I know I keep saying it, but thank you to everyone who has read this and reviewed it. I really do appreciate your comments. Hope you enjoy this chapter too.
UNITED WE STAND
By Lingren.
Previously:
Jack sighed. He missed Daniel. For five years they had been best buddies, and now it was all over. Daniel was gone. Gone off to play with the glowy guys instead of the rocks.
Chapter 9
Berman dropped an arm load of dried wood by Jack's side, bringing him back to the here and now with a bump. He mentally shook himself and studied the rock, feeling its texture. He ran a finger over the strange symbols on its surface, until Jonas spotted him.
"Colonel? That looks like Goa'uld sir."
Jack looked up at him, giving up the rock along with his memories, by handing the warm stone to the Kelownan.
"It's just a rock Jonas, but you can have it if you want it."
"Are there any more like this Colonel?" he asked, sorting through the others on the ground.
"Ah...I don't know. You'll have to ask Teal'c, he found them."
Jack carried on building the fire, whilst Jonas went off to find the Jaffa.
By the time he'd returned, Jack had a blazing fire going and a tripod on which a pot of water was steaming away over the flames, ready to make their coffee when it boiled.
"Colonel!"
Jack looked round in time to see Jonas and Teal'c stride towards him, several more rocks gathered in their arms. They dropped them onto the grass and Jonas sat down beside the untidy pile. Picking them up and turning them over in the light from his torch now it was getting gloomy, so that he could see the writing.
"From what I can make out, this was a Goa'uld world Colonel. The writing indicates that perhaps there was a city or at least some sort of occupancy around here. It all says that this place was once ruled over by the goddess…um…An…Anat…."
"Anat? Never heard of her."
"According to Dr. Jackson's notes that I've read, she was the goddess with a penchant for violence. She was the consort of Baal, and the daughter of RA."
"That figures...great pedigree. Not exactly what I wanted to hear right now though." Jack's mind flew back to the recent past of a few months ago. His capture and torture by Baal, and subsequently his multiple deaths at that overblown snakehead's hands, was still raw in his memory. "But...she's not around here now, I take it. That's why this place is in ruins...right?"
"Yes, but that doesn't mean there isn't another city somewhere else on this planet. She could simply have moved her home to a few miles down the road as it were."
"Oiy!"
"We must therefore be vigilant O'Neill."
"Yeah Teal'c. I know..." His words cut off abruptly as a familiar noise suddenly roared to life over their heads. "Crap! Take cover!" Jack yelled as a death glider swept over the camp from just above the canopy of the forest.
Jack kicked out the fire and grabbed his gear then ran for the trees behind his scattering team. They hunkered down in the undergrowth and watched as the glider made another sweep of the camp before it headed off in the direction of their left.
"Well that's one way of supporting your ideas Jonas. Looks like they knew the gate had been activated."
"That is most likely," Teal'c agreed.
"Then I think we should get the hell out of Dodge. C'mon, let's move it. We are sooo going home!"
Teal'c took the lead this time as they ran back into the denseness of the trees, making their way back to the Stargate before they were inundated with Jaffa patrols out searching for them. They tripped and stumbled in the darkness under the canopy, but they never let up on their pace.
Too late!
They met a patrol a mile or so into the forest and they split up to hide, hoping they wouldn't be noticed. Teal'c and Jonas taking the left; and Jack and Berman the right.
Jack had ordered Teal'c to make it back to the gate. He had to get Jonas back in one piece, so that he could warn the General that this was a Goa'uld stronghold and that it was Ba'al's snakehead bitch that ruled here. He and Berman would draw them off and meet up with them at the Stargate. If the area looked as if it was about to be overrun with Jaffa troops, they were to get themselves back through the Stargate and avoid capture if at all possible.
Teal'c hadn't liked the order, but knew the reasoning behind it. There was no way his Tau'ri friend wanted either him or Jonas to go through what he had at Baal's hands.
