The truck pulled over into the darkness at the foot of the cliff, the early spring sun having long since abandoned the depths of the quarry. Arc lights strung up around the quarry highlight some of the heavy machinery and road ways, but it was generally unlit and dark, the high bermed sides of the quarry cutting off the light-spill from the adjacent town. Shimazu pulled up at the indicated spot and stopped, then after a moment of examination killed the engine. The rumbling of the big diesel faded away, and a calm quiet descended upon them.
To their right, a man walked out of the cliff face, without a care in the world. Tads was quick to drop into astral space and the rest of the team saw her stiffen.
"It's a trid phantasm – big one, too. Not quite as big as the one back in the valley near the temple, but it's a good sixty metres or more across, and maybe twenty to thirty high. That's a big hole it's covering – assuming it is all hollow behind it. Pretty powerful, too – about what I could do, but probably a bigger area. Hmm."
Shimazu peeled off his 'trode net and joined her in examining the magical effect, whilst Hunter scrunched up his nose and then moved to peer out of the other windows, examining the quarry. Kai pulled out his commlink and sent a message to Marius. 'Have arrived, passed initial screening. Ready when you are.'
Tads and Shimazu suddenly realised that the man who had walked through the phantasm had continued over to their vehicle, and was now waiting for them. They could barely see his face in the darkness, but he looked impatient. Shimazu opened the door carefully, ensuring he wasn't going to hit the man and called out.
"Visitor for you…" Kai hit the send button, then scrunched over in the cab towards the open door and looked down. He put on his best smile, smoothing his features and pitching his voice just right.
"Hi there. I'm Kai, how can I help you?"
"I'm Oric Vishtar – but you can call me Mr. Vishtar. I understand you have a card?"
"Yes, that's right, let me see… here we go." He reached down and the card was taken from his outstretched hands, examined and then returned.
"Fine. If you want to follow me, then we'll get you parked and shown around."
"Ahh – I actually have some more team mates still to come – do I get them just to land here?"
"More? You have two vehicles? Well, that's no problem, but it'll raise your berth costs. What are they coming in?"
"It a helicopter. A big one. Hope that won't be an issue?"
"When are they due?"
"Well, probably in about two hours, so they said."
"Right." The man stood stock still for a moment, gazing into space, as if concentrating on a difficult set of mental arithmetic. "They're to approach from 095 degrees, at a height between 50 and 100 metres AGL, squawking a beacon on 147.21Mhz with a .25 second duration, and 5.45 second repeat, between 20:50 and 21:10. Got that?" Kai nodded, glad that Shimazu had started to frantically scribble down notes. "When they arrive, I'll come back for you, and we'll go through your orientation then. See you around 9ish."
With that, he turned and walked away, heading to the cliff face and then disappeared, swallowed by the illusion.
Shimazu pulled the door shut, and passed the information over to Kai, who quickly transcribed it into his commlink and sent the data over to Marius.
"I wonder what they do if you don't follow the rules? Probably bad, especially on the first visit, I guess. So, I take it we just have to wait then?"
They looked around for a minute, watching the occasional shape in the darkness as what appeared to be workers moved around in landscape. Tads shuffled over towards Hunter, and pulled out her medal, asking him if he'd have a look for some information about it on the matrix, seeing as they were waiting. With little else to do, he shrugged and agreed, rolling out the screen and keyboard and jacking them into the truck's power ports. Tads left him to it, moving back and then around into the trailer, so she could use the hours profitably by studying some of her new spell formula.
Hunter waited for her to leave, then kicked in the search program, leaving the simple-minded bot to do the datamining, before resting his head on a scrunched up jumper carefully positioned against the side of the truck. His breathing slowed and his eyes closed, and it wasn't long before he was quietly dozing while his computer flickered and chirped quietly to itself as the search parameters crawled the matrix.
Kai and Shimazu decided to have a good look around the place, and leant up against their windows, their sight slowly quartering the quarry as they looked for information. Alternating between normal sight and a close examination of the astral plane, they looked around the massive rent in the earth, studying it for clues.
Far to the east, Marius cinched the straps tighter on the pilot's seat, then glanced over to ensure that Nadia was correctly strapped in too. He thought for a moment, then reached over 'the old fashioned way' to start the massive engines. As the pre-heaters kicked in, and a deep whine started to build, he glanced back over his left shoulder and called out.
"Aswon, starting up – check the doors are all secure and there's no loose cargo!" He waited until he heard an answering bellow, then turned back and concentrated on dials and gauges, watching the temperatures and pressure rise. In the back, Aswon checked the doors, one after another. The cargo hold was huge, large enough that he could actually break into a run as he moved from one side to another. All the doors were closed and locked tight, the mechanisms dogged down, and ready to go.
By the time he reached the cockpit, the chambers were up to temperature and Marius was starting the main start-up sequence. The whine intensified, then exploded into a deep rumble as first one engine, then the other sprang into life. Outside, the massive rotors started to turn, so slowly to begin with, so slowly you could walk in a circle with them held in your hand. As the engine power rose though, the blades started to accelerate smoothly, the tips rising up higher and higher as they started to generate lift. Marius studied the instruments and continued to apply power gently, increasing the speed further. With a delicate little shudder, the wheels bounced on the shock absorbers as the rotors finally lifted the huge craft into the air.
