"I seem to be bad luck for you," Faith said, grimacing at Chin's wounds. "But at least I patch you up afterwards, right...?"
She activated the comm for everyone afterwards:
"Faith here, Chin's with me, bleeding but alive. Patching him up now. Everyone else call in, and Simus you had BETTER tell me you captured that."
Stop Chin's bleeding.
[med:4+1+1]
You get out a copious amount of sealant bandages and begin wrapping. And you continue wrapping for quite a while. By the time you're done chin is quite literally cocooned with his arms and legs bound to his body by bandages. Well...his bleeding is stopped and his suit is sealed! Good enough!
Thomas took a knee and aimed at the shades.
"Well, I got a rather large claw to the back, but me and May are both alive. Also, are we revoking Faiths privileges? This is a rather serious issue she caused, we lost Maurice, the good medic."
Cover Milno. If any come after the rest of the team, plant a laser in their faces.
You kneel and level your laser on the darkness where the path used to be and where the rest of the team is, lost within the swarm. Nothing comes out.
"If they liked lights they would be coming down the path right now, knocking down a light due to close proximity and moving on to the next one. I'm going to try and capture or kill one if I can. Anyone got a weapon I can borrow that won't completely rip them to shreds? Preferably conventional?
Travis takes a weapon if offered and heads back down the path, being wary of the shades. He tries to find the one farthest down the path (IE closest to him), making sure to keep his distance. If there are none, he takes one of his glow sticks and lights it, throwing it into the darkness where the stragglers supposedly are.
(I'm going to consider the glowsticks shared in the group for now if you don't mind. Makes things easier, otherwise we're gonna have to fuck with handing things around. So collectively you have 15. Well, 14 now.)
You crack a glowstick and walk toward where the path was cut off. There's no one laying in the light so you give the stick a gentle underhanded toss into the darkness. Its dull blue light reveals no less then 50 of the shade like creatures still crawling and slithering around in the sand. There's a tight cluster of the creatures gathered around something gray near the edge of the glowstick's light, slowly and almost daintily moving around what you can only assume is one of your fallen teammates.
Argh. Ow.
My Achilles tendon is -OW- torn up, but the camera is safe. For now.
Damn this makes me almost glad I had that lab accident, this would probably be a lot more painful if my legs were not prosthetic.
Everyone who didn't get out in time, I'm going to light a glowstick. It's range should be enough to put us all back in the light.
Light glowstick, attach camera to suit shoulder, find stranded team members, be glad prosthetic bits can't feel pain. ((If I remember correctly))
(I assumed your limbs, being not designed for combat, still used general human anatomy and felt a degree of pain. In general, painless prosthetics are uncommon outside of the military because of the danger that painless, robotic crazy people can cause.)
You tuck the camera under your arm and roll over, cracking a glowstick (13 left) as you do. Your light connects with another glowstick somewhere off to your right and reveals the members of the team that got away, as well as a downed teammate It also reveals the half dozen shade like creatures crawling around directly next to and atop you.
Charro (having re-assembled his hat) stood there, wringing his hands with a grimace as he stared back at where the path once was. At least the thought of rescuing the injured took his mind off what had almost become of him.
"Oh, damnit, I feel useless! I'd... I'd like to help, somehow, but I lost my laser rifle. There's not a lot I can do with just my hat, I don't think."
He shivered as 'sounds' came from the deep darkness ahead. "We... Have to get them out of there, somehow, though."
>Attempt to think up a cunning plan!
[int:5]
Well, lets see. Those shade things were drawn up when Faith punched the ground...they chased you for a while but stopped and aren't following...they're not effected by the light and don't even seem notice it. They're not actively attacking the fallen men...they seem more confused by them. Clearly they're "seeing" using something other then light. Maybe they're using smell? Or sound? You might be able to create some type of lure that would attract their attention..something loud or smelly or something you could huck away from the group.
((If the GM rolls another turn while I'm sleeping:))
Milno smirks a bit.
"We'll deal with Faith later. Start going away towards the next area now or prepare to run again if the shades follow me, I'm going in."
Check fuel and leave the EMM on if it has been actually working. Make a glowstick bridge to the point the stranded people fell and get them out of there and back to the group, avoiding the shades (camera included, I think Simus is grasping it). Before diving into the swarm, check if they get even more agitated by the return of a human. Get Maurice's unconscious body first and use his shield for protection during the retreat out of the swarm, locking it on the back of the armor or anywhere useful if both arms get occupied. Leave one or both rifles behind before going in if it is needed to ease the burden.
If the shades follow or attack then make the rest of the team move on to the next area:
"To the next area, now. I'll try to catch up with you."
[dex:6+1]
You walk slowly in to the area illuminated by the glowsticks, stepping carefully through the shades as they wander about, seemingly blind. The closest downed man looks to be Maurice, who is slowly bleeding out from a severed hand, and is completely surrounded by the shade like creatures. You inch closer, slowly swinging your mechanical arm back and forth, trying to gently push the creatures away as you move into the cluster. You can hear their razor sharp bodies scrape against your metal arm, cutting small scratches into it as they part before you. You make it to Maurice as the creatures continue to wander slowly around you and start pulling him back toward the group. You go slowly at first but as you get closer you speed up, Maurice's suit hissing and clacking metallically as it slides over the sand. One of the nearby shade like creatures stirs suddenly and charges past in a flurry of paperthin legs and spraying sand; blood spurts from Maurice's legs as the creature crawls over him, punching holes in his suit and all the way to the bone.
You manage to get him back to the group, bleeding heavily, but still in one piece. One down.
Wake up, ...If I am carried away then there is no need to obstruct that, and if I was left... doesn't matter... but don't move, just open the eyes behind the faceplate and look and listen.
((@PyroDesu I have the sinking feeling Simus cannot be talking to people outside, just because they are outside the comms reach (100m (~328 feet), just checked it - though if those 'several hundred feet' are actually two or three hundred feet, that would still be close enough.))
(don't worry about talking. I'll tell you if you're out of comm range.)
[end:2]
You remain unconscious. All this new blood loss doesn't help matters.
Charro shrugged and stayed where he was, brows knit in a thoughtful expression as he watched Milno's progress.
'Gods, imagine how many tokens one of those things would be worth... I could get a good bit of funds for my new inventions, purchase some furnishings for the Rec Room, and even replace any arms/legs/organs that I happen to lose whilst getting the thing. Ah, well...'
>Remain with the group for now, keeping a close eye on proceedings, but if any more of those shadowy creatures pop out to attack us, I will catch one in my hat and stuff the whole thing in my backpack.
(If you read back they're not shade size, they're shade like, but they're upwards of 7 feet (2 meters roughly) long. You'd need a big hat.
"Iz eet time fo' ze magics?" May gestures to her MFM.
Patch up Thomas's back.
[med:5]
You fish some gauze and a stick labeled " Stitchless" from your kit and proceed to clean and glue shut the wound on Thomas's back before sealing up his suit with some stronger adhesive.