The wraiths have many glorious names. And each of them is not given at birth – only when a young wraith reaches maturity, discovers the ability to feed on human cattle, and proves himself.
Soldiers have no names; they are only given to blades and smart ones. For their peculiarities, for their distinctive features.
For several thousand years, he was called Demon. For a strength inaccessible to most wraith-blades. For his sharp and cunning mind, surpassing that of his brethren. For his ruthlessness and sophistication in destroying enemies. It was thanks to him that many hives were defeated, making his queen one of the strongest in the galaxy.
It's no wonder that the Scavenger turned to them... It's no wonder that he struck them.
A commander named Demon. A wraith, of course.
This name was given to him by his queen, who fell victim to cunning and betrayal. Nothing new among wraiths, but during hibernation, nothing like this had been observed before.
It's vile, but not ineffective.
Demon emerged from the stargate surrounded by numerous soldiers and junior commanders.
"Is this the planet where we lost contact with all our squads?" the hive commander demanded an answer.
"Yes, Demon," the first assistant informed him instantly. The last assistant of all he had. "Two days after the disappearance of the first group, the relay in orbit detected a working transmitter for tracking the Ancients. The second group couldn't join them immediately, but after two days they still came here through the gate."
"And contact with them was lost?"
"Yes, commander. And with every subsequent squad too."
"And the Ancient beacon is still working?"
The first assistant looked at his wrist computer.
"Yes, commander."
"Then we'll find it," Demon growled, surveying the impressively large clearing in front of the gate. "And we'd better find the Ancients before the hive ship heals from its damage. I don't want to engage in battle when we've already lost several hundred of our fighters and don't even understand how!"
"Commander," one of the smart ones, brought along on this raid, addressed him, stepping away from the dialing device. "We have problems."
"What kind of problems this time?" Demon asked.
"The dialing device isn't working," the smart one stunned him. "When you press the keys, the internal lighting doesn't activate, the symbols on the gates don't light up. This device is faulty."
"Then fix it!" Demon roared. "We have a damaged and weakened hive left, which will remain in hibernation for another day! We've lost almost all our soldiers and are stuck on this planet. Solve the problem, smart one. Otherwise, the first one to die from my hunger will be you."
"I'm already working on it, commander," the smart one obediently bowed his head and headed for the dialing device.
He said the same thing when he assured Demon that he would fix the damage to his starship.
Damage... They could have been destroyed when their hive ship and its cruisers were attacked by the Scavenger's hive. Despite being outnumbered, the hive, of which Demon was now the leader, could not instantly respond to the treacherous strike from orbit.
Awakening all the wraiths in the hive required significant time – at least half a day. Therefore, he made the only correct decision to survive – that was the order given to him by the dying queen.
He threw all his cruisers that could lift off the planet at the attacking force, which were noticeably faster than the hive ship. And thus, he bought himself time. Demon lost two cruisers destroyed. Another surrendered to the mercy of the victor.
If the coward commanding the last cruiser had remembered his duty to the queen, Demon would have had enough time to lead the hive ship away intact and unharmed.
But that didn't happen.
And now he had to survive, hiding in such a remote area of the galaxy's outskirts that no one would even think of looking for his hive ship here. In this dead part of the galaxy, where the wraiths had long ago collected cattle from all the planets, or exterminated the population to eliminate resistance.
"Send out reconnaissance squads," Demon ordered his assistant, listening to the ringing sound of the engines of ten "arrows" circling overhead. "Establish contact with our previous squads. I want them to arrive here. Our forces must stick together."
"Of course, commander."
He brought here all the wraiths he had left, except for the smart ones. All those he could awaken from hibernation without harm to their lives. A significant portion of the wraiths were still in cryogenic pods, the power for which was barely enough for the damaged starship.
This is the usual and standard tactic of space combat – the enemy must be deprived of the opportunity to leave the battlefield. Hyperdrives, power sources, main engines – all of them must be destroyed or at least damaged.
Demon was a skilled pilot and a good commander. Knowing the standard tactics, he managed to save the hyperdrive from damage, but the main engines and the main power source were damaged.
As was the hull, the weapons, and much else.
He had no more than five hundred wraiths at his disposal – both soldiers, blades, and smart ones – whom he awakened after the treacherous murder of the queen. All the rest had to remain in hibernation. At least until he could fix the power on his ship and awaken them.
Demon surveyed the horizons opening before him. Everything was as the pilots of the first "arrows" had reported.
A large clearing with ruins, the remains of a cattle settlement. High hills a couple of kilometers from the gate, a dense forest encircling the clearing.
