Never Again
Summary: Not all of Sg-1's missions have happy endings.
Season: Six .Jonas is in it, but there are no spoilers. Zip, zilch, Nada, None.
Rated: Pg-13 only because it's bloody.
Disclaimer: Wait, let me check........ Nope! Stargate not mine!
Author's note: Not for the weak of stomach. I was having a bad day, so I took it out on our heroes.
Chapter 1: Jonas
He didn't know why he had ordered them to turn back. Call it intuition, or chalk it up to years of special ops training, maybe it was just dumb luck, or fate. For whatever higher power had led him to order a retreat, he was silently sending a prayer of thanks. His team was currently being pummeled with alien ammunition that they had never before encountered. They could not see the enemy either, which made the unfriendly fire that much more dangerous.
SG-1 had gated to this planet, simply to rescue the UAV that had crashed here during a scouting mission a couple of days ago. It had crashed into the foliage that covered the planet, which looked like jungle. A lot of jungle. There didn't seem to be any end to the trees and the vines, and the weave of the leaves in the sky. Unlike on Earth, there were no creatures in this jungle. There were no monkeys in the trees, or birds in the air, or anything skittering on the ground. Just trees, and mud and vines and whoever was shooting at them from somewhere behind. The "bullets" from the aliens' weapons seemed to explode upon impact, releasing some sort of noxious gas that was nauseating O'Neill something terrible. The others too, looked a bit green as they fought their way back to the gate. What ever that stuff was, the Colonel thought he could definitely have gotten through his entire life without smelling it. It was the smell of road kill gone rancid in the hot summer sun; except it was worse somehow, because it was entirely alien.
"Are you guys all right?" The Colonel quickly shouted into his radio, and continued to return fire.
"I'm feeling pretty sick Colonel." Jonas responded. "How much farther is it to the gate?"
Sam didn't respond. She was doing her best just to try and keep her footing and previously eaten lunch in tact, so she just kept shooting.
"I don't know Jonas. Teal'c what's the locater saying?" O'Neill shouted back.
Teal'c had volunteered to hold the locater for the MALP beacon this trip, because Carter had her hands full with the equipment to find and fix the UAV that they had never managed to find.
"O'Neill, I too am feeling extremely ill. The locating device estimates another point seven miles until we reach the DHD.
"Okay, not bad. That's less than a mile; I think we can make it, let's pick up the pace a little bit!" The Colonel said, sounding more positive than he actually felt.
Suddenly, Jack saw Jonas's upper thigh explode from the force of a bullet. Jonas sank like a brick. Jack could see a twisted, snarling look of pain on the young man's face, and Jack ran the fifteen yards or so to where Jonas went down. Still shooting blind at an unseen enemy, the Colonel dragged his young team mate to safety under an enormous fallen tree trunk. There was a little trench under the trunk that was half as deep as the men were tall. Jack and Jonas were safe for the time being. They could hear the rain of ammunition above their heads. The bullets made an irritating whine as they flew all around the trees above them.
"AAAH Colonel, IT BURNS!!!!" Jonas screamed in agony. Jack looked down at Jonas's left leg, and if not for his training, would have gagged at what he saw. The 'bullet' had split the Quadriceps and had gone straight through to exit through the hamstring. The entrance wound was seared as if it were burned, but the exit wound was bleeding massively, and it was a gaping hole about the size of a softball. Jonas's hamstring hung out of the wound to the outer part of his thigh. Dark, venous blood soaked through his BDU pants from mid thigh, all the way down the leg and disappeared into his boot.
"At least it's not your driving leg, right?" The Colonel quipped uneasily. With the stench of the gas from the ammunition, and the sight of Jonas's shredded leg, it took every bit of willpower Jack had to keep from losing his stomach. And he had seen many wounds in his years in the USAF; most of which had come from his stay at Stargate command. But Jonas's wound was high up on the most disgusting list.
"Carter, Teal'c, hold up!" Jack keyed his radio. But Teal'c had already seen the pair duck under the branch, and was at their side before O'Neill finished his transmission.
"Colonel O'Neill, are you injured?" Teal'c asked, looking down into Jonas and Jack's hiding spot.
"Nope, not me, Jonas. We need to get him patched up the best we can and get the hell back to the gate. Help me get the med kit out of my pack. Where's Carter?"
"I will return for her. I believe she too has taken cover behind a large tree per your request to wait." Teal'c was getting the first aid kit out of O'Neill's pack as he spoke.
"Here O'Neill." Said Teal'c as he handed the Colonel the medical kit. "I will return with Major Carter."
"Careful Teal'c, what ever they're using inside their ammunition seems pretty toxic." Jack was packing Jonas's wound with one of the sterile sponges.
Teal'c nodded in respect and climbed the short distance out of the little hole to go find Sam.
"How're you doing Jonas? You still with me?" The Colonel was wrapping a pressure dressing around Jonas's leg, with him moaning in contest. O'Neill was certain Jonas was going to pass out from shock any second now. The blood loss was already significant, and Jack was preparing himself to have to help Teal'c carry Jonas the rest of the way back to the gate.
Jonas didn't respond to the Colonel. Instead, his lunch decided it wanted a second trip around, and he vomited on the ground beside where he lay. He looked up at Jack with a helpless, 'I'm sorry' look.
Jack acted quickly. "It's okay, I do that all the time. Especially after a long night of drinking. But I have to sit you up so you don't choke if you decide you need to do that again." With a pseudo-smile, O'Neill helped Jonas to sit up in the little ditch. He didn't mention to Jonas that what should have looked like his half eaten lunch was actually a little puddle of bloody mass.
//Definitely not good. I don't know what that stuff in their ammunition is, but he's going to bleed to death from the inside out if we don't hurry. Christ, I really don't need this.//
Jack was still in thought, when Jonas wretched again. This time, some splattered on Jack, and he began to wipe at it with his sleeve.
"Colonel.." Jack looked at him as Jonas's head fell to his chest.
"JONAS! LOOK AT ME!" The Colonel was smacking the side of the younger man's face. It was no use. The shock had overcome him, and Jonas fell unconscious; regurgitated blood ran down his chin and over his vest.
"Damn." The Colonel said out loud. He keyed his radio to hail Carter and Teal'c.
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