Kai looked around the rest of the team as Aswon headed off into the desert to get a new vantage point.
"So – we killed the spirit thing, does tha…"
"Disrupted."
"Sorry, Tads?"
"We disrupted it. We didn't kill it. It can come back, after a while. The stronger they are, the faster they come back." She saw the question form on his lips. "About three weeks, maybe a touch longer. It's not a spirit type I'm familiar with. But it's not dead, just gone. For now."
"Ohhkaaay. So, the spirit is gone, at least for a while. I'm guessing that mage guy will know that? He'll be able to detect it some way?" Tads nodded to him. "So I'm guessing he's going to be pretty pissed with us." They nodded, yet looked strangely unmoved by the emotional trauma they might be inflicting on the strange mage.
"I don't think we should hang about – we need to get out of this desert, as soon as we can."
"I agree, Marius – but I think we need to look like we're not trying to leave, for as long as possible. If this is a mega-corp watching us, then we could be under observation right now – either technological or magical. So we should be careful…."
About two hundred metres away, Aswon found a small rocky outcropping that he could snug into, that gave him a good place to attach his cammo net to and hunker down under cover. He double-checked the spear, ensuring that it wasn't activated, and then relaxed his body to ensure that he wasn't subconsciously using any of his powers. With no active magical use, his soul was firmly grounded in the physical plane and he had no real astral presence – meaning that if something appeared in the area that was purely on the astral plane, he couldn't be affected – at least as far as he understood it. Slowly he surveyed the desert through his scope, trying to adjust for the heat haze now visible in the air, scanning for any life signs.
Tads checked on the scorpions, watching the mound of sand and spotting little twitches under the surface that made the sand undulate and shift. It looked like they were both still active, though quiet.
"If we're getting out of here, then we need to get these back into the carriers. And we probably need to get those warded to prevent any breakouts. Do we all do that?"
Kai considered for a moment, then shook his head.
"No – just in case something comes back. I think we shouldn't tie up all of the people who can at least see the astral at the same time. I'll help Shimazu take care of the wards – we'll make it fast, not good." Tads nodded, but looked unhappy. Magic wasn't something you really wanted to rush or get wrong – the results could be….messy. "Tads, you keep watch – you're probably the most flexible when it comes to dealing with any magical interference. "She was distracted when Marius looked over at the pen.
"Are the critters still alive?"
"They seem to be – though quiet. Maybe they sleep most of the day to avoid the heat. It's going to be fun getting them out of there though."
"Well, I think I'll defer to your judgement on magical creatures - it's certainly not my area of expertise."
"Really? Well then, in my expert opinion we need to get them out of this environment as quickly as we can and back to the labs and Ludmilla." Marius nodded to her, then returned to sorting through his gear.
Hunter meanwhile had been studying a map, plotting routes to and from the area around Tripoli and trying to factor in the average airspeed of a number of different fighter jets, helicopters and overland vehicles assuming reasonably steady progress.
"Everyone… I think I've got some times. If we're going to get a fighter or bomber response to killing that spirit," Tads winced, but stayed silent. "Then we've got about ninety minutes accounting for the orders to come through, fuelling, loading and flight time. If they're sending something like a chopper then we're looking more like two-to three hours. If it's a ground assault, they'll be lucky to make it here by nightfall – though that's probably what a spec-ops team would actually want."
"I do not believe they would come by ground transport. We should expect an aerial response I think. Certainly that's how Saeder Krupp would respond – maybe a follow up ground element if they needed to secure or defend a point, but the most likely is an armoured troop transport chopper – enough range to get here and drop off, then to orbit and provide fire support.."
"But not an attack chopper?" Kai asked. Marius quickly shook his head.
"Do not mistake a troop chopper as not being a threat. An attack chopper carries no troops and is very heavily armed – multiple types of missiles, assault weapons, extremely capable sensors and systems. Yes, it is far more deadly than a 'mere' troop carrier. But the troop carriers are designed to support their troops in a combat zone. Think door-mounted miniguns, look down radar, cluster bomb launch systems. They don't have the punch to take out a tank or maybe even an APC – but they would cut us all in half with a single long burst from a military-mounted minigun." Kai nodded in understand as Marius put the firepower in context.
