They lugged the boxes back to the tilt-wing and climbed aboard, but when Kai made a move to flip open the top of the case, Hunter laid a gnarled and encompassing hand over Kai's much more slender and fragile one.
"Hang on. We want to scan these for bugs. And I think nobody should touch anything with bare skin. Nothing that's going to leave a forensic trace at all. This feels dodgy as all hell. This entire job feels bad – the more I learn, the less I like it. We need to be frakking careful on this one."
"Hunter, surely you're exaggerating? Surely you-"
"No, I'm not exaggerating. Kai – think about it. We're taking a military grade laser designator into a sealed mega-corp area and aiming at a rocket. A rocket that probably cost upwards of two hundred million Nuyen. Something powerful enough to launch spy-sats into space. We're point a laser at a target that is a giant bomb, full of volatile fuel, that would let someone hundreds or even thousands of miles away launch a hyper-sonic missile at it and turn it into a small nuke. We're going to blow up an important rocket, that belongs to Lofwyr, in his back yard. You think I'm exaggerating? I don't think I'm being paranoid enough. I tell you, this one makes the space between my shoulders itch. If it wasn't for Saito, I'd want to walk away."
"I do not want to betray Saito!" Shimazu started, but Hunter waved at him to calm down.
"I didn't say we would. I just said I wanted to. But if we're not, we should be careful."
"I agree. This does feel like a hot operation. And Hunter is entirely correct – we are frakking with a mega-corp and their operations directly. They tend to take a very dim view on such things." Aswon said calmly. "That does not mean it is impossible, just difficult and dangerous. I agree entirely with Hunter."
The mood eased a little – Hunter realising that he had solid support from at least one other team-member seemed to relax a little, realising he didn't have to carry the fight alone, and the others listening to Aswon speaking with the voice of long years of experience in military operations – or at least mercenary ones, which was close enough.
"I'm going to do a quick astral scan of the boxes. Can you lay them out side by side?" Tads waited for Hunter to move them around and then dropped into astral, glad that the powerful wards on the tilt-wing kept the outside world at bay. She examined the two boxes carefully, looking for any taint or twist in the mana, or any weird oddities. After a moment she closed in on her body, merging with it, but not dropping entirely out of astral. With an effort of concentration she made her mouth move and the lungs expel air, while she monitored the situation still. "Nothing to see from here. I'll keep watching when you open it up though, and see what happens."
She saw the luminous shapes of Aswon and Shimazu move over as far as they could in the cramped confines of the troop bay, and the darker and polluted form of Hunter move in to open the box lid, pulling on gloves over the blackened fingertips containing his climbing claws. She shivered once more as she traced the finery of optical cables and cybernetic components that threaded through his arms up towards his head, the implants tightly integrated with his spinal cord, the large black cylinder in his chest that held his air-tank and other pieces of gear. Then she focussed again as he lifted the lids on the boxes, and she peered inside cautiously, following his movements as he ran the bug scanner over the inside of the cases slowly and methodically.
Five minutes later, they were done – the boxes appeared to be clean, both technically and magically. Hunter still wanted people to glove up before they touched anything in the boxes, but despite their best efforts to find anything, there was no sign of any trackers or traceable magic to be found.
The first box contained the laser targetter, a large and complex looking box with large optical lenses on the top-most unit and a long barrel on the bottom, both attached to a central spine that was in turn connected to a sturdy tripod mount. But, someone had made some additions to the rig – on the outside were a system of motors, actuators, pistons and drive systems. The finish was different than the main system, and though the work looked to have been well done, it was clear that the technology and manufacturing techniques were different from the main unit. While that looked mass produced, the motion control rig looked to have been hand-crafted.
The second box contained power packs – lots and lots of them. Each was nestled in its own small cut-out compartment in the packing foam, and contained a pair of heavy cables clamped to a terminal, wrapped in protective paper with a red pull tab visible, making sure that even if the box was thrown around in transit, there was no way for the cable from one to hit the terminal of the next bank over.
"You do realise what this is, don't you, Kai."
"Yeah, of course I do."
"Really?"
"Yup. It's a targeting doohickey thing, for shooting at stuff."
