[Poindexter]

Sam still holds the rifle in both hands as he changes tactics rapidly at the last second. He'd hoped to fill whatever that thing is full of flachette as it charged, but hadn't counted on just how fast the damn thing was. In a heartbeat, it was already on top of Ace, batting the laser out of his hands and almost taking his larynx out. Sam had already taken a stride or two toward the beast when Ace's insane reflexes kicked in and he brought it down with the shock glove. It's not dead yet. He raises that mighty boot of his again and brings it down as hard as he can. Only this time, the mighty boot has a not so mighty snow shoe attached to it, and the added weight and odd shape messes his aim up. The creature thrashes out of the way at the last second; Good thing too. He might have had to walk back to the camp with one shoe.

Then two things happen, nearly at once. First, Ace hits the poor bastard with another god knows how many volts from that shock hand of his, while it's still on the ground, throwing the scent of burning fur into the air. Secondly, he notices one of the ARO's Ohanzee had painted for them earlier getting too close, too fast. Not having a clue which direction the attack is coming from, but knowing damn well it is coming, Sam throws his bodyweight to the right as hard as he can, as though he were shouldering an invisible door. In the blink of an eye, he knows his choice of direction was wrong, but at least he picked a direction. Had he remained still, the razor sharp claw would have been right at his unarmored throat. "Luckily", he's only raked across the lower abdomen. The claw tears deep from behind, through his layers of battered armor, thick clothing, and rough skin, at last finding flesh and blood, deep underneath. The sensation is of no consequence to the horned juggernaut, though. The instant his feet touch ground a moment later, he shifts his weight and spins around 180 degrees to face the monster. Using his momentum from the spin to propel his titanium laced shinbone around at a ridiculous velocity, he whips it into the outside of his attacker's kneebone, caving it in at a freakish and agonizing looking angle.

[Malevolence]

The creatures attack as one, each taking the meta nearest them. The one attacking Ohanzee chooses to strike with a deadly ray of pure mana - invisible in the physical world, but bright and arcing like a bolt of lightning on the astral. Ohanzee sees the mana being gathered, shaped, and turned to its deathly purpose, and he uses his own ability to manipulate the permeating energies of the astral to try to disrupt the beast's efforts. But the attack was too swift, and Ohanzee too exposed, and the hot sting of destructive power ripping at very essence momentarily replaces the biting cold of the Colorado winter.


Ohanzee fights down panic - a fear that seems to grip him during the first moments of conflict - and reaches out to the spirit world for aid. Three Awakened - maybe not all Mages, but there was no reason to rule that possibility out - with imposing physical prowess vs. three metahumans - two un-Awakened whose technological modifications might physically put them in the same league, but leave them lacking magically, and one Awakened that might match them in raw magical power, but was woefully outmatched physically - was not the sort of odds he felt comfortable with. He knew that Wolf, or the specific incarnation of the great spirit, that he had summoned a little over 24 hours ago, was unlikely to heed his call. As proud as he might be, and willing to fight, even the scrappy spirit had to occasionally admit its limits, and it was unlikely that the spirit had healed all of its wounds completely. So to help save noble Wolf's pride, Ohanzee calls to a different beast spirit for aid - the lightning-fast Diamondback.


With the spirit world's usual promptness, the coiled snake appears near the summoner and takes stock of the mage as the quick chant the dwarf used fades from both the physical and astral realms. Apparently satisfied with its assessment, it looks around the scene it has found itself in, tongue darting in and out as it tastes the auras nearby. The spirit speaks directly to the shaman so that the other astrally aware beings can't listen in.


Sshaman, do you not know of the nature of Ssnakess? We prefer ssmaller prey. It watches as Sam and Ace curbstomp the fastest of the assailants. But ssome are known to weaken larger prey with venom, and ssimply wait for other predatorss to finissh it off.


And with no further explanation, the spirit awaits Ohanzee's instruction.

