The Mighty Pebble had rolled around the camp, examining their supplies and equipment silently, and then had drawn each of the local tribesmen away to the edge of the camp to talk to them, the shaman and the hunters alike, absorbing knowledge from them like a sponge and learning their hopes and dreams as well as their fears and issues. While it was learning, the team gathered around the map of the area, and worked out what their next move was going to be.
"So, from talking with Phosss and Ury, the camp here," Aswon gestured to a spot on the map about twelve kilometres from them, "seems to be one of the key sites – that's where the biggest crane is located. And if we can get the spirit to attack the camp at the top of the plateau, where the troop helicopters are located, that will tie them up – and no doubt draw the attention of the attack birds, too. So that seems like a good starting point…"
"And we are planning this for tomorrow night?" Marius cocked an eyebrow, and saw Aswon nod. "Well, I think we ought to travel down as early as possible in the day. I think we need time to recover from the journey – travelling on foot through this terrain will tire us out, as well as potentially be dangerous. We need time to relax and recover, not walk through the day and then launch a strike with no time to rest. Especially if after the assault we may have to evacuate from the site at high speed into the jungle."
"Could you get the bird to come and collect us, if it all goes to hell in a handbasket? Fly it in remotely, I mean?"
"Ja, that is possible. It depends on the terrain though – we may need to take a signal amplifier with us to punch through the jungle or make sure the signal will reach here. And that brings a problem – we will be creating a fairly noticeable electronic signature while I am doing that, so we would be easy to spot."
"Hmm – but only for a few minutes right, for however long it takes to fly down there? And how much does the amp weigh?"
"Probably around ten kilos, and a few more for the power supply if we are taking it out of the bird. Not unmanageable, but not fun to carry through the jungle. And yes, it would only need to be active while the aircraft was under remote control – pre-flight, takeoff and the journey down. It would probably take as long to complete the pre-flight as the journey, given the distance."
"Well, if you need it lumping down there, I'm sure either me or Shimazu can manage it. It ain't that heavy!"
"Don't forget, Hunter, you're going to have your combat armour on, a couple of days of rations and water, just in case, your weapons and a shit ton of ammo and demo gear. You're going to be carrying a fair weight anyway."
"Broad shoulders. It'll be alright." Hunter grinned at him and Aswon shrugged. "Seriously. It'll be fine."
"Your call, chummer. I know I'm not looking forward to carrying all of my gear down there. But if we are going to go with the possibility of a dust-off from the bird, then we need to take all the camo netting down and get everything stowed away, and the path cleared to taxi out from under the canopy into the clear. And that's going to reduce our concealment up here while we're gone…"
"I can leave a spirit here to cover things. And we're not planning on taking the locals with us, are we? So they can keep an eye out…"
"Sure, Tads. Actually, that's a good point – we should warn them what might happen. Doubt they've ever seen a remote takeoff before, and we don't want anyone standing near the aircraft while those rotors are spinning up! We've seen what happened when they tried to experiment with demo gear, we don't want them thinking they're pilots!"
"Well, easy solution. Do not let them aboard. Or near." Marius sounded most definite, and several of the team grinned at him. "What? Simple – stay away from my aircraft!"
"I actually agree with you – and I think both you, and we, are much happier that way. But on a much more serious note – I'm thinking we don't tell them our plans. Partly for operational security, but also to try and keep them safe. If any of them are captured around the mountain, the less they know, the less they can reveal to an interrogator." Aswon's smile faded away as he contemplated the idea of his countrymen being captured by Novatech. "I'm not sure it will save them – but then I'm not sure anything would. But if it's clear that they don't know anything, then there's no reason – or profit – in doing anything to them. In fact it might be wise at this point to think about sending most of the locals home, back to their villages and safely out of the way. The kind of warfare we're doing, I'm not sure they can help."
"I DISAGREE." The gravelly voice rang out, making them all turn and look in confusion. Moments later their eyes dropped to the ground, and to the rock laying on the floor, blinking at them. "Sorry. Louder than I expected. Still getting used to this. But you are wrong. They will be very helpful. I have a plan." Somehow the voice managed to sound excited, ominous and self-satisfied all at the same time. If the rock had a moustache, it was the kind of statement that would lead to it being twirled.
"What do you mean? And we're happy to hear your plan, if you want to share it with us."
"Of course. I need you for it to work. But I also need you to write something down for me. This form… it has some advantages. But the lack of arms is proving to be somewhat irksome at times." The eyes rolled, and several of the team grinned or sniggered at the apparent disaffection. Aswon gestured to Hunter and waited for him to pass over his portable keyboard and then paired it up with his wrist-com, getting ready to make some notes.
"Right, ready when you are…"
"I need the tribes to send some more hunters out, in shifts, to each of the camps. One or two hunters will approach the camps at five minutes past six in the evening – just getting close enough to trigger the alarms or sensors, but not so close as to engage the defences. And then they are to fade away, back into the jungle, and hide. At ten past seven, another pair will approach, from a different direction, and do the same. And the first pair head back in to a new spot at ten to eight. The second pair return at nine thirty seven…" The spirit continued to list out requirements, with apparently random timings, for multiple teams of hunters to continuously probe the defences of the camps on a constant basis.
"What's the purpose here?" Kai asked, wondering what the odd timings meant.
"I think I know – if I may?" Aswon saw the spirit rock slightly, and took it as a nod of approval. "If it was on the hour, every hour it would be predictable and routine, and easy to anticipate. These timings are all over the place though, so the defenders will never know when the hunters are coming – unless they're constantly on alert."
