Date 05/01/2060, Location 39.28462, 54.89387

In the morning, the team awoke, and called for breakfast. The motel clerk delivered the same locally baked soda bread they had the last time, along with some soy-meat flavoured to taste like… well, they weren't sure what it tasted like, but it had a meaty texture. They got their gear together, and headed out to the truck, spotting the cleaned windows and wipe-marks over the sensor bays.

After paying the pittance for their rooms, and tipping the clerk fifty Nuyen, they left him and his beaming smile behind, and headed west on the road towards Kum Dag. Kai pulled out the phone as they drove, and made a call to the number given to him by the Maersk security troops.

Johanna answered after two rings, and Kai greeted her in English.

"Good morning. The name's Kai… I believe we spoke with some of your employees a little while back, about a job offer. Just calling to let you know that we are back on the road, and could be with you later on today, if you wish?"

"I see. And if I was to ask for a code word?"

"Katana."

"Then in that case, it would be great to meet you. Tell me, do you have decent GPS system on your vehicle?"

"Yes, of course, and a good navigator and driver, too."

"Even better. In that case, please enter these co-ordinates. Three nine decimal two eight four, by five four decimal eight nine three. I'll be there at about sixteen hundred, and we can talk more face to face if that's acceptable?

"I look forward to meeting you. Until then."

Hunter checked the co-ordinates and found them to be in a rocky escarpment or hill range to the east of Kum Dag, about thirty kilometres away from the town. There were no roads in the area visible on the maps, but given the off road capabilities they had, and Marius' abilities as a driver, that wasn't too concerning.

They'd travelled about two hundred and fifty of the three hundred and fifty kilometres back to Kum Dag, passing through the small village of Serdar and were barrelling along the road at a decent pace when it happened. Aswon and Shimazu were sitting up front, on either side of Marius, and they each spied a glimpse of movement out in the desert to the north and south of the highway, but after several hours of watching monotonous sandscapes, their reactions were dulled.

On either side of the road, ambushers threw back the covers of their pits, and raised weapons as they saw the truck approach, the only thing moving for twenty kilometres either way. Three shallow scrapes on either side of the road, about half a meter deep and a meter long were revealed as the men concealed within them rose to their knees, raising assault rifles and RPGs. Aswon and Shimazu barely had time to shout "incoming!" before they opened fire.

The rocket propelled grenades flew straight and true, impacting on the side of the cab, one from the left and two from the right. Massive blasts shook the truck, and a roiling mass of flames and black cloud mixed with paint chips and dirt exploded out from the sides of the vehicle. Three streams of bullets rattled into the cab doors, shedding their kinetic energy as the bullets struck home in long lines of death. Against a more lightly-armoured vehicle, it would likely have devastated the cab and killed or incapacitated the crew, while splitting open the cargo area and exposing the cargo area to attack – yet leaving the unpowered trailer intact and ripe for looting.

The truck, however, emerged from the roiling cloud, accelerating hard as Marius pumped the virtual throttle. Paint stripped and scarred, and the windows covered in soot, the impact marks could be clearly seen. The additional armour plating had held, the thick rolled steel homogenised armour shedding the destructive blast with only minor surface pitting. None of the blast wave made it through the fifty millimetres of plating, and no spalling occurred, the doors held firm and nobody inside was injured. A quick check of the vehicle sensors showed no damage at all, despite the hits being on target.

"Haben sie gerade meinen Truck geschossen?" burst from the speakers, and the front of the truck dipped hard as the brakes were applied. They didn't know what Marius had said, but predictably the German sounded pissed, and a quick thought crossed the mind of everyone in the vehicle of their heavily armoured truck driving over the scrapes, wheels turning the bandits to mush underneath them. The truck slowed quickly, but then Marius released the front left wheel brake, and turned hard to the right. Momentum swung the truck and trailer round in a modified J turn, the trailer swinging in an arc behind them, as Marius performed the risky manoeuvre to shield the more lightly armoured section behind them. Wheels shrieked and skidded across the tarmac, sliding on the fine desert dust but still leaving hundreds of miles worth of rubber streaked across the black-top.

