The tilt-wing dropped in a smooth arc, the turbojet engines driving it through the air like swooping bird of prey. Aswon and Kai leant out of the side doors, looking down at the park below with the medium machine guns ready to fire. Marius swung around a little to starboard, sweeping Kai away from the scene below, but bringing them firmly into Aswon's view. His mind was calculating the distances and momentum carefully and with perfect timing he rotated the engines round, raising the nose and bringing them into a hover, killing his forward motion. The angle of the craft and the smooth arc made everyone in the back grunt as they suddenly pulled three g's for a few seconds – but the angle of the craft pulled them down towards the deck in a crouch rather than making them stagger to the side. Marius backed off the power, and they sunk a little towards the ground, helping those in the back recover their positions.
"Target in sight!" Aswon called out. He could make out the figure below, running and bouncing from tree to tree, stumbling and then scrabbling to their feet, the pack of ghouls bounding through the scrubby growth behind them and closing the distance. He swept the machine gun into position and then gently squeezed the trigger, letting rip with a short burst of fire. The rounds lanced through the air, straight and true and impacted centre mass in the lead ghoul, the body ripped open as three 7.62mm bullets drove through the flesh, bouncing through the body before exploding out of the creature's back in fist-sized exit wounds. Aswon's teeth pulled back in a feral grin, his huge incisors clearly visible as the gun stayed firmly in his hands without climbing at all.
At the rear door Hunter had not bothered to pull out the medium machine gun – preferring instead to remain with his trusty assault rifle. If he leant over towards the left, he could draw a bead on the group that Aswon was targeting, but he saw a shape to the rear, a shimmering figure that rose up from the treetops and was pursuing them. The muscles on his jaw flexed and his brow furrowed as he saw the spirit approaching – remembering the spirits that had attacked them up in Yakut. Clearly these were a greater threat to the team, so he laid his targeting sight over the creature and then fired a six round burst. Flash and smoke erupted out of the gas venting down the sides of the barrel and he felt the familiar sensation of the gun's recoil as it was transmitted through the gel pad on the back of the stock. Between the absorption of the gel mount, the carefully crafted venting of gas and his impressive physique, he kept the barrel on target, and was rewarded with all six rounds hitting in a small group, no bigger than a dinner plate.
The spirit howled, spinning and dropping with bits seeming to fall out of the body and evaporate. Notoriously resistant to physical damage, the magical energies holding it together seemed to have been damaged by the concentrated burst, and it looked like it was breaking off the attack, heading for cover. Hunter looked around for the next target, a small part of his focus watching to make sure the spirit really was disengaging, and not faking it.
In the centre of the craft, Shimazu stood ready with his feet planted wide apart and his eyes glazed and unfocussed, watching around him for any signs of astral intrusion. His hand was hovering over the grip of his sword, barely touching it as he remained relaxed and ready to spring in any direction. In the seat next to him, Tads flicked around through the prisms until she could see down below the tilt wing, and caught sight of the fleeing form. She concentrated, squinting to get the best picture she could through the headset and then cast her spell, levitating the figure up off the ground, rising up through the trees towards them. Kai looked out of the door, scanning for targets, but finding none. He grabbed his phone and hit the green icon, calling Anahita to try and make contact, unaware that behind him Tads already had her heading upwards.
Marius saw the target rising up from the bushes, and let the craft slide a couple of metres to the right, so she would rise up on their port side – he couldn't see any firing or enemies there, and Kai should be able to snag her into the open doorway while Aswon continued to pour fire down at the ground targets.
Aswon saw a spirit rising from the trees, and immediately adjusted his aim – while they remained off the ground, the ghouls simply couldn't hurt them and weren't a priority, while the spirits had access to all kinds of potentially lethal powers. As the gun swung onto target, the gyro-recoil arms smoothly adjusting to support the weight, he squeezed the trigger, holding them down slightly longer this time. The gun chattered as six rounds blasted out of the barrel and drove into the spirit, overwhelming it and shattering the body into pieces. His grin grew broader, and he yelled, not really caring if anyone could hear him.
"I like this gun!"
At the rear ramp, Hunter managed to clip the retreating spirit with a short three round burst, finishing it off, and then looked for another target, but spotted only the ghouls below. He aimed downwards, but as they ran through the stubby trees and bushes, his SmartLink refused to lock for long enough to let him fire. He could have over-ridden it and just fired blind, but he trusted the system implicitly – better to wait until he knew his shots were going to hit and destroy his target, rather than fire indiscriminately at the ground.
Kai blinked as Anahita rose smoothly into view next to his open doorway. She was screaming – though he couldn't hear her over the thundering engines and the chattering sounds of automatic gunfire that echoed through the compartment. As she flailed around, his attention was drawn for a moment to the phone held in her hand, flashing and vibrating as it tried vainly to notify her that she had an incoming call. A brief burst of amusement ran through him and he quickly hung up and stuffed the phone into his pocket and then leant out of the side door as far as he could, trusting that the harness would hold him. His fingertips missed her on the first attempt, but then Tads had adjusted her viewing angle to see what was going on, and she slid over towards him – his second grab got a firm grip on her and he pulled her sideways into the chopper, his arms wrapped around her tightly in case Tads stopped the spell suddenly.
