Stargate Atlantis - Allies

[Stewart5]

Stargate Atlantis - Allies




This story begins midway through S3 of Atlantis. It is a 'what if' scenario, where history has progressed differently.

Spoiler:

At the height of the Ori invasion, their ground troops were spreading through worlds more quickly than anyone had planned, and whilst their ships were easier to avoid and worlds could be evacuated before they arrived, battalions began marching through the gates from captured worlds.

The US went to a state of full ground war, committing hundreds of soldiers where necessary.
However, even the US couldn't uphold such commitment on its own, as well as conflicts on Earth.
They turned to the nations who they knew would help.
The UK, Australia and Canada.
These commonwealth powers, along with several smaller European forces, provided funds, materials and troops to the SGC.
Already possessing a small on site Garrison at the SGC, the UK enlarges this to a special taskforce of 500 men with more in support.

After the defeat of the Ori, the UK and US have a severe falling out over the treatment of UK personnel. The UK pulls out of SGC operations and pulls funding.
In order to assuage the UK, a garrison is allowed on Atlantis, under the same conditions of the unit in Cheyenne mountain. 50 men with scientist back-up. Answerable to the highest rank present, no matter nationality etc, but with operational autonomy to explore the Pegasus galaxy.
However, expected to help fund and defend Atlantis at all times.
After a few months, the UKGTF returns to the SGC, assisting in all aspects of the program

Also, the IOA has funded its own SF unit, made up of specialists from the US and other nations. After secretly building an F303-hybrid ship of their own, their units go out in the galaxy collecting intel and gauging threats the SGC might not reveal of their own accord.

Here starts SGA - Allies. But who is really on who's side?

The Basics
Here are the profiles for Major Macara(created by me) and Major Trang(created by MajorV1125)

Enjoy, and don't be afraid to criticise!

Nathan Macara - a captain in the Royal Marines Commando, in charge of the first compliment of British gate teams, made up of RMC, Pathfinders, RAF Reg, Paras and maybe Guardsmen. Small garrison of no more than 50 troopers with equipment and weapons. Stay on site at Cheyanne mountain through NATO and IOA guidelines of some sort (UK and US allies after all) and proceed on gate missions for Queen and Country, and whilst respectfully listening to American superiors, have a degree of autonomy to proceed as desired
27-8 year old officer, captain who served in the A'stan and has lost some mates, he is now disenchanted with the Government and the MoD.
During the Ori invasion, UK was brought in to provide funds, materials and troops to fight the Ori, as they were landing more and more ground forces on planets we couldn't let them have.
So, a joint force of 500 Brits, made up of Pathfinders, RMC and RAF Reg with SBS and SAS elements are assigned to the fight, with over 1000 more elite infantry such as the Paras, Guards and the Black Watch ready to be seconded as needed.
Loathe to let such a promising officer go, and due to his award of MC, they promote him major and give him spearhead command, answerable only to General McAllister of the British Army, head of the UKGTF. Despite having to go through several Colonels before achieving complete seniority, Macara has a high level of autonomy amidst the UK military.
Goes on to fight Ori and rebel Jaffa elements and distinguish himself, but slowly becomes more and more introverted, and goes head to head with the likes of O'Neill, Mitchel and Landry often due to the British level of autonomy as well as his own arrogance.
His subordinates and friends he's made at SGC try to help him come to terms with what turns out to be PTSD.

Armed with good old stripped L85 and GL, and Browning HP.

After losing command of the British Task Force, as seconded to SGC, the major was given counselling for a year. However, he was desperate to get back in the fight as the Ori weren't beaten, and also because a Para Colonel had taken his job.
After only four months of his counselling, the major showed great improvement and no need for medication (could he be faking?). He was returned to active duty, but not as part of the Anti-Ori task force.
SGC and UKGTF (UK Gate Task Force) have fallen out over gate access and use of men and materials. The UK feels left out of the loop and only present to provide support to US forces. They have no say in Atlantis or the 304 projects, and by now even the Russians have had (and lost) a 304. In an effort to assuage their allies (and stop the IOA from breathing down their backs, with L85's in support) the US allow a force of up to fifty men to be sent to assist the Atlantis force, under the same terms of agreement as the UKGTF in SGC. However, the International security teams already there will take precedence over both UK AND US forces in the city to stop any power struggles.
The Major is then selected to lead this force. A bit of a demotion, but he doesn't mind. It's another galaxy, for crying out loud!
His contingent is ferried aboard the Daedelus and he takes up his post on Atlantis. There will be several conflicts between him and Sheppard over the use of, attitude towards and behaviour of military forces on the base.....


Vic Trang - USAF Major, around 30 years old, been in the Gulf 1 and 2, Somalia, and Afghanistan a few times as a USAF SF guy, then around 35 years old he was asked to assist in the Ori invasion scenario, thus being exposed to the Stargate. He became a 302 pilot then was promoted from Captain to Major.
He's quiet, laid back, is the "go-to" guy or has the "go-to" team of not only USAF but with USMC, ADF, and RMC guys.
He packs a Bushmaster ACR (in 6.8x43mm) with a M26 LSS and a Para-Ordnance P14 .45 handgun


Transmission

"...that we have reconed and assessed the situation, situation is critical and will need support, for we have already gathered this information a week ago, since we took the long way to Atlantis... (secret IOA ship built up from a 303 since its smaller than a 304) we have not engaged any hostiles yet, and we have not been able to contact Altantis....(transmission breakup)..... we are 1 light-year away from Atlantis and we have been taking a cloaked jumper to other....(transmission breakup)..... known stargates in the nearby systems....(transmission breakup)..... again situation is critical and will need back-up. my team of 5 men and 25 black-ops and a crew of 50 maning this stealth ship with limited weapons (5 Mk VIII nukes, 4 railgun mounts, and 1 Asgard Beam cannon) and we only have 1 ship bay for 2 302s and 1 jumper....(transmission breakup)....we have seen a large build up of unknown ships, NOT WRAITH....looks like....(transmission breakup)...Renegade-....(transmission breakup)...and again we have very limited weapons.....(transmission breakup)...we have a surplus of small arms fitted for the crew and my teams....(transmission breakup)....today at 2055 hours...(transmission breakup)...my jumper came in contact with a "scout ship"....(transmission breakup)....it ....(transmission breakup)....see us but it looks like it has similar technology towards the....(transmission breakup)....advise that we pack more nukes and firepower...(transmission breakup)....there seems to be a shield and an organ-...(transmission breakup)...we can only assume that the standard Mk VIII....(transmission breakup)....to disable it or destroy it...(transmission breakup)....no idea on smaller fighters....(transmission breakup)....it is safe to assume that our small arms will do the trick....(transmission breakup)...we've took photo recon-...(transmission breakup)...found a scouting party on a surface of a planet....(transmission breakup)..... and it looks like they are wearing....(transmission breakup)....which it seems our 6.8mm and anything above that can...(transmission breakup)....for sure...(transmission breakup).....

...again requesting support, cordinates will be transmitted as soon as you reach 90% of the journey to this galaxy around the....(transmission breakup).....quadrant....(transmission breakup)....we will maintain our position until reinforcements arrive....(transmission breakup)..... we'll be waiting for you....(transmission breakup).....

-wilco Major, out"




Weir didn't know about the IOA ship, and in her ignorance sent a team to the nearest planet to the transmission, in order to find out what is happening.
Apparently, whilst the 303-Hybrid Nightcrawler was making its sweeps, they ran into Wraith trouble on a world the Wraith were thought to have abandoned.

Major Macara, having served with him in A'stan, heads a rescue team that Sheppard tries to stop, as there is no proof that it is nothing more than an elaborate Wraith plot. Major Macara knows better, and thus ignores Sheppard's athority (remembering that officially, he has to do nothing that the USAF say, because, well, he ain't US) and proceeds through the gate, his own men forcing Atlantis staff out of the gateroom in order to use it. He won't leave a comrade in trouble, or a ship full of service personnel in enemy hands.......


From here, the main story begins........

ARC 1
Nightcrawler

Spoiler:

Trang sat aboard the lone puddle jumper with his team and 2 scientists, Drs wong and Lamat that he had managed to save before the Nighcrawler was heavily damaged and abandoned. Under strict orders not to allow the enemy to take the ship, it is now counting down for self destruct.
And how easily they had been found....

Dr's Wong and Lamat were on loan from Taiwan and France...they were investigating the strange wraith-like soldiers, seemingly different to normal Drones. The team had taken out several of these Warriors, unaware that they were being monitored the whole time.
"Take samples from those Drones, quickly," Trang ushered. "I don't like the feeling crawling up my spine and would feel a whole lot safer where we to get out of here,"
As they headed to their beam-out site, a beam swept the group from the trees, and their equipment was tagged by a distinct radiation-like beam.
"What the hell was that?" Trang looked round at his men. No one seemed any the worse for wear, but he was left feeling distinctly chilled. Nothing moved in the treeline, no fire came from Wraith stunners, no Darts could eb ehard.
"I don't think it has harmed us," Dr Lamat said quickly.
"Right, we are leaving anyway. I'm not hanging around to find out what the Wraith have in store for us, if they have realised we are here," Trange muttered.
From the treeline, a Wraith major sent a subspace relay, beckoning Wraith forces from the system.

After the message was sent, 2 wraith scout ships entered the system, detecting the Nightcrawler.
"Sir, two Wraith crusiers have entered the planet's space," a USAF lieutenant spoke as the major appeared on the bridge, still in combat gear.
"Go to stealth mode," Trang ordered.
"Aye, sir,"
"All systems to sleep mode, shields to maximum allowed by Stealth-setting. let's see if they pass us by."

[Stewart5]

Stranded

Spoiler:

The two Wraith cruisers seemed to drift by the Nightcrawler, heading towards the dark side of the planet.
However, within moments they were swinging their course around, opening fire upon the Nightcrawler.
Caught off guard believing that their stealth technology would keep them hidden, the radiation form the tagging beam was detectable even through the semi-cloak Nighcrawler could erect. The Wraith cruisers fired upon Trang's ship before he could get the shields to 80% (to maintain stealth Nightcrawler have to keep the shields at 40% or lower) the shields dropped back to 30% far too quickly by the barrage of energy pulses. Trang ordered the beam weapon to target the furthest Cruiser and fired a barrage of missiles and railguns at the nearest ship.
The furthest cruiser was split almost in two by the APBW. Darts took many of the missiles head on, but one got through, complete with a hail of railgun fire. the second Crusier was damaged badly, but was still able to move. hastily it's commander ordered it to swing around and go to hypersapce.
The Nightcrawer's crew cheered their first proper action; they had destoyed one enemy and severely damaged another.

The joy was short lived, as a Hive dropped in from hyperspace with another duo of cruisers, the damaged cruiser behind these three fresh ships.
Before the human vessel could target and move about, the Hive opened fire and took down the shields from their recently achieved 80% right back down to 21%.
"Brace for impact!" Trang bellowed before ordering all nukes to be armed and all missiles to target all Hive at once, and railguns to be fired at any darts within 50km of the ship.
The asgard beam cannon was set to fire at 50% charge, in order to fire 2 shots at once at different ships.
Nightcrawler came about and sped towards the Hive and the cruisers, weapons firing. The APBW sliced a section form one of the Cruisers, and crippled the engines on the second.
The Hive was a tougher prospect. The railguns were causing damage, but no where near enough to slow it down.

Nightcrawler came powering in, drawing abeam with the Hive, only 500 km, point blank in space terms.
"Fire the missiles!" Trang ordered as more impacts rocked his ship.
"Sir?" the tactical officer asked, knowing full well the damage that could be done to them if the Hive went up.
"Do it!" Trang ordered, a few beads of sweat rolling down his brow. he knew, too, how dangerous this could be.

The missiles tore through the empty space, closing the distance in seconds. They were so close, only a single missile was intercepted by a lone dart.
All the other weapons impacted on the hull, causing numerous nuclear explosions. fire bloomed outward into the vacuum as atmosphere escaped from the punctured hull.
the numerous shockwaves reverberated all along the organic hull, causing the super-strong material to quiver and shake. the hull seemed to glow from the inside as secondary explosions raced through the corridors, scorching them bare of life.
An instant later, the over-cooked reactors of the Hive exploded in a fearful torrent, destroying the vessel almost utterly, and vaporizing dozens of Darts.
Nightcrawler was almost out of range when the Hive blew. What was left of her shields took the impacts, but failed scant moments later.
Consoles blew, crew were thrown around and power levels dropped dangerously low.
Trang looked at the tactical readouts and knew it was all lost. The Wraith capital ships were gone, but dozens of Darts were still flying around.
He couldn't let the Wraith have the ship.
"This is Major Trang, all hands, head to the Jumper bay. We have lost beam-capabilities, head to the port docking bay and get to the Jumpers," he spoke into the Tannoy.
The bridge crew was currently made up of Trang’s black ops, Wong, Lamat and four USAF crewmen. Trang turned to them
“Set the self destruct. Give us twenty-five minutes, silent countdown.”
“Sir,” one of the crewmen replied, typing at a console. Trang stepped over to enter his authorization code.
Trang hated the idea of blowing his own ship on its first outing, but he really had no other choice.
“Okay, grab your rifles and let’s move,”

Trang and the SF group moved through the corridors with crew and the two scientists. They found over a dozen bodies on the way, some of which had been fed upon.
As soon as the major and his unit saw this, their ACR’s came up quickly, marking the dark corners and blind-spot corridors.
“Right, move out, slowly and keep your eyes open!” Trang ordered. “We have borders!” The team all nodded, and the group moved past after taking the dog-tags and proceeded as fast as they could towards the port side docking bay.
They were almost there, when fire erupted from their left flank, the corridor dark from power failures and caved ceiling-beams.
“Cover! Return fire!” Trang bellowed. ACR’s barked in tight, controlled bursts as the Black Ops scored hits
“They’ve hit us too soon! They can’t get to us now!” one of his Sergeants, Masterson, cried, dropping a Drone.
Trang didn’t answer, just continuing to keep the Wraith pinned down.
A new layer of fire started, stun blasts coming from the rear. These blasts were different, thought, being less blue in color, with a tint of gold.
Trang watch in horror as one blast burned through his troopers armour. The man fell without a sound.
“Defilade to the rear! I’ve got no shot!” a Canadian sergeant called out, a second before another flurry of shots cut him down.
One of the crewmen with him slumped to the deck as well. Trang made the call.
“Move! Run to the docking bay! Sergeant Masterson and I will provide a covering fire! Go!” Trang bellowed.
The whole group surged down the Corridor, SF’s in front, crew in the middle.
Trang and Masterson put up a stiff field of fire, one eve the Wraith had no wish to enter.
The group made it to the docking bay, to see there was only one jumper left. Hopefully that meant that the other crewmen had made an escape.
“Get in, now!” Trang called. One of his troopers dove into the pilot’s seat and started the Jumper up.
Trang and Masterson were almost in the vehicle when the sergeant went down. Trang dropped the Wraith who shot the sergeant, and dragged the wounded man aboard.
The jumper was rocked with impacts as it left the docking bay, and its engines flared for a second before sputtering and dying.

The jumper floated further away from the ship, but no Dart’s came to destroy them, and nothing left the Nightcrawler.
Lamat was working on a data-slate, muttering something about ‘networks’ and ‘saving their arses’
Trang’s corpsman saw to Masterson’s injuries, and Trang started in frustration as his ship.
It seemed the Wraith were stuck in a broken ship about to blow, and Trang was stuck in a broken jumper.
“Great,” the major hissed under his breath.

“I’ve got eet! I made zis thing work!” Lamat shouted suddenly, startling everyone.
“What? What is it?” Trang asked, trying to get an exuberant Lamat to speak sense.
“The Nightcrawler has a backup to the beam system, but we couldn’t access it during the battle. I managed to use zis networked data-slate to activate it!” Lamat said.
Trang was on his feet in an instant.
“Beam us to the rendezvous Co-ordinates, now!” he ordered, the smile dropping from Lamat’s face at the tone of the command.
“Yes, of course,” he muttered, pushing a few buttons. A moment later, the SF and scientists were highlighted by blue light, the smell of ozone and the hum of Asgard tech, before being dematerialised.

