BitD Archive

Discovery
10,000 years in the cold, inhospitable emptiness of the deep. It drifts dormant, asleep waiting for that one signal, the one beam anything to wake it. As it drifts like it has done for thousands of years but one thing has changed it�s reached a small star system. A tiny pin prick of a system consisting of 5 planets, 2 gas giants and one planetoid. The first ray of light from that star scraped the surface of the ship, the first in 10,000 years to do so for any length of time. As it drifts further into the system the something starts in the core of the ship. Like a hibernating animal detecting the first signs of spring. The prototype generator has started to whine, gradually pumping energy through the organic systems. First the communication systems it detected a low power signal drifting in space from the fifth planet from the star. Its failsafe kicks in and it starts to broadcast a deep space message in all directions hoping for a confirmation response.On the other side of the galaxy a console in a Hive ship activates. Not one of the Wraith notices, this console, and this area has been forgotten. On a chance happening several hours later a Wraith commander walks past this sealed room, when the wall flinches as he walks past he stops and turns. He had never seen a wall behave like that apart for when doors were present. So he stopped and turned, moved away some of the organic growth and found a control conduit. With a few simple manipulations of the circuit a door parted and inside was a small room once quarters for a Wraith. Inside looking out over the stars was a control panel that was blinking. The Wraith moved over to at and looked at the information being displayed running past in that typical scrolling motion. The Wraith�s eyes start to widen as the reality of what he discovered began to sink in. It was a signal from a ship a ship that had been told as legend to some and a joke to others. Within a moment he shared this information with his queen, the queen who had never forgotten about this ship but had secretly wished she could have, gave an astounding cry when she received the news.The queen summoned the Wraith who had found the room and thus the ship to her throne room, and asked for the exact details of what had been sent. She had the intention of finding it and destroying it as she remembered the insult caused by the ship to her perceived status within the Hive. The queen was so distracted she did not guard her thoughts as well as she might, the Wraith who was under her scrutiny caught some of her thoughts and decided to ask if her cause of action was the best. Considering the increased threat posed by the humans of Earth and their increased military presence in the Galaxy. The queen taken aback by the insolence of this Wraith considered however reluctantly that indeed the humans were an increased threat with their new Leviathan class of vessel. The Wraith were no longer fighting the tactically inept Lantians but their descendants who were vastly superior in terms of military thought. A tactical asset designed as she remembered to take on the might of Lantian warships was perhaps now what was needed. She had no doubt that the humans in Atlantis would have picked up the transmission. So she set the order to find the ship and salvage it if it�s in condition, otherwise destroy it as originally planned.
***
The Wraith Queen was correct the Atlantis crew had indeed picked up the transmission from the adrift space craft. Roughly an hour before the Wraith did. The computers in Atlantis automatically recognised the broadcast as a Wraith signal and alerted the crew on Atlantis. After a brief analysis of the behaviour of that region of space and the craft itself they deduced that it was drifting through a small back water solar system that had little value. They did detect the Hive ship moving to intercept the craft and decided to launch a warship and support craft to beat the Wraith to the discovered ship. This was still a possibility as the Wraith did have to make short pit stop which may allow the Earth ship to travel that much further. By pushing the engines at maximum would give them half an hour to board the ship get it functioning or destroy it. Either way a conflict was likely so they sent their most heavily armed vessel which could make the time.Whilst travelling through hyperspace the Earth ship debated on what they would find but nothing prepared them for what they would. Dropping out of hyperspace close to the ship they found something some 800ft long and 474ft wide strange since the original schematics equated to 665ft by 395ft. The ship looked nothing like a Wraith vessel but looked as though death had been given life. The Leviathan class warship stayed at a distance which enabled it to manoeuvre when the Hive ship exited hyperspace. The other support craft entered into a standard defensive pattern around the drifting space craft. With that the humans sent over a detachment of scientists, pilots and soldiers just encase there was any resistance. Fortunately the ship was abandoned, its high ceilings glistening with unusual veins running through the walls, not red like blood vessels but grey, green and blue ethereal glow. It could not have looked less Wraith if it had tried. Yet inside it felt oddly Wraith no one could put their