THE GATHERING
The Verdains plans to use the Vincular device to wipe out all life in the galaxy has been successfully thwarted, but the threat is far from over, the Verdain still possess the ability to Fade worlds and offer no sign that they will stop.
The Ancient Chaya paid the Commander a visit in an attempt to persuade him to stop what he was doing and offered him a chance to rejoin their people and all would be forgiven, the Commander rejected this and remains hell bent on destroying them all.
Realising the Verdain were never going to stop, only one course of action remained, it was time to fight and end this madness once and for all.
Chaya reappears in Atlantis to looks of confusion and wonder from everyone in the control room.
"Chaya, where did you go?" asks Raina.
"I went to see the Verdain Commander." replies Chaya.
"You did what?" O'Neill complains as he approaches Chaya.
"I had too, I thought I could convince him to stop." explains Chaya.
O'Neill is a bit annoyed that Chaya went off and confronted the Commander like that without telling them first, he lets out a breath of frustration, "And?" he says.
Chaya shakes her head gently, "He will not stop." she says.
"So what do we do now?" asks Raina.
Chaya strokes Raina's hair and gives her a little smile, then turns to O'Neill, "We fight." she says.
As Lya walks over and stands next to Raina, Chaya steps forward and slowly looks everyone in the eye.
"They're coming." says Chaya, "In a couple of days they will reach Astrobaga, and we will be fighting for not only our own lives, but the lives of everyone in this galaxy." she adds.
"Sorry, what's Astrobaga?" asks Carter.
"Astrobaga is an area of space at the edge of this galaxy, it contains only one planet, lifeless and no other worlds or life forms for a great distance." replies Chaya.
"A battlefield." says Teal'c.
"In a sense, yes." replies Chaya.
Lya steps forward, "It is time to prepare." she announces, "The Verdain are very powerful, our abilities and those of the Alterans will not be enough to stop them, we must work together and attack them in force." she adds.
"Yes, about your people, when are they going to show up and help us?." asks O'Neill.
"When it is time, our people will be there." says Chaya.
"As will the Nox." says Lya.
"How long do we have?" asks Woolsey.
"Less than 2 days before they reach Astrobaga. Lya and Myself will go and gather our people, we will return when it is time." says Chaya.
Chaya holds Lya's hand and they vanish in a bright light to go and prepare and gather their people.
O'Neill turns around and get's on the radio, "Swanson this is O'Neill, come in." he says.
"Swanson here." replies Swanson.
"I need to say something, can you patch us through to all the other ships?" asks O'Neill.
"Yes Sir." says Swanson, she gives the order to open coms, "Ready Sir." she says.
O'Neill also opens city wide communications on Atlantis so everyone can hear, then he takes a few steps and prepares to speak.
"This is general O'Neill, we've received word that the Verdain are on their way...all of them. In a couple of days we'll have no choice but to fight them, you've all seen or heard what the Verdain can do, they won't stop until they've wiped us all out." says O'Neill.
O'Neill looks at the floor and remains silent for a moment, "We need every ship we can find, and we need to make sure they have shields and all the weapons they can carry. It's time to prepare...we have less than 2 days...let's move." he says.
As soon as O'Neill gets off the radio, everyone on board Atlantis, Alliance and all the Jaffa Ha'tak vessels burst in to action and start making preparations for the coming battle with the Verdain.
"Sir I'm going to head over to the Alliance and see what I can do to help." says Carter.
"OK Carter." says O'Neill.
"Dr McKay, what can we do to improve Atlantis' defences?" asks Woolsey.
"I'm not sure, Chaya charged all the ZPM's, shields are at 100%, we have thousands or drones..." says McKay.
"Railguns." says Sheppard, "When Atlantis was under siege by the Wraith we fitted railguns around the city to fend them off, can't we do the same thing again?" he asks.
"I don't see why not." replies McKay.
"Good idea, Sheppard. I'll have them brought from Earth." says O'Neill, he heads off to Woolsey's office to contact Earth and get the Deadalus and Odyssey to join them and bring the railguns.
"Dr McKay, Zelenka, I need you to go over every system in Atlantis and make sure everything is working perfectly. Double check everything." orders Woolsey.
"Col Sheppard, go to the armoury and get every weapon we have, make sure anyone whos capable of using a weapon has one." says Woolsey.
"Yes Sir." says Sheppard.
McKay and Zelenka get to work checking the systems, and Sheppard, Mitchell, Teyla and Ronon go off to the armoury.
Woolsey walks over to Daniel and Vala, "I'd like you to assist Dr Keller, we may need to convert some rooms for medical use...just in case." says Woolsey.
"Sure." replies Daniel, "Come on Vala." he says.
Raina and Alisana go over to Woolsey.
"What can we do?" asks Alisana.
"I don't know, what can you do?" asks Woolsey.
"Well...Alisana's good with technology and I can...carry stuff." says Raina not quite confident in her abilities.
Woolsey smirks a little, "I see." he says.
