Marius spotted a clear area next to a stadium, more than large enough for him to land the tilt-wing in. Off to the west and curving around to the south, hemmed in by a river, was a sprawling brigade-sized force, with tents and vehicles scattered wherever they would fit amongst the ruins of houses. To their east was the stadium, and beyond that was another brigade-sized force. Their view of the city was not great – it appeared that the power was out in several areas, part of the city lit up with house and street lights, other areas dull, black and sullen. They could see signs of extensive fire damage across the city, some buildings still smouldering slightly in the night air and showing as slightly warmer on the thermal scans, others were cold lifeless hulks that had cooled in the night after burning themselves out or having been extinguished.
As they spiralled in for the landing, they could see a UAZ apparently waiting for them – the four wheel drive vehicle appeared to be a basic part of the Russian military, fulfilling the same role as the Land-Rover 2046 or Hummer-35 did for western militaries. Standing by the passenger side was a single figure at parade rest, head turned up slightly to watch them descend.
Aswon looked around the area through the viewing prism, gauging the emotional aspect of the city and looking for magical threats or anomalies. He didn't spot any live astral entities, no watcher spirits, summoned elementals or nature spirits and no free spirits roaming the air. The city gave off a strange feeling too – a little frightened, and fraught around the edges. As he let the feelings wash over him, he felt slightly under threat, as if an animal trapped into a corner by some predator. Given the massive military presence, that jarred slightly – surely this was a city that shouldn't feel under siege…
They landed, and Kai led the way towards the man, Shimazu, Aswon and Hunter following along behind him. Approaching the man, they saw his uniform was immaculate, and he wore the rank tabs for a colonel. Despite his perfect appearance, the man didn't give off the attitude or appearance of being a peacock – his eyes were cold and calculating as they swept over each of the team, and he gave off an aura of competence.
"Good evening. I'm Colonel Frunze. I understand you are the team of specialists. Which of you is Kai?"
"Hello there, I'm Kai, this is part of my team, the rest are in the chopper still."
"I see. Well, at your convenience, if you would like to come with me, I'll convey you to the General."
"Ahh. Well, of course – but our craft has a variety of special cargo aboard, much of it valuable. So my pilot will probably remain with a guard, but the rest of us will come."
"I see. I will make arrangements." He opened the door to the UAZ and leant in, grabbing a radio. "This is Frunze. I need a security platoon to the west side of the stadium, to guard the craft. Please roll the ready response squad and make arrangements for a standing guard on rotation." He listened for a moment, then keyed the microphone again. "Very good." He replaced the radio in the UAZ, and then nodded to Kai. "They should be here momentarily."
True to his word, it was less than a minute before a truck rolled around the corner – the response squad must have been waiting for deployment somewhere nearby, but that indicated that the area was not considered secure, and that troops were likely to be found 'on alert' wherever they went – which could be both good and bad.
"Vadim, Kai is getting some guards over here, but taking us to see the General. Are you coming, or do you want to stay here?"
"Me? Go see a general? No thank you, I'll stay here and guard the craft." Vadim patted the machine gun stowage by the door, and shook his head at Tads. "Best thing to do with high ranking officers? Not get noticed. You learn that quickly…"
"Well, fair enough, I'll take your word for it. I'm sure you were watching Aswon use the prism to look around – grab the headset and have some practice looking around while we're gone – you can see any astral threats coming that way. If you do spot anything, shout to Marius." Vadim nodded to Tads, and she joined Hunter as they grabbed their gear and left the tilt-wing, approaching Kai and the others.
The platoon of troops fanned out around the tilt-wing, forming a perimeter with each guard looking out around the city while their assault rifles were cradled loosely in their arms. The colonel explained to the sergeant that nobody was to interfere with the craft without direct orders from either himself or the General, before he waved for the team to climb aboard the truck that had bought the platoon here. The journey was short – indeed, it seemed to be only as far as the other side of the stadium, which probably explained how the troops had arrived so fast if that's where they came from – though if that was the case, why they came by truck rather than just marching round was a mystery.
As they climbed out of the back of the truck though, they found themselves outside a somewhat battered and run down hotel titled 'The Royal'. Faded pictures showed classical poses of people in uniforms – none of the team knew much about Russian history, so they could well have been Tsars or members of the Russian royal family from some time ago, or it could just have been paintings of people and some kind of affected seal of approval. The hotel had architecture that seemed to portray great age though, baroque detailing and fine workmanship on the stone fascia, marred by the heavy build-up of soot and pollution over the years.
