"I have thoughts on this matter – tactical, rather than magical." Tads turned to face Marius, somewhat surprised, and made a 'go on' motion with her hand. "I do not think you should summon this spirit until after we have met with the people. Firstly, we may need your assistance if negotiations become hostile for some reason, and having you incapacitated would not be ideal. But secondly, because we do not know what information they have or what tactical advice they may offer that could change or shape our plans, and affect your willingness to do this ritual."
"I'm actually inclined to agree with him on this one," Kai added quickly, "they do give the impression of having been here longer than us, and it would be good to know what they know, or see what observations they may have before we decide what to do."
"Yes, and if they already have plans for further operations, it would be good to work out how we can factor into that – or use that for our advantage. If they're carrying out a physical attack, while we carry out a magical-based one, then that sends a signal of its own, and also confuses things for Novatech and makes them split priorities." Aswon added.
"What I'm planning won't knock me out – at least it shouldn't. But I take your point… I guess we can wait until after the meeting to summon a spirit without it affecting anything. It wasn't like we were going for any kind of magical effect that required a time of day, or daylight…"
"Let's go do the meet then. We've not got far to go, but I was chatting with Aswon a few minutes ago and he suggested we take the time to circle around and come at the meeting site from the other side, to disguise where our camp is – and I'm inclined to take the time to do that – just in case."
"What about the shaman?" Tads pointed in their direction. "Do we invite them along, or not?"
"I'd prefer not. They're going to complicate things and add in an extra factor we don't need – not in the initial meeting anyway. Aswon, can you go explain to them we're meeting with someone, but it's not the right time to involve them? Tell them…" he waved his hand around for a moment, then snapped his fingers and pointed at Aswon. "Tell them we don't want to risk disclosing their identities yet, or risking the tribes they represent, not until we've established who these people are anyway."
Aswon gave him a considering stare,
"I would hope that is actually true. I do not want to deceive these people – nor take their opinions and wishes lightly."
"No, neither do I. And yes – I meant it. But it's the thing that will make the most sense to them in this context. Tell them where we're going though for the meeting… if they hear gunfire, they can come running then!"
Aswon shook his head for a moment, then nodded and headed over to the three shaman, finding a diplomatic way to tell them to stay at the camp while the team headed out to do negotiations. With that sorted, he re-joined the rest of the team and they headed out, working their way down the hill through the thick growth slowly and steadily, circling around the proposed meeting site and then approaching it from the other direction to their camp. They'd been there no more than a minute when they heard the quiet approach of Phoss and Ury, climbing up from the lower hill themselves, entering the small clearing and warily examining the team. They were wearing the same clothes as the previous meeting – or had on a spare set that looked identical, but wore only the load-bearing harness with the 'day sack' style packs attached, rather thana the full rucksacks they'd had concealed previously.
"Phoss, Ury – this is our team leader, Kai." Aswon gestured to each of them in turn, making sure the rest of his own team had their names correct. Shimazu had moved forward to stand just to the right of Kai and half a step behind him, which his hands hanging loosely by his side. "And that is Shimazu, Tads and Marius. Hunter, you remember from our previous meeting.
"Good to meet you." Phoss replied, giving them a nod and a brief smile, while Ury stood to her side, his face passive. "Aswon gave us hope that we could find some common ground and mutual interests so it would be good to discuss…" she stopped suddenly as Aswon held up his hand in an urgent gesture, his head whipping around to face to the south. He cocked his head slightly and listened intently. A moment later there was the swishing sound of steel being drawn as Shimazu heard the sound that had triggered Aswon, and drew his blade.
Kai stared at Phoss with a raised eyebrow, but she was either a fantastic liar, or was equally disturbed by the sounds from the jungle, and she turned to give him a suspicious look, wondering if it was Kai setting up some kind of ambush. He shook his head and turned to stare into the jungle with a frown. A moment later, the noise stopped.
"That's not a member of my team." Kai said, trying to keep his voice flat and level. Phoss and Ury both checked their weapons, Ury raising his submachine to his shoulder and taking a step back so he could angle towards both the noise in the jungle and the group near Kai, while Phoss aimed her pistol towards the undergrowth, aiming past Aswon. Shimazu gave Phoss and Ury a thorough examination, and then turned to face away from Kai, covering his rear – just in case.
The noise resumed, the weird crunching of undergrowth and rustle of leaves indicating that someone was trying to move quietly through the jungle, but wasn't doing a great job of it.
"Do you mind if I call them out?" Kai said quietly. Phoss looked over her shoulder at him and shrugged, then turned her attention back towards the jungle, moving a little closer and covering the area in front of her. "Whoever is out there – you're not very stealthy! You might as well come out, before one of us comes in to get you. That could get painful, or very messy…" Kai called out, keeping his tone light and trying to sound unconcerned. There was a little more noise, and then the shape of Farik appeared. Phoss aimed her pistol at his head, a red pointer from the underslung laser neatly focussed on his forehead, until she noticed Aswon lowering his weapon and glowering at the man, and the sighs of disappointment from Kai caught her ear. "I do apologise. That's not one of my team, but he is, technically, one of ours. Farik? What are you doing here. I thought it was agreed that you'd stay at camp? Now you've made things a LOT more complicated."
Kai strode forward to stand almost level with Phoss and Aswon and put his hands on his hips, staring at the shaman and shaking his head.
"Farik is a member of one of the local tribes – he's a snake shaman, and one of the more powerful of the local magic users." Kai stared at Farik intently as he 'revealed' the information, making it clear to the shaman that he knew exactly what he was doing, and it was a deliberate statement. Farik scowled at him, but didn't respond verbally, just moving out into the clearing. "Are there any of the hunters out there? Or the other shaman?" Kai saw him shake his head, and thought for a moment before scoffing at himself. Tads had told them a little about Snake, how they liked to learn secrets and knowledge and hoard them to themselves. Of course he'd come alone – he'd want to sit and learn what he could without sharing that knowledge with anyone else…
"Well, you've made things very awkward now, Farik, so you're going to have to deal with the consequences. Go over there by the path and sit on that log or something, and at least guard the trail, while we conduct negotiations." He turned back to Phoss and gestured back towards the middle of the clearing, then headed that way himself. "I do apologise – how do you do?"
