[IC] Stargate: Atlantis

[Imperial1917]

The day of days.

Deep beneath the rock of the Cheyanne Mountain range the strange, flickering light of the active wormhole filled the Gate Room and the command and control center beyond it. Presided over by its commander the Atlantis Expedition stepped up the metal ramp and disappeared into the unknown. For what seemed like an eternity the halls of the Complex had been filled with more boxes of equipment and crates of materials than the designers had ever intended, let alone the scores of people who squeezed by between them through impossibly small spaces. Maelstroms of activity filled those spaces as plans were made and remade, information was exchanged and miscommunicated and clarified, and supplies were found and lost and found again as final preparations were made for the most daring endeavor of the Stargate Program to date.

In the end there were few words, just a hushed silence and curt orders from the colonel that sent the first teams through hot on the treads of a MALP that transmitted back a blurry feed of a wide room filled with Ancient architecture and telemetry of basic life support. Civilians followed with the second wave of soldiers, prompting looks of displeasure that were masked with varying degrees of success. There was nothing for it. Power supplies were uncertain, and time was of the essence. Trains of MALPs accompanied the embarking expedition, interspaced at vital intervals but the bulk of them held back, waiting for the command to pursue their creators into the unknown. There was a certain poetry to that.

Beyond, the embarkation room was made into a beachhead, tides of personnel exiting the ancient portal into a dimly lit space and quickly making way for those behind them. Bags of supplies, boxes of equipment, and the few MALP trains already arrived were pushed into hallways and crevices, anywhere they might be out of the way, mainly by civilians as they milled around the gradually widening military cordon. Hushed voices created a low murmur that echoed from two main halls lined with rooms that led away from the new Gate Room. Bisecting them was a central staircase leading upward, a conference room to the left and a command and control center to the right. Watched over by a residue of the military contingent, scientists swarmed over the dimly glowing consoles, their backs to a stairwell leading both up and down that echoed with the sounds of searching soldiers’ voices.

Perpendicular to the conference room Marsh stood the near director as she measured curtains in the one place she had seen so far that was so quaintly an office. Then again, she had not seen much yet. Even the walls of this place gave off an aura of grandiose scale. There were windows behind the Stargate, but they were high up and stained, giving away nothing until the highest ones which looked to be skylights of some sort, though they were dark now and gave off no light. It seemed whoever designed this place was a romantic too. Some things never changed.

The other woman was dressed in her JAG uniform, probably because she was holding out hope for first contact. Or sixth contact, depending on how you read the mission reports. Marsh thought she looked sharp, though she kept that to herself. West had a hand up to her earpiece and her voice filled the comm line, directing inquiries here and there even as her eyes took in the almost bare space that she had claimed for herself. She seemed to have put Marsh from her mind for a moment. Marsh didn’t mind, it was interesting to watch the woman at work.

Then she turned and watched as the influx continued. There were not many left by her count. Too few, in her opinion. Already the MALP trains were starting to out-turf the humans, their rattling carts beginning to overwhelm the dwindling number of controllers abandoned by their fellows to poke at Ancient gizmos. The useful fools. Speaking of useful… her eyes followed one straggler in particular as she stumbled through the gateway.

[Goldenbraid]

Jump Off Day

As she entered the gate room, Chasity was amazed by the volume of people and equipment filling the ramp and spilling into main area, the place a buzz of activity that had it looking like giant ants rushing about their maze of tunnels.

Wondering where in this mess she was suppose to be, she shimmed between cart after cart of boxes and crates of equipment, receiving several differing instructions of where to stand, finally being positioned with the largest part of the baggage train. And as she looked up at the huge gate she was of mixed feelings, her curious side thrill at the idea of exploring some ancient base not seen by man before, yet at the same time remembered this was a one-way trip with no guarantee of return or even possible survival, which had her very nervous.

As the gate lit up/opened, those feeling intensified, and she had a small pang of jealousy as the expedition’s commander stepped through to be the first to enter the base. It didn’t surprise her as the next through was the largest contingency of the military, there to secure the expedition’s safety of course, followed by most of the rest of the soldiers and the civilian big wigs. After that it became a steady stream of baggage and personal going through, and as she slowly moved forward, she started to get second thoughts about this trip.

