The engines cycled down, the noise slowly fading away to be replaced with the swoosh of the ocean lapping against the beach, and the occasional bird call or screech from the jungle. Kai and Shimazu dismounted, stretching their legs and leaning against the door frame of the chopper.
Aswon took down his rifle from its resting place, grabbed a cloth and started to clean it carefully.
"This whole business with the Huk worries me." He sprayed a little bit of oil into the bolt carrier and started to work the action, distributing the viscous fluid over the metal. "I'm not sure we want to be getting involved with the rebels against an occupying force."
"Well, we're not going to get that involved – just sell them some guns, and then be on our way." Kai said firmly. "But, in the meantime, Marius? How pressing are the repairs?"
"We do need to get these engines stripped down and looked at. Our fuel economy has dropped, and if it drops much further we are definitely going to have problems with some of the fuel jumps we have planned. There are plenty of spots where we have long overwater flights and landing somewhere to refill from the extra barrels just is not a viable option."
"So, let's have a look at the options. Hunter, can you pull up the map and show us what we have, please?"
"Sure Kai. Ok, so we're here, southern end of the Philippines, on Sarangani Island. It's a run of two hundred and eighty kilometres up to Mount Piapayungan which is our third stop. That's another stratovolcano, with a peak height of fifteen hundred metres, so well within our capabilities. The maps of the area I have are older, but the area looks like a reserve or national park, almost no roads, no settlements, hopefully nice and quiet. I've been doing some digging, and both this and the next stop are rated as 'fifty-year volcanos', so much less active than the first."
"From Piapayungan, it's a five hundred and sixty kilometre run north to number four, called Bulusan. That's another fifteen hundred metre peak, so again shouldn't be an issue for us height-wise. That's right on the southern end of the northernmost landmass of the Philippines, and a little way south of Legazpi City, where we stopped on the way down her and had that prick of a customs inspector."
"And what are our options for stops off the books in the area?"
Well, over to the west here is one place we picked up, 'Elune's Bay', over on the Spratley Islands. About eleven hundred klicks from us here, nine hundred from stop number three, and eight hundred and sixty from stop number four – so it's a bit of a bugger, with wasted fuel going back and forth. There's another one further north at the Parcel Islands called the 'Shark Tank'." Hunter traced a zig zag pattern up from their current location to the volcano, then Spratly Islands, the second volcano and then a small island just off the mainland.
"If we follow this route, we can get the drop-off done, and get to Spratly on one tank. Refuel there, then head back on ourselves a little but north to the next volcano, do that drop off, then out to this island to land, and do a manual refuel to transfer about five hundred litres into the tanks. That gets us out all the way out to the Parcel Islands, and the next stop, so we can refuel the bird and the tanks there."
"Doesn't that put us way off course?"
"Well, closer to the mainland, sure. But from there it's a hop up to Hong Kong, and from there we can get to Shanghai and there's a stop there we can use."
"Oh, if we're anywhere near Hong Kong, I'm sure Spook can help us out – that's her home turf! I'll give her a call and see what she can sort out for us!" Aswon grabbed his phone and jumped down from the chopper, walking away a few metres to get some quiet.
"Or the alternative to the to and fro, is we use the fake transponder on the chopper and land at commercial airports to refuel, like we did on the way down. Means lots of paperwork logging flight plans and such like though, but less wasted time and cheaper fuel."
"Can we get the repairs done there as well? What do you think, Marius?"
"Hmm, maybe. It is a risk though. While we were just doing fuel stops, we were not on the ground very long, and did not have people really inspecting the craft, so it was not likely the cover story would be checked thoroughly. If we have to put ourselves into a hanger, and have ground crew and maintenance staff nearby, or supervising the repairs, then they have a lot longer to study the configuration and realise that it is not correct. There is not much we can do about that really. Short of Tads affecting their minds with a spell, one way or another." Tads grimaced with the idea of either having to hold a spell up for extended periods of time while under close scrutiny, or of invading people's minds and twisting them to believe what she told them – neither sounded like things she wanted to do.
Aswon climbed back through the far hatch, perching on the edge of the floor and letting his legs dangle to the sand below.
"She was engaged, I've left her a brief message. Hopefully she'll call back soon. Anyway, going through Hong Kong gets my vote, I've not seen Spook for ages, and it would be good to catch up with her."
"All of this planning is well and good of course, but we don't know where we have to drop the guns off, which is going to be a big factor that's going to affect the planning. Until we know where we're going, we can't really plan the route and distances at all."
"Fair point Hunter, ok, come on Shimazu. Let's go see Kui Hai and get things organised."
