Six – The Stargate

Seven weeks away from Atlantis had felt like a lifetime, while Dr Weir and her team had stepped through the Stargate and been instantly in Stargate Command on the return to Earth the Daedalus had needed to complete the journey through hyperspace without the use of a ZPM. On the return leg of their journey, they had discovered a Wraith computer virus which they had needed to defeat before returning to Atlantis. Now they were settling into life in the Pegasus Galaxy once more "so Colonel this is your plan?" Weir asked John Sheppard who sat opposite her, he was still the military commander of Atlantis and now he had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

"As the commander of Atlantis Military personnel, I choose who is on each team." Sheppard answered "my team goes the most dangerous things that we find" he said explaining his answer "the Chief is the perfect addition to my team until we find Ford." He said he had made it very clear that it was his intention to find Lieutenant Ford and return him to the fold, Sheppard felt responsible for what had happened to Ford on the Wraith ship and responsible for not stopping him leaving the base.

"I thought he was planning on helping the teams here familiarise themselves with the Warthog and Mongoose vehicles?" Weir pointed out, she had been impressed with what they had done with the vehicles so far, although a little surprised to find two Warthogs and two Mongoose ATVs behind the Stargate in the Gateroom. One of the Warthogs appeared to be the cargo variant while the other was the one with the larger cannon.

"He's shown them the basics on maintenance and operation." Sheppard said, "Cortana will be remaining on the base at least initially due to the work needing to be done on the Dawn and the research she is working on. The Chief has said he wants to see what's out there and try to figure out how his ship was sent five hundred years into the past and more importantly to another Galaxy." Sheppard pointed out, that was possibly the largest mystery of them all "plus Teyla already went through a lot of our weapons training."

"I heard" she said doing her best not to roll her eyes, she wondered exactly how much Sheppard had influenced that training before he left for Earth, while moving her head to one side with a smirk "so the Chief sets up shop with us and he just happens to be going on your team?"

"The perk of command" Sheppard said smiling back getting back to his feet "no complaints?"

"You're the military commander" She said as he backed out of her office with a spring in his step. As Sheppard left Cortana appeared in Weir's office, Weir felt it strange that she could appear anywhere but also comforting that she was always watching. "Cortana, how did the tour go?" She asked the AI

"The tour?" Cortana asked watching Sheppard leave, she appeared distracted.

"With Major Hogan…" Weir said but she stopped speaking as Cortana turned and looked out of the window of Weir's office and down at the Stargate.

"What's it like… going through the Stargate?" She asked looking at the inactive portal.

"Different people experience different things" Weir said joining her looking out the window ignoring for a moment that she had asked the AI a question and they were now discussing something else. "For most people there is an initial coldness however the travel is instantaneous taking you through the wormhole and to your destination. Sometimes people feel a greater cold as they pass through to their destination but it passes on the far side assuming it is not freezing there too." Weir said "if you travel through the event horizon or puddle at any speed then that speed carries you through at the other end."

"I wish I could feel that… memories of human touch are sometimes quite frustrating" Cortana said wistfully. "I remember the sensation, my matrix is based off of Dr Halsey's mind" she explained waving her arms around. "Halsey knew what she was doing when she created me." She snapped angrily her hologram visibly darkening.

"Halsey?" Weir asked returning to her chair "I heard the Chief say that name too…"

"Dr Catherine Halsey, the creator of me and of the Spartan II Program, she is one of the UNSC's most gifted scientists." Cortana explained

"Tell me about her?" Weir asked suddenly she saw a change in the demeanour of the AI.

"Other than what I have already said she was smart, passionate and driven." She said locking down then her demeanour changed again, she looked startled to see her "Dr Weir, do you need a report on my tour with Major Michael Hogan?" She asked speaking about the Combat Engineer who was in charge of preparing Atlantis for the arrival of the Dawn's defence turrets and one of the buildings for bringing the reactor down from the Forward Unto Dawn.

Below in one of the training rooms John Sheppard found the Master Chief exercising against one of combat stands. Even without his power armour suit the pads attached to the stand were taking a beating from the Master Chief's fluid and rapid strikes. "Master Chief!" Sheppard called as he entered the room.

"Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard" the Chief said continuing to strike, Sheppard could barely follow the movements he was making, he marvelled at the speed of the Spartan and that he was barely breaking a sweat.

