Chapter Text
9878 Years Since The Wraith/Lantean War, Around 120 Years Prior To Earths Use Of The Stargate. Earth Year, 1879 Common Era.
Above a world on the edge of the Pegasus Galaxy flew a formation of thirteen strange vessels unlike most in the cosmos. Almost completely organic in design, with a few metallic components meant to strengthen a few sections of the ventral hull, three of these ships would have been classed as Dreadnoughts in most galaxies, being 1200 meters in length. But to the beings who commanded them, they were but Cruisers escorting the 6500 meter long Hive Ship, a flying city and the center of their civilization. Though most other Hives averaged one way or another by several hundred meters, most Cruisers were closer to the trio in size by mere tens of meters on average. Even the nine smaller Destroyers, with a crew of 1200, were 740 meters in length.
While the trio of Cruisers each carried a crew of 4500, the Hive carried a crew of 50,000. It was a force most in the universe would consider to be a major threat, then suffer heart attacks when they realized that it was one of the smallest of the Factions that arose in the wake of a war almost 10,000 years ago. Commanded by a large being that could almost be confused for a Human from a distance, the 7'2 Wraith with pale skin, white hair cut short, a moustache, and a beard was working in his personal laboratory. While his people had spent almost 11,000 years feeding on the life essence of other beings, especially Humans, to survive, he had grown dissatisfied with his life, if you could call it that.
Though he'd been born in the late stages of the war with the Ancients, he would never forget the way the Queens and unaligned Commanders tore into each other in the aftermath. While some of the major factions had temporarily allied again long enough to destroy those infernal machines, most had simply defended their own territories and eyed those of their neighbors. At the time, his own Hive had participated in the attack on the Replicators and retrieved several of their Zero-Point Modules, then secretly stored them in his cargo hold. But he couldn't afford to install them as, despite his attempts, he still couldn't figure out an efficient method of recharging them that wouldn't take decades to refill just one of them.
Despite these setbacks, he had nonetheless made significant strides in advancing their technology. While most Wraith vessels depended on massive Cold Fusion Generators for power, he had developed four Cold Fusion Naqhuda Enhanced Reactors for his ship, each was 250 meters wide and 120 meters long. Three of them filled the hole in the middle of the Hive, the fourth had ended up in the aft section, and with the massive increase in power his Hive had grown to 7200 meters in length. While the hull had also grown to be significantly thicker and more heavily armored than the standard configuration, he still wished to ensure as many of his crew as possible survived the next time he got into a fight.
While they were very isolated out here on the edge of the galaxy, there were thousands of Minor Factions and eight Major Factions, many possessed nothing bigger than a Cruiser but just as many possessed at least one Hive Ship and an average of three Cruisers per Hive, which was the norm each Hive could support on its own. The Carrier variant could support six, but even without that there were still around 10,000 Hive Ships in the galaxy. While the vast majority were of the baseline variety, thousands were classed as either Carriers or Battleships due to being enhanced in one way or another at the expense of most of their other systems. Many of them were also very, very old, dating back to the war with the Lanteans 10,000 years ago.
The problem was that without a Queen, his options were limited. What he needed was to impress one of them over another Commander. While most Commanders would expect him to go for one of the Queen Primaries, Evat'kor had set his eyes on a Queen Attendant, Atara. He had served her well 10,000 years ago, first as a Scientist and then as a Warrior. While he had later left her service to grow his own power so he could present himself to her in the hope of becoming her Lord Commander when she became a Queen, instead of immediately going about fighting minor Commanders and absorbing their territory, he had spent the past 7200 years travelling the galaxy gathering lost Ancient technology and using his expertise as a Scientist to make some upgrades to both his ships and his Drones.
Of course, the reason for his extended search was that his ultimate goal had become the removal of the Hunger, the need to Feed on the lifeforce of other beings. Though he had made great strides to that end, including creating a retrovirus which modified himself and his crew so they could Feed on Humans without killing them or causing anything more than a mild itching sensation, and lengthened the time between Feedings by decades even while awake, and by several centuries when hibernating, he still wasn't satisfied. So long as they depended on Humans as a food source, they would be vulnerable to attacks on said Humans which could potentially wipe them out.