"I think that remains to be seen – it depends on if we have any other little surprises to deal with."
"Yes. That wasn't something we'd planned, and we'll be having words later, I assure you. I was being serious when I told him that it made things more complicated, and I certainly hadn't planned on involving the locals in our discussions – at least not at this early stage. But if you're willing, we can resume our discussion and we can reveal our plans a little, and work out if there's any way that we and you can reach an agreement – or at least an understanding."
"Well, we can perhaps go one for one. That seemed to work for us earlier." She holstered her pistol and folded her arms loosely in front of her, while Ury let the SMG lower into a guard position and stood silently. Kai looked from one to the other, then nodded and took a deep breath.
"We are here to help the locals, the various tribes found on the mountain or around this area. We want to stop the construction that is going to tear through this land and ravage the jungle, and prevent the despoiling of the mountain top and the huge amount of pollution that the spaceport would bring. We have been tasked to do that – and that's what we're trying to achieve. If that aligns with what you've been sent to do, then I think we'd be happy to work with you. If that goes against what you've been sent to do – I don't think it does, but just in case – but if that doesn't align with you, we can negotiate perhaps, I'm happy to discuss our aims and objectives, and work to see if there's some agreement or understanding we can reach." His voice was flat, and his face earnest, but the others in the team realised that he wasn't turning on the charm like he normally did – it was as if he was deliberately withholding some of his powers and trying to persuade them the 'old fashioned' way…
"That is interesting… we are here for much the same reason. Our…employer… has sent us here and instructed us to find whatever means we can to prevent the construction effort and to stop the jungle being despoiled and the mountain top ravaged. I am curious to know what your employer has as their objectives for this though?"
"Ahh, well, we don't have an employer per se. This is perhaps by way of a more," Kai paused and thought for a moment, before continuing, "more of a spiritual task. A calling from the local forces manifesting themselves as a vision, crying out for aid."
"So if you're on a spiritual journey, how much are you willing to risk?"
"We're pretty serious. We like money, don't get us wrong – none of us would turn down payment for a job. But this is for our spiritual and mental wellbeing, and we're prepared to go a long way to ensure that – we're willing to sacrifice a lot and we'll see things through. We're serious about this, and while we don't court death, it's a possibility. The natives are pretty serious too – they have a lot more skin in the game than we do, but they're just as prepared to sacrifice as we are, if not more."
"They may be willing to die – but if we do our job right, we see to it that they don't have to." Aswon added, planting the spear into the ground next to him with a thumb and standing tall.
Phoss glanced over at the shaman waiting by the path leading out of the clearing, straining to hear the conversation while trying to act as though he wasn't listening at all, then turned her gaze back to Aswon before giving him a little nod, then turning to look back at Kai.
"I appreciate that, and your point of view. But sometimes sacrifices are unavoidable if you are to reach your goals. Sometimes you have to suffer losses in a war, because the other side wants to win too. Are you prepared for that?" Kai pressed his lips together and looked at her, then gave her an unhappy nod.
"Yes. It's not a situation I look forward to facing, but we're prepared for such an eventuality. As are you, by the expressions on your faces. So – are you willing to perhaps share some information on what we are doing to reach those goals – so that neither of us have to face that situation?"
"I am. At least for now." Phoss took a step towards him, and for a moment Kai thought she was going to shake his hand – but instead she stopped and used her boot to scrape from side to side and clear part of the floor of leaves, moving aside the mulch until she reached bare earth. She grabbed a stick and then started to draw out a crude diagram of the mountain and surrounding area.
"Ok, roughly speaking then, the top is here, where they're planning on making use of the plateau to put their main facility with a minimum of terraforming, but they're still going to flatten the area, do heavy construction and kill of most of the wildlife with the chemicals and processes they use, as well as create an evil eye-sore on an otherwise pristine area, that's going to be visible for kilometres around. The railroad is going to descend the mountain, curving roughly like this, crossing these gorges here, descending, this gorge, then doubling back on itself and curving back down this way, continuing to fall until it reaches the main line way over that way…"
Phoss was concentrating on her map, and didn't see Hunter pull out his screen and start to compare notes, checking her accuracy against the information he'd managed to obtain and extrapolate, and he studied her crude map carefully, especially when she started to identify the six map locations for the railroad construction teams and their efforts – but it seemed that her recon data was pretty good, and it generally matched what he had to work on point for point – it just wasn't as well presented.
"So, our main objective is to scout out each of the camps, and work out a plan to enter, disrupt and exit the camps without interception, sabotaging the construction efforts and putting the maximum strain on their logistics that we can. Our employer will be deploying additional resources to aid in this effort – we're just the ones that could get here soonest."
"It sounds like your employer is willing to get into a protracted fight with Novatech over this one?" Aswon queried.
"Yes, very much so. They would rather not have to fight at all, but they cannot stand by and do nothing while this ecological vandalism is carried out. They must be stopped, by direct action if not by good sense. So, we will sabotage all of their construction efforts as best we can, and raise the price of this project to the point where its continuance is untenable." Phoss looked at Kai with passion on her face, unaware that she was duplicating the plan raised by Marius earlier.
"Our plan was somewhat similar – to damage and disrupt the construction efforts as much as we could, and to try and halt the project – but do it in such a way that we could avoid anything leading back to the locals. They can't resist the efforts of a corporation like Novatech, and they can't sustain a long-term war – they're just not equipped for it. The last thing we want to do is use them in our assaults, or leave evidence that they were involved. Their hunters can move through the jungle very well, but their children and elders, and the folks back at the villages are sitting ducks – and the corporation could make their vengeance felt with relative ease if they had a reason to strike…"
"Well, the locals certainly don't have access to the kind of demo gear we have." Ury spoke for the first time, but he sounded pretty certain – and judging from the pyrotechnics they'd seen at the construction site earlier, Aswon would have to agree. "So they're safe, at least on that front."
