Date: Wednesday 1/9/2060, Location: 53.38042, 50.27575, Time: 06:00

Aswon, Shimazu and Kai catnapped, struggling to find a comfortable position in the cramped ward. Tads was curled up under a bed in her usual tiny ball, resting her head on someone's folded up uniform tunic and covered with a blanket, quietly snoring. After healing injuries for an hour or more, she'd been clearly fatigued from the effort and hadn't resisted anyone's efforts to get her to sleep – other than refusing to sleep on a bed in use by the patients she hadn't been able to fully cure.

At 6:03, the phone in the doctor's office rang, and a moment later she appeared at the door, beckoning Kai over.

"It's for you – it's the Brigadier." Kai nodded his thanks, composed himself and then took the phone from her.

"Good morning, sir."

"Good morning, Kai. I wondered if you and your team would join me. I understand you have most of your fellows in the infirmary at the moment, but that you wanted to see me to authorise certain things? If you head to the main stairwell, I'll have someone meet you."

"We'll be right up, then." Kai handed the phone back, and headed down the ward to shove the others and encourage Tads out of her nest. Bleary eyed, she grumbled and crawled out, passing the jacket back to its owner with a muttered thank you, before following along with the others. As usual, Aswon looked indecently chipper and well rested, much to the disgust of the others.

"What? I can't help it if you don't sleep well. You just need to be more efficient, that's all." He led the team of four along the corridors and up the small staircase to the main floor, then along towards the main entrance. As promised, there was a junior soldier waiting for them, who braced to attention but didn't salute as they approached. Turning on his heel, he quickly climbed the staircase and headed up to the third floor of the building and led them into the general officers' wing. As they remembered from their previous visit, it was much better furnished than the rest of the building, with thick carpets, smooth walls and many paintings and pictures adorning the corridors showing marshals and generals gazing down at them judgementally.

Back in the hanger, Marius and Hunter were rousing from their sleep, stretching out the kinks in their backs and grumbling as their bodies protested. Marius was conflicted – he loved the tilt-wing for its nimbleness, stealth and abilities, but it was much smaller than the old chopper, and considerably less comfortable. As he sat on the edge of the seat, bouncing his legs up and down to warm them up and get the blood flowing, he checked his phone and was surprised to see a message from Nadia waiting for him.

Marius – Have finished first phase. All drives now back in the correct array, and have replaced chips and hardware keys. Was fiddly, but straightforward, and once I got a few done, was easy, and took less time than I thought. Am planning on doing the hardware key synchronisation and regeneration tomorrow, to get the arrays rebuilding and ensure all the drives are available for data use. Am thinking this will take a good few hours, but when it is done I can start to pull the data out and compress it to send it on. Should go ok. Miss you, and we still need to decide when and what to tell the others. Love you.

He read through the message a couple of times, imagining her sitting at the dining table in the ranch, surrounded by parts and delicately placing them one by one into the rack systems, rebuilding the hardware and getting it ready to recover data. A swell of pride came from within him, and he made a mental note to tell Kai what she'd managed to achieve in just a few hours. When he checked the time stamps on the message though, he saw that it had been delayed quite a bit – and he wondered if the base was doing anything to slow or stop cellular transmissions in the area. He plugged in and then bought up the keyboard function and started to quickly bash out a reply.

Well done Nadia – that's a fiddly job, and if you're that far through the process you're doing really well. He stopped and thought for a moment, then deleted the last two words, worrying that they came across as patronising. better than Kai thought you would. I know you better of course. Yes, that struck a better tone, and would hopefully earn him some relationship points, too! I miss you too, but especially now, I just want to keep you safe. Be warned though, that I only just got this message, so there's some kind of delay going on. It may be some time before I reply back to any messages. Take Care, and see you soon.

He flipped the keyboard away and checked the message was gone, then stretched again. Across from him, Hunter smiled at him and then pointed at the phone in his hand.

"Love letter from back home?"

"No, a status report. Nadia is fixing the computer equipment and is making good time."

"So she didn't say she loved you?"

"I don't see what that has to do with anything!"

"So she DID say she loved you!"

"Shut up, Hunter. What have we got for breakfast?" Marius frowned and started to rummage through supplies, while Hunter smirked and smiled at the German's discomfort.

In the HQ building, they arrived at the solid wooden door leading to the Brigadier's suite, and after a brief knock on the door they heard the Brigadier call out, and the private swung open the door then braced again, letting the team enter the room. Brigadier Cherkenov was sat at his table, with a light breakfast laid out atop the snow-white linen. He nodded to them as they entered, then continued to deal with his poached egg and toast. Kai, Aswon Shimazu and a still somewhat sleepy Tads lined up on the other side of the table in a rough line, waiting.

"So, you're here…finally." Cherkenov glanced up at them on the last word, and his face was not particularly welcoming. Slowly he lifted a section of egg and toast to his mouth, and started to chew it slowly and thoroughly. Behind them they heard the door close, and felt the presence of the young private as he stood by the doorway at parade rest, ready to answer any needs of the Brigadier.

"Ahh yes. Apologies sir, we were in the middle of some other missions we'd agreed to do when we got your call, and were delayed. We did come as fast as we could though, and we're ready to help out now." Kai kept his voice neutral, choosing to speak plainly and without flourish or magical influence. He knew from experience that the Brigadier had some talents along the same lines, and wanted to make it clear that he wasn't trying to influence him at all.

"So, I presume you have seen what is going on?"

"Actually no. We've had a little run in with the spirits, so we have some idea – but your men have been remarkably good with their operational security and refusing to give information away about what is going on." The Brigadier paused as he heard that, a fork holding a piece of toast and egg hovering just in front of his face while he considered Kai's words. As the food started to slide off the fork, he popped them into his mouth and gave a little shrug, chewing more quickly and then swallowing the morsel down.

"Well, if you have encountered those spirits, then you have the basics. But since we came back, they have been plaguing us – becoming more common and causing more and more damage. The accidents have increased, and the men are becoming dispirited and resentful, as well as losing their edge while they are confined to barracks. I have sent messages to Moscow, calling for assistance and magical reinforcements, but nothing has happened so far." His fork stabbed into his breakfast angrily, and they saw his knuckles turning white as he gripped the fork tightly. "We have resources to deal with such things – but they are not being made available."