"I could do the maths if you need – but if this thing has a range of twelve and a half kilometres, then that's most of the way to the horizon on some pretty flat terrain. And that's also a range long enough that you can paint a target well – well enough that a missile launched from a LONG way away could hit it. You wouldn't even need a hyper-sonic system. Just a regular missile travelling at Mach two or three would do the job."
"Isn't that hyper-sonic?"
"Well, in a strictly scientific sense, yes. But they tend to use hyper-sonic only for the stuff that is Mach 5 or higher, the REALLY fast stuff."
"Oh. And how fast do we go?"
"Not even Mach 1. Not in a chopper."
"In fact, in a pure helicopter, there are a number of factors that prevent fast flight. They are versatile, but there are limits to how fast they can go. Once you reach a certain speed, around two hundred and fifty knots, then air-compressibility and flapback, along with retreating edge speed and lack of lift prevent you going any faster." Marius added.
"But we go faster than that, don't we?"
"Oh, yes. But only in forward flight – when we have the engines rotated to face the direction we are travelling. Then we are using propellers, working perpendicular to the air-flow, not rotors travelling in the same plane."
"Ok, I don't understand that. But you're saying we can lase this rocket and stuff could be launched from thousands of kilometres away before we get out of range?" Kai summarised, and Hunter nodded to him.
"It could be used for scientific data gathering. The mechanics of locking onto a target and giving a solid targeting solution for a second sensor doesn't preclude using the initial laser to gather data." Aswon said, "Don't look at me like that. It COULD. I don't think it is, not in this situation. But it could be used like that. I was just saying…"
"Is this flight going to be manned, do we know?"
"No idea, Kai. All we have is the rocket type and launch time – which is about forty-six hours from now. I'm not even sure if our Johnson knows."
"It could be that Saito is being set up just the same as us Hunter. With him telling us to be here and meet the other them, but them bringing the gear and briefing, this feels like a job with a lot of cut-outs and security. More chance of things going wrong, but a lot more distance between whoever did the job and whoever organised it…"
"Exactly, Aswon. And if you don't see why I don't like this job now… well, I've got an iceberg to sell you. I tell you, I'd rather get roughly mounted by a dragon than finishing this job. And I say that despite thinking there's at least three or four that we've met now that might be happy to oblige!"
"Despite the hyperbole, there is a valid point to this. If we do this job and things explode, we're going to be on Krupp's drek list. We may need to think about not going back to the ranch for a while and finding somewhere to lay low. If this is a data-gathering mission, and we can sneak out – then great. But if things blow up, we should have multiple extraction paths, distractions and contingencies set up in advance."
"We have to assume the worst, I think." Marius said unhappily, as the prospect of not heading back to see his wife and child was voiced. "We have to assume that the mission is to strike at the rocket and destroy it, and that it will get very loud and very messy."
"Can we check the device over and see if it can transmit data at all?" Kai asked. "If it can, is there some way we can stop it sending while we're still nearby – that could give us away, couldn't it?"
"We can test it, sure. We bought storage and cables and various other things. Another thing we have to bear in mind is that we might be decoys. This might be something that is designed to be seen, and trigger a security response, and focus attention on us while another team does something else entirely. I don't think Saito would do that to Shimazu, and by extension us – but he might not know either."
"We should have asked about medical expenses for the job."
"We should have asked about a lot of things for this job, Tads!" Hunter responded hotly, fixing Kai with a stare. "But we didn't, we just said we'd do it and sort it out later!"
"Another thing to think about," Aswon interrupted, "is that if this is a rocket launch that has anything to do with that stuff on the trideo, with the corps trying to land on that comet thing. Well, there's not only the cost of the rocket – but there could be prestige. If something happened to this rocket and it delays their mission, and another mega-corp gets there first, then Saeder-Krupp will have lost that goal, and that's something they can never recover. That would REALLY get us on someone's drek list."
"Can we do some research on the laser designator thing, find out what it does and what those modifications might do?" Kai pointed down at the serial number engraved on the case of the main body.
"Dangerous – especially now. If it gets left behind on the mission, or recovered somehow and someone does a matrix search, that could lead back to us. In fact, that's a good point." Aswon leant over to examine the device, looking at the construction. "I should probably rig up a demo charge to put on it, so we don't have to carry it out, or worry about it falling into enemy hands."
"As long as the data gathered from it is already removed, of course."
"Of course, Kai."