Marius hovered for a moment, studying the instruments and carefully checking that everything was ok. Once he was satisfied, he pulled back on the collective a little more, and gently pushed the rudder pedals, the bulbous craft lifting and turning in response. When he had climbed thirty metres, he pushed forward on the stick, and the chopper nosed down and started to move forwards, slowly picking up speed. Everything he did was careful and gentle – at least for now – as Marius slowly tested the responsiveness and handling of the craft. Even with the extensive work done on the craft there was still a lot more to do, it seemed – now they were in the air, the control wires seemed slacker than he'd like, and the controls themselves were sluggish – though that might be because he was flying an elephant, rather than an eagle.
He kept low, flying "nap of the earth", only rising up above thirty metres when powerlines or terrain features forced him to. Nadia kept track of their position on some flimsy-plas maps, marking off their progress against towns, rivers and landmarks as best she could. The minutes stretched out, and slowly Marius started to relax a little, as he got a feel for the craft – it was certainly a different proposition to any of the cargo craft he'd flown before. They avoided villages as best they could, flying over the huge fields of soy and bioengineered crops, scattering the odd flock of sheep or herds of cows and shaking the windows of farmhouses and homesteads.
The cockpit was suddenly filled with a blaring voice, clipping and distorted. Nadia almost dropped her maps in surprise, grasping the slick plastic between her legs before they sprawled all over the floor.
"Kilo 429 Alpha, Kilo 429 Alpha, this is Saratov centre. Send your transponder authorisation and flight plan ID." Nadia unhooked from her safety harness and moved back a section to the radio operators' station. After a few seconds of hunting, she managed to turn the gain and volume down on the speaker to manageable levels, and then stared at the keypad and limited function computer.
"Marius, what do I do here?" He started to talk her through patching in his headset to the outbound response, having to repeat the last section as Saratov centre repeated their message, sounding a little testier this time.
"Saratov centre, Kilo 429 Alpha. We are a heavy-lift chopper out of Samara, flying corporate cargo. Our transponder authenticator is Mike Mike Lima Alpha dash Tango Juliet Delta Foxtrot. Flight plan is ID three one niner, over." Marius sounded calm and composed, to the point of almost boredom, as if nothing was wrong in the world and like someone had just asked him for the time. The seconds ticked by, until half a minute later, the speaker crackled again
"Kilo 429 Alpha, we have negative notification on your flight plan. Confirm your ID over." Marius keyed the microphone again, repeating the nonsense string of characters back to the controller. He was glad he'd flown commercially before he was captured – at least he could use the correct format for the message, and whatever system the controller was using would accept his input. He waited again, and unsurprisingly, Saratov came back again telling him there was no flight plan.
"Saratov centre, look – I filed the plan this morning, ticked all the boxes, and even paid for my pre-flight clearance checks, if you know what I mean. I can't help it if Samara decided to crack open the bottle of White Label I left them as a thank you before they finished their shift. But if you want to check, you can contact my corp HQ back in Moscow for confirmation…"
"Kilo 429 Alpha, I don't give a rat's ass who you filed with, or who you work for – you're not cleared for this airspace. Turn to bearing 315 immediately, and proceed until you hit waypoint three tango. Failure to comply will result in interception."
Marius suddenly realised who he was talking with – the hotel they had stayed at on the way to Samara had a definite aeronautical theme, and he remembered the large airbase to the edge of town. There was almost certainly a bubble of highly controlled airspace around it, and he didn't fancy being intercepted by a jet – or even worse – a modern military chopper equipped with decent sensors.
"Saratov centre, confirm, adjusting bearing to 315 to bypass controlled airspace." He banked over, and then called back to the others. "This might be a bit of a problem – if we go around the base and the town, it's going to push us behind on time – we might not make it to the quarry in the time window specified in Kai's message.
Aswon came forward, and he and Nadia poured over the maps, looking for other airbases or obstacles that could cause them a problem, and Marius increased power a touch more, watching the engine dials and readouts carefully, monitoring the temperatures and risking a little more height – it slightly increased the chance of being spotted by civilian traffic controllers and queried, but meant less fraught flying and a marginal increase in speed.
Fortunately the rest of the journey passed without incident, and by pushing the engines a tiny bit harder than he wanted to, they clawed back a couple of minutes from their detour, arriving at the quarry at the end of their window. Nadia keyed in the sequence to the radio system, sending out the beacon as specified, then listening attentively in case there was any message. The radio was silent though, and they rose slightly over the hill and then Marius started to drop into the quarry.
Shimazu and Kai had been examining the quarry for some time, and had spotted something that made them wonder – it was a patch of terrain on the near side of the hill, smooth and just a tiny bit too regular to be natural. Once they'd examined it carefully using passive sensors and a pair of binoculars, they'd come to the conclusion that it was actually a concealed trap-door of some kind. It could contain anything, but the smart money was on a pop up turret or missile system of some kind – and positioned where it was it had a commanding field of view over the approach to the west of the quarry.