Kai and Shimazu wandered up the beach, heading towards the veranda and the waiting figure of Kui Hai. He was sprawled out on a rocking chair, gently moving back and forth, with his knife resting across his chest, hand loosely holding the grip. He toasted them with a half-drunk beer as they climbed the steps.
"Good evening, Kui Hai. Hope you're well?"
"Hello again, Kai. Good, working hard. You?"
"Not bad. Hope you don't have any more problems with late payments from visitors to your island?" He watched the man snort and shake his head. "Good, good. So, we were hoping to get some fuel sorted out, and then perhaps do some business with you to get put in touch with someone about these guns."
"Ok. I'll get the fuel now, and give my contact a call." True to his word, he rang a local number first and babbled away for thirty seconds before hanging up, then redialled a much longer number and spoke much more politely and circumspectly to someone else, nodding several times as he did so. "Fuel coming. Contact wants me to check the guns and make sure they are good before passing on the details. You good with that?"
"Sure, no problem. Want to take a walk?" Kai led the three of them back to the chopper and got the ramp dropped, revealing the cargo containers holding the guns and ammunition. Aswon and Hunter pried open the case, revealing the selection of weapons inside.
"May I?" Kai nodded, and Kui Hai reached down to poke at one of the assault rifles, rapping his knuckles on it, and then working the slide one handed, before grabbing a box of ammo and flipping open the lid, pulling out a few rounds at random and examining them. "Looks good. Ok, will call." He hit redial on his phone, and spent another few minutes talking with someone, the language still making very little sense to any of the team. "Got coordinates for you? Ready?"
"Sure, go ahead." Kai nodded, glancing to make sure Hunter was ready to record them.
"Fly to 7.31 by 125.79, and call on local radio frequency at 121.458 Mhz. Your code phrase is 'Xe Hu Ra To Na Um Ip'. Your contact will then give you final landing point and arrange meeting at midnight local time."
"All sounds very secret agent…"
"They're a very careful bunch of people. The ones who aren't get caught by the Japanese and tortured to death."
"Ahh, yes, that'll do it. Every time."
"Well, if I'm flying later and we're due there at midnight, I'm going to get some sleep now." Marius climbed back into the pilot's chair and pulled a blanket over him, using a rolled up jacket as a pillow and tried to drift off to sleep, while the rest of the team got on with other stuff. He was about to grumble as a phone started to ring, but heard the noise diminish as Aswon dived out of the troop bay onto the beach, answering the call.
"Hi Spook, thanks for calling back."
"No worries. So, wassup?"
"Well, we're doing a trip around the Pacific, the ring of fire - don't ask why. We're having some engine troubles, and need to get them stripped and cleaned."
"So book in with a mechanic?" Spook sounded a little confused as to why Aswon was telling her about engine issues.
"Well, we're in a hot bird, so its not that easy. And the engines are choked up with volcanic ash, so that's likely to cause some questions as well."
"Ahh, right. So you need a facility somewhere quiet, and probably some parts, equally quiet, and someone to fix you up."
"Maybe. Our pilot is also a pretty good mechanic, and thinks he can do most of the work himself in about a week. Mostly its about getting the place and tools. We're at the southern end of the Philippines at the moment."
"I can make some enquiries and put the feelers out. Philippines are a bit touchy at the moment, the Japanese are having a crack down."
"Well, actually we're looking at making our way over towards you. We think we can be in Hong Kong in a day or two, maybe a few if we run into trouble along the way."
"Oh? Oh in that case, I know exactly the person to send you to. There's someone who can definitely help you out on the south east side of the island. I'll call and set things up."
"Great stuff. I'll contact you again when we're a bit closer and let you know our E.T.A."
"So I take it you're still on the job then, and you're not available for work?"
"Yes, we're still working, on that job you got contacted about. The team can probably do with some downtime while the engines are being fixed, but I might be able to squeeze something in. I'll let you know when we're closer though."
"Ok Aswon, I'll wait for your call." Aswon disconnected and stowed his phone, turning to head back to the chopper. He was looking forward to seeing Spook again, and hoped he could get more than a day or two with her.
When he got back to the chopper, he found Hunter was busy doing some research on the two volcanoes in the Philippines.
"I can't get into a lot of the corporate sites without doing a proper run against the security, and I don't want to take out a subscription to some of these services, they've got security flags all over them. But, from what I can tell from a couple of different sources, Piapayungan was last active in any way noticeable about twenty five years ago, while Bulusan was about forty years ago. So theoretically, either could go up at a moment's notice, but they're not statistically 'due' yet – but it's not like they have a diary booking in and its every fifty years on the dot. But, there is no sign of either being active at the moment. I did see something else interesting though…"
"Which is what?" Kai asked.