Entering the building they found themselves in a spacious lobby, with at least two dozen armed guards, scattered around. They braced to attention as the colonel entered, and watched the team carefully. At least six of the men stood guard over the stairs at the back of the lobby, and gazed at the team unhappily as they entered with a variety of weapons. As the team approached, the senior NCO of the guards stepped in front of the stairs and stared at Kai who was leading the way.
"You must leave your guns here. We cannot permit armed visitors to the upper floors." There was a grumble from Aswon, Hunter and Shimazu – none of whom were keen on handing over their weapons to anyone." Kai looked at the colonel quizzically. It wasn't as if they'd asked to come here after all – they'd been requested for, it was the Russians that sought their help.
"I am afraid your firearms must be left here. We can put them in a side room and lock the door, and you may keep the key – I understand you do not want to leave your weapons with strangers." He held out a hand to the sergeant who bristled at his words. "But understand, although Brigadier Cherkenov speaks highly of you and vouched for you – you are not Russians, and the general's security forces take his safety as a matter of utmost importance. So, I must ask you to relinquish your guns."
"Gimme the guns, I'll stay down here and keep an eye out." Hunter held out his hands towards Aswon and Shimazu. He slung Aswon's rifle over a shoulder, and stuffed Shimazu's massive manhunter pistol into the side of his armour, then collected the taser from Kai. "Go on, I'm sure you won't be long." Kai nodded and walked towards the stairs, where the security troops shuffled to the side and let him pass. They stared at Aswon as he clutched his spear and they still looked manifestly unhappy about the sword resting on Shimazu's hip – but the instructions had been clear and unambiguous – no guns. No mention had been made of melee weapons… Kai resisted smiling as he followed Frunze up the stairs, wondering if he realised that he'd possibly made the team more dangerous by removing the guns, as they'd be less encumbered now if it came to a close quarters fight…
"So Colonel Frunze… I noticed the lights were out and the lift isn't running, and you've got kerosene lamps and battery torches around. What's the story there?"
"Alas, one of the recent house fires at the end of a block of houses was very severe, and at the end of that street was a sub-station for the electric grid. It was badly damaged and has cut the power to several blocks of the city. The engineers are working on restoring power, but there is a lot of work to do and not many spare parts, so it is slow progress."
"We did notice that a lot of the city has suffered fire damage. I take it that's part of the problem?"
"Yes, in the last few weeks there has been a massive upsurge in fires, and the severity of the fires. Blazes have been starting at random, all over the city. The fire brigade attend of course, but have come under magical attack. When they arrive at the scene and get out of their vehicle, they become confused and disoriented, standing around and just watching the fire while it spread out of control. We realised of course that it was some evil spirit at work, befuddling their senses, and started to send magical support to them to try and fight off the spirit." Frunze reached the top of the stairs and turned on the grand landing, waiting for the rest of the team to catch up before he waved to the next flight of steps up.
"We fought off the spirits a few times, but then the enemy changed tactics on us. A mage would turn up to a fire, and start to engage the spirit – but then would find themselves mobbed by a dozen or more enemy spirits, attacking their being and driving them back to their body severely injured. The enemy was not strong, but there were too many, and we have few enough mages." Frunze sighed as he climbed the ancient wooden staircase, his shoulders slumped. "I have long argued for an increase in our magical recruitment and integration into the army – it is a force we must understand and master to successfully prosecute war in this modern day. But alas, sometimes things are slow to change."
"Now there is a new pattern – three or four fires often start at the same time, spread around the city. All of them will have spirits lurking, ready to disrupt the effort to fight the fire. But any one of them may have a pack of spirits lying in ambush, ready to assault our mages when they intervene. If we send all the mages to one fire, to support each other – three more fires spread out of control. If we spread the mages out, then they can stop three fires, but the fourth gets overwhelmed by the ambush, and we end up down a mage for a while – and the next ambush hurts us more as we have less support."
Frunze led them down a wide corridor and knocked on a set of double wooden doors, which opened immediately, revealing a large conference room. The centre of the room was dominated by a collection of tables dragged presumably from all over the hotel, upon which was laid out a series of maps, folded and stuck together to show Irkutsk, Lake Baikal and the area around for hundreds of kilometres. On the map were coloured tokens, arrows and painted stones – presumably detailing dispositions of friendly and enemy forces.
