They woke to another clear day in the Libyan desert. It was cold, though warming rapidly as the sun rose over the dunes and rocks to the east, and the little moisture that had condensed from their breath onto the cold metal skin of the chopper quickly evaporated. Once the first person had risen to attend to their needs and grab a drink to parch their thirst, the rest started to rouse from a combination of noise and sense of movement.
A small mound in the desert suddenly rose, sand shedding from the top to reveal the slender wiry frame of Aswon. He shook himself to get rid of the sand cascading off the camouflage netting, then headed down to meet them from his observation spot. As usual, he looked remarkably chipper for someone who had only had a couple of hours cat-nap, and he got several poisonous looks from the others who had not had a good night of sleep.
Hot drinks, breakfast and the warming rays of the sun did buoy the mood somewhat – all apart from Marius who sat broodily, staring into his coffee cup. Kai kicked sand at his feet, and when Marius looked up, he just raised an eyebrow at him.
"I don't think you appreciate just what a crap situation we're in. We're stuck in the dessert, with only one working vehicle – and that vehicle isn't big enough for the whole team, let alone our cargo. Our primary craft is disabled, and more than likely is a write off. I've been thinking about the damage, and I just don't see what we can do to fix this."
"How so? I mean, sure, the end fell off, but it's not that bad is it?" Kai asked.
"Fell off? FELL OFF? It got blown off by a missile launched from a jet fighter! See!" Marius pointed at the cone of metal shards and fragments that still littered the dunes to the east. "Bits of MY helicopter are now strewn across the desert, and then the bastard nearly sawed the fuselage in half! Most of the control lines and half the hydraulics are shot, we've lost sixty percent of hydraulic fluid so even if we could get the hoses fixed, we've got no pressure. Structural members have been shot through in at least six places, and could warp or twist when we try to get airborne. The power surge when the missile hit took out eighty percent of the avionics and we need all the modules replacing – they're not field-serviceable. The engine looks ok, but might have microfractures and really needs to be taken apart and then rebuilt after a thorough check, and the gearbox probably has spalled fragments floating around in the oil that are going to grind the gears and could wreck the transmission."
Kai opened his mouth to speak, but Marius shook a finger at him, determined to finish his rant.
"And to top it all off, three of the rotors have got pits, scores and cracks in them where they got hit with debris. Do you know what happens to a high tensile carbon-laminated single piece forged frame with composite cover rotor hits a rock in flight while it's doing three hundred revolutions per minute when it's cracked? It explodes. EXPLODES. Causing a chain reaction to the other blades. And then the helicopter becomes a brick, and we all plummet to our deaths. That's if the explosion doesn't wreck the chopper and set the fuel tanks off. Which by the way, were also punctured and are down to thirty percent. So now do you understand just how appallingly FUCKED we are? Oh, and of course the main thing that we need to take into account is that we have no tail rotor. Without that, we can't fly. Just not a thing."
"Um. The wheels still work right? Could we tow it with the UAZ? Is it strong enough? I mean, I know it would be slow, but could we at least do something with it?" Tads' voice was hesitant, not wanting to get her head bitten off by a clearly-upset Marius. Instead though, he cocked his head, staring off into space, while he tried to work the maths out and see if it was possible.
"Theoretically – it might be possible. That's the thing with wheels, they do allow you to shift remarkably heavy loads. The main problem is the density of the sand and how much we'll sink. The other issue is the structure of the chopper – we'd be putting a lot of pressure on a single place, and without some shoring up, I'd be worried that we'd just snap off the nose landing gear or the front of the cockpit, depending on where we were towing from."
"Oh. I guess that's not going to happen then."
"Could you… do that thing where you make it float?"
"I doubt it – how much does it weigh? I can do a load about a person's weight without much of a problem. The heavier it gets, the tougher it would be."
"With all the gear on board, but minus the parts that have been blown away – maybe twenty-five thousand kilos?"
"No."
"But what…"
"No. Not without my head exploding. And as you just pointed out, things exploding are bad. It's not even remotely possible."
"Without making it float, I think we can't make it roll. Like you said Marius, the sand is too soft, and the wheels sink too much. Look, it's already up to about the depth of the tyre anyway. Maybe if you used duck boards or something, we could roll along those. It'd be slow going, but might be possible…" Hunter looked around, wondering if they could use bits of skin or maybe the damaged rotors to make something for the wheels to roll along, spreading the weight of the chopper out and stopping it from digging itself deep into the fine powdery sand.
"Let's look at this a different way then. How far do we need to go to get repairs? Where is the closest place we're likely to find that could help us out?" Kai looked around the group for answers.
"Probably the place on the coast we stopped – there was a big hanger there next to the building, and there could be a workshop of some sorts there. Or at least a comms link to call for help. Beyond that, perhaps over the border into Egypt somewhere?" While Marius spoke, Hunter was already checking their position and the map.
"Just over a hundred and fifty kilometres I think, straight line."
"So between a hundred and fifty and two hundred if we sent someone in the jeep to get help, accounting for rocks, cliffs, wadis and other landscape features then." Aswon added.
"So – we're talking half a day to drive it, but we can make it probably no problem. Depending on who we take and what we do with the cargo. And we probably have enough fuel for two trips. Hmm." Kai considered for a moment, then turned to Tads. "How long will it take you to get there out of your body? And is it safe, this close to the crater?"
