Reaping

Farming Terrace 


 * The rock of the mesa drops below the level of the rest of Four Corners for this broad expanse of irrigated rows that serves as the city's farming terrace. Water is transported to the crops via stone channels leading from New Mummy Lake down to the terrace. Besides supplying the community with food and a means of commerce, the terrace offers a breathtaking view of Honaghaaghni Canyon.

The light orbs - giant fireflies drifting adjacent to the massive mechanical beasts of burden - glow ebulliently as the automated reaper resumes its course in the fields. The Qua farmer puts his hands on his hips, watching. The technician, on the other hand, is far more interested in checking the PDA monitor as the reapers continue. And then the light orbs go dark. The technician frowns. He shakes the PDA first, thinking that it's the problem. But the farmer notices something else: The sound of the harvesters changes as they alter course. They go into simultaneous turns that bring them about and angle them toward the two Qua men in the middle of the terrace field.

Walker wanders in down the lane, blending into the crowds that filter in.

Hidden Jaguar looks abut at the various people, before his attention moves toward the men facing the seemingly malfunctioning harvesters.

A bunch of marines jog through the area, possibly on their way to somewhere else, there's a few uniforms amongst them, one in particular bringing up the rear as all good General's should. As the harvesters change direction, probably by co-incidence, the tall bearded officer, yells, "Halt!"

Dave stops jogging/double-time marching at the command to halt, almost falling forward into the man in front of him as the command comes. sarine laughter (9:23:21 PM): Alandra wanders onto the field and looks about for her people.

Ruin loses some of that rather simplistic delight as things go strange. "That's not right," he says, reaching reflexively for his techscanner. "It's not meddling if I just *looK*, right?" he asks Leodhais, more for less for hopeful confirmation. "Just monitor?"

Martin stands still at the halt order. He is taking deep breaths.

Leodhais looks at Ruin, keeping a grip on his free hand. "No going in after it, but you can scan from here," he agrees.

Volidana blinks as the orbs go dark, brightening her own green aura aas if by instinct but she continues her conversation with he captain otherwise "I imagine your views are a bit different than mine" she says

Lightstreak sees the two reapers change direction and head for the two Qua in the middle of the field. He's not sure if they noticed, so he shouts out to them, "WATCH OUT!"

"Sir," Lucius queries as they stop their run, tapping the butt of his rifle. "Wasn't the Qua Colonel supposed to meet us out here to give us a tour of Four Corners? Said he was gonna start with good open areas for wargames... said this would be one." If there are any telepaths within two metres of Lucius, they will feel that he has a psi blocker on.

Aleksei also frowns and blinks as the orbs go dark. "Well, guess I have another chance to get some nightvision again, such as it is. He hears the harvesters changing their sound and his frown increases. He squints out at the field with a worried look. "Don't like the sound those machines are making, not one little bit." He looks a little more annd..he just about makes out the pair of Qua in the fields. He says out loud. "Ah, *hoop!*"

Martin stands still with the rest of his formation. His hand keeps twitching as if to reach into his pocket as he watches the reapers.

Marlan'Kamir frowns from where she stands, "Hoop it." she turns to look for someone as she says, "Newt, Dana, get ready to get the hoop out of here, da."

The technician only has time to look up in stunned amazement as he's hit by the threshing blades of the big machine he just tweaked. The farmer sees the other man rent into so much splattered blood and shredded flesh and fabric. He doesn't need Lightstreak's warning, but he follows it anyway. He bolts right, toward the canyon rim. The bloodied harvester and another churn onward, toward the crowd of onlookers - about a hundred feet away. The other four harvesters turn in unison to pursue the farmer. He's got a good twenty yard head start, but he's an older man and he's got a limp in his right leg.

Walker makes his way on in, and finds a good vantage point to watch from, plopping down gently on a nearby rock. Whether it's the display or the audience he's more interested in is uncertain as his head seems to scan across both just as frequently.

Dave doesn't twitch as the harvesters turn, but remains steadfast at his position of attention within the formation.

Ryan's eyes narrow at the yelling, not entirely sure what's going on, or why there's a crowd here, "FORM UP!" As the lunite takes in the situation, he pulls out his pistol and yells, "HOSTILES, 40 degrees, FIRE!"

Jantine walks in, holding Lan's hand. He waves at Ruin, moving over towards the man, leading Lan "We have some new crew you might want to meet." he says with a bit of a smile, gesturing towards Lightstreak and Hidden Jaguar. He blinks at the display of gore from the harvesters, moving into a bit of a defensive position by Lan.

Ace looks over from where she stands chatting with a pair of young Qua men, frowning as the lights go out and taking a few steps in that direction. "Hoop," she swears softly as one man gets torn to shreds, looking at the one chasing the old man in the field.

Martin jerks around a bit pulling his gun out. He gets into position with the rest of the NLM.

With no one telling him he can't, Ruin's techscanner comes out and gets turned on and put to use. "Why is it *doing* that?" he can be heard to wonder. "What's telling it to -"

Hidden Jaguar watches with horror as the harvester consumes one of them. His gaze shifts about quickly, taking in the situation. He strafes to the right, eyes on the running man headed toward the canyon. It is apparent that he is considering his odds of saving both himself, and the old Qua.

"What do we have here?" Walker muses to himself scratching the stubble on his chin. His attention remains on the harvesters and the farmer plowed under. "That's gotta fuckin' hurt," he says quietly.

"Well, guess we're not waiting for the Colonel. Donatus, get back to the ship and get them to prep it." Lucius says, unslinging his battle rifle from his shoulder. Donatus takes off running towards the ship, leaving Lucius the only real marine here. He slows his breathing and rests the butt of the weapon on his shoulder, looking down the reflex sight. Click click. Adjusted and zoomed. He takes aim at the tractor's engine block. Three loud RIPs follow as an equal number of 6.5mm bullets fly towards the oncoming vehicle.

