Stargate Atlantis: Brother's Keeper
"Colonel Sheppard?"
John Sheppard was staring through the gloom as rain and darkness engulfed him. The wind sighed in the trees, sending waves of water like a curtain to conceal the empty clearing from view. John took a few steps towards the place where the body of the alien had been. "Are you sure it was dead?"
"Yes. Positive, but…I thought I felt it move when Ford threw me onto it, but it didn't budge an inch when I took my, my samples," Moira O'Meara stated as shivers stole along her back. Her body was sodden with the rain and the mud and the grime. She tried to keep most of her weight on one side as the foot injured by the gunshot burned and stung and bled into the mud. "John?"
John squatted, blinking away rain and mist. He pointed at the grass. "It's trampled. It's trampled by feet. They came back for him, alive or not they came back."
"Who? More, more aliens?" Moira looked around nervously. She gasped as John was suddenly in front of her. "Ford said, Ford said they were like a scouting party and didn't come through the 'Gate but from the sky, they're humans, not like us, not our species but close enough to—"
"The sky?" John looked up at the roiling blackness above him. Lightning flashed in jagged spires of silver against the night. He wiped the rain off his face, saw Moira staring, staring at him and he was about to make a comment when distant gunfire echoed on the wind. "Shit!" John tapped his earpiece, his radio. "Shit! It's jammed. I'm only reading static! The storm," he said, his words drowned by a rumble of thunder that seemed to shake the muddy ground beneath their feet. "Let's go."
"No."
"Huh?" John halted, turning back to see Moira shaking her head, not following him but leaning precariously as she tried to keep her weight off her injured foot.
"Go, John. I can't. I will only slow you down. Come back for me."
"Hell no. We don't leave anyone behind, Moira." He stepped to her and slid his arm around her waist, pulling her against him. "Hold onto me."
Moira grabbed onto him, trying not to moan as she was forced to put weight on her foot as they made their way out of the clearing. "John, John, no. I will just slow you down! Leave me here! I can hide until you come back for me! John, you—"
A scream cut into her words, searing into them.
It was a man's scream. Ronon Dex was screaming, and although John had never heard the sound before he recognized it and he knew. The sound sent a shiver of pure fear up his spine. He hesitated. He looked at Moira. The biologist was staring at him with wide brown eyes, equally shocked, startled, and scared.
Wordlessly his grip on her tightened, as his grip on his P90 tightened.
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The field was mess. It was more like a swamp of mud and filth. The rain was rapidly filling it to create a small lake. Nevertheless the combatants trampled through it, in it, under it as lasers and bullets and even rocks were crisscrossing wildly.
"Radios are down!" Jason Reynolds shouted, waving his arm as he tried to direct his marines, but in the murk they were nothing more than shadows firing at other shadows.
"I know! Where the hell is Sheppard?" Evan Lorne replied. "Three o'clock!" A barrage of bullets flew towards a Wraith. It fell into the muddy expanse, dead for the moment, but these Wraith were scarily resilient and it would soon be on its feet again.
"I'm trying to increase the frequency but the storm's blocking all waves!" Rodney McKay shouted, ducking down to fiddle with a scanner and his radio at the same time in a strange amalgamation of Ancient and Earth technologies. Although not a soldier by any means the physicist had insisted on coming with the marines to retrieve John and Moira.
"Major, there are two more heading for the 'Gate," Teyla Emmagan informed. The Athosian was a mess of mud and grime but calm as ever.
"Track them but let them pass. If they encounter the Jumpers on the way engage. Where the hell is Ronon?" Evan asked, looking round.
"He went ahead to find Sheppard but we haven't—"
A man's scream cut off Jason's words. Everyone froze in shock. Even the remaining Wraith froze, as if shocked by the sound as well.
"Crap. Sounds like something found him. Jason, you and Morris finish this. The rest with me to get Ronon and hopefully Sheppard and Moira," Evan ordered.
"Sir? What if you can't find him?"
"We'll find him. We don't leave this stinking planet until we find Sheppard and the rest."
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"Let's go, Moira!"
John helped her as they staggered along, through the trees towards the ever-increasing sounds of battle. Flashes of light blossomed in the gloom, spurts of green lasers and yellow lasers and always the whine, whine of bullets was a constant barrage in their ears. Like a swarm of angry bees the battle sounds filled the air until abruptly all went silent.