[Tecumseh]

The form in the trees is horrified by the turn of events. Moments ago, a hunt in progress. Now, disaster strikes. It sees the first attack miss Ace - the concealed strikes never miss! - and then the little man struck back with the force of lightning! The second attack found its mark, but the great beast was not felled. Far from it, the titan came back swinging and now the second of them was screaming in pain after having its kneecap kicked up somewhere into its thigh. The second descends into a panicked, berserker rage at the pain.

And then, to top it all of, the bite-size one summoned an alarming apparition on the astral. Well, two can play at that game! The figure waves its paws, spinning the wind into a shape that takes the form of a glowing violet bear on the astral. Bear looks at Diamondback, then to its summoner, then back to Diamondback, then runs off.

Diamondback hisses at the third, which recoils in horror. Enmity had existed between their kinds since the dawn of time, with their ancestors crushing the others' heads while the others struck at their heels. Diamondback rattles, the sound gripping the creature's mind and conjuring up untold pain from generations past. It pivots on its tree, then leaps away into the darkness as fast as its arms and legs may carry it.

[Poindexter]

The beast howls in rage and pain as it tries in vain to operate it's leg properly and is rewarded with agony instead. Out of the corner of his eye, Sam sees another piece of snow fall from the tree and hit the ground. He looks up, expecting another attacker from above, but only sees one of the furry demons flash by above him, from one tree to another. It's trying to escape! Maybe summon help! Drop him! Figuring he's got maybe a second or two before the beast before him regains his footing, he braces the Pioneer 60 against his shoulder and lines up a shot. Unfortunately, the bugger is gone. He squints his eyes, and uses every bit of vision magnification his goggles can give him, but to no avail. Finally, he does a little bit of math in his head, imagines where the creature would be if it kept moving in the same direction at the same speed, and pulls the trigger. The loud hunting rifle rings out in the quiet night, clearly audible for miles around, but if the flachette found it's mark, Sam can't tell. Immediately, the big troll feels foolish. Don't do that again, you moron! We're trying to HIDE here, Tupitsa!

He doesn't have too much time to analyze his feelings on the subject as the furry clawed bastard with the broken knee pours all of its power into it's remaining leg and lunges forwarf toward the frosty troll with both claws outstretched. Although the attack still has all the power behind it as before, there's no more speed, grace, or suprise to it and Sam is easily able to bat it's monstrous talons aside with the rifle butt. Noticing that it's attention is no longer focused on him, Ace shoots forward around the back of the monster's knees, hobbling it even further and giving it nearly no chance to defend against Sam's next attack.

With his teeth grit and lips pulled back in a snarl, Sam growls loudly from the back of his throat as he puts all of his weight into a massive haymaker. He swings his right fist in an arc like a wrecking ball and, bringing it down on the top left of the creature's forehead, he can feel the skull crack first, and then dent before he pulls his fist back. Any meta Sam's ever seen would be dead before it hit the snow, but with this thing, he's not certain. He drops back into his low, snowshoed fighting stance, awaiting either a counterattack or a death spasm.

[rednblack]

Content from the smell of burning fur that the downed creature will not be standing up again anytime soon, Ace wheels around Sam who looks locked in combat with another of the invisible foes. He feints briefly with his cyber spur, feels the thing knock his arm wide, and follows up with open-fisted jab.  It connects, and whatever it is, it steps back, but Ace is certain that it's still up.  A moment later, he sees Sam throwing up his guard.  It must be going for Sam's eyes, Ace thinks, as he flexes back on his cybernetic legs.  If they're built at all like people, then it must be off balance now.

Ace lunges forward, low, and feels a mass of fur in his face, as he wraps his arms around the creature's legs.  Yep, only two of them.  That's a good sign at least.  He must have come in at a good angle because Ace can feel the creature going off balance.  There's also something off about its legs, like it's already wounded, and Ace can swear there's the softest sound of bone grinding on bone as he tries to hug the mass of fur in close, as he mentally dictates a comm to his teammates.

<<@Team [Ace] Ohanzee, numbers?>>

Once Sam's wild punch connects, Ace feels the creature twisting backward.  He wrenches his left shoulder in and up, upsetting the creature to hit, Ace assumes, face-first in the snow.  Is it down?  For good?

