[Halo] Onyx Wind

[Erik Vale]

"Sir, someone needs to watch Volsung while he works and be an Aid. I respectfully request to hold here, both in case of intruders and needing to move Valeria, as well as aid in case of medical emergency. I will need to remain for a few minutes longer in any case for diagnosis, however vital recordings should almost be finished transferring between AI's."
"They have. And I am being shown exactly how little information I have on hand as to medicine, but then again, what I have listed is mostly immediate treatment and first aid."

[Erasmas]

The call from Valen comes down, "Copy that, Onyx Three... you stay with Five and give him whatever help he needs. Ivory Two - the job is yours. Make your way to the decompression hatch and then outside. Jump over to that Banshee, unhook her, and cut that tether. Bring back some of it, if you can. And 544..."

There was a momentary pause.

"... don't get lost out there."

[moomoo]

I have no intention of doing so, sir.
He nods to Ceara, saying see you soon. and moves out to the decompression hatch and then further on to take a nice evening stroll in space.

[Erasmas]

Volsung and Argyle

You quickly get Valeria moved from the Armory, where the AAES was located, to the Infirmary as soon as the last piece of her Mjolnir armor was removed. The machines immediately beginning running scans on her, concentrating mostly on her head and her brain. Right away, the numbers do not look good and a concussion seems likely. The brain is swelling and there is a fair amount of inter-cranial bleeding.

---

1
Anex

As you decompress in the small space, your mind races. You are a Spartan - in all situations, in all conditions, in all environments, in all hazards - you shall prevail.

You are a Spartan.

However... once the hiss of the exterior locks sound, your mind quiets in an instant - ready for whatever comes your way. You activate the magnetic points in your boots and lock onto the hull of the Dawn Evader, walking out onto the ship. All at once, you are struck by both the beauty and the danger that the sheer emptiness of exposure in space brings; like the difference between looking into a pool of water versus jumping into it. You move your way closer to the tethered Banshee. When you are directly opposite it... you crouch, deactivate your magnet points, and jump all in one fluid motion. You soar through the open space between the two vessels as easily as a bird through the air. Reaching out your hand, you grab ahold of one of the wing supports of the purple spacecraft and begin moving your way over to the metal tether cable.

[Thump]

Ceara rushes along to find Valen, Volsung and Argyle along beside the AAES, and waits outside the area, tapping her foot nervously.

Dammit, she can't die... this was our first mission, and she's not even a bloody pilot! Why was she out there... why couldn't I do something...

Her mind races, taking moments to think about the past and all that their team had went through.

---

BLAM!

The force of the explosion rocked the space around them, sending Valeria flying back a bit, before catching herself on the ground, feeling the recoil of the rifle in the void of space. The target had entirely detonated, sending scraps of metal, rock and dust in all directions.

"Holy F***... what was..."

She turns around to see Ceara bowled over, howling with laughter.

"What the hell did you do?"

Still giggling with mirth, the red, heavily-armored Spartan responds in a shaky, happy voice.

"Swapped out your mags with explosive rounds... threw in a bit of C-7 explosives... you should have seen the look on your face when the entire thing went off and you were just..."

"Oh, for the love of... that was awesome, don't kid yourself, but... how did you even get the C-7?"

---

It reminded her too much of losing Ivan... they were a team, dammit. They were a family, and no matter how much they bickered and fought, they'd always have each other.

I should have been there to shoot in her Sabre... could have spotted those guys from miles away and still hit them. Why did you rush, Val?

Why?

[Erasmas]

Ceara

You're so lost in your thoughts that it startles you somewhat when you hear another voice. For a moment, you swear that it was Valeria... in your head, until you shake yourself back to the present enough to be aware that it is Valkyrie, the ship's AI.

"Warrant Officer Ceara T97 - your heart rate and blood pressure are elevated; is everything alright?"

[DoctorFaust]

As the machine begins to churn out results, Volsung hurries out of the small restroom, freshly out of his helmet and gauntlets. Pulling the scan up on a nearby monitor, he glances over it, swearing as he sees the location of the bleeding. Directing Argyle to lay her down on the table, Volsung begins readying the tools he needs for the operation. As he starts cutting the hair off the front of her head and swabbing it with iodine, he starts listing off instructions to whoever's listening. "Argyle, Ceara, whichever of you has the most first-aid experience, come in here with me. Rho, what do you think of the bleed?"