Once they realised what they were looking for, they'd spotted a dozen or so more, scattered at regular intervals around the edge of the quarry, ringing the approaches and covering all approach angles. – whoever ran the place was serious about their defences, it seemed. They'd heard Hunter rouse from his snooze, and Tads return, but were still hard at work looking for sensor pods and additional weapon systems, so they paid little attention as Hunter relayed the information from his search bot.
"Look Tads, it's a civilian award. Not that famous really, and it doesn't entitle you too much of anything. You can wear it to formal dinners of state, or if you're invited to an event by a state agent. It's one of those weird things, where you've got to play the game a little to recognise the game – but if you do, it won't harm you at all. And if it's been awarded to you, your ID should be a lot more solid now." He went on a little more about the origins of the medal, clearly reading from a matrix encyclopaedia page.
"Ok guys, heads up. Choppers due any minute now!" They all moved to a window, looking up and around them. Shimazu and Kai in particular were watching those smooth patches, just in case – but they remained reassuringly closed. The chopper appeared over the hill like a behemoth, clearly visible even from range, then started its descent down into the quarry.
Marius slowly lowered the power, looking around him swiftly and feeling his back grow slick with sweat. The chopper wallowed slightly as he lowered it into the quarry, working to steady the craft from the crosswinds and eddies thrown up from the cliff face. He kept up a steady cycle – front view, engine power, altitude, left window, adjusted ground speed, temperatures, right window, warning lights, back to the front view. He lowered the craft slowly, taking his time and being cautious – the sheer scale of the craft dwarfed anything he'd flown before, and he just didn't have that instinctive feel for how big his footprint was yet.
As he got close the ground, he ran into a new problem. The downwash from the rotor pummelled the ground below, sending dust and rock fragments skittering and speeding through the air. Within a few seconds the air around the chopper whited out, as limestone dust was thrown up into a huge cloud. Robbed of sight, and unable to rely on his normal sensors, Marius relied on dead reckoning instead – keeping his rate of descent steady, he counted in his head, and at just the right moment increased power a touch. He felt the rear wheels touch down, then skid slightly as he lifted the bird again. Slowly he backed off the power, then felt the front wheel touch down, and the shock absorbers flex and compress, before he cut the engines fully.
He moved swiftly, killing the compressors and intake fans, trying to keep as much of the limestone dust out of his engines as possible – the last thing he needed was to lose an engine on the first hop! As the rotors slowed and the pressure dropped, the dust cloud abated and the air slowly cleared. First the truck appeared like a ghost out of the haze, then the rest of the quarry, until finally as the rotors came to a halt, the cloud dissipated into the cool night air.
Moments later the figure walked out of the wall again, strolling over towards the truck. Marius popped the top hatch and climbed up onto the roof of the cockpit, dragging up two large shrouds from the locker at the rear of the cockpit, fitting them over the engine intakes to prevent more dust from caking the filters. Nadia and Aswon headed over to the truck to meet up with the others, and examine the newcomer.
Vishtar chatted to Kai as he waited for Marius to finish and climb down.
"It's quite unusual that we get teams in with two vehicles as large as yours. Small stuff, sure, but that's a beast of a chopper. So tell me, how much armour have you packed onto that thing?"
"Not too much – nothing but small arms protection at the moment as it happens, though we're looking to change that. Why?"
"Well, we'll have to get it towed in to your pod – I just want to make sure I'm not going to break a vehicle asking it to tow something that weighs more than a jumbo. You should be fine though. Is your man finished? Ahh, here he comes, good. Follow me everyone."
They filed after him as he turned and headed to the cliff face, and calmly walked straight through the stone – but having experienced Tads' illusions before they at least knew how to handle this, and calmly followed him through. On the far side, they looked around with interest. The tunnel was huge, easily eighty meters across and reaching a peak of thirty meters or so high. Limestone walls stretched off into the darkness ahead, the oval tunnel maintaining width and height for some considerable distance. The walls were smooth in appearance, with dark lines flowing up and along at intervals, fault lines between sections or different plates of rock. Their guide led them in a few metres and to the side, where they saw a large alcove lit with overhead lamps.
As they approached they saw the wall wasn't actually that smooth – but the roughness had a generally even quality to it, without massive extremes. The floor was much smoother, and looked to have been worn fairly flat in the middle especially. As they got to the alcove they saw that the cables for the electric lights were all run along the walls, suspended from some kind of collar or hooks that appeared to be glued to the walls, rather than drilled or bolted.
In the alcove was a large freestanding rack, holding sets of high-visiblity over jackets, safety boots and breather masks. The man motioned for them to gather around him in an arc and waited for them to stop shuffling.
"Right then, welcome to the Quarry. My name is Oric Vishtar – for now you can call me Mr. Vishtar." His voice was deadpan, without any hint of humour. "First things – outside is a working quarry, and it's important to the base. If you go outside, you WILL put on the safety equipment stationed here if you're going wandering. To get to your vehicle parked just outside – you're fine. But more than a couple of metres out into the main area – suit up, boot up, or else. Failure to comply is a bannable offence."
