Aswon twitched and trembled, his temperature up several degrees and his heart continued to race, as his body fought against the potent neurotoxin injected by the Nova-Scorpion. The rest of the team continued to minister to him, keeping him cool, watching the med-kit readings and mopping up the pools of sweat that gathered around him. As the hours crept by, his temperature finally started to drop and his heart rate steadied, then slowly decreased. Dawn broke, and an exhausted-looking Aswon finally managed to raise himself on one elbow and sip at a drink unaided, his eyes lidded and narrow with exhaustion. He winced as he moved, his muscles sore and his body exhausted from the intense workout caused by the violent trembling he had been subjected to.
Kai examined him slowly and carefully, his normal flippancy muted as he made a professional assessment of his condition. He found a number of haematomas scattered around his body, the skin taking on a purple sheen that glistened against the blackness of his normal skin tone. Carefully checking them out, he could feel the blood pockets beneath the surface, pooling where the violent muscle spasms had ripped muscle tissue and damaged the flesh. There wasn't a lot he could do with this low-level but widespread damage – it was mostly going to be a case of time spent resting and waiting for his body to heal. Or at least, that's what he told the team.
Tadibya gently pushed him out of the way, and gathered her mental energies again, and then let the mana flow through her, purifying the energy and shaping it. The golden glow emanated from her hands and suffused his entire body, knitting together muscle and sinew, bone and flesh, revitalising red blood cells and fortifying the white, scouring away the dead cells caused by the toxins. Now that the damage wasn't being caused directly by a toxin or a disease, but was as a result of physical trauma – her healing magic was effective.
Minutes later Aswon appeared to be a new man. He crawled out of the bunk and into the shower, scrubbing away the accumulated sweat and stench before towelling dry and donning fresh clothes. He was tired, but moved without pain or impediment, and set to examining the parts of scorpion bought back by Shimazu, and the venom sacks in the stingers. With no proper chemistry kit to hand, he had limited resources, but it didn't take much to realise that the venom was some kind of organic compound, either acid or alkaline, that interfered with the neurons and nerve endings when injected. He gathered what he could, working with utmost care, and stored it in a sealed container in the fridge in the truck. It would probably break down in short order, but the cold should retard that. If they could get a decent analysis on it, they might be able to work on an anti-venom or more effective treatment.
Hunter leaned over his shoulder, watching with interest, and raised another possibility… if they could work out how to store it, and keep it safely – it would also make a very interesting weapon to use against targets in the future. The truck was quiet, as they considered that – thinking about the effects that it had wrought on Aswon, and what it would do to someone else.
The day passed without note, Marius having found an ideal location to stash the truck, in a steep-sided ravine. Only a direct overflight stood a chance of spotting them, and they would still have to see through the concealment granted by the spirit Tadibya had summoned. During the day Marius listened in on the airwaves, narrowing down the frequencies used by Dekita. Their transmissions were brief, and encrypted – nowhere near long enough to run his decryption tools on. With a spotter drone set up a few hundred metres away from the truck, he could do some very rough and ready direction finding, and plotted their positions. From the looks of things, they were very simple checks or call-ins, as they reached parts of the pipeline – it could be easily inferred then, that these were the patrols from Dekita, wandering around the pipeline network and checking things over. The comms all sounded routine though, so Marius just gathered more information as he could, on their procedures and patterns.
As the sun quickly sank below the horizon and night fell once more, Aswon created two more demo-charges from their supply of explosives, and prepared two more timer detonators. Tadibya summoned a spirit again, just after dusk, and once more sped over the desert terrain with it, showing it the locations to place them, and then returning to the truck within thirty seconds. The spirit was persuaded to materialise fully in the physical world, handed the explosives, and send flitting across the broken terrain towards its destination.
The team relaxed, planning to doze and relax through the night and the next day, before initiating their plan the next evening, setting off the charges in a sequence designed to throw the enemy into disarray. They were unprepared then, for Kai's phone to suddenly ring at just after ten in the evening.
"Hello," said Kai, after hitting the accept button on voice only.
"Ahh, hello. My name is…. Hans. We have a mutual friend, that you are performing some services for. I'm curious as to the status of that mission? We've not heard any… well we've not heard any loud bangs you see."
Kai frowned, glancing around the back of the truck at the others, seeing them shrug or look at him expectantly.
"Just to clarify things… what colour eyes does our mutual friend have?" asked Kai.
He listened to the voice as it responded, giving a very detailed description of Johanna, the European dialect coming through clearly as that of a native speaker. The answer was smooth and fluid, and described their hiring contact at Mearsk exactly. It seemed that this was the manager that Johanna spoke of, giving her a cut-out, and Kai saw the others nod as they reached the same conclusion.
"Well, we're in our deployment phase, setting things up. We're planning on things getting interesting some time over the next... well, the next few days or so."
