This is my very first published story.

I'm a novice.

-Additions or changes will be underlined.-

Destiny - The Rescue

Chapter One

"Colonel, is it true?"

"I'm afraid it is. We are to provide support to the Destiny crew. There is no other option. They don't have enough power to maintain those stasis pods for the trek to the next galaxy. They'll die before that which makes the decision to send a rescue team a no-brainer and a priority. Luckily, the stasis pods will allow us enough time to reach them and that means we'll be taking Atlantis whose hyperdrive systems are faster than even the Asgard. Thankfully, we found and mastered the lab where the Ancients made their ZPMs. It will still take us about a month to get to them.

We are to, on the way, study the data the Destiny crew have concerning those Drone ships. En route, we will be attempting to create our own little drone army so that Atlantis alone will have a better chance against unwanted hostile actions. We have studied both the Ancient drones and the replicators to get a better understanding of how autonomous systems can better work together. With Asgard matter creation devices we will easily be able to produce hundreds, if not thousands, when needed.

We are to install fifteen of these devices on each pier for easy deployment. When needed, the ninety of them can work in concert to spurt forth as many as wanted in no time at all. Once created from our energy reserves, they will automatically connect with the ship's computer. The computer will then direct them with a little human help in the form of a fifteen man squad specially trained to work in five man rotating groups, 24/7. They will provide the drones with direction and concentration.

After the battle, the energy lost during creation can be partially recovered by reabsorbing the drones. In this way, clean up after the battle is very easy. All drones, even the damaged ones, return as some form of energy as they are 'recycled'. In this way, our technology won't fall into enemy hands for study. Then, at the next battle we spew forth new, fresh ones. Mostly because of this, we are bringing with us a reserve of six ZPMs. We will be using three ZPMs to get to Destiny, but most of their power will be drained by the hyperdrive and three for the return journey home. We'll basically have three ZPMs for use in whatever area of the galaxy they find themselves.

We have no idea if the drones are following or even converging on Destiny. It is hoped the drones can't track Destiny in FTL and therefore will have no idea Destiny plans on skipping over this galaxy. They may figure it out in the end when she stops showing up, though. Whatever the case, we will be the only defense Destiny will have. Especially when we start repairs, she'll never be more vulnerable. For this it would be best to catch up to her in the middle of the void.

Constant communication will be possible through the ancient communication device, so we'll be able to stay in contact with Eli Wallace. Remember, he decided to give the last pod to what's-his-face because Eli had the better chance to extend the amount of oxygen he had. So far, Eli has been able to extend this deadline by a month by shutting down environmental support to the rest of the ship. He has barricaded himself in the control room with all the supplies that would fit in there with him.

Major, we leave tomorrow morning. Have everything prepared by then."

"Yes, ma'am."

With Colonel Carter's expertise, the creation of a drone army proceeded without any hiccups. A fully functional army has been completed, with a little help from those back on Earth via the Ancient Communication Stones. Everything was in place on their last leg of the journey.

Now, Colonel Carter was appraising all the bridge officers of the situation.

"This drone army will not be working on its own. The city ship's offenses have been augmented with the installation of five Asgard beam weapons on each pier, one for every five Asgard matter creation device, and each pier would be powered by its own Asgard Neutrino-Ion Generator. We will also have, at the base of the central tower, ten of these Generators adding additional power so that the ZPMs won't be overtaxed during battle.

All in all, Atlantis should be in the best shape any vessel could ever hope to be in going into battle. Though, there are those who argued a few BC-304s wouldn't be remiss. Especially since three of the piers were actually meant as landing pads for their science vessels, and the port holes from which fly the Ancient drones could also act as a hatch. They could have landed on the piers and traveled with us through hyperspace, like hitchhikers. The argument was made, though, that with the city ship, the most powerful defense Earth has, being sent away, every ship would be needed in the defense of two galaxies.

Though, there were talks of Atlantis returning directly to the Pegasus galaxy after our aid mission will have been completed. With the amount of supplies and the matter creation devices, we will easily be able to repair the Ancient ship to better than new. Unfortunately, the better argument was made that such a defensive vessel would be needed in the defense of our own galaxy. The president is actually very worried that an attack will follow the departure of Atlantis. So for now, only a very few know the Ancient city ship is leaving.