"This is the board," he gestured towards a white board attached at the far end of the rack. "It shows who is staying here at the moment, in which pod." They focussed on the board for the moment, and saw that there were names in all six sections. From top to bottom it read 'Paladin', 'Zephyr', 'The Half-pint', 'The Bandit', '69pp' and finally ended with a couple of question marks in the sixth box. "The board is updated by the quarry crew, and the quarry crew only. Nobody else is to touch the board, including writing funny messages or jokes on it. Messing with the board is a bannable offence."
"The main entrance tunnel is pretty wide, as you can see, and stretches back a fair way. It splits off into two main branches, and then into a number of caverns and smaller tunnels. Each of the caverns is a pod, and matches the board here. Each pod is assigned to a team when they arrive, and normally reflects your rep with us – the lower the pod number, the closer you are to the common areas and the good stuff. Each pod has a wide area marked at the entrance with yellow and black hazard stripes. You may NOT enter another team's pod without their express permission. Failing to comply is …"
"A bannable offence?" Aswon queried. Vishtar nodded to him.
"Ok, take this," he handed a small electronic tablet to Kai, then beckoned them to follow him down the tunnel. "There is to be no gun play or offensive magic in the caves. Failure to comply is a bannable offence." Aswon joined in and chorused with him, and the others nodded along, clearly getting the gist of this. "Fighting is discouraged, but not against the rules – with the exception that if you fight someone, everyone should be able to walk away afterwards. If you fight someone and they're left in a situation where they could bleed out or deteriorate – that's a bannable offence." As they moved further in, a series of lights came on, widely spaced down the tunnel wall. They formed little pockets of warm light with dark patches of blackness between them.
"If you want to fight like that, you take it to the arena and fight there – that's anything goes, and used to settle major arguments." The team could start to see some coloured lights appearing now, three on each side of the tunnel, repeating into the distance. "Each pod has a colour as you've probably noticed, and to reach your pod – just follow your colour light. Easy – and you have no excuse to end up at someone else's pod. Now then, fraud – aimed at the cave staff, or other teams, or theft – again the same, is against the rules and is a bannable offence."
"If you break or damage any stalactite, stalagmite or helictite in the caves – " Aswon interrupted him,
"Bannable offence?"
"No – executable offence. Now, each of the pods has an electric feed, lighting, a macerator toilet, sinks, a small food prep area, some bunks and a locker… what?"
"I'm sorry – did you say executable offence?" Aswon clarified. "And if so, what is a helictite?
"I did - and imagine a stalactite that grew sideways, then changes its mind. Now, moving on, there is a locker with a decent lock on it that can be used to store valuables in while you're here. The boss has the master override code, and will check after teams head out, and charge you for disposal of any crap in there. If you have bigger stuff, we have some large lockers in the common area that can be rented out." He ignored the side-long looks from the team as they contemplated the sudden escalation from bannable offence to death.
"We have a work crew that does maintenance on the quarry equipment, that are available for hire for vehicle repairs, on a first come first served basis. There is also a jobs and help wanted board in the rec area, that you can make use of, as well as some games, the canteen and some other stuff – I'll show you that in a bit."
They arrived at a branch, with a large side cavern leading off to the left, with more of the coloured lights leading them onwards. Turning into the smaller tunnel, no more than forty metres across, they soon discovered smaller tunnels leading off. Mr Vishtar pointed out a few side passages that had the yellow and black hazard markings on, indicating they were for crew only, and then took them to the edge of the first pod. The large cavern was clearly delineated by the huge yellow and black stripes, and he informed them that all the pods were marked in the same fashion – and that this was a zero tolerance policy.
He backtracked a little and bought them into the recreation area, a smaller cavern that had plastic benches and tables set up in it, a small cooking area at the end, noticeboards and a number of arcade style games dotted around. A couple of people sat at some seats, and stopped talking as the team entered, staring at them while they were lead to some seats and bade to sit down.
"This, as you've probably guessed, is the rec area. Neutral turf, as are all the passages between pods. Over there is the job board I mentioned, and here's where you can meet the other crews and exchange tall tales, drinks or insults – that's up to you. Now, we work on a rep system around here – if you do jobs and help us out, bring in the supplies we need, you gain rep. The more rep you have, the better pod you get when you visit. When you get enough rep, you get a card, so you can vouch for someone else to use the place. On the other hand, you do dumb shit, you lose rep, you lose enough rep, and you're not welcome. You lose a lot of rep, very quickly – well, bad things happen."
"Like those pop up turrets you have every hundred and fifty metres around the rim of the quarry, about five metres down from the apex of the slope?" Kai asked. Mr Vishtar looked at him sharply, but Kai just smiled and shrugged. "What, we had a couple of hours to kill waiting for these guys to turn up. Word to the wise – look for some bushes or something you can plant over the top. That moss you have growing is too uniform and consistent."
"Hrumph. Ok then. Well, last bit, then I'll leave you to settle in. We charge a flat fee per visit, which depends on the vehicle you're using. If it's solar, it's free. Methane costs you a c-bill. Gas or diesel is two-fifty, and jet or turbojet is five hundred. If you're using something exotic, we'll have to talk. On top of that, we charge a daily fee based on the size of the vehicle – cars and SUVs are fifty, trucks and small aircraft are one hundred, double trucks or land trains and large aircraft are two hundred."