As the avatar for the medic's AI burns into blue light, he begins speaking, hands clasped behinds its back. "Looks epidural. You'll probably want to perform a craniotomy and then give her some Mannitol once you seal the wound."

Picking up a vial of anesthetic, Volsung selects a smaller gauge hypo and fills it with the clear fluid. Tapping it to remove the air, he says "I'm not quite qualified to perform those, so you'll have to guide me through the fine-detail stuff. Quod bonum?"

[Erik Vale]

Argyle meanwhile preps, unlike Volsung however, he retains his helmet, as most of his training is very basic, augmented by suit protocols which are accessed by AI.

"Send me over what information you can, sterilising now."
"Heh, we're about to see a sparten nurse in action."
"Don't be rude. Systems are all synced, Volsung, telling me to activate carious automated's may be faster then activating the system yourself due to direct links."
Argyle steps back into the room. With the main 'slot' taken up, Argyle's AI's instead find screens to appear on, both looking concerned, but Iaoch pacing.
"At least I can see you're actually worried Iaoch. Ok Doc, just tell me where I can help, to many have slipped away to loose another."

[Thump]

"No, Valkyrie, it is not alright..."... she trails off, almost lost in her thoughts again.

---

Pain. Numbness.

"Dammit, Ceara... get the hell to the ship... I'll patch you up long enough for us to get the med-bay."

"Dumb bloody mistake... who made that piece of..."

"Shush. Less talking, more walking. We don't get you there soon, and that hand is gone."

---

"Sorry. Just... worried, y'know? Can't really help it..."

She groans, and slumps down onto the wall of the barricade, looking at her left hand. The armor slides back, revealing a pale, scarred ring around her wrist, with a small tattoo on the back of the wrist, where a watch would be. It is detailed with a small fragmentation grenade, with a little heart on the pin.

---

"Dammit, Sea... if you ever do that again, I'm going to..."

"Oi."

Ceara gives Val a bear hug, startling the other Spartan.

"I won't do that again, alright? We've gotta keep going now Mistakes happen... what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, hey?"

"I guess. C'mon, you owe me a few matches in the ring after that hand of yours is patched up."

---

"I refuse to lose her to a dumb accident. That'll be the second one of us..."

[Erasmas]

Volsung & Argyle

With the help of your AIs, you begin the procedure. The tools that Volsung has at his disposal are not optimal for the task, but they will do. Field medicine was not an exact science and required more... adaptability than the work that would normally take place in a hospital facility.

The medic, after prepping the area, carefully cut back the skin and laid it open to expose the skull beneath. Readying the cutting laser, you fully understood that now... came the tricky part.

---

1
Ceara

"Admittedly, I do not fully understand the complexities of human emotion. But I do know, in the analysis that I have done, that the loss of others close to you causes you a great amount of distress and a type of pain that does not register with your vital scans... I believe that you would call it 'heartache'. But it still confuses me that you would use the word "refuse" in this situation. Refusal is used when there is a choice in the matter, but clearly choice itself has been taken out of all of our hands."

[moomoo]

Anex carefully manoevers towards the tether cable, looking for a way to unhook the Banshee and make room for the Dawn Evader, meanwhile monitoring the environment for any hostile activity.

[Erasmas]

Anex

Your immediate area seems to be free from any further enemies, and you take comfort in knowing that Dante and his turret have his eye on you as you work. You know that to unhook the Banshee from the docking coupler is just a small matter of release the docking clamps, which can either be done manually from the outside here or with the controls inside the Banshee itself. However, the clamps are only half of your problem - the other half of which is this tether cable. The side of it that is attached to the Summer Storm is almost like an over-sized arrowhead, puncturing the hull of the ship and providing an anchor for the cable. The other end leads to a small black box of an unusual design that has been bolted onto the right wing on the Covenant vessel, keeping tension on the line.

Spoiler

Show

This is just to give you an idea of what this sort of looks like. The one you are seeing is a bit different in design, but the functionality is the same.

