Start Chapter 20

The entire senior staff along with several team leaders and other key personnel were also present at the meeting. "Ok Colonel now that everyone is here please proceed with the briefing."

Sheppard stood up in front of them room, "We've located an old city unfortunately its rather large and the life signs are spread out amongst these buildings," Several red triangles appeared on four of the larger buildings. "There are also life signs in sporadic areas around the city and we're assuming those are patrols." He picked up several folders and passed them around to everyone, "we'll be using multiple jumpers," three green triangles appeared on the computer screen, "These will be the escape jumpers when we get the Athosians lead them here two jumpers per evac zone." The military teams will be inserting here, here, and here," he said as three yellow triangles appeared on screen. "We'll also be sending in two teams on the roof tops here and here to provide cover for the teams in the event that you can't get to an evac zone you can retreat up here but we won't be able to get many people out with those jumpers.

"Jumper pilots after you unload your troops you're to head back up and provide fire support for the ground teams," he said taking a seat.

"What kind of terrain is there?" Lorne asked.

"Surrounding the city is a field with some sort of crop growing there. After that it's just forest until the gate the Jumpers will be cloaked a few meters into the forest."

Rodney stood up, "Ok now we need to do this quickly because we've got multiple Wraith Hives with cruisers heading for the planet and they're only a couple of hours out. So once we land we're going to need to move quickly."

"Scientists I know most of you aren't used to front line combat but we don't know what kind of traps Michael has set and the teams are going to need your support so you'll be following them in closely. Once we get the Athosians your to head to these rooftops and board those jumpers." The screen showed the same two jumpers Sheppard had indicated earlier as the emergency jumpers. "Don't worry just do your jobs and you'll get through this." He paused as if unsure of what to say, "I know I'm the last person you'd except to hear this from but if you see some new piece of technology DO NOT attempt to retrieve it we have no idea what Michael has planned and we can't afford to get held up and then the Wraith showing up." Rodney sat down in his chair flipping through the file again.

"Doctor McKay what happens if the Wraith show up and we haven't gotten the Athosians out yet can we except support from the fleet we've been building?"

"Yeah why aren't we using the ships to get the Athosians out?" another scientist asked.

Sheppard stood up, "Because we don't have the time to use our ships believe me I'd love to show the Wraith what we've been doing but chances are the Wraith will have already destroyed Michaels compound by the time we arrive. Our only chance is to go by gate."

"But I thought our ships were faster than Wraith ships?" one of the soldiers asked.

"They are but the Wraith are still right on top of the planet literally only a few hours away our ships aren't that fast." Rodney answered for Sheppard.

"However those who are not taking part in this mission will be taking the ships and heading to the planet in case the Wraith are delayed and we're late getting back in that case yes you can except support from space." Sheppard corrected taking his seat again.

Seeing that they were done and there were no more questions Keller stood up to address her people, "Ok most of you will be going on the evac jumpers we don't know what's happened to the Athosians so I can't tell you what to expect but I don't think it's going to be pretty. Just save those you can and help each other out if you've got to many wounded try sending some to the other jumper in the zone." She paused looking at the ones that would have the harder job, "to those of you who are going with the military teams hopefully you won't be seeing any casualties on our side as the wraith use stunning weapons so pack up on drugs to counteract those effects I won't lie to you though you're going to be seeing the Athosians and you've got to make sure that they live long enough to get back to base where they can receive proper medical attention." She watched their reactions hoping that she'd chosen the right docs for the job. "To those of you staying with me we'll be the safest but we're going to be dealing with a lot of injuries just stay sharp you know how to do your jobs you'll be fine we'll all be fine."

Carter stood up, "I'll be taking the ships so I won't be here to congratulate you guys on a job well done so I'll do it now you're the best of the best and I know you can do this so let's get the Athosians back." She paused for a moment." Godspeed people," She added remembering what General Hammond had told her team several times.

***

Teyla caught up with John after the briefing, "John where am I to go?"

"You're on one of the Athosian evac transports unless you'd rather go somewhere else." He said continuing to walk to the armory.

"No that will be fine thank you."

***

The briefing broke up and everyone headed out to get geared up and headed to their assigned Jumper. It was a big gamble they were betting some dozen jumpers on one operation six to evac the Athosians five to drop the teams in and two to provide over watch for the entire mission. When the Jumpers were ready to go Carter personally dialed the gate and saw the jumpers through before heading up to the orbiting ships and entering hyper-space.

A/N sorry for the boring chapter the next one is a bit more exciting.