Inside, the team were swinging into action. Kai called, and Tadibya nodded, the syllables of the Invisibility spell already forming on her lips. With a flourish, the truck disappeared from sight – leaving a bizarre lone trailer skidding sideways through the clear desert air… Tadibya didn't realise for a moment that the power of her spell wasn't quite enough to fully conceal both parts, and only saw the problem when the swinging trailer could be seen wobbling back and forth in the mirrors.

Shimazu and Aswon had their guns into the firing ports and blasted away at the attackers, Shimazu clipping one with an AK, and Aswon getting a decent hit on an RPG going for a reload. Hunter had his assault rifle lined up, and fired a burst at another, stitching three rounds into him and watching him drop into the pit.

The remaining ambushers either reloaded their RPGs, or took aim with their AKs, and fired long streams of bullets at the truck, leading the giveaway trailer to approximate its position. One over-compensated and missed cleanly, and the other was rewarded with a shower of sparks for his troubles, as rounds spanged off the thick armour.

Aswon saw that Kai had reached into the box of smoke grenades and popped the top hatch for him, the wild motion of the sliding truck having taken all of the attackers out of his line of fire. His height gave him plenty of leverage, and he was able to quickly flip open the top hatch of the cab to enable Kai to concentrate on what he was doing. Marius gave a snarl as he detected the side doors on the left opening through his rigger interface, and flicked a glance via the sensors, spotting Hunter and Shimazu throwing themselves from the truck to the ground and coming up in a roll, ready to engage the enemy to the front.

Calculations danced through his cyberware implants as he evaluated drift speed, angles, friction coefficients and momentum in the blink of an eye. The brakes suddenly released on the truck and Marius engaged reverse, the wheels spinning suddenly trying to get some purchase. If he didn't, the arc of the trucks skid would carry several tons of truck straight into Hunter and Shimazu, potentially killing them instantly.

Tuning out the sounds of Germanic cursing from the speakers, Tadibya spoke another invisibility spell, her head pinned to the window so she could see her target. With concentrated effort, the trailer disappeared from the eyes of the attackers, too. Kai pulled the pin and his arm snapped forward, aiming to throw the smoke grenade out of the hatch and onto the road, just in front of the truck to further hide their location. Just as he was mid-way through the snap, the truck lurched into reverse, throwing him slightly off balance. The grenade arced forward, striking the lip of the hatch, and for a moment rolled around the rim, the momentum perfectly redirected laterally. Time seemed to slow for a moment, and Kai watched the grenade, seeing it start to wobble. Then it fell, down, into the truck, bouncing off the seat recently vacated by Shimazu. Aswon reached for it, fingers questing to try and bat it back up and out, but the truck's motion had thrown him off balance, too. Instead his grasping fingertips just managed to redirect it downwards into the foot well.

With a crack, the smoke grenade exploded. Within a heartbeat, the truck was filled with thick, white, acrid smoke. It boiled up out of the foot well, filling the cab almost instantly, Aswon instinctively exhaled as he clawed backwards and for doors and windows, trying not to inhale any of the burning white smog. Marius was not so lucky – his conscious mind was meshed with the vehicle via his control rig, only his autonomous functions controlling his body. Unable to control himself quickly enough, his meat body breathed in a big lungful of the polluted air, and then began to spasm and cough as his lungs were filled with the hot smoke particles. He wasn't alone though, and the sounds of Tadibya coughing as acrid smoke was forced into her lungs echoed through the cab – then oddly faded away. Aswon was torn, unable to see either Marius or Tadibya, and knowing that both needed assistance – but equally aware that he wouldn't be able to help either of them if he was a casualty himself.

