Bring me into another world, I won't be comin' home no more.

[lt_col_sheppard]

P7X-M77 is a more peaceful planet than most, if one can ignore the constantly-raging storms in the distance and the unsettling hoot of alien animals in the forests beyond. The botanists describe the climate as tropical to subtropical--John's pretty sure that's just a fancy word for "likely to give you a fungus". His mouth still tastes of Rodney,

Comments

[teyla_emmagen]

The air, heavy with musk and the scent of damp and growing things, clung thickly to Teyla as soon as the cool mouth of the gate deposited them on this new world. She'd been to similar places, had seen the usual sharp-toothed cat, the usual naked and smiling children running barefoot through the hazy jungle. Places of this type were rarely dangerous, if one payed enough attention--the jungles were scarcely ever full of heavily-armed soldiers ready to pounce at a moment's notice

[spc_ronon_dex]

He kept a close eye on the back of Saera's blonde head--the six, always his spot, behind, but never left behind. He watched the group's vulnerable backside while Teyla and Sheppard pushed ahead, and Saera floated suspended between, a small piece in their larger game of milatary maneuvering

[teyla_emmagen]

Teyla has her fingers deep in the warm crease between Saera's body and her vest, pulling her along, body between the scientist and firing line. In the silence, the loud "thwack" is instantly recognizable. It's not the dry, crumbling sound of an arrow hitting dirt--nor is it the sharper, more hard sound of one sliding deep into the flesh of some unsuspecting tree. No, this particular sound is reserved for the indignity of an arrow burrowing deep into flesh and bone. Before she has time to turn, there is a second impact, and Sheppard adds his voice to the soft moaning sounds now coming from the trees around them. They are surrounded. They are pinned in--they were fools, every one. Ronon shouts for her to go, to run, to find their way home, as Sheppard finally looks down at his own vest, at the new protuberances at his upper chest and lower ribs, where the mesh is thin, and where the vest comes together with tight nylon string

[saera_parrish]

Saera takes her cues from the rest of the team - this is her first mission, they're the ones that have been dealing with this sort of situation for years. It's pretty bad, though, and she's pretty sure that's not just a first-time freakout - the Colonel's down, they're surrounded, the arrows, primitive though they may be against the team's guns, are glinting with a dangerous-looking chemical. She stays low, following Teyla back towards the rest of the team, taking the opportunity to snap the head off one of the arrows as she passes and slip it into one of the sample cases she carries - if they do make it out, she's sure Beckett will want a sample of the poison to help him treat Sheppard.

[lt_col_sheppard]

"Sheppard...Sheppard." Ronon spoke the words near his ear, clearly, and John heard them as clearly as he'd ever heard anything. It is as if his body's running on high--as if he feels, smells, tastes everything more viscerally than ever before. He can feel each individual pebble beneath his knee, the soft tug of Ronon's hand on his shoulder, urging him down, urging him to rest his weight back, if only for a moment. The arrows don't hurt--not really--and if it weren't for the sigh of them, he'd be able to fool himself in believing nothing were wrong

[teyla_emmagen]

Teyla turns as Sheppard lets out a soft guttural cry--not one of pain, necessarily--more one of frustration. She can see the way he sags against Ronon's leg now--and as she watches, the already-dark soil around his pant leg darkens further, greedily drinking the blood she can now smell in the thick air. When the jungle around them empties, she can practically feel it--the withdrawal--though they make no sound as they leave. As the Colonel drops back, as his eyes stare blindly up at the canopy overhead, the inhabitants of this world retreat, their sacrifice taken.

"Ronon--Ronon they...." but he already knows--he's already pulling at Sheppard's shoulder, dragging at their leader's now-dead weight, fumbling beside him for Saera's arm so that he can pull her along too.

"go. Go now before they decide to take another one of us. He's not breathing."

Teyla sprints ahead, blessedly uninterrupted, and begins the dialling process.

[spc_ronon_dex]

As soon as the event horizon stablilzes, Ronon's lifting Sheppard, holding him steady over a shoulder as the man's body tenses, desperate for breath, muscles screaming and seizing--then falling unnaturally still. Teyla radios ahead, her usually-calm voice frantic