"Probably no more than a few seconds, and yes – it's not pleasant, but it should be safe enough from the crater. There's no telling what spirits or astral nasties might be lurking around though."
"So you could get over there and find out what gear they have, and what they could do for us in terms of repairs, yes?"
"I'm not sure. I don't know what most of the tools do, and in astral space they all just look like grey blobs – lifeless, without any astral form. I can manifest, but then I can be seen by people, and in this part of the world, they can be a bit twitchy." Marius stirred his coffee, then looked over to Tads.
"I can sketch out the key tools we would need to try and fix some of the major damage and key systems. If we can't fix those, it doesn't matter what other tools we have, we're still in a bind. And one thing you haven't mentioned so far, Kai, is how do we afford this? Do you know how much that chopper was worth?"
"And if we do get it fixed, nothing personal Marius" Hunter lightly touched him on the shoulder, "do we want to? Is it like a car where no matter how well it's done, you don't want the front end of one car welded to the back end of another, because it's never going to be quite right?"
"We'll find a way. Don't worry. Things have a habit of working out. Couple of months ago we were in a cage, cold and damp, only the clothes on our back. This is a setback, but nothing more." Various of the team snorted, but Kai did have a point in some respects – they were still better off than they had been. Of course, that still didn't mean they were doing great. "One other thing – do we have a radio still, or some communications?"
Marius didn't answer, but got up from his seat and headed into the chopper. In the frantic efforts to put out the fires, he'd just hit all the master breakers on the flight officer's panel, knocking fuses and breakers everywhere. It took him a few minutes, but he slowly and carefully worked through the panel, isolating pathways and junctions he knew to be bad, and then reconnecting parts. As he plugged in the last of the breakers, he saw about a quarter of the panel light up – gauges came online and flickered wildly for a moment, before settling down, and warning lights and buzzers sounded. He did a quick check, and was somewhat surprised to find his pocket buzzing. From the sounds of surprise outside, a few of the others had found the same thing.
He hunted across the panel and then saw that the power amplifier had turned on when the power was restored, and was feeding into the communications array. With the additional power the array was picking up a vague signal from somewhere to the east – possibly over towards Egypt, and was downloading messages from the matrix servers along with voicemails and probably no small amount of junk – the perils of life in a computerised world. He finished his checks on the panel, and then saw that the comms array had finished downloading, and was now just showing a tiny trickle of data. He pulled the switches to isolate the batteries and shut down the systems that were still working, before heading back outside.
"Kai, yes we have comms – at least for a while. The batteries took a bit of a hammering, but that's in line with everything else. We have radio communications, as I think you've found, for at least a few hours. Battery set A has about eight Amps, set B has two Amps. That's not a lot for craft operation, but if we're careful it'll last us a while."
"Can we charge them up again?"
"I'm not sure, Aswon. We can probably use the SunCell system from the drone to feed into the batteries – but if we do, we're not charging the drone and that severely limits the lifespan. We can swap it around a bit depending on what we're doing. But to a certain extent yes, we can keep the small stuff charged up, as long as the weather holds and we don't get a sandstorm.
Shimazu, unnoticed by the rest, was intently reading his screen. Included in the download received when the communications array was powered up was the course prospectus promised to him by the Professor. It included a breakdown of the thirteen week courses on offer at various levels and the costs for studying at the university, along with notes about evening courses and one-to-one sessions. Having nothing much to contribute to the discussion about the repairs, he settled back and sipped at his drink, slowly working through the material and working out the costs involved.
"So Tads – when you've had a look around the fuel stop, can you also have a look around this area for people?"
"Yes Kai – but I'll do it as a separate trip. There and back, then report what I've found – then while you're talking about that, I'll go and have a look around." With that she projected out of her body and flicked across the desert to the north, heading for the coast and looking for the bay and the short runway they has landed near. It wasn't hard to find, a mass of dull grey in astral space, the clear marker of mans' work. She headed down and checked out the hanger carefully, finally risking a poke inside it. It didn't appear to be warded at all, so she poked all the way through and had a quick look around – no life signs, no astral entities, no alarms… just lots of grey blobs everywhere.
She headed to the top of one of the walls and manifested, her ghostly form appearing in the dark patch created by the shadow of a large roof beam. Still she couldn't see anyone, but now with her more normal vision, she could make out several rows of sturdy looking industrial shelving, covered in boxes of parts, tools, equipment and supplies. With another look around to double check that there was nobody around, she headed down and started to fly around the shelves, examining boxes and looking at the part names and supplies.
She flitted back to the team, and started trying to describe the things she'd seen along with the lack of life there, before realising she wasn't being at all efficient. She asked Marius for permission, and then cast her spell upon him, linking their minds together and allowing them to communicate almost instantly. She thought back to her entry, and then played through her memories of the event, relaying the picture to Marius in her mind, letting him see what she had seen, and thinking hard about everything she had witnessed there, trying to make sure she got all the details. When she was done, she dropped the spell, and then went straight upwards, before starting a search of the area for other living beings. Marius blinked as he assimilated the knowledge shared with him, then began to describe it to the rest of the team.
