Chapter 10

The pier was nothing more than a long, thin walkway jutting out from Atlantis's main superstructure. It was barely more than 20 feet wide and provided a wide open view of the approaches.

It was a strong position. It gave Atlantis's surviving defenders clear fields of fire for hundreds of yards, but also had the benefit of a choke point to defend. The sun was at their backs and just starting to peak over the horizon. Sheppard just hoped it would be enough.

Shaking those thoughts aside, Sheppard went over to the comm tower. "Rodney," Sheppard said. "How are we doing?"

"A lot of the equipment was damaged by the flooding from a couple of years back," Rodney said. "We've got it powered and it's broadcasting a general distress beacon on the right frequencies. I've even embedded a data packet that describes our situation and requests reinforcements."

"But?" Sheppard asked, detecting that Rodney wasn't happy about something.

"We can't receive a reply from them," Rodney said.

"Great," Sheppard muttered.

"What do we do if they attack?" Rodney asked.

Sheppard looked out over their hastily prepared kill zone. "We take a page from Sun Tzu's book," he said.

"Sun Tzu?" Teyla asked.

"Ancient human military strategist. He wrote one of the definitive works on warfare, called The Art of War," Sheppard answered.

Selene nodded. "It is required reading among my people when training for combat against the lycans."

"And what advice does Sun Tzu offer for this situation?" Teyla asked.

"In difficult ground, press on. In hemmed-in ground, use subterfuge," Selene began.

Sheppard nodded. "And in death ground, fight."

"That plan sucks," Rodney groaned.

Sheppard wiped the sweat from his brow. "You don't look so good," Teyla said.

"The change is essentially complete," Selene said. "He will transform at some point, soon. Stress can bring it out sooner."

"Anything we can do to put it off?" Sheppard asked.

"Not really," Selene said.

"Dammit," Sheppard swore. He walked over to Major Lorne. "Major, as I'm sure you're aware, I have something of an unusual medical situation. If I become...unable to command, you are to talk command and hold out as long as possible. And if I lose control, shoot me if you have to."

"Sir," Lorne protested. "There's no way-"

"That's an order, Major," Sheppard said.

"It won't come to that, sir," Lorne said.

"I hope you're right, Major, but the order stands. There's no one else I trust more with the safety of our people than you, Major."

"Understood, sir," Lorne said.

Sheppard clapped Lorne on the shoulder, and returned to the barricade.

"Sir!" Lorne shouted, waving his motion detector. "We've got massive incoming!"

"Here we go, boys and girls!" Sheppard shouted. "Positions! Engage the shambling, zombie looking ones with small arms fire only! Use the Carl Gustavs on the big furry ones!"

A thousand yards away, several exterior doors on the city opened and began disgorging hordes of the shambling monsters. Most of them had scraps of SGC uniforms clinging to them in places. Sheppard fought down his sickness and hatred. They aren't our people anymore, our people are dead. These are just shells, he told himself.

Several dozen were streaming toward the pier, with more following.

"Burn in hell, bitches!" Sheppard yelled. "Open fire!"

The thunder of automatic weapons split the air beside him as the defenders opened up. The P-90s were little chattery things, the M-4s and M-16s were rapid fire, staccato cracks, and the M-240s were a steady cacophony. Then the .50 caliber machine guns opened up, making an awful jackhammering racket that drowned the rest of the gunfire out.

The beasts had been falling steadily, and the .50 calibers were taking a severe toll on them. The creatures slowly advanced, heedless of the losses.

"Keep the fire on them!" Sheppard ordered.

A brown streak burst from one of the doorways and started charging with mind blowing speed.

"Gustav gunners target that werew-"

Sheppard was cut off. The elder lycan had reach them already. It ripped the head off the nearest defender without effort, and disemboweled another with a single slash of its claws.

The beast turned towards Sheppard, but before it could leap, Selene was there. She buttstroked the lycan with her shotgun, but it didn't appear harmed at all. The lycan swatted her aside with annoyed look.

XXXXXXXXXX

Selene landed with an oomph near Elizabeth, well behind the front line. Selene struggled to her feet, her wounds healing almost immediately.

"It's an elder," Selene said. "This is going to be tough."

"Selene!" Elizabeth shouted.

Selene whirled, catching something out of the corner of her eye. It hadn't been the lycan, but it was close.

Seeing something else, she whirled again. "Where is it?" Selene asked.

"It's a wraith," Elizabeth said. "They can make you think they're close, even if they're not. It's a misdirection tactic they use."

"How do we-" Selene began.

A wraith materialized in front of her and moved quickly, so quickly even she could dodge. It struck down Elizabeth in passing, and shot Selene with some kind of energy weapon. She went numb all over and collapsed. The wraith kneeled over her and slammed its open palm onto her chest. A lightning bolt of pure hell lanced through her body, and she screamed.