"An advisory in Japan, notification of disruption to air travel, due to volcanic particles entering the high atmosphere, after a recent eruption. Looks like volcano number one has made the news, and sub-orbital and semiballistic flights to the UCAS, Calfree and the Tir are all being affected."
"That's everything west coast of America right?"
"Yes, flights in and out of Japan are being diverted or rescheduled, and there's news of passenger chaos in the major airports in Japan because of it. Looks like the ash cloud we flew through has drifted north and has hit high winds, carrying it up into the flight path of the commercial stuff. Something to bear in mind."
"So, what's the plan then – are we just waiting here until a little after eleven, and then heading north to these co-ordinates?"
"I suppose so, Kai. If that's the case, I'm going to go for a run and get my legs stretched." Aswon hopped down from the chopper and started to limber up, working the muscles in his thighs and calves loose.
"I'll come with you, I guess," Shimazu added.
"I'm going to wander the edge of the jungle, have a look to see if I can find any rare or potent specimens or talesma to gather."
"Ahh, that sounds more useful. I'll do that instead actually," Shimazu added.
"That's a good idea, Tads. I'll keep my eyes open while I run."
"And in that case I shall stay here, and keep an eye on the chopper."
"You mean Kai that you're going to snooze until we take off?"
"That's more or less what I said, Hunter, yes…"
The team split up, Hunter and Kai staying at the chopper along with Marius – two of them sleeping and one doing research on his deck, while the rest of the crew went to exercise and look for magical components. It was a mixed result – Aswon found some interesting-looking brightly coloured feathers from some kind of jungle parakeet that looked to be suitable for using as enchanting materials as he ran up the treeline along the beach. Shimazu, on the other hand, was less fortunate – he discovered what appeared to be a pristine skull of some awakened species half buried in the sand, picked clean by tiny insects. Unfortunately he found it by stepping on it, freezing as he heard the delicate skull crunch and break under his foot, ruining the magical potential.
"Bugger…"
The team reconvened just after 23:00, getting themselves ready for departure and strapping down cargo and loose equipment ready for the journey over potentially hostile terrain. With a fresh spirit concealing the craft, they flew north up the Davao Gulf, keeping low to the surface of the water to evade radar and other flights, threading their way up between the main bulk of the islands and the spit of land that was home to Mount Hamiguitan. The further north they went, the narrower the gulf became, until there was barely five kilometres of open water between the two shores. Marius was careful though, nursing the engines along at the minimum power settings to keep them moving and evaded detection, arriving at the co-ordinates given and starting a slow orbit while he fired up the radio and selected the correct frequency.
"Delivery flight to Emerald. We are at location, awaiting final instructions."
"We hear you. Give recognition code." The voice was thick and difficult to understand, speaking a very quick and heavily accented English.
"Xe Hu Ra To Na Um Ip." Marius thanked his prodigious memory as he recited the phrase without having to look it up, wondering if they were nonsense sounds or meaningful in one of the local languages.
"Code ok. Are you airborne or water-craft?"
"We're airborne."
"And how much do you weigh?" Marius mentally blinked, wondering what kind of landing arrangements were being made here. Even a backwater runway should be robust enough to take a craft as small as the team's tilt-wing. He checked the load sensors and configuration of the craft, adding them all up and threw in a ten percent overhead, just to be safe, reporting back the final weight to the unknown contact on the radio.
"We can do that. Fly to 7.38364, 125.77848, call as you arrive and we will give you final instructions." The carrier wave went dead as the person on the far end cut off the signal, leaving Marius with no real options but to blindly enter the co-ordinates into the map and start a gentle bank to take him in the right direction. They crossed the edge of the gulf about two minutes later, and started to head inland. His sensors showed lots of artificial straight lines below him, creating row after row of rectangles in the ground below him. Adjusting the sensors slightly, he managed to get enough visual contrast to spot the paddy fields for what they were, row upon row of swampy rows of cultivated product, with only narrow spits of raised roadways between them – certainly nothing he would consider as safe for dropping the chopper onto.
Closing on the co-ordinates, he saw that the paddy fields disappeared into a swampy mangrove forest, and nestled into a small clearing, barely visible, was a low-slung house with a small wharf, dark and quiet. He dropped the tilt-wing lower, and drifted towards it, the location figures gradually updating as he closed on the precise co-ordinates given. After thirty seconds of careful manoeuvring he keyed up the radio again.
"Delivery team, in position."
"Flash landing lights."
"Roger." Marius swapped circuits to the internal system and called to Tads over the speakers, "Can we drop the concealment for a couple of moments." When he heard her give him the all clear, he gave a mental twitch, engaging the lights for a moment before extinguishing them again. In the sudden gloom, he saw a couple of skiffs slowly oozing out of the overhanging trees, inching towards them slowly and silently. "Contacts, 12,3 and 9 o'clock!"
