All I Ask Of You

All I Ask of You

"Jumper one, this is jumper two, follow my lead."

"You got it." Rachel fell into sync with the other three jumpers hovering over the south side of the city.

"Jumpers one, three and four, we are to remain in radio contact as soon as we cloak, do you copy?"

"Copy that, jumper two." That was jumper three, the other female pilot.

"Copy that." That was jumper four, the other male pilot.

"You betcha." That was Rachel. Obviously. Rachel could practically hear the eye rolling coming from the other pilots.

"Atlantis, this is jumper two, we are ready to go."

"Copy that, jumper two. We'll notify you when we're ready. Weir out."

"Jumper flight team one, cloak now." Rachel smiled, calling the jumper teams 'jumper flight team ' had been her idea. When all four jumpers were cloaked, they received confirmation from the other two teams – two more four jumper teams – that they were cloaked too, it then became a waiting game.

A few hours ago, maybe five hours ago, Rachel couldn't be sure, Rodney had made the announcement that they had figured out how to fire the weapon with a few of the naqahdah generators powering it. Pilots were sent to the jumper bay and Rachel spent a good two hours simply talking to them, getting to know them and they helped her better understand some of the jumpers systems.

They also showed her how to lock herself in the rear compartment if something should happen, basically giving her a run down of all of the safety protocols and everything. She appreciated it greatly, knowing that she had to know almost everything if they were to have the greatest chance possible against the twenty or so hive ships that they could see.

~

"Jumper flight team one, two and three – you have a go to position yourselves around your hive ship. We're not sure how many hive ships we can take out with the weapon, so we'll need you to get a head start." Rachel was practically vibrating with excitement.

"Jumper one and three, flank the first hive ship, jumper four, take the under belly, I've got the top."

"Copy that," was repeated twice while Rachel stuck with her "You betcha." The four cloaked jumpers positioned themselves expertly and awaited the order to fire.

"Atlantis, this is jumper two, jumper flight team one is in position."

"Jumper two, this is Atlantis. Jumper flight teams two and three are in position, too. On my mark," Rachel could tell that Elizabeth was now speaking to all three jumper teams now, "you are to open fire on the hive ship you are surrounding. We want to get them before they can release their darts. Three, two, one, mark."

The simultaneous explosions of three Wraith hive ships colored Rachel's view screen with fire. The other hive ships around the three that exploded backed away from them quickly, but another four were destroyed from the blast of the original three.

"Atlantis, this is jumper two, we have confirmation of the destruction of our hive ships and of another four hive ships, do you copy?"

"Copy that, jumper two, reposition your team around another hive ships and take out as many as you can. We're about to fire the weapon now, so be warned." The last part was said to all teams.

"Yes, ma'am. Jumper flight team one, reposition yourselves around the next hive ship." Rachel's video gaming skills were put to the test as all of the remaining thirteen hive ships let loose their darts. As Rachel's team and the other two teams repositioned themselves, there was a bright, green light shooting up from the planet – it hit two hive ships and they went down without a second thought.

"Jumper flight team one, this is jumper two, fire at will. We are now breaking formation." The expected "Copy that"'s and Rachel's "You betcha," responded quickly to jumper two's order.

All at once the three flight teams broke formation and began firing at dart ships, managing to get in a few good ones at the hive ships. The pilots flew with grace, cloaking and uncloaking at random intervals, confusing the darts as the jumpers continued to fire upon them.

Rachel's mind was carefully blank as she continued to aim, fire and cloak from sight of the darts as she maneuvered around the few remaining hive ships. The green light had come from the surface only two more times, each strike taking another two hive ships each – making the total count of remaining hive ships seven, no, wait, make that six, another one just exploded – when they got the message from Atlantis that they couldn't use the weapon again, the generators had been depleted completely because of the power requirement.

Five more jumpers were on there way and the Daedalus was to be arriving in a few minutes – Colonel Caldwell had been pushing its engines as much as he could to get there as soon as possible. All the jumpers had to do was keep the darts and remaining hive ships at bay for a few minutes longer. Atlantis' shield was holding, the rest of the naqahdah generators had been put to giving what power they could to the shields, if only to help keep them alive for a few minutes more.

Rachel had just cloaked her jumper again when the Daedalus dropped out of hyperspace and started to open fire on the remaining hive ships. Rachel uncloaked once more and continued firing, barely registering that she had been hit along her side. Her mind couldn't fully comprehending how the green light from the surface was able to come back again, getting rid of five of the remaining hive ships as the Daedalus finished off the last one.

"Jumper flight teams, this is Atlantis – all of the hive ships are eliminated but we still have a lot of darts flying around down here. Return to Atlantis for the final strike. Wier out." Rachel couldn't tell if she was beaming or not, she was still focused on her task of firing at the darts. Still uncloaked, she turned around and headed back down to Atlantis, shooting down as many darts as she could on her way.

The darts, knowing that their hive ships had been taken out, turned suicidal. Five or more dart groups of six crashed into Atlantis' shield, determined to get through. Pairs of darts started tailing the jumpers when they were uncloaked, firing at them repeatedly until they cloaked again, catching the darts off guard before they, too, were taken out.

Many of the darts backed off, taking their leave as they tried to leave the planets orbit; the Daedalus was the only thing preventing them from getting any further as it shot down the few darts that did try to get free. When only a handful of darts remained, they were given the call from Atlantis to let them go – there had to be someone to tell the other hives of their defeat.

"All jumpers return to the jumper bay, please." Rachel could tell Elizabeth was smiling. Chorus' of "Copy that, Atlantis"'s rang out over the radio link as Rachel's "You betcha" blended in with the others. As Rachel entered the jumper bay, she saw a few medical teams waiting for them. It was then that she saw about five or six jumpers had been hit pretty badly by the darts; the outer hull of the jumpers were splattered with charred spots where the darts hit them.

Rachel quickly thought back to her time out there, she was pretty sure that she hadn't been hit... Of course, if she had been hit and then hit her head hard enough, she could have easily forgotten. And sure enough, when she stood up, she was overcome with a wave of dizziness and when she opened the rear hatch, holding onto the pilots seat for support, a med team was waiting for her. She smiled, at least, she thought she smiled, as two of the paramedics came into the jumper and took both of her arms, leading her to an awaiting gurney. She saw other pilots being treated to the same courtesy as they were led from their jumpers and to their own gurneys.

"All righ'!" Rachel tried to sit up, trying to see where the voice came from, but she was firmly pushed to lie down on the gurney. "Let's take them all back to the infirmary!" Rachel smiled, relaxing into the soft padding beneath her as the paramedics took charge of their new patients and followed Carson back to the infirmary.