"Ok, let's book in for a couple of days then – can you bill us for…three days please, for both vehicles." He pulled out the credstick and Vishtar slotted it in a reader, debiting 1650 Nuyen."
"Right, I'll leave you to it then. I'll send a follow-me over to you, to tow your chopper in. Tow charge is ten Nuyen each way. Your truck, you can drive, of course. I'll see you back around here later on, once you're settled in."
"You mentioned a boss? When do we get to meet them" Aswon asked.
"You get to meet her if she wants to meet you. Not before. Now, I'll be back a bit later once you're sorted, and we can chat more – if you want to, you can tell me about your team, and see if there's any work going. But that's for later." With that he rose from the seat and nodded to them then headed off to one of the side passages, crossing the 'staff only' line and disappearing around the corner.
The team looked around a little, getting a feel for the place and looking over the cooking area at the far end. A man had a couple of small gas rings and several large woks ready, along with some fridges and equipment – it looked like a small noodle concession at a shopping centre, apart from being in a cave. The two figures were still watching them from their table, not quite staring, but certainly watching with interest. A minute later, they rose from their table and walked past, ignoring the team now. The lead was a gnome, only a metre high and fairly stocky, with a large, bulbous nose. Under his nose was a waxed handlebar moustache and a set of flying goggles were perched atop a leather skull cap, and he wore a brown leather jacket with a large sheepskin collar. Stalking along behind him was a dwarf, with facial features similar to Shimazu. They ignored the team and headed out into the darkness, disappearing out of view.
"How was the flight, Marius?"
"Good, the flight was good. Handles well, though we really need to get a rigger system installed in that as soon as we can."
"Is that something we can do here? If so, should we? And how much does it cost?"
"They're not that expensive – pretty much standard across all vehicles you see, so there's a big market. But they can be buggers to fit as you have to attach so many sensors to them. "
"They did say they had a work crew. Maybe we can ask for them?" Aswon saw Marius bristle a little. "I'm not saying you can't do it, but it would be faster with them helping. And besides, paying the base for help might earn us some rep, or make them happy, and we're here to make friends as well, right?" Marius nodded grumpily.
"I have a question actually – the new helicopter. Can we get it down to the ranch in one go, and can we actually land it there? And is it always that noisy?" Tads looked around the group, and then smiled at Hunter as he pulled out his roll-away screen and smoothed it over the table, pulling up a map showing most of Russia, the Balkans and as far down to the Indian Ocean. Hunter checked the expected range with Marius and plotted a set of circles on the map, showing a return journey and a one way trip. Even biggest circle fell short of the bright spot indicating the ranch.
"I can land it anywhere, but it won't be subtle, or quiet. But it can be done. Once we have gotten back and dealt with those monkeys that Shimazu found, we can start opening that area up into a secret underground base, and go from there." Tads rolled her eyes a little – well aware that any 'secret base' was almost certainly going to involve lots of magical earth shaping, and thus lots of effort on her part.
"Well, it sounds to me then that we can't work with the chopper, unless Tads is with us. Without her spirits to conceal and quieten the vehicle, to hide it from prying eyes – we're just too obvious." Hunter smirked at Aswon, clearly finding it ironic that the towering black tribesman with a huge mane of dreadlocks and implanted teeth was talking about being subtle…
"Let's get back and get the vehicles in our 'pod' then, shall we, and have a little look around the place." Kai looked around for any comments, then pushed himself to his feet, then led the team back out of the recreation area and into the cave system. They found a guy waiting near the entrance with a small but powerful tractor unit – similar to the vehicles found at airports for pushing back commercial jets. It wasn't long before they were in the truck and gently trundling through the tunnel while the helicopter was carefully towed down the centre of the tunnel.
It took a while to reach their pod, and they realised just how extensive the cave system was – some cataclysmic event in the past had sent a raging torrent through the subterranean landscape to hollow out these enormous caverns, before shifting and leaving them as silent caverns waiting to be tunnelled or blasted into one day. As they drove through the blackness, they caught sight of narrower and wider passages off to one side or another, stretching into the darkness. They passed the entrance to pod 5, seeing the wide stripes at the entrance before the cave curved off to the left, but couldn't see who was in there.
Finally their vehicles arrived into their cavern – 'pod 6' and they parked up, paid the driver of the tow vehicle and watched him drive off equally slowly back the way he had come. It had been a tight fit getting the chopper into the cave, getting down to less than a metre clearance on either side of the enormous rotors, but the cave opened up again past the entrance. As promised, there were bunks, water, seating, and so forth, and they spent a few minutes exploring the cave and checking it out, before meeting back up again.