"I have them on astral." Aswon called out. He concentrated for a moment on the figures, reaching out with his magical senses to determine their state of mind. "No sign of hostility, caution and wariness, a touch of fear. But no anger or sense of violence."
Marius watched them through the low-light sensors as they converged in on his position, being punted through the water with long bamboo shafts, and as they closed in he could see bulky objects slung over the prow of each one.
"Lower landing gear." As the voice called over the radio, he saw people in each skiff push out the objects over the front of their craft, and a horrible sinking sensation rippled through him. His fears were confirmed as he dropped the wheels out of their concealed pods, and the boat teams positioned the pontoons underneath the nose and fuselage landing positions, jockeying them into alignment. He steeled himself and started to lower them down, calling out a warning to the rest of the team.
"We appear to be landing on some pontoons, in the middle of a bog. Do not get out unless you are prepared to get very wet, and watch out for us being unstable." He heard the sounds of dismay from the rear, glad that it wasn't just him that was perturbed by the idea of landing their aircraft on plastic buoyancy aids rather than a firm surface. "Kai – whatever you do, do NOT piss these people off. If they pull the plug on these things, we will sink like a stone, and probably would not be able to get airborne again. Ever."
"I think it's probably a good idea if I stay on the chopper, then." Shimazu murmured. "Out of sight and everything. They're possibly not going to understand that I'm not like most of the Japanese they deal with…"
In the cockpit, Marius felt his wheels hit the pontoons, sinking under the surface of the dark water as they took the weight of the chopper. Water rose over the wheels, up the struts, stopping maybe twenty to thirty centimetres above the top of the wheels as the pontoons either reached equilibrium, or hit the bottom – he wasn't sure which, and didn't really want to know. Ahead of him on his sensors he could see a figure in the lead skiff give him an enthusiastic thumbs up gesture, then slash across his throat. Heart beating like a drum, he powered down the engines, feeling the chopper wobble slightly as it settled on the unstable platforms, before coming to rest about three degrees tilted to starboard.
Kai slid open the unwarded door, watching as the skiff from that side was silently propelled in towards them. He could see three slender figures in the boat, hunkered down low with what looked like AK97 rifles pointing towards them. He repeated the passphrase, making sure he was standing in the doorway with his hands visible and open, relying on the rest of the team to save him if this proved to be an ambush. To his relief though, one of the figures in the boat hissed a response.
"Emerald is waiting. Come."
He gingerly climbed out of the hatch into the skiff, with Aswon and Hunter following along. The skiff sunk dangerously low in the water with all six of them aboard, and the man in the back grunted with effort as he turned them and started to punt towards the house. The other skiffs joined up with them, each also having three men similarly armed and dressed in each. The two men from their own skiff jumped into their neighbours, lightening the load and helping them ease through the water towards the waiting structure.
A minute later as they got close to the darkened house, they could make out a figure sitting on the veranda, deep in the shadow from the roof. Something bulky lay across their lap, and they rocked back and forth, almost imperceptibly. When the skiff bumped into the bottom step, Kai stepped up on to the veranda, moving carefully and slowly, waiting for Hunter and Aswon to join him before he addressed the figure.
"Greetings, I'm Kai. We have a delivery for you."
"I don't know what you're talking about. I din't order anything." The voice was female, but low in register, and sounded like the speaker was large, having an edge of rumble to the tone.
"A mutual friend got in touch. We have some…tractor parts. Agricultural equipment, that we purchased a little while ago, that may help you in your harvesting. I have a list of the parts if you'd like to see?" He reached into his pocket slowly and smoothly, pulling out a small data slate and keying it alive, then reaching forward to gently pass it over to the figure. A dark hand reached out and grabbed it, angling it towards them to read. By the dim light the team could make out a few features of the heavy-set woman sitting in the rocking chair, some kind of shotgun laid over her lap. Her face was broad and rough, hair slightly unkempt and she was dressed in plain and hardwearing clothes, like the others from the skiffs.
"We've got armed troops in the treeline, just be aware." Aswon murmured as he caught sight of a glint in the trees. As he concentrated he saw a few more gun barrels, aiming in their direction. Like the men on the skiffs, he sensed watchfulness and caution, but no outright hostility.
"We got the parts from some of our South African friends, a couple of islands over. I believe you may know them. The parts are good quality, and should meet with your approval."
"Are you cops. Or working with the Japanese?"
"No, we're independent traders."
"Do you swear on the life and honour of the Emperor of Japan that you're not here to fuck with us?"
"What?"
"Do you swear!"