"Exactly. And if they are constantly on guard, then they will tire so much the sooner. And every time the alarm is raised, their forces have to come and investigate in case it is an attack. They have to treat it like it could be a raid – or run the risk of being caught out badly. So they have to run out into the jungle with their equipment or troops, wearing both out and not finding anything. And that will be tiring and frustrating – but any time they don't react, they may regret it. If they do stop reacting to our bluffs, then when we do launch an attack, they will be ill-prepared."
"I think I see what you're doing here" Aswon said to the spirit. "It's designed to wear down their guard, and keep them off balance. It's risky though – the tribes are not that proficient with technology, and the more advanced sensors they've deployed now make things more difficult for them. They just don't have the experience with them."
"Correct. But you do, don't you. And you can show them. And teach them how to set off the sensors safely and escape."
"I suppose…."
"Better than that, we could set up some of the sensors we have, and show them how it works – in a safe way." Hunter suggested. "Set up like an assault course, on the edge of the clearing, and show them how it works from the inside for half of them while the other half tries to sneak in, then swap over…"
"We could – that's going to take a good few hours though, Hunter."
"Got anything better planned for tonight?"
"Well, no, I suppose not. Ok then… is that the kind of thing you wanted?" Aswon looked down at the rock, watching it roll back and forth gently. "Alright then… let's plan this out… Hmm – the first thing we want to do is get them not to communicate vocally… maybe birdcalls or animal sounds, that the sensor net might be filtering out automatically…" Aswon and Hunter got their heads together and started planning while Marius broke out their surveillance gear, and then the three of them built a simple sensor net covering the edge of the clearing, before rounding up the locals for some training.
For the next few hours small groups of tribesmen tried to sneak into the clearing, learning how to work around the sensor pods and surveillance systems, while trying to get better at spotting the electronic systems the team had hidden there, learning as much as they could to in turn pass on their knowledge to the rest of their respective tribes. By one in the morning, they'd got the basics down, and the camp turned in for the night, the hunters volunteering to stand watch and let the team sleep.
The roused at dawn, carrying out their normal morning routine – Tads summoning fresh spirits to guard the team and the tilt-wing, preparing breakfast, cleaning and checking weapons, carrying out their personal hygiene tasks – especially important in the warm and moist jungle climate. Aswon insisted on checking people's feet, his experience of several operations in various similar climates having given him enough experience with the various fungal infections and skin diseases that even modern high-tech footwear couldn't prevent.
With the team checked out and ready, Tads popped into astral and headed to the clearing they had arranged as their communications point, spotting the waiting watcher spirit and sending it back to tell Phosss and Ury they were ready to chat. Moments after it departed, the astral form of Phosss arrived, and they chatted briefly, confirming the details of the raid later that day, before both returning to their camps. Minutes later, with the team updated, they set off through the jungle. Though they'd initially planned not to tell the locals of their destination, they realised on reflection that local knowledge of the trails and paths would make their journey so much easier than it might otherwise be, that the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks. One of the hunters was detailed to guide them through the jungle, while the rest waited back at the camp, keeping an eye on the tilt-wing – though warned once again to stand well clear if it started to move 'on its own'…
With the guide showing them the best route to take down the mountain, the trip was considerably easier than it would otherwise have been. They stayed off the primitive roads, such as there were, and travelled through the rainforest itself, but with the guide's local knowledge they followed some barely established hunting trails that eased their movement, and also avoided a number of sheer drops and cliffs concealed in the thick forest – as well as a number of the local predators.
They were glad they'd taken advantage of the guide as well – all of the team were wearing their combat armour, though it was worn loosely and as unfastened as possible in deference to the humidity and exertion of travelling, but they were also weighed down with gear. Hunter had the large Panther assault cannon slung over his back while his assault rifle was on a sling to his front, and his pockets bulged with spare magazines and grenades. Aswon had his Purdey over his shoulder on a sling, one hand carried his spear while the other toted the heavy 12.7mm sniper rifle in its carrying case. Shimazu had his hands free, but his rucksack bulged with demo gear and supplies, Kai carried the medical kit and a bunch of spare supplies, Marius had his electronics toolkit and rigger deck, and his backpack was distorted and angular where they'd managed to cram in the power amplifier and Tads was weighed down with batteries and power cables to power it.
Even though it was early in the morning, the temperature was already starting to rise. The sun wasn't visible for most of the journey, being nothing more than a distant light source that illuminated the canopy above them, with the occasional beam or ray of sunshine where a tree had fallen – but they felt its effects, with the rising temperatures making the humidity more and more stifling. Surrounded by a thousand different shades of green and brown, they stalked through the forest floor, carefully stepping around the thick roots and spongy soil rich with leaf litter, clinging vines and fresh shoots. The air around them was a cacophony of buzzing, cries and songs as the wildlife went about their business. The air was clear and clean, and the atmosphere was charged with life – the occasional dip into astral space to check for watchers or spirits was almost blinding as the natural life surrounding them filled the environment with the vibrant spark of life.
Marius stomped through the jungle with a dour look on his face, and his corporate upbringing in a city environment showed – branches to the face and slips on the loose soil bought mutters of disgust to his neighbours' ears, and he was clearly not entirely comfortable here. On the other end of the spectrum, Aswon and Tads positively glowed, enjoying the rare natural beauty and unspoilt environment, letting the positivity of astral space suffuse them and moving through the dense woodland with nary a trace.
