Aswon was on one side of the food court, Kai on the other and they both watched their new suspect sidle up to the table that Unsubtle were sat at. Shimazu remained outside, watching from the darkness with his sword sheathed but ready to draw at a moment's notice. Hunter was jogging through the darkness with an arm full of new guns, knives and other purchases from the market, heading for the tilt-wing so he could drop them off and be ready to respond.
Overhead, Marius watched the market as best he could, slewing the camera sideways to peer into the area under the tower and try to watch the subjects past the massive stone legs of the cracked monument. As he looked at the scene and how quickly it could change he made a gut call and sent the launch command to his vector-thrust drone. The engines cycled up, their howl echoing across the market and the drone jetted into the air, riding on columns of flame as it vaulted into the night sky, and headed to the east, taking a circuitous route around the market and looking to interdict the path back to the maze-like slums outside the market area that the courier had landed in.
"Do you have the data?" the figure asked. Aswon half-closed his eyes as he concentrated on the noises of the area, filtering them out so he could clearly hear what was being said.
"Yeah, course we do. Do sheep swim at midnight?" Modulo's metallic voice was far easier to make out across the background noise, though the sarcastic bullying tone set Aswon on edge.
"Don't be silly. Sheep are the wrong colour to swim at midnight."
"Ar'right, you check out. Let's do this, shall we. Door – hold onto this for me." He pulled out a box from under the table, holding it in the direction of the huge troll who was leaning against the stone column forming the base of the tower. He in turn put down his large cargo container on the ground, where it wobbled precariously for a moment.
"Just hold that steady a minute, will ya." Door let go, and as much out of automatic reaction to seeing something about to fall as conscious decision, she put a hand out to steady the container and stop it falling towards her.
"Psyche!" The metallic voice crowed with glee and jubilation. "Right, this cargo is de-liv-ered! Ok motherfuckers - let's bounce before those slavers find out how much syphalis-K Gorgon gave their meat!" Modulo, Door and the figure in the colour-changing jumpsuit all laughed, while the dwarf sulked and gave the rest of their team the finger. The courier looked around them from figure to figure, their eyes hard.
"What are you talking about? THIS was not the cargo that was contracted for. This is NOT the deal."
"Sure it was baby," Modulo said between giggles, "this is big data. Big data comes in big boxes!"
"You were supposed to get this out to chips. I can't move this..."
"That's not our problem sweetheart, you touched the cargo, you took the goods. Our work is done. Smile, bitch." With that Modulo pulled up his PDA and aimed it at the furious courier, and there was a quiet click as the camera captured her image, holding up the cargo container.
"This was NOT the deal. This is unacceptable."
"Not to me, it's not. We got paid to grab the stuff and get it to you. Our job is done. If you're in shit river without a paddle, ain't our fault." He shrugged, and the rest of his time grinned at the courier, enjoying her discomfort.
"I do not accept this cargo, and if you want to make an argument out of this, I will." As she finished speaking, the female ork in the catsuit leant forward in her chair. The colour changing wires in her clothing brightened from the dull moody purple to a pulsing orangey red, and it looked as if small flames were dancing across her body. She flexed her fingers, and almost magically two blades appeared, one in each hand. The surfaces caught the light from the wires, dancing with colours that refracted oddly along the blades. The large troll cracked his knuckles and his grin widened at the concept of being able to pound someone into the dust.
At the other end of the table, Gorgon, the dwarf mage, concentrated and his astral aura flickered for a moment. Tads watched with interest as he seemed to engage some power. Looking closer, she studied him with fascination – her disgust with the team forgotten for a moment as she observed something she hadn't seen before. Gorgon seemed to have engaged some kind of power over his body, but he hadn't cast a spell – it was more like when she occasionally saw Aswon, Shimazu or Kai engage their magical prowess to control their bodies. She wasn't entirely sure what he'd done – the power seemed to suffuse over his entire body, a concentration of mana that covered his skin and then seemed to lead to his spine. Perhaps something to do with his nervous system – it wasn't a reflex boosting magic, she had enough experience with that – maybe it was something that deadened the pain or blocked it somehow. That was a secondary concern though; what was most interesting was that he seemed to have learnt how to duplicate the powers normally used by a physical adept as a mage! She hadn't realised it was possible, but it obviously was, and now that she'd seen it, the possibilities were…interesting to say the least. It would be worth thinking about and further study later. She tore herself away from her musings, and back to the drama unfolding before her.
The courier slumped back in her seat, still holding up the cargo box, as Unsubtle indicated that they were more than willing to kick off a fight, rules or no rules. When she didn't say anything, Modulo leant forward.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Ok, time to split. Knives away, Mono. Let's go finish up our shopping and get out of here." Mono slid the knives back into their spring-loaded holsters at her wrists, then muted the colour change of her suit, and followed Modulo as he stood and headed north. Gorgon followed, and Door bought up the rear. As they left, Aswon could hear the courier muttering under her breath, swearing to herself over and over again.