"Well sir, as you're aware, we came from the Infirmary. Tads here was able to spend some time with your men, and has returned about three quarters of them to operational status, and the rest are well on the way to recovery. Including Captain Zarkorov." The Brigadier turned towards Tads, and for the first time since they'd entered the room there was a genuine smile on his face and his eyes warmed as he fixed her with a gaze.

"Good, that is good. Well. If Moscow will not supply the help I require, then they cannot be surprised if I go outside of normal channels to get resources that I need to keep my men safe, eh? So tell me, Kai – what can you do to help us out here. What can you do to stop these spirits from molesting us?"

"Well sir, we're still looking at the situation, and coming up with a plan. It's still early, but we have warded one vehicle so far, so there is something your men can use to get around the base and deliver things like food and supplies, or carry a few passengers about. It won't last more than a week or two, but that should do for a start. And we're planning on warding some more vehicles to give you scope to move." He looked around the room astrally, spotting the wards still in place. "And I see your protections are still up, and we've not detected any intrusions into any of the barracks blocks. I take it you're not seen any problems there?"

"Nyet. All of the assaults and accidents take place outside. We've not had a single attack in a building, whether it has your magical shields or not. It's very strange, but probably a good thing, as it gives somewhere for the men to hide." Shimazu perked his ears up, listening to the Brigadier as he was talking, and felt ideas starting to coalesce in his head.

"So, that's a good thing sir, though yes, it's a bit unusual. Once we have the vehicles warded, then we'll start looking at the actual spirits and see what is going on there, and work out the best way to defeat them and keep them away from you. I am a little confused though about why Moscow haven't sent through anyone to help you?"

The Brigadier stiffened, then his shoulders slumped, and he pushed away his breakfast dishes, grabbed the pitcher of juice and poured himself some orange juice. Before he drank though, he looked up at Kai again.

"Operations mentioned that you had some time-sensitive plan that required my approval. Do you want to discuss that before other things?" Kai nodded, but instead of responding, waved to Aswon. The tall Nigerian stepped forwards and braced to attention, throwing a quick salute at the Brigadier out of habit.

"Good morning, sir. There are two types of spirits attacking your base at the moment, and for the sake of brevity, let's call them 'big' and 'small'. The big ones are very robust, and almost completely immune to non-magical weapons, being protected against even sustained fire from assault rifles or machine guns." The Brigadier nodded unhappily, presumably reflecting on when his men had tried just that. "However, the smaller ones are nowhere near as well-protected. It requires a good hit, from a powerful weapon – but when they are in a position to try and affect your men, they are vulnerable to standard weapons. So I would like to call on your sniper cadre, so we can train them up and position them to provide a fire base and support position to protect the base and the brigade. If we can find a high vantage point, they can range over a lot of the base, and working together, they can defeat the small spirits and provide valuable defence, while we tackle the big ones and the force behind them."

Cherkenov motioned to the side and the private darted over to the phone, dialled a number and then handed phone to the Brigadier.

"Approved. Move them now. And, until further notice, any further requests in the defence of the base coming from his team, are also approved." He hit the disconnect button, and handed the phone back to the private, to replace on the charging station, then turned his gaze back towards Aswon. Aswon in turn saluted smartly, then took a half step back and turned to nod at Kai. Kai kept his face carefully blanked as he considered the size of the blank cheque he'd just been handed.

"Now, as regards your question, Kai. Well, where to begin? We deployed several months ago, and were moved up to the front. Our initial campaign saw us striking north from Taurova, striking north for Surgut. We made good progress, and had struck deep into their territory – apparently our attack came as a surprise to them, and opposition was light." He sipped at his orange juice, then continued. "Attacks intensified then, coming at us from both flanks. This was always a danger of course, but if we had been able to establish the corridor from Surgut north to the coast at Nyda, then we would have annexed a large territory and left them weakened and susceptible to being surrounded and defeated in detail by forces to the west." He sighed heavily, and dabbed at his mouth with a napkin, then pushed himself back from the table and stood, brushing crumbs off his uniform and looking at the map of Asia pinned to the wall.

"The forest came alive, with creatures coming from the trees, the rivers, the sky – up from the ground itself. Creatures of all kinds, being driven against us. But the new ammunition – it worked wonders. Some creatures took multiple rounds to kill or several shots, but nothing compared to previous attacks where the same enemy rose to kill again a dozen times! We drove north, carving out a territory about five kilometres wide, pushing the pace and keeping moving. We had two more brigades moving up behind us, securing the rear and keeping our supply lines intact. My men fought well, with the enemy throwing themselves at us both day and night as we continued to drive through enemy territory."

"We took casualties, heavy casualties – but Moscow always demanded more. Always willing to spill the blood of my men to gain ground. Slowly our advance was slowed as the enemy managed to recover from the shock assault, and their defences stabilised. And our ammunition supply grew lower and lower – we were having to use too much, give too much. When our ammunition supplies hit 30%, I called for a halt, and we started to withdraw, performing a fighting retreat. I informed Moscow that our position was untenable, but still they wanted me to hold."

He turned to face them, raising a hand and pointing at Kai with a single outstretched finger, and his face was red and angry – not at Kai, but at the situation he'd been forced into.

"I told them we could not hold the ground, not with the resources we had. I pulled back, to the defence line established by the 416th Motor Rifles. We informed Moscow that we were withdrawing to repair and rearm, and that I would not allow one of the most successful strikes against the separatists to turn into one of our most bloody defeats. I would pull my men back, and return them to be lauded as the heroes they are, living proof to the Russian people that we would not be defeated, and that we could take the fight to the enemy. I also dumped the story to the news channels, and it was leaked to the people before my orders could be countermanded. Publicly, I forced their hand, and they approved our withdrawal, citing the unit for their actions against the enemy. Privately, I am sure they are angry with me and it's only our status with the people that has kept us safe. That, I suspect, is why I have no magical support. They are punishing my unit for my actions." His voice rose, filled with anger at the situation. "This… politics… is costing me my men and my command. So this is what I need you to fix." His voice rose again, and elements of reverberation and subtle undertones filled his speech as unconsciously he manipulated his voice to reinforce his words with his will. It sounded like a pronouncement from God, an announcement that things would be the way he decreed them. "I will not let their pettiness win and harm my land."

It was silent for a moment, and the team stood somewhat uncomfortably in a line as the Brigadier lowered his hand and took a few deep breaths, recovering his composure. The fierceness within him remained, but it was once more firmly under his control, and the team were reminded again that he had a reputation as being the quintessential Russian hero – willing to do anything in the defence of the Motherland.

