With the ruined Condor briefly examined and then bundled back into the hold, the aircraft locked up, and Tads having summoned some simple watcher spirits and sent them on patrol, the team grouped up and headed out of the hanger, walking down the gravel path towards the main base. Tads saw the smoke coming from the forest to the north, where some trees still smouldered from the earlier barrage, but Aswon stepped around to that side of her and blocked her view, seemingly to try and spare her from having to look at the after effects. She wasn't happy about the state of the forest, but they had more pressing concerns now that needed to be dealt with. As they got out of earshot of the hanger, Aswon cleared his throat and looked over towards Kai.
"So, what happened boss? When you zoned out back there. Want to tell us?"
"Well, I think that's a good question – but I also think people experience things in very different ways, don't you think?"
"Maybe, but that's a very evasive answer. So are you going to tell us what happened?"
"Well, there was a big explosion, then it seemed to get really dark, all of a sudden. I felt something in my chest – something clammy and cold, trickling through my veins. Then I could hear whispering voices, right on the edge of my hearing. Voices telling me to do things, to think certain ways, to act against you all. Trouble is, I could hear some of the sub-harmonics I've been trained to use against people – so I knew what was going on. It was just like the old saying – you can't kid a kidder. I mean, any of you weak-minded fools would have fallen for it, of course!"
A chorus of jeers and mockery answered his attempt to make light of the situation, and Hunter kicked some gravel at Kai to let him know what he thought of that idea.
"Anyway, I felt this being or thing, and its power, but I could recognise what it was doing to me – or at least trying to do. So I told it to bugger off. Fought against it. I don't think it was used to that, because it fought back, but not very well. Then it seemed to recoil, and I saw something in it, some kind of opening. It was like it could be peeled. And inside the thing with the voices was something else, like a hidden power. It was hiding inside it. I'm not sure what it was, or where it came from, but it seemed to be just kinda leaking power or mana. Some of it went into me, but it didn't do anything odd or make me feel different. It was… kind of pure? Not tainted. But I could feel the power sinking into me, as the outer shell came apart."
"So, it was peeled open? You peeled it open and found power inside?"
"Yeah, that's as close as I can describe it, I think. Bit weird, and definitely not something I'd like to do again."
"Hrmm. That sounds more like negotiating a pact with a spirit rather than a possession or inhabitation. Unusual." Aswon flicked a glance at Tads, but she shrugged in confusion – indicating that she didn't know either. "Well, let us know if anything weird happens, yes, Kai? I mean it, anything like more whispers or strange feelings. I mean – you've got a hole in your chest that should have kept you on your ass for a while, yet you're up and about."
"I'll think about it."
"Do you want me to stay with him?" Shimazu asked with a twinkle in his eyes. Aswon nodded, and Shimazu moved in closer to Kai, matching his stride exactly and slowly easing in behind him until he was almost touching him, and could exhale directly onto the back of Kai's neck. Kai flinched, but tried very hard to ignore his 'shadow' and not give him the satisfaction, while the rest of the team laughed.
"There, Shimazu doing Shimazu stuff. All is right with the world. Now you behave yourself!" Aswon waved a finger in mock admonishment at Kai.
"Huh! That's rich coming from someone who talks to his blood-sucking spear!"
"Listen, you leave me and my spear out of this and concentrate on not paying us, stick to your strengths!" There was a collective series of "oohs" from the rest of the team at the perfectly timed comment, and despite Kai's silver tongue, he had to concede the point there. As they wandered down the path, the rest of the team ganged up on him, ribbing him about their pay and the financial situation, jumping on the bandwagon driven so expertly by Aswon.
"Ok, I think we've given him enough grief for the moment." Hunter looked at Aswon and shook his head, clearly enjoying the opportunity to poke Kai. "Hey – only for the moment, we have to save some for later. But what is relevant is that we saw one spirit get sucked into that portal thing – and it didn't look happy about it. My guess is that it was either destroyed, or got pulled somewhere it really didn't want to go, and it won't be back. But it's something we have to consider that it might come back. However, the other one is still out there somewhere, and we have no idea where it is or what its motivations are. So we need to be careful."
"The other question I have is who did that spirit belong to that was hiding under Kai? We'd taken care of both of the summoners, the spirit should have disappeared when we did. Unless there was a third summoner somewhere and we missed them?"
"I don't think we did. I think it was just following the last order it had been given. I mean, it might have gone free and been trying to help its former master, but I don't think so. Shimazu diced it up too quickly to tell, but I think it was just doing what it had been told, regardless." Aswon shrugged, indicating that there was a certain amount of guessing going on.
"Just as important a question we've not addressed, is do you think that your drone is fixable?" Kai looked over towards Marius, turning the talk away from magic and back to the mundane world.
"Yes, it's fixable. But I'm not sure if we should. The lifting bag is a write-off, there's no point in trying to patch that, it got ripped to shreds. And when it came down it took enough structural damage that we're going to have to replace about sixty percent of the chassis and internal components. I can fix them, but when something gets as banged up as that has, there's always the chance of micro fractures, fatigue, chemical denaturing and so on. It could be all in order, or it could be one of those things where it just turns out to be….glitchy."
"Sounds like we'd be better off replacing it entirely then. What's the cost on that?"