There was a ripple in the air, and two spirits appeared next to her. Barely had the first finished materialising into the physical world when a metre of sword blade sliced through it. Flickering globs of power burst from the body as Shimazu's weapon foci cut through the spirit from top to bottom, destroying it instantly. He rolled his wrists, and the angle of the blade changed abruptly, from vertical to horizontal. With an explosive outbreath, tendons and muscles tensed, swinging him from the waist around as if he was wielding a scythe, and the blade drove through the second spirit, splitting it in twain. The blade sliced onwards, barely clearing Tad's head as she sat hunched in her seat, unaware of how close she'd come to being scalped.
Dakkka-dakkka-dakkka-dakkka-dakkka-dakkka… the machine gun fired again as Aswon found another target to blast from the port side, sending his target tumbling with limbs bounding away in different directions as hydrostatic shock blasted flesh apart. Spent shell casings spat out of the receiver, and into the body of the chopper, before bouncing and dancing towards the door from the vibration of the engines, plummeting down to the park below. Dak-dak-dak-dak-dak-dak… Hunter's lighter gun fired faster, but the effects were no less fatal as he found another spirit closing on their position, and blasted it too.
Marius saw that the target was on board, and slowly applied power, gradually swinging the engines forward to give them a smooth transition to forward motion. He knew that at least two of the people in the rear weren't strapped in, and though he really wanted to throw power to the engines and show them some really fancy flying – that would have pitched people out of the side or rear doors. Losing your passengers that way was unprofessional, so instead he used all his talents to moving them away so smoothly that nobody in the rear realised they were in motion again until they could see the ground starting to slip by.
As he saw the motion of the ground, Hunter took a half step back from the ramp and hit the door close button, starting to raise the ramp and seal up the back of the craft. It should cut down on the vortex of wind blasting everything inside, but it would also cut off line of sight to the crew – and he'd listened to the magical team members long enough to know that was a good way to stop things affecting you. His hand slipped off the button, leaving the ramp about one third closed though when a shudder ran through the entire craft, and it started to list to port, before slewing around slightly.
Marius winced as he felt a sharp stab in his leg, and his limb didn't seem to feel like it would support his weight. He couldn't spot anything wrong, and it didn't feel like he'd been hit, but something was affecting him. He separated his mind from the craft a little, and saw the big blotch of red warning lights on the choppers systems, and the port engine screaming as the fuel manifold ran amok. He had to use the backup systems to try and slow the fuel ingress, and disconnect the drive train to avoid wrecking the engine. It wouldn't fully disengage for some reason, leaving him on about ten percent power for the port side, but he could compensate for that. He threw himself back into the gestalt, ignoring the pain in his left leg and 'hopped' on his right, driving the chopper towards the edge of the park only a hundred metres away.
The trees were thinner here and smaller, and he could spot the green and foul looking surface of the pond that they had originally scheduled as the pick-up point. Beyond it were a few more metres of trees and bushes, then the remains of a six-lane boulevard and the ruins of apartment buildings and offices.
"Oh crap! More spirits, right side, and a big one!" Tads called out over the comm system as she dialled the prism around. She saw two more spirits closing on their position, fairly small and not that big a worry – she was sure the gunners could deal with them. There was a larger one however, right in the middle, closing on their position. It was at least twice as strong or large as the others, and it had a distinct taint of some kind, feelings of toxic hostility radiating off of it. Tads made the assumption that it was this spirit that was using its powers on the chopper, trying to drive them to the ground and towards the waiting ghouls, and only one course of action presented itself to her that was practical.
She reached out with her mind, grasping at it with her power and seeking to banish it. The spirit responded in kind, tendrils of force reaching out to her, the streams of mana intertwining, writhing and seeking dominance over each other. The spirit was strong – much stronger than she had anticipated. Rather than being a summoned spirit, it felt more like a free spirit, an entity with free will, desires and the possibility of more numerous and more powerful abilities. For a moment it seemed to be gaining the upper hand, but Tads dug deep, summoning her mental reserves and slowly started to drive her control towards the being, battering its defences down. Waves of energy cascaded through her, a deep vibrant green in colour, the colour of vibrant moss, ivy on the trees, the lush conifers of her homeland. They struck against the dull and lifeless grey of the spirit, forming two bowls of energy that spattered and sparked against each other as they sought to establish dominance.
Kai pulled Anahita inside and around him, pushing her towards a seat and holding her in place until she had a strap wrapped around her and had given him a nod.
"Marius, we're secure, let's go!"
"I'm trying Kai, but I've only got one engine – stop whatever spirits or critters are jinxing us!"
"We're on it, Marius. Ok, Tads – where are they…. Tads?... TADS?" There was no response from the shaman, and Kai looked over in her direction, peering around the bulk of Shimazu who stood ready to repel any more spirits that might try to enter the compartment. He could see her face contorted in a look of exertion and concentration – she still looked alive, so he guessed she was doing the best she could with something.
The tilt-wing lurched again and they heard a cry of rage mixed with pain from the speakers. The starboard engine stuttered, then a metre long gout of flame spat out of the rear, once, twice, then the engine started to scream, a sheering metallic noise that sounded like a massive claw being scraped over a blackboard. The noise stopped as abruptly as it started, and the propellers started to slow as Marius disengaged the gearing on that side too.
"Brace! We're auto-rotating, but we are going DOWN!" His voice sounded strained, and the craft lurched and wobbled as he fought the sluggish controls, trying to keep them flat and level. Momentum continued to carry them north, slipping sideways through the air and descending. "Twenty seconds and we're going to hit!"
