Hostile Ground Part 1

Hostile Ground.

SALLY MALCOLM & LAURA HARPER.

To my mum and dad, Tommy and Janie Harper a L.H.

For Jess and Ben a S.M.

Historical note:.

This story is set in season three of STARGATE SG-1, between the episodes One Hundred Days and Shades of Gray.

"Vigil strange I kept on the field one night, When you, my son and my comrade, dropt at my side that day."

Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night.

a Walt Whitman.

CHAPTER ONE.

"Teal'c, how far?"

The colonel's words were clipped, each one bitten off like a curse as he knelt next to Daniel in the mud. Sam couldn't see what he was doing, didn't dare take her eyes off the rain-sodden tree line, but she could smell the antiseptic and heard Daniel hiss in a sharp breath.

"We are now less than a kilometer from the Stargate," Teal'c said. He crouched next to her, staff weapon raised and his arm brus.h.i.+ng against hers, making the most of the scant cover they shared - a fallen tree, rotting in the incessant rain. It wouldn't do much against a staff blast but it was better than nothing. She glanced up at the heavy sky, the clouds hiding a mult.i.tude of dangers. If those gliders came back...

Breathing hard, breathing through pain, Daniel said, "I'm okay. I can make it."

"d.a.m.n right you can." The colonel's growl made it an order as he ripped open another field dressing. Sam heard Daniel's shout of pain as the colonel pressed the bandage onto the wound. She didn't know how badly he was injured, but it had to be serious for the colonel to risk stopping their breakneck flight to the Stargate.

Movement - a fleeting shadow back in the tree line. She wiped rain from her face and eyes, squinting through the curtain of water that slanted across the open ground between SG-1 and the edge of the forest. Yes, there it was again, a glint of gold amid the trees. "Sir," she said, finger itchy on the trigger, "you might want to hurry that up."

"What do you think I'm doing, Carter?"

She ignored his sharp tone. "Teal'c, do you see them? Two o'clock."

"I do." He s.h.i.+fted his position, taking aim.

"Sir?" she risked a glance over her shoulder. Daniel was ashen, his jacket torn and dark with blood where the staff blast had hit, just above the hip and below his tac vest. She glimpsed a white compression bandage through the torn fabric. He grimaced as he moved, trying to stand.

The colonel put a restraining hand on his shoulder and looked over at Sam. She knew that look, the flat uncompromising expression that shut everything down. It meant they were in trouble. "Daniel and I are gonna head for the gate," he said, starting to pack away the med-kit with quick, efficient movements. "You and Teal'c hold them here as long as you can, then come after us." He stuffed his gear back into his vest and tugged the bill of his cap lower. "Don't leave it too long, Major."

She understood. If they were too slow getting back to the gate, there was a real danger they'd be outflanked. "Yes sir. Good luck."

His only reply was a curt nod before he turned to Daniel. "Ready?"

"Sure," Daniel said, teeth gritted. "How hard can it be?"

"Attaboy," the colonel said as he helped Daniel to his feet. "We might have to run."

Daniel nodded, turning from ashen to milky, but determined as ever. "Let's go."

Sam looked away, back to the enemy hiding in the trees, but not before she'd seen the bloom of scarlet on Daniel's dressing. She swallowed a hard knot of anxiety. It would be difficult enough to make it to the gate carrying a wound like that, let alone with a platoon of Jaffa on their heels.

"The enemy is moving," Teal'c murmured as several Jaffa emerged from the trees, keeping low as they scanned the scrubby clearing. Sam ducked behind their cover, not wanting to give away their position. "Go now, O'Neill," Teal'c said softly. "We will cover your retreat and hold this position as long as possible."

"Counting on it," the colonel said.

With Daniel's arm looped over his shoulder, he headed out into the spa.r.s.e woodland that ran all the way back to the Stargate. Sam winced at their slow, awkward pace. At that rate, they'd never reach the gate before the Jaffa.

