The Roots That Clutch 4

Plans Into Action

by Tittamiire

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/ast/tittamiire/rootst04.php
Summary: The team have a plan to get what they need.

"In there," she indicated the squat building lit only by surrounding braziers a few hundred metres ahead of them. The firelight reflected on the typically tacky gold the Goa'uld adored and made the building glow in the dense, starless dark. The cloudy night sky hung low and oppressive, obscuring the tops of nearby hills and making this attack feel oddly intimate.

"There's an entrance on the right end that is the least heavily guarded. Once we're inside there will be few guards, but lots and lots of locked doors," she pointed out the door and Colonel O'Neill swept his field glasses to that area. She knew she was repeating information at this point, but she didn't want to miss anything out and risk getting them all killed.

"Not a problem," the Colonel muttered as he swept the field glasses slowly left and right on the scene.

"Okay," he tucked the binoculars into the pocket of the worn and tattered black vest he'd chosen to wear and kept his eyes on the building as he spoke. "I count twenty guards altogether, patrolling predictable routes that overlap each other. There are three we'll need to take out to get in the door Vala has indicated and we'll not have long before the alarm is raised, but it should be enough."

The others nodded. They'd been over and over the plan.

"Daniel, you're on minding duty," the Colonel finished and Vala felt a tinge of irritation at needing to be 'minded'. She could understand why they didn't trust her with a weapon, but she was more than capable of keeping herself out of trouble. The Colonel, Sam and Teal'c pulled narrow black tube like objects from their gear and attached them to their weapons.

"Silencers," explained Daniel when he saw Vala's look.

"Move out," muttered the Colonel to them, and they did, keeping low and scurrying after him through the long grass towards their target. He signalled to them to drop when they were just under a hundred metres from the door and they all fell to knees or fronts, Daniel tugged Vala down next to him. The Colonel held up his P90, with silencer and took out the Jaffa guard visible from this end. He waved them on again and they moved. It was Teal'c who took out the next guard, with hardly a pause in his step. They were close to the door now, Daniel and Vala bringing up the rear. Colonel O'Neill dropped behind the remains of a low wall. He kept his gun trained on the nearest Jaffa guard and waved two of them forward. Sam and Teal'c lead the way to press against the wall where the door was. There was one more guard to take out who should be just around the corner. Sam peered around the corner and held up her hand to signal stop to Teal'c behind her.

They all froze. The only movement was their breath curling in front of each of them in the chill night air. Sam slowly lifted her P90 and edged round the corner. Vala found that she was holding her breath. There was the sound of a muffled shot and a thud. Sam kept her attention around the corner but signalled back the all clear to the rest of the team with her hand. Vala let out the breath she had been holding as Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill darted forwards as well to check the all clear. There were no signs of any further guards and Colonel O'Neill signalled Daniel and Vala over. They reached the door as Sam set to work on the door lock, prising the panel off with the back of her knife blade and delving into the innards of the controls.

"No rush Carter," whispered Colonel O'Neill to her impatiently, but Sam didn't even glance at him as she worked. The door popped open with a hiss and a satisfied grin from Sam. She and Teal'c pressed themselves each side of the doorway and carefully pointed first his gun, and then his head around the doorway. He signalled Jack and Sam through the doorway as he continued to cover them and then Daniel and Vala followed.

They paused in the corridor for Sam to rig the door behind them to slow down anyone trying to get after them as much as possible and then they were off again. They switched to using zat's inside as the mission got progressively less stealthy and they could afford to make more noise. Like outside, the corridors were lined with lit braziers that bounced their meagre light off the walls, making it much brighter than it should have been in there from just the firelight alone. Vala hadn't been here recently enough and the memories had been deeply buried so she wasn't sure of the way, but she did her best to direct them down the twisting corridors. They encountered few guards and took them out with the zats. Vala tugged on Daniel's jacket as they reached a particular corridor.

"Here," she whispered and they all stopped. "The next corridor there will be a large door with two guards outside it, what you need should be in there." Colonel O'Neill pressed himself against the wall and peered round the corner quickly. He nodded back to the rest of them to confirm that there were indeed two guards as Vala had said. Vala was painfully aware of how long they were taking. The alarm would definitely have been raised by now and they were on borrowed time. Jack communicated to Teal'c, via hand gestures, that they would move together and he would take the near guard and Teal'c the far guard.

Vala didn't see exactly how it played out, but it obviously worked because Daniel was off around the corner with Vala hot on his heels. Sam was already forcing the store-room door open and as soon as there was a viable gap she and Daniel were crawling under the door and into the room.

"Nice," Daniel commented at the large room filled with everything a Goa'uld ship builder could need. The Colonel and Teal'c ducked under the nearly fully open door and looked around.