[Malevolence]

The snow falls silently, and much of the combat unfolds similarly. The creatures are quiet and nearly invisible against the snow. Ohanzee does his best to update his teammates to the whereabouts of the enemy - his Sight allows him to see them clearly - but even though he can see them, his equipment cannot tap into his vision and automatically mark them with an ARO.  His eyes focus on the physical locations that his Astral vision tells him the creatures should be, but he can see nothing. He mentally commands his commlink to mark the locations his eyes focus on as he looks from aura to aura. There, heading toward Sam. There, heading toward Ace. There, sitting still. The AROs dutifully appear in his, and his team's, vision. He hopes it will be enough. The first seconds of the engagement are a blur - Sam and Ace tag team the one that had attacked Ace, Ohanzee takes his licks from the mage


He sees his assailant flee as Diamondback stares him down with a blood curdling hiss and rattle. On the Astral, the spirit is impressive - as thick as a large man's torso, and as tall as an Ork even though it is coiled up. He sees the fear color the beasts aura, leaving the stain of it behind as it leaps from tree to tree. Diamondback glances briefly at the other remaining enemy, but seeing it facing down two of Ohanzee's allies, decides to pursue the fleeing foe. Ohanzee also considers assisting Sam and Ace, but the fight is so close in that he fears he'd do more harm than good. He doesn't have many options for attacking the fleeing creature. He can shoot it with his pistol, and almost certainly miss. He could Fireball it, and risk damage from the stress of casting, plus who knows what sort of collateral effects. Or he could hit it with a stunning spell. He opts for the latter - it's not optimal, but anything he could do to slow it down was worth doing. He finds the mana here surprisingly malleable - and abundant, considering the lifeless vista - and launches the stunning bolt of energy arcing toward the fleeing mage. But the mage throws everything he has into his defense - Ohanzee see's tendrils of defensive mana reach out from the mage toward the incoming projectile, tearing it apart and deflecting it from its course. By the time it reaches its target, it is severely weakened, and whizzes by the creature, missing by mere inches.


Diamondback has better luck - being wholly astral, he darts after its frightened quarry, and sinks its fangs deep into the beast's aura. It streaks through with pain, and Ohanzee can see from the aura that the victim nearly loses its balance - a dangerous proposition as it swings high above the forest floor. But it manages to keep its - footing? grip? It's hard to say.


Ohanzee can see that Sam and Ace are closing in on the other standing foe, and so he and Diamondback press their advantage while the creature is defenseless in its terror, attacking again like they did before. Ohanzee is distracted as he updates the AROs, marking the fallen one as an X, the one they are surrounding as stationary, and the fleeing one's vector with a squiggly line showing its erratic route. The distraction prevents him from properly centering his mind and protecting it against the raw mana channeled into his spell, but he manages to keep it controlled anyway, directing it harmlessly though his mind and body as the spell forms. But both he and Diamondback have no luck - the creature is moving fast, and with the addition of the Z axis to its options for avoiding incoming fire, it is able to foil their attempts to further wound it.


<<@Team [Ace] Ohanzee, numbers?>>


Ohanzee again updates the AROs - all of the creatures are down except the fleeing one, and it is moving too fast for the ARO to be much help. He's even losing sight of it as more and more trees obscure its aura from his view. It was up to Diamondback now to chase it down, unless Ohanzee opted to project his soul into the Astral in order to pursue it. He decides against it for now, and instead messages the others.


<<@Team [Ohanzee] Spirit pursuing the last one. I might follow if needed. >>

[rednblack]

One left.  Astral overwatch in pursuit.  Things are looking very different for Ace than a moment ago.  He tracks Ohanzee's ARO as he raises his Lancer, zeroes in, and pulls the trigger once.

