Date 13/02/2060, Location 41.02865, 29.04536

They drove into the side streets cautiously, each of the team glancing out of the tinted windows at the streets around them. Conversation died as they concentrated on their surroundings, apart from the occasional terse comment pointing out larger clumps of the locals, or another Lionheart patrol.

Marius split his attention, driving with part of his mind and pulled up the interface on his deck with the other. Aswon had described the type of equipment Lionheart had used when he'd been contracting with them, which gave him an idea of where their frequencies would lie, and he set his routines to scanning the airwaves, looking for signals. It only took a few seconds for the powerful processors to narrow down and track in on a few discreet frequencies that were blasting out apparently random static – but random static with a close source and distinct power level far in excess of the random background noise of the city. Now came the tricky part – he fired up the decryption module, and set to with trying to crack whatever cryptography they were using. His software was still pretty much up to date, and quite powerful, so he had high hopes that he could crack this.

The rest of the team continued to watch out of the windows as they navigated slowly and carefully down the side streets. Along with the larger than normal crowds of people on the streets, they noticed the area was rammed full of cars, lining the streets often on both sides. Despite that, traffic was light – whoever was here, they had arrived some time before. The team gave a start as a snippet of transmission was played over the vehicle speakers

"Alpha 1-4 to control. We're in position at grid ref 3049.3 by 2049.1. Vehicle manned and ready, status green. Crowds are heavy and look angry, but no sign of weapons or overt action. Next check-in 20 mikes. Out."

"Control, Alpha 1-4. Received and understood. Alpha 1-8 is your response vehicle, ETA 2 mikes, on frequency 3. Continue to monitor and advise, control clear."

They heard another response from a vehicle as it too apparently reached its observation point, but the report cut out halfway through. Marius sighed, fiddled with his deck for a few seconds and then spoke.

"As I feared – they're using agile comms – frequency hops every sixty to ninety seconds probably, and it looks like they have some kind of rotating encryption. Now I know what to look for, I can probably break in again – as long as they don't up their security level. But I'll have to keep doing it, and it takes time and concentration each time."

"As long as you can listen in when we need to, I think that's fine. Useful to have an ace up our sleeve," said Kai, his face still pressing up against the glass as his eyes flicked over the people and buildings as they slowly drove past them. Kai frowned, and they looked out along his sightline, seeing a crowd of angry-looking men standing defiantly in front of a Lionheart APC, staring at the trooper manning the turret.

They pressed on, through the narrow maze of streets and further into the area, Marius threading the needle with the vehicle, navigating between parked cars that lined both sides of the road. There didn't seem to be much actual traffic in the area, but the streets were packed with cars and vans, as if nobody had gone to work that day. As they closed on the restaurant, like the first visit there was no parking spaces nearby – but throwing a major spanner in the works, it looked like someone had parked across the restaurant gates, blocking access to the loading dock.

Marius swore under his breath – it was obvious that he had planned to reverse into the loading area and use the bulk of the van to cover the transaction, keeping the signs outwardly fine whilst they handled the transfer. Now though, they'd have to bring out the goods from the restaurant and walk some way down the street with them – likely to cause issues. He circled the block once, and then widened the search pattern, moving out from the restaurant and trying to find a place to park that was as close as possible. Whilst he searched, he called the restaurant, but only got the busy tone, so had to settle for setting up a call-back request. It was another two minutes when he got through to him, and he heard Ohran give his introductory spiel for the business.

"Ohran? Marius. We're in the area, just trying to park up. The area is packed."

"Yes, I thought as much. Please tell me that you're dressed appropriately?

"No problem, modest dress for all of us, in keeping with the area."

"Good. I would suggest coming straight here, and not looking anyone in the face, or getting involved with anything. Tensions are a little high right now."

"Right, we should be with you in ten minutes or so. Speak soon." With that, he disconnected, and concentrated on finding a parking spot. A few minutes later, they found one – a space only just big enough for the vehicle. With Marius connected in via the datajack though, he manoeuvred the vehicle like it was an extension of his own body, and managed to slide the four-metre vehicle into the four-and-a-half-metre gap without issue.

Marius killed the engine and disconnected from the control system, turning in his seat to look over at Kai. As he did, the world went mad.

The vehicle in front of them exploded violently, an actinic flash lighting up the street in a moment of pure brilliant whiteness. Fractions of a second later the white started to fade, replaced with the reds, ambers and yellows of the fireball as it exploded out of the vehicle, sending lancets of white hot metal spearing out in a sphere of devastation. Part of the truck body was consumed by the intensity of the explosion, parts were liberated by the destructive power of the bomb and sent out in a blast wave that rippled into and demolished the houses on either side of the vehicle. The blast wave hit their car, sending parts of the truck's chassis into their engine bay like molten awls and killing it in moments. The windscreen bucked and flexed under the onslaught of the power of the explosion, then lost its uneven fight, shattering into thousands of tiny chunks and blowing backwards into the passenger area.

With the reflexes of the magically and cyber-enhanced, most of the team managed to duck or raise an armoured limb to shield their face – all apart from Nadia. She had been leaning forwards and sideways so she could see Marius, and her face was directly towards the blast. Purely human reactions were not up to the task, and she was thrown backwards violently towards the rear of the vehicle, her face peppered with glass. Fortunately, the windscreens tempered glass was made with safety in mind, and rather than long jagged stilettos, most of the glass was in small chunks – still sharp, but with low mass and cutting power. Nadia rocked back, blood starting to ooze out of a dozen cuts in her face, but none looked that serious.