"Anahita… can you give me a few minutes. I think we need to step things up a bit."
"I tell you what, Kai. You've been around the stalls, and met the owners. You're up to speed here, and I can see you've got work to do. Why don't I leave you to it, and I'll make my own way home later? You've obviously got things to take care of."
"Thanks 'Nita. You're a star." He squeezed her arm for a moment, then released it, and she threaded her way between the crowd and wandered off into the marketplace, leaving him to concentrate on their target. He watched for a moment as the courier struggled to move the cargo container around and lean it against the table, and then with a heave slide it up onto the tabletop. The legs wobbled alarmingly, and he saw them flex outwards – the container was clearly very heavy – and then she sat back and looked at the container from one end to the other. A germ of an idea popped into his head, and he started typing into his phone, sending a message to the team.
Am going to offer to help. Be prepared to ambush us outside the market if she says yes. Aswon, stay, you're my minion, will need your help
Don't forget, I have deck, can copy info to chips or disk if needed Hunter responded a moment later, as he headed back out of the tilt wing after having secured their new goodies.
Aswon moved from his position, now there didn't seem to be anything to listen to and went to grab some food. Loading up on a kebab dripping with chilli sauce and something that claimed to be salad but was almost certainly badly-constituted soy or krill, he found a chair on its own and sat down to nibble at his food, staring blankly into space to all appearances – but keeping her in his peripheral vision. He watched as Kai wandered over towards the courier, meandering across the base of the tower as he worked his way past the other diners.
"Excuse me, I couldn't help notice you struggling with that. Would you like a hand? I have my slave nearby somewhere if you would?"
"And who are you?" She spoke English with a slightly sing-song tone to it. Kai couldn't place the country, but he suspected she was from south-east Asia somewhere, perhaps Vietnam, Malaysia, somewhere in that direction.
"My name is Thomas – I'm a merchant and trader. We're just about done with our shopping at the market, so I was just letting my team have a little look around before we left, and it looked like you were struggling somewhat."
"I'm fine, thanks." Kai paused and listened, but she didn't go amplify her comment or engage with him. Her eyes were suspicious, darting around the area and her body language was closed and hostile.
"No problem, no problem at all. Just trying to help. Well, like I said, I'll be around a little while longer if you change your mind. Now, where did he go…" Kai made a pantomime of looking around, then 'spotted' Aswon munching on his food. "There you are! What is that you're eating! I told you not to get that!" He walked over and started to berate Aswon for buying so much food, and Aswon played along, letting the food fall from his mouth and putting on a slightly guilty expression.
The courier watched them for a moment, then turned her gaze back to the box. With a sigh, she flipped open the catches and opened the lid, revealing a rack of equipment inside. It looked like part of a matrix processing node, and rather than sucking the data out of the device, Unsubtle had instead lived up to their name and just stolen the whole node itself, power rails, network switches, data storage and processing units. The ragged edges of the bottom of the rack were clear, showing where some kind of saw or cutting tool had sliced through the support structures, and severed cables with blackened ends were splayed out in the communications channel.
Kai pulled up a chair next to Aswon, and started to tap away on his PDA, occasionally pointing something out on it, or asking a question. Aswon picked at his food, and paid Kai attention when he spoke, but otherwise stayed quiet and watched the market – and they both kept a very subtle eye on the courier as she studied the rack. After a moment spent with her head in her hands, shaking from side to side in despair, she appeared to pull herself together and started to tackle the problem at hand.
First of all a telephone was produced from under her burka, along with a PDA. She dialled a number and held the phone to her head, hunching her shoulder to hold it in place to free up both hands to start bashing out commands on her PDA. When she started to talk on the phone, Kai listened carefully to what she said. She greeted the person on the phone, then launched into a rapid fire tirade – but it was enough for Kai to get a good clue.
"S̄wạs̄dī txn klāngkhụ̄n…pretty sure that's Thai. Equivalent to good evening – though I don't think she'd actually say good if it wasn't custom." But that's about as far as my Thai goes, and as far as I know, it's not a language anyone else speaks on the team." He frowned, then tapped out a message on his phone, getting confirmation back that this was the case. Well, they weren't listening in on her conversation, it seemed.
She ranted over the phone for some considerable time, while alternating between looking at the rack and then looking at her PDA, then tapping away on the keyboard. This went on for several minutes, before she ended the phone call and slid the phone away. A few more minutes were spent checking model and serial numbers, and entering more search terms it seemed, before she started to pull out various parts and modules to examine. She looked up and around, and made eye contact with Kai.