Alandra follows Jan until she sees the thresher heading toward the crowd, "Move!" she shouts to Jan, Ruin, and anybody else near her.

At the order to fire, David drops to a knee and rapidly lets of two burst of energy at the nearest harvester.

Marlan'Kamir remains standing where she is amidst the crowds but her expression is now urgent, her gaze fixed on Ace.

Leodhais watches the threshers, his expression going icy. He keeps one hand firmly on Ruin's arm, and starts pulling him away from the oncoming machines with considerable force. "Don't need to get an up close and personal look," he says in a calm voice, nodding to Alandra.

Aleksei briefly winces at the tech gets 'harvested', then looks on and says to Ruin: "Never mind that, we've got bigger troubles!" He gestures towards the oncoming harvesters. Then he slowly backs up as the Militiamen start to shoot at the machines heading their way.

Volidana freezes momentarily as she realizes the grisly turn the scene has suddenly has taken a small flash of purple glisteninpurple slitting the night "perhaps,they can have a darkness all there own"

Martin stands and takes aim, he trys to steady his breath as he fire his first shot.

Hidden Jaguar decides to make a run, attemtping to circle around the action and get to the old farmer before a harvester does.

"Oh shit!," Walker says with widening eyes as he quickly rises to his feet and begins making his way toward the path from which he came. It's not quite a run, but it's hardly a walk either. He does his best to not get sucked into the crowd.

"Get back to the ship." Marlan'Kamir says urgently, "I'll meet you there." she glances back at the harvesters then to Ace once more. The shooting and other individuals in the area ignored at least for the moment. for action

Lightstreak walks a good distance away from the crowd, and watches the ensuing action from his vantage point.

Jeff Ryan takes careful aim as his prototype pistol lets off those three shots.

Hidden Jaguar can't seem to close the gap between himself and the farmer without keeping clear of the harvesters. He maintains a steady distance, considering his options.

The shots fired by Dave, Lucius, and Jeff manage to connect with enough damaging force that the two rampaging reapers coming toward the crowd are rendered defunct. That rendering doesn't do anything about stopping their forward momentum, however, as they catch on their threshing cylinders and flip end over end toward the group. Hidden Jaguar makes a run for the old man, but doesn't make it in time. It looks like the old man is about to be chewed up or have to leap to his death in the canyon. Then Ace manages a trick of telekinesis to disable one of the four harvesters chasing the Qua, sends it rolling left so that it clangs into a neighboring harvester. This leads to a domino effect that knocks the other harvesters off their fatal trajectory with the old man, who dives to ground and covers his head in futility, waiting for death. It doesn't come. Instead, the reapers go tumbling over the edge and plummet into the shadows of the canyon.

"SCATTER!" Yells Lucius as the reapers continue to slide towards them, even after them being shot. Probably having to do with the paltry weight of his bullets combined with the non-existant weight of the energy bolts versus the massive weight of big vehicles. Unconciously, almost, he flicks his safety on and then raises his hand, attempting to get out of the way as swiftly as possible as well as signal others to follow.

Hidden Jaguar comes to a halt as the pursuing machines tumble into the canyon. Seeing the old farmer is safe now, he turns back to the crowd, only to see more of the mechanical terrors rolling into the thick of everyone there. He falls to his knees, praying for the best outcome.

Leodhais decides that while pointy bits really, really hurt and there's a lot of pain involved, it's more important that he be able to move people along and out of the way and not here where there're threshers - the actual ow can come in later.

Ace turns to run, grabbing the nearest stumbling person and trying to push them out of the way as she can, lunging forward to get out of reach of the crashing vehicles.

The Brigadier General's order is heeded by several in the group, but it's soon followed by a less professional, "RUN!" The lunite is the first to follow his own order, doing his best to get out of the way of the flipping harvesters, quick footwork, sees the militia's CO out of the way of the spinning metalic monsters.

Dave gets up from his knee and backpedals, stepping back in the brink of time to avoid going through the grinder and as it rolls over his former position.

Walker unfortunately, despite his efforts, gets sucked into the crowd and in able to move any quicker. A moment later, he's under the thresher, staring blearily at the ground in front of him. "Ooof," he grunts as he hits.

Martin is not as quick as Dave. He cries out in pain as a blade digs into his shoulder and pins him down. Prayers to all the gods on Olympus ring out in Latin as he lays there bleeding.

The sound of a reaper's threshing mechanisms tearing into flesh isn't a particularly pleasant one. Lucius almost manages to get away in time, buit his legs, the back of them, are caught under the machine and ripped up. He doesnt' lose a limb, no, he doesn't get completely mangled but it's not pleasant and by the amount of blood he's just lost he's not going anywhere. His scream is loud and piercing.

Ruin - absorbed as he was in trying to figure out what had made the harvesters go crazy in the first place - is rather slow to get out of the way. The instinctive grab for his scanner probably didn't help either...or, for that matter, the long frock coat. Gouged in the side by the blades, he tries to get hold of Leodhais...whether to pull him clear or be pulled clear by him being anyone's guess.

Iallanni dives to try and get out of the wave of the threshers. The Timmy a bit disoriented by the sway of the crowds and screaming. Her hands clutching to the bag tighter to her chest, turning to run....she trips. One blade slicing not only into the woman's leg but seeming to take the foot with it. She screams out, digging her nails into the ground to try and bite back the pain and clutch at her discarded bag.

