[Malevolence]

The tree line is rapidly approaching and Ohanzee is pushing his stocky legs for all they are worth. I'm going to make it!


But the inner voice that the bound magic provides pipes up again - "duck!" Ohanzee dives for the snow, but the shooter has learned from his last attempt - he sprays the whole area around Ohanzee, preferring to clip him with one shot rather than risk missing him in hopes of getting multiple bullets to find their mark. He feels a sharp pain between his shoulder blades, then hits the snow harder than he had intended. The pain spreads throughout his chest and he can't breathe as his world begins to darken. Damn, it feels like I'm dying! He can't believe it is only a gel round.


At the last moment he's pulled back from the brink of unconsciousness by a warm fire in his chest, distinct from the pain that the gel round had caused. He still feels paralyzed, but he can breathe, and the darkness recedes, revealing the slightly less black of the thermographically inert snow his face has buried itself in. After what feels like forever, but is only maybe a second, he can feel his extremities again, and realizes that he can, in fact, move.


Do I even want to get up? Maybe I can play dead while I rest up a bit. But a different voice in his head makes it clear that that would not be wise. <<Move to cover. Protect the Host>> The words themselves are alien, but he understands them nonetheless, and the message is clear. Get up, keep moving.


He'd have to tell Doc about this when the fight was over - if they survived. He had a feeling that the nanites in his system were taking a more active role in his affairs. Then he began to wonder if this had already happened with Doc, with his more progressed infection, and that way lay madness - or at least distrust. He terminated that line of thought - or was it the nanites again?


-


Bear feels the tether between him and his summoner weaken and nearly snap. NO! These foul corruptions of Essence must be put down - I must see this through! But then the link reasserts itself, keeping Bear here in this world. He realizes that while the events in the material world were irrelevant to him, they had apparently been causing his summoner significant hardship. The metahuman was hanging on by a thread, and if Bear were to finish the task set before him, he had to protect this shaman from threats in both realms.


With a growl, starting on the astral and continuing as he gathers the ectoplasm around him, he again forms in the material realm, a massive 8 foot tall brown bear staring down at the small creature that had nearly succeeded in laying his summoner low. The growl, now audible to the un-Awakened, culminates in a roar as Bear announces his presence to the mundane occupants of the forest.

[Tecumseh]

Katsina darts forward, hoping that running on snow and ice with a claymore isn't a recipe for disaster. There's automatic fire all around her but she can't spare a moment to find out who is shooting whom. Her attention is focused on the van ahead. There's a magician casting spells and summoning spirits in the front seat, making the astral feel rather crowded. Katsina is aware that she could be quickly overwhelmed, especially if the flanks falter, so she decides to go straight for the source.

She springs onto the hood of the van and throws all her momentum into piercing the windshield with her sword. The layered polycarbonate gives way beneath the tip of the blade but doesn't shatter. Katsina twists her sword and uses it as a lever. In conjunction with her magically augmented strength, it's enough to rip out the windshield as if she were using a crowbar. She flings the broken windshield to the side.

<<@Team [Katsina] Sam, a grenade!>> she pleads, uncertain of whether he's in a position to help or if the automatic gunfire she keeps hearing has cut him down.

She's very exposed on the hood of the van. The enemy magician - a black-bearded fellow with Central Asian features - looks upset by her appearance or her proximity or both. He points at her, sending a summoned spirit rocketing out of the astral. It's a chariot with heavy wheels that Katsina barely ducks before it thunders overhead. It clips her head on its way out and she can feel the dull ache reverberate through her head. The magician follows with a heavy spell, which Katsina jams with every ounce of strength she has in her. Clogging the mana robs the spell of much of its force but Katsina can still feel it tightening uncomfortably around her lungs as she chokes for breath.

There's a BLOOP from the treeline. Katsina's combat sense is raging at her to jump, roll, anything, but all she can manage to do before the grenade goes off is to turn her head. The explosion goes off directly in front of her, hot shards ripping through the magician's face and skull and into his prefrontal cortex. The man dies instantly, his face looking like the aftermath of shotgun blast.

In the trees, Sam does his best to ignore the snarling, snapping troll trying to take a piece out of him. Sam feels Bear's approval as he swings his XM30 up and centers his smartlink reticle over the missing windshield of the van. He mentally triggers the grenade just as the troll chomps down on his clavicle with titanium jaws.

