Apologies in advance for some bad language (hence the "T" rating), but I think you'll see they have an excuse. And have I mentioned how awesome all of you are lately? Thank you so much for your reviews. They keep me going!
NEVER STOP MOVING
By TIPPER
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CHAPTER TEN: DODGING THE FIRE
"Alpha Site," Teyla called into the radio, "we have been prevented from following! The Stargate on this side has a shield! I repeat, the Stargate has a shield!"
"What?" McKay called from the back just as Sheppard banked the Jumper hard and around, turning it back towards the Gate. The colonel's eyes were instantly drawn to the two dozen or so Kaveer troops still on the ground, scrambling to regain their position guarding the Gate and the DHD. Their machine guns were already firing, and the first grenade launcher fired, forcing Sheppard to swing sharply to the left to avoid it. Shit.
"Where the hell did they get a shield?" he muttered, mentally checking that the Jumper's own shield was still at mostly full power—the weapons firing on them weren't have too much of an impact, thank goodness. "McKay," he called back, "they've got a lot of weapons pointed at us. Are you well enough to—Jesus Christ!"
The massive bolt of energy nearly blinded them, cutting across the Jumper's bow and flaring like a sun where it impacted the Jumper's shield. For what felt like hours, there was nothing but orange light, filling everything, saturating the world in and around the Jumper. The controls flashed and sparked, nearly going dead before the beam cut out.
It had lasted less than a second.
Blinking against the spots in his vision, Sheppard barely managed to level out the spiral they had fallen into, just seconds before the Jumper crashed into the ground. He heard things fall heavily in the back, and guessed that Ronon and McKay were both now on the floor of the Jumper again.
"Hang on!" he yelled, pulling hard on the controls to aim the still shuddering ship up and away from the sand-crusted ground.
"A bit late for that!" McKay yelled back, sounding both utterly panicked and very annoyed. Oh yeah, he was feeling better.
"Look out!" Teyla screamed, pointing to the left. It was an unnecessary shout, as Sheppard was already banking up and to the side, just narrowly avoiding being hit again. There was more banging around from the back—the inertial dampeners weren't doing a good job. The Jumper was responding sluggishly in general—as if unable to give him the power he needed to climb.
"Are you trying to make me throw up again?" McKay demanded, his voice breaking. "What the hell is happening? What is that thing?"
"I don't know! You tell me!" Sheppard answered, fighting with the controls—it felt like he was trying to pilot them through molasses. "The Jumper's been damaged! McKay! I need you up—"
"We're coming!" Ronon growled back, grunting a little. Glancing over his shoulder, John saw that Ronon was almost physically carrying McKay forward, and there were boxes and equipment scattered all over the back. The scientist had his head down—not as well as he sounded then. He turned back, and swerved to avoid another strike.
"Teyla, What's happening?" Someone demanded over the com—it sounded like Lorne, radioing in through the still open wormhole. "Are you under attack?"
"Yes!" she shouted back, leaning to peer out the front window, trying to see the source of the beam, just as Sheppard was. "The Kaveer have some sort of energy weapon! Do not send—"
"Gate just shut down," Sheppard interrupted, glancing towards the ground. Sure enough, the Stargate was inactive. Teyla stared at it, then back at the colonel as he spoke again, Sheppard banking hard around another cut from the beam. "The Kaveer must have shut it down themselves, remotely."
"Should I…?" Teyla put her hand on the Jumper's DHD.
He shook his head. "I'm guessing, we dial it up again, they'll just put the shield back up. We have to find a way to get rid of it…and shake this damned beam!" The last was delivered in a frustrated yell as he banked sharply to the left, narrowly avoiding being hit again. "Where the hell is it coming from? I can't see anything that looks like a—"
"There!" Teyla pointed to what, at first glance, looked like a rock formation about twenty meters from the Stargate. "It's coming from inside those rocks." Then her eyes widened, "correction, it is those rocks." Sure enough, as they watched, the rocks and the ground around them took on a blinding yellow glow…and a beam scarred the sky, aiming straight for them.
"McKay!" he yelled again, banking out of the way at the last second.
"I'm here!" Rodney answered over his shoulder. "Just give me a minute!" He sounded tired, but Sheppard couldn't focus on that now. A quick glance back showed McKay in his usual seat, attacking his laptop with shaking hands. He was still bundled in the blanket, ashen faced, but wearing that determined frown that meant he was not going to collapse until they were safe. Ronon had a hand on his shoulder, as if forcibly keeping him upright.
A proximity sensor went off, and Sheppard's eyes returned to the front, narrowly avoiding yet another strike by the weapon, whatever it was. "I need options, McKay," he ground out. "What is that thing?"
"An energy weapon, obviously—a powerful one. It's…it and the Gate Shield are both being powered through the DHD, and power is coming into the DHD from...somewhere below. Whatever it is, it's Ancient. They must have had a facility here, once upon a time." McKay sighed heavily, his voice a sort of low burr as his fingers rattled across his computer keyboard.