"Indeed. And I would agree, to a certain extent. Your approach – at least what we've seen – looks to be a physical penetration of the site and physical damage. They can analyse that and determine that high quality plastic explosives were used, well beyond the ability of the locals to procure and set. Indeed from the information I have, some of their first raids managed to steal some det-cord and charges, but their lack of training led to them killing more of their own people with them, than corporate assets."
"We intend to change our approach – as Novatech adapts to our assaults." Phoss replied. "They will evolve their tactics, and employ more and more technology to fight us – and eventually magical resources too. But we will keep adapting, and force them to be responsive, not proactive."
"Ok – that makes sense, and I figured as much. I was somewhat alarmed with the response time for the choppers last night, or this morning, rather. I'd not thought they would be able to get security on site so quickly, this early in the campaign – unless they've already been hit much harder than I thought?"
"We have not conducted many attacks so far, but I suspect the early assaults by the tribes in the area have heightened their posture. And given the terrain, air-mobile assets makes sense, does it not. Certainly three dimensional movement makes things like the jungle – or security fences – a lot less of an issue." Phoss was clearly referring to her ability to levitate herself and Ury over the fence and escape, and Aswon nodded in agreement. "The choppers are a worry, though – is that something your team can assist with?"
"Not with certainty. We have some heavier weapons – and we can probably force the cargo or troop choppers out of the air. But when we showed our pilot the footage from this morning, he seemed to think that the fast response aircraft that came from the lowlands were dedicated attack choppers, and likely to be significantly armoured and armed." Aswon watched Phoss give Marius a considering look, remembering that his jacks were fairly obvious and marked him out as certainly a rigger, and probably their transport specialist.
"Do you know where they came from?" Kai asked.
"Not the lower ones. The cargo aircraft are based at the top of the mountain, on a rough forward air-base. They chopped in the base materials and dropped them off with a construction crew, and then based themselves there. But the ones from lower down, we have no idea. Presumably there is an airfield somewhere down there."
"Perhaps that could be a joint attack target then – combining both our teams to try and neutralise some of their air-power?" Aswon grinned at her. "If that is one of their greatest advantages, let us take that away from them – and those represent a significant amount of money as well…"
"Perhaps. We hit camp number five this morning. If you pick a target, we can also look to go elsewhere, and stage a simultaneous attack. Force them to either split their response and potentially be overwhelmed at one location, or to choose not to respond to one base and accept the loss of morale there."
"Well, we get the impression you've been here longer than we have, and that you have more operational data than we do. We've only just got here, and were planning on scouting the area – that's what we were doing when we found your camp. But whatever we do, we need to hit very, very hard…" Aswon went on to explain their teams theory about the sunk-cost fallacy and the probable response to attacks and rising costs, and their desire to make the costs rise at a rate that was clearly unsustainable.
"That sounds well and good – but that would require significant damage or a lot of firepower. And you've indicated that you don't have the firepower to take down these attack aircraft…"
"We have a plan for permanent action and defence of the mountain."
"And what is that? Come now, we're in a sharing mood, aren't we?" She smiled at him, waiting to see what Aswon's response would be. He turned towards Tads and then to the rest of the team, sharing glances before he turned back to her.
"We have more magical mojo available to us than might appear obvious at first." Behind his back, Kai subtly tapped out a message on his commlink, sending it over to Tads
[You ok talking about this?]
"What we have planned will hopefully look natural. In some ways it will look similar, we hope, to what happened to the similar efforts to build a space launch facility on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. That's the kind of defence we have planned. Nothing that will corrupt or wreck the manasphere, though!" He clarified.
[Perhaps best not to explain just yet. Not before summoning] Tads responded.
"Well, it does sound like we have broadly similar goals and we're not averse to the methods we're using, either. Can we perhaps make some arrangements for meeting again, a chance to talk more and co-ordinate our plans?" Kai threw in, seeking to change the direction of the conversation in response. "It might also give you a chance to discuss this with your employer, should you need to, and make sure everything is ok from that side of things. Which I presume you'd feel more comfortable doing back at your own camp?"
"Do you have encrypted sat-phones?" Phoss replied.
"Um, yeah?" Kai didn't sound convinced, but he turned to look at Marius who gave an uncomfortable nod, then turned back to Phoss and nodded slightly more emphatically. She in turn gave him a sceptical look, and he turned back to Marius. "Technical stuff – you want to handle this one?"
"Yes, we have a satellite phone. We also have encrypted radios for tactical communications, though the range on those is quite short. However, both are what I would term civilian systems. They are good quality, but they are at most the kind of gear available to a well-provisioned private security force. If we go up against Novatech security, and they break out the big guns, then it will be broken. And if they do bring in technical assets, they will also detect our encrypted communications to determine that they are in fact there – our systems do frequency hopping, but not fast enough to avoid detection from military-grade systems."
"I am also still not convinced that we have the firepower to engage in direct action like you have already. I do not know how much demo gear you have stockpiled at your base, but I know that while we carry some, it is a limited amount. Enough to take out a single hardened target, as generally that is all we need. Perhaps enough to take out a dozen vehicles or an entire camp if carefully placed – but I doubt we have the capacity to take out more than one. I do not mean to sound dismissive – we certainly CAN take out a camp, as Aswon and Hunter reported that you did, and no doubt cause damage that would cost them a million Nuyen in terms of replacement costs. But that level of direct action will only slow them – not stop them. And we cannot maintain the logistics on this to do enough damage to destroy them. The only way to sink this project long-term is to throw their resource assessment off completely – which means either our free spirit plan or waking the volcano – not that I am a fan of either one, I hasten to add. We might need to take delaying actions to slow them down, such as the kind of assault this morning, but we don't win this conflict with normal shadow activities."
Tads and Kai both struggled to keep poker faces as Marius discussed their magical plans, and Kai mentally kicked himself for not sending the message out on the team channel to make them all aware. But, the cat was out of the bag now, and he turned to Phoss to see what her reaction was to Marius. She stood with her head tilted slightly to one side appraising the pilot, silently studying him to see if he was joking.