"Kai, I think I understand." Aswon leant forward slightly, then spoke slowly and clearly, enunciating the words carefully. "I swear on the life and honour of the Emperor of Japan that we are not here to cause you any harm or loss, or cause you danger or suffering." A short and stubby finger pointed at Kai and then Hunter, waiting for them to say the same thing.
"Ok, let's see your tractor parts then."
"Pop the back ramp, please." Kai transferred his attention back to the figure in the chair. "I'll send my men over in the boats to offload the crates, and bring them back here, if that is suitable for you?" The figure nodded, and Aswon and Hunter suppressed a sigh as they realised they were going to have to shift the hardware between them. Turning they climbed back down the set of three steps and carefully clambered into the skiff, nodding to the man at the rear to move on. As they were slowly propelled over the water, Aswon turned to face out into the darkness, and lowered his voice to the bare minimum that would carry over the radio, dropping into Russian as he did so.
"The swearing thing, if we were Japanese agents, that would be a really hard thing for them to do. They'd be calling the Emperor into doubt if they swore on his name and then betrayed that. I guess they're just being ultra-careful with it being our first time here."
They spent the next few minutes grabbing the boxes and unstrapping them from the ramp, then carefully loading them into the three skiffs to ferry back to the house. They had to move carefully to avoid tipping the skiffs, and by the time they were done both Hunter and Aswon were sweating liberally in the humid night air. However, they made it back to the house without tipping anyone or anything into the water, and once they were on the reassuringly solid steps, they could pick up the pace, offloading much more quickly and moving them up to just in front of Kai, standing in silence before the equally quiet figure in the rocking chair.
They gestured to the box, and Kai pried open the top, revealing the set of assault rifles neatly laid out inside in their protective foil wrapping. A flashlight with a red lens was waved slowly over the contents, the figure in the chair leaning forward to examine them without comment.
"Ok, interesting. We can talk business. How much are you selling such a thing for."
Kai listened to the figure's speech, and something clicked in his brain – he remembered dealing with a few people once who had done similar things, working on the edge of one of the Chinese states. Fearing the meeting had been infiltrated, everything was posed as a question – no commitment was given to doing a deal, no offer to buy, no indication that they wanted to purchase. He didn't think the Japanese would care much about claims of entrapment or that they would even bother with a legal trial, but caution was probably drilled into these people from a very hard school that gave no second chances.
"Well, to be honest, we were passing along here on the way to somewhere else, for another job. So we're not really after making a profit from anything. If we can cover the cost of our fuel, we'd be happy to sell at that price. We don't need to mark up the goods and take advantage of anyone, we're just trying to help you people out."
"So, you support our cause?"
Kai heard the inbreath from Aswon behind him, and coughed slightly to cover the noise.
"Well, we're certainly much more interested in being your friends than enemies. I don't know if we're going to want to wave banners of public support, but we're happy to help where we can." He hoped that was close enough to what she wanted to hear, without actually tying themselves to the Huk cause and embroiling them any deeper into the local politics. Emerald pulled out a credstick terminal, and waved at Kai, indicating he should pass over his stick.
"So how much?"
"Twelve thousand for everything." The woman blinked at him once, then keyed in the amount quickly and transferred the funds over. It was about twenty percent more than Kai had paid for the weapons, and as he had said, mostly covered their fuel costs, but she'd clearly been expecting to pay a lot more for them.
"At that price, I hope we do business again. What team name or callsign?"
"Call us 'New Fish', that seems to work."
"Ok, then. Let me give you codes to come back again." She dug out a pad and scanned over it, then read out a new code phrase and frequency, which were dutifully copied down by Hunter and recorded. "You can stay for a few more minutes if you want."
"Is that a sign we should go. Forgive me if I'm ignorant of any customs around here, it's our first time."
"No, that's how long before the pontoons start to sink too far."
"Ahh, right, I see. In that case, let's get back to the chopper and let you retrieve them then. And perhaps we'll see you again some time." They shuffled down the steps, leaving the crates of weapons and ammunition on the veranda, and climbed back aboard the skiffs, making their way back towards the chopper. Marius had heard the discussion over the comm link and had the pre-flight pretty much completed and was ready to start the engines as soon as they were aboard, and two minutes later they were slowly lifting off, clawing their way out of the dank water and up into the air, sending a cascade of water down onto the fields below as it drained out of the landing gear.
"How far to the volcano, Marius?"
"One hundred and forty-five kilometres. Probably around twenty minutes flight time for a stealthy and covert approach."
"Well, it's a little after midnight, so let's take it steady. Plenty of time to get in and drop the token off and be on our way, find somewhere to land and rest up for the rest of the night."
"Affirmative."
The chopper flew west, heading across fields and plantations, crossing the occasional minor road, flying a hundred metres above the surface to stay concealed in the ground clutter. They raced across the darkened landscape, avoiding any built-up areas or corporate facilities – both fortunately very rare and easily spotted.