"So, understood. I can see why you need some assistance with this. We will get this sorted, and help you deal with these spirits. One way or another, we'll keep your men safe, and stop the enemy from attacking you, sir." Kai gave him a tight smile, and looked at the others, nodding his head to reinforce his speech. Aswon took a half step forward again, and braced to attention again before addressing the Brigadier.

"I presume that when we have plans you wish for us to brief you about what we're going to be planning or aiming to achieve, and to work with your operations officers?"

"No. Especially not if the situation is in any way time-critical. Act first, justify afterwards. Based on our previous encounters, I am willing to place a reasonable amount of trust in you all. I know you're not Russians, and that you do not act out of love for the land or the people – but despite that, you have not acted against us, and you did come back. If my trust is misplaced, then I will have to deal with that. But for now, act and do what you think is best – as long as you are willing to look me in the eye and tell me why you did an act then I am willing to back you."

All of them considered the words, the doubling-down on the blank check. Balanced against that was the fact that they were dealing with a true patriot – and they all knew that if he thought they were acting against the country he loved, he would have no hesitation in dealing with them, and had a thousand armed men willing to follow him into hell to do his bidding. It was an exhilarating and slightly terrifying proposition.

"So when did this all start to happen?" Aswon asked.

"We were attacked on the way back, and noticed that things seemed to be breaking a lot, or people were having accidents – far more so than normal. We got back here to the base, and things continued in the same vein, and if anything started to get worse. Then, a week ago, things really took a turn for the worse, and the spirits started to fly around visibly and shut us down. They seemed to be targeting us deliberately in small groups, preying on people and then mobbing them, torturing them. Some of the troops attacked – but presumably the ones you described as the bigger ones. Certainly they didn't seem able to affect them."

"I suspect then that it's not just spirits. It's a Yakut operative, or a small team. Someone assigned to target your unit specifically and continue to attack you – maybe out of revenge or maybe as part of an ongoing operation. Do you have any new additions? I'm wondering if you have another spy in your midst, like the last time."

"That is one of the things we checked for. We didn't come back from the front with anyone new, and after your discovery, we stopped transfers in until we could thoroughly vet everyone. I also think the troops became a little more aware of this, and were more careful with the new people, checking them out."

"I wonder then if someone at Moscow is an agent – and that's why you're being denied magical support." Aswon spoke carefully, not wanting to insult or infuriate the Brigadier by questioning the central command. The Brigadier considered for a moment, before he spoke again.

"That is a somewhat disturbing theory…if we have been compromised at that high a level, then we are in a lot of trouble. But that is a very risky proposition. There is one thing that the Russian people will find abhorrent above almost everything else, and that is a traitor. It could act as a catalyst to mobilise the population, and stiffen resolve. And if someone had an accusation raised against them and there was even circumstantial evidence to support it – it would be the end of them politically. No doubts about that."

"Well, we can't do anything about that – I don't think we can investigate Moscow for you," Kai interjected, "but we do have one more thing we were thinking about, and that's digging some tunnels under the base. Tads has a magical spell that allows her to open up tunnels relatively easily, and we were wondering about digging you some access tunnels from one building to the next to let people move around without being seen from the surface. Will keep people safe from the spirits. They generally have to see you to affect you."

"A spell to dig a tunnel? How does that even work?"

"Well, don't think of it as digging perhaps" Tads spoke for the first time, "think of it as more shoving the dirt together very very tightly, making it strong like bricks or concrete. You move all the space that's normally between the earth from evenly spread about, to all together in one place. It's not quite as easy as Kai makes out, but it can be used to excavate very efficiently."

"I see. I would need to have one of the base engineers work with you, to see what is happening and check that it is safe. The base is not mine, and my brigade is only here to use the facilities. I can make him listen to you, though."

"Well, if we get someone willing to work with us, one of the things I can do is share my thoughts with them, and let them see how the spell works and what is involved. That way they can assure themselves of the safety or implications of what is being done. They just have to voluntarily take part in the spell."

"I will explain to him that he should listen carefully to you and volunteer to assist you."

"No, I mean, thank you, but they have to willingly enter in the agreement and allow me to communicate with them."

"They will be willing, once I have spoken to them." Tads started to speak again, but Kai laid a hand on her arm and gently ushered her backwards a little. She looked around, and realised that she must be missing the point somewhere, and decided to be quiet. She was still very tired, after all. "It sounds like perhaps you need an attaché to assist you. Private Tollovy! You will accompany Kai and his team, and deal with any administrative issues that occur, and make arrangements for supplies, materials, resources or base personnel that they may need. If anyone is not compliant, refer them to me or the Operations office."

Private Tollovy came to attention with a somewhat worried expression on his face but barked out a response.

"By your command, Comrade Brigadier!"

"Very good. Now Private, perhaps you can escort Kai and his team down to Conference room B-3, and make that available to them as a planning room, and being your duties." The Private took that as his queue, and rushed over to the door to open it and usher the team out.

"A moment in private, if I may, Brigadier?" Kai asked. The Brigadier nodded, and everyone else filed out of the room and left the two alone. "Thank you. I just wanted to check if there's anything you need doing personally. Any concerns, any issues that might need to be dealt with…quietly, let us say?"

"No, I don't think so. As you are no doubt aware, I was hoping you would be here sooner – but you are here now, and that's the main thing. And if you have managed to aid the Captain and he is recovering, then there is nothing I want doing that is over and above the spirits being dealt with."

"Right, well if anything comes up, let me know. Otherwise, I'll go and join the rest." Kai let himself out, leaving the Brigadier staring at the map of Asia, deep in thought. He re-joined the team outside, and they followed the private down to the assigned conference room on the 2nd floor. It was a large room with a high ceiling, and could easily have fitted fifty or more people in for a briefing or lecture. Large windows down one side of the room showed the two brigade areas laid out before them, and they saw several small groups of troops running back and forth carrying boxes of supplies and equipment.

Back over in the hanger, Marius and Hunter both heard the roar of an approaching engine, and looked out of the tilt wing to see what was going on. A transport appeared around the corner of the hanger, driving in at a slightly reckless speed and slamming the brakes on. Aircrew spilled out, and the nightshift crew started to climb on and take their place, climbing quickly and looking up and out at the sky nervously. The driver wasn't hanging about, barely stopping and starting to turn as people were still climbing onto the back, those aboard lowering hands to pull the latecomers up onto the loadbed. When everyone was aboard, the driver put his foot down and accelerated hard down the gravel track back towards the main base, wanting to get back under cover before the spirits returned.