The small group re-appeared amidst the rest of the surviving Nightcrawler crew, no more than forty personnel. They were in a forest clearing, a large one, with the other two escape Jumpers about thirty Yards away.
They were also surrounded by a ring of heavily armed Wraith Drones.
“Out of the frying pan,” Trang muttered as he and his seven remaining SF’s raised their rifles.
Major Trang was ready to fight on, but Lamat and Wong managed to talk them out of it.
“The Wraith haven't stunned us yet, so maybe, just maybe, they want something else?” Wong said, thinking hard.
“I’m pretty sure they want to feed on us,” Trang muttered, not lowering his rifle.
The lead Wraith, a major, by the looks of it, stepped forward and started talking. He was only twenty yards away, but Trang could just make out what he was saying. The Wraith major said something about soulless creatures, one’s they couldn’t feed on. A sudden thought struck Major Trang's mind....have they made contact with the Asuran's too?
Masterson was sitting up, a female crewman helping him. The injured sergeant had his pistol drawn.
The Wraith spread out a little more, herding the group of humans more tightly together.
“Major?” What do we do?” Wong asked in panic.
“Get ready to take as many down as possible,” Trang muttered sarcastically. “Oh, right, there are only seven of us here with rifles,”
The Wraith major stalked forward, as if to talk to Trang, who hadn’t answered a single comment the Wraith had made.
The alien slowly lifted his feeding hand, and Trang tensed, rifle swinging up.
There was a loud ‘crack’, and less than half-a-second later the contents of the Wraith’s head was smeared over the front of Trang’s uniform.
The Wraith Drone’s almost as one, turned to face this new threat as a layer of gunfire erupted from the forest. Accurate, well placed rounds tore into the Wraith at the flanks, away from the crewmen.
“Open fire!” Trang bellowed, his men firing mercilessly into undefended Wraith backs.
It didn’t take long for the Wraith to fall, their return fire not the lethal blasts of their comrades aboard Nightcrawler, seemingly just stunner blasts.
A couple of crewmen, and the unfortunate Wong, were also stunned, but there were no severe casualties.
The firefight was brief and fierce, Trang’s Black Ops expending what little ammunition they hand left in a few moments.
The last Wraith drone died like the first, the inside of his skull spread in a widening pool on the ground.
Major Trang's men stood to even after the last Wraith was killed, and waited as their 'saviors’ appeared.
“US?” Trang shouted. He received no answer.
“Major?” Sergeant Masterson groaned from his sitting position, his pistol wavering.
“Check your ammo. If you have any clips left, reload now,” Trang muttered to his team.
There was more silence, then a voice barked form the trees.
“Stand down! We’re coming out,”
Men stalked from the woods in an unusual DPM. Ten, then twenty, then thirty five with another half dozen stunned men. Green berets atop forest DPM and Atlantis arm flashes.
Major Macara had arrived.

[Stewart5]

Help Arrives

Spoiler:

“We got your signal, but neither Weir not Sheppard were inclined to let me leave Atlantis. Did anyway, and you ought to be pretty glad we did.” Macara said as the two officers clasped hands, much relief on both their faces.
“You bet I am, Nate. How did you find us?”
“We arrived and scouted round. Not long after, several Darts came down and dropped off a force of Drones. I decided to follow them and see what was happening. We had an ambush set and were ready to attack when the jumper landed. I had to re-position,” Macara grinned.
“Who took the shot?” Trang asked.
“Marine Bennett. “ Macara replied, grinning. “One of the best in the RMC,” the major continued, with no little pride in his voice.
Trang started suddenly, checking his timepiece.
“Lamat, can you beam a strike team onto the Nightcrawler?”
The scientist ran over. “Yes, I can major. Why?”
“I want my ship back before the self destruct blows,” Trang replied.
“Of course!” Lamat said, typing away.
“STANAG mags, Nate?” the Black ops commander turned to the marine.
“Of course. Sergeant major Quincannon, dole out some spares! Sergeant Grant, your section to accompany major Trang’s men!” Macara barked his orders as Trang’s men took the spare magazines gratefully.
“I’ll secure a perimeter here, see to the wounded and stunned,” Macara offered.”
Trang nodded gratefully, before cocking his rifle.
“Beam us up, Scotty,” Trang ordered.
“I don’t even like Star Trek....” Lamat muttered as he hit the buttons.

“Damn him!” Sheppard ranted. “He can’t just do what he wants!”
“I know, John, but what if he was right?” Weir said, trying to assuage the Colonel.
“Elizabeth, he just took eighty percent of the British garrison off on a wild Goose chase to see if it was possible an Earth ship was in distress; an Earth ship that can’t possibly exist, because the Daedalus is here!” John pointed at the gate, towards in imaginary point where Macara was.
“I know, and I am furious with how he did it, but it keeps nagging me; what if he was right?” Weir tried again.
“I’m going to have him court-martialed for this! Cowardice, Absent without leave, inciting mutiny.....” Sheppard ranted.
“I understood he has autonomy to explore as he wants...?” Weir began.
“Within our discretion!” Sheppard muttered. “Damn it!”
“What have you done about it?” Elizabeth asked.
“I cancelled his IDC. He’ll have to beg to be let back in,”
“John...” Elizabeth began.
“Colonel, you need to come and see this,” Chuck interrupted from the door to Elizabeth’s office.
“What?” John asked as he walked over to Chuck’s console.
“There, on the long range. We have Wraith ships inbound,” Chuck said.
Sheppard looked at Weir, fear in both their eyes.
“Now you say I’m over-reacting? Call a red alert, get the Marine gunners to their weapons and cloak the city. Contact Caldwell and tell him they’re coming.” Sheppard ordered, running from the room, heading for an armoury.
“We have incoming wormhole! Chuck called, stopping Sheppard in his tracks.
“Macara?” Weir asked, desperately hoping against hope.
“No IDC ma’am. And no one is attempting to come through,” Chuck replied.
Sheppard almost snarled with anger. “The Wraith have gated in to stop us getting out or sending for help,”
“How did they find us?” Weir asked.
“I’m willing to bet Macara walked into an ambush and has given us up,” Sheppard spat. “They know we are here. Forget the cloak, get the shield ready and get ready to defend this place,”

It wasn’t long before Trang began beaming people from the surface. The Wraith, devoid of Space craft capable of travelling in Hyperspace, and abandoned the crippled ship they could fix and had gone down to the planet where they expected to find their comrades. Macara’s marines had seen to them.
Trang had just over forty crew left from a compliment of eighty two – he was lucky that most of the survivors were engineers and system operators.
The first thing he did was to set them on getting the engines back.
The damage, although severe, was not crippling. They had lost shields and the explosion had shorted some of the power supplies across the vessel, effectively hobbling the engines. His weapons and shields would be working fine, if they could sort out the power situation.
“Major, maybe you should gate back to Atlantis with your men?” Trang offered the idea as Macara walked onto the bridge.
“We have a problem, “ Macara said. “We can’t get a gate connection.”
“What? Surely someone else was gating in and out?”
“We tried four times at ten minute intervals. Something is going on.” Macara replied.
“A gate can only stay open for thirty eight minutes...”
“Which means someone is repeatedly dialing Atlantis,” the Scottish major replied, his gazing saying what his mouth didn’t.
“Wraith,” Trang said. “Right, we get power, we go and help,”
“That sounds good to me.” Macara replied with a fierce relish.



“How much longer until they get here?” Sheppard asked.
“Well, they’ve taken a stop here to let the hull regenerate. That gives us something like six hours.” McKay replied pointing to the screen.
“How long can the shield stand under bombardment from them?”
“Days, considering the forces arrayed against us. The Daedalus should be able to take a single hive with her Asgard weapons. It’s the four cruisers that may prove troublesome.”
“Damn it. What about the gate?” Weir asked next. McKay sighed and pointed.
“They keep redialing every 38 minutes. Every time we have tried to dial before them, they get there first. It’s like they have an automatic dialing system active, or something!” the scientist blurted in frustration. “There isn’t much we can do right now,”
“We can get ready to defend this place.” Sheppard growled, turning on his heel.


It took a little over three hours, but the Nightcrawler was in a better position to fight. Trang ordered the ship to go to hyperspace, and hoped they could get Atlantis before the Wraith did.



* * *

“Here they come,” Chuck called out as he scanned his console’s screen.
“Shields up,” Weir called.
“Yes, ma’am.”

The orange field enveloped the city, and the city’s inhabitants prepared to fight.

“As soon as the hive translates, Target and open fire,” Caldwell ordered Marks. “I don’t want this to last long.”
“Aye, sir.” Major Marks replied.
“All hands, battle stations!” Caldwell tannoyed. “Prepare to Engage the enemy,”
The ship became a frenzied hub of activity, crewmen preparing for damage control and possible boarding actions.
“Sir, they’re here,” Marks said. Caldwell looked up and saw the ships translating. A hive with four cruisers appeared in battle formation. Almost as soon as they appeared an almost literal Wave of Wraith Darts poured from the Carriers, heading towards the lone 304 and the planet below.
“Launch fighters, bring the engines to military thrust, engaged that hive!” Caldwell ordered.
The second battle for Atlantis was about to begin.

* * *


The Nightcrawler translated near Atlantis space. There were frantic calls from aid from Daedalus, presumably, with equally garbled replies from Atlantis.
“How...ll did the...get into...ity?” Trang’s comms officer picked up from the multitude of radio traffic.
Sheppard’s voice suddenly could be heard, albeit broken and stilted.
“Darts flew at the shields, like last tim....lowed up before they hit, came through the shields at minimum velocity. We shot down dozens, but enough made it thro....ot dozens of Wraith in th...ity...”
“Sir, Atlantis has no shields, and we can’t detect any drone’s firing, either,” the comms officer said to Trang.
“Damn it. Nate, get ready to beam into the city with your Marines and my Black Ops. Help get the drone chair active again,” Trang ordered.
“No problem, Vic,” Macara’s disembodied voice replied.
Trang returned his attention to the battle to their fore. The Daedalus was giving the Hive hell, but her APBW’s weren’t firing. She was also taking a lot of damage, the cruisers helping the Hive to pin the Earth ship down. Trang knew he had to run some interference.
“Sir, I don’t understand, but we aren’t detecting any Wraith communication at all. Of any sort,” the comm’s operator said suddenly.
“Well let’s take it to them before they transmit anything dangerous,” Trang smiled fiercely.
Without pause, Major Trang ordered the helmswoman to take the Nightcrawler to the fray.
Fighters launched, the Nighcrawler sailed straight for the nearest cruiser, first volley crippling its engines, before Trang directed the weakened IOA ship towards the next target.
The Wraith were in for a fight.

Macara and his company beamed down and discovered havoc.
Smoke was pouring form quarters of the city as Darts swept by, making strafing runs. A few 302’s chased them, having followed the attack wave from orbit, and the City’s railguns spat rounds into the sky.
Wraith were fighting their way through the city to the control tower. All over, pockets of Human defenders fought bravely, but were ultimately pushed back.

Sheppard fired his P90 and urged his men back to the next make-shift barricade. The Wraith, some with regular stunners, others with these new lethal weapons, were driving them back up the tower.
“This is Sheppard, we are holed up on the stairs and require assistance!”
Even as Sheppard called, more Wraith pushed their way into the corridor and towards his stairwell...

Macara led his men forward, before making a choice that would either prove well chosen, or go badly wrong.
He left three sections, with his two GPMG’s, to hold the base of the tower against any more Wraith reinforcements and led the rest up the tower.
The Marines and Black ops fought hard, clawing at the invaders, dropping entire groups in minutes of intense firefights.
The Wraith were far from useless though, using ambush tactics and their physic abilities to throw the humans off balance. Macara lost several good men as he fought his way up through the tower.
“Push on! I want at least two men firing at each Drone, but only in tight controlled bursts!” he ordered.
“You heard the major! Watch your spacing!” sergeant major Quincannon barked, his Northern Irish accent sounding fierce and guttural through the fighting, like Cuchulainn himself.
They could hear more fighting from the opposite end of a corridor they emerged on form the stairs.
“Sergeant Major, a section and one SF fire team to remain here, the rest with me!” Macara said, moving forward with F company’s best men.
“Yes, sir!” Quincannon replied, before assembling his blocking force.
Macara reloaded his L85A5 before moving on, his men ready to engage once more....
.

[Stewart5]

Battle is Joined

Spoiler:

Major Trang had disabled, almost destroying, one wraith cruiser before moving on to the next, Nightcrawler’s fighter escorts helping scower away the Darts that came screaming to the attack like a wave of enraged hornets.
The Daedalus is engaged the Hive and was doing a valiant job, but the Hive's firepower was proving a major problem. Daedalus had scored several huge hits, but right at the critical moment, her new APBW have gone offline, not to enemy weapons fire but through as yet unknown circumstances.

“What’s happened?” Caldwell shouted over the noise of exploding panels.
“No idea, sir! They were working fine one minute, then the next they were down. Probably a transducer fault,” Marks replied, making a rather good guess.
“Get a team down to the section with the coils, get them fixed! And prepare another nuke for beaming,” Caldwell ordered.
“Yes, sir. Sir, we still can’t by their jamming....” Marks said.
“I know. Beam it amongst that new wave of Darts. Make sure our fighters are nowhere near it,” Caldwell replied. Marks grinned slightly.
“Yessir!”

A half dozen 302’s wheeled away from the approaching mass of Dart’s, hundreds of the Wraith single ships streaming towards the human fighters.
A second later, the nuke appeared amidst them. One brave Dart pilot turned to try and take it out, but the fuse was far too short. The weapon detonated, taking a massive swathe of Darts. The shockwave went out for a moment more, before fading to nothing.
The Daedalus and a handful of 302’s were in the gap created a moment later, nothing between them and the Hive ships.

In Atlantis, Major Macara's team was beginning to get bogged down, but they had almost reached Sheppard’s embattled position.
The Marines and Black Ops pushed on, tossing frags round corners and using 203’s and AG40’s to sort out stiff pockets of resistance.
“Push on! Push on!” Macara shouted, hearing fierce fighting further along the corridor.
Sheppard and a group of city security and US Marines were pinned down behind their makeshift barricade. Sheppard had about half the number of men left to him that he started the battle with. Almost a dozen were dead outright.
The US Marine’s were putting up a fearsome defence, and for every human that fell the Wraith were punished. It was a tenacious and heroic fight, but it was one the Marine’s were losing through firepower and numbers.
“Hold them back! I can here firing down the corridor! We’ve got back up, just hold on!” Sheppard called.
“Sir, they’re rushing us!” one of the Security troopers called as a cry went up.
Almost two dozen drones started running towards them, and even the tight, accurate fire of the Human weapons couldn’t drop all the Wraith. Several more USMC fell.
Sheppard took a stun blast to his shoulder, and it hit him with sufficient force to drop him on his arse.
The USMC lads began to fall back into the stairwell as the Wraith pushed closer, leaving the dead and wounded as they went. They continued to harrass the horde of Drones, in the hope of getting back to their comrades.
The Wraith’s own advance slowed now by the weight of casualties they had suffered.
Sheppard struggled to sit up, even as the first Drone reached his barricade.

Macara noticed the drop in volume of firing and urged his men on again, driving them towards the fading sounds of guns.
“Move it!” Quincannon bellowed, the Marines and Special Forces fearing him far more than any Wraith.

Back in orbit, Trang watched the cruiser he had been sparring with try to move around the damaged Nightcrawler, the Wraith ship firing at both the Daedalus and Nightcrawler.
“Bring us about, a quarter impulse, then hit us up to three quarters and open fire with the APBW.”
“Aye, sir,” his helmswoman and tactical officer both replied.
Nighcrawler lurched to the side, even the artificial gravity struggling to compensate for the sudden maneuver. The weakened stealth ship groaned under the metal stress.
“Come on, hold together,” Trang muttered.

