Monday 13/06/2061, Location: 67.8139, 48.96953, Time 12:00

As the team continued to harvest more and more orichalcum from the sub-sea vent, Aswon took a break, starting to wander up and down the coastline and examine the various types of seaweed that grew there, examining the rocks and mosses, checking the various creatures out that he could find, and working through the stores of the Nenet villagers. He didn't quite know what he was looking for – but found it when he discovered the desiccated corpse of some strange burrowing worm. Thousands of tiny cilia that grew out of the many segments presumably trapped a certain amount of air or water around the creature, forming a natural insulating layer that no doubt helped it to survive. It also, when dead, turned into a very fine toothed comb that when gently dragged over the fish scales proved to be most effective at removing the tiny motes of orichalcum with much less work on the part of the fishermen, helping them to be far more efficient.

Marius had gone back to the tilt-wing and was settled into the cockpit, slowly working through the systems and removing each of the modules to check for damage, cleaning out the various fans and blades on the heating and cooling systems and checking the seating and connectivity of each of the plug in modules. If they were going to fly into the United Kingdom, notorious as having some of the strictest immigration and legal systems in the world, then he wanted everything to be in tip-top condition.

While he was working, Hunter sat in the co-pilot's seat, his unconscious body relaxed into the safety harness while his head lolled to one side, his mind dancing through the neon information highway of the matrix, searching for all the information he could find about the UK and the situation there to back up his own local knowledge.

Kai, meanwhile, had taken his bow and quiver and had wandered off a little way, and with the help of a curious villager had set up a target on the wide lowland area inset from the beach. It had taken a while to lever up slabs of moss and arrange them vertically in a stack, but he now had a somewhat reasonable target area that should stop his arrows nicely without damaging them. It wasn't like he could nip out to the local sporting goods store to get replacements, after all. With his target set up, he retreated about thirty metres and started to practice, firing sets of six shots into the target, the arrows whistling through the cool air to thunk into the mossy slabs, penetrating a considerable distance before the vegetation and earth slowed them to a halt. Shimazu had wanted to come and watch over him, but had been persuaded by Tads to join her on an errand elsewhere – but did manage to spend a few minutes watching him before they left. He was surprised to see that at thirty metres, Kai was getting his shots grouped together tightly enough that his hand would have covered all of the holes quite easily – and he appeared to be shooting with considerable consistency and speed.

He was distracted from any further observations, though, by Tads joining him with one of the locals, the owner of the 'stretched' skidoo. Tads had bought the large med-kit from the tilt-wing, and after they loaded up onto the vehicle, the driver headed out across the shallow snow, crossing the twenty kilometres of ground to the next village. It appeared that she'd called ahead, as there was a reception party waiting for them, and when they were led into the largest chum, there were a number of people waiting with various ailments. Shimazu set to work with the kit, treating a number of minor but aggravating issues like damaged teeth and cuts or puncture wounds, as well as doing general health checks – while Tads went to work repairing any damage from wounds or injuries, as well as healing anything caused by him as he dealt with the various root causes. It certainly made his work easier to do when he didn't have to worry about minimal damage to the gums, for instance, while removing an impacted wisdom tooth, knowing that with a thirty second application of magic after he was done, she could repair the gum and leave it good as new!

They returned to the tilt-wing in the evening, meeting up with the rest of the team and chatted over food, each filling in the rest of the team in how their day had gone, and what they'd been up to. Iosif updated them in the late evening, advising them that the Brigadier and his team had arrived in Moscow ok, and had made an appointment to speak with the army command officers the following day. As he was talking and relaying the news, Kai frowned, then started to question him, asking him to repeat various parts of the message several times.

Iosif was confused, as was the rest of the team – but Kai persisted, then dug out his tablet and got Marius to open up a cross-link to the sat-phone, letting him get access to the matrix and load up some translation software. Once again, he got Iosif to deliver his message, slowing him down and trying to get him to sound out the details of some of the words.