"This was our general team consensus when we discussed the task, Phoss. We can't afford to get bogged down in a war with a corporation like this. Logistically, they just have too much going for them – resources, transport, manpower… they can overwhelm us. If we nibble at them, they can just keep going. We need to go for a knock-out punch. We are willing to help with camp attacks – but we need to have a longer term goal in mind and a solution that supports that." He turned back to Marius. "Are you happy with communications for the moment? For the short term?"
"Ja. For the moment, we have security through obscurity. Against low-end gear issued to their standard security forces, they will not even detect our transmissions, let alone be able to break them. Against their mercenary or more elite troops – we can probably rely on them not being able to decrypt them, but they will probably realise they are there. If they bring in their cyber-sec specialists, they will have our signals decoded very quickly, possibly even in real-time, and then we are thoroughly compromised. If we have to hook up our comm system to the power-amplifier on the aircraft, we can punch a signal through the jungle to co-ordinate attacks between us – but that massively increases the chances of our systems being heard and analysed."
"You mentioned plans to use a free spirit?" Phoss was looking around with a somewhat vacant expression on her face – familiar enough to the team that they knew she was perceiving the astral realm and not the physical one.
"Yes. We don't have one yet, but we're planning to change that." Kai rubbed his chin for a moment, thinking furiously, then came to a decision. "Trust has to start somewhere, and you seem to have been absolutely straight with us. I'm going to drop my masking…"
Aswon took a step over to Farik and pointed down the path.
"Eyes out, you. If you'd asked, we would have shared. But you didn't – so you get to learn no secrets here…" The Snake shaman glared at him for a moment, but then turned to look outwards, as Aswon took up position behind him, blocking his line of sight to the clearing where Kai was standing. As Kai concentrated he revealed his magical power as his mental shields dropped away, no longer hiding and filtering his astral presence. Just behind him, Shimazu did the same, revealing his much stronger and brighter aura to accompany Kai's. Phoss studied them both, and they felt the edges of her mental examination as she assessed them and determined their power.
Blinking suddenly, Aswon realised that not only was Phoss studying Kai and Shimazu – but so was Ury. He hadn't suspected that he was magically active – not that he'd particularly studied him at all in the circumstances – but he clearly had some level of talent, and Aswon wondered if he was an adept like he was.
"Impressive. Most impressive. I'm much more inclined to work together than apart, to be sure."
"We should work together, if we can. Against a foe like this, we would be foolish not to seek any advantage we can!" Phoss nodded to Kai and he smiled at her broadly. "Can I suggest that whichever of you handles your communications talks to Marius directly and we can sort out codes and access channels and things?"
"Well, I have seen both of you – so I know that you're adepts. And I'm pretty sure that neither Marius nor Hunter are your mages, given the cyberware they're packing. Which leaves only two options – and if you're going to bargain with a free spirit, then you must have a conjuror on the team to facilitate that. So I'd actually suggest we use watcher spirits to do dead-drop style communications, and cut out the technology entirely. We're both familiar with this spot now. If we have messages for each other, we can send a watcher spirit to here, at dawn or dusk, to let the other side know we need to talk. From there we arrange a meet up, and handle the communications face to face. Much less electronic chatter then." Phoss glanced from Aswon to Tads, looking for signs of recognition or response, trying to work out which of them was the conjuror for the team, but both of them just looked at her impassively.
"How easy is it to summon a Wraith?" Marius asked, and it went deathly quiet in the clearing as every single other person turned to stare at him. "What? I heard about them on a trid-show. Something about them sucking the life from people and making them run in fear. Sounds like exactly the kind of thing we need…"
"We do not want, need or require a Wraith!" Aswon shuddered. "I suspect the trid show missed out the more gruesome and grisly details. But rest assured that there is no way we want anything to do with those creatures. They hate life – all life – they might kill the construction crew first, but they wouldn't stop there."
"If we do go through with our summoning plans, though – which would not include Wraiths!" Tads shot Marius a glare as well, to make sure he knew it wasn't going to happen, "then it would be useful to be able to tell it who our friends are. Having seen Kai and Shimazu's auras and true selves, are you willing to share yours? So we can inform the spirit that you're not enemies, and are in fact allies?"
"Hmm. We've seen some of you. Are the rest of you willing to share? If you are, then I think that's a fair request…" She looked over at Tads and Aswon with a slight challenge.
"Before we get into that – is it necessary? I mean, our plan is to make the mountain an awful place to be if you're a corporate construction worker – but not for anyone that lives here or doesn't have nefarious intent. We don't have to co-ordinate much, if this works as I think it should. You go make life interesting at some sites, we'll do the same elsewhere… we don't have to co-ordinate much for that to work, and not hinder each other." Aswon shrugged and returned Phoss' gaze. "I'm not against showing you my aura, or seeing yours – just asking if it needs to be done at all."
"I think working together we'll be far more effective than the sum of our parts. And this isn't because you've already seen me – or Shimazu. But I genuinely believe we'll get more done together, coordinating our efforts."
"I accept that. But just being the voice of caution – we're also potentially risking more. If one of us is captured, and interrogated – there's more to reveal. More chances to be caught by the corporation as they have more information. And don't forget, if we set the spirit free then it's just that – FREE. We can ask it to not attack our allies – but it's a question, not a command. It's a request – that the spirit could ignore if it wanted to. If we do get your astral aura and signature – we still can't guarantee that the spirit wouldn't attack you, or interfere with you." Aswon turned to face Kai. "Just think about the measures we already take with our wards and movement plans to make sure we aren't hunted down."
"I see." Kai rubbed his chin again, then looked up at Phoss. "I still think working with you is the best option. What's done is done – I have no regrets about showing you. But I'm going to respect the wishes and freedom of the rest of the team and let them decide if they want to show you their auras or not. But right now I'm going to go have a word with our Snake shaman and find out what he thought he was doing – and make sure he doesn't see anything regardless of what he wants…" Kai headed over towards the shaman and led him out of the clearing a little, with Shimazu trailing behind just close enough to keep him in sight – just in case.
