SoS B1 C6 X4: Shock

The trundler's engine growled as Morkun called Misha, Em, and Stenem to the primary engine cab. Tskhan passed through on his way to the front railing, and saw them going over the safety checks of the Meissner engine before activating it. "It's potentially been years since this was turned on, let's be delicate about it," Morkun warned.
Allarah felt the familiar thrum of the Meissner engine cycling up, a hum that built up as much in bones as in ears before leveling out and quieting down. There was definitely some shakiness to it, but even that died out as Morkun and the Gearhearts equalized the field. The houses began to rush by.
"Careful on the engines," Narissa ordered ad hoc over the coms. "We're not out of the houses yet and I'd rather not crash into one."
"We're being as careful as we can," Morkun responded, "but I'd rather play the odds now before the ghosts hit us, I'm getting to a main ave. Anyone who can fight needs to get up front now. Laemon can wait!"
"No he can't!" Synna yelled, hunched over him and pumping him full of Meta immolation, just in case. She grabbed a com and repeated herself. "No he can't!"
"That Synna? Get up here. We need as many meta-immo psiolics as possible. Allarah, Immuena, you too."
"Who made you commander?" Tyodor.
"Em, if you're no longer needed on the engines get back here and help Laemon. Can you spare her, Morkun?" Narissa.
"For the moment. Allarah! Immuena!" Morkun.
Allarah took a deep breath ignoring the screaming over the comms. "Synna stays or I do." Relative to the panic, Allarah was forceful, but sounded calm. "I realize the position we're in, but I won't have him abandoned. First things first everyone needs to move to the four uppermost cars. These will be the only ones protected by the deflectors, we can't protect the whole thing or we'll run out of power within the hour. Lighting will also be limited to these areas."
"Physical fighters, you know who you are, I need you in the very front ready to cut down anything that gets close enough for you to hit. Psiolics will be behind them. We are in charge of watching their backs. Anyone better at combination, I want you focused on boosting the shields on the front car only. This is important because we're either going through or over the ghosts."
"Engineers, keep us from blowing up. I'll be up front in a moment." She cut the comm. "Synna, you know I trust you right?" Allarah paused over Laemon a moment as she said this. "Pull me out if I can't pull myself out. Go up front and help the others if you can't get me right away. If that happens let Immuena know, she'll have to take charge till you can." She laid her hand on Laemon's head. "Forgive my irresponsibility. Morkun's gonna be pissed..." She smiled, but it was off.
"I do. We've got this," Synna assured as the crew moved forward. Dmitri was carrying Agata over his shoulder, bundled in blankets. His gun was in his hand. He was grumbling about wishing they had an energy turret. He paused at Allarah's side before she cast her spell, looked Laemon over, and grunted. "Give me the blade. He's not using it right now, and someone can put it to better use than he can."
She nodded. "Drop it and I'll make you walk back and get it. Is that alright Synna?"
Synna stared at Dmitri, eyes narrowed. "No,"
"Too bad," Dmitri said, grabbing the blade from the table. "You're not the commander. I won't lose it Allarah," he said, beginning to leave.
"Then I'll take the blame if something does happen." She sounded apologetic. Turning back her tone sharpened. "Dmitri, it wouldn't kill you to be kind. You life could be in her hands someday. Be mindful who you alienate."
He looked at her, then at Allarah, his gaze hard. "Then I'll die, kind or no," he said over his shoulder. He left. Synna used some choice swears in Vodalkyn, a mix of Saza and Verin.
"-Absolute piss for blood and shit for brains.-"
Allarah dove.

Entering Laemon's mind was like diving into a dark pool. She found herself swimming in a broad nothingness save for the occasional flicker of thought and memory. At first it seemed like her fears that his mind had been wiped were legitimate, but when there was a sudden crash of chaos she realized it was more shock causing his mind to wax and wane with crushing force.
Her mind stung from the impact, but in a small way, she preferred it to the dark pool from a moment ago. He was still in there. “Laemon?” She called, searching for a more stable thought. <It's Allarah. Laemon, if you can, I need you to talk to me.>
His voice echoed in from all directions. <I'm in pain... so much pain.>
<Focus on me and try to describe it so I can make it stop. Is it focused in your legs, or is it spreading?>
<Legs. Something's moving. Inside of me...> A mind-rending scream.