Unaware of the looming disaster in physical space, Tads continued her efforts in the astral realm. The spirit she was fighting lurched to one side, sending streamers of mana out towards her to wrap around her legs and waist, catching her by surprise. It didn't damage her, but it distracted her and threw her off guard, and in that moment of disorientation the spirit dug deep as she had, driving her back and trying to wrest control of the power between them. The dark swirling maelstrom of power pushed towards her, driving back her green with sludgy grey fingers that quested to wrap around her shield.
But Tads was not without tricks of her own. She held onto the power ahead of her, doing the best she could to hold it in place, and her other hand grabbed the tendril that wrapped around her waist. A slender shaft of vibrant green shot along the centre of the tendril, like a lightning bolt of viridian that quested and probed with inhuman speed, racing up the tendril towards the spirit. It spotted the attack from the flank only at the last moment, and it staggered back, distracted. Tads grunted with the effort and poured more power into her main attack, driving back the spirit now, reversing its gains.
Shimazu registered her twitching and thrashing only superficially. Once more he was stock still, his superb balance compensating for the motion of the tilt-wing without conscious thought. His eyes unfocussed he watched around him, his brain not really looking at anything, but watching for changes, or the subtle signs of magic. Another corrupted city spirit appeared, materialising inside the craft and starting to generate a wave of visceral fear that could have sent them plummeting out of the doors to their ground below. Shimazu was ready, though, and another mighty blow with his sword struck the spirit and tore it from the mortal realm, dissipating the energy it had started to gather. A heartbeat later, the sword was back in the guard position, his breathing steady and his body still, like the eye of a storm. Watching, waiting, ready to bring death to any spirits, he stood like a rock in the middle of the troop bay while people around him shouted and yelled to each other.
Hunter skidded around the corner of the cargo and let his legs bend and collapse, sending him sliding across the cross-hatched surface of the deck plate until he almost hit Aswon. His legs straightened, catching the door frame and arresting his motion, and leaving him sat straight legged, just below Aswon and the machine gun. In a fluid motion he bought up his rifle one handed, elevating it high into the air. His other hand pointed down towards the closest pack of ghouls, and Aswon's eyes widened as the tip of Hunter's finger neatly hinged backwards and a violet light appeared on the machinery inside.
THONK.
The anti-personnel grenade shot from the integrated launcher, arcing through the air and plunging downwards the ground. Inside the 40mm grenade, the precision timer raced downwards, counting the microseconds faster than human comprehension. The range-finding laser built into the finger had relayed the exact distance from the grenade launcher to the target, and had passed the data along the router interface to Hunter's SmartLink. That had crunched the numbers and worked out the adjusted distance based on the necessary elevation to land the grenade in the middle of the target, then the gun interface had supplied data to allow for the factoring of wind, temperature, humidity, barrel wear and a dozen other variables, before computing the exact time it would take to reach the target. The data was passed to the gun, the gun programmed the variable fuse, and then the grenade was launched.
Hunter only vaguely thought about this – he just aimed the gun, elevated the barrel and laid the targeting dot over the top of the aim reticule, and when the dot flashed, squeezed the mental trigger on his SmartLink. The round fired, and he was already working the eject mechanism, expelling the case and venting smoke, reaching for another round to jack into place.
The grenade only flew at a speed of around eighty-five metres per second. The ghouls had less than half a second to react though, based upon their range as they hungrily pursued the descending craft, and none of them recognised the danger as the blurry shape arced through the sky towards them. The grenade exploded while still a metre off the ground, creating a powerful explosive blast that ripped out for metres around them. The shock wave struck first, rippling their skin, popping blood vessels and throwing them up into the air, outwards from the centre of the explosion. The fireball hit them next, fractions of a second later. Amongst the flames were deadly shards and fragments of the case, forged into projectiles that exploded outwards at hundreds of metres per second. Each ghoul was struck by scores of these slender red hot needles, driving them deep into the flesh where they burnt and cauterised flesh, damaged nerves and shattered bones. Individually, the damage each fragment did was small, but collectively they were enough to blast each of the four ghouls in the blast area to the ground, sending up a collective howl of pain that echoed through the park, vying with the screaming of the engines.
Aswon saw the explosion take out the closest pack, and started to shift the machine gun, trying to get a bead on the second group. The tilt-wing was corkscrewing down though, and the gun wouldn't swing far enough to get a decent firing position on them as his view whipped round to the north. What he could see though was the lake or pond – and the awful creature that was now thrusting itself to the surface.
Sludge parted, rotting plants were cast aside and eight large powerful tendrils rose up from the water, clustered around a central core. Dark green leathery skin shed water, and a multitude of eyes set around a central mouth followed the tilt-wing as it circled around and descended towards them. Tentacles rippled as the behemoth shape undulated across the quagmire, closing in on the position where they were going to crash, getting close enough to pluck at their bodies and grasp them, ready to feed them into the central maw.
Next to him, Tads continued to twitch and grunt, still locked into her contents of wills. It felt interminable, a slow grinding match of power and stubbornness, but that was judged against the quicksilver speed of pure thought. She battered at the spirit, launching attack after attack at it, driving it back and disrupting it bit by bit. Every hit she got through dissipated part of its power, weakening it and making it slower to react, less of a threat. Finally she had it constrained, encircled by energy and she squeezed, compressing it down into a tighter and tighter ball, until with a pop it vanished, squeezed out of reality and back to the metaplanes. She opened her eyes, taking a deep breath and immediately wished she hadn't. Her concentration had been on the banishing contest, and not on the world around her, and now as she returned, the swirling fluids in her inner ear reported to her brain and she felt her gorge rise, becoming acutely motion-sick as she tried to process the movements now being experienced.
