A/N: I apologize for the long ass wait. Also, I edited the other chapters a teense. Nothing major, just making things less choppy, as well as adding some more descriptors of the characters bc there really wasn't much to describe their appearances before =-=;;
It was nearly pitch dark on the planet they came out on, hence the need for night-vision goggles for everyone. Although, so often Feldin knew exactly where things were that Tyler swore her DNA was less human than Fraiser and Area 51's tests let on.
As the group started to move out across the barren field, the sound of a branch snapping underfoot drew about their attention to the right. Quickly turning, Reece just caught the sight of someone running through the trees before they disappeared.
Signaling to Sheppard, his team, and another Marine, they cautiously made their way into the treeline.
Suddenly a young boy ran out in front of them. His face was fixed in an expression of utter horror as his hood fell back and he gaped at the gun-toting explorers.
"Rarrr!" A small figure wearing a crude mask jumped out into the small clearing, and tackled the other boy, who gave a small cry as he was propelled to the ground. Surprised, the Stargate explorers' grips on their guns tightened.
The mask on the second figure fell off to reveal a boy probably about one to two years younger than the other, who cried, "Don't hurt us!"
A tall man with a beard- Are those dreadlocks? Reece wondered- ran through the trees to the two children. "Please, they're just playing!" he cried.
The noise and commotion had drawn the others of the exploration party over to them, and Sumner asked, "Everything okay here, Sheppard?"
"Yes, sir," he replied. "Just a couple of kids."
The tall man, Halling, led the Earth team along the dark path to the village, to meet his people's leader.
The place they were led to was run-down, and the buildings which made up the village barely qualified as hovels. In more than a few cases, people were residing in tents.
Sumner ordered several Marines to stake out the perimeter of the village, and a couple more to guard the gate, but when he came to what to do with SG-13, he fought against the urge to slam his head against the closest hard, flat surface.
Technically, Reece was third in the chain of command, so he probably should accompany himself and Sheppard to meet with this Emmagan guy who Halling said was their leader. Feldin was, if not useless, at least adequate, but there was something about her that just set him on edge. Put simply, he didn't trust her farther than he could throw her. And then there was Muki Huzanaka…
Sumner's left eye gave a slight twitch.
"Reece and Sheppard, you're with me. Ford, take Markham and Stackhouse and guard the gate. Everyone else, set up a perimeter. Make sure to keep an eye on the villagers; can't be too careful."
As it turned out, you could be too careful, but they weren't careful enough, because while Sheppard was flirting with Teyla, three pointed ships nearly literally screamed through the gate, and the whole situation started to go FUBAR pretty quickly.
"We are all going to die in a fiery ball of fire!" Kira shouted optimistically as she and the others on perimeter around the village started to fire at the incoming ships.
"Not helping!" Muki yelled back. She stopped shooting when a fleeing villager jostled her and almost made her shoot one of the Marines to her left. "Rude," she muttered to herself. She saw a ghostly shape in front of her and shot at it, but the bullets just went right through. "Um, we wouldn't happen to have any salt, would we?" she called, her voice tinged with a bit of fear.
"Why the fuck do we need salt?" Kira shouted back, concentrated on firing at the ships above them. "Are there are giant slugs around or something?"
Just then, Sheppard's voice came over the radio. "Colonel, the things on the ground are illusions; concentrate on the ships!"
"What things on the ground?" Kira muttered to herself as she spared a second to look around. She blinked rapidly at the sight of some ghostly figures. She turned to Muki. "Is that why you asked for salt?"
"Yeah!" the blonde replied. "But if they're not real-" As one of the ships passed over them, a white beam appeared and then Muki was gone.
Kira stared at the spot where the teen had been just a second earlier. "Shit." She had to quickly dive out of the way as one of the remaining ships screamed overhead, the white beam emanating from its belly taking all the people it touched. "Shit!"
"Sir, the colonel's been taken!" That bit of information over the radio made Kira's blood go cold, and she fumbled for her radio.
"Reece." There was no answer. "Reece, if you don't answer me right now…!" Silence. "Shit. Shit shit shit!" She ran a hand down her face while half listening to the ongoing conversation. "Right." She forced down the worry and any other emotions present. "First get a hold of this situation, then find Reece and Muki." She promptly stalked over in the direction of the downed ship. Where there was wreckage there would be a body, and if said body was possibly still alive, well then it wouldn't be too out of line to demand some answers, now would it?