<Focus! How far up your leg Laemon? Is the movement in one or both legs?> Allarah would have to pull out after he answered. She couldn't risk another hit, not when she had to cut into him. The vines needed to be removed before they could burrow into his bones. She only hoped they hadn't already.
<All! Both!> He cried. She felt his body writhing in her arms in the meatspace.
<Hold on!> Allarah cut the connection.

"Synna hold him still!" She grabbed a first-aid kit, locating the sedative. An injector of morphine in a sealed plastic wrap. Synna grabbed his belt and tugged it free, tying one arm his arms down above them, then moving around to pin his ankles. She nodded to Allarah.
She injected it quickly pulling her knife out, she began cutting his pants away. "Synna you need to set fire to what I cut out of him. I need you to kill it before it attacks us." She took her own belt off and secured it at the top of his thigh.
It was exactly as Allarah had feared.
The vines wiggled weakly, animated by some other force than magic given that Synna had already dispelled them. Their barbs had hooked into the meat and burrowed deep. As they cut his pants away they saw a latticework under the skin, with thorns sticking out through the flesh, drooling crimson blood and yellowish liquid. At more than one point they either terminated or plunged downwards, into the meat. Allarah heard a sound indescribable in adjective but clear in meaning: they were scrapping over bone at their depths.
She began to cut…
It was foul fortune that the clouds had become dense enough allow the ghosts out this early into the evening. Add to that the dense, dead willows of the region and the occasional towering mansion and there was plenty of places for the ghosts to weave through to avoid the sunlight.
Less crew reported to the front car than Immuena and Tskhan would have liked, but there were still enough to pack the cab full. Dmitri, and Lev stood shoulder to shoulder. Lev held Dmitri's energy pistol, Dmitri held Laemon's sword. Next to them were the burly among the Pact -- Gruist, Sorja, Nashu -- armed with energy weapons lent by the Syndicate, who only had Ijin to spare.
As soon as the ghosts came whispering in, humanoid shapes of ethereal glow shooting along at the speed of a dash, they all opened fire at once. Tskhan did so literally.
The clatter of gunfire rattled throughout the car, distracting Allarah, who was having a hell of a time as is extricating the inextricable. Thorns tugged at muscle and sinew with more strength than thorns had right to show, twitching at all the wrong moments. Switching to Meissner made them faster, yes, but they still relied on the traction of the treads, meaning that at their doubled speed they took bumps and debris with even greater force than before, bumping Allarah around.
A fountain of blood jetted across Allarah's chest and struck her across the cheek. It stoppered a moment later as one of the vines followed the stream of blood to its source and plunged inwards, tucking its barbs in and wriggling into the artery.
"Shit." Allarah cut into the flesh of her palm and gripped the vine while pressing the cut to the creature. With her other hand she grabbed the forceps and clamped them above the vine on the artery. Once they appeared secure, she started pulling it towards her. She hoped her blood would distract it long enough for her to pull it clear of his artery. If not, at least she'd blocked its path... she hoped.
The ghosts broke like a wave over the trundler, gliding over the front and top of it. They fried on the grid in white flickers of sound and light, though the greatest inflow was along the railing, where the group of fighters held ground, lashing out with all they had.
The increasingly rough ride was not making anything easy on Allarah. Her forceps, slick with blood, kept slipping off with each bounce of the trundler, and the wound was so soaked with blood that sometimes it was hard to even see the ivy if not for its wriggling.
It did seem to like her blood. It froze in place rather than tunneling deeper, then began twisting this way and that. She gripped it and tugged it free, but another jostle shook the forceps off. Blood gushed from the wound. That was one bit of it, but there was still more ivy to extricate, wreaking around under the skin, and leaving the flesh bruised and squishy with subdermal blood pockets.
Tskhan's fire burned through the light-weakened ghosts as they poured over the trundler. The freezing, leaching wind of the ghost's magic sent the temperature plummeting; it bit at their skin with frosty fangs. Even diminished by the light the magic was something to contend with, especially given that it blanketed the trundler en totum, affecting anyone not inside and protected.
Allarah's hands kept getting slick with blood as she tried to clamp onto the artery with forceps. Fresh gushes of blood splurted out, running down his calf before she was finally able to pinch it off and pin some gauze to it. Synna handed her some medical gel. "There's not much of this but a dab should do, it'll seal the hole."