Aswon slapped the release on his harness, and grabbed his spear, then took a deep breath. He felt his heart rate drop as he commanded his body to be calm, then with utter certainty, stepped out of the door and started to hurtle downwards, towards the lake and the waiting creature.
They were only about ten metres from the surface now, so the fall took less than a second – but in that time he had managed to flip the spear to a point down position and ready his grip. As the point of the spear touched the skin of the creature he let out a massive grunt and thrust with his arms as strongly as he could.
The strike was powerful, but also backed up with his speed and weight, driving the spear down into the creature, the blade working deeply into the core and ripping a wide hole through the flesh, destroying a cluster of eyes, nerve stems, severing blood vessels and ripping into internal organs. The action also slowed Aswon, turning a fall that might have risked broken ankles or legs into a relatively soft landing. His athletic prowess had let him maintain his position while falling, and as he hit with his outstretched toes, they flexed, acting as shock absorbers and his ankles and knees followed suit.
As the spear hit, there was a flash of power from the weapon focus and an awful smell of burning fluid burst from the wound. Up in the air, both engines suddenly flared back to full power, a jet of black smoke bursting from the rear as the fuel flow resumed and ignited off the hot surfaces. The tilt-wing bounced in the air as each engine surged over its rated maximum power for a moment until Marius could get them under control, and the craft stopped its descent and rotation as one, leaving them facing almost the same direction as they had started in.
Looking out of the door, still sat on his ass with legs spread wide, Hunter pointed his now reloaded grenade launcher at the second pack of ghouls that had been rapidly closing in on their position, expecting to be able to climb and crawl over the wreckage of the chopper to extract some tasty flesh. Hunter smiled at them as they closed, one handing pointing the rifle at them, the other lasing the central ghoul again for a moment, before the grenade launcher spat again.
"Unlucky."
Once again his aim was true, and the improved anti-personnel warhead was no less effective than the first shot. Limbs, blood, teeth and vegetation were blasted out from the impact site, leaving a small crater in the dirt behind, and a number of ghouls ripped and wounded thrown outwards in a wave around the impact point. Brutally wounded, they screamed in agony, and had no thought left for attack – only for crawling away from the chopper that was now hovering a metre or two from the ground, throwing up a swirling cloud of debris around them.
Aswon finished his descent, absorbing the impact as they'd been taught to do in their parachuting course and rolling to the side to spread the impact over a wider area. Unfortunately, he was still holding onto his spear with a vice like grip, and his body weight made it act like a cutting blade – as he fell down, the tip of the spear rose up around the pivot point at the top of the creature. The entire top half of the creature split open, and a fountain of orange blood and gore burst into the air, rising and falling sharply.
Where the blood hit, it steamed and spat, the toxic fluid eating through organic material, sending small spires of smoke up into the air. Unfortunately, a lot of it hit Aswon. His face felt like it was on fire, as the acidic compound ate through his epidermis. He could hear the singeing of flesh and burning of his hair, and flung his head violently from side to side to try and clear his face, resisting the urge to wipe with his hands, which were also burning and registering distress. There was an evil stench as the acid ate into the plastics and materials of his clothing and armour jacket, and he released the spear, fumbling painfully to strip off the jacket without taking the top layer of skin with it.
With the jacket stripped inside out, he used it as a sponge, wiping carefully at his face, clearing away as much of the filth as he could. The pain intensified as the acid ate deeper and deeper, and he frantically wiped away the ichor until he could feel the jacket literally falling apart in his hands. He risked opening his eyes, blinking as his eyes stung a little, but his reflexes had saved him it seemed, and his eyesight was intact. Even better, Marius had the chopper angled a few metres away, hovering in the air and Hunter was lowering the back ramp, waving for him to come quickly. Grabbing the spear, he waded through the muck towards the ramp, and somewhat shakily climbing up, Hunter grabbing at his collar to help him while he scanned the lakeside carefully for further threats.
"Got him, Marius! Let's go!"
The chopper started to climb up, leaving behind a series of still smoking craters, a few fires and a ten metre radius creature in the lake, surrounded by a pool of orange ichor that slowly ate away at the plants surrounding it.
Tads appeared around the edge of the cargo boxes and only need a single look at Aswon and the ruins of his clothes that he was rapidly pulling off before they disintegrated. With a small gesture she created a stream of water just above his head, showering him with litre after litre of fresh, clear, safe water. Aswon spluttered a little, but made no complaints, concentrating instead on getting rid of all of his gear and ensuring the acid was removed from his body. Nasty looking patches of raw skin and oozing blood covered his face, neck, shoulders and hands, with other patches of his skin also showing signs of effects. The pink marks of burnt flesh showed up horribly against his black skin, and now that his clothes were removed, he simply stood still on the ramp, letting the water cascade over his naked skin.
Shimazu and Kai appeared with the med-kit, pulling out gel-packs and sterile dressings, hydration agents and bacterial neutralising agents. When she saw they were ready, Tads stopped the flow of water, moving clear of the ramp to give them room to work. They methodically dressed all of the patches and burns, each of them taking one side and working down from his face. As the numbing agents took effect and the cooling hydro-gels were absorbed into the wounds the look of pain and discomfort faded.
Tads created more water around his feet, washing away the remaining ichor, along with the soles of his boots which had rotted and melted, forming clumps of twisted plastic. Once the ramp was clear, they moved into the cargo area and Hunter gave the all clear to Marius, who started to raise the ramp.