Outside the truck, the attacking enemies saw the plume of smoke erupt in mid-air, and assumed that someone had hit the truck badly enough to stop it. Instead they turned their attention to the two figures that had thrown themselves out of the cover of the invisibility spell, and were kneeling in the scrub at the side of the road. Two RPGs lanced through the air towards them, one at each. Both Hunter and Shimazu threw themselves into action, diving through the air and tucking into a ball, wrapping an arm over their head to protect exposed flesh. Barely a second later, the grenades exploded, the blast picking them both up and pushing them through the air. Their armour soaked the explosive blast wave and they rode the front, flipping through the air. Hunter managed a slightly better landing, rolling and running to shed velocity and managed to regain his feet. Shimazu struggled with the conflicting blast waves from his position, and only managed to come to a knee. But, both of them had their weapons in hand, and targets to service. Bullets cracked downrange, striking the ambushers who had just fired at them.

Tadibya lost concentration on her spells as she bolted from the smoke-filled vehicle, and it popped back into reality, smoke belching from the doors and hatch. She hit the ground hard, but didn't seem to notice, and ran blindly into the desert – some terror gripping her, unseen by anyone in the team.

Aswon jumped out the other side, and ran to clear the area, spotting the last gunman on his side of the road. He fired from the hip, missing, but forcing the bandit to snap his shot, the return fire stitching the ground behind him. He continued to run away from the truck, tracking across the attacker's vision and making him turn to keep him engaged.

On the other side of the road, Shimazu and Hunter moved forward quickly, attacking the remaining enemies in the pits. Hunter fired a burst into one enemy, his burst of three rounds ripping out the throat of the unarmoured target, snapping his head back at an impossible angle. Shimazu dodged and weaved as he ran forwards, his attacker's first burst missing to the left, but his second burst just caught him as he jinked. The bullets impacted onto Shimazu's chest, but his armour held and the rounds bruised and battered him but didn't stop him. With a grunt, he jumped through the air, landing almost on top of the enemy in the pit. His hand cannon made contact with his opponent's skull, and he pulled the trigger, with predictable results.

Hunter spied a bit of fabric moving, and took careful aim – and waited. He was rewarded a few seconds later as the last RPG wielding enemy arose after reloading, and drilled him with a burst, all three rounds striking his chest and killing him instantly.

Marius threw on the brakes and skidded to a halt as his concentration wavered, then jacked out and resumed conscious control of his body, doubling over in pain and discomfort as his meat flesh complained. His hands clawed at the released on his safety harness, and he crawled towards the door, following the air currents through the vehicle to try and reach fresh air. The enemy shot, but missed again, this time forward of him, thrown off by the sudden halt.

Aswon peered through the scope, waited a split second to gently stroke the trigger in-between rapid heartbeats and then watched as the bullet impacted the man's right hand, destroying it and the trigger of the AK before spinning off into the desert. The shriek of pain did not abate as the man slumped back into the pit, out of sight.

Shimazu climbed out of his blood-stained scrape and ran across the road, keeping low and weaving from side to side, closing on the man he had seen Aswon shoot – the last surviving bandit that he could see. As he reached him, he veered off suddenly, diving to the side. The man lay in the bottom of the scrape, soaked in blood, and clutching a grenade to his chest with his good hand. A box of open grenades lay to his side, next to the ruined and mangled stump of his right arm. Shimazu scuttled away to report in to Kai, who approached cautiously, calling out to the man.

Aswon meanwhile looked around, and after checking on Marius discovered that there was no sign of Tadibya. He started to check around the area, expanding his search until he found her just over the first dune, curled up in a ball and shaking like a leaf. Carefully he approached her, calling out to her, trying to establish if she was hurt. She didn't seem to respond at first, but as he closed the distance, he could hear her muttering under her breath, "Fire, fire, fire," over and over again. He called again, but she didn't respond, and as he closed he could see her entire body trembling in terror.

