Tau'ri-Wraith War

"We are at war Elizabeth, and in a war, there are casualties."

- Radek Zelenka

The Tau'ri-Wraith war is a conflict fought between the Tau'ri and the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy.

Beginnings
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. Needless to say, the Atlantis expedition soon sent a strike force, lead by major John Sheppard and Lt. 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, Col. Sumner was being interrogated by the Hive queen who soon found out about the existence of Earth. The queen then started feeding on col. Sumner as major Sheppard arrived ending col. Sumner's pain, and hurting the hive queen. The Wriath then captured major Sheppard, who was soon rescued by Lt. Ford. They then fled after rescuing their people, and after a brief skirmish with a group of Wriath darts, safely returned to Atlantis. However, apon leaving the Wraith hive, the queen said that every wraith in the galaxy would awaken to find Earth, and then they would feast.

First wave
The Wraith sent three hive ships and nine cruisers to attack Atlantis. The first hive ship was destroyed by an Ancient Defense Satellite in the Lantean system, but the other Wraith ships destroyed the satellite. Seeing no further hope, Elizabeth Weir ordered an evacuation. Just before they were set to leave, Stargate Command managed to establish a link with Atlantis. General Jack O'Neill sent a force of some fifty marines under the command of Colonel Dillon Everett, carrying six nuclear warheads and an increased naquadah reactor which was able to power the control

chair. After the first wave of Darts attacked the city, major Sheppard took one of the 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 explosives with Asgard beam technology 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 the shields.

Second wave
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, Rodney Mckay and major 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 warship 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 cruisers approaching their current position. However, both ships were destroyed soon after their arrival when the Aurora self-destructed.

Later in 2005, Atlantis 1 was captured by a posse lead by Aiden Ford 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-ship they were on, and another hive ship that joined up with it. However, the Daedalus was seriously outmatched. Meanwhile, Col. Sheppard and the Majority of his team escaped in a wraith dart and began to fire on both Hive-ships. 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 Col. Sheppard flew the dart to the nearest Stargate and returned to Atlantis.

The Alliance
In 2006, the Wraith proposed an alliance with the Atlantis Expedition after Dr. Beckett tested his Iratus bug retrovirus on Michael. The alliance was turbulent as the Wraith were actually using the alliance as a ruse by planting a spyware computer virus into the Ancient 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 Rodney McKay were captured. The Daedalus fell victim to a surprise attack. John Sheppard used an F-302 and latched onto one of the Hive Ships before taking off into hyperspace.

With the intention of attacking Earth, 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 commendered the Hive ship, which was subsequently destroyed.

The future of the war
Although the Tau'ri-Wraith war continues, the Tau'ri have made considerable progress despite terrible odds. With the addition of Daedalus-class battlecruisers and Asgard plasma beam weapons, the Tau'ri are slowly gaining the upper hand.