"What's happening?" Sam asked as they piled into Jack's truck, Jaffer jumping into the seat behind Jack, and Daniel climbing in behind Sam's.
"SG-5 is in trouble on PKL-3R3."
"We were just there last week," Daniel said. "The place was clean."
"Obviously not. But since we've been there, they need us to go."
Daniel shook his head. "She's never going to forgive me..."
Jack and Sam looked over at each other, but neither could think of anything to say that would reassure Daniel.
"Pull Jaffer's bowtie off, will ya, Daniel?"
.................
"SG-5 radioed us telling us they were under fire and pinned in some gully, but we haven't heard anything from them since." Hammond looked at his watch. "That was about half an hour ago." He paused, looking at Jack, who was just buttoning his shirt. They'd had to change, but had been in such a hurry, they'd finished in the hall on the way to the embarkation room, where Teal'c and Hammond were waiting for them.
"No word since?"
"No. We sent SG-6 through, but they couldn't find the gully, and they can hear gunfire, but because of the terrain, they can't figure out where it's coming from."
"We're ready, Sir."
Jack reached over and took his Kevlar vest from one of the security guys, watching as the rest of his team were similarly assisted.
"SG-6 is waiting for you on the other side. Bring them all home safely, Colonel."
"Yes, Sir."
He buckled on his holster as the gate engaged, and was the first one up the ramp, his P-90 held up and ready.
............
"What's the word, Lauder?"
The Major who commanded SG-6 shrugged, looking helplessly at O'Neill and the rest of SG-1. In the air was the occasional sound of rifle or machine gun fire, but because of the mountains around the gate, the sounds were echoing all over the area, making it difficult to tell where they were coming from.
"We can't hear anything, Sir. No radio contact, anyways, although there's been a ton of gunfire. They radioed that they were in a gully, but my team can't find a gully, and we can't get them to answer our calls."
"The radios are probably having trouble with the mountains," Jack said. "Let's go find them."
He motioned for Lauder to leave a couple people to guard the gate – and their sixes – then led the others toward the gully he and his team had found the first time they'd been on the planet. When they'd had Jaffer and Jack with them. This time, the labs had been left behind, since Jack wasn't going to risk either one of them in a firefight that they couldn't be much help in. Not even the dogs' noses would be much help.
Luckily, Jack and the others had been there, and had had plenty of time to look around. There hadn't been any sign of trouble then, and even the dogs hadn't found any reason to think there was danger, so SG-1 knew the area well, and all four of them were fairly certain they knew which gully it was, and more importantly, where that gully was.
The six of them (SG-1, and two of SG-6) found out almost fifteen minutes later that they'd been right. The sound of gunfire increased, and suddenly there was radio chatter coming from every radio.
"Repeat! This is Sierra Gulf Fiver! Can you..." garbled transmission, then... "We're under a large..." There was more garbled chatter, but the gunfire that had been echoing before was now clear to the seasoned officers of SG-1 and 6. They knew where they were heading.
Jack keyed his radio. "Sierra Gulf Fiver, this is Sierra Gulf One. We're coming in from the south. Repeat, from the south! What is your situation?"
"One down, Sierra Gulf One." The voice on the other end of the radio was calm, although there was also a note of relief as well. "We have at least a dozen baddies pinning us down from the south, and we're running low on..." garbled... "So..." garbled transmission... then "Watch your twelve, Sir..."
"Roger. Hang in there, we're close."
"Yes, Sir."
"They've got them blocked off from the gate, then," Carter said, when they all stopped to make their plan.
"Yeah. We'll have them between us, though, if SG-5 has enough ammo left to make a try at breaking through."
"What's the plan, Colonel?" Lauder asked.
"We'll break them out." Jack said, keying his radio. "Listen up, guys, I only want to tell you all once."
................
The plan worked.
