With thanks to my reviewers this is the revised chapter 5. The epilogue will be posted within 24hrs.
Part 5
Neither Carter nor O'Neill dared to breathe as the rings formed around them. The bright white of the room was replaced by the glare of the transport and equally suddenly by complete blackness. Briefly O'Neill wondered momentarily if they had been deposited in outer space and waited for his eyes to be sucked out of their sockets by the vacuum, before realising his feet were most definitely on something solid.
He breathed in tentatively, tasting the atmosphere. Carter inhaled deeply beside him, he could almost hear her brain ticking over the possibilities for their location. He took a step, cautiously, forward and his toes brushed up against something hard. Stretching out his hands his fingers touched the edge of something smooth and big. A box?
"Ideas, Carter?" he asked very quietly.
"Storage compartment," she replied, "Or somewhere rarely used. Have you ever been on a Goa'ud ship and seen a room without any lights on?"
"Maybe they're doing their bit for global warming," the colonel joked as he moved carefully to his left where he could sense Carter's presence. "At least they have the heating on in here."
An alarm sounded loudly outside the confines of the room and panels in the ceiling illuminated a moment afterwards. They were, indeed, in some kind of storage facility, fifty feet long with crates stacked four tiers high and strange objects, which would normally have fascinated Carter, clipped securely to the walls. A vast door was opening at the far end of the compartment and the sound of approaching jaffa drove O'Neill and Carter to take cover.
Skulking awkwardly between the rows of containers the pair skirted the security detail and edged closer to the door moving in a natural unison. The Imperial Guard stomped further down the storage facility, their staff weapons presented in formation, obviously not ready to fire. Carter frowned deeply and whispered in O'Neill's ear.
"If the alarm isn't for us, what is it for?"
The colonel shrugged, "I don't know, don't care, and don't want to wait around to find out. Let's get the hell out of here."
With the jaffa occupied at the far end of the hold O'Neill and Carter slipped unnoticed into the corridor beyond and hurried down the dangerously open space, ducking into conveniently placed alcoves along the way. A pair of jaffa passed by them fortunately too engrossed in their task to see the Tau'ri prisoners pressed hard against the bulkhead.
"Carter!" O'Neill hissed urgently, "Do you have any idea where we are going?"
She nodded firmly, "Assuming this Ha'tak is of similar construction to others we have encountered I am pretty sure we can find another set of transportation rings in a room down the next corridor. I am hoping there is a terminal in there which will tell us if there is a planet below to transport to."
"Got a Plan B?"
"Actually, sir, no," Carter's face reddened. "This is kinda my only hope right now, unless you can remember how to fly a death glider?"
The colonel considered the option for a moment and pulled a face, "Fly, yes. Launch and land… not so much. Keep rooting for the A game, Major."
They moved as swiftly as the colonel's knee would allow, their luck holding true as the passed from one corridor to another without encountering any jaffa. Half way down the next hallway Carter indicated they open a door. Unarmed and lacking defensive capabilities it was a risk. O'Neill punched the door open and they held their breaths. No-one inside the room called out and O'Neill peered around the corner cautiously to find the transportation room unmanned.
Slipping inside the room the colonel closed the door again behind them and nervously watched Carter review the control panel on the wall.
"And?" he asked impatiently. Their odds of escape were diminishing by the second. Someone had to notice they were missing sooner or later.
"We're still in orbit, but we're not the only ones. That alarm was indication that another Ha'tak has arrived. I don't understand what's happening but I don't think it's one of Moloc's."
"Meaning any minute now there is every chance they are going to start shooting at each other," O'Neill concluded, "Can the rings transport through whatever force-fieldy type thing the mothership is using?"
"I think so, Colonel," Carter tapped the controls until the lights turned a shade of green, "As far as I can tell we are going to ring in somewhere on the planet within a couple of clicks of the stargate. There was a Goa'uld temple on the hillside to the north of the village. It's the most likely location for a secondary set of rings."
O'Neill moved to the centre of the circle illustrated darkly on the highly polished floor. Carter rechecked her calibrations and took a deep breath. A second alarm rang out suddenly, a more insistent sound. Battle stations? Escaped prisoners? The major activated the rings and leapt into the circle just as the rings began to descend. As the second ring fell around them the door to the room opened and a jaffa security patrol charged into the room.
"Jaffa, kree!"
The order came as the third ring settled into position. The band of jaffa drew themselves into formation, surrounding the rings with their staff weapons drawn. The commander strode to the transportation control panel and punched it, but the sequence was already engaged and the fourth ring locked into position. O'Neill could not help but wave a childish goodbye as the fifth ring swung down and they were transported off the Ha'tak and back to the planet's surface.
They had barely materialised in the temple before O'Neill and Carter were running for the door. They lumbered along, making a break for cover in the thin line of trees that led down to the edge of the ruined village. The night sky provided a natural advantage giving them enough darkness in which to move more easily but enough moonlight to light their way.
In the temple behind them the distinctive sound of the transportation rings filled the air. The Colonel looked over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of two jaffa running out of the temple door and directly towards the stargate. A few moments later the rings echoed again and another group of jaffa began tracking their escaped prisoners' movements.
All around them the remains of the burnt village creaked and groaned in the wind. Scrambling between the scorched timbers and ducking into treacherous doorways they found themselves behind the market place, Shana's body still lying in the middle of the street.
"My kit bag," Carter pointed to a dark bag lying under the edge of a fallen but unburnt roof timber, "There's C4 in it."
O'Neill grabbed the pack as they passed, his hands deftly finding the C4 and a detonator. The jaffa behind them were gaining ground rapidly, their shouts and staff weapon blasts growing dangerously near. Pausing for a moment O'Neill hit the ground and shoved the detonator into the C4, setting the timer for just 15 seconds. Starting it off he attempted to jump to his feet, his knee complained and collapsed beneath him. By his side, Carter hauled him upright and with his hand at her elbow and her arm around his waist they staggered on.
The C4 blast behind them destroyed half the pursuing jaffa brigade and threw the others to the floor, their shouts abruptly halted and the staff weapons silenced. Ahead, two jaffa stood between them and the DHD, staff weapons trained on their targets. Out of options O'Neill flung Carter's kit bag at one of them catching him off guard. The colonel seized the advantage, grabbing the staff weapon and discharging it at the second jaffa before using the other end to render the first guard unconscious.
"Sir, we don't have a GDO," Carter shouted as the recovering jaffa behind them began to fire again.
"I know that, Carter," O'Neill yelled back, "Dial Tollana, you remember the sequence, right?"
Carter dialled as swiftly as she was able listening all the time to the approach of more of the Imperial Guard. A staff blast hit the ground beside her as she pressed the activation button. She rolled clear, landing by O'Neill's side a few feet from the stargate pulling him to the floor in the process.
The event horizon exploded behind them pouring blue light into the darkness. The jaffa, momentarily blinded, fired indiscriminately at the stargate, staff blasts sending columns of smoke and soil into the air.
Through the debris O'Neill sighted a jaffa aiming his staff weapon directly at their position. Lying, sniper pose, in the dirt he loosed a single staff blast at the man, the impact blasting him back ten paces.
Carter was already on her feet, her hands gripping the colonel's arm, dragging him into a run. Stumbling desperately towards safety she felt the impact of a staff blast on their backs as they threw themselves headlong into the wormhole.