Episode Three - Extinction

[Michael Black]

1520
Control Room
Meropis

He had scrambled his laptop into it's briefcase and had crammed as many useful ancient devices as he could into his combat pockets and hurried his way down the steps into the gate room. Michael Black had taken a moment, trying to calm himself, as the crowds of Meropis personnel hurried through the open wormhole to the alpha site. The same alpha site that he had helped to organize that currently only consisted of the standard issue emergency tents the expedition had arrived with should the city not be where it was supposed to. His eyes were wide with something, not quite fear but more a sort of disbelief. Just as he had packed up, Doctor Black had taken one last look at the failing city on the scanners, sections were being destroyed all over the place. At least one third of the city was collapsed and would take a lot of work by combat engineers to restore. He felt a pang of guilt, they had gone out of their way to find this out post that the ancients had built and preserved for so many years and they had damn near destroyed it after only a month. Atlantis had never been treated that badly.

Then it happened, the cavalry arrived. Only, they'd not had any cavalry on stand by TO arrive. Doctor Black rushed back up the steps into the control room as the Jaffa arrived, her name was Yoko or Yuko he thought. He nodded a greeting and nodded back to Doctor Glavish before glancing up at the monitors. "Well, I'll be damned..." He muttered under his breath as the Atlantis Expedition members appeared on the screen. They must have somehow managed to jump the city using the wormhole drive, he thought, there is no way that they would have made it here by hyper drive when he knew for a fact they were still on Earth six days ago when Meropis had checked in.

Michael glanced down at the gate room. The impacts on the city had stopped and the silence spread throughout, Atlantis had evidently engaged the enemy in orbital combat. The panic flow of personnel seemed to slow and then stop, the last few pausing in front of the gate and looking curiously up at the ceiling as if expecting the next blow to come crashing through at any moment. He noticed a staff Sergeant in the gate room salute his superior and jog through the wormhole, causing it to gently ripple as he did so. The wormhole then dissipated behind him. Dr. Black assumed he was off to spread the news to the evacuees, at least they wouldn't be stuck on an uncharted planet for too long. Now they had to play the waiting game, he crossed his fingers secretly with one hand thrust into his pocket and the other still clutching the handle of his laptop briefcase as he gazed on the sensors the depicted the orbital battle. If Atlantis failed against this new enemy then there truly was no hope left.

<Tag Control Room People>

[Andrew McManus]

1513
Enemy Vessel
Meropis Orbit


The C4 charges had been planted and set and now McManus, Oberon, Oliver and Harrison needed to get out of the enemy vessel as quickly and stealthily as they could. The last thing they needed was an encounter with these seemingly unstoppable aliens. McManus watched as the other three paused in the doorway to the power chamber, ducking back in cover as a small enemy patrol passed in a hurry down the main corridor. In the background, the immensely powerful energy weapon could be heard firing off shots every few seconds down toward the planet surface. He was sure that his saviors wanted to know what was going on down there but doubted the radio signal would penetrate the thick alien hull, he briefly wondered what is was made of, whether it was organic or they had mined the substance, it certainly wasn't something you would find on Earth. Oliver had briefly motioned that McManus should lead the way out of the energy room, unfortunately, the former prisoner of the Etruscans took objection to this. McManus not exactly having the blue prints to hand voiced his thoughts to his old C.O, "I have an idea. How about you lead the way!? We're on an alien ship Cap'n. This whole thing was made by aliens." Pointing at Oberon as if to emphasis his point, "HE is an alien too for Christ's sake!" It was clear that life in another galaxy had been stressful for some more than others. "Besides, I have no idea how you even got in. What was it, in one of those puddle jumper things?" His Scottish tongue remarked through gritted teeth. 

McManus listened to Oliver give the orders and, clutching his pistol in both hands, ducked out of the power plant room after him and Harrison with Oberon bringing up the rear. They would then pause every so often and duck back in to side rooms as Harrison's life signs scanner indicated enemy personnel rushing to and fro about the ship. Thankfully, so far, they had not been discovered. If it wasn't for that scanner though, McManus suspected all four of them would have been dead by now. Eventually, they approached the hold where Oliver had parked his cloaked Jumper. McManus and Oliver took up a position either side of one of the many access doorways as Oberon attempted to work the door controls. This was some sort of service hatch rather than a main entrance, but it would do just fine, they did not want to attract any extra attention after all. Oberon had managed to get the door to open and as it slid back into the wall McManus and Oliver stole a glance into the large enemy fighter bay.

They both immediately ducked back behind cover and looked each other in the eyes. McManus, his eyes somewhat wider than Oliver's, was the first to voice their concerns in a hurried whisper, "There must have been about a hundred of them out there! Aye, I know some of them were just working on the fighters and all but all of them are capable of killing me! ... US!" He listened to Oliver's reply... "Run." With a shake of his head in disbelief, McManus triple checked his pistol and followed the Captain's lead breaking into a full speed run and ducking to avoid the oncoming enemy fire. This was crazy, suicidal at best! But at least this was better than being tortured...

