Exams + being sick + messing with food allergies = not a conducive environment for writing. Imagine that.

Sorry for the later than usual update. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up sooner. On a plus note, two more chapters and one epilogue left. Yay!

There is totally an Aliens reference in this crossover. Imagine that. But seriously, it's there hidden in this chapter. Okay, not so hidden. ;)

Also, Lorne +1, Aliens 0. He totally stole the creatures' ideas. Okay, it's probably more like Lorne 1, Aliens 547,000….Maybe with some added zeroes involved.

Disclaimer: I can't believe we are still doing this dance. Again, I don't own anything.

Hysteria bubbled forth, fear freezing his body. He could only stare, transfixed, as a single skinny leg reached out and over the egg, slowly pushing the crab-like creature to the surface.

He could feel a scream start, but quickly clenched his mouth shut, grinding teeth together. The eggs no doubt went through the throat. Like hell he was going to let it freely enter his mouth. His hand twitched beside him as the creature reoriented itself until it was pointing towards him.

He stared at it, and he knew without a doubt, it stared back at him.

It leapt.

Chapter Seven

He really should have suspected. Of course the creepy alien would have perfect aim. It would have been a metaphorical and most likely physical hole in one if John hadn't used his free hand to stop the creature from making a connection.

As it was, his position wasn't much better. The things' rather long tail had wrapped itself around his throat and was tightening painfully as it struggled against him. The creature itself was using the tail to draw itself closer to his mouth, the only thing stopping its' grotesque, wiggling, appendage being Johns' hand.

It wasn't much of a defense and John knew it. He was also pretty sure the creature knew it as well as it continued to jimmy around as if trying to find the spot where it'll just go around his hand. They both knew his measly hand was Johns' only means of defense.

Nothing terrified John more than knowing that his hand was the only thing keeping the creature from stuffing an egg down his throat. As it was, his hand was weakening, and the creature was slowly slipping from his grip. It was really only a matter of time.

This wasn't exactly the way he wanted to go.

There was a shout and his name was being called out. There were hands everywhere suddenly, but more importantly on the creature, pulling it back and away.

"No! Don't!" Rodney was suddenly there and John had a fleeting worry that the creature would just up and decide to latch onto the nearest face (aka Rodney).

Rodney was actually holding back the knife in Ronons' hand. John was sure that Ronon himself was actually stopping rather than Rodney stopping Ronon. He seriously doubted anyone could stop Ronon even if they tried.

Ronon was still holding the creature, the knife lying in wait. He appeared to be giving Rodney his best 'I'll be patient for you now but you better tell me quick because I am going to destroy this thing' look.

"Its' blood is acid," Rodney spewed out quickly. "If you cut it, the acid will get on Sheppard and that won't be pretty. We should get it away from him then kill it."

Ronon nodded his head with agreement, still holding onto the creature.

Teyla and Rodney quickly went about unwrapping the creatures' tail from Johns' neck. It wasn't as easy as it looked as the creature, sensing that it was in danger, had wrapped its' tail even tighter around his neck.

John found it rather amusing himself. He was pretty much stuck watching the scene unfold in front of him. Ronon was in front of him, holding the creature and looking at it as if it had disobeyed him and was thinking that it would make a good necklace; Teyla had a soothing look on her face despite the fact she was wrestling with the things' tail, no doubt trying to keep him calm; and Rondey had his tongue sticking out, brow furrowed, as he helped Teyla with her task, looking an awful lot like he did when he was working on a particularly difficult problem.

John couldn't help but take this moment to think about how weird his team was. But he supposed it worked and that was really all that mattered.

The tail finally came loose and Ronon disappeared with the creature, no doubt to do unspeakable things to it. Rodney and Teyla had started working on the secretion that held him to the wall and made short work of it, as it had become more malleable due to the heat.

John quickly pulled himself out, unwilling for them to 'unearth' him so to speak, any longer. He quickly went about brushing the extra off him, before eyeing Teyla. "You're okay."

Teyla smiled at him. "Yes. We were able to escape the creatures unharmed. However, I understand you found my radio."

"Yeah." John couldn't help the goofy grin that spread across his face. "So the group is all here, eh?" He walked unsteadily over to his gun and quickly retrieved it. "What about Major Lorne?"

"We have been unable to get a hold of them," Teyla replied.

"That isn't good," John muttered, re-checking his gun.

"They probably just lost their radios," Rodney said flippantly, eyeing some of the eggs and people still up on the wall. "It seems to be the new 'in' thing." He paused. "Those people are still alive."

