Here's the next chapter for you all, questions will be answered and others will be asked. Note: I only own what characters i create, the names and places i invent and the ships and vehicles i seem to be designing in droves for this single story.

I would like to thank AlexanderD for all his help and i strongly recomend reading his story New Dawn. I hope he likes the character named after him Admiral Alec Xander.

For those of you interested in what some of the ships featured in this story look like here are a few sketches on photobucket: albums/ae166/Senrab_Nomis/

Please review and i will respond. Or alternatively post in the thread for this story in my forum. topic/84023/35075481/1/

Review Responses

AlexanderD: You know me, just when a situation looks good it can always turn bad again. So far the allies are having it all their own way, so far.

BIG Z1776: The Asgard though won't interfere directly in Earth internal affairs but will be on standby to make sure it goes down well when they get the green light.

Shadows of Realm: You'll see, but i assure you its gonna be good.

Cdoctor: I figured it was about time that Earth got some additional defences.

Oddliver: Thank you.

Just a Crazy-Man: Such is war.

stormwolf3710: Thats what happens when we bounce ideas off each other, hope the two are distinctive enough for you.

Naginator: All things are possible.

drewc: Thank you.

vash1914: Thank you for the good idea.

Chronus1326: When it comes to space travel there really is no such thing as simple tech. The problem is that the Genii for all intensive purposes are still only at about 1940s Earth level in their development when it comes to the majority of their technology. In order to let them make even as advanced as the Prometheus they would need a technological revolution. if you can think of a feasible way to do it though then i am all ears.

Zarasian Outpost

Zarin sat in the control room, seething at the previous encounter with the allied forces. The aliens had proven to be much more of a problem than had been anticipated and the new Wraith spawn were not helping matters. If it had just been their former brethren the Averians and even this new Wraith incarnation then he could have handled the threat with ease and been done with them but these new enemies were proving difficult. His flagships accompanying fleet had been wiped out by their threat alone. True it represented just a small chunk of his forces and he had been up against what was believed to be the bulk of the alien's forces but that had shown that they possessed incredible power and technology, technology greatly more advanced than their own. If they were to deal with this menace then they would need to find a weakness to exploit. They needed to capture one of their ships and study its advanced technology in the hopes of duplicating it for their use, or at the very least using the design techniques to enhance their own technology.

What had him most annoyed though was that his mighty flagship, possessing the most advanced systems they had ever developed, was now a lifeless hulk sitting in a dockyard undergoing repairs. Somehow the prisoners had not only escaped but had broken through every system defence in operation and introduced a virus that had crippled the ships systems. Even the back-ups, when they had kicked in, had eventually been overcome forcing his ship to go to the only dockyard within range, this one. The truly annoying thing about that damn virus was that it had not actually destroyed the core programs, oh no that would have been too easy, instead it had left them relatively intact but scrambled them to the point that the computer core needed to be taken completely offline to prevent the ship from blowing itself up. When the virus had finally been stopped after it systematically targeted critical systems there was barely a fraction of the computer core left intact. Even when the ship had arrived in orbit over the outpost the troubles weren't over as the last of the critical systems had failed, though thankfully life support was on an isolated control system in case something like this happened. But despite this the only way to get the thing into dry dock on the planets surface had been to slowly lower it using an anti gravity suspension field and directional thrusters incorporated into a harness they attached to the hull. Attaching the harness had taken a long time, a very long time, and that alone had been enough to drive Zarin into a vindictive rage. Now he was being told just how long it would take to get the Doom Bringer off the ground again and it was not making him any happier.

"What is the status of my ship?"

"The physical damage was minimal but the software problem is taking time to correct," stated Malek, the Doom Bringer's chief engineer.

"What is taking so long?" Zarin demanded.

"As you know Etere the virus that invaded the system did not physically destroy the core programs but instead scramble the basic operation protocols," explained Malek, calm in the face of Zarins anger. "It was, quite frankly, a miracle that I was able to keep the back ups isolated and stable long enough to even get us here. As such we have to perform repair work on each individual subroutine one at a time or we risk systems overloading and exploding."

"Has the virus been removed?"

"Completely," confirmed Malek. "Not that it was necessary the virus self terminated after targeting and infecting all the control systems."