"I'm willing to show you." Tads dropped her masking, and Aswon saw both of the visitors assense her, reaching out to gently probe her aura and assess her, and saw their matching blinks and shared glances. Clearly they hadn't been expecting another powerful magic user, nor one as strongly hidden as Shimazu, and they couldn't hide their looks of surprise. Aswon kept his own defences up, waiting to see what they'd do. They turned to look at each other, and he saw them lean in and whisper to each other, so quietly that even his enhanced hearing couldn't pick up what they were saying. But he saw them a moment later turn back to face them, and drop their own mental shields – even though he hadn't.
Now it was his turn to blink as he stared at the astral forms of the two miniature dragons that stood before him. A quick flash back to the physical realm reassured him that they were still there and looking 'normal' – a chunky but short human female, and a larger, sturdy and well-muscled ork. But on the astral plane he could see their draconic forms quite clearly, the large folded wings over their backs, elongated snouts and reptilian eyes. Both, he realised, were full mages, capable of casting spells and summoning spirits, able to thrust their conscious mind out of their bodies and travel through the ether, like Tads. But while Phoss was a little more powerful than Ury, neither were that strong – at least not magically. Who knew how strong they actually were, disguised in their metahuman forms? Aswon gave a little start as he realised what he was looking at here… not tiny dragons – but drakes.
He'd heard rumours of them, but never met or seen one in his life – at least until now. Magically-created servants, only the most powerful dragons were rumoured to know the secrets of their construction. Crafted to be loyal servants, so the tales said, they acted as the ambassadors or agents of their draconic overlords, carrying out their wishes in the wider world. That put a different spin on things – and explained some of their line of questioning. If they were truly sworn to the service of a dragon, then they would probably die trying to complete their tasks – so it put their question of 'what would you risk' into a lot more context.
"Thank you for that. That's very interesting…" He heard Tads say. And then, completely predictably she followed up her first message. "I don't know how much time we have here, or how busy we'll be – but I'm willing to share some of my spells with you, if you're interested. I have some that may be quite useful to you. And I'd love to see what you might be able to teach me, if you were willing…"
"You are a very interesting bunch of people." Phoss looked over at Hunter, then at Marius. "I take it you're equally competent in your own specialist areas?" Her voice was filled with curiosity, but not challenge.
"I would like to think so." Marius said. He didn't elaborate, and Hunter just gave them both a broad smile that revealed his wonky teeth and tusk, twisting one side of his face into a grim visage.
"He really is very good, and quite modest, too" Kai said as he returned to the clearing. "And he's never failed to transport us to where we needed to be, and deliver us safely. But don't get too excited or used to the compliments, Marius – it's only because we have guests!"
"Do not worry, Kai. Nothing you do excites me…" Marius said with a dry voice, triggering a snigger from Hunter.
"Well, it seems we're all getting along famously, then. Good stuff."
"Indeed. I actually feel much better about our chances of pulling this off now – especially with you." Somewhat to Kai's surprise, she pointed at Marius, rather than Tads, and he tilted his head slightly and looked puzzled. Phoss laughed lightly, and then pulled out a small PDA, and pulled up some pictures of the construction equipment.
"Here, let me help out a little." Hunter flicked out the large screen with a twist of his wrist, unfurling it to lay over the top of her map of the mountain scratched into the earth, incidentally showing his much more accurate map of the mountain and planned rail route. With a command on his deck, the view zoomed in and showed one of the construction sites, then slid to the side to reveal images of the main types of vehicles found there.
"Impressive – and thanks, that's much easier to see." She didn't mention that he could have displayed the images earlier when she was drawing the map… "Now, can you show me the big crane – and site number four?" Hunter obliged, bring up the map showing the fourth construction area and a picture of the enormous Liebherr LR 11350 crawler crane. "Excellent – that's perfect. This… this is where I would see you coming in, Marius. This thing here is a monster. We could use up kilos of C4 on this trying to cripple it, enough that we'd struggle with the rest of the site. We did wonder about trying to just drive it off the edge of a cliff – sure it would cause SOME damage to the jungle below, but nothing compared to what it would do otherwise. But we can't… you have to have jacks to drive it…"
"I see. So having someone who could get onboard and control the crane would be useful to you?" Marius asked, knowing exactly what the answer was going to be.
"Yes. Very much so. If we can cover you and get you into that, do you think you can drive it?"
"If it doesn't have wings, he's probably not going to be interested…" Tads muttered, drawing an annoyed frown from Marius, but he chose to ignore her and peered closely at the screen. "It would be complex, I am sure. But I am certain I could control such a vehicle."
"Then think of the carnage we can cause. That crane can lift over a thousand tons. It was bought in to lift the big bridge sections they're going to need to cross the gorges and chasms – it's the only thing big enough and mobile enough to get the job done. But imagine what would happen if we used it to pick up those bridge sections and just drop them off the edge of the mountain. Months of pre-fabricated supplies shipped in from Europe – just gone."
"I am onboard with this plan. I could also mention that if you have a crane this big, along with things like dump trucks, and a working knowledge of physics, there is much more that you could do. With the length of the boom and jib on that, you can get a significant working radius from the crane's body. With the weight it can lift, you can easily pick up any of those trucks there, or the bulldozers. Drag them around in a circle and the centripetal force will lift them off the ground and extend them to the length of cable you have – provided you have enough rotational force and power. And with a rigger driving such a vehicle and disabling the safety features, I believe you would have more than enough power. Hit the release mechanism on the lift cable, and that centripetal force becomes centrifugal force."
"Yeet." Whispered Ury. "The biggest yeet you've ever seen…" He looked up and flashed Marius a big grin. "Just how far do you think you could fling something like that?"
"Well, force is equal to mass times acceleration. Several thousand kilograms of machine, several tens of thousands of kilos of force, rotating at high speed… it would be hard to say, but a significant distance. Safe to say we could invent a new sport of 'construction equipment bowling' and have a very serious effect on their equipment roster."
"Could you get it to disassemble itself into smaller bits so we could bury it?" Tads asked.
"Probably – there would be lots of options. Provided that we can keep a heavy armed response from interfering, we could completely devastate a camp with such a crane."