"Mr Thomas!" she called out, "I've changed my mind." Kai rose and smoothed out his top, then sauntered over to her.
"How can I help?"
"Can you get your man to go and check one of the electronics stalls, or ask around, and buy me a set of screwdrivers – I need a mix of flat and cross heads, down to about 4mm size. Here's one hundred Nuyen in local currency, and he can keep the change." Kai took the proffered notes, smiled and gave a small bow of the head and then turned and headed back to Aswon, briefed him and 'sent' his minion out to do her bidding. He wandered back over to her after Aswon had left.
"I do have a vehicle nearby, as I said. I'd be more than happy to assist you if you wish."
"No, thank you. A toolkit will be fine."
"As you wish." Kai headed back to his seat to wait, while she continued to pull out materials from the rack and stack them on the far side of the table. Aswon returned a few minutes later with a manky and worn set of tools, and after a curt thank you, she took them and got to work, disassembling some of the processing modules. She carried out each step, moving with deft and sure hands, then referred back to her PDA, checking presumably some kind of instructions or manual, before carrying out the next step on a list.
Target stripping components. Expect action 5-10 minutes Kai sent the message, and then lowered his voice to murmur to Aswon.
"I think I' m pretty safe here. Might be good for you to head out and join the ambush side of things. Might want to grab some firepower, just in case." Aswon nodded at Kai, and gave a look around, just to double check that Unsubtle – or anyone else – weren't watching Kai and he wasn't leaving his boss in danger. He spotted one of the food vendors heading over to the courier, and heard him complaining.
"You are using the table up, we have people wanting to eat."
"Here's a hundred. Get me a kebab and a coffee, keep the change. Now go away and don't bother me again." The vendor looked at the proffered notes, performed a quick profit and loss calculation and decided to take the bribe and leave her be – returning a minute later with a small coffee and very lacklustre kebab which as expected were pushed to one side and ignored.
As he turned to leave, she grabbed him by the sleeve.
"Here's another five hundred. There's a tech stall over that way," she waved vaguely to the north west of the food court. "I need you to go find me a gas soldering iron or chip extractor. Keep the change." Again, his expression showed conflict, but greed won out and he trotted off to do her bidding.
As Kai watched her disassembling the devices, his estimation of her technical skill rose somewhat. She didn't know about the specific device or process she was carrying out, he thought, but seemed well skilled in the basics of computing and electronics – he didn't spot her making any mistakes or scrabbling back through parts for bits she had missed or discarded in error. Whatever she was doing was very complex though, as she was tracing circuit diagrams and matching them to the hardware in front of her.
She continued to work – using the soldering iron when the food vendor returned to deliver it, and starting to extract components down to chip level and carefully place them in piles on the table. She worked quietly and solidly, raising her head only to stare at people who approached to look at what she was doing.
"Aswon, instead of heading out. Do you think you can get a coffee or something and go and loiter somewhere near her table, and intercept the gawkers, just get in their way?" Aswon stared at him like he was mad for a moment, then shrugged and nodded, heading off to get a fresh drink and go and be 'in the way'.
She noticed him after a minute or two, and watched him carefully, then glanced over at Kai. Kai smiled at her, and she stared at him for perhaps ten seconds, watching him to see what he would do. When he just nodded at her and went back to his PDA, she resumed her work – very occasionally glancing up at Aswon to make sure he wasn't doing anything or spying on her directly.
Twenty minutes passed, with Aswon fending off several people by virtue of just walking to stand in front of them and absentmindedly sipping at his drink. The table was now covered with parts, some piled up very neatly and carefully, but most being part of a growing pile of 'junk' that was shoved to the far end. Aswon caught another figure walking towards her out of the corner of his eye and was about to step into the way when he recognised the black trousers and shirt along with the red tie. Instead he stepped away, giving the guard clear access to the table.
"Miss, you appear to be making a mess at the market."
"I apologise. Please would you pass on my regrets, this was not intended, and I will ensure that this is all cleared up before I leave – one way or another." The guard listened and then cocked his head again, staring off above her shoulder. He stood this way for perhaps a minute, the silence stretching out around them. Finally he moved, blinking rapidly, and then looking down at her.
"Very well. Unfortunately, if you are doing private work, there is a fee." He held up his hand, presumably showing her a figure of some kind – Aswon and Kai couldn't see as his body was in the way. The courier nodded and reached inside her clothing again, then pulled out a large bundle of notes. Based on what they'd seen earlier, it was at least a couple of thousand Nuyens worth of currency – as she handed it to the guard, he nodded at her politely, pocketed it and then turned to head over towards the larger tent in the east of the marketplace – where they'd seen the market organiser return to earlier after warning Unsubtle about their behaviour.