finger on it but something was menacing about this ship. Finally it was confirmed it was a Wraith ship, the body or what remained of one was found lying on the deck running away from what was discovered to be the direction of the engines. The team finally made their way to the bridge a cavernous expanse opened in front of them a dome shape around them, they were suspended on a walk way with a centre console and chair, off of this were four walk ways each with a further console and chair. Confused at the lack of windows at first, when one of the crew touched a consol it lit up as if it had been waiting for the physical touch of another organic being forever. Slowly systems were being turned on all around the bridge a holographic display descended in what was inarguably Wraith. Surrounding them in a bath of turquoise blue with sharp vivid colours almost dancing across the screen, far removed from the pale colours of previous Wraith displays.The ships waiting outside finally got what they were dreading a hyperspace window opening and a hive screaming towards them. The Wraith queen expecting the presence of the humans had brought two cruisers and a predator ship and wasted no time in launching her darts. As the opening salvo from the hive and cruisers were fired the human warship began to engage, opening all batteries towards the incoming darts. The other ships stayed around the Wraith vessel making sure a protective screen was kept between the team on the ship and the incoming Wraith. The warship taking the brunt of the attack was putting up a good fight its Asgard shields once again proving their worth. It then sent a signal to the fighters it had ordered to take position behind a small planetoid the size of Pluto to engage. As the fighters engaged some were torn apart by the forward guns of the cruisers and predator each one vaporising like a small sun, dying in the way their elements were born, in fire, going back to the universe. One part at a time, helping the universe understand itself, in is harshest form.While the battle continued on outside, the human technicians were trying to rig a system to control the ship manually to no avail the technology inside the ship not only beyond them was beyond what they had seen any Wraith ship ever have. Being rushed by the commander of the fleet which was on increasingly the back foot, loosing three of the five support craft and many fighters, the team were at a loss as to how to get the ship moving. Whist all systems were at full power, they could not get the power to the systems since they assumed that it would require a Wraith neural structure to fly. This they realised was not the case looking through the file system they found references to the fact that the ship was a prototype and had not had the neural interface technology fitted due to the order to have it destroyed 10,000 years earlier. The result was the pilot took controls of the ship and using a human interface technology that was developed from previous Wraith ships that had been commandeered. Started up the engines and within a fraction of a second the ship was moving at a speed, that they had never seen in any Wraith ship previously. With that the order was given to withdraw, the Earth fleet a shadow of what was sent. The Leviathan warship and 1 support craft was all that was left of the human fleet over 200 lives were lost in that battle. It would soon be decided if that loss was worth it.
***The Wraith Queen enraged at the escape of the humans with the most advanced ship ever created by the Wraith, vowed that she would take back that ship from the humans and slaughter all those who stood in her way, any Human, any Wraith. This was a stark warning to those wanting to give advice. She had accepted before and in her mind resulted in the Humans gaining a very powerful asset to be turned against them. In her anger she killed the Wraith that had discovered the room and advised her to keep the ship intact. With that she ordered a course to be set towards Atlantis and the gathering of all ships under her command as they went.On the ship itself the Atlantis team used the travel time in hyperspace to do some exploring of their new ship, in a hope that the cost in live would be outweighed by the treasures inside the ship. One scientist managed to access the database on the ship, the schematics and the history of the ship. They found the name to translate into the Abomination and was a prototype specifically designed for warfare against the Lantians over 10,000 years ago. However confusion set in as the schematics of the ship were very different to current the appearance of the ship. The original design gave a look of a bird to the ship, with noticeable gun and sensor emplacements. However the current look of the ship was larger and more natural than the original with the weapons and sensors not being noticeable, in-fact the team read on about the theory of genetic mutation and evolution and concluded that for this ship and the new organic technology it had indeed evolved over the last 10,000 years. On arrival at Atlantis the crew immediately set about figuring out its systems as Atlantis new a very large Wraith fleet was on its way and they wanted to send a detachment with this ship against the Wraith fleet to prove that the lives of those lost earlier where not in vain.