Alandra tries to duck for cover, pulling Jan with her as she does, She cries out in pain as she is struck by pointy bits coming off the threshers, "Hurry," she calls out trying still trying to get as far away as she can.

Aleksei stops backing up to notice Ace staring intently at the harvesters and he sees them crash into each other. "Oh great, don't tell me you are Kamiroid too. Isn't it enough we got..OWCH!" Al winces as the fliping harvester grazes him in passing. "Ah hoo..nyet..FUCK!", the Kommissar yelps as he hits the ground. "Ooooh good, picked a *great* time to go on vacation on this planet. *Twice* I have bad luck, yes?" He pants and winces in some pain.

Jan isn't pulled fast enough, a thresher slicing for his leg. He twists enough out of the way so that only his foot is caught, severing it from his body. He cries out in pain loudly as he goes down, reaching for Lan.

Volidana screams in pain as a blade tears through her left arm and just by sheer luck manages to roll out of the way so that the rest of her doesn't go too. She lays on the ground still and unmoving blood gushing from what used to be an elbow

"This trip was a bad idea! Medic!" Dave hollers as he runs to where Martin is pinned down at, sticking his pistol into its holster and grabbing the blade (at a dull point) and attempts to shift it up, out of Martin's body.

Standing admist the tattered limbs, pools of blood and screaming bodies is Marlan'Kamir, completely and totally unharmed. "Dana!" she yells before lifting her gaze, "Hoop it!" she focuses on Aleksei, "Call Emergency teams. NOW!" and with that she turns back to look at Dana and suddenly dissapears.

Lightstreak knew he should've started to run when he had the chance. Now, with the reaper bearing down on him quite quickly, he trips on a rock and falls to the ground in it's path as he attempts to move out of the way. Luckily, due to his quick reaction, he gets up just in time, and dives to the side, out of the path of the reaper. Unfortunately, his tail gets caught in the reaper's thrashing blades, and is completely severed from his body. He growls loudly and rolls to the side, clutching the stump where his tail used to be with one of his paws.

Martin mutters a few more words in Latin as he begins to pass out from blood loss.

Walker continues just staring at the ground, his face confused as he clutches at a near by stone. He tries to move, but the hulk of the harvester he's pinned by refuses to release him.

Hidden Jaguar stumbles to his feet, moving to the crowd as fast as his exhausted muscles will allow. "If I get there in time", he thinks. "I may be able to save at least one of them."

As the machines harvest their humanoid catch Ryan running clear looks back at the carnage, "MEDIC!" Even that scarcely human mechanic voice of his seems to scream out urgency. Without waiting he runs back to his men to do what he can.

Two wrecked, overturned automated harvesters lie as battered hulks amidst the bloody carnage left by their destruction by the armed soldiers. The old Qua over near the canyon rim peers over the edge to stare in disbelief after the fallen reapers that miraculously went off course and missed him. He then hears the shouts coming from the crowd on the terrace and pushes himself back up to his feet. "Mother of Sky..." his voice trails off and he starts running, despite the limp, to see if there is any care he can provide.

Ace rolls back to her feet, reversing direction as soon as the machines have stopped moving. She takes a moment to scan the bloodied mess, assessing and calculating before heading towards Iallani first as she pulls off the belt of her longcoat. "Lie still..." she says, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder, "Am going to have to tie this off so you do not bleed out..."

Within a few moments of getting his legs essentially chewed up, Lucius beings to pull himself away from the bloodied spot with his arms, using his rifle as leverage as well. He grits his teeth and is breathing heavily but for now, outward signs of pain have mostly stopped, at least for now. "Minerva medica," he says, pulling some blood into his hand. His further words are quiet and in Martian Latin, therefore inaudible. "What does it take to get killed around here?" He grunts after.


 * Arriving late to the what now is quite the conlict apparent is Marcus, eyes on the carnage as he drops down into what is a rather gruesome scene. As he's approaching, he catches sight of Dave and Martin, pulling back the pin on his assault rifle and delving into the chaos. As he ran toward the conflict, he called over the radio. "Marines, I need as many hands as possible to deal with the wounded." He tends to avoid the living farming equipment where he can.

Hidden Jaguar draws close to the crowd of bodies and machines, observing the horrid display of mauled grotesqueries. He continues on into the center of it, in an attempt to lend a hand.

Martin stare at the disbelief blade and mutters one last thing in Latin before passing out.

Lightstreak groans, still lying on the floor, clutching his tail-stump. "I knew there was gonna be trouble when I saw those NLM troopers..." He reaches into one of his numerous pockets and pulls out one of the rags he uses to clean his tools, then ties it tightly around the stump to try and slow the bleeding.

Volidana wasn't doing much of anything anyway but her startled eyes draw closed

Alandra looks about wincing in pain she looks back to Jan, she immediately goes into doctor mode, "Jan?" she says leaning over him to check him out.

Walker continues clutching the rock, his head seeming unsteady as he manages to blurt out, "Medic!" It's all that comes from him though as his head continues to unsteadily rock back and forth then plop in the dirt. His grip on the rock releasing.

It takes another little while for Lucius to lose conciousness. What does he do in his moment of endorphins? He pulls out a smoke, of course, pushing it between his lips. "Light...?" Asks Lucius to no one in particular, his eyes already droopy. Blood is starting to pool under. Soon enough he's on the verge of passing out. "C'mon... get me some morphine..." That's that and his eyes close.

Iallanni 's opalescent eyes roll back, perhaps the only time the woman's eyes flash another color than the deep green. Not seeming to hear Ace's words as she slumps to the ground.

"Crap, the coffee guy is dying!" Dave yells as he pulls on the blade pinning Martin, but to no avail, as he doesn't seem able to lift it.