Arriving a little after lunch time though, they found a good spot on a ridgeline that overlooked the camp, and got to set up positions to do some surveillance. Hunter went out on one flank with his cannon and rifle and set up a hide where he could cover a good portion of the site, while Aswon moved to the other flank and did the same, setting himself up a little sniper nest. The rest of the team stayed at their base camp for the moment, organising the supplies and working out what they needed to take out with them.
The engineering camp was set up in a similar fashion to the first camp they'd seen, the one raided by Phoss and Ury. Clearly whoever was in charge of the Novatech project had read 'the manual' on how to set up a secure facility in a remote location, and there were elements laid out in an identical fashion. The accommodation buildings were set in parallel lines, neatly positioned to give a narrow street between them, with the generator and fuel tank positioned at the far end, while the management offices and executive quarters were at the other end, using the main sleeping quarters to block the sound of the big diesel generator. From the mud tracks, they could see where the dozers, cranes and big construction trucks were parked up, and stacks of construction supplies occupied one corner of the camp. The fence was laid out in a similar fashion to the first as well, the tall mesh rising up from cleared earth, supported by poles that carried floodlights – but unlike the first camp they'd seen, the area outside the fence line wasn't cleared – or at least not to the same extent. This camp had a sheer drop on the north-west side, looking down perhaps two hundred metres into one of the fractured ravines that dotted the landscape of the area. On the other side, the jungle pressed right up against the fence, with some thick and heavy growth that would have been difficult to cut back.
As Aswon and Hunter checked out the camp though, they realised it had been set up with a clear area to the south-east originally… but the fence line had been moved out, extended to bulge the side of the camp outwards significantly, and that had used up the initial cleared area. Inside the fence, barely fitting between it and the first row of trailers for the workers accommodations was a massive crane. The thing was huge, and clearly had been assembled on site – there was no way something that size had been transported on the roads through the jungle. Four massive sets of tracks, each as wide as a normal car rose up on triangular drive sections, forming a motive unit easily as tall as Aswon. A massive motor or engine assembly was on the inside of the section, in turn linked to a huge baseplate that connected all four sets of tracks, held up at least two metres into the air. A circular geared section ran around the whole baseplate, teeth rising up twenty centimetres from the track, their bare metal glinting in the sun.
Sitting atop the base plate was the control unit, another massive engine and the main boom of the crane, rising up over a hundred metres and standing proud of the jungle like a massive periscope. Cables as thick as a man's arm ran up and down inside the girder-work of the boom, running over huge pulleys that must have weighed a ton or more each. As the team studied the pictures being sent back over the fibre-optic cable Hunter had laid behind him they could see the long sections of bridge material waiting to be lifted, each a hundred metres long and ten metres wide. Box girders poked out of each end of the pre-cast concrete sections, ready to be bolted together when lifted into position by the huge crane, and the rails were already installed onto each section to speed up the construction.
The camp was somewhat empty at the moment – other than the crane – all the other equipment being out at the construction point. As the afternoon wore on though, they saw some of the heavy plant starting to trickle back in, with managers guiding the drivers into the correct positions in the camp, making sure they parked close together and in a set order. By the time dusk fell, the compound was rammed to capacity, with there barely being room to swing the gates shut. Workers streamed down from the dozers, cranes and cargo trucks, heading to their quarters to get cleaned up a little before heading to the kitchen to get their food for the evening.
They'd spent enough time watching the camp to have located the security office and determined the guard schedule, and also had a lock on some of the security measures for the camp, picking out some of the sensors and surveillance modules – though this was by no means complete.
Tads headed up to the clearing at dusk, meeting up with the astral form of Phoss again.
"We're in position on the south-east, on a small ridge. Aswon and Hunter have perches set up and have been doing surveillance of the camp, while Marius and Shimazu are ready to launch a physical attack. I'll be supporting near Aswon, and Kai is watching the camp and co-ordinating."
"Good. Ury and I are set up on the north-west, closest to the cliff edge. We're going to come up and over the ridge and strike from that side. Does Marius think he can handle the crane?"
"I think so. If anything I'm more worried that once he's driven it he won't want to give it back. He tends to get attached to things like that, and very possessive."
"Hopefully he can resist the urge – otherwise we'll have to save some demo for that as well."
"I'm sure he'll be fine. Right, we're ready. We'll head to our entry point in five minutes and wait for the signal?"
"Very well. I don't know what's going to tip us off – but we'll keep our eyes and ears open. If I see something, and we're about to go in – I'll send a watcher with a message."
"A watcher? I hope it gets it right…"
"Look Tads, we both know the average watcher spirit is a bubbling moron… so if you see a watcher pop up, we're about to launch our assault because we've seen the go signal – regardless of what it says. Easiest that way…"
"Ok, that seems fair." Tads gave a big grin – Phoss had pretty much hit the nail on the head there!
Their astral forms shot off, almost on parallel courses towards the camp, though Tads was more than twice as fast as Phoss was – though over the distance of a dozen kilometres the time taken was barely noticeable. Both of them reported to their respective team-mates, and the clock started to tick down, while they updated the teams on what the others were doing. Once that was done, Tads checked her commlink and then shot out of her body again, back to their base camp to check in with the shaman and hunters there, and to let them know the attack was going to commence shortly. She was still back to her body within two minutes, so she set off towards Hunter's position, making sure she would be there in time for the actual assault.