"How exactly did Teyla keep up with you?" He asked watching the Spartan move, he knew Teyla's skill set was impressive but did not know anyone who could keep up with the sequence he was dishing out.

"We were sparring" the Chief responded continuing to exercise "it would not have been fair if I did not allow her to keep time with me. She is a seasoned warrior; I was impressed with her skills."

"Yes, we were lucky to find her people" Sheppard admitted "when we first arrived here, they brought us supplies and introduced us to the other peoples of the Pegasus Galaxy." He said as the Chief slowed to a stop. "So, Dr Weir has agreed with my recommendation that you join my team." He said looking at the Chief, "you said you wanted to see more of Pegasus Galaxy."

"Yes, sir" the Chief answered, he accepted that Colonel Sheppard held a superior position in the military here.

"We'll be heading out tomorrow to M8Z-721, standard scouting mission nothing too special."

"Understood, Colonel, I'll check on my gear" the big soldier responded looking him. Sheppard smirked and nodded seeing he would get nothing out of the big man before leaving the room.

From the exercise room the Master Chief attended the garage to check on the vehicles as he entered the room a Mongoose with two marines on it was just returning to the room both marines wore their standard battle dress uniform (BDU) but had added a motorcycle styled helmet for greater protection should they fall off the vehicle. "Master Chief, its purring like a dream" one of the marines called out from the rider position waving to him the Chief responded with a nod during the demonstrations he had made of the vehicles he had been impressed with the USMC personnels skills they were easily on par with that of the UNSC. He walked around one of the Warthogs inspecting it quickly before leaving.

He then headed up to storage room where his MJOLNIR armour was being maintained by Cortana when he arrived, he looked up at the suit which had been reassembled over the nanosuit and was standing within the derig frame. "Cortana" he called out looking at the armour it looked to be in perfect condition the armour appeared to have been completely recoated with the white coloured "117" returned to the left hand breast of the chest peace.

"Master Chief, it's good to see you" she said almost as though she could not always monitor him. "I have finished the repairs and upgrades to your MJOLNIR armour."

"It looks good" he said inspecting the suit as he did a small hologram of Cortana's avatar appeared beside the rig, considering she could appear anywhere he found it strange she was on the small podium. "All systems have been fully serviced and recharged, the shields will recover quicker than before and I've added some experimental systems which Doctor Halsey was working on prior to our last deployment."

"Experimental systems?" The Chief asked he had tested experimental equipment before it did not always work out well.

"Yes, R&D systems were working on several upgrades for the MJOLNIR suit to improve your mobility and protection and I have combined it with some of the technology which I have encountered her on Atlantis to finish them." Cortana explained.

"You trust the Ancient technology that much?" He asked surprised walking around the suit he saw that the rear of the nanosuit was open and the rear power pack was missing. "And everything will still work."

"Trust me, Master Chief, I'm not Halsey but I'm the next best thing." She said smirking "Ancient technology is very similar to Forerunner technology, perhaps you would like to test it out?" The Chief did not hesitate and stepped into the back of the nanosuit he extended his arms into the suit's arms as it closed behind him as he flexed the arms he watched as the MJOLNIR armour moved and flexed around his body before securing. He found the moving armour a little unnerving having been used to the fixed armour being attached to his nanosuit but everything appeared to be secure. On the legs the armoured sections extended up from the feet as far as the thighs before securing covering much of the nanosuit below, the Chief noticed the size of these new armour sections appeared to be the same as they had been previously. Behind the Master Chief the power pack was lowered like the rest of the armour it extended and moved onto the suit sealing it, finally the helmet lowered onto his head and secured in place.

Inside the helmet the Chief could see that the HUD had changed little including an entirely new section at the bottom right of the HUD. The section was split into four sections like a cross "this will be easier if I am in your head." The Chief reached out to the small hologram and she transferred automatically into the suit. "Oooo, is it roomier in her or something?" she asked

"Maybe your upgrades" he joked "what have you done to this armour? It feels smoother."

"Ancient technology has allowed me to make some of the armour more flexible, if you want you could change the design and the deployment of the armour, quite a bit of it is made of a smart matter popular with the Ancients. I do not think this expedition have fully explored its uses yet." She explained the Chief was quite happy with the original MJOLNIR design, he knew other Spartans who had heavily customized it over the years but he kept going back to the standard design with each MJOLNIR Upgrade. "At a glance you can select one of the modules" Cortana said the Chief followed her directions and selected the small top icon which lit up. 'Jet Pack' appeared briefly above the icon before disappearing "this will allow you to increase the distance and speed of your jump I would not activate it inside small places." She explained the Chief checked the left and 'Grapplehook' was highlighted. "Check your left wrist" she said and he noticed that a new gauntlet was loaded on the wrist "it is strong enough to carry you and lift you to higher levels." She said "on the right something quite impressive."