[moomoo]

Anex moves over to the black box, reporting in and sending a camera transmit of the tether connection:
Sir, I have arrived at the Banshee, I'm looking at the tether now, it seems to be connected via some sort of device connected to their wings. I will try and see if I can unscrew it with my knife.
He moves to the black box and sees if this is at all possible.

[Erasmas]

Volsung & Argyle

Volsung moves the laser with a smooth hand, deftly making the opening in Valeria's skull and cutting the dura mater without further damaging her brain. However, once he was inside, what he saw was distressing to say the least. The concussion had caused her brain to swell and bruise, meaning that it was a cerebral hemorrhage... meaning that the bleeding was inside the tissue of the brain, and not simply in the sack around it. Infinitely more problematic, it was likely that the damage had already been done and there was very little to be done.

---

1
Anex

"Copy that, Ivory Two... I see it.", came Valen's reply.

You pull your knife and move to get leverage on the attachments, only to realize that these aren't screwed in place, but bolted there. Furthermore, it looks almost like these bolts were put in with some sort of 'gun', judging by the scuff marks and indentions left on the box itself. And what's even more... the bolt-like attachments are, once again, extremely foreign in their design.

[Erik Vale]

"No... We can't have been hit that hard... We... We survive non-pod orbital drops..."
The monitor Iaoch is 'in' abruptly returns to it's normal power saving display soon after he stops pacing, Gnomere looks similarly distressed.
"... This unit requests information as to what can be done as to cerebral hemorrhage at this location?.. Valkyrie, your attention is wanted."
It obviously wasn't just Volsung he was asking information from.

Argyles voice has understandibly moved backtowards his battle stress routine... Anyone who decided to look at the camera feed he had constantly running would know beyond a doupt the condition of Valeria. At the moment, for some reason he is wondering about whether or not the ship has stasis/cryo pods. He didn't know to much about medicine, but he knew enough to know what he was looking at was... On the worse end of the declare dead or vegetable scale.

[DoctorFaust]

As he sees the blood beginning to seep out of the brain itself, Volsung snarls and begins redoubling his efforts on Valeria. "Dammit. Rho, now what?"

"This could be…problematic. Right now, you have a choice. You can either giver her something like Mannitol to reduce the pressure now, giving you more time to look for a better answer, or you can perform a hemicraniectomy, which means you'll have to take off a chunk of her skull."

"Which one give her a better chance of survival?"

"Currently, the hemicraniectomy. You might have to use a catheter to suck out some of the blood already in there though."

"Then that's what we do. Argyle, start heating up the laser again."

[Thump]

Upon hearing the word "bone saw", Ceara starts to panic a little bit more. She tries calming herself, thinking good thoughts.

Easy there, girl... they know what they're do- wait... do they? How do I even know that they're even trained for surgery? They must be... they wouldn't... oh dammit, why am I worrying? She'll pull through...

The whirlwind of thoughts continue, but Mack pitches in.

"Oi. She'll be alright, y'know?"

"Hey. She was the one in the O.R. making sure my hand stayed on, and she knew what she was doing. She's never been hit hard like that before... I can't even ****ing DO anything to help her anymore!"

---

"That's a hell of a shot I'd have to make, Ceara... are you sure it's going to work?"

"Trust me, Val. When have I ever messed up with this sort of thing?"

A short bark of laughter comes across the COMMs, right before the trigger of Valeria's sniper rifle clicks and fires. The slug lances across the dead of space, detonating a plasma grenade, which then proceeded to burn a line of C-7, all the way to the target asteroid, which was blasted apart like a deck of cards in a windstorm.

Silence goes across the COMMs.

"Ho... lee... ****!"

"You're right after all... I should trust you more often. Now c'mon, let's go grab lunch."

"Just remember, you owe me a soda now!"

A sigh comes across the radio, before the sniper's response comes in.

"I'll get you back on that one..."


---

She flicks on her HUD again, monitoring Valeria's bio-monitor, watching as the line skittered with wild readings. Barely a whisper comes from Ceara at this point.

"Please... don't die on me."

[moomoo]

Hmm, seems like the covvies learned some new tricks. I have never seen this thing before.
Anex mumbles somewhat irritated as he makes his way to the other end of the thether, looking for a way to untie it from the hull of the ship.