"Synna, apply the gel and get his other leg ready. That is, if you can. The vines are moving up and I don't want them hitting his femoral artery." Allarah spoke through gritted teeth, not unkindly, preparing to cut again.
Up front, the shield deflector thrummed as Immuena crammed her magic into it. She could hear the ghosts screeching, scrabbling at the grid, trying to get through and failing.
Immuena joined the fray, changing her attentions from the engine to the ghosts, dispelling them from her magic as Tskhan continued overloading them with heat and the rest of the crew on the railing fired away. They could see through the horde now, and would soon burst through the other side.
Of course, not before another frosty blast of air struck them, rattling down to their bones.
Synna opened the applicator and drew the gel across the wound. It stopped bleeding immediately, and she stared with intent to see if blood ballooned under the get. For now, it wasn't.
Hands slick with blood, Allarah tracked down another thrashing vine and set to work, slicing the leg open near the root. The cut was sloppy, worsened by her slick hands and the motion of the trundler. With a sickening sound the Ivy tore the rest of its length free (a foot in total) and thrashed at her bare hands with its barbs. Several pricked at her skin, and they began to itch.
At least it made cutting that one free easier. She pulled it free.
The trundler burst through the ghostly front at last as they reached the edge of town and hit the open plains. The direct light of the sun breaking through the clouds sloughed the echoes from the vessel, but not before Tskhan and Immuena blasted a few more holes in their ranks and took the brunt of one last, small icy chill.
Further back, Allarah was having a bad time of things. Where the vine had struck her her hand had grown intensely itchy, and now was feeling sluggish and vague. She couldn't grip the forceps, the slick metal kept slipping out of her grip. Her hand was useless.
Em came in at that moment and saw Allarah coated in blood and Synna's panicked expression. It waved them both out of the way and took Allarah's position. "Not good," it said, pulling its belt free and handing it to Synna. "Tourniquet, here," it said, drawing a line above Laemon's knee.
They moved to the other knee now. With a deft hand they picked up the scalpel and surveyed the skin while Synna wrapped Laemon's leg. "Tighter. Allarah, what should I know about it?"
"The major problem with that leg is the artery, but there is probably some muscle damage. What's more pressing are the vines in his other leg. They crawl underneath the skin using barbs and are very difficult to remove. If they reach an artery they will climb inside of it, tucking in the barbs completely." "The barbs produce a type of paralytic effect if they break skin. I'll let you know if the paralysis spreads or not in a minute. He's also in shock. He was before the artery was hit, and I can only imagine it's worse now. He can feel the vines climbing under his skin. They also like the taste of my blood if that helps at all. It's how I got them to loosen their grip on his muscle tissue, but also why my hand is useless."
Tskhan turned to Immuena "Thanks for the help with dealing with the ghosts." He rested his hand on Immeuna's shoulder "I'm gonna go check on Allarah and Leamon."
Immuena nodded, "I'm going to check on the engine, let them know we can relax some now. They'd probably like to take a break after that chaos." She smiled and followed Tskhan as far as she could before departing.
Em absorbed all this with raised brows and a nod. "Right..." it said. "Keep your blood ready, then. This isn't good." They cut a quick line across Laemon's skin at the 'head' of one of the vine segments. "Bleed there," they said, pointing at the slit. Another just in front of the other slithering vine. "There." Both perforations bled a lot less than they should have. Laemon was looking extremely pale.
Allarah did as Em bid her to, gladly handing Laemon over to the more competent party. "Em, it's not ideal, but is there any way we can do a blood transfusion? There are three Verin aboard to choose from when it comes to finding a compatible type." She didn't look directly at Em as she spoke. Her eyes were fixed on Laemon's chest, watching him breathe. Not him she kept chanting in her mind as she watched him. Not yet.
Tskhan stumbled down the hallway tired from having just finished an extended back and forth of flinging meta at a congress of ghosts. As he entered the room the first thing he saw was a dissected Leamon and the next was a hysterical Allarah. "Do you need me to help? Grab something?" She glanced at Tskhan only a moment before fixing her gaze back on Laemon.
"That's up to Em, I'm just a lure."

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