With a groan, the two houses on either side of the road started to collapse as the explosives packed into the truck's cargo bed demolished the front walls, stripping the support for the upper floors and sending masonry and contents sliding in an avalanche out of the houses. The shockwave rebounded from the houses, making their vehicle rock from side to side, and the deep rolling explosion echoed down the street. For a moment they sat stunned – quite clearly they were lucky to be alive. It appeared that the truck had been loaded with some kind of shaped charges, as the vast majority of the destructive power had been sent out sideways, rather in a more general sphere. That in turn meant skilled opponents and determined foes rather than someone setting off twenty gallons of DERV and hoping for the best.

Aswon jumped straight on the phone and speed-dialled Sophie, "Sophie, in a situation here. We're down on Betpe road, near the corner with Lufutuse I think – just had a truck bomb go off, pretty much in our faces."

"Oh crap. Get out of there – get out, now, fast."

"Would love to, but the vehicle is toast, and we're on foot now. And um… we're equipped. In local dress."

"Right, see if you can find somewhere to go to ground. I'll try and get someone to you, and get you out."

"Cheers Sophie, will get back to you soon"

"Make sure you're not seen as a threat. They won't be giving anyone second chances!"

Aswon disconnected, and looked around, seeing that Kai had helped Nadia out of the wrecked car and to the rear, and was peering at her face with concern. Shimazu stood with one hand under his robe, no doubt holding his sword ready to draw. Hunter and Marius stood near the front of the car, examining the still burning wreckage of their engine, and Kai was looking around at the buildings on either side of the road.

The first of the locals to reach the scene came by, having flowed around the corners and out of buildings, converging on the collapsing wreck of the homes. They set to with desperate speed, pulling at the bricks and blocks and trying to excavate down into the wreckage. Now the rolling retort of the explosion had faded away, screams and wails replaced it, along with muffled cries coming from the houses. Who knew how many people were buried in the rubble, but it was apparent that the locals intended to dig them out by hand if necessary.

Another explosion sounded, muffled by distance and intervening buildings, somewhere to the east, then another, this time in a more northerly direction. Looking up into the air, plumes of smoke and destruction could be seen rising from those locations too – by the sounds of things further car or truck bombs. Kai started issuing orders to get an aid station set up to the rear of their vehicle, using the first aid kits and helping with anyone that got pulled out of the wreckage. Whilst people started to clear a space and grab the first aid kits, he took Nadia and tipped her head back, wiping away the blood and starting to examine her face and make sure she was going to be ok.

Marius suddenly swung his head to the south and stared through the plume of smoke and flames that marked the wreckage of the truck.

"Gunfire?" Marius looked down the road, but couldn't see anything through the dense black smoke still rising from the wrecked truck. The others saw him cock his head on one side, then take a side-step and cock his head the other way, trying to localise the sounds. Hunter drew his sidearm and Aswon grabbed his rifle from the back of the wrecked truck, fearing that things were about to get worse. After a few moments of peering through the smoke and debris, Hunter swarmed up on top of their wrecked MPV to see if he could get a better vantage point. Aswon turned and jogged away from the rest of the team, and found himself a niche in the corner of the block and pressed himself into the recess, keeping an eye out behind and to the flank of the team, just in case.

One of the frantically digging workers fell, collapsing onto the mound of loose dirt, with a massive hole in their chest. Blood drained from the wound, rivulets of red dropping down over the stonework and bricks, mixing with the dirt and crumbled dust to make a red paste. A second person fell, this time the back of their head exploding and sending blood and brains flying over the mound. The rest of the diggers noticed this and stopped digging, looking around them frantically for the source.

As the black cloud from the explosion started to dissipate, they saw four white males slowly walking up the street, holding assault rifles to their shoulders. They saw one of them pause, take aim and fire off another burst, killing another rescue digger. People screamed and started to scrabble down from the wreck of the house, trying to get away, and the advancing killers paused to take aim, firing off more bursts.

A grenade arced over their head, landing between the team and the attackers, and a moment later white smoke billowed out, plumes of hot particulates swiftly forming a dense cloud that started to fill the street, apart from the roiling air near the smouldering truck where the hot air forced the cloud to rise swiftly. Kai lowered his arm, pleased with the accuracy of his throw, though he suspected it was as much luck as skill.

Hunter dropped down from the roof, and they all moved into cover – aware that they were dressed as locals, and whoever the attackers were, that was a very real risk. Nadia pressed at the pads on her face that Kai had just finished applying, nodding her thanks to him as she crouched down and looked around. She spotted a woman crawling across the road, hands bleeding profusely from where she had crawled across the sharp edges of concrete, and darted out from cover to try and drag her to safety.

Aswon got on the phone, hitting the redial and praying that Sophie wasn't on a call. Luck was with him, and the call went straight through.

"Sophie, I don't know why, but there's a bunch of white dudes with assault rifles, killing the locals. Marching down the street in a line, just firing off at people, women, kids, whatever."