At first, they were able to survive by stealing Humans from under the noses of other Hives, but over the past 5000 years they had cultivated a population of them on the planet below, a world cut off from the Stargate Network and only accessible by ship that the Humans now referred to as Caneverik. While they were still primitive, only discovering the radio 30 years ago, they had eventually come to an understanding with Evat'kor and his Hive. With the retrovirus they could Feed without killing Humans, meaning they now only had to ask for volunteers, which they could usually find. With the task of Feeding made easier, his Faction were able to devote more time to defending them from other Hives, which was far from easy.
The Destroyers had a narrower silhouette than the Harbinger Class Cruisers and weren't designed to carry more than a Squadron of Fighters, though the ones in his possession had been modified with a pair of Naqhuda Enhanced Cold Fusion Reactors, same with the Cruisers. It was equipped with 3 Plasma Beam Cannons, one on the nose, one dorsal, and one ventral, as well as four Medium Plasma Cannons, two ventral two dorsal, a network of 24 Point-Defence Plasma Cannons, and a pair of Plasma Torpedo Launchers on either side of the nose.
The Plasma Torpedo Launchers were a new innovation he had designed to replace the Bio-Bombs they had used during the war with the Ancients. The improved Type 2 Darts could fit one such Launcher on the nose, while their Plasma Cannons were moved to the wings on either side of the cockpit, granting them increased firepower while still being able to travel through the Stargate. Combined with their new armour and Deflector Shields, his fighters would have a better chance of survival in combat.
He was broken out of his thoughts by a telepathic signal from his second in command, Davrin, a Wraith Commander who had served him faithfully since they met during the final months of the Siege Of Atlantis before, in a final act of desperation, it broke through the blockade and disappeared into Hyperspace, taking severe damage to its engines as it did so. Several Queens had spent millennia trying to find it, but most of the Wraith had become convinced that the Lanteans had chosen to hole up somewhere until they Ascended instead of building up for another war with them.
"Yes, Davrin?"
He could almost feel his XO flinch at the slight annoyance in his tone. "My apologies, Commander, but we have detected some unusual subspace disturbances that are almost consistent with a vessel in Hyperspace heading towards us."
"I'm on my way." Evat'kor saved the data on his planned adjustments to the hull, which would hopefully allow it to feed off of Hyperspace radiation, and began the long walk to the Bridge, passing by Frelia, a Queen Attendant gifted to him by a Queen named Jinura, who worked as an assistant to him and his chief scientist, Coris. The two continued silently working at their terminals.
Several minutes later he entered the Bridge. "Report."
Davrin, whose skin was more darkish green than pale, turned. "The anomaly is slowing down and has started fluctuating rapidly, at its current rate of decay I believe it will disappear in two minutes. We are detecting what appears to be a vessel within the anomaly, but there's a lot of unidentifiable radiation, our sensors are having trouble getting accurate readings."
Evat'kor frowned as he sat in his Command Throne and placed his hands on the armrests, accessing the data feeds directly to see for himself. "Interesting. Launch the Darts, and prepare the Fleet for battle. If they're hostile, we will be ready."
On the monitors, a colossal purple sphere several kilometers across appeared in space, swirling like a hurricane before it solidified and vanished, revealing a single dark green vessel. Parts of the hull were scorched with battle damage, several compartments ripped open and exposed to vacuum as humanoids were sucked out of them. Around it floated a large cloud of debris, as if everything within the field had been transported with it from wherever it came from.
Davrin growled. "The vessel is severely damaged, it's running on minimal power and there are less than half a dozen life signs remaining, but they are fading fast. Their power core seems to be remarkably stable, despite the damage to the rest of their ship. It appears to be roughly 498 meters long, 355 meters wide, and 178 meters in height."
Evat'kor raised an eyebrow. "That ship is tiny. Even if it was fully functional, I doubt they'd be able to fight us given the fact even our Destroyers are bigger than them. Launch boarding parties, I want either survivors or their data."