The Chief selected the option "raise both of your palms and open your hands" she said as he did a shield appeared it was orange in colour the Chief moved his hands to the left and to the right "this is a hard light shield, it is based partly on Forerunner technology, like what they did with their bridges, partly on Ancient tech it should be enough to deflect multiple ballistic or energy blasts. It does take away the ability to shoot though." She explained "at the bottom you have a Hologram Decoy which I've created thanks to the Ancient technology here, the Hologram Decoy can move approximately ten metres from your position, it will stop if it hit's something solid and try to climb if you would be able to." She said as he activated the hologram another version of the Master Chief walked straight forward and stopped against the rooms far wall.

"Impressive" He responded "those should come in useful." He said extending his hand back towards the podium, Cortana literally walked back out of his suit returning to the city's holographic network. "Any progress in our other problem?"

"Nothing in the ancient database which would indicate how the time-travel occurred" Cortana responded "nor have I found anything to explain the link between the Forerunners and Ancients." She said "the only thing I can confirm is they are not the same people there are too many cultural, physical and historical changes between the two."

"And YOUR problem?" He said emphasizing what he meant Cortana's hologram sat down on the podium and crossed her legs in front of her seemingly exhausted

"The memory space on Atlantis is slowing the Rampancy problem as is the database here, and the Earth people's own colourful history, I am searching the Ancients records regarding Artificial Intelligence." She explained with her arms draped over her legs. "It's under control" she said when the Chief did not speak further, she continued "I have had increasing levels of distraction, and thoughts about more projects, thoughts on how to stop the Covenant defeating the UNSC, a way of restricting Halo's destructive power, I have also worked out a way to control the Dawn's orientation when work begins on her and I have suggested a couple of ways for Dr Weir to control her coffee addiction." She said "not that it helps… Chief, perhaps it is time to consider permanently hibernating my program." She said turning away from him on the podium.

"Negative, we're in this together, we're going to fix this…" He said stepping around the podium so they could still see each other "I'll do everything I can to help you, we're a team."

The next morning the Master Chief joined Sheppard, Teyla and Dr Rodney McKay in the Gate Room fully dressed in his MJOLNIR armour. "It's a scouting mission not a full assault, Chief"

"A Spartan doesn't go into battle without his armour by choice." He responded, if someone tried to force him to fight without the armour he would but he would also be having words with whomever's decision it was afterwards. "I will fight without it if I have to but only if I have to." He said on his armour's back he had an assault rifle while on his thigh he had a magnum pistol.

"Alright" Sheppard said glancing up at Dr Elizabeth Weir who was up beside the stargate dialling computer with Chuck, one of the people who worked in the gate room "dial it up."

Chuck dialed the hexagon shaped Ancient computer which was made up of a series of triangular buttons, one representing each of the chevrons around the gate, each button lit up as Chuck pressed them at seven chevrons the Stargate activated. There was a whoosh as the wormhole connected to the Stargate, it almost looked like a water effect which settled into the Stargate remaining as a puddle which represented the event horizon. Sheppard gave Weir a wave and turned towards the Stargate followed by his team as they exited the gate room Cortana appeared beside Dr Weir.

""What's it like… going through the Stargate?" She asked watching as the Chief disappeared through the wormhole.

"Cortana, we spoke about this before…" Weir began to explain

"Of course we did Dr Weir, I remember, excuse me" she said the hologram disappearing from the gate room.

The Stargate was an experience one moment he was in the gate room of the City of Atlantis and then it was like he was in a rapidly moving circular tunnel full of rapidly moving lights before he exited the other side within just moments. Immediately he drew his thigh holstered pistol and aimed it at the five hanging bodies directly opposite the gate.

"Standdown Chief, they are dead." Sheppard said his own P90 was raised and aimed but it was clear that the six Wraith were corpses and they had been dead sometime instead of the usual grey with white hair the bodies were brown and decaying.