"You know… if the max range on this thing is twelve point five klicks, we actually need to get a lot closer than that."
"Why"
"Because of maths, Kai."
"Maths sucks. Why would maths do this to us? And I mean… how?"
"Because of trigonometry. The max range is twelve point five, but as soon as the rocket lifts off, that's the hypotenuse. We're on the adjacent… so that'll start shrinking if we want any decent dwell time. In fact, it wasn't mentioned how long we need to keep this on the target, was it?" Hunter looked around and saw lots of head shaking. "So how long do we need to keep it on target? Because that will limit how far away we can be."
"They didn't say. So I'd suggest that we get a little way inside the max range, set up the target and then do the job for as long as it works – but if they don't get enough data, then that's their fault for not briefing us properly." Aswon shrugged. "If they needed thirty seconds on target, they should have said. But they didn't, so they're clearly leaving it up to us. And the rocket is heading to orbit, and that's like a hundred kilometres up or something – so even if we were right underneath it, which would be suicide, but even if we were, we can only follow it up so far. So we do the best we can, but we don't worry about it too much as we weren't briefed on that aspect."
"I've been looking at the map, and I'm thinking we should fly up and around, and come in from the north side. From what I can see the pad we're after is at the top of the map, and that way is north, I think." Tads scrunched her nose up a little as she tried to work out the orientation of the map again in her head. "Yeah, pretty sure it is. So there's bound to be a fence or something around it, but that gives us the shortest distance from that fence to the pad to cover. Assuming we're walking it, of course. If we're flying it's not so bad."
Hunter pulled out his deck and jacked in, flashing up the maps he had onto the screens in the tilt-wing. They checked over the dossier, looking at the maps there and spent a while orientating those pictures with the maps they had, comparing features and marking down various points of interest such as the pad and the airbase, along with the theoretical edge of the space port. Once they had the data loaded up, it appeared that Tads' assumption was correct – the northern side of the port had the shortest distance for them to cross, but also meant that had to go past the least other infrastructure along the way – though it did bring them closer than almost all the other directions to the security force at the airport.
Of concern was the almost complete lack of cover. The map showed no major terrain changes, and according to the relief map the area was depressingly flat. The only thing they might have to hide behind or in was any discarded rocket segments from previous launches – though Hunter cautioned against that because of the toxic chemicals used for the fuels.
"Just a thought, Hunter," Marius called over. "Why not check the matrix for any footage of previous launches – particularly from the commercial side. If you can find a good quality clip of an Ikarus 4 launch from their advertising to other corporations, or their PR side of things, that will give you an idea of how quickly they accelerate and what kind of speed and altitude you might be looking at for your calculations."
"And that would help work out if you can keep the laser on the target when it starts to accelerate as well – I'm not sure any of use have the reflexes to keep up with how fast that thing is going to be shifting if we're too close. At range I might have the advantage from experience with my rifle… but even then I'm not sure!"
"Do we know what the weather is going to be like? Will that affect things?"
"Well, that at least we can find out, Kai. And if it's bad, it might push the launch back. But good or average weather shouldn't move things about. Ahh, here we go… the forecast for the area shows it being steady for the next few days, winds from a north or north-westerly direction, averaging five to eight kilometres per hour, dry and cold with temperatures average for the time of year. So chances are the launch will go ahead on schedule, and it shouldn't make much difference to us."
"I think we ought to get to somewhere out of the way, stick some gloves on and get the thing out of the box, and set it up – then maybe see how it works, see how accurate or visible it is, and get it to track a drone or something being dragged about by one of us and see how difficult it is to keep on target."
"Sounds like a plan, Aswon – let's do that. Marius – can you take us north a way, then find anywhere quiet and safe you can see to set us down for a bit of investigation?"
"Can do, Kai. Strap in, folks."
They lifted off and flew roughly northwards, setting down a few minutes later in what appeared to be a former part of the Aral sea, long since dried up. It afforded them some cover though, the depression being deep enough to hide the tilt-wing from anyone more than a kilometre away. After donning gloves, they carefully moved the box containing the designator out and a little way from the aircraft and then set it up, locking the tripod legs out and connecting up the battery pack, before engaging the power switch. Moments later one of the screens that had been added on to the system flashed into life, displaying amber text on a black background. No icons, no emojis, no graphical elements at all – it was a somewhat shocking throwback to a bygone era.