"If we can disable that crane, that strikes a serious blow to their construction plans. Not only is the crane itself murderously expensive, it's also the only one of its capacity in the entire African continent." Phoss smiled as she contemplated its destruction. "It had to be shipped in especially, along with a lot of the other construction supplies. Came on a freighter from the Allied German States, and that took several weeks to arrive – planned months in advance. If they need to order replacement parts, or an entire new crane – that will severely impact their schedule."
"How long would it take you to summon the spirit, Tads?" Aswon asked. "It sounds like we'd need a big distraction somewhere else to carry out an attack like this."
"Not that long – no longer in fact than the normal spirits we call each day. It'll just take me longer to nurse the headache afterwards."
"You don't get a headache from summoning the daily spirits, though?"
"I will from this one – I can tell. I don't know how big it would be, but I know I'm going to get one. It's a significant effort, to say the least."
"Well, if you're going to summon a spirit of the land we would need to move fast – be in place to maximise the time we have until dusk or dawn, and make the most use of this service, if it's going to drain you that badly." Now it was Phoss that rubbed her chin absentmindedly as she studied the map. "We'd want to get into position and recon the site thoroughly, get as much intel as possible. And be ready to strike as soon as your spirit was ready. Would you be able to summon other spirits first do you think? To maybe go and attack camp six at the top of the mountain, and cause a diversion."
"Probably – no, in fact definitely. I normally summon a spirit to protect each of us at dawn and dusk anyway, so that's a fairly standard thing now. Keep calm…" Tads warned, then called on the flock of spirits she had summoned as they hit dusk, just before they'd arrived at the meeting site. She'd kept them away from the meeting before now, not wanting to make their visitors nervous – but now half a dozen great form spirits of the land swirled into existence around her, and she quickly gave them her standard requests, detailing one off to each member of the team to guard and protect them. Phoss and Ury both seemed taken aback by the number and power of the spirits, but then grinned at each other as they realised what such a pack of spirits could do to the construction site.
"Perhaps then we can schedule in our first joint operation, for two days time. That gives us enough time to scout out site four and gain all the intel we need, and for you to make preparations and to scout out site six? And then we can launch the diversionary attack just after dusk, drawing all the response forces up there, while we infiltrate site four with Marius, and perhaps the rest of you to help secure the place and cause maximum carnage?"
"That sounds excellent. And we can communicate easily enough?" Kai queried.
"Now that we know you have a full mage, yes. We can meet here, astrally, and swap any information we need to with absolute security. And it will only take us seconds to reach here from anywhere on the mountain." Phoss seemed to be genuinely enthused by the plan, and Kai chuckled at her glee.
"Well, let's split up then, and head back to our respective camps to get ready."
Phoss fired over her sat-phone number and calling card to Marius, just in case – Marius saw the picture on the ID didn't match Phoss at all, being a slender brunette with attractive features, standing by the side of a podium. He filed it away, to discuss later if it seemed important.
"Is there anything you need before you go? Fresh drinking water or food perhaps?" Tads offered. Phoss was just in the middle of saying no, when Ury leaned in and whispered something in her ear.
"Really? You really want me to ask?" Ury looked a little sheepish but nodded his head. "Is this magically created food, or stuff you have with you?"
"Magical."
"Then do you know how to make, and I can't believe I'm asking this… but can you do chicken nuggets?" Tads nodded, and then pulled out a bag from her backpack, opening it up and then creating a rain of chicken nuggets that cascaded down into the bag, while the smell of fried meat started to drift around the clearing. "Thanks. You can take the boy out of Seattle, but you can't take Seattle out of the boy it seems…" Ury grabbed the bag and popped one of the steaming hot morsels into his mouth, crunching happily and then turned to head west, down the mountain on the same trail they'd entered by. Phoss shrugged in mild amusement, then gave a wave and turned to follow him, letting the smell of nuggets trail after them.
The team head back, taking another circuitous route just in case there was any surveillance on them, and they kept their eyes open as best they could, with Hunter dropping back to watch their six a few times, just in case – but nobody seemed to be following them. Enroute, Kai had a quick chat with Shimazu, lowering his voice to make sure that Farik definitely couldn't hear him.
"You had a look at those people, right? Question for you… if it all goes horribly wrong, could you take them out. With what they are?"
"Don't know – they're not like anyone I've ever met before. I really don't know what they'd be like, or how tough – and there's no way to tell without trying."
"I know you wouldn't hold back, and my thought is that you'd handle them ok. But like… what if they take off and turn those wings real? And just fly above you?"
"Well, if they're inside about fifteen metres or so, I can still get at them." Shimazu smiled, his voice confident, and Kai gave him a funny look. "I've been working on techniques to project my power, and I'm getting the hang of it. If they're close by – I think I can deal with them."
"Oh? Good. I'm just a bit worried about what they are and who they might work for – and how Marius might react if he finds out. You know what his opinion is about dragons…"
"I'll watch them and keep an eye on things. But you know what they say – only the people you trust can betray you!"
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I don't want to have to be watching over my shoulder with these, and hopefully we can trust them – and I won't need you to jump in and save me." He clapped Shimazu on the shoulder and then moved forward, closing in on Farik to make sure he wasn't too upset, so he didn't hear Shimazu muttering under his breath.
"It's my job. Of course I'll be there."
When they made it back to camp, Malik and Surok were waiting in the warded area, and they didn't look happy with Farik at all. Their body language was angry and distrustful, and as soon as he'd sat down, they both laid into him with a rapid-fire verbal assault. The team ignored them, leaving them to police their own matters and not wanting to get involved in their politics. Farik was trying to defend himself, but the other two clearly felt that he'd betrayed their trust and they were more than a little annoyed with him. Once the vitriol had drained from their voices though, and an uneasy silence had descended over the three of them, Kai wandered over with Shimazu and the rest of the team and filled in the other two shaman, mostly cutting Farik out of their tale but updating both of the other shamans on what had happened and filling them in on all the details – apart from the nature of their new allies, which they skipped over, meaning that none of the local shaman knew anything about them.
When the briefing was concluded, Kai pulled Farik to one side.