"Have you noticed something odd about this place?" Shimazu asked, turning to face the others. "It feels… I don't know. Smooth. Which is weird." Hunter, Marius and Nadia looked at him with confusion on their faces, but Tads, Aswon and Kai nodded in agreement, and they realised he was talking about magical mumbo jumbo. It prompted a quick discussion, with the four magically ept members of the group moving around to sample the aura of the cave, spending time examining the area. They quickly came to the conclusion that there was some kind of magical effect going on here – the astral plane was a smooth, consistent and clean area, with no graduations or areas of higher or lower emotional background. It was like a beach after the tide had just washed it – clean, free of obstructions, without trace of life or activity. Definitely artificial, it raised several more questions about who was actually in charge here, and what they were up to.
"One things for sure – if they're powerful enough to do this, then we really don't want to mess with any rock formations. Any of us. It's possible they're attuned to the cave system in the same way that Shimazu would be with his sword – they'll just KNOW if something is wrong. So be careful!" Aswon admonished them with a waved finger.
They headed out of the cave, taking the side passage at the rear of the cavern rather than the main entrance, and relying on Hunter's ability to map out the environment with his cyberware and Marius' exact recollection of the rough map from the entrance. The back of the cave system was a maze of smaller tunnels and passages, twisting and turning through the darkness, and the lights were far fewer here – it was genuinely possible to get lost if you were trapped here without a light. But they pushed on through the darkness, relying on their skills to see them through.
Along the way they found what could only have been the arena – a bowl like depression with entrances around one arc, and the cave walls discoloured with blood. Even here, astral space was a smooth and neutral affair, without the strong emotion and taint of pain and suffering that would be expected. That only deepened their curiosity, but there were no answers at hand – at least not yet.
After some more wandering through darkened tunnels, they came across the rear entrance passageway to pod three, and spied the large truck belonging to Rocket and his team – along with the back end of Mamma-Bear. The front end of her appeared to be deep into the engine, working on something, and there was a faintly audible low level rumble of complaint echoing around the chamber. Kai cleared his throat, then repeated it louder when it was clear she hadn't heard him. She pulled her head out and looked over, then grinned as she recognised them, before waving them into the pod.
She walked towards them, wiping her hand on some rags as she did so and met them about halfway across the chamber, giving each of them a hearty handshake.
"So you made it then – in the end." Her wide grin took some of the sting out of the words.
"Yes, we did, thanks. We'd have got here eventually, you know – we just didn't appreciate what kind of place we were missing out on, though. How are you and the rest? Have they left you alone here?"
"Most of the guys are down in Vladivostok, sorting out some biz. Given how late it is, they're probably going to find a hotel there and come back in the morning, Kai. Either that, or stay up all night drinking. One or the other. How about you?" They wandered back over towards the truck, while they chatted. "Oh, and nothing personal – but one-time deal on coming in the pod. Unless Rocket says otherwise."
"No problem, we understand. We're here for a couple of days, probably at least three. Not sure where we're headed after that – we've just finished a nice job, looking for the next one." Marius wandered over towards the truck and peered at the engine, keeping his hands in his pockets.
"Well, there's sometimes something on the board that you can pick up, and if you get in with the crew here, they can hook you up sometimes." She sidled over to the truck, and grabbed a wrench, then started to fiddle with the glow plugs, adjusting the fit, while she listened to her visitors.
"Ahh, that's good to know. Actually we were kind of curious about this place, particularly about the boss? Anything you can tell us about them?"
"Best you meet her yourself and form your own opinion, I think. All I'll say is treat her nice, and with respect, and you shouldn't have any problems. But if there's one person here you shouldn't take liberties with, it's her. You'll see." Kai looked around the team, and saw the curiosity on their faces – but it seemed clear that Mamma-Bear didn't want to be drawn on the subject.
"Having fun with the engine there?" He responded instead, wondering if there was another way to earn some information from her.
"Yeah, these glow plugs are being a pain in the ass. Just not performing right at all, and I'm not seeing why." Marius leant in, and looked closely at the engine, studying the layout carefully.
"Have you upgraded the crank shaft on this? Put in a chromolly stiffening bar? I remember reading once that there was a problem with a particular formulation of some chromolly upgrades where free radical ionisation occurred, and even though the tip of the glow plug is either platinum or iridium, and is normally resistant to oxidation, the combination forms a thin oxide layer that retards performance…"
They chatted on for a minute or two, testing his theory and with a little bit of testing soon found it to be correct. Marius advised a particular type of doping agent to be applied to the glow plug to prevent the issue, and Mamma-Bear fired off a message to Rocket to pick some up whilst he was in town..
Aswon cleared his throat quietly, and reminded Kai that they were probably due to meet Mr. Vishtar back in the hall, and they made their farewells to Mamma-Bear, taking the chance to leave via the front exit to save time, and work their way back into the main tunnel system. It didn't take too long to get back to the recreation area, and they headed back in to grab a table. The Gnome and Dwarf crew were back in, eating something out of the same bowl and still giving them the eyeball. Kai was about to say something when Aswon leant in behind him and whispered in his ear.
"If you were about to loudly ask if they were the Half Pints, don't. Please don't. Or I'm going to demand hazard pay." Kai turned to look at Aswon, with an outraged expression on his face, but he couldn't maintain his composure under Aswon's stare.