Leodhais is the one doing the pulling as far as things go between Ruin and himself, pulling him free, and realizing he just got a lot heavier. He grinds his teeth as he gets him out, making sure he's breathing. Good, breathing is good. He stands up, and starts to pull the unconscious Ruin up with him. Yes. Tending to the injured, he is.

Aleksei nods at Marlan, despite the pain he is in. "Will..try." The Kommissar turns on the commlink, tuning to the Qua Medican channel. "This..is..Aleksei Strumenko out at farming terrace. There's a horrible accident here..people killed..badly injured..send help now..RIGHT NOW!", Al shouts into the commlink, clicks off, then tells Marlan: "Alright? Told them..up to..doktors now I guess..da?!" Al lies back down with a wince.

Ryan first heads towards what's probably the closest thing he has to a friend in the militia, pulling off his jacket and ripping off that shirt, tearing it into strips, the lunite looks over the fallen martian, "Hold on buddy." The blood is everywhere, but the source is the most obvious. Jeff does his best to put the martian into the recovery position before doing what he can with those strips of shirt to stop the severe bleeding whilst roaring, "MEDIC!"

Jantine clutches at Lan, wrapping his arms around her as he grits his teeth. He loses conciousness as blood keeps coming out of the stump that had been his left foot.


 * "You all are babies," says Marcus over the commlink as he arrives at Lucius, kneeling down over the fallen Martian. "Marines, I need every hand down here to control bleeding. I'll tell you how to do it, do it NOW!" Kneeling down, he opens his bags and looks up at Jeff. "I need you to open his airway, I'm dropping a tube and lines in him, before his shock can progress." He's tossing things on the ground, opening up dressings and, more importantly, splitting open extra saline bags and dousing the dressings with them.

With the same suddeness that she dissapeared Marlan'Kamir now reappears. She is standing next to Volidana as she yells out, "I need an uninjured hand over here!" she says, yelling into the choas as her eyes scan the crowd for such an individual.

"Jaguar!" Lan calls out, "Go back to the ship! Get my medical bag!" she calls out. "It's on the bunk."

Hidden Jaguar looks around to find Jantine and Alandra, the former of which losing consciousness as he arrives. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked Aladra, his hand going toward the nylon cord about his waist.

Ace doesn't hesitate, though she does stumble a bit, still weary from the hours of first aid from the night before. Grabbing Iallanni's fallen bag, she heads towards where Dave was yelling, "Will lift, you pull, da? Go go go," she drops the bag as she skids to a stop, reaching down to grab a strut and haul for all she was worth.

Hidden Jaguar removes the cord from around him waist, handing it to Alandra. "Right away!" he exclaims, attempting to wade through the crowd of injured people.

Dave nods at Ace and grabs Martin around the shoulders, pulling him out from under the sharp prong, a long trail of blood staining the ground where the martian once was.

Once they're well out of the way of the wreckage, Leodh wisely settles down, cradling Ruin's head in his lap and waits patiently for the medics to arrive. Once they do, he nods with Sivadian politeness and murmurs softly to one of them, gesturing to Ruin, and grudgingly allows one to start looking over him as well for treatment.

Alandra takes the cord and ties it tightly around Jan's leg to stop the bleeding. "Hang in there," she says softly. She looks over to where Ruin and Leodh are, "You guys alright?"

Jeff Ryan having done his best, the now shirtless General nods up at Marcus, "Just fix him." The airway is already open, Ryan knowing his basic first-aid, he just tilts the head back a little further.

Hidden Jaguar returns in moments, sweat dripping down his face. In his hand is the medical bag requested, which he moves toward Alandra to hand it over. "Anything else?"


 * "Good. I can handle it from here. What the hell did you guys do?" he asks, removing a laryngoscope and an intubation tube from his kit, and uses the advantage of the open airway to drop the tube into the trachea. "He's going to need surgery - I'm going to have to do skin grafts on his ass, to be frank, but he'll live. I need you to stop the idiots from tourniquetting everybody in sight - they won't be able to save those limbs. And you know what? For the record, take some of the sterile bags and start packing severed limbs for me." As he was talking, he was hitting Lucius with a saline IV, and a OSynth synthetic blood IV.

Marlan'Kamir looks to Ace, ~Ace Hoop it. I need a hand here!~ Marlan says urgently in Mierznykovy. It seems as if the voice is coming from inside your own skull.

Athena's junior medic chandler Harris rushes to his captains aid, lump catching in his throat as he looks over Dana's body and retrieves supplies to tend the wound

"Crud, where are those marines?" Dave says scanning the field. He looks up at Ace and says "Bah, don't worry, I'll go find one of our medics for Marvin Martian here."

Lucius doesn't do very much, given that he is quite unconcious. The cigarette lays next to him, stained a dark red from the blood lost. He is limp.

Ace looks to Dave, "Put your hand on the wound and apply pressure," she says, grabbing a bag as she heads towards Dana. "She needs a tourniquet now," she tells the medic, tearing through the bag looking for one.

Several NLM Marines start to show up on scene with stretchers. At first there are two stretchers, but the number soon multiplies to four, then six. Only one of them appears to be a medic, but they are all moving off to wounded people. One of them does indeed begin collecting limbs.. well, whatever's left of limbs. Many of them are shredded to pieces.

Alandra nods to Jag, "Stay with him, I have to check the others," she says before heading toward Ruin.

Martin continue to lay limp. Thoughts of Pluto and Bacchus dance in his head.

Dave does as Ace said, putting pressure on Martins wound as blood oozes up through his fingers. He is grimacing and turning a sickly shade of green as a pair of stretcher-toting marines come up.