"We can help everyone get equipment and supplies and things like that." says an enthusiastic Alisana, "We just want to help." she adds.
"And your help is appreciated, thank you." replies Woolsey.
Raina and Alisana run off to help with whatever they can.
O'Neill comes out of Woolsey's office, "Where are they going?" he asks, pointing at Raina and Alisana with his thumb as they run round a corner.
"I'm not sure...they wanted to help." says Woolsey, "It keeps them busy." he adds.
"Ah." says O'Neill.
Over the next 36 hours everyone continues to prepare for battle, on Atlantis all systems have been checked, temporary medical bays have been set up all over the ship, anyone able to use a weapon is now suited up and ready, non essential areas of the city have been locked down and closed off, the railguns arrived and have been set up in strategic areas around the outside of the city.
Carter has been over at the Alliance and with Raina and Alisana's help have been moving from ship to ship trying to do whatever they can to increase their shield and weapons efficiency and ensure they have all the supplies they need, the Daedalus and Odyssey have join the growing fleet and are nearly fully combat ready.
More ships have joined the fleet which now consists of Atlantis, Alliance, Daedalus, Odyssey, 15 Ha'tak vessels carrying a total of 10 Al'kesh medium range bombers, 80 Death Gliders and 18 Tel'tak fitted with short range cannons.
The Alliance, Daedalus and Odyssey are equipped with shields and Asgard beam weapons, long range missiles and several railguns a piece, each ship carries 12 X-302's.
Of course Atlantis is the most powerful ship in the fleet and has powerful shields, 1000's of drones, railguns and 20 Jumpers, it will be the lead ship in the upcoming battle.
The ships are ready, the crews are ready, and the time has come to head for Astrobaga to face the Verdain.
With Atlantis in the lead they slowly set off, although their numbers may be small compared to the Verdains, in terms of the new Earth alliance it's quite an amazing and inspirational site seeing all the ships together to fight a common enemy.
One by one the ships enter hyperspace and head for Astrobaga.
The alliance fleet drops out of hyperspace at Astrobaga, they manoeuvre into a defensive line formation. Way out to the side of them they see the only planet in the system, out in front of them they see roughly 700 Verdain attack ships, formed in lines of 100 in a stacked formation like a wall, the crews on the bridge of all the alliance ships gasp at what they see before them.
The captains of all the ships stand up and look out into space, their confidence and spirit drops to near zero, they knew the Verdain had a large fleet but they weren't expecting anything like this, it's a truly frightening site.
"Holy cr*p." says McKay as he looks at the screen.
Swanson comes over the radio, "General." she says in a low voice of disbelief.
"I see it." replies O'Neill, "Stay alert." he adds.
A few minutes later, Atlantis' sensors start going crazy and beeping really loud.
McKay runs over to his laptop, "Some things coming." he shouts.
"What is it?" shouts Woolsey.
"I don't know." says McKay, "Whatever it is it's huge." he says worryingly.
As everyone gathers around the screens, they see a large hyperspace window opening behind the wall of Verdain ships, the great battle ship emerges, and everyone is in awe of its enormous size.
"That's the ship from Sehabo." says Mitchell.
"Yeah." replies O'Neill with a lump in his throat.
McKay interrupts, "We're receiving a communication." he says, he puts it on the display.
The Commander appears on screen.
"Wa...hahaha...is this it?" says the Commander, "A hand full of ships is the best you could do." he adds.
"Don't let our numbers fool you, we'll put up a heck of a fight." says O'Neill.
"Can't we negotiate, there has to be some way for peace between our people." says Woolsey.
"What are you doing?" asks O'Neill.
"Trying to avoid a blood bath if possible." replies Woolsey.
"You can't negotiate with this guy, he's nuts." says O'Neill.
"Silence." shouts the Commander in an irritated manner, "I was promised a war." he adds.
At that point Chaya and Lya reappear in the control room of Atlantis.
"And it's a war you shall have." says Lya.
"You took your time." says O'Neill, "Where are the others, we're about to get our butts kicked here." he adds.
Lya smiles at O'Neill and turns to Chaya, "They're right here." says Chaya.
Suddenly bright light beams out through the windows of every ship in the alliances fleet, hundreds of Ancients appear inside the ships.
O'Neill swings his head around looking at all the Ancients that appeard in Atlantis, "Oh, there you are." he says, he looks at Lya, "The Nox?" he asks.
Lya looks at the display, the only planet in the system is in view and they see a flash of light appear on the surface, a large group of Nox plan to use whatever natural energy is left on the planet to help fight the Verdain.
O'Neill looks at the communication screen and gives the Commander a confident smirk, the Commander groans and shuts off communication.
Moments later a line of Verdain ships slowly manoeuvre out in front of the others and come to a stop, the Ancients on board the alliances ships step closer to the front facing windows poised and ready, silence and intense concentration fills the ships as each side waits for the other to make a move.
"Get ready." says O'Neill in a low voice.