There was a squad of armed guards spread out around the room, and a number of aides, officers, communications specialists and what looked like a mess officer fussing over a table of refreshments at the end of the room.
At the far end of the table stood a man of average height, also wearing his dress uniform, glittering with braid, decorations, rank tabs and medals. He had thick black hair that unlike the neatly-groomed Frunze erupted out of his head in every direction imaginable in a dense and shaggy mass. He had been looking down at the map as they entered, but now his head tilted up and looked at them, piercing green eyes studying the newcomers.
"This is Lieutenant General Alikhanov, our corps commander. General, this is Mr. Kai and part of his team – minus their pilot back at their vehicle and one guard downstairs with their weapons." The general stood up straight and walked around the room towards them. Kai stopped, put on his best smile and offered his hand to the general, who grabbed it firmly and shook it.
"Ahh, welcome to Irkutsk. Vasiliy spoke highly of you, and said that you would be able to assist us with our current problem. I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out."
"Good to meet you, sir. I have this for you from the Brigadier." He reached into his inside pocket, moving carefully and slowly, as he pulled out the handwritten letter in the sealed envelope, aware that the general's bodyguards were probably feeling a bit twitchy. The general took the envelope and ripped open the seal, pulling out the single sheet of paper and rapidly reading it. As he read, his eyebrows raised a little, and he snorted, before handing the letter over to Frunze to read.
"So. Interesting. My question is then, what do you need from us, and what do I need to know about your tactics and intentions?"
"To begin with, we need information and the best idea of what has been happening. If we can get a map of the city, a little like this," Kai gestured to the maps laid out to their side, "so we can plot where the fires have been and what the attacks have involved, we can look for the enemies strategy, and see if we can identify a magical pattern or objective rather than a mundane one."
"We can provide that information, and somewhere to work from, I'm sure. As to the magical nature of the attacks, I think we should call in the leader of our magical company. Frunze, would you get Frederick up here to talk with our visitors?" Frunze nodded and braced slightly, acknowledging the order, and then strode to the end of the room to get with a communications officer and summon the man.
"What do you know so far?" the general asked. Kai detailed the brief information that Frunze had told them on the climb up the stairs, and then added a little detail on what had been happening at Samara – describing the effect on morale of the troops and the number of injuries sustained. The general's eyes twitched several times as Kai described events that were also happening to the troops stationed here, but on a much wider and larger scale.
"There were also two free spirits, powerful magical beings, that we encountered at Samara. One of them we currently believe to be destroyed following an assault on their forward base. The other we did not encounter – but based upon the description of sheets of ice and blizzards, with large hailstones striking hard enough to injure or kill – we believe the second of the free spirits may have relocated here to be involved with the attack. If that is true, it's a very serious threat, and not something to take lightly." Aswon stood upright, almost at attention as he addressed the general, adding further information to Kai's report.
"Has anything changed recently? Any large movement of personnel or switch in tactics? Something that might have triggered or acted as a focal point of these attacks?" Kai asked.
"No, not anything of note. There is always some movement of troops around an active area, and we scout and probe the enemy, as they do us. But our order of battle is fairly constant at the moment. If you've been at Samara though, I'm sure you've realised that overall we're starting to push against the enemy more vigorously though."
"It sounds to me that we have a rat infestation then." Aswon made a waving motion to the windows and the city beyond. "I think the enemy has taken time to infiltrate the city, and has started an ongoing insurgent campaign against your command, designed to erode morale and strike at your troops to lower their effectiveness before you can begin your assault. They will prove to be very hard to weed out from your civilian population easily."
"Do you have many wards? Are key parts of the city protected?" Kai asked.
"Most of the Brigade and Division HQs are protected, as are the armoury buildings, and the power and water supplies. Beyond that, no – we don't have enough mages or supplies to keep everywhere protected and to deal with the attacks." The general shook his head in frustration.
There was a knock at the door, and one of the guards opened them, to admit another soldier, wearing a stylised cape, with a number of geometric shapes stitched into the fabric. Unsurprisingly, the man was introduced as Frederick, the leader of the magical forces spread out over the army corps. He spent the next few minutes going over the details of the magical attacks, mostly reinforcing what the General had said, or providing a more technical or magical description of what they were facing – identifying the spirits as being nature spirits, often of the air – that if left unmolested would use their innate control of the wind to deliberately fan the flames and help spread the fire.