<<@Team [Ace] Hit?>>

Ohanzee gives the affirmative, but Ace doesn't relax yet.  Laser rifle at the ready he considers wheeling on Sam.  The big guy's guard is still up, but could Ace concentrate his fire, let loose with 3 of his 4 rounds left to penetrate the troll's armor and sub-dermal plating.  His mind flashing back to the moments before the atack.

"This is the last one."

[spoiler]<<@To whom it may concern

I know very few things, lacking even my own name or where I came from, so I won't waste time with a backstory. Such a thing wouldn't be important anyway. What is important is the fact that I have in my possession, an ancient artifact, the likes of which the world has not seen in tens of thousands of years as well as the means to destroy it with a mere thought, should I desire to. The power contained in this artifact is so great, that when I destroy it, there is a very good chance it will tear the very fabric of this world asunder with catastrophic results across all continents. I do not want to do this, but will do so without a second thought, if pressed.

What must you do to keep me from doing this? My demands are quite simple:
1- Contact either The Draco Foundation, The Atlantean Foundation, The Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research, or The Astral Space Preservation Society. Send them a copy of this message.
2- I want a representative from any or all of those four groups to come meet me and take this damn thing from me.

That's all there is to it. To stop the destruction of your world, all you need do is come take this foul chunk of metal from me and remove the millstone from around my neck. If you are the offended party from whom I stole it, I'll even give it back for no more a fee than an explanation of events. Fair warning though, I am heavily armed and well supported by some of the most paranoid and trigger happy killers in the world. If you attempt to take it from me by force or deception, you will die. I've killed too many already and I don't want any more blood on my hands. PLEASE make certain this message finds its way to the proper eyes.

[Uncle Sam]>>[/spoiler]

Ace knows exactly what he'd have done before, if a teammate had violated the parameters of the mission.  Step 1: Neutralize the teammate.  Step 2: Assume leadership position.  Step 3: Damage assessment.  Step 4: Make tactical and strategical adjustments as needed to insure the success of the operation.  Step 1, practical considerations: Ace isn't sure that he can drop the troll.  Sure, maybe he can get the drop on him, but it's likely that Sam is still on high alert as well, and he's fast as well as tough.  If Ace can't drop him immediately, then Ohanzee will certainly get involved, and that would not end well for Ace.  Waiting was an option, until the adrenaline had subsided, until he could seize a more advantageous position, perhaps firing from cover. 

Step 2, practical considerations: The truth is, Ace isn't as good a combat lieutenant as Sam.  He's used to working solo, or in small groups as the infiltrator, or the shock troop.  No, Sam had more skills, and made the chances of overall success greater.  There would also be the attitudes of the team to keep in mind.  So far, they've done well by not killing each other.  Would the team think Sam's infidelity to be worthy of death, or would they see Ace as the rogue operative.  What would their internal calculus be?  Chino is certainly unstable, but would they turn on Ace as well, minimizing the chances that they could all walk out of this alive.  These were shadowrunners after all, and they may not see Sam's actions in the same light that Ace does.  And then a thought strikes him, They're not the only ones who are shadowrunners, you dumb hoop.  You're a shadowrunner now.  What do you think Ares would do if they knew what you were up to?  Yes, Ares would kill him certainly, but Ace expect that.  He's made his piece with it, but he hasn't violated the trust of the group, has he?

There was also this fight to consider.  Sam had made his call, and he had seen it through.  Whether it was dealing with the house in Aspen, or the ambush on the highway, Sam had done is part to keep the team alive.  Yeah, back at that ambush, Sam had rushed out to be the bullet sponge when Ace was sure he was he was done for, and couldn't hit anything.  Maybe all this thinking is just Ace's corp programming, and it doesn't have much application to life in the shadows.  Or maybe that's why shadowrunners don't live so long.

No, Ace thinks dropping the Lancer to rest in its sling, and turns to face Sam.  "Any idea what the fuck those things are?" he asks as Ohanzee approaches them.

Thinking about the rest of the team, and the fact that they haven't responded yet, Ace fires off another comm.