Marius was about to blurt out the cost of replacing the LD-23 drone – about nine thousand Nuyen at retail – when a sneaky thought rolled through his mind. He pulled out his pad and ran a quick matrix search on the manufacturer's host, pulling up the specs instead for the much more capable LD-41 drone. Visually they were hard to tell apart, and he didn't think Kai paid that much attention to the drones.
"See for yourself – and this is assuming retail, legitimate pricing, of course, purchased from a dealer with one of our fake IDs. If we're buying something like this at a market like Tehran, you can double or even triple the price!" He handed the pad over to Kai, who looked at the thirty five thousand Nuyen price tag, and just nodded.
"Ok, let's look at a replacement then. Otherwise – no damage to the craft? Nothing wrong with the wards?"
"No, everything is good. The tilt-wing performed well, and sustained no damage." Marius smiled, and not just because of what he'd just said. It seemed the best way to work was just to present the expensive option to Kai, and leave him to worry about how it was going to be paid for!
They walked onwards, and Hunter piped up – explaining that he had an idea.
"I've been having a think about the spirits and stuff. And what the Russians can do. As I understand it from listening to you folk, they can be taken down when they're using their powers, and the best way is to throw massive firepower at them. So, I reckon we should get together with the base armourer, and look at modifying some weapons. Recoil pads on the stocks, underbarrel weights, drill out some vent holes – all that kind of stuff. Give the fastest-firing weapons to the troopers who are stronger and better able to control the barrel climb, and get more rounds on target. We can run them through a training course, and show them what to expect."
"Great idea in principal, but I think we also need to teach them better fire discipline!" Aswon responded quickly.
"I know you're still pissed about the snipers, but what I'm talking about isn't for them. It's for the standard squads, to give them a weapon that can really be effective against the spirits if they return."
There were general nods of agreement but further discussion was curtailed as they drew parallel to the first brigade area – and saw the entire brigade formed up on the parade ground in ranks, with a number of the command company facing them from a platform. They recognised the setup – it was the same as when they'd been thanked for their previous efforts and Tads had been awarded her medal – but this looked different.
"Come on, let's go see what's going on." The others followed Kai towards the ground, examining the scene. On top of the podium they saw the brigadier, standing tall and proud, his hands clasped behind him. Just to his right was Captain Zarkorov, wobbling slight on a pair of crutches, with a junior NCO standing just behind him watching him anxiously. Junior officers were also fanned out on either side, but their body language looked tense and uncomfortable. Also on the podium was a taller than average man in a dark green uniform, cinched tightly around his waist with a plain black belt. His uniform trousers were tucked into knee high black boots that shone line mirrors, unlike the combat boots worn by everyone else. Behind the podium were an additional dozen soldiers, split six to each side – wearing a camouflage that was slightly different to that worn by the brigade.
The team realised what was bothering them – the dozen soldiers were holding a short carbine version of the AK97, long curved magazines hanging down from the barrel and short but vicious looking bayonets fixed at the front. But other than their weapons, and the pistol worn by the man in plain green, nobody else was armed – they could see the holsters on the command group now, all unfastened and empty. Aswon quickly dropped into the astral and checked over the troops, and his eyes widened as he did so. A rising tide of emotions was rolling around on the parade ground – tension and anger vied with fear and confusion, sloshing back and forth from man to man and reinforcing their feelings, along with an undercurrent of rage. Aswon gently touched Tads on the arm and gestured to the brigade, then closed one eye briefly. She checked out the situation astrally and saw the same thing, feeling the magical potential in the air rising as the assembled troops gave off waves of negative emotion.
As they closed, Aswon focussed his mind on the speech, and started to relay it to the rest of the team, giving them a quiet running commentary as they closed on the group. Occasionally he stumbled on a particularly florid or poetic turn of phrase, but it was close enough to get the gist of the speech.
"The brigade are the sons of Russia, proud and noble, but they are tools, and tool is only as good as the man wielding it. The central command doesn't blame the brigade for the lack of progress in their campaign, it's not their fault, and they exemplify the Russian spirit. Instead the fault lies with the brigadier for using the weapon so inexpertly. That is why he's here to fix the problem, but exposing the brigadier for his questionable decisions and cowardly behaviour."
"That may be what he's saying, but the troops are angry about it. Very angry," Tads added, watching the rising levels of emotion in the brigade area.
"Hey, something I've just noticed. There's none of the base personnel here. This is only the brigade staff and troops. Nobody from outside the unit, no support troops or facilities staff." Marius looked around, checking the side of the parade ground and nodding as he confirmed that only the members of the brigade were present, and not any of the staff from Samara base.
"Ok, he's going on citing examples of how the brigadier made poor leadership decisions, led people into ambushes, how he's responsible for the deaths of so many troopers, and the wasting of fine Russian blood."
"If he doesn't stop talking soon I think Zarakov is going to show him what it feels like to get a crutch to the side of the face. Look at him – he's shaking with rage at the moment. That's not wobbling from the head injury." Shimazu added, watching the captain carefully. "And from my read of the body language, those troops in the different uniforms are itching for an excuse."
"We'd better hurry up. This feels like a grade A hatchet job. Most of the stuff he's being accused of, the brigadier can't defend himself against. The stuff that's being cited is so broad and non-specific, that it's just not possible to prove you didn't do it. This guy is like one of those trideovangical preachers, really emotive language. All aimed to make it look like the troops are saints, the brigadier is evil and he's here from central command to save them."
