Sunday 12/06/2061, Location: 66.0579, 50.18371, Time 02:41

"Are you ok Tads? Tads? Can you hear me?"

"Ugh… yes, I can hear you, Kai."

"Are you ok?"

"I think so."

"Ok, good. Right, Marius – we're all fine back here it seems. How long to the drop-off point?"

"No – I'm not going." Tads interrupted. "I need you to slow down and get low. I'm getting out."

"What?" The sounds were intermingled, as Hunter, Kai and Aswon all questioned her.

"I need to get out. Elk has something for me to do. Not later. Now. I'm getting out."

"Can't we sort it when we get back from dropping off the cargo?"

"NOW, Kai! Do you not remember what happened before? I either get out now, or you don't have a shaman any more."

"Tads – is this the best place?" Aswon grabbed the viewing prism and checked out the view below through the dim light. "There's no signs of life, and the tree cover is building up. How long will it take you to find your tribe? Or whatever it is you're looking for."

"I mean it – I'm getting out!"

"I'm not trying to stop you. All I'm saying is, wouldn't it be better to be actually dropped off near some of your people. So you don't have to walk for half a day to find someone?" He raised the goggles and looked at her, trying to get her to see reason. She looked really annoyed, but couldn't find fault with his logic, and sat back in her seat, arms folded.

"I suppose so. Finding a camp would be better, and let me find out what's going on."

"Well, what about your home tribe or village. How far away is that?"

"Hunter, can you show me a map, please?" She waited a few seconds until the monitors sprang to life, displaying the area, with a fast moving icon cutting across the landscape. "The bit up and to the left of where we are now. Where there's a bit that sticks out into the sea." She watched the screen as Hunter drew a box around an area and highlighted it. "Yes, that bit. That's my home, at least before I left to wander."

"One hundred and forty klicks, sending you the course now, Marius." Hunter fired the co-ordinates over and then checked the distances, angles and information from the map. "It's only going to add about seventy kilometres to the journey, so it's not even that far out of the way. But I'd suggest if we're dropping Tads off there, we might as well land and refuel. It's only four hundred klicks up to the meeting point, but I'm sure we'd rather have full tanks and plenty of time for hiding or fighting, than be running on fumes."

"I agree" Marius responded. "Changing course now. ETA about fifteen minutes."

They flew on over the landscape, watching the forest thicken up over the undulating landscape. The area they'd left behind was the northern edge of the Eurasian Steppes, fairly barren and windswept, featureless and not particularly productive. With the harshness of the weather and the limited prospects, it was very sparsely inhabited or developed. Now, though, they were entering the thick forest area, not just woodland, and there was almost no break in the tree-cover, and certainly nowhere to land – though Tads was more than capable of levitating herself out of the vehicle and down to the ground.

The tilt-wing flew on, crossing the eighty-kilometre-thick band of evergreens quickly, spotting nothing on its sensors during the overflight, before crossing over into thinning woods and then back onto the barren plains once more.

"Tads. I'm not arguing with what you've got to do. I just want to know what it IS that you have to do. I want to help – but I don't know what you saw, or what your totem told you. I can't… WE can't help you, if we don't know what you have to do. And this is obviously important enough that I don't want to make things worse for you because I don't understand."

"I need to deal with the Russians, Aswon. I need to stop the genocide of my people, and the destruction of our lands. I need to stop this Mitsuhama plan, before they rip up this place and pollute it, tear the land to pieces and spread filth everywhere. I have to stop them. I'm going to stop them. And I don't care how." Tads was trembling, her jaw quivering with tension giving her voice a noticeable tremor. Kai was watching her carefully, listening to her choice of words, watching her body language, and he didn't like what he saw. From time to time, Tads had become obstinate or determined, and generally it was unusual enough, or her point of view was understandable enough that she got her way. It wasn't that she was throwing her weight about, but it did mean that she felt strongly enough about a situation that she was not prepared to be flexible about it. And mostly, it had worked out ok.

But this…

This was the most upset he'd ever seen her. He sat back in his seat and then rephrased his thought. She wasn't upset. Or rather she was… but it wasn't her primary emotion. But there was anger in there too, a white hot fury about what was planned for her people and her land. She'd been determined to make sure that Novatech was frustrated down in Nigeria, and had used her powers to see that plan come to fruition. But she'd been rational about it, logical. He examined her again, and wished he'd spent a bit more time learning about magic from some of his elders back home. No doubt Aswon was having similar thoughts – but had more to base it on. At the moment though, Tads had a dangerous air of fanaticism to her, and Kai suddenly had a vision of her spiralling into a course of action to defend her people, no matter the cost. No matter the impact, or the morality of what she was doing. He gave a little shiver at the thought of her spirits sent out on a rampage, destroying everything in her path. And for a brief moment, he glimpsed the future of how much that would destroy her when she realised what she'd done.

"Tads – he's right. We need to know what you're going to do, and how long it will take. So we can work out how best to help you. By the sounds of things, if we drop you off at this village of yours, we can fill up the aircraft while we work out who we need to speak to at your village. But I'm thinking then that Marius, Hunter and I should go off and do the delivery – get the cargo handed over and then just head back here? If that gives you a couple of hours to get a plan together, we can work out then what part we can play in it. But we will help." He leant forwards, making sure he had good eye contact with her, and lowered his voice. After a brief hesitation, he concentrated and made an effort to turn off his 'powers', his abilities to control his voice and his emotions, to alter his face and body language. He settled for just being Kai, for letting her see his normal self. "We will help you with this, whatever it is you need doing. You're not alone here."

Tads stared at him for a moment, then shuddered, and leant back in her seat, resting her head on the barely-padded cushion behind her. Her shoulders sagged, and she let out a deep breath, stilling her body and the trembles died away as she considered his words, stepping back from the precipice of her rage. It wasn't gone, but the fire reduced to embers, no longer a conflagration that threatened to consume her, but a smouldering rage that would drive her onwards. She nodded at him, then licked her lips.

"Thank you. That sounds like a good plan. I should be able to make contact with the shaman from the village, maybe some of the herders and hunters. Find out what is going on. And then I can let you know by the time you get back."

Kai glanced over at Aswon, and got an appreciative nod from him, and gave him a wry smile in return, before he returned his gaze to Tads, keeping an eye on her as she tried to relax a little, watched her take deep meditative breaths as she calmed herself for the challenges ahead.

