Monday 28/2/2061, Location: 40.02426, 48.95799 Time 13:37

Tads threw herself down onto her hands and knees and squirmed up the last of the slope, sliding in under the cammo netting between Hunter and Aswon. Hunter had at least had time to move the netting out a little, and make some more room inside the temporary shelter, so it wasn't in quite so much danger of bursting open and revealing them.

"Right, hang on lads, I've got an idea… can you give me a countdown to when they're going to fire again? You said it was every hundred and twenty seconds, right?"

"Yes, at least based on the first couple – but it's too exact to be a coincidence, if you ask me. We've got about twenty five seconds. What are you planning?"

"I need to get the timing right for this, so can you give me a countdown for the last few?"

"Sure… but what are you doing?"

"Shush now, I need to concentrate."

"5…4…3…2…"

Tads drew in a breath, symbolically drawing in mana at the same time. When she'd last visited her totem on the metaplanes it had revealed knowledge to her about how to smooth out the casting of spells, making them take longer than normal to cast, but allowing her to accumulate the mana from the area slowly and more carefully, making it much less likely that she'd suffer a backlash of power afterwards. However, it made casting in combat, in the heat of the moment far more tricky, and she generally had to do it the 'old fashioned way'. Now she tried to estimate how long she'd need to gather the mana required, while still exactly matching the countdown.

"1..Fire!"

The gout of flame sprang from the barrel, and the gun started to ram backwards, the massive recoil system compressing and distributing the forces to shed through the vehicle. As before, snow leapt up in a ring around the vehicle, blowing outwards like ripples in a pond after a stone was dropped in. But Tads had managed to time her spell to perfection, and as the barrel compressed and drove the entire vehicle down onto its suspension, a massive blast of mana struck at the ground underneath it. Her earth-shaping spell ripped a huge gouge into the mushy ground below the tracks, sending a crack racing in either direction. The split dropped half a metre, spreading north and south – almost directly under the right hand track, and the artillery piece lurched to the side, dropping into the gulley with a sickening crunch, dropping until the hull rested at an angle on the ground.

Moments later the top hatch and rear doors flew open, and five crew bailed out of the vehicle at high speed, throwing themselves to the ground and rolling through the snow in their haste to get out of the confined space. The artillery piece sagged at a thirty degree angle, and a moment later shuddered and slide to the side a few centimetres, until it wedged against the far side of the 'fault line'.

"Didn't stop them firing… but it might give the next crew something to think about."

"Nicely done, Tads. Nicely done." Aswon muttered approvingly, gazing down at the soldiers who were now on their feet and backing away from their vehicle, looking at the crack with concern. "I presume you're going to do the same again if the next one does fire?"

"That would be my plan."

"Good stuff. In that case, I'd suggest you stay up here and do that – the rest of us should get down there while they're distracted with the demo and get ready to infiltrate their camp."

"Sounds good to me. What about the overhead spies?" Hunter asked, gesturing up into the air where the drones lurked above the cloud cover, no doubt scanning with radar and infra-red cameras.

"Each of you has a spirit to guard and conceal you. They should listen to you if you need to give them other requests." Tads muttered, checking her watch and keeping an eye on the numbers as her stop watch counted upwards.

"Well, it'll have to do. Come on everyone – time to slip and slide." Hunter grabbed his gear and slid out of the hide on his belly, wiggling like a snake until he was three metres below the ridge line, then span around and rolled up into a crouch. "Get down a few metres below the ridge, so you don't get skylined, then let's make haste down here."

"What about kicking up rocks and the like?" Marius asked.

"With the shockwaves of them firing, it'd be unusual for there not to be some loose rock moving around up here. I wouldn't worry about it."

"And besides, the spirit's concealment will help keep that to a minimum – just watch your footing and try not to make the effects any worse than you have to!" Aswon added. He followed Hunter down and into a crouch beside him, then felt Shimazu approach from behind him, moving around in a half-crouch, his feet not leaving any marks in the loose rocks and scree as he turned his magical focus inwards. With a hand resting on his sword, he started to half-jog, half-skip down the slope, setting a fast pace for the others to follow. Behind him, Hunter, Aswon, Marius and Kai followed in a line, letting Shimazu trailblaze for them as they zig-zagged down the slopes, following a faint goat trail as they headed down towards the valley floor.

Above them Tads watched as the counter approached the two minute mark, and decided to take a risk, drawing in mana to her and getting ready to cast again. She wasn't sure if they would fire, and making the earth move without the recoil of the gun to 'explain' it might make them much more suspicious – but she figured it was worth the gamble. As the timer hit 118 seconds, she drew in the mana once more, this time looking to add a little more punch to the spell.