Jeff nods at Marcus, taking the bags from the Marcus's pack, "Right people, let the professionals do their job." He grabs a couple from the crowd, "Pack 'em and bag 'em next to the owners!"

Hidden Jaguar nods to Alandra, sitting down and propping Jantine's injured leg upon his knee, keeping it above the unconscious man's head level.

The old Qua farmer moves among the wreckage, eyes wide in stunned shock as he weaves through the tableau of badly wounded people and their caregivers. "Any dead?" he asks, his rasping voice hardly above a whisper.

Jantine is still unconcious, blood flow stopped for now. He obviously can't resist any care being given, or his leg beign lifted, just laying there.

Marlan'Kamir is squatting next to Volidana, "We've got facilities on the Athena. She needs a tourniquet and transfusion. There's no saving that arm." she tell Ace and the medic.


 * "I told you I'd need to fix your ass for the Qua men," says Marcus with a smile as he finishes cutting of Lucius's pants, applying the saline-drenched dressing to it, securing it circumferentially with a large dressing. "Marines, I have a patient over here who needs a stretcher to the sickbay. He's prepped for operation, just keep the saline bags on his chest," says Marcus, standing up and peering around the field. People tourniquetting everywhere. His brow raised in frustration, as marines hauled Lucius off, and he himself headed to Martin next.

"Here, you save coffee man." Dave says to Marcus as he stands. "I'm going to run back to the ship and see if I can't get half the equipment in the sickbay up and running." With that, Dave runs off.

Ace swears softly under her breath, shifting into an all too familiar pattern of late, helping those she can. "Need blankets," she calls over to the old man, "Stretchers and men to carry them." She checks to make sure the Athena's medic has Dana in hand, glancing up at Marlan, "You are certain?"

Having recieved his plasma, saline and a few minutes, Lucius wakes up. Just barely at first his eyes open as he's loaded onto the stretcher, but the lack of any sort of pain killer makes him grit his teeth and shoots him up more fully. "Ugh. Get me a smoke. Get me a fucking smoke. Get the Private help." His hand grasps for a smoke but he doesn't reach it, just as the other marines take his helmet and rifle away.

Ruin is out of the way, relatively whole compared to some, but quite unconscious from a clean slice into his left side. Leodhais, in hardly better condition, seems determined to be the guard.

Lightstreak attempts to stand up after a while, but when he stands, he almost immediately falls back to the ground, not yet used to the difference in balance that not having a tail creates. He growls low, and guttural, then turns his head to view the carnage left behind by the now defunct reapers.

Aleksei winces and loudly tells Kapitan Marlan "Easy there, Kapitan. I think all of this planet heard you there. She'll come soon enough..da?" Al winces and in a lower voice sez: "Meantime, I..hope that they get to me soon, yes..it's..starting..to *hooping* hurt here!" He briefly says to the elderly Qua in a dry tone. "No, just that tech who got..'harvested', from what I saw."

Hidden Jaguar works to remove his flak jacket. It's not much but better than nothing. He places it on Jantine's limp body in an attempt to keep him warm. Afterward, his right hand moves to grasp the strange ankh-like pendant on his bare chest, lowering his head in silent prayers for all the injured.


 * "Your narcotics will kick in soon, Lucius," said Marcus in passing before he left Lucius's side. Arriving to Martin, he knelt down, instantly sticking a gloved hand over the thresher and pressing down firmly. And then, he digs his knuckles into the unconscious Martin's chest. "Private, wake up. I need you alive and helping me for this."

Marlan'Kamir meets Ace's eyes for a moment in silent reply before focusing her attention back on Dana and the medic. The medic gets busy putting in a saline IV and unfurling a thermal blanket over Volidana's pale form, "I need a couple of hands over here." she says to the crowd of Qua marines working their way through th crowd.

As Jeff steps away from Lucius and starts handing out the filched medical supplies he spots Ruin, Ryan strides over, the concerned lunite already white pales, he approaches Leodhais, and kneels beside Ruin, taking a minute he glances up at Leodhais, "I.." He can't quite find the words, "I'm sorry we couldn't..."

Alandra goes to Ruin's side and gives Leodh a reasuring look. Opening her bag she pulls out what she needs and begins bandaging the deep cut in his side, "this will require stitches," she says looking it over. "Jag, get somebody to help, we need to get these two to the Iuppiter." she says.

Martin eyes shoot open at Marcus' action. He cries out in pain. "Sweet Jupiter on high!!!!" He yells.

One of the marines, Private First Class Donatus who had been sent away before, happens to be the one carrying Lucius's stretcher. He pulls out a smoke from the man's jacket and lights it for him, causing a look of relief to form on the Hesperian's face. The other marines with stretchers begin to load wounded on as is fit. Ruin, Iallanni, Jantine are loaded. Lightstreak is offered one. Lucius weakly turns his head to Marlan'kamir as she shouts her orders. "Why don't you get off your fat ass and do something... Captain?" He winces as Martin yells.


 * "Oh, shut up. You're fine, Private," replies Marcus. "You'll have narcotics shortly. I need you to squeeze my fingers." He places his fingers in Martin's gloved hand. Whether or not Martin squeezes, the hand soon comes away, and starts setting various intravenous equipment, a saline bag, and an OSynth bag on his chest. "You're turning blue in the arm, Martin. I'm going to have to reattach the artery pretty quick here. But that's why you all hired me." He sets a pony bottle next to Martin's head. "I need your good hand to hold this mask to your face - it's Oxygen, okay?"

Hidden Jaguar lifts his head, loking toward Alandra's voice. "Alright" he states, setting Jantine's injured leg across the remaining one, attemtping to keep it elevated to some degree. He rocks to his feet, standing slowly and looking around for anyone who isn't swamped in the aiding of the other injured.