"Colonel, why don't you take our guests downstairs, let them rearm and find them a conference room to set up in. Frederick, go with them, and see if you can start to formulate a plan or some kind of defence. We'll catch up later." Frunze and Frederick braced to attention, then turned and opened the doors, inviting the team outside, while the general returned to studying his map. Taking the hint, Kai led the team downstairs, descending the wood-panelled stairway by the light of the kerosene lamps and under the stern gaze of long-dead Russians immortalised in oils. They collected Hunter and recovered their weapons, before climbing one flight again and being led to an empty room. A double bed was on its side, pushed up against the wall, leaving room for a set of folding camp chairs which had been laid out in a semi-circle facing a wall. A few tell-tale marks showed where a map had been pinned up to the plasterboard for a while, while people were briefed on some operation or other.
"So, colonel Frunze. Something we asked the Brigadier, do we need to clear any action with you first?"
"I would very much prefer it, so I can clear the action and warn any interested parties. But I accept that we're in a very fluid environment and that sometimes opportunities or situations arise where you have to act to seize the initiative."
"Good. We'll do our best to keep you informed of everything going on, or to inform you as quickly as possible if we have to act immediately then." Kai nodded to him, glad that they weren't going to be hamstrung by having to get permission to act. That would have made their job immeasurably harder. "So, can you tell us what we're looking at here?"
In response, Frunze pulled out a map from his tunic and unfolded it. He looked around, but couldn't see any pins or tape, so had to hold one corner of the map against the wall, while Frederick took the other corner. With his free hand, he gestured to the map, and described the situation.
"As you can see, the city proper is on the eastern side of the Angara River. We're here in the centre, just next to the stadium – to the east of the stadium is the 91st HQ brigade, and the formation you saw to the west is the 105th Logistics Support brigade. Based just to the north of us we have the 2nd NBC protection regiment. Over here to the east is the international airport. Just north of the airport is the 297th Anti-air brigade, spread out in a long formation to cover all of the northern approaches to the airport, supported by air surveillance regiments. To the south of the airport we have the 92nd Rocket brigade, again spread out and with their vehicles aimed towards the front, ready to give supporting fire."
"About five kilometres north of the airport we have the 15th Guards Motor Rifle brigade and their support elements, positioned to cover the northern and eastern approaches to the city. Down to the south, by the docks we have the 385th Guards Artillery brigade, again deployed to generally cover the northern arc and offer support fire. They have range, just, to the front lines from there. Moving west of us, we have the 30th Guards Rifle brigade, covering the approach from the Glazovskiy bridge."
"Moving across the river, on the bulge opposite the 30th Guards, we have the 21st Guards Motor Rifle brigade, covering the area outside here." Frunze indicated a green area that seemed to be a higher class area of housing, from the size of the properties and how much space was around each one. "Crossing back to our side of the shore, we have the 950th Rocket Artillery regiment, and next to them the 509th which is an engineer and sapper regiment." He moved his hand north again, and circled a much bigger area, next to the widest part of the river. "And this is where the 127th Motor Rifle Division is deployed. That's six full brigades of troops, two of main battle tanks, one of scout tanks, and three rifle brigades in infantry fighting vehicles, along with motorised mortar regiments for rapid fire support."
As Frunze detailed the forces located in an around the city, the team sobered. For the first time they were dealing with major forces of a nation state or top tier corporation (for there was little difference these days), and seeing the vast amount of combat power lined up was something to really drive home the situation. For all that, this huge armoured behemoth had been driven out of Yakut and held at bay by the magical army of shaman, spirits, shapeshifters, and the native people rising up against first Soviet and then Russian authority.
"Do you have any troops – regiments or anything like that – that are trained for counter-insurgency roles?" Aswon asked, studying the map intently.
"No – it's not part of our standard training curriculum. As I'm sure you are aware, we still operate a conscript army, so there's a limit to how much training we can fit in before troops need to be deployed operationally."
"And these troops over the other side of the river – the 21st Guards, was it?" Frunze nodded to Aswon, "well, aren't you worried that they could get cut off or isolated? I don't see that many bridges across the river?" Aswon gently and carefully lowered his spear, and moved the tip to show the four bridges that crossed from west to east bank, one up by the large division of troops, one due west of their position, and two to the south by the docks area.