They worked rapidly – scrawling magical symbols with unseemly haste, and going through the chopper to try and gather all their possessions they didn't want to leave behind. Kai and Shimazu finished the first pet carrier in about 90 minutes, and then stood back from their work – wincing slightly at the magical ward they had created. It seemed strong, and should do the job – but they could see the edges of the ward shedding motes of mana already – it certainly wasn't going to last that long.
As they neared the first time point on Hunter's estimated response timeline, the tension ratcheted up – they stopped work for a few minutes, drinking some water and grabbing weapons, just in case. The skies remained a deep lustrous – and more importantly clear – blue though, with nothing disturbing the silence.
"Marius – do the sensors on the chopper still work – and could we take them with us to provide some cover?"
"Nein. Too much power. They're quite bulky too – but they're designed to run off the internal power bus of the chopper, in our case fifty-two volts." Marius shook his head. Most of the rest of the world had standardised on a much more sensible forty-eight volts of direct current – but the Russians had to do things their own way… "If we tried to use them on the move, we'd drain the batteries far too quickly. But we do have the Condor drone, and with the conditions here and the suncell, that should be able to stay up indefinitely!"
They had to take a step back out of the way as Tads walked between them, moving her arms in a smoothing motion and muttering to herself. They watched her for a moment, then realised she was trying to smooth away her astral signature, the taint left in the manasphere that tied to her unique magical fingerprint. Clearly she expected someone to be doing some careful magical analysis of the site fairly soon and didn't want to take any chances. She finished the pass she was doing, and then looked at them slightly boggly eyed, reeling slightly from the intense concentration and effort involved.
"Marius." She paused, shook her head and then tried again. "Marius, if they send a chopper after us, how much ground can it search?"
"The simple answer is enough. All they need to do is go high enough to get a good look down cone of coverage, and look for any kinds of signals. It's not like we can evade them through city streets, get lost in the ground clutter or anything. There's just not a lot to hide amongst out here, not from the air." Marius hesitated a moment, and then continued. "And my actual fear is that they might send a t-bird after us. Thunderbird." His explanation only seemed to confuse Tads further.
"Thunderbird? Like the ones that attacked us on the Yakut border?"
"No T-bird as in an LAV." He sighed in frustration, trying to remind himself that Tads had apparently grown up in a bush in the middle of nowhere, and had no context about anything in the modern world. "A low-altitude vehicle – though low is a relative term again. Imagine our truck, Tads, about twice as long. Then get big engines on each corner – big enough to make it fly, even without wings. Then get big rockets and guns on it and stuff it full of sensors and troops. And then, just because, put another layer of armour on it thick enough that even Aswon's new gun couldn't damage it."
"Oh."
"Yes – oh. A t-bird has all the grace and style of a concrete block. But they're amazingly tough and very dangerous opponents. Expensive as all hell to run – remember what Nadia had to say about them? So that tends to confine them to the smugglers with very high-value but compact cargo, security services and the military. And if we're up against the military, we're in big trouble, because they have ALLLL the toys."
The team worked on in silence, boxing up their gear and piling it up in the chopper, out of sight of any overhead spies that might be lurking way up high. By careful positioning, they worked out what would need to go where as they cross loaded into the back of the UAZ. It would fill the cargo area, and more – and that didn't account for where they were all going to fit either. After some discussion, they worked out a plan to try and balance their transport needs against team efficiency.
Shimazu would do the driving – he wasn't quite as smooth as Marius, but he'd been getting a lot more experience recently, and he was primarily a close-in fighter, so his skills were harder to deploy in a vehicle-based scenario. Marius would sit up front next to him, with his deck controlling the three drones. The Condor would range ahead of them, spotting for trouble and keeping an eye out. The Doberman and Dalmation would trundle and fly alongside them, being ready to add their firepower if there was trouble. They had the speed and endurance for a couple of hours of operations alongside the jeep, so that shouldn't be an issue – and with Marius not having to worry about the driving, if he needed to 'jump in' to a drone and control it directly, he could.