One of the troopers on the end saw the team in his peripheral attention and turned to look at them, then raised a cry of alarm. The rest of the guards turned to look, and weapons were gripped tightly and raised towards them. Marius and Hunter both took particular note though when at least half of the guards turned back to face the brigade, trusting their comrades to deal with the unexpected visitors behind them. Clearly these were not just untrained bully boys – they had some tactical training too. The figure on the podium turned towards them too, slowly and theatrically, then peering down at them, using every centimetre of his 1.95 metre height. It seemed to enrage him slightly that he didn't tower over them all, Aswon's lofty height causing him to almost have to look levelly at him. He was thin to the point of being gaunt, and his face was pockmarked with the remains of bad acne, giving him a sallow and slightly cadaverous expression.
"And who are THESE people? I take it these are the civilians you have let onto the base that I have heard so much about? Not even members of the glorious Red Army? Probably not even Russians! I doubt that THEY have sworn an oath to defend the Rodina! Bring them forth!"
The guards waved their rifles, and the team moved forwards under their watchful gaze. Aswon's rifle was slung over his shoulder, while Hunter's assault rifle was on its sling and hung at his lower back. Shimazu's sword was in easy reach, his hand hanging just past the top of the scabbard. The guards examined them carefully, and their weapons followed their movements, clearly expecting trouble. The team were manoeuvred forwards until they were level with the podium, and the green-suited figure could move to the top of the raised area, where he could finally look down on all of them. Shimazu watched how he moved, taking position at the top of the 'high ground' and peering down at them with contempt, his hands clasped behind his back as he rocked back and forth on his heels. It was an obvious power play, straight out of the psychology text books. He let a wide, slow smile out onto his normally impassive face, challenging the implied authority and watched as a tick formed by the side of the man's mouth.
"Well hello there, I'm Kai and I-"
"SILENCE!" The man made a chopping motion, screeching in what he probably thought was an angry and commanding manner, but came across as more like a child having a tantrum. "Silence. YOU do not get to speak." Kai had stopped speaking, and instead threw a salute at the man, which seemed to enrage him further. "Don't you salute. Don't you DARE. YOU haven't sworn an oath to this country. YOU haven't trained and suffered like these men. YOUR salute means nothing! Do you hear me, NOTHING!" The man took a deep breath and then proceeded to rant for two minutes solid, accusing the team of despoiling the mind and discipline of the brigade, of ruining their training, sapping morale and probably being in league with the forces that turned the brigadier against the country."
The team watched with fascination as he threw insult after insult at the brigadier, seemingly unaware that he was driving the troops deeper and deeper into anger and frustration, and away from their position of fear. Even Hunter and Marius, without the benefit of any magical training or sight could read the mood from the thousand men watching as a man they deeply respected was shat upon from a great height. They only snapped back to reality when they picked up the end of his rant.
"…and that one DOES look like a witch! And we know what the law demands of those who turn to the worship of dark forces and betray the motherland!" A bony finger extended towards Tads who was starting to colour as the words sunk in. The guards watching tightened their grip on their weapons, getting ready to fire.
Tads was contemplating just implanting some inappropriate thoughts into his head, watching as the rest of the team very subtly moved. Aswon's grip on the spear tightened minutely, while Shimazu moved his hand outwards, ready to do a quick crossdraw. A wave of magical power slammed into the side of the man's head – but it didn't come from Tads. Somehow, someone in the brigade had channelled all of their rage into a bolt of power that had taken the man down in a single hit. It was pretty obvious who it was, as the troopers around him surged away, their fear of the unknown driving them back from their squad mate.
As the man collapsed onto the ground, his guards burst into action, spinning around with some of them aiming at the brigade, trying to work out what had happened, and the others facing off against the team. Multiple overlapping screams at them to get on the ground and to raise their hands were yelled – but the team turned so they could see Kai, wondering if things were about to get messy.
The situation wasn't helped by the front four or five ranks of the brigade surging forwards, stopping only when the weapons were raised at them. They probably thought that it was by Tads' hand that the demagogue had been felled, triggering an animalistic desire to get to the guards and deal with them. They stopped when the carbines were raised, but hovered in a mob, ready to break.
"That man needs help, and protection. I'm the only one who can do that. I'm moving to assist him." Tads' voice was loud and clear, and she started to make a bee-line for the trooper standing in the clear area, now bleeding profusely from nose and ears. She thought she recognised him from her meetings held in the woods the last time they were on base, and hadn't picked up any sense of power from him – but then latent magical talent often expressed at times of great emotional stress.
One of the guard shouted at her to stop, then screamed at her when she didn't comply. When she still ignored him, he stepped forwards and braced the carbine to his shoulder, aiming at the small of her back and screamed at her again, warning her that if she didn't stop, he would fire.
"Put that down!" The power rolled and rippled through Kai's voice, and the guard dropped the weapon as if it were red hot, staring at it in confusion. The other guards continued to cover the brigade and the team, weapons waving back and forth and confusion clear on their faces. "Listen," Kai said in a much more reasonable tone of voice, "there's a spirit over there that we think just attacked your boss. We're going to go and kill it before it hurts anyone else. You should guard your master, and make sure he's safe." He walked away from the brigade a few paces, waving to the rest. "Aswon, left side – ready to stab it. Shimazu, right side. You two, keep your mind shields active to keep everyone else safe."