Once our mission is completed, we will be taking the fight directly to the Lucian alliance. We will land this city on their most heavily defended planet and watch as they attack us futilely. We will then show them the might of the people of Earth. We will attack back and show them they have made a very big mistake attacking us.

Now, everyone back to their stations. We'll be dropping out of hyperdrive anytime now." Colonel Carter said.

Atlantis exited hyperspace less than a few light years away from Destiny who was currently traveling in FTL. For a month, she had been in FTL, traversing this galaxy. Now, we find her near the center of the galaxy. Unknown to Eli, the drones had realized Destiny no longer intended to refuel but instead was going to jump to the next galaxy. All the drone ships were now attempting to follow her on her way out of this galaxy.

Eli felt like he was going out of his mind being stuck on that ship. He had had the foresight to bring the three Ancient environmental suits into the control room with him. This way he could go out into the ship to effect repairs. He was still all by himself with not even a way to get off the ship as himself for just a little bit. He was trapped, literally, in a prison of extravagant design. Anytime he got off the ship was spent working the problem from another end, with the help of the entire nation of the United States - whether they knew what exactly they were working on. The Ancient vessel was a dream but Eli longed for a laugh caused by a friend. He wanted to chat about something cool with Greer who would just look at Eli like he was a little kid. He wanted a warm embrace from a friend to reaffirm his existence.

Contact was made with Eli to get him to have Destiny drop out of FTL. For the very last stretch of their journey Eli remained connected to the stones waiting for someone from Atlantis to connect. The second Destiny dropped out of FTL, three command ships appeared. The Atlantis crew jumped into action. The shields were already raised and all weapons were brought online. The Asgard matter creation devices set forth to creating fifty drones each, in less than a minute. Seven hundred and fifty total now stood in the path of the drones and Destiny. Atlantis unleashed its Asgard beam weapons and destroyed all three in a matter of seconds. Not too long after, five more ships appeared with more detected as being on the way.

With Atlantis' deep space sensors they could determine that at least a hundred were within between a few minutes, a few hours and a days travel here. The Command Ships were converging on them, and it seemed they had been converging on them for some time already. They were going to be under constant attack for the foreseeable future. It seemed like every command ship was on their way here. They were all more or less grouped together.

A group of three puddle jumpers were sent over during the beginning of the battle. They contained the relief crew for Eli Wallace. They would repair, with the help of some Ancient repair drones, freshly created based on specs received upon arrival in proximity to Destiny, the environmental support systems. Once this was complete, they could release the others from storage.

"Major, change of plans. Have every puddle jumper loaded with our scientists and the supplies they'll need and have them ready to depart at the earliest break in their attacks. We may only get one chance to send our people over safely. Make sure they have everything they'll need."

The major left with his marching orders and rounded up every last person and item needed, triple checking his check lists. After hours of constant attack, a lull appeared. More ships wouldn't arrive for four hours. At that time, though, Destiny and Atlantis would be under attack from at least forty ships. It was decided that Destiny would most likely not survive such an onslaught. No one could decide if it wouldn't be better to extend the shields around Destiny or to have her take off. If she were to retreat to a safer distance, Atlantis could easily defend off such an onslaught all on its own. But fears were raised that some of the ships on their way here could just follow Destiny and attack her while Atlantis would be engaged with the remaining ships. No one thought, at the time, that the drone ships would become completely oblivious to Destiny until Atlantis, the superior technology, was destroyed.

Ultimately, Destiny would act as an anchor. The ancient vessel would not be able to move around which means it wouldn't be able to withstand their weapons fire for as long (since it would be avoiding a good number of them). So Destiny was sent off and the scientists from Atlantis. They would retreat and remain in FTL while also initiating repairs. Atlantis would be able to reach it anywhere in a matter of minutes. After these ships and any companions had been destroyed, Atlantis could meet up with Destiny anywhere, at anytime.

Destiny would have to be repaired while the battle waged. This allowed Atlantis to spread out their attacks by tactfully retreating to increase the distance between the drone ships and Atlantis, twenty or fifty light years at a time. This allowed them to repair and restore any damaged systems during these rest periods. Or they jumped to their advantage by coming up on the rear of several of the ships and on the front of others, appearing in between them. Those ships in the immediate vicinity would drop out of hyperspace to engage Atlantis in battle, who could then use one hundred percent of its weapons to dispatch the enemy ships. During these times when the deployment of drones would have been time wasting or when they preferred to go guerrilla style, the crew would just use the Asgard Beam Weapons and the Ancient Drones.