John peered back up at the few villagers that still had those creatures on their faces. He grimaced. "Not for long."

They seemed to understand immediately, Rodney going green and Teyla muttering a few words he didn't understand. "Perhaps we should," Teyla started, but was interrupted by a hideous shriek.

"They don't sound happy," Rodney muttered nervously.

"Probably aren't," Ronon replied gruffly, reappearing next to Teyla.

Rodney jumped, whirling upon Ronon, but stopped when he noticed something shiny in his hands. "Is that a new knife?" he asked incredulously.

"The other one was ruined," came the short reply.

John grinned. Thank God for Ronons' personal arsenal. "Okay guys, I think we should get out of here ASAP."

"No disagreements here," Rodney mumbled.

John couldn't help but feel more prepared than before as they dashed down the hall and away from the hatchery where shadows seemed to be moving, tendrils reaching out to drag them back. They were together again and knew, essentially, what to expect from the creatures no matter how horrifying the picture it created.

With the gang back together, he couldn't help but feel that escape was within their grasp. All they had to do was pick up Major Lorne and his group and get the hell out of there. They would definitely be black-listing this planet. No one would ever be coming to this planet again. Well, no Stargate personnel. Maybe they should blow up the Stargate just to be sure.

Four flashlights beaming down the corridor were definitely better than two. The hallway was practically fully illuminated now, allowing full access to views of the walls and ceiling. With every passing room and bulge less corridor, John couldn't help but wonder if perhaps they were all conferencing in the hatchery or somewhere far, far away.

He realized that was wishful thinking. Especially when one of the creatures decided to blind-side them from one of the rooms.

It lunged out of the room catching them by surprise, claws curled in attempt to catch and hold their prey. And its' prey was Teyla. However, it had apparently not calculated for her fluid grace and was caught in the rather large head by her gun before being riddled with bullets.

In the light, Teyla looked terrifying as she stood over the twitching body of the creature, triumphant. Her eyes glowed in the dim light as she looked back up at John, giving a slight nod.

They quickly went forward once more as if they hadn't been interrupted. Rodney kept on barking out directions, staring more intently at his laptop than at his surroundings. John stopped listening once they got into familiar territory, recognizing subtle differences that said they were close.

When they reached the room they had last seen Lorne, they immediately went on the defense. The door was gone, shards still attached at the edges.

It had been smashed in.

Getting into formation, John quickly peeked in. Once he was certain that nothing would jump out at them, he entered, using his flashlight to quickly glance over the room. The secretion was on the walls and ceilings now and the room was devoid of any life.

John wiped some sweat from his forehead. "You sure this is the right room?" He knew the answer, and was reassured from Rodney that he was indeed correct.

Letting out a long, suffering groan at the thought that they would be looking once again for the wayward group, he reentered the corridor. At least, he hoped they were just wayward.

He almost missed the light flashing at him from down the corridor, repeating in a specific pattern he recognized to be Morse Code. He couldn't help the grin as he motioned for his team to follow.

The new room was only down the corridor on the other side and was much larger, but it held exactly what they were looking for.

Lorne waved at them once they got close enough, a tired smile splayed across his face. "I was beginning to worry about you guys."

"About us?" John repeated, shaking his head lightly and filing into the room. He quickly did a body count and frowned. "What happened?"

"Did you know this place as vents?" Lorne continued, ignoring Rodneys' flippant 'yes'. "Once the power went out, the creatures started ramming into the door. We managed to find the vents and moved here using them. Didn't want to stay in there too long," he shuddered. "If we can use them, no doubt they could to. We, uh, lost Dr. Galeia in the vents."

Rodney purposely didn't look anyone in the eye. "He's dead."

Teyla had an odd look on her face and Ronon looked pleased. John shot his friend a look, but Rodney refused to meet his eyes.

"Okay then, that settles that," John muttered, taking a moment to wipe the back of his neck.

"Do you know what's up with this heat?" Lorne queried, noticing Johns' involuntary actions. It took a moment, but John realized that the heat he had associated only with the hatchery was still there and that everyone appeared to be sweating bullets.

"Oh, sorry." Rodney looked sheepish. "I thought that if I turned the heat up, the secretion would melt a bit."

John raised an eyebrow.

Rodney shrugged. "It wasn't that difficult."

"We noticed that the people were being held to the wall by the secretion," Teyla explained, much to Johns' appreciation, "through the camera on your gun. We believed that perhaps if we could get the secretion to melt, you would be able to protect yourself until we reached you."