"Right, they have a shunt vehicle – something powerful enough to move aircraft around on the taxiway when they have no power themselves – it could tow us, but it's designed to drive on concrete or other smooth surfaces, and it's slow, so I think we can discount that for the moment. They have a reasonable stock of equipment – certainly there's wires, cables, basic tooling, avionics systems, barrels of hydraulic fluid and things like that."
"From the looks of what Tads saw, they have a variety of components – seals, gaskets, pumps, filters – all the standard kind of stuff that needs to be replaced and might be common across a range of vehicles… looks like they can do a basic service on a fair range of choppers and tilt wings – at least the modern ones. There's an A-frame, and an inspection pit, but not really any major rebuild equipment. It looks like we could do some of the basics, but we'd have to get a lot of stuff bought in. Best we could probably do is get the airframe there and under cover to keep the sand out and stop it deteriorating."
Tads returned to her body and sat up, then looked around. The others fell silent, waiting for her to speak.
"Nothing around, no life signs, not human, animal or paracritters. Just miles of empty desert." Tads didn't bother mentioning the mouse she'd seen, or what looked like a snake – clearly they weren't really relevant, and weren't like a rock worm or some other critter that could actually cause them harm.
"Right then," Kai bought his hands down firmly on his thighs with a loud slap. "First priority, all of us. Then the drones. The pair of scorpions. Last of all, anything else. Let's see what we can do in terms of getting stuff into the UAZ. It doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to last the four hours or so it will take us to get to the coast. While we're gone – what do we do with the chopper? You said about keeping it out of the sand?" Kai looked around somewhat sceptically.
"Obviously we can't keep it entirely out of the sand – but what we're talking about is making sure that the sand doesn't get in to absolutely everything. So we tape over the bullet holes into the fuel tank, because sand in there is going to be a killer. We seal up the end of the hydraulics the same, along with any control runs. Get the cammo netting over the fuselage and stake that out, then a layer of plastic over the top – so the netting takes the weight, but the plastic keeps the sand out if the wind gets up. I mean, a sandstorm is either going to bury the chopper, or leave it high on a mound, but there's nothing we can do about that, is there?"
"Just putting this out there… the chopper looks pretty trashed. Is it worth more as parts at this point? I mean, if we took the engine and other stuff that's still ok – and sold those, does that get us closer to replacing it with something else new or second hand?" Aswon gestured to the gaping chasm at the rear of the craft. "Fixing that just isn't going to be cheap, is it – that's a complete rebuild."
"Well, like you said the two engines are pretty expensive. As is the gearbox. Two of the rotors are fine, and they're very specialist bits of kit – made all in one go for strength. The avionics system and instrument modules are snap in components mostly. But we're talking days if not weeks of work to do this, and how would you move them?"
"Well, let's say we got to the shore and the fuel stop, and we then have fuel for the jeep. Could we start working shifts and doing runs back and forth, and moving them to the shore to deal with? I'm just trying to find out if it's feasible, not if we should actually do it. Does it make sense to consider doing multiple trips? After all, even if someone finds it here, they're very unlikely to have the tools or ability to take it away either, are they?"
Marius shrugged, then sat back with a tablet in his hands and started to work out a priority order for components and approximate values, evaluating if this was likely to be a better fate for the chopper. Aswon grabbed his rifle and pointed back towards the ridge that he'd been camped out on, and with his cammo netting and supplies in tow, went to his observation point. While he was doing that, Tads went to check on the scorpions and threw some supplies into the pen. They hadn't tested the barrier yet, and she saw the sand stir a little, so at least one of them was still alive in there. As she came out of the cargo area, she pointed a finger at Hunter.
"And you – when was the last time you went to sit in the jeep for a minute? Yeah, just what I thought. In you go." She watched as Hunter made a face, but he rolled to his feed and headed for the jeep and climbed into the passenger seat, pulling all the doors closed around him. Tads quickly checked around the outside, confirming that the ward was still up, and she couldn't see in without making a deliberate effort. At least by doing that, any attempts that might have been ongoing should have been wrecked.
"Everyone, stand by. Astral observer, couple of hundred metres up, directly above you." Aswon's voice cut through the camp chatter immediately, and they all looked around – talented and mundane alike.
Over on the ridge line, Aswon peered at the figure though his scope. The precision optics on his rifle were ideal for this – finely crafted glass lenses and exotic gasses, assembled by the hands of a precision process and skilled worker. It gave a fantastic picture – but most importantly had not the slightest jot of electronic or electrical activity going on in it. Which meant, as it was entirely natural, Aswon could astrally perceive though it and see astral beings and effects from a far greater range. If it had been an electronic scope, he could have had rangefinders, bearings, all kinds of swish analytical tools – but it wouldn't have been worth spit, as it would have shut down his astral vision entirely.
Not that Aswon was thinking about that now – he was looking at the floating man looking down at the camp with apparent interest. He was medium-size and build, wearing robes that screamed "mage" – as if being a ghostly and ethereal presence in the desert wasn't a giveaway already. He didn't show up in astral space as magically active at all – but that wasn't unusual. Many schools of magic or societies taught advanced techniques for hiding or masking a mages appearance to astral viewers, helping keep your talents safe from casual observation. Aswon himself knew the techniques to appear normal to a casual glance – but those skills were not foolproof. To one that could hide, the skills could also be used to pierce the veil of magic used to cloak another. Most often using the techniques would create a ripple or astral draft and the target would know they had been rumbled – but Aswon figured it was worth a shot.
