Teyla shifted a bit in her hiding spot, where was their back up? They desperately needed it.
Just as she thought this, the Stargate became active and a Puddle Jumper came through predictably knocking down the wraith. It was shortly followed by a second. Teyla shot at the wraith to divert their attention from the Puddle Jumpers while they cloaked themselves. One Jumper was a bit slower in cloaking itself than the other and Teyla could make out the people inside having a bit of a verbal fight about some thing, then it too disappeared.
Teyla was about to run away from the remaining wraith near the Stargate when they were shot down by what was unmistakably Ronon's gun. She came out from the bushes and into sight from the Puddle Jumpers and motioned for Ronon to do the same. He did.
Ronon's radio burst to life.
"Teyla, Ronon, it's good to see you. Now tell me; are you hurt and where did Rodney and Colonel Sheppard get to? Or are they still hiding in the bushes?"
Teyla smiled, turning on her own radio, it had definitely been Dr Beckett talking.
"Ronon and I are fine. I last saw Colonel Sheppard leaving west to help Dr McKay who had said he was on a tree growing out of the face of a cliff. Colonel Sheppard has got minor injuries, I have been told that Dr McKay is also hurt, although I do not know the extent of his injuries," she told Beckett.
"Rodney's where?! How the bloody hell did he manage that? No, don't tell me, I don't want to know," Beckett backtracked.
"McKay's over s cliff?" Lorne's voice asked.
"Last time I heard, yes he was, and that can not have been more than thirty minutes ago," Teyla confirmed.
"Okay then, Beckett if they're hurt you take your Jumper and go save McKay sorry ass and pick up the Colonel, and tend to their injuries. I'll land and Teyla and Ronon can come aboard, then I'll join you," commanded Lorne.
"I'm going," grumbled Beckett huffily.
It sounded to Teyla as if Beckett was flying the one of the Puddle Jumpers, which would explain his bad mood, probably combined with his dislike of going off world. It was well known Beckett hated to fly a Puddle Jumper and wouldn't unless he was directly ordered to. Teyla knew he still would have objected crossly. She remembered being told when the dart had scanned Atlantis during the wraith invasion Beckett had been sent in one of the Puddle Jumpers that were meant to destroy it and had been complaining for every second of it.
"Teyla and Ronon, could you please step back in to the bushes so we can land," requested Lorne.
Teyla and Ronon walked out of the space Lorne needed to land.
The Puddle Jumper must have landed fairly quickly because a couple of seconds later a marine appeared out of mid air.
"Over here," he shouted.
Teyla and Ronon went into the Puddle Jumper. Lorne smiled at them.
"I guess things didn't go exactly to plan," he commented as he lifted the Puddle Jumper back into the sky to follow Beckett.
They suddenly received a radio message.
"I found the place where McKay's supposed to be, but we've got a problem," came Beckett's voice.
"What sort of a problem?" Lorne wanted to know.
"He's not there. McKay's gone. I think Colonel Sheppard must have managed to get him back up because…AHHHH!!"
"Teyla's eyes opened wide she sent a questioning look at Lorne.
"Doctor Beckett?! What's happening?" asked Lorne urgently.
"We're being attacked by wraith darts! The little buggers must have picked up our radio signal!"
"Drone them!" suggested Lorne.
"I can't do that, son. I'd have to take the cloak off and it's my only advantage!"
"I'm on my way," Lorne told him, and then swore as he made the Jumper avoided dart fire, five darts had taken up positions around the Jumper and were firing randomly.
Lorne contacted Beckett again.
"We are under heavy fire! We have no choice but to retreat back through the Stargate before they cut us off from it! Head back to the gate immediately!"
"Bit late for retreating! I'm surrounded! Ahhhhh! We've lost the cloak! Uh oh, weapons are also down! Half the people in here are unconscious from impact of the dart fire! Bloody hell, we're going down! Oh no, we're headed towards the cliff! There's no way we can avoid it! We're going to hit the top of the cliff!"
"Jumper six?! Jumper six please respond! Beckett!" Lorne was sounding frantic. "What's happening?"
"I'll tell you what's happening! I'm holding on to the control while this Jumper cartwheels over the edge of a cliff, that's what's happening! I can't get the ship back under control! I told you I'm not a bloody pilot!"
The radio went dead.
Lorne was forced to drive his Jumper up into space to avoid the darts.
Sheppard was standing in a clearing staring up at the sky. He had just been able to make out wraith darts firing at mid air and hitting something. The 'something' had eventually appeared and even from so far away Sheppard recognised it as a Puddle Jumper. It had taken heavy fire and hah hit the edge of the cliff, it was now cartwheeling dangerously through the air. It cartwheeled over the trees and out of Sheppard's sight. Sheppard swore violently. He decided to keep going to the dart where he could get McKay, then he could take McKay to the Puddle Jumper and McKay could help fix it and they could hopefully help the people inside it, Sheppard was positive that someone in their would have gotten hurt.