<Tag Jake & Oberon>

[John Callaghan]

1520
Control Room
Meropis


Captain Callaghan grunted in pain, as a Marine helped him walk to the control room. He could have walked it himself. It was only his shoulder, that was hit. The people made a bigger deal out of it than it actually was, though. He could still walk, and that was what mattered. Under no circumstance would he allow himself to be carried out. 

Suddenly, the constant pounding stopped. It seemed that the shield had come back online, which meant that the Alien's shots could no longer hit the city. By god, he was glad. This meant that he defied orders, but because of it may have saved the city. To him, that seemed like a good enough trade. He only hoped that his superiors would share this thought.

Coming into the Control Room, he pushed the Marine away. He would walk the last few metres alone. H saw the General. John approached the man, took his helmet off, and stood to attention. "Captain Callaghan, reporting, sir", he said. 

[Jason Conway]

1525
Atlantis
Meropis Orbit

Carson Beckett, sat in the drone control chair, concentrated on the last few drones he had fired off, just as the puddle jumper dived out of the open fighter bay on one of the Etruscan Vessels. It signaled that McManus, Oliver, Harrison and Oberon had effected a successful escape from the clutches of the enemy. If it wasn't for space being a vacuum, you might be able to hear the screams of the enemy soldiers as they realized they had been defeated. You might also be able to hear the sound of multiple large explosions as both Oliver's C4 charges blew in the ship they had escaped from and the drones from Atlantis tore through the ship and out, only to tear back through again, one after another. The Meropis personnel gathered on the balcony down on the planet surface caught a glimpse of a bright, blue explosion that was visible even in the daylight. Lt. Col. Sheppard, in the control on Atlantis, looking out across the space between them and the enemy, shielded his eyes from the brilliant light of the blast. He muttered amazement under his breath and was thankful for the shields holding up and the three ZPMs powering them. It did leave Earth short of a ZPM but hopefully the Sun Tzu and Odyssey could take care of that if needed.

The second and original Etruscan vessel that had been plaguing Meropis the most was torn apart as Carson concentrated the drones on his target. Eventually, after a minute or two, they had managed to penetrate the thick alien hull with a little help from what little was left fired up from the Meropis drone store. The drones flew playfully, one after another, a large deadly line drilling through and out and back in yet again. The shock wave of the blast from the first ship was the straw that broke the camel's back as the second ship ignited in an equally impressive explosion.


1527
Control Room
Meropis

The third and final enemy vessel seemed to get the message. Down on the planet surface, General Conway had been following the orbital battle with the help of his control room team. A cheer rose around the city as it was announced that a hyper space window was opening and the enemy was fleeing! Conway allowed a smile to creep across his face. He turned to Captain Callaghan and Dominic Evans who had reached the control room having cleaned out the enemy from the star drives. He returned their salutes and then gestured toward Callaghan with his still-broken arm in a sling. "Looks like we'll have something more in common for the next weeks then Captain". With a smile, Jason turned to look at the Stargate. They had survived, and they had shown the enemy what Earth was capable of. The smile then faded as the realization had set in, they had shown the enemy their full hand, all the cards they had. There was no way that Meropis and Atlantis could ever be at each others beck and call, there simply wasn't enough power for it. If the enemy return, Atlantis wouldn't be here to help them out again and the city would be all but done for. He wasn't a praying man but Conway glanced up at the roof and hoped to the heavens that the enemy were tricked enough into thinking that the expedition really were the ancients, and that they had a fleet of city-ships available. It was all a game, a bluffing game, and Conway would do everything in his power to make sure the personnel on this base were alive to keep playing it.


1840
Control Room
Meropis

The General was engaged in a video chat with Colonel Sheppard and Richard Woolsey who were up on Atlantis. Richard summed everything up, "Well, I think that just about does it. The supplies we've spared you should see you through more than comfortably for the next week until the Sun Tzu arrives." John Sheppard leaned in in front of Woolsey, "Oh and we gave you a little something extra as well. Two crates of drones. It's not much but it's all we can spare and it should give you a leg up if you ever need it." Conway lifted his head slightly, mirroring the emotional lift he now felt, "Thank you gentleman. Really, I mean that. Without you turning up in the nick of time we'd... Well, we'd all be dead men by now." He saluted, Sheppard returned the salute. "Rest assured that we will check in with Stargate Command as soon as you've gone. We'll relay your message about going the rest on hyper-drives. I quite agree with you, the wormhole drive is just too risky and not worth it when you're this close to... To home. God speed gentleman. Next time we see each other, the drinks are on me. And that's a promise. Conway out." With a nod of affirmation from Sheppard, the transmission ceased. Conway watched the monitors that indicated a hyper space window was being opened in orbit and that Atlantis was jumping. He took a deep breath and turned to the rest of the team in the control room. "Well, now the adventure really begins..."

END OF EPISODE