During analysis of the ships systems the team began to improve their handling of the ship and their comprehension of the display systems. Each symbol represented a vessel outside, with the use of the advanced sensors the computer could tell, which craft were currently in active combat, which were disabled or destroyed and others that were non combative, this was evident through varying colours and the richness of said colours. They also found that enemies and allies were determined by differing symbols, but as yet were unable to tell, how the ship distinguished between the two. The navigation console was at the heart of the bridge, higher on the walk way than the other four, its controls allowed for a complete reversal of engine power, which the pilot realised allowed it to change direction almost instantaneously without the need for any banking or rolling. Two of the chairs were determined to be the forward and aft cannon control systems that organised the interceptor plasma cannons and the standard plasma cannons with a third being the control system for the medium and heavy cannons mounted atop the ship. It was found that each hand had a separate control interface controlling the two types of cannon each console had, aiming of the cannons was done through the sensor net. It was further noticed that the position of the chairs allowed for each crew member to see a part of the holographic screen. For example the forward cannons would see half of the dome the aft the other half the navigation control could see the entire dome; it was also found that on moving the holographic display would change the position of the symbols on screen in relation to what was changed on the outside. To put this into perspective if travelling towards a ship and you then reversed the engines he entire holographic display would reverse as well instantaneously.So with an intercept set for a midway point, a day in the future where the Wraith fleet would pause to let the organic technology recover from travel. The trap had been set; the Atlantis team�s new ship the Abomination would drop out of hyperspace when the Wraith ships are resting. Hoping to use this ships speed and weapons systems to soften up the huge amount of Wraith darts with its low yield plasma cannons and to inflict damage to the Hive with its main cannon. After this initial attack the Leviathan class warship would drop out of hyperspace and launch its nukes at the Hive with several other Human craft dropping out from hyperspace above and below the Wraith taking on the support cruisers. The Abomination will continue its assault on the Hive doing strafing runs along its bow and with the aid of several nukes from the warship hoping to destroy or at least severely damage the Hive. It is hoped that by taking out the Hive the rest will not have to be as the loss of the Queen would be a major deterrent. One major problem was that the Leviathan warship had taken severe damage in the first engagement it was feared that it was in no fit state to fight. However the captain thought they were functional enough to fulfil the mission and with that ships were deployed ready for the assault.
***
It was a minute before the battle would commence the hive ship and its gathering forces were on schedule and soon to drop out of hyperspace, the Abomination was just waiting for the go order from Atlantis. The ship was commanded by Captain Chris Alexander, a South African born, white man with dark brown hair, blue eyes. He is 40 years old, strong but a closed person having had to deal with the stigma and judgments passed on him through no fault of his own, mainly of the apartheid era that his ancestors had benefited from some 50 years ago. The navigation officer was Flt Lieutenant Elena Southwell, an attractive Caucasian woman in her mid twenties with the RAF, she is some what arrogant because she has never failed at anything she has ever done, and was fast tracked through the RAF�s flagship space program not only because of her skill but because of the air forces need to keep an influence on the Americans still highly dominating presence in space. Elena however does not concede this point when asked how she got through so quickly and sometimes can cause friction with her fellow officers. She has a strong sense of loyalty and will give her life if that�s what is needed. The main gun officer whose name is Chon Wan is a 35 year old heavily built Asian male from China who previously served as a gunner in the Chinese military. Picked because of his aggressive spirit and incredible originality in the way he approaches combat he has a unique ability to notice patterns, which makes him straight forward and blunt, but has the utmost respect for the people he serves with if thy do their duty. The forward gunner is a 23 year old American male from New Mexico. His name is Ken Bailey, growing up in New Mexico and seeing the Virgin Galactic tourist flights gathering popularity he saw a time when people would be in space and dreamed of a day that he too would feel the space beneath him. Unfortunately he did not get the grades to get in to University not because he was stupid but he was lazy and instead enlisted in the USAF, as a gunner
Last part for now
Unfortunately he did not get the grades to get in to University not because he was stupid but he was lazy and instead enlisted in the USAF, as a gunner. Through discipline and hard work he became a very able gunner and was picked for his hard work and loyalty. The aft weapons officer is Lt Valerie Crew, an American Caucasian and Black woman, with a strong sense of purpose and humble to the core. She is 28 years old and is as patriotic as they come. Tall and very well proportioned with straight jet-black hair, and dark brown eyes, often referred to as the Black Widow, for her ability to strike without warning and the efficiency with how she does her job. She is having conflicts with her religion and what she now has to do, and the questions it raises for her beliefs. Lastly of the main bridge crew is communications officer Pilot Officer Lucy Brady an average looking woman with short blond hair and hazel eyes, of the RAF after going to university and getting a good degree in Languages she went into the RAF straight away and applied to do communications after basic training at the tender age of 23 she was selected into the RAF�s space communications program and showing an aptitude for varying space conditions was selected for the Pegasus missions. She often bumps heads with Elena due to both being strong and self-willed.The scanners on Abomination finally picked up the hyperspace disturbance that they were waiting for, all the consoles lit up like fire crackers and with that the Captain ordered the jump from hyperspace to normal space, the ship now baring down on the Wraith fleet, barrelling ever closer to the lions den.