"I have been listening. We need about ten minutes to refuel, then it should be just under one hour to the location indicated on the data chip. Perhaps a few minutes for Kai to negotiate. Then a little less than an hour to return here, assuming no need for us to be stealthy or hide our destination. We can refuel here when we land, and be ready to move out again then." Marius laid out his requirements clearly and concisely, feeling Hunter providing flight plans and navigation co-ordinates as he spoke, plotting several alternate approaches and feeding information about the weather and the very limited information on the island as he managed to download it from the matrix. "I assume you will need at least that long to make contact with your people and formulate a plan?"

"Yes, at least that long."

"Ok, good. That sounds workable then." Kai smiled at her. "You make contact, find out what's going on, and make plans. We'll do the drop off and get back, and we'll take it from there."

They arrived at the village at a little before 3am. This far north, and in the middle of summer, the sun hung near the horizon, not quite set, but definitely not that bright – giving the entire landscape a somewhat eerie illumination. They could see a few people down near the water, looking to be working on some nets and fishing lines, presumably getting ready to head out for the day.

"They're up early!" Hunter exclaimed. "Is that normal?"

"For fishermen, it's not unusual – they want to be near the feeding grounds for dawn. Of course that's going to be a little bit weird up here… hey – Tads… does this mean… the spirits I mean?"

"Yes. The sun won't set until later next month. So any spirits I call and bargain with, will last that long. That's the next 'dusk'."

"Great! I think that's great, right?"

"Mostly. We're far more likely to run out of negotiated help than we are to hit dusk this way. But I can always try to bargain again with the spirit for more aid. And it does have other advantages. If I exceed what I normally try for, and attempt to summon a spirit far more powerful – something like Pebble – then we potentially have it to aid us for weeks to come, not just hours. So I can sleep off any headache after I call it, and before we go do whatever we were going to do, and be fresh. So potentially it's very powerful. As long as we have time to prepare, that is. In theory, if we've got a few days, I could summon a whole bunch of Pebbles, to assist us…"

That made the team fall quiet for a moment, considering the massive boost in their combat efficiency that would bring. They'd all seen the state of the chopper that had limped back to Novatech HQ after running into Pebble in his mountain stronghold, and the thought of having half a dozen spirits the same size was somewhat awe inspiring. Kai certainly found it awe inspiring, and also a little terrifying, thinking back to only ten minutes ago when Tads had been upset and near tears with frustration and pent-up rage… that certainly didn't seem like a safe and sane combination to him!

Marius circled the village once, then spiralled in to land on a large open area to one side. They could see vague signs of a fence having been here once, maybe to hold a herd of reindeer in a pen, but it was just a large grassy open area now. The spirit Tads had summoned still concealed them, and they approached quietly, so quietly in fact that they weren't noticed by the fishermen busy working away on their vessels. They could see in the distance someone heading around the village on a sled pulled by a team of dogs, and far in the distance a small herd of reindeer grazing, while nearer the tilt-wing were laid out half a dozen large tents, made of long poles covered in animal hides. As they swung around, Aswon pointed out a large skidoo nestled by the side of one of the tents, a good three metres long and seemingly having seats for at least three, maybe four people.

"They've got tech here for sure… I'm pretty certain I saw some SunCells on one of the tents as well."

"Chum."

"What, what did I say?"

"Chum. That's what the tents are called."

"Oh, right. Ok."

"And yes, most of the villages will have some power cells tucked away. At least one person in every tribe has a sat-phone, it's how we keep in touch most easily. And there's all kinds of useful things that need power. We just don't have a lot of it."

As Aswon continued to study the village, he found a number of parallels to his own tribe back home. Clearly there were a lot of differences too – the weather and climate were massively different, and that influenced the construction of the dwellings and the clothing enormously, but if you looked beyond that, this was also clearly an economy that was fairly poor and lacked many of the luxuries of other areas. No running water or sewage system, no wired matrix or communications, no paved roads or easy repair services. People would no doubt be adept at mending and making do with what they had, carefully saving resources and not wasting anything that could be recycled or repaired.

"Coming in to land, stand by." Marius lowered the gear and flared for approach, touching down gently on the land. He felt the wheels sinking in, and was almost at the point of increasing power and lifting off again when their descent through the quagmire stopped. The summer grass lay atop a layer of thick mud, a handbreadth wide patch of thawed material before the permafrost gave a solid surface for the wheels to rest on.

"They still haven't heard us. The spirit is clearly on top form today!" Aswon remarked. "Still just getting their nets ready and working on their boat." A few moments later however, their attention was firmly grabbed when they spotted Marius and Hunter rolling one of the fuel barrels across the mushy surface – the team could hear their yell of surprise as they pointed at the obvious outsiders who had appeared from nowhere. They stopped their activity, watching carefully, and were even more startled when Tads and Aswon appeared out of thin air too, stepping out of the protective concealment of the tilt-wing and onto the soft surface of the tundra. Aswon suddenly realised that Tads had taken time to change into new clothing, and was wearing a brightly-coloured thick skirt now instead of her padded combat fatigues, and wondered where she'd been hiding those – he'd never seen them before in all their travels. Not that it mattered, and he gave a shrug and set off after her as she headed towards the villagers. The fisherman had stopped what they were doing, and had started to shuffle over their way, clearly intrigued by their presence. As Aswon studied them, he realised he was getting nearly all of their attention, with open-mouthed stares fixed upon him as they made their way across the pliant surface towards them.

One of the villagers went running towards one of the huts, or 'chums' as Tads called them, his gait slightly comical as he swung his legs wide with every step to account for the thick layers of fur and padding designed to keep them warm in the bitter weather conditions. It wasn't that cold at the moment, hovering a few degrees above zero, but as Aswon glanced around he saw that there was no cover or defence against the wind, and if the weather blew from the north it would be bringing down the cold directly from the arctic areas, straight over the sea.

A minute later, the fisherman emerged from the chum along with another figure. It wasn't immediately obvious who the newcomer was, or even what sex or metatype they were – but Tads seemed to recognise them, and her face warmed into a smile, while she headed over towards them. Aswon sauntered along behind her, his long legs easily matching her pace. The newcomer threw back her hood, revealing an attractive face that bore more than a passing resemblance to Tads' own. Her eyes were dark, with large irises dominating the almond shape, while thick eyelashes quivered in the wind. Her hair was dark and thick, and her skin pale with a few visible freckles. She had a matching smile to Tads, but that smile froze and then slipped away when she turned to look at Aswon.

"Aswon, this is Parako, my mentor and trainer, and the head of the village. Parako – this is Aswon, a friend. He and I are part of a team – over there is Hunter and Marius, and Kai is probably around, too. They're going to be leaving very shortly for a while though, and coming back in a few hours, they have a delivery to make. But I have had a vision – signs and portents that things are not right. And we saw the Russians coming."