She looked around, noting it was getting to be mostly equipment entering now, only a small dozen people left, and started to think…. the note writer was likely already though, those left not being of high enough authority to do what the writer had mentioned…. just civilian grunts like her. She could just slip away, not missed till likely after the gate closed, and any tracking of her would lead searchers here and the assumption she’d gone through. It would be like a new start, just go to ground and lose herself some place. Not that it would be easy to do, she realized, looking around again, for the carts were tight together and slipping off the ramp would be hard to do without being seen, but there was a slim chance..!

That’s when her hand landed on her personal bag, strangely right beside her on the cart to her right, reminding her of the box inside. It could still could go through to the base, getting it away from those who might want it back, but then she hadn’t figured out yet if it was a shield or bullseye to her? Grabbing it would thin down her already pretty slim chances of slipping away unnoticed, but she had taken a strangely unexplainable feeling of responsibility for the strange container of tech. If the note writer did know of the box, she’d be sending it right into their hands being the only other one to know it was there…. possibly not a good idea. And she still didn’t even know what they did. What if they posed a danger to the expedition? What if one or more of them somehow activated going through the gate? If no one know they were there they’d be like a ticking timebomb threating the fate of the expedition. Or worse, what if the expedition ran into some trouble only one of the items could stop and no one know it was there….. no one was there to use it to save everyone from perishing??

Could she really live with herself if they were never heard from again and it was possibly her fault?

She snapped out of her thoughts to realize she was just a couple feet from the gate, and surrounded by carts, she half stepped, half was pushed through the gate…..

[Highland Sniper]

Jump off day
Before Chasity

Liana looked up at the majestic Stargate is it opened, and she had to gape at it and stare is the center lit up opening the way to another world. This would be her first SGC mission, and first active service after Iraq. She shook with anticipation before realizing she was holding her arm.

Her arm had been broken by a suicide bomber in Iraq, putting her out of action for a bit until SGC pulled her in.
She had requested to be a part of this mission, seeing what use her skills could be in this situation. She had used her therapeutic skills in Iraq well, and would now have a chance to use them here. She rubbed her arm, still in it's sling.

Her wise almost went wide as she saw the commander stepped through. then, everyone one else started to move forward through the Stargate, disappearing as they did so. it would soon be her turn, since she was in the rear of the military contingent going through on account of her arm. she patted her sidearm at her thigh, and smiled as she reminded herself that she could still fight regardless.

She double checked her helmet strap to make sure it was secure. Then she proceeded ahead like everyone else, hand to her side to draw quickly if needed. She soon reached the Stargate, and slowly, stepped through.

[Dnafein]

Rogers moved silently down the hallway; His eyes swept the empty hall, the barrel of his rifle moving with his eyes. The marine moving along the opposite wall behaved similarly. Aside from the lights turning on, there was no sign of any life. It was eerie, like moving through a mausoleum, or an empty level of a video game.

The two reached the end of the hall and Stan pulled his hand off the vertical grip. After a three count they both stepped forward and turned in the direction the hall feeds. Weapons sweeping for any sign of movement. "Clear."

"Clear." Came the reply, and Rogers wondered if he sounded as disappointed as the marine did. He shook his head and sank to a knee.

"Rogers to Gate Room," He said as he keyed his radio. "Still no sign of life. I don't think we're gonna find anything he- Wait one."

Stan turned to the marine, who cleared his throat. Moving to the corporal's side, Rogers gave a low whistle. Rekeying his radio, he resumed his report. "I am pretty sure no one is here. Not unless they are a strong swimmer."

He released the radio's button, and stared at what was obviously the bottom of an ocean. He stepped closer to the window and shifted his eyes upwards. A lot of ocean, in fact. He thought to himself. His eyes swept the water looking for anything swimming through the depths.

[Highland Sniper]

A small base camp had been set up in the gate room already, but it seemed to be set up with plans to move it.