"Load up," the Colonel instructed and gestured to Teal'c to keep watch while the rest of them robbed. Sam poked around specifically and loaded her pack with bits and pieces that Vala didn't recognise. The Colonel busied himself with filling his pack with anything he could lay his hands on and Daniel poked in boxes, presumably looking for something. Vala shook her head and followed the Colonel's lead in grabbing as much as possible in the limited time they had.

It wasn't enough. There was the unmistakable thud of Jaffa boots.

"We're outta time, let's go," Colonel O'Neill told them, grabbing crystals out of the box open in front of him and stuffing them into his pockets to keep both his hands free. Their packs were pretty full by now. Daniel indicated to Vala that she should grab the other end of the long and narrow box he'd just been looking in. She gave him a dirty look, but did anyway. They knew they wouldn't get out the way they had come in now, but they had other plans anyway.

Colonel O'Neill grabbed the small black communicator from his pocket. "Siler, you ready?"

"Almost Sir, will be by the time you get to the rings, Sir"

"Let's move"

Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c had kept their hands free and switched back to the far more deadly P90's they were armed with. There was shouting out in the corridor now as they grabbed as much loot as they could take with them and piled it ready to be grabbed as soon as they'd taken care of the Jaffa yelling and banging in the corridor as they attacked the doors. The door started to open in short bursts of movement, despite Carter's preventative measures and Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c rolled Jaffa flash grenades under the gap at the bottom of the door. They all ducked behind anything they could and waited for the blinding white light and the noise to fade. The grenades hadn't succeeded in taking out all the Jaffa and those who remained conscious made their presence felt with staff blasts aimed at the gap under the door as it started to move again.

"Let's rock and roll"

Vala elbowed Daniel. "Can I have something?" He glared at her, but handed her a Zat anyway.

"Move!" The Colonel yelled at them and Daniel was almost pulling her along with the other end of the box. They had to drop to their knees to crawl under the jammed door and trust that the Colonel and Teal'c were laying down effective cover fire. The corridor was a scene of devastation and littered with unconscious, dead or seriously injured Jaffa. Staff fire reflected off the golden walls like deadly firelight. Vala felt unusually vulnerable. This wasn't the element of war that she was familiar with and a very loud part of her was telling her to put her head down and run away from it. The others were confident and they fought without a blink of fear or a flinch at death. Sam had lost her zat somehow and had seized a staff weapon from one of the Jaffa as a replacement. She was as competent with the weapon as any first prime Vala had seen (except Teal'c) and that alone was unsettling. Daniel was pulling on his end of the box before Vala had a chance to stand up and she swore at him.

Once they were all clear Teal'c was waving them down a corridor towards the ring room and there was more firing, but Vala couldn't tell exactly where it was all coming from. Her peripheral vision was focused on keeping an eye out for anyone trying to shoot her and occasionally taking out a Jaffa if she saw them lining anyone else up. Maybe that was all everyone was doing, just trying to stay alive and keep each other alive, but they seemed so efficient. Daniel pulled up in front of the door to the ring room and Vala bashed her knee into the edge of the wooden crate, but didn't feel it. She dropped behind the box to begin firing the loaned Zat towards their attackers. Sam peeled back from her position to crouch next to the door and gut the control panel. She flinched when shots came particularly close, but worked with an impossible level of calm to bust the door open for them. The door relinquished its lock with a resigned sigh and then they were peeling back and stumbling through the doorway into the ring room. Vala and Daniel found themselves side by side as they grabbed one end of the box and dragged it after them. Sam ducked and swung herself through the doorway to begin trying to close it behind them. The Colonel was flinging their haul into the circle of the rings and shouting inaudibly into the radio for Siler. Vala used the crate as cover and fired out at any signs of life beyond the doorway.

"Down," Vala heard Daniel yell right in her left ear. He impacted with her as he yelled and she felt the direction of his jump turn into a fall as a staff blast hit him in the chest and forced him backwards. The staff blast burned Vala where some of it had still hit her in the side and knocked her back. When she hit the floor behind the box she bounced limply. The door was closing now. Too late to do Daniel any good, but protection for the rest of them and a last few shots from both sides impacted the closing sections.

It was uncomfortably quiet behind the doors. The Colonel was already at Daniel's side when Vala managed to roll over painfully.

"Daniel," Sam called, but there was little chance of him answering her. His chest was a massive burn and when he exhaled bubbles of blood popped and gathered at the corners of his mouth. The Colonel scooped him up into his arms and staggered into the ring circle where Teal'c already was. Vala and Sam both scrambled to join them, grabbing their haul almost as an afterthought and Sam called for Siler again into her radio. Someone hammered on the door angrily, but all the violence seemed so far away. The rings engaged and Vala exhaled on reflex.

Next: The Aftermath