A squall of rain blew into her face and she had to turn away, squeezing her eyes shut. When she looked back, Daniel and the colonel were gone, the rain at least helping to hide them from the advancing Jaffa, even if it did make the muddy ground slick and treacherous under foot. Wiping her face on her sleeve, she squirmed around and s.h.i.+vered as a trickle of rain slid down her neck and under her collar. "Daniel's moving pretty slow," she whispered, taking a bead on one of the Jaffa and switching her weapon to single shot. "Do you think they'll make it in time?" Even through the rain, she knew she'd hit her target. But not yet, let them come out a little further from the cover of the trees.

"It is possible," Teal'c said, "that one of us will need to precede them to the Stargate and hold it against the Jaffa."

"Yeah," Sam said, a beat of fear kicking in her chest, "that's what I figured."

Daniel was heavier than he looked and his feet kept slipping in the mud, threatening to send them both sprawling. He was doing his best, Jack knew that, but he was carrying a serious wound and he wasn't moving fast enough. He just couldn't.

From behind them came the rattle of an MP5 - Carter's precise bursts of weapons fire. But there were too many staff-blasts and, worse, they were getting closer. Teal'c and Carter were falling back faster than he and Daniel were staggering forward.

"Jack..." The grim whisper cut through the sounds of battle. "Need to stop... moment..."

One look at Daniel's ghostly face told him he didn't have a choice; Daniel was halfway to unconsciousness already. Lowering him to the ground, Jack braced him up against a tree, gleaning what little shelter he could from the thin canopy above, and considered the situation. It stunk. Still, they'd survived worse. Probably. He toggled his radio. "Carter, what's your position?"

He didn't get an answer right away, but he could hear her weapon discharging, so he figured she was busy. Couple of seconds later, her voice crackled over the radio. "We're falling back, sir. There's too many."

d.a.m.n it. He considered his choices for a moment, then made the decision and hit the talk b.u.t.ton again. "Carter, you need to make a run for the gate, dial it up and hold it for us. Teal'c, I'm gonna need your help with Daniel."

"On our way, sir," was Carter's immediate response, which probably meant she'd already reached the same conclusion. "Carter out."

Daniel had a hand over his eyes, his bloodless lips pressed into a tight line of pain. "You should leave me here," he said, hand dropping into his lap as he peered up at Jack through rain-covered gla.s.ses. There was no bravado, no self-pity; he was just stating the obvious. "It would be the logical thing to do."

"Yeah, well," Jack said, reaching down and hauling him upright. "You know how I feel about logic."

"I mean it," Daniel said, swaying on his feet. "No point in us all dying here."

"No one's dying here," Jack said, as they staggered back into an ungainly hobble. "But maybe, just maybe, next time someone suggests a mission to study a bunch of ancient rocks instead finding of something useful, my objections won't get shut down."

Daniel didn't comment, but he didn't need to. Even semi-conscious, he managed to radiate indignation. Jack grimaced, but reminded himself that indignation was exactly what he needed from his team right now.

Sam darted through the trees, keeping as low and quiet as possible. She had to sacrifice most of her stealth for speed, but there was no point in advertising her presence if she could help it and so she breathed quietly and kept her ears open for sounds of pursuit.

She was traversing a hill, heading back to the Stargate, through a spa.r.s.ely wooded landscape. The rain had started last night and hadn't stopped since, transforming the valley below into marshland and the hillside into a mudslide. Not to mention soaking them all to the skin and turning what was meant to be a light mission into a grueling test of endurance. And that was before the Jaffa had shown up.

Behind her, but growing more distant, she could still hear the sounds of battle. Only staff weapons so far, which meant they hadn't caught up with Daniel and the colonel. Yet. Teal'c was doing a h.e.l.l of a job holding the Jaffa back on his own.

Suddenly, the ground s.h.i.+fted and she stumbled, feet tangling and slip-sliding over tree roots washed bare by water streaming down the hill. Stifling a curse, she grabbed at a branch and caught it with one hand, but the weight of her pack swung her backward, slamming her shoulder into the tree, and she barely kept from face-planting into the mud. "d.a.m.n it," she growled, as she reached up to get both hands onto the branch. She scrambled back to more stable ground, getting her feet under her again. The dull throb in her shoulder promised it was going to hurt in the morning.