The new crew spread out around the hanger, grabbing maintenance sheets and handover lists and starting to pick up on work left over from the previous team. The Officer and NCO seemed surprised by the presence of their tilt-wing, and gave Marius and Hunter a funny look, but then proceeded to ignore them.

"Weird. I would have thought they'd challenge us."

"Institutional apathy and fear, "Marius responded. "They have to assume we're supposed to be here, otherwise the last shift would have done something. They have no idea who or what we are, but they don't want to look stupid or risk getting into trouble – so they ignore what they don't understand. Unfortunately I've seen it happen a lot at various places I've dropped cargo off. If you're wearing a flight suit, carrying a clipboard and walking like you mean business, it's amazing the number of people that will leave you alone…"

"Ahh, I get you. Yeah… it's a useful thing, especially if you're trying to spy on someone. Just look like you belong, and you'll shout at someone, and they'll mostly leave you be. But looking at how that truck came hammering in, we definitely need to start getting these people some warded vehicles." Hunter pulled up his phone and sent a message to Kai, detailing what had just happened and reminding him about the need for some transport.

Kai was just reading the message when the doors opened to the conference room, and a large group of soldiers entered. Dressed in worn battle dress uniform, they exuded a certain confidence and swagger, along with a sense of danger. Kai realised what made him think of that a moment later when he realised that despite there being a large number of men, there wasn't a sound to be heard. Aswon bustled forwards to greet them, recognising several of them by name and offering handshakes all round.

"I take it these are the snipers then, Aswon?" Aswon nodded in agreement and then introduced those he knew, and getting the names of the others. It looked like the teams were split into pairs, used to working as a sniper and their spotter, with two teams forming a unit, and there being three units. As the introductions wound up, the door opened again and a couple of the base personnel appeared pushing a large trolley, laden down with gun cases and kit. The snipers descended upon them like vultures, claiming their personal bags and cases, and then separating out to check the contents.

As the watched the snipers unbox their weapons they saw a mix of hardware. Three of the snipers were wielding what looked like heavily customised versions of standard AK rifles, two were using sleek black weapons a little larger, mostly made of plastic, and the last three had enormous rifles easily two and a half metres long. The spotter members of the pair had slightly more normal looking AK style rifles, but each of them had additional equipment locked on to the guns. Aswon pointed at them in turn.

"Ok, we've got a set there with Druganovs. As you can see, they're based on the AK design, but with a much longer barrel and stock. They can fire standard AK rounds in a pinch, but generally they only use match grade ammunition, and every part of their gun is tuned and carefully selected. But they're normally used for medium range shots at high-value people, aiming to take out the enemy command and control functions. The two in the next squad there have what look like imported guns – that must have been interesting. By the looks of things they're Rand Corporation 11mm hunting rifles. They're a South African company, long history of making safari guns and such like. Not quite up to fifty calibre, but fire very powerful rounds, and the guns are designed for very harsh treatment. Not finesse, but very reliable. And the last three… oh my."

"So they're fifty calibre?"

"No Kai – they're 14.5mm. Fifty cal is only 12.7mm. These things are monsters, and they kick like a bastard. But they'll take down a plane if you hit it in the right place. Huge rounds, look." Aswon called over to one of the snipers and got him to throw over one of the rounds for his gun, showing Kai the monstrous size of the bullet and cartridge. Over 155mm long and nearly 27mm in diameter at the widest part of the cartridge, necking down to the 14.5mm bullet diameter over the last 25% of the length, Kai weighed the round carefully, amazed at how heavy they were. "Yes, very heavy, you don't want to carry many of these. But generally, a lot of targets you only have to hit them once with one of these." Kai nodded in agreement and Aswon returned the round to the sniper.

"What about the other guys?"

"Oh, they look like close support AK-97 variants. Modified to carry a thermal sight and under barrel grenade launcher, they're used by the spotters if the team get rushed or compromised. So you can lay down a lot of fire at close range, while you get the hell out of the situation you're in, but they're also again specified components and can be used to do stuff like take out a window for the sniper so they can take their shot without it being deflected."

"So, we're dealing with pro teams here then?"

"Very much so. You sort out what you need to do, I'll go and brief them in." Aswon headed over to the back of the room and beckoned the snipers over, who sat in an arc around him in their pairs. He explained the details of what they were facing, and the differences between the spirits, the levels of power required to overcome their defences and how they could help defend the base – along with the limits of what their weapons could do. The snipers made notes, absorbing the information like sponges, their habit of working on 'special' missions with unusual circumstances and specific information serving them well as they took on just one more set of circumstances. When Aswon told them they needed to stay here in the HQ now instead of their own barracks, to concentrate their firepower, there was a ripple of amusement and one of the spotters made a fainting gesture, explaining that he didn't think he could cope with soft beds and meals cooked by a chef…

They did however raise the point about where they would position themselves – initially wanting to head for the roof so they would have the greatest vantage point. Aswon was initially resistant to the idea as they would be very exposed, instead wanting them to find a room on the top floor of the HQ building, so they could hide out of line of sight, and shoot from windows when needed. As he worked through the logic though he realised there was a trick he could use here… all he needed was a tent frame, without the canvas. As long as they had a clear edge and structure to anchor a ward on, it didn't need to be a solid shell. They could put a powerful magical barrier up that should stop the spirits from seeing them or being able to influence them, while still giving them fantastic views of the base. Given the nature of the snipers, it wasn't as if rain, wind or other weather was going to bother them much.

At the other end of the room, Kai quietly spoke with Tads, asking her about some of her spells, trying to find out if a mindlink between someone with astral sight and the snipers would help with their deployment. She explained that while it would allow them to share information quickly, it wasn't necessarily going to help that much, and her spell had a fairly limited range – and would also require her to concentrate on maintaining the spell which would affect her other abilities. It would also make it harder to do the same spell at the same time on the engineer if and when they came, and if she had to summon spirits or do certain other tasks, she would have to drop the spell, which might be disorienting to them. They agreed that radio communications between astral spotters and the four sniper teams would probably be for the best.

Whilst Aswon conducted his brief, Kai grabbed the private and explained his next set of requirements – to get the mortar teams assigned to the Brigade command structure ready to move as soon as it was safe and they could provide cover. He detailed how there was a camp nearby, showing the general location on the map and detailing how they were going to work out an assault and that it would be good to go in with covering fire. Tollovy took notes, then went to make phone calls to contact the operations officer to spread the word. By now word had apparently been passed around, and the request was accepted without question, with orders going to the barracks troops to get ready and the armoury to be ready to release the weapons from the storage areas.