She squirmed into position a few minutes later, much to his surprise, sliding forwards on her belly through the moist mulch that made up the rainforest floor.
"What are you doing here?" He kept his voice light, speaking as quietly as he could – he was pretty convinced that he'd swept for bugs and sensors nearby, but you never knew…
"Magical backup. Aswon can look after himself, and keep an astral overwatch, and his spear offers him some protection. It's much better if I've got eyes on you, as well as Marius – I can keep an eye out for magical threats then and neutralise them." She pulled out her binoculars, the special ones that Hunter had sourced for her, and started to scan the compound, looking for signs of life, while Hunter just grunted and went back to doing the same. She smiled to herself, glad that she'd picked the right way to present it to him, having very deliberately avoided using words like 'protect him'.
They settled into silence – at least they made an effort to make no noise. The jungle was alive with the sounds of life, as a million creatures stirred after the sun went down, getting on with the important business of working out just where they were on the food chain, and trying to survive one more day. Minutes ticked by, and the camp was mostly quiet – the workers had eaten and headed back to their cabins, and other than security patrols that checked the perimeter fences there didn't seem to be any life down there – perhaps a security protocol to keep the compound clear of movement so that anything detected could be assumed to be hostile.
A watcher spirit shot up over the edge of the cliff and flew in their direction, frantically scanning the jungle. She looked at it intently, trying to assense it, but the diffuse and simple magics holding it together were too amorphous to get a good read on. With a sigh, she laid down the binoculars, and then her head, before projecting out of her body and rising up from the jungle, making herself easier to spot against the empty sky, hoping that it was a messenger from Phoss. It homed in on her a moment later and started to babble at her.
"Mistress says now. NOW. The thing, it's happening. Right now, we must go. Must go! Important I found you, and I did! Am a good thing, did my job! Deliver message to you, but must remember the message, very important! MUST remember the message! She told me, be clear, to say the message exactly as she told me. Must say it clearly. So came to find you!"
"Very good. Why not go tell her you found me?" Tads nodded reassuringly, and waved back in the general direction the spirit had come from. "Go on, I've got the message. You did a good job. Well done." The spirit was a simple thing, much smaller and weaker than the spirits she normally summoned – and with a flash of insight jolted through her. Phoss was a competent spell caster, from all accounts – her levitation and invisibility cloak had been competent enough it seemed – but that didn't translate to an equal ability with the summoning of spirits. For Tads the two went hand in hand, her mentor had always made clear that she must master both, and keep them both well practiced. But she knew that some people favoured one more than the other, and indeed she'd found some mages who knew and used only one side of their magical talent. She guessed that Phoss was much less competent at her summoning, and that the creatures she was able to bind and bargain with were by necessity much simpler and less intelligent than she was used to…
She rose up and drifted over the jungle a little, trying to find a little bit of cover to screen her against the compound, and then materialised into the physical world, appearing as a ghostly form of herself. Still invisible to technological sensors, she could be seen by physical eyes – hence wanting to break line of sight from the trailers – but also meant that she could see with her own eyes in the physical sense, rather than just looking at the astral shadows of the world. And that meant she saw the huge fireball at the top of the mountain, spreading out high in the air. She didn't know what had caused it, but it was starting to fade away, the flames spreading out into the air, a mix of dull reds and oranges, mixed in with black smoke that dissipated into the night winds. She dropped back down to her body quickly, then activated her commlink.
"Pebble has started his assault, there's a big fireball at the top of the mountain."
"Moving in." She heard Marius respond, and scrabbled for her binoculars, keeping an eye out on the compound as the team below started their final movement to the fence. No more than a minute later, she, Hunter and Aswon saw a couple of dark shapes appear near the fence, crouching down low to minimise their profile. Shimazu pulled out a pair of snips and started to work on the fence, opening up a flap for them to squeeze through. He could have just sliced through the fence in a moment with his sword – but that would have left a very noticeable rent, and at the moment he clearly valued stealth more.
Across the compound the door opened to the security hut, and three men appeared, stumbling out of the door while they fiddled with the snaps on their body armour, tightening down the connection between the front and back parts of the clamshell armour. As they managed to get their body-armour back into position, they reached for weapons and started to move through the compound, heading unerringly towards the section of fence where Marius and Shimazu were busy.
"Heads up, you have incoming security. Must have tripped an alarm…" Hunter warned them.
"Lining up a shot." Aswon slowed his breathing and swung his Purdey around, laying the sights over the temple of the lead security officer and following his movements."
"Hang on, do they need to die?"
"They're not going to just let them cut their way in there!" Hunter said impatiently. He bought his assault rifle up into position and got ready to fire off a shot.
"I'll stop them – just give me a second. But they don't need to die…" Tads concentrated, drawing in mana from the surrounding area. It was clean and pure, and she barely felt any effort at all as she launched a blast of stunning magic at the three, sending them down to the ground between two of the trucks, still more than a dozen metres from fence. "There, they'll be out for hours. Shimazu, you're clear for the moment…"
"Stay down though – incoming choppers!" Aswon warned. Moments later they heard it too, as the sounds of approaching aircraft overwhelmed the noise of the rainforest. The attack choppers crossed their line of sight quickly, travelling quickly and climbing, the pilots pushing the engines hard to keep up the speed while they ascended the mountain heading for the plateau and whatever situation Pebble was causing. The team counted five birds, passing by their camp and pushing onwards towards the summit. It wouldn't take much time for them to turn around and return – but then it clearly hadn't taken long for them to scramble from their base at the foot of the mountain and fly up here either… so it was up to the massive spirit now to keep them distracted.