"Welcome home. It is good to see you, though I wish it were under better times. We have been sent messages too, and the tribes are restless. We have seen their coming, in dreams of darkness and destruction, though we do not know why. And we saw…other things, too." She glanced over at Aswon. "I greet you, and bid you welcome. Come inside." She turned and led the way back towards the chum she'd emerged from, and Aswon started to move that way, until Tads shot out a hand towards him, grabbing him lightly.

"Mind-link?" she murmured quietly. He nodded, and a moment later he felt her familiar presence on the edge of his conscience.

[Good. There are some things you should probably know. She is a shaman of the sea, and part of her beliefs or code is that things have a cost. She won't do anything for nothing – there must be payment. But it need not be much – it is sometimes a matter of principle. Something meaningful, like a hand-carved piece of wood has more value than Nuyen to her, or something useful even if it is mundane. And she also tends to react to criticism or perceived insults quite strongly. So if you can be mindful of your speech, that will help.]

[Got it. I'm guessing from the looks that they've never seen someone with my skin tone before.] Aswon's mental thoughts were tinged with amusement, as he thought about the expressions of the people he'd seen looking at him, trying to make sure Tads understood that he was amused, and not upset about this. [Though given the sunshine up here, that's hardly surprising. You have a definite tan compared to the rest of your village!] Their thoughts flittered back and forth, and Tads followed her mentor into the chum, Aswon stooping to fit through the opening behind them as they led him into the structure.

The tent was closer to a traditional North-American tepee than the Mongolian yurt, based on long straight wooden poles arranged into a conical structure, then covered in reindeer hides and skins. Multiple layers of the skins provided insulation against the biting wind, but also allowed them to strike camp and load the structure onto sleds pulled by teams of dogs or skidoos as they followed their herds. In this case though the camp looked to be considerably more permanent, no doubt due to their ability to fish for food. The chums were tall, easily reaching six metres high, but that still meant that the walls sloped in at a noticeable angle, and Aswon had to take several steps inside before he could stand up straight after ducking through the doorway.

Some sunlight penetrated through the central point of the chum, where the poles met and joined, though at the moment the sunlight was minimal thanks to the low position on the horizon. Thick smoke wound up to the hole lazily from the fire in the centre of the space, drawn out into the atmosphere by the passing wind. Around the perimeter of the chum though where a number of small electric lights, strung up carefully to illuminate the various areas of the interior. It looked like there was a sleeping area towards the rear, opposite the entry flap, with storage and a small work area to one side, and food and clothing stored on the other. A number of lumps in the bed indicated that there were several children probably still asleep, and several adults were at work around the edges of the tent. Around the small cooker though, seated on small cushions were three more figures, who all looked up at their new visitors.

"We have guests." Parako pointed to each of the three figures in turn. "Noley," she gestured to an older man, greying beard and hair looking unkempt and wild, "Serakone", this was a much younger man, clean-shaven and with black hair swept back neatly, "Natena", a middle-aged man, also with black hair though a few streaks of silver flashed in the light as he tilted his head to them, "this was my apprentice, and her companion, Aswon. They have arrived with others, though the others have left again for a while."

Tads and Aswon examined the three people sitting near the fire, spotting the magic permeating through their auras without active effort. All three were magically active, being shaman of some kind and either not having knowledge of how to mask their aura – or simply choosing not to. Neither Tads nor Aswon tried to get any more detail from them, however.

[I don't recognise any of these, they must be from other tribes – ones I've not met. But this is unusual] she thought, and Aswon picked up on a touch of unease from her at the situation that found four tribal shaman gathered together. As Aswon and Tads smiled and greeted them, one of the other people in the chum hurried forwards with a cushion for each of them. They were made from fur on one side, and a rough leather on the other, treated with some kind of wax or grease to render them waterproof. Sitting on one kept the person off the floor and out of the mud while still being somewhat comfortable, and they both sank down quickly, taking their place at the fire and accepting a cup of hot tea from an older woman that had been fussing over the food stores.

There was a babble of rapid fire discussion, quick and strongly accented that far outstripped Aswon's ability to translate.

[Noley would like to touch your hair, to feel it.] Tads looked to Aswon and saw him nod, then bend forward, and she responded equally quickly. A moment later he felt someone lightly touch his hair, prodding it and feeling the spring of his dreadlocks and thick mane. He caught more rapid fire discussion, but the tone was somehow different from before and he looked up.

[He has seen this in a vision, it seems. He describes a giant from a far off land, with skin of coal and matted fur, teeth bared and full of fire. Fresh from the hunt, he comes, guardian of the pathfinder.] Tads was looking at Noley and the others, but Aswon could see from the set of her shoulders that she was more than a little tense as she spoke equally quickly to them, apparently seeking clarification. [He's not seen any of the rest of the team – but they do look less distinctive than you, so maybe that's why. But they also don't know why you're here. But he's convinced that it's a positive omen, one predicted by our totems.]

Tads spoke a little more, then Aswon saw the other shaman nodding, and she shifted to Russian. They understood and could speak it well enough it seemed, and they realised that Aswon could then join into the conversation. They certainly weren't fluent, and sometimes there were brief drops into their own tongue to find the right word or phrase, but they seemed happy to make do like that, and courteous enough to make that effort to stop him from being isolated – though they had no apparent idea that Tads had been translating for him and sending the information straight to his brain. She certainly didn't mention it, and he took his cue from her, keeping that ability tucked away in reserve.

Aswon and Tads heard the voice of Marius over their ear-buds, informing them that refuelling was complete and they were setting off. While Tads continued her conversation, Aswon sent a double-tap of acknowledgement over the comms, confirming that they had received and understood the message. Moments later he caught the very faint whine of the engines, managing to get past the concealing efforts of the spirit, and imagined them slowly lifting off and turning north-east, heading out over the bay and towards the drop-off point for their cargo.

In the hut though, the conversation quickly turned, when Parako fixed him with a stare.

"Why are you here? Why have you come to us?"

"I came because my friend came. She is our spirit-talker, our guide. I have lost count of the times she has aided us since we started our journeys. But she has always protected us, looked after us. And I would do no less for her. She told me that she needed to help her people, to defend them against the storm that is coming, and I would not let her face this storm alone. I am Aswon." He lacked Kai's eloquent turn of phrase, and certainly didn't have his raw charisma, nor his innate body control. But what he did have was his integrity and the knowledge that what he spoke was the absolute truth. As the local shamans listened to him, they could detect nothing but a deep respect for his team-mate and a belief in what he was saying. Aswon had no idea why this was important to them, but it seemed whatever the reason was, he passed their 'test' as all three of them relaxed somewhat, sharing glances and nods to each other.