"Boy! Put your drink down, it's time to do some work. Take all these things back to the car, and I'll meet you back there in a while." Aswon dutifully put down his drink, gathered the various purchases and headed away, leaving Kai at the table by himself. Once he'd exited the main gate, his stride lengthened and he jogged back to the tilt-wing, looking to divest himself of the cargo and grab his rifle, unknowingly duplicating Hunter's actions almost exactly.
A flurry of messages were sent between them, and they got into position around the marketplace. Shimazu was the tripwire, lurking outside the main entrance and keeping an eye on it, watching for the courier leaving and warning the rest of the team if she was heading north or south around the perimeter. Once she was moving, he would close in behind her. Hunter and Tads were on the north side of the market, walking quietly between the parking areas and trying to stay out of sight of any wandering souls or returning shoppers. Aswon took up position on the south – they thought it unlikely she would come this way, but not impossible. Marius had the drone flying lazy figure eight patterns near the road, ready to zip over and back up either team as they made their snatch attempt, or ready to watch for her if the courier somehow managed to slip past the teams on the ground.
They settled down to wait, hoping that Kai would send a message when she started to move.
They waited.
They waited some more.
A few people started to leave the market, heading back to their vehicles and leaving – some with products, some empty handed.
They waited.
Kai continued to watch as the courier stripped down the rack of equipment, pulling out components, desoldering chips, collecting optical transcoders. She seemed to be stripping down certain items to their absolute minimum size and weight, while maintaining their integrity.
At around 02:20, Shimazu watched Unsubtle leave the market, towing a freshly purchased slave with them. He sent a warning to Hunter and Tads to steer them clear, and was glad that they were parked on the north side of the market, and not anywhere near Aswon.
They waited. Cold and tired, they stamped their feet or walked in small laps of a parked vehicle, trying to remain sharp and focussed as the night wore on.
The courier waved over the food vendor again, who approached and had a short discussion. Again some notes were exchanged, and the man headed off to find a stall. He returned a few minutes later holding a selection of bags and marker pens, tie wraps and tape. The courier took them and started to bag up the piles of components, wrapping them tightly in tape and then labelling them. Several of the packages were then bundled into a bigger bag, again wrapped in tape and labelled. Kai watched, and whenever he saw her look up to check her surroundings, gave her a little smile, a nod or a wink. His charm and flirtatious behaviour broke on her like a wave on storm defences though – lots of spray, it looked very pretty, but didn't seem to achieve anything at all.
Finally, she seemed to be nearly done with stripping the parts that she wanted, as the clock ticked over to 02:46. Kai watched her collate all of her bags and wrap them together into a bundle, looping the tape around several times to make an impromptu carry handle. She hefted the weight several times, and swung the package gently, making sure it was reasonably balanced. In Kai's imagination, he saw a large bird of prey, struggling to grasp a bundle, trying to take off, and for a moment he empathised with her plight and how badly she'd been screwed over by Unsubtle. Still – that wasn't going to get the data to Aswon's contact. He pushed himself up and headed over towards her.
"Morning. You look like you're almost ready to leave."
"I am. For the record – don't try to follow me."
"I wouldn't dream of it. Though once again, I'm willing to help if you wish?"
"No, I'm fine." Her voice manifestly said that she wasn't – but Kai didn't figure that pointing that out would help his cause at all.
"This stuff looks very high tech. I hope you have a buyer for it – would be a shame for it to go to waste!"
"Pah. No. You want it?"
"I have no idea what most of it is – not my area of expertise. But I have a guy who works with computers a lot, I'm sure he'd find it interesting."
"Then it's yours." She waved over to a guard passing through the area on his patrol. "Mr Thomas here has agreed to purchase these parts, and will be clearing up." The guard looked between them and shrugged, apparently not caring.
"Well, that's very generous of you. I wish you well." Kai started to get all the parts from the pile on the table and dump them into the case, not really caring what went where, or how stable they were. Once he had the parts dropped in, he flipped the lid shut on the case and struggled to slide it off the table and onto the floor. While lighter than it had been, it was still a significant weight, easily out massing him.
She grabbed her bundle, then stepped to the side, and Kai struggled with the cargo netting, pulling it over his shoulder and then struggling out of the market, dragging the case behind him as he went. He'd meant to make a show of it, making it stick in people's minds that he'd left before her, to distance himself from any unpleasantness that was going to happen shortly – but he actually found that no acting was required. The case was heavy enough that he really struggled to drag it across the broken ground, and the sharp scraping noise as it left furrows in the dirt and smashed concrete behind him left a clear trail.
As he lumbered through the entrance and turned south, towards the tilt wing, he keyed up his throat mike for a moment.
"Standby!"