The Nightcrawler, with her enhanced mobility and engine power, tore through space behind the Wraith cruiser, rapidly overtaking it.
The commander of the Cruiser had obviously thought the Nightcrawler had been taken unawares and left stranded from the rest of the battle. The cruiser didn’t open fire on the human Stealth ship until the last second, and by then it was too late.
The APBW fired, slicing down through the hull of the Wraith craft, scoring its flanks and opening several decks to space. After another second of firing, the beam having raked all the way along the cruiser, the Wraith vessel expanded outward for a moment before exploding with tremendous force.

"Good. Now, take us towards that Hive," Trang ordered.
The major noticed from his tactical display, the vast amounts of power he was using with his single APBW, but it is the only thing keeping the two human ships in the fight.
"This is Caldwell. Identify!" the hail came straight through to Trang's command chair, during a brief lull as both sides pause to regroup and attack again.
Trang winced; he knew that coming to help the fight at Atlantis would reveal the IOA ship to the USAF forces engaged there. But what else could he have done? Left them to die?
"This is Major Trang of the IOA Recon ship Nightcrawler. Sorry we didn't mention anything a little sooner, but as you know we are a little busy," Trang said laconically, inwardly wincing again for the rebuke he knew was coming.
"Well, you are a sight for sore eyes, major, although I don't know what the IOA thinks it's doing building a damned...stealthship, but that can wait. We think we have isolated the problems with the APBWs, and are ready to make an attack run on that hive. I would very much like your assistance,"
"Yes, sir. But if your beam weapons aren't on line, we are all in trouble....."
It was Caldwell's turn to wince, as consoles behind him sparked from earlier damage. "Yes, well, at least we won't be around long enough to complain if this goes wrong,"
Trang turned to his bridge crew and shouted the helm to bring her about and sail straight for the Hive. The Daedelus fell in beside her and the two ships prepared to open fire..........

In the battle scarred corridor on Atlantis, the Wraith had advanced to the fallen soldiers, some of who were starting to come round.
The first Drone fed on a struggling Marine, roaring with satisfaction as his strength returned. That first marine was dead and sucked dry when another layer of gunfire added to the close quarter combat. The Wraith leader took three in the back and fell next to a groggy Sheppard.
The Wraith drones turned to engage this new threat as they saw the forest DPMs and green berets of the RMC coming for them. Once again they made the mistake of turning their backs on their original foe, and the security forces and USMC charged out form the stairwell and fired into the Wraith, regaining their barricade.
The Wraith fell one by one, dozens of rounds used to fell them. The human soldiers didn't have it all their own way, and two Royal Marines, and another SF, were killed before the last Wraith was killed.
The Wraith leader was slowly crawling closer to Sheppard whilst the inferno of battle raged on behind them. The vile alien growled and spat, slowly raising a hand to feed and speed his regeneration. Sheppard glared defiance at the alien, but couldn't yet move strongly enough to stop it,
A single 9mm round blew the front of the wraith's face off, leaving only a tiny hole at its entrance point in the back of its skull. Splatter covered Sheppard.
"Hollow Point, technically against human rights, but hey, he's no human," an arrogant voice announced. Sheppard craned his neck to see Macara bringing his Browning HP up and firing the last of his clip at a Wraith drone who didn't realise he should be dead yet.
"Move in! Police the bodies and get the stunned or wounded men over to that doorway!" he pointed as he reloaded his pistol "Sergeant major! Get some men and strip the dead and wounded for ammo. Leave four men with the injured and prepare to move to the chair room!"
"Yes sir!" Quincannon saluted sharply before turning and bellowing at the men.
"You'll need someone with the gene," Sheppard croaked as he rose unsteadily to his feet.
Macara cocked an eyebrow. "You think you can manage?"
"Whatever a limey marine can do, I can manage fine," he growled in return, eyes narrowed.
"Very good. Sir." Macara made the 'sir' sound about as impudent as any insult would have.
"This doesn't make things even, major," Sheppard gestured to the carnage.
"You know what? I don't care! Okay, everyone, and that means Atlantis teams too, saddle up, let's move!" Macara bellowed, leading them off towards a transporter. Sheppard glared malice behind them, but checked his mag and followed on.

In space, the Nightcrawler and Daedalus came along their approach vectors, ready to hit the Hive with their APBWs. The Wraith ship blazed blue plasma bolts in return, the shields of the Earth ships flickering as the energy hit the force fields, creating rippling waves in the undulating surfaces.
The surviving Wraith cruisers were coming about as quickly as possible, to try and save the Hive.
They didn't reach it in time.
The Earth ships sailed along the length of the gargantuan vessel, spitting APBs at it, their shots gouging great tears in the organic armour. They took several more hits each, and Nightcrawler lost her shields once more. But the damage was done.
At full military thrust, the Earth craft came apart and away from the Hive, Daedalus firing a few more shots.
The Hive didn't explode, but its power flickered and died, many sections were open to space, and the great vessel started spinning, drifting away from the planet.

Trang was about to cheer when his tactical officer gave a warning.
"Sir, we have another three ships translating. Wraith." The captain said.
Trang cursed, a moment before Caldwell's voice came across the comm.
"Major, do you read?" the transmission was still a little fuzzy.
"Yes, sir,"
"You're Special Forces, right?" Caldwell asked, his voice cold.
"Yes, sir,"
"Get down to the City and get the chair operational please. We'll need the drones if we are going to make it through," Caldwell said candidly.
"Yes, colonel. Right away. Good luck, sir." Trang said, leaving his seat. He directed the ADF captain at tactical to take over as the command chair, before beckoning his last few SF and heading to the armoury.

The teams moved quickly now, through corridors scarred by battle, dead humans and Wraith littered the area.
Sheppard and Macara were about to lead through to the next area, when light materialised before them, and figures appeared. The sound of Asgard beams echoed through the hallway.
Trang stood with a small group of his special forces. Macara walked over
"Shouldn't you be up there killing Hives?" Macara asked jovially. Trang grinned and took his hand.
"I'm fairly certain Caldwell can manage fine."
All the while Sheppard simply stood glaring at the two.
"Well, are we going to clear the last pockets of Wraith resistance?" Trang asked, ushering his men into the lead.
"My team will lead here major," Sheppard growled. "This is still my command."
Macara looked at the body-language of the two men and interceeded.
"Colonel, maybe if major Trang's men led the operation, with you accompanying them due to your intimate knowledge of the city, and I will support with your men and my own. Trang's men are special forces, after all."
Sheppard looked Macara up and down, then nodded. "Good point. Okay, we will drive along the peer to the chair room. You major, will round up all forces in the area, get to the ZPM room before continuing on to meet us. Is that clear?"
Macara saluted sharply, palm outward "Of course, colonel."

[Stewart5]

Victory...?

Spoiler:

The two forces broke apart, and Macara led the fifteen men he had left, a mix of Marines and RMC to start collecting up groups of defenders.
"Lieutenant Hardy, have any of the stunned Marines come to yet?"
There was a brief crackle on the radio, before a younger voice replied. "Yes, sir. I had the city security team take the wounded to that new doctor, Keller, and I've brought a fair mix of men down to the pier. We're trying to find you."
Macara looked at his life-signs scanner. There was a group of maybe twenty in one direction, with another, roughly equal sized group heading towards them. He didn't know who was who.
"Lieutenant, you have potential hostiles moving your way. Prepare to engage, but remember the rules of engagement, in case they are ours. I don't want any blue on blue."
"Yes sir."
Macara looked at the men he was with. Three Marines, two city security and ten more RMC. Not a fair fight for the Wraith at all, he thought.
"Move out," he out simply.

Caldwell starred at the new arrivals to the fight; three bloody Hives. Three. Could they get no luck this day? Cruisers, he could maybe of handled.
The Nightcrawler had minimal shields back, and Daedalus was only slightly better off. There was no way they could hold three Hives off by themselves.
“Hurry up, Trang, we could use some help,” Caldwell whispered.

Macara had already met with six groggy RMC who were just about recovered from stunner blasts. He had also found two of his own men dead, drained of life.
"Sergeant major, police some ammo and get ready to move. Those two groups are almost on each other."
"Yes, major,"
Macara looked at the US troops with him. The five men were knackered, not used to constant trekking over large distances, especially not the soldiers forming the Security detachment. They could fight well enough, but they just weren't as used to tabbing as the Commandos.
"Right, they're only a couple of hundred metres away. You five, stay here with the sergeant major and hold this corridor. I'm taking the others and we'll meet up with lieutenant Hardy. If you need any help, just radio in."
Macara didn't wait for an affirmative; he knew Quincannon would get the job done, and now he could move faster
Breaking into a quick jog, the remaining RMC made good time. They arrived at a junction in the corridor just the first group of the life-signs scanner arrived, turning the corner at the same moment.
Corporal Allen, six feet four and built like a tank, bumped into someone equally as tall. Within the blink of an eye, the Marine was grounded by a sharp right to the sternum, then knocked cold by a large boot.
The next Marine backed away from a second kick, and Ronon appeared round the corner. He dropped that Marine too, and a third, pinning him against the wall, pistol drawn.
Ronon grinned at the marine evilly, teeth bared.
It was then Ronon felt the Fairburn-sykes against his ribs, from behind.
“Using a knife from behind? Very brave,” he spat.
Macara nodded. “Anything to win a fight, Dex. Now put him down.”
“I let go of this guy and I’m going to break you in half,” Ronon replied.
Macara believed it as well, and knew in size and strength Ronon was more than enough for him.
"Well then, I'm just going to continue holding this knife to your vitals."
Ronon made a reach with his muscled arms, but Macara pressed in between Ronon’s seventh and eighth, ready to punch up and in to the tangle of arteries and veins hear the big man’s heart.
"Learn some control, Dex." Macara muttered. Ronon tried again, but Macara repeated the trick.
No more than five seconds had passed, but it felt longer, much longer. Macara heard rifles cock and then felt the still-warm muzzle of a P-90 against his neck.
"Let him go, major, or I will shoot you," Teyla's gentle yet firm voice said behind the major's ear.
"Tell Dex to calm the hell down then,"
"Not a chance!" Ronon struggled, almost releasing Commando from his grip in his attempt to reach Macara.
Macara let go suddenly, rolling away and bringing his Browing up, so that now the reinforced Royal Marines were facing Teyla and Ronon's group of maybe fifteen City security. None dropped their aim. Ronon still held the poor commando against the wall.
Macara slowly took his rifle from a still shaken Allen.
"You know, I liked you at first. But maybe Sheppard is right about you major. You have no respect for anyone outside your own military, and you continue to make co-operation harder." Teyla said, trying to diffuse the situation.
Macara looked at his men, thought about Teyla's words and, not believing a single one, ordered his men to rest their arms anyway. It took a few seconds more to get Ronon to reciprocate, finally letting go of Marine Martinson
By now, Hardy and his men had arrived and were taken aback by the face off. He had some thirteen RMs and the rest a mix of USM and city soldiers.
"What...?"
"Never mind. Let's go." Macara said quickly. All the RMC came over to him and shared out extra ammo in their STANAGs. Macara took an AG40 equipped L85 from one Marine, giving his weapon in return.
At first, not a single Atlatis personnel or USM followed. They kept their aim up, however.
"We're going to help Sheppard. Do what you want." Macara snapped and led his party away.
Ronon glared at the major's back, then looked at Teyla, who shrugged. "Maybe we should..."
“Listen, I do not care if you like or respect me, but we have to get the path to the ZPM room clear, and we need to re-initialize it to get the shield and drones back,” Macara said.
Ronon stared at him, pure hatred in his eyes. But, to the surprise of everyone else, he nodded.
“Good. Let’s go.” Macara nodded himself.

After meeting heavy resistance of those larger wraith, Sheppard and Trang continue down the hallways with rifles blazing, in columns of two by two Sheppard and Trang paced side by side, firing their weapons as the columns of black ops covered their rear and sides.
"Macara still giving you Hell?" Trang whispered to Sheppard
"Damn guy is way too cocky..." Sheppard replied
"Well that’s why he’s a Major and you’re a Lt. Colonel." Trang said. It had gone a lot quieter, and no more Wraith jumped to the attack.
"But Hell man, thinks he can do whatever he likes," Sheppard snapped.
"Weren’t you just the same, and hell aren’t we all the same? SF for life." Trang grinned.
"I don’t know how you always see things like that.” Sheppard sighed.
“We can resolve this after we get to the chair,” Trang said in reply.

By the time they reached the chair room they had counted over fifty dead wraith, yet there was a large number of human dead, too.
"Collect tags and set up a 15m guard perimeter and I'll get the chair set up." Sheppard ordered
"Wilco" Trang replied slapping a fresh magazine in his ACR and M26
“Let’s hope he got the ZPM running.” Sheppard said, doubt in his voice.
The colonel sat in the seat, and nothing happened.
“Damn it…” he muttered trying to settle back and concentrate.
“Colonel, we’ve got trouble!” Trang bellowed. “More Wraith are on their way!” he called as the first Black Ops trooper fired his ACR.
Sheppard sat back to try again, but the chair had no power.
“Damn it, Macara,” Sheppard hissed, picking up his rifle to join the fight.

“Move! Move!” Macara urged his men forward. Ronon’s pistol flared, and another Wraith died.
The RMC and their American counterparts were fighting hard, and only two Drones stood between them and the ZPM room.
Quincannon hurled a grenade, settling the matter once and for all.
“Perimeter! Watch all corners and keep this room safe!” Macara ordered, dashing in with Ronon and Teyla.
Dead USMC lay scattered around, more Wraith corpses mixed with them. One Wraith had his hands on the ZPM, but was still slumped dead over the plinth.
Ronon kicked the body away, and Teyla grabbed the ZPM.
“Have you done this before?” Macara asked.
“Eh…no. But I have seen Doctor McKay do this many times…” she said. The Marine closed his eyes and winced as Teyla gently pushed the ZPM into its housing. There was a click, a loud hum, and the device powered up.
“That’s it! We’re done!” Macara shouted in triumph.
“What now?” Ronon asked.
“We need to make sure Trang get to the chair.” Macara replied. “Teyla, Lieutenant Hardy, take half the men and hold here. The rest of you, with me and Dex. It’ll be a sprint to the chair room, so only those of you who think you can keep up,” Macara said. The relevant men stepped forward.
“Okay, time to finish this,” Macara said, heading back the way they had come.
A moment later the first Ancient Drones lit the sky and headed for orbit.

“Sheppard?” Trang shouted over the fighting. He had four men left now, and the Wraith were pushing hard. They weren’t stunning for feeding; these Wraith warriors were going for the kills, to get to the chair.
“He did it! The son of a b*tch did it!” Sheppard called, settling back and firing a swarm of drones.

Caldwell sat back in his seat and sighed in relief. The Drones swarmed the Hives and tore them to ribbons. Nightcrawler was already chasing down the last cruiser before it could escape and tell others of Atlantis location. But they had done it, if only just.
“Let McKay know, through his secure channel, he can drop the jamming,”
“Aye, sir!” Marks said with the sound of victory in his voice.

[Stewart5]

Dead End

Spoiler:

"Sheppard, we need another gun!" Trang barked.
The colonel jumped out of the seat and went to the barricade.
There were at least twenty Wraith. There was no way they could win out.
Sheppard lifted his rifle and fired. He would kill as many as he could.

