Tau'ri-Wraith War

"We're not like the Ancients; we're not gonna sit around and wait. If they don't back off; we have the capacity and the will to go kick their asses for a change."

- John Sheppard

The Tau'ri-Wraith War (2004-20??) is a conflict fought between the Tau'ri and the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy, primarily, but also in the Milky Way galaxy, albeit to a far lesser extent.

At the time of the arrival of the Tau'ri in Pegasus, the Wraith had had dominion over the galaxy for 10,000 years since the disembarkation of the Ancients, which was the conclusion of the Lantean-Wraith war and the First siege of Atlantis. From their arrival, the Tau'ri have faced seemingly insurmountable odds against the Wraith and their large fleet of massive and formidable Hive ships. However, the Expedition, dedicated to the protection of one of the last surviving Ancient City-ship, Atlantis, has continued to combat the Wraith over the duration of the expedition. This combat has included the defense of Atlantis, the protection of the numerous human worlds in the galaxy, and offensive maneuvers aimed at achieving the ultimate downfall of the Wraith.

Beginnings (2004)
When the Atlantis expedition first arrived in the Pegasus galaxy, they soon encountered the Wraith on the planet Athos. In the valiant defense of the planet, several Athosians and Tau'ri were captured by Wraith Darts and taken to the Wraith homeworld. In response, the Atlantis expedition soon sent a strike force, lead by Major John Sheppard and Lt. Aiden Ford, on a rescue mission the retrieve their people.

When the team arrived to the planet, via Puddle Jumper, they discovered that their people were taken to a holding cell aboard a Wraith Hive ship. Meanwhile, Colonel Marshall Sumner was being interrogated by the Wraith Keeper who soon found out about the existence of Earth, with its billions of humans for the Wraith to feed on. The queen then started feeding on Sumner as Sheppard arrived. He then ended Sumner's pain and shot the queen. The Wraith then captured Sheppard, who was soon rescued by Ford. They then fled after rescuing their people, and after a brief skirmish with a group of Wraith Darts, safely returned to Atlantis. However, upon leaving the Wraith Hive, the queen said that every Wraith in the galaxy would awaken to find Earth, and then they would feast.

The Siege of Atlantis (2005)
The Wraith sent three Hive ships and nine cruisers to attack Atlantis. The first Hive ship was destroyed by a Lagrangian Point satellite in the Lantean system, but the other Wraith ships destroyed the satellite and continued on to Atlantis. Seeing no further hope, Dr. Elizabeth Weir ordered an evacuation. However, just before they were set to leave, Stargate Command managed to establish a wormhole with Atlantis. Brigadier General Jack O'Neill sent a force of some fifty Marines under the command of Colonel Dillon Everett with a mission to defend Atlantis at all costs. With them they brought six Nuclear warheads and a Mark II Naquadah generator which was able to power the Control chair.

After the first wave of Wraith Darts attacked the city, Major John Sheppard took one of the Puddle Jumpers armed with a warhead on a suicide mission to detonate it inside a Hive ship. Sheppard, however, was saved when the Earth ship Daedalus, under the command of Colonel Steven Caldwell, rescued him before completing his suicide mission with his actual death. The third ship was destroyed by transporting a warhead with Asgard transporters onto the last Hive ship. Seeing their Hives destroyed, the cruisers withdrew, while the remaining Darts made a kamikaze run onto the city. However, the Daedalus had also brought a Zero Point Module, and the Atlantis expedition was able to raise Atlantis' shield.

After their initial force was destroyed, the Wraith then sent 12 more Hive ships to attack Atlantis. However, the Daedalus intercepted them and destroyed 2 more Hive ships before retreating to Atlantis. When the Hives arrived, they immediately began bombarding the city's shields. With only days of shield power left, Dr. Rodney McKay and Sheppard came up with a plan to fake a Self-destruct and cloak the city. Believing Atlantis was destroyed, the Wraith fleet left and Atlantis survived.