"Major Sheppard, who are these people?" Weir asked as the team returned with the villagers who remained after the attack.
"Survivors from the settlement," he replied. "We were attacked. Sumner and some of our people were taken." He looked around the room, which was shaking. "What's going on here?"
"We are in no condition to help anyone right now," she said in an undertone.
"What the hell's going on here?" Sheppard demanded.
"We are about to abandon the city."
"Listen, it's a really bad idea to go back there."
"Step away from the ring," Kira ordered some of the people who were huddled right in front of the Stargate. "Could be a fire hazard."
"Jinto!"
The boy who was just about glued to the redhead's side looked up. "Yes?"
"Do you have any other addresses we could gate to?" Sheppard asked.
Jinto nodded. "Yes, many." Sheppard grabbed his arm and they went up the stairs to the console used for dialing the Stargate.
"He's just a boy!" Weir protested.
The city continued to shake as the computer that McKay had somehow hooked up to the dialing device flashed a red warning of "SHIELD FAILURE IMMINENT", and the man barely had time to cry out a warning before there was a great jolt that threw everyone off their feet. Boxes and crates fell to the floor, and several people narrowly avoided being crushed or hit.
"I'm dialing an address!" the gate technician announced as he scrambled back to the chair he had previously been sitting on.
"Wait!" Weir shouted.
"No, she's right," McKay argued. The city was still shaking, but it was no longer stationary, and everyone struggled to keep from falling over yet again as the city shot up from its watery resting place.
Sunlight poured in through the windows, casting jagged beams of light from where it refracted through the sluicing water trails. "Gorgeous yet deadly," Kira muttered to herself as she eyed what she could see of the outside distrustfully. Note to self, get some anti-anxiety medication prescribed if necessary. Or marijuana. On second thought, no marijuana; don't want Muki getting a hold of that. Or Reece, come to think of it.
After the city had stabilized and they were no longer in immediate danger of drowning and/or being crushed by water (though Kira did not trust this to last in the least, mainly because water was evil evil evil), McKay, Sheppard, and Weir went to go argue over how they were going to keep everyone from dying now that they had to time to actively worry about that sort of thing. Meanwhile Ford, as the current military 2IC, gave orders for everyone to get the supplies out of the way.
Roughly an hour later Kira spotted Sheppard and McKay coming out of the room where they had been talking with Weir, who was now exiting the room herself. They all went in separate directions, and Kira quickly moved to intercept Sheppard.
"Sir," she said as she fell in step with him, "we are going to launch a rescue mission, right?"
The major sighed. "Dr. Weir doesn't think it's a viable plan given the vulnerability of our current position, our forces not really being equipped for it, and the fact we aren't completely sure where they've been taken."
"Both my teammates are missing," Kira protested, barely keeping herself from getting in her superior officer's face. "As is Colonel Sumner," she added, mostly as an afterthought.
"And we're going to get them back," Sheppard said, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'll get through to Weir, I promise."
Muki wondered what it said about her life that she was used to waking up in strange places she wasn't even a bit familiar with. Usually cells of some sort, too. She looked around, taking note of the various people who were in the cell with her. Colonel Stick-Up-His-Ass sure looks mad, she thought.
"Tyler," she said aloud, gently prodding his unconscious form with her foot. Receiving only a mumbled "Demon spaghetti ate my seahorse", she sighed and then proceeded to drag him into a sitting position against the wall.
"Tyler," she repeated, louder this time, pinching his light brown cheeks for extra emphasis. "Wake up, sleepy head, or I'm going to have to resort to drastic and humiliating measures."
He opened his eyes and scowled at her. "What part of that did you not understand?"
"The part where you're more helpful awake and observing than trying to lull our hosts into a false sense of security," Muki replied dryly. "And hey, you've even got your boots this time!"
"Small favors," Tyler muttered as he stood. He took in Sumner scowling, Teyla Emmagan looking every inch a gorgeous, regal queen, and Private Jacobson trying to calm down a couple of Athosians who looked close to having full blown panic attacks. "Anyone know where we are?" he asked.
"Aboard a Wraith ship," Teyla said gravely.
"Wraith as in the space vampires you were telling us about?" His voice definitely did not squeak, not at all.
