- "He stepped up his campaign of exposing human populations to the Hoffan drug. Jennifer did her best to find a way to combat the effects, with trying to lower the mortality rate ..."
- ―Rodney McKay[src]
Michael's Crusade was a conflict started by the rogue former Wraith-turned-Hybrid Michael Kenmore, who was determined to gain dominance over the Pegasus galaxy. To this end, he had gradually gathered strength in terms of ships and human mercenaries, and successfully developed a process of creating additional Hybrids for ground troops (though Torren John Emmagan remained crucial to Michael's plans). He became an enemy of both the Tau'ri and the Wraith, who occasionally cooperated to some extent in their attempts to stop him. The crusade mostly ended after the Battle of M2S-445 and the dissolution of Michael's army, but Michael survived to continue his efforts until he was finally killed when he invaded Atlantis.
History
Origins
In 2006 Michael was captured for the specific intention of testing Dr. Carson Beckett's prototype Iratus bug retrovirus. When Michael was turned into a human, he lost all of his former Wraith memories as well. The Atlantis team thought it wiser not to divulge this information to him, Michael eventually learned about his Wraith origins. Michael then kidnapped Teyla Emmagan to another world, likely inside Wraith territory, where he began to revert to his Wraith self. Before he could feed on her he was shot in the back by Lt. Colonel John Sheppard. Wraith from a landed Wraith cruiser soon arrived to collect him. (SGA: "Michael")
Michael Kenmore in his original Wraith form.
Weeks later Michael gained control of a Hive ship and convinced the Queen to travel to Atlantis and propose a deal to Dr. Elizabeth Weir: in exchange for Dr. Beckett's retrovirus, Michael's hive would begin to use it on other Wraith—and feed off of them instead of human settlements. Michael's reunion with Teyla and Ronon Dex was not pleasant, but he made it clear to Teyla that he did not wish her dead.
When it became clear that the Queen and the other Wraith regarded Michael as an unclean outsider, he turned on them and helped Sheppard free his captured friends and stop the Hive ship from reaching Earth. But Michael was given the retrovirus again, and lost his memories. It did not take him long to once again remember who and what he was—but he was left marooned on the planet M8G-352. (SGA: "Allies", "No Man's Land", "Misbegotten")
Experimentation and gathering
- "I'll admit, my early attempts were a little ... crude, but that's all changed now. I've refined the retrovirus to create the perfect balance – ability well beyond any normal human but without the one weakness that will be the downfall of the Wraith."
- ―Michael Kenmore[src]
Another Hive ship picked him up, but Michael was still an outcast among his kind. He struck out on his own, finding the new Taranian settlement—among other planets—and using the humans there as subjects in a series of experiments. Using the Iratus bugs, Michael engineered his own army of giant, insect-like creatures to do his bidding. From this crude start he has developed an army of Human-Wraith Hybrids, who will do his bidding and, one day he hopes, replace the Wraith as a dominant species in the Pegasus Galaxy. When Lt. Colonel John Sheppard team went to investigate the resulting disappearances, they encountered Michael again. The team barely escaped with their lives, while Michael and his army were forced to abandon the planet through the Stargate.(SGA: "Vengeance")
At some point he created creatures that were a mix of various predators on another planet, but ultimately abandoned them due to being unable to control them so he leaves them in stasis and abandons the whole project. These creatures are found by Major Anne Teldy's team and are killed by Teldy, Dr. Alison Porter, Sgt. Dusty Mehra, Dr. Carson Beckett, and Sheppard. (SGA: "Whispers")
- "Just another dead world destroyed by the Wraith abandoned by the survivors forgotten by both, a perfect place to conduct my work."
- ―Michael Kenmore[src]
After the incident, Michael Kenmore greatly altered his plans to take over the galaxy. He believed that the initial experiments were crude and altered the retrovirus to create a newer life form that was a perfect balance between Humans and Wraith. This would be a being that was far stronger then a normal Human but lacked the one weakness of the Wraith; the need to feed. The process was tested on himself and Michael lost his feeding organ in his arm. His plan was to bring about the extermination of the Wraith and replacing them with Michael's hybrids who would become the new dominant race in the galaxy. He also somehow managed to get his hands on a Wraith cruiser which acted as his main mode of transport until it was destroyed by the Daedalus.
Two vials of the Hoffan drug.
He was responsible for the abduction of the Athosian people for his experiments in a plot that revolved around Teyla Emmagan's pregnancy. He was also responsible for the creation of a clone of Dr. Carson Beckett and used the clone's memories to make use of the Hoffan drug. After re-engineering the drug, he began a covert campaign of distributing it around numerous Human worlds who suffered a 30% fatality rate from this new 'galaxy sweeping' plague. Many Wraith Hives would continue their culling and abduct these Humans as well as feed upon them but would die in the process after being poisoned by the drug. (SGA: "Vengeance", "The Kindred, Part 1", "The Kindred, Part 2")
Open War
- Main article: Battle of M2S-445
- "Well. I guess we're fighting after all."