Despite Lucius' words two Marines approach Volidana and with the medics help lift the stretcher on which the vollistan lies. Marlan'Kamir makes no attempt to grab the stretcher. Instead she runs quickly beside it as they move away from the area and towards the spaceport.

"Need a hand here!" Ace calls out as she heads for Walker, moving to again shift another piece of wreckage, "Need someone to pull him out!"

Alandra goes to Lightstreak now, checking him over, "Let me see," she says softly.

Hidden Jaguar looks to Ace's voice, realizing that his help may be greater needed there. He nods to himself and darts in her direction.

Lucius snorts at Marlan's ignorance of him, and probably because he's also wounded he makes an angry face. These two things combined with the fact that he's smoking like a chimney almost makes him look like a little choo-choo train tugging on out of the area. His face fades quickly, though, as the narcotics settle in. Bliss!

Lightstreak shakes his head to the marine, refusing the stretcher. "I'll walk," He says, then slowly - really slowly - rises to his feet, feeling out the balance. He takes a step forward, then another step, then another. After a few dozen careful steps, he seems to get the hang of walking without a tail. Although, he suspects it'll be quite a while before he becomes used to it. "My tail. I should be fine, though, I think," He says to Alandra, then turns his head to survey the area around the reaper, looking for his severed tail.

Martin shakingly does as he it told. He winces as he brings the mask to his face. He begins to pray again in Latin, his voice now distorted by the mask.

The two Walker brothers respond to Ace's call, though one sports a bloodied head and face himself. Tom moves to the other side of her to help lift while Robert braces to slide Walker out from beneath the mangled mass of metal.

The shirtless General stands up from beside Ruin and his eye glance over the rest of the carnage, expression only reflecting pain and concern, his brow furrows though and he yells, "ENGINEERING! I WANT A SCAN FOR NANITES! NOW!!"


 * "If you're praying, Private, it better be to me, because I'm your savior tonight," replies Marcus to Martin. With one hand, he sets a sterile dressing on Martin's chest, and cuts the saline bag beneath it, wetting the dressing. He applies it to the gaping hole in Martin's shoulder, releasing both hands to let him bleed for just a moment. Then, the TacMed retrieves a cinching bandage from his kit, wraps it around the shoulder, and cinches it until there's pressure. Then he sticks a blood line in Martin's left arm and a saline line in his right, injecting a codeine-derivative into that second bag. "Things are going to feel real nice real soon, Martin. I'm going to be getting you onto a spine board as a precaution. We're going to be immobilzing your head, don't panic, just hold that mask to your face, okay?"

Hidden Jaguar almost crashes into the side of the wreckage near Ace, placing hands upon the least dangerous places he could find. He bends his knees and back, trying to gain leverage. "When you're ready."

Ace nods to Hidden Jaguar, "Ready...lift!" her muscles tighten as she lifts, letting the Qua pull Walker out.

Martin gives a slight nod to Marcus and continues to mutter prayers.

"You know.. I'm seriously considering getting a dog. A bit rottweiller." Lucius says idly as he's carted away towards the ship, contentedly smoking his cigarette. "I'm nummmmmmb."

Hidden Jaguar follows the command, pressing with all he has left. His brow lowers, teeth clenched, as muscles ripple and heave upward.


 * Marcus calmly immobilizes Martin, has several marines help carry him to one of the waiting gurneys, and stands up, removing his gloves and dropping them on the ground. Eyes move around across the carnage, scanning for places to help.

The Qua manages to slide Walker out just as several medics appear on the scene to lift him up onto a stretcher and carry him off to one of the ships.

The unconcious Jan is put on a stretcher and lifted up, being moved away back towards the pad.

Medical Services 


 * The medical facility is a sharp contrast from the rest of the rugged starship. Here the lighting is bright, spilling softly from recessed coves coffering the ceiling. The wall panels are white and grey composite ceramics, hermetically sealing this bay from the remainder of the ship. The port wall is taken up by a long workstation, providing both computer access to the medical backbone and basic laboratory services. Cabinets above and below house the larger pieces of medical equipment as well as expanded first aid and trauma supplies. Against the starboard wall are five fully equipped medical treatment beds, each fitted with full diagnostic sensors and life support devices. Curtains on a ceiling track provide a modicum of privacy. One bed station has been heavily supplemented, serving as an emergency surgery suite.

Jantine is laying on one of the medical berths, still unconcious, foot still sliced off. He's even been set up with an IV by the people who brought him in.

Ruin is also laid out on a berth...as is Walker, nicely secured in place...and Leodhais.

Alandra limps into the medbay and collapses into a chair. She winces in pain as she reaches into her bag and pulls out the equipment she will need. "Dear gods, what a mess," she mutters.

Jantine is still, yup, unconcious. Fortunately the bleeding is cut off.

Ruin, Jan, and Leodh are in medical beds, Lan is sitting in a chair going through her bag and pulling out medical equipment she will need.

Hidden Jaguar drags himself in, looking for a place to rest, or at least to be helpful from.

Lightstreak walks into the medical bay, one hand holding his tail-stump, which is tied off by a rag, and the other is holding an iced bag which carries his severed tail. He looks around, from bed to bed, and sighs.

Alandra looks up as the two come in. "This has to be one of the worst scenes I've seen," she says softly.

Lightstreak nods his head. "Don't think anyone expected to get minced by a reaper today," He says, as he takes up a position leaning against a wall. He puts the bag containing his tail on a table.

Hidden Jaguar nods in agreement. "It was certainly a wonderful homecoming", the sarcasm meant to lighten the mood, though his grim expression dampened the flavor.

