Hello everyone!
We are already onto chapter five? Man that's awesome.
I am so thankful for all the support you guys have given me for this story. It means a lot.
Enough of the mushy stuff, let's blow stuff up!
Chapter Five: Replicating Allies
Time: July 22, 2005, 1400 hours. Location: Uninhabitable planet on Southern Side of Pegasus.
Space was calm, the eternal blackness of the final frontier ever still, when several large lances of blue white particles flew past the view of a desolate planet.
The lances struck the side of a Wraith Cruiser, striking the hanger bay and blasting clean through the thinly armored section of the Hive and deep into the vessel, causing hundreds of secondary explosions to erupt outwards.
The beams came from the recharging barrel of one of the 100 mm cannons on the neck of the newest ADF vessel, Hades.
Hades had three of her 100 mm cannons then fire simultaneously at the newly created breach in the Hives armor, the nine beams hitting almost on the same area. The nine beams went right through the armor with little difficulty and struck the Hive's power generator, causing the entire ship to explode in a colossal explosion.
Nearby, the Archangel shot out a barrage of four torpedoes at two more unfortunate Hives, the speedy and nimble torpedoes gracefully dodging the Dart's attempt to destroy them and so the torpedoes struck the Hives with colossal explosions that rocked the Hive's and caused tremendous damage.
Meanwhile, a stream of Dart's flew towards the Archangel, hoping to do something to the ADF vessel.
However, as the Darts drew closer, the CIWS of the Archangel activated.
Along her hull, her duel 30 mm beam turrets swiveled into position. A second after each turret was in position, the six barrels inside each of the duel main barrels started to spin and within microseconds, the turret fired.
Each turret operated by firing a three second burst of particle fire. As each turret was capable of firing 6,000 particles rounds per minute, a three second burst shot out a total of 300 particle blasts. Once each of the three second bursts ended, the second barrel would unleash it's 300 blasts. And so on until the target was vaporized. It was though that this alternating burst style of CIWS would help increase the possibility of hitting smaller, nimble fighter craft. And to add even more possibility of hitting the target, each turret was slave linked to an on-board AI that would use the incredible computing power of the Archangel to calculate the best possible shots for hitting it's targets.
So far, this form of CIWS was extremely effective at clearing out and destroying vast amounts of Darts in small amounts of time. Also, since the 30 mm beam turrets had much longer range then the Dart's particle cannons, very few Darts ever got in close enough to actually pose a problem to the Plato class vessels.
Hive's on the other hand were an entirely different matter altogether. Thanks to the data recovered due to Rick Hunter and Skull Squadron, it was discovered just how powerful a Hive could actually be when they have a chance of fighting back.
A Hive has a total of 10 Particles cannons that can be fired at a rate of 60 shots per cannon per minute, allow for a total of 600 particles blasts per minute from a single Hive. Not only can the Hive's fire a lot, but the individual particle blast is truly powerful, so a single Hive is capable of taking on and severally draining the shields of a Plato class quickly. In high enough numbers, a fleet of Hive's could destroy even Atlantis carrying all three of her ZPMs, however that fleet would have to number into the thousands and all of them would have to firing simultaneously.
However, there are a number of weak-points that can be exploited on a Hive. For one, hitting a certain section of Hive's hull will destroy the Hive's weapons systems and that can take between 5 to 7 minutes to completely regenerate. Also, as shown before, launching sufficient firepower at a Hive's hanger bays can and will cause secondary explosions that can either greatly reduce a Hive's ability to fight or it can just outright disable the Hive for a short time if struck correctly.
The hangers are the easiest target, for if you blow open the hanger bay doors and follow up immediately with a Reflex torpedo, you can utterly obliterate a Hive with little to no effort. However, this relies entirely on your ability to cause a large enough hole in the hanger bay and then shoot a torpedo perfectly into that hole before the Hive regenerates the damage away.
Back with the Dart swarm, they tried to evade the quickly fired thin lances of blue energy from the CIWS of the Archangel, but the AI targeting along with the sheer number of particle blasts quickly destroyed the Darts before they had a chance to try and get away.
A flight of three Darts flew over a Hive ship and were about to go and try to take down a salvo of torpedoes launched from the Hades, but a familiar white and red Veritech came screaming down towards them. The gun pod on the belly of the plane started sending off a stream of deadly 50 mm rounds directly into the frame of one of the Darts, shredding the small and nimble alien fighter craft to scrap metal in seconds.
The two remaining Darts went in opposite directions, hoping to try and get the Veritech in a pincer maneuver. Against most other fighter craft, this might have worked. But this was is a Veritech and this is no ordinary pilot.
With a flick on the control panel, the process of Mechamorphosis occurred once more, showcasing the Veritech's greatest ability. It wasn't their lasers, it wasn't the missiles they carried, it is the ability to transformed into alternative modes that allowed them to adapt to the situation that was their greatest ability and why they are such an effective and powerful space fighter.