The door to the room opened again, and a single officer appeared, heading over towards Kai with a somewhat guarded expression on his face.

"I am Captain Vordok – I'm the chief engineer. I understand you have some details you wish to check?" His voice was polite and respectful, but he managed to convey scepticism with his body language and Kai resigned himself to having to do some work with this one. He decided to start with a bit of a push to get him off balance.

"So, Captain Vordok – this is your new boss. Her name is Tads, and you'll be working with her to do some tunnelling under the base, linking up each of the company buildings with a series of passageways." Vordok bristled as Kai intimated he'd be taking orders from someone – and Kai wasn't sure if it was because she was female, not military or didn't have the look of an engineer.

"Tunnels linking all the buildings? Impossible! It would take months to dig something like that and require resources we just don't have."

"But we do have the resource. We have an approved Mage, cleared by the Orthodox Church who can make magical tunnels!"

"Magic tunnels? How do you make magic tunnels?"

"Well with Magic of course!" Kai added helpfully. The Captain spluttered in protest, then outlined that it wasn't possible. He certainly came across as a denier, and Kai guessed that he'd never experienced magic directly before. He had a quiet word with Tads, and then pointed at the wall, and then he stood back with a smile. Tads extended her hand and concentrated, and then used her shape earth spell on the wall about two metres from the door. The bricks were tougher than earth, but not as demanding as structural concrete, and soon the magical power flowed into the brickwork and plaster, appearing to open up a portal into a strange world where the laws of physics were seen more as a guideline. A one metre circle opened up, with perfect edges, the brickwork fused together forming a glass like surface.

Vordok gasped, his jaw falling open, and he rushed over to the hole, staring out into the corridor. He darted out of the door and looked from the other side, then tentatively poked the area with a pen, throwing it through the hole after meeting no resistance and still wanting to disbelieve the evidence of his eyes. After tentatively testing the edge and checking it for heat, he examined the hole carefully and then returned to Kai and Tads. Emotions warred on his face as he had an existential crisis – all of his experience of engineering and excavation thrown into chaos by this act of apparently simple magic.

"I believe you were told to co-operate with us, by the Brigadier?" The captain nodded mutely. "Then I will let Tads explain to you. To do that, she will cast another spell, allowing you to communicate mind to mind. It won't hurt, and she can't read thoughts you don't want to share. But it is very efficient." The captain looked somewhat terrified, but nodded his agreement. Tads cast her spell, and then quickly explained how the spell worked, at least from her point of view, and shared the memories of digging the trench for the electric cable at the ranch, along with the huge pit for the fuel tank. The engineer's fear slowly transformed to awe as he contemplated what was possible, and gained an idea of just how fast she could dig a modest tunnel. He turned to Kai, his attitude changed distinctly from when he'd first arrived.

"I will need to get some materials and some of the other engineers. We will need to gather all of our blueprints and plans, for water, gas, communications lines. It will take some time, perhaps a few hours – but we will get all the information you need and return here. It will take a few hours to plot the tunnels and incorporate passing places, work around utilities and so forth, but we can make this work. Kai nodded at him and the captain left, once more touching the hole in the wall as he passed, as if to check that he really wasn't dreaming.

Kai checked his phone as he received another message, and then smiled before calling over Tollovy and asking him to speak to the armoury. Hunter was after some ammunition and extended magazines for an AK-97 it seemed, so warning them in advance and making sure they were ready for him to appear probably made sense. Aswon had finished his briefing, and the snipers were grabbing their gear, heading up to the top of the building to find a suitable room to use until the tent frame was warded and available. With plans in motion for the snipers and mortar teams starting to get ready, it was time for the team to head over to the motor pool and get a few vehicles warded to allow them to be mobile around the base.

Private Tollovy followed them down the corridor, and asked them to pause for a moment as he passed the radio room. A few moments later he came out with a large field radio, keyed in to the operations office, explaining that he'd be able to make whatever arrangements they needed now while they were wandering around the base. They headed down the corridor and had just reached the wide stone staircase when they heard the sounds of gunfire from above.

CRACK! CRACK! BOOM! BA-BOOOM!

"God-dammit! I told them to get ready, not to engage!" Aswon snarled. "They've blown the element of surprise! I'm going to tear a strip off someone…" Instead of heading down, he started to run up the stairs, two at a time his legs driving him up the staircase at a rapid rate. The rest of the team ran up after him, following in his wake and listening to the angry grumbles still escaping from his lips. He really did seem upset, and very angry at the snipers. They tracked them down to an office at the end of the corridor on the top floor, where most of the snipers were pressed up against the windows, their gun barrels trained out across the base. The spotters were behind them, standing on desks and looking out through their spotting scopes, looking for more targets and ignoring the wisps of gun smoke and cordite that drifted through the room. "JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? I SAID GET READY! NOT ENGAGE!"

The angry outburst flowed off the snipers like water off a duck's back. They'd been shouted at their entire professional careers, and Aswon was far from the loudest or scariest person they'd dealt with. One of the spotters explained that they'd been getting set up and working over the mission specs, when the spirits turned back up, and then found some targets. One of the barracks blocks must have been slowed down for some reason, and the section sent to the canteen building to get the day's supply of food had been caught out in the open. The spirits had attacked them, and soon the soldiers were starting to fall over, tripping over nothing, running around in fear or just standing with a look of confusion on their faces. So, the snipers had selected targets, and opened fire. According to their general consensus, they'd taken down at least six of the spirits before the rest had fled or vanished, and they'd continued to provide cover while the section recovered their food, picked up their wounded and made it back to the barracks.

The snipers seemed very happy with their actions, and Aswon couldn't really fault them. He certainly wouldn't have wanted to stand by and watch his fellow troops get attacked, and if he'd been here he would probably have taken the same actions. A loud sneeze rang out around the room, and Tads grabbed a tissue and wiped her nose, then retreated from the room to go an stand in the corridor, her eyes a little red and watery.

"Well, what's done is done. But please, be careful. As soon as you've engaged, get back inside and close the windows – if they can't see you, they can't affect you. Just remember that." The anger dissipated from Aswon and he realised they just had to make the best of the situation now. One of the spotters gave a cry and pointed, and they watched as one of the big spirits rose from behind the barracks block. Immediately eight sniper rifles of various sizes snapped into position and started to track the target, while one of the spotters asked for permission to engage.