[ARE YOU IN FINAL POSITION? KEY 1 FOR YES, 2 FOR NO]
Hunter pressed the 2 key on the keypad located just below the screen.
[ARE YOU PERFORMING A SYSTEMS TEST? KEY 1 FOR YES, 2 FOR NO]
Hunter tapped the 1 key, then quickly pulled his arm back as the designator started to move, slewing around ninety degrees to the left then pausing, before turning one hundred and eighty degrees to the right, and finally returning back to the centre position. Next it rotated downwards, aiming at an angle about thirty degrees below the horizontal, before swinging upwards to a position almost vertical, then returning to the centre position to pause once more. A few seconds passed, then it swung down and to the left, then rotated upwards to the limit, traversed around to the other side, then back down, before returning to the origin point, testing the far limits of both axis at once, before returning back to the zero position.
[PHYSICAL CALIBRATION COMPLETE. DISABLE ANY JAMMING FOR GPS SIGNAL LOCK. SYSTEM TEST WILL TAKE 15 SECONDS, AND WILL COMMENCE IN]
[5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
[SEEKING SATELLITE. SATELLITE 1 FOUND. LOCKING SIGNAL.]
[SEEKING SATELLITE. SATELLITE 2 FOUND. LOCKING SIGNAL.]
[SEEKING SATELLITE. SATELLITE 3 FOUND. LOCKING SIGNAL.]
[SEEKING SATELLITE. SATELLITE 4 FOUND. LOCKING SIGNAL.]
[TIME UPDATE COMPLETE. DRIFT COMPENSATION FACTOR COMPLETE. ALTITUDE CORRECTION COMPLETE. JITTER COMPENSATION COMPLETE.]
[LOCATION ACQUIRED 44.53610296, 59.77592938. CHECK LOCATION ACCURACY IS ACCURATE. KEY 1 FOR YES, 2 FOR NO]
Hunter pulled up his own internal GPS and confirmed the location, noting down that the designator was providing at least two extra decimal places of accuracy – whether it was actually that accurate or not he couldn't say. He quickly tapped the 1 key and watched the screen.
[GPS SYSTEM TEST COMPLETE. RECEIVERS SHUT DOWN. RE-ENGAGE JAMMING SIGNAL IF REQUIRED.]
[LASER TEST SEQUENCE. ACQUIRE TARGET AT KNOWN DISTANCE. KEY 1 WHEN READY]
"Right. Someone go stand a few metres out, will you?"
"Are you sure of the wattage on that laser?"
"No, but it should be fine, Aswon. Come on, just go stand in front of it…"
"I think I'll grab something from the tilt-wing thanks. Something we can easily replace, just in case…"
Aswon fetched a container and they set it out roughly twenty metres from the designator, and then lased the target, working through a number of settings. The machine informed them that it would use the visible laser for calibration, but the main beam setting was outside the visible spectrum, and then informed them of the distance to their target, down to the millimetre. They experimented with moving the target around, changing the distance and angle of impact, all without throwing the machine off its stride, and once they'd done the basic test they moved on to moving target calibration.
Tying a rope to the target, Aswon set off at a walk, and they watched the designator start to slowly slew to one side, keeping the laser dot exactly on target as he moved, even as he increased pace. At a full run, with the target bouncing up and down wildly on the end of the rope the machine still managed to keep pace, keeping the dot on the centre of mass without any apparent issue.
"Well, I reckon that can track a rocket, even when it's well into the boost phase – so we don't have to worry about being close to it. Those actuators can swing it around at a fair rate of knots."
"I'd agree, Hunter. Do we know if it's only gathering data or transmitting it as well? It looks like whoever built it anticipated us being under a jamming field."
"Dunno, Aswon. We can check it out I suppose." They started to power the system down, then examined it closely, checking the various ports and systems until they found one that should be able to output data. Their investigation also revealed tiny scratch marks, distortions in the screws and other tell-tale signs that the main body of the device had been opened as well as additional equipment fastened to the outer shell. When they plugged in their storage device, the screen prompted them for activity.
