Hello.
So the last update of a story I did was just before I went away on vacation for a month.
Since then a few things have happened which have impacted my writing quite hard.
Firstly. I seem to have picked up something called a Girlfriend and for those of you who don't know what this is or who are a possible candidate for becoming one they've got a hidden, passive, function called "Black Hole of Spare Time". This means that all spare time which approaches gets sucked inside.
Secondly. My brain have become aware of the shitty quality of most (if not all) of my work. The stories feel hollow in some ways, I still think they're based on good or fun ideas, but I'm just not happy with the way they turn out after a few thousand words. I think it might be that the plot is moving too fast, it might also be the lack of description or a combination of the two.
Thirdly. There's been too few reviews, on average I've gotten 2-3 reviews for each chapter lately. That makes me feel like I'm the only one who cares for the stories. When I started writing some 18 months ago I didn't do it for myself but rather I begun to write for the rest of you to read. So when no one reads and return their thoughts through reviews I myself lose interest in the stories. I've tried to increase the number of reviews through different means but to no use.
Fourthly. I'm having a huge writers block right now which makes it hard to write anything really.
Due to these things I'm considering a) either stopping the updates to my current stories and leaving them as is permanently or until a time that I can get them up to a better standard or b) taking down all my material from the site and start over, possibly putting my current stories back here when I've fixed them.
I'm also having thoughts about c) leaving as a writer on the site permanently (removing stories and if possible account) to simply read what other writers put up here, d) leaving this account untouched and none-updated for the rest of time, e) leaving this account as is and starting over on a new account with no reputation or stories or f) taking a pause of none specified length to come back later with new energy, potentially talking years or decades here.
None of the above actions are going to happen any time soon, at least not before the new year has begun.
If anyone's actually reading the above text and cares enough what happens to me or the stories send me a PM with your thoughts and I'll take them into consideration.
There's also a poll on my profile I'd love for you to reply to.
"Back already Todd?" Sheppard asked as he greeted the Wraith in the Reaper's hangar.
"Yes, it seems your offer was not to the satisfaction of my King." Todd replied and watched as everyone in the room raised their weapons towards him and his ship. "However he will offer the Tau'ri and your allies an alliance against the Omni Extermin. The enemy we are all fighting."
"An alliance is more than I can agree upon myself Todd. I'll have to talk to some other leaders about this, you've been the enemy we've been set on destroying until just now." Sheppard said as he activated his communicator and called for a meeting. "We'll need to speak directly with this King of yours."
"He can and will not leave his ship as most Wraith are unable to stand the size and power of his mind. "I will talk to your leaders on his behalf."
"You know Todd, whenever we have to deal with you it feels like playing with the handle of a live grenade with one hand and disarming a bomb with the other."
"I am the only one who will talk to you on his behalf Sheppard." Todd said with a grin. "And I would think I am more likely to put a knife in your back than blow you up."
"Be careful Todd, I might know you're joking but most of my men in here don't and they'd shoot you for making threats if I hadn't told them to wait until I said so." Sheppard said as he motioned for the nearby transporter. "The council will see you now."
"How kind of both you and them then Sheppard." Todd said as he walked past him onto the transporter pad and was transported straight into the meeting room where the other council members appeared as holograms and Sheppard was sitting down at the other end of the large table which they all sat around.
"Sheppard told us that you've got a proposition worth our time Wraith." Ellis said.
"Yes. A temporary truce was offered the Wraith until our common enemy has been crushed. But the Wraith are more interested in a more permanent alliance until the enemy has been crushed all over the universe." Todd replied.
"How many ships can the Wraith bring to the fight?" Sam asked.
"Enough. The entire Wraith fleet will be available for deployment wherever you wish, as long as it's going against the enemy."
"Both the Wraith ships and soldiers are formidable enemies and should stay that way." Ronon said sharply.
"Yet let us all be realistic Ronon, you and your gun can probably be compared to a hundred or even a thousand Wraith soldiers. But we need all the ships we can get for this. The Ancients, the Furlings, the Asgard and the Nox fought this war before and lost. If we Wraith put their fleet with ours the new races added to the war would double and the amount of ships recruited to the cause would be increased by more than we could ever hope for." Weir said.