"Crap. Ok, get clear. I'm seeing multiple incidents called in, and heavy response teams are rolling. Stay away from those whackos if you can, and keep your phone on – I'll try and get down to get you out."

"Roger that." Aswon disconnected and slid out of his cover position and round the corner, and then started to shout out in broken Turkish, beckoning for people to follow him around the corner and out of the line of fire. He held his rifle in one hand, trying to keep the weapon roughly behind him, and used his free hand to beckon to wave at people, encouraging them to run.

A second explosion rang out of the street as the remains of the fuel tank went up, and a gout of heat and flame shot out of the side of the vehicle. The waft of heat blew the smoke out of the way, and one of the attackers could see through the clear air for a moment. He raised his weapon and fired at the target he could see. It wasn't well aimed, but it was on target – and the rounds impacted on Nadia's left shoulder, spinning her around. She let her legs collapse underneath her as she cried out in pain, dropping to the road.

Marius saw her fall out of the corner of his eye, and his reactions kicked in without conscious thought. Adrenaline coursed through his body and the electrochemical accelerators fired, sending jolts through his nervous system. His hand pulled out the heavy pistol from the concealing folds of his outfit, his left leg took half a step backwords and turned to the side, dropping him into an l-shaped stance. The left hand came up and cradled the bottom of the right, as the gun raised up to shoulder height and he acquired the sight picture. The finger slowly clenched, applying just enough force on the trigger to send a round rumbling down-range. As the cartridge shot out of the breech and floated through the air, his finger squeezed a second time while his wrist strained to keep the muzzle pointing on target, fighting the natural tendency of the gun to climb. A second shot flew down range. Both shots hit their target, and the side of the target's face opened up as the 12mm slugs wrecked his face, sending shattered bone flying.

Hunter caught a glimpse through the smoke of another target, and flexed his wrist. His target was obscured by smoke, barely visible – but he had a number of advantages over Marius. As he twisted the gun out of the cloth, he just bent his wrist, pointing the gun in the right direction from his waist, saving precious fractions of a second. As the gun pointed in roughly the right direction, a targeting cursor appeared in his vision, relaying the aim point from the gun to his cybernetic vision through the induction pad built into his palm. A host of calculations were run through by the built-in computer – estimated wind speed, distance, round velocity, atmospheric conditions – before spitting out a continuously updated set of vectors. The targeting display matched the vectors, and all Hunter had to do was twist his wrist a little more – the green cross turned amber as the smartlink recognised a target, then red as it locked on. The finger squeezed twice, and the rounds flew true, striking the target centre mass, though he had no idea of the damage caused as the smoke enveloped the target.

"Sophie! We are engaged with hostiles, coming under auto-fire. I need your permission to engage!" Aswon yelled into the phone as soon as it connected.

"I can't give you permission, I'm sorry. Neither of us are authorised." There was a pause for a moment. "Aswon, do what you have to do. Just get clear after." The call was broken again, this time from the far end. Aswon pulled the rifle round and cycled the action, sliding a round into the breech and checked that the safety was off.

From the other side of the smoke, they heard a voice yelling:

"Incendiaries! Now!"

A couple of black objects flew through the air. One was going to land to the left of their car, near the blast-damaged house. The other arced through the air, heading straight towards where Nadia lay in the road…

Hunter, Shimazu and Marius ran forwards, under the arc of throw and charged into the smoke, disappearing quickly from view. Kai pulled back, clearing the area to the left, and headed back towards a safer area, unaware of Nadia's position on the other side of the parked cars and the peril that she was in. Aswon looked around and saw the falling grenade, and lowered his head, legs pumping as he accelerated towards her. Just as the round was about to hit the floor, he sprang, his powerful legs propelling him through the air like a spear to land atop her.

The grenades hit, and moments later white flames erupted from them. There was an odd popping noise, then dozens of smaller bursts of white hot material burst out of the landing area and separated out into a pattern, spreading across the roadway with an eye-searing intensity. Aswon felt the impact on his back, and could smell burning as they hit his armoured duster – and just as quickly realised they weren't standard incendiary rounds. He pushed himself upwards and off Nadia, and saw a couple of the white pellets burning through her shoes and clothing, but her torso and most of her body were clear. The bad news of course was that meant that most of the rest had hit him. He struggled to shuck off his coat, pulling it from his limbs as pain lanced through him as the burning phosphorous ate through his clothing and started to work its way through flesh and muscle. Nadia screamed in pain as the needles of burning chemical lanced through her, then coughed explosively as the hot gasses seared at her mouth and throat.

The second grenade hit too, also sending gobbets of burning phosphorous all over the street, the cars, the houses – and the back of Hunter's legs as he headed into the smoke. The burly ork winced, but otherwise ignored the pain – he had work to do ahead of him. The thick white cloying smoke from Kai's grenade lingered in the street. With little wind to move it, and the solid housing on either side, it hung in the air forming a thick barrier that obscured the street thoroughly, making vision useless. Regular vision, that was…

Hunter and Marius both activated the thermal vision modifications. Some hot patches glowed yellow and white in their sight – bits of burning debris from the truck bomb or gouts of fuel that had been thrown out in the explosion, but most of the street was a cool greenish-blue of the cold stonework that had barely warmed from the low lying winter sun. Ahead of them they saw their targets through clearly – reddish lumps of heat standing braced, with hot spots around the gun breeches in their hands. For Shimazu it was even easier – he dropped his vision into the astral plane, and saw grey lumps all around him showing the outlines of the man-made objects, solid, but lacking any kind of spirit. Ahead though, were the brilliant white outlines of the attackers – their bodies and spirits glowing with the essence of life. He raised his sword to a high guard position and advanced on them with purpose.