It was somewhat unexpected then when the chopper veered to starboard sharply, dropping abruptly and sending people scrabbling for something to hang on to in the troop bay. The engines cut back and they sank quickly, slowing almost to a halt and then starting to slowly build up speed again while they waggled back and forth in an evasive snake. The team were experienced enough by now to know that they needed to keep quiet and watch out – whatever it was, Marius was dealing with it and would let them know as soon as he had a moment to spare.
"Sorry about that. Rounded a hill and got a line of sight to our destination, and ran into a huge bubble of electromagnetic activity ahead. The whole volcano appears to be covered, and there is activity everywhere!"
"I'm seeing signs of life all over the place too. Too far away and indistinct to make out the details, but there's hundreds and hundreds of people on the slope from what I can see," Aswon added, his face concealed by the goggles attached to the viewing prisms.
"What is it that's ahead, then? What kind of electro wotsits?" Kai asked.
"There is an active sensor net covering the entire area, with a huge amount of power behind it. I veered sharply as we were getting to the point where it might possibly have been able to see us, even through stealth. But, there is also a drone network operating. I could see at least a dozen drones in the air, all part of the same network as far as I could determine, flying patrols. I do not know why, but this volcano is certainly not deserted like the first two were."
"Let me jack in and I'll trawl the newsnets and see if I can find anything. Assuming we're not going to be going evasive again – I don't want to get trapped online."
"It is not my intention to get any closer than I have to. But I will keep us slow and steady for the moment, until you get back." The cockpit fell silent as Marius concentrated on flying and Hunter connected his deck to the matrix via their communications array. A minute later, he was back.
"I've had a look at the local media, and that's no help at all. Massively biased and clearly Japan-corp controlled, it's spouting whatever corporate bullshit is fed to them, and just mentions how much prosperity the local businesses are now providing for the community. So, I quickly jumped onto Shadowland, and found a brief mention of the place. Someone else did a job near here a short while back, and reported running into security goons from 'Masaka Minerals Corporation' – and when I checked in on those, it turns out they're a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mitsuhama Computer Technology Corporation."
"Is that a bad thing?" Tads asked, looking around the troop bay as several faces looked glum. "I'm guessing so from the reaction back here, but I don't know why. On second thoughts, I suspect I might not want to know why, as it'll make me feel sick…"
"They're one of the 'big ten', the mega corporations that pretty much rule the world these days. Based in Japan, they're most noticeable for their computer technology, robotics and drones, and they're heavily invested in multimedia and magical research too." Kai told her. "Along with Renraku, another Japanese mega, they were one of the big three computer firms that really kicked things off after the crash and developed the matrix. Which for everyone that doesn't live in the tundra is a pretty big deal."
"More importantly from our side of things, Mitsuhama has a reputation amongst operators as being very unforgiving – they have a concept called the 'zero zone'. If you're in a zero zone and get detected, they will just straight up murder you, with not a blink. And their defences are set up so that they will respond with overwhelming force as a first option, not a final escalation."
"But surely they're not allowed to just murder people?"
"Oh, Tads… it's been a long time since the laws of countries counted for things like that. If you're on corporate property, corporate law applies – at least for the big corps. So if they catch you, they can do what they like to you, and nobody will stop them. So if Masaka Minerals belongs to MCT, we need to be aware that if we're caught trespassing on their land, they'll shoot first, then shoot anyone left alive stupid enough to ask questions." Aswon's response was cut short as the speakers crackled, relaying Marius's voice from the cockpit.
"I have been flying a circuit of the volcano – the defence perimeter is quite large, stretching several kilometres around the peak, in a fairly random looking fashion. I strongly suspect they are following terrain features for their fence line, as it does not stay a specified distance away from the volcano or at a particular height or altitude. But, I have detected what I think is the closest point of approach to our co-ordinates, and I'm heading that way now. We're going to be several kilometres away from the drop off point, and that is walking through some rough terrain. I suspect it will be similar to the route that Aswon and Hunter had to take at the first volcano. The area that is behind the security cordon is nearly twelve square kilometres, so it is a very sizeable area to defend. Hopefully we can find a weak point in the perimeter."
"If it's MCT, don't count on it. When I was working Merc contracts back in Europe, we supplemented MCT forces a couple of times. Always ended up pulling the shit details too, the stuff they were too important to handle. But anyway, if MCT sets out to defend something, they're not normally slack about it. We should be loaded for trouble, but absolutely rely on stealth as the way to go here."
Tads moved over to the viewing prism, taking the headset from Aswon as he described his previous employers and scanned over the dark cone to one side of them.