[I/O DEVICE FOUND. DO YOU WISH TO INPUT NEW PARAMTERS? KEY 1 FOR YES, 2 FOR NO]
2
[DO YOU WISH TO EXPORT DATA FROM LAST TRACKING SESSION? KEY 1 FOR YES, 2 FOR NO]
1
[EXPORTING]
It poured a torrent of information onto the external storage, filling it at an alarming rate. There was far more information than Hunter had anticipated, and that set his nerves jangling again – at least until he imported the data onto his deck and examined it. The data was a massive tabular list of variables – the GPS location of the device, battery status, air temperature and humidity, estimated wind direction and strength, distance to target, angle of strike, motion of the target in all three directions, length of time dwelling on the target point, analysis of target jitter and flex – it went on and on, and each one of the variables was being sampled every 1/250 of a second. Their testing had gone on for several minutes, creating an enormous amount of data in that time.
"Looks ok to me – I think we're good to pack it down." He and Aswon started to collapse the tripod and carefully fold it away when Tads pointed to the top of the screen where the battery indicator had just dropped from 99% to 98%.
"If it only used that little battery power… why does it have so many batteries?"
"I… I don't know." Aswon straightened up for a moment and then did some mental maths. "It should be good for around twenty hours of use – active use that is. I don't know how long it could stay in standby for. But it does seem strange. Maybe they're just hedging their bets against bad weather delaying the launch or something like that. After all, it would be crazy to have the mission failed just because you ran out of power on the fourth day of delays or something…"
They packed the device back into the transit case and headed back to the tilt-wing, and were getting ready to take off when Tads spoke up again.
"I've been thinking about the briefing. We've got to put the spotting thing so it can see a specific spot on the rocket, right?" Kai nodded to her, wondering where she was going with this. "Well, the spot is near the oxygen inlet, according to the briefing. Do we know what side of the rocket that will be? We'll have to make sure we're on that side to do the job I think. But will that be the side nearest the tower bit? Can you show us the video again Hunter?"
The ork pulled up the snippet of footage he'd found showing an Icarus launch, slowing it down and then freezing the frame as the camera panned up the side of the rocket.
"Yes – look – they have a hose going from the tower to the rocket. Is that how they fuel it?"
"Good spot, Tads. Yes, it'll probably detach shortly before launch and fall away. So, if we know what direction the rocket is facing, compared to the tower, and we know what pad they're taking off from…"
"Then we can work out which side we need to be approaching from to be able to see it!" She said triumphantly. Hunter quickly pulled up the data from the briefing chip, then compared that to the map of the area and the limited information they'd found, before making his announcement.
"The rocket should be east of the tower, with the tower facing almost due west. So if we come in from the north-west, we'll be in a good position to lase the target point without the tower getting in the way or being on the wrong side of the rocket." Aswon stated. "Look, we can confirm from the direction of the shadows compared to the length – they're quite long, so it's got to be either first thing or last thing, and given the colour and condition of the ground, that was taken first thing in the morning – too much frost for the sun to have been on them all day. So that pinpoints the direction of the tower and the rocket relative to them."
They strapped back in and were soon in the air flying north, when once again Marius picked up a large electronic footprint to the north. It matched the same mass of readings they'd noticed earlier and he immediately banked and reduced speed rather than get any closer to it.
"What's up, Marius?" Kai called forward, feeling the abrupt change in direction.
"The signal we detected earlier – right on the edge of our sensors again, to our north, travelling north-east. If we continue forwards, we will likely intercept them. I am not sure any of us want that."
"How fast are they going?"
"Only about forty or fifty knots. It is hard to tell from the signal source, the sensors are having a hard time discriminating individual sources."
"It's not a distraction, is it – we're not being flanked while we're distracted by this?"
"Checking… no, sensors are clear in all other directions. No sign of anything now, no contacts recently – not even any ghosts or possibles on the log."
"What do you think it is?"
"I really do not know. It is not like any signal I have encountered before."
"I can go have a look if you like? If you keep the speed down, I should be able to get back into my body ok. Or if you can orbit some landmark, I can find you again?" Tads snorted suddenly. "We're in a different area. I wonder if this is a different horde? Like the Wolf tribe we met was land-based, what if the one up here is air-based?"
"I will set us down then. That gives them chance to open the distance again before we catch up with them." Marius said, immediately reconfiguring for a landing. Their forward speed quickly dropped to zero and he put them down on the loose-packed earth of the steppes moments later. As soon as she felt them starting to descend, Tads left her body behind and zoomed out to the west, heading a few hundreds of kilometres through the distorted ravages of astral space with a grimace on her ethereal face, before swinging north and heading to draw level with where she estimated the contact might be, before turning again to approach it from the west – just in case there was anything astrally guarding the contact.
