Kai watched as the rest of the team turned away from him and returned to their tasks, getting ready to bed down for the night or finishing their meals.
"What? What? Come on, it was on the way… and it's extra cash." Nobody responded to him, so he shrugged. Hey, at least no one was arguing with him.
Marius got on the radio and arranged for a pad space for the night, and a few minutes later a small but powerful tractor tug latched onto them and pulled the chopper over to some space just off the flight line, nestling them in next to a couple of traffic choppers and what looked like an air ambulance. The rotary wing section of the airport was to the west of the main runways, separating them from the freight traffic a little – between the distance and the double layer of structure around the living accommodation, the noise was attenuated enough that sleep wouldn't be an issue, at least.
A technician had run out a power line from the building and connected it to an inlet by the side of the nose, providing power from the airport into the chopper and letting them run their equipment without draining the batteries, presenting Marius with a datapad to touch his thumb on and accept the overnight berthing charges and airport terms and conditions.
The team settled down, reverting to their long established watch schedule by default, and soon gentle snoring washed back and forth from one bunk or hammock to another. Around them the unsleeping activity of the airport continued, large and small freight aircraft bringing in supplies to transfer and feed the voracious appetites of the city of Moscow and its millions of citizens.
Aswon awoke after about three hours sleep and gave a stretch – always an impressive sight given his height and that when he yawned he displayed his implanted teeth so prominently. Nodding to Shimazu who had gently shaken him that he was awake, he watched as the large man crammed himself into his bunk, pulling a blanket over him and another over his head to block out the light. He lay for a few minutes, working on his breathing and listening to the slumber of those around him, thinking about how lucky he was that he always seemed fine with just a couple of hours compared to how grouchy everyone else got. It certainly made things like watch schedules or stag duty much easier to cope with.
After a while he got up, and eased quietly out of the sleeping area into the back of the chopper, and did a few stretching exercises to loosen up. He figured nobody was going to be happy with him going for a run up and down the runway or even the flight line, so his morning jog was out. He mused for a minute or two on what to do, then felt a little rumble in his stomach as it too woke up and realised he was up and about for the day now. He was halfway back to the kitchen when he realised he didn't have to have porridge – again – and that there were other options. After a moment though, he did head into the kitchen and make a fresh bowl of porridge up, mixing it nice and thickly.
As it started to cool, he hunted quietly through the cupboards, looking for the bottle of Vodka. Pouring a generous amount in to the steaming bowl, he mixed it in thoroughly to the stodgy mixture of oats and milk.
"Grandfather? Morning Grandfather! Breakfast is ready." The spirit poked its head out of the wall, and looked over at him. The initial look of suspicion vanished as it spied the bowl and the spirit fully emerged, materialising into physical form and gleefully grabbing the bowl from him.
"Hmm… nice. I like this." He squatted down on a small box of equipment, balanced the bowl on his knees and started to munch on the 40% proof porridge with obvious glee. Aswon thought about trying to engage him in conversation, but decided against it – he didn't want to be sprayed in porridge after all. Instead he wandered the craft for a while, looking out of the windows of the cockpit, and the various unobstructed windows in the rear, watching the area outside with interest. The helicopter area was almost deserted, with only the occasional patrol by a security guard and his dog. Clearly very few helicopters flew at night, and he wondered why for a few minutes, craning to look over at the main runway and watching several planes landing and taking off.
On his next wander of the craft he found the empty porridge bowl lying on the floor, with a splatter of spilt oats around it. With a small sigh he tidied the bowl away and wiped up the mess with a cloth – clearly Grandfather wasn't much for cleaning up after himself. Aswon returned to his patrol, until he shift was up and he went to gently shake Hunter to take over.
"Hey Hunter, I'm heading out for a bit. Shouldn't be long. Going to get some fuel and stuff."
"Murmph." Hunter rubbed the sleep from his eyes and struggled up from his bunk, having to slide out from the narrow space on his side. Clearly the designers of the vehicle had not put crew comfort at a premium, or had some kind of recruitment policy that meant only accepting recruits under 125 kilos and 1.7 meters.
Hunter left him be to finish waking up, and headed into the back to drop the ramp. A huge gust of bitterly cold wind whipped through the helicopter as the massive slab of metal dropped to the concrete. The thin skin of the chopper hadn't done much about the absolute temperature, but the sudden gust of wind made the apparent temperature drop like a stone, and Aswon pulled on his jacket, hastily sealing the fastenings before more of his body heat was wicked away.
He carefully drove down the ramp onto the rough concrete, then hit the button to close the ramp behind him. Once the craft was buttoned up behind him, he drove towards the gate out of the airport, presenting his ID to be logged out.