"Eugh. Whatever they're doing down there, they're hazing astral space badly. It's all twisted and corrupted."
"They don't have the best reputation, from those in the know. Ask the typical man on the street, and he'll say MCT is just like the rest, or maybe like his favourite cyberterminal suite or utility from them. But they got invited in to a place called Tsmishin a couple of decades back, to help them harvest natural materials. The corp pretty much managed to take over the country, strip mining it and turning the whole place into a toxic shit-hole. Suppressed the local population, secret police force, wanton ecological destruction – all chasing the bottom line and maximising profits. My guess is that they're doing the same here… the conditions seem right for it." Contempt and loathing were evident in his voice as Aswon described their actions, his lips pursing together and jaws clenching as he remembered seeing the bootleg video a few years back where a forest had been felled, the ground cleared and a thousand metre deep pit had been gouged out of the earth to allow the company to access minerals located there, before just moving on to the next area, letting erosion finish what they'd started and leaving the water table contaminated with toxic mining by-products that killed off the surrounding area.
Marius flew to the north west side of the secure zone, scouting around for a landing site that put him on the far side of a ridge or spur to the volcano, keeping solid ground between the team and any watchful eyes. Eventually he found a spot where a massive tree had been blasted to pieces by a lightning strike, falling and creating a slender opening in the canopy that he could slip through.
Holding a hover, he tilted the chopper first one way, then the other, rocking back and forth and from side to side, using the downwash from the turbo-props to blow loose material outwards from the centre, before bringing the tilt-wing down into the clearing and setting her down gently on the soft forest floor. As soon as they were down, the team swarmed out of the doors, dragging the cammo nets out and up onto the dorsal surface.
"Do we cover the whole craft Marius?"
"Ideally yes. Otherwise the sharp angular lines of things like the engine pods and propellers will stand out to an observer – nature does not favour sharp lines as a rule. However…." He held up his hand as Hunter grabbed a corner of the cammo net to run down the wing with it. "If we cover the propellers, the netting will be very difficult to put in place and to remove. It will likely take us more than two hours to get camouflaged properly, and it will take just as long to remove if we have to try and leave in a hurry. If we just cover the fuselage and the wings are far as the edge of the pods, we can probably achieve that much faster, and remove it just as quickly. It won't be as effective, but we can make a much faster getaway."
"I think we're unlikely to be spotted this far out of the perimeter, so it's worth the risk of not covering the engines. And if we do end up getting spotted or tagged on the way in or out, I'd rather be able to get out of here much faster!" Kai looked around at the rest of the team to see if anyone had a different point of view, but nobody seemed to have an objection. They spent the next twenty minutes working with the huge camo nets, dragging them out over the hull to break up the outline as much as possible, working up a good sweat in the process.
When their work was complete, they grabbed their gear and sealed the chopper shut, heading out in single file. Aswon led the way, while Hunter bought up the rear, the rest of the team strung out between them and they started to wind their way through the forest, moving slowly and cautiously. The terrain was rough – completely untamed and full of rises, bluffs, thick vegetation and gorges that forced them to backtrack or cross obstacles dozens of times, and their progress was slow – but Aswon and Tad's knowledge of wild lands kept them safe, moving in the right direction and out of the way of any predator that might have been a threat.
It was close to three in the morning when they reached the top of the ridge line that overlooked the volcano and could look down across the small valley that lay between them and the slopes of the volcanic cone. Closer now, and not having to compensate for motion, they could see fine lines on the slopes, arteries of lights laid out seemingly at random. At maximum zoom they could see the indistinct forms of metahumans trudging up and down a few of the trails, the ones they were at the right angle to see up and along, through the dense growth that covered much of the volcano.
At a number of points there were confluxes of lights, where several trails came together and a cluster of brighter lights showed small buildings laid out, clustered together with a few vehicles in attendance. Studying them for a few minutes they could see a line of people staggering into the area carrying what looked like a heavy load, dropping it off at a collection point. They headed back the way they came from, forming a line of ants carrying things back from their source to the queen. Whatever it was they were carrying, it was quickly taken into one of the buildings on a constantly running conveyor belt, disappearing into darkened portals. No goods seemed to come out the other side, or at least not that they could see.
Also evident was the line of defences, strung out between the team and the operation on the slopes. Made up of four metre high poles, thrust into the ground, with a cable running from the post down and snaking across the floor for perhaps twenty to thirty metres, before lifting up to climb the next pole. Atop the poles was a large ball, no doubt a sensor pod that contained scanners for a variety of forms of electromagnetic energy. On top of the sensor pod was a camera mounted on a moveable gimble, with a pair of Infra-red emitters on stalks to each side. As the cameras spun around, they occasionally caught flashes of light in the infra-red part of the spectrum from different sensor pods.