>> HK XM30 Assault Rifle
>> Fragmentation Grenades
>> Rounds remaining: 1 of 6

Sam sees the grenade explode in Katsina's face. She turns her head at the last second, her ballistic mask deflecting the fragments headed for her brain. Sam is almost positive he sees a piece of shrapnel tear out a large chunk of her throat, and the jet of blood he sees on the snow confirms that something grave has happened. Yet she stands there, motionless and unconcerned, not even staggered by the blast that ripped the man in front of her to shreds. He tries to see if he's killed Mask (at her own request) but he's immediately distracted by the troll biting his collarbone.

Sam can feel the troll's teeth push through his armor and then sink into his dermal plating, then through that and then onto bone. There's no pain, no fragging pain at all, but Sam knows that he's missing a chunk of his collarbone. The thought infuriates him as he turns his attention to his assailant.

[rednblack]

Two, maybe three steps before Chino can launch into a kick.  He prepares to flex is right leg back, feels a tingling in his muscles at the sweet memory of snapping his leg forward, holding eyes with the troll and imagining his foot coming into contact with the troll's jaw as he whips his momentum through, but then B 13 is on top of him in the astral again.  Fraggin fast too!  He'd underestimated "himself," and now the spectral double is clawing through his essence in an effort to knock the big troll unconscious.  Chino steels himself against the blow and disperses the worst of the damage in the mana surrounding him, but he's still winded.

"Eh, fuck you, me," Chino says astrally before closing his third eye and focusing on the meat world around him.  Unfortunately, the attack and momentary pause gives Chino's quarry an opportunity to strike.  Closing distance, the troll swings his grenade launcher in a wide arc upward toward Chino's jaw.  The ork rights himself, and takes a small step back.  The butt of the grenade launcher sails past him harmlessly, and the troll continues to close the distance, preparing another swing.

#

Ace's commlink comes online just in time to receive:

<<@Team [Katsina] Sam, a grenade!>>

He had tracked her rushing up to the van, and peeling the windshield off like the lid of a tin of Soy Weenies, but he couldn't believe what she was asking for.    His heart sank as he heard the whistling of the grenade over the din of the fight, and then it stopped when the explosion rocked the Bulldog and threw Katsina's head back, briefly illuminating her body and the spurts of blood issuing from her throat.

No!  What were you thinking?! 

[Tecumseh]

Sam's perfectly placed grenade goes off in Katsina's face and she feels her carotid artery fly away with a jagged piece of shrapnel. The pain is searing and she is almost immediately light-headed. For a second she is legitimately worried that her spine might be severed, but then there is a rush of cooling magic - or maybe that's just the icy wind on her exposed windpipe - as her neck knits itself back together in the span of a heartbeat.

She swishes her sword, then looks down at herself. Her lined coat is a pincushion of fragments, as are her hands. Her skin spits out the metal in a steady rain of pellets as the wounds seal themselves shut. In the pockmarks of her gloves she can see exposed bits of white skin, fresh and new as the surrounding snow.

In the meat world, Katsina isn't afraid of much, including grenades. The exception to that is Chino, who kicks like a freight train and whose slicing blows cut her deeply. While Katsina is fully aware that B13 lacks a material body, her wariness of Chino extends into the astral realm and labels B13 as her biggest threat. She pirouettes and lashes out with her sword, the physical motion largely unnecessary other than to focus the astral attack of her willpower onto the beastly spirit. Her sword focuses her fear and contempt, cutting deeply into the spirit as it screams.

Katsina stares down Doc Hack and B13, daring them to reengage.

[Zweiblumen]

Doc knows he rocked the RCC pretty well on his last attack and sees an opportunity to close the deal.  Not worrying about MARKs or permissions, he just slots some vicious code and dives straight back at the rigger.  The slitch sees another attack coming and tries to brace for it, but Doc put everything he had into this second attack.  Doc was just too fast for him, and his scalpel slices through his opponents avatar dumping him unceremoniously back into the meat.