"Where are you going?"
"Just out to the nearest town or something, I need to get fuel for this vehicle, and some fresh supplies from a supermarket." he managed in basic Russian. He offered his ID stick to the guard who slotted it into the data terminal, examining the screen carefully.
"And when will you be back, Dr Keanjaho?"
"It depends how far away the fuel station is, I suppose. Probably an hour or so? Can you recommend anywhere?"
The guard finished logging him out, then directed him along a route to the north and the town of Shchyolkovo. Nodding his thanks, Aswon headed out into the quiet pre-dawn night, driving quickly along the deserted roads. It didn't take him too long to find the fuel station and fill up the tanks on the UAZ to the brim, then push on into the town centre and find a supermarket that had an all night section. He had to slot his ID again to get access to the brightly lit room, but from there he could wander up and down the aisles and see the pre-packed goods displayed behind the armoured glass, hitting the buttons to select the products he wanted. When his shopping was complete, he presented his ID again to let the Nuyen debit be authorised, then a series of clunks and shudders echoed around the room as the various vending machines released their goods letting them fall into the collection area below.
He gathered up the supplies and swiped out of the area, then carefully drove back towards the airport and the same guard shack he'd left from. Despite the cold and the early hour, the guard still insisted on doing a proper ID check and going through his bag and the car, looking for contraband. Aswon, having listened to the others talking about Russian culture and operations was prepared for this.
"I thought about you while I was shopping, and it seemed like a lonely and cold job standing guard out here. That bag is for you, just a little thank you. There is some self-heating protein soup in there, along with a bottle of Vodka and some chocolates and things."
The guard grunted and gathered up the bag of bribes, retreating to his guard hut and leaving Aswon to return to the chopper and carefully manoeuver the UAZ up the ramp backwards, ready to quickly deploy again.
Back inside, Hunter was just in the process of waking up Tads for the dawn watch and grabbing a last 90 minutes. Tads did her usual morning prayers, muttering to herself quietly and staring at the sky and the ground outside the window, occasionally making weird mystic gestures or throwing her hands in the air. Aswon kept respectfully out of her way, and stocked up the kitchen area with the fresh food he'd purchased, then settled down with a data pad and started to read while he waited for everyone else to wake up.
Slowly the team roused, and soon everyone was tucking into a fresh breakfast, grunts of appreciation heading Aswon's way. Tads by now had just gotten into a routine of sampling everything she could get her hands on, and was slowly chewing individual items slowly and thoughtfully, checking the packaging and trying to analyse the taste, texture and composition as she did so.
Midway through breakfast, Hunter's phone rang, and he wandered off to the cockpit to take the call. Returning a few minutes later he shared the news.
"Hey folks, that was Julius – my mate from Ares. Turns out he was on a big company night out last night, which is why I couldn't get hold of him. Turns out his department got an "attaboy" for helping with some analysis and stuff, and getting Ares some new contracts in the Shirvan autonomous zone. Seems like our little job there has paid off for Ares some way. He also mentioned there's a possibility that Knight Errant might pick up the police contract in the area." Tads looked confused at the mention of a second company, and her mouth pursed as she got ready to ask a question – but Hunter saw the look on her face and continued to explain.
"Knight Errant are a security company, owned by Ares. They do all the security at Ares facilities and stuff like that, but they also bid on police contracts – their biggest rivals are Lone Star. But if Knight Errant get a police contract, it means Ares have a greater control over the area, and if they're running the police, it really helps out Ares and all the other sub-companies of Ares compared to the other mega-corps and stuff."
"And having the local police run by a company you have friends working for is probably not a bad thing either," Aswon offered. Hunter grimaced and waved his hand in an up-down motion though.
"Remember though, Jules works for Ares, and in the mapping and strategy office in one country – he won't have anything to do with Knight Errant directly. I mean, he might be able to introduce us to someone perhaps, or slowly put the word out to a friend of a friend. But he's not a way to skip arrest or something…."
The others pondered that for a moment while they ate. Aswon swallowed a mouthful of food, then asked Hunter a question.
"Not that it's a problem – but why did you contact your friend?"
"Well, we were in the same country. It wasn't really for anything specific, but just being over there made me think of him. Just a checkup really."
"Oh. Well, here's a thought – he works with maps and things. Does he know anything about Desert Wars? Could he get you some information?"
"That's a good question Aswon. I don't know – but it's worth an ask." True to his word, Hunter started to compose a message to his friend immediately, asking for any information he might have that was not restricted and might be known by an insider to the company. A few minutes later he got a reply, indicating that he was looking into it.