Demon observed this part of the planet for some time, feeling the local star's heat on his skin. It was noon, and the temperature here was much higher, and the air was drier than was comfortable for a wraith.
On hive ships or wraith bases, a slight coolness and high humidity were always maintained, which was beneficial for their health. Here... Disgusting.
On the other hand, they could always establish a base on this forgotten and abandoned planet to start all over again if his plan failed. Of course, if the smart one found a way to fix the gates.
"Commander," his assistant approached him. Although he looked calm, his thoughts seemed confused. "No energy traces or intelligent life have been detected within this valley. Only the Ancient beacon in the ruins. The pilots of the 'arrows' also report that they have discovered the crash sites of many 'arrows'. Mostly in the fields behind this forest."
"The ones we sent with the squads earlier?" Demon became wary.
"Most likely," the smart one assumed. "Our vanguard squads noticed many wraith remains. Mostly near the undergrowth, they are not visible from here. Multiple small pits in the clearing that I cannot explain. Some wraiths were killed by firearms or kinetic striking elements, I assume they were cluster bombs..."
"Human herd," Demon growled.
"...but most of them were fed upon," the smart one finished.
Demon roared, struck by the realization.
It seemed that the beacon, created to find the Ancients, was not an entirely obvious trap.
At first, Demon thought that this signal, which they had almost accidentally picked up, was nothing more than blind luck. To find the Ancients, at least one, capture him, and use him for bargaining seemed like a great idea.
He had explained the fact that the hunting squads sent in search had not made contact by assuming some problems on the planet itself. And the non-working dialing device could have been precisely that problem.
But the humans' firearms, the traces of feeding on hundreds of his soldiers and blades...
"It's an ambush!" Demon roared in fury with all his might.
Several young blades standing nearby flinched, seeing how Demon, tall and muscular like a wraith soldier, but brave as befits a blade, roared with all his might. He could kill any of them without weapons, in his beloved hand-to-hand combat.
But now... Now he wanted to kill those wraiths who had lured him into an ambush. And he thought he knew who it was. The one who, not so long ago, through his vile negotiators, had spoken of the return of the Ancients.
Lies, lies, lies! All of this is nothing but deception, all the talks, all the agreements, even the signal!
"Recall the 'arrows'," he ordered his first assistant. "Try to dial the address using the ships."
"It will be done, commander," the assistant bowed to him, activating his transmitter. "Pilots, return to the gates and dial the address..."
It was strange that the smart one hadn't thought of this before. Could he be a traitor?
"Find those who killed our soldiers!" Demon ordered. "Bring me their commander, and the rest..."
He fell silent as smoky trails appeared before his eyes, emerging from the forest and literally from thin air. Primitive kinetic projectiles, missiles.
But how was that even possible?!
"We are under attack!" an alert sounded.
And the crippled "arrows," falling onto the clearing, turning into huge pillars of fire, were only part of what was happening.
The vanguard groups sent for reconnaissance were suddenly attacked. Explosions sounded here and there, tearing chunks of soil and showering soldiers and their commanders with streams of mud and deadly streams of metallic striking elements. Bombs and their fragments, as his subordinate had previously reported.
Demon and his wraiths did not stand still.
Multiple scarlet energy charges flew out from the undergrowth, hitting his soldiers. Obviously, there were shooters there. And this weapon, its sound, its power, Demon had seen before.
On one of his "fugitives," whose planet he had destroyed as a security measure for his own hive.
But here there were dozens, even hundreds of such energy handguns. Perhaps fewer, and the shooters were simply moving.
The "arrows" could have helped detect the enemy and deliver an air strike. But they were all destroyed by missiles, burning on the planet's surface.
Here and there, he also saw energy flashes of wraith weapons. Dozens of shooters kept his fighters under crossfire, pinning them against the ruins in the center of the clearing. Now this was the only safe place that could save the lives of his soldiers and their commanders.
And now he and his best soldiers were trying to react to the situation, to attack the enemy from the flank, to break them, to overturn them, to force them to defend themselves...
And then a sound rang out that he had never heard personally. However, when the queen was merciful, when she shared her mental strength with him, showing him what wraiths were like in the distant past, he had heard this sound.
And he remembered well what it entailed.
Demon stopped, turned towards the approaching melodious buzzing sound, to see with his own eyes how an scarlet Lantian ship appeared from the air, dropping its camouflage. And how several projectiles flew from its launchers.