"Look, I know why you want to know more – Tads briefed us on your totem, and we understand how it shapes what you do. But you've got to think before you act, and behave better – to get some long-term gains. Work towards gaining their trust, and ours, and secrets and knowledge will come your way. I promise you. Take the long view… there's no real harm done so far, that I can see. Just plan your moves more carefully from now on, and keep the bigger picture in mind."
The local shaman nodded, keeping tactfully quiet while Kai lectured him. Kai wasn't entirely sure that he was completely onboard with a change of behaviour – but he seemed to be at least toeing the party line, and that was good enough, at least for now, and he escorted him back to the rest of the group – or at least he was going to, until Tads intercepted him, or rather Farik, and indicated that *she* wanted a word with him. He gave her a wry grin and made a 'calm down' motion with his hands, hoping that she'd realise he'd already had a telling off, but then left her with the shaman, trusting them to sort it out between them.
"Listen, Farik – I wanted to talk to you one shaman to another. I don't know what Kai has said to you, and I don't want to know. But I do want you to take care, ok. I understand you want to know things, I really do. But you have to look after yourself as well. You're the tribal shaman, and they all depend on your for your wisdom and leadership, as well as your skills. Wandering off into the jungle puts you in danger – that's why your tribe sent a bunch of hunters and guards with you to come here. You're important, and you shouldn't go around taking risks. When you're out in the jungle like you were earlier, you're more of a liability – we heard you coming from a good way off, which means so would half the wildlife here, and they'd probably find you a tasty snack. When we were talking with the other team, we also then had to look after you – you're a liability then, someone that would distract us from what we were trying to learn. We're all used to each other, how we work and what we can do. Adding someone new into the mix throws us off balance and makes us less effective. Just… think before you act, ok?" She didn't realise that she was duplicating the theme from Kai's speech, and if she had, she probably wouldn't have cared or stopped – being happy to really hammer the lesson home.
When they returned with a somewhat contrite-looking Farik, both Malik and Surok seemed to be somewhat mollified, and had relaxed significantly. Malik, the monkey shaman, turned to face Tads.
"We are ready to begin the summoning, if that is still what you wish to do. We have been preparing ourselves. Whatever we summon, and however it goes, we will speak on behalf of our tribes, and represent our peoples." He spoke seriously, without the grin or humour that normally filled his voice, and Surok nodded along with him, signifying her agreement.
"Have you thought of a name for the spirit yet?"
"No – we cannot name the spirit until we have seen it – we don't wish to use something inappropriate. But Surok will be the name-giver," he said. Tads wasn't surprised at the role given to her – and she assumed that the parrot totem would give the spirit an appropriate voice.
"Very well. Kai, Aswon, Shimazu – if you can start outside the warded area, while we start inside. You can cross the ward easily enough as the creators, but it should hopefully hold the spirit for a few moments if it is hostile and give you chance to co-ordinate your responses. Marius – Hunter, I'd suggest you go inside the tilt-wing, inside the other ward, just in case. Hunters should probably disperse out into the woods, and be ready to leave if it goes horribly wrong – they won't be able to fight this, and the best thing they could do is to run and warn the tribes about what happened…"
The team nodded and spread out, the Hunter moving away with considerably more reluctance. Tads heard the sound of Hunter loading ammo into his rifle and checking his grenade launcher, then preparing one of the door guns, and thought about warning him that it wasn't likely to help – but she let him be, hoping that it made him feel better and as if he was contributing. Glancing around she saw that Kai was holding his crescent shaped weapon foci somewhat awkwardly, but at least looking ready. Aswon stood about one hundred and twenty degrees offset, his spear in his right hand, but standing unconcernedly, waiting to see what would happen. And further around again, closing the circle was Shimazu, who stood serenely, his eyes almost closed and hands by his sides. His expression didn't worry Tads at all – she'd seen the speed he could muster and knew that if combat seemed inevitable, his blade would be ready to strike.
Crossing into the centre of the warded area, she settled down cross-legged and set out a few choice fetishes around her, inscribing some runes into the cleared earth and calming herself, wishing that perhaps she'd spent time with Shimazu and Aswon learning how to control her breathing and centre herself – before shaking her head at herself. It wasn't through laziness that she hadn't – there was always something else to do, a list of spells to learn and research, and preparations to make to preserve the team and provide for its magical security.
As she sought to reach a calm and collected place to begin her ritual of summoning, she heard the three shaman start to chant, feeling them close in around her until their fingertips were touching, forming a triangle around her body. She naturally fell into their rhythm, timing the beats of her own activity to the word placement and rise and fall of their song. She didn't know what they were singing about, but they seemed confident and somewhat exuberant, and she went with their vibe, drawing in mana in ever increasing quantities.
More and more power soaked into her, suffusing her body and limbs, filling her with magical potential, and when she felt she could hold no more, she called out to the land, reaching down deep into the mountain and looking for a slumbering giant, calling it to her. She shaped the mana, growing the spirit larger and larger, feeding it power and expanding its potential. Power coursed through her, shaking her and making her tremble, and she felt the spirit raging against her for control, not realising that she meant it no harm. A trickle of blood dribbled from her nose which she ignored – that was a common enough problem for any spell caster. When a capillary in her left eye burst and her vision turned crimson, that was more worrying – she gritted her teeth and bent all of her will to controlling the raging beast that fought her for freedom. After what felt like an age – but was no more than a few seconds – the spirit was formed, hovering over her in astral space. A sudden stillness radiated out from the circle of shaman, an oppressive stillness. The air felt charged, and there was an indefinable sense of weight, purpose and mass that filled them.
"I have one service to ask of you," she whispered quietly. "Be. FREE." She released her control of the spirit, willing it to stay and listen to them with all of her might, but the effort subtly focussed as a request, not a demand. As she freed the spirit from her control, she felt the flow of power and essence from each of the tribal shaman, the passing of some indefinable spark of humanity as they each imbued the spirit with some element of their own personality, and the will of their tribes. The spirit morphed, twisting its nature, becoming a thing of free will, tied to the land rather than the astral planes, becoming a creature of earth. Tads saw its power increase dramatically as it soaked up the will of the shaman, absorbing their hopes and dreams, taking counsel of their fears and despair.
