Date 10/12/2059, Location 35.79928, 50.96871

The industrial estate was on some ground nestled in the shadow of the highway, obviously polluted and quite undesirable. Large industrial pre-fab units were terraced down each side of the road, mostly light industry that involved chemicals or some process that barred them from other areas of town. As they drove carefully down the road, they saw about halfway along the road a warehouse with double roller shutters, one closed, and the other open to about head height allowing yellow light to spill out into the darkness. They pulled up alongside the door, and after a brief discussion Aswon climbed out of the vehicle and walked under the shutter into the unit.

The building was a fairly average-size warehouse, with an apex roof made out of fibreglass or plastic sheeting. The walls were breezeblock to about three metres high, then a vertical stand of the same roof sheeting up to about six meters before it angled in over the trusses. There looked to be two long pits dug, one behind each of the roller shutters, with room to back two full size articulated lorries into the workshop. Scattered around were several mobile tool chests and random pieces of equipment, welding torches, lamps and other maintenance equipment. In the back left corner was a cheap and battered desk with a few chairs around and a set of filing cabinets.

In the centre back were several rows of industrial racking stuffed full of parts, metal, boxes and random debris. In the back right corner were a pair of sinks, and what looked like a crew break room. Along the right hand side of the unit were a number of barrels, some of which were splashed with paint, while others had various warning symbols sprayed on them. What looked to be the owner was sitting at the desk in the back corner, chatting away on the phone, and three other people were present, all humans and locals by the looks of things. One grunted and waved to Aswon, and started to make his way over. Making introductions in Farsi, Aswon was pointed to the man at the back, who seeing him approach finished his phone call and came around the desk to greet him and introduced himself as Lorac Ahamad.

Aswon explained who he was, and who had sent him, and Lorac told him to get the truck bought in, shouting at one of his workers to open the door. A minute later, Marius was reversing the truck through the roller door, carefully driving back over the yellow chevrons on the floor and keeping the wheels centred, straddling the pit. Most of the team got out of the truck and had a look around, stretching their legs and examining the workshop with interest. Kai and Aswon had a chat with Lorac, and explained a little about the damage to the truck, pointing out the various holes and broken sections of their truck.

Lorac jumped down into the inspection pit and wandered under the truck, playing a handheld light over the chassis and tutting under his breath. Marius watched with interest, wanting to be sure his truck was in good hands, and in doing so got a good look at the inspection pit – and a look of horror spread over his face. It looked like nothing more than a crudely excavated trench in the earth, about the same width as a digger bucket, and the edges looked to have been "reinforced" by old scaffold planks and surplus railway sleepers. Marius watched carefully, his impression of their work and his happiness both taking a sudden dive.

After a few minutes of inspection, including calling one of his workers over, he climbed out of the pit and came to talk to the team.

He announced his price – seventy-five thousand, and after a bit of discussion and checking this was Nuyen, and not millions or billions of local currency, they chatted amongst themselves. 75K was over the odds for the work – Marius had estimated about 50K if they were getting it done at his local garage – but they were "off the books", in a foreign country… it was expensive, but not downright extortion. Kai tried to haggle, having to translate through Aswon… it made for slow progress.

Part way through the negotiations, the "spare" box of sensors and security system components were pulled out and as part payment, they offered to fix up the warehouse with a top-flight security system. Eventually the team and Lorac reached an agreement – 50K Nuyen and the security gear, and he would get his guys to make their repairs a priority.

Both sides seemed satisfied, and he called the workers over, and soon they were down in the pit, cutting torches blazing and bits of rear transmission and differential being torched off. Marius continued to watch carefully, but seemed reasonably happy with their progress. All of the team had emerged from the truck by now, and Hunter got a couple of glances from the guys, but no one seemed to have an issue with him. Aswon grabbed his rifle and went to lurk by the front doors, which had been lowered to about waist height – enough to let air circulate but stopping casual glances in.

A short while after, Aswon was alerted by the sounds of someone running outside. Ducking under the door, he spied a small child running down the road flat out – like he was being chased. He moved out a little, to get a better view, and alerted the team that there may be trouble. The child closed the distance, only spotting Aswon as he almost reached the doors, and shying to the side, crying out in Farsi "Uncle! Uncle!" His shrill voice cut over the sounds of the work, and Lorac waved him over. Keeping his distance from the huge black man, he edged through the door and babbled to his uncle. Apparently his mother had overheard some men talking, and they were coming to attack Lorac.

The team gathered round and listened – Lorac telling them there was a business rival that was keen to put him out of business, better funded than he was, and with the ear of the local council. Looking at the huge holes torched in the bottom of their truck, it was obvious they could leave if they absolutely had to, but their truck was in a sorry state if they did. A quick consensus was reached, and they grabbed their gear, getting ready to repel the attack. They broke out their new comms gear, everyone keying in the basic encryption system and firmly seating earbuds and checking the microphones were picking up clearly.

Aswon headed out, and spoke in his native tongue, activating the Gecko Crawl spell his tribal shamen had anchored into his skin with the primitive tattoos, and he walked up the outside of the building, hiding in the shallow gutter between the workshop and the adjacent unit. Marius got in the cab, with the roof padding peeled back and the top hatch open, ready to stick his head out. Hunter knelt on the roof of the cargo section, keeping an eye on the still open roller shutter and Tadibya nestled in by the front wheel of the truck, using the mass of the vehicle to shield her, slingshot in hand. Kai and Shimazu moved to the front right of the warehouse, using the barrels for cover and watching over the other doorway.