"I see. Well, that should be fine. I wonder if you might be able to warn me before the party started? I'd love to be able to play some music myself, if you know what I mean?"
The team thought back to the elegant aerial dance they had seen when approaching Dekita territory. Was that what Hans meant? Was he going to send attack choppers to go and distract Dekita, or stage a diversion somewhere along the way? That might make their escape considerably easier…
"I think we can manage that, Mr. Hans. Would an hour's warning be sufficient?"
"Excellent, that will be fine. In that case I will leave you to continue planning your party. Good night."
The team relaxed, spending the night warm and cosy in the truck – apart from Hunter of course. He was wrapped up in his survival gear, nestled into a tiny alcove between two large boulders, covered in scrim netting, keeping a careful eye out for killer head-butting goats, burrowing venomous scorpions and armed enemy patrols, whilst the frigid winter winds blew across the mesa. Yet at the regularly scheduled contact times, he sounded quite happy, almost as if he was enjoying the experience.
The third day passed as uneventfully as the second for the team. Marius spent a while under the truck, checking over the shocks, springs, transmission couplings, wiring and everything else he could get at, looking for any maintenance work that needed to be done – the last thing he wanted was for some minor, preventable issue stalling their getaway.
Dusk arrived soon enough, and Tadibya summoned her spirit for the night, calling forth the spirit of the desert again. She flew first towards the point where the pipeline crossed the road, on a raised set of gantries, and then over towards the facility, her ethereal form floating through the crisp desert night on gossamer wings of thought. From on high she saw the concrete pad, twice as wide as the rest of the drilling sites. The grey blobs of concrete and metal constructed objects were clear against the shimmering whiteness of the living earth below and around them. She showed the spirit where the two bombs for tonight were to be placed – one on the holding tank, one on the main pump, then turned and headed back towards the truck, casting glances around her and looking for anything unusual, anything that piqued her senses.
Back at the truck, the rest of the team kept a watch out – on the unconscious body, on the surrounding area, on the sensors on the vehicle. Already on edge, they jumped when the radio keyed up, a low powered signal from Hunter.
"Contact, far, bearing 043, vehicle – approaching. Standby."
Weapons were checked, and Marius stood ready to start the truck. Kai checked the map, the bearing and the expected lines of sight, and then glanced at Tadibya – then the map, the bearing, the lines of sight…. If they drove to go and back up Hunter, if his position had been compromised and he needed backup or extraction – they had to take Tadibya's body with them. Her spirit would have to find them, to rejoin it. The spirit could leave the body, but only for a while – too long apart, and the link broke. Too long apart, and they would both die.
"Shot! Shot fired, supressed weapon, somewhere close. Target vehicle, two troops external, aiming. Aiming. Standby… ok, they took out a goat. Collecting it now. Either an assault rifle or a bolt action – large suppressor mounted, single shot. Ok, heading out now. Stand down."
The team breathed out, not realising they'd been holding their collective breath as the staccato report had come to them, short phrase at a time. Moments later Tadibya arrived back in her body, opening her eyes and seeing people standing ready with weapons drawn and looking ready to spring into action.
"Did I miss something?"
Kai gave a little wave, smiled and then just patted her on the shoulder.
"C'mon. Time to get those last charges in position."
Tadibya turned to her spirit, hovering next to her in astral space, and asked it to materialise, handing over two more demo charges for it to deliver. Once more it loped off into the darkness, this time heading south-west, rather than north-west as it had done on previous nights. It should have time to get to the overhead gantry and then up to the new oil strike in a few hours. Though it didn't move fast when physically present, it didn't tire, didn't rest – and more importantly could float just above the ground, ignoring any kind of terrain.
The team settled back to wait, and Kai went over the plan one more time.
"Ok, the spirit drops off the bombs, and clears the area. We wait a while. At 03:00, the spirit heads over to the sites at the far west, hits the timers. At 03:30, we make the call, and send the spirit to hit the timers on the middle bombs. At 04:00, the first bombs go off. The response should head to the north-west pipeline – along with everything in the area going on high alert. Then our friends make a flight, we guess towards the terminal – that pulls a response back towards that. At 04:30, the middle bombs go off, and take out the centre pipeline. Response force now has to split between two damaged pipes, but keep enough cover on the terminal. Then we hit the radio det on the overhead line, and give them a third broken pipeline. Hunter sets off the charges we placed first, to give them a fourth, then he gets down from his perch and double times it back here. We wait about ten minutes, to give the reaction force from the facility time to be heading that way at high speed – then we blow the last set on the facility itself. If it doesn't do the job, we play it by ear, but otherwise, we throw up the trid phantasm over the vehicle, then we just schmooze on out of here and go get paid."
The rest of the team nodded, and they got a double click from Hunter's radio. Then they settled back in their seats to hurry up and wait.