They started to talk, taking turns to describe the various visions or dreams they'd had. At first they had been beyond cryptic, featuring strange plains, bolts of fire, distorted faces and images of far-away lands – confusing, but not helpful. Enough to distress the shaman certainly, but not enough to trigger a response. Those had escalated over time, with waves and blasts of sound, shaking of the earth and many other forms of destruction, along with bodies strewn across the landscape, children without parents and a crushing sense of loss.

They'd started to talk then, amongst the tribes, finding out that these dreams were not isolated, not confined to just one tribe or shaman. The details varied, always cryptic and unclear – but with enough commonality to lend them a fresh new dangerous air. The fisherman had been first to report the visitors, strangers in high-tech boats, working up and down the bays, always doing something, never friendly. They'd kept away from them, trying to just get on with their lives. The forest tribes had discovered the occasional machine wandering through the forest, and they too had stayed clear, soon discovering that the machines often had guns and were resistant to their own firearms.

Aswon listened quietly as Tads explained what had happened, the information that Hunter had uncovered. She added context to the boats, explaining about the underwater drones or even divers that had probably been exploring the seabed underneath them, looking for valuable rocks. How the drones in the forest had probably been taking soil samples, or drilling down deep into the soil, searching for their own valuable materials. How the findings had revealed resources beneath the Nenet lands, riches for the modern industrial world that were wanted, that would be fought over by the corporations. And how Mitsuhama had, it seemed, struck a deal with the Russians to exploit these findings, and how even now the Russian army was advancing on Nenet lands, ready to forcibly move all of the tribes away, making room for the corporate invaders.

"We have seen them overhead, flying over in their planes, for weeks. Looking, but doing nothing."

"Probably doing recon flights, Parako." Aswon spoke for the first time in a while. "They will have people looking down at the land, searching out your tribes, mapping where they are, and reporting back to others. So they can better hunt you down." He shook his head sadly. "It doesn't matter where we go. Greed…" He sighed unhappily.

"We can fight them. But our numbers are few. Even with the help of the land, this will be hard. Our dreams tell us soon all will be aflame, crushed beneath them." Noley spoke quietly, his voice slow and full of sadness. "I have seen it. But I have also seen of your coming." He glanced up at Aswon. "I do not know what this means. Or what you will do." The question lay unspoken, and Aswon and Tads shared a glance.

"Well, the Russians we can slow down. Maybe even stop. But I don't know what we can do about the corporation. That's an entirely different matter." Aswon turned to Tads and raised an eyebrow, inviting her to pitch in.

"The commander of the Russian forces, or at least one of the commanders… we are known to him. We can speak to him, I'm sure of it. Try to reason with him. But Aswon is right. We might be able to send this Russian away, but others will surely come afterwards. Or the corporation will just send soldiers of their own, people with no respect for the land."

"We must stop them. If they take away our land, we stop being the people." Aswon wasn't sure he had the translation down exactly right, but he understood the principle of what was being said.

"Don't worry. I'm going to make it clear to the Brigadier that if he doesn't turn around and leave, he's going to lose most of his troops. I don't want to do it… not after what we did at Samara. Those soldiers were our people, we fought with them against an enemy. I don't want to hurt them. But you are my people, my family. You were first. And if they don't listen, I will MAKE them listen. One way or another." Tads spoke firmly, an edge of steel to her voice.

"We might be able to get some media attention here, show the corporate effects on the landscape. Maybe something about the animals or plants, get the likes of TerraFirst or GreenPeace involved. But this is just like Novatech all over again… It's going to take some serious effort to put them off, and Mitsuhama are a lot older than Novatech, and have a lot more focus on magic as well. They've not going to be so easily swayed I think. We might get some sympathy by showing the world what happened to Tsimshin and showing the land here. But it's going to be a tough sell.

"Maybe we could break into their server things, and change the reports? Make it look like there's less mineral wealth here than they first thought?"

"I don't know – that's a job for Hunter. I think we'd need him to even work out if it's possible or not – I suspect not, if they've already got to the point of making deals with the government to exploit things. That genie is out of the bottle…" He considered for a moment. "Maybe there's something like that though… there's lots of Shaman here. Maybe some kind of learnt spell, cast as part of a big ritual – to conceal or hide the minerals, or maybe transform them into something else? I dunno, grasping at straws here…" Aswon suddenly focussed on what the people around the edge of the tent were doing, watching as one of them carefully bundled up another batch of raw telesma into a neat roll of fabric. He realised that there were a large pile of rolls to one side – and if all of that were virgin talismongering finds, that represented a lot of magical potential. He suddenly wondered just how rich the lands around here were in magical materials.

"But to find that out, they'd already be having to dig down and look for the things, wouldn't they?" Tads shook her head. "We need to stop them before that. It's no good them digging and finding nothing – we need them to know it's not worth it first. I think we need to go and speak with the Brigadier, and get him to stop. Or find out what they're doing, and THEN get them to stop." Aswon sent over a thought to Tads, showing her what he'd seen of the piles of materials before speaking.

"This might be a bit sideways – but you seem to have a lot of materials here. Right now I mean, in this tent. If you've gathered all of this from the local area, then that might be something to look at. This material is expensive – and they can't get hold of it in many other places. It's expensive and rare – perhaps rare enough that you could sell it instead of letting them mine for resources. It doesn't solve the problem, but it does buy you time. Time to work out something else…"

"I think I need to go and see the Brigadier. Will you watch over me while I'm gone?" She asked. Aswon nodded, wondering why she had to ask, then realising it was as much to inform her fellow tribals that things were taken care of. He didn't like the idea of her going alone though, or even with a few watcher spirits to guard her back.

"Tadibya," he started, about to ask her to take care – but the other four shaman all looked at him in unison and answered him as if he'd called their name. He paused for a moment in shock, and then something clicked in his brain, as he finally made the connection. Tadibya wasn't a name. It was a profession. For the last year and a half, they'd been calling her 'shaman'. His brain flashed back to when they'd first introduced themselves to each other, and a vague memory surfaced of her saying that they could call her that. Not of her claiming it was her name. Another memory nudged itself into his forebrain, of a warning she'd once given, saying they would have to call her something different if ever they came this way. It hadn't seemed important back then, but he suddenly realised that it clearly was. And he also then had no idea what to actually call her… "I think you should take one of the others with you. To guard and observe, and to report back if things go badly."