<<@Team [Ace] Threat neutralized.  All team member check in.  Ace present.>> 

Moments pass, and when no one checks in, Ace think it's most likely that they're too far out for the comms to function.  At least, that's what he hopes is happening.  Cyber spur out, he approaches the downed creatures in turn, to make sure they're dead.

<<@Team [Ace] Ohanzee, probably best to make sure they stay down.  You want any live ones, if that's still an option?>>

[Zweiblumen]

Doc has been continuing to work on the igloos that will house the team.  Chino's apparent endless energy and Kat's new found strength make short work of it.  Soon they are able to relax a bit as they wait for the scouting team to return.  He sets up the satalite uplink and does a quick check of the local area for any matrix activity at all.  Finding none aside from the team members, as expected, he leaves the link on as a way for them to keep in touch while they are scouting.  Once they return he'll turn it back off to help conceal their location even more.

Suddenly he hears the unmistakable bark of the hunting rifle fire once in the distance, and races out of the confines of the snow house to check the area.  Seconds later Ace sends a message:

<<@Team [Ace] Threat neutralized.  All team member check in.  Ace present.>> 

<<<@Team [Doc] What threat? Heard a gun shot, everyone okay out there?  Chino and Katsina are her with me still.>>>

[Malevolence]

With the last one down, Ohanzee sends an update to the team, indicating that all three are down, their location, and their general level of health - one is fading fast and will die without care, the others are merely knocked out.


To Ace's query, Ohanzee answers "No clue. Best I can tell is that they are Sasquatches, same as the one that they were chasing. I vaguely recall that Sasquatches are usually peaceful, so I don't know what got into these."


<< @Team [Ohanzee] Present, and no, I can't think of any reason to keep one alive. >>

[Tecumseh]

Back at camp, Katsina begins work on her Imbolc festival. She gathers what dry wood she can scavenge, then has Chino chop it into pieces with his bare fists. She prepares an altar of stacked firewood, then a circle of small fires, drawing geometric designs in the snow with her claymore.

She explains to Doc and Chino, but mostly Doc since Chino is periodically slotting a chip:

"Imbolc is half way between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. The time of quickening is at hand; it is the crossroads of the year. It is a time for divination, a time to discern and perhaps choose our path for the year ahead. Appropriate, given our situation, don't you think?"

After arranging the altar, she lights the fires and casts the Circle with her claymore grasped in front of her, pointing down.

"This is the time of the feast of torches,
When every lamp blazes and shines
To welcome the rebirth of the God.
I celebrate the Goddess,
I celebrate the God;
All the Earth celebrates
Beneath its mantle of sleep."

She thrusts the claymore into the ground, which sticks in the snow. She lights a candle that she stole from a survival kit and slowly walks the circle clockwise, bearing the candle before her.

"All the land is wrapped in winter.
The air is chilled and
Frost envelopes the Earth.
But Lord of the Sun,
Horned One of animals and wild places,
Unseen you have been reborn
Of the gracious Mother Goddess,
Lady of all fertility.
Hail Great Hecate!
Hail and welcome!"

She stops before the altar, holding the candle aloft. She lights the stacked wood at the altar, then stares at the flame before releasing the Circle.

[Poindexter]

"Any idea what the fuck those things are?"

Sam is quiet. He thinks about what he can remember about sasquatches, which isn't much, as he inspects his wound. It's not bad, but it's going to require attention. Dammit. He's about to ask Ace what he thinks of the burner comm from before when a flurry of conversation starts up.

<<@Team [Ace] Threat neutralized.  All team member check in.  Ace present.>> 

<<@Team [Ace] Ohanzee, probably best to make sure they stay down.  You want any live ones, if that's still an option?>>

<< @Team [Ohanzee] Present, and no, I can't think of any reason to keep one alive. >>

<<Team [Uncle Sam] Sam present. Lets let him live a bit longer. I want to see what he does. Doc, can I send you a live feed from the admittedly low quality camera on my smartgun? Maybe you can shed some light on this? Help us figure out what's stalking around our camp?>>

[Tecumseh]

Sam transmits to Doc but receives only garbled gibberish in return. He tries again but the result is the same. With no wireless grid it's too far to connect directly comm-to-comm.