"You know more than anyone else here how many the Wraith have killed Dr. Weir. They slaughtered my people."
"There's been times when we had to work with the Goa'uld back in the Milky Way to avoid some bigger threats Ronon." Sam said. "But as soon as this is all over you can go back to killing them. Despite, if you're lucky they might get exterminated so you won't have to kill them all yourself."
"I call for a vote here and now." Sheppard said as he raised his hand. "All in favor."
Around the room ten hands were raised in response
"I must return to the Wraith then to tell the news. You will not regret this." Todd said as he turned to leave with his regular grin glued onto his face.
"If we do we'll take it out on you Todd." Sheppard said as the Wraith was transported out of the room and he got up. "I have a battle to return to."
"This had better work Sheppard or your ass is on the line." Caldwell said as the holograms begun to fade away.
Back on the bridge Sheppard was shocked to see the number of ships gathered with his own ship heading towards the enemy, which by now consisted of several hundred thousand control ships with accompanying drones, at the front of the Tau'ri fleet. In front of them the Wraith fleet was sending a hail of blue energy bolts into the armada of berserker drones, each bolt taking out a drone. Coming from both the Tau'ri and Asgard fleet where light blue plasma beams which sliced through drone and control ship alike. At the back of the friendly armada the simple, slightly purple, Nox ships begun to lock together using hundreds of kilometers long tubes. As this happened millions of yellow dots escaped from the Ancient fleet and joined up with the billions of green fighters which had dislodged from the Furling carriers seconds earlier heading straight for the drones and control ships.
As the two armadas crashed together a purple wall flew forward through the open void from the Nox ships and washed over their allies while pushing and crushing the hostile ships back until the bubble exploded in purple particles. From his right Sheppard heard someone say "A good defense is the best offense." but a hard look from Sheppard shifted the mans focus back to the enemy which ones again approached, but now in severely decreased numbers. "Order the fleet to concentrate their fire on the Control ships, the enemy drones are useless without them." Sheppard ordered as he remembered a briefing he'd had with Young about the drones.
Far from the turmoil in Pegasus Destiny was rushing towards her long awaited goal. No more than four hours from her destination the ship's FTL engine shut off and her sub light engine took over as she approached the last star on her journey.
And inside her the crew where getting ready for the final stage of the voyage while both Destiny and her escorting fleet, now in pristine condition, where recharging inside the star.
"General Young." A hologram on the bridge said after a moments hesitation.
"Speak up son, I don't have all day." Young replied from his chair.
"I'm here to report… or technically I'm calling to report… No, I'm here to report."
"Get to the point. My attention is needed everywhere at this moment." Young snapped.
"Yes Sir." The young man shouted as he saluted him. "The launch site for operation Black Star is ready Sir. The fleet is however not ready Sir, you're therefor being ordered to halt your advance until we can send the collective fleet through the gate."
"Thank you. The ships been on its way for a long time, a few more days won't do much difference." Young said more calmly than he felt before he shut of the hologram. A delay to a military operation was almost never any good.
"What's operation Black Star?" Chloe whispered to Scott.
"It's the attempt to dial Atlantis black gate to our black gate Chloe." Young replied. "They've built a well defended moon base for just that purpose."
"Must be pretty hectic if they can only send a private to tell us Sir." Scott said.
"Or something is very wrong back home."
On Earth the whole city of Atlantis was moving around as hundreds of supergate segments where being produced to expand the Mars and Pegasus supergates so the Wraith ships could pass through them. When the build room beneath Atlantis was full of segments the supergate located at the far end of the room activated and the segments moved through to the Mars supergate. With all the pieces safely on the other side the gate shut of and begun to dial the supergate in Pegasus while half of the segments took up positions around the supergate and the rest prepared to head through the gate to Pegasus where the allied armada was just cleaning up the last of the hostile ships.
With only a couple of hundred ships left the larger ships let their guns fall silent while the Furling fighters and Ancient drones hurried after the last ones.