Shimazu watched him struggle with the box as he dragged it through the opening, but turned his attention back on the crowd inside as Kai wandered off into the darkness. There was still a crowd around the fighting area, but it was much thinner than earlier, and the sides of the market were starting to die down too, with gaps between groups growing larger and larger. About five minutes after Kai had struggled out, he saw the courier coming out, trying to hide behind a pair of large men. As they walked out and headed west, she turned to her right and started to pick up her pace, trying her best to compensate for the large package held to her side.
"North, say again North. In pursuit." He started to walk after her, closing the distance as he threaded his way through the parking areas to pursue her. He broke into a jog for a few steps as he moved behind a large boxy SUV but when he slowed to a brisk walk again to continue his pursuit he spied her walking towards him – as he'd momentarily lost sight of her, she had turned on her heel to close on his position.
He slowed and then stopped, his hand dropping to his sword hilt. She closed until she was a metre away from him, then very deliberately extended her face forward a little and sniffed. It wasn't a subtle gesture at all, but a slow, considering and deliberate act, and she maintained her intense stare on him while she did so.
"What's up – allergies?" He asked. He figured it wouldn't make sense to anyone listening on the comms, but they'd know he was talking to someone.
"Yes. I'm allergic to being set up." Her voice was flat and uninflected, but the stare was just as intense. She struggled with her left hand for a moment, then carefully set down her bundle, reaching inside her burka for something, whilst keeping her right hand free and ready to act.
"Don't…" There was a hint of warning in his voice, but also an honest plea. He suspected that things were about to get messy, but like the rest of the team – he didn't really want to hurt her. Didn't want to – but that didn't mean he wouldn't if push came to shove. Her hand slowed, but continued to move, and then pulled out her phone, which she started to lift. Shimazu wasn't sure who she was going to call, or if she was planning on grabbing his photo; or perhaps the phone was actually concealing a weapon of some kind. Either way, he didn't want to find out, and there was an opportunity here if he could pull it off.
The world slowed down as he exerted control over the glands and organs of his body. A neat shot of adrenaline coursed through him, and her motions stretched out as he darted forward like quicksilver, grabbing the bundle with his left hand and pivoting on his foot, driving off strongly as he snatched at the data and started to sprint to the north.
He felt the uneven ground underneath him, and strained to run as fast as he could, bounding across the broken concrete and desperately hoping he wouldn't catch his foot on a stray broken grate or kerb that would send him tumbling. Once more he envied those on the team who through either magical or technological means could see well in the dark, and cursed his mundane vision, as he lurched through the darkness with the bundle gripped in his left hand while his right grabbed the pommel of his sword, stopping it from swinging around wildly and keeping it to hand. As he ran, he zigged and zagged randomly, expecting either gunshots or lightning bolts at any moment.
In the tilt-wing, Marius heard the relayed "Don't," and immediately jumped into the vector thrust drone, his consciousness sliding over the air into the drones body, and he swung hard and powered up the engines, accelerating to the west with a burst of speed. With the drone heading over quickly, he jumped back into the 'captain's chair' where he could monitor both drones, and started to swing the Condor surveillance drone around, to monitor the situation.
Neither of them – nor the rest of the team were prepared for the courier's response. The air around the marketplace seemed to shimmer, and then darken as mist appeared out of the clear air. A cloud of mist half a kilometre wide manifested, becoming thicker and thicker with a suddenness that meant that powerful magic was at work. Within two seconds Shimazu could see only a metre or two ahead of him, with the parked cars and craft suddenly becoming looming indistinct shapes that appeared out of the greyness that crowded in upon him. He dropped to a walk, and his head twisted and looked around him, trying to spot for the attack that he expected at any moment.
Marius cursed as both drones lost contact – not only were the visual sensors foxed by the thick roiling mist, but his thermos were temporarily offline as well – the cold water vapour presented a uniform blank to his cameras, the hot spots of bodies not having had time to warm their surroundings or work through the mist yet.
Hunter and Tads gave a start as the mist appeared, and the vehicles around them faded away. Tads almost cried out in alarm as a steely hand grabbed her by the wrist, before she realised it was Hunter. His eyes glowed a very faint blue-violet, as his cybertechnics kicked in, cycling through the various modes available to him. Settling on the short range ultra-sound, he led Tads to the west, guiding them around the parked vehicles which were painted in front of him like giant wireframe structures. Trusting in the big ork's sense of direction, Tads peered into the astral, looking around for targets and magical spirits or creatures. The thick magical fog clouded her vision here as well, a bright white cloud that masked out her medium and long-range vision.
To the south, Aswon was caught up in the fog too, and rapidly came to the conclusion that it wasn't going quite to plan. He turned and headed back towards the tilt-wing, working through the foggy terrain slowly but surely, trusting his sense of direction to carry him towards their parking spot.