He wished that they'd all stayed at the gate while McKay had done his scans for wraith ships, if they had, Ronon and Teyla cold have helped fight off the wraith that had come and the DHD probably wouldn't have gotten damaged. He should learn to think ahead before he accidentally got his whole team killed. As it was, letting Teyla and Ronon go after a bunch of wraith had gotten McKay in the buffer of a wraith dart, gotten the DHD broken, and eventually resulted in s Puddle Jumper getting shot down by a group of wraith darts. He hoped for McKay's sake that the wraith flying the dart had been killed when it had crashed, if it hadn't chances were McKay would already be dead. Sheppard gritted his teeth, he was going to get every last person off the planet and back to Atlantis alive, even if it was the last thing he ever did. Or, as Weir had put it when they'd sent the information to Atlantis just before the siege; especially if it was the last thing he ever did.
Sheppard glanced at his scanner again and set off at a run, hacking his way through the thick jungle, towards the fallen dart.
Teyla looked out in to space at the two hive ships and millions of cruisers and darts. She glanced round at everyone else in the Jumper to see what they thought; Major Lorne was staring, wide eyed; the marines in the back had stopped whatever they had been doing and were looking quite alarmed and Ronon was looking at the ships with plain disgust and contempt.
"There goes any plans of hoping to get the Daedalus to help us," remarked Lorne. "Taking the Daedalus through this lot would be suicidal."
"How do you plan to find Beckett and Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay?" Teyla wanted to know.
""I don't even know where McKay and Sheppard are, according to Beckett Sheppard may have managed to get McKay back up the cliff, but we don't know why Beckett thought that, we don't know if it was just an assumption or if he found some sort evidence. I think we're gonna have to go back to Atlantis and get another Jumper and Doctor Zelenka, because other wise we're going to have to lose Jumper six because I'm pretty sure no one here can fix it," suggested Lorne.
"Doctor McKay could fix it," said Teyla quietly.
Lorne sighed.
"But we don't know where he is, he could be a captive in the wraith base for all we know and I can't drone anything because we can't afford to be found! You can see how heavily outnumbered we are."
"Why did you get Beckett tot fly a Puddle Jumper?" broke in Ronon. "I though he hated it."
Lorne groaned. "He does. Everyone else with the Gene is off world! All except me, Beckett and a technician who's in Beckett's Jumper."
"So if we go back we can not get another Puddle Jumper?" Teyla could hardly believe her ears.
"Fraid not, but we still need to get Zelenka," stated Lorne firmly.
"We can not leave our people on this planet with the wraith," insisted Teyla.
"We don't have a choice. We'll be back as quickly as possible."
Teyla didn't argue anymore, it wasn't her decision to make.
Sheppard ran into the clearing where the dart had crashed, at least it had crashed in a clearing. The top of the dart was open and the wraith pilot was still alive, but its leg was trapped so it couldn't get out. Sheppard shot it, thankfully it died relatively easily. Now he only had one clip left. He went to the control, what was it that released someone from the buffer? Oh yes, there it was. Sheppard pressed the button, then ran round the back of the dart. There was McKay obviously unconscious from being in the buffer, but alive.
Sheppard dragged him back into the jungle, but didn't go far; he didn't know how to use the scanner to look for Ancient technology so he was just gonna have to wait until McKay woke up. He fiddled with the scanner until it was showing life signs again, there was nothing big enough to be a wraith near him. Sheppard had leant McKay up against a tree and was hoping he'd wake up soon; the wraith would certainly go and take a look at the Jumper. That couldn't happen, up close the wraith would see that it was Ancient design and since they thought Atlantis was destroyed that was definitely not a good thing.
Lorne flew the Jumper down back into the planet's atmosphere and to the Stargate. There was a semi circle of darts over the gate, guarding it.
"Teyla I need you to dial the gate and punch in your IDC very quickly. I'm going to fly the Jumper through the gate, fast. Do you think you can do that quick enough?"
"Yes."
"Okay, start dialing," ordered Lorne.
As Teyla dialled Atlantis, Lorne made the Jumper pick up speed, she then put in her IDC. The darts moved, wanting to stop whatever was trying to escape through the gate, but they couldn't see the Jumper because of the cloak, so before they could do anything, the Jumper was already through the gate. They arrived back at Atlantis and saw Weir looking at them with relief.
"Shut it down!" yelled Lorne.
Weir's relieved look evaporated instantly, but she shut it down anyway. She turned on her radio.
"Major, What's happening? Where's Jumper six?"
Her voice was heard clearly in the Puddle Jumper.
"Meet us at the Jumper Bay, I'll tell you there," replied Lorne grimly. "Take Zelenka with you."
Weir frowned at that, but didn't question him.
"I'll go get him now," she assured them.
Lorne lifted the Jumper out of the control room and into the Jumper Bay.
Authors Note: Major Lorne is in most of my stories, as well as Beckett, if I get either of their characters wrong please tell me.