"I always thought he was a weird rank for a unit that big. I'm guessing the translation we had was a bit off…" Kai looked down at the tablet and frowned. "Turns out that it's just used an approximation of rank, from the English and we've been using that wrongly. At least, I think so!"

"So what is his rank?" Aswon asked. "And how badly are we likely to have insulted him?"

"On the latter, hopefully not at all. He's never seemed to be bothered, and I don't think he's taken offence. But the closest I can see is that the equivalent rank used elsewhere is Brigadier-GENERAL, not just Brigadier. There's all kinds of weird stuff about ranks in here I don't understand. But it also might be, based on the number of men he has under his command that he's more like a MAJOR-general." Kai stressed the word Major, trying to indicate the difference, then compared the Russian versions of the name against each other, trying to work out how they'd slipped up. "Best we can tell, he's got around ten thousand combat troops under his command. In something like the UCAS that would make him a major general, but in other countries it would be a brigadier general."

"So what – do we change what we call him?"

"I don't think so – not unless we can find out his proper title. But probably worth bearing in mind that 'Brigadier' might be a very junior sounding title, for how much power he had. That explains why he can just get back to Moscow and arrange to see the army command people, though – he's got a lot more pull than I thought he did."

"Not me. I had always assumed he was a general officer. I am surprised you did not…" Marius piped up, looking around the team with an aura of some surprise.

"Well, um… Ok. Might be worth chatting about stuff like this a bit more, it seems. This list might be out of date, or not accurate – but if it is, there's only three ranks above him, and one of those is Marshal of the Red Army – so that sounds like there's only one of them!"

He swung his tablet around, and the team checked out his data, comparing the translations of the various terms and comparing them to their own knowledge of the Russian language – and finding some very different pronunciations and thoughts on how the words were supposed to be constructed, depending on where they had learnt the terms from. It was a timely reminder that though the team was very diverse in their languages, many of them being fluent in four or five different languages or more – their knowledge of the languages was not necessarily that deep, and that sometimes they had learned from one another – so any errors in translation had just propagated throughout the entire team.

Before turning in for the night, they examined the pile of orichalcum flakes that had been harvested throughout the day, estimating that they'd managed to harvest another forty-five grams of the material, which was then carefully stored away and secured.

The following day, the team split up and carried out their various tasks again. Marius had moved onto the door guns, planning to strip them down as far as possible and repeat the same low-level diagnostics and cleaning there as he had done for the instrumentation. As he was working in the doorway though, he found that Rufus, the ork from the rescued team had wandered over to chat with him. The other team had been trying to keep out of the way and avoid trouble or issues – but were clearly bored, having nothing to do. After a brief chat with Marius, he went off to fetch his buddy Glass, and the two of them returned to help Marius strip down the weapons.

Both of them proved to be more than competent in this regard, and they chatted away over the next few hours, with Marius discovering that both of them not only were load-masters or cargo chiefs on the zeppelin, but also gunners. He hadn't seen what kind of armament the zeppelin had been equipped with, but he guessed that it wasn't too dissimilar, given how confidently they broke down the 12.7mm machine guns and serviced them. He took advantage of the situation to talk to them about the UK, trying to pick up on any detail he could about where they were going, and how they would find the transit across England.

He was somewhat successful – finding out that they generally reversed their route when leaving the country, following exactly the same route out over the Stinkfens of East Anglia, traversing the kilometres of bogs and waterways east of the city of Cambridge, leaving by the same sector as they had arrived – presumably under the control of the same bribed or compromised radar operator. They were also happy to chat about some general details of England, but clammed up immediately on other details such as the smuggler stops they headed to, or where they got fuel from. Marius couldn't, and didn't blame them – they were clearly protecting their contacts and sources, and he certainly made no attempt to press them for data on those aspects, trying to put himself in their positions.

They did detail a little more about the location they were heading to – 'Bright Spark', which was an old air force base from pre-crash days, but which had been turned into a power generation facility now. The huge amount of flat space surrounding the old aerodrome had been covered in solar panels, while the perimeter was ringed with wind turbines, turning the area into a power generation node that supplied much of the local area. The contacts that ran the place appeared to be part of the crew that maintained the facility – which made sense as they'd have good electrical and mechanical skills, and good contacts for parts for the heavy machinery of the turbines in particular. The old runway gave a nice landing zone for air travel, and the huge number of generators also made the area a massive blind spot for sensors and systems designed to track EM signatures – perfect for smugglers!