The fighter's frame began to morph and change. Arm and legs came out, but it didn't stop there. The nose of the plane popped out as the frame bent and straightened, growing taller. Soon, the nose went into the middle of frame, where the legs attacked to the bottom of the nose, while the arms came put of the newly formed chest portion of the frame and finally, a domed head with a V shaped visor and two lasers on the back of head came our of the frame. Finally, the Veritech had showed it's Battleoid mode, a form in which the fighter transforms into a large humanoid form.
Rick was now in the slightly altered cockpit, in which the cockpit now has the copilot seat above the pilot seat, mostly because the fighter in now taller then it is long and the seat had to be moved as the cockpit was moved as well to accommodate this vast alteration.
Rick had the Battleoid grab it's gunpod and swung it towards the fleeing Dart to the left and let loose a three second burst, which was enough to shear the right wing of the Dart, causing the small fighter to go careening off course and then impact the Hive, causing a minor explosion.
Using the vastly superior agility and maneuverability of the Battleoid, Rick swiftly turned the right while moving to the upper right and saw his second target.
Aligning up the shot using his advanced targeting system, Rick had the gunpod let loose a stream of 50 mm rounds into the small frame of the Dart, causing the small craft to explode into a fireball.
A single Dart came screaming in from above and behind, intent on taking down the ADF mecha.
But, before the Dart could send off a single particle blast, a single orange-red laser blast struck the Dart mid center. The laser quickly melted through the Darts thin armor plating and dove deep into the circuitry and sensitive material of the inner layers of the fighter. Within microseconds, the laser had melted through one side and came out the other, causing a chain reaction that caused the entire Dart to explode.
Rick turned around and saw a blue and white Veritech swinging around and he then transformed his Battleoid back into it's fighter mode and flew off to join up with the blue fighter.
"Hey Max, nice shooting." Rick said to his fellow ADF pilot.
"Thanks skipper. That was my ninth kill today and I still have a few missiles left." Maximilian Sterling, or as he likes to be called, Max replied. Max was a kind and gentle man with thin glasses and strange blue hair, but make no mistake, he is one of the best new pilots the ADF has and his skill will make him one of the best pilots to have ever flown a Veritech.
"Nine in one day? Not bad for your first combat mission. I got 11 on mine and by this time I had exhausted all my missiles." Rick said back, impressed by Max's flying skills.
"Thanks. By the way, do you know where Ben is?" Max asked.
Just then, they saw a brown and white Veritech being chased by a Dart. The Veritech then cut it's engines and transformed while flipping backwards, the airplane changing into the Guardian mode as it suddenly was now on the Dart's six o'clock. The Veritech the let loose a stream of 50 mm rounds into the backside of the art, causing the alien fighter to explode. The brown Veritech then re-transformed and flew alongside Max and Rick.
"Hey guys! How did you like that? That was my fifth kill of the day!" Ben Dixon, a large man with a enthusiastic attitude said. Ben had short brown hair and a loud, boisterous attitude, but he was a nice guy, unless you harmed himself or his friends, then he got angry and the guy had a mean left hook and good eye sight for his gunpod.
"Not bad. Except you didn't time the transformation and the back-flip quiet right. Should that Dart have managed to get a shot off, the entire Veritech would have destroyed. Try and make sure you get your timing right." Rick chastised his pilot.
"Yes sir!" Ben responded.
After returning to Atlantis, Rick had been praised for not only getting the intel they needed, but also risking his life to save his fellow Skull member. After that, he had been watched carefully by the higher ups. After several successful raids, Rick had showcased great leadership potential, as he had led several Skull members with pride and great care.
Just last week, he had promoted to Second Lieutenant and was given command of the newly formed Vermilion Squadron, and he took direct command of the two newest ADF Veritech pilots, Ben and Max.
The three had become fast friends and were soon flying like a well oiled machine. Rick had put in a lot of hours in getting both Max and Ben ready for their first engagement. And the effort was paying off, as both of the them were still alive and were getting a few kills. Although Ben could still use a little bit of work.
Back to the fight, Rick then said, "Alright, out of the three Hive's we attacked, one is destroyed while the other two have been greatly damaged. Out of the nine Cruisers, two are too badly damaged to fight back while the other seven have been destroyed. We have a large amount of Dart's still active, they are secondary targets to Cruisers and the Hives."
"Roger." His two subordinates replied, just as a voice came over the radio. "This is Captain Archer aboard the Enterprise, ourselves and the Dominion are going to be firing our 100 mm cannons at the two Hives. All Veritechs are to get out of the area and to prepare for immense explosive force."
"Okay, you heard him boys, let's get out of here." Rick said as he banked his fighter to the right, followed quickly by Max and Ben.
After 15 seconds since Archer gave the warning, four new torpedoes were launched in pairs from the Enterprise and the Dominion. One torpedo was always 10 seconds ahead of another torpedo, this would allow the first torpedo to create a hole in the Hive that the second torpedo would take advantage of.
The swift and deadly warheads flew like avenging angels, too fast and agile for the Dart's to take down and within a few minutes, two torpedoes struck the remaining Hives, causing gaping holes to be punched into their hulls, which were exploited seconds later when the second pair of torpedoes arrived.