Alandra is sitting in a chair, all the beds are filled and Jaguar and Lightstreak are nearby. Lan is looking a bit worn as she goes through her medical bag.


 * Into the medical bay strides a man in combat clothing - carrying three boxes of gear set about his waist. He looks around the medical bay, finding the nearest table to set the boxes down upon, opening them up. Now, it was time for greetings. "I figured I'd come and see how this circus was running, now that I have my clowns all lined up in a row, or bags, respectively."

Alandra gives a weak smile. "If you can help me," she says indicating the many cuts she has, "I can help the rest."

Hidden Jaguar watches wearily as the seemingly military man strides in with supplies. His head is drooped, eyes half open.

Lightstreak is propped up against a wall. Beside him, on a table, is a bag of ice containing his severed tail. He looks up when the combat clothed man enters the room.

Jantine is laying on a medical berth, unconcious, his left foot gone from his body. The bleeding has been mostly stopped by being tied off however, and his left foot has been propperly packaged and is nearby him.


 * "Well, doctor, I can't have you sitting there if I'm going to adequately patch you up, hm? Hop on a gurney, you're getting rather pale, so I'd rather start definitive care now before you pass out," replies Marcus, pulling gloves over his hands and setting a mask into a front pouch of his gloves. He removes a bag of OSynth from his box, and then a saline bag. His eyes head over to the absolutely horrific medical scene about him.


 * Walking over to the tourniquet on Jantine's leg while Alandra's getting on the bed, he removes it, and replaces it with a wet dressing and bandage on the nub real quick. Back to getting saline and other things.

Alandra moves to the indicated gurney, wincing, moving slowly. She climbs onto the gurney working hard to stay concious.

Hidden Jaguar slides slowly to the floor, knees bent in front of him, which he rests one of his arms across, the other hanging limply beside him. "If you need anything..." he starts, but doesn't finish. His head droops and he's alseep, the strenuous episode finally taking full effect.

Lightstreak watches as the doctor gets to work.


 * "Calm down, you big babies, your doctor will be out of commission for a while, I'll glue feet back on and tails back on and you'll all be plaguing my galaxy here again," replies Marcus, looking over to the packed tail. "Well, maybe not tails." Pulling his mask over his face, he picks up the saline and OSynth bags, hooking them above Alandra's gurney. "You know the drill," he says, digging into her veins and releasing the saline and blood into her, and hooking her up to a digital sphygmomanometer to monitor her blood pressure. "I'll let that take effect and let you bleed for a few minutes, and get your blood pressure up, while I look at what the hell everyone did to themselves, okay?"

Alandra nods. "I believe they should be stable," she says. "Jan lost a foot, but I was able to give him what he needed to stablize, and Ruin needs Stitches," she says trying to indicate the tall Lunite.

Lightstreak looks down to his packed tail and shrugs his shoulders when the doc makes the comment regarding it.

Ruin is quite still...well, mostly. For someone who isn't actually moving, nor conscious, he seems to be having trouble breathing. It's certainly not the slow steady sound of someone way off in la-la land.


 * Those breaths immediately catch Marcus's ear, who turns a head despite the cacophony of an active medical room. He gets his stethoscope up to his ears, and goes in, and starts listening. "Shit," he whispers under his breath, a finger pressing along the jugular vein on the right side of his neck. "Double shit. Medic, I need to perform a thoracocentesis, -now-, get me my needle and intubate this patient, the doctor can wait," he calls out. When the marine medic arrives with the needle, Marcus gets to cutting the shirt off Ruin with his shears, and then places a rather large, dime sized needle at about an inch above Ruin's nipple line. He presses it in, and removes it, and there's a large hiss of air. Also, and much more discomforting as far as the look on Marcus's face goes, blood bubbles out.

Hidden Jaguar stirs from the commotion. "What..." He shakes his head, fighting off the exhaustion for a moment. Struggling to his feet, using the wall for support, he observes the procedure on Ruin.

Jantine is still just laying on the berth, unconcious, his packaged, severed foot by his side.

Alandra looks over at Ruin with panic, "Punctured lung?" she asks trying to get off the gurney.


 * Looking back to Alandra, and putting his goggles on, he rolls his eyes a moment. "Sit down, doctor, your blood pressure is damn low," Marcus replies, taking a plastic-wrapped set of tools from his box. Ripping them open, and creating a makeshift table next to Ruin's body, he looks at the medic after he finishes intubating. "Get me a vaccuum tube and a water valve, and then bag him. I'm going to insert a drain and stop the bleed."

Hidden Jaguar presses off of the wall, crossing the short distance to Alandra. "Come now, you're no good on the floor. It's being taken care of. Just...try to relax." He gestures for her to lay back, his gaze averting to where Ruin lay. "He's in good hands it seems."


 * The next few seconds would be perhaps the most dramatic of the entire procedure. Marcus's scalpel cut into skin, punctured ribcage, and then...


 * Boom! Blood sprayed out all over Marcus's mask, goggles, the whole nine yards, ejecting past him and landing on the floor. And quickly, the vaccuum tube was in, letting blood and air ooze out one way. The bloody doctor simply waited for the blood to stop - which it pretty quickly did, and for the breath sounds to return to normal, which they would. He dressed the drain. "Leave this in him for a few days, it'll be fine. Anyways, doctor, tell me about your problems with life, love, and the pursuit of happiness, so you can get to your crew."

Alandra sits back, a concerned look still on her face. She pulls her sweater off and turns as best as possible so Marcus can see the cuts along her back. "I think it's pretty self explanitory," she says. The cuts can be seen through her torn blouse. More cuts can be seen on her arms and up and down her legs.