"Yeah what the hell has done this to these guys?" McKay asked stepping down to look at the Wraith four were the drone types with full face shields but two were of the more skilled male warriors. "These guys have been shredded by what looks like energy weapons" he said examining them.

"How can you be sure Rodney?" Teyla asked she was less experienced with energy weapons than the others. She was covering the left of the team while the Chief stood to the right his magnum still in hand the surrounding area was green and brown with trees and shrubbery the only thing to be seen.

"Here and here these thin slits" McKay explained pointing at points on one of the corpses, these are too thin to be made by a weapon like a P90." He said pointing his computer at the corpse and taking a picture "and these burns" he said pointing at the chest of another dead Wraith "this cluster of blasts are like rapid fire plasma blasts" he said taking another picture.

"Recoignise them?" Sheppard asked the team neither McKay or Teyla spoke.

"Possibly, I've faced weapons that made similar damage patterns" the Chief said "I'd want to see more though" he explained the plasma damage looked almost like Covenant blasts from a Carbine or Plasma Rifle. He wished Cortana was here she could analyse them and confirm what his eyes were saying.

"Fine we'll have a walk that way and see if there's any civilisation here, anyone that can do that to six Wraith were worth meeting in his book." Sheppard said indicating to the right as the team began to move out.

"These guys have been dead for sometime, I'd be surprised if they are still around after causing that much damage." McKay suggested

"But we're here for recon McKay so we'll have a look." Sheppard said slightly irritated with him but there was nothing new there. The Chief was a new element as he walked alongside the man he was surprised at just how silent the man moved in his huge armour the only thing he could hear was the occasional gentle thump. "What was that Chief?"

"Sir?" The Spartan asked slightly confused not looking at the shorter man.

"You're a member of this team Chief, not a lone wolf, I know you can run through a ship of enemies by yourself but this team is more efficient when we work together and share information" Sheppard explained "so what was that? Where have you seen that before?"

"In my time there is an enemy alien alliance known as the Covenant who have classed humanity as their rival for many years…"

"We still can't get on in the future surprise, surprise" McKay interrupted "you'd think with all the technological…"

"McKay, shut up! Chief, continue" Sheppard snapped he was more interested in learning what threat he might be facing rather than McKay talking about the obvious, humanity was born to fight it had fought every day of every year since its creation, against enemies, against disease and for survival Sheppard for one did not see that changing.

"The Covenant were an alliance who were duped by their leaders into believing in a great journey which would occur after they discovered the Halo rings" the Chief explained.

"Those massive superweapons you mentioned briefly?" McKay asked interupting again

"Yes those, they saw humanity as their holy enemy for reasons which still aren't entirely clear." He admitted "what is important is the weapons signatures were similar to two of their weapons a carbine and a plasma rifle." He explained "Cortana could probably explain better how long those weapons have been in operation."

"You think they could be here as well?" Sheppard asked "Teyla, have you ever heard of any other alien races?"

"Not as the Master Chief describes" Teyla answered from the back of the four person team "there are alien races but no alliance like what you speak, nor with this plasma technology."

"You would know the Covenant" the Chief said his strides crushing the undergrowth as they walked, suddenly they came across a settlement which looked like multiple wooden houses with thatched roofs, livestock in pends, washing drying on lines and wheeled carts.

As the team entered the settlement Sheppard and Teyla took point doing their best to look non-threatening, their weapons down, with McKay behind them while the Chief dropped to the back of the team. As they approached the population who were clearly human pulled back into their houses as the team arrived. One of the people stood their ground as Sheppard and Teyla approached he appeared to be in his fifties with a grey head of hair and a pair of circular reading glasses. His clothing appeared to be made from natural materials and was mostly beige and brown in colour. "I'm Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and this is Teyla Emmagan of Athos" he said introducing themselves, they had agreed that they would not openly speak about Atlantis and if asked they would say they had survived its destruction at the hands of the Wraith.

"It is nice to meet you" Teyla said smiling "we are looking for any potential trade partners or people we can learn from…" She said but quickly she realised that the man's attention had been drawn to the Master Chief "his is human like us, his armour is purely defensive."

"He is the Demon." He said looking at his own reflection in the Master Chief's golden visor Sheppard, Teyla and McKay all looked confused and turned to look at the big man.

"How do you know that name?" The Chief demanded stepping forwards between his team mates to look at the man, he was not trying to be threatening but could not help appear intimidating enough for the man to stumble as he backed away.

"The other said you could come…"