He looks at the time and sees that while it's felt like hours, not even 5 minutes have passed since the unexpected company showed up.  "I hope we don't get fragged by ASPS/DIMR when they show up.  I've a feeling we are going to be the worse for wear after this scuff up."

[rednblack]

A moment later, the bleeding stops, and Katsina swirls around, thrusting her sword forward at . . . no one in particular?  Ace figures it must be some woo drek, and peers back down his smartlink reticle, sweeping the rifle to his left at the troll who's recovering from his missed shot against Chino.  Ace aims center mass, and lets another laser beam fly, striking his target solidly before he even sees it coming.  The troll is staggered, but still up.  Hoping Chino can finish the job, Ace comms the team before sweeping his Lancer toward the troll's much smaller companion for a follow-up shot.

<<@Team [Ace] Online.>>

[Malevolence]

The tree-line wavered in and out of focus as Ohanzee willed his body to get up - get UP! - and trundle toward it as quickly as it could. Blessedly, the magically enhanced voice in his head was silent; not telling him to duck or dodge or - perhaps worst of all - stop.


Eventually, he was there, and before even coming to a stop he followed the instructions Katsina had given him and activated her lent magic to call forth a bubble of protection around him. The effort of will nearly caused him to collapse, and he wasn't entirely sure he shouldn't just drop down to reduce his profile, but he wobbled a bit and remained upright. He decided that he wanted to get better cover between him and the dangers on the road before he stopped.


-


The humanoid was startled and a little more than rattled by Bear's sudden appearance and spun to fire a stream of annoying gnats at the towering spirit. Bear dodged lazily, not too concerned with the creature's weapon, and despite it's panic, the arc of the weapon intercepted Bear and the spirit took a couple of the projectiles it spewed. He shrugged them off without concern, of course, and swiped fiercely at the meta, missing as the creature dodged, despite its fear. Bear was momentarily irritated, but knew he was still getting used to the sluggishness of the material world. Already he was becoming quicker and more confident in his movements as he repositioned himself for a followup attack, floating inches above the still pristine snow beneath him.

[Poindexter]

A bloodcurdling roar erupts from his massive maw as he feels the hard metal teeth saw their way into his flesh and bone. With both his mighty hands, he reaches up behind him to grab the other troll, one claw finding a piece of his shoulder and the other gripping a sizable chunk of hair. With every ounce of strength he's got, he lifts his crazy-eyed foe off the ground and brings him up over his head before slamming him down in the snow on his back. YOU'RE MINE NOW! To his credit, or perhaps to the credit of the drugs in his system, the troll never stops flailing those jackhammer fists of his into Sam's face, but through the rage, the chrome, and the hunger, the giant infected fiend hardly feels a thing. In the blink of an eye, he's rended the poor bastard at his feet from throat to crotch with one of his sinister, ooze dripping claws.

He rises to his feet once more, tearing a clawfull of innards free and holding it high above his head in triumph. The warm blood and ichor cascading down his massive thorny form causes steam to rise from him in this arctic cold and he lifts his head to the stars above, screaming in rage, misery, defeat, and triumph all at once. All around him is death and fire. This is how it's always supposed to have been.

"WHO'S NEXT!?"

[Tecumseh]

Doc Hack is a crafty one, even in his unexpected afterlife. Seeing that he can't break through Katsina's defenses, he decides to work on the flank. Rocketing off at the speed of thought, he finds another ripe target: Sam, now dual-natured and vulnerable. The giant is tearing up another monster his equal in size, so while Sam is distracted Doc Hack takes the opportunity to roast him from behind. Sam feels a searing heat traveling up his spine, like napalm being sucked up through a straw into his brain. The damage is deep and seems to be coming from within, as Sam's skull boils from the inside out. The pain is great enough to overwhelm his damage compensators and stagger him a step, just as he's celebrating his triumph over the troll that lies in ribbons at his feet. Doc Hack laughs sadistically, cackling and crackling in Sam's ear.

The GMC Bulldog roars back to life, its engine starting and its headlights flooding the remains of Ohanzee's battered magical lodge. There's still automatic gunfire on all sides. One man has taken cover behind a snowmobile and is showering Ace with gel rounds while the other tries to stay one step ahead of Bear's intent to maim him. Katsina can't see what caused the Bulldog to start, nor does she know what kind of havoc Doc Hack is causing. She does know that B13 is still here and wounded, and the wounded are all the more fearsome and fearless for being so. She twirls with her sword to build momentum, then cuts down with an angled slash meant to cleave B13 in two. The spirit, wounded and unable to dodge effectively, screams as the blow rips him from the astral world. He dissipates, dissolving back into his home metaplane.