"I have another question for you as well Hunter," said Tads, "can you have a look around for information on the lifecycle of scorpions while we're doing our next bit of flying? We might not get the specific information on these death scorpion things we're going after, but we might get some general information on them as a species that would be helpful?" Hunter nodded, making a quick note on his pad.
This prompted a general discussion about possible ways to capture and crate scorpions, how to transport them and stop them from killing anyone or themselves. They soon realised they really didn't know that much about scorpions at all, other than one very limited and painful experience in the deserts near the Dekita oil-fields, and that underscored the importance of the research Tads had asked Hunter for.
When they'd worked out that they'd wandered into the realms of pure speculation, Kai broke off and placed a call to Vlad, arranging to meet him at midday.
"Yes, yes, I like. It will be good to meet at lunch, like picnic, yes?" A massive noise burst from the speaker once more, making Kai wince in pain as the device distorted and clipped the audio. He waited for the noise to stop, then gingerly moved the phone back towards his ear.
"Ok, that sounds great, Vlad. We'll meet you at lunchtime then. Now, we're coming in our chopper – do you have a heli-pad?" He waited, and there was no response for several seconds. Just as he was about to speak again, asking if Vlad was still there, he heard the voice come back, for the first time sounding vaguely hesitant.
"I have lots of flat ground. Hard, like concrete? You can land on that?" It was clearly a question rather than a statement, but Kai reassured him that he had a very good pilot and it shouldn't be a problem. They concluded the call, and Kai went to inform the rest of the team about the appointment.
Hunter soon had the course worked out and the paperwork in order – a fairly short journey of 380km almost due east and following the M7 road from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod. He took the paperwork and headed into the flight ops building to file it in person, returning shortly afterwards.
"No problem. I gave them a 'processing fee' of a hundred Nuyen for a permit to overfly the city and head straight to the docks, and then drop off and pick up cargo from the area, but I don't think they really cared what we were doing after she got her bribe."
After clearing up the breakfast gear and securing the chopper for flight, they were towed back out to the helipad and were soon up into the air, heading east through the cold, crisp morning. There were a few wisps of cloud high in the air, but otherwise it was stunningly clear and visibility was excellent, with them able to see clearly over a hundred kilometres from their cruising altitude.
In the back, Kai and Shimazu went through the materials they had gathered from the Russian farmhouse, pulling out the wooden doll they had found. Kai cleared some space on the map table and they turned on all the lights, to get a good look at it.
"Hmm. Made of wood, typical Matroshka doll from what I can see," murmured Kai as he rotated the item in his hands, peering carefully at it. "Brightly painted, fairly common peasant dress costume. Painted in bright reds and greens mostly." He carefully twisted the doll and separated it into two halves, and Shimazu pulled out the smaller figure inside. They slowly worked through all the dolls, noting the different patterns using a similar recurring theme as they worked down to the 8th and smallest doll, turned from a single piece of wood."
"They don't appear to be magical in themselves" muttered Shimazu, "But there is some kind of aura about them. Nothing bad though. If anything, it feels homely?" He sounded a little hesitant saying this, but Kai nodded in agreement.
"They're also incredibly well made. Look here, at the thinness of this lip, and how thin the turning is. They've been well looked after, but this is great quality workmanship. Now, they're not massively valuable as items – certainly I've never seen them going for big money at an auction house. But I reckon these are some of the finest examples I've ever seen, so if we can find a collector they'd be worth top-end money to them. Shimazu nodded, then a thought struck him.
"Grandfather? I have a question for you?" A face extruded from the wall in front of Shimazu and looked around in case there was any Vodka flavoured porridge on offer, before nodding to Shimazu to ask his questions. "Are these dolls precious to you? I mean, do they have any particular meaning?" Grandfather looked down at the dolls laid out neatly in a line, shaking and reverberating slightly as the chopper thundered through the air.
"Oh these. Oh well yes." His lined and wrinkled face looked sad, and his eyes gazed off into the distance." They belonged to little Katie. Poor little girl. And they belonged to her mother before her, and her grandmother before her. They'd been in her family for a long time. Not any more though."
They asked Grandfather about Katie, and he told them a little about the family of farmers that had lived in the house for generations, working the land and raising crops and livestock to feed the local towns – until the revolution came, and the bad people with it. The spirit grew silent, presumably dwelling on the night when someone had attacked the family and killed them, then tried to burn down their farmhouse.
Kai coughed, and interrupted his musings.
"Well, do you have a really strong tie to them? I mean, we want to treat them nicely, don't get me wrong. We're not about to use them for firewood or anything. Just I was wondering about these and thinking they would make a superb gift for someone lovely. Someone who would really appreciate the craft and workmanship of these, and have somewhere safe to keep them and admire them."
The spirit made a shrugging gesture, then shook his head.