Yellow lights, carrying immense power, rushed towards his subordinates. Demon warned them with a loud cry. Someone even managed to fire a couple of shots at the Ancient ship before two homing missiles hit the center of their group, turning dozens of wraiths into incinerated piles of dust. The rest, including Demon himself, were thrown aside by the shockwave, which he could not resist.
He, like a small child who had not reached maturity and fed on fruits, was broken, hit, thrown up, and hit again several times by an irresistible force.
However, this was enough for the commander Demon, who instilled terror in many hives, to lose consciousness. Descending into the depths of his mind, in darkness and solitude, he heard explosions, screams, and weakened roars, the mental malice and confusion of his wraiths.
He had been tricked.
Again.
The awakening was painful.
Which was strange in itself, as the body should have regenerated.
"I don't like this guy," he heard a male voice. "I especially don't like that he's the one who ended up here."
Flashing his eyes open, Demon tensed his body to lunge at the source of the voice. And he even managed to do it.
Only instead of his signature blow to the enemy's chest with his powerful right hand, he poked with the bleeding stump of what he had instead of a feeding hand. And he poked a human, a young dark-haired man, who didn't even flinch. Even though Demon hit him with his left hand, which was intact.
A green wave of energy ran through the man, and upon contact, Demon felt as if he had been electrocuted at the moment of impact.
And the next moment, he felt a powerful blow knock him onto the grass, drenched in his own black blood. Falling, he immediately got up, quickly looked around...
This was not a battlefield.
This was a place where dozens of wraiths, his wraiths, lay on the grass, deprived of their right hands. He noticed two groups of people, among whom were both men and women. Some were dressed in dark brown uniforms of mediocre quality. Others – in dark gray, with protective pads on their elbows and knees, with protective vests. Two factions?
Perhaps. But they were busy going around each of his wraiths.
And chopping off their feeding hands.
Those who, like him, awakened from dishonorable violence, they knocked out with stunners or weapons that fired scarlet energy beams. In the back of his memory, familiar images stirred.
He had already met people in brown clothes and with weapons like these! Nomads! Scavengers living in space on old ships! One of the dangers to wraiths, who had lurked for many years, almost completely perishing during a major battle with a coalition of wraiths. And his queen, as well as her hive, took an active part in their extermination.
Could it be that they were not all destroyed? Did they gain the strength to resist? Or is it not just the Nomads? After all, someone controlled the Ancient ship, someone activated the beacon?!
A chill ran down the vertebrae protruding from Demon's back, and a flame ignited inside his body.
Was the Scavenger right, and the Ancients had returned? Or did the Nomad scavengers manage to launch something from the Lantians' remaining technologies? In any case, this abomination must be destroyed!
And they will be destroyed!
Even if he dies, these people will not live as long as they would like! The Scavenger will take care of them!
Even if it was humiliating, they would die for what they were doing to his hive now!
They... They were crippling the remnants of his hive! Demon knew that a wraith could regenerate much, but a feeding hand... It would require a lot of life energy. And his wraiths hadn't eaten for some time and were certainly not capable of such a thing.
This confusion, caused by the humiliation and insult he had witnessed, was enough for him to react to another blow from that man. His counter-attack was supposed to break the man's arm in half, but instead, something in Demon's own limb snapped.
"Strong, the bastard," the man kicked him in the chest, sending Demon flying back and hitting his body against the stone ruins. "Teyla, are you sure you can get into his head?"
A short female with tanned skin appeared next to the man. Demon, growling a warning, looked at them intently.
Dressed in uniform standard, with identical weapons, their equipment and gear only slightly differed. There were several dozen of them, maybe fifty. A similar number of Nomads.
If you consider the Ancients' technology, the bombs, the ambush... The two hundred wraiths he brought here simply had no chance.
Too well-planned a trap! Someone knew the wraiths' tactics too well! Knew how Demon himself would act!
Continuing to growl at the humans, Demon, unexpectedly for himself, felt a touch to his mind.
Weak, as if from a wraith who had just discovered its power. This was definitely not one of his soldiers or blades. They were all mature and experienced men. And the touch itself was... regal.
A young queen here!
"I..." the human female frowned. "I feel his anger, his rage... He despises us and wishes us death."
Demon realized that he had stopped growling.
He looked at the human female with surprise and disgust.
"Abomination!" he rumbled. "How are you touching my mind?! Animals can't do that!"
The next moment, the bones of his skull crunched as a man, protected by a personal shield of the Ancients, punched him in the face. Crouching next to Demon, the dark-haired man seemed to gently adjust his clothes, then looked him straight in the eye.