The rest of the team followed, a little confused, and watched as Kai got himself into a dramatic pose and then force-choked a bush that was looking at him funny. They realised what he meant, and both of them stepped forward and stabbed at an invisible spot for a few seconds, making grunting noises and fighting an 'invisible' foe. After thirty seconds of charades, Kai called out that they'd got it, and they turned to head back to the still confused guards, who were now clustering up and around their comatose officer.
Tads meanwhile had closed on the bleeding trooper and had used a tissue to dab at the blood and try to clean him up, checking that he was ok. The rest of his company watched, interest mixed with fear. He seemed to be ok, but badly dazed, and Tads guessed he'd not been expecting the spell to happen, let alone have to take magical backlash. After reading his name tag, Tads remembered who he was – Vadim Yakovlev, a private who had come along to her worship sessions, professing a love of the wild lands and a deep respect for nature. It appeared that his beliefs were sincere, and some part of the natural world had chosen to act through him now – though Tads couldn't tell what his totem animal was, she was sure he was shamanic rather than hermetic, from the feel of his aura.
"Sergeant, I think this man should come with us so we can protect him while he learns to control his powers properly, and to educate him on how to restrain and use his new abilities. If that's ok with you? I'm sure it will be fine with the Brigadier…" There was a somewhat stunned affirmative reply from the man's sergeant, and she led the still confused Vadim out of the brigade area and towards the podium.
"I think we should warn the doctor that she's going to have a visitor soon – and that it might be a good idea to keep the idiot sedated," Hunter's voice was quiet over the comms, as he turned to face the wood line as if checking for more enemies. Kai gave a double click on his radio, before turning towards the guard who had nearly shot Tads in the back, now holding his carbine very carefully as if expecting it to bite him.
"Well done there. Well done indeed. You very nearly listened to the spirit as it tried to confuse you and make you shoot the woman, in the back, while she was unarmed. But you didn't, you fought it off and didn't fall prey to it. But I think you should rejoin the rest of your men, don't you?"
Kai watched carefully, expecting to see some signs of shame or remorse when it was spelled out what had nearly happened – but instead, saw nothing of the kind. Clearly one kind of sociopath manipulator liked to surround himself with others cut from the same cloth.
The brigadier moved now, turning to face the guards, and raising his voice to make sure it carried.
"It appears that Inspector Minin has fallen foul of an attack of the enemy, one of those spirits from Yakut, it seems. I would suggest you lift him up and head for the infirmary so the base staff can check him over. I doubt that Central Command would be happy if you let him die due to lack of medical care, and clearly I can't order you to do this given the Inspector's position."
There was a pause, but then collective fear of repercussions drove them together, and four of the guard grabbed the unconscious inspector, lifting him up by his limbs and carrying him down the stairs to the parade ground and then turning to head for the base. When they were clear, the brigadier turned to the team and gave them a nod, before turning to his Captain.
"Now, first things first. Some volunteers please to assist Captain Zarkorov back to the infirmary, too. And make sure he goes back to bed, despite any claims that he's fine. If need be, you're authorised to restrain him physically, to ensure his long term well-being." A sergeant from the front rank of the brigade nodded, and a few burly troopers climbed up onto the podium to 'assist' the captain, who stared at the brigadier for a moment to see if there was any give in his expression, before his shoulders drooped and he wobbly headed for the stairs, supported by the troopers. As they turned to watch him go, they saw a UAZ heading down their way, bouncing over the road.
"And with that taken care of, welcome back. I do apologise for the circumstances, but Inspector Minin turned up unexpectedly with some concerns about our recent deployment. I take it that you didn't actually cause that blast of power, and it was someone in the brigade?" Kai nodded. "Interesting. And intriguing – I see that your shaman is having a word with him, so we'll follow up on that later." The UAZ screeched to a halt next to the podium, and a corporal bailed out of the back seat, carrying a bulky backpack radio system, then staggering over towards the brigadier and offering him the headset. "Ahh excuse me, it appears there's some urgent business."
The company commanders were chivvying their troops back into formation, then peeling off each platoon to head back to their barracks, slowly dismissing the brigade from the parade ground. While the command staff filed past, along with the operations officers, several of whom nodded a greeting while they were near the team. The brigadier looked up at them, and his eyes narrowed speculatively, and he continued to listen for a few more seconds, then transmitted a brief message.
"Thirty Eighth Motor Rifles actual, we may have resources that can help. Fifth army, stand-by five minutes while I check availability." The Brigadier listened for an acknowledgement and then looked up at Kai. "One of our bases is under attack by powerful spirits, and they're calling for assistance. They don't have the resources to defend themselves, and feel that they're in the prelude to an attack. Now, again, I can't offer you money – that's the one thing we're perennially short of in the army. But I'm sure we can work something out. I personally know the commander of Fifth Army, and I'm sure I can speak to him and work out an….arrangement. Would having a secure stop to the east with no questions asked be of value?" Unsurprisingly, Kai nodded to the brigadier.
"Can you tell us what's going on?"
"Fifth army is based at Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal, not far from the border. They've come under spirit attack, and are being overwhelmed at the moment – at least magically. They report that people are having accidents while loading vehicles with shells and fuel, and have suffered losses, that localised blizzards are sweeping across exposed personnel, sheets of ice are forming on road surfaces causing crashes and that troops are being hospitalised or killed by strikes from massive hailstones." The team exchanged looks with each other – it sounded like the spirit they had encountered had decided to move on, and attack fresh targets.