Unknown to Marius, Hunter was engaged in a very similar conversation with the Captain of the other team, trying to get as much information as he could from him about their forthcoming journey and the details of air defence systems, valleys, sensor blind spots, air cover and a thousand other details that could be the difference between success and failure – and was encountering much the same thing. On details for how to get to and from Bright Spark, the Captain was forthcoming and helpful – but on any details for contacts elsewhere in the country or anything not directly related to the job, he was fairly tight-lipped.

Over in the chum, Tads had discovered that Natena was undertaking a spirit journey, seeking to advance his understanding of magic and improve his standing. She took it upon herself to join him, guiding him on his journey through the spirit realm. Along the way she learnt more about him, discovering that he had a particular penchant for spells designed for combat. His totem, a large grizzled and ferocious Wolf seemed to regard her with mild distaste – perhaps because he saw her as "Elk" as part of his prey rather than an equal, but whatever the reason was, the totem didn't spill over into hostility. Along the journey, she witnessed Natena rely upon his ability to fling lightning bolts from his hands to deal with the various tests and challenges of his quest, but suffering from the magical backlash as he tried to drain the excess power.

She stopped him, and cast a few spells, lowering her own masking and mental shields, letting him watch her as she smoothed the spike of mana away to something far more manageable. She showed him several times, then tried to guide him as he threw a few lightning bolts around, patiently repeating the lessons over and over until he grasped the technique. They progressed through the spirit realm, and as they closed in on the knowledge he sought they were assailed by an entire pack of demons, clamouring for their blood. Natena summoned mana to him, then howled in fury as he threw not just a lightning bolt, but a chaotic explosive ball of lightning, the blast striking out at the demons and frying them to a crisp and sending a thunderclap of force bounding outwards. The backlash flashed through his body, but the lessons had sunk in it appeared, and he smoothed it away, breathing deeply and evenly while the hackles on his back slowly smoothed away. As the mana dissipated, so did the magical realm, bringing them back to the physical world – his powers increased and now with the new knowledge of how to channel power into his destructive bolts much more successfully. Tads wasn't one to condone killing if it could be helped, but balanced against that was the desire to protect her people, and she couldn't help but feel that she'd taken a significant step towards that goal by sharing the knowledge to him – and from there to the other shamans of her people.

Once again, they met up for their evening meal and exchanged stories of what they had been up to that day, and what progress they had made. One thing they noticed was that there was considerably more food served that evening, and that the children in particular were stuffing their faces with mouthful after mouthful of cakes. A quick glance at Tads and then the huge pile of oats and other foodstuffs that were spilling out of containers told them exactly how she'd spent much of her afternoon…

The fishermen had been hard at work through the day as well it seemed, and they bought in the fruits of their labour, doubling the size of the pile of orichalcum they had collected.

As with the previous evening, Iosif briefed them on the day's radio traffic, and summarised the evening report from the Brigadier – his meeting with the High Command had gone well, no doubt helped by it being presented exclusively by members of the armed forces with rank and reputations for being effective commanders. They had endorsed the Brigadier's recommendations and had pushed the secretaries of the civilian government for an appointment with the National Soviet Supreme Council – which had provisionally been arranged for the following day.

In addition, and much to Tads' relief, they had news that all of the Nenet people that had been 'processed' already into the detention centre were being removed, and transferred over to the Brigadier's headquarters section, to be returned back to their tribal lands. Tads made a point of asking Iosif to pass messages back to the HQ section to arrange for medical checks and evaluations on all of her people, to ensure they weren't carrying anything unfortunate with them on their return…

It was technically Wednesday morning – though it didn't feel like morning, with the sun still hanging low in the sky as it had for the last few days. The locals were clearly accustomed to the ongoing daylight, and presumably were equally used to the six month long persistent nights later in the year – but for the rest of the team it was a little jarring and left them feeling discombobulated.