Kai and Tads would sit on the back seat, ready to shoot, communicate, observe and cast spells or summon spirits as the situation demanded, and would keep things like the first aid kit and various other "essential" supplies with them, safely to hand. Meanwhile Aswon and Hunter would both take positions on the back of the cargo area, literally hanging off the sides on cargo straps, their feet wedged into place so they could each cover the sides and rear of the vehicle and provide long range fire support.
Clearing a bit of space for them to stand and position themselves meant they had to pile the load up a little higher – meaning the jeep would look like one of those crazy trideo clips of some farmer in a rural location transporting eighty-five cages of chickens on the back of his scooter in a precarious and wobbling defiance of physics – but they only had a hundred and fifty miles to go. Hunter had even spent a while working out a route from the overhead maps, trying to stick to gently undulating terrain. It took them a fair way east of the direct route towards the fuelling base, but made for a hopefully easier journey.
They'd thought about staying until night time and then heading away in the darkness – but there were a couple of potential flaws in that plan. Staying that long gave the mage, whoever he was, more time to arrange things, too, and to respond in some way that the team probably wouldn't like. It also made things harder for them as Shimazu really didn't see well in the dark. That meant either cramming Aswon in the driver's seat and losing some long range firepower, or using Marius to drive and losing the extra power of the drones.
Hunter had also suggested that as the chopper was toast and was being written off, they could peel off a section of the fuselage skin and fashion it into a sledge to tow behind the jeep. It would allow them to load up some of the cargo on there instead of trying to cram it in the back. On the other hand, it would make the jeep a little harder to control and leave a massive snaking trail behind them, far more visible than their tyre tracks. After some hemming and hawing, they decided not to go with this as a plan.
By the time they'd warded both the carriers and assembled all of the gear that was in any way personal to them or had great value, several hours had passed and they were all feeling tense and jumpy. Still there was no sign of an attack or even surveillance though, just the baking temperature of the desert and the brilliant glare of sunlight off the parched landscape.
Just before lunchtime, Kai called for a stop and another quick chat to work out what to do next.
"Right – I think we've got as ready as we can be without it being obvious. Marius, if they were going to send a drone over like your spy drone, how long would it take to get here?"
"It could be here almost as fast as a chopper or other air vehicle, depending on what it is. I haven't detected anything, but it all depends on the technology they have available. There could be something up there, five thousand metres plus, with a good sensor array focussed down on us. I haven't seen anything at all, but that doesn't mean it's not up there."
"Well, nothing we can do about that, is there. So, I think we try to keep subtle, but let's not think ourselves into indecision. Tads – we dealt with their spirit. Is that likely to be a personal insult to the mage, or a corporate one? If someone disrupted one of your spirits, how would you take it?"
"Well that's nothing like one of my spirits. The summoner would have felt the spirit being disrupted, whether that was one person or a group working together. They'd probably be as upset as I would be. But it felt like they were chanelling something that was alive into the spirit, to fuel or power it. There was such feelings of pain and suffering emanating from it." Tads shuddered as she relived the moment she had assensed the spirit.
"Does that mean they will be pissed at us for wasting a resource?" Shimazu asked. He pulled a face as Tads glowered at him. "Look, I know, I get it. Horrible people. Torture. All bad. But we're asking what they think, not what we think. Are they going to be frustrated because they wasted a resource on the spirit and it didn't achieve its aims?"
"From what I have heard of things like that, the resource would have been required to summon it, to bring it into the world. Not to use it." There was a click and Aswon's voice terminated abruptly as he released the button on his radio.
"So, if they're going to come after us, and if they are going to capture us – if – do we just bow to the inevitable and wait here? If we make it easy, do they treat us any better?" Nobody looked pleased with that idea, and Shimazu vigorously shook his head. As the one probably most likely to be able to divorce his wants and needs and understand someone else's point of view, Kai decided to go with his rebuttal of that idea. Marius, though, pointed at the discoloured patch of sand near the chopper.
"If you summon a new spirit thing – will you get that back again? Or one that is crazy?"