"Do you know why?"

Malek shrugged.

"There could be any number of reasons," he said offhandedly. "I believe it most likely that it was so that we could not analyse the virus structure and attempt to develop a countermeasure."

"So you have no countermeasures to this threat," Zarin accused him.

"The firewalls will protect against such a threat from a remote source," countered Malek. "If they are once again able to bypass every defence measure we have though then any security we have is effectively useless however that should not be possible to do again."

Zarin nodded. Malek was a capable engineer, very capable as it happened otherwise he wouldn't be working as chief engineer on his flagship. Malek knew how good he was and that gave him a bravery that many of his lackeys did not possess and made him fearless of his wrath. That sense of self confidence and iron will was something Zarin could respect.

"How long until my flagship is operational again?"

"It is hard to say at this point," Malek answered. "Rectifying the damage done to each individual subroutine does not take a set amount of time, some are easily corrected while others take a long time. It could be days or it could be weeks?"

"Why don't you simply wipe the computer core clean and then re-upload all of the data?" Zarin asked irritably.

"We tried and failed," explained Malek. "We believe the virus is preventing us from deleting the control programs."

"I thought you said the virus was gone?" Zarin accused. "I do not like being lied to."

"The virus is gone," said Malek. "However this is most probably the after effects of the virus still being felt. There aren't any alternatives that I can think of that would physically prevent us from deleting everything."

"Are you sure there isn't something else in the system causing this problem?"

"Our scans definitely show no other viruses are present," said Malek. "If there is something causing this problem then it can only be a virus."

"What is the status of the Wraith?" enquired Zarin.

"Contained and currently on lockdown until we restore primary systems. It's a good thing I insisted on an isolated system for the containment pod or she would have been rotting in there," said Malek smugly.

"Is she fit for use?" Zarin asked callously.

"The stasis capsule kept her stable and unconscious when the primary systems failed," explained Malek. "However I wouldn't want to try transferring her out of there until we can stabilise the rest of the systems and as it stands the rest of the hatchery is offline."

"I want her revived and put to work as soon as possible," Zarin ordered. "Make the hatchery a priority for reactivation. We need to replace the numbers we lost on that station."

"It will be done Etere," said Malek.

"Get my ship off the ground under its own power Chief Engineer," Zarin ordered. "We spent far too long just sitting in orbit outside of the protective bubble for my liking. I want to be off the ground the before our enemies arrive."

Little did he know that his enemies were already on his door step and had even put boots on the ground inside the stealth field.

On a rocky outcrop Ronon and Teyla stood observing the facility from a distance. Under normal circumstances they would at the very least be crouched down or attempting to conceal themselves in some way but this time they weren't afraid to stand tall out in the best vantage point available. The reason for this was the Sodan cloaks mounted on their fore arms of their Mark II Tempest Battle Armour Suits.

The suits were the first production models of what would eventually become standard issue for all personnel. The Mark II's were the closest in function to the original Vanir exoskeletons that the overall design was based off. While the Mark I's featured the standard hazard protection package along with an improved durability they lacked the strength bonus. The reason for this was that the enhancements in the originals had been designed to bring a Vanir user up to at least human adult level strength and given that tempest battle armour is designed for humans anyway it seemed rather pointless to include it in the Mark I. The Mark II however featured micro servo motors that would actually enhance the strength of the user, making them stronger than even a Wraith. The suits also had an added bonus of protecting the user from any radiation that the Sodan cloaking devices might give off as part of their basic function, not that would stop a certain Satedan from complaining about the odd feeling one got from wearing the form fitting suit.

"This thing feels weird," said Ronon as he bounded down the hill side.

"Think of all the benefits that the suit provides you with makes it easier," advised Teyla as she followed behind him. "While you wear this suit you will be stronger than a Wraith or a Reaper."

Ronon turned and gave her a look that said quite clearly 'I'm already stronger than a Wraith or a Reaper'.

"It will make you slightly stronger than you are now and provide you with better protection," responded Teyla.

Ronon grunted.

"Besides I thought you liked being able to use the cloaking device built into the suits," said Teyla.

"I do," admitted Ronon. Combined with his and Teyla's natural stealth the two of them were like ghosts when using the cloaking devices.