After breakfast, Hunter headed into the tilt-wing and started to jack into the matrix, settling down to a day of boring paperwork and minor data runs, as he sorted out the permits they'd need for getting into Sweden as a legitimate flight. There was no question about getting into the UK with the same methods – Hunter knew his limitations, but the aircraft had enough of a history visiting other airports and travelling internationally that a slightly more relaxed country was possible. Working the 'doctors without borders' fake IDs and the corporate paperwork into the flight plan gave them some extra legitimacy, and allowed them to file all of the team as medical personnel, easing the visa requirements for the quick layover. They'd stopped at the airport before of course, when they were smuggling the goods between Sweden and Russia, so they had a little prior knowledge and the aircraft also existed on the airport systems, which helped a little. Despite that it still took Hunter most of the day to get the paperwork sorted out that would allow them to ingress via a commercial flight corridor, land, refuel and then take off again…

Shimazu went out again on the skidoo, taking Aswon with him this time just for a change of scenery, and repeating his 'hearts and minds' campaign as he worked on various health issues in another two villages, spending the morning at one and the afternoon at another. Marius continued to work on the aircraft, Kai continued to practice his archery and spent some time talking with the shaman, trying to find out a little more about their culture and how the people saw things. Tads dedicated herself to using her magic to create a vast amount of food – filling up every loose container the tribe had to the brim with whatever she could make. With the food supplies secured, though, it freed up most of the villagers to go out hunting – harvesting telesma and magical ingredients, to bring back and add to the already impressive stockpile.

In the evening, they reviewed the days haul, finding that they'd managed to increase production a little that day, harvesting well over fifty grams of material, to add to their stockpile. Countering that good news though was the radio report from Iosif – the Brigadier and a small posse of military experts had appeared before the council, and had given their pitch – but the Brigadier didn't feel that it had gone down well at all.

The team sat around the small stove in the chum discussing this – wondering just how massive the bribes from Mitsuhama to the various council members might have been, or which members might be effectively owned outright by the megacorp. Either way, it was disappointing news and meant that armed conflict now seemed the more likely of the options – and that certainly wasn't what they wanted at all.

On Thursday the team continued much as before, splitting up to carry out their various tasks. Tads spent even more time conjuring up a veritable mountain of food – enough that Parako arranged for several loads to be shipped out to nearby villages to help them out, as even the staples might spoil before they were used if they kept it all.

When Shimazu returned late in the evening, having been out even further as part of his medical services, he informed the team that he'd been talking with the locals, as best he could, while fixing up their various ailments and issues. It was his considered opinion that the Nenet people were very supportive of their shamans – to the point that if the shamans called for war and insurrection against the invading Russians, that it could turn into a very brutal and long-lived campaign of guerrilla fighting up and down the entire country that the Russians would very much not enjoy. Though they had crushing levels of force out in the open, and the weather was hardly going to be a factor for them – the dense forests that covered half of the Nenet lands would be, and while it was inevitable they'd lose in the end, the cost would be atrocious.

Tads was, of course, not shocked by his assessment, but was pretty upset thinking through the consequences of the conflict to come, leading to her being pretty morose as they sat in the dimly lit chum. It was her job to protect her people, and she felt as though she'd failed – spectacularly. Her mind kept drifting back to the summoning she'd done for the spirit in Nigeria, wondering just how many she could summon to defend the land – and how likely it was that one or more of them would be "bad" or turn against her and her people.

She tried to deal with her feelings, continuing to make extensive amounts of food for the village. At least with the temperatures still just over freezing, the entire place was one large cold-store, and soon enough there was a pile of steak large enough to feed everyone for the next four days sitting neatly on the side of the chum, lifted up well out of casual range from any of the dogs that were suddenly and inextricably her best friends.