"I have the data, but I can't see shit," Shimazu called out.
"Head north, will take off and pick you up on the north side" responded Marius, the noises of engine startup already audible in the background.
"I'll get on a door gun, everyone else meet north side with the package," called out Kai. Aswon broke into a jog, wanting to get back to the tilt-wing before it took off, rather than having to run across the parking area. Already he could hear screams and shouts of alarm, revving engines and cries of panic. If the fog had also covered his area, he presumed it would be covering the marketplace as well, and it was likely that the place resembled a wasp's nest poked with a stick right now. The organisers were going to be VERY unhappy with someone…
Shimazu headed north – or what he thought was north. His sense of direction was foxed, and with no stars, lights or visible waypoints, he walked forwards hoping that he was heading towards the rendezvous point. Even the sounds of the market and panic there were distorted, echoing off the mist banks, muted and bouncing from the hulls of the craft until it sounded like it was coming from all around him.
There was a roar, penetrating the fog. It was a deep bass sound, formed from something with a massive chest cavity. Angry and primal, the noise rebounded through the area, echoes overlapping and forming layers to the sound. Hunter gave an involuntary shiver as the noise penetrated his skull. The last time he'd heard that kind of noise, an angry bear had very nearly torn him in half, deep in the Russian forest far to the north. If anything though, this sounded….bigger. He hurried along, half-guiding, half-dragging Tads along behind him as she kept out a magical watch.
Aswon ran up to the tilt wing, pausing for a just a moment to check that it definitely was the right craft before he hit the ramp release – it would be embarrassing in the extreme to be shot or tased trying to get into someone else's vehicle! As soon as the ramp opened though, he saw and smelt familiar items, and he raced inside, shouting out.
"Kai, Aswon. If you're on one side, I'll take the other. Marius – I'm clear, take off when ready."
"I wasn't waiting for you, but sure." There was no malice or jesting in the voice, but Marius made it abundantly clear that he would have quite happily taken off without the tribesman – he could look after himself perfectly well, and Marius intended to be where he said he'd be to collect the mission objective.
They all heard another roar, transmitted over the comms. It lacked the bass and power of those hearing it in person to the north, the comms sets clipping the audio and automatically dampening the volume to avoid blowing out components. But it definitely sounded angry. The tilt wing clawed into the air, and as soon as it was clear of the ground, Marius swung the rudder hard to the left, slewing them around to match the compass direction. He was flying almost completely blind, only the short range LIDAR painting the landing area around him. Applying thrust, he flew north-west, picking up speed and altitude as he went. In his head, the mental picture of the landing spot showed nothing high in that direction that he could remember – and his memory was excellent. So as long as nobody else was trying to fly that way through this pea soup, he should be ok!
Shimazu heard the sound of running from his right, multiple feet beating towards him, and he slowed more to allow him to swiftly draw his sword and be ready to attack. Vague shapes formed in the mist, coming closer, a weird conglomerate beast with multiple arms and legs, some dark vision of hell-spawned mutation….
"Daft bugger, wrong way. Turn right!" He recognised the scathing tone of Hunter, and immediately swung to his right, trusting the ork. In his brain the mutant creature suddenly began to look more like Hunter striding quickly and Tads bounding along behind him almost like a rag doll, trying to keep up. His train of thought was shattered though when there was another roar from behind him – almost on top of him. As he spun around to peer behind him, a truly horrific shape lumbered out of the mist – and this time it wasn't an optical illusion.
The bear was huge, standing four metres high at the shoulder, and being over two metres wide. The head was an enormous mass of teeth, roaring as it bore down upon him, the gaping jaws wide enough to swallow a small child whole. Each footstep made the ground shake, and the lumbering gait was deceptive as the massively hewn legs powered the massive bulk forward at over thirty kilometres per hour.
His magic senses peaked, driven by the desire for self-preservation. Time slowed again, as he swung the parcel forward and sent it sliding towards Hunter. In the corner of his mind he saw the comical expression as Hunter tried to intercept the hardware and stop it crashing to the ground, the bouncing form of Tads as her eyes opened wide at seeing the humongous creature extending out of the cloying grey mist.
With his left hand free to join the right, his sword was pulled across his body, arms pulled in tight to him as he spun like an ice skater, pivoting on the concrete and hoping that the ground was stable and his footing was sure. He span like a dervish, quickly turning on his pivot point to face the creature. Inherently unstable, he WAS going to take a fall here – there was no way to arrest his momentum so suddenly. But by bringing his limbs in, his speed of rotation let him turn to face the creature far sooner than it expected. As the massive jaws extended towards him, huge forty centimetre fangs dripping with saliva.