Kai excused himself and headed to the cockpit, leaving the rest of the team to move back to the troop bay and Anahita. Aswon rummaged around in his gear, finding some replacement clothes and pulling them on carefully, trying not to disturb any of the dressings. The stark white dressing kits stood out just as much against his dark skin, and his face was almost completely obscured. His dark eyes examined the dressings on the back of his hands, patting down the edges of the adhesive where they were already starting to peel off his wet skin.
Tads beckoned him over to where she was sat, moving up as far as she could on the bench to give him room to carefully sit. Moving carefully she found a place to touch him that was neither burnt nor would make her blush, and started to chant. The rest of the team went about their business, cleaning up after the fight, but Anahita stared raptly as the golden light spread from her hand, slowly working its way around his body, shining out between the bandages and gel pads.
In the cockpit, Kai sat down in the co-pilot's seat, thinking furiously as the chopper made its way over the ruins of the city, retracing their flight path here. Hunter came up to the entrance and looked at him, clearly wanting to know why Kai was in "his" seat. When Kai didn't move, he started to turn, at least until he felt Kai grab him by the jacket, and motion for him to stay where he was. While Hunter stood in the open doorway, Kai activated his throat mike, speaking slowly and clearly to the rest of the team.
"Everyone, listen up. There's something not quite right about this. I can't put my finger on it – but her reactions just aren't what I was expecting…" He stopped for a moment, and Hunter could see that he was frustrated - he was struggling to frame his feelings, and for someone who relied on his voice to do work, that was clearly pushing him to the edge of his comfort zone. "She looks right, she smells right. I think it really is her. But… she just doesn't seem quite scared enough for what she just went through. She knows how to use a gun, but that kind of situation should have scared the crap out of her. She…she was relieved to get aboard the chopper, and she was sweating. But she didn't seem surprised? I don't know what's going on here, but let's be careful, so ka?"
Shimazu was in the troop bay and as he listened to Kai over the comm system, he gradually turned in his seat until he was facing Anahita and his hand casually dropped to his sword. She was an orc, so somewhat more heavily built than the average human, but she didn't seem that well-built – certainly she wasn't in his or Hunter's league. About one point six metres tall, she didn't look that heavy – maybe seventy kilos at a guess. Her skin was a light brown, and her tusks were fairly small, confined to her bottom jaw – still noticeable and in no way subtle, but not as prominent as Hunter's were. Dark brown eyes matched her curly mid-length hair, but she had no distinguishing marks or scars beyond that. She had on a pair of dirty and marked jeans, sturdy leather boots that looked to be reinforced – perhaps designed for motorbike use. Her top layer was a green ribbed jumper, with reinforced patches at the shoulders and elbows, reminding him of clothes he'd seen at the army surplus stores. A small sling bag was trapped between her feet, but other than that, she didn't have anything else with her.
He watched her, as she watched Tads. She was studying the healing process intently, and didn't notice his observation of her. As Tads finished the healing, Aswon moved around, testing the flex on his hands and shoulders.
"Thank you Tads – excellent work as always." Tads gave Aswon a little squeeze of the thigh and then sat back, her eyes closed as she relaxed, dissipating the magical energies slowly and carefully to avoid any backlash. Anahita smiled broadly, leaning forwards in her seat now.
"That was amazing – and so beautiful to watch. I hope you're ok, sir. That was… well, that was a very impressive thing you did there."
Aswon didn't answer at first, mulling over in his mind what Kai had just said. Deciding to go with a basic response that hopefully wouldn't reveal too much, he opened his eyes and looked at Anahita, then nodded and gave her a closed lip smile, before grabbing his spear and some cleaning rags and starting to wipe it clean, concentrating on removing any sludge and mud from the intricate carvings.
Tads meanwhile, decided to turn her attention to the new guest, and as she sat back leaning against the skin of the aircraft, she dropped into astral space and tried to get a read on the newcomer. She wasn't injured, and had only a little cyberware present in her body, and didn't appear to be diseased or suffering from any malady. Emotionally she had a slight edge of alarm about her, but also a feeling of triumph, or accomplishment.
The edge of one of the dressing packs caught on the spear, and Aswon started to remove it, causing Shimazu to stir.
"I wouldn't do that. If you don't let it heal cleanly it might scar and…"
"I'm not worried about scars. They are a mark of respect, of hard-won fights. A badge of honour."
"And it might also open up the wounds to bacterial infection, causing a number of conditions, some of them degenerative and very difficult to treat. Regardless of if you scar or not, I don't think you want to suffer some kind of wasting disease or lung infection due to invasive skin bacteria."
Aswon stopped peeling the dressing pad off, and instead laid it back down over the wound and patted the adhesive down. Next to him Tads made another gesture or two, casting her sterilise spell to destroy all the bacteria in the troop bay, and throughout the rest of the craft.
"That doesn't sound like a good thing, so let's not do that shall we? My healing spell should have done the trick, but we've still got three hours before the market, so why not leave the bandages on for a bit?" Aswon nodded agreement with her and left them alone, resuming his cleaning of the spear.
They were back at the staging area by now, which looked the same as when they'd left it half an hour before. Circling carefully, Marius bought them in for a landing, dropping them back onto the small island, at an angle, ensuring that at least two of the guns could be bought to bear on the causeway. As they settled down and the engines died down, Hunter, Kai and Marius all came back from the cockpit. Marius grabbed his toolkit and headed off to go and check on the engines, concerned about lasting damage from whatever that spirit had done to them. Hunter meanwhile sat himself down in the front corner of the troop compartment, sitting opposite to Shimazu. His assault rifle was across his body, loosely held and he apparently relaxed, eyes lidded and gave the impression of falling asleep. Kai moved to sit next to Anahita, turning his head to face her.