SG-1 and SG-6 came in from behind the Jaffa, turning their attention from the pinned down SG-5 to them, and giving SG-5 a chance to group up a little better. Of course, the surprise only lasted a few moments, but it was enough for Daniel, Teal'c and Jack to sweep through their line, effectively breaking the siege while the others covered them. Extra ammo was handed out, and Teal'c tossed Jack his staff weapon and gathered up the wounded man, slinging him up over his shoulder with ease. O'Neill was as good with a staff weapon as he was with any other weapon, and he led the group as they headed out of the gully, back towards SG-1 and 6, where they were laying down cover fire, and taking out as many of the enemy as they could, knowing that the more they could mow down now, the fewer there would be to chase them back to the gate.
They crashed back through the line of Jaffa, and Jack lagged back, using the more powerful weapon in his hand to guard the retreat as the teams all regrouped once more for their last break for the gate, and to make sure there weren't more injuries they didn't know about that might slow them down.
Teal'c showed no signs of needing help with the seriously injured member of SG-5, which would save the extra hands for cover fire as well.
"Daniel, you're with me. The rest of you, get going. Carter, take point with Lauder."
Jack and Daniel would be back up, but Sam and the CO of SG-6 would have the more important job of making sure they weren't going to run into any other Jaffa who might have jockeyed around and gotten ahead of them. Daniel lagged back beside Jack, both of them holding their weapons up and pretty much running backward, firing whenever a Jaffa showed himself.
It was working.
And then it all went bad on them.
"Colonel!" Lauder saw the Jaffa before Carter did. He was looking in the right direction, while Sam had been checking the other way, and Lauder was the one that saw the group of Jaffa coming through another gully and heading right towards them, staff weapons raised and firing.
Jack turned just as they fired, and Daniel went down in heap when the first volley of fire blasted into the two of them and a bolt slammed into his side.
"Daniel!"
O'Neill grabbed him by the vest, and pulled him up. They didn't have time to stop. Not with the crowd coming at them. Daniel gasped in pain – which told Jack he was alive – and O'Neill pulled him over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. It would make firing back impossible, but it didn't matter. Jack wouldn't leave Daniel, and he knew the others would cover him as well as they could. With the staff weapon in one hand, and holding Daniel tightly with the other, Jack headed after the others, who'd all stopped to fire at the approaching Jaffa.
"Move! We can't let them surround us!"
"They're-"
A bolt whizzed past Jack's head and he ducked, almost dropping the staff weapon.
"Get going, God damn it!"
The others started running, again, Jack following them, pretty much figuring they were in a world of hurt, but hoping he could make it to the gate before the Jaffa managed to catch up – or they got lucky and hit him, too.
They weren't far away, now. Jack knew it was probably only another mile, but he was pretty sure that he and Daniel weren't going to make it that far. There were a lot of Jaffa closing in on them. He could only hope that Sam and the others were close enough to make it, since they were able to move a lot faster than he was, and that the two SG-6 guys that were guarding the gate heard the fire and knew they needed to get their asses down and get some cover fire going.
Then the cavalry arrived. Around the bend there was suddenly a small sea of green- clad soldiers, all carrying weapons, and firing past Jack at the group of pursuing Jaffa. A pair took Daniel from Jack, who handed him over willingly, knowing that the fireman's carry could only be hurting him worse. Raising up Teal'c's staff weapon once more, Jack turned towards the approaching Jaffa, only to find they'd broken ranks and were beginning to make a retreat of their own. One SG unit pinned down was one thing. A whole mess of them, all shooting back and able to defend themselves was quite another, and the Jaffa didn't want anything to do with it.
Teal'c came running over, having been relieved of the injured SG-5 member, and Jack handed him back his staff weapon as he watched the retreating Jaffa.
"Daniel took a hit."
"I am aware." Teal'c said, as Jack called the cavalry back, not wanting them to run into any kind of half-assed ambush the Jaffa might try to set up. "Major Carter has been injured as well."
"What?"