BOOM! The report of the gun echoed around the valley as track five fired, but this time Tads placed the 'fault line' directly behind the vehicle, making the ground drop more than a metre as it shifted and split, and the track slid backwards at nearly a forty degree angle before slamming into the small ridge created. Unable to open the back doors, it took longer for the crew to escape from the vehicle, having to climb out of the turret hatch and then jump down from the sides of main deck, before scampering away a good ten metres from their stricken vehicle.

Tads studied the artillery piece through the binoculars. It didn't appear damaged, and the magical ward around it was still intact – in fact, her spell hadn't come anywhere near it, and it was untriggered, not sending any alarm to the team that made it. She thought the vehicle could probably drive itself out of the hole, if it just powered up the slope it was on. Certainly if another vehicle was around to give it a tow, it should get out easily enough – but she also thought it was probably going to have scared the crew witless.

An officer emerged from the command track at the rear of the artillery, running forwards towards the track to examine the situation. He skidded to a halt and looked at the vehicle, the rear deck slightly below ground level and the gun now raised almost vertically. With some waving of his arms, the crew very reluctantly started to drift back towards the angled vehicle, though they looked manifestly unhappy about it. Meanwhile the officer strode over towards the last artillery piece in the first line, gun six. The commander was already out of his hatch, looking over at the fourth and fifth guns with boggle eyes, which he then turned towards the officer.

There was waving of arms from both sides. At this range, Tads could only just about make out the blobs of their faces – trying to get a read of their expressions or mouth-shapes wasn't possible at all. But when she saw the officer undo the flap by his right hip and pull out his pistol to aim directly at the artillery commander, his meaning was perfectly clear. The commander froze for a moment, then moved in the open hatch, sliding to the rear and looking down, into his turret. He glanced back up at the officer, who just chopped at him with his extended arm, pistol underscoring his resolve.

Once more Tads studied her timer, and as the seconds wound up towards two hundred and forty, she drew in the mana once more, gathering a ball of power to drive her spell through the frozen landscape below.

The gun fired, the tank commander holding his hands over the top of his ear defenders. The officer behind the vehicle, standing only a few metres back had clearly not thought through his actions, and clapped his hands to his ears as he span around in place, bent over in a crouch of pain as the massive shockwave brutalised his eardrums. He was facing away from the track for a moment, and missed the massive crack that formed under the tracks, the entire plate of earth angling downwards and backwards, sending fifty six thousand kilos of armoured vehicle sliding backwards. The crack raced across the earth, meandering back and forth as the ground shattered, and just as he turned to face the track again, it reached him, sending him plummeting down two metres into a narrow gully. Trapped on either side, with cascading earth and rubble pressing at his back, he could do nothing but scream as the artillery gathered speed towards him, before it slammed into the earth bank and came to a shuddering halt.

Tads fortunately couldn't see him under the vehicle, but the sudden cone of bright arterial blood that sprayed out across the snow let her know that this particular officer wasn't likely to be giving orders any time soon. She let out a breath, and gave a silent prayer for whoever was in the Kurdish zone, regretting the three rounds that had been fired. But – she was pretty sure that gun seven was not going to be wanting to risk it anytime soon – not after the ground was starting to resemble crazy paving with fault lines spreading out in all directions from the far end of the first row. She took another deep cleansing breath, and then let her gaze slip into the astral realm, and started to pluck away at the signature of her spells, drawing away the lingering fingerprint of her activity, while the timer continued to count up on her watch – just in case.

The rest of the team continued to head down the slope, moving surely and swiftly on the loose materials as the spirits wrapped their protective embrace around them, helping them find the surest footing and keeping them from overbalancing, all while masking their presence from observations – both the infantry in their pits and the drones overhead. Though it was a toss up if the infantry were actually looking out and maintaining their watchful perimeter, or if they were instead craning their heads around to see if they could spot whatever was going on in the centre of the formation, the activities that had sent the radio network into a flurry of competing shouts and calls.

Hatches opened all along the first and second row, and crews piled out of their vehicles. Some broke out cigarettes, sending tiny plumes of smoke up into the air as they puffed away on their unfiltered dark tobacco imports. Others got out drinks, or drifted forwards to examine the fates of the first vehicles, craning their heads with curiosity as if passing a crash on a highway. It was fairly clear to her, though, that none of the crews were even remotely thinking about firing their guns any time soon – so she had at least achieved her objective. She glanced down the slope to check on the rest of the team, watching as they continued to move swiftly down the slope and towards the fields at the base of the incline. Looking back up, she spotted two more figures moving out of the command area towards the stricken vehicles. One made it about half-way then turned and ran back the way he'd come, detaching a spade or shovel from the side of his vehicle. The other walked between the three vehicles that had slipped and subsided into the ground, examining them from a few metres away, but staying carefully back from the nearest cracks or gullys.