Her evening turned around though when Iosif came in with the day's traffic – including a major update from Moscow. There appeared to have been a shift somewhere in the council, and the Brigadier had been told to come back in the following day with additional information and an updated presentation for the council members. Although he was cagey, the message was crouched in fairly hopeful terms – he'd rarely heard of the council reconsidering a decision, and that meant that something must be going on in the background.

"That sounds to me like maybe the Brigadier was his usual charming self," Kai looked over at Iosif and made eye contact with him, "and I mean that very sincerely. I think his information has gotten under the skin of someone, and they've realised that not only is he correct in that this is a bad decision for the people of Russia, but that also when word gets out that they've thrown away a huge military advantage over the enemies in their war, it could be a really bad decision for the council members. Even their power is going to have limits, and I'm not sure they could keep a lid on a secret this big that's already known about by this many people."

"From my limited understanding of Russian history, the ruling party has always had a strange relationship with the armed forces. On one hand, they rely upon them to keep the country safe and secure, and enforce their will. On the other, they have always feared them as the most likely source of a coup and losing their positions." Marius shook his head. "If word did get out that they had prolonged the war, increased casualties and lowered their chance of winning – that is exactly the kind of thing that is likely to increase the odds of an uprising or discontent amongst the armed forces."

"Does it matter, though, really? All we want is for them to make the right decision, even if it's for the wrong reasons. Let's send the Brigadier some good news then, hopefully to help bolster his case. Can we send through the updated figures for the harvesting, and some kind of idea of how many shamen might be available to work on making foci for the army? Don't go mad, but give him something to work with."

The team examined their stash, now in excess of two hundred grams of fine flakes of orichalcum, and sent through a figure of one hundred – giving themselves plenty of wiggle room, while still representing a value of nearly nine million Nuyen gathered so far that week, along with a very conservative estimate of the number of shaman that could be roped into the production process, and sent that through – along with a reminder that the team would be shipping out of the area sometime on Monday, probably around early afternoon.

Feeling much more positive, the team bedded down, waiting to see what the new day would bring. Unfortunately, that didn't take as long as they'd hoped – around three in the morning, Tads was woken by a worried looking Parako who held the phone to one side of her and delivered a message in a strained and worried voice.

"There is a message from the villages to the south, in the forest. The Russians. They're coming. Fast."

Aswon had woken with the noise and dived off his bedding, catching the body of Tads as it fell to the floor, her spirit leaping outwards and flashing to the south at a speed close to fourteen thousand kilometres per hour. A heartbeat later, she slowed, floating in mid-air and examined the scene, manifesting to allow her to look out over the landscape by the pale light of the sun as it crawled along the horizon. Two minutes of flitting back and forth, and then she returned to the village, jumping back into her body and sitting upright, seeing the rest of the team now awake and gathered around her.

"It's true. All along the line, the entire Russian force is in motion. They must have started packing up a while back, and they've concentrated into some larger groups. Not stretched out so thinly, I think they're in platoon strength now – that's about twenty or so right?" Several of the team nodded to her in confirmation. "Many of them are back in their vehicles, and they're pushing through the forest, following trails and paths, heading north at speed."

The team found Iosif and woke him. He was rubbing the sleep from his eyes and mid-yawn when he saw their expressions – and weapons to hand, and took in their mood, which banished sleep from his system faster than an icy bath.

"What's wrong?"

"You tell me, Iosif. The brigade is moving north, at speed. Invading the Nenet lands." Aswon jumped in first, before Tads could speak – but at least he had a firm grip on his emotions.

"Give me a minute, let me get the radio started up. I have no idea why they're moving." They nodded, and moved away – far enough to not quite be looming over him, but close enough to make it clear they could still very definitely hear what was going on, and that he'd better not try anything funny…

It only took a minute of Iosif demanding answers on the radio for some information to get through – his status as 'special envoy' apparently accounting for something.

"The orders came from the Brigadier. Encoded and encrypted with his private cyphers. The brigade was to mount up and to make best speed for all known locations of Nenet tribes, approach them and then set up a defensive perimeter around them, keep them secure and protect the population until given further orders."

"They should have radioed ahead first," Aswon sighed. "There's going to be a lot of terrified people out there when they see soldiers coming out of the forest."