With not much use at present, as no one had reported any issues in their mental health yet, she had been stationed on the radio.

The call came over that one would be there unless they were a strong swimmer. She was a little skeptical, yet curious.

"What makes you say that?" she asked over the radio.

[InfraredHero]

Upon exiting the stargate into Atlantis' gateroom, Brandon immediately started barking orders to his men. "Secure the gateroom!" "Search that room!" "Create a perimeter here!" "I want two-man search parties checking out the city!" "Non-military personnel stick to the already secured areas!" It wasn't until he finished his initial orders that he was able to take a moment to look around the gateroom and just take in the environment. He had seen alien structures before, but none was as sophisticated as this. This place was clean. Polished.

The colonel didn't spend long admiring the interior. He had a job to do. As the rest of the expedition team stepped through the gate he made sure they all knew his orders, then he went to what he assumed was the command room. He watched a technician examine one of the computer consoles as he tried to figure out how to use it. Then came the report over the radio from Rogers. "Copy that, Lieutenant," the colonel replied over the radio. "Hold your position, I'm coming to you." Then he signaled for the nearby sergeant assigned to the radio to come with him.

Making his way through the halls, Kramer was once again able to idly admire the infrastructure of the city. The interior of the hallways very much matched that of the gateroom and control room. Nothing was surprising him until he came to Lt. Rogers and the window. "Wow," the colonel let out under his breath as he took in the view. The exterior of the city was as impressive as the interior, but he had more important matters to attend to at the moment. "Doctor West, this is Colonel Kramer," He spoke into his radio. "You'll want to see this. The city is submerged underwater." He reported bluntly. If it was going to be an issue to figure out how to bring the city out of the water, they would need the scientists working on it as soon as possible.

[Highland Sniper]

Seargent Liana got up and followed close behind the Colonel. once they Reach the window, she gaped at the scene for a moment until Colonel Kramer spoke into his radio. She snapped out of it and turned to the Colonel.

"Sir, this may cause another level of stress," she said as she turned to him. "I'm certain people are going to have a problem with a bajillion of gallons over their heads."

She stood straight as she tried to be respectful of the others there. She didn't want to overstep her bounds.

[Imperial1917]

"So I have been told, Colonel." replied West distractedly. Now standing in the control room having been fetched by a hand-wringing scientist, the director now stared glumly at the collection of Ancient consoles. The lights of the facility had come on as they ascended the stairs but the illumination was poor. Looking up at the windows behind the Stargate she realized that the dimness probably due to being deep enough that little light penetrated to this level. Which was deep.

"Ma'am?" said Marsh, causing the woman to turn around. "That's the last of the MALPs. And not a moment too soon. The SGC is reporting power fluctuations in the wormhole. We can't keep it open much longer." Nodding her thanks to the stocky major, West switched channels to the SGC, the chatter on the other end making it immediately clear that they were aware of the new revelation, probably due to monitoring all Expedition radio traffic. For some reason that irked her, like someone watching over her shoulder.

"This is West." she interjected, cutting the babble short as they stopped to listen. "Everything is through on this end." Overlapping voices came back for a moment before she continued, "Yes, the Expedition offers greetings from the Pegasus Galaxy. You may cut the power to the Stargate now. Good luck and godspeed." It only struck her after saying it how strange it was for her to be wishing them luck when they were likely the ones who would need it, probably sooner rather than later. The wormhole flexed again, depositing a small item that she couldn't see until a scientist retrieved it and held it up, revealing a wine bottle with a note attached. Then the wormhole cut out.

Turning back to the scientists, she found them staring at her with empty expressions. Knowing that they were worrying in a way they weren't moments before when the wormhole was still open, she assured them, "We'll be fine. Get me the status on what we have up and running."

One of the civilians shook himself and glanced down at the laptop in front of him which was crudely interfaced with the console it sat on. With the Stargate inactive the most light in the room came from a large transparent panel behind him, scrolling with Ancient text too fast to read. "We've got power fluctuations of our own, sir. Power is draining fast. The colonel is right: we're on the ocean floor. Right now the city is shielded and that is holding back the water, but at the rate power is being consumed that won't last for much longer. A few hours at most."