Tads reached out in the astral, trying to get a feel for their mood – picking up a combination of fear, curiosity, apprehension, and confusion from them. The second officer moved towards track six, heading for the rear deck and bringing his spade around into a two-handed grip. As he closed on the position though, his closer view of the area identified the chance of digging out the first officer as a futile one, and he retired a few metres, moving away from the crimson stained snow.

More crew popped out of their tracks, the third row of artillery moving forwards so they, too, could see what was going on. They stood around in small clusters, sharing drinks and cigarettes, engaged in discussion as they pointed at the three vehicles that had been affected by the 'land slips'. Tads started to give a running commentary of what had happened over the radio, hoping that it would help the rest of the team get a better idea of what they were heading into.

"Sounds like with the death of the first officer, it's broken their chain of command. Probably a very strict and hierarchical organisation, where independent thought isn't encouraged – just obedience. Until one of those two under-officers gets their shit together, they're probably not going to do anything."

"I agree," Shimazu added. "And having seen what happened to the vehicles, I think the crew will be very wary. With the ranking officer out of the picture, it's possible the junior officers might not have the moral authority to order them to fire."

"Sounds like maybe I should try to convince those two officers to spend some time investigating what has gone on before they make a report or call for help." Tads swung the binoculars back over until she could see the two men talking, and once more started to draw mana to her, building up power and shaping her influence spell to wrap around their minds, sowing the seeds of doubt and trepidation. They were not particularly strong-willed, and she felt the spell take hold, convincing them to refrain from any serious action until they'd fully explored the situation and had a clear understanding of what was going on.

"We're down at the bottom of the slope now, moving through the fields towards the perimeter. We've got a good hedge line to follow that should get us fairly close without exposing us – then we've just got to sneak through the lines."

"Let me know when you're ready, Aswon, I'll try to add a trid-phantasm around you, or to one side – to see if that supplements the spirits' concealment."

"Thanks Tads, that'd be helpful."

With a view of the frosty hedge conjured along one side, and the actual hedgerow on the other, the team moved cautiously but swiftly forward, threading the needle between observations points. They could see the infantry dug in about a hundred metres from them, with at least half the heads turned to look inwards, trying to see what was going on – but the other half were maintaining at least some kind of watch outwards. The spirits' protective concealment and the phantasm held though, and as they silently moved over the frozen earth, leaving nothing but vague footprints behind them they breathed a sigh of relief. There was no doubt in their mind that if they'd been spotted, they could have eliminated the infantry in a matter of moments – a well-placed grenade from Hunter might have done the job in a single hit even, but the sounds of combat would have alerted the foxholes on either side, and infantry would have come swarming at them from every direction in response to the sounds of combat.

Once clear of the perimeter, they continued to move forwards until they could get another hedgerow between them and the infantry screen, then relaxed a little, moving onto the farm tracks that subdivided the fields up into a patchwork quilt spread across the valley floor. Being on the road was a risk, but a manageable one – and the increase to their speed was valuable enough to be worth it. They jogged forward, crossing the next six hundred metres quickly, until they were only one field away from where the artillery had set up. Sliding down into a ditch, they looked through the roots of the hedge, seeing the ominous form of the T-155 artillery vehicles standing starkly against the pastoral scene.

"Well, if we get Tads to make me invisible, I can get in, plant the explosives and then get out, and we can set them off – but they'll definitely know it's a deliberate attack then."

"They might, Aswon – but on top of everything else that's happened, it may slow down their response. Their senior officer is dead, and from what Tads said, she's convinced the other two officers to dither and procrastinate. If these troops are conscripts rather than volunteers, they may even break in the face of an attack like that." Shimazu responded.

"And, it's worth mentioning that I only have a dozen shaped charges. There's eighteen vehicles – well, fifteen I suppose, depending on if you count the ones that have been sunk. So there's going to be at least a few left untouched, that might respond. Plus the other vehicles around, and the infantry left in the centre."

"Yeah – that heavy weapons team – we need to take them out. They'll put a serious crimp on our exfiltration if they're untouched. The mortars have got good range and indirect fire, and even sixty mil explosive is nasty – we don't want to be trying to dodge those! And the machine guns can put down enough sustained firepower that we don't want to be hot-footing it across fields where they can see us."

"So what do you suggest?"

"What do you think, Aswon? I work my way around towards them, with my grenade launcher, and when you do whatever it is you end up doing, I drop a string of Mark 2 boom-booms right in their lap and blow them all to hell. If they're going to know they've been deliberately attacked, we might as well go all in."