"No – that's one of the free spirits. They're about four times more powerful than the little ones, and not even the anti-material rifles are likely to kill it. We're working on a plan to deal with those – the trick is to deal with it permanently. If you shoot it and take it down, it will come back from the spirit realm in about two or three weeks, and we might not still be here. We need to deal with it permanently. So engage the small ones if needed, but leave the big ones to us." The spotter seemed frustrated, but nodded in agreement, and the snipers relaxed, coming off the firing positions and scanning for more of the small spirits.

The team pulled back out into the corridor, leaving the snipers and spotters in the office, and had a quick discussion. They decided to leave Shimazu with the snipers to keep an eye on them – and to provide some magical defence in case the spirits decided to enter the room and do something about the firepower. Even the big ones were likely to come up as sore losers if they got inside range of Shimazu and his sword, and in the room that size there wasn't anywhere they could get to and be safe from his enchanted sword.

They wandered back down the corridor and headed down the stairs, resuming their journey. Tads had been having a think about the spirits they had seen, and discounting the two large free spirits had come to the conclusion that they were likely facing a pair of advanced conjurers. She outlined her thinking, describing the difficulty of summoning multiple spirits of the greater forms that could flit across domain boundaries and travel freely. Her theory held up with the observed facts, and at least gave them some idea of what they might be up against… the logical assumption was that this was the pair of heat signatures Marius had picked up in the woods the previous night before his drone was crashed by the spirits, presumably defending their summoners.

"We may need to go visit this pair sooner rather than later then. Mr Tollovy, please can you place a call to the hanger, and ask them to arrange for our chopper to be refuelled and re-armed. I think we may need to go deal with them before they can re-summon their pack of spirits." Tollovy nodded and made a radio call, following them down the stairs to the ground floor.

Over in the hanger, the officer of the day approached Marius and saluted smartly, deciding to play it safe, then told him that they'd been instructed to see to their fuel and weapon needs. Marius popped the fuel hatch and supervised the loading of the fuel as they topped off his tanks, while Hunter asked them what ammunition was available that would fit in the medium machine guns mounted at the doors. They had huge supplies of explosive tipped 7.62mm ammunition, but when he checked, it was a different length to the 7.62 the guns took naturally. It was only a few millimetres difference, but Hunter called Marius over for a second opinion.

They tried working a few rounds through the action manually. The bolt and breech worked, but were very stiff, and the tolerances were incredibly tight. Unfortunately they came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the risk – a single oversized round or bad feed could jam the gun and get them well and truly stuck, probably requiring a full strip down in the armoury to fix – not the sort of thing you wanted in the middle of a firefight. Marius did have a look at the rounds though and concluded that if they could take the breech block out of one of the MMGs, they could get the base armoury to work up some replacements that would let them feed in the larger Russian rounds relatively easily.

Back at the main building, Kai, Aswon and Tads looked out of the rear of the building, while Shimazu surveyed the front. They spotted no magical activity at all – all the spirits had vanished, and for the first time in a week, the base skies looked clear of magical threats. Kai asked Tollovy to relay that people should stay indoors and only go out for truly essential reasons, while they worked out what the spirits were going to do next, and to let people know that soon they would have magically protected vehicles to travel around in while the last of the spirits were dealt with.

Heading out of the infirmary doors, they put the private in the cab of their tow truck while Aswon climbed onto the roof, keeping his spear handy. Slowly they pulled out from the ramp and headed over the tarmac towards the vehicle pool, and the waiting rows of armoured personnel carriers, UAZ jeeps, troops trucks, bridge carriers and fuel bowsers. At the front of the vehicle park were half a dozen empty canopies, spaces where maintenance could take place under cover from the Russian weather while the open sides allowed fumes and spills to dissipate into the air.

As they slowly drove over the tarmac, Tads suddenly pointed out of the front window to one of the structures to their left, still squinting through watery eyes. She gave a sniff and a wipe of her nose and the sound of phlegm rattling around her nasal cavity made Kai shudder.

"Look! A spirit, trying to hide in one of the uprights!" Everyone turned that way as the vehicle slowed, the private wondering what they were looking at as everyone else in or on the vehicle looked with their astral vision. Sure enough there was a spirit watching them. It had only its eyes visible through the steelwork, and should have been nigh on impossible to detect – apart from the fact that it's rear end hung out the back of the column and was quite literally waving in the air, for all to see. A quick assense and Tads confirmed it had the same astral signature as one of the spirits she'd checked the previous night – so she knew it was from the same summoner.

"Shall I banish it?"

"Yes, take it down – we don't need them getting any intelligence on us." Tads concentrated, bringing her formidable power to bear and squished the spirit like a bug, popping it instantly. They looked around again, but didn't spot anything else, so they resumed their drive, pulling up near the canopy and climbing out of the vehicle, reporting back to the others on their location.

"Be careful over there. That's where the Captain had his 'accident' the other day," warned Hunter. "There might be some of that background wotsit about from the accident." They checked around, but didn't see anything active, and started to move into the motor pool, looking for a truck to start their warding ritual on.

Unseen by the team, the large toxic spirit floated just above the canopy, easing towards the edge, waiting for the right moment to strike. When the team below had just passed its position, it eased over the edge and looked down, straight at the back of Tadibya's head. A brief flash of power…

Tads grunted as the power hit her, trying to resist. Her spell defence was up, as was her shielding, protecting the people she was with…but unfortunately this was neither a spell nor normal magical effect. The spirit power leeched into her mind, sinking into her psyche and quickly took effect.

Tollovy was bringing up the rear and gave a cry of alarm as the woman just collapsed in front of him falling to the ground in a heap, her head making a dull thud as it struck the tarmac. Aswon and Kai turned around, their guard up and looking around for the threat. A moment later Aswon dropped into astral and drew in a deep breath of surprise. He saw Tads rising up out of her body, shooting skywards.

He'd seen her astrally project before of course, many times. But normally she was careful about her meat body, making sure it was adequately protected and safe from harm. As he focussed on her astral form, he realised something was wrong. Never before had she projected with her arms spread out wide to either side of her, as if flying like an angel, hands spread upwards towards some sight only she could see. He'd also never seen that big soppy smile on her face before, a look of pleasure that was normally reserved only for those on some severe psychedelic drugs. She shot skywards and his gasp turned into a cry of horror as the free spirit emerged and grabbed hold of her unresisting astral form, starting to pull her sideways as well as up.