Demon had never seen such coldness and determination in animals before.
Not the slightest hint of panic, despair, doubt, or fear. Nothing that animals should have in this galaxy. The wraiths had instilled fear of them for hundreds of feedings!
"Continue, Teyla," the man ordered his female. "And we'll have a chat with Taras. You are Taras, aren't you? I wonder if you have sons – Ostap and Andriy? You're silent. Probably no sons. Too bad, the joke about the Poles won't be complete if there are no sons, right, Taras?"
And this man... He seemed not to know that he should be afraid of a wraith. As if he didn't see before him someone who had exterminated his relatives for generations.
"Say it again," the man asked politely.
"You are animals, created for... Argh!" Demon suppressed a slight pain that arose at that moment when the human male broke his jaw.
Oh, that's good.
"You will regret what you have done, human," Demon said confidently, feeling his body begin to repair the damage. "My hive will come for me. And you will all drown in blood..."
"Quiet, Taras," the man asked. "You see, the problem is... You are not the first wraith we have captured. And you are not the first on whom my friend is training her mental tricks." The wraith realized that he felt the queen's presence in his mind. Concentrating, he tried to push her out of it.
The human female moaned, clutching her head.
The wraith bared his teeth, felt her suffering... And at that very moment, he received a disorienting blow to the jaw. His bones and teeth broke completely. Distracted by this, Demon tried to mentally attack the man who had insulted him with his actions.
The man winced as Demon penetrated his mind.
Acting confidently, brazenly, and habitually, the hive ship commander invaded the man's mind.
And after a minute, during which the human male barely showed how much it hurt him, Demon emerged from his mind.
"Impossible!" he roared. "How... Who are you? What are you?"
"Terror that flies on the wings of night," the man said, wincing slightly. "Yeah... And you hit the head no worse than Atosian thermonuclear wine. Well, how was it, did you like it?"
"When the hives learn about the other galaxy where the Ancients fled, about the rich hunting grounds that await us there, your pathetic city will be captured," Demon promised. "And we will reach Earth and have a feast!"
"Yeah, I've heard that somewhere before," the man chuckled. Demon already knew everything he needed to know about him. And this knowledge could not fit into his head... And he also saw the reason why the man reacted to him like that. "How is it possible that I saw? Alien life on a computer screen!?"
"Did you see how yours ended?" Mikhail asked. The wraith roared. "Good girl. You know, I'm starting to suspect that the Ascended are playing along with us. We were looking for Ronon Dex, couldn't find him... And then the Scavenger attacks the hive that attacked Sateda about seven years ago and almost completely devastated it, making Ronon a 'fugitive'... Coincidence? I don't think so."
"Styx attacked them because they have one of the strongest hives," the human female's voice was heard. Demon looked at her threateningly. "His queen thought that by persuading them to join, he could force the others to follow him."
Demon roared with rage.
"You touched my mind, human!" he barked, shifting his gaze to Mikhail. "You distracted me with your mind!"
"And you're an idiot who acts standardly," Mikhail answered him calmly, getting to his feet.
"When others learn that Atlantis is weak..." Demon began. And didn't finish.
In Mikhail's hands appeared a Lantian energy pistol. And a glowing blue crystal looked straight into the Demon's face.
"They won't recognize it," the leader of the Lantians simply said.
And he fired.
"We need more Lantian weapons," said Kirik, approaching Mikhail and Teyla. Looking at the melted pieces of stone where the upper part of the Hive Ship commander had been a second ago, he nodded approvingly.
A powerful weapon.
If all the soldiers serving Atlantis had something like this...
"We need more of everything," Mikhail said, looking at Teyla. "Are you okay?"
The girl looked pale, exhausted, but smiled. The former "fugitive" understood that she was doing it through force.
"This commander is stronger than the others," she admitted. "His mind... is more extensive. I didn't manage to look at everything, but what you asked for..."
Suddenly her legs gave out. Mikhail and Kirik were beside her, catching her by the arms.
"I'm fine," Teyla said in a weak voice as both men gently pulled her aside and sat her on the grass. Away from the remains of the Wraith commander. "Just... exhausted."
"You shouldn't have asked you to delve into the commander's mind," Mikhail winced. "You're not ready yet. We thought we'd start with humans..."
"I can't," Emagan said quietly. "The minds of Wraiths... I can connect with them; the meditations and mind exercises that Chaya showed me help. But humans... I can't penetrate the human mind, no matter how hard I try."