He concentrated, his breathing slow and steady as the tracked the target through the rifle scope. The mundane weapon could not affect the apparition of course, but it was a comforting presence in his hands. He tried to peel back the layers of magic, to slip like a thief in the night through the protective layers overlaid around the mage's presence.
He got nothing. He'd seen him, and was confident in his own abilities. But still, as far as he could determine, the floating spectral body was completely non-magical.
"Guys, this could be a problem. He's more powerful than me – I've just got a real good look at him and I can't get through his masking. He's strong – be careful!"
Tads and Shimazu both looked up, extending their senses into the astral as well and saw the figure. As he came closer, they realised the proportions were very distinct – apparently he either was, or was affecting, the body form of a dwarf. His deep blue robes were covered in arcane sigils, embroidered or printed in a lustrous gold colour. As the figure slowly rotated to survey the camp they saw that the face was clean shaven, but there was a large blood stained bandage over the left eye, nose and cheek, wrapping around the head. A big blood splot had soaked through the bandage, giving the figure a lopsided eye of moist crimson. As they took in the appearance, it didn't remind them of any particular school or style of magic, nor of a corporation or even a university or other facility.
Tads copied the efforts that Aswon had made only moments ago, with the same success. As far as she could determine, he was completely mundane – which she knew to be a lie as his astral body descended. The only explanation was that he was significantly more powerful than she was. The astral ghost-like form stopped about twenty metres above them, then slowly manifested in the air, becoming visible to Hunter and Marius too. The figure spoke, his voice deep and resonant, carrying easily across the intervening distance.
"I'm looking for Herr Schmidt. Schmidt? No! Herr Shroeder! Yes, Herr Shroeder. Is that one of you?"
They all froze, trying hard not to glance toward Marius and give the game away. Marius in turn looked at the figure with some confusion – not recognising him at all, in any way. He decided to engage with the figure, and try to draw some information out of him. Dropping into his native German, he called out to the man.
"Ich bin Herr Shroeder. Kann ich Sie helfen?" The figure looked down at him, but didn't appear to comprehend the words, so he swapped back to English. "I'm Herr Shroeder. Can I help you?"
"Ahh wonderful. I'm so glad to see you alive, and well. I feared for the worst when I learnt of the attack." Marius still had no idea who the man was or what he was after, so he waited, trying to draw him out and give some kind of explanation. "You have something we need, you see. If you had been wounded, or worst yet killed – well, that would have been awful. Devastating. But it is good, and you are alive and well!"
"I've got something you need?" Marius looked around at the others, confusion across his face. He glanced into the chopper, wondering if perhaps some part of it was made of gold, diamonds or unicorn hair and nobody had noticed up until now.
Hunter had been listening carefully, head cocked to one side whilst his hands rested lightly on his assault rifle. As he listened to the apparition speak, it clicked in his head what was wrong, and he activated his comm to send a message.
"This guy is definitely not German, but I'd also put good money on that he's not European. His use of language is all wrong, and he's having difficulty with certain phenomes. Some of the sounds are clearly not natural to his language roots, and he's struggling a little. I can't pin down where he's from yet, but he's not from anywhere within a couple of thousand miles, I'd bet money on." Marius nodded slightly as he received the message, then turned his face upwards again.
"So this thing we have that you want? What is it? Is it valuable?"
"Valuable? Oh my, it's priceless! Absolutely priceless, my friend. That's why it's so important to find you and make sure you're well. You see the pilot was only supposed to make sure you stayed on the ground. When we reviewed his report, I feared we were going to have to deal with him."
Despite the cheery expression on the stranger's face, the emotion leeched out as he reached the end of the sentence, and the team felt a little shudder. The tone of voice indicated that a stern talking to wasn't what he meant at all. Shimazu detected the edge of megalomania in the voice, the demand of power and the desire to wield total authority, and wondered what kind of sick psychopath he was dealing with for a moment. Then he remembered he was working as either a smuggler or shadowrunner, which meant in both cases dealing with the scum of the earth.
"Is someone coming to help us?" Marius asked.
"Well, don't you worry. Someone is on the way, and soon we'll have you some transport away from this place. Soon – very soon." It wasn't lost on anyone that he'd not quite answered the question they'd asked.
"Well, I kind of need to know what you want, whoever you are."
"No, no you don't. You just wait here, and as long as you're well, it's all fine." The figure looked around the group, counting heads, and apparently coming up short. He turned on the spot, surveying the desert and then aimed in the general direction of Aswon and peered into the distance.
"Marius – do you know what he wants?" Tads whispered. Marius shook his head, and the confusion on his face was clear to see.
"So, we have Herr Shroeder of course. Then Mr. Webb here." He looked down at Hunter, who froze, his face an expressionless mask. "Then we have the bodyguard, the witch and the negotiator." He gestured at Tads, Shimazu and Kai. As Tads was named, she bristled and a stubborn look crossed her face, followed a moment later by her hands dropping to her hips. "So that would make that one the rifleman. Are you going to get him to come in, or should I go out to meet him?"
"I don't know what it is this guy wants. Genuinely I have no idea. Never met him before, and not the faintest clue where he is from or who he is. Oh, and he's spotted you Aswon, just so you know." Marius sent the message out over his commlink, direct from the router implanted in his cerebrum. As far as he knew, that means the astral visitor couldn't pick him up at all – just like with the optical elements of the scope not blocking astral powers, him using electronic means of communication made it completely unavailable to any form of magical eavesdropping.