"Space vampires?" Jacobson exclaimed. "What the hell?"
"Apparently they come once every couple generations to cull their human herds," Sumner said dourly, and huh, Muki hadn't thought he could look more constipated.
"Remind me again what vampires are?" she asked Tyler quietly.
"Undead creatures that burn in the sun and feed off blood to live," he explained. "At least that's the mainstream version of them."
"But the Wraith do not feed off of blood," Teyla interjected. "They feed off your very life force, draining away your years until you are nothing more than a shriveled husk."
"That sounds quite charming," Muki commented in a small voice. A raspy laugh caught everyone's attention and they turned to find a gaunt, pale humanoid with sickly white hair on the other side of the cell door.
"I must say, I've never been called "charming" before," the creature chuckled, baring dirty fangs in a terrible smile. The teenager shrunk in on herself and Tyler stepped in front of her, one of his hands wrapped around her arm to bring her further behind him.
The Wraith merely smirked, then turned to the rest of the prisoners, surveying them in turn before resting on a trembling young Athosian man. "Bring him," the Wraith demanded.
Sumner stepped forward as the doors retracted into the wall. "I am Colonel Sumner and I demand you take me to your superior-" He was cut off as the masked Wraith who entered the cell hit him across the face with the butt of its weapon. Jacobson caught him as he went down.
"Take me in his stead!" Teyla pleaded as the masked Wraith grabbed the man that the other Wraith had singled out.
"You shall have your turn soon enough," the Wraith said with a sneer. It then turned with a dramatic flourish and stalked away with its companion and the young Athosian man, the cell doors furling closed.
"So, any ideas on how to kill vampires, or should we take a page out of Kira-nee's book and start breaking necks and stabbing kidneys?" Muki asked Tyler.
"Gateship 1, you are good to go," McKay informed the group that was assembled in one of the little ships they had found.
""Gateship 1"?" Sheppard said incredulously. "What kinda name is that for a little puddlejumper like this?"
"It's a gateship," McKay explained. "It's a ship that goes through the gate."
"It's what's making our rescue mission possible so could we just go already?" Kira asked exasperatedly.
There was a short silence before Sheppard said, "Control, this is Puddlejumper 1, we are a go."
"It's a ship, it goes through the gate," they heard McKay mutter, possibly having turned away from the radio, before they exited the Atlantis gate room and came out in orbit of a planet.
"Wish we had some kind of sensors," Sheppard muttered. Suddenly, a holographic display flickered in front of the window. The major reared back in surprise, no longer touching the controls.
"Whoa, how'd you do that?" Ford wondered.
"I just wanted it," Sheppard said. "I wish for a turkey sandwich." Nothing happened.
"Maybe you need to be touching something," Corporal Hernandez suggested.
"Worth a shot," Sheppard said. He put his hands back on the controls. "I wish we had a way to locate our people." A small drawer opened up, revealing a device about the size of a Gameboy.
Feldin took it out, startling a little as it suddenly turned on.
"There's a bunch of dots," she mused. "Six, actually." She looked up around the group, her icy blue eyes wide. "I think this is some kind of life detector."
"A life signs detector? Cool!" Ford grinned.
"It'll definitely be helpful," Sergeant Markham said, Sergeant Stackhouse nodding in agreement with him.
"Hopefully they're in all the ships and not just this one," Hernandez added, nodding towards the device.
The conversation was cut short as the sensors alerted them to a large ship on the planet below. Sheppard steered their ship down to a spot not too far away from the Wraith ship, but still out of sight.
"Hernandez, Stackhouse, Markham, Feldin, you'll stay with the ship while Ford and I go look for Colonel Sumner and the others," Sheppard outlined the plan as they exited the ship.
"Given that my team is in there, I should go with you," Kira protested.
"The two of us are the only ones who can fly the ship, and if something happens to me then you need to make sure we're still able to get out of here," Sheppard said.
"And what if some of them aren't able to move by themselves?" Kira challenged.
"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it, and I don't like the tone you're taking Lieutenant," Sheppard emphasized her rank.
"Sir!" Kira started heatedly before she reined herself in. "Sir, they're the closest thing I have to family."
After a tense moment, Sheppard nodded curtly. "Fine. Let's go," he ordered, and Ford and Feldin fell in line to flank him as they set off towards the Wraith ship.