"It's okay," Mikhail said. But a grimace of disappointment flashed across his face for a moment. "The main task now is the Wraiths. I promise, as soon as we're done with this hive, you'll have a long break from these kinds of things."
"I'm fine," Teyla smiled weakly. "Just... a little tired. Everything is fine. It's getting easier with each time. I learned a lot from this commander and others, his subordinates, who were brought by other squads. Now many things are becoming clear. Now I see the whole picture."
"What exactly?" Kirik became interested.
"The Scavenger came to them because they are strong," Teyla repeated. "But that's precisely why the queen of this hive refused an alliance. She and her Wraiths didn't believe the Ancients had returned and thought the Scavenger wanted to deceive them. She was killed so the hive would swear allegiance to the Scavenger, but the Demon," she looked at the remains of the Wraith and shuddered. Her gaze returned to Mikhail, "he refused."
"The Demon?" Mikhail repeated, looking at the remains. "I swear by salo, his name should have been Taras. Shaved head, tattoo with phallic symbols, a tuft of hair on his crown, fashionable rags in the best traditions of brave former serf soldiery... Well, a spitting image of Taras!"
"No, his name was Demon," Teyla insisted. "Because he is fierce and merciless."
"Well, to hell with this Taras," Mikhail waved his hand. "What about the attack on them?"
"When they refused to join, they were attacked by the hive that previously belonged to a queen named Cunning Blade."
"Is that the hive that attacked us near the 'Aurora'?"
"Yes," Teyla confirmed. "But now it serves the Scavenger."
"Cunning Blade serves him?"
"No," Teyla shook her head. "No one has heard of her since. It's assumed the Scavenger killed her. And that enraged the queen of this hive. But what's important is this. He didn't come here for nothing."
"We know, they were hunting the Ancients," Mikhail said.
"Not to kill," Teyla said.
Kirik was distracted by the sound of the Stargate activating. It seemed that Ihaar had repaired the device that prevented it from dialing an address from this side. The gate worked on "receive" but not on "send." However, the Ancients had been working on the device to block "send" as well – when they interrogated and disarmed captured Wraiths. And also, while they were "disposing" of them.
A vortex erupted from the device and immediately retracted. The event horizon, resembling a circle of still water, calmed down, and a moment later another "jumper" flew out of it. It soared into the air, leaving the arrival zone, after which others began to fly out.
One by one, they landed behind the gate, where six more "jumpers" were already lined up. These were the ones who participated in the prolonged operation to capture Wraiths on the very planet where it first happened.
Since the EMP generator had failed, and building a new one took a considerable amount of time, the plan to capture the Wraiths was changed. The bait remained the same – a medallion transmitter. But now, instead of an EMP field, Lantians, Nomads, Atosian soldiers – everyone who could hold a weapon and fight Wraith squads – were hidden by "jumpers." Some of them hung in the air with supplies of Ermen anti-aircraft missiles, the supply of which was visibly dwindling. Others were on duty over the forest. Full of soldiers, they only engaged in combat when the Wraiths threatened to scatter across the valley and the surrounding forest.
"He knew nothing about Atlantis before he met us," Kirik returned his attention to his friends. "And the Scavenger didn't send him after us. He escaped, decided to lie low and regain his strength to join another hive later. But, as it turned out, their allied hive was destroyed by the Scavenger's faction. Completely. The second allied hive also hasn't made contact. And that only happens in case of complete destruction of the hive."
"Hmm..." Mikhail pondered. "I'm starting to like this Scavenger. He's doing our work for us. Maybe we should just move to another planet and let him do what he does? The more of these guys there are, the fewer of these guys there are."
"I'm for it," Kirik said. "Let them kill each other more."
"You don't understand," Chaya shook her head. "In the Demon's mind, I sensed malice. He knows that sooner or later the Scavenger's tactics won't work. Now his envoys pretend to be envoys of Cunning Blade, and he himself acts among her allies. But sooner or later, the Keepers of other hives will suspect something is wrong and raise the alarm, and won't let negotiators on board. And then all the Wraiths in the galaxy will awaken..."
"And if among all of them there are those who believe him about our return, then a full-scale blockade awaits us," Mikhail sighed. "Nothing we wouldn't have anticipated. You suffered in vain, Teyla..."
"No," the Atosian woman retorted hotly. "I haven't told you everything yet. In the Demon's mind, I saw many things related to his hive... And his plan regarding the Scavenger. The Demon knew where the super-hive was located or would be located in the near future."
Mikhail's eyes sparkled.
"Now, tell me more about that."