"Better manners would be a good start," stated Tads, still staring at the figure and giving him the evil eye. "I am NOT a witch." She glared at him, and his continued ignorance of her existence only made her feel more irritated.
"Do you think he works for Saeder Krupp, Marius?" Hunter checked over the robes once more, looking for any kind of logo or identifying marks.
"Probably not. That doesn't mean he won't sell Marius back to them!" Aswon had stood and was striding down the dune back towards the wrecked chopper, his rifle in one hand, the spear in the other. Marius had a sudden thought, and sent another electronic message out.
"Interesting though that he named myself and by the looks of things, Hunter – but not any of the rest of you." The team considered this for a moment.
"He called you Mr Webb. Is that a name you'll admit to having meaning, Hunter? And does that make him from Zeta-Imp-Chem?" Tads asked the question, but as she expected, Hunter didn't answer her. From the set of his shoulders though, he looked uncomfortable with the situation for sure.
As Aswon approached the chopper, the astral stranger turned to examine him. Both Kai and Shimazu saw the sudden change in demeanour, like a sudden surge in his aura. Clearly something had evoked a strong emotion within him.
"What do you have there? Give that to me! NOW!" The dwarf's eye fixed upon the spear, and his eyes were wide. For the first time they saw some emotion upon his face, and his tongue came out to lick his lips. They were all reminded of a child salivating at the sight of a proffered ice cream, naked desire across their face.
"It's mine. No. And FRAK OFF, in that order," Aswon said firmly. He lifted the rifle and let the sling drop over his shoulder and head so he could release the rifle and let it fall to sit diagonally across his torso – and hold the spear firmly in two hands. Ignoring the sudden outburst, Marius sent another message.
"It really shouldn't be anything to do with Saeder-Krupp. I did used to work for them, but our chopper was taken down, and we crashed. The rest of the team were killed in the impact, or died shortly afterwards, and I was captured and taken to those cages where we all met up. I saw it as a way to get away from the company and set off on my own – but I didn't do anything to upset them, and I've not crossed anyone, so I can't think of anyone who would want to chase me?" The electronic delivery stripped away any emotional cadence or context, but they could see from his body language that he was still very confused.
The apparition, meanwhile, had been slowly examining the spear held in Aswon's hand, though they all noticed he'd not got close enough to be anywhere in reach – in fact he'd backed off a little, clearly having pegged Aswon as a physical adept and was probably worried in case he showed a propensity towards being able to jump stupendous distances – a common manifestation of their abilities.
"You, all of you, stay here. We'll be along soon enough. Then we'll talk more in a better-controlled environment, I think. Yes." He made a small gesture, not quite a clicking of the thumb and first finger, and another shape appeared next to him in astral space. It was vaguely humanoid, but was slender and twisted. The entire figure was naked, and covered in a blood-red leathery-looking skin. Large wings sprouted from the shoulder blades, spreading out like a bat, with long sharp claws at the ends of each. Each of the arms ended in a vestigial hand, but there was nothing small about the wicked-looking barbs and claws from the ends of the tiny malformed fingers. The face was just as repulsive and primitive, with a large curved beak protruding from the face, framed by the tiny beaded black eyes that stared down. Drops of blood could be seen trickling down the arms and wings, the legs and beak, dropping off the astral body and falling away, landing with a small puff of smoke as they hit the living earth. "Make sure they stay here," the mage told the spirit, then abruptly turned and sped off to the west.
Aswon watched him go, counting to himself under his breath and trying to gauge the distances as best he could. The rapidity with which the form disappeared confirmed his earlier fears.
"Crap. He's fast – and that means he really is pretty powerful. I'm guessing he's at least two to three times more potent than you are Tads, based on how fast he's just flown off. That's not good, not good at all." Aswon realised that his comment at the end wasn't going to be one of the most surprising statements of the day.
"How has he managed to get to me through Hunter, though?" Marius mused, still clearly trying to work out what was going on. "I mean, Hunter got spotted, we think, because of that video of the fight going viral and landing in the wrong place. But I wasn't even there. I was back in our cave, getting geared up to deal with those pricks in the hovercraft." As he said the last, Tads jerked around to look at him, then her eyes turned back to the awful spirit which sat watching them, astral blood continuing to exude from its body and drip to the ground.
"Oh, that's pretty easy to explain, I think." Shimazu had watched the spirit for a moment, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, but when it had taken no action, neither did he. "Once they had Hunter's face from the video they probably did some facial matching and pattern scanning, looking for where else he'd cropped up. Border checkpoints, shops, town centres, public buildings. And I would imagine that in at least several of those, at least some of us have cropped up several times."
He scratched the side of his nose and shrugged. It always amazed him a little how people didn't understand this, and thought about his former life as a bodyguard, where he'd used this kind of technology and procedures to try and keep his principals safe.
"Once you have a couple more faces, you throw them in to your filters as 'known accomplices' and though that slows the search a little, you get a lot more hits. Then it's down to human checking – though some of the new software coming out is a lot better apparently.