Hunter picked one target to the left, hiding in the doorway of a house at a guess, and put two more rounds into his torso. Shooting via thermo vision was always a bit less precise, so he hedged his bets and aimed for centre mass – he might not get the kill shot that would drop them instantly, but he'd definitely hit. Marius took a similar approach to the right, slowing for a moment to steady his aim and putting two rounds into the same target. Shimazu appeared from the smoke like an avenging angel, his sword slicing down from the high position and opening up a deep cut from shoulder to waist on his target, only the armoured vest the target was wearing saved him from having his internal organs spilling out of the cut and onto the street.

The two remaining targets both fired wildly into the smoke, sending rounds downrange as blind fire to try and score some hits on whatever was attacking them. Marius felt the rounds whizzing past him, so he put another two rounds back into their source, dropping the guy. Hunter was not so lucky, and got hit by the three round burst. The rifle slugs ripped through his clothing, ploughing into the armour worn underneath and driving the air from him. The poly-aramid fibres and ceramic plates did the job though, robbing the rounds of much of the impact and only a few fragments made it through into his body. His size and musculature kept him moving, and the tight fitting clothing would help keep any bleeding in check. The target grinned when he saw the rounds hit his body, punching through in a row in his sternum. The grin fell from his face as the large ork kept moving, and froze in terror as his arm finally raised, the heavy pistol held rock steady in his hands. His lips moved in silent prayer, before Hunter fired, killing him with cold precision. Shimazu, meanwhile, had let the sword stroke continue down and outside his body in a large arc, and with a grunt of effort bought it straight down from overhead. His opponent raised his rifle overhead to try and parry the blow, but the ancient blade cut through the cheap gun driven by the grunt of effort, cleaving the gun in half and then slicing into his skull. So hard was he hit that the blade sunk almost to the neck, the two halves of his head splitting down the centre and falling away from each other.

Back on the other side of the smoke, Aswon had peeled off his smouldering jacket and top layer, and was now examining Nadia. Realising that there was really nothing he could do at the moment to stop the phosphorous from continuing to burn, the best he could do was flip her over, so that the burning embers would be pulled down and out by gravity, rather than further into her body through good tissue. He pulled at burnt skin, then pulled out his knife, trying to slice away at the burnt and crisped top layers to ensure that the dead flesh wouldn't decay later. Moments later Kai skidded to a halt next to her, and grabbed the hypo-spray and just started punching doses of Novacaine into both of them to stave off the worst of the pain around the burn sites.

On the other side of the wall of smoke, they checked over the bodies and the area – it looked clear, and the four bodies were most definitely now dead – three from gunshot wounds and one from the sword. They were all wearing fairly sturdy armoured vests with extra ceramic blocks slotted into the pouches, along with add on amour over the thighs and arms – clearly kitted out for trouble. Their guns were cheap looking AK-74s – maybe the original Russian manufacture, maybe the Chinese knock-offs. Either way they carried several magazines with them although they, too, looked cheap and of low quality. As they were examining the bodies though, Marius cocked his head and looked up.

"Can you hear that? Aerial engine of some kind. Probably small – not a plane or chopper. Probably a drone of some kind."

"We should be fine right, as long as we have our guns hidden? Local dress, not armed, hands in the air?"

"It depends on the drones though. If they're just using optical sensors, then yes – or they shouldn't be too hostile. But if they're running full suite sensors then we're in trouble. They'll pick up on the body armour or the guns underneath, and they'll probably figure us as bad guys. So, depending on who it is, and what they're running – we might be best getting off the streets entirely. With that they abandoned the bodies and the weapons, and turned to head back through the thinning smoke.

Now that the automatic fire had died down, heads appeared out of doorways, and a large gaggle of men turned the corner, looking at the group on the ground. Several of them had guns held in their hands, and they looked angry and confused. Aswon made an effort to stand, wavering slightly as he did so from the pain. He had enough presence of mind though to make sure that his gun was clearly pointed in the air. Wincing in pain as the last of the fragments from the grenade burned themselves out in his flesh, he raised his other hand towards the group and shouted at them to hold their fire. Most of them did – but not all, and a couple at the rear just looked around their friends and saw a huge black man with enormous hair holding a large rifle. Adding two and two and getting somewhere near seven, they opened fire. Their aim was no better than the quality of their guns, but both of them scored glancing hits on Aswon. The lightweight bullets punched into his body, and he collapsed to the floor, his rifle clattering to the floor by his side, whilst several metres away his body armour continued to smoulder as the last of the willy-pete burnt out.

Shimazu, Marius and Hunter came out of the smoke and looked at the situation – Nadia was slowly picking herself up, wincing in pain from the gunshot wound and the burns, Aswon was down on the ground with his rifle just out of reach and a large group of men milling around, all obviously armed. They also could see an old man in a white thobe shuffling across the street towards Aswon, much closer to them. He stooped and grabbed Aswon under the arms, and started to drag him across the road. He was old, but appeared to be one of the older men who was made of wiry muscle and sinew, and raised Aswon's torso up with ease, dragging him across the road and back towards his house.