"Then you should be grateful for the suits protection," pointed out Teyla. "Without the radiation being emitted by the device you would be plagued by worms that would try to burrow their way into your body and mutate you into a hideous creature every time you use it."

"You really need to stop reading those mission reports," said Ronon.

"Perhaps you should start," Teyla shot back.

The two shared a grin and continued to their transport in silence, moving stealthily like invisible predators. Their transport was a transport shuttle that had undergone some major modifications to make it more appropriate for their use. Normally a ship that big would be way more than what would be needed for just the two of them but Ronon and Teyla weren't the only members of this little group.

SPECial Tactics and Reconaisance Element, otherwise known as SPECTRE, was officially composed of six members however only five were present on this particular reconnaisance mission. As the two founding members of the group entered the cloaked transport and the doors sealed behind them they deactivated their cloaks.

Eir, in her combat form and with the green crystal of the cloaking device glittering on her arm, approached them and gave them an appraising look. And since the Valkyrie happened to be a robot her appraising look happened to include a full body sensor scan.

"So you two didn't encounter any problems then," she noted. "And your suits are holding up well against the radiation from the cloaks."

A low chuckle arose that was distinctly Wraith.

"It seems you make good lab rats," said Todd with mirth from where he was working at a console set in the wall.

Next to him stood a very large former Wraith drone named Jason who smirked at the joke.

Neither Ronon nor Teyla said anything. They could see that the humour had never entered Todd eyes and that they had remained as hard and cold as they had ever since he first found out about his sister. The feeling was being shared amongst the other Wraith and they could see the coldness in Jason's eyes as well. It seemed that until they rescued Eurielle they would be looking at a lot of bad jokes and it was a toss up as to whether this was better than him being broody the whole time.

The not present sixth member of the group was Sovaer who was out of commission, possibly even permanently, since he was lying comatose in a hospital bed back in the Vanir city. Many wondered how a group that would normally feature two Wraith, an Athosian, a Satedan, a valkyrie and an Averian cyborg came together. The answer to that came from the quality that each of the group members possessed. Simply put they were all arse kickers to the point that they were likened to The Expendables. Since they were hard pressed to find opponents who could match them Ronon, Teyla and Sovaer could often be found in the gym sparring against each other whenever they all happened to be in the same place over the past two years. The three quickly became legends as the three people you did not want to take on in combat, up close or at a distance.

As relations with the Wraith improved and friendships grew Todd joined the three in the sparing ring, the Wraiths many years of experience allowing him to fight against them on a somewhat even level. Todd brought to the group a level of technical expertise as well as increasing their overall fighting strength. With him added to the group that brought them up to four people and expanded them beyond reconnaisance missions.

As part of their alliance though the four were regularly apart of joint training sessions since the newly emancipated Wraith drones lacked the training necessary to make them effective in close quarters combat. One of those drones was a big guy, a very big guy as it happened, even for a Wraith drone and he was quiet too. But the most notable thing about him was that no matter how many times one of the four would knock him to the mat he would always get up and come back for more. No matter how hard he got hit he would shrug it off and keep on fighting and he was quiet all the time. Drones weren't normally known for their conversation before the removal of the inhibitor and he was certainly no fool but he took it to a whole new level. It was actually slightly frightening. In typical Sheppard style John had been quick to come up with a name for the Wraith and called him Jason after a certain famous horror character that kept getting back up as well. So that brought the group up to five members with Jason filling a heavy support role.

The sixth member was Eir, a rather recent addition, and she filled a role that was going to be needed sooner or later as the group was called on for missions of increased danger. She was the team medic.

Over the past two years the team participated in numerous joint operations but never in anything serious. At the moment the team was still in the experimental phase and worse still they were short one of the original three. As an ace team though SPECTRE was given some of the best equipment available, including the newest models as they were built and this gave them a large amount of resources at their disposal. The Mark II suits with built in cloaking devices that each member was equipped with, except for Eir, was just the start. The transport shuttle had been upgraded with the best technology available which included stronger shields, faster engines, a more powerful generator and additional weaponry which came in the form of a plasma bomb emitter on the ships underbelly. The inside has also been revamped with scanning equipment, an armoury a machine shop which included a matter synthesiser and a fully stocked medical bay. Rumour amongst the uninitiated was that the ship even had a secret compartment that housed a fully operational Titan for Eir to use when she remembered she hadn't taken the Hippocratic Oath.