Hidden Jaguar moves to the side, making space so Marcus can view Alandra's wounds. In the mean time, he continues toward Jantine, observing him carefully. "You'll be okay", he said to the unconscious body. "Just wait a little longer."


 * "You're a big baby. Or a hemophiliac," says Marcus, replacing his gloves and mask. "Let me take an examination here, and I'll get you all stitched up, okay?" He begins to search for every cut worth suturing on her. Finally, he preps a suture needle and a set of suturing scissors and thread on the table, and starts to get to work on cleaning, suturing, and dressing all of the various injuries. "At least your blood pressure is good, now."

Alandra gives him an indignant look, "I'm not complaining, I want to be able to help my people," she states. "I don't think that is too much to ask for," she says as he works on her.


 * "You didn't complain, but your body was complaining quite loudly, despite your pride," replies Marcus, as he cuts the last suture and ties it off. "All fixed. Take some antibiotics, drop another unit of blood or OSynth in yourself, and call yourself in the morning, I guess? Anyway. I bid you all healthier days, absolutely."

Alandra carefully climbs off the gurney and slowly goes to Jan's side. She checks over his leg and foot seeing the extent of the damage done. "Jag, I will need your help," she says as she begins preparing the sutures and everything else she will need to reatatch the foot.

Hidden Jaguar straightens up promptly, his exhaustion seemingly set aside for the moment. "Aye, what can I do?"

Alandra gives him instructions on how she needs everything held and preped and all. She begins the reatatchment process once everything is ready to go.

Hidden Jaguar listens carefully, following in suit as she works. "Perhaps you can teach me a bit later. Then I might be of better help if something like this happens again."


 * As Marcus is passing by, he sets six IV bags of OSynth on Jan's chest. He raises his brows and smiles. "Good luck, bud," he says, patting Jantine on the shoulder on his way out.

Jantine is still unconcious, and as such can not reply to Marcus even if he wanted to.

Alandra stops, "I need more help, let me see if the NLM is willing." she carefully heads out, and carefully returns a while later, long enough to be careful with those stitches. "They say bring him there," she says as NLM medics follow her in to take Jan and the foot to their ship.

Hidden Jaguar follows her instructions to the mark, now moving to relocate Jan. "Lead the way, Doc."

Jan, like any good unconcious body, doesn't resist in the slightest.

The NLM medics help move Jan to a stretcher on which they carry him out of the medbay followed by a slow moving Lan.

Sickbay 


 * The medical facility of this Wolf class Frigate is a large, brightly lit room with a dozen medical beds arrayed in an open treatment area. Off to one side is small office, containing a desk, computer terminal and chair for the ship's chief medical officer. The room is kept absloutely sterile, and as clean as it possibly can be with modern technology.

"Sure thing Doc, front row seats to the big show." Martin says. He is laying in a bed next to a sleeping Lucius. Crimson stained bandages cover his shoulder.

Hidden Jaguar follows behind the NLM crew, making sure Alandra made it safely to this place of relocating Jan to.


 * "Nurse, the private's leaking, change his dressing please," said Marcus, nodding over to Martin, as he prepared the operating table, shining a light down, creating a sterile field, preparing a bone saw, among other things.

Alandra follows in behind the medics that are carrying Jan into the sickbay. "Thank you for helping," she says to Marcus. "I don't know what we would do without you guys." She adds as she looks about figuring out where everything is and then prepping herself for the surgury.

Jantine is still behaving like any good, unconcious body should, just laying there on the stretcher as he's brought in. The only resistance he offers is from the force of gravity, his weight. for action

Hidden Jaguar looks in Martin's direction. "I see you're still with us as well. May all of them be so fortunate..." His gaze trails back to the unconscious Jan before him. "Especially you, friend."


 * "Yeah. Alright, let's intubate him, I want an IV and a revolving OSynth bag in him, he's going to be losing a lot of blood and I want a good blood pressure on this boy. I need someone as my designated suctioner to keep our field clean," starts Marcus, smoothly ordering as he starts to plug in the bone saw, and get the tools prepped. He sets the severed foot on a tray, shining a work light down on the sterile zone of the foot. He pulls gloves on, ties his mask on, places his surgical cap on for the first time of the night - it's a blue one, with rubber duckies swimming across, and goggles with microsurgery attachments.

Alandra gives an amused look at the rubber duckies and then gets to work her fingers working carefully at the delicate operation she is performing. She moves carefully so as not to pull her own stitches.

Martin sleeps through most of the surgery. He is awoken from time to time by a nurse checking his statis and replacing his bandages.


 * "We have a grueling night ahead, folks. I hope your other friend doesn't need his tail, beacause he ain't getting it back," says Marcus. "Okay, let's begin. I'm going to remove the dressing, and we're going to clamp off the arteries and veins on the good side of the leg, about two inches up, and start working on reattachment." He flips down his microsurgery attachment. "Then we'll get an external fixator on the bones, and get them fixated in place so we can start to work on getting everything else back in place. This is messy."

Alandra follows Marcus' instructions since it is his sickbay.

Martin continues to nap away.


 * Liters of blood are lost over the two and a half hours the microsurgery takes - both of them working on the veins and the arteries. He looks up from time to time, having the medic or nurse, whoever's shift it is, apply more medicine or change ventilatory rates. But, the focus is on the foot and ankle area. Six hours pass, bada bing, bada boom, magic! A very, very exhausted Marcus finishes the last suture attaching the skin back on, pulls off his gloves, throws his hands up like he's at the rodeo, removes his mask, cap, and goggles to set on the tray for a medic to pick up, and goes to lie on the sickbay's couch.