"Semi-autonomous knowbots?" Marius asked
"Um – I'm not sure. I think that sounds like what the marketing guy was talking about. But they're not bad at finding stuff. But yeah, once you have a few more faces to find, it starts picking up more shots, and then you can find pictures of the initial search at bad or funny angles, just a leg in frame but wearing the right clothes, or the proportions of the body from the back are right, that kind of thing."
The others listened – it wasn't often that Shimazu spoke this much, and it was a novel experience – even with the unearthly spirit hovering to the side. It didn't seem to care too much about them as long as they were standing still and not doing anything, just floating there about six metres above them.
"So once you have the principal target locked in, and a bunch of known accomplices then you can start working out incidentals like arms and armour, favoured walking formations, what kind of restaurants or shops they favour. Then you can refine your search and plan some targeted data store raids based on that to get better shots, close-ups from internal cameras, that kind of thing. I mean, all of this is quite intensive, and takes a lot of resources, but if you're a 'person of interest' for some reason, then a corporation has resources for this. You just need a higher priority or tasking than the guy who works in the next cubicle. But yeah, if they started with Hunter, it'd be quite quick for them to find Marius, I think, based on how often we've been seen as a group."
Tads meanwhile had been staring at the spirit with a certain amount of revulsion, and thinking back. What Marius had said triggered some memories that she had deliberately tried not to think about much – but as she examined the creature, she did get that sense of palpable evil, just like she had from the mage at the fighting pit. Was this blood magic?
"Well, screw that guy then, and screw staying here. I'm going to go and strip the heavy from the front of the chopper. We're not leaving that behind, we might need it." Marius turned and headed for the chopper, grabbing a toolbox as he started to move. Hunter followed him towards the chopper, to help him lift the heavy gun out of position. Above him the spirit gave a dry rasping hiss, and the wings spread and fluttered, the head snaking round to follow their movement. The hiss rose in pitch and the creature shook itself, small droplets of blood flying off in every direction.
Aswon activated the spear, speaking the words of power designed to rouse it from its slumber. The magical aura around it intensified, and it quivered slightly in his grasp. He spared a moment from watching the spirit above them to check out the aura – it still felt hungry and plucked at his soul, trying to feed off it, but he rebuffed the questing tendrils of mana. But it didn't seem to be any different in the presence of the spirit. As he refocussed on the spirit, he was struck by the similarity to legends of dark times spoken about by his tribal shaman back home, and made a small warding gesture to guard him against evil. A few steps away he heard Shimazu saying something in Japanese, and the cadence made it sound like a prayer.
Wondering if she was going to regret it, Tads steeled herself for what was to come, and then stared at the creature, deliberately trying to assense it and strip through any protective magics wrapped around it. The sense of malevolence washed over her, making her shudder and squirm, but she persisted, fighting though the aura to examine the creature at the core. Echoes of pain and suffering washed over her, and she was left in no doubt that this creature was evil through and through. For a moment, no more than a heartbeat, she saw it clearly, though. Inside the winged demonic creature, at the core of its being, was a body.
The body was stretched out in a cruciform shape, a tortured soul, the body pierced cruelly with spikes. And in the centre of the abdomen, some kind of funnel or spigot had been thrust through the fresh, and steady trickle of blood poured forth. It was like the creature trapped within was feeding the nightmarish construct without. The idea sickened and revolted her – this was far from a natural parasite, feeding upon a host. This was a constructed thing, designed by an intelligent mind to cause suffering of another in a horrific manner.
Her examination was disrupted as the creature gave a hoarse and piercing shriek, letting out a bellow of pain and rage. Each of them were struck with the effect, staggering a pace as it hit them, expanding out around the creature in a sphere of power. Nightmarish screams echoed through their minds, bringing back childhood fears and insecurities.
"Oh shut up!" Kai's voice echoed with power of a different kind, and the scream abruptly stopped. The creature looked at him, and even on its primitive and leathery face, the confusion could be seen. Echoes of the power he'd used continued to roll around the astral plane for a moment before dissipating on the wind. In the chopper, Marius and Hunter continued their motion forward towards the nose turret of the chopper, and Shimazu dropped his hand back down to the hilt of his sword, fingers grasping the hilt gently as he stared at the beaked face. Aswon resumed his two handed grip on his spear, steeling himself for what was sure to degenerate into a physical confrontation.
Any
Moment
Now.
The creature spied Hunter through one of the holes in the chopper, and seemed to focus its attention on him for a moment. Hunter froze still, and then began to slowly raise his assault rifle, aiming it straight at Marius.
"Lookout! It's dominated his mind!" screamed Tads, as she started to gather mana to her ready to attack. Marius turned and saw Hunter raising the weapon towards him. At this range he simply couldn't miss, and it was likely that he had his standard ammunition loaded – tungsten cored Teflon coated penetrators. At this range they'd slide through his armour like it wasn't there, and probably cut him in half. There was only one thing for it…
Marius lowered his head and rushed him, spreading his arms wide and trying to get inside his weapon arc. He contacted the burly ork, staggering him back a step and wrapped his arms around the sinewy body, trying to entangle him and keep him from firing. As he did, his mind replayed the look on Hunter's face as he'd charged in. Adrenaline coursed through Marius' body, slowing his perception of time and he saw the myriad ticks and twitches coursing across the face of his companion, as whatever power was compelling him to strike fought for control against his mind. The gun had raised upwards with a robotic smoothness though, probably the result of muscle memory, found and triggered by the creature outside.
