#and of course the puddle close to the drone site was the one i checked last

[hzdtrees]

No Thorns, All Marsh, pt. 1

[imalifegen89]

A Legacy Left Behind - Chapter - 5 - The Gemmond Incident

Part 4

Steve maintained a light jog and Captain Vega kept up the pace easily. They had all seen the Jumper rising to the sky to hover above the Wraith-Carrier to finish it off as promised. The explosion had been massive and instantaneous, making them feel the tremors that ran through the jungle floor even from the distance they were at. Then they had all seen the Jumper slowly turning away and heading towards the ground slightly faster than it should've been for a comfortable landing. Steve aimed a look at Danny who understood the order without Steve really having to verbalize and nodded an acknowledgement. Steve then took off towards the direction the Jumper had been heading with Vega in tow, as she was acting as the medic for this mission.

He heard the appreciative whistle Captain Vega let out seeing the site of destruction. The Spaceship had been turned to dust, literally. About a fifty-yard radius around the center of the explosion had been scorched and a few solitary trees had caught fire. But even as they looked, the fires were dying down. And most importantly, the containment of the blast, the way the pilot had managed the feat, was as close to as perfect as it could get.

They spent a few seconds taking in the sight and took off towards the Puddle Jumper that was now resting on the ground at the edge of the blast radius. The back door opened as they closed in. Steve let Vega enter first and followed right behind her. They had all heard the weariness that came through the comms when Sheppard had finally contacted them with the update. He remembered how Sheppard had looked when he caught him back in Afghanistan and he needed to see with his own eyes to make sure the man hadn't done himself any major damage.

They found both pilots more or less sprawled on their seats on the front. Lorne had his head resting on the control panel in front of him with both arms wrapped around his head securely. Sheppard had his chair halfway turned towards Lorne, his body stretched out with his left leg up, his foot resting on the side panel with the DHD. He was resting his head on the headrest of his seat with the back of one hand covering his eyes and the other just dangling at his side lifelessly. They presented a picture of two guys suffering from a massive hangover after a night of bar hopping and excessive drinking. Steve would have laughed at the sight if he hadn't known the real cause of this picture of misery.

"Alright you two, tell me who hurts more?" Vega was all business, but she kept her voice soft to avoid aggravating their obvious headaches.

Lorne raised a finger and pointed towards John without bothering to move any other part of his body. John mumbled something that sounded like ‘Lorne’ but came out more of a moan. Vega went for expedience. Since Sheppard was half-turned her way already and they could both see the markings on his face, she chose him first.

"Major, move your hand, I need to check you."

Sheppard sighed in agreement and slowly removed his hand. Steve could see the impressive bruising that covered most of his jaw and the swollen split lip. He could also see the remnants of dried blood around his nose.

Then he saw the open jacket and the uniform and inhaled sharply.

"Sheppard, your uniform - did they try to feed on you?" He kept his voice low and soft, but the inquiry came out way sharper than he intended.

Sheppard opened his eyes fully and inclined his head towards Steve, locking his gaze with him.

"It was alright, Steve - ruining my vest and shirt was as far as they got. I had it under control." He then gave him a lopsided grin that melted away to a pained grimace.

"He had a plan," Lorne announced, his face still hidden under the protection of his arms.

Vega checked the pilot over and handed him the industrial-strength pain killers she had, as directed by Dr. Lam, especially for the gene carriers. All the assigned medics in the field teams carried those as standard items in their kit. Sheppard didn't really have any serious injuries that needed urgent care and the bruising on his face needed ice, which was not really a part of a field med-kit. Apart from the raging headache, he seemed to be fine.

Then she turned towards Lorne to repeat the process.

Steve moved closer to Sheppard and rested a hand lightly on his shoulder. Sheppard moved his head to rest his cheek on the back of Steve's hand.

Lorne, who had finally uncurled from his position at Vega's urging to take his pain killers, pointed an accusing finger at John. “All I'm saying is, man, the next time you go and offer yourself up for the main course, let us know beforehand, yeah?"

