Chapter 6
Selene came through the Stargate in a blur of unnatural speed. She darted for cover and stopped.
The gate room was quiet and dark, though the darkness posed no problems for her vampiric night vision. There was no one in sight, but the huge bloodstains on the floor of the gate room and spent cartridge casings told her that a serious engagement had occurred. The smell of burned smokeless powder was still prevalent in the air.
Dr Weir was nowhere in sight. "Damn," she said. She picked up a discarded weapon, an M-16A4 rifle. The weapon would probably not help her against the lycan, but it was far superior to the M-9 Beretta she was carrying. She took a discarded combat knife and stuffed as many magazines as she could in the Atlantis issued BDU uniform's pockets as she could, and checked the burn that Ronon's pistol had given her. It had already healed fully, leaving no trace. In a blur, she moved further into the city.
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Sheppard came out of the Stargate first, only to find the gateroom dark, empty, and eerily quiet.
"Sheppard to Weir, come in," he said into his radio. "Sheppard to Weir, respond. Dammit," he swore. "Teyla, Ronon, cover the approaches. Rodney, secure the Stargate and lock out the main computer. Sheppard to Weir, please come in," he tried again. Shaking his head, he re-keyed his frequency. "This is Sheppard calling any Atlantis personnel, please come in."
"This is Major Lorne," the radio chirped back.
"Thank God," Sheppard muttered. "Major, what's your status?"
"We're fine for the moment, but I have no idea what is going on. Something came out of the lower levels and started attacking our patrols. No one who actually saw what it was got out."
"Have you seen Dr. Weir?"
"No, sir. The gateroom was about to be attacked when they retreated, but we lost contact not long after that," Lorne replied.
"What's your location?"
"Emergency Control 3."
"Fine, stay there, we are en route. By the way, have you seen Dr. Shackleford?"
"No, sir," Lorne replied. "I'll keep an eye out."
"If you see her, detain her but be careful."
"Something I should know, Colonel?" Lorne asked.
"Yeah, Shackleford isn't what she appears to be. She demonstrated superhuman strength and speed when she disabled me and my team." Sheppard glanced at Teyla. "We have reason to believe she might be with the Wraith. She might even be a Wraith."
"Understood, we'll be careful."
"I cannot overstate how dangerous she is. She is way faster and stronger than any Wraith I ever saw. Frankly, I don't know what she is, but she isn't friendly. Don't hesitate to shoot first," Sheppard said.
"Understood, sir. Good luck."
"Maintain regular radio contact. Let me know if any other units report in. Sheppard out." He looked up to Stargate control. "We secure Rodney?"
"As secure as I can make it," Rodney said.
"Let's go. If you see Shackleford, shoot her and don't bother asking any questions."
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This is wrong, she thought.
Selene's vampiric instincts were telling her that lycans were on the move, but it wasn't right. They don't sound right in my head!
Lycans were beastly, but the snippets her senses were picking up had something...else. Given the speed with which the human patrols were being annihilated, that something else was dangerous as hell. She had to put a stop to it, hopefully without encountering one of the horrors roaming the hallways. She hadn't actually seen one yet, but her senses told her enough to know that she would not like to face them.
She ran up and placed her back against the wall next to a door. She shouldered the somewhat bulky, full sized M-16 rifle and rounded the corner, vampire reflexes allowing her to scan the room in a tiny fraction of a second. With no opposition she continued forward.
The smell of blood was thick in the air, and it tickled her thirst. She'd been using her vampiric strength for a while; she needed to feed. She preferred her prey living, but recently deceased would do, repulsive as it was.
Searching around, she found a dead guard. He was still warm to the touch. It will do, she thought. Fighting back her disgust, she sunk her teeth into the dead guard and drank the lukewarm blood quickly. She moved on.
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Sheppard shouldered the P-90 and rounded the corner. "Clear!" he called.
"Clear," Ronon called.
"Nothing except the dead, again," Sheppard grumbled, trying not to get sick at the sight of butchered soldiers. "We've got to-"
He saw a brown blur out of his peripheral vision, and a white hot lance of pain shot through his shoulder.
"AHHH!" he yelled.
His yelling was drown out by the rapid fire chatter of three P-90s as his team opened fire.
"Did you see that?" Sheppard said.
"Not really," Ronon replied. "It was here and then it was gone."
"Sheppard, you're hurt!" Teyla said. She examined him. "It looks like a bite mark...a big one."
"Will I live?" Sheppard asked.
"Yes, but I really ought to immobilize the arm in a splint in case bones are broken."
"Forget it," Sheppard said.
"Sheppard-" Teyla began.
"I said forget it," Sheppard snapped. He got up and moved the arm experimentally. It hurt, but it worked, and that was all that mattered at that moment. He retrieved his P-90. "Let's get the hell out of here before that thing comes back. Sheppard to Lorne, come in,"
"Lorne here," Major Lorne replied.
"Where are your men?"
"We're in position. The hallway is a choke point, so whatever it is that is attacking can't get to our end of the city without going through us."
"You bring the heavy weapons?"
"Yes sir," Lorne said.
"Alright, we'll be there in about two minutes. We got delayed."
"Understood. We'll have a proper welcoming party laid for our attackers when you get here."
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The three lycans, and these were more or less normal, had attacked Sheppard's team with lightning speed. She hadn't been able to intercept them in time. She continued forward, tracking them as best she could while avoiding the other lycan-like presences she was sensing. I have to stop this before they reach the human line. If I don't, there will be no one to stop whatever it is they're planning.
