The shooting suddenly stops. The runners throw down their weapons, conceding the battlefield.
A man in full body armor emerges from the remains of the Bulldog, hands raised per instructions. "Good show, good show, chaps," he says with an accent that's either English or from New England. "Bloody good show... ow..." His armor is peppered with shrapnel from Sam's frag grenade, and he probably has a devilish headache from being dumped by Doc. He's wobbly on his feet and can barely stand. "Right you are."
Yuri squeezes Chino from behind, trying to make sure the ork doesn't headbutt him and break his nose. "B, damnit, it's me!" Yuri says in a Russian accent. He pushes Chino away far enough that Chino can't reengage immediately. Yuri deactivates his chameleon suit and pulls off his helmet, trying to appeal to Chino. Yuri can see the lack of recognition in Chino's eyes. "It's Yuri! You really don't remember! Fraggit!"
Ace races forward to make sure everyone is disarmed. <<@Team [Ace] We've got cyberarms on these two in chameleon suits. Going to be tough to make sure they're full disarmed. Best we can do is wire them up to slow them down, then sit them on a nest of flash-bangs so that they're on their best behavior.>>
"¡Ay, mierda! ¡Hija de puta!" María José swears as Ace roughly disarms her and packages her up for safekeeping. "I'm just a hired gun! Nothing personal! I geev up! I didn't sign up for no lasers or bears." She eyes Bear warily.
Shaman. My time is drawing to a close, Bear reports to Ohanzee. My task is complete. The abominations are done, except the one. Bear looks to the unconscious form of Rozkhi, which clings to life. Bear takes a step toward the troll, but he doesn't have license, nor does he wish to stay. He fades back into the astral, then departs to the metaplane from whence he came.
<<@Team [Ohanzee] Sam's down! ... I'm going to need a nap in a minute or two.>>
Katsina swings her head back and forth, debating whether to help Ohanzee first or Sam. Sam is down, and that's bad, but better to make sure Ohanzee doesn't follow him.
<<@Team [Katsina] No! We need you to levitate the obelisk! We can't get it out of the ground without you!>>
Katsina races over to Ohanzee at her inhuman speed, sliding to a stop in front of the dome protecting him. Focusing on it on the astral, Katsina undoes the power behind the spell. The spell breaks, but the pop of the mana knocks her back a step as is whips around, unraveling. "Ow!" she says dully, feeling the drain deep within.
She steps forward, producing a stim patch from one of the many pockets on her overcoat, and applies it to Ohanzee's neck. <<@Team [Katsina] We need a medkit! Does anyone have a medkit? Oh Goddess, tell me that Doc didn't take all of them with him...>>
<<@Team [Ohanzee] Check... check the van and snowmobiles.>> Ohanzee feels the surge of stimulants rushing into his blood stream. He stands, feeling stronger and steadier almost immediately.
"Got em!" Chino shouts as he rifles through the snowmobiles. "Got two!" He delivers the larger of the two, the size of a briefcase, to Katsina. She races off to check on Sam. She finds him fallen next to a tree, not far from the eviscerated guts of the troll he tore apart. She sends the feed to Doc.
<<@Doc [Katsina] Doc, what should I do? I've got a trauma patch but I don't know if it's going to work!>>
Doc responds coolly, the calmness of his medical training kicking in.
<<@Katsina [Doc] First, make sure it has the wireless signal enabled. Generally that allows it to run some quick diagnostics and tailor the treatment to the patient. Sam's a special case but the patch still needs to know his general size and weight even if Sam's hematology confuses it.>>
Katsina does so, slapping the patch on Sam and hoping it can do its job before it dissolves from his acidic secretions. She watches his life force carefully on the astral, hoping to see the ebb slow down.
<<@Team [Katsina] It's... working! Sam is stable. Trauma patch is reporting that it has successfully averted the internal hemorrhaging.>>
With the threat of Sam bleeding to death addressed, Katsina takes the medkit and begins to circle among the team while the others interrogate the prisoners.
"Damn, we're just trying to help!" Dmitri, the rigger who was safe inside a rigger raccoon, insists. "Ohanzee, you and me go way back. Your spirit pops out of nowhere and says you hit a strange snag on your last job, now you need to get your body back. Sure I'm gonna help, 'specially when you - I mean your spirit, whatever - say there's a big payday attached. You'd help you, wouldn't you?"
"Da, a crazy story, but it's all four of you, no?" Yuri adds. "Rozkhi, B13, Ohanzee, even Doc Hack, all the same. Crazy drek but that's the Sixth World, neh? We came here to help, друг."
"I say, yes, I was hired help," Dale admits. "Here to replace 'Doc Hack' I was told. Yes, well, fine cock up that was, haha! Box my ears, I got sent off arse over elbow. Feeling a bit bladdered now, like some rat-arsed nancy boy. Say, you wouldn't happen to have any baccy on you? I'm gagging here and easy about the blend."
Katsina administers first aid to the best of her limited ability; Doc coaches her over the Matrix using cues from the biomonitors that the team has. Katsina does a fine job with Ohanzee, but then her beginner's luck begins to fail. Ace gets some topical treatment for his contact burns but Chino and Sam are left with little more than messy dressings that are poorly bound and accomplish little. "Drek, you would think I would know more about anatomy than this!" she spits in frustration. "And Sam's skin melted the electrodes that the medkit uses for assessments and the syringes it uses to administer drugs!"
Ohanzee steps forward to heal Sam. Casting his eyes away from the disemboweled troll, he touches Sam gingerly - grabbing the horns, figuring they're not covered with acidic slime - before silently filling the troll with mana. The effect is limited, leading Ohanzee to redouble his efforts. Beneath his hands, the magic knits together some of the more grievous wounds. The improved blood flow provides enough oxygen to Sam's brain to revive him. The giant stirs, his eyes opening with only a mild headache to show for it. "Just five more minutes, ma," he mumbles groggily.
Ace, Chino, and Katsina load Rozkhi and the prisoners into the remains of the Bulldog, surrounding them with a wreath of flash-bang grenades set to go off wireless if there's any tomfoolery. "Ay, wow, you are mean!" María José complains. "¿Amigos vienen? It would be much smarter for you to hire me to hold a gun for you, neh? I don't know you, I don't know them. You let me go, I work! Good rates. A discount, even."
Katsina feels it first, then Sam: a dull headache, brought on by violence and grief. Ohanzee only notices it after he summons Diamondback and the spirit complains about the bad air. "We have a background count," Katsina announces. "It's going to be like running with a parachute for me and Sam. Those spells I quickened are going to be undercut too. If we draw back, we might be able to avoid the effects while making Cannon deal with them. Or that might make him annoyed and irritable. You guys are the tacticians so it's your call."