Later skirmishes
In 2005, the Atlantis expedition came across a severely damaged Aurora-class battleship named Aurora. When the Daedalus arrived, they detected a Wraith scout ship already at the ship that they quickly destroyed. Shortly after, they detected 2 Wraith cruisers approaching their current position. However, both ships were destroyed soon after their arrival when the Aurora self-destructed.

Later in 2005, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team was captured by Aiden Ford and his coalition in an attempt to destroy a Hive ship. When the plan ultimately failed and they were captured by the Wraith, the Daedalus arrived and engaged the Hive they were on, and another Hive that joined up with it. However, the Daedalus was seriously outmatched. Meanwhile, Sheppard and the Majority of his team escaped in a Wraith Dart and began to fire on both Hives. Because of some mistrust already placed between them, they both though that the other Hive was attacking them. Both Hives then opened fire on each other and were subsequently destroyed as Sheppard flew the Dart to the nearest Stargate and returned to Atlantis.

Another skirmish occurred when the team went to rescue Ronon Dex from the Wraith on Sateda. Over 30 Wraith were killed in the battle by Ronon, Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan before the Wraith Leader responsible went one-on-one against Ronon before being killed by Dr. Carson Beckett.

Later a Wraith Queen whose Wraith cruiser had crashed during the First siege of Atlantis during the war with the Ancients tried to destroy Atlantis by self-destructing her cruiser and causing an eruption that would destroy Atlantis. After being tricked by Teyla, she was killed by a full FN P90 Personal Defense Weapon magazine in the back by Dr. Rodney McKay and a bunch of pistol shots by Sheppard.

The Alliance (2006)
In 2006, the Wraith proposed an alliance with the Atlantis expedition after Dr. Carson Beckett tested his Iratus bug retrovirus on Michael Kenmore. The alliance was turbulent as the Wraith were actually using the alliance as a ruse by planting a spyware computer virus into the Atlantis database to gather two key pieces of information; the Aurora mission report, in order to work out how to upgrade the Wraith hyperdrive, and the location of Earth. Whilst on the Hive ship, Ronon Dex and Dr. Rodney McKay were captured. The Daedalus fell victim to a surprise attack. Lt. Colonel John Sheppard used an F-302 fighter-interceptor and latched onto one of the Hive ships before taking off into hyperspace.

With the intention of attacking Earth, Dr. Elizabeth Weir sent the Daedalus and Orion to intercept the Hive ships. The Orion managed to destroy one Hive before it was subsequently destroyed and the Daedalus managed to severely damage the other before it too became severely damaged. The Daedalus managed to beam over the retrovirus gas to convert the Wraith on the ship into Humans. 200 Wraith managed to turn Human, and were later taken to M8G-352. The expedition commandeered the Hive ship, which was subsequently destroyed. Of the 200 human turned Wraith, only Michael is known to have survived for sure although others may have as well. Michael was ultimately forced to flee for his life and began a crusade against both the humans and the Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy.

Around the Black Hole
The Odyssey orbited a black hole in the Pegasus galaxy in order to connect a wormhole to the Ori Supergate in the Milky Way galaxy using a jump between a Pegasus Stargate and a Milky Way Stargate using Nuclear warheads. The attempts mostly failed, but the nuclear detonations drew a Wraith Hive ship to the Odyssey's position.

The Hive ship engaged the Odyssey in battle and caused the Odyssey's hyperdrive to go down. The Odyssey was at a disadvantage due to the black hole interfering with its systems and the gravity well as well, so the Odyssey drew the Hive ship in closer while pulling a sling-shot maneuver. The Hive ship's systems, including its jamming field, were effected by the black hole and Odyssey beamed the last two nukes on board when it was next to the active Stargate. The Hive ship was destroyed and the blast caused the wormhole to jump to the Supergate on the other end, destroying an Ori warship that was over the Supergate at the time.

Temporary truce and Aftermath (2007)
Knowing that the Atlantis team had re-activated the attack command in the Asurans, the Wraith, Todd, allied himself with them in an attempt to stop the Asurans once and for all as they were a common enemy between the Wraith and the humans of the Tau'ri. After Dr. Rodney McKay came up with a plan that would destroy the Asurans for good, the humans of Atlantis formed an alliance with the Wraith to forge an attack fleet to hold off the Asuran fleet long enough for the plan to be put into play. In the battle that followed the Tau'ri, Wraith and Travelers worked side-by-side against the Asurans and finally destroyed them with the loss of a single Hive ship and a single Traveler generational ship. Afterward, the alliance was ended and the war resumed.