Kai and Shimazu looked at him – despite him not having said anything, they didn't think that he was inherently hostile – his body language was relatively calm and open, and there was something about him.

"Hunter, help with Aswon, will you? Shimazu – security. Marius – grab Nadia, let's follow him." Kai scooped up his first aid kit and some of their other supplies, and followed along. Hunter ran towards the old man, scooping up the rifle as he did so. A couple more shots rang out from the mass of men on seeing the large ork grab the weapon, but Hunter not only outmassed Aswon considerably, but also still had his armour on, and shrugged the shots off without breaking stride. He ignored the shooters and instead grabbed Aswon's feet in one hand and lifted, with the rifle held in the other.

Kai meanwhile saw the men shooting at Hunter, and saw more of them raising weapons. He took a deep breath and focussed on modulating his voice. Sticking with the simple stuff, he bellowed out "Hey! Stop shooting!" The magical energies warped his voice, giving it a distinctive timbre. The words carried through the air and affected the minds of those listening, missing out the conscious mind and making them react like a child yelled at by their mother. Guns were lowered or held behind their backs with a look of guilt, while others just looked confused or bemused. Kai nodded in satisfaction though, and hurried after the rest of the team, who in turn were following the old man who was still walking backwards with Aswon, closing in on his front door.

As they closed in on the doorway, Marius heard the pitch of the engines change and shouted at everyone the street to take cover. He hustled forwards, waving at anyone he could see and shouting whilst pointing back and up into the air.

"Aslan yürekli drone saldırısı, sokaktan çık!" Enough people heard him shouting 'Lionheart drone attack – get out of the street' and looked up to see the oncoming shape that his words were believed, and once a few people had turned and run, repeating his warning, the mob started to follow, splitting up and heading for any cover they could find. The team followed the old man in through the door into a small room, perhaps only three metres to a side, with a single exit. It was painted a deep turquoise colour, and all around the walls were shoe racks, up to a height of two metres. The carpet was slightly threadbare in most places, and almost worn through on the entrance and exit to the room. The old man continued straight through the room though without pause, pushing open the door with his back and continuing to drag Aswon further into the building.

The next room gave lie to the building being a normal house – much like the restaurant belonging to Ohmar it was heavily converted. A row of small rooms lined the wall with the antechamber, and otherwise it was one big, open space. A small half flight of stairs led up one side to seemingly nothing, and in the other corner was a small fountain. A massive stack of mats and cushions was next to the fountain, and otherwise the room was empty of possessions. The walls were painted a deep lustrous blue, and decorated top and bottom with a complex geometric pattern picked out in gold and bronze, and several clusters of lights hung from long flexes from the second floor ceiling.

The old man gently laid Aswon down, then grabbed a few cushions and gently lifted his head to slide a cushion underneath and to the side, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. He reached to the side of the fountain and pulled out a plain earthernware jug and scooped some water from the fountain, using it to gently wash down Aswon's wounds and clean them. As Kai and Shimazu approached with the first aid kit, he moved out of the way and watched – and as they displayed confidence and competence with their treatment, he backed away and gave them space to work.

"Welcome my friends, to my house. Come in peace, and be safe. If you do not mind, I would ask that you remove your shoes in the entranceway, and leave any guns there. If however, you do not find that acceptable…" he shrugged his shoulders a little, seeming to give a 'whatever' expression. "None the less, you are welcome here. If there is anything you require, please ask."

Kai and Shimazu were busy working on Aswon, and Nadia sat against the wall looking pained and slightly spaced out – possibly overdosing slightly on novacaine. That left Hunter and Marius to answer – but fortunately they both spoke fluent Turkish so they had no problem understanding his speech.

They exchanged a look, and headed out to the antechamber. Hunter stayed out there, keeping an eye on the hardware, and waited by the door – just in case. Marius slipped his shoes off and then returned to Nadia and Aswon. No more than thirty seconds later, Hunter heard a noise and moved over to the window to see what was going on outside – just in time to see the drone carry out what could only be described as a strafing run. Twin lines of fire traced up the street, with the heavy machine guns mounted on either side of the vector thrust drone throwing 12.7mm long nose slugs downrange at a huge rate of fire. The bullets struck the road surface, digging up pockmarks and crates about half a metre apart, following the centre of the road. It looked to him like whoever was controlling the drone was sending a signal – get out of the streets – rather than aiming for anyone in particular. He called out to the team and updated them on what he had seen, and decided to stay by the window, keeping an eye on things.

In the main room, the old man saw that they had finished treating their wounds, and everyone seemed to be dealt with. He returned back to the fountain with a number of decorated cups, and fetched some fresh clean water for everyone. Once everyone had drunk, he disappeared into one of the small rooms to the side, then came out with an armful of clothes and pillows. Most of the team politely refused the clothes, sticking with their armoured clothes with the loose thobes over the top. Aswon and Nadia accepted the clothing, thanking the old man via Marius. Marius also placed a quick call to the restaurant, advising that they will be late arriving – though from the sounds of things, the restaurant was also experiencing some excitement. Marius could hear angry raised voices in the background, and it sounded like another bomb had gone off somewhere near them.