"Not really. They're pretty, and they remind me of the family. But I don't have any particular reason to keep them or care for them."
"So you don't mind if we give them to someone we like, as a gift." Again the spirit shook his head.
Kai wandered off to find Aswon and Tads, and asked them for their thoughts on the spirit, and if it meant what it said or if there could be something he needed to worry about.
"Personally, I think he sounds more like a Domovoy than a free spirit. Everything I've seen so far seems to fit anyway. Not that that's much – I mean, grandfather, the place feels kind of homely, he appeared after we took things from the farm, we were in Russia. Certainly fits the pattern." Aswon's brow furrowed as he tried to think of anything else he knew about them. "That's all I can remember from talking with a Russian mage I used to work with on ops in Estonia a while back."
"Domovoy?" Kai switched his attention to Tads. "I mean, it sounds like it's from your neck of the woods. Or at least you have more chance of knowing than anyone else…"
"Well, the spirits of our people are very different. But yes, I've heard of them. They are a kind of hearth spirit, just like Aswon said. In traditional Russian houses they were a sign of good fortune, and people in the house would put out food and drink for them, and make sure there was a little stool by the fire." She mirrored Aswon, he brow furrowing as she tried to remember songs and tales from her youth. "I think when you moved to a new house, it was traditional to invite the Domovoy in, and make sure there was fresh hot food for them as soon as you arrived, and you had to make them welcome and understand this was their new home."
"Sounds ok so far."
"They were generally guardians and protectors of the house – rarely straying outside and not caring about the world in general, only about their family and structure. Some of them could have unusual powers through, there are tales I half remember about people breaking into houses and coming to unpleasant ends as a result of the Domovoy attacking them."
"Clearly didn't happen at the farmouse though…"
"No, maybe he wasn't powerful enough, or maybe the attackers had magic too. Could be a variety of reasons. He's not beyond us now in terms of power – or at least not from what I can see. But there could be some nasty surprises, so I would rather we stay friends."
"Don't worry, I wasn't planning anything." Kai smiled and nodded a thank-you to them both. The chopper leaned to one side, changing course quite radically to the south and straightening up on the new course. "I'll go see what that's about."
What it was about, it turned out, was their approach to Nizhny Novgorod. Traffic control was apparently diverting them south to the Oka River, and they had instructions to fly a course along the river until it met the Volga, and avoid overflying the residential areas. It only added a few minutes to their flight time, though a casual observer wouldn't have thought so from the look on the face of their pilot. Even with his conscious mind effectively 'in' the machine and the rigger interface locking down his body movements, there was enough control to make the corners of the mouth make it quite clear what his impression was.
Vlad's place was nestled right on the banks of the river, on the very eastern end of the town. The river was nearly two kilometres wide at this point, with a massive spit of land in the centre, and a number of cuttings, inlets and lagoons scattered around. The dockyard was right by one of the spits of land, and was sheltered from the current somewhat, yet still deep water thanks to the inlet beyond it. As the chopper circled, they saw a mid-size merchantman at the side of the river, the bows pointing straight towards the dock and a number of workers moving about with massive hawsers and chains.
The yard itself was chaos. Pallets of equipment, steel plates, chains, bulkheads, propellers, engine parts, buckets of paint – they all lay around the area scattered without thought or care it seemed. Marius picked the largest spot and bought in the bird for a smooth landing, trying not to think about the horrible scene outside. As the rotors slowed, they saw a large but somewhat elderly-looking guy sauntering towards them from one of the aisles formed by the junk and supplies lying around.
The team climbed down to meet him, responding to his broad wave of hello with return waves, nods, or half bows.
"Hello comrades, I am Vlad!" He was human, and perhaps in his fifties or late forties, stocky and with broad shoulders. His hair was receding on the top of his head, and his unkempt beard and moustache were shot through with grey hair. Powerful-looking arms stuck out from the rolled up sleeves of his heavy cotton shirt and the ubiquitous jeans and work boots finished his ensemble.
"I am Aswon!" was blurted out in response.
"You land like buzzard from the sky. How are you? I hope you are good, like fine day?"
"We're very well, thank you" responded Kai. He was distracted for a moment when there was a sharp intake of breath from his left hand side, causing him to turn in alarm. Marius was standing with a look of horror on his face as he watched the activity at the edge of the water. It looked like the dock workers had finished attaching chains and massive tow ropes, and now half a dozen squat and powerful looking tractors took up the strain and started to drive inland. As the slack was taken up, the boat ponderously headed for the shore before coming to a stop as it impacted against the shallow beach.