Behind them Lorac produced a pistol from his desk, one of the workers grabbed a shotgun from the racking somewhere – something similar to the basic shotguns the team had stolen from the guerrillas up in the hills, along with a cheap-looking pistol. The last guy stuck a tube over an air hose, and started to load screwdrivers and other junk in, obviously lacking anything better. Hunter gave a sigh and broke out the spare weapons, giving them all at least a pistol or shotgun from their cache, then returned to his spot.

Shortly after, Aswon called down – two heavy duty tow trucks had turned into the road and were crawling down, doing about ten miles per hour… definitely suspicious. They both pulled wide and then started to back up towards the warehouse, one to each door. One guy emerged from the back of the right hand vehicle, holding some kind of cheap-looking assault rifle. He ran to the back of the truck, and pulled down the tow cable from the A-frame, and moved towards the door – by the looks of things they were planning on just ripping the door out. Shouldering his rifle and peering down the scope, Aswon sighted carefully, waited for his breathing to steady, and then fired. The large round obliterated the guy's hand, flesh and blood exploding out in a spray. Aswon ducked back away from the edge, just catching sight of the guy falling – and the tow truck coldly driving over him. The shot might well have been lethal, given the hydrostatic shock caused – but being driven over by the heavy tow truck left it in no doubt. With revving engine, the door to the right was impacted by the reversing truck, bulged, buckled and after a few seconds with a screech of metal and tearing noise, collapsed over the back of the truck, torn off the housing and collapsing into the warehouse.

The left-hand truck lowered the A-frame on the hydraulics, and used it to lever up the roller shutter on the left, being slightly more circumspect about poking their heads out of the vehicle, then reversed in at an angle. Hunter opened fire, taking out tyres to the rear and watching them deflate – they weren't escaping at speed now. The doors opened, and at least seven more attackers boiled out of their vehicles, all holding what looked like AK style rifles, moving to the sides of pillars and doorways and letting loose with long bursts of wild and unaimed fire into the warehouse. The team returned fire, careful shots punching into the light body armour of the attackers, wounding first one, then another. A lucky shot caught Marius in the shoulder, the rounds punching through and spraying blood everywhere in an arc behind him. Seconds later a rock from Tadibya's slingshot caught him square between the eyes, distracting him, then a burst from Hunter smashed through his chest and dropped him. Kai and Shimazu fired shots from their pistols, wounding the men trying to climb over the twisted barrier and forcing them back in a panic. Aswon peered over the edge, searching for targets, and his rifle barked again as he terminated another target with a clean shot. Moments later, one of the wounded plucked a grenade from his pocket and threw it into the warehouse, bouncing just in front of Shimazu.

Time seemed to slow, Shimazu reached forwards his hand swinging up fingers outstretched, neatly plucking the grenade from the air before it span out of reach. His other hand reached over, and two fingers uncurled from the grip around his pistol – and pulled out the pin that the panicked attacker had neglected to remove. With a smile, he slid the grenade along the floor, under the roller shutter, aiming for the cluster of feet. The sharp crack and flash of light illuminated a number of bodies and parts flying through the air. Hunter meanwhile was putting tightly controlled bursts downrange, servicing targets and cutting down opponents.

Aswon on the roof spotted another vehicle approaching at speed, pulling up sharply outside and watched the four occupants jump out. He called a warning, "Four more, SMGs, look more pro." He sighted on one, firing off a quick shot – but at this short range it still took the guy in the eye, the bullet boring through his brain and exploding out of the back of his head. He panned over, sighted the second and snapped off a quick shot. This one was less clean, but the bullet took him in the neck and he fell just the same. "Two left, reloading," as he ducked back to try and break line of sight. Two long streams of fire burst up into the sky, narrowly missing him, as the remaining two goons fired blindly at his position.

Inside, the rest of the team finished off the remaining first wave, putting down fire carefully, finishing off the wounded. Two more sharp retorts outside signalled that Aswon had inserted a few more rounds and had finished off the reinforcements. Part of the team bounded forward and out, checking for more reinforcements. Kai and Tadibya closed on Marius, checking him over. The wild shots had struck his shoulder, punching through the armour there, causing a deep wound that was leaking blood. Kai got to work – novacaine syringe in one hand, dermal filler in the other, working to stem the blood loss. After a minute or two of work, the wound was filled and no longer spurting blood, and the pained expression had eased.

Tadibya moved her hands over the wound, concentrating, a small scowl forming on her face as she channelled mana through her hands and struggled to force it into the body through the cyber and bioware that resisted her. She found a scrap of his essence, and pushed the golden energy into him, and the glow followed the twisting shard of his being, suffusing his shoulder in golden light. The skin knitted together, binding into a pink and raw looking patch, but whole nonetheless. Marius moved his shoulder gingerly, wincing a little. It was obviously not 100% yet, but nonetheless, was well on the mend.

After dealing with the wound, the three of them turned to face the rear of the warehouse, alerted by the sound of something metallic dropping to the ground. All four of the Iranians stood, motionless, mouths open in amazement at the scene before them. Their enemy, the rival firm that had threatened to overwhelm them lay decimated before them – utterly destroyed within a matter of seconds by this team of foreigners. And the limited damage they had taken, was apparently fixed with a wave of the hands and a quick injection.

A quick cough from Kai broke the spell, followed by a whisper into the comms to Aswon to translate.

"Right. Best get this mess cleaned up then. Dibbs on the best gun."

The team got to work…