She crawled up the wall like a spider, getting a high vantage point. The interior lights on the ceiling in the room Lorne's men were set up in wasn't working very well. There was plenty of light, but also plenty of dark shadows she could hide in. The defending humans hadn't noticed her and probably wouldn't. She just had to hope she could catch the lycans in a bad position and kill them before they killed her.
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Sheppard jogged up to Lorne. "Report, Major."
"We're ready. Whatever it is that has been butchering our men has to come through here, and we're ready," Lorne replied. He eyed Sheppard. "You feeling OK? That shoulder looks pretty bad."
"Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it looks like it should, though I feel a bit feverish," Sheppard said. "It doesn't matter. I can deal with it later. We need to-"
Lorne's motion sensor went off. "We got trouble!"
"Positions!" Sheppard shouted. He ran behind the nearest barricade. He shouldered his P-90 and grabbed a spare weapon propped against the barricade; an M-240 medium machine gun, figuring he was better off with a 7.62 NATO belt-fed weapon as opposed to the diminutive P-90 submachine gun.
"Location?" Sheppard asked.
"Up high," Ronon said, pointing.
Dozens of weapons pointed towards the ceiling, directly at Dr. Shackleford.
"Don't move!" Sheppard yelled.
"You must not stand and fight here," Shackleford said.
"Really?" Sheppard asked. "And why shouldn't we, Dr. Shackleford, or whatever your name really is. Or whatever you really are, for that matter."
"What I am is not relevant at this moment," she said. "And my real name is Selene."
"I don't give a rat's ass what your name is. Come down, slowly," Sheppard ordered.
Selene released her hold on the wall and dropped the entire eighty feet from the ceiling, landing perfectly on her feet.
Sheppard leveled his weapon on her torso. Her posture was relaxed, as if she didn't feel even slightly threatened by all the weapons pointing at her. Then he saw the eyes. They had changed, they were a bright, icy blue, and something was wrong with the shape of her mouth, though he couldn't tell what. Something primitive in his animal hind brain started screaming at him, telling him to run. He ignored it.
"You cannot stop the enemy that you face, not like this," Selene said. "You won't stop them before they kill you all."
"You know, you might be underestimating us a bit," Sheppard remarked.
Selene sighed, exasperated. "Many times I have seen this from humans, and every time the humans in question end up dead."
"Why the hell should I listen to you anyway?"
"Human, we do not have time for-"
Lorne's motion sensor went off again. "Contact!" Lorne yelled.
Sheppard looked past Selene to see two creatures out of nightmare run through a reinforced door. The beasts were easily seven feet tall, covered in brown fur, and oh my God, the claws and teeth. They roared in challenge, the sheer sound of it freezing every human in the room.
"Who the hell are these guys?" Sheppard asked.
"Lycans," Selene answered. "The werewolves of myth. Except they aren't myth, they are all too real."
Sheppard shrugged, said "Okay," and pulled the trigger. The M-240 unleashed a steady stream of 7.62 NATO into the closest lycan. A split second later he was deafened by a cacophony of weapons fire as Atlantis's defenders opened up with dozens of P-90s, M-4 and M-16 rifles, M-240 machine guns, and .50 caliber machine guns. Selene snapped her appropriated M-16 to her shoulder, and dumped an entire magazine, accurately, into her target.
The lycans were pushed back initially, but they weren't going down. The bullet wounds were literally healing nearly as fast as they were being inflicted.
The P-90s and M-4s were having almost no effect, and the M-240s with their heavier 7.62 NATO rounds were only marginally better. The .50 caliber machine guns were starting to do some damage though. "Lorne!" Sheppard yelled. "Split the .50 cals between the two of them, we've got to hold them in place! Don't let them close with you!"
Brass casings were piling up steadily as the team kept the fire on the two beasts. Sheppard took the opportunity to retreat to the barricade, where he propped his M-240 and resumed firing.
"Use the Carl Gustav!" Sheppard ordered.
Two men moved up, carrying a large green tube. The Carl Gustav was an anti-tank weapon, basically a recoilless rifle firing an 84mm shell intended to destroy a tank from close range. It was fired from an over-the-shoulder position, like a bazooka. The loader slammed one of the 84mm rounds into the rifle's breach and tapped his gunner on his helmet, letting him know the weapon was ready.
An ungodly noise, followed by nothing but ringing assaulted Sheppard's ears. The 84mm anti-tank round struck one of the creatures center of mass. The Gustav gunners must've been using high explosive. He was pelted with bits of fur, blood, and less mentionable things. There was nothing left of it bigger than his fist.
The remaining defenders turned their considerable firepower on the remaining lycan. The heavier weight of fire was just a little too much, and the creature finally collapsed, gallons of blood staining the floor where it fell.
"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Sheppard shouted, unable to hear his own voice above the ringing in his ears.
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Selene vaulted over the barricade, knife in hand. She reached the lycan, and in a blur of motion had sawed the creature's head completely off.
"Was that really necessary?" Sheppard asked.
"Just a precaution," Selene replied. "They're really, really hard to kill. I have to say, I'm impressed. Lycans are dangerous and most humans would've frozen at the sight of one of their scariest myths come to life. I did not think you could stop them."
"They aren't the first things we've faced that require lots of shooting to kill," Sheppard said.
"In any case, we have to move. There are others, we have to-"
Dozens of weapons got pointed directly at her.
"We aren't doing a damned thing," Sheppard said, "until I get some answers. Start talking."
Normally, she would not have considered even this number of humans a threat. While she believed she could probably escape, disabling the soldiers directly in her path, they had just killed two lycans. Two elder lycans. With conventional weapons. That...adjusted her opinion of the effectiveness of the human soldiers.
Instead of making a dash for it, she dropped her knife and rifle, and raised her hands.