"All clear, they're heading up the mountain still. Compound is quiet, for the moment." Aswon swung his scope around and checked towards the security hut. "You'll have to move fast though now, they know something is up. Won't be long before they miss a report from that first squad."
Shimazu sped up his work, sacrificing neatness now for speed of access, knowing that they'd already been detected. Moments later he ripped back a section of the fence, allowing Marius to scurry through the hole and start working his way towards the massive crane, then jamming the cutters back into his pocket and drawing his sword, moving swiftly along after him. Across the compound, next to the cliff, a dark shape drifted up into the air, rising above the fence and then moving forwards and over the fence-top, then slowly dropping down to the ground.
"Phoss and Ury are in, next to the cliff. Looks like they're going to start planting demo on the vehicles that side and possibly the buildings." Aswon swung his rifle that way, seeing the two operatives scurry into cover, then start to work on the first bulldozer parked up near the fence line. A crack of light drew his attention, and he adjusted slightly, sighting back on the security office. The door opened wide again, and half a dozen more security officers boiled out of it, one team of three heading once more towards Shimazu and Marius, while the other three headed over towards the dozer.
"Phoss and Ury have been detected. Team heading their way – Tads, take them. Hunter, you have another team heading for Marius." He pulled in the rifle, and snugged his head down, then took a deep breath as he adjusted his position slightly. In the doorway stood a seventh man, talking into his radio. He wore shirt and trousers, not the combat fatigues of the security troops, and was barking orders. Probably the supervisor, co-ordinating the efforts of his men. The crosshairs settled on the middle of his head, and then a moment later his head exploded, showering the inside of the security hut with ichor. "Supervisor down."
"Second team down." Tads said, letting out a breath.
Three quiet shots sounded, the noise of the rifle cycling almost as loud as the rounds firing off down-range. The third squad of three went down, crying out in agony as Hunter put a round into each of them, one shot per second spitting out from his custom rifle.
"Team three neutralised. Still alive, but not combat effective." He zoomed in and saw them crawling through the mud on the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind them, weapons abandoned as they tried to get into cover.
"Climbing the crane now." They saw Marius swiftly ascending the ladder on the rear left set of tracks, then jumping across onto the huge baseplate and climbing the second ladder that took him up to the operator's cab. Shimazu swarmed up after him, cramming onto the ledge as Marius knelt down and pulled out his toolkit, going to work on the mag-lock that sealed the door shut. The seconds ticked past as he worked to rip off the cover and probe at the circuit board inside, bypassing the lock. It felt alien to him to rush the job like this and to just throw the cover and screws over his shoulder – but this was a job for speed now, not subtlety.
"Waaaaaah! Waaaaaah! Waaaaaah!"
The alarm rang out from the cab as Marius tripped some kind of anti-tamper mechanism, and flood lights came on all over the crane. The rest of the team saw lights from all over the compound as people opened doors and windows to look out. All of the floodlights atop the security fence switched mode, increasing their brightness and field of illumination, and red lights popped up in the four corners of the compound, blinking as they sent out a distress call.
"Scheisse!" Marius pulled out another tool and jammed it into the circuit board, and he managed to isolate the alarm a few seconds later, but the damage was done.
"Well, they definitely know we're here. Marius, concentrate on the controls. We've got you covered, buddy." Hunter laid down his assault rifle by his side and rose from his prone position to a more upright stance, one knee bent before him. His powerful arms reached down and grabbed the Panther cannon, swinging it up into position and he felt a little tingle of anticipation as the smartlink induction pad in his palm meshed with the pad on the weapons grip, systems coming alive and the targeting reticule popped up in his field of view. Unlike the precision carat of the assault rifle, this was a circle, considerably larger – as befitted the explosive force from the 30mm wide cannon rounds. His right hand held the grip firmly while the left hand checked the huge box magazine was securely seated and hadn't slipped out of position. Each of the rounds was 173mm long, and that made for a big magazine that stuck out from the weapon a significant distance. The mag was well seated though, and he pulled back the charging handle with a resounding 'ca-clack' and a big grin spread across his face.
Further around the perimeter, Aswon had carefully slung his Purdey and was replicating Hunter's actions – but pulling out his 12.7mm sniper rifle instead and quickly assembling it, sliding in the free-floating barrel into the receiver and slapping in his own hefty box magazine, then screwing on the massive silencer. He knew from experience that he only had a couple of shots before the gasses in the cylinder heated up enough to prevent it being effective – but then he also wasn't planning on taking that many shots. If he was firing enough that the sound was no longer suppressed, then chances are that any concept of stealth had already gone out of the window.