During the Battle of Asuras, Todd was able to organize the recovery of several Zero Point Modules from Asuras before it was destroyed. He planned to use three to power the Wraith cloning facility, which had turned the tide of the Lantean-Wraith war, and clone himself an army with which he could conquer the other Wraith factions. Todd's plan to create a clone army was interrupted about a week later when a Wraith under his command turned on him, triggering a series of events which eventually led to the facility and the trio of ZPMs being destroyed by Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team when they crashed a Hive ship into the facility.

Attack on Midway (2008)
While the Atlantis expedition worked together with Todd against the Asurans, he hacked into Dr. Rodney McKay's computer and found out about the Midway space station. He either shared this information with other Wraith or had it stolen from him, as, several months later, a group of Wraith were able to dial the station and conquered it. Afterward, a Wraith team was sent to Earth, but they were pursued and eliminated by Ronon Dex and Teal'c, who had been visiting Midway in preparation for an upcoming interview Ronon had with the International Oversight Advisory. Before more Wraith could be sent to the Tau'ri homeworld, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and a strike team defeated all the Wraith on the station, but during this process the Self-destruct system was inadvertently activated by Dr. Peter Kavanagh. Since it couldn't be stopped, the station crew was evacuated on a Puddle Jumper and later rescued by the Daedalus during its trip to return Ronon to Atlantis around a week later.

Wraith Hive Alliances
Soon afterwards, Todd contacted the expedition to discuss a drug that enabled the Wraith to forgo the feeding process and eat solid food. Even through he approved of the drug, the final decision lay with the Primary. As she would only meet with the queen from Todd's Hive, who died a year before. Teyla Emmagan had to pose as the queen of the Hive. When Todd and Teyla met the queen, Todd killed her and blamed it on Teyla, so she could be able to claim the leadership of the alliance. She ordered her ship to attack another Wraith faction to not arouse the suspicion of her fellow Wraith.

Catching the other Hive ship completely by surprise, they inflicted serious damage. However, this was planned by Teyla for the purpose of intentionally destroying several Wraith, on both sides. The battle was a losing one, until Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team (except for Teyla) emerged from the planet's Stargate in a cloaked Puddle Jumper. After seeing the state Teyla's Hive was in during the battle, Sheppard de-cloaked the Jumper and opened fire on the enemy Hive ship. After inflicting sufficient damage, he re-cloaked moments before Teyla's Hive ship destroyed the opposing Hive. Following the battle, Teyla secured her position as queen of the alliance, leaving Todd as its leader. She then returned to Atlantis where she was re-transformed into a human.

Hijack of the Daedalus
Some time later Dr. Jennifer Keller founds a gene therapy from Michael's database that would prevent the Wraith from feeding on Humans again. The expedition invite Todd's Wraith faction to discuss this major discovery. Meanwhile the Atlantis expedition discovers Janus' secret lab in Atlantis, Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Daniel Jackson unknowingly activated a signal alerting the rogue Asgard-faction, the Vanir, to their location. The members of the Vanir forced Daniel and McKay to activate the Attero device, which destroys any Wraith ships going into hyperspace (At the cost of destroying all active Stargates with the force of 12 Naquadah enhanced nuclear warheads).

This caused a duo of Wraith cruisers to be destroyed and Todd to believe that the Atlantis expedition had located and deliberately activated the device. Believing he was betrayed, Todd hijacked the Daedalus to travel to the source of the device. While the device was active it made Atlantis' Stargate explode; luckily a manipulation of Atlantis' shield prevented the blast from destroying the entire city.

Three Vanir spaceships, the hijacked Daedalus and one Traveler ship would confront each other around the planet M6H-987, where the device was. The Vanir lost two starships in the battle, the Tau'ri re-took the Daedalus and Jackson and McKay destroyed the Attero device. Todd and his Wraith escaped via their Wraith scout ship before the battle, though.