"Hmm. Ok, I see the logic there. But maybe that can be phase two? Tads, you still hear us ok?"

"Yes. They're still examining the sunken tracks at the moment by the way. Carefully."

"Great stuff. If I get to one of the tracks that has been affected already, and plant a demo charge there, then get clear – can you make it sink more? And fracture the ground around it more?"

"Of course. You just need to give me a countdown so I can time it right."

"Well, I was thinking, you do your thing first, and then as it sinks and gets deep, I set off the charge – then it looks to an observer that it's related to what happened. People are always wanting to link cause and effect, and often do that even when two things are unrelated. If we give them something obvious like that, maybe they'll think some rock has punctured the fuel tank or crushed the batteries or something, and caused the explosion."

"Ok, I can do that. Just let me know when."

"That way we can get at least one vehicle taken out, and see what their reaction is…"

"…without them knowing they're under attack, and we can see what their reaction is. Smart." Hunter finished his sentence for him.

"And while they are reacting or coping with that, I can try to sneak around and plant some more charges, on other vehicles, and get ready for phase two."

"Ok, sounds good. I'm thinking then that Marius and Kai come with me, as we move north towards the reserve platoon. Hopefully my grenades can take care of things nicely, but if not Marius can provide some good suppressive fire with his SMG if we get charged, and if we need a silent takedown, Kai can stick an arrow though someone's face. That leaves Shimazu to come with you, and provide some close support as you're sneaking around the tracks. If anyone spots you, they're going to be at point blank range, and I doubt they'll survive that kind of encounter." Hunter looked around at the others and saw general nods of agreement with his plan.

"Ok, let's split up and move out then." Aswon adjusted his backpack, settling the heavy bag more evenly on his shoulders, then grabbed his spear and headed to the south-west, moving down another hedgerow at an oblique angle to the artillery formation, working to come at them from the far side to their original starting point. Hunter led Marius and Kai to the north, moving along his own hedgerow and working to get to the opposite corner to where Aswon and Shimazu would be – a small spinney was located about a hundred metres from the trucks that had released the drones, and would give them an good observation point if they could reach it safely – the tree trunks would give them good cover, even without the leaves and undergrowth found in summer.

Following the southern hedgerow, Aswon and Shimazu moved quietly forward, moving due west and watching the distance fall between them and the artillery, which was arrayed facing a south-easterly direction. While the first artillery piece was more than a hundred metres away from their road, the last one was less than forty – though it was all over open ground.

When they were level with the sixth gun, they hunkered down and wormed their way under the hedge, squirming through the roots on their bellies and easing their way into the field. Their winter clothing helped them blend into the white snow that covered the ground, and the spirits' concealment made them all but invisible unless someone was directly looking at them. Once in position, they studied the artillery and crew, watching what they did. All the crews of the last three tracks were out and standing well clear of their vehicles, clearly not wanting to be close to the unstable ground they were parked on. Tracks two and three had their crews dismounted as well, but relatively close to the vehicle, while track one's crew were sat on top of the turret, craning their necks to see what was going on. They settled in to wait a few minutes, giving the other team time to cover the greater distance to the north and get into position.

Hunter's team had half a kilometre to cover – starting off with retracing their steps a while to open the distance between themselves and the enemy, until they were level with a field that had a hedge leading in a suitable direction. Screened from view, they broke off the track and headed north, keeping the spiny bushes between themselves and the artillery park, trucks and command vehicles. Once they'd travelled two hundred metres north, and were behind the enemy, they could finally turn west, heading along another field and towards the waiting trees. They had to slow and creep the last fifty metres, as the hedgerow thinned considerably and the trucks supporting the drone operations were very close, but they managed to get into cover and sent the all-clear to Aswon and Shimazu.

From their position in the trees, they could see the rear elements of the Turkish forces. To their south was the third line of artillery, arrayed facing towards the south-east in their neat lines. The crews had hatches and rear doors open, and some were outside the vehicles, milling around and chatting – none of them seemed particularly alert or ready for action. Behind the centre of the artillery line were the command vehicles, a set of three large off-road vehicles. Their wheels were not quite as large as the team's trucks, but had the same style of heavy-duty knobbly tires, designed to grip deep into mud or shifting terrain and pull their vehicle out of trouble, and the bodies of the vehicles were angular and chunky – looking to be armoured and with design considerations firmly aimed at deflecting blasts or incoming attacks with aesthetics and aerodynamics way down the list.

Closer to them were the three trucks that had deployed the drones, large vehicles that looked very similar in form and function to their own truck – though these were four wheel drive, not six. As they examined them, Marius pointed carefully at the lead truck, and whispered to the others.