[rednblack]

Chino can hear Sam bellowing behind him, but he can't see the beast.  Alright, chummer.  Knock them hoops.  The troll in front of him has his grenade launcher held high from the near miss, and begins swinging it back.  Chino pauses for a fraction of a second before kicking up with his right leg, just enough time to let the troll lower his shoulders into the baseball bat-like swing, and Chino brings his foot down hard on the bridge of the troll's nose.  Above the roar of Sam and automatic gunfire Chino can't hear but can feel the bones giving way, the splitting of the jaw, the cracking of teeth, and the troll tips backward sputtering for breath, however momentary.

That's right, chummer.  Who's next? Chino thinks looking for the meta in the chameleon suit.

#

Ace tracks the smaller man as he ducks behind the snowmobile, but the man lets off a burst before Ace can zero in on his target.  He flattens himself against the snow as best he can, and a single gel round deflects harmlessly off the top of his ballistic mask.  A moment later, the Bulldog rumbles to life, and Ace rolls to his left side, and aims for the sweet spot above the driver's side wheel well.  The lancer comes to life without even a tremble in his hands, the laser cutting through the GMC neatly, and sends off a groaning sound from underneath the hood, but the engine doesn't yet quit. 

[Poindexter]

The manic, cackling astral form continues to hack and slash at the former troll with reckless glee. Between the rage, the pain, the fear, and the utter inexperience fighting on this other realm of existence, it takes only a few breaths before Sam can feel an intense pain for the first time in his life. You always knew he'd be the one, didn't you? The bloodthirsty howl of rage takes a sudden turn; becoming first a gulp and then a low groan before going quiet. He pauses. He takes a few half-hearted swipes with his claws at Hack, who dodges and flits around them with ease, finding the entire affair completely hysterical. A few more staggered steps. One more weak swipe at the air in front of him, and the colossal thorny fiend collapses face first into the snow with a soft crunch. Blood and ichor pour out of his jagged neck wound, making a steaming red puddle above him. Everything goes slowly dark, quiet, and peaceful.

[Zweiblumen]

Doc surveys the Matrix around him.  He's booted both the opposing decker and rigger off line at least temporarily.  Though it looks like the rigger is trying to get the van going again.
<<<Things are getting quieter on the Matrix front.  Both the decker and the rigger have had their primary gear bricked.  I'm going to start picking off individuals gear now.  If there's a pain point, holler.>>>

The agent has been identifying hidden icons on the field for him.  Displayed across an overlay of the field Doc sees icons pop up around various areas.  Near Ace there is a Herems Ikon with cybereyes, chameleon suit and an Ingram Smartgun slaved to it, and there was a fancy Transys Avalon that goes offline as Chino's boot crushes the meta's face.  Over by Sam Doc sees an Erika Elite with a Ares Antioch slaved to it and another high end Avalon with a gun and a lot of cyber slaved to it.  Specifically an Ares Alpha, Wired Reflexes II, Reaction Enhancers III and Cybereyes II.  That is one jacked meta.  And the Bulldog that's trying to reposition itself.
Doc packages this data up and offers it as a live feed for anyone on the team that has the cycles to process it.

"Comms first then gear.  There should be another drone around too."
His agent continues to scour the area for more hidden icons while Doc starts going after the comms.

[Malevolence]

Ruin. Chaos. The road is littered with the debris from what once was his makeshift lodge. Smoke and sparks mark the ejecta from the flashbang grenades as they smoulder. Blood and bodies lay about the blown out wreckage of the Bulldog - somehow, amazingly, roaring back to life. The astral shows the chaos of battle, bright flashes of emotion and pain, the putrid, dull yellow of fear, and the dimming heat as living beings died.


Above, a plume of smoke marks the descent of a shattered drone, but another hovers silently, marking time with the green of a flashing light. Ohanzee considers it briefly - what was it waiting for? Then a broadcast comes in from Doc indicating a provisional all clear in the Matrix. Ah - whoever was guiding it was no longer in a position to do so.


