One unfortunate arrow was deflected easily by the personal shield of a Prior, and with that, the fighting began.

A battalion of Jawailans ran across the no-man's-land between their two forces. The enemy's swords stung as they managed to slice through several soldiers, but they had no match for automatic weapons. Fifty had fallen in minutes.

The Jawailans cast out small, dirty bronze globes that exploded on impact with human flesh; the floating silver spheres transfixed anyone who looked into their mirrored surface.

"Daniel!" Vala shrieked, popping up from her hiding place behind a boulder to see her friend mesmerized, glassy-eyed, by the sphere above his head. She fired at an incoming Jawailan and then at the sphere, which exploded in a shower of white sparks; Daniel collapsed. She ran out quickly, dragging him back to the boulder. "Daniel, are you all right?" she asked feverishly.

"Yeah," he shook his head quickly, eyes refocusing as he repositioned his hat. "Gun, where's my gun?"

"Here," she handed him the pistol from the ground and peeked over the rock again, picking off enemies here and there.

Sheppard tapped his radio impatiently, staring out the shielded 302 bay window of the Hammond. "Report."

"First wave handled," Stackhouse said between shots. He swung his P90 around to knock down an enemy soldier.

"Good. Two hives are down, six more yet to arrive. Oh, yeah, did I mention there are eleven hive ships now? Casualties unknown."

"Copy."

"Sergeant," Teyla interrupted suddenly, gesturing to the line of enemies. The Priors were walking slowly forward, arms raised and a second wave of Jawailans following behind.

"What's the timeframe of the Daedalus?" Stackhouse asked, his voice forcedly calm.

"Soon."

Teyla slung her P90 over her shoulder and brought out her bantos rods, gripping them resolutely. "Let us hope they are soon enough. Automatic weapons will have no effect with the Priors alongside them," she said, then nodded in salute to Stackhouse and Reynolds beside her. "Athosians, gather!" she cried, running to lead her people against the Priors.

The two scientists were huddled amid the blackened wreckage of the ZPM power station, Lee typing furiously on his laptop and McKay scrolling through his tablet computer.

"I don't know, McKay," Dr. Lee said testily, still typing away. "I really don't see how we can fix this."

"There's a way," Rodney spat, ignoring the beads of sweat beginning to form on his pale forehead. "Trust me, there's a way somewhere."

"Just because this is your pet project doesn't mean –"

"What?" Rodney demanded, letting the tablet fall to his lap and his cheeks grow red with anger. "That it's not perfect? That it won't work? It has to work, Bill. If it doesn't…" He shook his head. "Just keep looking."

"Atlantis, this is Daedalus. We are in range and attacking the hive ships."

"Colonel," Sheppard said with a sigh of relief from inside the Hammond 302 bay. "I've never been quite so happy to hear from you."

Caldwell smiled jokingly. "Thank you, Colonel. The Apollo has also arrived. I'm sending down a fresh group of soldiers as well as a supply of drones and anti-Prior devices.

"Thank you, sir. Carter is ready aboard the Hammond. Lorne, are you at the chair?"

"Yes, sir," the major answered as he entered the drone chair room.

"Good. The next set of hives will be here soon.

"Copy that."

"Yes," Daniel whispered as a flash of light appeared on the mainland ground, replaced by a small pile of round machines. "Reynolds! Ronon!" He picked up an anti-Prior device and tossed one each to them. "We're going to need to send someone in close, or build some kind of mechanism to get the devices within range. If we take…"

Ronon eyed the device in his hand, shrugged, and chucked it at the advancing Priors, still over a hundred feet away. The Prior nearest the device stopped, staggered, and attempted to press on again, but Ronon quickly shot the staff from the Prior's hand and felled him with a shot to the shoulder.

Daniel watched, his mouth gaping. "Or… or we could just throw them. That would work too."

Reynolds shrugged, grinned, and flung his device at another of the Priors.