"I think we can make ourselves available to go and help out. If we're going to finish off these spirits, we should see this through." The brigadier smiled and nodded, then slipped the headphones back over his ear and swung the boom mike in front of his face.
"Thirty Eighth Motor Rifles actual, can you get me Fifth Army actual. I have resources that can assist with the current issue, available for fast deployment – but they need operational clearance." He waited for a moment, watching the troops as they continued to file off the parade ground, then his smile broadened as he listened to something over the radio.
"Good afternoon, sir. Yes, I have a specialist team, that have been assisting me with a similar issue, that have resolved our situation here. I have spoken with them, and they are willing to relocate to your position and assist." He listened again, and they saw his brow furrow a little. "No sir, they are not an army unit – they're independent contractors. But they are willing to undertake the mission in exchange for fuelling and landing rights in your AO, to extend their operational radius. I'm willing to vouch for them based on their performance so far." He listened again, this time for nearly thirty seconds. "Yes sir, a little bit like Ptem. Much the same situation." Another pause. "Yes sir, we'll get them moving as fast as possible, and arrange flight clearance. They should be with you before the day is out."
He swept off the headset and passed it over to the radio operator, but then gestured for him to wait as the man started to lift the large radio back up off the floor.
"Kai, we'll do what we can to assist with resupply and help you on your way. But the Lieutenant General is keen for you to be there as soon as possible. So I would appreciate your efforts to respond quickly. What do you need?"
"Hunter, where are we going, and how far is it?" Hunter flicked round the map he'd been working on, showing the three and a half thousand kilometres between their current location and the target, along with a semi-obscured map pin showing the rough location of Tara airport.
"We're going to need at least one fuel stop to help us cover the distance if we're going at speed, and we'll definitely need refuelling on arrival." The brigadier leaned in and looked at the map, and then rubbed at his chin thoughtfully.
"Radioman, raise me 41st Combined Army command at Novosibrisk, see if you can get hold of Colonel Rozenbakh for me." The young soldier pulled out a code and frequency document on his battle computer and started to hunt through for the right frequencies, then got hold of their communications centre, and started to work through the duty officers to get hold of the Colonel. The brigadier turned back towards Hunter, and hovered his finger over the city almost midway to Irkutsk. "If you could refuel there, does that meet your requirements?" Hunter checked the ranges and nodded to him, then entered a route into the calculator he'd built on the tablet and watched as it spat out an estimated time for the journey: seven hours and twelve minutes."
At a gesture from the radioman, the brigadier grabbed the headset again and started to don it, raising his voice to address the whole team, except Tads who was still over at the edge of the woods, talking with Vadim. "If you can prep for departure, I will speak with the staff and arrange supplies for you straight after I've spoken with Colonel Rozenbakh." Behind him, two of the operations officers grabbed their own radios and started to issue orders, clearing the team to draw on supplies, while the brigadier concentrated on his current conversation. "Nikolai? Ahh, good to speak with you again. Yes, it's been a while….no, it didn't go quite as planned, to say the least. I'll tell you all about it shortly, but I have a favour to call in. I have a team that need to stop off with you for a quiet refuelling, to help them get to Irkutsk quickly. They're…think of them as a Spetsnaz unit, with some unconventional tactics. But I need to get them to Lieutenant General Alikhanov as soon as is practical… yes, it should just be a touch and go… great, thank you. I'll send along a little something… yes, don't spill any!" The brigadier laughed.
Marius took off back towards the airbase, to start preparing the tilt-wing for takeoff. While the brigadier was ending his conversation, Kai called Tads over the team radio and told her they were leaving, probably inside thirty minutes. They saw her look around, and then start to lead Vadim back over to their position, and turned back to the brigadier.
"That's all arranged then. We'll get transponder codes issued for you and such like, and the resupply is sorted."
"Brigadier. I would like to talk with your armoury officer, to see about getting some modifications done to some of your troops' weapons. Things that would help you fight off any spirits if they come back."
"We tried shooting them, and it had no effect. The bullets went straight through them, or just seemed to bounce off! That's why I called you."
"Ahh, but there are tactics you can use. Aswon or Tads can explain, but it'll work, trust us. But with your permission, I've got some business to sort out with the base armourer!" Hunter packed away his map and took off at a brisk walk towards the main HQ building. The brigadier turned towards Aswon, who took a moment to compose his thoughts and then gave a brief run-down of the powers of spirits, and the limitations of their existence, explaining how while they were manifested they could be seen by the troops, but were impervious to physical harm – but while materialised, which they had to do to use their powers, they were vulnerable to powerful attacks. The brigadier soon realised the tactical implications, and how the spirits had probably remained manifest only in all of their first encounters, slowly reinforcing the belief that they were just immune to gunfire, and working on demoralising his troops.
With that done, Aswon followed in the direction Hunter had set off in, saying he needed to sort out some new boots and other items of clothing. Shimazu hung back, keeping an eye on Kai, and Tads arrived with her still bemused guardsman in tow, who looked a little uncomfortable being stood next to the brigadier. Tads decided to grab the bull by the horns, and spoke first.
"Brigadier – Vadim here has gone through a very traumatic change, and really needs some support, guidance and training. Both to be safe to himself, and to the men around him, and also to learn to channel his powers to be an asset to you. If we are heading out shortly, I'd like to request that he be released from his normal duties to come with us, so I can start his training and help him."