Gene therapy and disease
A Hive ship appeared in orbit over Atlantis and to everyone's surprise did nothing. It transmitted an automated but distorted message from Todd requesting their assistance. They had used Dr. Jennifer Keller's gene therapy and given initial apparent success distributed the therapy to the Hive. They had since fallen ill to a disease they cannot cure.

Members of the expedition investigated and found the whole Hive in hibernation. They decided to board the ship hoping to rescue whatever research they could on the therapy and make it viable. However, once on board, they discovered that the ship is in terrible shape and Lt. Williams was killed by a Wraith warrior who actually attempted to eat the body.

When more warriors were awakened due to a malfunction, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and Major Evan Lorne's teams must fight them off. As a last resort for survival Todd suggested that they travel to a planet where the Wraith could allow the Iratus bug to feed on them either saving or killing them in the process. The ship was in no shape for hyperspace however and a short while later it began to break apart. The vessel's orbit decayed and began falling towards the planet. Todd was able to land the ship on water, soon after which they were rescued by teams from Atlantis.

Later, when Keller was unable to cure Todd, Sheppard agreed to honor his original wishes and permitted him to leave Atlantis to find a cure elsewhere.

Super-hive (2009)
At the Battle of Asuras, Todd was able to steal a number of Asuran Zero Point Modules before the planet was destroyed. He set his underling to work on devising a way to integrate the ZPMs into a Hive ship. Eventually, when the Wraith underling was finally able to make it work, he mutinied, chasing Todd from the Hive. Todd apprised the Atlantis expedition of the situation and yet again allied against the Wraith. He revealed that the Super-hive was still in the process of upgrading its systems, and if the process is allowed to complete, the Hive would be unstoppable.

The Tau'ri sent the Daedalus to confront the Wraith underling's Hive ship, but the ZPM-powered vessel proved itself an impressive opponent, crippling the Daedalus before making a sudden and inexplicable jump into hyperspace. The Expedition later found out that the Hive ship was on its way to Earth. In the Milky Way galaxy, two of Earth's 304 battlecruisers, the Apollo and the new Sun Tzu, failed miserably to stop the Wraith ship. They then relayed a message back to Atlantis, detailing the failure to stop the Hive.

Meanwhile, the expedition managed to locate more ZPMs. Atlantis, with her full complement of three ZPMs, was then flown to Earth in a last-ditch effort to defend it. When Atlantis arrived, it placed itself in a position between the Hive and Earth in order to buy Stargate Command some more time. Atlantis took the brunt of the Hive ship's assault on Earth and launched a barrage of Drone weapons in retaliation. The sheer force of the Hive's weapons fire pushed the City-ship into Earth's atmosphere, and it strained the shield. The SGC eventually succeeded in destroying the Hive (via smuggling a Nuclear warhead aboard), but Atlantis was forced to make a landing through Earth's atmosphere.

Rise of Queen Death
Around six months after the super-hive was destroyed, Atlantis returned to the Pegasus galaxy to find that a new Wraith Queen had emerged calling herself Queen Death. Queen Death had begun to gather the hive ships under her command, feeding wherever she pleased and destroying whatever she didn't take. In order to help combat her, the Atlantis expedition released Guide to return to his alliance.

Soon after Atlantis' return, Queen Death's forces captured Dr. Rodney McKay and turned him into a Wraith called Quicksilver. With McKay's knowledge of Atlantis' systems, the Wraith were able to raid the city and steal its ZPM. McKay also equipped Wraith ships with shields, though none as good as on Earth's ships due to power requirements. In order to combat Queen Death more effectively, Teyla once more transformed into Guide's queen, Queen Steelflower and aided him in his efforts to unite Wraith forces to battle Queen Death. Guide also began working with his scientist Ember and Doctor Jennifer Keller on creating a new retrovirus, one that would allow the Wraith to feed on humans without killing them. They eventually came up with one successfully and the Atlantis team raided Queen Death's hive ship to rescue McKay and retrieve the ZPM. While they were unable to retrieve the ZPM, they succeeded in destroying the hive ship and rescuing McKay who's mind had returned though he remained a Wraith.