There was a soft 'pop' and the spirit disappeared from astral space. Tads blinked, and her heart fell – thinking for a moment that the spirit had left after all. Then her gaze travelled downwards and she spotted a small rock sitting on the ground before her. Rounded, it was a hunk of granite the size of her clenched fist. As she stared at it in confusion it suddenly opened eyes that had no right to be on a lump of rock and stared at her.
"Hewwo." The voice manifested in her head, innocent and child-like, yet somehow holding great gravitas and potential.
"Hello…" she responded, and one of her hands reached forwards and gently touched the rock, letting the digits slide down the smooth surface. There was a flash in her mind as her thoughts were linked with the spirits, and all of the plans they had for the mountain and its defence were mingled together with an intense love of the area, swirling to form a complex gestalt. She blinked as the link was broken just as quickly, and she hoped that whatever the spirit had taken from their brief linking of minds was good. Not even good for their plans and hopes to fight Novatech – just 'good'.
Malik leaned forwards, staring at the back side of the boulder, and she saw his eyes narrow as he studied something intently, scanning back and forth over the surface of the rock. Then his eyes widened, and a huge grin formed on his face, revealing pearly white teeth as he threw back his head and laughed uproariously. The laughter exploded from him, and a moment later she saw tears streaming from the corners of his eyes, as he fell backwards, rocking from side to side while huge peals of amusement ripped through him. If she hadn't seen it start, she would have assumed he was having a fit – but something had clearly set off his sense of humour to the point that it had overtaken his conscious body control.
The other two shaman leaned around to study the back of the rock as well, and the same initial confusion gave way to smiles, and then laughter – not as severe as the monkey shaman, but still genuine belly laughter that had them holding onto their sides. Outside the wared area, the three physical adepts looked on with concern, wondering just what was going on that had caused the reaction – and studying the rock with concern.
"Is it broken?" Shimazu called out. For whatever effort Tads had put in, he clearly wasn't expecting a two kilo lump of rock to the be the outcome, even if it was somehow animated and had eyes.
"I don't think so." Tads rocked up to her feet and then moved around the rock, watching the eyes follow her around, and saw what looked to be scratches on the rear side. As she crouched down to examine them more closely, she saw they were not scratches, but pictograms or paintings – similar in style to the artwork found in caves dating back to the Neolithic era. It showed an eye and a tree, then an eye and a mountain, and finally an eye, a tree, a cross and a mountain. She puzzled over it for a moment, then felt a flash of inspiration and a grin formed on her own face, spreading to give her an idiotic derpy expression as she marvelled at the unexpected message.
"What is it Tads? Are you ok?" Aswon called out, his spear held in both hands now, ready to step through the ward and attack.
"It's fine. It's fine… it's… well, we should have expected something like this… especially given the nature of the shamans that have imbued it with life."
"What?"
"There's writing, of a sort on the back. I'm pretty sure I have the meaning translated right – and it's not surprising. I think it portrays 'not actual size'…" She grinned and giggled to herself again. "I mean – monkey shaman and their sense of fun, parrot shaman and them wanting to tell people things, snake shaman and wanting to keep secrets. It's… well, it makes sense."
"So that's the spirit? That's the big thing you summoned?" Shimazu still sounded sceptical.
"Yes. And I think it understands us just fine, and it knows what we're trying to do. I'm going to let it through the ward now – I suggest you treat it with respect. I mean it, Shimazu – I wasn't expecting it to be this powerful, but there's a strange combination of powers at work here. I think you wouldn't be able to hurt it. Quite literally, not able to hurt it…"
"…" Shimazu had never really had cause to doubt Tads before, and he respected the shaman immensely. But he found this a little hard to believe.
"This is the part of the spirit that is protruding through into the world. Imagine if you were under the water in a river, and only the tip of your sword was showing – and someone looked at it and said 'I can only see two centimetres of blade, that's not scary'… that's the kind of thing we're looking at. So please, lower your sword."
Shimazu did, and she saw Aswon and Kai lower their weapons too, as the rock rolled forward without any obvious source of locomotion. Strangely enough the eyes always seemed to stay level and the same height off the ground, and it rolled around the camp, appearing to investigate things, bumping into them gently.
"I have a name for it." Surok called out, then said something in the local dialect. The other two shaman slapped their thighs, nodding in approval and falling into fits of laughter once more. The team turned towards Aswon, looking for an explanation.
"If I have this right, I think they have given it a name – the best translation I can offer is 'mighty pebble'. Are you sure that you show it respect?" he called over to the three shaman.
"Oh, believe us – we have nothing but respect for this spirit. But this name matches its soul. We take it very seriously – others may not, and that will be their failing."
Aswon raised his eyebrows, but the shaman seemed deadly serious – all laughter having left their faces. He looked over to Tads.
"So, what do we have?"
"Perhaps it would be easier to ask the Mighty Pebble," she said, trying to match the pronunciation they had used. "Excuse me – my friends, gathered here. May they look at you and examine you, to learn about you and how we may support you?" The rock rolled around to face her, and then winked. Tads waited a moment to see if there would be a mental voice to confirm or explain anything, but then waved towards the rock. "Go ahead, guys."
Kai, Aswon and Shimazu all dropped into astral and blinked as they saw the rock sitting on the ground, and the distortion around it. It seemed to be massive in some indefinable way. The air and the space around it was distorted, as if some incredibly heavy weight was pressing against reality, bending it into a spiral and drawing in power from the surroundings. The spirit was huge – a massive combination of power and magical potential. Aswon glanced up and over his shoulder at the spirit that Tads had assigned to him, then back at the mountain spirit, trying to gauge the difference in power levels between them, and coming up with a guess that it was at least seven times stronger than what normally protected them.
"Well, Novatech is not going to enjoy this. Not one bit…" But Aswon grinned like a lunatic as he examined the spirit again, slightly in awe at the soul of the mountain contained in a tiny and disarming lump of rock…