"I don't know, Marius, but I'm not keen to find out. It's not something I've ever faced before, but I think I'd rather put off the experience. So if I do summon a new spirit, I'll move away from here."
"Ok, Marius – another quick check. They had a repair building back on the island we stopped at. Seemed pretty good. If we could make it back to the fuel depot, do you think we could get supplies flown in from there to get the chopper fixed just enough we could get back in the air and to a proper repair facility?" Marius considered for a moment, then quizzed Kai on what he had seen while he had been talking with Ibrratta, teasing out the details of her gear and the likelihood of getting a fix. Marius ended up shaking his head a little – most of the tools were geared more towards sea craft rather than air.
"Right, in that case, it's pretty much time to bug out. Final clear up, let's start loading and getting ready to go." They sprang into action, swiftly loading the truck up and securing the cargo in place with netting and straps, taking the last of the water and food and filling spare nooks and crannies with it. Marius and Hunter powered up the chopper's electronic systems one more time, clearing out the nav database of their saved waypoints and notes, making sure they left as little evidence as possible. When the power systems were on, Marius picked up a text message that had been waiting for them for around an hour.
'If you are in the desert, be warned, local assets report Strike team has landed and refuelled recently in eastern Libya, and are active at this time. L'
He shared the message with Hunter first, and they exchanged looks. It was too much of a coincidence for this not to be connected to them… Hunter finished trashing the computer storage while Marius shared the message with the rest of the team over the radio.
Aswon and Shimazu had taken on the task of relocating the scorpions back into the pet carriers, trying to poke and coax them along with a lure of fresh meat in the carrier and gentle prodding from the end of a spear or long metal strut. Marius' message came over the comm link just as Shimazu was pushing the scorpion towards the carrier with the strut, gently digging at the sand behind it. He looked up and towards the cockpit without thinking about it, and only just managed to get his hand out of the way as the infuriated beast suddenly lashed out and nearly hit him with the stinger. After a few deep breaths to calm himself, they returned to what they were doing, trying to concentrate on the task in hand and excluding outside activities this time.
Loading up the UAZ, they had decided not to spend the time constructing or attaching a sledge, and instead just tried to keep all the supplies as firmly strapped down as they could. At least they didn't have a great deal of personal gear – most of the space was taken up by weapons, ammo, armour and survival equipment, along with a few changes of clothes, computer gear and other relatively small but high value items.
"Hunter… your medicine? How long will that last outside of the fridge?" Tads held up the box of Rivaroxaban which normally took up one of the shelves in the small fridge. Hunter shrugged and grunted at her and continued working, clearly identifying that as a problem for his future self, and not something that he could do much about now.
"We still don't know how many people they might send to collect us. I'm guessing at least a squad of troops. Saying that though, does anyone know how many troops there ARE in a squad for these people?" Kai looked around, but nobody answered him. "Well, we'll need to just play it by ear then. Ok, Tads, can you be scouting ahead in astral and such like, along with the surveillance drone."
"I can – but I don't want to. For one, the longer I spend out of my body, the weaker it gets. Secondly, if I run into anything like that mage in astral space, I'm not going to get away, and I'm not going to win any combat. He'd crush me like a bug in a one on one fight. Then you've got a dead shaman on your hands, and even less magical defence against things like spirits. So I really don't want to. Besides I'm tired…"
"Tads, we're all tired and a little bit stressed. Step up."
"No, you don't understand. I'm not tired. I'm TIRED. I've been trying to clean up our astral residue here for a little while, and I don't know if it's the stress, or the weird astral pollution or what, but I've not really achieved very much, and it's given me a massive headache – to the point of wobbly vision. So if I go scouting, I'm also not going to be much use. I need to rest, at least for a bit, before trying that."
"Can they use that evidence to trace you? Track you down?" Marius asked as he worked the action on a ratchet strap, securing a pile of boxes in place.
"If they have a team of people with access to the signature – yes they can. It'll take them hours though, like the team that were trying to track us down after Iran. Or what we assume was Iran. But it takes a while. And I suppose, the mage that told us to stay here had more than long enough to get a good long hard look at us and get our signatures firmly locked away…. Drat."