The creature held her gaze, and it's unsettling yellow eyes inspired a kind of terror in her she hadn't felt in centuries. Her strength left her, and she hung limp in the wraith's grasp. It hissed at her in pleasure. She watched in horror as the flesh on her hands wrinkled, and she aged centuries in moments.

Her vision tunneled, and she knew it would be over soon.

The tunnel cleared with painful speed. She was on her back, and the wraith was gone.

Elizabeth had tackled the wraith, and Selene saw that Elizabeth's eyes had gone electric blue. She had changed. The wraith, clearly surprised an ordinary human could challenge it, through a lighting fast punch at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth didn't have the combat training she did, but the enhanced speed her new vampire strength gave her allowed her to dodge. Elizabeth punched the wraith solidly, and Selene heard several bones crack.

The wraith hissed in rage, and extended its feeding hand. Elizabeth slipped inside it, and punched the wraith center of mass. Elizabeth's fist rammed all the way through wraith and came out its back, covered in green blood and gore. The wraith collapsed.

Elizabeth panted and started trembling. "What's wrong with me?"

Selene tried to clear her dry throat and speak. "You need to feed. You're a newborn vampire, you need to feed. Take its blood," Selene croaked.

"Selene!" Elizabeth said, seeing her aged and withered. "Oh God, oh my God..."

"No time," Selene croaked out. "Feed!"

"It's a wraith," Elizabeth said. "Is that safe? Will it even work?"

"I don't know, but you will die if you don't feed. Now do it!" Selene rasped.

Elizabeth looked down at the slain wraith, not sure what to do at first, but genetic instinct took over. She sunk her fangs into the wraith, and drank gingerly at first. One she had tasted blood, however, she drank more greedily and urgently.

XXXXXXXXXX

Elizabeth disengaged from the wraith, her mind reeling. It had horrifying, disgusting, glorious, and wonderful all at the same time. She stared down at her hands, covered in green blood. "Oh my God," she muttered. Even as she was repulsed by it, she lapped up the green blood running down her lips and chin as best she could, desperate to get more.

She felt incredible, as good as she'd ever felt in her life. Before she could reflect on it, however, she looked to Selene. The Wraith had fed on her, and she looked a hundred years old.

"Dammit!" Elizabeth swore. She grabbed Selene and dragged her over to the wraith. "Drink!" Elizabeth commanded. "We need you alive."

Selene wasn't all there anymore, but the smell of blood stirred her. She lapped at the open wound on the wraith's neck. Her appearance improved a bit. Selene sank her fangs into the wraith and drank deeply. Before her very eyes, Selene's hair went back to its usual jet black, and her skin smoothed back into its youthful appearance.

Elizabeth knew she had just witnessed something critically important to the war with the Wraith, but there was no time to dwell on it. "Come on," Elizabeth said, helping Selene to her feet. "We have to help Sheppard!"

XXXXXXXXXX

The lycan made another pass, and knocked out two the of .50 caliber gunners. The loss of the heavy machine guns let the shambling lycans press closer. Sheppard looked out over the horde of enemies and saw a wraith standing behind them, grin on his face.

Sheppard recognized him. The wraith that had held Elizabeth hostage. "Oh, am I gonna mess you up," Sheppard muttered.

Before he could take aim, he looked to his left to see the lycan charging for him. "Oh shi-"

Before the lycan could strike, Selene blindsided it and knocked it down. The beast stood up and challenged her with a roar.

The lycan's roar was drown out by the thunder of one of the Carl Gustav's. The shell hit the lycan center of mass. The lycan was knocked back a few feet, but appeared otherwise uninjured.

"What the fu-" Selene began. The lycan jumped.

High. Really, really high. About 2000 feet into the air it jumped. It landed on one of the spires at the top of the city.

"Holy shit," Sheppard said. "Can they normally do that?"

"No," Selene asked.

The super-lycan dropped from its perch to the back of the pack of shambling lycans. It grabbed one and slammed its fist into its chest. The shambling lycan disintegrated almost instantly.

"It's taking the life force of the weaker ones to augment itself. It uses their energy to increase it's strength and durability," Selene said.

"Uhh, Sheppard," Rodney called out over the gun fire. "That might be a problem."
"Yes, I can see that Rodney," Sheppard shouted back. He sent a stream of 7.62 NATO rounds into the closest shambling lycans.

"I happened to access security cameras just a moment ago. That thing," Rodney motioned towards the super-lycan, "drained most of the power from one of the naquadah reactors. Through its palm."

Sheppard paused, considering that for a ment. "Well...shit," Sheppard cursed. "We're going to need bigger guns, aren't we?" A fiery feeling suffused him.

"To say the least," Rodney said.