Macara yelled at the shrunken company and the combination of two countries marines, dropped by to the nearest junction, Ronon with them.
There was a heavy firefight, with maybe two dozen Wraith attacking one small point with a handful of defenders.
Macara knew Trang was in toruble, but his unit was now almost completely out of ammo.
"Come on, let's go!" Dex said, trying to move forward.
"Dex, we are almost out of ammo, and there are at least twenty Wraith still in there."
Macara sighed. He knew they had to try. But what could they do?
Quincannon looked at him and tapped the sheath at his side.
"Are you sure, sergeant-major?" Macara grimaced.
The Northern Irishman nodded again. "Save our ammo for when they're pinned on the end.
The Sergeant Major stood.
"Fix bayonets!"
The RMC looked startled, but complied. The US marines just looked shocked.
"A bayonet charge? Are you kidding?" a USMC sergeant shouted.
Quincannon turned with a disgusted look in his eye. "Well, the Scots Guards and the Paras showed the Argies what for with the straight steel,"
"And the Argyl and Sutherland Highlanders did it in Iraq a few years ago, too. Took only three wounded and killed 35 of the enemy," Muttered said, his voice quiet.
"They were human. Not aliens!" the USM sergeant replied.
"You do what you want. I think it's a great idea." Ronon grinned, drawing his sword.
"Any flashbangs left?" the major asked his CSM.
Quincannon nodded.
They chose the 3 largest men and the grenades were hefted down the corridor. They gave it a few quick moments before Quincannon let out a bellow that Cuchulainn would have been proud of, before the twenty RMC and the dozen or so marines belted down the corridor.

The Wraith were all over the barricade. A kill-blast streaked by Trang's head, grazing and searing the flesh.
A Wraith punched him full force, easily breaking several of his ribs.
As Trang looked up from the floor, he saw some black objects clatter to the deck.
"Flashbangs!" Trang barked, and the two black ops left to him, and Sheppard, ducked desperately.
The grenades went off, the closest Wraith floundering. Trang and Sheppard took some disorientation, but missed the worst of it.
The Wraith weren't completely disabled by the human stun weapon, their physiology protecting them, but were still taken by surprise and clasped hands to head to try and get the ringing out.
Then the bayonets struck. The first nine Wraith took six inches of SA80 bayonet to the back and middle torso, at least three to each alien, before being finished off by point blank rounds through the head by the USMs following.
The charge went on, and despite losing four Marine's to the sheer physical strength of the Wraith, the remaining aliens began falling back. Macara's men used their last rounds to chase them away.
Even as the Wraith fled or were destroyed, they fought on viciously. Two more Marines were stunned, one lost an arm to a kill-blast.
The last shot from the Wraith missed Ronon by a hair's breadth and took Macara straight in the chest, burning through his armour.
In a world of pain, Macara collapsed and blacked out even as Ronon struggled to help him.
.45 fire was heard from the other side of the barricade, and the final two creatures fell heavily to their knees even as they tried to flee, before slumping over. Trang struggled to his feet to stare at the carnage in the hall.
"You...didn't...bayonet charge, did you?" he managed before collapsing again.
"We need a medical team to level...." was the last words Trang heard before passing out.

As Macara groggily awoke, he heard hushed voices. The two speakers fell silent as they saw him come awake and struggle to a sitting position.
Macara could see Teyla and Sheppard sitting up on Trang's bed. Ronon was stood in the corner, arms folded, glowering as usual. Rodney had been in, apparently, to moan at Macara a litttle but left when he realised it was lunch time.
Sheppard was looking intently at him.
"You saved the city, Major." The colonel said, almost reluctantly.
Macara shook his head weakly.
"You shouldn't have gone off base like you did, but if you hadn't, we wouldn't be here. Thank you." Sheppard said anyway.
Macara looked over, embarrassed himself. Sheppard was holding out a hand to shake, and Teyla was smiling happily.
Macara let a few moments pass, and let a little rejection set itself on Sheppard's features before taken the hand in a tight embrace.
"I suppose I can forgive you. But you owe me a pint."
"You're not free and dry anyway. The SGC will no doubt want to slap your wrist for this," Sheppard said.
"Or worse," Weir spoke up for the first time, not quite able to hide the disappointment in her voice at Macara's actions.
Ronon snorted at that comment, and looked down at Macara.
"No hard feeling big guy?" Macara asked warily. Ronon just cocked an eybrow.
"He actually quite likes you now. Want's you to show him some....'dirty tricks'.....to go with his technique." Teyla whispered.
"That'll be right," Macara grunted.
"I'll be going now anyway," Sheppard said. "I'm not quite as exhausted as you lot. We'll see you both later."
Macara just nodded. However, didn't mean he'd do what he was told. Not by some yank, at least.
"And you'll have to tell me why you tried to reject this medal major Trang told us about," Teyla said a little louder than Macara would have liked.
"Whatever. I'll see you all later. Sheppard, Guinness extra cold mate!" Macara called out as the team left the room."Cheers Vic. Nice work there bud...." Macara snorted with a little bit of anger once the rest had left.
"Well, Nathan, they had to know you weren't some coward. And I wasn't going to let your damn British pride split the command staff and the city defenders in two. Get used to it; we have to work together." Trang said warningly.
Macara paused. "I know. But I do not take orders from your lot unless specifically told so by MY superiors, or maybe Landry, mainly because I respect him. As soon as Sheppards silver oak leaf becomes a crown and order star, I'll gladly obey his orders. Until then, they are only requests that I will perform if they are in the best interests of the city and my people in it."
Trang sighed. It was the best he was going to get. For the moment, at least.

[Stewart5]

Start of the Second arc

The Royal Marines 6 month tour is over, and they are preparing to swap out with more British Reiforcements. Keen for 50 men NOT to be holed up in a 304 for three weeks, Atlantis sends four Jumpers through the Gate, who will return through the half finished Midway station.

At the same time, trang and his IOA SF unit is now working hand in hand with SGC and GTF.One of his first missions...liason with an offfworld science expedition......

Crash and Burn

Spoiler:

Arc 2

The trees blew gently in the breeze....nothing else disturbed the calm peace...grass bent slightly under the winds light touch. Clouds drifted overhead. A place of pure peace.
But it didn't last. The great ring had been silent, but started moving. Lights came on and it began to turn.
In an instant, a blue pool had formed and a large object shot through heading higher into a patrol pattern.
Major Trang sat in the cockpit of the puddle jumper. He was the only other military aboard, after the pilot, reduced to no more than a taxi driver for the scientists and surveyist inside.
"When do you think we can land. It looks a beautiful place," one asked him nervously. Trang snorted.
"When I've established that it is safe to do so, and not before, ma'am. Now stop back seat driving and let me do my job."
Trang had the hud up and was scanning foliage and everything round about.
The gate was still open, and he had a link to Atlantis.
"Well, major? See anything your passenger like?" Sheppards voice came across the comm.
"Too much. Looking for a safe place to put down, sir."
"Very good. Keep at it."
Trang had seen a likely clearing, but he didn't make major in the SF by going headfirst into something he didn't know. He took up a circular pattern above, just to be careful.
His caution, it seemed, was not to be rewarded. A projectile shot out, little more than fifty metres away. It looked for all the world like an RPG contrail.....The alarms in the jumper blared, and he pulled away, but the rocket hit and punctured a nasty hole in the side of the compartment, not to mention shearing a drive pod off. Smoke poured from the wound in the Jumper's side, and she started to spin.
"Ah, hell..." Trang cried, trying to keep the jumper aflight. The people in the back were calling out, some sobbing, and Trang looked at the women he had just spoken to. The look said, without a doubt, "Told you so,"
"Mayday, mayday, this is Trang. We have been fired on and are going down...mayday, mayday...."
The jumper hovered in the air for a moment, like the character in a cartoon on the edge of a cliff, before plummeting into the clearing.

*Queue Atlantis intro music*

"What the hell happened?" Sheppard barked.
"I don't know, sir," the hapless comm operator shrugged.
"Where is the Daedelus now, John?" Doctor Weir asked from Sheppard's side.
"Too far away. We have to send a team in."
"But there could be enemy waiting at the other side of the gate." Weir said.
"Elizabeth, I know, but we can't leave them there. Get me a meeting with the other officers. I want to know their thoughts."

It took less than ten minutes to assemble the relevant soldiers. Two city security, three USMC and of course, Major Macara and his lieutenant(say luff-tenant).
"So, that's the situtuation. Any thoughts?"
"Send in a team, get them out, punish whoever did it with extreme prejudice," Macara said quietly.
"There is a danger any team to go through will be ambushed as they walk through the gate," Sheppard spoke, "It's happened before now..."
"I've studied those files, sir," Macara stressed the word slightly. He was getting on better with Sheppard, but still liked to make sure John new his authoritative boundaries. "And I've been creating an action plan based on an assault through a gate into heavy fire."
"And the jumper had been flying for a good seven minutes before the gate closed and we received their mayday." Lieutenant Hardy offered his opinion. "I don't think the enemy were waiting on the other side."
"They could be now," one city security said.
Sheppard looked at the British major for a moment. "That sounds interesting. But major, we cannot risk lives on an untried method..." Sheppard trailed off meaningfully...
Macara smiled slightly, knowing what Sheppard was hinting at.
"Of course, sir. However, as UK military superior here, I am willing to take the risk if my subordinates are."
One of the USMC officers, a competent man by the name of Bertier, spoke up. "Aren't your marines due to go home for a six month spell?"
"Yes. But we can have this done and wrapped up before hand," Macara smiled disarmingly.
"It's settled then. Major, would you like to divulge any of your plan?"
"No." Macara said simply, but not rudely.

Apart from a few cuts and bruises, Major Trang woke up to the sounds of cries of pain. The Major looked around and saw all the scientists tossing and turning around and the pilot trying to help them.
"Status report..." Trang groaned
"Jumper is done, whatever hit us took out our right side of the hull...but everyone is okay..." the pilot replied.
"Are we gonna be okay Major!? There's smoke everywhere and there's a few holes in the Jumper..." a frantic scientist shuddered.
The Major looked around the Jumper and exited with the pilot, and then he looked back into the Jumper, and looked into the surrounding forest.
"Tell the tech guys to get anything online ASAP, but first get the DHD online so we can radio for help and send coordinates." Trang ordered, "Then arm them with M9s and M4s...I'm going to scout out the surroundings. I'll be back in 15 mins max."
"Yes sir." the pilot replied and ran back into the Jumper.
The Major hefted his carbine and started to trek into the forest.

Two RM patrol teams, 8 men strong each, waited to go through the gate.
"You sure this will be enough?" Sheppard asked.
"No. But wait," Macara looked at his watch.
"We should go soon. There is incoming traffic from Midway soon...." Sheppard started.
Before he could finish, the gate flared into life. The puddle formed and a comm came through.
'British contingent arriving,' the disembodied voice of the Puddle Jumper pilot echoed through their comm. sets.
The shield lowered, and one by one four Puddle Jumpers entered Atlantis. The first of Macara's replacements had arrived.
Sheppard and Weir stood in the gate room waiting for the new arrivals to come down the stairs from the Jumper bay.
"This'll be easier when they have turned Midway into a proper space station," Sheppard muttered dryly.
"What were you expecting, colonel? Deep Space 9?" Weir replied. Sheppard just grinned.
A small captain came through the doors of the Jumpers, followed by ten, then twenty, then finally fifty short, unimpressive looking men in British combat '95 fatigues, webbing belts and...Terai slouch hats?
"Who...?" Weir began.
The men were all oriental/asian appearance, and they had kukris, long curved knives, on their belts.
"The Gurkhas. A company of the 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha rifles." Macara said fondly.
The captain approached him, and Macara greeted him warmly.
"Subedar Gaje Rai," Macara used the Indian term for captain, as he always did, when speaking with Rai. Technically the British Gurkha's were just the same ranks as any other UK officer, but he liked the familiarity.
"Major Macara, how are you? Are your men ready to head home?"
"In a day or so. But, we have a situation the Yanks don't want to handle, so I need your help."
Rai raised an eyebrow.
"Give me two sections of men please, and a mediuj machinegun team. We're going hunting."
Rai smiled a huge infectious grin.
"No problem, sir. When do you need them?" he asked, eyeing the already equipped Marines.
"Dial the gate." The major said as his reply.

Sheppard waited with the other Atlantis staff. Ronon walked by, armed to the teeth.
"Where are you going?" John sighed.
"With them," Ronon pointed to the Gurkhas and Marines.
Sheppard just nodded. He'd given up arguing with Ronon.
Macara nodded too when Ronon appeared. He didn't feel like questioning the Satedan.
"Okay, sergeant major!" Macara bellowed.
"Fire in the hole." the Northern Irishman grinned
Two Marines with AG40's fired into the gate. A few seconds later, four threw flashbangs and smoke grenades through. Then AG grenades again, followed finally by more smoke.
"This was Macara's plan?" Weir said in angst.
Sheppard just laughed.
"Okay, move, move!" Macara bellowed.
The two lines of Marines dashed into the wormhole, a metre and a half between the files. Then the Gurkas, twenty men(a squad as the US calls them, with two additional machine gun crews) followed.
"Good hunting." Sheppard muttered.

Trang had only gone maybe two hundred yards through the dense foliage before he heard some foot movement coming towards him as he passed a large tree. He took cover and peaked out the corner. Just coming into view were two men, armed with what looks to be SMGs...in Genii uniform?
The Special Forces Major snuck around them, keeping low and silent, going for a closer look, he then hefted his carbine and looked through his ACOG scope. Genii uniform but, with some sort of symbol on it.
Trang checked his timepiece, and made ready to return to the Jumper, when suddenly his radio went off.
"Sir? The tech guys are working on the DHD but-" Trang turned off his radio before the pilot could finish, but he damage was done. The two men quickly turned around and leveled their SMGs at the brush where Trang was hiding.
"Come out now! Drop any weapons and put your hands on your head!" one of them barked.
Trang didn't argue, simply dropping his rifle and walking towards them.
"Where are the rest?" one man, tall, slim but wearing the tattered remains of a uniform, asked.
"The rest?" Trang replied coolly. The slim man prodded him with the SMG.
"The other's in the ship that crashed," he said, prodding again.
Trang brought his arms down onto the SMG and pulled him forward, before he jumped and brought his knee into the Genii's stomach. As the man fell, Trang swung the SMG round and fired into the second Genii, emtying the magazine for good measure. The major threw the empty wepaon away, and kicked the slim Genii in the back of the head, making sure he was out cold.
Trang then turned on his radio and was surprised to hear the pilot still talking, "...and so the Polish guy says the DHD should be up in....."
"Dammit Airman, you did not even notice I had the radio off!?" Trang snapped
"Oh? you did...why sir?" the Airman replied puzzled.
"Took care of some rogue Genii. Quick, clean and quiet..." Trang sighed and picked up his carbine, "I'll meet you back at the Jumper. Stay put and stay quiet...and stop talking, will yah?"
"Umm yes sir..." the Airman replied.

On the other side of the Gate, the UK troops charged into an empty field, covered now with cordite smoke and trees only a few metres away. No fire answered their arrival.
"Secure the area!" Quincannon called out. Marines dashed to the tree cover.
"Captain Rai, We are going to find the jumper. If you and your men could secure this area," Macara saw the angry look on Rai's face that he knew so well and held a hand to calm him. "Then when we have found the enemy, we will radio to you and request your assitance in putting them down? Agreed."
Rai beamed again, before shouting in Nepalese to the Gurkhas. They all spoke English, but only when they had to.
"Very good. Okay, boys, let's go," Macara moved off into the brush with his commandos.

A few minutes later Trang reemerged from the forest, and the Airman was waiting for him, but before he said a word, Trang barked his orders.
"We're gonna have company soon, and we're gonna give them a welcome remember us by. Arm the scientists with automatic weapons, but set them to semi only...we're gonna be outnumbered and out gunned and we're digging in."

[Stewart5]

Captured!

Spoiler:

In a few minutes, Major Trang was able to set up formidable defensive firing position; the airman with a M249 LMG, a 3 man fire team armed with standard M4A1s, scientists that have never fired a gun in their lives now armed with M4s, and at the rear was the Major himself, kneeling upon the large tree stump with 3 AT4s by his side and an extra M4A1 with 5 clips.
There were 2 more scientists hunkered in the jumper with M4s, and the last two were busy at work on the DHD, with the door sealed and armed with M9s.

