Atlantis | A massive city of the Ancients filled with untapped technology, believed to have served as the central nexus for all Ancient activity in the Pegasus Galaxy. Now that humans from Earth have found the lost city, it has become their base of operations in exploring the galaxy. Six angular pylons connect to a central island, which includes the command tower. The entire city is normally powered by three Zero Point Modules, though they have expired. Power is now supplied by numerous naquadah generators brought from Earth. The starship Daedalus has also brought a powered Z.P.M. from Ancient Egypt, which is used to power the shield, cloaking technology, and the doorway back to Earth when needed.The city itself is capable of space flight, and originally resided on the surface of Earth, on the continent that became Antarctica. Between five and 10 million years ago the Ancients left Earth with the great city, bringing it to a planet in the Pegasus Galaxy. After a war there with the Wraith, the Ancients submerged the city in an ocean and returned to Earth through the Stargate. The city was found thousands of years later by an expedition team from Earth, led by Elizabeth Weir.Upon their arrival, the city's systems detected the presence of the Earth team and began reactivating lights and power systems as people approached them -- depleting the overall power supply and shrinking the great shield that held back the water of the ocean in which Atlantis was submerged. Automated systems brought the city back to the surface before the shield failed, though this has left Atlantis vulnerable to attack. The city now sits as an island in the middle of an ocean, with a large land mass only 25 minutes travel by Puddle Jumper -- the small ships left behind in Atlantis by the Ancients. Since Atlantis' Stargate is believed to be the only one capable of connecting to Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy, and to prevent the capture of the city by the Wraith, self destruct codes were given to the officers of the facility. Two personnel are required to administer codes which will overload the naquadah generators, and effectively cause a 20 kiloton-equivalent explosion.The arms of the city, as well as various other locales within, can be accessible via transport chambers. Atlantis includes numerous buildings of various sizes, with the center facility -- the control tower -- containing the Stargate. The city contains a variety of different resources | Iratus Bug | Insect species native to the Pegasus Galaxy. Based on information gathered from the Ancient database and Atlantis expedition members' encounters with the creatures, it is believed that the iratus bug is responsible for the evolutionary development and life-absorbing urges of the Wraith. The combination of iratus and human D.N.A. brought about the Wraith form over millions of years.Iratus bugs typically live and breed in dark, secluded caves. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of the bugs can exist in extremely close proximity to one another, sharing large nests. They are known to exist on at least two worlds, including the planet presently classified as the Wraith homeworld. The creatures are capable of spinning and dangling from sticky, spider-like webbing, which they may use to ensnare their prey in order to feed.Doctor Beckett encroaches on a nest of live iratus bugs. From "Conversion." The species maintains the eggs of their young in enormous sacks that dangle from the ceilings of the caves they inhabit. One sack can hold hundreds of eggs, and support the weight of a 150-pound man, without the breaking and falling to the ground. The exterior casing is thick and resiliant. An iratus is like a Wraith in that it has very fast regenerative capabilities. It can withstand several direct assaults by an Earth handgun and still maintain itself long enough to eventually attack again. It is known to assault its prey by burrowing like a tick into the neck of human flesh, wrapping its short, claw-like legs around the neck. The victim quickly loses motor control in the extremities, and soon his vital organs shut down. Iratus egg sacks hang suspended on a nests ceiling. From "Conversion." The present theory is that the Wraith evolved when the Ancients seeded their world with human-form life, as they did throughout the Pegasus Galaxy. The iratus fed off the humans, and the early humanoids on their world encorporated iratus D.N.A. into their own. Dr. Carson Beckett has developed a prototype for an iratus bug retrovirus that would, in theory, strip the insect D.N.A. from a Wraith and leave only human biology.Iodine and alcohol (poured on the soft tissue) have no effect on the creatures. However, the bugs are repelled by salt water. It is currently the only known deterrent (though this does not stop an iratus from feeding). The insect will only cease its life-sucking if the lifeform it is attached to is dead. | Wraith Civil War | Conflict spurred by Colonel John Sheppard's early awakening of all Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy.
With the galaxy's inadequate amount of humans to sustain their entire population, Wraith factions began to form for the express purpose of gaining access to any attainable territory -- where a sparse food supply existed to begin with. Because the next great holocaust was undoubtedly some time away, the Wraith began to panic -- with stronger groups destroying the weak. | Enzyme Wraith | Substance injected into the body of a Wraith victim during the feeding process. The process is so traumatic for the individual that, without it, he or she would die far faster than the Wraith wish. This enzyme is injected gradually and ensures that the heart will continue to beat, permitting a Wraith to take more time killing the person.
An overdose of this enzyme can give a person super-human strength, paranoia, and a loss of rational thought -- should he survive the ordeal. | Siege Of Atlantis | A second attack by the Wraith on the city of Atlantis, drawn out over a period of several days, and the first faced by the expedition from Earth. (The first siege took place some 10,000 years earlier, when the Ancients still occupied the city.) Originally three Wraith hive ships were detected, but that number would escalate after the city received aid from Earth. The battle would end with an ingenious plan that could conceivably prevent the Wraith from ever returning. | Pegasus Galaxy | Galaxy 3.26 to 3.5 million light years from Earth's home galaxy, the Milky Way, to which the Ancients traveled when they left Earth with the city of Atlantis between five and 10 million years ago. There they also established a vast network of Stargates on over a thousand planets, which prospered for some time -- until the Ancients stumbled upon a world where the Wraith slept.This species awoke and ran rampant like a plague through the Pegasus Galaxy, feeding on the life-force of the human inhabitants seeded by the Ancients on many worlds until only Atlantis remained untouched. The city fell under siege for an extended period of time until the Ancients, defeated, decided to submerge it, the survivors returning to Earth to live out their lives in peace. The Wraith went into hibernation until a substantial population could be found that would allow all of them to thrive once more.The threat of the Wraith has remained a dark cloud over the sparsely populated human worlds in Pegasus -- but the galaxy also offers great hope and potential to the eager explorers from Earth. |
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