"Look, the rear door is open. Zooming in – I can see an operator, jacked into some kind of system. I think it may be the rigger. Or a rigger. Certainly he is strapped into his chair, and does not look responsive."

"Is there anyone else in the back of the truck?"

"I cannot see anyone, but the angle is bad. There could well be another person on the opposite side, concealed from view, Hunter. But if we kick off a fight, that operator should be a priority target."

"Can you hit him from here with your sub-gun?"

"I believe so. I can find a firing spot and try to get a good position to help me steady my aim."

"Good." Hunter watched as Marius lay down behind some fallen logs, moving his H&K sub-machine gun into position and rolling some of the smaller logs into position to support him and give him a steady firing position. Turning his attention back to the scene he continued to survey the other vehicles.

On the far side of the command vehicles were the multiple trucks that the infantry had arrived in. They were quiet and still, with no motion or activity around them – though Hunter guessed the drivers were still in their cabs, no doubt trying to keep warm and be comfortable. Quite possibly asleep, and unaware of what was going on, if he knew anything about military personnel. Finally, to the rear were the supply trucks, laid out in a neat row. They had the same overall design as the drone and infantry trucks, probably a common chassis that the Turkish army used as a generic starting point for all their roles. Two of the trucks had some kind of crane attachment located behind the cab, and he estimated that they were the ones responsible for reloading the artillery – the boom arms and mechanical claws would make light work of the massive 155mm shells, moving without fatigue or error to cross-load the explosive ammo into the bunkers on the main artillery vehicles.

The last thing to make note of was the heavy weapons team, who were hunkered down behind the command vehicles, in a position between all three sets of trucks, and able to respond in any direction relatively quickly. They were split into two groups, with the mortars closest to the command vehicles, and the machine gun teams behind them. The mortar teams had set up their 'lightweight' mortars in a semi-circle, the metre long tubes pointing skywards braced on a set of bipod legs, while the heavy baseplate was set on the ground. About five metres back from the mortars was a large pile of crates, holding the high-explosive warheads. Hunter fired his laser range-finder at the crate, then adjusted his grenade launcher and checked his smart-link settings. Not only was the crate well in range, but the ballistic arc of the grenade flight should drop it nicely inside the crate, where it would detonate in close proximity to all that lovely ordinance… He smiled and settled down to wait, slowly refining his aiming point and lasing other targets, working out the range to them if he needed to suddenly swap fire to alternate targets of opportunity.

To the south, Aswon and Shimazu crawled forward across the open field, closing in on the tracks. Aswon veered to the east a little, aiming for the fourth track in the row, choosing that as his primary target. It was the one least sunken at the moment – he figured that it would make the greatest obvious difference visually and provide the biggest clue to the watching crews that something had gone very wrong. As he moved forward in a crawl, he checked around then suddenly noticed that he was alone – there was no sign of Shimazu at all. He stopped for a moment, but he couldn't hear him either. Brows knitted together in confusion, he was just reaching for his comms when he heard Tads calling over the radio.

"Sorry, probably should have said first. I've just cast my invisibility spell on Shimazu, and then a stealth spell. So I'm pretty sure he's going to be impossible to see at all, except by non-visual detectors, and he can't make any sound. I figured seeing as he can walk over the snow without leaving footprints anyway, it made more sense for him, than for you. Shimazu – you won't be able to speak while I've got the spell up, so you'll have to send texts or click your transmit button a few times to get attention."

Aswon heard a double click on the transmitter and then concentrated his senses, dropping into astral vision himself. As soon as his eyes attuned to the astral plane, he could see a figure standing just behind him, the spell aura glowing brightly as it's mana bent light around his form.

"Ok, thanks, Tads. Guess I just need to look after myself now!"

"Sorry, I'm not sure I can keep both those spells up, and do a third on you as well – it's going to take too much concentration."

"Not a problem – I wasn't being sarcastic there. Genuinely – I can move on my own now, and not worry about Shimazu being spotted. That's a good thing. And there'll be more places to hide or hunker down for just one. Moving on…" He continued his crawl, approaching the fourth track from the front and keeping the vehicle between himself and the crew. As he reached the huge vehicle, he wormed his way underneath the hull, looking for the blow-out panels that Marius had described. He found them on the rear of the vehicle, just above the bottom of the hull, and imagined the row of shells on the inside, lined up ready to load into the huge cannon. Pulling out the first shaped charge, he glanced around to make sure he wasn't being observed, then carefully placed it on the centre of the panel, making sure it was oriented to drive a plume of white-hot plasma directly through the panel into the interior.

The massive tracks extended to either side of him, shielding him from view somewhat, and he got the first charge placed and wormed his way back to the front of the vehicle and rose into a crouch, looking around to see where his next target was. Track number 3 was ten metres away, with the crew standing around it to the rear, near the open hatch.

