The descent was easy, the dampers were working this time; I didn't feel the bumps as we came through the atmosphere. In fact I felt nothing until we levelled out. In a normal fighter we would have been killed by the gravity. It would have been so intense it would have crushed us into our chairs.

I was glad we weren't in a normal fighter.

Instead we were in a puddle jumper, an advanced spaceship built by the ancients and an all round sturdy ship. We were heading into a small fleet of darts and turrets, all of them ready to cut our small group of ships to threads. This would have to be carried out with surgical precision. In and out before they even knew we were here.

Nothing is ever that easy, knowing that I prepared to take a battering. I began the start up for the sensors. They had to come on at exactly the right time. Too soon and our cover would be blown, too late and I would have messed up our stealth approach totally and force us to come around for a second pass.

We were coming above it when I activated the sensors. The timing was impeccable and I locked on in less than 5 seconds and hit the transporters. Nothing happened and our sensors scrambled.

They must have been aware of us; the turrets came to life and began to cover the skies in shots. It was almost beautiful, beautiful but damn scary. They must have raised a shield and scrambled our sensors. Suddenly the whole fleet decloaked and our shields all dropped. Somehow this base had the ability to dampen our defensive capabilities. I saw three jumpers in front of me shoot straight towards us.

We flinched as the drones closed in. They seemed to be coming straight at us. Luckily they flew over the ship and hit two darts that were closing in on our jumper. Gratefully I repaid the debt and engaged a group of darts trailing them. I hit the first and closed in on the second, I fired again.

We turned to face the next one but as we came around it exploded into an inferno.

Another larger ship came around and fired a weapon at us. Mark told me to get into the rear compartment and shut the door whilst he tried to manoeuvre us away. I didn't even flinch. I jumped into the rear area and hit the doors.

The shake informed me that we had been hit and all of our lights went out. It must have been some kind of electrical jammer. Quickly the lights came back on. I tried my hardest to open the hatch. It was jammed shut. I grabbed the manual release valve and opened the door that way and ran to my post once more. I took the sensors and looked for a weak point in the shields. I couldn't find any but I saw the dart that hit us.

It exploded on our main screen but we stayed up. Somehow we stayed in the air! I thought about the ships weapons and I gained control of them. I concentrated on them and fired a couple of drones before realising we were heading in a straight pattern towards the shield.

I looked around. I saw that the other seat was occupied, but by a skeleton. What had happened to Mark? I looked and saw that he had a bloody hand shaped mark on his chest. I cursed and looked around. Standing there was a Wraith. It lifted me with its left hand and swung about its right.

The excruciating pain was unbearable, I couldn't hold in my cries and I screamed in utter agony. I felt the Wraith's animal like hate. He span me around and I could see the ground drawing ever closer.

I kicked out and hit the massive Wraith. He wasn't even phased.

We hit the shield and flew off. The Wraith hit the back wall; I flew towards him but luckily managed to get a hold of a chair. I leaned forwards and took my chance, I hit the door release and the Wraith dropped out of the back. I hit the button again.

The door closed slowly and I successfully stood up.

I had gained my bearings, I looked out once more, the ship had bounced off the shield and was now flying towards the dense forest to the edge of it.

I tried to pull back the control of the ship but it rapidly flew out of control. I hit the forestland with a hard crash and I hit the roof before hitting the floor again.

When I opened my eyes again I realised that I was on the ground on a Wraith occupied system. In panic I hit the door open control, it jerked down and I walked out of the jumper. When I looked around I saw that the ship had been wrecked. It was on fire and the front had collapsed in.

I looked for my gun but couldn't find it; I had to go back into the jumper. I walked in and saw the satchel of weapons sitting on the floor in the front compartment. I crawled to the floor and edged my way into the collapsed compartment.

I reached for the bag and successfully reached it. Turning to exit, I heard something from outside.

I froze in the spot. I would have some cover here so I waited.

Two Wraith walked in looked around. They were even scarier now, worse than ever before.

They looked around, they obviously realised I was alive; someone had to have survived to open the rear hatch.

I sighed as they left the jumper and I pulled myself out.

In the satchel I found 12 of the ancient explosives, a pistol like weapon and my P-90. I was running short on ammunition so I decided that I would have to save it.

The other thing I found in the small satchel was one of the Alteran's lifesigns detector. I looked down, the woodland was crawling with Wraith and they were all heading for the jumper. They surrounded me; they must have been making sure I couldn't escape before closing in the trap on me.

I quickly ran out and placed down the explosives a suitable distance from the jumper all around the ship. I was going to do as much damage as possible.

I ran back to the jumper and into the door. I pulled out the pistol weapon and prepared for the battle.

I should have stayed on Earth.

I saw the lifesigns drawing close; ready to face my end, I decided to take one last look at the sky.

I looked up and saw the battle in the air; the colour was awesome, I hoped the fuel was getting to the Virtue, I wasn't sure; there were a lot of explosions in the higher atmosphere.

The Virtue was just visible through the sky; it seemed to be dealing out a hell of a punishment to the Wraith that were in range.

I grabbed my radio, "Lucas, I have been hit, I am on the ground, my jumper is no longer flyable. Any help would be appreciated." I hoped the message got through.

I heard Darts overhead they weren't far from me, I guessed that they were protecting their silos. With the shield up I doubted the Jumpers were able to get much through the field, they would have to remodulate the beam to allow it to go through. That would take one pass and the second would be to pick up the cargo.

I decided I needed to shut down that shield; I picked an angle and got ready to go. I hoped that my plan would work.

I blew up the angle directly opposite to the direction I needed to go. It worked. All the Wraith turned to investigate and I managed to slip through their net. I looked at the lifesigns detector, they were all in the trap zone, I blew up the rest of the bombs, I saw six of the Wraith disappear.

I ran into the base. It was eerily blue and quiet. I crept along the corridors, I looked down, there were no Wraith on the sensors and I headed towards what I assumed was the generator.

I ran into the dark room and found the generator. I took aim and fired the last of my P-90 ammunition. It hit the mark and the power for the shield went down. I ran to the outside. I saw the Jumpers stealing away the fuel from the courtyard and headed for the outer door. I was about to walk out when I saw the Wraith soldiers patrolling the perimeter.

I turned back and headed out of the same door I had come in through. My aim was to get to an open air area where the jumpers where scanning. I ran out and once again heard the darts.

One of the darts appeared through the tree line. It activated the transport beam. I hid on the floor but was scooped up.

TO BE CONTINUED…