Sheppard dove to the ground as another round of gunfire chewed through the trees around him. He crawled forward on his belly to where he could get a good look at what was firing at them.

Men in rustic looking clothes pointed what looked like some kind of flintlock weapon in their direction. Plumes of white smoke drifted up as they fired. Several more bullets ripped through the leaves on the tree above them.

"One if by land and two if by sea," he mumbled under his breath.

"Major?" Teyla gave him a confused look.

He grimaced. "Sorry. They just remind me of battle reenactments they do back home of the war when our country's won it's independence over two hundred years ago."

She didn't look like she really understood, but she nodded. "Their weapons are very primitive in comparison to your own, but I can assure you they are quite deadly."

"Yeah, dead's dead," Sheppard said, pulling out his binoculars and trying to get a better look at them. He frowned. "Any idea what's got them so pissed off?"

"I do not know," she answered. "Perhaps this is some sort of holy place for them."

Sheppard focused on the one of the men in the front line. He was laughing and smiling at the man beside him. "They look like they're at some kind of turkey shoot."

"What is a turkey?"

A whistling sound whined overhead and Sheppard jerked the binoculars up. "Incoming," he said, grabbed Telya's sleeve and pulling her after him as they scrambled back into the cover of some trees.

A cannon ball crashed just to the left of where they had been hiding and the ground around it crumpled in the impact and another sinkhole appeared.

"This place must be completely hollowed out under us," Sheppard said, reaching for his radio and keying it. "Ford? Ford, are you there?"

The radio crackled a moment and then the pain voice of his junior officer came on. "Major, what the heck is going on up there? This place is coming down on us!"

Sheppard swore. "How bad is it?"

"I got us back away from the main part of the cavern, but I don't want to move Doctor McKay any more. He's not doing so good."

"How bad?"

"He keeps throwing up."

Sheppard frowned and the spoke back into the radio. "That's the head injury. We'll do what we can from up here, but we're cut off from the Puddle Jumper."

"I don't want to sound impatient, but—"

"I got you, Lieutenant. Just try to hold on."

"Yes, sir."

Sheppard huffed in frustration and glanced at Teyla. "We've got to get to the ship." He shouldered his P90. "I really don't want to shoot these guys, but I am not leaving people behind." Again, he added silently to himself.

They edged forward, keeping low. Teyla grabbed the edge of his sleeve, tugging on it. He turned to look and sucked in a breath at what he saw. Perched in the branches above them was a crude model of a Wraith Dart.

"They aren't pissed at us—"he started to say when the shrill whistle of another cannon ball cut him off. Teyla tacked him knocking him out of the way, but not before the next round of musket balls riddled the trees and he felt something tear through his arm.

"Oh, crap!"