Fall of Queen Death
After the rescue of McKay, Teyla, as Queen Steelflower, aided Guide in recruiting more ships to their cause, including the ship of Queen Waterlight. At the same time, Doctors Carson Beckett and Jennifer Keller were able to aid McKay in returning to human form though he still retained some minor Wraith features and telepathic abilities similar to Teyla's. Teyla began getting some of the memories of one of the first Wraith Queens, Osprey through her dreams and learned the true nature of the Wraith. With the help of the memories she accessed through hypnosis, Teyla was able to locate a ZPM that had a 97% charge and with it a weapon designed by the Ancient Hyperion that could destroy the Wraith. On the planet with the weapon, the Wraith Queen Alabaster was found, the long-lost daughter of Guide. The presence of Alabaster helped to solidify the alliance between Guide and the expedition, but Ashes, the last remaining original Wraith and the true force behind Queen Death's rise to power, learned that it had been found and convinced Queen Death to launch an all-out attack on Atlantis to destroy the weapon.

Through a spy masquerading as a Wraith worshipper, the Genii learn of the impending attack on Atlantis and warn the expedition. In exchange for the destruction of the weapon, Guide and Alabaster agree to aid in defending Atlantis, but refuse to act if the weapon remains intact. The weapon is stolen by Ronon Dex, but he is ultimately unable to bring himself to use it as it will kill anyone with Wraith DNA, not just the Wraith themselves. McKay eventually flies the weapon into the sun in a Puddle Jumper, intending to sacrifice himself to destroy it, but is saved by an Ascended Doctor Elizabeth Weir who transports him safely to the George Hammond. Queen Death's fleet arrives at Atlantis and an all-out battle erupts with Atlantis, the George Hammond, an Ancient ship salvaged by the Genii called the Pride of the Genii and Guide's fleet against Queen Death's forces. During the battle, Teyla boards Queen Death's hive ship and alongside Queen Waterlight, faces off with Queen Death. Teyla is eventually able to use her mental abilities to kill Queen Death and her surviving forces surrender to Alabaster who accepts the surrender in exchange for them swearing allegiance to her and Waterlight. After the battle ends, Alabaster, Waterlight and Teyla confront Ashes who had been responsible for Queen Death's rampage. However, while Waterlight and Alabaster turn Ashes over to Teyla, she chooses to let things end there and leaves Ashes to the Wraith to deal with.

Aftermath
Following the end of Queen Death, the Wraith offer Atlantis a deal: they will cede half of the galaxy to the humans if they are allowed to have the other half. With the implementation of the new retrovirus, Wraith feedings no longer have to be fatal for those subjected to them and the Tau'ri accept the deal, ending the war. Many of their allies end up falling under the protection of this deal including the Athosians and the Satedans.

Months after the end of Queen Death and the war, the Tau'ri and the Wraith come into conflict once more when Guide's hive chases a human known only as the Wolf who has been hunting the Wraith. The humans are unwilling to turn the Wolf over to the Wraith while the Wraith want the man to kill him. Things get complicated when the Wolf is revealed to be long-missing Tau'ri Lieutenant Aiden Ford. Eventually the newly-returned Doctor Elizabeth Weir is able to negotiate a settlement where Ford is "exiled" on Earth and the peace between the humans and the Wraith continues to stand.

Tau'ri-Wraith-related conflicts

 * Battle of Atlantis
 * Battle of Edowin
 * Battle of the Void
 * Goa'uld attempt to destroy Atlantis
 * Battle of the Black Hole
 * Battle of Asuras
 * Battle of Midway
 * Battle of the Wraith Alliance
 * Battle of M6H-987
 * Battle of the Super-hive
 * Battle of Levanna
 * Raid on New Athos
 * Raid on Death's Hive
 * Wraith attack on Atlantis
 * Battle over the Outer Rim Planet
 * Raid on the Revenant
 * Second Battle over the Outer Rim Planet
 * Tau'ri-Wraith skirmishes