As a Furling fighter flew by the bridge of his ship in hot pursuit Sheppard received a holographic message in the form of Sam who said "This is General Samantha Carter calling all Alliance ships. We have finished calibrating the supergate in Pegasus. All Tau'ri ships are hereby ordered to abandon Pegasus and return to Earth. We are bringing the fight to the enemy right now, all allied ships are advised to follow."
"You heard the lady, send out the order to break off and fall back to the supergate." Sheppard shouted over the bridge as he begun to ease his ship out of the tightly packed armada.
With the Tur'ri fleet positioned behind his ship Sheppard activated the hyperdrive and the ship was sent into hyperspace towards the supergate.
"All allied fleets have disengaged Sir." One in the bridges crew reported. "Most have already entered hyperspace behind us."
"Keep me posted." Sheppard said as he dialled the gate through subspace. "Send out the order to go through the gate when they arrive."
"Yes Sir." Someone said on the bridge.
The sight they faced when came through the gate was one of chaos. At first there was nothing but darkness outside the frontal viewport, but after a few seconds their sensors begun to distinguish hundreds of ships, which became thousand, then ten thousand as the sensors begun to pick out ships all around them, blocking out all sunlight from view. Then the ships all powered up and begun to fire on them.
Yelling a few short orders across the bridge Sheppard banked the ship to the right to make room for the ships he knew was right behind him and drove the wedge shaped hull straight into the mass of control ships and drones. Still the shields held and the wreckage formed a defensive cocoon while their Ancient drones and plasma weapons begun to destroy targets through gaps in the cocoon.
"This is Sheppard calling Atlantis over." He broadcasted while a 305 came through and almost instantly begun to rack up kills with its plasma beams.
"... is At…. rec…" A voice crackled over the subspace channel as the two ships begun to great a beachhead for the rest of the fleet.
"What's your status? We're inbound."
"Neg..., …. or..s ….roach …. prot…. lunar base."
"Come in Atlantis you're breaking up." Sheppard said as he cast a questioning glance at his communications officer. The lack of concentration for just a moment allowed a control ship to crash into a weakened section of the shield which collapsed under the pressure and knocked the ship out of course into another group of ships.
"All of the ships are using some kind of jammers Sir, they're blocking communications to Earth." The officer said after looking at the readings on the screen for a minute.
Nodding his acknowledgement Sheppard struggled to seal of all the damaged sections while also trying to get the ship back to the Supergate where two Auroras were now deploying all of their armaments in one big push so the large 306 carrier could come through and deploy its fighters.
As their beachhead grew transporters on board both the 305 and the Aurora's activated and beamed away their crews before all three ships were swarmed and destroyed. But with the large beachhead they'd already created two more Command class ships came through and joined in the fray.
Soon the entire Tau'ri fleet was through and they begun to carve a path towards Earth while Sheppard's ship limped behind and protected their rear together with the Asgard ships which came through the gate in pairs. When the Nox ships arrived and locked together their pace increased considerably when their purple forcefield wreaked havoc and compressed the hostile ships. At the front of the convoy one of the 305 lost power and the emergency transporters saved the crew of the ship before it exploded.
It was slow and tedious, but after three hours the first ship finally arrived in safety above the small moon base which was keeping the hostile ships well away, providing the allied fleet with some peace and quiet. But it wasn't their well being or that of the base Sheppard was concerned for as he opened a channel. "Atlantis, this is Sheppard, please respond."
"This is Atlantis, over." Came the response as the Nox ships begun to push the enemy ships away from the moon enough that Sheppard could see India, China and most other high population countries in full blaze thanks to the holograms produced by the chair reading his thoughts.
"I can see large parts of Asian in flames. What's your status, over?"
"We're safe John." Sam's voice replied as the ambient noise coming through change too.
"And the rest of the population?"
"We're beaming in people from all over the planet John. You take care of your part and we'll make sure Earth is still standing when you return." Sam said as he saw another fire starting on the South American continent.
"How many are we going to lose?" He asked as the chair highlighted an island in south east Asian which was sliding back into the ocean while it's inhabitants were beamed out at a rapid pace.