Shimazu felt his body come alive, every muscle responsive, every nerve tingling. As the creature started to twist, time slowed for him too, and without conscious thought he drew the sword from its sheath, swinging it up and twisting his hips around in a fluid motion. The other hand dropped outwards to counter-balance him and then with a tensing of muscled his hips and torso flexed, swinging back the other way. The arm twisted around after it, pulled along and then with a whip-crack extended out towards the creature. The hand flexed, and the tip of the sword accelerated hard enough through the air that there was an audible noise of the tip cutting through the air. It was a textbook display of form and function, every part of his body flexing to drive the maximum force through his strike and concentrate it in the last handwidth of the sword blade. It was a blow that would have cut a man clean in half.
It struck the creature, and stopped instantly. Force reverberated down the sword, a compression shock wave that almost drove the sword from his hand. It rippled up his arm, jarring joint after joint and making Shimazu gasp in surprise. The creature's hide was unmarked, unblemished, the blow leaving no trace of its impact. Shimazu's eyes widened not only from the after-effects of the attack, but also from clear display of magical power woven in the protection of the creature. A flash of doubt was driven into his mind as he contemplated the ineffectual nature of his attack.
Clearly affronted by the temerity of the puny being attacking it, the creatures head swung down, the curved beak striking down at the top of his head as if to spear the crown of his skull and shatter it. By reflex Shimazu span and bought up the blade to strike at the underside of the creatures elongated neck, but once more his blow just bounced off the leathery hide. It did at least force the creature to rise up and back a metre, giving him space to spin away and return to a guard position.
"Stop! We'll stay!" Tads shouted, her hands out to her companions, trying to convince the creature that they weren't leaving and telling the rest of the team to stay their attacks. Around her mana twisted and tumbled in the air, swirling in a nebulous cloud as she tried to hold onto the power and keep it ready in case her attempt failed.
There was a crunch from the chopper as Hunter struggled with Marius. Despite his desperate attempts to cling on, Hunter peeled first one arm off, then the other, before throwing Marius away with a heave. The German arced through the air and slammed into the electrical panel, hitting hard enough to drive the wind from him. At least with all the breakers thrown, he didn't get electrocuted on top.
Aswon thought for a heatbeat about doing as Tads had said, but the creature certainly didn't seem to be stopping. He let his primal instincts take over, and his lips pulled back to reveal the implanted lion fangs in his jaw. He lunged forwards, striking with the spear from the creature's flanks, the slender shaft rising up to strike near the wing root. Leathery flesh tore open and the spear head slid into the flesh, parting sinew and muscle easily. The magical resistance of the creature's form against mundane weapons were no proof against the enchanted form of the spear, and the spirit twitched reflexively in agony. The spear tip punched through the wing root and out the other side, then ripped back through opening a wider rent as the spirit twisted and scrabbled to pull itself free.
In the chopper Hunter gasped, staggering backwards and his face sagged as the domination of his mind stopped in an instant. He saw Marius sliding down the electrical panel, bruised and winded and thought about what had nearly happened to him, and a cold anger seeped through him. Turning on the spot, he strode towards the side door, a part of his mind sending the mental command to eject the clip while his hand groped in his belt pouch for a clip of regular ammo to slap into the empty magazine well.
Emboldened by his earlier success, Kai tried to use his voice to control or confuse the creature again.
"Summon your master!" he called out, the subtle echoes of power rolling off the words. For whatever reason though, this didn't have the same effect on the creature as his earlier attempt, and it continued its writhing turn, the head snapping around to stare at the tribesman as he recovered from his lunge and got ready to stab again.
Cold, dark, pitiless eyes stared at Aswon. The black eyes were like darkened pools, still and without end, and Aswon felt a feeling of trepidation come over him. The feeling grew, discomfort, alarm, fear. His hands tightened on the spear, trying to use the magical power to shield him against the magical attack, but the feeling of dread continued to intensify until all he could think about was the darkness that seemed to grow and grow, engulfing him in endless night and consumed everything around him. His will quivered, then broke, and he turned and ran blindly into the desert, not caring where he was going, but desperate to be 'away' from the source of the engulfing terror.
Shimazu dropped his sword, and reached to his other hip, swiftly drawing the dagger they had taken from the body of the physical adept that had attacked them back in Turkey when they'd been escorting the golem to its new home. He hadn't bonded the weapon to his soul, hadn't formed a magical link binding the two of them together – but he already knew his sword couldn't pierce the hide of the creature. Perhaps a magical weapon, even one not linked, might do better. He sprang forth and raked the blade down the creature's underbelly, but disappointingly it was much the same – the creature's magical protections turned away the blade and he didn't even leave a mark.
Seeing her friends fighting for their lives or running in terror into the desert galvanised Tads into action. Diplomacy was not going to stop this. She swung her arms forward to frame the creature in-between her hands, and then opened up her magical aura to its, and began to squeeze. It was dangerous, and once the banishing attempt began, it was hard to break off. Whilst she was attacking the creature, it could also attack her, and she didn't know if there were any other tricks up its magical sleeves. She tried to put that out of her mind though, concentrating on ripping the creature apart and scattering the mana that fuelled it back to the metaplanes.