They finished loading the gear, and then supported Aswon and Hunter as they climbed on the back of the truck, lashing them into place in two directions and letting them lean back into the strong safety belts that they'd had made for hanging out of the back of the chopper. Suddenly they didn't seem like such a bad idea. Tads moved away from the vehicle a good hundred metres and called upon a spirit of the desert, trying to ignore the throbbing headache that rattled her skull. When the shimmering form appeared before her, she asked it to obscure the tracks the vehicle left and try to conceal them amongst the desert terrain, and guard them against magical attack.
With preparations made, the rest of the team mounted up and they got underway. Shimazu took it steady, but even so the first dune was an interesting experience, the vehicle sliding down the loose sand like an out of control sledge with all the extra weight on the back end. The height of the gear had also raised the centre of gravity noticeably, and made the whole vehicle wobble quite alarmingly on the turns. Still, with a bit of patience and some heart-clenching moments they were on their way – one vehicle packed to capacity with people literally tied to the side, crawling across the desert and slaloming down dunes under the protective gaze of a shimmering djinn that swept away the tyre marks left behind them.
The headed towards the coast, veering east at times to follow easier paths and avoid rocky outcroppings, before swinging back just west of north, trying to cut down their travel distance. The Condor flew on ahead of them, the sunlight keeping the cells topped off, even as the small thrusters pushed it along at thirty kilometres per hour. The other drones kept pace with the truck, swinging around sometimes, their sensors probing and weapons ready, keeping a watch ahead and on either flank. Aswon and Hunter had their weapons ready but kept low to avoid fatigue, while they scanned the desert through their goggles, keeping an eye out for any outflanking forces or trouble trying to catch up with them.
After about an hour of travelling, Marius caught a faint sensor reading on the Condor – enough to warrant a closer look. He adjusted the flight plan and bought the sensor pod to bear, and felt his muscles clench as got a look at what the drone had picked up.
A long ridgeline ran more or less west to east, and on the north side of it a number of figures were spaced out and busy preparing. He adjusted the sensors, taking the Condor higher and higher as scanned the area to prevent it being detected, having to zoom in further and further with the pickups to maintain detail.
Further down the slope was a pair of odd looking off road vehicles. He couldn't quite put his finger on what was 'wrong' with them, but he recognised that they were not normal in some way. Up the slope were at least a dozen figures, and they all had weapons out, preparing it seemed to set up an ambush. He quickly sent the mental commands to his deck through the rigger interface, and the image he saw obligingly reconfigured – showing the chopper site, the fuel depot and the straight route between them – and sure enough, these figures were deployed right across that line. He adjusted the drone's course, getting it to loiter in a lazy racetrack route, ensuring it never got closer than the current position, before he pulled back out of the drone's control system and called the others over the radio.
"Probable enemy spotted. I see a dozen figures setting up what looks like an ambush, on a ridgeline that covers the direct route from the chopper to the fuel depot. They look to be spaced out a good three to four metres apart, minimum, and are set up line abreast. I count at least two heavy machine guns on tripods of some kind, and at least one shoulder launched rocket or recoilless rifle, along with lighter weapons. Oh, and one of them has a mortar and what looks like a box of ammo. I'd figure it for at least a 90mm weapon system."
The vehicle slowed as Shimazu, along with everyone else, digested the information. Marius piped through a video feed for the three in the front, and as he slewed the feed around, narrated what he could see for the benefit of the guys in the back.
"No unit insignia visible, fairly standard for any kind of black ops unit though – you can see the patch points on their clothing, though. They've all got side arms, and what looks like a webbing harness that probably has food, water and some ammo. Looks like the ones that aren't on the heavy weapons have scoped rifles. Appears their kit is clustered together in groups of four."
"They may just be setting up as a blocking force or tripwire, to try and stop us from leaving, and they've gone for the most logical path for a quick escape. Or, they might be establishing a forward base and waiting for more troops to turn up and guard this area, then move forward. Either is possible, and just as likely." Aswon fiddled with the karabiner on his waist, wondering if he should call for a stop to try and look at the visual feed.
"Can we take them by surprise, do you think?" Kai mused out loud.