War
In front of them was one of the largest single Hive fleets a ship would ever have to face consisting of the Hive itself, 5 cruisers, 3 predators and what could only be presumed as thousands of darts. The sight was that of Locusts as the darts were launched, like an ancient plague that is never ending. The captain ordered all interceptor guns to fire and with that the sky was alight with what looked like firefly�s, a dancing blanket heading towards the incoming darts, as they drew nearer the plasma bolts impacted on all sides of the darts opening an area for the Abomination to get through. As the Wraith darts tightened up their formation and got into range of the Abomination they opened fire, the organic skin getting impacted by energy blasts, as it did so the ship glowed eerily as it tried to absorb the energy, it was unable to do so and some areas began to scratch and burn, yet immediately the new organic technology started to heal patching itself up seamlessly as the ship progressed down the barrel of a gun. The navigation officer in her arrogance disobeyed the order of her captain to punch through the hole in line that her commander Chris Alexander felt would enable them to shorten the length of the engagement. She instead put the ship through its paces turning away from the Hive and looking as if they were retreating and slowing then as the darts stated to gain on them and every side of the ship was getting pounded at the last moment she reversed the engine polarity and within microseconds was inside the Wraith lines forcing them to scatter into each other colliding and exploding, and they punched through the centre lines and had only the 8 other ships between them, at this the Captain ordered the main gunner to fire the Heavy and Medium cannons towards the Hive, unbeknownst to the Wraith that this was more of a signal than anything, as the power given off by this was large enough whilst in hyperspace. Chon aimed and fired towards the hive ship but his uncanny ability to make things out of nothing proved its worth as the three bolts of high and focused energy hit the lead cruiser just below the bridge causing it to loose some of its weapons capability. Knowing that it was incredibly unlikely that they could get through to the Hive Captain Alexander was glad that his signal had been picked up and all around them hyperspace windows opened like flowers coming in to bloom. The lead craft was Liviathon immediately opening up its rail guns on the limp cruiser and launched nukes at its hulking mass, with that the ship broke apart in deathly silence. Out of the other windows cam 5 Henry Arnolds, 4 Serpent and two O�Neill�s. Each immediately opened fire on the remaining Wraith ships, 2 Henry Arnolds went for the Predator, an O�Neill against another, the other O�Neill going for a cruiser, the other 2 Henry Arnold�s opening fire on another cruiser, the 4 Serpents taking on the other Predator and one other cruiser. This left the Liviathon to distract two cruisers whilst the Abomination careered towards the Hive, although its weapons could not destroy the Hive it was hoped the Abomination could damage it considerably. With the arrival of the Earth fleet F-302�s and its newer counterpart were launched to take on the Darts. The Abomination crept ever closer to its target taking obscene amounts of damage yet still functioning. The Hive managed to detect its presence and had opened fire with its main guns. One hit square on the forward portion of the craft from the outside it looked damaged beyond repair yet, Elena flipped the ship and it was now able to carry on its main gun rotating to the correct position, although rear weapons were down to 30%. Lt. Valerie quipped thank god for no windows. Bailey had managed to notice that the ships weapons systems were incredibly intuitive, the weapons system learning how each gunner thinks how they approach a battle, throughout the battle, selecting targets according to how the gunner had done before. These could be overridden but allowed for incredibly fast reaction times. The Abomination was now alongside the Hive to close for its main more powerful guns to keep up with the smaller vessels manoeuvrability, which looked though erratic was fully controlled, and allowed it to hug the Hive with its main cannon charging and firing every 30 seconds along its bow, the medium cannons every 10 and what remained of the regular canons. Each strike tearing into the Hives surface inch by inch taking away its ability to fight. Unfortunately Lucy detected a Wraith signal and out of hyperspace came 4 further ships. The Earth fleet was sorely out numbered, though having not lost a single ship any longer and their ammunition would be depleted and they would be damned if they were going to let this fleet pass. The O�Neill�s had taken out their respective adversaries but now had to take on 4 others as the 5 Henry Arnolds and the 4 predators were being put through their paces. One Predator was just about to loose shields and ammunition and so with a last ditch effort the captain set the ship on Auto Pilot and beamed his crew aboard the Liviathon and watched as his ship ploughed in to the Cruiser it was fighting, the two fused together and then vanished into a thousand pieces. With that the Liviathon rounded on the incoming Wraith ships and flanked by the two O�Neill�s preceded to tare into the incoming ships with such ferocity that the devil himself would have wanted out.The Abomination meanwhile was taking a pounding one of the Predators had shaken free of its two attackers by disabling on Henry Arnold the other in chase and rounded on to it, opening fire and covering every inch of the ship. Each time the hull of the ship would glow, as would its organic veins running the length of the ship. One of the