The adrenaline is starting to wear off and the cold is beginning to sink in. Sam is big enough that his body can maintain a stable temperature around his core even in extreme conditions, but the fact is that the sasquatch shredded through his armor jacket and its insulation. Sam can't feel the wound - if his damage compensators hadn't handled it then numbness from the cold would have - but the torn jacket does mean that his risk of exposure is that much greater. The blood is starting to freeze against his skin.

Ohanzee feels like he spent 30 seconds in a Siemens-Nixdorf NukIt microwave oven. He feels tight in his skin, his blood feels hot, and he's not entirely sure if he has his eyebrows or not. Diamondback circles its prey, seeking permission to complete its assignment.

Ace is unharmed but is eager to be done. Tactically, he agrees with Sam's original assessment that leaving hungry predators prowling around your camp is not prudent. That logic has not changed. If anything, it's doubly true for predators which are all but invisible to mundane eyes.

Minutes pass. The unconscious targets don't stir. The tawny orange sasquatch that was being chased does not reappear. The night stays cold and quiet as the snow continues to quietly accumulate on the forest floor. Ace pops his spur.

The trio moves to finish their loop. The remainder of the traps and snares are set, then it's time to return to camp. Katsina's fires glow brightly and are pleasingly warm to thermographic vision.

Sam wobbles a bit on the final approach into camp. At first he passes it off as clumsiness with his snowshoes, which seems unlikely given that Sam's bioware makes him as limber and graceful as the great Russian ballerinos. He takes a few more long strides toward camp but then has to stop and prop himself up against a tree. Ace wonders if Sam lost more blood than he let on, but didn't they figure that Sam could give up a liter or two to Katsina? Sam's wound is ugly but doesn't seem that grievous.

Ohanzee assenses Sam and it's immediately clear that he is unwell. To punctuate the point, Sam collapses onto his hands and knees, then projectile vomits into the snow. Then he flops on his side and groans painfully, his damage compensators useless against whatever he's confronting.

[Zweiblumen]

To punctuate the point, Sam collapses onto his hands and knees, then projectile vomits into the snow. Then he flops on his side and groans painfully, his damage compensators useless against whatever he's confronting.

Doc sees the giant fall to the snow, and then hears him vomiting.  "Stand back, that's not just from wounds."  He pulls up his balaklva as a paltry defense against any possible airborn contaminates, opens up one of the medkits and begins to examine the groaning behemoth.

[Malevolence]

While the trio stands in the snow, waiting to see if any more of the beasts arrive to check in on - or finish off - their fallen brethren, Ohanzee stays Diamondback's fang. Soon.


Not liking being exposed, he finds a tree and stands with his back to it while he summons his magic and channels it into healing himself. He asks Sam if he would also like him to tend to his woulds, but Sam waves him off. He claims it is only a minor wound, but to Ohanzee it looks rather grievous. Regardless, he doesn't press - if the troll can power through it until they return to camp, then he can maximize the benefit of the team's healing resources by having Doc tend to him first. Once magic had been applied to an injury, mundane medicine could no longer help - short of bed rest and time.


Finally Sam sighs and gives the go ahead to complete their patrol of the camp and laying of traps, satisfied that the dying - but alive - creatures did not stir from some preternatural regeneration nor have allies come to their aid. Or enemies come to finish them off. Turning away, he gives Diamondback the go ahead to finish off its vanquished prey - the anxiousness it had displayed made Ohanzee sure he did not wish to witness the deed. He was tempted to dismiss the spirit, but decided that so long as it was here - and considering what they had just faced - it would be good to have another ally accompany them on their patrol.


