Chapter 23 – Raiders of the Lost Cause

Without a doubt, this had been one of their more successful raids on an Andan SHB detainment camp, thought Sam as her rebel force silently herded their freed captives back to the agreed rendezvous area some forty chains distant. No fatalities on their own side and every internee freed. They hadn't all gone as well as this. The jungle was still and humid at night, and although they were trying to keep as quiet as possible, caution was frequently given up for the need to maintain speed away from the camp in case pursuing government forces would arrive on the scene quickly.

The camp raid tactics they had developed over the last year were beginning to make a difference, and their own casualties had declined as a result. Pity the poor Andan soldiers on outpost lookout duties, who died as silently as they kept guard, victims of commando assault techniques taught by Jack to the most hard-nosed of their fighting men. Diversionary attacks on different parts of the camp carried out simultaneously confused the defenders, and if prisoners could be sprung during these moments, they were taken cleanly and quickly away, to be handed on to other rebel forces who would spirit them out of the district altogether.

After the first few raids, some Andan guards had adopted the tactics of turning their weapons on prisoners when the camps were attacked. In response, the fury of rebels who found their comrades and relatives dead or dying knew few bounds, and they left behind only SHB-uniformed corpses at any site where atrocities were discovered. The average SHB conscript was often a nervous young man these days, who would surrender rather than fight if cornered.

The rebels' chain of successes had catalysed a larger, more active resistance movement. The four Earth-born soldiers had gained a measure of fame and adoration on the one side, and of course notoriety and loathing on the other. Huge rewards were offered for their capture or death, and early on Jack had expressed his opinion that not a few on their own side might turn them in for that kind of return.

Jen and Jeff had criticised him for not trusting the people they had grown so close to, and even Sam had thought that his judgment was a little harsh. But he had been the only one to watch dispassionately when Field Commander Klint had had two spies in their own ranks executed in front of the whole group. She had been wary of Jack for a while then, mostly because she realised that whatever depths of his being that she had peered into, a veritable unseen cavern lay underneath the level of her understanding. It had also been the beginning of her awareness of just how many of their own side not only respected his leadership, but were actually afraid of Jack. Letting him down carried a feeling of dread, multiplied by the telling of tales amongst their followers. He never issued direct threats, but his uncompromising will to survive and win had generated a cadre of die-hards who maintained order and discipline in the ranks – sometimes using methods that were none too kind nor gentle. But the bigger shock had come when Jen had told her an unsuspected truth about herself.

"They're afraid of you too, Sam." she had replied after Sam had made some remark or other about a man who had been reluctant to linger in their presence.

"Me? Why, what have I done?" Sam had uttered in astonishment.

"You just seem to put out a subconscious message that you'd kill anyone who threatened him, at any cost at all to yourself." Jen had explained. "The same goes for him about you. You both do so many things in co-ordination without even realising that you've hardly spoken to each other at the time. I'll never get that close to Jeff." Later that night, Sam had stayed awake staring at Jack's sleeping form, trying to reconcile their burning desire to be kind, loving parents with the hard road they were following and the kind of people they had become. The dichotomy of witnessing his unfettered tenderness and care towards their comrades' children kept her faith, and she decided that whatever fate decreed, without a doubt she was bonded to him for life.

Their year of trying to start a family had been fun but unproductive so far, though all-in-all, she wasn't unhappy about that and neither was Jack, thank goodness. Considering their precarious present and uncertain future concerning a welcome return to Earth, there had never been time to brood about the better life they could have wished for from the moment of their union. Raids, occasional hand-to-hand combat, flight, retreat, regrouping and planning were an all-consuming, stress-filled pastime: not a good way of life, surely, and a difficult arena for long-term thinking on a personal level.

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Sam's musings came to an abrupt end when she checked the rudimentary GPS gauge strapped to her wrist, seeing that they were only a few chains from the meeting point with another rebel group who would escort the freed prisoners away. The four instruments that the Tau'ri possessed were their most treasured items, as they were their only real means of positional awareness in this vast jungle. Even the majority of the Andan rebels relied on the few natives of the district to guide them safely off the beaten tracks. The four small guiding satellites released into orbit by the Prometheus on arrival at the planet had been Jen Hailey's idea, and their instruments had been turned into practical reality by the daylight-powered battery re-charger engineered by Sam before they landed.