Aside from the fully loaded ship each member was also equipped with their own specialised weaponry. Ronon, Eir and Todd kept their usual assortment of weapons, although Todd did now have a few new gadgets to better facilitate his role as the team tech. Teyla now had a modified Jaffa plasma blaster that was powered by a power crystal taken from an Ori staff weapon and a pair of trinium based pointed banto rods with a naquadah edging designed to make them plasma rods. Jason carried a Wraith energy cannon as a secondary weapon while his primary a larger version of the spear rifle that fired bigger rounds and had a plasma blade like a meat cleaver although the overall appearance of the weapon was more like a halberd.

Sovaer was expected to keep his personal assortment of weapons but since he was still comatose no one knew for sure what they would be. While he would also be given the Mark II armour it was questionable as to whether he would actually benefit from the strength boost given his powerful artificial musculature. None of the team would accept the idea that Sovaer was gone. As long as he was still alive there was a chance that he would wake up and that meant he wasn't gone yet.

"We've been here for days already," complained Ronon. "Tell me you have something by now."

"I've been scanning the facility intensively searching for pure Wraith life signs," said Todd, not turning his head.

"What did you find?" asked Teyla as she pulled off her helmet.

"That there are a lot of reapers present," said Todd.

"That's it?" grunted Ronon.

"Reaper life signs are too close to Wraith life signs to distinguish between the two without in depths scans," Eir answered for him.

"And you can't do that without alerting them to our presence here," surmised Teyla.

"No we can't," said Todd. "That is why you two go out there keeping an eye on that ship to make sure no one takes her off it. Why aren't you still out there anyway?"

"We have planted the last of the monitoring devices around the ship," said Teyla. "You should be able to bring them online now."

Todd grunted.

"Can't they just use one of those ring things to get her off that ship?" pointed out Ronon. "It would be easier."

"No," said Todd. "They had to shut down all the ships systems to counteract the effects of the black virus otherwise there is a chance it might blow up. Sovaer knew what he was doing to cripple that thing for some time to come."

"It's a miracle that thing even survived the battle," said Eir.

"A miracle I am grateful for," said Todd.

"Do we have a plan for rescuing your sister?" asked Teyla.

"Go in cloaked, grab her and kill anything that gets in our way," said Jason in his deep gruff voice.

Ronon grinned. It was his kind of plan. Unfortunately his experience as a Specialist told it was a no.

"I like it big guy," he admitted. "But there are too many of them for us to guarantee the prisoners safety."

If it were a simple issue of slaughtering the enemy the Satedan would be all for tearing into the enemy and odds are they would take down a very large number of them before they went down but this wasn't that situation. Not only would they have to sneak into the ship, which admittedly wouldn't be that difficult using the cloaks, they would then have to search the ship for her and then get her out safely. Given the value she would pose to Zarin just unplugging her from the machines would probably set off any number of alarms throughout the ship and plunge them into a fire fight against every reaper on the ship and probably the base.

"My sister's safety is of the upmost priority," Todd stated adamantly. "Nothing else matters in this case."

"Yes sir," said Jason.

Ronon, Teyla and Eir shared a look. This was similar to something they had seen before in Echidna when Todd had been kidnapped, a fierce determination to achieve ones goal no matter the cost and to cut through whatever stood in the way of achieving that goal.

"In which case then I wouldn't recommend we mount an extraction mission of your sister," said Eir.

Todd did actually turn his head at that point and he was glaring daggers at the valkyrie who seemed completely unaffected by the fact that she should be nothing more than a blast shadow on the wall. Even Jason looked slightly pissed at her suggestion.

"What did you say?" asked Todd in a voice so low it was a growl.

"I said we can't try and get her off the flagship," she repeated.

Todd slowly rose from his seat.

"That is my, our, whole purpose for being here," he said as he stalked towards her. "If we cannot rescue her then what is the point of us being here."

Eir raised her hands in surrender.