"In this…an unarmoured jeep? When we're outnumbered over two to one? With them being a trained military unit with heavy weapons? One burst from a machine gun or a rocket hit on us, and we're all dead." Nobody else argued with Marius' assessment of the situation. "Although, they either don't have a spirit hiding their trail like we do, or just don't care. Look, you can see the tracks leading off to the north."
"So they might have been dropped off, or there might be something like a supply truck up there? Something we could steal perhaps?" There was a general murmur of acceptance from everyone else, so Kai gestured forward with his hand, directing Shimazu to continue pushing forwards on their route. Marius kept the drone at range for another minute, zooming in as far as he could and then playing it over each member of the ambushing force so he had some high resolution footage of each of them to review later.
They pushed on, travelling further north with the Condor scouting ahead of them. They'd gone perhaps another thirty kilometres north when the surveillance drone picked up another target. Marius immediately turned the drone away, making sure it didn't advance any closer and then slewed the sensors round to get a good look at it. As he zoomed in, the optical systems of the drone bouncing around in the winds, he could make out an aircraft, sitting on the sand in a large sandy valley.
It was smaller than the chopper – but then so were a lot of things – but still a reasonable size. The aircraft was painted a mix of sand and brown in random splodges that made determining the shape somewhat difficult from range, but there was no mistaking the two sets of rotors on the end of high wings, with large engines behind them. The rear ramp was open, giving him something to get a sense of scale from, and it looked to be about twenty-five to thirty metres long.
He quickly relayed the information to the rest of the team, and the jeep slowed to a halt in a dip between two sandy ridges so they could all cluster around the screen to take a look. Marius slowly orbited the drone at extreme range, the camera zoomed in as far as it would go and then digitally enhanced further. The quality wasn't great, but it gave the lowest chance of detection for them.
"Tads – are you feeling less Tired now?"
"Yes, much better. I should be able to cast as well as I ever can. At least until something else happens." She gave Kai a look as he snorted in response to her caveat – it wasn't like it wasn't true!
"So, could we get close to that thing under your invisibility spell and try to get in it and steal it?"
"I guess so, yes. And if it's the only spell I have cast, I can probably try to hide the spell aura in case there's anyone magical down there."
"It's not just visual checks we need to worry about though." Marius interrupted, "the sensors work across multiple devices and technologies. It's no good being invisible if they can still hear us coming."
"What about if we got someone hanging off the drone, like we did back in Baku? Came down from straight on top, where the cameras won't be looking?"
"It…. It doesn't work quite like that. Ok, the sensors from the drone look, are pretty basic. So we've got a good video feed, but very little audio. But look… "He concentrated and shifted the sensor display a little. "That's what the scene looks like in thermographic. See how it almost disappears, because it's the same temperature as the background? If we were closer I could show you an ultrasound paint, and that's all angles and edges. But the only reason the drone can't see up is because of the lifting body physically blocking it." He waved his arms around, trying to explain his point. "Most craft have a sphere around them with multiple overlapping sensors, in different wavelengths and looking for different things. That's why we can't just sneak up on it."
"Well, let's worry about the how later. If we could get close, and take out the crew – do you think the jeep will fit inside?" Marius skipped back to the first angle, and had a close look at the footage, squinting to make out the detail. When he zoomed in the whole picture just turned into a series of muddy looking square pixels, making it less and less clear. After a few seconds consideration though, he nodded to Kai. "In that case, let's go get ourselves a new ride. Can you pan out and have a look around?"
Marius obliged, and they looked at the area. The tilt-wing was in a large fairly flat basin, surrounded by sand dunes on all sides. In particular though, to the south there was another rocky spur thrusting through the dunes, with a deep valley on the other side. They could see the remains of a set of tracks, slowly eroding in the desert breeze. They matched what they had seen at the ambush point to the south, so it certainly seemed that the vehicle and soldiers had come from here.
"I'm guessing that thing will have a tracker or tracer on it?" Tads asked Marius.
"A transponder – and yes. It may also have other tracking systems as well. But all of those can be defeated or disabled."
"So Tads – can we persuade you to go for a quick astral look around – just get an idea of what is going on over there?" Tads scowled at Kai, as he did exactly what she'd expected he would do.