There was a second group in the area though, and it took a moment for the team to recognise them – but it appeared that they recognised the team much sooner. Hands froze midway to mouth, forks loaded down with food pausing in midair. As recognition sank in, two of them dropped their hands below the table, staring at them intently. The team returned the gaze, wondering just what the group from the floor below them back in Constantinople was doing here.
"Hey, Kai – you got a card from these folk didn't you – with the holographic shifting wind on it. Isn't one of the names on the board 'Zephyr'?" Tads looked over, allowing herself to drift into astral sight for a moment and spotting the familiar astral signatures she had seen before. Kai rummaged in his inside pocket and pulled out the card, holding the corner to complete the bio-circuit and make the holographic function kick in.
From the other side of him, Shimazu took a step forward and put himself partially in front of Kai, his hand dropping to rest casually on the hilt of his sword. As quietly as he could, he spoke with a low pitched voice – hoping the team could hear him, and the other crew couldn't.
"Watch yourselves. They look nervous – really nervous. Don't know why." Aswon heard Shimazu clearly enough, his enhanced hearing picking up the near whisper as if it was a shout. He moved around to the other side of Kai, and then conspicuously turned his back on the three nervous men at the table, so he could face his own team and speak equally quietly.
"And how come those jokers are apparently number two in the rep stakes around here. That doesn't make much sense to me…"
Kai looked over at them, and they returned his gaze, and the seconds ticked by. Kai wondered if it was worth the trouble to mess with them, but in the end decided not to. Instead he just gave them a cheery wave, and then headed over towards one of the larger tables, and sat himself down in a seat, where he could keep an eye on both other crews. The rest of the team picked seats and settled themselves down too, apart from Shimazu who after one last stare at the Zephyr team, wandered over to the cook and had a look at the food on offer. It appeared to be a number of dishes of "stuff" – generic looking soy substitute that was hard to identify in the dimly lit cavern, that all got thrown into a wok and stir-fried with sauce and some noodles. He was about to order, when he suddenly realised he had no money, so instead he wandered back to the table.
"Kai, can I get some money? They've got food here, sorta fresh." Kai nodded, fished out his credstick and then wandered over, along with a few of the others. The cook looked up as they approached, wiping his hands on a greasy apron to little effect, then pointing at the table and grunting at them.
"Food for table? Seven bowls?"
"How about we put a hundred Nuyen on a tab, and you tell me when it runs out." The cook shrugged and pulled out an equally battered and greasy looking reader, and slotted the stick, deducting the credit with a few deft button pushes. He grabbed the first bowl and looked at Aswon.
"Red?" The tribesman nodded, and a ladle full of product was flipped into the wok to start sizzling. "Green?" A nod, a flip, and some more sizzling. "Yellow?" Another nod, another addition. He wondered when he was offered "Brown", but decided to risk it, and worked through each of the eight sauce containers, going for a mix. Soon the food was sizzling away, liberally doused in soy sauce, while the cook flipped another burner on and pulled up a second wok. The performance was repeated, and soon bowls of piping hot food were being thrown together for the team and carried over to the table.
Shimazu decided to go for a double portion of green, whatever that was, and stick with the sauce and noodles, but Kai scoffed at him.
"Red." A ladleful of stuff was added, sending a waft of smoke rising to the cavern roof. "Red." Another was added. "Red!" The cook raised an eyebrow, but added another. "Red!" Kai stopped when he reached eight portions of red, and watched as it was stirred, flipped, tossed and mixed together, then poured into a bowl for him to take back to his table, where he sat down and tucked in with gusto. "This is good," he said around a mouthful of the mixture, while the others tucked into their own bowls of food.
Two minutes later Vishtar walked back into the room and headed over to meet them, pulling up a loose chair and joining their table. He looked around at them and then addressed Kai.
"So, all settled in I hope, ready for a discussion."
"Ahhuweeei. Hraaaahn." Sudden explosive coughs racked Kai's body as he tried to speak, and found out that the strange warming sensation was nothing to do with the physical heat of the food, but was much more to do with the eight shots of super strong capsicum soy mix that he'd had added to his noodles. "Gnheeee, Woowser." He panted, and beads of sweat burst from his forehead, running down the side of his face. Marius looked over, then pushed his chair back and crossed over to the fridge, selecting a super fizzy drink from the selection, before bringing it back to offer to Kai, who grabbed it with a grateful nod and popped the top, pouring a generous amount into his mouth.
"Perhaps I shall talk to your deputy then… and that would be…." He glanced around the table. After a few seconds Aswon sighed.
"I guess that's me, then. Ok, go ahead." At the other end of the table Kai discovered that carbonated soft drinks didn't mix well with super spicy soy, and was struggling to breath as burning bubbles of CO2 burst from his nose. His face was now a rosy red colour, and he rocked back and forth in clear distress. Marius pushed his seat back again, wandering over to the fridge once more, while Shimazu turned towards his boss and dropped into astral space. Here was a chance to study what "misery" looked like on the astral plane. Or maybe "regret". Either way it was too good a chance to pass up.
Marius returned and passed over a second drink
"Here you go, Kai. Sorry, I should have realised that strawberry flavour wouldn't help. Try the lime, that should cool it down." Kai was in too much discomfort to examine the German's face, and instead glugged another half bottle down, discovering to his horror only moments later that this was even worse, and went into paroxysms of coughing and spluttering while Marius just sat and watched him dispassionately, while he went back in his mind through all the times that Kai had irritated him.