After the usual cautious approach and exchange of passwords, they handed over their liberated comrades and their own wounded to another group better equipped to care for the sick and injured, who would spirit them sufficiently far away that the SHB forces would give up pursuit. Then they split into smaller groups themselves and set off by different routes to their own RV point, where the commanders would be anxiously awaiting their estimated dawn arrival.

Another four hours of careful, silent progress through the endless forest cover and Sam was looking forward to Jack's ministrations in their tent- hut. He was always so relieved to see her come back in one piece after the sorties when he couldn't participate himself, that she eagerly anticipated the intimacy of their rituals of cleaning up and delousing. When she had first persuaded him to take on more of a leadership role rather than being a full-time front line soldier, he had hated it, frequently threatening to pull her out of combat after each of the first few missions. But she in turn had laughed, cajoled, seduced and threatened him into accepting his obvious responsibilities of command and was glad that he'd eventually succumbed – what did they say about who was behind great men? And his tactical and strategic skills had made a difference, too – the element of an off-world viewpoint to guide the rebels' deployment had thrown the SHB forces out of kilter.

The challenge of the rebel base camp guard was expected and they again exchanged passwords and walked into the well-hidden collection of temporary dwellings. To her surprise, Sam saw that nearly all the stores and provisions had gone, and some of the tent-huts were being dismantled and folded away for transportation. She saw that her own was still standing and made her way over, peering in to discover Jack stowing away their belongings into back-packs.

"Honey, I'm home!" she called in their time-honoured joke. "Jack, what's happening?"

His look of relief at her return was obvious, but he didn't stop packing. "Big SHB force assembling to sweep the area for us." he replied. "Come in and take your clothes off. I'll get the wildlife off you before they start breaking the skin but we're leaving straight away."

Without hesitation she entered, pulled the flap across the doorway and disrobed, dropping her combat gear at the entrance. Outside she could hear the sounds of similar activities in neighbouring tents. To save time she applied the ointment to the leeches that she could reach, while Jack simultaneously treated the rest. Sparing only the time for a quick embrace, he left and started to shake out her clothes outside. A collection of clothed and naked people were doing the same thing all around the camp, while others continued bustling around to stow all the gear that they would be taking. Once he was sure that each item of clothing was free of vermin, he placed it back inside, and Sam soon reappeared fully dressed again.

"Take some water and dried lizard meat to eat on the way." he said, not stopping his work in clearing the site. She didn't hesitate either, and soon returned to assist him.

"Where are we going?" she asked, kneeling down to help him roll up the tent canvas.

"The main body is headed out of the jungle altogether to the hills about ten days walk north from here." he explained. "We'll disperse and only regroup when the hunt has died down a little."

"The main body?" she asked, picking up straight away that there was more than mere flight planned for them.

"We're taking Jen and Jeff and three others on a slight detour." he said, sweating profusely from his efforts of the last few hours. "We'll raid the main electricity generator plant that supplies the capital city. Use that collection of Multipliers that we've built up to create a feedback loop like you used before on the SHB building in Jobe, but I'm hoping on a big enough scale to burn out the equipment for a time. Do you think we can pull that off, Sam? If not, we'll just have to use the remaining C4 explosive to do some physical damage. They shouldn't be expecting it while they're chasing us out with such a big force."

"I think so." she replied, her expression showing that her brain was engaged on the problem. They continued working for another thirty minutes until the last of the salvageable items had been stowed or taken away by the others.

They left without ceremony or hesitation. Jack had long since stopped trying to act chivalrously towards his wife on these long forced marches: apart from the fact that he was already carrying around eighty kilos himself, she had insisted on not changing their conduct from SG-1 days when they were in the field together. The proper amount of concern, care and sometimes rough encouragement to keep up was shown to all equally, and she never complained. She was quite capable of dishing out field punishments herself to those who weren't trying hard enough.

They generally preferred to travel through the jungle at night, not only because it was significantly cooler: frequently during the daylight hours on a signal from one lookout or another, they froze in position against tree trunks or in bushes, not looking up at the sky in case an Andan surveillance plane might pick out the paler skin of their faces. Once the all-clear came, they continued moving, but sometimes the enforced break was a couple of hours long. In these intervals they took turns to eat and sleep. Even so, Sam was exhausted – more so than usual – by the time they took their first long break that evening, especially after having had no sleep the night before. With just a motion of his hand, Jack conveyed to her that she should eat and rest, while he went about securing the guards for the first watch, checking to make sure that everyone was where they should be and would know what to do in the event of an alarm.