"I could go. But there would be a cost." Parako offered. Aswon nodded at her and fished inside his pocket, pulling out one of his talismans. The fang was from one of his kills, hunted down solo and slain using only weapons he had made himself, proof of his skill as a hunter. The fang was bound in a leather thong, designed to hang around his neck.

"Will this suffice as payment?" Parako examined it for a moment, then nodded. She and Tads rose, then moved over to one of the beds and lay down, then quickly projected up and out of their bodies, rising up through the skins and disappearing from view. "And now we wait." Aswon made sure his spear was handy, and had another sip of his tea, keeping a watchful eye over the two bodies while their spirits were away.

Tads fortunately knew where the Russian lines were, and led Parako there quickly, the journey taking less than a minute. What took longer was working along the line, looking for the larger formation indicating the brigade headquarters unit, requiring frequent burst of moment then pauses as they examined the real world. Fortunately it was relatively easy to spot – just a matter of travelling along the line long enough to find it. Surrounded by APCs and various other support vehicles, a few large tents had been pitched, and there were several platoons camped out nearby, all with sentries active, watching all approaches to the area. Tads led Parako down to the side of the tent, then paused as she spotted a familiar aura standing just outside the tent at parade rest. Iosi was staring into space, half-asleep on his feet, but his presence buoyed her spirits. She guessed he'd reported their earlier meeting to his sergeant, and that report had passed up the line to the Brigadier – and meant that he was at least willing to meet with her.

She manifested around the corner of the tent, then strolled around, announcing her presence in a calm voice. Trying to make sure she didn't spook the guards. They must have been warned too, as though they jumped when they saw her ethereal form, neither of them raised their weapons. Iosi's eyes snapped open, and he gave her a smile.

"Welcome back! You're expected." He pulled open the tent flap and then gestured for her to precede him into the interior. The tent was dark inside, lit by a few dull lamps that looked to have been set to their lowest power levels – and she could spot a few sleeping forms on cots laid out by the side. Further inside, though, was another area, sectioned off by an interior wall, and that seemed more brightly lit. She floated forwards, following after Iosi, with Parako following along beside her in the astral plane, listening but invisible to all of the people around them. As she stepped around the wall section into the area beyond, she spotted Brigadier Cherkenov and Captain Zarkorov sitting at a small table, nibbling on some breakfast as they studied a datapad. Iosi coughed discreetly and came to attention, drawing their attention, and they both looked up.

"Ahh, thank you, private. And welcome. Please come in, and take a seat…if you can?" Cherkenov gestured to the fold out chair that sat empty on the opposite side of the table to him, and she noticed there was also a glass of orange juice waiting on the table in front of the chair. She floated over and through the chair, adjusting her astral form so that it hovered in roughly the right place, giving the appearance of being seated. "At ease, private Lebedev." Tads heard the shuffle as he resumed his parade rest position behind her. "Now, I suspect I know why you're here… but please, feel free to explain."

"Brigadier. The land you march towards with your men, is my home. These are my people. They have lived here for generations, living on the land and the waters, protecting them and living as our ancestors taught us. I do not want them dispossessed by the wishes of some corporation that will come in and strip-mine our land, destroying everything we hold dear."

"Then it is as I feared." The Brigadier sighed, and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Unfortunately, my orders are clear. Very clear, and without any room for interpretation." He glanced at Captain Zarkorov, and then lowered his hand back to the table, letting his fingers drum on the surface gently. "But let us see what can be done…"

Four hundred and eleven kilometres to the north-east, the tilt-wing flew across the relatively calm waters of the Barents Sea. In the weird half-light of the constant day, the waves took on a strange hue, the small foam caps of the waves turning a faint pink as they reflected the distorted rays of the sun. Marius watched the sensors, carefully adjusting his control surfaces to keep them flying a hundred metres across the surface of the sea, while Hunter continued to search on the matrix, looking for more information on the island or the surrounding area to try and improve their tactical information. Kai sat in the back, alone in the troop compartment, with the viewing prism on his head, looking out in the astral realm, hoping that this was going to be a nice, quiet drop off.

"Contact. Fast mover, bearing zero-eight-five, range nineteen point five clicks!" Marius's voice rang out over the team channel unexpectedly, making both of the others jump, then scramble to check things out. Hunter pulled up the sensor feed and started to check the profile of the jet shown, while Kai started to flick through the positions on the prism, trying to get himself a visual. "Target is flying on a course of 355 degrees – not towards us. Wait one." There was a pause as Marius checked the sensor feed carefully, then a quiet curse. "Target is on a converging course. Whatever they are up to, they are heading for the same location as us. Speed six-five-three knots though, so they will get there first."

"It's a Mig, silhouette has it flagged as a long range interceptor… think it's a Stormhound… yeah, twin tails, large rudder, twin engine. Not the latest generation, but still pretty good. Air to air missiles and a twenty mil cannon, good radar and sensor suite, crew of one. Can push Mach 2.5 when it needs to. Long range as well – figures if it's an interceptor." Hunter continued to study his data feed, flitting between sites as he tried to firm up the information.

"No sign of magical spells or spirits on it." Kai reported. Beyond that he didn't know what to do – the jet was a tiny spec on the horizon as far as he could see, the prism not having any artificial means to zoom or enhanced the image.

"What do we do here, Kai? They are heading for the same location as we are."

"Drek. Hunter, pull up the radio will you and punch in the details from the data chip. I think we need to warn them."

"Roger. Live mike, Kai." He'd clearly anticipated the request and had the information already set up on his deck, ready to go.

"Alert! This is Kai, in the New Fish. You have incoming fighters to your location! I say again, this is Kai calling, we were due to make a delivery to you. But you have an incoming fighter jet to your location."

"ETA three minutes, Kai. We will be there in five." Marius added. As Kai was about to send this over, his commlink flickered to life as whoever it was on the far end activated their systems. The picture showed a somewhat groggy man, bearded and rubbing at his eyes as he struggled awake.

"Whassat? Who? Wass going on?"

"This is Kai, we have a delivery for you from Ludmilla. Code words CANAL-FOX-SCARLETT-ROSEBUSH. Be advised you have a Russian interceptor heading your way, due to arrive in three minutes. We're a couple of minutes behind it, but we've only just picked it up on our sensors." The man at the far end of the link blinked a few times and came fully awake and then Kai lurched as the screen twisted, surprised by the sudden change in perspective. He caught sight of a metallic cyberarm sliding to the side and hitting a red button on the side of the wall as the commlink continued to fall, bouncing onto the mattress as the man catapulted himself out of bed.