He leapt, as high as he could, desperately trying to grab hold of her astral form. His finger came tantalisingly close to her left foot, missing by mere centimetres before he fell back to the ground. The astral body continued to rise, and then turned to face north east, and began to pick up speed, travelling towards the forest and opening the distance between them.

"Spirit! Go attack that free spirit and free our shaman!" Aswon commanded his guardian, closely followed suit by Kai. Their two spirits, summoned at dawn by Tads and instructed to watch over them and obey their commands shot off after the two astral forms. He didn't hold out much hope, but he didn't have anything else he could do. The vague hope was dashed as the second free spirit appeared next to the first, and between them they swiftly dealt with the smaller spirits sent by Aswon and Kai. Aswon keyed his transmitter.

"Crap, we've got a massive problem. One of the spirits has just done something to Tads, and she's gone astral, leaving her body behind. They're leading her astral form north east, probably doing about fifty kph, maybe more! Our spirits got battered, and they've done something to her. She isn't fighting them, that's for sure. We have to go after her, and get her back… if we don't get to her in the next few hours, she'll die."

"What do you mean? Why?" Hunter queried.

"Mages can only be away from their body for so long. It varies from person to person, but there's a link between body and soul. Spend too long apart, the link breaks and both halves die. It's more complicated than that, but if we don't get her parts back together in a few hours, she'll die and there's nothing we can do about it. We need you in the air, now! Shimazu! Get out here too, we're going to need your sword, I think!"

Hunter and Marius kicked into gear, shouting at the officer of the day that they needed to scramble. Marius vaulted into his seat and started the warm up sequence, running commands and trying to cut as many corners as he could to get them into the air quickly. Hunter meanwhile looked around as the craft started to whine as the compressors kicked in, before calling out loudly.

"I need three door gunners! Any volunteers with experience of using seven six two door guns?" A few of the air crew raised hands, and looked over towards the officer, who nodded and waved for them to board the aircraft. The officer gave Hunter a thumbs up, then started to bellow orders, getting carts and tools shifted out of the way and calling all of the bodies in the hanger over.

Marius gave a start as he started to roll forward – the engines were only just coming up to pressure, and they hadn't even started to turn the massive blades yet, but he felt the craft started to roll across the hanger floor, the rear ramp scraping across the concrete surface. When he checked the cameras he saw about thirty of the Russians lined up around the rear of the craft, grabbing hold of any available surface and pushing for all they were worth. He raised the back ramp to about waist height, giving them something else to push, and stopping the horrible scraping noise, and smiled as they used brute force and ignorance to push the multi-ton aircraft out onto the flight line and clear of the hanger.

Hunter checked the Russians who had jumped aboard, and got them set – there were four of them, so he put one on each of the side doors, one on the rear door and the last guy was given an AK to use out of the back ramp. Hunter guessed he'd be familiar with the AK, and was just about to instruct the other men on how to unlimber the MMGs when he saw that they were already pulling them out of their stowage positions, working the action and checking the feed systems. This was definitely not their first rodeo! Slowly the massive engines built up power and the blades started to turn, slowly at first but building up speed until they individual blades vanished, turning into a whirring disc. As soon as he had enough power, Marius lifted the aircraft up, calling to Kai that they were airborne.

"Great Marius, come get us from the back of the HQ building. We need to deal with those shaman, but we want to get concentrated first. Tollovy, get those mortar men moving now! Warn the snipers to go hot and engage anything they can see, too!" The private got on the radio and called out the orders and then watched as Kai and Aswon continued to scan around them, looking for threats. Vaguely aware that magical weirdness was going on that he wasn't equipped to deal with, he instead bent down and scooped up the body of the Shaman, slinging her over his shoulder in a combat carry. He might not be able to spot magical threats, but he could help carry the wounded and keep the two outsiders free to do combat.

Shimazu burst from a fire exit at the rear of the building, and sprinted over towards them, sword in hand, scanning the area for magical threats too and slid to a halt near the group. A look of unhappiness spread over his face as he took in the comatose body of Tads, and his grip on his sword tightened.

Marius swung the craft around, and headed over towards Kai's position, bringing the tilt wing round in a tight circle and dropping down next to the canopy, only a metre to spare from the wingtip to the structure. The back ramp lowered, and he held a hover for a few seconds – barely long enough for the team to step aboard – before he threw power to the engines and rose into the air again. Shimazu helped Tollovy to strap in Tads' physical body to one of the seats, and then had an idea. He called out to his guard spirit and told it to follow the link from her body to her soul, tracking it down to wherever the free spirits were taking it. He warned it not to be seen, and to return to them when it had the location. The spirit shot off, heading north-east, following the incredibly faint magical trail leading through astral space.

The tilt wing was crowded now, the Russian door gunners ready to pop open the side doors and lay down bursts of fire at an enemy, while the team strapped on body armour and readied personal weapons, or tried to work out what was going on.

"If they were going to kill her, they would have done it there and then, right?" Kai shouted out over the comms system. "I mean, why take her somewhere if they're just going to kill her. So that means she's alive, and there's still hope!"

"Hopefully they're not doing something to her and turning her against us. I certainly wouldn't want to fight her, even if she doesn't throw fireballs," Aswon warned, and the faint smile that Kai had raised quickly vanished as he contemplated that thought. Aswon spotted the Russians opening the side doors to deploy the weapons and barked out a command. "Stop! Port side gunner, close the door!" The man looked confused for a moment, but quickly slid the door closed again. "We have magical protection on the craft, to stop spirits getting in. The magic covers the starboard and rear door, but not the port door – that's what we use for magical goods. So we try to only engage on the starboard side, unless things get really desperate!" The man nodded in understanding, and moved his hand away from the handle.

After checking the door was going to stay shut, Aswon pushed his way forwards and grabbed the viewing helmet, then started to look out of the optics for magical threats.

They headed over the woods, and Marius was glued to the sensors, looking for the signatures he had spotted the night before. The thermal scanners picked up two heat signatures, much fainter against the warmth of the morning, but still firm enough to get a lock. He called out the co-ordinates to the rest of the craft.

"Two heat signatures located, five three decimal three eight seven one five, by five zero decimal two seven four seven one. Heading bearing 278 degrees, speed three metres per second. Stand by for approach, starboard side! Twenty seconds!"