"Well, that got a little exciting. I'm glad we got you out of there safely – but that wasn't a good landing point – why did you pick that?"
"Well, the park was pretty clear terrain, and easy to get to, and as far as I know none of the local warlords have claimed it. I didn't think it would be that dangerous!" Kai searched her expression, but couldn't pick up any signs that she was lying, or wasn't in fact herself.
"Well, why did you go there on your own? And what was that thing in the water?"
"I've no idea what that thing was – it was as much a surprise to me as it was to you! Your friend is going to be ok, isn't he? I'm glad your mage seems to be a proficient healer."
"Yes, she's very good. Very good indeed. So what happened back there?"
Anahita described her journey through the city, cautiously moving from one area to another, and how she ran into the pack of ghouls in the park, who gave chase to her.
"That must have been pretty terrifying, Ana!"
"Well, I was worried, that's for sure. A whole pack of ghouls though – that's not what I was expecting from tonight. I honestly thought you might not get to me in time!"
"The advantage to having a pilot who likes precision. Speaking of which, excuse me for a moment, I must go and check on him." Kai climbed out of the side door and wandered over to where Marius was working on the engine, and then making sure he was facing away from the doorway, he keyed up his microphone.
"Well, as far as I can see, she's not lying at all. And it's definitely her – lots of little habits and mannerisms I remember. And she seems to be more like her usual self now."
"So you're convinced it is her then, and not some weird kind of clone or something." Marius asked while he checked over the fuel injectors.
"Yes – definitely. I mean I've not seen her for months, but we've done a lot of business together in the past, and shared some…well let's say we got up to some crazy stuff. I'm convinced that it's her."
"I don't trust her," Hunter subvocalised, while he watched her through slitted eyelids. "You're crazy sometimes Kai, but you work people for a living. Trust your gut."
"Shimazu, I know you can't speak in front of her… but have you seen any indications that she's lying? One click for yes, two for no." There was a pause, then two distinct clicks over the radio. "Ok, well, I don't know what was wrong. Let's stay alert, but otherwise we'll get ready for the market tonight." He saw Marius frown, but the pilot didn't have anything to say and was concentrating on his engines, so Kai turned and headed back into the chopper.
"Well, the engines look ok, so it seems to be just the powers of those critters that were in the park. Now, we're not normally into the fisty-cuffs kinda stuff Anahita, you know how I prefer to work. But we can mix it up if we need to… hopefully you can see that we'll be able to manage deliveries for you if you have things that need moving."
"Yes indeed – formidable. And to all of you, thank you for coming. If you hadn't been there, it would have been a very different story. Who would have thought there'd be a whole pack of ghouls there? And whatever that thing was in the water – eugh!"
"Don't forget that it was haunted. There were ghosts in the park too." Aswon added, glancing up briefly from his spear cleaning at Anahita and fixing her with a stare, trying to gauge her response. She shuddered, and went a little wide-eyed, but her reaction seemed normal to him.
While she had turned around to face Aswon, Hunter had pulled the bug-scanner out of the storage pocket and turned it on, subtly running a quick scan, then informing the team quietly that she appeared to be clean.
"So… the market tonight?" Anahita turned back towards Kai and nodded. "Can you tell us about it Ana… what kind of things are we talking about?"
"Well, the market runs every couple of months, moves around the city to several different spots, just to keep people on their toes. They've used this area before a couple of times, so it's pretty routine now. They set up fences and clear the area out, mark out a load of parking areas and then set up stalls, entertainment and food. It'll kick off about nine, and people will drift in for the first hour or two."
"They'll be guards on the entrance, frisking people for weapons and turning you away if you've got too much heat. If you've just got small stuff, they'll generally be ok with that. Once inside, there's a load of different stalls or stands, often set up out of the back of a vehicle. All kinds of different goods and services on offer there, but it does depend on who is in town for the market – no guarantees."
"There's often a fighting ring – people, critters, animals, they're not fussy, but there's a good line of betting goes on and some real hustlers sometimes – so be careful. Can be crowded, and if you're new there, people will expect you to get out of their way, not the other way around. Some of the vendors might not talk to you until they know your rep, or have someone vouch for you. You just have to play it by ear. There's a few spaces put aside for making deals, and there's normally some stands there that serve food and drink. Um… I think that's most of it. Oh – and even here, there's still some idiots that think that metas and woman are the work of the devil, so there's a thing to be careful of!"
"What is the primary language going to be?" asked Kai.
"A mix – a bunch of people will be talking in Farsi, playing the home crowd. Everyone will default to English though if they don't know, along with a smattering of other languages. Sometimes we get people that have come a fair way, or have set up here from another country, so it can be a real mix."
"Hmm. Well, Hunter is probably our best Farsi speaker, but he's an obvious orc. Will that be a problem?" Aswon fixed her with another look, then crossed his legs and leant back against the cargo netting, the cleaned spear laying across his lap. "I'm not sure we could do a good disguise for him."
"And how will they feel about non-Muslims when it comes to that?" Kai added.