The torpedoes flew into the hole and then detonated inside the warships, causing the large organic warships that have caused terror and fear to arise in the hearts of the occupants of Pegasus for 10,000 years to be vaporized in giant white explosions that nearly blinded all who looked upon it.
The destruction of the two Hives caused tremendous shock-waves to travel outwards and strike the damaged Cruisers, causing several minor explosions as the Cruisers were battered and beaten by the shock-wave after they had been struck by several of the extremely powerful particle cannons of the ADF.
Quickly, the four Plato class vessels moved in for the kill.
The Archangel, Enterprise, Hades and Dominion all charged their 100 mm cannons and aimed for the power cores of the damaged Cruisers.
Seconds later, the three 100 mm cannons on the necks of the four Plato class Frigates all sent off their three deadly lances of supercharged particles towards their targets.
The supercharged particles vaporized the hull area they struck and quickly sank deeper and deeper into the frames of the Wraith vessels, passing through bulkheads, machinery and unfortunate Wraith as they towards their target.
The beams eventually found themselves striking and destroying the Cruisers power-cores, causing a chain reactions that quickly destroyed the Cruisers in giant balls plasma.
Rick then radioed to Ben and Max saying, "Alright, let's head to the Hades."
"Roger." His two subordinates replied and the flight of three flew off towards their home.
Once near enough, three metals arms that had two large prongs reached out and wrapped themselves around the middle part of the Valkyries.
The arms then moved the Valkyries into their pits, where maintenance drones are released and the Veritechs are repaired from the slight amount of damage they received in combat. Also, the gun pod's magazines are replaced while fresh missiles are placed onto the hard points.
Rick popped open his canopy and jumped out of the Valkyrie, seeing both Ben and max doing the same thing.
Rick and his pilots then floated over to the hanger exit hatch and entered. Once in the small little waiting area, artificial gravity is added and an atmosphere is added as well. Once that was done, Rick and his two fellow pilots took off their helmets and left the area.
The three pilots went towards the mess hell, eager to eat something.
The Hades, Archangel, Dominion and the Enterprise all turned around and swiftly left the area using the Fold systems, making their way back to Atlantis.
Rick thought about all that has changed since that first strike against the Wraith. It seems like is was such a long time ago now.
Since then, four additional Alpha type bases have begun construction and are nearing completion. The ADF now has a total of seven different bases here in Pegasus.
First, they have Atlantis, their command center and their most important base of all. Next, they have the five Alpha Base style bases. The names of the Alpha Bases are: the Alpha Site, the Beta Site, the Gamma Site, the Zeta Site, and the Omega Site. Finally, the newest base would be the moon base that was constructed on Lantea's moon, which is called Moon Base ALUCE and serves as the docking platform for all the Plato Frigates currently in service.
Moon Base ALUCE was Rodney's idea, as they couldn't keep building the ships on Atlantis and then docking them when they came back, they didn't have enough docking ports for that, so a new place for the ships was needed, and so the Moon was chosen as it would serve nicely, for they could make Moon base ALUCE as big as they needed, allowing them to build and dock their expanding fleet. Also, some of the most critical projects the ADF is working on are at Moon Base ALUCE.
Some of the projects are for Intergalactic Fold generators, some are even stronger shield systems and still others are trying to create a powered armor that can transform into a motorcycle for the ground troops.
Project Pendragon is coming along nicely, as the Thought Interface system is finally being understood. Not enough for a prototype to be built, but they have made nice strides towards creating the next generation space fighter. The Valkyries are nice, but upgrades are needed if they are going to be the weapon that Zor envisioned.
Speaking of Zor, he has been working tirelessly to get the SDF-1 completed. He hasn't had the time to create any new projects as all of his efforts are directed towards getting Atlantis and the SDF-1 completed before the Wraith find them.
Atlantis now has dozens of eight tube missile launchers spread throughout the city, while also having even more 30 mm duel beam turrets and no less then 36 x 72 mm particle cannons, along with 6 x 100 mm particle cannons. Unfortunately, none of them have power as the extra large and powerful Protoculture/Naquada Reflex Reactors have not been activated yet.
You see, Atlantis was specifically designed to run off of ZPM's, so trying to wire in the Reflex Reactors to power the city is proving problematic, as literal miles of super power and insulated power lines have to be redesigned and altered to allow the Reflex Reactors to power all of Atlantis's many power hungry systems. Not only that, but the Reflex Reactors on Atlantis are much larger and much more powerful then those found on the Plato class or even the SDF-1. The nine reactors on Atlantis, when activated and tied into the cities systems, will generate energy equivalent to that of a single ZPM, an incredible feet, considering the twelve Naquada reactors the Atlantis Expedition brought with them together would only grant a tenth of the energy a ZPM does.
However, to do so, the Reflex Reactors need to be larger and much more powerful then those found on other warships, meaning many more safeguards have to built so the reactors won't explode and kill everyone on Atlantis. Also, a lot of area has to be cleared and transformed into the reactors, which has taken some considerable time and effort.
Atlantis won't have her Reflex Reactors operational for another six months at the earliest, which is something that is causing high command no small amount of headaches.
