Stargate Atlantis Pt31
John Sheppard groaned and wiped the sweat off his face. He could have had another twenty, twenty five years at this and he still wouldn't be any closer to beating Teyla. It would have been really nice if part of that Atlantean inheritance every body loved to talk about had come with super strength. "Alright," He groaned, "lets go see what Elizabeth wants." He really would have preferred a shower, but maybe 'pureblood' Atlanteans didn't sweat while beating the shit out of one another.
"I hope this doesn't complicate the visit to Proclus," He did too, and Teyla knew, but at least she hadn't directly mentioned Chaya. "It is very helpful to trade with a society that need not fear the wraith." The people on Proclus weren't especially advanced... they'd never had a reason to develop technologically, especially in the military sense because well 'Athar' could just lighting bolt anyone who got out of line... not that by any indication she had had to in recent memory. Which admittedly was better than the other lightning throwing ancient on their rolodex. Speaking of...
"Major."
The holographic rings around his arm dimmed. "Hows it going?"
"About as well as it can be expected,"
Yeah, he thought frowning looking at the Ancient, that was what he had figured. Rodney and Zelinka had gotten a bit further in the effort to cajole the city into sharing the FtL deep space sensors, into sharing a little more, but they still got better resolution and feedback from the command chair. "Thought you were going to spike them," He asked.
"I did."
John crinkled his eyebrows, "Then, what,"
"Another dozen hive ships were detected." Probably with their own escorts, "I believe they hit the Genii's planet recently. The planet is still there, and still plenty of life sign signatures, which is interesting, but we'll follow up on it. Dr Weir isn't happy about that news though,"
The briefing room was about normal about half of the 'general staff', or board or whatever they were calling the heads of the expedition this week were already present, and the other half were probably dragging themselves up from wherever they were in the city. Besides everyone more or less already had pre claimed seats to occupy. It wasn't like he, and Teyla were the only ones not wearing the Expedition's common 'jump suits'. Some had just minor alterations, or affectations, and some people weren't event wearing the 'trousers'. Their Ancient in Residence did everyone up by being in some kind of decidedly militant Ancient outfit, in black naturally, complemented by the plasma pistol that was apparently 'regulation'... for officers of one of his 'client races' probably. No rank pips, no gaudy epaulets, no grinning skulls... even the belt lacked any reflective surfaces it all just sort of soaked everything up. By comparison McKay came in lugging at least two computers, and Carson was still half scrubbed up when he managed to get into the conference room twenty minutes later.
The holographic assembly sprang to life before John had time to fully sit down in the chair, "Shouldn't we wait for the others other?" Jump the gun much... normally Zelenka was one of the first one's here after all... though apparently he was down on the south pier today... and really running late.
"I asked him to John, now sit down." Elizabeth's eyes were stony slits looking at the holographic sphere that had formed... the major was familiar with the geographical overlay of the Genii homeworld he'd looked at it enough.
He had known that the Genii were roughly spread out across a North American size continent, the stargate could as well have been located in Minnesota. It was true that their 'actual' technology was more comparable to a de mechanized world war II, but most of the population lived like it was 1890 give or take a few decades on either end... and the layout of towns and villages reflected that. The Genii had some limited, really limited, railways on their way east, but they hadn't managed to build... or probably rebuild a transcontinental railroad. It was probably one of those things that they thought they had more time for. There was very little automotive transport venue in Genii surface to look at, but the river canals especially going east and south were fairly complex. .Apparently the wraith had managed to start a few fairly large forest fires on their little soylent green White Castle run.
Pt32
"We've been at this for over a week."
"Wraith Hyperdrives are short legged." Something that had been included in the report to earth... which of course greatly minimized serious attack in between galactic space. Unlike with conventional ships the lack of shields and biotech dependence meant the Wraith weren't really in a position to try and go for a galactic crossing, even if they could presumably hibernate through a series of hops. The time to cross that distance would be too long to feasibly get to the Milky Way even assuming they knew where it was and could plot a course. It was the kind of journey that would have taken say just long enough for them to get close only for Asgard derived Hyperdrives built by earth to find their way on say a few dozen Earth built ships armed with very large numbers of 'specialized' nuclear weapons.
Fat lot of good any of that did for the Pegasus Galaxy though, or its inhabitants. The wraith strategy though didn't make much sense, a transgalactic assault through the gate was utterly retarded. "Yes, for people who build planetoids for sector wide garrison commands." Mckay hissed through clinched teeth, though refraining from gesturing angrily to the Asgard-class ship visible in the afternoon sky. "For the rest of us mere mortals thirty to thirty five thousand C is pretty impressive, but if you and the Asgard want to gloat feel free to bring some more warships."
"Rodney."
"Sorry."
Sheppard leaned back, and then sipped his water, "Have we heard anything else back from Earth?" He received a response in the negative, though Rodney assured them that his proposed 'modifications' to the Naquadah reactor could allow them to dial the gate and make connection allowing both sides to take steps to establish regular exchanges of compact data. The thinking there was of course that they would be able to get some data in piecemeal packets to Earth from the Ancient Database. That had been included on the list of suggestions, but it would require additional infrastructure to be set up on the SGC end of things.
The lack of word from Earth wasn't surprising. It wasn't like it had been that long. The IOA and SGC were probably trying to determine what was the best course of action. It was entirely possible that their suggestion had been bogged down in committee as it were.
"Why attack though?" McKay glanced at Ford, "Look the wraith know we have a Planetoid, and other ships, they have to recognize that attacking piecemeal like this is not an effective employment of combat assets."