Engines revved, and smoke billowed out from the exhausts as the drivers cranked up the revs. There was a lurch and a shriek as metal was dragged across sand and rock, and the nose of the freighter rose up out of the water. The drivers fed more power into their vehicles, and ponderously the freighter was dragged up onto shore using brute force, ignorance and a lot of shouting and wild gesticulations. It listed a few degrees, but the bottom was somewhat flat, clearly a river-going design rather than something for the open ocean.
"We're good, thank you. I hope you're happy with the job performance?"
"Indeed, I am happy, like Larry. I got word that delivery is all intact and healthy. Very happy customers. So now I need to talk to you about next delivery."
Aswon coughed heartily, and for a moment between racking coughs, it almost sounded like someone was saying "tenkay". He waved in apology though, and managed to get his coughing under control, and Kai returned his attention to Vlad.
Vlad reached into his shirt and pulled out a small padded envelope, about big enough to fit in a computer tablet. He handed this over to Kai, then reached back into his pocket and pulled out a plastic envelope and small fabric bag.
"Envelope is to be delivered to Germaine, as soon as you can. Envelope is money to pay for delivery. Bag is your bonus from last job." Kai took them and nodded, stuffing them into his pocket without checking them. He saw several of the team tense up as he didn't check the money or goods, but smiled and carried on regardless.
"Thank you, that's great. Now, we're off on a mission at the moment for someone that is going to take us some time. But when we come back up this way, would you have any more work do you think?"
"I think I would have work for you, yes, hmm? Yes, Vlad would be like Job Centre for you."
"Kai schooled his face and was about to speak again, when someone else beat him to the punch.
"Oh no!" It wasn't Vlad that responded, but Shimazu. He raised a hand and pointed, just in time for everyone in the team to shut off their augmented senses or even manage to cover their ears. Down by the water's edge, one of the cranes was swinging around, a massive piece of metal slung from the hook with huge chains. It ponderously swung closer and closer to the ship's superstructure, but it was far too late for the crane operator to do anything about it…
"DOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG!" The sound was deafening, ringing out across the river and into the city, but not before echoing around the dockyard. They suddenly realised what the noises were that had caused their commlink speaker to fritz out on previous conversations, and realised that this boded quite badly in terms of organisation in the boat yard.
"Hey you! Be careful with ship! Is not like little boy playing with toy!" Vlad bellowed in the direction of the crane once the noise had abated.
"Well, Vlad, it seems like you're quite busy and have things to do. So why don't we get on with delivering this message, for you, and we'll see you on our way back." Vlad nodded at Kai and then stormed off, shouting an inventive and ever changing tirade of abuse at the crane operator, who was shouting back at Vlad, informing him that he was drunk, so what did he expect?
Once inside the chopper and with the engines spooling up, Kai checked the envelope and pouch more carefully. Inside the plasticised envelop was around three thousand Nuyens worth of hard currency in mostly Russian bills. The bag he carefully tipped out into his hands, then smiled as the small pile of brightly flashing gemstones slid out into the cup of his hand.
Hunter and Tads crowded around and carefully poked at the pile of stones, examining them closely.
"Mostly small, simple cuts, not much occlusion in the gem. Quite nice, like the sort of thing you'd put in engagement rings and moderate jewellery. Probably a couple of grands worth there, so that's probably our bonus money." Hunter craned forwards, his retinas turning in circles as his cyber-eyes zoomed in and out examining the loot.
Tads meanwhile suddenly darted in and grabbed a stone from a cluster, in the fold of Kai's hand, She peered at it closely then nodded, returning her attention to the rest and slowly pushing a finger though the pile, looking for something else.
"What are you doing, Tads?"
"This one – oh and this one – they've been mined by hand one way or another. Not blasted with explosives or drilled."
"So?"
"So that means that magically they're pretty good. They could be used in creating magical items or potions, as they're still magically whole. Once something has been damaged by an explosion or gathering and processing mechanically, it's magically ruined." She glanced at Kai.
"Ahh, so good for magical recipes huh? Ok, let's take this steady then." Kai laid the bag out and they moved to the map table to check over the rest of the pile.
They flew south, heading towards the quarry. The journey of just under seven hundred kilometres took them about two hours, with nothing of note along the way. As they closed in on the quarry, they radioed ahead and got clearance to land and a code to squawk, making sure the defences didn't see them as some kind of aggressor. Kai sent a message to Germaine, asking if they could arrange a meet and was delighted to find that she was at the ranch and was actually out riding a horse at the moment on the extensive grounds to the rear of the building. He told her that hopefully they would catch up with her soon.
They landed at the quarry, experiencing the same white-out as they had the first time the chopper had landed here – but at least this time Marius was expecting it. He touched down gently, and killed the engines quickly, trying to avoid sucking any more of the fine dust into the engine filters as he could. Moments later one of the small but powerful trucks rolled out through the illusion covering the cave entrance and hooked up to their nose wheel, then started to tow them inside.