"Oh. Thanks."

Lorne, however, looked lost. "Well, if the secretion is melting, maybe they'll have a harder time sticking to the walls."

John brightened at this new information. It would help if they didn't have to look at every bulge on the walls. And also, crawling around on walls was just plain creepy.

"Is everyone ready to get out of here?"

Even the frightened scientists perked up at this information, immediately crowding the surrounding area.

"Alright. We'll keep it simple. Everyone who doesn't have a gun, stay in the center. Everyone who does have a gun, keep to the outskirts. We have a Jumper outside the complex. It shouldn't be too far away, but we don't know how many are waiting for us or how they will react. Make sure to stick together and do what we say." John paused to see all the wide eyes looking at him for guidance. How the hell did he get himself in these situations? "Any questions? Alright. Let's go."

John and his team were near the front, as they knew where the Jumper was located while Lorne and his took up the rear. John couldn't help but notice that they were located near the exit, and silently thanked Lorne for choosing that room to hide in. The closer they were to the exit the less chances of running into those things while in the complex and the less chance of mishaps.

So, of course, it was when they exited that chaos erupted. The walk down the creepy, dark, and wet now thanks to Rodney, corridor had been smooth. Once they opened the door and entered the bright outside, the creatures descended upon them.

The creatures had waited until the optimal moment to attack. They had actually waited until the group was about halfway through the exit before leaping down on their unsuspecting prey.

The result was panic.

Only five of the creatures attacked them, but five was enough. One of the soldiers died immediately in a spray of blood, chunks of what looked to have once been internal organs flying through the air.

Screaming started up immediately as did the gun fire. John immediately started firing on the creatures in attempt to keep them away from the group, noting Lorne taking charge at the door. Some of the more level headed ones made sure to keep the group bunched together, stopping some stranglers from running off as the creatures had no doubt planned for them to do.

John focused on the creature in front of him, watching as his bullets dug into its' body, yellow-green blood sizzling as it hit the ground. He quickly turned back to the others but froze when he came face to face with one of those things. It had snuck up behind him unaware.

It was snarling at him, a thick substance dripping slowly from its' mouth. Claws were outstretched as if it wanted to grab and tear at him and its' tail whipped dangerously around behind him. It lunged.

It was met with bullets. John had been too slow to bring his gun up, but Teyla hadn't been. She took several steps forward as she poured bullets into the creature only stopping until it had stopped twitching compulsively. She quickly put in another magazine before returning back to the situation at hand.

The other three had been taken care of. Furthermore, no one else had died, much to Johns' relief. The group was all huddled together guns raised, eyes wide, and shaking with adrenaline and fear.

Rodney looked at John with wide blue eyes, pieces of red material sticking to his face and hair. His gun was held tightly, his laptop somehow having disappeared in the scuffle.

John grimaced before turning to Lorne and waving him forward. Immediately the man started getting the group moving again, some of them giving the mangled body a wide birth.

John glanced once more at the dead soldier before continuing to head to the Jumper. It was a shame they couldn't give the man a proper burial. It was a shame that none of the others would either. It seemed too often that they didn't have a body, or much of a body, for funerals. A tendency he wished to end.

The Jumper was insight when the shrieks started up, reverberating through the air and instilling fear in the group. John cursed angrily before turning back to the complex, noting the growing number of 'shadows' that started appearing.

"Rodney, Ronon, take the scientists ahead to the Jumper." John turned around and quickly headed towards Lorne, who had already set point and was releasing short, controlled bursts. It became apparent he was on his last clip.

John quickly handed him one of his extra clips, which Lorne took gladly. Teyla and Lornes' team had set up near them as well, already firing upon the masses headed towards them. And they were so close. Damn.

Rodney ran towards the Jumper, his lungs burning and legs shaking with the strain. Behind him he could hear the gunshots going off like thunder and knew they were short on time. He was hoping that the others were following as he refused to take the time to look back. It would be their own damn faults if they were too stupid to just sit and stare at the incoming monstrosities.

He could have cried with relief when he reached the Jumper, entering it with abandon. The machine immediately hummed back to life as he called to it urgently, bringing forth the various safety and defense measures in the programming.

It was once these programs were activated that he noticed that the others hadn't caught up. It also informed him that something was inside that wasn't supposed to be.

Rodney only had a moment to see one of those creatures daintily drop down from one of the crevices in the ceiling and stalk towards him menacingly. There was nothing after.