"Well, they'll be plenty of 'heathens' there, so it's not a massive thing, as long as you don't rub people's faces into it. As to, Hunter, is it? Yes, well as to Hunter, that's not a show stopper either. They'll be some people who would be happy to accept him as your slave or menial, or maybe a trusted butler or functionary. It depends what you two can pull off. But some people here deal with the Sheiks and Imams on the side, and they definitely have people to do the work for them. Some folk consider business a dirty word, and just want to live off the profits without being involved in any way."
"And are headdresses or face coverings common?"
"It varies… Aswon, yes? It depends again on who you're talking to, and what their background is. As long as you're not trying to score cheap points, the people who aren't fussed about them won't care, and the people who do care will probably just take it as a sign that you're trying to be friendly and respectful."
"Oh – that reminds me, Ana. I have some information for you." Kai grabbed a PDA and the roll out monitor, and then hooked them up, loaded the map of the area and scrolled to the mountains north east of Tehran. He quickly summarised the routes up to the valley where Rashid and his friends were based, and described their operations, encouraging Anahita to share the information with trusted colleagues and friends. Anahita listened, making a few notes on her own PDA and seemed grateful for the information.
Kai smiled as he got two clicks over the radio from Shimazu and a subtle nod from Tads – it appeared that nobody was picking up bad vibes from her anymore – certainly he hadn't felt uncomfortable with her for a little while now and she seemed back to her usual old self. Aswon waved at Kai and when he had his attention gestured towards the PDA and then readied his hands to catch it. Kai flipped it over to him, and then Aswon found the stock picture of a Saab Wolverine APC they'd found in the sales brochure.
"Ahh good point, Aswon. Yes – Ana, have you seen this vehicle around at all? Or one that looks like it? We're interested in a team driving one of these?" Anahita examined the picture carefully, then shook her head.
"Sorry Kai – nope. Looks like a bit of a beast, but I've not seen anything like that over here." Aswon flicked through a few more of the pictures, showing front and rear profiles, and some shots of it trundling through the woods, but she shook her head at all of them. Aswon scrolled again, this time showing a massive hovercraft, and then once more, showing a view of several of the crew including the suspected blood mage they had encountered at the quarry near Vladivostok.
The response was immediate, loud and quite impressive – and certainly seemed to touch a nerve. Anahita let rip with a burst of Farsi that sounded most definite and full of emotion. Hunter listened, and was frankly impressed that she could swear for quite so long without repeating herself in any way. After Kai calmed her down a little, she told them that she had encountered some of this crew, once, a few years back. Their one visit to the market hadn't been a success, and they were generally disliked. Not only had they engaged in a few sharp practices whilst here, it seemed that several crews had found themselves down some cargo or team-mates – whoever was young and pretty.
Again Tads and Shimazu watched Anahita carefully with Kai, but none of them found anything wrong with her reactions or convictions, and they couldn't detect any sign of magical coercion or possession, mental re-programming or deceptive behaviour. In fact, her disgust and hatred of the Bogbuster crew seemed to bring Ana and the team together a little.
As tensions seemed to melt away, Hunter decided to leave Ana with Aswon and Shimazu as guards, pretty certain that they could handle any trouble she might cause, and went to help Marius with the engines and other mechanical systems, working over the craft to check for damage from their earlier encounter.
The rest of the team relaxed in the troop bay, mostly just listening as Kai and Ana swapped gossip and stories. The more they chatted, the more Kai relaxed, which in turn led to the rest of the team lowering their guard a little more. Kai described two lovely people to the north, who both seemed to be patrons of the arts, that might be interested in Ana's supplies, and he spent a while describing Ludmilla and Germaine. Ana seemed intrigued, and Kai soon worked out a deal where he'd supply an introduction and reference for Ana, in exchange for which he'd get the courier job and a fat fee for any delivery of purchases to them.
"I must say, Kai, they both sound a little… eccentric to say the least. That's a characteristic that can be either great, or an utter nightmare to deal with."
"I won't disagree with you Ana. They've both given us interesting jobs, that's for sure – but they've never stiffed us either."
"What kind of interesting? If you can say?"
"How about hunting deadly irradiated nuclear scorpions in the desert kind of interesting?" Aswon asked. When Ana just looked at him blankly, he swiped through the pictures on the PDA again, until he could show off the restrained mutant scorpion that they had defeated a few months ago. Anahita boggled slightly, then looked around at the team, evaluating them all again.
"Looks like you landed on your feet Kai. Nice to have people you can rely on to back you up." Kai just nodded and smiled at her, giving her an obvious wink.
"They can make it worth our while though – they might be eccentric, but they also have some interesting things." Aswon rose smoothly to his feet and retrieved the Purdey, holding it sideways on so Anahita could see it clearly.
"Oh my, that's a lovely piece of work. Superb! May I?" She cocked an eyebrow at Aswon. He didn't reply, but checked to make sure there wasn't a round in the chamber, ejected the magazine and then handed over the rifle to her. She carefully ran her fingers over the silver engraving, tracing the patterns and symbols, before moving to run her hands over the burnished wooden stock. As she did, she closed her eyes, concentrating on the texture of the varnished wood. Her examination was thorough, but focussed. It appeared that she didn't appreciate the Purdey as a weapon or gun – it was, at least to her – clearly a piece of art, an example of superb craftsmanship and a piece of history. She wiped off the stock of the gun with her sleeve, then carefully handed it back to Aswon, who reloaded and engaged the safety, then returned it to the rack.
They continued to chat, catching up on old times and sharing some of what the team had been up to, until Marius and Hunter returned to the craft, reporting that everything was ok with the engines and systems.