Sucking in a breath, she peered up the hill. She'd been sticking to the military crest for most of the way, but now it was time to head for the top. She had little but rain for cover as the trees grew increasingly scarce, but at least she had started to recognize the terrain they'd covered the day before - was it only the day before? - when they'd thought they were on a simple recon mission to an uninhabited world. A back-in-the-saddle mission, General Hammond had called it: SG-1's first trip off-world since the colonel had returned from his extended stay on Edora.

Not that Colonel O'Neill had exactly been thrilled at the prospect of trees, rain and artifacts. Then again, he hadn't exactly been thrilled by anything since they'd found him living the dream with Laira and her people. But that wasn't a place Sam wanted to go right now.

She tugged her cap lower against the rain and started to jog. It was difficult going uphill in the heavy mud, and soon she was breathing hard. But it didn't matter because suddenly, over the ridge of the hill, emerged the stark metallic ring of the Stargate. At last. She couldn't wait to get home, out of the rain and away from the colonel's bleak mood.

She slowed before she crested the hill and left the last of the meager cover, catching her breath and a.s.sessing the situation. The gate stood in a clearing on the crown of the hill, the DHD and the three stone steps leading up to the gate lashed by rain that blew in cold sheets across the windswept s.p.a.ce. She couldn't see any Jaffa, but that didn't mean they weren't already there, waiting.

She toggled her radio. "Sir," she said quietly, "I'm at the gate. It looks -"

A screech overhead cut her off, a pressure wave bending the trees and knocking her to the ground: Death Gliders, two of them, sweeping low and fast overhead. She stayed down, finger still holding the talk b.u.t.ton. "Sir, did you see that?"

There was a crackle of static, then a series of detonations she felt through the ground as the gliders fired into the trees behind her. "Sir?" she barked into the radio. "Colonel O'Neill, come in."

Nothing.

"Colonel O'Neill, come in."

Gunfire rattled out from somewhere behind her: it was the colonel's MP5. She let out the breath she'd been holding. They weren't far - at least, not very far. Then the colonel's voice burst over the radio. "Carter! Open the gate!"

"Yes sir." She let her hand fall away from the radio and scrambled up to the edge of the tree line, dropping into a crouch as she gazed out at the DHD. It looked impossibly far away and who knew what else was hiding in the trees?

Taking a moment to settle her weapon in her hands, Sam scoured the area for movement. There was nothing. Maybe she'd caught a break and the Jaffa were still behind the thin line Teal'c and the colonel were holding. Or maybe they were sitting there, watching the gate. The DHD was about two hundred meters away, to the left of the Stargate and on the far side of the clearing, and there wasn't a stick of cover between it and the last of the trees. She'd be an open target.

Part of her wanted to wait for the rest of her team, so that she'd have someone to cover her dash across no-man's-land. But she had her orders and, besides, they'd be coming in hot. There would be no time to dial.

Taking a slow, steadying breath she held her weapon at port arms and started to run. She'd made it half way to the DHD when the Death Gliders made a second pa.s.s, screaming over the trees and peppering the ground in front of her with gunfire. She dived, rolled back to her feet, and kept running. Gliders were fast, but their targeting was lousy.

A hundred meters, fifty.

A staff blast arced from the trees, much too close. She felt the plasma scorch past her cheek. Dodging sideways, she started zigzagging toward the DHD, offering them a harder target. Another blast detonated on her heels, spraying mud high into the air. The impact knocked her forward, stumbling, but she kept her feet.

Forty meters, thirty. Almost there.

The gliders were back for another pa.s.s, but their aim was way off and she just ducked her head and started sprinting. The rain was sluicing off the DHD, running in little rivulets around the symbols. She was almost there, she could almost touch it.

And then another blast hit, right in front of her, knocking the breath from her lungs as she landed on her back in the mud. She struggled, turtle-like, until she could s.h.i.+ft the weight of her pack sideways and get her feet under her again. And then there was a burst from an MP5, very close, and she spun around to see Teal'c racing from the tree line with Daniel slung over his shoulder and the colonel raking the trees with weapons fire as he backed up toward the Stargate.

She felt a fierce flash of relief; they'd made it.