"Asia's taken the grunt of the assault so we're focusing on getting as many out of there as possible while the jumpers are evacuating both American continents, Europe's being protected by the Atlantia's shield and Atlantis is doing its best to shield Australia as best it can.
"We know that Atlantis can extend it's shield around the planet so stop wasting lives and start protecting the planet Sam." Sheppard scolded as the last of the friendly fleets arrived. "And you didn't answer my question."
"We've already tried that, but this isn't like a few dozen hive ships bombarding it or a solar flare. There's just too much power coming down from above for the shield to absorb, we burnt out four of Atlantis shield emitters and eight of Atlantia's while doing so." Sam replied. On the planet's surface Sheppard saw the long dormant Yellowstone volcano explode with such force that he didn't need the chair to show him. "We don't know how many we can save Sheppard, but that number was just reduced by several millions and shrinking, the ash cloud will kill millions in minutes."
He knew in his mind what he needed to do, so the chair made it happen. In an instant the entire ships crew was gone, beamed away without a moments notice right before beam jammers blocked the attempts to get back Sheppard knew was coming. "I'll see what I can do."
"Sheppard, what are you doing?" Sam shouted as he engaged the hyperdrive.
"What needs to be done, my ships to damaged to fight." He said as he performed a micro jump into the planets atmosphere straight over the North American continent. As the chair begun to highlight concentrations of lifesigns he begun to pluck them from the surface with the transporters.
"You have your orders Sheppard, get back up there." Sam ordered as the chair highlighted a vein of Oil Shale which had begun to release Shale Oil under the extreme temperatures caused by the explosion.
As the shale oil begun to condense in the upper atmosphere the winds up there spread it far and wide as it rained down. "We have bigger problems than me disregarding an order, again. Are you seeing this too Sam?"
"Yes, if that ignites after it's fallen or when it is falling we're won't be any life left on the entire continent John. And if it spreads further the other continents might be affected too. But it's happening far too fast to be natural."
"I'll try to shield as much as possible, but it won't do in the long run." He said as the ash cloud begun to spread into the atmosphere far faster than what should be possible until the sensors of the ship outlined a ship located at the bottom of the blast crater. "I'm detecting a ship the sensors can't identify at the epicentrum of the eruption and if I'm reading this right it's draining power straight from the planets core."
"Stay clear, if that thing could survive that there's nothing your weapons..." She said before an explosion drowned out the last of her reply.
"I'll deal with things her Sam, take care." He said as he saw a shimmer rising from the crater and spreading outwards, ruining anything in it's path.
Spinning the ship around he felt the gravitational forces he was pulling as his field of vision shrinked when oxygen failed to reach his lungs. No doubt many of his guests was now lying on the floor passed out, but as long as they were alive it would have to do. Far away in the distance the chair showed a mass of green dots moving close together and many more red dots streaming down from above. To his right a white flash disposed a very confused Rodney. "There you are! What kind of suicide mission are we on today Sheppard?"
"How did you get here? I used your jamming program to.." Sheppard trailed off as he realised what he was saying.
"My program, which I wrote, which I have backdoors to and which I can override." Rodney said as he slumped into one of the smaller chairs. "So back to my original question, what's our situation?"
"Half of the North American continent is now located below sea level. I guess something like three quarters of the population of the US is dead or dying because Yellowstone chose to erupt right now, possibly due to a ship located at the bottom of the blast crater. Oh and I think we have a shockwave heading for this ship, which so just happens to be filled with people I've beamed of the surface. To top it all of I've had to extend the shield to protect the surface from raining oil to such an extent that I doubt we can endure the shock wave." Sheppard said as he pushed the engines to their limit to escape the shock wave. Again feeling the acceleration, the inertial dampeners were definitely ruined. "I think that sums it up rather good."
"Give me a minute to override some safeties." Rodney said as the ship begun to lose height rapidly.
"Rooodney!" Sheppard shouted as he routed power back to the engines and forced the ship to level out just as it plunged into the ice cold water.
"You forgot to mention the fact that there's several drones and possibly a control ship lunged into the side of your ship Sheppard." Rodney shouted as the lights dimmed on the bridge and he felt the tiniest of accelerations.