"This could be a one sided fight, but Hell, at least we have the element of surprise..." Trang muttered to himself. "I knew I should have packed the M26 with me...could use some buckshot in a place like this..." he continued ranting. Trang took one more look round before calling out to his makeshift squad.
"Remember to fire in only Semi-Auto only! Fire in controlled bursts, only engage the targets when they come in at you at less than 100 metres, anything else will be a waste of rounds inn that treeline. Aim for the larger mass!" Trang called out last minute encouragement. He had gone over it already, but he knew that if you heard simple, obvious commands just before combat, you were more likely to remember than during a full briefing.
"HERE THEY COME!" the Airman yelled and sent a burst of 5.56mm into the brush.
A whole mob of the badly attired Genii stormed out of the tree line towards the Jumper.
The 3 scientists fired their M4s in semi and were surprised at the soft kick their carbines gave them...the Major fired his ARC in semi as well, and dropped the attackers one by one with straight shots into the chest from 200m, zooming in with his scope....the fight was going one sided, but his side had the upper hand for now.

After an hour of fighting, the fire started to die down and everyone was still one piece...
"Ammo check!" the Major barked.
The airman had half a drum left for his M249, and 3 clips left for his M9, the two scientists nearest him had two 30 round mags left each, the other two at the Jumper had a couple of mags each, and the Major had two mags for his ACR. Also, one of the scientists, a Canadian surveyor, had taken an unlucky ricochet through the eye, dropping the number of defenders. Not a good situation if the Genii attacked again.
"Sir, we got the DHD up and we're going to dial Atlantis right now..." a tech guy radioed in
"Wilco, make it quick we need reinforcements ASAP..." the Major replied.
Suddenly, there was a strange whirling sound, before a large mass of men rushed out of the forest firing their SMGs at the defense line.
"Return fire!" Trang yelled and he raised his ACR and fired at the mass in controlled bursts cutting the first line as his M249 gunner mowed down as much as he can, and the scientists were firing their M4s at anything that moved towards them. Then the whirling sounds in the air came closer and louder...and Trang knew it was already too late.
"Mortars! Take cover!" Trang yelled and he got up and dropped his empty ACR and grabbed an M4 and began firing at the Genii, before an explosion turned his world dark.

"What was that?" Macara breathed. He and his men had been scouting the woods when the gunfire started, and had made best time for the location. They had, however, been moving completely the opposite way and were forced to double back. They were now reaching an area close to the gate again.
"Sounds like mortars, sir," a sergeant whispered back.
Macara nodded, the sergeant confirming what he thought.
"Right, move out, now!" he said, and started off again.

The Genii commander walked round the wrecked jumper. His uniform was stained, dirty, torn and carried a strange symbol where the Genii mark should be.
Genii in equally tattered uniforms stood around the clearing, collecting empty and half used magazines. A pair walked over to within three metres of a huge, felled tree that was all holes and dirt and roots, to grab an Earth pistol.
"See what you can salvage from this! Get their weapons and ammo!" he spat.
It was only an hour since the fight had finished, but already his men had already taken the hostages to their camp. Two bodies remained; one of the airman, the other of the horribly wounded scientist who had died on the spot whilst the Genii tramped back to their camp.
The Genii leader had ranted and raved that his men had left the crash site unguarded, but when he had returned with the majority of his forces, nothing had changed. He had also had his numerous men police the bodies. Seventeen of his own men killed and twice that wounded by the Lanteans. That only served to enrage him further.
The others were all heavily wounded from the firefight, but at the camp their wounds would be treated well enough. Well enough to survive, maybe not comfortably.
"See what these Lantians think of us? They send only civilians to spy on us!" the commander started shouting. He ranted then, and his men round him joined in.
"They can come, but we will kill them all!" he shouted. "They took away our leader Kolya, but we will make them pay! They took away our pride and our home, but we will make them suffer!" he cried out
Holding his gun aloft, he gestured into the forest and the group, some forty strong at least, ran into the trees.

From the huge stump of the felled tree, figures broke form the darkness, like shadows come to life.
Three men appeared, all with L85s and combat '95s. They had dark green berets on their heads.
The three Marines looked around, secured the jumper and then gestured sharply.
From the brush around and in the clearing, thirteen more Royal Marines appeared.
It was Major Macara's unit.
"Right, we need to follow after them quickly, or we'll never find their camp." the major whispered.
His men plunged into the forest behind the Genii, who were making so much noise even a USM could have tracked them.

Captain Rai and his men received a hush radio call. It was the signal to move out.
Grabbing his squad's attention silently, Rai led his Gurkhas forward, glad of the opportunity for a fight.
Ronon, who had been left behind with the Gurkhas, stood (towering above them all) and followed after the captain, unaware of the jokes spoken quietly in khaskura bhasha about his height.

The lone Marine waded through the side stream, aiming left and right as he went. Despite having many deep, easy tracks to follow, the Genii party had entered the dirty river and when they came out the other side, had been much more careful.
The lone RM waded on, looking for tracks on the bank. The trees here were thicker, hanging over the river and stream, almost forming a tunnel.
As he turned a corner, he came face to face with a Genii who was relieving himself by a tree. The Genii, in filthy, torn clothes, grabbed up his SMG and aimed it at the marine, who in return trained his rifle on the target. The Genii gestured with his SMG, calling for the Marine to drop his own weapon. The lone Marine was silent.
A mexican standoff had begun.
The marine couldn't open fire, because he would alert the other Genii in their camp. The genii couldn't fire because....well, actually, there was no reason he hadn't yet shot the Marine yet.
Things were tense, and the trigger on the SMG tightened. The Marine stoically remained calm.
As, from all sides, Royal Marines appeared out of the brush and surrounded the Genii.
"Hi there!" Quincannon said jovially, grabbing the terrified man......

The village was quite picturesque, a place of peaceful life.
Until the Genii had come. They had made the village into an armed camp, and the locals now kept the armed men fed and....entertained.
Lorrelle was the village medic. Well, at least that's how she saw herself.
She had vast knowledge of herbs and their properties, but she was an outcast in her village.
She knew about her uncle's....'secret' and she had revealed it to some Lantians several months ago. Their shame at harbouring a wraith worshipper....
The Lantians had relocated them to a safer world, but the villagers had never really forgiven her. They ahd moved away from the other village the Lantians had placed them in, fearful of spying or reprisals, and settled on this world instead.
And now, once more, their peace was disturbed by armed men.
The Genii treated the women of the village foully, beat the men into submission and had forced Lorelle into a medical role.
Now the pretty young women was treating several humans who seeed to be from Atlantis. That gave her new hope of being saved.
As she walked, one Genii grbbed her brom behind.
She turned to face the Commander, Balor.
"How are the prisoners?"
"One has passed away, but the rest are alive...." she got no further before Balor's blow knocked her to the floor, and she dropped her basket of herbs.
"Let no more die. Or you will pay, as will your village!" he shouted, before trudging off to the makeshift pub that had been created in the village elders hut.
Lorrelle picked up as much as she could, but before she could summon the energy to stand again, she burst into renewed tears at her predicament, and lay on the ground a little longer.

Macara looked at the village. It was obvious that civilians lived here.
It was more obvious still what had been going on. There was a small pile of local bodies, showing what these Rogue Genii had been doing.
"Was that you lot?" Macara growled quietly at the genii prisoner.
"Yes..."
"And you that killed our civilian scientists?"
The man thought to lie for a moment. "....yes..."
"Quincannon, take him, and Ronon, into the bush. Do not come back with him." Macara said ruthlessly.
"Sir, surely...." Quincannon started.
"Do it. Don't kill him, beat him, tie him up and we'll get him later."
Quincannon sighed, glad his major wasn't telling him to commit murder.
The major made a quick series of sketches, then shared a quiet word with Rai, and then Ronon when the big man returned.
"Forty men on the beach, and at least ten here to stop the civvies getting out of hand. We have fifty at the least. They all seem to have SMGs or pistols." Macara said quickly.
"Discipline seems poor. And most of them are getting drunk," Ronon gestured with his gun at the 'pub' hut.
"We can take them," Rai fingered the hilt of his kukri in anticipation.
Macara nodded, and told them his plan, using the sketches to illustrate his points.
"We're agreed?"
"Yes." Ronon said simply.
"Yes, sir," Rai said more formally.
Good.
The Marines and Gurkhas spread out, and waited for dark.

[Stewart5]

Night Assault

Spoiler:

It seemed the Genii posted guards. Not very good guards, but guards none the less.
Five men at staggered points around the village.
It was very dark, and they could barely see a metre in front of them.
The first man peered into the black under growth. He definitely couldn't see anything.
He turned around, looking back at the huts of the village, wishing he was in them, drinking and having fun.
He felt something on his boot then.
He looked down to see what it was. To his amazement, he saw a hand feeling his boot laces.
The second it took him to realise what was happening was too long. The Gurkha, who had felt the boots to make sure he was taking out an enemy and not one of the Marines in the dark, drew his kukri back once.
The same happened to the other four men, two more falling to Gurkhas and two to Fairburn-Sykes commando knives.
The perimeter clear, the Earth forces moved in.
Macara stationed his four minimi's and his Gurkha crewed GPMGs so all were facing the doors they had watched the Genii come and go from most. Other Marines and Gurkhas spread round the huts, entering those they had identified as civilian only.
Macara checked his timepiece. Thirteen seconds.
The last men were in place, their orders precise. If it didn't have a weapon, or Genii clothing, it didn't get shot.
"Stand by," he whispered into his radio. "Stand by," again.
3...2....1
"Go go go!" he called.
A flare went up, lighting the whole village.
The first tipsy Genii staggered out, weapons ready.
A Gurkha minimi scythed them down.
From the 'barrack' huts, as Rai had dubbed them, more Genii ran out. These too were gunned down quickly and efficiently, the Gurkhas showing no mercy.
Marines and Gurkhas, in the civilian huts, protecting the villagers, fired from the windows into the 'pub', bringing down any genii they saw.
After about thirty Genii had ran outside and been killed or injured in the first minute and forty-three seconds of the Ambush. The rest decided to stay inside and make a fight of it. Their SMGs fired back, the 9mm rounds making a mockery of the hut walls where the Gurkhas and Marines hid.
The 5.56 belched back, and the Genii, most tired, many drunk, were losing.
"Advance!" Macara radioed, and groups of four, mixed between Gurkhas and green tops, cleared the buildings. Smoke grenades and flashbangs were thrown, and more Genii fell. It was quick and clinical.
One Gurkha was shot in the chest, falling in a heartbeat. The three men in the building didn't get a chance to do much else as a sergeant and several Gurkha riflemen charged in, Kukri's raised.
A Marine was wounded in the hip next to Macara, and landed on the ground with a thud.
"Give me the minimi," the injured man said to Macara's gunner, switching for his rifle. "I'll cover from here,"
The major nodded then moved on quickly.
He crashed through the door of the next room, and fired at the two armed figures inside. He ushered Ronon and three marines inside.
He heard then a familiar voice.
"Cease fire!" Trang bellowed from his place chained to the wall.
Macara stopped short and took in the whole sight.
Four injured scientists and Trang were tethered in the room, being treated by a small, pretty villager.
"Ronon, secure the prisoners, please. I'm going on."
Ronon went to protest, but Macara gave him a look that even Ronon wouldn't argue with.
The last defenders were holed up in the 'pub', with angry Gurkhas encroaching closer and closer.
Macara bellowed for a cease fire, then called inside.
"Surrender now and we will spare you. Our laws of combat do not allow us to kill prisoners."
The answer he got in return was less colloquial. It was followed by gunfire.
"Guess I got my answer then. Corporal, grenades!"
Three frag were thrown inside. Macara didn't want to use them, but this had to end, now.
Rai led a fireteam through the door, and Macara heard a few shots fired. Then, nine Genii ran out, hands in the air, and stopped before his Marines. Macara smiled. If there was one thing you never did, it was piss off a Gurkha.
The major entered the hut and stood with Rai.
"Where's their leader?" he asked. He hadn't seen him, but had recognised the voice from the beach as the one that had replied to his offer of surrender.
"Don't know, sir. We're looking now...." Rai fell sort as a pistol round took him in the back. On the ground in the hut, an injured man had a pistol.
Mertan.
"This is only the beginning!" Mertan howled.
Macara emptied the magazine into him. “And now, it’s finished.”
Rai struggled to a sitting position. He was in pain, winded, but the round had skimmed of the hilt of his kukri, shattering it.
"B*****d broke my kukri!" he coughed as he regained his composure.
Macara smiled and embraced the small warrior happily.
"Police the area," he ordered. "I'm going to see Trang."

"So, in short, sir, she should come with us," Trang said. The SF major was speaking of the girl, Lorrelle. "She kept us safe."
"But this is your home, " Macara said. "Don't you want to stay here?"
Lorrelle blushed, but then told him of what befell her.
"You mean you’re the girl form mission file 376-Epsilon?"
"If that means you know about this incident, then yes," was the simple reply.
"We should take her back, Nathan."
Macara paused. "She has great local knowledge, knows plants and herbs from all over. Her experience will be invaluable." Trang said again.
Nathan relented, though he got the feeling that Vic Trang and taken a shine to the pretty face and friendly personality as much as the medicinal experience. But the argument was good enough. Macara could see that Lorrelle would come in useful to the expedition.
"Right, we take her back, and we take the prisoners and wounded. But we go out tonight."
"Sir! Sir!" Rai's sergeant ran in quickly. "Sahib, we found this on the leader."
The small NCO handed a sheaf of papers to the Scottish major.
Macara read the top one quickly. His eyes widened.
It was a plan for an assault on the Atlantis alpha site, before continuing on to the city itself. They had planned every detail, including how to assault the Alpha site without them alerting Atlantis, and how to use the IDC to get into the city.
He showed it to Ronon and Trang.
"We go now. Sheppard has to hear this."
Within twenty minutes, the Gurkhas and Marines were on their way back to the gate, Lorrelle and prisoners in tow.

Major Trang brushed off some dirt and blood of his shoulder and vest, there was much to be done and little time to do so. Macara gave him a carbine and a pistol, an L22A2 and a Sig P226.
"Glad to see your still one piece, Vic. But you think the IOA would be pretty pissed with their scientists dead?" Macara muttered to Trang.
"They fought hard, Nate. I just can’t believe the Genii killed them all. And I don’t know why they didn’t kill me."Trang replied.
"You are an officer, they obviously thought you knew something of value. To be honest, I can’t remember you knowing anything of value. Ever." Macara sarcastically replied
“Laugh it up, Limey, laugh it up,” Trang muttered, grinning.

The fire team left the camp and by the time they got to the gate. The DHD was busted, a few bullet holes in it.
"Sh*t!" Macara yelled and kicked the broken DHD, "And the Jumper is already blown! Bloody Hell!"
Trang looked at the surroundings and noticed the ground...full of tracks.
"Dammit...I would say around 50 men went through that gate....but where? They wouldn’t attack the Alpha Site with only 50 men and let alone no IDC."
"When is the next radio checkup?" Macara asked Quincannon.
"1 hour..." the CSM replied.
"Dammit we'll have to wait this out then." Macara muttered.
The gate suddenly burst into action. The dials hummed, and the wormhole exploded outward for an instant, before settling into the ring.
The fire teams turned and trained their weapons into the gate and then radio chatter went off. It was Atlantis.
“You’re early,” he muttered.
“Sheppard wanted an extra check in, major, knowing you were going into combat,” Weir’s voice came across his radio.
“That was pretty damned smart, actually,” Macara said to himself. “We need a pair of Jumpers, ma’am. The DHD is down,”
“It’ll be about half an hour before we can send one through, major. I’ll have to round up a pilot, and get two that are still working,” Weir replied. “Is there anything else?”
“As a matter of fact….” Macara said, launching into a full story of what the Genii had planned.
Weir announced that she was sending Sheppard to Alpha site, and that Macara was to join him as soon as possible. The gate went dead then, and Macara turned to his men.
“You’ve got an easy half hour. Make the most of it,”

Ronon sat in the passenger area of the first Jumper, looking at Lorrelle for several long minutes as they waited for the second Jumper to arrive.
"I thought we put you all on P2X 386?"
Lorrelle shrugged uncomfortably.
"They didn't want you to have any way of finding them so we moved on again." She muttered.
Ronon just shook his head.
"And look at the trouble you got yourselves into. "Do you know anything about these rogue Genii?" Ronon asked next.
Macara came back from the pilots area. "Get ready to go through the gate." He warned them
Ronon waited for an answer from Lorrelle
"All I know is there a lot of them, well, before you arrived here tonight, and they don't like you very much."
Ronon went to reply, but the jumper was already being pulled through the gate...