The fire spread throughout his body, and Sheppard stopped fighting it. He could suddenly smell things he'd never smelled before.

"He's coming in again!" Selene shouted.

"We need to distract him!" Sheppard said, feeling the change come over him. "And I think I know how to do it." Cloth ripped as Sheppard's changing form burst out of his uniform. He dropped the M-240, and surrendered to the predator inside.

"Together! It's our only chance!" Selene shouted.

The three of them, Selene, Sheppard, and Elizabeth, charged across the hordes of shambling lycans in an eyeblink.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Did you just see that?" Ronon shouted.

"Yes I did," Lorne said, momentarily stunned. "Positions!" Lorne shouted. "Fire at will! Hold them back!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Sheppard reached the super-lycan first. Fully transformed and wanting nothing but blood, he went straight for the creature. Light exploded in his eyes as the super-lycan swatted him down onto the hard ground contemptuously.

Selene fared a little better. She stood against the super-lycan for a few seconds before it batted her away. Elizabeth grabbed the beast's hind leg and twisted, trying to break it. It quickly shook her off.

Sheppard got back on his four feet. He growled in challenge. Feinting a leap forward, the super-lycan overcorrected. Sheppard got in under its defenses and slashed it's guts open. Blood sprayed and Sheppard growled triumphantly.

His growl was cut short as the super lycan knocked him back again. Its injury healed in milliseconds.

Selene jumped on the super-lycan's back and plunged a military issue combat knife through the top of its skull and out of the bottom of its mouth. This moderately annoyed it. It batted Selene down and Sheppard heard several bones snap loudly. Elizabeth jumped on the super-lycan and tried to hold the knife in place, but had no better luck.

The beast yanked the knife from its skull and threw it, demonstrating amazing dexterity with it's wolf hands. The knife slashed through Selene's thigh and nailed her to the ground. It approached Selene to finish her. Sheppard extended his claws to their maximum length and shoved them all the way through its back and out the front of its torso. In milliseconds, the wounds healed around his claws, trapping them. The super-lycan snapped Sheppard's claws clean off, eliciting a howl of anguish from him. A back kick threw Sheppard back a dozen yards.

A massive explosion erupted against the lycan as another Carl Gustav round hit it. It didn't even seem to notice.

"It feeds like a wraith and doesn't appear to have an upper limit to how much energy it can absorb!" Selene shouted, dodging another blow. "How much power did this reactor contain that it fed on?"

"Equivalent to a rather large number of strategic nuclear weapons," Elizabeth said.

"This isn't going to work!" Selene said, dodging another blow. "Infantry weapons won't hurt it. I doubt even anti-tank weapons will do."

"We just need to keep it in the open!" Elizabeth shouted. "I have to get to Rodney!"

"Go!" Selene shouted. "We'll keep it distracted!"

XXXXXXXXXX

In an eye blink, Elizabeth was back. "Ma'am," Lorne began.

"Not now, there's no time," Elizabeth said. "Hold the slow ones back! I have to get to the radio and send a message to Daedalus!"

"Understood," Lorne said. "Teyla, get on that .50 cal!" Lorne ordered.

Teyla stood the turned over .50 caliber machine gun back on its tripod, unceremoniously pushing the dead gunner out of the way. She yanked the charging handle and opened fire.

The weight of fire from the defenders was waning. Too many had been killed by the lycan, and ammunition was running short. The shambling lycans were getting too close.

"Fix bayonets!" Lorne ordered. It was about to get ugly.

Lorne and his men continued firing when a staccato series of explosions scattered the front ranks. "Who did that?" Lorne asked. "I thought the Carl Gustavs were out of ammo!"

"It wasn't one of us!" Ronon shouted.

Another heavy explosion took out even more of the shambling lycans, and then the sky was split open by two sonic booms as two F-302s screamed over at full afterburner.

"Cavalry's here boys!" Lorne shouted. "Keep the fire on them!"

An entire squadron of F-302s shrieked over, strafing the closer enemies with their railguns. The railgun rounds were the kiss of death to anything they touched. Blood and gore spattered the ground in ridiculous amounts as the F-302s slaughtered the enemy.

Dozens of bright flashes heralded the arrival of reinforcing troops. Their commander, a rough looking man in his fifties, brusquely ordered his men into Lorne's position. The additional firepower pushed back the closest enemies in short order

The commander hunkered down next to Lorne. "Major David Rosenberg, Second Marine Division."

"We're damned glad to see you!" Lorne shouted.

"What do we need to do?" Rosenberg asked.

"Hold them back from our lines!" Lorne said. "Don't bother with the big furry one if you see him. Nothing we have on the ground can hurt it!"

The two men looked down range as they heard an enormous roar. The super-lycan came bounding out into the open, over a thousand yards away.