Vishtar ignored him, instead talking with Aswon and getting a thumbnail brief on the team, Aswon briefly outlining the main skills and abilities, working around the table one by one. He sounded vaguely embarrassed as he glossed over Kai's role, but Vishtar just ignored Kai's bloodshot eyes and tears of pain. Shimazu did insist on being identified as the teams 'leech expert', but again Vishtar gave no particular reaction to this.
When he was done describing the team, Aswon moved on to the capabilities and potential options.
"There's a couple of things we can offer you right now, of course, if they're any use. We have some reasonably up to date and detailed information about the oilfields of Dekita, down in Turkmenistan. We've got some info on the political upheaval in the southern parts of the Trans-Caucus League, following an assassination down there. We've got a fairly heft supply of 9mm pistol ammo we'd be happy to supply or sell on at decent rates if that's any use to you. And we can provide you with large quantities of peanuts, and possibly other basic foodstuffs, if you want it. We've got a chopper with a max load rating of ten thousand kilos, and a great pilot, and we as a group are pretty proficient at wards. Proficient enough that we could probably cover even your biggest caves I think. That did finally get a reaction from Vishtar – a raised eyebrow and a considering look.
"Interesting. So, you can cover a large area. But how powerful a ward could you put up? Could you do one that matched the illusion over the cave entrance for instance?"
"I feel certain we could. And with a few thousand Nuyens worth of materials – providing we had permission to draw symbols on the walls of the cave – we could make them permanent as well, and also make them almost impossible to spot with a quick check."
"Interesting. Very interesting. You mentioned food stuffs? What do you mean by that?" Aswon raised an eye brow at Tads, who sighed, then concentrated, trying her best to get a decent cut of raw meat to appear in the bowl in front of her. A few seconds later, a piece of rump steak materialised out of the air, and Vishtar grabbed the bowl and headed over to see the cook. It was soon chopped into chunks with a cleaver and thrown into the wok, where it sizzled in its own juices until it was a mid-brown and was poured back into the bowl. Vishtar returned and tried out the morsel of meat carefully, but then raised his eyes to look at Tads.
"Not bad, not bad at all. This is certainly marketable."
"I can't do too much at once, so it takes a while to stock up a large container – and I mostly specialised in fruits and vegetables. But I do various things." She glanced over at Kai, who had gone a darker shade of red now, and appeared to be having genuine difficulty breathing now. Marius and Shimazu were both still just sat watching him, so she decided to take pity, and a thick viscous gloop appeared in the bottom of another bowl, which she pushed his way.
"Here Kai, this really will help." He poured the reindeer milk yoghurt into his mouth, and nearly choked on it, but it did finally start to cool his abused mouth a little.
"Oh, and if you want a personal recommendation – the Zephyr team might have something to say. We helped them out a little in Constantinople a while back." Vishtar looked at Aswon for a moment, then without a word, pushed his chair back and moved over to them. Aswon concentrated, filtering out the noise of Kai slowly dying and the conversation between Hunter, Nadia and Marius, listening to Vishtar talk to the three Zephyr crew members. They were speaking quietly, but everything he heard seemed positive, and their description of the gun fight in the house seemed pretty accurate. Five minutes of conversation later, Vishtar was back.
"Ok, that seems pretty positive. I'm sure we can get some work for you. For now, relax and settle in. Is there anything you need straight away?"
"Well, actually yes. We're after a rigger adaption kit for our Chopper – I don't suppose you have that kind of thing in stock do you?"
"Yep, we normally have a couple, always useful in case people get their asses zorched by some border patrol agents somewhere. I can have a word with the tech crew, and they should be able to sort something out – they're not that busy at the moment." He turned towards Aswon, who had raised a finger and tilted his head, clearly indicating that he wished to ask a question. He nodded at the tribesman.
"I was wondering – where do you get all your power from? Is it geothermal?"
"Oh, no – it's regular electricity from the outside. We've got a bank of massive generators that they use for the excavator shovels and processing machinery, so we just tap off some of that. Charge up the batteries during the day, keeps us going through the night."
"Don't you have to run scrubbers or air-conditioning units as well to get rid of the bad air?"
"Probably not," interrupted Tads. "Limestone absorbs the carbon dioxide, forming carbonic acid, which in turn leads to fresh caves and waterways, and contributes to the rock formations. Providing you don't ask too much of a certain area, it's like nature's natural scrubbing agent." Vishtar nodded at her, his eyes narrowing a little as he filed away a little nugget of information about her.
"She's not wrong. Well, I need to get back to some business. So I'll leave you to enjoy the rec-area, get comfortable in your pod, and I'll put in a request for Smuushki and his crew to come see you in the morning." With that, the operations manager pushed back his chair, and wandered off back into the crew-only area. The team returned to their drinks – or in Kai's case, fighting for breath and dabbing at the tears some more – looking around the cavern, trying not to stare at the other teams and wondering if they had to make the first social moves, or wait for contact.