"Can we take it out?"
"The weapon?"
"No, your brain."
McKay snorted, "No. It's…," he took a deep breath, "it's under the ground. Those rocks…I don't think they're real, I think they're a hologram. And…oh nuts…"
"Nuts? What?"
"There's a shield covering them. Just like the Gate. I think it's all one component." His voice seemed to fade a little, and there was an edge of pain to it. Sheppard frowned, circling around the Gate again—they needed a way out. He looked at the soldiers gathered around the DHD, watching them…waiting for the beam to finish them off.
"If the DHD is powering them, can we take out the DHD?" Ronon asked.
"What?" McKay seemed startled by the question. "No, of course not. You take out the DHD, you take out the Gate's power as well. No power, no wormhole, remember?"
"Then how are we going to get home?" Ronon ground out, staggering forward into Sheppard's peripheral vision as the colonel dove under another cut from the beam.
"How about just trying to survive the next five minutes first," McKay snarled. "Sheppard, look..." The HUD appeared, and Sheppard swore, already grasping the problem before McKay explained it for the others. "When that beam hit us the first time," Rodney sucked in a breath, "the shield took almost all of the Jumper's power to deflect it and damaged some of the control systems. If we get hit again, the shield won't hold, and the Jumper will be out of power. It's mostly out of power now. Sheppard, you have to get us away from it."
Sheppard gritted his teeth, narrowly avoiding another hit with a painful jack-knife like turn to the right. "Will leaving the atmosphere do it?"
"Maybe—but when I say that we don't have much power, I mean, we don't have much power. We go up there—we'll have hours before we have to enter the atmosphere again."
"You're kidding."
"No, I...oh..." McKay's voice grew small in the background, just as Sheppard turned them particularly sharply. "God," he whimpered, "I'm really not feeling well."
"Sorry, Rodney," Sheppard replied, his whole body tensing as he plunged the small craft downwards, orange light flooding the cockpit from another near miss. "I really am. But I don't have much choice here."
"Yeah, yeah." The scientist sucked in a deep breath. "Right. You're...doing great. Um...so, heading up?"
"Soon as I can get a break." Sheppard pulled them sharply to the left. "We need a plan."
"Yeah...one thing..."
"What?"
"You have to lower the shield."
"Are you crazy?" Sheppard asked, swerving around yet another cut from the beam. "If I do that, and it hits us—"
"It'll cause damage, yes, but we might survive. If it hits us while we have the shields up, the Jumper will cut out, and we'll crash and die. Which would you rather?"
Sheppard just swore again, and turned off the shields with a mental nudge. He turned the Jumper up, straight towards the blue expanse overhead, needing to get distance, swerving from side to side as the beam sent pot shots after them.
It was worse than trying to avoid the beam off Doranda—that one was random. This one was aimed—and aimed well. The proximity sensors would not stop screaming, as if the weapon was jacked into them. It was taking everything John had to keep them from being hit.
He kept having to break his climb, to swerve around, slowing them down. Still, the higher they got, the weaker the beam's strength seemed to get—its color less vivid. It's accuracy seemed to falter as well—missing by yards instead of feet now.
Sweat dripped down his face. Oddly, he was reminded of that first time flying O'Neill back on earth, being targeted by that drone. If Beckett hadn't turned that thing off at the last second, they'd have both died. This energy weapon thing wasn't a drone, but...the feeling of 'no way out' was the same. He had to get out of range...just get a little bit further...
They were just reaching the limits of the lower atmosphere when Rodney spoke again.
"It's working," he said, his voice sounding hopeful for the first time as a flash of yellow burned off to the right. "It's lost most of its power."
"We're hitting the limits of breathable air, here," John confirmed. "We just have to go a bit further..."
"Assuming that it can't follow us into space."
"What?" Fear spiked through John. "You said leaving the atmosphere—"
"No, I didn't! I said 'maybe'! I'm just trying not to throw up on this teacup ride from hell!"
"McKay!"
"It's weakening! It is! Just keep what you're doing!"
John gritted his teeth, wishing he could wipe the sweat off his forehead. Proximity sensors were not screaming as often in his ears, but the Jumper was still panicking. He swung them side to side, trying to stay random, to stay clear.
"We're leaving the lower atmosphere," Teyla said.
"And the beam is definitely not as strong," McKay said.
"Yeah," Sheppard muttered, turning to look over his right shoulder at the scientist. "I think we might be—"
The rest was cut off as the beam sliced through the left side of the Jumper right next to Sheppard's head, entering somewhere near McKay's station and leaving through the windshield. Teyla screamed as Sheppard was catapulted sideways towards her, and McKay fell back out of his chair to the floor. Ronon was thrown against the right side of the ship, sprawled across his chair.
And the Jumper fell.
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TBC...
Whoosh!
Do you hate me yet? I will post tomorrow night, I promise!