The SDF-1 herself is a much more positive subject, as she is only two months away from being completely upgraded and ready to fight, which is something all members of the ADF are thankful for. The SDF-1 has the highest stats of any of the ships currently in the ADF possession, save for Atlantis when her refit is complete. With incredibly strong shields, an plethora of improved particle cannons along with a much tighter and more accurate CIWS system, a better hull and a FTL system that was built by people who actually knew what they were doing, the SDF-1 is going to the flagship of the ADF space forces.
Speaking of the ADF space forces, after the Archangel and Dominion proved themselves after their third raid against the Wraith, high command ordered six other Platos to be built. Fast forwards four months and the Enterprise, Hades, Ares, Athena, Hermes and the Tartaros were all complete and ready to fight against the Wraith. A month later the crew were trained and finally, the ADF had eight combat ready vessels.
The ADF then sent the eight vessels out to try and cause as much damage as they could, destroying Hives and Cruisers or attacking planets that had Wraith bases on them, it had been a busy month for the ADF. In total, 7 Hive had been destroyed along with their Cruiser escorts.
However, the data Rick had retrieved had finally shown just how large the Wraith are. There was a grand total of 130 Hives with three times that many Cruisers all throughout the Pegasus Galaxy for a grand total of 520 Wraith combat vessels. It had been slightly terrifying to learn just how outmatched and outgunned they truly were when compared to the Wraith. But, to protect the lives of countless multitudes of humans living in Pegasus, the ADF has to win this war.
So, the ADF had increased production of construction drones to try and get Atlantis and the SDF-1 done sooner, but it wasn't possible. Only a certain amount of drones could be working on a single project at once, due to space limitations.
They needed better, faster construction drones, but they drone model they were using was the best the Tirolians had access to and they didn't have the time to try and make them better.
Something needed to be done, but no one had the answer on what could be done.
Rick pondered these things as he ate his food while the Hades flew back to Atlantis.
Time: January 22, 2005, 1400 hours. Location: Lantea.
John sighed deeply as he was finally able to go through the Stargate once more.
Ever since he became the leader of all ground forces of the ADF, he had to deal with an incredibly larger paperwork load then he was used to doing as the military leader of the Atlantis Expedition.
Even so, he wouldn't change it for the world. They now had a chance against the Wraith, they were learning things they never would have been capable of without Zor or Lang and now they didn't have to worry about food. Due to the large agricultural centers on the Alpha type bases, they had an abundance of plants, plus due to the cloning chambers they could clone enough meat for the civilians in Neo-Macross and also for the military personal here on Atlantis and on the Platos, which was a blessing.
He personally thought the cloned meats were weird tasting, but if he had to choose between a weird tasting meat and starving to death, it was a no brainier. Also, the ability to have a near limitless supply of coffee and chocolate had really improved the moral of the Atlantis personal, as coffee was starting to run low when the SDF-1 arrived and tempers were starting to flare.
A lesson John learned was that although scientists are normally nice people, when they haven't had coffee for while and they do all-nighters, they tend to change into people who calculate the pros and cons of killing people for a single cup of coffee. It also doesn't help that a lot of their scientific equipment is throw-able and can do damage if thrown hard enough, plus some scientific equipment can be used as melee weapons if they are angry enough.
Scientists are a scary bunch of people when sleep deprived and cut off from coffee.
Shaking his head from those thoughts, Sheppard walked down the halls of the Ancient city ship as he went towards the equipment room to meet up with AR-1 so they can get ready for the trip to the newly discovered planet of M39-113. According to the Atlantis database, M39-113 is a small planet that like Lantea is apart of an eight planet solar system. M39-113 has excessive plant life, with thick forests greater then even the Amazon. The planet is home to a swarm of indigenous animals, ranging from small furry mammal like creatures that look like incredibly cuddly bunnies, to large primate-like creatures that live in the trees. There is no human life on the planet however. The only reason they are even going to this planet is because according to the records, M39-113 was once home to an Ancient facility. Exactly what they did is unknown, but it is an Ancient facility, so they had to go check it out. Who knows what they might find?
Sheppard entered into the newly redesigned armory and quickly went to one of the lockers, his specifically.
Pressing thumb to the biosensor, the locked unlocked and Shepperd opened the large metal container and reached inside to pull out what was inside.
Inside was several different objects. Two looked like black armored gauntlets with a modified Infiltrator on the right one while the left gauntlet had a strange circular object on the forearm. Sheppard put his forearms into the devices and then clicked down and locked onto his arms. Nodding, Sheppard then took two boots that appeared to be made of the same material and quickly placed the boots on as well. Sheppard then took a torso plate that had shoulder pads with three blue glowing circles on them, and latched the torso unit on as well. The torso unit was formfitting and had an image of a Pegasus in white over a blue planet on it, this was a decal Sheppard had chosen for his armor. Once the torso unit was on, Sheppard pressed the decal on his right chest and suddenly, black fiber materials spread from the gauntlets and moved up to the shoulder pads, while the same material spread from the boots up to the crotch piece Sheppard had placed on. With the armor now on his, Sheppard grabbed his newly designed helmet and placed it on. The helmet was a sleek and smooth structure, having a smooth surface over the area where his face would be while a small rectangle with blue lines going through it was on the left side of the helmet.