[Erasmas]

Volsung & Argyle

Valkyrie's image manifests, her blue and somber face cast down at Valeria's still form, she looked as though she may weep.

"I am here, Captain Argyle. These facilities are equipped with everything deemed necessary by UNSC protocol to handle field trauma. Brain surgery isn't something that was accounted for... so I am afraid that there are no contingency preparations made. The cutting laser should be sufficient for gaining access to the desired location and suction hose might aid in removing the excess fluid, if that is the intent. Outside of that... I am afraid that we are equipped for little else in the matter."

Suddenly, you both hear a soft pop and within seconds afterward... your patient flat-lines.

---

1
Ceara

Valkyrie continues to talk with you amid your vigil. "Captain Volsung R36 is a competent medical officer; I promise you that Ivory Five is in capable hands. If there is anything that can be done for her, he will..."

Suddenly, the AI cuts off mid-sentence, in the same moment that you hear the tell-tale sound of Valeria's heart-rate completely bottoming out.

---

1
Anex

"Can you detach it with what you have with you?"

Moving your way along the tether, you come to where the head of this thing had punched through the steel hull. There was definitely no untying this cable, and cutting it was also out of the question... at least with your combat knife. However, the tether's head had torn up the external metal plating quite a bit... and with your enhanced strength, you could probably peel back the steel and remove the whole panel that the barb was attached to.

---

1
James

You heard the Major broadcast to Anex as you watched the junior-ranking Spartan worked outside on the Banshee and its tether, "Can you detach it with what you have with you?"

Valen then moved his way over to you and, looking over your shoulder once more, watched the monitor's display with you. After a moment, he turned his head slightly in your direction.

"Where are we with isolating that distress beacon, Sergeant?"

[Thump]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

"Wha... no. NO."

For a few moments, everything stops. White noise fills the air, and everything is just... not there.

She's gone... and she promised she'd never leave.

---

Carson's image appears as the group suits up in the Ready Room, some three to six months before Ivory met Onyx Team.

"Ivan, please stand down. Fleet Admiral Harper has requested your leave."

Ceara's head whips around towards the voice, with an angry look on her face.

"Leave? What the hell do you mean, leave? He can't just-"

She is cut off by the AI's monotone, bored voice.

"Ivan is being pulled from Ivory Team. It's as simple as that."

The entire team begins to argue, at which point Dante clips in with a short bark of "ENOUGH. As much as we might hate this... we can't just stop it. We have to keep going."

---

"I'm not leaving any of them for anything. Especially not you, otherwise it would be a sausage-fest all aro-"

"Valeria! Watch your-"

Whatever she was going to say was cut off with a squeak, and found herself on the receiving end of the dreaded tickles. Ceara squirms out of the way, laughing, though slightly shocked.

"Oi... haha... what are you doing?"

"Like I said. I'm not leaving any of you. Or you."


---

[moomoo]

I think I can make this work.
Anex replies to Valen as he starts to work on the metal plating, in order to remove the panel, and with that the connection between the banshee and the ship.

[DoctorFaust]

As the beeping that indicates heart failure begins, Volsung punches the monitor out of his face in an attempt to quiet it down. Stepping away from Valeria's head, he quickly wipes his hands down and positions himself to start CPR. "No way in the ten hells I'm letting another one die. Rho, continue with cut and begin suctioning out all the blood you can without getting in my way. I'm going to start chest compressions now, but would you mind me asking if there's been any improvements to medical cryo since I last checked?."

[Erik Vale]

No....
Gnomere, having no place or ability to help retreats from the screen in the same manner as Iaoch, he word barely undercutting the dull warning of heart faliure.


"Not another." Argyle says simply, removing his helmet ready to assist with CPR.

[Erasmas]

Onboard the Dawn Evader

"What's going on down there, R36?! Why am I seeing red on her vitals?"

He then turns to leave the bridge with a solemn nod to James.

"544, you keep up the good work. Medical Team... I'm on my way now."

Meanwhile, in the Infirmary, nothing seemed to be happening as the two Spartans performed CPR on Valeria. Rho responded to Volsung's question, "No. Since you last checked, no improvements have been made. However, I don't really see that it matters... as there are no cryo tubes on this ship."