"I can't remember everything Rodney, but please stop taking power away from the engines while I'm trying to outrun a shockwave." Sheppard scolded him as they begun to catch up to the green chairs green dots which formed into ten thousands jumpers all heading towards Atlantia and the red formed into hostile drones which chased after them.
Unknown to them, far above their heads the moon base dialed the gate and a black circle formed in front of it. As the allied armada approached the circle it grew in size to fit all of the ships and as they touched the circle they disappeared without a trace one by one but when the ships had all left the black circle still stayed in place. A moment later hundreds, possibly thousands, of control ships were vaporised as the Tower's newly installed wormhole drive launched it from the Supergate in Pegasus to a location only a few hundred miles from the surface of the black circle. "Good work Carson." Elisabeth's voice sounded in the Doctor's ear as he eased the city closer to the black event horizon.
Back down in the atmosphere Sheppard's earpiece came to life as he heard an all too familiar voice. "I think we've killed the last of them Rodney."
"Teyla? What are you doing here?" Sheppard asked.
"She and Ronon didn't like the thought about leaving you on this sinking ship with only me. And I think those ships which are now stuck in your side might have brought a few visitors. So I beamed in them where we detected some odd lifesigns." Rodney said as he routed power away from the transporters and into the weapons which Sheppard was using to pick of the drones whenever he got a clear shoot.
"Why would you do that?" Sheppard scolded as he pushed his way in between the jumpers to get better shoots.
"Because you apparently didn't think to check for it." Rodney said. "That shock wave's approaching awfully fast, we might be able to make it but the jumpers are cutting i very very close."
"How many people are onboard those jumpers?" Sheppard asked, the chair already showed him the answer but he didn't want to hear it from a computer.
"If they packed them to the limit there might be over a quarter of a million people on those jumpers." Rodney said reluctantly.
"Direct all power to the shields Rodney, I only need enough power to the engines to keep us of the ground." Sheppard ordered without blinking. "I know what I'm doing, but you won't like it."
"Trust me, I know what you're doing and it's suicide, but I guess it's time." Rodney said as the ship begun to rapidly lose speed and the jumpers shot past them.
"Try to get as many of the people on board the ship to the jumpers if there's space in any of them." Sheppard said as he and the chair begun to calculate their optimal angle and position.
"Make up your mind, there's not enough power to do everything at the same time."
"We have a ZPM Rodney, drain it if you have to, as long as we have enough power left for this." Sheppard snapped.
"That small battle in Pegasus has already drained it almost to it's limit." Rodney snapped back. "We should be content with getting the jumpers out of here."
"Since when are you content with things Rodney?"
"Since we're going to hell." Rodney said a split second before the shock wave caught up with them and pressed against their shield. As they were pushed backwards Sheppard pushed forward with what little power remained to the engines. "Careful, you're pushing it a bit here."
"I know Rodney, we'll be able to take this." Sheppard replied calmly as the ship left a hole in the shock wave which begun to fill behind them, but the force in that section would be something the jumpers could handle. Then the ship went dark.
"Well what about after the shock wave?" Rodney shouted as they dropped like a stone. "This is why I do the math and you shoot things."
Before Sheppard could reply they hit the water, hard. In the back of the bridge one of the large see-through screen exploded in a hail of glass due to the force of the impact and one of the monitors came flying at the duo.
Down in the rest of the ship things were worse as the people got thrown towards the walls of the compartments they were in and as soon as those who survived that crash got back on their feet the ice cold water begun to flow into the ship through the cracks and holes the ship had sustained.
Through a crack in the forward viewports caused by the flying monitor water was also beginning to flood the bridge and without as much as emergency power neither the shield nor the bulkheads activated to seal the breach.
On the receiving side of the black gate the armada fanned out to lick their wounds and repair what they could before the final conflict. As their ships relied on both shields and hulls the Tau'ri fleet hadn't much to repair, but instead their crew need sleep, badly, after their long trip to the Lucian Alliance homeworld, then to Pegasus and back.
When they were ready again the fleet formed up around Destiny and together they begun the last stage of their jurney.