Hunter moved over to the old man, and squatted down next to him. He offered him his hand, and the old man took it gently, grasping only the fingers of Hunter's large hand, and shaking it gently. It was clear that he was not used to a more western style of handshake, but understood the concept and was not averse to body contact with the orc.

"Hello there. Thank you for helping us, my name is Hunter. May I know your name?"

"My name is Imam Tulur, and you are welcome in this place. Are your friends well?"

"They will recover, I think. Especially because of your help and this place."

"That is well." The Imam gave a grin. "I am sure that today has not turned out how any of us thought it would. The test of life is strange this day, it seems."

Hunter just nodded, feeling that the conversation was straying into areas he wasn't really comfortable with, and likely to make a horrible faux pas with. Instead he murmured a "thanks" and headed back to the ante-chamber and kept a watch out of the window. Kai was waiting by the entrance with his pistol drawn and a foot wedged against the bottom of the door.

Aswon pulled out his phone, frowning at the bottom corner which appeared a little melted and deformed – but still functional. He placed a call to Tads and advised her on what had happened, and where they were, giving the best directions he could. A minute later, his phone rang back, as Tads returned his call following her scouting.

"Aswon, the first thing is that the building you're in is warded. It's not that powerful, and I could probably get in, but you gave the impression it's some kind of temple or holy place, so I thought I'd not do that unless I needed to." Aswon thought about the reaction of the average Muslim to seeing an animalistic shaman spirit forcing their way into the mosque and shuddered. "The area around you is a hive of activity. There are a fair few watcher spirits around, but I was able to dodge them – they seemed to be looking for something particular, not on general overwatch. I saw the bomb site just down the road from where you are currently, and based on the feelings and emotions there, I'd say there's another six of those bombs gone off. If you look at it from high enough, it looks like they're in a very loose ring."

She described the rough locations of the bombs, and Aswon marked them off on his map as best he could. There was indeed one near the restaurant, another about a quarter kilometre further to the east, then they curled round to the south. He frowned – having worked as a merc for more than a decade, he'd seen plenty of violence and evil acts committed by one set of people against another. This fitted a classic pattern – the ring of explosions would draw out the people from the neighbouring houses and businesses to help, then the armed gunmen would drive them back down the streets. With the positioning, they would be driven back into a central area, where they could be more easily gunned down by the converging attacks.

"Anyway, there's drones zipping around all over the place, and I manifested a couple of times to check, and it looks like Lionheart APCs are on most of the major junctions now. But it looks like the locals are throwing rocks at them. The emotional taint in the air is getting pretty extreme and it feels like these people are ready to explode. There's a lot of anger and aggression around there. So… what do you want me to do?"

"Um. Sit tight please, Tads. Thanks for the info. I don't think it's a good idea for you to come here at the moment, but if we need you, we'll call. If you can summon a spirit to bring with you, so you can direct it to confuse enemies or things like that, it would probably help. But otherwise, carry on with what you were doing." Tads acknowledged and hung up, returning to her studies – but found it hard to concentrate on what she was doing, and found her thoughts kept slipping back to the rest of the team and their injuries. Her natural inclination was to get in a car or on a bike and get down there, and use her powers to heal them – but that was as likely to cause a riot as anything else, it seemed. She returned to the animal skin inscribed with a star constellation, studying the forms and patterns painstakingly inscribed upon it to glean its wisdom.

Aswon told Marius what Tads had said, and he pushed that information out via comms to the others. Shimazu looked at the front of the building and the doorway, reporting back that the ward must be keyed around the doorway, as they'd had no problem and he felt no resistance when they entered. So, as long as the door was open, Tads should be able to enter, if needed. He asked if they wanted her here, but after a quick discussion, they agreed it was best to leave her out of it. None of them were overtly magical as they sat here, though Aswon's tattoos might cause an issue if examined closely – but they should be able to get by with the rest of them unless some potent magical user checked them out.

The team gave a start as a loud thud resonated around the entrance room. Kai pulled open the door and peered out through the gap, seeing a stunned local who had just bounced off the door, having expected it to open to his touch. At a guess, he'd come barrelling across the street at speed, trying to avoid being caught in the open. Kai smiled at him, and beckoned him inside. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten that he held his pistol in that hand.

The young man gave a cry of alarm and pulled out a gun of his own, raised it and fired, his finger snatching at the trigger and firing a pair of shots at the grinning mongol face that had appeared in the door to his mosque. Fortunately, the surprise, the residual effects of headbutting the door and a lack of training and experience sent the two shots wide, missing the top of his head by several centimetres and hitting the roof of the roof, sending a shower of plaster dust falling to the carpet. Kai sighed, and modulated his voice, being in no mood for messing around

"Get inside. Now!"

The man pushed inside like a marionette, not entirely in control of his actions as his subconscious piloted him in response to the harmonics and tendrils of power that wrapped around his speech. Inside the room he looked around in confusion, and saw Hunter – and his pistol tracked over that way, pointing at the large orc. In fairness to the young man, it was quite likely the first time he'd ever seen an orc, let along an orc in a mosque.