As they rolled past, they saw they were to be berthed in pod three this time, with "Sandstorm" in pod one and "Project 17" in pod two. The journey was shorter than when they had been in pod six on their first visit, and the cavern was at the end of the main entrance tunnel. Tads called out to Grandfather and warned him about the spirits of the earth that were to be found in the base, and that he should take care outside the chopper in case he got into trouble. Aswon also warned him about damaging any of the rocks – not that he thought he would, but it wouldn't do for mistakes to be made…
The team headed down to the mess hall, walking through the vast tunnel delved into the limestone hill. Nadia stuck close to Marius, holding onto his arm quietly and looking around at the odd darkened side tunnel, clearly remembering her last visit. Almost with thinking about it, the rest of the team spread themselves on either side of her, keeping her in the centre of the party as they wandered towards the recreation area.
As they walked down the approach tunnel, they could hear the sounds of wild shouting and apparently lots of excitement. It got louder and louder, and as they walked into the low-ceilinged chamber, they saw a crowd gathered around one of the tables, cheering with excitement and seemingly having a great time. They could also make out a frantic set of banging noises coming from within the crowd. Sharing glances with each other, they started to move in towards the crowd, giving them a once over as they approached.
On one side was a human woman, wearing a set of cargo trousers and a tight fitting top that showed off her figure. She didn't sport any obvious cyberware past a datajack, and a casual look in the astral showed no power or abilities present – though it was a little dazzling as he gazed over at the group. Their emotions ran high, creating a surge of excitement and expectation, colouring astral space just as much as pollution would. Unlike the toxic wastes they often found themselves in though, the positive background of the party like atmosphere made it like looking into a bright day, forcing him to squint and struggle with the brightness of the area He moved his gaze onwards to her companion though, who certainly did have some power and was a significant source of the astral glare – by the looks of things, it was a free spirit of some kind, materialised and standing by her side, hands in the air and whooping with glee.
It was dressed in an ornate and intricately decorated robe, sequins flashing, mythic symbols densely packed and a pointy hat at a rakish angle jammed onto the head, its astral appearance matching the one on the physical plane. It was hard to gauge the power without having a proper look and risking detection, but they estimated it was probably as powerful as most of the magically active members of the team were.
Slightly to the right of this pair was a group of three more people, all screaming and shouting just as loudly. The first was a delicate-looking Asiatic female, with a massive shock of bioluminescent green hair erupting from her head in all directions. Next over was a tall and lithe-looking Caucasian elf, wearing what looked to be a sailor girl outfit. On the astral these two seemed perfectly mundane, their auras tinged with excitement and anticipation as they cheered and whooped at whatever was in front of them.
Last in the group was another wild oddity – what appeared to be a tanned and heavily mottled skin and a somehow unsettling American-Indian complexion faded into insignificance when looked at astrally – where the horns, scales, claws and slitted eyes became immediately obvious and significantly more pronounced. Shimazu could not help but gasp in surprise as he took in the scene laid out before him in astral space.
Noting Shimazu's sudden intake of breath, Kai, Aswon and Tads all reflexively refocussed their attention on the astral plane to see what had caught his attention so - each of them almost seeming to stumble as they were hit by the combination of near-tangible party atmosphere and the surprise of finding a small dracoform and a free spirit jammed elbow to elbow with their crewmates in the crowd. It was a toss-up as to which group demanded more attention, and the mundanes in the team were just as distracted as they took in not only the physical appearance of the two groups, but also had to contend with all of the magically active members of the team suddenly stopping and staring.
As they moved closer though, they saw there were two more people sat next to each other on the bench seat, frantically bashing at a lever placed in front of them. On the left, closest to the woman and spirit in the robe was a slender man wearing a flight suit. On the right was a female human wearing combat fatigues, her hair pulsing through the colours of the rainbow as she too hammered on a lever. In front of them was some kind of apparatus, a big hand holding a massive dollop of some creamy white sauce, which moved first one way and then another, all under some kind of ticking timer.
As one of the competitors managed to hammer his lever harder, the arm full of gloop slowly moved closer to their opponent, while the timer continued to tick and buzz, presumably counting down until it launched the mess on a ballistic trajectory into someone's face.
"Five Nuyen on the man in the flight suit!" shouted Aswon, trying to get into the spirit of the game. One of the team on the right looked at him then raised a thumbs up, clearly accepting his bet.
It only lasted another twenty seconds or so – a buzzer sounded and the gloop arced through the air into the face of the woman on the right, winning Aswon his bet. The crowd clapped and cheered, and the guy in the flight suit handed a napkin to his opponent with a big grin on his face. She didn't seem too upset though, clearly taking the defeat with some grace.
