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 assessing 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 space. 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 button. “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 pass, 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 pass, 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 shift 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 damn 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. Damn 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.