"Dial the d.a.m.n gate, Carter!"

Sam dived for the DHD and hit the first two symbols before Teal'c shouted. "Major Carter, get down!"

She threw herself sideways as the plasma bolt blasted over the top of the DHD. d.a.m.n it, too close. Half hidden behind the pedestal, she reached up and pressed the third and fourth symbol as Teal'c barreled into the scant cover of the DHD, dropping Daniel onto the ground and covering him with his body. Then he reached for his own weapon and fired over the DHD as Sam reached up and hit the fifth and sixth symbol.

"Teal'c?" Daniel's voice was weak, panicked. He clutched the wound on his side and his hand came away b.l.o.o.d.y, the sodden dressing falling to the ground. "Oh no..."

There was no time to help him. Teal'c fired again and Sam felt for the final symbol before she slammed her hand down on the central b.u.t.ton.

Behind her, the gate began to spin. She risked a quick glance, only to see the colonel pinned down behind the spinning gate. "Sir!"

"I know!" he barked.

She could see the Jaffa approaching now, from all directions. And then the gliders were back, screaming overhead, mud spewing up as they hammered the ground around the Stargate. Several Jaffa went down, victims of friendly fire, and in that moment of confusion Sam jumped up and opened fire on their ranks. "Colonel!"

He bolted from behind the gate as the seventh chevron locked, diving for cover behind the DHD just as the wormhole exploded out of the Stargate, hissing into the cold rain.

Behind Teal'c, the gliders had swung around for another pa.s.s, their cannons strafing the ground in a direct line from the trees to the Stargate. Sam punched through their IDC as soon as the vortex stabilized, and the colonel dragged Daniel to his feet, hauling him toward the gate with one arm while he toggled his radio. "Med team to the gate room! Now!" And then he was gone, practically falling into the wormhole with Daniel in his arms as the oncoming gliders peppered the ground in front of the gate with cannon fire.

Two down, two to go.

Sam exchanged a swift glance with Teal'c. He nodded and opened fire on the Jaffa as she dashed up the steps, kneeling to cover him as he made his own run.

"Major Carter, now!" Teal'c yelled. Together, they threw themselves into the wormhole just as the stone steps exploded beneath their feet.

They tumbled in too fast, and yet somehow the pa.s.sage through the wormhole took forever - an endless moment of nothingness, of being stretched and reformed and then spat out the other end.

Sam landed hard, hitting the floor with her shoulder and rolling over with too much velocity to get her feet under her. She wound up sprawled on her back - not exactly a dignified homecoming.

She opened her eyes, expecting to see Hammond's concerned face peering down at her. Maybe Janet's.

But what she saw was a low, snowy sky.

"What the -?" Scrambling to her feet, she looked around in shock. Teal'c was doing the same, in a low defensive crouch, his weapon raised.

They stood in a blasted landscape, nothing but rock and gray, ashy dirt. To her left, in the far distance, she could make out hills, their peaks shrouded in cloud. There was a sound too, a low roar like the crash of waves against the sh.o.r.e. Snow fell, thin and dirty, and Sam s.h.i.+vered in her muddy, rain-sodden clothes. It was freezing. "Colonel?" she called. "Daniel?"

"Over here."

She turned. Behind her, half hidden by the crescent of the Stargate, Colonel O'Neill crouched over Daniel who looked like he was out cold. The colonel's med kit was scattered on the ground and he was grimly pressing another dressing onto Daniel's wound. It didn't look like the bleeding was stopping. He glanced up when he felt her eyes on him, his expression as bleak as the landscape. "Major," he said, "you wanna tell me what the h.e.l.l just happened?"

She shook her head. "I don't know, sir."

"You don't know?"

"I -" Why did he always expect her to have the answer right away? She bit back her frustration, her rising panic, and peered up at the Stargate, searching for a solution. It was at an odd angle, tilted up and backward - which explained the rough landing - and it was scorched like it had seen some action. But it obviously still worked, so there was no reason they couldn't gate home.

She looked around for the DHD. It had to be... It was probably...

Oh c.r.a.p.

"Yeah," the colonel said, returning his attention to Daniel. "We're screwed."