Tads looked at the scene in horror. The bear was by far the largest creature she'd ever seen – despite walking from near the Arctic Circle down across Asia through some very remote and rough terrain. With a start she realised that the creature was huge – but it was more than that. The courier – assuming this was her – had either used a shapechanging spell or was actually a shapeshifter, a werebear of myth and legend. But she had also summoned a powerful spirit and was channelling the magical being. It was a harsh and demanding technique, drawing the power of the spirit into the body and taking on many of its attributes. It granted you the strength and resilience of the magical creature, and could render you almost immune to damage from the physical world. All things came at a price though, and the 'crash' from this effort, was often severe. But, while you used the spirit's power, the effects it could have upon your body were remarkable.
Unaware of this, Shimazu's sinews flexed, his muscles tensed and the enchanted weapon was brought around to bear, slicing through the air. As he twisted, his arms shot out like pistons, the sword with them. The blade sliced through one side of the bear's jowls, cutting deeply into the skull. His arms were still extending, the momentum of his twist driving the blade sideways, but his arm extension pushing the blade deeper and deeper into the bear's head. The tip of the sword drove into the back of the throat, the magical force flaring brightly as it disrupted the power of the spirit, overcoming the defences that would have turned a normal blade aside as if hitting armoured steel.
Ancient steel overpowered muscle and tissue, driving into the creature's brain, slicing through the cranium until it reached the spinal column with just enough force to cut through the thick mass of nerves. The creature collapsed, as all control over the nervous system failed and the legs buckled underneath it. Momentum carried it forwards and it slammed into Shimazu, knocking him forward and driving the wind from him as several tonnes of angry corpse struck him. He folded and let the impact push him, trying not to fall inside the giant maw – if the weight of the skull fell on him, those incisors would still rip into him and cause him serious harm! Hands grasped at the snout trying to push away, and his body rolled and flopped across the floor, being pushed by the massive body.
Tads felt the magical backlash as the creature died, and two spirits appeared, rising up out of the body. There was a strange sensation that rippled outwards in a pulse, and the magical mist that had surrounded them started to dissipate, almost as fast as it had appeared. That reassured her on one hand and saddened her on the other. It meant that the mage or shapeshifter must be dead, as her sustaining foci – the means by which she had been maintaining the mist effect – had deactivated with the passing of her life.
The two spirits that rose from the body – they were very much alive, though. One looked down upon the body, which was already shrinking and becoming just a 'normal' sized Piasma or awakened Bear, and started to spread their hands around the head, as if stroking the fur. The other turned angrily towards Shimazu, gathering power for some kind of attack.
Shimazu was in no position to defend himself, so she lashed out, as much by instinct as design. Tads took her totem seriously, and Elk was a defender of the land and fellow creature. It didn't even occur to her as to if this was a wise decision. She locked her magical sight upon the spirit and began the rite of banishment, binding it into the magical duel and preventing it from using its considerable powers to affect anyone but her.
The spirit was powerful – but so was Tads. The travels of the last six months had taught her as much about wielding magic as the last ten years – though it had also probably been just as dangerous in proportion. With the recent banishment in the park when they had rescued Anahita still fresh in her mind, Tads didn't hold back anything, and her magical power battered at the spirt with fury and raw energy. It was unprepared for the assault, and power was ripped and flayed from it, diminishing it to a fraction of its power.
The other spirit had laid a hand over each side of the corpse's massive head, ghostlike fingers stroking the matted fur. A soft golden glow started to shine out of the hands, suffusing the hair like a sunrise through a forest, golden shafts of light shining out of the mouth and eyes. Hunter had managed to draw his taser and shot at the creature, but the two prongs deflected off the spirit's body, flying off into the air with sparks of power arcing between them, defeated by the supernatural form of the spirit.
There was a vague popping sound as Tads finished the hostile spirit off, the magical form banished back to its home plane. It wasn't dead – but it shouldn't be able to return for a couple of weeks. She saw Hunter raise his taser to shoot at the second spirit, while Shimazu lifted the enormous paw that was pinning him to the ground and climbed to his feet.
"Don't, Hunter – it's not hostile. And I don't think you can hurt it with that anyway." Hunter lowered the weapon, though she saw his glance down at his assault rifle as he considered his options. She turned towards the spirit, which was still channelling healing energy though it's form. Unlike the spell that she normally used, she saw some deeper magical connection between the two, some form of link or pact. That meant the spirt wasn't summoned, and was a free spirit of some kind – which put it in a different category of danger. "Look, I'm sorry. We didn't want to hurt her, and we mean her no harm. We wanted to steal from her, not murder her." The spirit glared at her while it continue to heal the form, trying to bring it back from the threshold of death. Tads hoped that it understood the intent behind the words.
Shimazu looked from the spirit to Tads and back and then bought himself up to his full height and bowed deeply and respectfully.