"The bridges all have security forces allocated to them – we have a number of smaller regiments under our command that I haven't detailed, though if the information is important I can add them to the map?" Aswon shook his head. "But, each bridge is well defended, and each of the larger formations has a bridge allocated to them for defence – in the event of any enemy action, security details will be sent to reinforce them. We also ran out of clear areas where we can get a brigade sized force to set up without having to demolish or displace civilians wholesale – and the cost of that to the operation of the city was too high. And last of all, I think the brigade could actually ford the river at the moment, given how low it is. We've had a long and hot summer here, and it's practically fordable in places. Their vehicles should be able to get across without incident if required."
Several of the team exchanged glances as Frunze described the weather. They hadn't thought it had been particularly hot or dry – though they had been several thousand kilometres to the west, it had to be said.
"So do you have any patrols in or on the river itself?" Aswon queried.
"No – we have no naval assets assigned to us. We run patrols in fast response vehicles up the banks as part of our security sweeps, but we have no forces on the river itself."
"That concerns me. Can we request some additional reconnaissance on the river? Maybe some satellite data for the river's course and the area upstream? It might be a natural phenomenon, or it could be something to be concerned about. With the magical nature, it wouldn't be hard for them to shift troops around using the river for cover…"
"Or what if they're damming the river. Does the drinking water come from the river?" Hunter queried. "Or…." He frowned, looking at the map held up by the two Russians. Then he closed his eyes, trying to remember the glances at the huge battle map upstairs. The general details swam into his thoughts, and he silently gave thanks to the implanted mnemonic enhancer. "Or what if they're damming the river somewhere upstream, building up a reservoir. And if they blew that, releasing a mass of water down the river?"
Frunze looked at him sceptically, but confirmed that he would put in a request for some satellite data or for reports from the scouting troops or front line units.
"Do you have mages located in high points, somewhere with clear lines of sight to do astral security?"
"No, much as I would like to. We don't have the resources. My mages are either having to spend hours each day replacing failing wards on one of the key areas, or they're involved in security sweeps or responses to incursions. We're spread thin at the best of times, but with the attacks we have no spare capacity."
"Do you have a mage who could be made available that knows the area well, to accompany our Shaman? I don't think it's safe for anyone to be out alone at the moment, but a pair should be fine."
"We don't have anyone spare – but I will find someone. Something else will have to wait, but we cannot continue like this. One of the engineering regiments has a mage assigned, and he knows the city and surrounding area well." Again the team exchanged glances – they'd expected it to be harder than this, or for them to have to fight for information and resources. Instead the Russians were falling over themselves to help. That either meant that the Brigadier back in Samara had described them as being able to shit gold – or the Russians were in fact terrified of what was happening, and out of their depths.
At that moment a watcher spirit burst through the wall, wailing at the top of it's voice.
"They're back! They're back! THEY'RE BACK!"
"Quiet now. Tell me where." Frederick strode over towards the window, and watched as the spirit pointed to the north.
"That way! About four hundred paces! BIG FIRE!" Tads shuddered as a memory triggered a primal reaction, but she fought down her fear.
"Well, if you want to see what we're up against, now's a good time." Frederick threw back his cloak over one shoulder and bolted for the door, with the team and Frunze following closely. They pounded down the stairs, shouting at the security team to clear the route and open the front door, and burst out into the street. Turning to the right, they saw the orange and yellow light of a burning building glowing above the rooftops about three blocks north, along with a pall of black smoke that boiled skywards, fading into the night sky. It was hard to see many details with the power out in the area, but as the magical members of the team dropped into the astral, they could see a reasonably powerful wind spirit hovering over the fire, directing air down towards it and feeding it like a blast furnace. Tads concentrated for a moment, then wrapped her astral shields around the team and used her sorcery to build some defences around Frunze and Frederick.
Aswon and Shimazu both activated their weapon foci, and checked around them for anyone or anything looking to outflank them, while Kai examined the situation. His mind was made up for him when the spirit spotted them. Its efforts to fan the flames ceased, and it drifted up higher and a little closer before giving a loud cry. A moment later a large swarm of watcher spirits burst out of a rooftop, forming a roiling pack and charged towards them.
"Hunter! Can you get high and look for anyone fleeing the scene?" Hunter took off towards the side of the road at Aswon's suggestion, and made a jump, landing halfway up the fire escape bolted to the side of the building, the ancient steel singing underneath the impact. He swarmed up the ladder to the first level, and then started to climb towards the rooftop as fast as he could.