Everywhere he looks, the enemy appears to be beaten back, and his elation nearly gets the better of him, but his eyes fall on Sam, being hammered in the Astral by the spirit of Doc. The giant hadn't had nearly enough time to build astral defenses, and the fight is very one-sided, despite the relative weakness of Spirit Doc.


Ohanzee takes a moment to mark the location of the hovering drone in AR and forward it to the team, then faces the spirit from across the battlefield and with grim determination, reaches out with his mind and magic, and prepares to swat the thing from existence.


-


Bear ignores the hammering of the little creature's projectiles and swats at it again, but again he moves like molasses, mired in the slow world of the material realm, and the creature easily moves out of the way of Bear's clumsy assault. He can see that the meta is retreating toward the odd vehicle he had arrived on. Bear isn't concerned with the creature escaping, and so long as it is focused on Bear, the shaman that had summoned him remains relatively safe, and thus Bear remains on the material plane so that he can ensure that the unnatural spirits are properly dealt with.


Bear, not terribly concerned with the fleeing creature before him, looks about the battlefield to ensure that no other threats to his summoner are emerging. He is pleased to see that only two of the abominations remain, and one of them is not long for this world. The odds are good that he would remain here long enough to see this through. He smiles inwardly, and then his summoner's intent to re-engage the enemy is transmitted across the astral link that binds him to his summoner - and this realm - and he nearly roars in frustration. No! You risk unconsciousness, and severing the bond! Why can you not simply take cover and leave the fighting to me?

[Tecumseh]

There is a pop of hellfire and sulfur in Sam's nostrils, then he goes down. Doc Hack floats above him exultantly, shivering with glee. Perhaps the spirit is revenging itself for some wrong from Sam's previous life. Maybe Rozkhi was a bully, or perhaps Hack is simply celebrating the triumph of mind over might. Or maybe Hack is a psychopath who revels in murder and the pain of others. Either way, Hack's astral form shakes with titillation as the mighty Sam topples into the icy grip of the snow below.


Katsina is momentarily startled that the Bulldog engine roars to life beneath her feet. She's still standing on the hood, surprised that the van would start after Sam's grenade shattered the front dashboard and console. The airbags almost certainly don't work, she finds herself thinking.

Ace's laser flashes again, slicing through the exterior of the Bulldog as if it were made of pudding. The beam cuts into the engine block, causing the Bulldog to choke and sputter but not silencing it.

Woah, better not be standing here if that beam trims a fuel line, Katsina thinks. A frag grenade is one thing, but if this whole thing goes off with me standing on it then it might be more than all the king's horses and all the king's men can put back together again.

Doc provides AROs to the devices he's detected, and Ohanzee does the same for the drone floating high above, far out of Katsina's reach.

Where did that demonic little imp fly off to, she wonders, turning her head to the left. There she catches the emotional rapture of Doc Hack while simultaneously noting that Sam has pitched forward. She takes a step forward, trying to see if Sam is moving. The step takes her to the edge of the Bulldog's hood.

"Telegit thelemsa-ya!" she shouts as she leaps off the edge of the van, using gravity to swing her giant sword down the ground with thundering force. Physically, there's no reason to do so, but on the astral the concentration of will focused by the sword rockets across the astral plane until it rips up Hack's back like a bag of Anchovy & Olive Salt Lick chips. The spirit shrieks in pain and rage as it threatens to take Sam to the next world with it.

[Zweiblumen]

Doc feels better now that the team is able to see more of the field and it looks like the Bulldog will be out of commission shortly.  He looks around the battlefield from the matrix comparing what he sees with the feeds coming in. Moving at the speed of thought launches an attack on the combat drone that happens to be drifting somewhat unattended.  Not wanting to take any time, he goes for it all in one action.  Simply throwing his scalpel at the drone, it sinks in past the firewall on the drone and three caducei glow bright on the icon.  Now the drone is his.
<<<@Team [Doc] Got the drone!>>>

His agent, lacking any more instructions, continues to search the field for more hidden icons.   The overlay shows another Transys Commlink in the Bulldog with a Steyr machine pistol and a area jammer slaved to it.