This is the Mark 6 Powered Armor. McKay designed it to be a mass produced armor that can function like a hazmat, body armor and anything the ADF might need when exploring new planet. The previous versions had either been too bulky to move even with the mechanical accelerators helping move the limbs, or the armor had been too thin to offer much protection. Five failures had led to this wonderful mechanical marvel.
Sheppard then reached in and grabbed the objects.
One was a M2217 laser pistol his quickly strapped to his right hip. The other object was the newly designed P91 Personal Energy Defense rifle.
The P91 was designed after the P90, but the P91 is much more powerful, due to the mixture of Protoculture/Naquada energy cells that were designed after the laser rifles on-board the SDF-1. The P91 is capable of firing 900 laser blasts per minute at a range of 300 meters, a improvement to the P90.
The reason the P91 can fire so fast and hit so far is due to how the energy is created. When triggered, a small computer in the gun sends a command to the power cell which releases a set amount of energy, which is then transferred into the barrel, where the energy is then contained with a Fold energy field. The Fold energy coalesces the energy into a small stream, which is then fired. The Fold field rapidly degrades once fired, which is why the gun only has a maximum range of 300 meters, but the energy beams can destroy almost anything it comes into contact with, melting metal and punching holes in tanks. The P91 also has a very accurate targeting system, a sensor at the barrel of the device sending data to the computer, which is then sent to the device on the left gauntlet, which is figures out what the data is. A targeting reticule will then appear before the soldiers eye-sight, showing where the gun is aiming towards and where the energy fire will hit, kind of like how a video game works.
Sheppard thinks it's one of the weirdest things he has seen, but it has increased his accuracy so he keeps such thoughts to himself.
The P91 looked a lot like the P90, with same same basic shape, but now a energy pack where the bullets used to go. Plus, all P91's don't need a flashlight due to the armors helmet having all the same sensory equipment that the Veritech helmets do.
Finally, Sheppard grabbed several pounds of C4 and placed them on his left hip.
Once finally done, Sheppard saw AR-1 waiting for him and so quickly moved over to them.
"Hey guys. Ready to go visit an Ancient facility?" Sheppard asked with slight enthusiasm, showing just how much he had missed going off-world.
"Are you sure I have to go along? I have so many projects that I have to work with." McKay said as he typed away on his tablet, cloaked in his own Mark 6 Powered Armor.
"Yes Rodney. For one, you need to leave that lab. Two, we need you to decipher the Ancient code and see what this place is if it still works. You know more about Ancient systems then anyone alive. I want to know what the facility is when we get there. Okay?" Sheppard asked.
"Fine. Lets just hope it's not a waste of our time. For all we know, the facility can be destroyed, out of power, irreparable, any number of things that would make this a waste of our time." Rodney said as the team went for the Gate Room.
"Then it is time well wasted, for we going out together." Teyla said from her own Mark 6 Powered Armor that had a special symbol on the left side of the chest, a stylized A, which stood for Athosian. it was a symbol of her being an Athosian and how she wore that distinction with pride.
"Yeah yeah." Rodney said as the team went into the transporter booth and within a second, the team was sent from the armory level to the main tower, where the Stargate is located.
Walking out of the booth, the team quickly walk out of the booth and into the open area where the Stargate is located.
Chuck, the gate technician, saw AR-1 was here and waiting for him, so he quickly pressed the glowing buttons, which sent their commands into the ancient ring. Said circular device sent a series of pulses through it's glowing pattern on the outer edge of the ring, the pulses stopping on specific symbols. Soon, seven symbols were glowing and the ring of Naquada sent out a pulse of unstable vortex energy that appeared as rushing water that stretched out for 15 feet from beyond the Stargate. After a second of just hanging in the air, the unstable energy came rushing back int the Stargate like a yo-yo.
Seeing the gate dialed, AR-1 quickly walked forwards and within seconds, was through the event horizon, which vanished with a loud, "vwiiisssshhhhh!"
Location: M39-113
AR-1 came through the gate one by one with a "shluk" noise and studied their surroundings.
The Ancient database had nailed this place when it came to describing it, there were so many trees so closely growing together it created a thick and dense foliage that made it hard to see more then 10 feet in front of you. It was the perfect place to build a base, as no one could see it from orbit if you built it underground. The area where the gate had been constructed was on top of a raised stone platform with perfectly carved stares leading to the forest floor. To the right was a massive blue shining lake, while to their right was a giant mountain.
"Alright Rodney, where are we going?" Sheppard asked the resident scientist.
"Well, according to my sensors, we are about a mile and half away from the entrance to the facility, which would just so happen to have been apparently built into the mountain right next to us. Follow me." Rodney said as he lead the team towards the mountain.
After about an hour and forty minutes of walking, the team finally found themselves at the foot of the mountain.
"Alright Rodney, lead the way." Sheppard said.
The Canadian man walked to mountain and stared at it for a few seconds, his head on sensors working overtime to find the entrance.