[Wait one. Go on a single click] Aswon checked his commlink as it buzzed and requested his attention. Swapping into astral space he saw the concealed form of Shimazu crouch for a moment then rise and stride to the rear of the third track. Confused, Aswon dropped back to normal vision, then watched as a rough snowball flew through the air to strike one of the crew on the side of the face. He gave a cry of surprise then turned to look around, cursing as the cold snow slid down the neck of his armour, before turning his attention to the crews standing around by the second row of artillery and started to hurl abuse their way. The rest of his crew turned to look as well, and Aswon broke into a run as he heard a single click on the radio, crossing the distance between the tracks while the artillery crew tried to work out who had thrown the snowball at them…

Repeating his manoeuvre, he placed the second charge on the track, then slid back to the front and made a dash from track three to two, planting another charge here as well, in exactly the same place. A quick glance into the astral reassured him that Shimazu was keeping close to him, and he checked out the distance to the second row of artillery, looking at the crews and working out when would be the best time to dash across.

With butterflies in his stomach, he waited, watching as the crews milled around. When one crew were distracted, the next crew were looking around, or one of the troopers was wandering forward and back. It felt like forever, but in reality was no more than two minutes, until the odds fell in his favour and every happened to be facing or looking away from him at the same time, and he ran across the intervening distance. At any moment he expected someone to turn his way, and to manage to catch sight of 'something' they couldn't explain, despite the spirit's best efforts, and to hear the cry of alarm – but the concealment held, and the crisp and cold air remained still and quiet. He slid into the dead ground at the front of the first artillery vehicle in the second row, and then concentrated, bringing his breathing and heart rate under control. A few seconds passed and he felt a hand grasp him gently on the ankle as Shimazu crouched down next to him, looking up and down the row of vehicles. They waited for a minute, to be sure that nobody was coming to investigate a 'strange blur' or something else, then Aswon spoke quietly.

"Ok, If we take the first vehicle in this row as number seven, I'm planning on planting explosives on that through to number ten, and leaving the last two. They're behind the biggest cracks in the earth so they might be the most nervous about firing anyway. That'll leave me a couple of charges for the last row, and I'll just have to make do with that." He felt a quick double squeeze from Shimazu, and took that as agreement, and then set to squirming under the tracks once more, heading for the blow out panels on the back of the vehicle.

The spirit concealment held again, with none of the crews noticing the pair of arms that snaked out from under the vehicle and placed the demo charge on the back panel of the vehicle, then carefully smeared a mix of mud and snow over the top to conceal it, before retracting and disappearing under the vehicle. A few moments later he popped out of the front of the vehicle, and started to look around, before timing his run towards track number eight, which soon had a special gift package attached to it, too.

As he ran towards track nine, one of the crew appeared around the front tracks, having walked down the far side of the vehicle. The man took a step forward, and was already fiddling with the fly on his trousers when he raised his head and looked forwards – and his eyes seemed to latch on to Aswon's directly. Time slowed as Aswon's reactions kicked in, and he saw the man start to draw in breath, his arms starting to raise in alarm, the urgent requirement of his bladder forgotten as he saw a djinn appear out of thin air in front of him.

Aswon grabbed a knife from his bandolier, his reactions accelerating smoothly as his adept powers kicked in. Muscles clenched as his arm extended, and the wrist flicked strongly, propelling the ceramic knife in a flat arc towards the man across the intervening distance. He hadn't had time to aim carefully – but he watched with satisfaction as the blade stuck just above his sternum point first, the razor sharp point penetrating the ballistic weave of his flak jacket and driving into the flesh below. The crewman gasped, pain overriding his intention to shout and both hands raised to grab the knife, trying to pull it free.

Aswon felt a gust of wind, the edge of motion past him, and just as he flicked into astral he saw Shimazu accelerating past him, sword raised as he charged towards the wounded crewman. The sword flashed down, and a moment later the body collapsed to the ground, blood pumping from the exposed neck while the head rolled across the ground, leaving bloody prints as it did so.

Aswon sprang into motion, crossing the remaining space and scooping up the head with some distaste, while a foot kicked fresh snow and mud over the bloody spots. Ahead of him the headless corpse squirmed on the ground and then started to slither under the vehicle, a bizarre animated death scene to anyone watching that didn't understand that Shimazu was invisible. Aswon slid under the track and pushed the head further under to join the body, watching as snow magically got kicked over the bloody patches behind him. His knife pulled itself free from the body, then floated over towards him and rotated in mid-air, allowing him to take it from Shimazu's unseen hand.