---

1
Anex

You hear Valen's voice once more. "What's going on down there, R36?! Why am I seeing red on her vitals?"

You knew who he meant... but you tried to pour all of your focus into the task that lay before you. And it wasn't going to be a simple one.

"544, you keep up the good work. Medical Team... I'm on my way now."

You mag-lock onto the hull of the Summer Storm and kneel down on one knee and wedge your knife blade under a rise in seam of the buckled panel. Prying back and forth, you manage to make the gap wide enough to get your finger tips underneath of it. Eventually, it opens up enough to get both of your hands on it. You peeled back the outer steel layer like a tin can, until you hit the first rivet that was holding the damn thing in place. This... was going to take some serious push. The clock had been running since you got out here on your oxygen supply and close to 6 minutes had elapsed already. You only had 15 to start with, and your O2 was already depleted by 40%. If you were going to start really exerting yourself... that time was going to be diminished much faster than that.

[RagingKrikkit]

Focus. Jason's mind told him.

Do something! His heart shouted back. This was wrong. Everything Ivory had been through together, everything they had done to get one of their own back to the Evader, and now they were losing her?! For the first time, his helmet offered an advantage other than blocking enemy fire: it hid the blank stare that gazed off into eternity as his mind and heart clashed.

[moomoo]

Anex shakes his head and dismisses the notion of the diminishing oxygen supply.
He was a Spartan and he HAD to do this. In his head, there is no room for failure, certainly not with the team under the load of stress it was currently under. The sooner he had this done, the sooner they would all be out of this nightmare...
With these emotions fueling his powers even more, he uses all his strength to push through.

[DoctorFaust]

Having spent the last few minutes giving CPR to a very large Spartan, Volsung is understandable tired by the time Rho reports back. "Damn. See, I had heard about a medical procedure that was developed during the 21st century that involved draining peoples blood, replacing it with saline, and freezing people that were technically already dead. But we don't even have an ice maker? A freezer? We have nothing to get her temperature down to a point where we can perform cryonic freezing? Fine then. Argyle, stand ready with a defibrillator, and be ready to spell me when I ask."

[Erasmas]

Onboard the Dawn Evader

"Ceara? T 97? Can you hear me? Spartan... are you okay?"

Ceara snapped back to the present to see Valen standing over her, looking down at her... the concern not visible behind his helmet readily apparent in his voice.

Just a little ways away, Volsung and Argyle were still giving everything they had to saving the life of Ivory Five. Rho continued his conversation with the medic.

"That is possible, yes... but without adequate means of bringing her body temperature down slowly, the end result would be the same as the one you are now working so hard to avoid. You could theoretically submerge her in a drum of engine coolant and freeze its contents, but I don't recommend that course. Simply, without the bronchial surfactant and other necessary drugs to avoid irreparable damages to her internal organs... cryogenic freezing does not appear to be a viable option."

---

1
Anex

Letting your resolve further fuel your muscles and the servos of your suit, you mag-lock both feet beside the troublesome rivet and squat down. You place your hands immediately beside it and tried to stand with all your might. The hull beneath your feet crumpled a bit under the massive pressure, but that damn rivet also gave way, shooting off back towards the Evader and tinking off of the protective glass of Dante's turret.

"Whoa... watch it there, Hercules... you could put someone's eye out.", your watchman said sarcastically.

You kept at it, eventually removing the entire panel; which ended up being a rectangular section of steel about 4 foot by 6 foot. Carefully pushing it away from both you and your transport behind you, the panel drifted away until all of the slack in the tether was removed. Now all you had to do was disconnect the Banshee itself from the docking collar. Checking your O2 levels once you were finished, you saw that they were now at 32%. Now that you weren't having to exert yourself quite so much, you knew that the remaining time limit of 3 minutes was inaccurate. However, once the levels dropped to around 10%... it started to cut into your mental and physical functionality.

[Thump]

"Erh... um... I guess, yeah. Is there anything that I can assist with at the moment?"

She stands up, giving Valen a nod, and she shakes her head as if to wake herself up.

[Erik Vale]

Argyle immediately sets up the defibrillator almost as if he was a well practised surgical nurse.