The pack approached, a mass of low force watcher spirits that darted and dived in a loose bubble, like a shoal of fish as it arrowed down towards them. As they did, each one screamed, an undulating tone that mixed and intermingled with the others, forming a disquieting choir. Shimazu was reminded of a report he'd read from a pre-crash source, about some planes that had used similar techniques to horrify the people on the ground below, and once again was reminded of the terror tactics used at Samara. His fingers lightly touched the handgrip of his sword, ready to draw as he cleared his mind and focussed on the approaching pack, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Tads raised her hands and drew in mana, focussed it down to a point and then fired it off, selecting one unfortunate watcher as the target for her ire. Energy exploded from the watcher as her stunball hit, and a globe of power over twenty metres across tore eighteen of the nineteen spirits apart before they could respond. Even though it was a stun spell, and normally incapable of direct harm, watcher spirits were fragile creatures, not well able to fight except when they vastly outnumbered their enemies. The magical blast ripped them apart, destroying their paltry energies outright.
The last watcher, slightly ahead of the rest was unaware of the demise of its allies, and charged down towards them. Aswon readied his spear, getting ready to thrust and end its meagre life when Shimazu swiftly stepped in front of him and flicked his sword up contemptuously, slicing it in half.
"Mine."
"HEY!"
Frederick stood open mouthed at the magnitude of the blast, his head slowly turning towards Tads as she stood in the street, quivering with rage as the emotional turmoil bled away.
"Told you we were specialists," Kai quipped. "Ok, Aswon, Shimazu – go – get up there and see if there's any more. We'll be along shortly." And he took off at a run to the north. He saw Frunze about to open his mouth and question what he meant, but by then Aswon and Shimazu were already overtaking him, still accelerating. Their magical powers activated, they both easily outstripped the rest of the team, managing to top 35kph quite comfortably, and opening up a significant gap on the rest. Frunze closed his mouth and tried to sprint after them, but fit as he was, he was no match for their enhanced speed.
At the back of the group, jogging along more conservatively, Tads activated her radio and called to Marius.
"We have a fire," deep breath, "about three hundred metres north of here," deep breath, "can you scan for comms chatter?"
"Affirmative Tads, checking now." In the tilt-wing, Marius powered up his comms array fully, and set the computers to start searching through the radio spectrum for signals. Unsurprisingly in the middle of the city, there was a vast amount of traffic, but the computer started to sort them into sets, and he analysed them looking for patterns and types of traffic. Some he could discard immediately as random devices – unencrypted signals from household drones that were communicating with their base stations to update their charging status or how full their dust bags were. A large number were within a tight band of signals and highly encrypted – he pegged those immediately as military in origin, and after a quick bearing check to plot them amongst the large camps he instructed the computer to filter them out too. That left a mass of signals, all of which were also encrypted but over a number of civilian bands – an extensive network for mobile and cellular phones. He set to on recording as much data as he could and on cracking the encryption.
Hunter reached the roof, and scrambled up the tiles towards the apex, feet cracking some of the ceramic tiles as he went. He reached the apex, balanced for a moment then with an explosive jump managed to grab the top of the chimney, and hauled himself up onto the top. None of the stacks were warm, so he swung himself up and over the top, and carefully sat down, braced across four of the dark grey chimney pots. With his weight spread out, he pulled the rifle round on its sling and started to sight down the scope at the area to the north. A fire engine roared past, a mass of blue flashing lights, as it arrived from the east – his right – but his attention was drawn to an Alsatian dog walking the other way, on the far side of the street. It dipped behind view as it trotted east, but Hunter saw there was another north-south road it would have to cross only twenty metres further along.
"Folks, I have a large dog, moving away from the fire. I guess it to be about a metre high at the shoulder. Possible shapeshifter?"
"Take the shot," panted Kai over the radio, as he and the second group struggled along behind Aswon and Shimazu. Hunter didn't waste time with a response, and instead keyed the SmartLink into action, laying the targeting reticule over the end of one of the fences and waited a few moments. Sure enough, the Alsatian wandered into view, and the firing impulse sent five explosive tipped rounds from the rifle lancing through the air. The range was long – in excess of three hundred metres, and the rounds dispersed a little, so only two of 5.56mm rounds hit the dog. The small quantity of explosives nestled behind the tip triggered, and explosions erupted through the fur and bones, sending the animal flying.