"Thanks – that was a bit close. Didn't see him coming around the tracks until it was too late. Right. I'm going to squirm to the rear and plant some more demo. You ok here?" He felt a double tap on his arm, and set off on his belly, while Shimazu moved to the front of the track and kept an eye out, looking for anyone who might be suspicious about the missing crewman.

Feeling a bit of time pressure now, Aswon worked swiftly, planting the demo charges on the ninth and tenth vehicle, before they got ready to move to the third row of artillery. Once more they timed their dash carefully, heading for the middle of the northernmost row, and then started to work down, planting charges on the sixteenth, fifteenth and fourteenth vehicles.

"I have all my demo charges planted now. We're on the third row of vehicles, and we're looking to try and get over to the woodland near the drone trucks to join up with the rest of you. We're ready to start the fireworks whenever it suits."

"If you want me to do more earth shaping, then I need to stop holding up the spells on Shimazu. You probably want to get over into cover first."

"Roger that, Tads. Moving now." Once more the pair scanned the crews and activity carefully, then headed over towards the spinney, moving swiftly and hoping that nobody inside one of the command vehicles was looking their way through the polarised windows. The spirits' protective embrace – and Tad's powerful invisibility spell on Shimazu – kept them safe again though, and they made it into the woodlands without being spotted.

"Ok, Tads, we're both hidden. You can drop the spells now. Let me know when you've dropped the track, and I'll activate just that one demo charge."

"Very well. Give me about ten seconds, then you should see some effect."

"Wait!" Marius interrupted. "Do NOT fire. I say again, DO NOT FIRE!"

"What's up, Marius?"

"The charges you have planted, they are on the emergency blow out panels, yes?"

"Yes, that's right – exactly like you said. Why?"

"So, when the charges fire, they will blast through the panels into the ammunition compartment behind them – and detonate the shells there."

"Yes – that's what we want, isn't it?" Aswon asked, confusion in his voice.

"Yes. But are these not shells filled with a horrific chemical agent?"

The whole team stopped as their brains caught up with that information. They'd known, intellectually, that this was the case. They'd seen the effects on the landscape, and heard from Mr Yez about the casualties caused. But in the speed of their descent and the excitement and suspense of their infiltration, it had somehow slipped their minds of exactly what they were blowing up."

"That's… a very good point, Marius. And well made. Shit. We need to make sure we're away from this stuff. Which way is the wind blowing, for starters?"

"Fortunately, it's a northerly wind at the moment – that's what bought that blizzard down on us earlier. It's blowing between six and eight knots at the moment, reasonably steadily. Course varies a little, but mostly 175 degrees I'd say." Hunter checked his orientation system and watched the swaying of the trees, double-checking his data. He definitely didn't want to get this one wrong!

"Ok, so as soon as we blow the first one, we want to keep an eye out for secondary effects – we're a good fifty metres upwind from the track, though we should be ready to bug out if we need to. Hunter – presume that nose of yours will be able to sniff out trouble coming?"

"You bet – it's on high-sensitivity at the moment, just in case. And you know what they say about bomb-disposal experts?"

"No?"

"If you see them running, try to keep up. Well, same thing applies!"

"Roger that. Right, Shimazu and I are going to head to the north side of these trees and get a bit more distance between us. And we'll give you a signal when we're in position, Tads."

"Standing by."

The pair moved, heading to the northern edge of the trees, moving another fifty metres away from the tracks and ending up in the same position as Hunter, Kai and Marius.

"Right, Tads, we're backed off. Hunter says we're more than two hundred metres from the track now. Ready when you are."

"Ok, same thing, about ten seconds then…"

Aswon and Shimazu waited, mentally counting down the seconds. They got to a count of eight, when they heard distant cries of alarm and saw some of the crews in the third row moving backwards, heading towards them. They couldn't see track four directly – the mass of the closer vehicles obscured it from view, but they could see from the effect on the crews that something was happening. Aswon waited another second or two, then stabbed at the detonation key on his commlink, then hit the confirmation button.

A sharp crack sounded, echoing off the metallic hulls and distorting as it reverberated off the multiple hulls, bouncing back and forth down the sides of the vehicles. A moment later there was a much deeper bark as something else exploded – that turned into a ripple of sound that seemed to get louder and louder. The ground beneath them shook and reverberated and they watched as an enormous explosion rocketed skywards to their south. Smoke and flames roiled upwards, forming a small mushroom cloud that rose up into the air a few hundred metres. Cries of alarm turned into screams of terror and they saw the crew of the other artillery units running in blind panic, heading outwards in seemingly every direction – all trying to get away from the unit that had exploded so violently. As they watched the cloud rise, the brilliant oranges and reds of the fireball started to fade, but instead of turning to the black and grey cloud indicating full combustion, it took on a slightly purple hue, the cloud shimmering in the pale light of the winter's day.