Steve's hand tightened on John's shoulder upon hearing that bit of information. John rubbed his cheek on his hand like a cat, an effort to calm and assure him. "Hey, I did warn you! Besides, it worked didn't it?"

"What if the thing had the chance to feed on you before you could get a hold of it?" Lorne shot back.

"Nah, it didn't. I did what I did to get him to put his guard down. They enjoy the pain they inflict while they feed, Lorne. The fucker had to open his mind before he could feed on me. That's why I lured him in like that, so I could do what I did."

Steve was listening intently to the insanity of the plan John had devised to do something. But when he thought back to the chaos that surrounded them during their escape, it dawned on him. He knew exactly what the pilot had been doing.

"All those Drones that started dropping dead? That was you, wasn't it?" he asked. He hadn't realized that Sheppard could go on the offense as well as defense with the telepathic attacks.

"Well, indirectly. Those things are all connected to each other, sort of like a hive-mind thing. When I attacked the mind of the Wraith, it had a cascading effect. I kinda saw the same thing when I was back in Afghanistan, you know? When the Wraith female had me, I saw glimpses of those connections and they looked frayed. Maybe because I had already killed the male by then. That time I was only concerned about finishing her as quickly as I could. Today, I figured I would try something different. I had to give the rest of you a chance to get everyone out. And it did work," the pilot explained, his eyes closed and his cheek still resting on Steve's grip.

John's reply told Steve that the pilot hadn't known for sure either. The crazy asshole had played a dangerous game on a guess - well, an educated guess - but still a guess nevertheless. 'Shouldn't have brought up that Baghdad bullshit before we left,' Steve berated Danny in his mind.

"Do you think whatever you did extended to Drones in the Darts around the Gate and the city?" Steve asked. They needed to devise a plan of attack if that was not the case.

"Ah, crap! I don't know! Let me check." The painkiller seemed to be working and John was a bit more alert. He turned his chair slowly to face the Jumper screen and concentrated.

The Jumper's Heads-Up-Display came to life at Sheppard's urging and started scanning the area for the requested data. It showed that the six Darts that had been patrolling near the Gate all crashed to the ground, as well as the nine Darts that were circling the city. There were two more Darts; one had crashed in the jungle on the way to the ship and another one had also crashed just a few hundred yards away from the Jumper. The display also showed that there was a possibility that there were captured Gemmondians in those two jumpers since they were on their way back to the ship when they crashed.

"Shep, we need to call SGC. Give them a report, get them up to date on what happened here, and possibly get somebody who can figure out a way to maybe reverse that and free those people," Steve suggested.

"The rest of the team is with the Gemmondians, right?" Sheppard asked.

"Yeah, they’re about three hundred yards from here. We were talking to them earlier - they know the way to get back to the city through the jungle. Apparently, they have some villages nearby as well. Some other race called Nasyans? They said they can trek to the nearest village and get back to the city the next day," Steve replied.

Sheppard nodded. "Let's send some of our guys with them. That way we can keep our eyes on them and know where they go. Also easier to contact them if we need anything from them or vice versa." He tapped his radio and activated the team channel. "Sheppard to Williams."

"Go ahead, flyboy, you good?" Danny answered with a question.

"Yeah, yeah. Listen, how far is the village they wanna go to?" Sheppard inquired.

"Tesson - that's one of the councilwomen - she is saying they can make it to the nearest village in about 2 hours, even if they took their time walking. So I'm guessing about 10 klicks maybe?"

"Ok, send three of ours with them. We should be able to keep the radio coverage with that distance. The rest of you, return to Jumper. We are heading back to the Gate to report what happened here and then make a plan on how to help these people. Oh, and Danny, is there anyone who can't make the journey? Anyone injured? Anybody who needs to go to the city urgently?"