Eventually, Rodney walked to a very specific part of the mountain and then took off his right armored gauntlet and then placed his hand on the mountain's surface, the area where he placed his hand glowing light blue like the hand sensors for the doors on Atlantis.
A second later, a ten foot wide section of the mountain opened up, exposing a metallic hallway that led into the facility.
With their P91's raised, the four people that comprised AR-1 slowly walked into and then down the metallic hallway, taking great care to watch their backs and watch out for anything, This is a Ancient Facility after all and anything could be here.
After walking for four minutes, they came to the end of the hall, where Rodney unlocked the next door and exposed the inside of the facility.
The area of the facility the team was in was for a lack of better term, shit. There was destroyed consoles everywhere, pieces of the ceiling had broken off at some point and finally, shattered glass and broken metal all over the floors.
Sheppard and Teyla took point, moving forwards first, followed closely by Ford and McKay.
The team slowly made their way deeper into the facility, looking for anything of use.
But, everywhere they looked, the equipment was destroyed, broken or useless. Nothing of interest was here.
Rodney was looking through a room when he noticed one of the consoles still worked.
Walking up, he uncovered his hand and placed it onto the console, activating the old piece of machinery.
Rodney then began to look through the files, noticing a data log section.
Activating it, he saw a older looking man in his late fifties to early sixties appear and began to speak Ancient.
Rodney then activated the translation program, which scanned his brain and turned the words being spoken into ones that Rodney could be able to understand.
"-eriments are going well. The newer Drone's are 12% faster and can last for 45 seconds compared to thirty when they are perforating warships. The explosive yield of each drone is the part that we had the most success on, as we have found a way to quadruple the explosive yield of each drone. We also altered each drone so they now take less energy to fire. Finally, each drone can now triple their energy field, allowing them to burn through forms of matter and armor plating much greater ease and the energy field requires less energy, which is why they can last longer then previous models of drones. However, the major flaw of these drones is that they require five times the amount of time and resources a similar supply of regular drones would need." The man said, showing a holographic diagram of Ancient Drone, but it looked different then the regular variety.
A regular drone is a three foot long squid shaped weapons that has six tails at the end of the weapon with a few spikes that jut out of the end of the weapon, while the main body of weapon glows golden. This new type of drone is 4 and half feet long, with 10 tails at the end of the weapon, while the main body glows a darker shade of gold, with a hint of dark blue as the back end of the drone.
"Production of this Drone type is slowly coming along, with 200 individual drones constructed so far with more on the way. This is scientific log 33-X, ending." The mans said as the log ended.
Rodney spent the next half an hour going through the logs and found out that just before the final entry in the data log, there was supposed by be well over 15,000 of these newer drones here on the facility.
He then activated the final log, which showed the same old man. However, he was bleeding from his forehead as sparks erupted all around him.
"The Wraith just attacked the facility. We managed to kill the Hive's and Cruisers before they could fire their cannons, but the Wraith fleet managed to land a strike force of Wraith Drones on the surface. We have held them off and managed to kill the Drones, but almost all of the scientific staff has been killed and the facility was badly damaged from energy weapon fire between the security teams and the Drones. Myself and the survivors are evacuating now, but we don't have the time to get everything. So, whoever is watching this, you have the Ancient DNA within you, therefore it falls to you to protect the data we saved. Go to one of the transporter booths, press in this specific code and you will be taken sub-level 3 of the facility. There, you shall find a data crystal containing all the data we have on how to construct the Drone's along with a Drone constructor." The man said, looking deeply anxious as he tried to record the message as quickly as possible, while a series of symbols flashed on the right side of the console.
Rodney recorded those symbols and kept watching, completely enwrapped in what was happening.
"Also, there is the secret project I started. The council forbid those type of experiments, but I had to know, was it possible. And I succeeded where no one else had before. Please, take care of them." The man said right before the console shut off completely, the back end sparking and catching fire for a few seconds.
Rodney clicked his comm and said, "Sheppard, follow me to the nearest transporter booth. I think I found something interesting."
"Roger." Sheppard radioed as he, Teyla and Ford moved to Rodney's location.
They found him at one of the transporter booths, pressing in a series of symbol into the main console.
The team entered into the booth and John asked, "What's up?"
"I just found a console that had power and so I looked and there was a series of data logs that I played and on them, I found out that his facility was a testing ground of newer, improved Drone weapons. I have a code that should take us to sub-level 3, where a data crystal is located that should tell us everything we need to know about these improved Drones. Also, there is a secret project that is only mentioned in the last ten seconds of the final log located on that level. The only thing I know about it is that it's forbidden research according to the head scientist in the log." McKay explained as he finished punching in the symbols, which caused the main screen showing the facility to change as a new section showing levels below the main level they are on.
"What? Wait Rodney maybe this isn't..." Sheppard started to say as Rodney clicked the white circle in the middle of sub-level 3, causing the booth to activate and send them there before Sheppard could finish speaking.
Now they were on sub-level 3 and Rodney quickly left the teleporter booth to find that data crystal, his scientist side overriding his common senses.
