(Not really) a mad dash to safety
09 Jul 2018Haley
Getting Daniel and Hilde back to the hovercraft in their condition was a little easier than I had expected. Hilde in particular seems to be more resilient than expected, but she was still much less active than she usually is. As we reached the hovercraft I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye, which turned out to be Mike on a motorbike loaded down with a bunch of extra supplies. Somehow he’s always got exactly what we need when we need it, and this is super awesome.
This time it was medical supplies that I was after. I tended to Hilde first, and as I was providing first aid some of her more serious injuries just kind of faded and disappeared. I did the best I could but still left her a little bit broken because even I can’t heal catching a grenade… I had a look at Solveig next but there didn’t seem to be much I could do. Still managed to patch up some of her scrapes and bumps well enough that you’d never know they’d been there. I looked over Daniel again, but there’s nothing I can do for him in the field.
I had been wondering what we were going to do with Daniel once we got back here. It seemed rather callous to just leave him at the hovercraft and run off to go adventuring. Mike had fortunately provided a solution to that too - once we’d unloaded the bike there was enough room for someone to take Daniel back to base. I volunteered. Seemed logical to send the medic with him since he was so broken. This does however leave the team without a proper medic… at least Lauren is an acceptable first aider and I’m sure the others aren’t totally useless in that regard either.
Mike gave me the details for the medevac that was being set up just in case, then Daniel and I headed towards the rendezvous point near the village. Once we left the outskirts of the city, Daniel unwrapped the radio from its improvised Faraday cage and contacted SELF.
Daniel: This is Daniel Thorson calling SELF. Medical assistance required. Repeat: Daniel Thorson calling SELF. Medical assistance required.
Diane: Acknowledged, Daniel. It’s good to hear your voice again. How can we be of assistance?
Daniel: I have a ton of broken bits and I’m not sure where to start. Haley’s bringing me back on Mike’s bike. Mike mentioned a medevac?
Diane: Ahh, negative on the medevac. The drone can’t carry the two of you, and Haley’s probably better to bring you back herself… just in case.
Haley: Understood. I’ll try to stop hitting all the bumps then.
Diane: I know you well enough to know you’re kidding. I can load the drone with supplies if there’s anything you need?
Haley: I think we’ve got all the medical supplies we need. Mike was pretty thorough. We should make it back easily with what we have.
Diane: Copy that. See you soon, we’ll have the portal waiting for you.
The ride back to base was pretty uneventful. Daniel wasn’t really up for much in the way of conversation; his injuries were making travel difficult and he’d used up what little energy he had left trying to be cool on the radio. We got to base camp and through the portal without incident, and the medical team met us on the other side to tend to Daniel straight away. I was surprised to see Diane with them, and less surprised when they asked me to join them. After giving the team a quick rundown of Daniel’s condition, I fell in beside Diane and we started talking.
Haley: I didn’t expect to see you with the med guys, I thought you were a comms specialist?
Diane: Yeah, so did I. Turns out that I’m just that good.
Haley: Oh ha ha. Come on, spill. What happened?
Diane: I was drafted to be an extra pair of hands when you brought Hux back. Apparently I took over, and did well enough that he thought I was amazing and told me, and I quote, “at least as talented as Haley.”
Haley: You must have used too much anaesthetic. He thinks I suck.
Diane: Lies. You’re at least average. Anyway, I looked after him for a while and then I just… I dunno, forgot what I was doing or something. I’ve got no hope now of even using a band-aid properly. These guys don’t really want to believe me though.
Diane was right about that… she turned out to be next to useless while we were working. She got sent away pretty quickly to go work on something else, and I may have ended up taking over much like Diane apparently did with Hux. The others got back while I was working, and soon there were rumours flying around the base of a half-mechanical angel that the team had befriended and brought back with them. Not that I had any time to think about it though, since next I was supposed to make myself available to assist with Hux and Margaret and anything the rest of the team might have done to hurt themselves.
Oh well. No rest for the wicked, I guess…