It appeared that neither Kai, Vadim nor the brigadier had been expecting that, and they all exchanged looks of confusion. The Brigadier recovered first, and nodded, then called over one of his officers.
"Please get a travel permit cut for Vadim here, along with a leave of absence for medical reasons." One of the ops officers started to make arrangements, having picked up that the brigadier was in a 'right now' mood, and stepped away to make sure the paperwork – a legendary bureaucracy in the Red Army – would be complete before the team was due to leave.
"What about your inspector? Is that a problem we need to take care of before we leave?" Kai asked, his voice light, but with the subtle undertones that hinted at some permanent and possibly fatal possibilities.
"Don't worry about him. I don't think that little pantomime of his was going to go anywhere, and I've already put in some calls to Moscow. He's not the only one with friends there. Yes, we can handle the inspector just fine. I think by the time he wakes up, he's going to find himself in a very different situation!"
The group started to head back to the headquarters building, where the brigadier led them up to his suite. His steward had already bought out two old looking bottles from his wine store, and had packaged them up ready to go, and the brigadier explained that he'd like them delivering to the colonel at Novosibrisk when they stopped for refuelling. With that done, the team shifted in high gear, restocking equipment and heading back to the hanger to meet up. Vadim at least had plenty of experience with packing quickly and efficiently, and turned up with a duffel bag with everything he'd need to deploy, while Aswon returned with new boots for everyone and a second set for Shimazu to replace the ones lost in the swamp, along with some more clothing and uniforms sized to fit them all. Hunter came back from the armoury empty handed, but none the less looked satisfied with whatever he'd gone to sort out, and the team loaded up. With the new supplies jammed alongside the ruined drone, their standard cargo and supplies, the back of the tilt-wing was quite cramped and felt a little claustrophobic, but then compared to the MI-6 they'd just about gotten used to, there were sports stadiums that probably felt 'poky'.
Just before they were due to take off, a technician appeared with an optical chip, containing transponder codes and authentication signals, for them to use along the journey. Hunter checked them carefully before inserting into the main flight systems and setting the identification beacon.
"It does identify us as a special forces flight, with a whole bunch of clearance codes and permits for multiple air sectors along the way. And yes, don't worry, I'm trying to make a copy – but the whole thing is encrypted nine ways to hell, so it's going to be a challenge. It looks like it's time limited as well, so no, we don't have a permanent pass to go wherever the hell we want. Not until I can break this cypher anyway!" Hunter fed in the route map, which had them flying mostly along the route of the trans-Siberian railroad, though their flight corridor gave them a good degree of latitude in the precise course they flew – the brigadier having taken note of the unnamed fuel stop the team could arrange themselves.
They were towed out of the hanger and were soon in the air, Tads on the viewing prism taking one last look at the massive blast hole in the forest and wondering what she was going to do about that, before the sight slipped away behind them as Marius accelerated to the east. A few minutes later, Marius got a call over the guard frequency, an unknown voice asking for their flight number.
"Flight Sierra Alpha One Five Xray, receiving, go ahead."
"One Five Xray, squawk beacon three four niner point five, two second cycle." Marius activated the beacon as requested, sending out pulses on the frequency to identify the aircraft. It felt wrong to be announcing their presence so blatantly again, but he was prepared to kill the beacon if anything happened. What he didn't expect was a pair of first line fighter jets to come up from his rear, one to each side and waggle their wings in salute as they slowly overtook him. Their sleek and deadly shapes slid up alongside the tilt-wing, missiles hanging under the wings and the sun reflecting off the polarised cockpits, and the lead pilot called over the local low-power channel.
"We've been instructed to provide escort for you while we fly near the Turkmenistan border until you transfer to the central military district. In the event of any interest from the south, drop to flight level 1 or below, and leave them to us – we'll provide top cover."
"Roger that." Marius didn't know what else to say, so he erred on the side of caution. The fighters pushed ahead with a brief flare of their afterburners, until they were about five kilometres ahead of his aircraft, and then he picked up their radar, firing off at full strength ahead of them. It made them obvious targets to anyone beyond their radar range – but it also sanitised the route ahead, clearing a cone a good twenty kilometres wide of any airborne target that shouldn't be there.
"I could get used to this!" Marius thought, and followed along behind them, their three craft formation slashing through the air at five hundred kilometres per hour. He had no doubt that if they saw anything, the fighters would quickly accelerate through the sound barrier and leave him for dust so they could deal with the possible threat as far away from him as possible, while he dropped down to below three hundred metres to get lost in the ground clutter. He relaxed and enjoyed the flight – it was nice to be working with professionals again…
In the back, Tads explained to Vadim that she would like to link their minds together, going through the details of how the spell worked, and how to keep his thoughts private on certain subjects. Unsurprisingly he was still hesitant, but he took a deep breath and nodded he agreement, closing his eyes and flinching slightly as though expecting the same pain he'd felt when he'd cast his first spell. A moment later his eyes flew wide open though, his eyes staring straight ahead and his pupils expanding dramatically as his brain dumped chemicals into his body at the unique and novel experience. He felt Tads inside his head, her thoughts merging with his. He experienced her love of the natural world, the feelings she had as a follower of Elk, the drive to protect and nurture her friends and allies. It wasn't just words, he felt, he knew – beyond any contestation. Slowly he relaxed, sharing with her his feelings of being out in the woods, of experiences as a child wandering the forests near his village.