Closing in she could see the vast mass of grey blobs in the air, and knew she'd found the contact – and she quickly climbed up a few kilometres before manifesting so she could look down and see with her natural vision. What she saw surprised her, and it took a moment to make out the details from the chaotic mess below her.
There were balloons of different shapes and sizes, each with large gondalas slung below them. Some of them were tied together into clusters, some floated on their own. Some had a latticework of ropes and scramble nets slung from one basket to the next. There were airships, long cigar-shaped rigid constructions, in a variety of colours and construction materials. One of them had what looked like a landing strip running along the top, supported by a latticework construction of some black material. Helicopters buzzed around, from a few that looked to be as large as the old Russian helicopter the team had lost in the desert, to smaller constructions that looked to be more a pilot's bubble strapped to an engine and little more. Drones buzzed around everywhere, carrying things or people from one aircraft to another, and many of the balloons and aircraft had vast panels of photo-receptor panels on top, gathering energy from the sunlight. The whole edifice moved along in a loose formation, swaying back and forth as the shifting wind currents moved them about based on their size and different aerodynamic characteristics.
Tads smiled broadly, glad that her prediction had been exactly right, even if it did make their passing somewhat more difficult. She revelled in the feeling for a moment, then let her smile fade as she concentrated on the mass of vehicles below, and tried to get a rough count on the vehicles that made up the travelling village below. She dropped down a little, accepting a little risk in being spotted visually for a slightly closer view of the craft, and as she closed she could see guns bristling from most of the craft and some smaller vehicles strapped or attached to the larger ones that looked sleeker and more like the jet-powered drone that Marius had used on occasion. Looking around though, she couldn't spot much that was astrally active – though through the horrible background count that was much harder than normal.
After a few more minutes of observation she let herself fade back into astral space and rose up ten kilometres, flying to the east for a while and checking behind her for tails, before slowly turning to the south and returning back to the tilt-wing to report in.
When she returned and briefed the others she found out that Marius had already plotted the positions and sightings from earlier, and had confirmed that it was the same target, moving in a straight line on a consistent course – and that they appeared to be headed for an intercept with the New Silk Road, the massive highway connecting the west and east that was a major artery for the movement of goods that were too heavy or bulky for air freight, but needed faster shipment than the container fleet that trawled the world's oceans. That unfortunately put them very close to the position the team wanted to be in when they were skirting the cosmodrome…
"Could we fly along with them? Maybe do some negotiations to join them for a bit?" Kai suggested.
"That depends on you. But if we did, it would affect our fuel efficiency very badly. We would have to be in VTOL mode the whole way at that slow a speed, and the engines would consume fuel at a hugely increased rate. That will affect our operational radius significantly." Marius replied.
"And, this close to a major SK facility – I reckon that the hordes have either a deal to pay some kind of fealty to Lofwyr, or they report in to him on stuff that happens in their turf. I don't think we want that kind of attention when we're on a job. If we were just passing through it wouldn't be a problem, but we can't afford that kind of risk at the moment. But we should make a note and definitely make friends with these people for the future!"
"We should check to make sure they're not cannibals first!" Tads retorted hotly, getting several nods of agreement.
"Whatever we do, we should avoid ticking them off. They probably know all the local conditions, sensor deadspots and oddities in the area, and what Tads described sounded like jet interceptors. They are unlikely to have long range or great performance – but sometimes quantity has a quality all of their own."
"So – can we just get past them at high speed?" Aswon queried.
"Or can we go around the other side of the spaceport – the long way around, effectively?" Tads added.
"We could – but looking at the distances, I think we can get through by flying low. From the description Tads gave, it is clear why the signal is so noisy, and so difficult to read – the constant use of their sensors to keep track of each other must create a large bubble of active emissions, and that is scattering through the atmosphere. But, we are well out of direct line of sight from them. There is a corridor, perhaps fifteen kilometres wide where if we stay low, we can be out of detection range from the spaceport to the south and the horde airships to the north."
"How low are we talking?" Kai asked. "Are we going to get to see stuff like goats going past above us again?"