- ―Michael Kenmore[src]
Michael Kenmore kidnapped Teyla Emmagan in order to use her baby to perfect his hybrids and defeat the Wraith and humans in the galaxy alike. He came into conflict with the Daedalus when the Atlantis team tried to rescue Teyla. As his ship was no match for the powerful Tau'ri warship, he ran, but escaped with Teyla. The Athosians were later rescued from him with help from the clone of Beckett, but he managed to escape again in his cruiser.
A team from Atlantis, using information Lt. Colonel John Sheppard gained from his stay in the future, infiltrated and were preparing an ambush at one of Michael's facilities, where Michael himself was en route to get Teyla to have her baby. However, the facility was set to self-destruct, and almost all Atlantis personnel were killed. Michael received word of the base's destruction, and headed there in his cruiser to retrieve survivors for the purpose of creating more hybrids.
The Daedalus destroys Michael's cruiser
However, Michael's cruiser came into conflict, yet again, with the Daedalus, and soon a battle was fought. Once again, Michael found himself no match for the more powerful warship. Within minutes, the Daedalus destroyed the cruiser, while at the same time Teyla was rescued. Michael himself, however, survived by escaping in a Puddle Jumper. Michael went into hiding and gradually regained a little of his strength, but with his fall in the battle, most of his forces were decimated and his crusade was severely crippled. (SGA: "The Kindred, Part 1", "The Kindred, Part 2", "Search and Rescue", "The Seed", "The Prodigal")
Invasion of Atlantis
- Main article: Michael's invasion of Atlantis
Pretending to be Major Nelson's team, Michael Kenmore and four hybrids flying a Puddle Jumper gated to Atlantis. Converting the Jumper's cloak into a stun bubble, they knocked everyone in Stargate Operations out and kept the field up to protect themselves from anyone coming in from outside. Hacking into the city's computers, they cut off all power from the Zero Point Module and hooked up the tower to the Puddle Jumper, powering it solely off the Jumper's power source. Michael's intention was to kidnap Teyla Emmagan's baby and set Atlantis' self-destruct to kill everyone else in revenge for what they did to him. While he admitted that after his cruiser was destroyed, most of his resources were also destroyed by the team as well but he considered himself as strong as ever due to his resolve. He offered Teyla (who he did care about) to come with him and live or stay and die, but she refused.
Michael Kenmore and his team of hybrids on Atlantis
While he had her baby like he wanted he refused to leave until the self-destruct was activated (which was taking some time as it was encrypted) as he wanted his revenge. Teyla managed to escape when Ronon Dex, who had woken up and escaped from the room he was trapped in, attacked Michael fighting hand to hand with him. Michael managed to knock Ronon off the Control Room balcony to the Gate Room floor below, knocking him out, but Teyla managed to escape during Ronon's attack. Teyla took out one of Michael's hybrids by knocking him down some steps and through the stun field, either knocking him unconscious or killing him and then hid behind a wall with her son Torren. Michael armed the self-destruct and offered to Teyla to not destroy the base and kill everyone if she would come to him and give him Torren and possibly come with him herself. She told him to disarm the self-destruct to prove it if he truly meant it, but as he didn't really mean it he told her goodbye and that he was going to use Torren's DNA to clone him and continue his research that way.
He went to kill Ronon as he left but before he could Dr. Radek Zelenka lowered the Stargate shield and Dr. Rodney McKay dialed the Stargate to a random world causing the unstable wormhole to vaporize part of the Puddle Jumper disabling the stun field and self-destruct and allowing a team of marines to invade the Gate Room. Michael's three remaining hybrids were killed and Michael was wounded so he ran for the Jumper bay to get another Jumper to escape in, but Zelenka closed the roof preventing that. Chased by Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, Kenmore climbed to the top of the tower and ended up on a balcony thousands of feet up where he and Sheppard fought in hand to hand combat with Sheppard being no match for him. Finally Teyla arrived and knocked Michael off the balcony with him just barley hanging on. Teyla stepped on his hands causing Michael to fall thousands of feet to his death, ending his crusade forever. (SGA: "The Prodigal")
Alternate Timeline
- Main article: Phoenix Campaign
Michael and his army of Hybrids.
In an alternate timeline, where Lt. Colonel John Sheppard vanished after being sent into the future via a solar flare, Michael Kenmore took Teyla Emmagan's son after his birth, and then killed Teyla. Michael used the baby to perfect his hybrids, and eventually amassed an army and fleet of Hive ships. After finishing poisoning the entire Pegasus Galaxy with the Hoffan drug, Michael declared war on the Wraith who, severely weakened, were no match and were defeated. The Tau'ri were initially hesitant in trying to forestall his plans for power, but after the Battle of the Phoenix, in which the Phoenix and Colonel Samantha Carter were both lost, the International Oversight Advisory stopped all efforts to fight him, and Michael gained dominance over the entire galaxy.'(SGA: "The Last Man")
This future was averted when, thanks to information acquired by Sheppard in the future, the Daedalus destroyed his ship and Teyla was rescued by Sheppard, Ronon and McKay and can now never happen as Michael was killed by Teyla.
- Battle of M2S-445
- Battle of the Phoenix (alternate timeline)
- Michael's invasion of Atlantis (end of the crusade)