Back at the crane, Marius had wrenched open the door and jumped into the operator's chair, and was sliding in the jack cable from the huge machine into the receptacle on the back of his neck. Systems came alive, icons danced through his mind and he felt his meat body fade away to be replaced with the enormous metal body of the crane. Starter motors cranked and twenty cylinder engines rumbled to life, hydraulic systems powered up, oil pressure rose and the massive machine quivered with power as he tested out its responses. On the rear deck, Shimazu grabbed hold of the handrail as the cab and lifting arm suddenly rotated as Marius tested out the controls. It came to a sudden halt, then whipped back the other way as he found the safety protocols, disengaged them and then reformatted the chip that contained them, banishing their pedestrian limits from his life. Engines howled as he revved them up, not caring about the longevity of the parts for what he had in mind, while a little part of him hated himself for what he was about to do with this wonderful piece of engineering…
The crane hook swung around and then fell as the cable brake was released, accelerating downwards and 9.8 metres per second squared. The multi-ton hook smashed through the roof of the security hut, slicing through the thin structure like butter and smashing into the floor below and cracking that open. He reversed the motor, lifting and the hook sailed back up and caught on the roof, yanking the entire building into the air. Water and sewage pipes broke off, and electrical cables snapped and sparked as the building lifted up a metre into the air. The crane arm jerked up and down, and the force of the motion either freed or snapped whatever structural element the crane hook had been jammed on and the building slammed down onto the ground, sliding off the make-shift foundations and crushing the service pipes below it. Marius didn't care though, swinging the arm to the side and sending the hook slamming into one of the management cabins like a wrecking ball, carving through the wall on one side and slashing through the room with no less deadly efficiency than a buzzsaw, before swinging out of the other side.
He retracted the hook high into the air and swung back towards another building, before letting it fall once more and crash through the ceiling. Seconds later people exploded out of the building, jumping from windows or throwing themselves out of the door into the mud below, desperate to get away from the danger. He gave them a second to get clear then pulled the hook up, shaking the building again until it snapped in two and fell to the ground. Without a pause, he moved onto the next, then the next, working his way through the accommodation blocks and carving big chunks out of them or picking them up and dashing them to the ground, until there were scores of workers running around the compound like headless chickens, trying to avoid his rampage of destruction.
Some of the workers ran headlong into the fence in their panic, making the mesh bulge outwards with the force of their impact, and in a few cases sending the poles leaning outwards as the muddy ground gave way. As more and more of the machine operators and cargo handlers rushed the fence it gave way, sagging down almost to ground level and letting the panicked staff clamber over it and run into the jungle.
Marius turned his attention back to the rest of the compound and swung the massive crane around, sending the hook plummeting down into one of the prefab sections of rails and trying to hook it, lifting it up and shaking it violently until the plascrete fractured and the steel girders warped and deformed. The hook was jammed into the hole it had created, wedged well and truly tight on the distorted mass of steel buried inside the crumbling plascrete. With a slight mental shrug Marius just adjusted tactics slightly, and lifted the whole multi-hundred ton section up like a massive bat and then swung the crane around as quickly as the motors would let him, sweeping supplies before him and sending bits of construction material flying through the air. Gravel lorries were sent tumbling end over end as the bridge section slammed into them at forty kilometres per hour, the momentum transferring into enough force to throw them metres across the compound. He kept away from the corner with the bulldozers and the fuel tanks, knowing that Phoss and Ury were over that way, and concentrated his rampage of destruction on the rest of the compound instead.
Warning lights were popping up all over his mental HUD now as hydraulic systems were stressed and overloaded, motors heated up and components were pushed to their maximum rated levels and beyond. He swept them aside and ignored them, pushing the machine onwards as he systematically sent his giant bat crashing into machines one after another. The huge jib gave him enough reach to cover the whole camp, and the massive bridge section turned his one ton crane hook into a two hundred ton pile driver, and despite being heavily constructed to handle the rigours of harsh construction environment, the designers had never envisaged their machines being assaulted like this. Safety cages crumpled, chassis twisted and engines were crushed as Marius wreaked havoc upon them, smashing them utterly and sweeping them before him. It wasn't quite like the thrill of flying, but the power was somewhat intoxicating, and Marius threw himself into the task with his normal dedication and efficiency.
A watcher spirit flew into the camp, stopping and looking down at the scene of carnage below it. It was stronger and considerably more powerful than the one Tads had seen earlier, and she studied it carefully, noting how it appeared to be wearing a facsimile of a boiler suit. No doubt some corporate mages idea of suitable attire for an underling. As it surveyed the damage below it, Tads started to draw in power, and as it turned to leave, heading back towards the bottom of the mountain she reached out with mental hands to grab it. It felt her astral grasp and turned to fight her – but it was in no way a match for her power. Her hands squeezed the life from it, compressing it down and banishing it from the world, sending its mana back to whatever plane it had been summoned from.
"Astral scout just turned up – mages are probably alerted and we may have magical backup soon." She warned, hearing a series of answering clicks or 'ok' from the rest of the team.
"Looks like we have some of the braver souls trying to get to the security hut, or what remains of it…" Aswon took out the first person who made it to the hut and managed to recover a weapon from the ruined remains, before Tads could get her binoculars back on target and drop the rest with another massive blast of energy.
Marius, meanwhile, was almost out of targets to destroy, and had started to drive towards the edge of the compound. The crane was not fast – it couldn't even manage a brisk walking pace – but it had power in abundance, and the massive tracks made short work of anything and everything in its path. The shattered remains of trucks and scattered construction materials were crushed beneath it with barely a shudder while it ponderously lumbered towards the drop.
"Heads up! Chopper, north side!" Aswon laid the Purdey down and grabbed the larger rifle, scootching around to get eyes onto the attack bird that was sliding around the horizon, examining the camp.
"Camp Delta, this is Badger Three. Report!" The signal came in on the frequency set up in the cranes cab and Marius twitched as it resounded through his head. He sent out a quick message over the team channel.