Both of the other teams turned though, and sized up the newcomers, and the team noticed that the free spirit suddenly had raised his masking, appearing now as just a mundane being. Introductions were made, with the team on the left being 'Storm', the gent in the flight suit, 'Dear' in the combat trousers and tight top, and 'Magnifico' in the robes. The team on the right were Minnie, still wiping cream from her face, Nezumi with the green hair, Lola the elf and Chrysocolla the dragon. The team responded with their own handles, getting nods and smiles in return.
Kai went to the chef and put down a couple of hundred Nuyen on the counter, asking for some bowls of mixed gumbo for the teams in general, and a big bucket of beers from the fridge, and this seemed to go a long way to breaking the ice with the other two teams. From the conversation, it was clear that both of the other groups were smugglers too, with the group of three probably being Sandstorm and the group of four being Project 17.
Marius and Storm got chatting, with Marius guessing from the flight suit that he was their pilot – soon discovering that he was right. Yet as he chatted to him, he kept looking the guy over for where his jacks or rigger interface was, but couldn't see it. It wasn't unheard of for people to have them in different places to be subtle, but it was a little unusual. Shortly afterwards, Minne came and joined in their conversation, revealing that she was their team's driver. She clearly sported cyber-eyes, a datajack and as she talked her hair seemed to change colour in time with her mood or activity.
Having found a couple of kindred spirits, Marius was soon explaining how he was a pilot and that he'd not long built his craft, and soon enough had offered to show them both his pride and joy. Checking that Nadia was ok staying with the rest of the team he led them off out of the rec-area and down the tunnel towards pod three. As they rounded the corner into the pod, he was rewarded as they both stopped and stared in amazement at the enormous chopper in front of them. Flabbergasted with the size of it, they approached with curiosity, and questions bubbling out of them which Marius was only too happy to answer.
Once they'd got back on an even keel and had grown accustomed to the size of the chopper, they noticed some of the 'challenges' that Marius was going to face – but he found that they were not dismissive or condescending in their approach, nor trying to score points by comparing their vehicles with his in some pissing match, but more a genuine interest in comparing approaches to control of their vehicles and using their equipment.
During this, Marius discovered that Storm actually flew his bird dead-stick – that was, hands on with no cyberware involved at all. Now it was his turn to be amazed. If he managed to smuggle successfully, without the advantages of being part of his machine and feeling it move around him, that made him one hell of a pilot!
Soon he was engaged upon a reciprocal visit. Minne drove Project 17 around in a large articulated lorry with an extended cab – that very much reminded him of the truck that Rocket and his team used. They probably had a forty ton capacity, and would be quite well armoured – along the same lines as their own Russian truck, but the accommodation looked a lot more comfortable, with wide beds and deep mattresses. They also had an electronics bay and computer system that looked cutting edge, and if he wasn't mistaken the truck had what looked like an ex-military ECM system. Even though it was a pretty large target itself, with those in operation, it would probably be quite hard to detect by airborne sensors from surveillance drones.
Moving onto Pod one, Storm showed them his Westland cargo chopper. It was a much smaller sized craft than their own MI-6, probably capable of moving cargo rated in the hundreds rather than thousands of kilograms. However it's smaller – or rather 'normal' sizing would make it far more manoeuvrable and flexible in terms of landing spots and probably maintenance as well. Marius also noticed the giant conformal fuel tanks that had been carefully custom fitted to the sides. Strange angles were present along the length, and he guessed they were computer designed to reduce the radar cross-section. They also looked to be detachable, and he figured that if they did get into a furball, they could be ejected to make sure the craft was as nimble as possible. Checking out the cockpit, he saw that there was a top of the line heads up display and the normal bank of equipment such as radars and radios – but sure enough not a datajack or rigger jack in sight.
Back in the rec area, the teams were mingling and chatting, slowly getting to know each other over the pile of beer and gumbo that Kai had provided. Aswon seemed fascinated by the dragon, and was trying to engage him, her or it in conversation but finding it a bit of a struggle. The creature seemed quite stand-offish at first, and answered all of his questions with either a 'yes' or 'no', or seemed unwilling to discuss more open questions at all.
Slowly though, under persistent questioning the creature seemed to open up a bit more. Aswon, being his usual self, made no attempt to hide his emotions and make clear his amazement and admiration for the dragon, and his emotions appeared to be bordering on what might be termed "fan-boy". Chrysocolla seemed to hint that the entire team were on the run from some corporation somewhere – hardly a surprising or unusual revelation for a team of smugglers – and were pretty tight knit as a result.