"I, too, am sorry. But I could take no chance against her rage and anger. But we did not meant this to happen. I warned her. I asked her not to act. But I AM sorry." The spirit examined him for a moment, and then looked down to concentrate on its task, channelling mana into the wound. Almost imperceptibly, the edges of the wound were regenerating, the massive cut starting to close…
There was a roar as the tilt-wing thundered through the air above them, which snapped them out of their contemplation. They heard Marius over the comms system.
"Guards are going ape-shit in the compound, and people are leaving like rats from a sinking ship. MOVE!"
They turned and ran, leaving the spirit behind them and heading towards the co-ordinates on the north side of the shanty town, out on the main road. Around them they could hear the sounds of people running around, engines starting, the screech of tyres and the roar of jets as people poured out of the market, assuming that they were under attack from the authorities.
A few seconds later, the ground team had crossed the remainder of the parking area and entered the shanty town. Figures loomed out of the darkness wondering what the noise was about, but shrunk back as Hunter charged through the narrow confines first, his assault rifle swinging back and forth as he assessed and dismissed targets as unworthy of his attention, followed by Shimazu who was half covered in blood and carrying his sword ready to strike. Behind them the panting form of Tads didn't seem so dangerous – but by then anyone with any sense had already gotten out of the way.
Hunter barrelled through a wall that was in his way, bursting into a room and then smashing down the wall on the other side in his efforts to take a direct route, scattering a family of slum-dwellers behind him – Tads managed a breathless 'sorry' as she bought up the rear, competing with screaming children who thought that death had come to visit them. But a minute later their headlong charge slowed as they burst out of the shanty town, leaving a line of devastation behind them, and saw the tilt wing hovering over the multi-lane road ahead of them. It turned slowly in mid-air and they saw the door gunners scoping out the land around them, ready to lay down a withering hail of fire at any enemies that showed themselves.
Hunter looked left and right to confirm it was safe, and then headed for the craft at a jog, dropping back a little to chivvy the gasping Tads along and make sure she didn't fall. Moments later they were climbing aboard the ramp, and the second the last foot was onboard, Marius applied thrust and they started to gain altitude. He took them up to about the height of the average house, and flew down the main road, heading west to start with and then following roads to the north and west, using the broken remains of apartment buildings and tower blocks to cover and screen their progress. He took a fairly direct route back towards the lake they had used as a forward base, and landed there just long enough to recover the two drones which had headed there when the fighting had kicked off. As soon as the drones were safely aboard, he took off again and headed north, disappearing into the mountains and flying evasively through the valleys and narrow mountain passes. Nobody complained this time as he threw the craft from side to side in evasive patterns – they just strapped in and grabbed any loose cargo to stop it flying around in the back.
Marius headed east, working along the mountain range as if he was heading back towards Rashid, and then when he felt like it suddenly turned to the north, taking a new course deeper in the Alborz mountains. He slowed a little, steadying the flight profile and stopped flying quite so close to the nap of the earth – much to the relief of the rest of the crew. Once it was safe to move around, Hunter climbed out of the co-pilot's seat and headed into the back, retrieving the bug scanner and probes, and running them over the dense package of electronics for a few minutes.
Tads took some time to compose herself and then called on her spirit, asking it to conceal and protect the craft as it flew north, hiding them from radar and other sensors. The rest of the team unbuckled and started to stow the drones and the other loose cargo, checking everything for damage and strapping it all down tightly in case there were further evasive manoeuvers to come.
Several minutes later, Marius called out a warning, and everyone grabbed hold of something solid nearby. Then they all made the same noise, a weird sort of slurping swallowing noise as their stomachs rose and the floor dropped away. It felt like they were in free-fall for a moment as Marius put them in a steep dive, and they realised they had come out of the mountains and were dropping down to the coastal plains. They pulled out in a shallow dive and rocketed across the low coastal plain, covering the thirty kilometres to the sea at high speed, sending sheep and cattle scattering under their flight path and shaking windows and loose roof tiles along the way. As they crossed the shoreline, they were low enough that there was a huge V shape left behind in the water, as the downwash thrust away water and left a trail of swell behind them. Marius pulled up slightly, until his trail vanished and they rocketed across the Caspian Sea to the north.
Checking the sensors, there were no signs of pursuit, no fast moving jets on an intercept course. Tads used the viewing prism to check around them, and saw no signs of magical tails either. Marius angled right a little, as if heading to Turkmenistan and then scrolled his map up, programing in a waypoint at a random location to turn back to port and head for the Trans-Caucus League.
For the moment, they were away and clear, and hopefully with the data intact in the cargo bay.
The clock ticked over to 03:34 and the tilt-wing powered across the smooth surface of the sea, lit by the pale reflection of the wan moon above them.