Engineers noticed that the organic technology was changing thickening, mutating in front of his very eyes. Relaying this to Lucy who intern relayed it to the captain, it was evident the Wraith were doing themselves a disservice, by firing so much at their ship it was able to evolve as the Wraith Scientist had predicted. Since the fight had gone on long enough and not one shot had been enough to do irreparable damage to the ships organic components it was able to change becoming gradually stronger and resistant to the weapons. If the Wraith had fired fewer times at the Abomination and more potently they could have easily destroyed it. This was one time their numbers were a disadvantage as they had satisfied although unknowingly the two conditions required for its evolution.Finally the Livathon was in a position to carry out its plan the Abomination had done considerable damage to the hull of the Hive and it fired its nuclear warheads towards the unprotected Hive, its weapons unable to intercept all the war heads. Five of the 15 warheads detonated on the Hive causing enough damage to vaporise an entire section of the ship and causing secondary explosions throughout. It stayed idle for what seemed like minutes and then in a fantastic explosion of colour it exploded causing a wave of energy to pass hitting many of the out lying vessels. This explosion disabled 3 Wraith ships and 4 Earth ships one was the Liviathon due to its proximity its hyperdrive was damaged and almost out of ammunition. That left 2 Wraith ships and no Earth ships bar the Abomination with any capability to fight fortunately the two O�Neill�s turned on the last remaining cruisers although only at half their full ability they used their remaining high powered energy weapons to disintegrate the hull of the ships. The shear size however proved a problem for the half powered Asgard vessels and it was taking a lot of time to disable the ships weapons causing the Asgard systems to start failing. Noticing this the Abomination though not 100% was in a lot better shape and raced towards the O�Neill�s ordering their un-reproductive hides out of the firing line. With this they withdrew firing as best they could but the Abomination using all its energy from it engines into its weapons overpowered each and every one of them knowing that it would leave them dead in the water so to speak. They powered down their engines in a upside down orientation giving their main guns full range they opened fire on the two cruiser, not stopping, watching each bolt bury itself into the two cruisers causing blue, green and red flashes of light like fireworks each one pretty yet signalling the death of another living being. Within seconds the two cruisers were no more, exploding like a pi�ata being hit by many excited kids, their contents spilling in to the child�s eagerly waiting hands.
***
The Wraith fleet was no more, every ship had been destroyed all that remained were the floating remains of the ships and the charred corpses of officers and warriors. The Humans were wrong even with the loss of the Queen the Wraith would fight to the bitter end. The earth fleet though fairing better than the Wraith did not fair that well at all, their flag ship had lost hyperdrive and sublight and had only partial manoeuvring thrusters available to keep their position. The Abomination was dead in space no hyperdrive and no sublight it was again drifting, as it had been only a few days before. This time though it would be different the ship was healing itself and the crew aboard had survived. As for the other ships the two O�Neill�s had sublight and life support and began taking on the survivors from the one unsalvageable Henry Arnold and the one disabled but salvageable Henry Arnold. The other two one had sublight and hyperdrive the other had been destroyed. Of the Serpent class only 2 survived with life support and sublight only, no shields or weapons. The Earth fleet if faced with another attack were sitting ducks with barely any ammunition and no manoeuvrability they were as good as gone.The Abomination�s captain aware of this used his still functioning scanners to watch for any enemies on approach because he wanted to know when he was going to die. Just as that thought passed through his mind almost a clich� the scanners picked up hyperspace events and ships approaching the remnants of the fleet. These though registered on the holographic display as friendlies, seven signatures were present, Lucy received a message from the lead ship identifying themselves as an Atlantis rescue party sent to help in any way possible. It consisted of 4 Unity class ships and 2 O�Neill�s and a Daniel Jackson class Asgard ship. Within 3 hours the remaining ships were organised for towing and in another 3 hours the ships were back orbiting Atlantis.Over the course of the trip home the officers were debriefed on the mission and an official figure of over 250 lives were lost. Flt.Lt Elena was reprimanded for her insubordination and was demoted to Flying Officer and put on probation for six month in a hope she would become more humble. The ships were repaired and the Liviathon Captain given a promotion as fleet commander much to the char grin of Captain Alexander, he was however given permanent command of the Abomination and was allowed to select his crew, he chose all those who served with him in that mission and was given the task of intercept and destroy duties after the amazing performance the ship and its crew had given. Over the next few weeks he saw how the ship healed, how it had changed even from when they found it. It seemed bigger as if it had been given a workout and was pumped with adrenalin. He felt for the first time like he hadn�t in a while, a kid in a candy store with many secrets left to unlock.