When he returned, she had erected their small travel-tent in the dark and had already taken off and deloused her clothes. She silently helped him off with his, and together in the dark and silence, they cleaned each other by touch, just as all their comrades would be doing in their own pairings. Jungle warfare survival techniques were something that you did for each other irrespective of gender and relationships, but Jack knew that he'd lay waste anyone else who touched her in that way.

Thinking that she would just want to sleep and knowing that absolute silence was a necessity, Jack lay back after massaging his aching knee for a while. He was surprised when he felt Sam roll across to embrace him, and he responded in kind. He felt her fingers massaging his brow, and her lips touch his. Knowing that this was neither the time nor the place for love- making, he contented himself with stroking her back in the spots that she adored. Soon, though, she took his hand gently in hers and slowly placed it flat across her stomach, holding it there with gentle pressure. With her lips almost touching his ear, he heard the faintest whisper of "Jack."

He lay still for just a few seconds until an electric thrill coursed through his whole self. Looking suddenly round, even though he couldn't see anything in the total blackness, he felt her fervent embrace and hugged her in return. Her hot salty tears against his face produced a flood of his own, and he could sense her broad smile.

"Oh, Sam." he mouthed, not quite making any sound, but she knew what he was saying anyway. Their silent mutual laughter started slowly but grew, and he found that he just couldn't stop holding her, nor she him.

Later he placed the side of his head gently against her stomach and she held him there, the magic of their joint hope for the future holding them in a spell. Eventually they lay apart in the heat of the night with just fingers entwined, and dozed fitfully until the guard woke them an hour before dawn to start the next day's march.

Leaning close to her ear, "Are you sure?" was all he whispered at first light when they were ready to set off, and she nodded briefly but with eyebrows raised, indicating that she thought so, but proof positive would be needed. The brief look of joy on his face brought forth one of her broadest, toothy grins and they felt sure that everyone who so much as glanced in their direction must immediately know their secret, but it wasn't so.

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Five days later it was still their secret, and that was the way they wanted to keep it for now, even from Hailey and Grogan. They had reached the point where their small group was to leave the main thrust of the retreat – for a retreat it truly was, as they were being sought by an estimated force of over twenty thousand Andan SHB troops.

Handing over to the others anything non-essential to their raid on the power plant, the four Tau'ri and three Andans set off for their three-day trek towards the capital. Their camouflaged combat clothes had been exchanged for plain workers' outfits and once more they became a band of itinerants looking for work, but avoiding actually finding it of course. The greatest weight in their packs was taken up with the assorted Multipliers that Sam and Jen would assemble to perform their destructive task, topped off with the remaining ammunition for their side-arms and Jack's powerful rifle. One Andan had all the C4 in his pack and joked about making an impact on people, which only his two native comrades found funny.

In the event, it took a lot less time to reach the capital than they thought, thanks to a friendly driver of an electric cargo-waggon who saved them a whole day's walk. Instead of staying in the town itself, they hid in woods in the vicinity of the power generation plant until dark, spending the remaining daylight just observing the place through field glasses. They mapped out security posts, fences, gates and doors and quietly prepared for the raid that night.

Jen was beginning to get suspicious that something was going on between Jack and his wife, and tried to eavesdrop when they sat aside from the others before departure, just murmuring to each other. But strain as she might, she could only catch occasional words and phrases.

"Not after tonight, you won't....."

"..... all right, really it will....."

"..... not just us any more....."

"..... out loud, Jack, it's....."

"No!"

"..... chauvinist pig......"

'Hmm.' thought Jen. 'He hasn't been one of those for a long time. They wouldn't be together if it weren't for me. I'll get it out of him later.'

"..... as a mule....."

"Well, you married....."

""Knock it off, old guys!" Jen stage whispered at them. "Save the Darby and Joan act for later, OK?"

They both looked round at her, and she could quite clearly pick out their startled expressions in the moonlight. They knew she was right, and that distractions from the job in hand could have fatal consequences, and they sobered up quickly.

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