Hunter and Nadia chatted a little with Dear, who was the electronics operator and operations manager for Sandstorm, and seemed to manage all of their logistics. Tads and Magnifico sat at the other end of the table, quietly discussing the earth spirits each of them had seen in or around the quarry, and sharing some thoughts on magical theory, both giving away little about themselves but happy to discuss magic in a wider setting.
Kai was chatting with Nezumi and Lola, putting on his normal charm routine but finding that Lola was also hitting his buttons, bending forwards and flashing her cleavage at him from time to time and sitting so the skimpy sailor's outfit showed off her figure to full advantage. He was surprised to see as she brushed her snow-white hair away from her face that she had cat-like ears, which only made her seem even more intriguing.
Just as Marius, Minne and Storm arrived back from their examinations of their craft, Marius felt a buzz in his pocket. A text from Milo, appeared, malformed and incomplete. He checked the comm-link and hit sat phone, and saw that they had very poor signal here – unsurprising given how deep underground they were. He excused himself and wandered towards the entrance until he got enough signal to get a decent comms-link. Messages started to appear in his inbox, the usual spam and alerts that were an everyday feature for anyone living in the sixth world, so he ignored them and hit the speed-dial for Milo.
"Hi Milo, It's Marius. Your message got trashed, I was out of coverage for a bit. What's up?"
"Heya. It's more what I can do for you. Have you got ok reception now?"
"It's not great, let me move out a bit more. But yeah, I got ok signal now."
"Well, I heard some news on the grapevine I thought you'd probably want to know about. It turns out that there's been a sighting of a 'Jason Webb', a former ZetaImpChem employee in Southern Russia somewhere. Let me send you the file now." An indicator appeared on the display link, showing a file was being transferred over. "It seems that ZIC is offering a bounty for information leading to his whereabouts. It's only five kay at the moment, but they're throwing that out for anyone who has a solid lead or timeframe for a sighting."
"Scheisse."
"You said it, buddy. It seems your friend Hunter has some people who want to have a chat with him. I thought you'd want to know."
"Yeah, thanks Milo. Thanks a lot. I'd better go tell him and the others. I'll get back to you soon, probably. And if you hear anything else…"
"Yeah, you'll get a message. Don't worry. Now you go talk to your buddy and work out what to do, and what to get your best bud Milo as a thank you drink…" The line went dead, and Marius hurried back to the rec area, looking at the data file on his comm-link.
He arrived back in the rec-area not even out of breath after his brisk walk. If he'd been less distracted he would have appreciated the runs and training he'd been doing and how they were having an effect. However he had more worrying things on his mind. He headed over to Kai, and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, then made a circling motion with his hand. Kai looked annoyed until the clenched jaw and tension in the German's shoulders hit him – Marius really was worried about something.
Kai gathered the rest of the team, and they made their excuses and said goodbye to the other teams, heading back to pod three, full of questions. Marius didn't answer though, instead getting them all back safely inside the chopper and safe from prying eyes. He started to quickly rig up a the rollout screen on the wall, hunting round for a cable to connect to his commlink.
While he was distracted, Tads called out quietly.
"Grandfather? Grandfather. Oh, there you are. I just thought you might want to know. There are two other teams here at the moment, and they both have some odd members in them." The spirit looked at her blankly. "Well, one of them has a spirit, much like you maybe. And the other has some kind of dragon creature. It's possible they might come here to visit, so I thought you should know."
Marius cleared his through as he got the link working, and then quickly recounted the conversation with Milo. As he did, Hunter grew still and his expression became blank, focussing 100% of his attention on Marius. All the humour and sarcasm was gone, and he suddenly looked much more dangerous than normal.
"Milo sent me this file, apparently it's floating around in the Shadows for interested parties." He hit the button, and the file displayed on the larger screen. It was clearly the image from the fighting pit where Hunter had destroyed his opponent so thoroughly. The small image from the camera phone had been zoomed in on Hunter's face, and the image had a weird soft focus look that signified heavy manipulation and AI based reconstruction.
In the bottom corner of the image was the ZetaImpChem logo, along with a short and terse message informing private contractors and independent resources that there was a bounty for information on the whereabouts, modus operandi, aliases or travel history for the individual pictured.
"Oh, that's not good. Not good at all." Hunter said quietly.
"Well, sure, it's not good. But it could be worse right?" asked Kai, smiling and trying to put things in perspective.
"The code down there shows the priority for the tasking, which is higher than I thought it would be. But it also indicates that there's an ongoing case file, and that multi-stage operations are authorised. That means that if they get any info, they will pursue it. Which means Shadowrunners coming after us.
Silence descended on the team as they contemplated that.