*Queue gate scene*

[Stewart5]

Bigger Plans

Spoiler:

*Queue gate scene*
"Why the hell are we in Atlantis?" Trang shouted as the Gurkhas and Marines stepped out of the jumper, the others on foot following through behind the machine.
Macara looked back at him calmly.
"I have twenty four able bodied troops, three dead and five injured. We are low on ammo. I would rather get more guns, more ammo and more troops then set a nice little trap for those Genii."
"But they could be there now!"
"Ah, no," a voice, rather too smug, sounded. They rounded on the arrogant face of McKay, standing with the Gate Operations staff.
"Why not?" Trang bellowed .
"Well, after your report, Sheppard got in contact with the Alpha site. No gate activity. For the moment we believe that they fled from your forces and are getting ready to attack. John went to the world to prepare. He took a ten man team. He would like Major Macara to follow as soon as possible."
"Why not Trang?" Macara wondered aloud.
Rodney gave a look that intimated that it was blindingly obvious.
"Do you command a space ship, major?"
"...No...."
"Do you have beaming tech in those ridiculously heavy bergens you carry around?
"...No..."
"Well, Sheppard wants Major Trang to rendezvous with the Nightcrawler on its mission to scout the Asuran planet and bring it to the alpha sight. Just in case we need her fire power. I would have thought you military types could figure something like that out?"
Macara started towards McKay, who jumped back, his smug look replaced by pure fear. Trang held an arm out to stop the Scotsman.
Trang chuckled. "Fine. I'll head through the gate to the nearest world then board Nightcrawler." Trang stalked away to find clean clothes.
Macara gathered his men round. "Get more ammo, fresh rations and uniforms. Wounded to the infirmary. Captain Rai, get twenty five of your men, including those who were with us tonight, meet me here in twenty minutes."
The men saluted and ran off to complete their business.
"Major, a word?" Weir's voice sounded.
"Sh*te" Macara breathed.

"Why did you not ask before bringing her back?" Weir asked angrily.
"Because I didn't," Macara replied calmly.
"She could be working for the Genii!"
Ronon stood up then, answering for the major. "We know Lorrelle. She wanted to join us before, but you wouldn't let her. Why not let her join up?"
Weir sighed. "We know nothing about her...."
"Actually, we now know a lot about Lorrelle. Not to mention how helpful she could be with the new medic who replaced Carson," Macara said. "She knows all about the various herbs and plants around Pegasus. Think how useful that would be!"
Weir sighed again. "I will interview her, and get Teyla's opinion. But you have a job to do now, Major. Get to it!"
Macara saluted sharply and walked out the room.
"Ronon, stay here." Weier asked politely.
"But I..."
"Please?" Weir gave him one of those looks. "You want Lorrelle to stay, you stay here and help me get the facts about here."
"Fine...." Ronon grumped.

Macara walked into the RM mess. "Okay, you guys are heading to Midway on your rotation out in three hours. So, that's why I am going to ask for volunteers only, to come with me and captain Rai's Gurkhas...."
All forty seven Marines capable of duty stood.
"Let me finish," Macara growled. "I need twenty men. The rest of you have no obligation to stay. You are going home for rotation. Twenty men, that's all."
The men all remained on their feet.
Macara chuckled.
"Okay. Thank you for the vote of confidence, so I'm going to choose the sections," Macara rhymed off the names. "Grab chow, ammo and bergens. Don't know how long we'll be there. I want minimis, LAWs and Marine Bennet, you better hope that your L115A3 scope is as good as you say, because there are a lot of trees at alpha site.
"Yes, sir," Bennet grinned.
"The rest of you, pack and leave! Enjoy your holiday. I will see you in 3 months!" Macara said. He looked at the faces, and wondered if he'd see them all again.

"Here we go again," Quincannon groaned as the strike force went through the gate. 20 USM, brave men all, 25 RGR(Gurkha rifles) and the best infantry in the world, 20 RMC, went through the gate.

*Queue Gate scene*

"Glad your here, major. We decided to abandon this camp after all," Sheppard said, pointing at the large tents being collapsed all around. "Really, we should have after the Michael incident when he found out the location of all our outposts, but this world is a good staging post and possibilities of mining material," Sheppard said, as if trying to justify their continued presence.
"So, we are going to hold off the Genii until everyone's out of here?" Macara asked.
"Yes. We also..."
"Incoming wormhole!" a USM shouted. All weapons were trained on the gate at the other end of the camp.
Nothing came through, and everyone relaxed for a moment.
Then the noise of a Dart could be heard, and before anyone could pinpoint the direction, the Dart had sped through the gate, only one City Security trooper firing his P90 in time to wing the Dart.
"Damn it! The Wraith have been spying on us the whole time!" Sheppard said a second after realisation hit him. "We're in big trouble. Dial Atlantis and get them to send Daedelus back here,"
"She'll never make it, "Macara muttered.
"If Caldwell reaches us in time, he and Trang can hold off the Wraith. Damn!" Sheppard shouted, stalking off to help pack the expensive gear.
"Captain Rai!" Macara shouted. "Get you men in a perimeter around the gate with the Yankee Marines. Anything that doesn't squawk ID get's a bullet."
"Yes, sir." Rai saluted, his face splitting with another of his ready grins

The gate flared into life, the kawoosh extending outward for an instant.
"Sheppard, here they come," Macara whispered into his radio. He received the acknowledgment clicks.
Rai's Gurkhas were spread out with some of the USMs. The other RMC and city security were all with Sheppard and some USM gunners, waiting the arrival of any air attack. They were currently divvying out AA weapons and setting up HMG positions.

The first Genii came through the gate.
"Hold fire. Wait until enough come through that the others don't simply shut don the gate," Macara quietly radioed. Once again, affirmation clicks, this time from Rai.

As the genii numbers grew to a dozen, then twenty, Macara gave the order.
The minimi's and GPMG opened up first, followed by the assault rifles of the troops.
The Genii didn't stand a chance. The first twenty fell in the time it took to pull the trigger once.
More came through, only to find their path blocked by a hail of bullets.
The fusilade continued for almost ten minutes, before the gate shut down.
Six or seven Genii were still alive, all wounded in some way.
"Cease fire! Medics out!" Macara called. The rest of the makeshift-platoon covered the three medics who went to help.
There was cordite and blood in the air. A small fire had started amongst some dry alien pine needles.
Macara watched his men begin to police the genii bodies, and his mind went back three years....

Back to Afghanistan....
*flashback*
The small convoy wound through the streets of the town in southern Helmand. It was made of two WMIKS and a pair of Vikings, with the added support of a FV510Warrior IFV(infantry fighting vehicle, for the uninitiated). The Viking was an amphibious transport, used mostly by the RM, their counterpart to the army's Mastiff.
The Royal Marine patrol group had been out for three days now. They had found nothing, and captain Macara was growing restless.
That changed quickly.
There was three loud explosions, a muffled cry of "RPG!" and then smoke, fire and pain.
Macara dragged himself from the Viking to see the side armour on the left cab. The anti-rocket grill had done a good job saving the crew, but the vehicle had still taken damage to it's tracks, and wouldn't move.
Already the Marines had disperssed and were setting up a perimeter. the WMIK's were laying down a murderous support fire, and the Warrior's 30mm was pulverising buildings were AK fire came from.
The Warrior had taken some damage too, but the RPGs had mainly bounced from it's appliqué armour.
The Warrior went to the side of the immobilised Viking, ready to delivers it's transported squad into the thick of the fighting, when disaster struck.
The IED went off, taking a good portion of armoured vehicle with it. The Warrior slew to a stop, and smoke appeared from the interior. Flames licked up its side.
The rest of the Marines were already pushing the insurgents back, but it was a hellish fight.
Macara saw the back door of the Warrior quiver, but not move.
The hatch was stuck.
The captain dashed across the open ground, terrified of the IED that would go off and take him with it.
Miraculously, he reached the side of the Warrior. He could see the bent opening handle that was stoppng the door moving.
With a few 'dunts' from his rifle butt, he freed the door.
Bullets racked over his position, but the captain pulled the door open.
The passengers and crew who could move dashed for cover under his order.
Grabbing one of the wounded, leaving the second man to a corporal's care, Macara dashed into the walled area next to one building the Marines had taken control of. More rounds flickered by their heads, taking pieces from the dry-mud walls.
Macara put the man down, and turned back to look at the Warrior.
The corporal had been shot in the thigh and shoulder. Both wounded were lying in the back of the burning Warrior.
Macara knew then what he had to do. He dashed out again just as a WMIK roared past, straffing a building.
The captain reached the flaming Warrior and he grabbed the more serious of the two wounded, burning his hand on the metal of the vehicle. He put the Marine into the 'fireman's carry' he had been taught at basic; passenger's left and right hands on left side of your body, hold their right leg across your body with your left arm, leaving your rifle arm free.
Except, Macara slung his rifle and grabbed the corporal by the collar.
"This is going to hurt."
The captain then dragged the two men across the fifty yards of open ground. Halfway back, three commandos came from their position to cover him, and Macara dragged the men into safety.
One marine, the one on his shoulders, died ten minutes later despite efforts of the medic and a Chinook evac.
Unfortunately, another of the crewmen inside the vehicle had been killed by the blast. Macara never the less led three more men back to the burning wreck to retrieve the body.
He then orchestrated the remaining commandos, with airsupport, in a counter-attack that broke the insurgent's hold on the town.
In the following days, Macara was reprimanded for such reckless behavious, before being awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross. The captain tried at first to refuse the award, but then accepted on behalf of his men, who were immensely proud of his achievement.
He was ashamed that two men died on the operation.
Three weeks later, Macara was assigned to the SGC to help in the new UK inititative providing troops and funds in the battle against the Ori.
*flashback ends*
Macara shook his head and looked at the stargate. It hadn't taken a single bullet hole or chip from its surface during the firefight.
He was about to position his men around the gate again when his radio blared.
"Macara, get back to the main positions! Their are Darts coming!" Sheppards voice was steady, no panic to be heard.
"How many?" Macara asked, already marshaling his men."
"Alot."
Already he could hear the first engine note of the Wraith fighters.
"Move!" he bellowed.

[Stewart5]

Lorelle

Spoiler:

Aboard the NightCrawler, Major Trang was sitting on the command chair as the ship was going to through Hyperspace.
In Major Trang's head, he still remembered the images of the scientists who were overrun by rogue Genii. Images of the world moving slowly and all the black clouds of explosions everywhere and the scientists in the Jumpers firing their rifles as mortars finally landed on the Jumper and the image of the lone Airman who dragged him into the forest for cover and was shot up as he was recovering from the shell shock.
Trang sighed and cleared his head, he'll always remember the ones who fell in battle right next to him. He opened his eyes ordered that once they exit he wanted 100% stealth mode, by dropping the shields down to a dangerous 20%.
A hyperspace window opened and if one were to be on another ship a small black ship that had exited the window.
"Wraith!" Trang breathed. This was something he hadn't expected.
The Wraith Cruisers did not see the ship nor did they sense it. The Nightcrawler circled the moon and sped towards the two cruisers and unleashed missiles and beam weapons onto the two ships, the Cruisers barely had a chance to return fire as the Nightcrawler circled the moon again and this time came under the two ships and released its ordnance... they burst into flames and they only fired blindly at the Nightcrawler, but was unable to score a single hit on the smaller ship, the Nightcrawler moved out and was in orbit of the Alpha Site and was ready to beam up any wounded or provide missile support on the surface, Trang wanted to be beamed onto the surface but had to stick around because the threat of additional Wraith cruisers or a Hive could still be lurking in the darkness of space. After the last fight that Nightcrawler had been in, he had requested additional 302s were carried on aboard this time and was glad of the decision. They were beginning to join the fight down on the surface, as there were still dozens, if not hundreds, of Darts down there.

Debris and fires on the fallen ships were still visible in the night sky down on the surface, as Macara and his team looked up to the sky, Sheppard radioed in saying they need support, AA weapons and such, Macara moved through the brush and linked up with his other men and they proceeded past the brush to defend the main entrance.

The battle around the Alpha Site hundreds of men and wraith fighting, almost trench style, because the wraith are armed with self destruct devices and they plan to enmass and overrun the defenders to the Alpha Site. MG positions were firing but were eventually bombed by low flying Darts. Those Darts were shot down by Stingers and MG fire, even British Javelin tri-missile launchers, both sides were taking many casualties. Macara was in firing at the wraith at the main entrance but then suddenly his men were struck from behind with energy blobs and Macara turned and fired his L85A2 in full auto cutting down a few wraith as they charged towards his defensive line.
This battle was looking very grim and the computers weren't done being wiped and wounded were still being beamed up, the last people who were to be evacuated were surviving defenders.
Suddenly bombs went off and a huge gapping hole 30 meters from Macara and Sheppard's position was seen MGs and carbines were trained on the hole and the first thing that came through were savage wraith with no masks and drooling mouths with blood oozing out, and hands that were covered in blood...hundreds of rounds tried to cut down as many of them as possible, but soon enough they tackled the first line of defenders as the other were moving to retreat...Macara and Sheppard looked one last time and saw the fallen being feed upon and the men having their life sucked out of them...a gruesome sight...and the battle on the surface has only begun.

Michelle24_7 (who's character was invited along for the ride.) takes up the reigns for a guest appearance in the next section

Lorelle stepped through the doorway into Dr Weirs office, her nervousness written all over her face. Dr Weir smiled kindly and indicated for her to take a seat across the table from her. Teyla was sat to her right and Ronon was leaning against the wall on her left, arms folded, staring straight at her.

'So Lorelle' started Dr Weir, 'I understand you've requested to stay here with us again?'

Lorelle nodded, her eyes darted between Teyla and Weirs, unable to tell what they were thinking. They'd decided that she would be better off serving her Village last time, they were convinced they would treat her differently now they knew the truth. But that didn't matter to the villagers, they knew she wasn't the wraith worshipper but it didn't stop them treating her as if she didn't exist! But since they'd learned of her expertise with medicines and herbs they came to her now, they wouldn't talk more than they had to, but it was better than before. She was lonely though.

'Are things not going well within your village?' asked Dr Weir
'No' replied Lorelle softly 'they think I bring bad luck on them, the Wraith, you and now those men...' her voice trailed off and she looked at the floor. She would not let them see her cry!
'Did they hurt you?' asked Teyla. They both knew she meant the men but the question could be just as true about the villagers. It wouldn't have been the first time although Teyla hoped it had been dealt with before.
'No' she replied 'Not much, just roughed a few of us up, made me help one of their men that had gotten sick.' Ronon growled at that.

Dr Weir and Teyla exchanged glances, had she been forced to do more than just help them? Had she turned spy? 'Lorelle, I'll be honest with you, the men you saw, the Genii, its not the first time they have used fear to get people to do what they want.' She stopped, considering how to word things. 'If they said they would harm your village we can protect them you know? We could re-locate them with one of our allies-'

'No!' Lorelle cut in. 'They will be gone by now anyway.' She looked miserable, her head hanging.
'The Men?' asked Teyla.
'No the villagers' replied Lorelle. 'They will have already moved on, left me behind, so I have no where else to go, I have nowhere to belong!' It was finally too much for her as the tears broke, but still she struggled to hold them back.