The Imam entered the room and looked at the young man, and a string of rapid fire Turkish assaulted him. The young man turned to face the Imam, his gun hand turning with him and Hunter reached over gently and pushed the man's hand down, so he wasn't pointing the barrel at the Imam. The young man didn't really resist, so after a moment's thought Hunter gently peeled the pistol out of his grip and made it safe, then placed it on the rack. He turned back to the window and smirked, as the Imam laid into the young man – the dressing down sounding like a parent scolding a child. The Imam took the young man by the arm and led him into the main room to show him Aswon, Nadia and Marius, and continued to describe the circumstances of their arrival.

Aswon listened to the man, and the combination of the pain, the sedatives and his limited exposure to Turkish made for an interesting translation.

"These are the people that were fighting in the street, the crusaders of evil who set off the bombs. I had led them here to recover, but when the rest of the men come, we will make an example of them, and deal with them as Allah has commanded. These invaders will feel our wrath and we will turn them into an example!"

Aswon looked around for his rifle, but it looked like someone had moved it from his side. He felt disconnected and very confused, but Marius was standing there and nodding and smiling at the young man. Hadn't he heard? Aswon slumped back onto the pillows and took a deep breath, waiting for his head to stop spinning.

Marius listened as the Imam explained the situation to the new visitor.

"These men were in the street when the fighting started. The bomb went off, and they started to help the people, trying to dig. When the crusaders appeared and started to kill people, they responded – even though they are not our people. They fought to keep us safe, and they suffered for their efforts. When people come for prayers, I will highlight their behaviour as example of how you can do good, no matter what you believe. People know Allah in many different ways, and we will not win anyone to our cause by showing them our wrath, but by showing them our love. There is no way to peace, peace is the way."

He strove to keep a smile on his face, and to appear unthreatening and welcoming. He didn't really want to be "made an example of", and didn't hold with being involved in this guy's religion – but if that was the price to pay to be kept safely off the street during a riot, it appeared that's what the cost would be. He saw Aswon looking unhappy about it as well, then collapse back with a resigned look upon his face, and figured he wasn't happy about it either. As he looked over at Aswon and the pattern of injuries on his back, legs and arms, he saw that all of the damage was to the rear half of his body. He glanced over to Nadia, to see how she was doing, and saw the burns were all cleaned and dressed now, on her hands and feet. Odd…

He looked again, and it was only now that he stood back, and could think about the situation, that he realised that she'd gotten off quite lightly, with only burns to her extremities. Why wasn't she burnt all over? He looked over at Aswon again, and then mentally slid the silhouette of the African merc over that of Nadia, and realised why she was wasn't badly hurt – and why Aswon was. His eyes narrowed as he thought about that, and his gaze rested on the dazed and confused African, floating on a sea of painkillers.

Marius didn't quite know what to do about that, so he shelved the question to deal with later, and turned to the Imam.

"Do you know why those men were attacking? Or what this was about? We were surprised to see so many people on the streets…."

The Imam's smile faded, and he looked down at the large book that lay in his lap that he had been reading. A hand traced down the page, feeling the texture of the page underneath his fingertips.

"Well, one question is easy to answer, so I will start with that. It was to be a sad day regardless, for we had gathered together for a funeral. There was a young boy, affected by a terrible disease. A tumour, growing in his brain. Such a bright boy he was, always smiling, always happy. But as the disease grew in his brain, it sapped the life from him, and destroyed him day by day. He came from a poor family, and they could not afford treatment. But, many people gathered together and we raised money, much money. Enough money to get treatment, from a fine hospital on the west bank. We had hoped that these wondrous machines and drugs developed by fine doctors would save him." He took a deep breath and gently closed the book, holding it gently between his crossed legs. His hands continued to gently run across the spine of the book, as if the tactile contact was a comfort to him. "Alas, it seems we were too late. The disease was too far progressed, and has attacked and destroyed too much of him, and he was unable to be saved. His funeral was today, and many of our people had arranged to come to his funeral. In this boy, and our efforts to save him, many differences had been put aside, between people who think differently and behave differently. It was a cause that was common to us all, and bought us together. It is sad that it was in such circumstances, but sometimes the lessons of life are hard – and we have a duty to learn those as much as any others."

He looked up at Marius, then glanced at Aswon and Nadia, who were both trying to follow the conversation as well.

"As to the others – we have long had difficulty with some of the people that call themselves Christians. It is sad when two people, both of the Book, attack each other. But as I revile those that claim to follow the teachings of the Prophet, Peace Be Unto Him, and then carry out despicable and vile attacks on people, so I revile those that claim to follow the teachings of Jesus, Peace Be Unto Him and do likewise. To drag down your religion and twist it by using only part of the whole to justify your actions is a Sin, and actions such as these are not worthy of someone who truly believes. But in this case, I believe that these people are from an organisation called the 'New Templars', and they wish to drive our people from this city and reclaim it, as they sought to many years ago."

He reached into his robes and pulled out a battered commlink – an older model with only very basic features, but functional none the less. Shaking it from side to side to draw attention to it, he continued his story.

"I have spoken with people from the other Mosques nearby, and they report similar attacks. It appears that multiple bombs were set off, and then these Templars appeared, attacking with guns and driving our people before them, converging upon them. In other places a great many people have been killed, before the attacks stopped and they fled, before the greyshirts appeared." He saw Marius frown in confusion and open his mouth to speak. "Lionheart – the mercenaries. They are generally referred to as the greyshirts. They are…. Not well loved or regarded amongst the people here. But now they stand on the street corners in their vehicles with their guns, and they are seen as the enemy. It was not them that killed people today, but they stand ready now – and if the people move to claim vengeance on those that committed these crimes, they will stop them. And more people will die."