"I can – but if they spot me because they have a mage or a spirit in there, then we're blown. You do know that, right?" The rest of the team listened for a moment as Kai and Tads discussed the situation, before their eyes drifted back to the screen to try and spot details on the tilt-wing.
The discussion went on for a few minutes, Tads making it clear that she was worried still about the magical response – but Kai wore her down with relentless logic, and eventually she gave up and projected out of her body. It took only moments to fly around and approach the bowl from the other side, and she carefully and slowly examined the entire area, looking for any astral presence or effects.
Nothing.
She drifted down closer, examining the scene cautiously, spending as much time on the surroundings and checking behind her as she did to the front. Eventually though she got low enough and round behind the craft to spot the low force ward stretched across the back of the ramp, neatly covering the opening. She stared at the rippling barrier, assessing how powerful it was, and then realising she could see though it if she concentrated on the action. The ward was pretty low in power, and was more like looking at something through a piece of bullseye glass – distorting and confusing rather than blinding her sight. But that also meant it was low enough in power that she might be able to slip through it.
She approached, slowly, carefully, constantly looking around her. The brush with the vile blood spirit had unsettled her, its' sickening form and aura shaking her to her core. She had encountered pettiness, jealousy, greed and bullying in her long walk south from her homeland. But what she had felt from the mage and his spirit was a sense of palpable evil. And if one of them was in league with these creatures, it stood to reason that more could, or would be. So she moved slowly and carefully, ready to flee at a moment's notice.
As she reached the ward she stopped and studied it carefully, watching the subtle weave of magic stretching across the opening. As she concentrated she could make out the patterns in the pulses of magic, the motes of mana forming the complex web stretching from side to side that would prevent active magic cross their plane. At least stopping anything that wasn't perfectly aligned…she twisted – as much in her mind as physically – and slid through a gap in the weft, stretching the barrier around her. The barrier resisted, quivering, but then parted and slid over her astral form as she wiggled through to the inside.
Once clear of the barrier, she could look around. Other than being smaller, it felt just like the inside of the chopper – grey complex shapes, the deadness of man-made matter, things with no soul or life. She recognised seats certainly, and pipes. Things that looked like harnesses perhaps. The rest was too confusing, and from astral space was just dead matter. If she manifested for a moment, she could see it as if with her "real" eyes – but anyone alive in there would be able to see her too, so she refrained.
At the head of the compartment was one man, working intently on some equipment. Behind him, through a narrow opening into the cockpit was another, also working hard. She studied their auras for a moment, seeing the blackness inside them where parts of their body had been replaced by machines and robotics, and gave a familiar little shudder as she contemplated that being done to her.
She spent another minute watching them, listening as they carried on a conversation in a language she didn't recognise – though she tried to memorise some words to relay to the others. Once she was convinced that there was nobody else aboard, and no magical threats or entities, she sleazed her way back through the ward on the ramp, emerging back outside as smoothly as when she'd entered. She was glad that she'd spent time studying the mysteries of Elk so carefully – certainly his teachings had aided her with worming her way through the defences. She flicked away from the tilt-wing in a random direction, then stopped and looked around, heading off three more times for quick hops and checking her trail to be sure she wasn't being followed, before heading back to the team.
She stirred, and found the rest of them waiting for her, looking a little concerned. It had taken her a while to do her recon, and Shimazu was watching her carefully, hand on his sword hilt…just in case.
"Don't worry, it's me. I was just careful, that's all. Thanks Aswon." She accepted the canteen and had a small gulp of water. "There's a low force ward covering the back ramp, set to remain in place even when it's open – just like we have. Had." She winced as she said it, and watched Marius clench his jaw and take a deep breath.
"There's two of them in there. They looked just like Marius."
"What? German?" Marius gave Hunter a glare, but as usual the look washed off the big ork's thick skin.
"No – they had implants in all the same sort of places. Big black lumps in the back of the head, and a trail of things down the spine, branching out all over. And both of them had their eyes replaced, along with some other bits in their head."