Destiny jumped into FTL just before fifteen of the vessels popped out of hyperspace together. Twenty-five more were due in five minutes. Atlantis was ready with over two thousand drones deployed. They fired every Asgard beam weapon at the first fifteen, destroying seven of their ships immediately, they easily wounded the remaining eight. On the next round, they were destroyed as well, their drones becoming inert as their host ships burst to cinder.

The remaining twenty-five appeared, launching all of their drones immediately. Atlantis' drones had swarmed the alien vessels, now contending with the drones of the alien vessels. It was absolutely chaotic as each drone tried to destroy the other. Their drones were more adaptable than the Earth fleets', yet each time one of ours was destroyed another one was created immediately. Each time that ten or more ships showed up, the inert drones from previously destroyed Drone Ships became active again. In time, we won with superior numbers, ours having been maintained with the creation of timely replacements. The drones had no hope. The battle waged for many hours. In this the biggest attack of the drone ships, an entire ZPM and at least half of another was depleted to keep up with the furious pace of the drone ships' arrivals.

In the end, the Earth drones took the brunt of the alien vessels' attacks. The shields were impacted a few times but, ultimately, barely any energy was loss due to weapons fire. The bulk of the power drain was from the creation of over ten thousand drones. Over the course of the battle, all day long, all fifteen specially trained operators were on duty to combat the neverending assault.

The surviving drones, a few hundred at most, and the damaged ones were tractored in with specially designed drones with tractor beams instead of weapons. All recycled remains were used to restore the power loss, even the enemies' own wreckage. All in all, a third of a ZPM's stored energy was recovered. What could not be converted was reduced to atoms. After the day long battle, the ships stopped being spotted on long range sensors. It was believed that any drone shops within a few hundred light years had been sent to its destruction and that no more would be following Destiny.

Destiny was in FTL during this all day event. A member of Destiny was being constantly changed on the Ancient Communication Device to keep the crew up to date on the battle. Every thirty minutes a new member of the crew took whoever's place. The one coming back from Atlantis would then recount the goings on of the battle.

Repairs on those systems unneeded for FTL flight were repaired as quickly as possible. They had brought their own ZPM with them to power a mobile Asgard Matter Creation Device. Replicas of the ancient drones now on Destiny were fabricated when Atlantis arrived, a program had been put into place to make ten with the Asgard Matter Creation devices the second Destiny could upload the specs. Both of which would no doubt be under constant use, especially the mobile Asgard Matter Creation device since it helps in scanning the vessel and replicating the necessary part perfectly. In hours, the environmental systems had been brought to better than new condition allowing them to function more energy efficiently. This would allow them to operate longer with less energy.

Eli had spent a month on his own with the oxygen level in the little control room at its lowest safety limit. He would realize later that he could have sought refuge in the last remaining shuttle which would have provided him with all his environmental needs. By the time Atlantis was close enough to send over support and beam over oxygen manufactured on Atlantis, Eli was close to death. This oxygen was transported from the unmanned sections of the city whereupon more oxygen would be produced to ultimately replace the entire supply of Destiny; this could be done as many times as necessary as well.

Now Eli was again breathing well and was with his fellow crew members. The environmental systems working at more than a hundred percent, all those who were trapped in stasis pods were once again free to move about freely. Returning to their duties, they greatly sped along the repairs of this ancient of Ancient ships. It took a good four weeks to overhaul the Destiny.

When the battle was finished and all available material had been absorbed as pure energy, Atlantis and Destiny communicated via the navigation officers to find the perfect meet-up point. Then Atlantis jumped ahead of Destiny so that it would be there before her.

Many more repairs were in order, on top of the list were the shield emitters of Destiny. Destiny would be getting five new Asgard Neutrino-Ion Generators. The shields would be tied into these generators so that some, if not half or more, would be provided by this renewable energy source (as compared to just solar jumping). These generators would have to be installed in parts of the ship that were meant for storage of physical items. Though some would have to take the place of some of the stasis pods (now that they were no longer necessary). This would allow them to work much longer than initially designed. Before, the ancient ship at its peak could last a heck of long time before depletion, even under constant attack. Now, they would last a very, very long time. This might come in handy in the next galaxy. The engines would also be drawing some power from the generators so that they could travel even faster in FTL.