"Colonel Sheppard?" Chuck spoke in his ear. "I'm estimating that the hive ships will leave hyperspace in approximately sixty seconds."

"Daedalus, do you copy?" Sheppard responded.

"Yes, sir, sixty seconds. Asgard weapons are online, shields at eighty percent. Hammond and Apollo, prepare to fire at will."

"Major Lorne?"

The blue lights of the drone chair flicked on as it leaned back and activated. "Ready, sir."

Sheppard nodded but didn't respond vocally, his eyes fixed on the hives flying across the sky. One of the hives still present from the first wave exploded in an elliptical blast of blue-white light. "Lorne," he said into his radio. "Take out the two remaining hives."

"Yes, sir." Lorne settled into the chair, an eager look of concentration on his face as he closed his eyes.

Two streams of glowing orange projectiles shot out of the city's core and up into space where the hives maintained orbit.

"Fifteen seconds, Rodney, how are we with the shield?" Sheppard asked.

"Still working."

"Ten seconds." Another bright flash appeared in the sky – one of the hive ships was destroyed, hitting and destroying the other with its blast radius. "Lorne, when the other hives get here, let the ships and 302s go in first and save the drones for when we need them."

"Yes, sir." Lorne picked his hands up off of the armrests and opened his eyes, allowing the chair to deactivate beneath him.

"Five seconds."

And just as the light and debris cleared from the sky, six ships exited hyperspace, weapons at the ready.

"Oh my God." Colonel Carter stood up from her seat at the bridge of the Hammond and walked forward to the window. Five hive ships encircled one other, at least twice as large as the others and more massive than any hive she had encountered. Abruptly she turned around and shouted, "Hammond, fire all batteries!" Activating her radio, she said quickly, "John, we have a problem. That ship must have ZPMs on it."

"What?"

Carter took a steadying breath, watching the rounds from her ship deflected easily off of the lead hive's exterior. "That or the Priors and the wraith have found some new power source. This ship is huge."

"We're preparing a wave of 302s," Sheppard said, then ordered, "Lorne, drones now!"

"Athosians, volley!" Teyla cried, initiating a shower of arrows on the enemy.

Reynolds knocked aside a Jawailan with the butt of his P90. A swift kick to the abdomen felled the man attacking him; he whirled around to knock another aside and fired a quick burst at another one incoming.

"Sir!" Stackhouse shouted. "Behind you!"

Reynolds whipped around, but too late. One of the enemy's sharp, barbed blades sliced across his chest. A small, inconspicuous sphere landed nearby and detonated, sending Reynolds to his knees, still clutching his torso.

"No!" Ronon bellowed, beating a pair of enemies away to run to Reynolds' side. He dropped his sword and caught Reynolds, laying him gently on the ground.

"Ronon," he coughed violently, gripping his friend's shoulder. "It's been fun."

"No," Ronon whispered, pressing down on Reynolds' chest to stem the blood flow. "Medic! I need a medic!"

Reynolds shook his head, breath coming in shallow bursts. "Tell my wife –"

Ronon hesitated, but nodded as he felt Reynolds' breaths grow ragged beneath his hands. "I will."

A last halting smile appeared for a moment before his chest fell for the last time.

Ronon let his head fall, still leaning over the now lifeless body. Shaking his head, his eyes fell on his forgotten sword. Inhaling sharply, he grabbed the weapon, stood up, and let out a mighty roar. He ran straight into the thick of the enemy, slashing and hacking through anybody he passed.

"Ronon!" Teyla warned as she knelt down beside Reynolds, but he had already gone. She reached down with one hand and closed the glassy eyes staring towards heaven.

"Damn it!" Caldwell smacked his armrest as the Daedalus window was filled with the bright orange light of an exploding warship. "We lost the Apollo. Evasive maneuvers!" Moving in tandem with the Hammond, the Daedalus weaved in and out of the hives, taking shots here and there. "There are still four hive ships remaining, counting the mothership." He rubbed his eyes, standing to edgily pace the length of the bridge window.