"Yes – there will be. I need to go arrange for some calls. Iosif, please radio back and tell them to be careful!" Tads left and headed out to find Parako, asking her to spread word as quickly as she could to the other tribes and families about what was going on, and not to panic – at least not yet. With that done she found somewhere safe to leave her body and flew down to the headquarters section, still set up exactly where they had been a few days before, and scared some poor private half to death by manifesting right in front of him. But, once he had calmed down a bit, he repeated the orders given by the Brigadier to her, confirming what Iosif had told her. Somewhat satisfied, she headed back to her body and told the rest of the team.

"I don't like the idea of this at all. Troops in the villages, 'protecting' the people. It doesn't take much for that protection to turn into incarceration. And if they're already in position around a village, there's no chance for people to get away."

"That is true, Aswon. But there is another side to this. If the troops are stationed next to the Nenet, there will be fraternisation. Based on the hospitality we have seen, they will get offered shelter, food and water. There will be children playing with them. People moving around them. The people will not be faceless, not an indistinct enemy. They will be known, individuals that the soldiers have met. Being told to imprison people who have fed you and kept you warm is much more difficult than a man with no name."

"True enough, I suppose. And I don't think the narrative really works here for the Russians either. I just can't work out why they're doing it now? The Brigadier isn't due to go back in to the council until later today – so why are they ordering the troops in now?"

"I don't think this is the council or the army's idea." Shimazu piped up, and as was typical, the rest of the team were quiet for a moment to hear what he had to say. "Iosif did say the orders were encrypted and encoded with the Brigadier's personal codes. I don't think anyone but him knows they've moved. I think it's an insurance, against a bad meeting. If they try to take away his command, or tell him to resume the attack – he's already got his troops forward so he can say he's carrying them out. But he's in a much better position to also stop anyone else doing something to the Nenet…"

"At least they aren't corporate forces. It's not going to turn into another Tsimshian situation. Though if Mitsuhama had moved in, it might have done. I wonder if that's why he's moved his forces in?" Aswon thought for a second, then nodded. "That makes a kind of sense – no point dropping small recon teams in, or squads of corporate goons to start doing your dirty work. Taking out barely-armed civilians is one thing. Taking on a dug-in platoon of combat troops is something entirely different – especially if they have a radio and can call for artillery or vehicle support!"

"So, as long as the Brigadier is on the level – then we're good. And this isn't something to worry about." Kai said. "Now I hope he is, and I think he is… but I don't know how much of that is because I want him to be on the level…"

"There's a way of working that out – I think. Tads – you have an idea of the shaman and what abilities their totem has given them. Do any of them have skills of divination?"

Tads gave Aswon a little grin, then waved for the team to follow her, and went to find Noley. He was already awake, having been concerned about the troop movements, and was sitting with the other shaman discussing the advance in low tones. It took Tads only a minute to ask him if he could try to divine the future for them – but another thirty minutes before he could start, as Tads and the team launched into a detailed discussion about the Brigadier and their interactions with him, sharing the information they had via a mind-link spell, and replaying some of their meetings via a projected illusion. They tried to explain to Noley who and what the Brigadier was, giving him the best possible 'feel' for a man he'd never met in his life. The magic of divination was very much an art, not a science – but asking a very specific question limited to a very tight event or situation seemed to be far easier to predict than a more general question or something far into the future. With their detailed examination of his character, it was much easier for Noley to mentally frame the question to the spirits of if the Brigadier had good intentions or not with his troop movements.

The chum fell quiet as Noley grabbed a metal rod and started to poke the embers of the fire, moving the coals back and forth and chanting quietly to himself as he swayed from side to side. His eyes glazed over and he stared at the firepit, not looking at any one part or point of space, but absorbing the colours and twisting shapes, the gentle heat-haze and the flickering sparks as he moved the coals about. After perhaps ten minutes of staring at the fires, he announced in a gravelly voice that the spirits seemed to be of the opinion that he was a man of his word and had no ill will against the Nenet People.