The head snapped back from Aswon to stare at her, and another harsh guttural scream ripped forth from its gullet, sending echoes of pain and misery bouncing off the chopper and the nearby equipment. It tried to resist Tads, dark fingers of magical energy reaching for her and trying to rip her mana away in much the same fashion, but the shaman gritted her teeth and poured her outrage and disgust into her attempt, digging deep into her reserves and blasting away the magic that bound the creature together.
Hunter emerged from the side of the chopper, the magazine slipping in place with a satisfying click and the electronic mechanism smoothly sliding a 5.56mm round into place. The smartlink targeting icon settled smoothly over the creature's neck where it met the body and Hunter tensed his arms and chest.
"Eat shit." He didn't even remember speaking, but his brain remembered the command to fire, and the rounds spat out of the gun. The first round bloomed out of the gun, a small flame splitting into three as it shot out of the venting milled into the top of the barrel. One tenth of a second later, the second round followed the first, the flames of the burning gunpowder driving the round forward and adding a pulse to the first flame just starting to fade from the first round. Another tenth of a second and the third bullet burst forth. Between the heavy barrel of the rifle, the massively hewn shoulders and forearms, the venting of the gas and the recoil absorbing mechanisms built into the stock and firing chamber, the rifle stayed locked on target, bucking like a caged beast but kept under control.
By the time the tenth round had fired, the first had already hit the target, slamming into the skin of the creature. The lead projectile compressed and flattened against the magically enhanced flesh, turning into a mushroom of hot lead, starting to peel away. If it had been a single shot, that would have been the end of it. But the second round impacted almost on top of the first, and gave up its energy into the hot mass of lead from the first. The third and fourth rounds slammed into them, and now a molten puddle of lead sizzled on the hide, burning and digging into the spirit's material form.
More rounds hit, raising the temperature and driving spikes of molten metal into the creature. As Tads continued to rip and flay at the magic that drove the creature, its magical defences were ripped away, layer by layer.
If Hunter had fired a few seconds earlier, his rounds – devastating as they were – would have bounced away as harmlessly as Shimazu's sword had. But it was lessened now, shrunken in size and diminished by her concentrated assault. As round after round slammed into the neck, they overwhelmed the defences entirely, breaking down whatever mystic barrier defended it. The last three rounds struck flesh as if they were shooting a normal target, punching deep into the creatures' gullet and ripping their way through the sinews and cartilage that lay under the leather. The mass of molten lead was sucked into the wounds left by the passage of those last rounds, and the creature writhed in agony as the mass seared its way through. The metal was over 327 degrees Celsius, and when it hit the much colder blood coursing through the body, it generously gave of its energy, raising the blood to boiling point rapidly. Driven by the frantic heart rate of the creature the boiling blood burst vessels all over the body, and the spirit writhed in agony, wings flailing and long neck sagging pathetically as the string of auto fire nearly severed it.
As the creature died, it gave one last primordial scream, and they felt another shockwave of magical power emanate from it, ripping at their psyche. It was weaker though, and desperate, the last throes of a creature that knew it was dying. The body slumped, then dissolved, a mass of blood soaking into the desert and staining an irregular shape nearly three metres across. On the other side of the dune, the terror faded from Aswon's mind and he slowed his panicked run, turning in an arc to head back to the camp.
All around the chopper the team stopped, breathing hard and looking about them for further foes or magical attacks. Shimazu recovered his sword from the ground, while Kai grabbed for his taser and readied himself. Hunter glanced down at the digital ammo counter on the back of the rifle, confirming he still had over seventy percent of the clip loaded.
With a grunt, Marius staggered through the doorway, holding the dismounted heavy machine gun in his quivering arms, a partial belt of ammunition swinging underneath the mechanism. If he'd fired the recoil would have sent the rounds out in a random cone of death and destruction – but from the look on his face, it didn't seem that he'd care that much.
Aswon approached the sticky patch of crimson sand and turned to glare at his spear.
"Look. See. You're supposed to keep me safe from things like that. Then I don't run away, and you can stab it and eat it. Ok? You're supposed to help me kill things like that. Not run away." He glared at the spear, which thankfully gave no response to his outburst of rage. "What is the point of me feeding you part of my soul if you're not going to help me stay in the fight and defeat things like THAT? Eh? What do you have to say for yourself?" It didn't feel any different to him – just as hungry, and desirous of a stronger link to his body. He gave it a shake, just to make his point and show it who was the boss, then stomped off.
Slowly the team relaxed as nothing else happened or appeared and they checked to make sure that nobody was wounded or had any lingering effects.
"Do you think we can leave a message here saying it was self-defence? That we had to react when the spirit decided to attack us?" The rest of the team looked at Tads like she was mad, then shook their heads, putting it down to her witchy ways, the heat, or the after effects of her linking her mind to it during her banishing attempt. Whatever, it was, they didn't have to worry too much about it.
Marius struggled to get the heavy machine gun mounted onto the Doberman drone, giving the armoured chassis some serious stopping power, while Hunter ferried out the ammunition bins, hefting the heavy containers like they were shoe boxes.
"Aswon – can you get out a bit, to a new spot and keep up some overwatch, while we decide what to do about this please?" Aswon raised an acknowledging hand to Kai, and headed off to find a new spot, and Kai motioned for everyone to gather around so they could decide what to do, glancing over to the crimson sand that was all that remained of the blood spirit as he did so.