"That's bad news." Aswon murmured. "Not just passive infra-red, but active too. I'm not sure entirely why, but it acts differently to magic. Or rather magic does to it. We caught a team trying to sneak into one of our bases once, under cover of an invisibility spell. They thought they were going to be pretty much immune to visual detection, but because we had both passive and active IR, we got them spotted pretty early. Makes getting through their coverage a lot tougher. I'm thinking this is a pretty competent setup, so no telling what is inside those sensor domes either… could be UV detectors, could be motion sensors, could be seismic or vibration based. But…."
Aswon fell silent for a moment, looking at the fence line, stretching away to either side of them following the contours of the jungle as it stretched off into the darkness.
"It makes me think maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. It might not be to keep us out… it might be to keep that lot in. I wonder if it's slave labour, and they've got themselves a penal mining facility or something."
Hunter had been sitting still, eyes closed as he sniffed the air, sampling the breeze and feeding the results into his spectrometer and analysing the readings using his chemical analyser and reference chips.
"Well, I think I know what they're mining. I'm picking up all kinds of varieties of Sulphur in various forms and isomers. If the volcano is venting anywhere, they're potentially harvesting the sulphur in sheets or rocks where it cools. The gas tends to boil out of the vent holes under high pressure, but as it cools it will form crystals on nearby areas, especially if it's cold or wet. It's effectively been fractionally distilled, and doesn't need that much work to purify it before you can use it then…"
"Seems a lot of effort to go to for sulphur. Could understand it for gold or silver or something." Kai whispered.
"Sulphur has a lot of industrial uses, but don't forget it's a key ingredient in several substances used for making fireworks, acids, fertilisers, some variety of commercial explosives and gunpowder."
"Ahh, ok, that makes more sense."
"I'm also getting a better read on the drones now. They look to be about the same size as our vector thrust drone, but they're slower – or at least moving slower now. Much quieter and harder to spot too, I suspect they are using methane fuel cells. If what Hunter is saying is correct, I suspect they could be manufacturing fuel on site as well. They don't appear to be heavily armoured, but I have seen arms on them – something like an assault rifle in size, but probably with a modification for belt fed ammunition."
"So, these drones… can you steal one? Or more?"
"In theory, it is possible, Kai. But I do not have the hardware or software required to make the attempt. It has been on my shopping list for a while, but it is a very specialist set of tools we would need, quite pricy and hard to obtain without permits. So, no, there is not a lot I can do to take these drones away from their current owner. I might be able to jam them, but even that will be a tricky proposition, as they have an enormously powerful communications network. Their flux rating is very high."
"Why is that?"
"If it is like the conditions we saw back at the first volcano, during active times the volcanic out-venting is likely to cause charged particles to flood the area. I suspect it is to overcome the interference from atmospheric conditions and allow them to keep their sensor and gun platforms mobile and operating. But that also means jamming them will be very difficult without being on the chopper and using the power amplifiers there. And if we bring the chopper close enough to do that, we stand a very good chance of being picked up by the sensor posts down there." Marius gestured to the fence line, pulling a face at the design of the mousetrap laid before them.
"Is there any pattern between the drones and the fence. Those sweeps of active infra-red for instance, do they correspond to certain activity?"
The team settled in to wait, watching the scene before them for twenty minutes and gathering more information, while they studied the cameras and drones, looking for patterns. As it turned out there was no discernible correlation between infra-red scans and drone activity, but they did manage to get a few frames of footage through the high-power binoculars, showing some people moving down a trail in a long line. Each of the people wore ragged and dirty clothing, and walked with stooped backs and lowered heads, ignoring the world around them and concentrating on watching where they were putting their feet. Material of some kind was wrapped around their lower face, covering their nose and mouth, and on each person a bulky metallic bracer was fixed around their right forearm, illuminated by a single red light set in the centre.
"I am inclined to agree with Aswon. I think those are slaves there, with either shock or explosive collars fitted. No doubt they are activated if they get too close to the security fence, as well as reporting back their location. They can probably also be used to track them as they close in on the scattered facilities where they take the mined materials."
"So, we may be able to get past the sensor network on the ground – if it's not watching for us. It may be that the airborne drones are the ones we need to watch out for then after all." Kai mused.
"Bit of a risk, but possible, yes. I think we need more intelligence before we can risk that assumption though."
"I agree, Aswon. Ok, Hunter and myself on first watch, the rest of you slide back down the ridge a little and make a little hide or area to relax in. Let's gather some information over the next few hours and see what we can work out, and take it from there."
The team spread out a little, making themselves comfortable as they started their surveillance of the mining operation and the horde of slaves that struggled up and down the slopes of the stratovolcano.