Hunter watched carefully, wondering if he'd taken out an enemy, or just exploded someone's cherished family pet. A moment later he had his answer as the animal sprung back to its feet and bolted at high speed to the east, no sign of the damage from being shot only a moment ago. So Hunter sent another five rounds down range, striking the hind quarters this time and getting an extra round on target. Once again the animal was sent cartwheeling through the air head over heels as the explosive rounds did their job and rendered the rear quarters to a bloody ruin. Unfortunately, that also blew it out of line of sight – the narrow roads at a slight angle to him, gave him a very narrow viewing angle.
"Target down, regenerated, hit it again. Confirmed shapeshifter. Aswon, Shimazu, take your next right, it should be about sixty metres east of you. Staying here to cover and observe."
Neither of the front runners responded, concentrating on maintaining the speed and not going arse over tit on some obstacle in the street. They skidded around the corner, and indeed saw the large dog ahead of them, dimly lit by the glow to their rear and a still functioning street light at the corner of the next block. As they ran forwards, closing on the dog they noticed that it wasn't getting up – the back end was leaving a bloody swath behind it, and pitiful yelps echoed down the street. It looked like Hunter's shots had maybe hit something vital, or been especially lucky – but whatever the cause, the damage wasn't being regenerated.
As they closed, they spotted an owl spreading its wings, launching itself from a first floor window ledge. Again, it seemed larger than normal, and they watched as it swooped down towards the ruins of the dog in a low arc. Shimazu snatched at his taser, and fired while on the run, but failed to judge the speed of the bird correctly, the two prongs sailing overhead by ten centimetres. Before he could fire a second shot, the owl hit the dog, talons raking down its back and opening up long vicious furrows, before it dropped a wing and pivoted sharply to the south, heading into an alleyway between two rows of houses.
"Hunter! Owl shifter, heading south, between houses. Coming your way!" Aswon transmitted as he slowed, struggling to bring the rifle around from his back. It looked like the owl had decided to silence the dog, which meant they were definitely working together, and to some kind of plan. Shimazu had his taser raised, and was scanning around now, as they slowed to a more normal speed and closed on the remains of the dog, to confirm its status.
Hunter swung the rifle down a little and watched the area, aware that his chance of spotting the target was slim. He almost didn't realise what was happening, and was a little surprised when he felt a kick in his shoulder, and realised that the gun had fired, before the visual cortex caught up and replayed the owl rising up over the fence, trying to stay low and limit its exposure. It had only been above the fence for a second, and was already dropping when another burst from the gun drilled into the body, raking it from head to tail. The sharp retort of the gun echoed around the street, the suppressor not having had time to cool and vent all the hot gas from the first two bursts – not that Hunter really cared about that at the moment.
"Target spotted and down, bottom of the alley, over the first fence. Kai, your group – if you head east now, you should come up to it. Aswon, Shimazu – you're on the north side if it tries to double back. I can maintain watch to the south."
He saw Kai break east, waving the rest of the group to continue northwards, and saw him running along the edge of someone's house and scramble over the back fence to land on a shed, then start running along a narrow wall, following Hunter's commentary on where he'd seen the bird go down.
"Ok, found where you shot it, Hunter. Feathers, blood, no bird though. Looking around. Stay sharp everyone." A moment later Kai heaved himself over another fence – it wasn't clear if he was following a trail, or just randomly searching, though.
"The dog is definitely dead." Aswon called out, after examining the corpse. It looked like the back had been broken during the impact. "So we're not going to get any information from this one. If we can take the owl alive, we should."
Back in the chopper, Marius smiled as his powerful decryption utility broke the code sequence used by the local cell towers, and all of the conversations started to appear as clear data. He could hear the messages flashing back and forth over the comms, and didn't bother telling them – it wouldn't help them in their search and might distract them, and besides…he could listen to the calls now and read the messages, but there was still hundreds of megapulses of information to wade through. He made a start, picking a conversation at random and scanning through it, looking and listening for keywords, phrases or signs of enemy activity.
Aswon and Shimazu spread out, moving slightly to the south and scanning the air and ground astrally, while Tads, Frederick and Frunze caught up with their previous position and the corpse of the dog. Slightly winded, Tads turned towards Frunze, and after a last deep breath, tried to get a whole sentence out without gasping.