They waited until the patrol had passed by and then made their move. Teal'c and Jonas took off, skirting left of the trail, the big Jaffa leading the way with confidence. They only encountered another two patrols but managed to lie low and avoided them. They made it to the edge of the forest and hid themselves in the bushes to await the others. Teal'c watched the area around the gate, but surprisingly it had remained unguarded, unless the Jaffa were echoing their positions, just biding their time until the Tau'ri turned up, then all hell would be let loose.
He was not particularly happy to hear the distant echo of weapons fire erupt into the silence that surrounded them. He risked their positions and they ran for the gate. Jonas dialled up the SGC and waited for the gate to 'kawhoosh' into existence. Staff blasts rained down around them too now, but as soon as the GDO signal had been sent he pushed the young man through, returning blasts of his own before joining his team-mate for the ride home, and reluctantly leaving his CO and the young Captain to their own devices.
OoOoOoOoO
Jack held up his hand as a silent signal for Berman to stop and get down. There were four Jaffa heading their way. Jack looked about him, frantically searching for a reasonable place to hide. He pointed to a thicket to their right and they dashed behind it, barely seconds before the Jaffa marched past the spot they were previously occupying. They waited for a few minutes before stepping from behind the bushes. A sudden staff blast from behind them sent Berman screaming in agony. Jack grabbed him and dragged him back into the shelter again, turning to fire his P-90 into the enemy behind them. The Jaffa fell to his bitter onslaught and he then took the opportunity to check on his 2IC.
"You okay Captain?"
"Yes Sir. It's just a glancing blow," he grimaced through clenched teeth.
Jack studied the wound on the Captain's arm just below his shoulder, and agreed it was merely a flesh wound. He grabbed a med kit from the back-pack and wound a sterile field dressing quickly around it.
His acute senses picked up the sounds of more Jaffa heading their way and they took off quickly trying hard to avoid them, shouting encouragement to Berman as they ran.
As they rounded a particularly thickset tree, they suddenly found themselves face to face with three Jaffa. Jack automatically brought his P-90 up and fired, Berman followed but the Jaffa were just as quick to respond and Jack fell to ground writhing in agony, yelling for Berman to get the hell out of there, his thigh a bleeding mass of burned flesh. He yelled at the Captain to follow his orders and make a run for it. Berman did so, readily, desperate to get away, though every minute he expected the fiery agony of a staff blast to his back that would kill him.
Despite the agony coursing through him, Jack took out the last Jaffa, but not before another blast had burned its fiery agony deep into his shoulder. Letting loose an agonised scream of pain, he collapsed backwards falling headlong into the yawning void of unconsciousness before he'd hit the ground.
Berman crashed through the trees, surprised when he found himself facing the gate. There wasn't any sign of the enemy Jaffa, except a few dead ones lying around, nor were there any sightings of the rest of his team. Moving awkwardly rather than cautiously now, he dialled the DHD and sent the GDO signal. Blasts suddenly peppered the ground around him as he finally stumbling through, exhausted and in pain when another blast seared his side.
OoOoOoOoO
Teal'c and Jonas were stood at the foot of the ramp, refusing to leave until the gate had shut down, and even beyond, waiting impatiently for their CO, and their other team-mate to arrive. General Hammond stood with them whilst Teal'c explained the situation.
Sam, who had also arrived on hearing that Jack had been in trouble, was incredulous.
"You left the Colonel out there, knowing he was under fire?" she exclaimed incredulously.
"O'Neill is not alone Major Carter, Captain Berman was with him."
"Teal'c! You just stated they were under fire and yet you left them? I don't believe this!" she gasped in horror. She would never have left him.
"What's your point Major?" Hammond asked. "Colonel O'Neill is quite capable of getting himself and Captain Berman home."
"Yes Sir I know that, but he would have refused to leave any one of us behind. No matter what!"
Taking them all by surprise, the chevrons started to glow and the gate began to spin. The iris slid into place and everyone held their breath, eyes glued to the great rings.
The gate roared into life and the Sergeant's voice wafted over the speaker.
"It's SG-1's, IDC Sir."
TBC