Once he'd gotten used to her, she waved to Aswon who had been included in the casting of the spell, but had remained quiet until then. Vadim got an insight into Aswon's mind, exploring a whole new outlook on life and magical talent, and also getting to share his vastly different insights into magical theory. With the gestalt they were able to form by sharing their thoughts and ideas, but also the concepts and emotions behind raw knowledge Vadim learnt more in the first hour than he would in a month of traditional classroom teaching, learning about how to cope with magical drain or backlash, and how spells were founded in the manipulation of mana, shaped by the conscious will of the caster.
They flew east with their fighter escort, learning magical skills or cleaning equipment, studying maps or just dozing and letting their minds wander. Once past the nearest approach of Turkmenistan and deeper into Russia the fighters peeled off, leaving them to cruise almost unseen through the early afternoon sunshine. Kai made a call to Ludmilla's number, getting through to her butler cross business manager and gaining permission to land at Tara airport again to refuel.
"When will you be arriving at the dam, Mr. Kai?"
"Ohh, no – not the dam, we're heading east. We're looking at refuelling at Tara helipad, if that's ok."
"Oh, I see. Well, that should be fine, I'll make the arrangements now."
When they came in to land the same sardonic and uninterested lackey that had refuelled them before came to couple up their fuel nozzle to the underground tankerage, letting them refuel the bird and then bringing over the cred-reader to take payment, and soon enough they were back into the air, heading further east towards the town of Novosibrisk. Another hour's flying bought them in over the steppes towards the city, nestled in a curve of a large river.
Marius noticed as he approached that there was a strong sensor net over the city – enough transmitters to trip all of his detectors and send them sky-rocketing, to the point that he had to start shutting down some of the systems to avoid damage. Closing on the city, he saw a huge military area to the North West with an entire division of tanks laid out in a neat formation, with a rocket brigade a kilometre to the south, all of their multiple launch rocket arrays aimed to the north. Nestled behind them was a battalion-sized area, ringed by scores of mobile radar trucks and monitoring systems – which explained the sphere of electronic glare over the whole area.
Slightly to the east of these three formations was a local airport which looked to have been taken over by a regimental-sized force of helicopters. A collection of attack birds, scouts, troop transports, medical transports and heavy lift supply choppers were laid out on the aprons, with SAM batteries positioned around the field and 30mm cannon crews dug in heavily. Local air traffic control directed him to land at the southern end of runway zero-two, and he bought the tilt-wing in for a textbook landing on the wide runway. No sooner had they landed than a fuel bowser started to head their way, along with a couple of the eponymous UAZ jeeps.
While the fuel team got to work, topping up their tanks, the UAZ convoy pulled up, and a number of security personnel got out, forming a loose perimeter around them. Only at the nod of the head of the security team did a pair of officers climb out of their own vehicle.
"One on the right is the colonel, one on the left is a captain," Marius called out over the radio, thankful that he'd spent some time at Samara looking through the Russian rank system and working out what they all meant.
Kai threw a salute at the approaching colonel, and then offered his hand to shake, and the average-height man took his hand to give him a firm handclasp, shaking his hand up and down twice and then releasing in a perfunctory manner. A gust of wind washed past them as another chopper started up a hundred metres away, and the colonel patted down the shock of white hair on his head before he spoke.
"You must be the team that Vasiliy mentioned to me, then?"
"We are indeed sir, and Brigadier Cherkenov sends his respects." Kai opened the bag at his feet, pulling out the pair of packing boxes. Aware that the colonel's security detail was watching, he carefully slid open the top of each box, revealing the dusty bottles inside. "I believe that the Brigadier intended for you to have both of these, sir?" The colonel's face twitched upwards into a smile, and his mutton chops twitched.
"Ahh, Vasiliy was always a thoughtful man. Very good. This, by the way, is Captain Galler. In the event that you come back this way, he is the person who you will liaise with for access to the base, and to deal with any queries." He gestured to the short but athletic man next to him, who braced to attention, letting his gaze wander over each of them in turn as if committing them to memory.
"Excellent. Well, I see your staff has performed an excellent job and have finished the refuelling, so with your permission colonel, we'll be on our way?"
"Not so fast. Where is the lady?" Kai looked confused for a moment, looking round at the team, and then settling his gaze on Tads.
"You mean her?" The colonel ignored Kai and walked over to Tads, who stood her ground nervously.
"I understand you have received a commendation for your service to the Rodina?" Tads nodded, finding her mouth suddenly dry as the colonel loomed at her. He wasn't actually that big, but somehow his presence seemed to outshine his physical body. The colonel drew himself up to stand at attention and threw off a sharp salute – as did the security detail, holding the position until the colonel dropped his hand back to his waist. "Carry on." Tads nodded, not entirely sure what the appropriate response was.
The colonel was evidently done with niceties however, and headed back to his jeep, climbing aboard and closely followed by Captain Geller. As soon as they were secure, the detail climbed back aboard their transports, and within seconds they were driving in an arc, angling away from the tilt-wing and back towards the main base. The team watched them go, then hustled back inside the chopper and getting ready for take-off.
The next leg of the journey was scheduled for another three hours, and once they were up at cruising speed and altitude, Kai made sure everyone was on the comms net and started the conversation rolling, asking the team just how they were going to deal with the spirit, assuming it was the same one.