"Do you see any goats out here?" Marius smiled at him. "But broadly speaking, yes, about that high. Fifty metres maximum. But the terrain is very favourable here – very good sight lines and no unexpected canyon walls to worry you."
With the plan decided, they strapped back in – making sure the harnesses were tight and that all the gear had been secured and double-checked. Marius was correct that there was little out here to hit – but that didn't mean that they couldn't be surprised still, and when you were only fifty metres from the ground and zipping along at several hundred kilometres per hour, it didn't leave much time to react.
They moved forward easily enough though, with Marius expertly bringing them down to low level and sliding between the two possible threats, bringing them around to the north side of the spaceport and finding the best place he could to set them down in the terrain – a wide gulley that might once have been the course of a waterway or tributary, but that had long since dried up. It concealed the bottom half of the craft at least, and after they had struggled with the cammo netting and draped it over the top of the aircraft, it looked more like a low mound or hillock than a stealth aircraft.
Once that was done the team geared up, making sure they had water and food, their survival gear was all packed and that arms and armour were checked and ready to go. Carrying the large boxes between them they started to hike southwards, walking in single file and keeping mostly silent as they crossed the vast open space, six ant-like figures crawling across the rolling steppes. They walked for several hours, and as the light was starting to fade, Aswon waved for a halt, setting down his end of the box holding the designator and bought up his binoculars. He'd apparently seen something, for he waved for the rest of them to set down their loads and rally on his position.
Hunter moved up next to him and they had a quiet conversation, with Aswon pointing something out, then Hunter set up his binoculars too, mounting them on a lightweight tripod. Unlike Aswon's purely optical set, his had a variety of electronic enhancements, and more importantly an output port, and he connected them up to his deck, and then the roll out screen, which was quickly laid out on the floor between them. Keying the system alive, they could see a sign, apparently hanging in mid-air, swinging gently in the wind.
'No Entry. Saeder Krupp Property. Entry Prohibited. Punishable by Death.'
"Well, clear and to the point, I suppose." Kai said. "What's it hanging from?"
"There's a single wire, suspended about a metre from the ground." Hunter added some enhancements and his deck helpfully highlighted the faint line of a single narrow-gauge wire that ran across the image from one side to another. Another quick adjustment and the slender stakes were highlighted, the screen increasing contrast to make them stand out against the background picture. "Looks like we have stakes set into the ground, about every twenty metres or so. One single wire resting on the top, probably under tension given how little sag there is. And one sign for every twenty metre stretch."
"Under tension? I wonder… do you think they could be running a charge through that? Using it as capacitance wire?" Aswon asked, looking back through his own binoculars. "I'm not seeing any magical effects on it, and no watchers or spirits patrolling. In fact, no magical around here at all. Though given how warped astral space is, that's maybe not surprising."
"I wouldn't rule it out, but I don't think so. Not seeing any signs of insulators on the wire, and they're attached directly to the metal stakes into the ground. So no, I think this is entirely passive – it's not a defensive measure, it's just to identify and mark the boundary."
"That's the extra-territoriality thing, isn't it?" Tads asked. "The thing where the mega-corps have to mark their area to make it clear it's their laws inside, not the country's?"
"That's right. But that does mean if we're caught inside the fence line, we can be just shot out of hand. No trial or anything." Aswon confirmed. "This fence goes on as far as I can see in either direction, it must be huge!"
"It's more than two hundred kilometres long by my reckoning, based on the perimeter map. That's the other reason I think it's passive. Trying to run capacitance wire for that kind of distance…well, I don't want to think about the challenges that gives you from an engineering standpoint."
"Wonder if there are minefields then – always a good option for passive defences."
"I don't think so, Aswon. Look over there…" Tads pointed to a small sandy patch with a set of scrape marks. Both she and Aswon headed over closer, looking at the signs of excavation, before returning to the group. "Not sure what it is, but we think it's maybe something the size of a hare, rabbit or maybe small fox. No idea if its awakened, but with critters like that in the area, a minefield might not be a good long term solution."
"What are the security forces going to be like out here, Marius? I mean, do you know what Saeder Krupp are likely to have, based on your experience with them?"