But the remainder of the trip was uneventful, and soon the camp was in sight, a welcoming fire visible as they approached. Perhaps too visible, the cautious corner of Ohanzee's mind provided. He pushed it down - while tactically imprudent, the fire was core to Katsina's ceremony and thus to her general demeanor, and besides, the warmth would be welcome. Once they arrived back at camp he could dismiss Diamondback and summon a spirit of air to thin the smoke as it was likely more visible than the fire - hidden by the thick trees as it was - unless you were already almost directly above the camp. But they barely made it to the outskirts of the camp when the giant troll collapsed, heaving, to the cold ground. Doc rushed to his side and immediately began tending to his wound.


"Move him near the fire. Let's try to keep him warm." Ohanzee suspected now that the claws that had delivered that wound had delivered something else as well - a disease or toxin of some sort. He peered intently at the large man's aura to see if he could find out if his suspicions were correct and perhaps glean some information. He was also curious as to how the nanites would respond to such a malady infringing on their turf. Though he wouldn't have wished this on any of his friends, it did present an opportunity to see if the nanites provided them any resistance to infections or toxins (other than alcohol). They seemed to be unable to make any headway against Kat's Infection, but HMHVV was as much (or more) magic as it was disease and so might escape the ability of the little machines to battle. With that unpleasant thought, he hoped that the current malady was not magical in nature and that the little buggers could lend a hand or two (billion).

[rednblack]

Looking at the ground where he should be seeing the dead remains of the "sasquatches," Ace worries about leaving them so close to camp.  He knows what happens in the corp world when the scent of death is in the air, and could only assume that it would be the same way here.  There isn't much choice though, and so the trio head out to finish with the snares and traps.

While holding back a branch so that Sam could set a half hitch Ace uses his free hand to slip the commlink back in the breast pocket of the troll's jacket.  "You keep it." 

What else was there to say really?  Sam was not the type to want to hug it out or brawl it out, and Ace isn't really sure how you act with friends.  Is that was these people are becoming now?  It's  bit of an uncomfortable thought.  Katsina is enough of a complicating factor, and Ace was genuinely hurt when the knowledge of her infection was forced out into the open instead of being confided in him, and that feeling made Ace feel petty and child-like.  What difference should it make, where the information came from, so long as he had it?

With Sam, it was mostly a tactical decision, but there was something else there too, and it was something that wasn't just a reluctance to kill.  If Ace had his memory, at least he would know if his opinions toward this new team were something similar to the bond he felt with others in his unit in the pre-Instigator days.  As it stands, Ace believes that Katsina is the first person he liked in a very long time after becoming what he is now.

But "You Keep it," said two things as far as Ace could tell.  It said, "I trust you with it now," and Ace does believe he can trust Sam, but it also says, "You walk with the weight of it."  Surely the big man can handle that.

"Where'd you leave them?" Ace asks of the other burner commlinks.  It'll be important for them to know what the chances are for third-party involvement, and under what timeline.

"Do the others know?  If not, we need to tell them."

#

The light from Katsina's fire washes over Ace in a sense of relief.  With the comms jammed up, Ace has been worried, though he hasn't said anything, that whatever was out there may have had a second party near the camp.  He picks up his speed as much as his snow shoes will let him, and at first he can't tell that anything is wrong with Sam until he hears a branch snapping.  Looking back at his friend -- Yeah, maybe that is the word. -- he sees the large man had broken a branch cleanly off trying to balance himself.  Sam says he's fine, so Ace doesn't push the matter, though he does slow down to keep pace.  And then slows more, as Sam's movements become less controlled and more jerky.  When Sam collapses against the tree, Ace rushes to him and Ohanzee.  Seeing how Ohanzee is taking preparations against disease Ace mentally switches on his internal air tank, and stops breathing.

After a cursory look over him, Ohanzee says,

"Move him near the fire. Let's try to keep him warm."

Ace helps get Sam those last few meters, and posts up worriedly, trying to give Doc and the waggly finger types room to work.

Chino, it appears, is not taking the news of Sam's illness so well.  "What do you mean he's unconscious? Wake him the fuck up?" he nearly yells kicking over a tree.  "And whaddya mean you couldn't see them?  You use your fucking eyes for fuck's sake."  In the end, Chino sits near the edge of the fire, thinking about slotting a chip.