"Can we arrange for the corpse to be collected, carefully? We'll want to examine it magically." Frunze nodded at her and pulled out a slim radio from his tunic, and started to request a pickup squad. Tads meanwhile waved to Frederick. "Stay and guard the area magically please, and look after the colonel. I'm going to help trap the other one." With that she turned and started to jog east, keeping her speed down and heading over to the next crossroads. Unless she was all turned around, that should put her on the east side of the housing block, and she could keep an eye out on that side, and cover the last perimeter.
Kai spent a good thirty seconds moving around, looking for signs of movement or blood splatters. He had no idea if the creature had regenerated or not, but had to assume that it had – which meant it was uninjured and very dangerous. He froze as he heard a whimper ahead of him, coming from a slightly open window.
"Team, I've got an audio sign, possible enemy. I'm working towards the eastside of the block, I think about half way down."
"Confirm that. I see you Kai, four houses south from your position, Aswon and Shimazu. Look for the house with the blue roof. Kai is on the south side, working east. Tads, I think you're just… yeah, there you are. Stop there, turn right – look down that street and that's where Kai is approaching. Ok, Aswon, Shimazu, next house down is your target. Kai is near the back door, holding position. Turn, that's it. Ok, that's the front of the house. Tads, you should see them both now. If you hold while they clear from the front, we've got them." The team moved swiftly, boxing in the location while Hunter acted as their eyes from his elevated position, guiding them into optimal positions.
"Moving in!" Kai was just about to kick the back door open, when he decided to try something different – and with his non-weapon hand gently twisted the handle and pushed. The back door swung open into a darkened room, and Kai raised his taser while his eyes adjusted. A large burly man stood in the darkness, pressed up against the back wall, with two small girls held to his waist, slightly in front of him. Kai caught a metallic glimpse and realised that the man held a long knife in each hand, breadknives or carving knives from the nearby counter – but either way, one was pressed up against the throat of each of the little girls. Another sob of terror leaked out of one of the girls, the sound that had alerted him to their presence.
"DROP IT!" The command ripped out and reverberated around the kitchen, the rich voice brooking no dissent. The knives clattered to the floor and both of the children shrieked and bolted forwards away from the man. As soon as they were clear, Kai fired at point blank range and the taser darts thunked solidly into his chest. Blue arcs flared across between them and the man twitched and dropped to the ground, a nasty crunch sounding as he hit the ground and twitched rhythmically.
Hunter was watching as Kai stepped into the dark portal, and saw the flashes of movement as two children pushed past him. He was very surprised then, when the owl suddenly appeared, wings desperately beating as it struggled to take off in the limited space. Once again, the dak-dak-dak echoed through the streets as he put another five round burst down range into the target. Kai twisted round at the sound, and saw the bloody and battered owl, flopping on the floor as it struggled to right itself. Without a moment's hesitation he swung around, aimed the taser and fired a shot into the body, watching the darts sink deep into the feathers and then the body dance and writhe across the yard as it twitched uncontrollably.
"Target down, converge on me. Alive, but we need to secure it!" He could hear Aswon and Shimazu moving through the house, having come through the front door, and approaching his position. When they reached him and could cover the unconscious form of the bloody owl, he raced back inside and looked around the grubby and dimly lit kitchen, then pulled hard on the kitchen tablecloth, swiping the gingham check plastic from under the few items on the table.
Outside he moved around the yard to make sure he wasn't in between either Shimazu or Aswon and the target, then swooped down on it with the plastic tablecloth, rolling it tightly into a bundle, over and over again. Hopefully not only would it blind the beast from casting any spells, but also stop it getting any leverage to rip its way free.
With the shapeshifter secure, they called Tads in, who in turn waved for Frunze and Frederick to follow her. Shimazu looked around and found the second girl hiding under a bush in the back garden and tried to soothe her hysterical crying, to little success. Kai left Aswon on guard over the owl and went to check on what was presumably the innocent father of the girl. A few minutes work treated the burn on his chest and gave him some painkillers for what looked like cracked ribs.
He heard Tads arrive into the back yard as he was finishing up, and Aswon's deep voice addressing her.
"Tads, if you please. I think this one is still alive and has all kinds of secrets in its head. Perhaps you can pry some loose for us?
Frunze and Frederick arrived to find Tads crouching down to where she could see the top of the shifter's head, wrapped tightly in the tablecloth as she started to cast her spell, intent on probing the creature's mind while it was still stunned, and least able to resist her.