That didn't mean the future was fixed, of course – but the team breathed a huge sigh of relief that his intentions at the moment appeared to be honourable and open.

The day passed by in a blur of activity, then – Tads was soon flitting back and forth in astral space to each of the villages that had called in, and spent a few minutes at each talking with both the locals and the Russians, co-ordinating meetings and providing information to the team on their locations. Hunter built up a map and started to log the information, and they also had reports come in from the phone calls, fragmentary and sometimes a little garbled, but mostly in accordance with the information from Tads.

They were reaching out to the villages mostly along a number of lines of advance deep into Nenet territory, moving to defend them and constructing positions to fight from against an external threat, as Aswon had predicted. More importantly, they were sharing food and medicine with the locals, and making a concerted effort to get to know them, and there were no reports of bullying or abuse anywhere they had discovered. Tads also discovered that the organic engineering company attached to the Brigadier's main force were starting to construct a roadway, from the last trailhead south of the forest they were aiming towards the northern coast in a fairly straight line – or as straight as the topography would allow them.

She watched them work for a short while, then manifested ahead of their positions so she could 'walk out of the forest' to meet them. They were still alarmed to see the ghostly form approach them – at least until one or two of them recognised her. Having learnt from her earlier visits how unnerving this could be for the troops, she'd adjusted her mental picture of herself, and now her manifested image appeared in a uniform approximating their own, with her 'hero' medal prominently displayed on one breast, reminding them WHY they knew her.

Once she had them settled down at least a little, she informed them that she would be leaving a spirit or two with them, a powerful magical being that could help them construct the road while at the same time minimising the damage to the forest and the ground. They looked sceptical of this offer until Tads demonstrated with a flourish of her hand, and the tangled roots of the trees and thick underbrush receded away from the marked route, the ground smoothing out as the earth was reshaped below their feet and the way suddenly becoming much clearer. With the worth of the spirits proved, and the knowledge that with dusk still some weeks away the spirits would remain available to them far longer than normal, she headed back to the village to report in.

Midway through the Friday night, Iosif bought in the messages as was now usual – though there were a lot more of them than previously, as he detailed what each of the units that had co-located with a village were up to, and how the logistics were being handled. The delivery of food to the Nenet people was particularly welcome, and thanks to the team's co-ordination and warning, so far things were going well. Iosif had saved the best news until last, though – the Brigadier's meeting with the council had gone well – as well as anyone could have expected.

In a surprising turn of events, the previous decision had been overturned, it seemed, and there was not apparently a huge amount of effort being put into looking at the deal that Mitsuhama had proposed, with legal teams pouring over the contract with fresh perspectives as they looked for specific words or phrases. More importantly, though, the council had agreed that the Nenet people were to remain on their lands undisturbed – and in fact their security was to be ensured by the might of the Red Army. As the Brigadier's men were in fact so far advanced into the territory, it had been decided that he would be responsible for interior security, while the second division of troops would form a defensive position between the Nenet lands and the border with Yakut, providing a bulwark against any incursion from that direction.

The following morning, the tribal phone network and Iosif's radio were both kept busy as word spread throughout the land. The Russians reconfigured their approach, with a spearhead now pushing forward at speed towards the coastline, stringing out gradually and securing the main route along the way, while the engineering corp worked to extend the road behind them to improve speed and access – greatly assisted by the spirits. On the eastern flank, the second brigade had turned and started to re-organise, pushing back outwards from the Nenet border and finding good defensible positions and then digging in. The hard-packed tundra made that difficult – but countering that was the determined application of ten-thousand entrenching tools and their own engineering corps, and by the end of Saturday there was a noticeable line of fortifications and strong points beginning to take shape along the border.