"They're divided though, those two queens didn't trust one another, and I played them off easy enough," Sheppard added, "and by all indications thats normal. I'd guess each queen only really has a couple of hive ships to herself." McKay opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself. "And I get the feeling given their numbers they don't really feel their wasting much. They grow the ships right, and they're to some degree solar powered right?"
The Ancient nodded, and the gestured to Rodney, "Right they're biotechnology, the ships are sort of living biomechanical constructs, which explains why they're so big. From what we've been able to determine all wraith biotechnology down to the smallest computer can fuel off of solar energy, like those little simple calculators." He shrugged, "What I can't figure is why the Wraith Hyperdrive isn't faster, even if we accept that they can spam ships how did it only take a hundred years for them to overwhelm the Atlanteans the first go round?" He frowned, "Besides apparent 'lack of militarization' or some such," The Ancient rolled his eyes. "Especially if we accept the Wraith Queens are fractured and divided."
It had been bothering John as well, but there wasn't nothing to be done. He'd asked Athar, but she'd been uncomfortable about talking about the war as it was. McKay lead into everything they had been able to put together about the wraith, everything from their unclear origins, and the war with the Atlanteans, coupled with cultural cues. Then on to possible population levels. Nothing was really concrete though, and if they were honest the Atlantean database was... John would have described it as sanitized as if the Ancients hadn't wanted to talk about it.
Pt33
The problem with having to come to Earth in a very brief window was that they hadn't been able to bring much. He had more than one of Bates's Enlisted Marines complain that they had had more personal material in Iraq, or in 'Stan. They were probably telling the truth too, and the same complaints had come from the scientists who were largely civilians. The stream of exploration missions both in Atlantis, and through the gate into the new galaxy they were in had helped, but John really would have liked for more physical books.
Kolya was sulking as he ran his hands over the spines, "I can't believe our leadership agreed to this."
It had been Doctor Weir's idea... and he was a little surprised the Genii had agreed to it. Even accounting for the bigger problems... like the wraith. The Genii, both on the surface and their actual tech level, meant that they're printed works and the texture was like looking back into history. The library could have been from 1910 or 20. So many books, "Yeah, how'd things go with the 'New Brotherhood?" He doubted that had run into Allina herself... that would have been a little risky for someone in her position specifically.
"We're not on speaking terms," Koyla scoffed, "They don't go advertising themselves around, but we think that they've begun searching out other sites. We did find a vault on the planet after you left, but it had been cleaned out." That made sense, it figured that the original Brotherhood would had stockpiled anything 'ancienty' that they could put their hands on. "I suspect that they have no idea what they even are in possession of. Our Technical services have reason to suspect that they are less technologically advanced than the Genii." Of course they were, he got the impression that the Genii hated admitting someone was more technologically advanced than they were.
He shrugged examining the book. Kolya had asked about other stuff. Like the difference between the Atlanteans, and Alterans, apparently someone must have mentioned general O'neill was of Alteran descent, and Koyla had wondered if that was a big deal... not that he had phrased it exactly like that when he had asked, "They had the same kind of guns as you guys."
"I imagine you will find that if given the opportunity we might even try producing copies of your own guns." Koyla responded with a shrug, "Well I can see the appeal of the P90 but its, Polymer body would be troublesome for us, and others. But the design is very user friendly, compact. The larger machine guns will be less trouble for for us to replicate given their simpler construction materials."
"So everyone passes around designs,"
"The wraith try to destroy civilization past a certain sophistication, but varies as to where that line it." John wondered if that was a byproduct of different Wraith making decisions as to what constituted that distinction in 'sophistication', "As a result many firearms designs are selected for their robustness and we continue to proliferate designs that have been in use for decades. When something better comes along it doesn't take long for those of means to produce them."
It made, a certain sort of sense. Though he was surprised that the Genii didn't have an AKM equivalent something stamped metal shooting thirty something caliber. They obviously could mass produce machine guns... and he was right the 249 wasn't exactly high technology. "I know Weir is talking about military exchange," And they were going to get Rodney to help with nukes it wasn't like machine guns were a step over that... Rodney was bitching more about work conditions and design than the prospect of building an 'A-Bomb'. "Could the Daganians have the ability to manufacture them, if the design were to get out?"
Koyla grimaced and thought it over, "Conservatively speaking, I would say it is probable. A gun is a fairly simple tool. If you were talking about the Ancestor's plasma rifles that would be different."
"So they're probably masquerading as being," He couldn't say Ren Faire to Koyla, "At the development level they are, and are probably-"
"If we're sixty years behind your world, then they're probably forty or fifty behind us."
That would put them roughly around World War 1, maybe just starting to understand X Rays, and archaeology getting popular, but also being academic. That did explain their ability to produce perfected... or refined... semi automatic weapons though from plans. What they probably wouldn't have was the chemistry finesse he supposed to produce C 4, though the Genii would it was a cold war era technology technically... and they had RDX to work with basically. The Genii could even manufacture synthetic rubber to an extent. "Thats according to the Tech Guys," Koyla nodded, "Right, so we're able to produce small arms locally,"
"Which is useful I am sure, but obviously there must still be some degree of bottleneck."
"Yeah, anyway, Weir wants to focus on things other than military tech," Not to the exclusion of, but even if Rodney hadn't been especially shrill about radiation leaks the Wraith attack was a looming consequence. "This involves partnering with the Athosians."
"Ah, yes I wondered when they were going to be brought into this." It was fairly simple. The Athosians wanted to do more, and more in this case also meant in a military capacity as well as in a trade capacity.
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I'm officially caught up in the thread, as for the SG:A Snippets I'm looking forward to doing more with the wraith as well as both introducing Earth, the Fleet, as well as Season 2 material.