John was currently counting to ten in his head while taking calming breaths so as to not go and strangle Rodney to death.
"Sir, just to remind you, killing Dr. McKay is frowned upon." Ford said, slightly worried Sheppard might just not care and kill Rodney anyway.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill him. Yet." Sheppard said as he, Teyla and Ford left to search for their Canadian scientist.
After searching for ten minutes, they found him looking giddy as he held a thin clear rectangular crystal with circuit lines going through it in his right hand.
"Hey guys, I found the crystal!" Rodney said as he connected the crystal to his Infiltrator and began to look at the data.
"That's wonderful. What's on it?" Sheppard asked, slightly intrigued.
"A lot of scientific notes and diagrams about the construction and individual parts inside the Drone weapons. They are an impressive piece of technology and finding how to build them is great. However, the data file did say there was a machine to create these Drones somewhere here on Sub-level 3. We just have to find it." Rodney said.
"Okay, let's go find this Drone constructor." Ford said with a grin.
Everyone looked at him with a deadpan stare and said in one voice that slightly unnerved Ford out, "We are not calling it that."
"Well, then what are we calling it?' Ford asked, a little miffed that once again, his idea for naming the cool new thing was shot down.
"We are going to call it...The Forge." Sheppard said with a grin on his face at the cool name.
Ford was even more miffed now, that was a good name, even if he would never admit that out loud. He hated that Sheppard could come up with these cool names so quickly and then he acted so smug about it afterwards. It was so irritating. 'One day' He thought to himself. 'One day, I am going to come up with such a cool name, they will have to use it.'
This is rather sad, isn't it.
"Well c'mon team. Let's go find the Forge." Sheppard said as the team spread out to find the Forge.
Ford was currently checking out a few rooms when he came across something unusual.
There was ten strange pod like structures on the side of the wall, each pod having light blue glowing parts that prevented Ford for identifying what was inside.
Ford moved closer to one of the pods and suddenly, a bright light shot out of the pod and scanned Ford from head to tow, going right through the Mark 6 armor like it wasn't even there.
Ford raised his gun when suddenly, a hiss was heard.
Ford spun around and saw one of the pods opening up, large clouds of white fog coming out, blocking view of whatever was inside.
Without warning, a hand came out and was quickly followed by another, the two hands pressing against the metal to help move whoever was in the pod out of it.
The occupant of the pod finally revealed themselves and it was a shock to Ford.
It was a woman, being of 5 feet, four inches tall with long raven black hair, fair skin and shining blue eyes. She was currently wearing a white of tan with white robe-like clothing over her body.
Ford quickly moved over to her and said, "Hey, are you okay?"
The woman hands suddenly started to blur as she placed it against Ford's left temple, going right through the helmet and touching Ford's skin.
Ford felt a sharp pain for a second, but then it receded seconds later.
The woman then said, "I am alright. Thank you."
Ford nodded and then radioed to Sheppard, "Sir, I need some help. I have a situation."
Just then, more hissing was heard as the nine remaining pods opened up, showing that each one was holding a person dressed the same way as the first woman.
The new occupants looked over to Ford and then the lady, who gave a certain look to the other occupants and they all stayed still not doing anything.
Ford was seriously starting to freak out right now, he was surrounded by people who could go through his armor like it wasn't even there and he didn't even know what there names were or what was going on.
"Okay, well. My name is Lt. Aiden Ford. What's yours?" Ford asked.
"I do not have a name." The woman replied.
"No name? That's weird. What do people call you?" Ford asked, slightly confused by her answer.
"No one ever called me anything besides X-22-1AAXX." She replied.
"Well that won't do. You need a name. How about...Fran! That's a good name." Ford said, liking the way the name sounded.
"Fran? Fran. I like it. Okay, my name is Fran." The newly christened Fran said, giving Ford a dazzling smile.
"I am glad you like it. Now, why were you guys in the pods?" Ford asked.
"Well, that is because creator placed us in there to keep us from being discovered by the others." She answered.
"Why would these "Others" try to hurt you? And who are the others?" Ford asked, completely confused.
"Well, the others are our creators brothers and sisters and they would try to hurt us because they hate what we are, at least according to creator." Fran answered.
"What you are?" Ford asked, even more confused now then ever.
Fran then held up her right hand and suddenly, the skin turned metallic silver and she said, "We are the next generation in Human-Form Replicators. Our Creator said that in the past, Creator's people created a number of being like us, but less advanced, however they were not what his people wanted, so they wiped out the first generation of Human-Form Replicators. Creator however saw this as a waste, as even though they were not the weapon his people wanted, they still could have been useful. So, he experimented on nanites and soon, we were born. We are much more advanced nanite constructs, as we are capable of feeling emotion. We can dream, think and feel beyond what our code tells us. We are essence, alive, to quote what our creator said."
Ford was stunned to much to even think. These were Human-Form Replicators, the foes that nearly drove the entire galaxy to extinction? However, he then remembered something from Fran's story. These Replicators were built by the Ancients, these were not the Pegasus version of Replicators.