The evening passed slowly. Guns were cleaned, swords honed, armour checked. Marius examined the map in intricate detail, checking routes and alternate routes, and backup routes, Tadibya meditated and Aswon sat perfectly still with his rifle on his lap and his eyes closed.
The radio gave a squawk on one of the Dekita frequencies. The signal went on a few seconds, then a few seconds more. The decryption gear accepted the inbound signal, processing it, gathering information on patterns, symbol sets, jumps. The signal went on, and the team moved uneasily – this was too long for a standard check in. The processor in Marius deck span up to 100% usage, as it crunched the numbers, searching for the right key to decrypt the transmission.
The warbling hiss of encrypted traffic stuttered, then started to play in clear text as the algorithm managed to break the key used by the Dekita radio sets.
"…I say again, this is unit 14-2 at facility Juliet. We have encountered hostile magical spirit. Request immediate magical support. We are going to condition Bravo at this time."
Just as the team were listening to them, the spirit appeared in the middle of the truck, looking a little contrite.
"I think they saw me…"
Aswon keyed up his radio and warned Hunter of the issue, whilst Kai pulled out his phone and dialled back the last called number. It answered after a few rings, but before anyone from the other side could speak, he spoke rapidly.
"The party is on, gatecrashers are early. We are initiating now, now, now." With that he hit the disconnect key and then stashed the phone, dived through the form of the spirit and swinging into the cab. Marius already had the engine started and was concentrating on landing the surveillance drone that the temple team had left them. As soon as the drone had been recovered, he started to move down the canyon towards clear ground. Kai pulled up the map, waving it at Tadibya.
"We're going here, then down this ridge, then to here. We'll try to wait for you there… go see if you can get those charges placed. Hunter, get ready to evac."
Tadibya studied the map to identify where her meat body would be going, then she left her body, flying at speed towards the oil drill. Barely a second later she arrived and saw a fire elemental hovering above the compound. It spotted her and immediately moved to attack. Tadibya evaded its attack and fled, heading over to the Chechen camp again, to avoid leading it back to the truck. The elemental did not pursue, however. Back in the truck though, the rest of the team could hear the results.
"Base, base, this is 14-2, we have confirmed sight on the fire elemental. It's indicating an astral event and pulsing on a course of 278. Request further backup."
Tad arrived back at the truck and merged with her body, her astral form waiting for the truck to drive through her and then "jumping" into her physical body. She took a deep breath as the two parts of her merged, and then concentrated hard, summoning a few watcher spirits to her side – nebulous wisps of astral energy. Far weaker than a regular spirit, they were good for keeping a watch on something, or poking things astrally, but were far too weak to stand up to any serious damage. But, they would give her a good distraction, and may let her get the jump on the elemental. Moments later she was ready again and flew from her body, pursued by a handful of watcher spirits.
Marius gave a shout as his sensors picked up a flare of energy far to the west, as the Dekita security choppers redlined their engines for a crash launch. The signals faded moments later as the pilots reduced power and engaged their systems, but he'd got a good paint on at least two choppers inbound.
Back at the facility, Tadibya set her watcher spirits on the elemental. It was nearly as powerful as she was, but the pack of simple watchers attacked with no regard for their own health. One was destroyed almost immediately, but the other two swarmed onto it, pulling and tugging at its body and trying to destroy it. Their efforts were not effective in hurting it – but they thoroughly distracted it. Tadibya gathered her will and with a mental grunt rent the spirit with an attack, tearing it apart whilst it flailed at her watchers. The fight was over quickly, leaving only one badly damaged spirit with Tadibya, but her unwounded.
Over at the escarpment, Hunter triggered the blast on the pipeline, watching the two gouts of orange flame flare into the blackness of the night. He quickly grabbed his gear and ran to the edge and the waiting rope. A quick flick sent the rope flying out into the darkness, and he deftly attached the line to his climbing harness using a composite figure-8 device. Without a backwards glance he walked over the edge, letting the rope slide through his fingers until he was standing perpendicular to the ground. As soon as he was in position, he started to run, letting the rope run loose through his gloved hand. There was just enough friction on the line for it to be not quite a free-fall, but it wasn't far off. In seconds, the ground loomed out of the darkness, and Hunter swept the rope across his front, applying pressure and letting the increased friction slow him. He felt the rope heat his hand as the friction increased, and stopped less than a metre from the ground – stepping down quickly and then cutting the rope quickly with his knife to get off the line as fast as possible. He broke into a fast jog, heading for the truck's position. His pace was a compromise, a mix of speed and stealth as he picked his way through the boulders and rough ground.
Once back at the truck, Tadibya sent her spirit out again on its last service – go and start the timers on the other explosives – all of them.
The truck picked up speed, heading for the rendezvous with Hunter, hoping to clear the area before the choppers caught them.