Meanwhile, Tyler was doing a marvelous job of not hyperventilating after the Wraith came back and took Sumner this time. The man had looked so resigned and grim as he nodded at Reece and said, "You're in charge now Major."
Oh yeah, that made him feel a whole lot better. Like anyone was going to pay attention to anything he said or did while they were all terrified. Well, except for Muki but that was more from habit than anything else.
Speaking of...
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Keeping watch," she replied from where she was practically plastered against the webbing like material that made up the doors. "Gotta be ready for the rescue party, right?"
Tyler patted her on the shoulder, the only comfort he was able to offer at the moment with so many people present. "Yeah, knowing Feldin we'll probably have to suffer through some grueling, sadistic thing she calls "training" because we're so incompetent, getting ourselves captured like this, and when she was insert age here, she was off crippling deadbeats who couldn't pay their debts or something." Muki laughed, teeth bright against her dark face, and Tyler smiled.
"Who are you talking about?" Jacobson wondered.
"Kira-nee," Muki said while Tyler replied, "Feldin. Red hair, short, crankiest thing this side of the galaxy?"
"I take offense to that," Kira said, her and Ford ghosting into view. "I am not that short, and I am not that predictable at monologing, mainly because I don't monologue."
"Sometimes you do," Muki insisted. "You're gorgeous when you get all passionate though."
"Thanks," Kira said, rolling her eyes. She had a small smile though, as she looked her team over. "You guys all right?"
"Just terrified because these guys eat people and that is messed up on so many levels," Tyler informed her. "Also, shouldn't Major Sheppard be here? Please don't tell me I'm the new military head," he begged.
"Calm down," she told him, turning so she could watch the hallway. "Major Sheppard went to check out some screaming we heard from the direction of a lone life sign. There were more this way so we separated."
"That must have been Colonel Sumner," Jacobson said shakily.
"Wait, life sign?" Tyler wondered.
"Yeah, found a nifty life sign detector in one of the puddlejumpers," Ford said from where he was looking for a control panel with his scope light.
"Is that what we're really calling them?" Kira asked.
Ford shrugged. "It's catchy." He frowned as he looked over the fleshy wall.
"Lost here," Muki said, raising her hand a little. "What are puddlejumpers?"
"Some little ships we found in Atlantis," Kira said.
"You only detected one life sign?" Teyla asked, looking somber as she came to the forefront of the cell. Kira nodded, and Teyla bowed her head a little. "Toran is dead then."
"Sumner wasn't the first one the Wraith took," Tyler explained grimly.
"My condolences," Kira told Teyla. "Also, are you Teyla Emmagan?"
"I am."
"Your people will be glad to have you back," Kira said. "They're really worried."
"There's nothing here to open the doors," Ford announced as he dug into the top left breast pocket of his TAC vest. "We'll have to blow it."
"Explosions!" Muki exclaimed with a grin. "A man after my own heart." Ford ducked his head in embarrassment.
"You know what you're doing?" Kira asked, eyes narrowed even more than usual.
"Best marks in my class," Ford declared confidently.
"Okay, everyone back against the far side," Tyler directed, herding everyone to the back of the cell away from the door. "This is gonna be loud," he warned.
One muffled boom later, the doors were rent open and everyone quickly shuffled out. "Most of the Wraith are hibernating in some super creepy cocoons," Kira said as she handed Tyler her handgun. "So long as we're quiet until we get out, we should be good."
"Until we get out?" Tyler asked warily, double checking the clip. "What happens after we get out?"
"We blow this place to kingdom come!" Major Sheppard exclaimed as he ran up to the group from an adjoining hallway. He did a double take. "Ford, how'd you get here so fast?"
"Sir?" the lieutenant asked, confused.
"Seriously, you must have double timed it," Sheppard said, glancing over the group. "Here," he handed Jacobson his sidearm and fell in step with him, the two covering the group's back.
"Sir, I went with Lt. Feldin to the cells. I planted some C4 along the way but we didn't split at all," Ford reported with a frown.
"Well, then someone who bore a striking resemblance to you got me out of a bit of a tight spot," Sheppard said tersely, jaw clenched.
"Sir, where's Colonel Sumner?" Jacobson asked nervously.
"Dead," was all Sheppard could say before an ear splitting alarm sounded throughout the entirety of the ship. "And they're pissed I killed the lady who killed him!"
