours that makes 18 there is no way we can get it all!" he objected, "Yes there is, just be ready to pilot the jumper out of here when I say." I said as I ran off into the hangar bay.
Mark ran out into the fuel depot and grabbed another one of the large fuel holders and grabbed it. He ran to the jumper and put it into the cargo area.
He closed the back and headed towards the cockpit. With the cloak on no one would know that the jumper was there, no one except for the Wraith that had found her way onto the ship.
I ran into the smallest hangar bay and saw a singular dart sitting on the bay. I dropped down towards the dart and down onto the bay floor. I jumped into the dart and saw that it had its own version of our lifesigns detector. It showed twelve what I assumed were Wraith lifesigns heading my way. I hurriedly tried to start up the dart. Unsure of how to control it, I found it hard but I managed to lift it up and into the air. I must have been seen, the doors began to close, I shot forward and out at top speed. I saw what I assumed was the dematerialiser controls and I hit them, successfully collecting the fuel that remained and pulling up. "Mark! Take off now!" I shouted down the radio as I saw 3 Wraith closing in on the jumper.
I saw no movement as I headed up off the ground and through the firing gap. I lifted up and flew out successfully. I hoped that they hadn't realised that this wasn't a Wraith piloted ship. As I came up I saw two jumpers heading back down through the atmosphere. They were obviously coming to rescue our jumper. They were destroying all the darts in their way and they were coming straight at me. The first had its weapon slots opened. I regretted having to do it but I fired and hit the weapons straight off of the ship. It didn't explode to my relief. It peeled off and cloaked. I wished I had the ability. I pulled directly up and towards the Virtue. The Wraith weren't engaging me but I knew the hardest part came now. I had to land on the Virtue.
I activated the communications device Lucas had given me and told them it was me. I wasn't sure whether they would acknowledge if they got the message. I assumed they hadn't when I saw the weapons turret turn towards me.
It was definitely not my day!
TO BE CONTINUED…