Gathering in the troop bay, they laid out the screen on the floor and pulled up the map of the area, then overlaid it with the surveillance footage gathered by the Condor. Anahita went over some of the details she'd shared earlier, pointing at the fencing and the positions of the entrances, confirming some of their earlier conjecture. The team went over their general plan again to confirm who was doing what…
Marius was to stay in the chopper, controlling the Condor and being ready for flight if needed. But he was going to hop in and out of the drone, and check the cockpit for messages. Tads would summon a spirit, in the cockpit and instruct it that if there was an alarm or reason to contact Marius, it was to arrive there and physically materialise, then wave frantically in front of the camera and attract his attention, then deliver the message. That way, they could use a spirit to communicate if for some reason their comms didn't work, got out of range or were jammed. Tads would also get a few more spirits summoned, and have them wait in astral space, ready for her to call upon if needed. They wouldn't be hovering over their shoulders, and shouldn't be visible to any astral watchers at the market.
The rest of the team and Anahita would enter the market, and check out the stalls, work the crowd and blend in, and wait for their targets to arrive – and then hopefully enact one of the plans they had already discussed.
Kai mentioned to Anahita that they might need her to make her own way home, depending on what happened later – but she'd already guessed that plans were afoot, and didn't seem too bothered by the news.
With all the arrangements made, they transferred the last few litres of fuel from the jerry cans into the tanks, secured the cargo area and cleaned up the troop bay, checked their armour and weapons, and then strapped in for the ten kilometre flight to the market. It was just past dusk when they took off, a thin band of lighter sky on the horizon slowly fading through blue to an inky blackness overhead. Tads started her summoning rituals while they were climbing into the air, calling on the spirits of the city and air to aid them in their mission. All seemed to go well, and after a few minutes she gave Kai a somewhat weary thumbs up, then laid her head back to rest and de-stress until they arrived.
As they approached the site, a badly accented voice called over the radio, demanding to know their intentions. Marius checked with Kai, then patched through Anahita who gave a passphrase and identified herself, and was then directed to follow the yellow lights to a landing spot.
Marius checked the sensors, and sure enough down on the ground a young man had slipped a yellow cone over the end of his torch, and was now racing across the ground towards one of the areas they had seen being roped off earlier in the day. He followed along carefully, and when he was sure he was in the right area, slowly descended to the ground. Their assigned pitch was to the south of the market area, and about three quarters of the way round to the rear.
"I'd normally get a better spot than this, but it looks like I'm downgraded because I have new people. Don't worry about it, it's just a dick-waving exercise," said Anahita, unaware that the team had encountered something similar at the Quarry, and were not the slightest bit phased by this. As they came in to land though, everyone was glued to the sensors or screens, watching out for signs of either the Wolverine, or someone who might be Falcon. Nobody spotted anything though, so they split up as agreed. Marius sealed the doors after they had gone, then jacked into the Condor which was still floating high above and to the side of the market. It gave him a bit of an odd perspective, but then also meant he shouldn't be spotted or disturbed.
The rest of the team wandered around to the front of the market, spotting the gap in the fence and the half dozen burly men who were guarding it. One of them seemed to recognise Anahita and gave her a smile and wave, before turning towards the rest of them. His English was also strongly accented and broken, appearing to be just about good enough for the job, and no more.
"No guns bigger than hand. No blades bigger than arm." He pointed to his hand and forearm as he spoke, and the men approached the team, separating them out to frisk them. They didn't seem overly professional but they were reasonably thorough. Anahita produced a Morrisey Elite pistol from her sling bag which was quickly checked over and handed back, and the team's pistols and tasers were assessed and returned, as were their short blades. Aswon handed over his extendable staff to the guard, who flicked it out to full length and looked at it with a pained expression for a moment. The first guard came to his rescue.
"No blade. Is ok." With that herculean chain of logic established, the man tried to collapse the staff for a moment, but after fumbling with the spring mounted buttons and having one of his companions snigger at him, thrust it back at Aswon with a growl. Aswon took a moment and carefully collapsed the staff, not moving too quickly and trying not to draw attention to himself, which was a little hard as he towered over all of the guards there.
Once they were checked and cleared, they walked forwards, through the gap in the fence into the market proper. Behind them they could hear the next arrivals going through the same routine, but their attention was mostly focussed ahead.
The giant concrete tower rose upwards, and despite the damage done to the top of the building must still have been thirty five metres high or more, splitting down to a quartet of concrete legs that were as big as a small house. Their view of the bottom of the tower was obscured by what looked like a fighting cage of some sort – an octagon formed of the same security barriers that ringed the market itself.
On either side of them lay stalls of all different kinds, some mere awnings strung off the back of a vehicle and held up with a jauntily-angled tent-pole, some being full-blown market stalls with seating areas, elaborate curtains, racks of equipment and multiple spotlights and video displays. The market wasn't crowded yet, perhaps only twenty people being present, and milling around in groups of three to five people. There was a waft of smells coming from the tower, reminding them that food vendors were present, and they could also smell harsh raw cigarette smoke, and a few whiffs that indicated other pleasures were available.
"Definitely opium, some other low grade relaxants, a few hallucinogens. Nothing too dangerous." Hunter announced after a moment. Anahita gave him a curious look, but nobody on the team explained, so she shrugged and just accepted what he had said.
"Ok folks, let's have a wander round and check out the market while it's nice and quiet – but keep your eyes open."
They walked forwards, heading down one side of the horseshoe arrangement and angled towards the first stall to see what was on display.