"You killed a Queen?" Teyla exclaimed, her eyes wide.
"Yeah, pretty sure anyways since I don't know much that can come back from having the head blown off," Sheppard shouted to be heard above the alarm.
They exited the Wraith ship, running as fast as they could with Ford and Kira in front. Roughly halfway to the puddlejumper, Ford pressed the C4 detonator.
The resulting explosion was tremendous as over half the Wraith ship went up in flames.
"Holy shit!" Jacobson yelped.
"Nice job Lieutenant," Sheppard said, clapping a hand against Ford's shoulder before he went ahead of the whole group, giving orders to Hernandez, Stackhouse, and Markham as he headed to the pilot seat.
"Thanks?" Ford replied helplessly, looking terribly confused.
Everyone scurried into the puddlejumper, Ford, Reece, and Hernandez in the front portion with Sheppard while everyone else was packed into the back. After making sure everyone was all right, Sheppard cloaked and took off, rising past the burning Wraith ship, through the atmosphere, and finally into space.
"I don't think we're past the hard part yet!" Sheppard said through gritted teeth at the sight of several Wraith fighters stationed near the Stargate.
"We're fine so long as they don't see us, right?" Ford asked nervously.
"They don't have to," Tyler replied grimly, hand tightly gripping the back of the left pilot's chair. "We've only got one place to go, though how we're going to get through without a DHD-"
"There's one built in," Hernandez informed him, gesturing to the raised panel between the two chairs.
"Nice," Tyler said, nodding in approval.
"Glad you're enjoying the decor," Kira snarked from behind him. Tyler rolled his eyes.
"We activate the Stargate and they'll just blow us away, cloaked or not," Sheppard said. "We'll have to draw them away, then double back. Everyone hold on!" he ordered. "We're gonna have to do some fancy flying!"
The moment the ship uncloaked four of the of the fighters went to follow, leaving two guarding the gate. Immediately Sheppard veered away from the gate, leading the ships away, swerving to avoid being hit by the Wraith firing on them.
"Jihibukai Kannon," Kira muttered, grabbing at Tyler to remain upright while Sheppard performed a couple of crazy maneuvers she was fairly certain shouldn't have been possible if they weren't in space. Everyone not in chairs scrabbled at the walls and each other in an attempt to keep from falling down. Muki clung to both of them, her grip tightening even further as the puddlejumper just barely managed to avoid crashing into a Wraith fighter, Sheppard's game of Chicken successful as two fighters collided.
After finding the weapons, Sheppard fired drones, identical to the one that had been fired at the Ancient outpost, at one of the pursuing fighters, blowing it up before heading back towards the gate.
"Try to go invisible again!" Hernandez urged from behind Ford's chair.
"It must be damaged. Dial the gate!" Sheppard ordered, and Ford swiftly complied before getting out his GDO. The two fighters guarding the gate broke from their positions and headed towards the puddlejumper. One met an explosive end courtesy of more drones, while the other barely avoided getting blown up, continuing to fire on the puddlejumper until it was also blown up a moment later.
The remaining fighter continued to fire, several of its missed shots going through the gate. "Send your code!" Tyler snapped.
"We're going too fast!" Ford protested even as he punched in his IDC.
"I know," Sheppard said grimly. He retracted the engines just before hitting the wormhole's event horizon and the ship plunged through the gate, coming to a stop just inside the gateroom that was so swift everyone lurched forward a bit, though no one was seriously hurt.
There was a large "thud" against the shield that had activated right after they came through, the last Wraith fighter destroyed.
Muki laughed breathlessly. "We're alive!" She didn't let go of Kira or Tyler, instead shifting so she could grab both of them in a tight hug. "Gods, that was terrifying."
"Very," Tyler agreed, his chin resting on Muki's head and Kira's head smushed between Muki's arm and Tyler's chest. "On the bright side, we survived our first dogfight in space."
"If either of you disappear on me like that again, there will be dire consequences," Kira warned, somewhat muffled, but with a hint of a smile on her face.
Translation notes (a la Google translate; if I am wrong pls correct me!):
Jihibukai Kannon: Japanese for "merciful Kannon"; Kannon is the Japanese name for Guanyin, an East Asian deity of mercy whose various forms usually involve protection. Kira isn't monotheistic, so her saying "Oh God" wouldn't really be appropriate.