Marius didn't have an answer to that – not one that would help the situation anyway, so he moved off to check on the others. A few minutes later, there was another sound of a body slamming into the door, and the pantomime was repeated. This time at least as Kai opened the door he had the pistol out of sight from the person in the street and was ready – shouting "don't shoot" as soon as he was seen. Another two locals entered, one of whom had another small calibre pistol, which was left in the antechamber. A few minutes later, another few arrived, then a few more. Each time there were looks of confusion as to the presence of outsiders here, and hostility, at least until an explanation was given. This went on for some time, and it became clear that people were starting to make the journey towards the Mosque for prayers, despite the heavy drone and security presence in the streets. They were angry, many were armed and it was clear they intended to do something – they saw small groups of men standing in the corners of the room having quiet discussions and staring at them.

Hunter keyed up his link and sat in the corner of the antechamber, keeping an eye on the guns and hardware, while the rest of the team gathered in the corner of the prayer room to discuss the situation. After the better part of an hour to rest and for the drugs to work on their wounds, Nadia and Aswon were feeling better – though Aswon still moved very tenderly. He had put in a call to Sophie, who had filled in some information on the other attacks – confirming that there was a heavy death toll from both the car bombs and the shootings that followed. He'd also said that if they could hang tight, he should be able to get them collected by APC sometime later, when things had started to calm down. For the moment, all three shifts were on duty and they were keeping a heavy presence out on the streets to deter an escalation of violence and to prevent any retaliation strikes.

They discussed their plans, agreeing that they should wait a few hours, then cover the last few blocks on foot and collect the new hardware and head back to the house. That was going to present a problem of course – walking back as a group would take a while, but would have been possible – and they could have caught a taxi or public transport if they had gotten to a safe area. But there was no way they could do this with a whole bunch of illegal guns and equipment without being picked up.

"How about if we talk to the Imam, and ask him to help us? Maybe he can broker a deal with one of the locals for a second hand truck?" Marius suggested. "If we offer them a good price, something very generous, we can make it clear that we value his help and protection, and it's our way of repaying the people a bit. But it gets us transport out of here." The others considered his thoughts and agreed that it was probably the most sensible thing they could do.

The room had filled with people now, and they were getting more and more looks. At least, Marius was. They seemed more confused by Aswon, Shimazu and Kai who did not fit the standard view of "westerners" and thus the "great satan", though they still got their share of dirty looks. But whilst Hunter was getting some foul looks for not only being a westerner and a filthy meta-human, the bulk of the hostility seemed to be aimed at Marius, once they had got together in the main room with like-minded people. Only the respect for the mosque and Imam seemed to be preventing anything more than harsh looks at the moment.

The Imam climbed the half flight of stairs, and cleared his throat, and the crowd fell silent. The team started to move towards the door, to leave the prayer room during the service, but the Imam called for them to stop – telling them that not only were they welcome here, to listen and observe their prayers – but in fact he wished them to be present.

"Look now, my friends, at these people who have come upon us. Observe that they are not of us, but show us respect. See how they wear no shoes – that after being caught in violence on the street, they still take the time to remove their boots to avoid soiling this place. That they wished to leave us to pray in peace and not disturb us – and despite being wounded, they seek to move and suffer pain, rather than offend us. And yes, one of them is female. Do not think I have not seen your looks. But look at her modest dress. What you cannot see is the deep burns upon her feet, from the weapons used by our attackers. The terrible wounds upon her hands. And still she tries to help another, more wounded than she, to avoid disturbing our prayers. Do you know how she came to be wounded? Did any of you think about how she came to be here, before you became angry at her presence? I will tell you, and you will listen, and think about your anger, and your thoughts. She – and all of them here – were on the streets when the bomb exploded. When they were caught in the middle of the violence bought upon us all by others. Did they run, and leave us to suffer? No they did not. They aided the people. They used their first aid kits to render aid upon the needy."

The Imam spoke in calm, measured tones in a smooth delivery. His voice rose and fell as he described the situation, and his skill was obvious. Quoting from texts long since memorised, he pulled out choice passages to illustrate his lesson, focussing on acts of faith and charity. Skilfully, he described what the team had done, but was careful to avoid ascribing reasons why they might have done it – but none the less, it was intimated that it had been done because it was the right thing to do, even though it bought them into danger. Marius murmured a running translation as best he could to keep people advised of what was being said, and their discomfort and reaction probably underscored the Imam's teaching in the congregation's eyes. As his presentation continued the air of hostility in the room faded and was replaced with something far more contemplative. Some pockets of resistance still stared at them with hooded hostility – but others it appeared felt genuine guilt over their assumptions and thoughts. Either way, the overall mood lifted and the room felt less like a pressure cooker about to blow and more like a genuine meeting of prayer and faith.

The service lasted just over thirty minutes – they guessed that the Imam had seized upon events to get his point across and that things were not normally this long. As the meeting started to break up, a few people came across to either thank them, or wish them well, before heading out, and the team got ready to head to the restaurant.