"The people on the ground are running in all kinds of directions – all apart from south. It looks like they know which way the wind is blowing too. And they're not stopping for anyone either…"

"Time to get some more excitement then. I don't think you need to do anything else, Tads – I've got it from here." Aswon turned to Hunter and gave him a feral smile, revealing the massive incisors implanted into his mouth. "In three, two, one…" He sent the detonation command to the next track in the front row, and they were treated to a repeat performance. The cracks of the explosion were much louder this time though, without the ameliorating effect of having to blast through three metres of earth. As Aswon fired up the explosives. Hunter ripple-fired a string of three grenades, all of which landed in the supply of ready ammunition for the mortars. The explosion to the rear was barely heard over the cataclysmic sound from the front, but the explosion was much closer to them and far more visible as a result. Trees around them swayed and creaked as the blast wave struck them – but it had already dissipated much of it's force by the time it had crossed a hundred metres of open fields.

The command vehicles were closer – much closer – to the heavy weapons position, and two of their vehicles were flipped over as the blast wave battered them, while a third came perilously close, tipping up high in the air before slamming back down to the ground with a fearsome crunch. Metallic fragments scythed into them, embedding themselves deeply into the armour and reinforced glass – but the vehicles got off lightly overall. Not so for the actual mortar teams and machine gunners, who were wiped away by the wave of destruction. Flesh and flak jackets were no match for the razor sharp fragments of mortar casings, and the entire platoon was transformed into exploding bags of flesh, flying apart and scattering bits of limb and organs over a wide area as the explosion washed over them.

Amongst all of this noise, the three round burst from Marius went completely unnoticed by all except himself and the rigger that he struck, the bullets splashing bit of brain and blood all over the consoles beyond him, leaving his body to sag and loll in the chair, supported by the harness that was now drenched in fluids of different kinds.

Aswon fired up the remaining demo charges, setting them for a countdown of between three and five seconds, then sent the confirmation code.

"Guys – we should run now." He turned towards the mountain and demonstrated his thoughts on the matter, quickly accelerating as he burst from the spinney out onto the field. He might be visible to observers if they were concentrating – but with the explosions going off behind them and the other crew running in terror, he actually thought they had a better than average chance of getting away with it.

Shimazu was close on his heels, and Hunter, Marius and Kai were behind him, arms pumping and legs powering them across the lumpy ground, weapons bouncing around on their slings and equipment sliding from side to side as all attempts at stealth were cast to one side in exchange for pure speed and putting as much distance between themselves and the destruction behind them as they could.

Aswon peered back over his shoulder to check on the others as he heard the next series of explosions going off, seeing them strung out across the field but doing their best to keep up. He and Shimazu had opened a fair lead, and he slowed a little, turning his torso so that he was better able to see what was going on.

Multiple clouds of fire rose from the position of the artillery, spreading clouds now joining up into one massive explosive blast cloud that stretched for hundreds of metres. All across the area now, the sky had turned a dramatic shade of indigo, as whatever chemicals were in the shells mixed and oxidised, reacting with the air and the environment. To his horror, he could see the effects on the ground already – the winter hedgerows wilting and falling apart, breaking down and collapsing to the ground. They hadn't been exactly lush earlier, stripped of their summer leaves and mostly thick intertwined branches – but even that was breaking down as the chemicals went to work, turning the organic matter into goo that dribbled down to the ground.

The cloud was starting to spread, carried by the wind and blowing southwards, spreading out as the gusts of cold air interacted with the hot columns of gas from each of the destroyed vehicles. Wider and wider it grew, reaching out into a widening arc that pushed southwards, spreading a tide of death upon the landscape. Aswon checked the direction carefully, and was incredibly relieved to see that it was heading well away from the town – but then realised that while it was not heading into the urban area at all, it was on a direct course to wash over the airport, engulfing the whole area with the chemical payload…

"Whatever you do, don't stop running!" he called over the comms, then turned and resumed his journey outwards, somewhat more sedately to give the other three something to try and keep pace with.

Behind him, the cloud of death swept onwards, consuming grass, flowers, trees and bushes, killing animals and humans alike, and sterilising the earth behind it as the chemicals ripped apart the building blocks required for life. Astral space convulsed and heaved as it responded to the relentless wave of death, becoming more and more distorted in parallel to the changes wrought upon the physical world.

"Tads, don't look down there in astral for a bit. You won't like it. We're heading to the base of the mountain, and then we're going to climb back up. Might take us a while…"

The team ran onwards, heading for the scree slope, and resolutely not looking behind them as valley was devastated by their actions.