Sheppard cursed to himself from inside the 302. "Lorne, how's your stock of drones?"

"Not great, sir. I could maybe take out two more hives, but there's no way I could take down the mothership."

"Hold off," he said after a moment. "We may need them later." Strapping on his regulator mask, he flicked a few buttons on the 302 controls. "All Earth ships, send out your 302s now."

Ronon whirled wildly, dreadlocks flying about his shoulders. A trail of carnage lay behind him. He slashed through and knocked aside enemy after enemy, snarling menacingly for the death of his friend. And suddenly he was knocked to the ground by a Prior's staff to the shins.

The pale-skinned Prior stood with his staff raised to strike, cloudy eyes angered.

Ronon cocked his head slightly when the Prior remained stationery. Suddenly the robed man lurched forward and fell to the ground. Teal'c stood directly behind him, an eyebrow raised.

"What are you doing here?" Ronon asked.

Teal'c deactivated his staff weapon and rested the end on the ground. "Master Bra'tac urged me to assist with the protection of this great city rather than squander precious time. I agreed." Raising his eyebrow further if possible, he asked, "Have you nothing else to say?"

"Uh," Ronon stuttered. "Thanks."

"Indeed." With a nod of acknowledgement, Teal'c extended a hand to help him to his feet, then the two turned and resumed fighting again, back to back.

"Atlantis, this is the Chekov," said a thick Russian voice into the radio. "Our weapons are online and awaiting your orders. The Odyssey accompanies. We also carry soldiers from the Free Jaffa Nation to assist you. Shall I beam them down to the city?"

"By all means," Sheppard said as his 302 zoomed past a hive ship, narrowly dodging a blow. "Feel free to fire at the bad guys too, you know, since you're here anyway."

"Fire all batteries," ordered Commander Derevko. The Chekov's weapons, updated for improved accuracy and penetration, quickly destroyed one of the already damaged hive ships. "Three to go."

"This is it," Rodney whispered. "Yes! This is it! There's a secondary power conduit in the southwest pier that's interfering with the artificial connections."

Dr. Lee crawled over a pile of debris to peer at the tabled. "We were just focusing on the wrong system…"

"Yes." Rodney's face fell suddenly. "Oh, no. No, no, no…"

"What?"

"I can't override it remotely. One of us will need to go shut down the extra station I set up in the north pier, and the other…"

"Rodney," Lee said. "What?"

"The other is going to have to manually override the conduit." His hand shook as it flew over the tablet. "That part of the city is severely damaged from impact with the mainland. Even if you could get it far enough away before the conduit exploded, the pier would definitely collapse. There's no way anyone could survive that." Rodney swallowed, looking his companion squarely in the eye. "I'll do it." He stood up, casting the tablet aside and beginning to make his way out. "Look, once it's shut down, you'll need to head to the room…"

"We need you here."

"…reroute the main controls to compensate for –"

"Rodney," Lee said quietly but forcefully. "I'll go."

He stopped mid-sentence, voice barely a whisper. "What?"

"I'll go."

"No. No way. This is your life we're talking about."

"Which is exactly why I should go instead of you. Face it, Rodney, you're needed here. I'm expendable."

"That is not true," Rodney said forcefully. "You are not an object. You are not just some useless sidekick, and you are not expendable."

"This new hive ship is a bigger threat than we thought. You understand this city better than anyone. Me, I'm just tagging along."

"But –"

"I'm going, Rodney. Give me the schematics."

Rodney handed him a handheld life science detector, numbly gesturing to the screen. "It's the room outlined in red."

Lee nodded and climbed out of the debris.

"Bill," Rodney blurted out suddenly.

Lee stopped at the door without turning around.

"I'm sorry."

Wordlessly, Lee nodded, glancing back over his shoulder one more time and heading down to the north pier.

Rodney tapped is radio on and stood up. "Sheppard, give me ten minutes," he said quietly, eyes never leaving the empty doorway. "I'll have the shield ready."