Tads had also discovered that while the Brigadier's forces were just about familiar with her to not descend into a panic when she appeared before them, the other brigade was nowhere near as disciplined or welcoming. After appearing to try and relay a message and finding more than a dozen troopers emptying their magazines into her ghostly image with no discernible effect, it was probably better to let Iosif and the military radio network deliver some of the messages, rather than try with the 'personal touch'…

Sunday proved to be a continuation of the deployment, with the Russian advance hitting the coastal plains and accelerating towards the coast, splitting up now to secure a wide swatch of land and put it all under observation. They made no particular efforts to approach the various villages and groups of Nenet if they didn't have to – but neither did they avoid them, and where an observation point and a village coincided, they happily met up with the locals and provided food and fuel, as well as trying to work with the local shaman on where they could set up their camp to avoid impacting the village operations.

The orichalcum harvesting operation was continuing with great pace – the fishermen having improved on the previous day's catch fairly consistently. Their stockpile now sat at a little under half a kilo, with a value that boggled the mind – enough so that the team started to make arrangements to split up the resources and start quietly shipping them out to neighbouring villages to pass on to the shamans there and ensure that not all of their eggs were in one basket.

As the day wore on, Tads took a few hours to fly up and down the coastline looking at other areas, particularly near any of the other villages, to see if there was any orichalcum bubbling up through more vents anywhere else – but found nothing in her search. On the off-chance that there might be something further out, she quickly flew up to the large island where the zeppelin had been destroyed, checking it out too in case there was any magical phenomena there, but it too was quiet.

On her way back though, she encountered a sight out in the sea that sent her quickly buzzing back to her body and calling for the rest of the team. Rather than try to explain, she thought carefully about what she'd witnessed and created a phantasm before them, replaying the sights so they could see for themselves.

"Holy drek!"

"Is that what I think it is? Marius?"

"It appears to be a carrier battle group."

Hunter pulled out his deck and fired up his link to the matrix and started some quick searches, throwing up information on the screen as he found snippets of gossip or naval engineering data.

"So, we have a light carrier, ski-jump equipped and with multiple drone racks at the core. Two missile-equipped cruisers armed with cannons, and what appear to be at least six destroyer escorts. The carrier and cruisers are probably nuclear-powered, the destroyers are too small for that and will have conventional fuel."

"Should I go and make contact with them?" Tads offered. A chorus of emphatic denials from the rest of the team made it clear they all thought that was an extrordinately bad idea.

"Any ideas what's going on there?" Kai examined the images with suspicion, glancing around the rest of the team.

"I think… this might be a guard force. If Tads encountered them near the island we flew to – then that would match the rough timings for leaving Murmansk about the same time as we received news of the brigade to the east turning to dig in. I think the Russians are worried that Mitsuhama might stage an amphibious assault."

"Would this stop them?"

"I do not know. Mitsuhama also have carriers, and they are newer and more modern. Whether they would risk them in open conflict is a different matter…"

They realised that they were unlikely to find out, and resolved to just keep a careful eye on the horizon out to sea, just in case – but otherwise they should carry on regardless. The radio report for the night told them that the Brigadier had left Moscow and was on his way back north – though there was no further detail than that on his destination or intentions.

As the team were settling down for the night, Aswon suddenly sat bolt upright with a worried look on his face.

"We're due in England tomorrow, right. That's the twentieth, yeah?"

"Yeah. Why?" Hunter checked the calendar and confirmed the date, nodding to Aswon.

"It's the solstice then. Pretty sure of it. Longest day of the year."

"So?"

"Also a big day for certain cultures, magical societies, cults and other weird magical stuff. Festivals. Rituals. Huge deal for several pagan religions. I betcha the English druids will be doing stuff."

"Oh. That doesn't sound so good. More magical bullshit…" Hunter wrinkled up his nose and exchanged a look with Marius, who returned it in equal measure.

"It hopefully won't affect us too much, but it's worth bearing in mind. Security might be tighter in some places than usual if people are out celebrating or doing rituals, or there might be weird things going on. We should just keep our eyes open, is what I'm saying."

"Right. Nothing bad will happen. Sure…." Hunter sighed, then pulled his sleeping bag up over his head and the rest of the team were treated to a quiet muttered monologue for the next few minutes while Hunter unloaded his thoughts and opinions on the summer solstice and how it might affect their delivery plans, as they slowly drifted off to sleep.