Just then, Sheppard, Teyla and McKay entered, saw the scene and Sheppard asked, "Lt., what is going on?"
Ford sighed and said, "It's a long story sir."
"Better get explain then." Sheppard said, he could't wait to hear this one.
After Ford and Fran were finished explaining what these people were and how they came to being, Sheppard then said, "McKay, are they a danger to us?"
"I have just gone through these Replicator code and so far, it seems the scientist wrote very strict coding that prevents these Replicators from injuring or harming another living being. I would say they are about as dangerous as our AI's and those haven't given us any grief yet." Rodney said as he looked at the coding going by on the big screen of the console in the lab they were currently standing in.
"So, what do we do sir?" Ford asked.
"Well, if McKay says there safe, I say we take them back with us to Atlantis. Having Replicators like this can really help us." Sheppard said.
"We are more then willing to aid this ADF you serve in anyway we can. To protect Atlantis is the number one protocol our creator programmed us for when he built us." Fran said.
"Okay then. Hey Rodney, can they replicate?" Sheppard asked.
"Yeah, but they need permission from highest authority available, so you, Gloval or Weir have to give them the go ahead." McKay said as he disconnected from the console.
"Okay, let's go find the Forge and get out of here." Sheppard said.
"What is the Forge of which you speak?" One of the male replicators asked.
"It's the machine that creates the Drone Weapons the Ancients used." McKay explained.
"Oh, we know where that is." Fran said.
"Really?" McKay asked.
"Yes. Follow us." Fran said as she started to lead the small group.
After twenty minutes of walking, the group came to a large open part of the facility where in the middle was a large machine that had a cylindrical portion of fifteen feet tall, with another rectangular portion of twenty feet to the right side of the cylinder.
"There it is." Fran said, pointing to the large machine.
"How are we supposed to move it?" McKay asked, try to figure out a way to get the machine out of here without taking dozens of construction crew cutting down tress to create a path.
Fran simply walked over to the machine and then pressed her palm against the machine, whereupon a stream of nanites raced out from her hand and then enveloped the machine, causing the entire machine to shrink and compress until only Fran remained.
Turning to the stunned ADF members, Fran said, "Us Second Gen. Replicators have access to an internal pocket dimension, kind of like how a ZPM is a container for a pocket of space-time. It is very useful for carrying large amounts of material from place to place.
Eventually coming back to their senses, Sheppard then said, "Is there anything left of value?"
Fran shook her head and said, "All the Drones were used up in the attack and all the other projects were either shut down and moved elsewhere or destroyed in the attack as well."
Sheppard nodded and said, "Okay, let's bail."
Following Sheppard, the group of 14 go back to the teleporter booth, then left the facility and closed the entrance, as maybe one day they can repair the facility and use it.
After that, the group went to the Stargate, dialed Atlantis and went home.
Time: January 23, 2005, 1000 hours. Location: Lantea.
Sheppard was currently giving his report to Gloval and Weir, of whom Weir was not happy about Sheppard bringing back Replicators.
"How do we know they aren't a danger to this facility?" Weir asked.
"Rodney has gone over their code dozens of times since they arrived, while all the other scientists have devised a kill switch that can render all the nanites dead in a moment. The Replicators aren't resisting and are being very helpful in this endeavor. If they are willing to walk around with a bomb in their chest that can kill them anytime we want, I say they aren't that big of a security threat." Sheppard said.
"I say that Sheppard did us a favor. Given what I have heard about these Replicators, they can help us get the SDF-1 and Atlantis fully operational in few months, not half a year as using the Tirolian drones would take us. Plus giving us that advanced Ancient Drone constructor was a big help as well." Gloval commented from his seat.
"The Forge. We are calling it the Forge." Sheppard said with smirk.
Gloval rolled his eyes while giving a small smile at Sheppard's excessive need to name everything and said, "Fine. The FORGE, is well and our engineers tell me we can being production within a month. With the help of the Replicators, we can get a lot of our most critical projects done in a fraction of the time. Although, I agree, having a kill switch is a must have. If we have a kill switch, I say use them."
Weir sighed and said, "Fine. We can use them, but I want them monitored at all times and they cannot replicate whenever they want."
Sheppard nodded and said, "Understood. Now, I think that wraps this meeting up?"
The other two nodded and the Big Three as they are called, left the meeting room and went to their offices.
The strength of the Tau'ri is growing and growing. With the addition of these new and improved Replicators, the Atlantis Defensive Forces have a much need boom in manpower and they continue to strive for the independence of the Pegasus galaxy.
And that is it!
Another chapter bites the dust!
I really like the idea of the Atlantis Expedition finding Replicators or creating their own. I mean, they are just so useful, I cannot see why the Ancients didn't just change the program and have the Replicators be loyal to them and then mass produce the hell out of them. The Replicators could have easily turned the tide in the Lantean-Wraith War, due to their insane construction abilities.
Sorry, the Lantean stupidity just boggles my mind sometimes.
As always, if you have criticisms, comments or concerns, just P.M. or leave a review, always appreciated.
Until next time, this is StrikeFreedom10, signing off.
PLUS ULTRA!