"Nah, no one is seriously injured. Guess those life-suckers didn't want to contaminate the food supply. But there are two councilwomen - Tesson and Nehra - they'd like to go back to the city if at all possible. They might be able to calm the situation there," Danny informed Sheppard.

"Alright, bring them with you. We will go to the Gate first, report to SGC, and then return them to the city," Sheppard ordered.

"Roger that," there was a click as Williams signed out to go and do as ordered.

..........

"Y’all look like you've been busy,"

The connection had been established through the Stargate with the SGC without a hitch and almost all of them let out a collective sigh at seeing Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell's face fill the screen instead of Dixon's.

Danny had sent Bates, Adam, and Cadman with the Gemmondians to the village. Bates, because some of the Gemmondians knew him and were grateful for the familiar face, Adam because he was the secondary medic, and Cadman, as she was the other equivalent of a 'walking armory’ apart from Higgins. The rest of them, along with the tearfully indebted councilwomen had crowded into the Jumper, reached the Gate in about five minutes, and dialed home to report.

"Yeah, we were. Gemmond was under attack by Wraith and we flew right into the middle of it," said Sheppard.

The Colonel's eyes widened at that and the amused grin disappeared. He had been sure that they were in trouble for starting a bar brawl or something, given the time of the year at Gemmond and their ruffled and bruised looks.

"Start from the beginning, Shep. Tell us what happened," the Lieutenant Colonel ordered.

Sheppard launched into a report of the events. He described the scene when they flew in, the recon they did over the city, how they followed the Dart into the Wraith Carrier, the rescue of the prisoners, how they dealt with the Wraith, and finally about blowing it all to oblivion. Steve and Danny also joined in, describing their sides of the narrative and they all kept the verbal report short yet filled with important details.

"...and then me and Lorne, we left the Carrier in the Jumper. We blew it up once everybody cleared the blast Zone. Adam, Bates, and Cadman are there with the Gemmondians on their way to a nearby village as we speak," Sheppard finished the account. Glancing back, he could see everyone was focused on the screen and the account of the day's events. Tesson and Nehra, who had been patiently listening, had gone pale. Whether it was because of the shock at being captured by the Wraith or because they were scared of his team and how they had handled the situation, Sheppard wasn't sure.

The Colonel was probably seeing something similar on his screen because he put on his highly effective, greet-the-natives smile, and addressed the Gemmondian Councilors directly.

"Hello ma'am. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell of the Stargate Command. Can you please tell me what happened? Before our people got there? As I understand, the Gate was blocked from your side by the Wraith. When did the attack start?"

The older woman, who introduced herself as Tesson, stood up from where she was sitting at the back of the Jumper and came forward to speak to Mitchell.

"We have been hearing stories from the travelers who came to our planet for some time now, Colonel. They were talking about the strange starships that would appear in the sky, then send down their awful flyers to catch people. The people would disappear, never to be seen again. The stories about an evil enemy who can control minds and breed fear among us, scare us like prey into running for our lives. They called it 'the Culling'. They said they were hunting humans for food. We didn't want to believe those fanciful stories, although the travelers were scared out of their minds. We were happy to let them stay in Gemmond however, because here it was safe, or so we thought." shudder ran through her entire body as she inevitably started reliving the memory of the attack. Vega slowly guided her to sit on the chair behind Sheppard.

Then Tesson took in a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and started to relate the rest of her story.

"It was only a few hours after the day's 'First Rising Call.’ The Ring activated and those horrible little flyers came in. Our city security managed to raise the alarm, but it wasn't much help. I dispatched a group to dial the Ring for help, but they couldn't. They came back and reported that these things were holding it captive. Then they started circling above the city. They destroyed some of the buildings - they were herding us all out - that much was clear. Then they started swooping down and activating their strange beams. Our people started disappearing,"

She had tears rolling down her eyes and Danny offered her his can of water. She took it gratefully and gulped down some water before continuing,

"One moment I was helping a group of children inside a building and the next everything went black. When I woke up, I was inside that thing along with many others. I was there for about an hour when your people showed up. This entire attack must have been going on for about three hours since those things first came in.” She paused and looked at each of them, gratitude shining in her eyes. “I must thank you all from the deepest of my heart, for arriving when you did. As luck would have it, it seemed that you arrived just in time to prevent a greater tragedy. We already had lost some of our citizens to those abominations. But it could have been so much worse," she continued to address the team inside the Jumper. "I do mean it. People of Gemmond are once again in your debt. On behalf of my people, I do thank you."