"RUFUS! GLASS! INCOMING ATTACK!" He took a breath and grabbed at some kind of weapon on the bedside table, racking the action and peering at it carefully. "PAN! PAN, where are you!" A moment later the commlink shut off, the last view Kai having was the metallic hand descending down towards it.

"Marius – that jet thing. Can we take it?"

"Doubtful. Not unless you get very lucky with a door gun. They are faster than us, and heading away. We might get one clear shot from astern if they have not detected us, but in a dogfight – we will almost certainly lose."

"What about if I shoot?" Kai heard Hunter scrabbling, releasing himself from the flight harness and climbing out of the co-pilot's seat, then sliding open the door from the cockpit.

"That might work. It will be a difficult shot, though."

"Challenge accepted. Just get us lined up." Hunter grabbed his cannon, slapping home the magazine of anti-vehicle rounds and cocking the weapon with a grunt, sliding in one of the massive rounds. Twenty millimetres across and over a hundred and fifty millimetres long, there weren't many rounds in the magazine – but generally things that got shot by them didn't normally need a follow up. Hunter made his way down to the starboard door where Kai was already unlimbering the heavy machine gun and sliding the door open, sending a gust of wind into the cabin and whipping up all the loose material it found there. "Marius, we're both on the starboard side. If you can do us a slew-slide, that'll be perfect."

"Affirmative. Be advised, I can see the airship – looks like they are doing an emergency launch. Thermals indicate the engines are running flat out, and they are turning in towards us. Slowly though."

The tilt-wing quivered as Marius advanced his own engines to full power, chasing after the fighter-jet as they slowly converged towards the same spot. Marius counted down over the comms, and as he hit 'one' he jammed the rudders over full, slewing the tilt-wing to the side and sending them sliding through the air for a moment on inertia, before they could start to change direction. It played hell with the airframe, and robbed them of their forward momentum – but for a moment it gave both the gunners a relatively straight shot at the back end of the jet fighter as it crossed ahead of them.

Kai triggered a long burst from the heavy machine gun, spitting out rounds that flew across the kilometres between them. His aim wasn't that great – but it had been a worthy attempt. His rounds flew past the fighter by a good fifty metres, the tracers lazily dancing through the air, leaving a flashing trail behind them. No doubt the pilot caught sight of them in his sensors, and was now alerted to their presence, and Kai felt a sinking sensation starting to form in his belly.

Hunter took a steadying breath and laid the targeting cursor over the jet, letting his SmartLink 'see' the intended aim point. His cybernetic vision tracked the tracers, noting the deflection over the course of the journey, factoring in cross-winds from empirical evidence, rather than a guess or estimate. The cursor twitched slightly as his router fed information into the SmartLink system, making minute adjustments.

[Fire] He thought, and the weapon kicked, slamming into his shoulder hard. Like it often did, it caught him somewhat by surprise, as his mind sped up from the slow-motion effect as he lined up the shot, his physical body catching up with the events that had happened in a blur.

The round was what many people called 'military grade'. Designed to defeat armour, the carefully designed penetrator could burrow through a certain amount of armour as it turned into a high-temperature plasma, burning a hole big enough to let the rest of the round slam through, delivering the explosive part of the charge to where it could do the most damage. In this case though, the penetrator wasn't really needed. The pilot had indeed seen the tracers, just as he was himself firing and stitching 20mm fire through the zeppelin ahead of him. As he twitched, bringing the aircraft around in the first part of his manoeuvre, it lined the engines up with the tilt-wing, just for a moment.

The explosive round slashed through the air and into the back of the engine. It couldn't stand the roaring flame of the jet exhaust for long – but it didn't need to. Impacting the back of the compressor section, the round exploded sending a shockwave into the compressor and turbine blades, shattering them. The explosive force rebounded off the armour designed to keep the engine from external harm, intensifying the blast as it ricocheted back and forth, destroying the port engine in a heartbeat. The turbine blades were made out of a high-strength titanium alloy, and as the engine disintegrated they scythed outwards in an arc, slicing into the starboard engine and spreading the destruction further.

The plane kicked in the air as the engines exploded, a blast of jet exhaust flaring out of the underside a moment before the engine failed completely, but enough to send the fighter into a spin end over end. Unfortunately this coincided with the pilot punching out, and the rocket booster on his ejector seat propelled him downwards into the cliff face below at high speed, causing a wince of solidarity from Marius. The disintegrating plane twisted through the air once more, before following the pilot down into the cliffs, shattering into a million pieces that were consumed by a massive fireball.

"What about our contact?" Kai called out. He could see the fireball – as could probably everyone within fifty kilometres, which was a worry – but one that would have to wait until later.

"They are going down – hard. The main structure was shredded by the cannon fire. But there is some control there. Looks like they are heading back into the inlet. Trying to control the crash." Marius pressed on, trying to coax a little more speed out of the engines and close in on the stricken craft, though he knew he'd never get there in time. Maybe though, he thought, maybe soon enough to rescue the survivors…

The tilt-wing closed in on the scene, dropping down to skim across the water in the narrow inlet. Cliffs rose sharply on either side, the left one covered in burning jet wreckage and fuel. The zeppelin was angling down, impacting onto a narrow strip of rocky beach between the water and cliff edge, fire already ripping through the main body of the airship. It had impacted quite hard, folding the gondola sharply where it had impacted rocks and a spur of the cliff, spilling out cargo in every direction. A couple of figures were clawing their way out of the wreckage, scrabbling away from the destruction. Two wore noticeable armour and carried assault rifles, one human and one ork, while the next out of the mess was the captain, his cyber-arm reflecting the dancing flames in its chromed surface. A troll emerged from the other side, kicking a hole in the side of the wrecked gondola and struggling to get free, their gyromount harness catching on the edge of the metal frames until they managed to rip free with pure strength. Marius touched down, and both Kai and Hunter jumped out, heading towards the group and the wreckage of their airship.

The other group staggered away from the twisted wreck, obviously worse for wear from the crash, with various limps and wounds visible, until the captain suddenly looked around with horror on his face.

"Robyn? ROBYN! NO! She's still in there!" He turned and started to head back towards the burning wreckage. The two crewmen closest to him grabbed him, stopping him in place.

"Cap! No! It's gonna blow! You don't have time!"

"Get off me!" The captain struggled, fighting to get free from their grasp, twisting and writhing like a trapped animal. The troll lumbered over, grabbing hold of him as well, lifting his legs and finally letting them make a little headway. They only made it a few more steps before the flames reached the fuel tanks, and the fire turned into an explosion that sent them all sprawling to the pebbles and rocks, even driving Hunter and Kai back a pace or two. Whoever 'Robyn' was, it was doubtful that she was going to make it through that kind of blast…

"Hey, you guys! Over here." Kai shouted, holding up the first aid kit at shoulder level with the logo towards them. "It's Kai, we radioed though a warning to you." The ork and human who had been restraining the captain at first both dropped to their knees and sighted at Kai as soon as he shouted, but they held their fire, weapons trained on him just in case. The troll swept up the captain under his arm, tucking the sobbing man in tight, and started to walk over towards Kai and Hunter.