"The main problem is the same as we had before of course," said Aswon. "If Tads banishes the spirit, it will be back in a month or so, and we'll be long gone. It's very difficult to destroy, and finding its true name to use against it is very tough."
"And from my assessment of it, I think it's powerful enough that banishing it is likely to be a chancy thing. There's no surety that I'd win, and that would really make things difficult. Can you not weaken it first?"
"The trouble is Tads, yes we probably can. But when trying to banish the spirit, you're engaging in a battle with the creature's intrinsic magical nature. Its current metaphysical condition is not likely to cause an issue for you, either positive or negative."
"Once again I ask – what happens if I fly into one of these things with the chopper, and it impacts a ward at great speed. It will kill it, no?" Marius' voice came over the speaker, sounding hopeful.
"Probably not – it may hurt it, it may drive it back to its home plane. But that gets us back to the first problem. I don't think ramming is the best action. It may just get pushed through the ward, bringing it inside, here with us. And then we're trapped in a tiny space with little options but to fight."
"But we can shoot it, and maybe chip away at the target?"
"Yes Hunter – but it's going to be far more resilient to damage than the smaller ones. You'll be lucky to strike a blow that hurts without disrupting. But we shall see."
"Maybe we should just leave it for the Russians to deal with then?"
"That won't do our reputation any good at all, and that won't let us use these bases to refuel either. Both of those are pretty important. Personally I think Tads is likely to be our main offensive weapon, with us supporting her. But that remains to be seen." Aswon and Tads between them explained to Vadim why that might be, filling in his background of the situation and knowledge of magic using their telepathic mind link. As they filled in Vadim on the nature of the threat and warned him about the dangers involved, they felt him detail how he'd like to attack and kill the spirit. During that moment, as his rage mounted, for the first time they saw the edge of his shamanic mask. While Tads took on the aspect of Elk, her eyes growing and snout elongating, Vadim took on a different appearance. His snout grew longer, much like Tads' did, but his eyes were small and beady. Instead the teeth along his jaw elongated and grew sharper, while dull brown fur rippled over his head.
Tads had never met a Wolverine shaman before, and knew nothing about it – though from what she could see, rage and anger were no stranger to the totem. Both Aswon and Tads exchanged a glance – as much mental as physical, and then changed tack, explaining other aspects of the nature of shamans. It was fairly common knowledge that Bear Shamans had a tendency to make excellent healers, nurturing and protecting people – there was even a trideo show about "Grizzly George, the Sioux Bear Shaman who wandered the land helping people". But fewer people knew that when provoked they tended to go berserk, losing their composure and turning into raging killing machines. Fortunately, they were able to show Vadim in clear mental pictures exactly what the aftermath of those rages looked like, and how often the ability to distinguish between friend and foe disappeared when the red mist descended.
As they rolled the plan back and forth, Kai came up with an interesting concept – if the situation allowed, he would try and use his vocal powers to make the spirit blurt out its true name. He wasn't likely to succeed, as the spirit would have no desire to reveal it and would likely be magically resistant in the first place. But if he did that, the spirit almost certainly would be thinking about its name, having it in the forefront of its mind. And that might allow Tads to use her mind probe to scrape out the details more easily, not having to penetrate as deeply into the consciousness of her enemy.
Not knowing much more about the situation, there wasn't a huge amount of planning they could do, so when they had crammed in as much knowledge about magic as they thought he could take, they handed Vadim over to Hunter to get a brief introduction to the door guns, so if there was a fight there was a safe way for him to contribute to their efforts.
They flew on through the steadily darkening skies, heading east and the sun fell below the horizon below them, darkness swallowing the land ahead. Occasionally they saw glimmers of moonlight forming a twin trace along the ground as it reflected from the railroad that twisted and wandered around the hills and through the forests of the land below, before clouds once again obscured the light. Finally a little after ten, they cleared the last hill and saw Irkutsk laid out before them. Once again, Marius had to be careful with the sensors as he picked up the massive electronic bubble that covered the city ensuring that nothing moved without being detected. He was challenged immediately, the intense radar signals and sensor probes defeating even the advanced radar-absorbing composites and computer-calculated profile of the chopper.
"Everyone! Check the monitors! You need to see this…" Marius called out over the comms, and relayed his sensor feed to the rear compartment. His low light sensors picked up on the dimly lit camps and revealed company after company of troops, platoons of tanks, towed artillery, self-propelled guns, engineer sections and areas that outputted enough electronic noise to probably start cooking birds that flew overhead.
Closing on the city, they saw that the troops were camped in and around the city as a whole, but the profile of the city looked wrong – when Marius enhanced the image to try and show the outlines of the buildings, entire sections of the built up area looked damaged or destroyed. The moon emerged from behind a large cloud, and they saw the burnt and savaged city below them, and realised that at least a quarter, maybe as much as a third of the city had been attacked and was badly damaged. Clearly they weren't far from the front lines at all.
Marius was given landing instructions, and aimed for the assigned spot between what he'd been told was the 91st Headquarters Brigade and the 105th Logistic Support Brigade, both formations formed up next to what appeared to be an old sports stadium. At least the car park there gave him plenty of room to find a suitable landing spot.
As Marius slowly descended, patiently following the landing instructions given to him by the Russian air traffic officer, Kai slapped home a fresh power cell into the bottom of his taser and checked the charge.
"Ok everyone. Let's go find out what's going on, upset some old enemies and make some new friends."