"Wait!" He took a second, made sure he'd swapped over to the general Novatech channel, and then tried to put some panic and uncertainty in his voice. "Help! We have been attacked!" That had to be be the most asinine and redundant thing he'd ever said over the radio, and he cringed slightly as he said it – but he carried on regardless. "Someone has gotten to the crane and programmed some commands into it, it is running amok! I am trying to shut it down, but the supervisor is not answering my calls! Someone has hacked the controls!"
"Roger that. Be advised you're less than a hundred metres from the ravine. Get it shut down, fast!"
"I will try." There was a pause on the radio, and Marius slewed the tracks back and forth slightly, while also rotating the crane around a little and swinging the arm up and down to try and add credence to his story.
"What is your employee ID? What section do you work for?" The attack chopper had drifted backwards a little, and the nose of the aircraft was pointed directly at the cab now – along with the nose-mounted cannon and all the missiles on the wings… Marius swapped frequency.
"I think he is suspicious. A little backup would be good."
Barely had the words come out of his mouth when he saw the armoured canopy of the chopper shatter and fragment as the sniper round slammed into it. The multi-layered tempered construction was proof against small arms and assault rifle sized rounds, and would probably have stopped even machine gun fire. But Aswon was packing his anti-vehicle munitions for this raid, and the tungsten alloy penetrators made short work of the reinforced material, punching a hole through and ricocheting around the cockpit and sending a swarm of fragments into the pilot's face, peppering his visor and helmet. Instinctively they slewed hard on the controls, their mind sending commands to their virtual legs to push on the rudder, yank the collective and throw the joystick hard over. The chopper rose and twisted, snatching the cockpit away from the hidden sniper – but unfortunately then swinging the engine exhaust around until it filled the sights for Hunter.
The 30mm round was more than twice as large as the sniper round, and it too was a specially designed and shaped anti-vehicle munition, built to engage targets just like this. The depleted uranium tip punched through the engine cowl like a hot knife through butter, carrying the explosive core with it and detonating as it penetrated the turbo-jet engine. Fragments of engine exploded outwards, sending turbine blades scything out through the airframe in a wide arc, while the explosion ripped through the valves on the fuel lines that were supposed to prevent back-blast, and the fire spread through to the tank of JP1 fuel. Moments later the chopper was consumed in a fireball that savaged it and sent the wrecked hulk spinning wildly down into the ravine below.
Marius looked out through the sensors and conflicting emotions ran through him. On one hand, the chopper pilot had clearly realised he was being fed a line of drek, and was about to engage him – and Marius had no desire to be on the receiving end of a hail of gunfire. On the other, the guy was a corporate flyer, just like he'd been. Earning his pay by following orders, flying to the best of his ability. He didn't know him personally, but he felt like he knew him – and that he'd somehow betrayed a fellow pilot. He sat in the chair, watching the replay of the chopper being hit and going down, wondering how close he'd been to that happening – or how close he could be, and the image of Nadia and Marius Junior popped into his head, refusing to leave. How easy it would be to lose them, to never see them again… a chill ran down his spine. Then another.
Reality snapped back to him as a third chill ran down his spine, and he realised it wasn't a figment of his imagination – it was a coolant leak from the overstressed machine, spraying fluid all over the rear of the engine.
"Shimazu, stand by. I am setting the commands to keep driving, but we need to get off."
"Good – the edge is looking awfully close now!"
Marius disengaged the sensors, blinding the machine and set the sensor feed from a few minutes ago into the buffer, feeding images of being in the centre of the camp to the rudimentary pilot program, and then setting a waypoint for a hundred and fifty metres away, engaged the auto systems and then jacked out.
"Time to go!" Shimazu didn't need to be told twice and sheathed his sword then started to swiftly climb down the ladder to the base section, closely followed by Marius. The massive tracks creaked and ground their way past them as the massive machine continued to trundle forward at three point eight kilometres per hour, closing inexorably on the sheer edge.
"Base Delta, this is Badger-Four – what is going on down there?" A second attack chopper slid into view around the edge of the rainforest, approaching the camp from the open side. Marius didn't bother trying to communicate this time, and just sent the signal to engage. The scene replayed with a grim inevitability, Aswon shooting first and making the chopper twist violently away by reflex before Hunter sent a round screaming into the engine bay. The explosion wasn't as catastrophic this time, but the engines were taken out, and they were far too low to auto-rotate down safely. It didn't stop the pilot from trying, but he quickly dropped down out of view leaving a spiral of smoke behind him to mark his passage.
"You good to jump, Shimazu?"
"Better than you, I suspect." Shimazu hopped down lithely, landing in the mud with a deep knee flex and bouncing up as if it was nothing, while Marius needed to use all of his concentration and effort to avoid going arse over tit in the thickly-churned mud and debris – but he did manage not to fall. Both of them walked away from the monster crane as it continued towards the precipice, its simplistic dog-brain carrying out the orders given to it with utter loyalty. The front tracks slid over the edge and the machine lurched, stalling for a second on the rocks while a teeth jarring screech informed them of damage to the underside of the crane. It paused for a moment, wavering back and forth, the lights casting little arcs of brightness in the sky as the enormous weight of the crane shifted back and forth. Something gave way underneath it though, and the rear tracks got just a tiny bit of traction, enough to push forwards and drive the baseplate over the obstacle it had been caught on, passing the point of no return. Ponderously it tipped forwards, sliding further and further until the cliff edge crumbled underneath it, tipping it forwards and sending it tumbling down to the ground below.