The energy reserves were brought to their original capacity with the help of Atlantis who used the Asgard Beaming technology to simultaneously remove and replace the parts. All in all, almost every piece of Destiny was replaced, including two shuttles exactly like the remaining one.

Once repairs were completed, Atlantis towed Destiny to the next galaxy using the same tractor beams as the Asgard. While it was believed Destiny needed to collect data while it was in FTL, they would be dropped off in the middle to travel for a few days in FTL. Hopefully it would be enough because the crew wouldn't be able to survive the entire journey to the next galaxy (they would run out of supplies before then; even with the Asgard Matter Creation device). During this time, Destiny would also complete every diagnostic possible to ensure the Ancient ship was once again working at peak efficiency. After they were all completed and everything was working better than ever, Atlantis towed Destiny the rest of the way - dropping her off just at the edge. Whatever was next, she would have to go it alone. But no one was worried because she could now easily withstand a hundred drone ships alone.

Now it was time for Atlantis to return to its original galaxy, to strike a blow deep in the heart of the Lucian Alliance. With four fully loaded ZPMs in its quiver, Atlantis taxed the engines and completely drained three ZPMs for the return home to the Milky Way galaxy. It took them only two weeks to arrive just outside of the solar system of the homeworld of the Lucian Alliance. Here they changed out all three of the depleted ZPMs for three fully powered ZPMs.

They had also been in the process of making three more ZPMs, in the lab specially meant to make ZPMs. This would bring their total to just over seven ZPMs. The Ancients must have loved the number three because the lab always made three at a time. This took longer depending on if the vessel was in use, such as the hyperdrive or in battle. The lab could produce three in about a week if nothing else was going on in the city. But if major amounts of power were needed, the power drain was too much. The process came almost to a snail's crawl, maybe a little faster, because they were creating a pocket of subspace. Much energy was needed for the process so when the power was lacking the process was slowed for safety reasons.

Once fully charged ZPMs replaced the depleted ones, they activated the hyperdrive to appear just inside of the atmosphere of their homeworld. They just appeared out of thin air right above the capital of this world, where the First of the Lucian Alliance was believed to reside.

With shields raised and weapons fully charged this behemoth set forth its demand, "We are the Tauri. This is our ship. It is also a city. This flying city is equipped with enough firepower to splinter your entire world into tiny little pieces. Surrender now or face destruction."

The response was swift. Very single vessel on that world suddenly found themselves grouped around this awesome flying city. On someone's command, in unison, they opened fire. Atlantis responded by suddenly starting to create a massive drone army. It spewed forth hundreds upon hundreds until the space just inside the shield was almost completely filled with drones merrily flying around, all the while easily avoiding each other. Those that couldn't travel in a complete oval around the city ship took to weaving between the buildings, not even once crashing into another drone or a building. It was a sight to see and many of those attacking forgot what they were doing and just marveled. At one point, they all stopped firing so the shields wouldn't fluctuate in response to their attacks.

Then the drones started firing. Those closest to the shield who were not obstructed by friendlies would fire before moving out of range for the drones behind him to have a shot then those behind them. In this way, Atlantis increased its firing power over a hundredfold while also keeping the drones out of danger but still in the position to do a lot of damage to a lot of ships at once.

It was a slaughter. Just imagine, if you can, a flying city suddenly burst into light from every angle - a glowing oval in the sky. Except it's not light, it's weapons fire and this ship is firing at 360 degrees. It is firing on every single target of opportunity at once. Much like the Ancient drones, whose software they are based on, they missed consistently those on the ground who were were not openly hostile at Atlantis.

So this chapter is a bit long. For the first chapter I kind of wanted the opportunity to show a little bit of everything. Atlantis is being changed from her original function as a city of exploration to become a vessel of war. A city whose main purpose had been that as a vessel of science, where many great discoveries had been made. This will still be a place where many scientists will continue to call the city home as they research the Ancient database even as it continues to fight. I had to make some changes and add some stuff for the sake of continuity. Thanks for reading.