Teyla moved to comfort her as Ronon looked hard at Dr Weir. 'I told you' he said 'she should stay.' He shrugged his shoulders as Dr Weir remained silent, doubt and mis-trust of the Genii and what they were capable of clouded her mind
'I'm leaving, going to the Alpha site' said Ronon as he left the room abruptly. There were no arguments and Weir continued contemplating this girls future.

But finally she spoke. 'Lorelle. I think you should stay with us, on a temporary basis until you decide what you would like to do. I think Dr Brown might make use of you, or maybe the infirmary?' she raised her eyebrow questioningly?

Lorelle looked at Dr Weir in shock, unsure what to say. She was certain they were going to refuse her again. She realised her mouth was hanging open and tears were falling down her face, she must have looked a state! She quickly wiped the tears from her face and took a deep breath before answering 'Dr Weir, I would be honoured.' She finally allowed herself to smile. It would be ok now.

The gate suddenly sounded and the gate technician announced 'unscheduled off-world activation' Weir left her office followed by Teyla and Lorelle. 'Who is it?' she asked as she arrived at the gate control.
The gate tech turned, a grave look on his face. 'Its the Alpha site' he said sighing 'They're being attacked. Its the Wraith.'

[Stewart5]

Battle For Alpha Site

Spoiler:

The fighting was going badly. Three of Macara's Royal Marines were down, but they had taken out four times their own number of Wraith before their deaths.
The Rest of the RM's ensured that no Wraith fed on their friends.
Not all the troops were so lucky, but every moment or so, a Wraith would move in to feed on a USM or City security, and a silent round would take out the wraith. Marine Bennet with his L115A3 sniper rifle, proving just how good the L96's replacement was.
Nearly thirty humans were dead or injured now, but the Wraith were being made to pay for every yard.
"We can't keep this up!" Sheppard called to Macara.
The major replied as if Sheppard hadn't made that comment.
"These new hollow points are great! The Wraith go down really easy, even to 5.56!!" he grinned as he fired.
An explosion took out part of a modular shed, and some blade sharp plastic whistled by, a large piece taking Macara in the lower left back. He grunted, but kept firing.
"Nathan, get back!" Sheppard shouted at him. The look on the Scotman's face let Sheppard know what he thought of that idea.
A marine fired his AG36 40mm and three drones flew through the air. One crawled back to his feet and began to attack again, his regenerative powers coming into play, when he was hit full in the body by a LAW. An RM chuckled madly.
Behind the fighting soldiers, the two railguns defending Alpha base were almost glowing with heat as they fired continuously. The flow of darts had decreased as the Nighcrawler engaged the orbiting craft, but still many got through. .50s, railguns and even M60's were fired into the sky. Stingers and Javelins joined them, and darts exploded in coughs of flame and smoke.
One got in low enough to cull nearly ten men. A rocket took it out a moment later; instant death preferable to any feeding.
Another Dart came low and dropped some machine to the ground next to the Wraith positions. It beeped and flashed, but nothing else happened. Macara ignored it for the moment.
"That's it sir! We've scrubbed the computers and all the hardware is either secure or set to detonate." the radio went off in Macara's ear.
"Right, everyone get to the rendevouz and prepare to beam!" Sheppard called.
The remaining troops, still some forty strong, gathered together.
"I really wish we had some of Trang's SF," Macara muttered, changing a magazine.
Nothing happened. No light, no noise of being dematerialised.
Just the Wraith.
"S**t" Sheppard said.
"They're jamming our beaming tech somehow!" Trang's voice came over the radio. "We can't get you out!"
"That's why repeated attempts at beaming the computer cores failed!" Sheppard muttered. "And we thought it was just Nighcrawler malfunctioning."
Behind them the charges on the railguns went off, showering debris over a wide area.
"That machine. We need to destroy it!" Macara shouted over the noise.
"It's three hundred yards away. We need a Javelin or a LAW" Sheppard replied. The colonel did a quick check.
Typical. There were none left.
"The gate." Macara said.
"What?" Sheppard wasn't sure he'd heard right.
"The gate is one hundred and fifty yards into the trees there." Macara said quickly. "We can make it."
"There are fifty wraith in the way, major." Sheppard said "Any ideas?"
Macara lifted his voice to a volume RSM Quincannon was proud of.
"Grabbed the wounded. We're heading for the gate!"
Sheppard shook his head in disbelief.
"And fix bayonets!" Macara shouted again. Only the USM and UK troops could, and did, but the city security had P90's.
"Stand by!" Macara said.
Sheppard looked behind their position, suddenly understanding. "Your crazy, major."
"What's worse than being in the way of a hungry Wraith, colonel?" Macara asked, a huge grin on his face.
"What?"
"Being in the path of an angry Gurkha,"
A huge call rose from the nineteen surviving Gurkhas. "Ayo Gorkhali!!!" Their warcry was loud and terrifying.
The Gurkhas charged suddenly, going straight for the wraith.
"Go, go!" Macara bellowed. The rest followed the little men from Nepal.
A Gurkha went down to a stun blast, and Quincannon hefted him onto his broad shoulders.
The Gurkhas hit the Wraith like a wave. The Wraith, strong, incredible fighters, had not been expecting this move. The Kukri's fell, bayonet-tipped L85's thrust forward and no amount of regeneration could fix a beheading or a throat cut back to the spine.
The Wraith backed away from the crazy humans, and that was their mistake, because the rest of Sheppard's force arrived and fired into the exposed backs and flanks of the Wraith, before the formation ploughed on, leaving the aliens in Disarray, some even fleeing from the Humans.
Only three Gurkhas had died in the attack, with four more injured. They cheered and sang Nepalese songs of war as they led the humans towards the gate.
Macara stopped short to lift a US marine hit by a wraith stun blast, lifting the corporal into a fireman's lift and heading after the human troops. He was proud of the USMC. He had never been fond of them, experience telling him they were gun-happy grunts, but the Marines he fought alongside in the SGC program were well trained and disciplined, almost as good as his own men.
They came to the gate, which was active, a Wraith gun emplacement facing them.
"No..." Sheppard gritted his teeth.

Ronon led a small fire team through the gate, Weir and Lorrelle watching from the office. Even Rodney had gone with them.
"Good luck," Lorrelle whispered.

"Queue gate sequence"

Ronon came through the gate behind the Wraith, who had evidently assumed it was their own side activating it. His pistol barked and three Wraith fell to the dusty ground. Two of Ronon's fire team shot the wraith through the head, just to make sure.
Sheppard's team came crashing through the crude wraith barricade. The first men were already going through the gate.
A USM MG gunner and Marine Bennett stopped and turned their weapons on some pursuers as the Gurkhas and the last RM jumped through the gates. Ronon's fireteam joined in, emptying their clips
"Let's get back to Atlantis." Sheppard said. Ronon nodded, Sheppard smiled with mild surprise at Rodney, and they went through the gate.

*Queue gate sequence*

Everyone was cheering. They had lost twenty-two dead overall, and some of those were still on the planet. They had a great many more wounded. Above, Nightcrawler was still fighting, but the Daedelus was on her way, and all the living were Back on Atlantis.
Weir came up to Sheppard.
"Mission accomplished," he said politely.
"Well done colonel. And you, major," she said to Macara.
Macara placed the injured USM corporal on a stretcher, and saluted.
"My pleasure, ma'am."
Macara then promptly collapsed, blood leaking from his fatigues.
"Medic!"

As the Hive came closer to the NightCrawler, the sensors on the NightCrawler went off as energy blobs started to smack against the weak shields the Nightcrawler had, dropping the shields to a mere 6%...
The entire ship shook violently and tried to maneuver out of the line of fire but caught three more hits before it was out of the Hive's point blank range...
"Put all power to the shields and recall all pilots right away!" Trang ordered, "Fire everything we got at that Hive and ready a Mk VIII for the Alpha Site, as soon as we have confirmation that everyone is out of the base we'll fire the nuke down there!"
The Nightcrawler sped away from the Hive's visual range but was still taking fire from the Hive's remaining Darts, the Nightcrawler's point-defense weapons were doing its best to repel them but the Dart were merely running suicide runs into the ship's shields. even with all power connected to the shields, the shields still dropped as each Dart detonated onto the ship's shields.
"Sir, we're taking too much damage, if this keeps up then we won't make it back to the base to launch the nuke!" an engineer shouted as sparks from his station burst and severely burned him.
"Hull breaches in 2 decks sir! And fires in multiple halls!" another crewman yelled, "decompression in multiple decks as well...we're losing power for the shields, we're only at 47%!"
"Divert all remaining power to the engines were making one more run back to the base, we have drop that nuke!" Trang ordered, "Ready the nuke and overcharge the beam cannon, hopefully it'll be enough just to disable the Hive long enough for us to get the hell out of here!"
So the Nightcrawler blasted its engines towards the planet and the Hive was still firing blindly at the small black blob that was coming towards it.
An energy blast finally struck the ship and a large portion of the ship burst into flames, but right when it was above the Hive, an enormous bright blue beam came streaking from the Nightcrawler and struck the Hive in the center and the Wraith ship suddenly stopped firing.
The Nightcrawler's fire was put out by the decompression of space but the beam cannon was destroyed, as the Nightcrawler was within range of the planet right above the doomed Alpha Site, it fired its remaining missiles and one nuke towards the base...
On the ground there was a sudden bright flash, followed by a huge mushroom cloud, several miles away; Darts started to fall out of the sky and ground troops were suddenly disappearing from the flash.
The NightCrawler turned around and opened a hyperspace window, even as energy blobs struck the already badly damaged ship again before it entered hyperspace.

Less than an hour later, a hyperspace window opened above Atlantis, the NightCrawler emerged but was covered in flames.

"This is the BC-303B NightCrawler to Atlantis, we have several wounded and are requesting to beam wounded into the infirmary right away and request to land on the Southern pier for repairs, we're barely holding on up here!" a crewman said in the radio.
"Acknowledged, NightCrawler, please beam wounded into the infirmary then proceed to land onto the southern pier of the city for repairs." Chuck replied through the radio.
Flashes of light came into the already filled infirmary and the doctors and Lorelle were already busy at work tending to the wounded.
The NightCrawler landed clumsily onto the pier and when the doors opened smoke came out and the first crewman staggered out with a bloodied arm and told the security guard to get medic teams over here ASAP, there's mangled and burned bodies and the bridge is covered with debris and they need help getting the debris out...then he too fainted from the loss of blood.
Medic teams and Doctor Weir rushed to the badly scarred ship and asked the crewmen of the ship where Major Trang was, they all shook their heads and said that they need help trying to save the Major from the burning bridge, firefighting teams are already in there, and it didn't look so good...
Then an explosion erupted from the bridge and Doctor Weir gasped and everyone looked up towards the blazing bridge, then from the smoke came two men with a stretcher, and Major Trang laid there with his uniform covered in ash along his face covered in ash and his stomach was covered in blood. His eyes were closed...
"Is he going be okay!?" Doctor Weir shouted to the two rescue men.
"We don't know yet, he's lost tons of blood and lots of air from the smoke, we have to get him into surgery right away!" the rescue man replied and they rushed him into the infirmary.

And that is the end of Arc 2

Starting Arc 3, we have unfortunately lost the input of MajorV1125 for the moment. So you all have to put up with my input.

And that is the end of Arc 2

[Stewart5]

Arc 3

Now, a little bit of a recap

Macara and Trang have both been injured after the defence of Alpha site, and after being stabilised, have been shipped back to SGC for further care. Macara, being the less injured of the two, is up and about quicker. Lorrelle's first aid seems to have done the trick!

Also, the UK, after helping the US design a new space craft based on the Earth utilised amphibious assualt ships, have been granted the use and lisence to build two 304's. Not wanting to simply use american ships with a British sticker (silly pride,) the team that worked on the AAS (amphibious assualt ship) make some changes to the 304, making it longer, thinner, with more guns, but only 2 APBW. It is called the DSC305/E and so ar, there is only one in existance. The AAS 306 is now 3/4 finished, and will become the second UK ship. The US have also built a 306.
On top of this, (invented by PJOz, who will hopefully guest write some Commonwealth, namely Aussie, parts) the smaller F410s, much like a hercules with guns, has been brought into the fold. Designed by a NATO coalition, its use is similar to a Landing Craft and/or troop plane.(this is in preperation for discussions over a single Earth space force.....)

Read on, and enjoy!

Arc 3
Lorcan

Spoiler:

The hyper space window opened above the new world that Atlantis now sat upon. Chuck saw it on the sensors first, and then there was panic in Atlantis. Who had found them?
The Daedelus and Apollo were currently doing their taxi runs and patrols, and would be nowhere near the base in time. Everything was now on Sheppard's shoulders, as a new expidition leader had not yet been apointed in Elizabeth's wake, and he had a decision to make.
"I'm, going to the chair room. Get ready to cloak the city," Sheppard barked, running form the room. Ronon waited a moment before following.
Teyla looked at Chuck and nodded.
Outside, the massive and elegant shape of the city dissapeared bit by bit from sight until the whole thing seemed gone.

Sheppard rounded a corner, when Teyla's voice came across his earpiece.
"John, you should here this." she said.
"What?"
"A comm form the ship."
"Go on."
"This is the DSC-305, the HMS Lorcan. Sorry if we frightened anyone, but we are ironing out a few bugs," a slightly arrogant, and even worse, another Scottish, accent said.
"305?" Sheppard asked. "When did we make a new ship?" he replied back quickly.
"You didn't." the arrogant Scotsman replied.
Then it hit Sheppard like a brick. "HMS? You mean...?"
"Yes, colonel. Her Majesty's Ship."
Sheppard stopped and started back for the control room. "What can we do for you, colonel......?" he asked politely.
"That would be Post-Captain. Captain Graham Stewart, Royal Navy. You can't really do anything for us, but the US Stargate program requested that we bring supplies with us on our first intergalactic test, and I said I would be glad to. I'll land the ship at one of your piers, with your permission?" he seemed, despite the initial arrogance (common to all Brits, Sheppard assumed), a lot more agreeable than Major Macara.
"Permission granted. Welcome to Atlantis. I'll greet you in the control room if you would like to beam over?"
"Be with you shortly,"
Sheppard shook his head. Now the bloody Limey's had ships, too.

It was, Sheppard thought, a very nice ship. Built with IOA approval and funds, she was 10% longer than a 304, but slightly thinner, sleeker. Her 302 bays were situated neared the middle of the hull, instead of the rear. She had a similar number of missile tubes and railguns to a US ship, but only had two APBW. One of which chose which days it wanted to work.
"Had to beg borrow and steal those bits of kit from your lot," Stewart had said when he handed Sheppard a data pad of specs. He had started off with "Honoured to meet you, Liuetenant-colonel," Which was more than Macara ever had.
Sheppard couldn't be sure if he was genuinely just a nice guy, or if he was being diplomatic, however.
"So, what will you be doing when you are here?"
"Seconded to the USAAF. We are going to provide you with a second ship for patrolling, so that there will always be two ships here with one other doing the taxi runs. Also takes the repitive strain away from Daedelus and Apollo." Stewart said. "Let's us practise our manouvres as well, get the crew used to hyperspace for long distances etc," Stewart replied pleasantly.
Sheppard kept going to call him 'sir', but the Captain had refused the honorific.
A loud engine noise suddenly came overhead, followed by several more, and a wing of 302's flew over, doing flips and wheels. They were more compact than the norm, and had RAF markings.
"So, F302-E?" Sheppard asked.
"Our version. More or less the same as your own, but with our own missiles, and single seat. We have Normal 302's as well. The E stands for, believe it or not, England."
"Nothing fancy, then. Nice touch, named after your country," Sheppard said.
Stewart just lifted an eyebrow. "Not my country."
Sheppard grinned, remembering one of his many conversations with the sadly missed Carson Beckett on all things Scottish.
"So, how many of these things you leaving us with?"
"One small squadron. We still have the rest on board, and Fighter Command was not happy even having to leave 8 of these over here,"
"Well, we find on occasion we need Fighter support."
"True. However, you've only got these babies until I get back, colonel. In light of recent events, we will be rotating US and UK squadrons in and out of Atlantis," Stewart explained.
"The Russians?" Sheppard commented.
"SGC hasn't requested that privilage." Stewart chuckled.
Sheppard smiled back. "Well, I'll go and get your lot quartered. How many?"
"The eight pilots and twenty mechanics,"
"On top of the fifty Gurkhas already here?" Sheppard's smile faded.
"Sorry, old boy. See you later." Stewart finished abruptly, being beamed aboard his ship the very next second.
Sheppard grimaced. It was as if the God-damned British were setting up a base over here. He wasn't happy. At all.
And at least with Macara, he knew the major would do what was best for everyone in the city, not just his country. As pleasant as Stewart had been, he had the feeling the Captain was doing what UKGTF wanted, beyond simple protection of the base.
"Hurry back, Nathan," Sheppard muttered.
The fighters came to land on thier designated pier, and Sheppard went off to draft his letter of complaint.