"Sounds like riggers – gone for the full upgrade modifications with lots of sensor ware. Not uncommon."
"They were speaking a language I didn't understand. It sounded like 'La calibración del sensor está completa, todo se ve bien'. I think that's right anyway.
"Spanish." Hunter stopped smirking. "Certainly ties in with the thoughts about Aztechnology. Still the main language over there as far as I know."
"So, a low power ward. Two guards. I think we can handle that." Kai gestured to the map, showing Tads what they'd been looking at while she was out of her body. It looked like the spiny ridge to the south of the landing area lead down to a deeper valley, and with careful manoeuvring they would be able to get to within about six hundred metres of the tilt-wing without being exposed – in fact they'd have the cover of thousands of tons of sand and rock. After that, they were walking across a flat and exposed killing ground though.
"I don't think I can carry more than two invisibility spells at the same time – just to warn you. Also – do we have stun grenades? Or things you can throw in to take out the crew without hurting the plane?" Marius, Hunter and Aswon all shook their heads, and nobody else admitted they had anything like that either. "They said they wanted Marius for something, and they seemed to know about Hunter. And they definitely have deals with bad spirits. But if we take their craft – how much does that escalate things? Are they going to see this as a declaration of war?"
"Should have thought of that before they started this. If they didn't want us to kick off, they should have been nicer." That was the thing about Aswon. Once he'd made up his mind, they could rely on him to be direct, open and honest – no matter who it upset. Or, in this case, gave them a clear indication of how he felt about things.
"I agree with Aswon. But, we still don't know for sure who we're dealing with. Let's just look at that sensor footage again please, Marius." Kai waited for the images to appear on the screen, then worked through them one by one. It was still difficult to establish what they were armed with exactly, but various members of the team identified weapons that certainly looked to be designs from Aztechnology, or licenced by someone from them. It wasn't damning, but it was certainly leaning that way, it seemed.
"Just to confirm, Tads – other than the ward on the entrance, you didn't see anything magical in there at all?" She shook her head, and Marius smiled. Technology was just fine with him – if the craft had a transponder, he could deal with that sooner or later. As long as the mumbo-jumbo was kept out of his way, at least. "Oh, just one thing though – if we do assault them, then we should take the crew – alive."
"I've got no issue with that," Kai cocked his head to one side. "Though I am surprised. These people are part of the organisation that trashed the chopper. I would have expected something a little more permanent from you."
"Tempted as I am to wreak bloody vengeance upon them, they're probably just pilots doing what they've been old. Not people making the decisions. But it's also the level of investment. IF – and it's a big if, we manage to get a deal sorted out with these people, we could return the tilt-wing and they get back the millions of Nuyen it represents. If we've killed the pilots though, then that resource is gone. Each of them, between their cyberware and their training, operational experience and institutional knowledge could be worth just as much as the aircraft. Killing them is a big line to cross. They're not just grunts."
"It might also cause political damage to the mage. If he was in charge of the operation, and his failure is reported back by these people, it might harm his standing. That might be important." Aswon threw into the conversation. "Oh, and Hunter, you said they were speaking Spanish. Can you teach Kai a few words, something he can use the voice of doom on?"
"Sure, I guess. What do you want me to teach him? And let's keep it simple – we all remember his efforts in Russian and the missile."
"Hey! I was learning!"
"How about 'On your knees!' That's nice and simple.
"Yeah, that's an easy one. 'De rodillas!' Nice and easy."
They saddled up, and started to follow the new route, heading down the bottom of the dunes and snaking back and forth to close on the tilt-wing, working hard to stay out of line of sight. Marius was rummaging around, making sure that his jammer was ready and the batteries charged, and checking out his toolkit to make sure he was ready to strip down the aircraft as far as needed to get at the transponder and any other tracking devices.
"Right then, gang. We get as close as we can to the aircraft and park up, then approach under cover of invisibility and spirits if we can. We storm the vehicle, using tasers and stun grenades, capture the crew, rip out the transponder, load the jeep in and then fly off into the sunset. Any questions?" Nobody said anything, although they all looked slightly doubtful that it would go quite that smoothly.
"Then let's get ready to steal us a new plane."