"I'm sorry we couldn't take down the jet before it strafed you – we didn't have much notice, and weren't expecting it." Kai continued to talk in a calm manner, crouching down now and opening up the first aid kit, pulling out the diagnostic scanner and laying out some supplies on the opened lid. If he had any worries about the weapons pointed at him he certainly gave the impression of not caring. He looked up as the troll closed on him, and gestured for the captain to be set down next to him. "Let me get his wounds patched up first, then we'll look at those burns…"

"Marius – I can't see anyone else moving in the wreckage – can you scan it, though?"

"Scanning now. No life signs detected, no motion. No heat signatures that are not the fires. Whoever is in there is dead. But we should leave this place – if the jet managed to get a distress call off, or has a crash transponder, we could have company soon."

"Listen – our pilot's just scanned the wreckage there. Sorry, there's nobody left alive… but he's worried that the jet might have gotten a distress call off. We should get out of here!" Hunter called out loudly, making sure his voice carried clearly to the two members of the other team who still had their rifles trained on Kai, watching him warily.

"Probably a good point. Look – guys – keep your guns pointing at us all you want, alright? But we should get into our vehicle – it's just behind us, concealed. Then let me treat your wounds. If you want dropping off somewhere, we'll set you down – but we should get the drek away from here before more Russians turn up."

"Rufus – Glass, it's ok. Let's get out of here." The captain's voice was flat and listless, his face still contorted with pain – though it seemed it was far more mental pain than physical. "We owe you one, stranger. You got enough space for us all?"

"We'll make room, one way or another. Can you get up?" As the captain struggled to his feet, assisted by the troll, Kai crammed the medkit back into the bag, not taking care to pack it properly and just jamming stuff in until he could close the lid. Hunter led the way back to the tilt-wing, and then scrabbled around to find the side hatch, sliding it open to reveal the interior.

They piled aboard the tilt-wing, with the ork who was apparently called Rufus, and the human called Glass moving to sit on opposite sides of the troop bay. The troll lifted the Captain inside, and between them they got him settled into another of the seats and strapped in, while Hunter headed forward to reclaim his own seat. The troll looked around and evaluated the remaining seats, and with a frown then sat down in the middle of the troop area, having established that none of the seats were going to accommodate his large frame.

"Sorry Robyn…. Oh no! Pan…" The captain had flopped his head to the side, looking out of the open doorway towards the wreck, clearly saying goodbye to his missing crewmate – but the sudden cry of fresh pain at the end made Kai turn to face him, wondering if they'd missed someone else. He was just in time to see a sprite or fairy of some kind just appear in front of the captain, wings shimmering as the fluttered back and forth.

"Shhh, shhh, I'm here. Don't worry."

"Um – I'm going to close the door now, that's going to put a ward back up over the gap. Don't be alarmed, it's not a trap, ok?" Kai didn't know what kind of creature it was, and he was only assuming that this was the "Pan" the captain had called out for. But it was very obviously magical, and Kai knew that it would be easy to misinterpret what was going on if it suddenly found itself sealed inside a very strong magical ward – or a prison. He slammed the door shut, then called forward to Marius. "All aboard and secured as best we can. Get us out of here, Marius!" A moment later the engines powered up again, and Marius soon had them lifting off, sliding backwards through the air to open the distance between them and the burning wreckage before he started to lift up into the air.

Kai unzipped the medkit again, and got the supplies back into order, then went to work on the other team. Starting with the captain, he dressed the various wounds and burns, then made an obvious show of displaying the chemicals and medicines used as he dosed them up with antibiotics and painkillers. As he worked over the captain's wounds, he kept up a monologue, describing how they'd just wanted a nice quiet drop-off, getting rid of Ludmilla's cargo for a quick payment without any trouble, then get back to the rest of their team. He chuntered on, bitching and moaning about how nothing was ever simple, even when they had the access codes needed to authenticate themselves, though obviously their day wasn't as bad as the other team's were, considering they'd not been shot down and lost a crew-member.

As he continued to talk, giving over the access codes and describing the source of the cargo, then sounding at least sympathetic to their plight, the other team slowly unwound. Rufus and Glass in particular seemed to relax, lowering their weapons and putting them on safe as Kai continued to treat their wounds and reassure them that they weren't part of the attack on them – just a case of unfortunate timing. Or fortunate, depending on their point of view, of course…

"I don't know what you have in the way of comms at the moment. But if you need, we have a sat-link, and can provide you with an interface. I imagine you need to call some people and let them know about what's happened…"

The captain looked at him and then closed his eyes, nodding choppily. Kai and Marius sorted out the interface and Kai moved forward to the door into the cockpit, chatting with Hunter and trying to give the other team a little privacy while they spread the bad news about the cargo they'd been entrusted with. They flew on for a few minutes, heading back towards Tads' village until Kai felt a gentle tapping on his back as Rufus got his attention.

"Thanks Chummer. We're as sorted as we're going to be, for now." The captain told him. "Appreciate the help – really appreciate it. We owe you one."

"Null sweat. I mean sheen." Kai responded, trying to remember the lingo he'd heard others using in the various shadowrunner and smuggler stops they'd encountered in their travels. He realised it didn't sound natural and dropped the pretence. So – you've already met myself and Hunter, and heard our pilot Marius. We've got a couple more of the team back on the edge of the sea, doing some work in one of the villages, just heading their now to pick them up and work out what we're doing next. But what about you guys? Where do you need to get to?"

"I don't know… I guess a major city somewhere, something with an airport. We can ditch the guns and get some travel docs sorted to get out of here. But I'm not sure where we're going yet."

"Well, let us know. If we're heading somewhere useful, we can drop you off… how about something to eat and drink? We've got some cookies, I think?" Kai headed to their supply locker, breaking out a big tub of Aswon's latest attempt at chocolate cookies and handed them out, trying to cheer up the other team a little as they contemplated their fate, while the tilt-wing flew over the cold expanse of the Barents Sea, heading back to the village.

Back in the chum, Tads and Parako's body twitched, and the remaining shamans and Aswon watched them carefully, checking out their auras to make sure that what was inside was what should be inside. Tads blinked and looked up at Aswon, and gave him a wan smile.