John paused, easing his grip on Moira to tap his radio. "Lorne, copy? Reynolds? Anyone? What the hell is going on out there and why the hell aren't you in the Jumpers? Report! Ronon? Morris? Rodney? Anyone? Shit."
"John." Moira's soft warning made him slowly turn and free her to slowly raise his weapon. Something was moving in the gloom to their left. Something slow and ponderous. Big and bipedal. A group of three helping a fourth along that had been injured. Glints of red light shone sporadically from their heads.
Moira touched his arm, her fingers digging into his skin to prevent him from firing, from shining the light of his P90 onto them.
John didn't need the restraint. He kept his weapon trained on them, trying to see more clearly through the rain and the gloom and the night.
"Sheppard! Do you read? I've boosted the signal! Do you copy? The—"
"Shit!" John swore as Rodney's voice all but shouted out of his radio. The creatures in the gloom stopped. The creatures in the gloom turned as one towards the man and the woman. "Down!" John shouted as a burst of green laser fire shot towards them. He shoved Moira to the mud, dropping on top of her as the laser zoomed over them and splattered into a tree. The bark flared a florescent green before exploding in a flash of orange fire. John covered his head, covered Moira with his body as the tree groaned and screamed and fell only inches from them.
Moira was squirming under him, and normally John would have enjoyed the sensations and even would have made a comment or two but this wasn't the time. He grabbed his P90, aiming it towards the creatures but they were gone. He peered through the scope but there was nothing there.
"Keep still, damn it!" he whispered harshly in her ear.
Moira swore under her breath but froze. She was pinned face downwards under the military commander, mired in the muck and mud and cold and wet, her foot burning with pain. His weight was making it difficult to breathe and she could only hope that the hard, long thing prodding her rear was his 9mm.
John rolled off her and moved to his feet, gun still aiming at the area where the aliens had been. He tapped his radio. "Rodney, copy. This is Sheppard. What's your twenty?" he asked. His voice was quiet, low.
Moira scrambled to her feet, wincing with pain and looking round. She bit back a whimper as she tried to take a step but her foot folded under her. Suddenly John was there, pulling her against his side and snaking his arm around her waist again.
"John? Thank God! Where the hell are you?" Rodney sounded relieved.
"We're heading to you. Why the hell aren't you in the Jumpers?"
"We're coming to help you!"
"This is some rescue," John quipped, glancing at Moira who smiled. He smiled, but frowned. "Status?"
"SOL, sir!" Jason's voice sounded over the radio, until a screech of static erupted.
"Crap! All teams make your way to the Jumpers! That is a direct order!" he shouted into the radio. He sighed. "Why did those things just leave us?"
"I don't know. Maybe something else distracted them," she suggested.
"All right, nice and easy, Moira, let's go now. Hold onto me."
Moira didn't argue this time. Painfully she limped along with John as they made their way through the trees.
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"Ronon!"
Teyla and Rodney broke into a run, rushing towards the fallen form of their friend. The Satedan was alive, but groaning and writhing in pain. Blood soaked the lower half of his body. He scrambled, almost cowering until he recognized his friends through the haze of pain and shock that was drowning him.
"Easy, easy, big guy, we're here now…can you stand? We've got to get him back to the Jumpers and Carson!" Rodney tapped his radio. "Carson, can you read? We need you out here now! Ronon's injured! Hone in on the signal I'm transmitting to you!"
Teyla had torn off her jacket and was using it to stem the wound, pressing it to Ronon's lap and shaking her head. "He is losing a lot of blood and I cannot see the injury."
"Carson's on his way," Rodney assured. "Hang in there, buddy."
"Stay here with him. Where's Sheppard?" Evan asked.
"That way." Rodney pointed. "Our contact is intermittent, at best."
"When you can move Ronon get him to the Jumpers. Morris and Reynolds, help them and get them to safety."
"You're going after Sheppard alone?" Rodney asked, blinking against the rain as he looked up at the major. Evan's face was set in determined lines.
"Yes. I'll find the colonel and Moira and we can all go home."
Before any could protest Evan sprinted into the forest.