"I'm not saying we don't try to rescue her," she said calmly. "I'm saying that we can't get her out of there."

"Todd," said Teyla, taking a step forwards to hold back the Wraith if necessary. "Let her speak."

Todd growled before taking a deep breath to calm himself.

"Explain."

"I've been reviewing the reports we received from Jakose along with the historical records," she explained. "They indicate that they not only have her hooked up to numerous pieces of different equipment which have an unknown purpose but are injecting her with a collection of drugs. Now if I had to guess they have her under near constant sedatives designed to weaken her higher brain functions and make her extremely suggestible which is how they keep her under control."

"What does that have to do with extracting her?" asked Ronon.

Eir sighed.

"If I'm right then the drugs will probably be quite powerful," she explained. "The females of your species have an incredibly high natural resistance to outside influences and while that gives them an advantage it does come at a price. However most likely they would have to have her on immune suppressors. That means that we can't just unplug and expose her to environmental pollutants or we could end up killing her. Not to mention the possible side effects of just taking her off the drugs they have her on when we don't know what they are."

"So what are you suggesting?" asked Todd. "We have to take the whole ship?"

"That was the original plan until we found that it was landing here," said Teyla.

"If we are to safely get her out of the containment they have her in then it would be better if we had the time to analyse all the variables first," said Eir. "I wouldn't want to try anything by myself at this point."

Todd nodded slowly, appreciative of the fact that she was concerned with his sister's safety.

"Okay, so what is the plan to take the entire ship?" asked Ronon.

"Not alone," said Todd. "In order to succeed we would need to cripple the ship to prevent it from taking off, assuming they can repair it in time, and then capture the outpost. The alternative is for us to capture the ship and fly it out of here which isn't an option given the condition it's in and the number of forces in position."

"We would have to take out all the defending forces and if we are going to do that we may as well take the outpost as well," summarised Ronon.

"Precisely," said Todd. "The one advantage we have is that they can't rig the ship to overload because everything is offline until they can repair the damage, at least it should be."

"Should be?" asked Teyla.

"I don't know what systems they have cleansed of the virus at the moment," explained Todd. "So there is always the risk that they could have access to a self destruct mechanism."

"What can we do about that?" asked Ronon.

"We need to isolate key areas of the ship to prevent them from initiating an overload in the power systems," said Todd. "I would recommend engineering and the room where my sister is being held."

"What about the bridge?" asked Teyla. "Isn't that important as well?"

"Not in this case," said Todd. "If we move quickly the ships computers should still be crippled which means that the bridge will effectively be useless."

"How do you want to do this?" asked Ronon.

Todd sighed.

"As we saw earlier they have a sizeable fleet in orbit of this world which means we will need to neutralise them."

"We have allies that can handle that," said Teyla. "What is our role going to be?"

Todd nodded.

"We'll split into two teams, each with a specific task," explained Todd. "Yourself and Eir will defend the room my sister resides in while I, Ronon and Jason take over engineering. Your job will be to prevent anyone from removing her from the ship and keeping her stable while we will sabotage the generators to prevent an overload."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Teyla.

Todd sank back into his chair.

"With those plasma rods of yours you are the best choice for close quarters combat," explained Todd. "I need Eir to keep Eurielle stable while you keep her safe. Oh and unless the rest of you know how to disable a power generator you have never seen before without causing it to violently explode then I have to be the one in engineering and I will need help to defend it while I work. I wish Sovaer were here."

"We all do," said Teyla.

Jason patted his superior on the shoulder causing Todd to grin.

"Time to make that call," he said.

The others turned and readied their respective weapons and assorted gear for the mission that was to come while Todd powered up the ships subspace communication array.

When they had arrived on the planet several days ago they had negotiated their way through a myriad group of ships and defensive emplacements in orbit, all of which had been operating in stealth mode which meant they had been forced to navigate past them visually before landing on the planet. They had spent the next few days scouting out the outpost and then planting monitoring devices after the flagship had landed so that they would know if Eurielle was moved. With that the experimental team SPECTRE had completed its first official reconnaisance mission and soon would be plunged into their first combat exercise.

Across the galaxy plans were being made and put into motion for the seizure of the flagship.

Please Review.