Fighting down the sudden panic that rose up in her chest, West replied, "Give me some options people." Her change in tone broke the spell and another scientist reported from her workstation. "It looks like the city is designed to float, sir." West tilted her head, "How?" She felt Marsh move up beside her. "More importantly, if we can float, why aren't we?" The scientist flushed and seemed to almost attack her laptop before answering, "Something's wrong with the mechanisms. It should be releasing us, but the clamps are holding on. It's possible that the city has been down here long enough that the releases have become stuck."

"Could we dial out?" asked Marsh. West glared at her and the major shrugged, "Just an option if we need it."

"Not back home, if that is what you are asking," replied the first scientist glumly. "We don't have nearly enough power. The best we can do is somewhere in the Pegasus Galaxy. We have some addresses in the databank."

Reaching up to her comm link, West cut through the sudden burst of chatter as news of their plight spread to the rest of the Expedition, panic lurking not nearly as far beneath the surface as the city evidently was. Creating a secure channel including the colonel, lieutenants, and Summers, she said, "Miss Summers, please help assure the people we have this under control. Have a soldier or two help. Colonel? Lieutenants? Opinions please. What options do we have?"

[Highland Sniper]

Liana overheard the chatter and caught the part about assuring the team from the Colonel's radio.

yes, assurance is what they need. she thought. And then it came to her. what I am here for? I should get back there.

"Sir, If I have permission to head back? They may need my help back at base camp." She said, turning stiffly over to Colonel Kramer as she addressed him.

She was trying not to worry to much about her arm still in it's cast. But she waited in confidence for his reply.

[Goldenbraid]

Chasity found the gate room and the rest of the base that could be seen from there quite awe inspiring, so much so that she forgot her mixed feeling for the time.

It seemed all but a small unit of the military was off exploring the base for troubles, and all the science heads and their seconds were spreading out to examine this item and that, leaving the more basic people minding the equipment that was pushed here and there, forming a rough base camp.

Her curiosity was going by the minute, and though nothing like the dim lit and often badly decayed ruins she helped her father look around, she was very tempted to go off exploring herself, but resisted the urge. Instead she started to help those left behind with the baggage, as much like the chaos of the other side, there was people sort through the crates and boxes trying to organize them some. Chasity ended up being the one searching through the carts and stacks of containers for stuff the others wanted but couldn’t find, as she was more agile and slimmer to slip between or sometimes climb over the varies crates, boxes and carts.

She was in fact, half climbing, half hopping over one pile of boxes when Lt. Rogers comment came over the comm, making her nearly trip in surprise…… strong swimmer? The Colonel’s words a few minutes later made it clearer.

Under water? That figured considering the base’s name, being named after the ancient sunken city from legends, then suddenly it hit her…. what if it isn’t named after, but is the famous city of Atlantis? Glancing around, she shook her head, no wonder no one could find it despite centuries of searching the oceans, it not only wasn’t on earth, it wasn’t even in the same galaxy!

She noticed the new was making some of the others nervous, so though a bit worried herself, she made light of the situation, joking that it just meant that any animals around were going to be fish-like instead of bird-like.

Chasity stopped and watched as West made the last exchange with the other side of the gate, giggling as the bottle of wine was rolled through and retrieved, but had a sudden feeling of fated finality as the gate shut down, making this one way trip a reality.

She was back helping to sort and organize the ton of equipment when the other shoe dropped….. whatever was holding back the water was running out of energy and destine to collapse! Something that had everyone growing scared and uncertain, even as the expedition’s head spoke over the comm…. and to her surprise called her by name!

Now more nervous about West mentioning her by name, then the tons of crushing water that might come crashing in at any moment, she did grab two or three soldiers, their military training making them act calm despite the looks of fear they too had. She used them as both a calming presence and an intimidating sight to suppress the growing feeling of panic everyone was obviously getting, tell them that some of the greatest and most qualified minds in every specialty had been sent along with them and would figure this out in no time.

She just wished she felt as confident and at easy as she sounded……