She rose from her seat and bowed to all of them, Nehra also stood in the back and followed suit. They were all a bit uncomfortable at the display. The team understood, but for them, they were just doing their duty.

"It's alright ma'am, we’re glad we showed up on time too," Sheppard said, flashing a lopsided, almost shy smile. It worked. Tesson returned the smile and sat back on the seat. Then implored both Mitchell, Sheppard, and everyone else, to address her as Tesson.

"Is there anything we can do for you, Tesson? Anything you need? Medical care? Any supplies?" Mitchell inquired.

"Please, medical care would be much appreciated. Our food supplies were not targeted. Our harvest is safe. I believe they didn't need to bother with those, since they were collecting us as their food supply. I and my fellow councilors just need to get our people to clean up the destruction those flyers left behind. They need to focus on being productive so that it will help to calm them down and distract them from the harrowing shock we have all experienced, and to prevent everyone from wallowing in grief and losing their minds."

She sounded confident as she already had some sort of a plan to get her city back in order. Mitchell nodded decisively. "We’ll send a few teams right away, Tesson, along with a few doctors and medical supplies. Our guys will stay around to help with getting the city cleaned and organized as well."

"I thank you, again." With that, she rose, bowed, and went to the back of the Jumper to sit next to Nehra.

"Oh, and Colonel, you might need to bring a few scientists or maybe engineers with you. We have two crashed Darts in the jungle area that still have the dematerialized people still in them. The Jumper's got all the data and the locations already marked. So, if our people can have a look and see whether we can free them as well?" Sheppard added.

"Hmm, Let me talk to Carter. She might not be able to make it, but she would know who’s best to deal with that," Mitchell said thoughtfully."Shep, do you think there are any more ships? Maybe in orbit?”

"I don't really know, Colonel. The jumper ran a few scans around the area here - there’s nothing at the moment. But I can't be sure about the orbit, or near space of the planet. I didn't get the sense that the Wraith managed to send any hyperspace message to a nearby ship, but it's a possibility," replied Sheppard. "I can take the jumper up once I have dropped Tesson and Nehra at the city, fly a few rounds around the planet and scan the space to be sure," he offered.

Mitchell studied both the pilots for a few moments before shaking his head.

"No. You and Lorne both still look like hell and I don't think a few more hours of flying with your mind would do either of you any good. Drop the ladies and bring the Jumper back to the gate. I’ll come over with SG-1 and I can take her for a spin around the planet," he grinned at the thought of that. "Don't worry, I’ll take good care of your baby." He laughed, noticing the grimace Sheppard was trying to hide.

Sheppard was truly grateful for the offer since he still felt like his head was about to split open. But the thought of handing the Jumper over to another pilot still grated on his nerves. He had become a bit attached to the clever little craft, he realized.

"You all have already done an amazing job," Mitchell addressed the entire team. "Taking on a freaking Wraith ship all by yourselves is not a small deal. You’ve earned a break. I’ll pick up the other three of your team and bring them along as well. I'll bring three teams with me and once we are there, you guys can return home. Then get yourselves checked out and take the rest of the day off. We will do a full debriefing tomorrow with your live feeds, Jumper records, and everything. I'm sure General O'Neill will want to be there for this too. If this is happening on other planets as well, that means the Wraith are busy stocking up supplies and they are getting ready for something big. But we’ll discuss this further tomorrow. See you all in thirty, Mitchell out,"

With that, the connection terminated and Sheppard nudged the Jumper towards the city.