"Well, standard procedure for SK assets is to have security teams based on a four person patrol. Small enough to use a car in urban situations, or an SUV type vehicle in rural area, or maybe a small strike APC, but also small enough to deploy out of a light chopper. The team will all be armoured, with ballistic jumpsuits and probably a clamshell breastplate over the top, a helmet with tactical radio and vision enhancements and armed with a modern rifle. The team will have a mix of skills beyond that though – while they will all be competent shots, one of the team will specialise in medial treatment, another in a heavier weapon – perhaps their assault rifle will instead be configured as a light support weapon on a bipod with a heavier barrel and belt-fed instead of magazine – one will have demolition experience and be able to deal with improvised explosives and tripwires or the like. None of these skills will be at expert ratings, but they are going to be broadly competent. In some ways, much like a team of Shadowrunners – they will have a core of base skills, and some specialist knowledge to support their security team."
"Ok, well, that doesn't sound insurmountable. Not great, and better than rent-a-cops we've seen at other places, but not the end of the world."
"Indeed Kai – but many of them could have previous military experience, or have worked as mercenaries. They will be well equipped, but more importantly…" Marius paused for a moment and thought. "More importantly, if a fight breaks out, they are as likely to panic as Aswon would. They will likely have the same level of tactical presence and mindset as he does."
"Oh… ok. So not gonna panic at all, you mean."
"Indeed. And likely to call for backup at the first sign of a problem they cannot handle. Professional." Marius had a conflicting set of emotions flowing through him, and it showed on his normally calm visage. On one hand he had been raised by Saeder-Krupp, gone to an SK school. Entered an SK apprenticeship. Flown corporate missions and supported corporate goals. Both his parents and everyone he had known growing up were SK employees. He had been proud of his corporation. But it was also the corporation that had sent him off unsupported on what had turned out to be an incredibly dangerous mission that had led to him being shot down and captured by the Chechens, and who had made no move to try and recover him or pay the ransom they had no doubt demanded for his safe return. He'd ended up stuck in the cage on that wet, cold, miserable mountain while the rest of his current team had been added to the collection of captives, until the day they had managed to escape. To say his view of Saeder-Krupp had changed, and not for the better, would be an understatement.
"You look like something else is on your mind."
"Yes. This is a spaceport. A prime site for corporate activity and a very important location. The kind of place protected by the Dragons."
"What! You mean Lofwyr?"
"No. Though I am sure he would visit from time to time. I mean the Dragons, Spezial-Sicherheits-Gruppe – the SK special protection force. They are an elite force, tasked to guard only the most important sites that belong to the corporation."
"I'm not going to like this, am I?" Kai felt a familiar sinking sensation in his stomach.
"Probably not. They are the top picks from the security teams, chosen only from those with many years of service and a spotless record. They go through intensive, gruelling and very demanding training, and have a failure rate of 80%, so it is rumoured. But the ones that make it through are exceptional, and to be truly feared. I may have transported a group like that once – they did not say anything, but based on their equipment loadout and their appearance, they would seem to fit. If we run into a group like this, then we should treat them with extreme respect. Failure to do so would be very detrimental."
"What about their kit?"
"Top of the line, for everything. They would get to pick any equipment available on the market. Sniper rifles to match Aswon's. Their swordsmanship skills would be the equal of Shimazu. If they have an attached mage, they would be able to do everything Tads could do. And their drivers would be as skilled as I am."
"Well, let's just stay the frak away from people like that then!" Kai grinned. "That sounds like a fair fight, and we shouldn't be encouraging that kind of behaviour! So, where do we need to avoid?"
"The whole base. But we can't do that… I would assume that they would be headquartered at the airport, able to be rapid-deployed anywhere to the facility." Aswon suggested, "and that they're going to be air-mobile on a site this big. The normal security might have dune buggies or off-roaders, but a group like that will have choppers or a tilt-wing of their own. And on launch day, they're probably going to be in or around the launch facility, keeping a close eye on everything."
"Well, that's going to make things just peachy." Kai expelled a breath, watching it mist up in front of him as the temperature started to rapidly fall.
"Let's push on then, and make some progress in while its dark, and try to get into position while we're harder to spot. Might as well do all we can to avoid all the security, especially those frakkers!"
The team picked up their equipment and started to head south again through the gathering gloom, heading towards the single wire fence that marked the edge of the Baikonur cosmodrome and the edge of Saeder-Krupp territory.