Rosenberg took a device from his back and aimed it at the super-lycan. "Fortunately, we have something bigger than small arms. Delta flight, target acquired!" he shouted into his radio.

An acknowledgement came back promptly. Two F-302s screamed in and released four 500 pound laser guided bombs.

"Get down!" Lorne shouted. The defenders fire stopped as they covered behind their makeshift fortifications.

The bombs landed squarely on the lycan. Fire and thunder was all Lorne knew, and the shockwave nearly threw him out of cover. Bits of metal, concrete, and other materials fell all about them.

Lorne peeked over the edge of the barricade, and see the lycan standing, defiant. "You have GOT to be kidding me!" Lorne said.

The beast looked to the sky, and jumped like he had a rocket motor attached to him. It smashed into one of the F-302s...and cut it in half. Flaming pieces of the fighter fell into the ocean.

"That is so unfair," Lorne complained. "We have anything bigger than five hundred pounders?"

"That we do," Elizabeth said, coming up behind him. "I've already called it in."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Sir, did you just see that?" Major Marks asked.

"That I did, Major," Colonel Stephen Caldwell answered.

The Daedalus was cruising in at low altitude, just two thousand feet from the ocean. They'd watched the lycan punch the F-302 out of the sky.

"Major Marks," Caldwell said, taking a seat in his command chair. "How good is your shooting with the Asgard Plasma Beams?"

"Pretty good sir, why do you-" Marks began. "Oh," he said, realizing what Caldwell wanted. "It'll be tough, but I think I can do it if the thing would hold still long enough."

"We'll see what we can arrange with our ground forces," Caldwell said. "Helm, ten degrees to port. Let's give Major Marks as easy a shot as we can manage."

XXXXXXXXXX

Elizabeth darted back to Selene, bypassing the horde of shambling lycans, utilizing her great speed. "We need to see if we can make it stand still for a moment!"

"Is that all?" Selene asked sardonically. She ducked aside as it swatted lycan-form Sheppard far enough away to qualify as a home run.

"I have an idea!" Elizabeth shouted, jumping back from the lycan's claws. "We need to get it to an edge. Do you still have a knife?"

Selene nodded, understanding. "Yes. Sheppard!" she yelled. Selene pointed to one of the towers. "Lead it up there!"

Sheppard took off running. Giving in to its predator instinct, the super-lycan followed him. Sheppard used his claws to dig into the side of the tower, and climbed it like a cat. He gained the top just as the super-lycan landed in front of him. It backhanded Sheppard, and he fell from the skyscraper sized tower.

By then, Selene and Elizabeth had made the top. Elizabeth ran full bore into the beast's left leg, dislodging it. The super-lycan tripped, and it's left leg had no purchase on solid ground.

Selene rammed the knife through it's right foot with all the force she could muster. It punched cleanly through the lycans' foot and embedded itself in the roof. The wound healed around the blade even as it traveled, but it served its purpose.

With no purchase with its left leg, it had no leverage to pull itself free.

Selene looked towards the east, and saw the gunmetal gray Daedalus turning a nasty looking weapon emplacement their direction.

"Get out!" Selene shouted. She and Elizabeth dropped off the side of the building.

XXXXXXXXXX

The sky went bright green as the Daedalus fired its Asgard built plasma beam. The beam struck the lycan full on.

The brightness faded as the weapon deactivated. Lorne looked through his binoculars and all he saw was two smoking legs, which slipped and fell from the top of the building.

"Resume fire!" Lorne yelled. "Push them back!"

There weren't many of the shambling lycans left. The reinforcing Marines left the barricade and slowly advanced into the enemy, cutting them down methodically.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sheppard woke up and got on his paws. The super-lycan was dead...he couldn't smell it anymore, but his work was not done.

Moving quietly, he followed his nose around the corner of another of Atlantis's skyscrapers. There, the wraith that had taken Elizabeth hostage had its back turned to him. It was watching the battle end, and Sheppard could smell its fear. Sheppard loomed up behind the wraith quietly.

It seemed to realize something was wrong, and whirled to face him. Before it could move, Shepard swatted it with his open paw, taking its head off cleanly at the shoulders. The head flew through the air about six hundred yards. Sheppard lifted his snout into the air and snorted at it in derision, as if to say, "So there!"

Sheppard trotted off and quickly found Elizabeth and Selene. He whined and cocked his head quizically.

"Yes, I'm fine," Elizabeth said. "You can un-dog yourself now."

Fire coursed through his body again as he commanded it to change. Finally back in human form, he stood back up, bones popping. "Ow," he complained. "That is not fun at all!"

Elizabeth blushed and half turned away from him, giggling a bit. "What?" Sheppard asked.

He looked down. He was naked.

"Ah," Sheppard said. He snapped to parade rest. "Begging your pardon ma'am, I seem to have misplaced my uniform."

Elizabeth busted up laughing.