The starboard side door opened and the rear ramp descended. The door gunners swung out their guns, while both Hunter and the fourth Russian braced themselves against harnesses secured to the hooks set into the roof, while the port side gunner kept one hand on the gun and one near the handle, ready to open his side if needed. Marius swung around and bought them down in a low pass, angling the craft in a ten degree roll to help the gunners engage. Two long streams of fire ripped out from the machine guns, with accompanying whoops of joy from the Russians as the recoil adjusters compensated for the kick from the guns. Hunter and the fourth Russian also lay down fire, sending long bursts into the woods.

"Mr Kai! Mr KAI! READY TO FIRE!" Tollovy screamed, fighting against the noise of the engines, the chatter of the guns and roar of the wind. Kai gave him a thumbs up, and Tollovy bellowed into the radio, listened and then called out as loudly as he could "INCOMING MORTAR FIRE, BREAK WEST!"

Marius needed no encouragement and advanced the throttles to the firewall, and the tilt-wing rocketed forwards and accelerated to its maximum speed. Back at the base, the gun team commander gave one last look around, and then dropped his hand, before turning, ducking and holding his hands over his ears. This was going to be interesting.

The ten mortar teams who had managed to get their weapons into position and ready at the frantic calls over the radio dropped the 120mm rounds down the tubes of their Sani series mortars. The position they were firing at was only just outside the minimum range of the huge wheeled mortars, and almost as one the rounds hit the firing pins at the bottom of the tubes and ignited. A series of 'whumps' exploded out of the tubes, and the shockwave sent men sprawling and broke windows all down the back of the headquarters building. Tarmac shattered as the base plates designed to transmit the recoil into earth or grass instead slammed into the pavement, and the shells hurtled downrange.

The shots were rushed, and the crews winded after dragging their 250kg guns into position from the armoury – but they were veteran members of an elite battalion, well experienced and had drilled for actions like this. Well, nearly like this – nobody had ever envisioned placing so many of the powerful mortars quite so close together. The heavy shells reached apogee and arced down, descending on the target location with just gravity on their side, inert lumps of high explosive, without any tell-tale emissions or systems to detect.

The effect was devastating.

All ten rounds landed in an area not much more than three hundred metres across. At worst, one of the shells deviated by thirty five metres from its aimed point of impact. As the 120mm mortar had a lethal blast radius of over sixty metres, that wasn't too much of an issue. Ten of the most powerful mortar rounds available to the Russian military exploded almost as one, vaporising an acre of forest and turning every tree inside to matchwood in the blink of an eye. The two targets were immolated by the blast wave, as overlapping high explosive effects detonated, shock waves slamming into each other. Tons of earth were throw up and outwards, and trees for a kilometre in diameter were blown and canted outwards at an angle from the advancing wall of superheated air. Thousands of birds, rabbits and other small creatures perished or were maimed, and a large fireball rose into the air, slowly spreading into a mushroom cloud above the forest.

"Hoooleee fuuuuck!" breathed Hunter, treated to a front row seat of the most apocalyptic explosion he'd ever witnessed. "Target… target evaporated. Or if it ain't dead, we should just give up and go home. Sweet mother of god…."

"Negative, negative, cease fire, cease fire. Target destroyed." Tollovy shouted over the radio, Kai nodded emphatically, and was just about to give a thumbs up sign, but changed it at the last moment into an 'ok', just in case.

Marius banked the craft, and flew north east, following the trace as best he could from Aswon's vague description. At first he kept the speed down, maximising their chance of spotting a disturbance in the dense forest below them, but he slowly built up speed as they drifted further and further from the base.

They flew north-north-east, clocking up the kilometres as they searched for any sign of Tads and the spirits. One of the Russians headed into the cockpit, announcing that he was an electronic warfare officer and offering to help man the sensors – Marius quickly accepted his offer and shared the sensor feed to the co-pilot's chair. Hunter checked the door gunners, finding them examining the guns and the recoil mounts carefully, and talking about how great they were – he warned them he was going to frisk them on the way out and count the guns when they landed, which got him a laugh, but Hunter struggled to put a smile on his face to match their humour.

They flew on, continuing to open the distance to the base, and their spirits sank as there was no sign of anything that led them to believe they were close to finding Tadibya.

They were two hours into the flight, when Aswon spotted the spirit Shimazu had sent out, heading back towards the base. He called to Marius to drop speed and hover, and he clambered over to the side door, waving to attract the spirits attention. It turned and headed towards them, giving Aswon and Shimazu a chance to examine it, making sure it hadn't been tainted or turned by the enemy. It missed the tilt-wing on the first attempt to get aboard, and they had to circle around to attempt it a second time – but fortunately it managed it get aboard and synchronise its speed on the next attempt.

The spirit pointed ahead of them telling them that Tads wasn't far ahead, and was down on the ground, with the two free spirits guarding her body. With hand motions and pointing, it guided them forwards, Aswon and Shimazu having to relay instructions to the cockpit to guide Marius to the destination. The area they were flying over was desolate, appearing abandoned with empty villages and tumbledown houses separated by vast areas of wild growth, only the occasional subsistence farm visible amidst the hills and rivers. They'd travelled over three hundred kilometres from the base by now, clearly the spirits who had kidnapped Tads had accelerated considerably once they were out of sight of the team.

The spirit slowly started to point downwards rather than ahead, and Marius slowed the craft. Down below was the Kama river, a huge sprawling estuary over fifteen kilometres wide. It was uncertain what was river and what was marshland attached to it, but the whole area was covered with dense tree growth forming a thick canopy, apart from down at the edge of the mudflats where there were small spits of bare land or shallow coves, where it was possible to penetrate the forest of wetland trees.

"Get me close and I'll jump from the ramp with my spear. It worked out ok last time!"

"I don't think so, Aswon. I think we're all going to be down there… except Marius. We may need top cover or extraction." Kai looked around at the Russians. "You guys good to provide fire support?" A series of thumbs up answered him. "Great stuff. Ok, Marius bring us round from the north, keep the starboard side facing towards that big area in the middle of the wetlands. The spirit is pointing in there at the moment. Everyone get ready to bail – I don't think Marius can land on that stuff, it doesn't look solid."

Everyone checked their gear, tightened the grips on their weapons, and stacked up on the back ramp, while Marius slewed the tilt-wing around and bought them in to hover a metre above the black cloying mud of the wetlands, his rotor tips skimming through the trees and sending leaves and small branches flying through the air.

"Let's go get our girl."