"Don't worry, we're both fine. Just took a little longer than we expected." She swung her legs around and massaged her thighs a little, then stood up and moved around a little, getting the blood flowing again, before heading back to her place near the fire and grabbing another mug of tea. "It went… well, and yet not well, all at the same time."

"When we got there, the Brigadier was expecting us. Or me at least. He'd been warned by Iosi, and from the way he and the Captain were set up, it seemed I was welcome. I explained the fact that we weren't happy, and he looked genuinely sympathetic."

"But?"

"But he has his orders. And those are to clear the area for Mitushama. This deal has the full backing of the Politburo apparently, and will bring in billions of Nuyen that the country desperately needs. And that's the big issue… the Brigadier can see that I don't want my people or my land affected, and he understands that. But he also understands that while this is bad for us, it's potentially very good for the country as a whole. And we know that he loves his country." Tads looked over at the other shaman listening and waiting. "That's not an idle statement, or made flippantly. He is a genuine patriot – as dedicated and loyal to Russia as any of our tribes would be to our people. He will do whatever it takes to keep his country safe and well. And at the moment, it looks like letting in a foreign corporation to come and mine all the minerals they've found helps the country enormously."

"So what did you tell him?"

That it's not going to happen. And that I needed to speak to whoever he reported to. That's some kind of field marshal or army commander, but he's just a mouthpiece for this politburo thingy, based in Moscow. And they're apparently impossible to get in and see unless they want to see you. I told the Brigadier that I was really serious about this, and I wasn't going to let my people be abused, and I would stop them if I needed to. I wouldn't enjoy it, and I wouldn't like it – not after what we've done together. But I'd do it anyway."

"And how did he take that?" Aswon leant in, curious as to how the Brigadier would react to that veiled threat. While he might command thousands of men and vehicles, he knew that magically the army was weak – that's why Yakut was able to hold them back and deal with them so easily. And he knew how magically powerful the team HAD been, and how instrumental they'd been in uncovering the spies and saboteurs that had threatened their operations.

"I don't think he enjoyed it at all. But he didn't take it personally. I think he knows that we don't want to fight them – just like he doesn't want to fight us. But he takes his orders seriously, and he's not going to abandon his mission. Neither does he want to get into a fight he's not going to win – he cares too much about the troops under his command to squander them. Sure he's got us outnumbered a couple of thousand to one – but he understands how powerful spirits and magic are, and how much that will tip the odds back in our favour, and he's not looking forward to testing that scenario."

"Well. Good that he understands, bad that he won't, or can't stop. I see what you mean now…" Aswon took a slurp of tea and looked into the middle-distance, trying to work out what they could do. For the life of him though, he couldn't think of any rational or workable plan that could lead to them resolving the situation, not without going to war with Russia. "Where does that leave us then – he's still coming north I take it?"

"Kind of. At the end of the meeting, he asked the Captain how long the problem with the fuel pumps would take to resolve. That confused the Captain, and he was just asking what the Brigadier meant, when he told him that if some of the vehicles had faulty pumps, they clearly couldn't refuel and move forwards, and he wasn't going to split his force up and leave some of his men behind. I think the Captain cottoned on then – and told him it would be one day, two at the most, before they could set off north again. I think that's the best he can do in the situation."

"It's not much, but it does give us a little time, I guess. Long enough for the rest to get back."

"Yes. The brigadier also said we could go to visit, personally. He gave me some code number to send to let them know we're coming, in case we need to see him physically."

"That sounds like an invitation to me… nothing you picked up there?"

"No duplicity or deceit no – but he's somewhat like Kai in that regard, quite hard to read. But I think we can trust him. He's also told the Captain to look into the treatment of the handful of people swept up so far as well. Tasked him specifically to look into it. So I think he'll know if he's been fed a false line by others in the army at least. He did mention that it wasn't his division of troops that were responsible for looking after the people once they'd been moved."

"Well, that's something at least. He was always pretty straight with us, and I can't imagine him being anything less than honourable. If he does find out they're not being well treated, he's not going to stand for that. But that doesn't change the fact that he's going to be coming north again in twenty-four hours, or forty-eight at the most."

"Aswon? Tads? We're almost back. Can you hear me?" Kai's voice was a little choppy and robotic as the signal struggled with the range and a few packets dropped out, but with every second that passed things firmed up. After Aswon responded, Kai continued talking. "We're going to be back in ten minutes or so, and we've got some guests. There's been a few issues, and we might have to look after some folks for a while, until we can get them back to civilisation. Explain more when we land."

"Copy that, Kai. We'll see what we can do here."

"We have our team returning, along with a few guests that we need to look after for a few days, it seems. While we try to work out how to deal with these Russians and what they want." Tads announced. "But we are going to sort out the advancing army – one way or another." The other shaman looked at her, some with a sceptical expression on their faces. She hadn't dropped her masking, or shown them the power of her spirits, and for a moment she was tempted. But she didn't feel the need to show off her power or abilities to them, and she wasn't in search of their approval. She'd meant what she said, and she was going to stick by it. They could either trust her or not – but that was up to them.

The tilt-wing came in to land, heading for the same patch of open ground as before, and Marius was a little less hesitant this time, letting the aircraft sink into the mud until it hit firm ground, with the engines already cycling down. As soon as it was safe, he motioned to Hunter to break out the fuel barrels again to top up the tank.

"I do not want to be caught out. If the interceptor did get a distress call out, someone will investigate. They will find the wreckage, and know there are hostile forces in the area. And that will make life interesting, I think. So until further notice, we refuel every opportunity we get. Better to have the range and not need it, than need it and not have it!"

"Totally agree, mate." Hunter nodded emphatically and rolled out the barrel, down the ramp towards the fuelling point. Kai meanwhile led their guests over towards the chum that he'd seen Aswon and Tads disappear into, chatting with the captain as they went.

"So – do you think I need to give Ludmilla a call about her cargo?"

"No. I told her you still had it, but that we couldn't carry it onwards. I think she'll be looking for other solutions now. When she needs you, I'm sure she'll call."

"Splendid." Kai said. What he was thinking though was something completely different. Knowing their luck, Ludmilla would need them to run the cargo off somewhere else to hand it over or even deliver it directly. And he didn't want to do that without Tads with them – they needed her spirits and protection to make things like border crossings easy and trouble-free, and he didn't want to split the team up.

"Just splendid. Oh well." He sighed deeply, then put a grin back on his face as he saw Tads and Aswon emerge from the chum along with four of the locals, all dressed in furs and lots of brightly coloured cloth and bangles. At least Tads seemed to have made friends here…