[Stewart5]

Back to Pegasus?

This is also MajorV1125s last addition to the story

Spoiler:

Walking down the hall of the SGC, a black uniformed officer with a sling on his left arm. Bearing the USAF symbol and SGC on his uniform, on his collar is a golden oak left on his collar; it was Major Trang, taking a visit down the familiar corridors where it all started...
He took a service elevator down a level and proceeded into the infirmary, limping severely. There he grabbed a cup of coffee and pushed a sheet covering to the side and closed it again, then took a seat next to a bed with a bandaged soldier; it was Major Macara. The major lay on the bed in full fatigues; he was here for a check-up, unlike Trang, who shouldn’t have been out of bed.
"Top of the morning Mac." smiled Trang as he passed the warm coffee to Macara, "How’s the back?"
Macara glared at Trang for awhile then chuckled as he took a sip of the coffee,
"Damn thing itches but I can’t even touch it. This coffee is revolting as well...damn you...what are you doing out of bed?"
Trang gave a small chuckle, "I wanted to have a stroll…was a bit of a mistake, but I couldn’t survive in here."
"You are an idiot, Vic," chuckled Macara
"Well back to business, Nate, we may be on leave, and command is "ordering" us to "take it easy"....whatever that may mean...but I hear there’s some cadets rolling in this week, and apparently we're the highest ranking officers in two branches that the candidate selection process..."
"Sounds bloody boring as hell, mate." coughed Macara, "but I guess I'll take a look into that, just to see how far the boys back home have gone. It’s international correct?"
"Indeed. I'll be representing the IOA in the selections, and you’re going to be representing the SGAE (Atlantis Expedition) security teams and such. Candidates come from all over the world. A few from Germany, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Israel, Singapore, South Africa, just to name a few. Of course we have Australia and New Zealand, Canada, China, and of course Russia..." Trang read over his PDA, even as a nurse came along and scolded him for being up and around. She forced some medication into him, then got him to sit on the bed next to Macara.
"They should be arriving today at 1900 hours, and training beginnings at 0500 hours on Tuesday, those who participate, pass or fail, will bring home experience from the training and train fellow soldiers back home and such...etc etc..." he carried on whilst it was all happening.
"Like I said before, sounds bloody boring." Macara finished his coffee and set it on the table, "And it sounds like baby-sitting these young officers fresh from OTC, Vic-"
"Nate, these aren’t only young officers, most of these candidates range from 22-35, and they each have records in the field; Afghanistan, Iraq, some of them even have classified operations..." Trang still scrolled down his PDA, "Some are low ranking officers, but there are a few Captains and such."
"How about we just take a look at this.” Macara gestured to the PDA. “What’s the first training session on tomorrow by the way?" Macara asked.
"Firearms and light Weaponry. Basically small arms testing,"
"Standard issued weapons?" Macara asked.
"Yup, meaning damn M9s, M4s, G36Ks, M249s, and P90s here and there, just basic cross-training for the different nationalities. But, there is an outside marksman training with rifles...interested now Nate?"
"Alright you got me, but there is one thing for sure, I’m not wearing this damn bandage around my torso!" Macara snapped. “It’s itchy, and I can’t bend,”
"Hey, you tell that to the nurse, I still got this sling for another week or so, and my stitches could still break at any time. I’ll keep the padding round my gut, thanks."
"By the way, I don’t see your sidearm on you soldier...finally decided not to wear one on base anymore?" Macara said, noticing Trang's thigh having no holster.
"I'm always armed...Condition 1 all the time, especially near a gate..." Trang laughed, only half in jest.
Vic slowly lay back on the bed "Damn meds are kicking in again...see you in the morning Nate."
"You too, mate..." Macara got up and took the PDA from the table next to the bed, on the screen had a list of names.
Reading this, Macara walked back to his temporary office in the UK section of the base.

Two days later, Trang entered his own office, there he had old pictures of him and his team on front of the gate, a picture of him shaking hands with a General Landry and the SGC symbol on the background, a deactivated Staff Weapon hung on his wall, and a picture of him standing next to Sheppard with an F15 on the foreground, and a picture of him and Macara with a Chinook helicopter behind them...the old times...
Trang switched his computer on and scrolled down his messages and there was an important flagged message from the IOA...repair status on the Nightcrawler...
Trang let out a small sigh and examined the report on the Nightcrawler's repair progress. The Nightcrawler had to be towed out of the Pegasus Galaxy a few days after it landed on Atlantis and it took two weeks for the ship to reach the Milky Way, and the nearest repair post at the Gamma Site.
Trang read over the notes.

Hull plating has to be replaced majority on the bridge, but the new hull plating is new and experimental...trinium-naquahdah-titanium-neutronium alloy.
Engines are fine, and are the first to be repaired or replaced.
The three naquahdah generators are replaced with new ones.
Ordnance is being refitted and additional armor plating on the hull, Asgard Beam Cannon has to be replaced with a new one, offers for another cannon to be installed have been denied (by Major Trang) due to the high energy signature.
The new trinium-naquahdah-titanium-neutronium alloy hull (TNTN) has additional stealth materials on them, yet shields still have to remain at a low 20% for full effectiveness.
Overall the with repairs underway the Nightcrawler will be space-worthy in 2 weeks time...that’s a week before him and Macara are allowed to leave Earth for Atlantis again.

The Major leaned back in his chair and exited the repair page, browsed through a few pages of custom built ACR parts, M1911 .45 variants and a few Sig variants, and then turned off his computer and closed his eyes..."Tomorrow is going to be fun" Major Trang thought in the back of his head.

[Stewart5]

Rookies

Spoiler:

Macara sighed heavily, his back throbbing. He really didn't want to be some jumped up drill-sergeant right now. Wet nursing rookies? No thanks.
He really wanted to be back in Atlantis. Macara had been in his sick bed for just under a month now. Lorrelle had done a great job healing his physical wounds back in Pegasus, but HQ had ordered him home for R&R. The trauma and blood loss from his back wound, coupled with complete exhaustion, had done him in.
And whilst he was gone, things went to Hell in a handbasket. The Asurans made an attack on the city, Weir was MIA, presumed KIA, and there was now a new leader of the expedition. A military leader.
USAF, no less.
That was not looked on kindly by the UKGTF (UK gate task force for anyone who hasn't been paying attention.... ). Macara couldn't care who was in charge, as long as they were capable. Just don't tell the Yanks he was thinking that....
But Macara was most desperate to get back to Atlantis because the tour of the Gurkhas there was almost over, and the RMC would be sending out men again.
And there was now the presence of the HMS Lorcan. The SGC weren't too happy with THAT turn of events, so maybe Colonel Carter in charge of Atlantis wasn't soo bad.
Macara walked over to the new recruits. Trang was already dealing with his next batch of spec ops, taken from several IOA member countries. Macara smiled to see a few green berets with globe and laurel badges. SBS, no less.
His own trainees were a mix between potential security forces, as commanded by Sheppard regularly, and the next batch of UKGTF troops to head over. There were Ukranian, Indian, Canadian, American and Australians, even some French and Germans, for the Security force.
The UK troops were Para support machine gunners.
Macara laughed aloud. He couldn't do anything else. These Paras would be shipping out with his RMs, and be subordinate to them. The British Army wouldn't be happy about that!
"Ten-hutt!" a US sergenat major bellowed, stilling the field as the major approached. Macara shook his head; he had a lot of work to do.

Captain Graham Stewart stood on the thrumming command deck of the Lorcan. The ship had done well in its shakedwon cruise so far. Trips to Dakara to open talks on behalf of the UK as part of the SGC and offer assistance in rebuilding, visited the Tokra homeworld and then headed for Pegasus.
All without incident.
And Stewart was bored.
He was nearing his fifties, and wanted some action again. The Navy didn't see as much combat service as the Army or RMs, apart from launching fighters form Carriers etc.
his crew felt the same, but in MW there were no real enemies to fight. THe closest they had come was scaring off some Lucian Alkesh.
"Captain, nearing the system now." the lieutenant(pro; Luff-tenant) at the comms and scanner panel stated.
"Very good. Lieutenant-commander Grant, take us back into normal space please," Stewart spoke to the Helm and tactical controller.
"Aye, aye, sir."
The view out the port was of a large, ruddy gas giant. The Lorcan was to scan the system for Wraith or Asuran activity and report back to Atlantis.
"So far nothing, sir," the young Lieutenant replied. Young. That was funny, because the lieutenant was a senior lieutenant and in her thirties. They were all young to him.
"Keep trying. Take us around the shadow of that Gas giant, extend scans to max,"
"Aye, aye."
The planet drew closer, then ventral on their port side. they came around, when the scans started beeping away madly.
Stewart simply looked at his L-C and raised an eyebrow. Grant looked at his own readout; technically the Lieutenants job, Stewart trusted Grant's judgment implicitly.
"We have several ships, sir. I make it four, no....five. All Aurora class." Grant said, a slow grin on his face. "Likelihood is they are Asuran."
Stewart had read the files, and well knew that the Asurans were now attacking the Wraith. So, whatever the Asurans had planned, they would be attacking their mutual enemy. Good.
"Don't go too close, Grant. Pull us away, but we'll monitor them. See what happens."
"Aye, sir....Sir, wait a minute, I think they may have spotted us. Three ships have just jumped away, but two are heading our way." Grant looked over. "They are powering drone launchers."
"Okay. Grant, raise shields and launch fighters. Prepare all batteries for immediate commencement of fire. And let's see if those APBW we blagged are actually any good." Stewart then hit his speaker button. "This is the captain. All hands, beat to quarters. I say again, all hands, beat to quarters."
Stewart smiled tightly. They wanted a fight, and now they had one.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Macara sighed. "You are the best infantry from five different countries, and you are scared of that thing?" Macara pointed at the Stargate.
The new security troopers for Atlantis all stared at the Gate. Macara had scheduled a short trip to a nearby planet in order to get them used to gate travel before they went to Pegasus. And as one they had baulked at the threshold of stepping in.
"Sergeant-major," Macara murmured to Quincannon.
"Alright, boys, in ya go!" he said happily, pushing them in one at a time. The nine men at the rear of the group backed away, and turned to face none other than Teal'c, with one of those grins on his face, his hands crossed behind his back. He was robed, ready to head home.
"Gentlemen," he gestured at the gate. None moved. Teal'c raised a zat from behind him. "I need to use of this gate to return home to help with the political situation, and you are in my way. You will move."
That made the soldiers run. Not one liked the glare in Teal'c eye.
Quincannon was almost bowled over in the mad dash for the gate.
"Let's go," Macara muttered to the Para's who waited for the last security forces to go through the gate.
As one they glared at him, but followed none the less. The Paras were nothing if not completely disciplined.

*Queue Gate scene*

Meanwhile, in Pegasus

"Shields holding," Lieutenant Grant called.
"Return fire already!" Stewart barked.
"Sir, beam turret one is down!" Grant replied.
"Open fire with all railguns. Aim at those drones,"
"Will that work, sir?" the nervous helmsman asked.
"I don't know, but it's worth a try. Load missile tubes and prepare to fire the 2nd asgard turret.
"Aye, sir." Grant said, a second before the ship rocked under shield impacts.
The whole ship vibrated that time, throwing ratings to the floor.
"Sir, hulll breach on level 7!"
"Lock it off and beam the crew out!"

The F-302Es were engaging the second Aurora, coming in fast on ventral vectors, unleashing missiles and railguns on the Asuran ship, causing limited damage but distracting it none the less.
The second ship began to fire drones, which everyone knew would tear the F-302Es to pieces. The wing-commander of the RAF fighters came in low on the hull and fired his last two misisles, so close the shields only absorbed part of the impact.
He had aimed right at the dorsal-fore drone bank. The missiles detonated some of the drones, the explosion began a chain amongst newly fired weapons, and tore a chunk from the Aurora's hull. Lights flickering and venting atmo, the second ship drifted away from the fighting. The Wing commander didn't survive to see his fighters saved, as his own fighter was caught in the explosion.

"Fire!" Stewart shouted, and Grant hit the trigger button.
One Asgard turret flared, then puffed out a cloud of super heated gas.
The second burst into life, shearing into the original Aurora. The Asuran's shields flared briefly before the beam cut into the ship.
The Lorcan shudderred, and Grant turned a worried look to Stewart.
"Sir, the beam is 30% more powerful than it should be..."
"And?" Stewart thought a stronger gun was a good thing.
"Well, sir, she'll either blow a transductor, or she'll blow the ship." Grant said. "Unless we stop firing."
"Do it!" Stewart said, a slight panic in his voice.

The asgard beam stopped, but Grant hadn't saved the transductor coil. It blew, and the plasma turrets lost all power.
The Asuran ship was stricken, but not out of the fight. It launched more drones and moved in closer to the Lorcan.

"Damn it." Stewart muttered. "Prepare the beaming room with a nuke on short fuse, lieutenant-commander." the captain said without pause.
"Sir?" Grant looked puzzled.
"Their shields are down! Do it!"
Realisation came over his face, and the lieutenant-commander smiled.
"Aye, sir"
"And call back the fighters. I don't want them caught in the blast wave."

The human ships moved away from the encroaching Asuran. Little more than a second later, light flared from the replicator's innards, then the nuke ripped it asunder.
The blast wave was barely felt aboard the Lorcan.
"Helm, set course for Atlantis. I want these damn turrets sorted. And send a message ahead; the replicators are up to something"

Back in MW.

"SGC, this is Macara. We have engaged a group of Lucien alliance. They were at the suspected area, but in much greater numbers, and as soon as the gate became active they must have headed towards it." Macara called through the subspace array.
"Well, get back to the gate major!" Landry replied, almost irritated by the event.
"Would if we could sir, but they are between us and the gate." Macara's voice was calm.
"Do you require assistance?"
The notion seemed to offend Macara. "No, sir. I was simply informing you we may be late for dinner, and to make sure and keep some for us."
The last sound Macara heard before Landry ended the comm was the general's laughter in the gate control room.
"Well, boys, that's grub sorted. Let's finish this lot and get home."
The Para's machine guns chattered, and the Lucian troops were pushed back....

*Queue Gate sequence*

"Well, major?" Landry asked patiently.
"Twenty dead, maybe double that wounded. Full retreat."
"Not them. Your lot." Landry tried not to laugh.
"Oh, us. Four injured, none serious. I think we won." Macara replied.
"Very good, major. Get the men debriefed. They've saved you lot some steak pie. Very British"
"Thank you, sir, though I must say I prefer a nice curry," Macara smiled. He saluted sharply and formally, and when it was returned, he barked at the men to clean up and report to the mess.
He finished off with what they all needed to hear, but couldn't expect very often.
"You boys did well today. Easy day tomorrow. Range practise and gate assault."
The men gave a weak cheer and moved away.
So far, Macara thought, they were doing pretty well. But he couldn't wait to get back to Pegasus.