The fuel tanks exploded when it hit the ground, sending a sheet of flame rising up the cliff face like a curtain of orange and red, backlighting Shimazu and Marius as they walked away from the edge, blasts of hot air blowing their hair and coats about while they made their way back towards the edge of the rainforest.
"Inbound mage!" Aswon saw them first, an astral presence shooting up from the plains below, accompanied by two powerful elementals.
"I'm on the left elemental." Tads concentrated, reaching out again with her magical power to rip and rend at the spirit, disrupting the cohesion of mana that held it together. It tried to resist, and the mage that was with them was clearly the summoner as it put up much more of a fight than she expected. It was diminished greatly, but not destroyed in her first attack, and she felt the protective flow of energy from the mage as he tried to augment the elemental's defences. He also looked straight at her – somehow spotting her in the concealment. Perhaps her aura had flashed with power, or he was sensing her somehow through the assault. Either way, it didn't matter – and she had only a split second to react before he could turn the tables on her and attack her directly.
She was just as surprised as the mage and remaining elemental was when two blasts of lightning rose up from the ground, then, one slamming into the mage and the other into the unengaged elemental. She gawped as she realised that all three of the targets were still only present astrally – not really present in the physical realm. That had to be Phoss and Ury down there, slinging some major mojo at them. But casting in the astral plane was MUCH more difficult and dangerous than in the physical plane, and both of them were risking much more than a nosebleed or headache from an attack like this – more like a major bleed on the brain or some kind of aneurism. Unless this was some weird kind of draconic technique they had been taught….
Whatever it was, it was effective. The astral forms of the mage and second elemental were wracked with pain as the astral lightning blasted them, burning them and ripping chunks of their bodies off, sending them off into the aether. Tads concentrated on the first spirit, now left to fend for itself while the mage tried to deal with the pain and damage flooding through his body, and she quickly finished it off.
The mage fled, turning and leaving the elemental to soak the follow up lightning blasts, and Tads concentrated on his fleeing form, trying to make sure she could get a 'taste' of his signature so she could spot him again.
"Ok team, I think we've achieved what we came here for. Time to leave." Kai called out, checking the state of the camp. The fence was down in half a dozen different places, with terrified workers fleeing in their underwear out into the rainforest – more fool them. Most of the buildings were nothing more than shattered hulks, and the only pieces of machinery still intact were the ones over in the corner near the generator and fuel tank – and he strongly suspected they would stay that way only until their allies hit the detonator. More importantly all of the supplies were scattered and wrecked, the major bridging components were destroyed and the massive crane tipped over the edge of a three hundred metre drop and consumed in an explosion.
Not bad for five minutes work…
"I have a suggestion. Shimazu, Marius – grab the bodies of the ones that we killed with gunfire, and drag them out."
"Why?" Marius asked distastefully.
"The ones Tads stunned didn't see anything, and will wake up in hell in a few hours. But if we hide the dead, they can't do forensics and work out what they were attacked by. Denies them a lot of info on what went on."
"I think that's a good idea. Ok, all into the compound, let's grab the bodies and drag them out, into the trees and at least a hundred metres out if we can. We'll leave them for the predators to come feast on."
The team converged on the compound, dragging the handful of people that had been engaged with direct fire and lumping the bodies out into the dense woodlands, weaving in and out of the mass of trees as they struggled with the dead weights of the corpses before leaving them scattered in the woods, carrion for the local wildlife.
With that done, they headed back up the mountain, moving at a steady pace. With both the attack choppers taken out in such short order they were fairly sure there wasn't going to be much of value reported back to Novatech, so they made slow but steady progress, working on a somewhat stealthy journey rather than a speedy retreat.
An hour into the journey, they saw another fireball rise up into the sky as either Phoss or Ury hit their detonator and set off their demo, destroying the generator and a thousand litres of fuel, and doing whatever damage they could to the few remaining vehicles present.
They made sure to take a different route back to their camp, moving in a careful line, with Aswon keeping a good astral watch on their rear for tails, while Tads was up front with the guide to check for ambushes. It took them several hours to get back to their base camp moving at the slow pace, and all of them were hot, sweaty, tired and irritable – but relieved to be back without any incident.
"No sitting down, folks – drop your rucksacks and the big weapons, but we gotta get those nets back up over the bird! Aswon called out, earning a series of groans from the others. Nobody argued though – Novatech was definitely going to be looking for them after this attack, and they had to do everything they could to prevent the aircraft from being spotted.
With the local hunters helping as well though, it didn't take long, and soon enough the team were chilling in chairs and unwinding from the assault, just as the clock hit four in the morning. Marius had a far away look on his face and was holding his sat-phone out on one knee, keeping the antenna aimed upwards.
"Six and a half."
"Nah, must be at least an eight. Maybe a nine." Kai responded.
"What?" Marius frowned and glanced over at Kai.
"What?"
"What are you talking about Kai?
"That attack – that was at least an eight, maybe a nine out of ten. Went really well."
"Oh. No. Well, yes, but that was not what I was talking about. I have been trying to gauge the value of the equipment we have destroyed tonight. Factoring in training costs for personnel, supplies, transportation and so forth… I think roughly six and a half million Nuyen worth of loss."
Aswon whistled and Hunter grinned, while Tads just stared blankly, trying to imagine what that actually meant. Shimazu just looked at them with his usual inscrutable expression.
"Well. That'll certainly get their attention. Let's see what Novatech do in response…" Kai grabbed a drink and slurped at it noisily, then grinned at the rest of the team. "Fraks about to get real interesting!