Tadibya was generally the most good-natured of the team, and also the one least likely to want to cause harm to others in Aswon's opinion. He respected her as a shaman, but also as a person – but he hesitated for a moment. Clearly she was suffering from some great trauma, but his mind flashed back to the day of their escape from the Chechens, with her illusion that had moved the bridge across the gorge, sending a car full of people plummeting to their death. She often made the choice not to kill, but that wasn't because she couldn't – and when she was of a mind to, she had great potential for violent and destructive action – possibly more so than anyone else on the team. Who knew what spell she might still have in her arsenal that she hadn't revealed to them yet?

Cautiously he crept forwards towards her, moving slowly and pitched his voice low.

"Tads, it's Aswon. I'm coming. Be calm. I'm here." He laid a reassuring hand on her, and started to speak to her, slowly and calmly, telling her that there was just smoke, no fire. Over and over he repeated the statement, his hand gently rubbing her shoulder, maintaining a human contact with her and reassuring her that she wasn't alone. Gradually, she responded, and after a short time, her head came out from under her arms and looked around.

"No fire?"

"No, no fire. Just smoke. Lots and lots of smoke, but no fire. Come on, I think you'll be needed." Aswon helped her up, and then led her back to the truck, his arm held around her as much for mental support as physical.

Marius had all the doors and windows open, and the air conditioning running full blast to try and clear the smoke out of the truck. His face looked like he was sucking on a lemon, and they steered clear of him at the moment, heading back to where Kai and Shimazu had the last guy covered in the pit. Hunter was off to the side, pulling out weapons and equipment and assembling a pile.

Kai had been negotiating with the wounded man, and had persuaded the bandit that he wanted to live, it seemed, and had gotten him to throw the grenade into the desert where it had exploded harmlessly. A bandage was over the stump of his arm, but the blood was still flowing freely. Tadibya moved in and soon the golden glow of a healing spell stemmed the blood loss, making the bandit quake in fear as the sorceress used her magic upon him.

Kai took the bandit's phone from him, along with the handful of other personal items.

"We're going to leave you alive, and take these – but we're going to stop about a mile down the road and put these on a rock. You can have them back if you want them, then you might want to take up a less exciting profession – maybe goat herding. But banditry is not such a good idea. Is it." The words came out slowly and clearly, less a question and more a statement. The bandit nodded miserably, clutching the stump of his arm to his chest.

They assembled by the truck, and examined the haul that Hunter had assembled. There were three AK-97 assault rifles, one with a broken trigger and sixteen magazines for the guns. Three of the generic-looking rocket propelled grenade launcher tubes, with rudimentary ladder sights along with fifteen RPG-XI warheads. A bunch of knives, water skins, and some spicy jerky in muslin wraps, but an absence of cred-sticks or money. They smashed up the broken AK until no part of it was usable, and flung a water skin to the survivor, loading up the rest of the stuff into the trailer and making sure they left the man with no useful means of attack.

Marius still looked pissed off, so Kai wisely left him to himself for a bit, but when they were ready, they loaded up, leaving the wounded man by the side of the road. A mile down the road, they paused, and Kai set out the bandit's mobile phone and trinkets in a conspicuous place, as promised, then they headed on down the road towards their meeting point.

A couple of hours later, they pulled off the main highway onto a dirt track, and bounced their way along it for a mile or so, the road climbing sharply into an escarpment. As they wound their way into a defile, Marius warned the team to be ready – the area was a sensor dead-spot, with overhanging rocks, winding paths and riddled with tunnels.

With growing suspicion, they followed the trail, until they emerged into a small bowl-like clearing, surrounded on all sides by jagged rock formations. A Maersk strike vehicle waited for them, and they recognised the team they'd run into when they first came to Kum Dag – along with a long-haired blonde lady dressed in camouflage fatigues holding a battle rifle in her arms. She smiled as she saw them arrived, and climbed down from the vehicle to come and meet them.