The last of the team woke and stretched, working out the kinks from sleeping rough. The tilt-wing was fast, stealthy and fuel-efficient – but it wasn't large or comfortable. The compromises required to achieve the military prowess required cut out any pretences for enjoyable flight – and overnight sleeps proved to be just as harsh.
Aswon and Tads had been up since dawn – one because he'd had enough sleep and was bright-eyed and ready to go, the other because she saw it as her duty to welcome in the new day and pay her respects to the spirits, and of course to bargain for their protection and aid. They, at least, had a nice fire going on the beach, heating up the last of the snake and getting hot drinks on. Breakfast was a drawn-out ongoing affair, as each of the team woke and came to join them. Marius was the last to rouse, but nobody was going to disturb him early, not with potentially another long day of flying to come.
The air was cooler than the day before, a strong sea breeze blowing from the east, and the waves were serried with white caps, as far as the eye could see. Trees waved all along the beach-front, creating a constant sigh as the wind rustled through the leaves, and the flames from the fire twisted and spluttered in the strongest gusts. Marius was halfway through his coffee when they saw a battered red four wheel drive vehicle slowly making its way around the headland, towing a large bowser behind it. It rolled across the sand, clearly heading their way but in no rush to reach them, and slowed to a stop when it got within shouting range of the team clustered around the fire pit.
"Where your fuel tank be?" The native looking driver called out in strongly accented English.
"I'll show you." Marius pushed himself to his feet, and turned to walk toward the chopper, gesticulating with his half-drunk mug. "Over this side."
With a rev of the engine and a slight knocking sound from some part of the engine the truck rolled forwards, following in his footsteps, the driver giving them a smile and a wave as he passed, before resting his elbow on the open windowsill again and humming a little ditty. He swung the truck around and backed up the fuel bowser towards the fueling hatch as Marius popped it open, then climbed out of the driver's seat and stretched, before shuffling over to start the fuelling process.
With the transfer taking place, Aswon stood up himself and stretched, then looked to the east, placing a rough and calloused hand over his eyes to shield them as he stared towards the dawn sky. The sun was visible only as an indistinct lighter patch on the horizon, shining through a long grey cloud that stretched from one end of the horizon to the other.
"Looks like that weather front Hunter warned us about is coming in – my guess is today, rather than tomorrow. Tads, do you think you'll be able to call upon the spirit of the storm to help protect us from the worst of the weather?"
"I…I'm hoping so. I can certainly try. I've not much experience with the spirits of storms and thunder, but I'd rather have them on our side, than against us." She pushed herself up from her seat and came to stand next to Aswon, staring to the east with him. "I'd certainly prefer to have help in something like that. Not that I don't have faith in Marius, but I'm sure he'd rather have an easier time of it, too."
They started to clear up their camp, packing away supplies and getting ready for departure while Marius supervised the fuelling process. He was a little sceptical about the quality of the fuel delivered, but a quick sample showed the AvGas looked to be reasonably pure and clean, matching that of a regular airport. Wherever the fuel came from, it was being stored and looked after reasonably, which made this place worth putting on the map for the future. As the pitch of the gurgling grew higher and higher, signifying the level in the tanks rising almost to the fill point, he called out to Kai, getting him to come over with his credstick. The local fetched out a reader that was lashed to a battered and old fashioned sat-phone, which chirped and beeped as it established a connection. The reader wasn't fast and the interface looked dated – but it was good enough to link up to the banking system and swallow several thousand Nuyen from the certified stick as Kai paid for the tank of fuel. The local man stowed the hose when they were all done, giving them a casual wave and a smile as he climbed back into the four by four and pulled away in low gear, the now much lighter bowser bouncing as he drove across the beach, heading back the way he had come from.
"Ahh, I see you've been tanked." Kui Hai had wandered down from the house while they'd been sorting out the payment, and stood a few metres away from them. Neither were surprised to see the large blade leaning against his shoulder, held loosely in his right hand. He was smiling through, and looked relaxed, as he watched Kai turn to face him. "So – are you ready to do my little delivery run?"
"Yes, of course. I think we're all packed up and just about ready – so we just need to collect the cargo."
"It's up at the house. Maybe some of your crew can help?"
Kai called out, getting Aswon, Shimazu, Hunter and Tads to join them, before asking Marius to go into the craft and start getting ready for flight. The team wandered up the beach towards the house, following their host as he led them to the side of the property opposite the veranda, and then fished out a key from his pocket, opening a set of double doors on the lean-to that had been built there.
"It's all of the stuff on that pallet there." The team looked around him, and spotted a shipping pallet with about a dozen boxes on of various sizes, forming a rough cube about a metre to each side. "Some of it is fragile, so the small stuff should stay at the top. But as long as it's not thrown around too much, it should be good."
They set to, carrying the boxes down the beach to the waiting cargo area in several trips. Kui Hai pulled Kai aside as they made the first trip, transferring a set of co-ordinates, radio frequency and a short code to him, giving him the location and contact details for 'Arkan Port'.
"Do I need to get him to sign for these goods or anything? Or send you a photo of delivery?" Kai thought back to the delivery job in Russia, where they'd transported the freezer load full of bioware from Scandinavia to some kind of mafia safehouse.
"No, he knows a delivery is coming. I know you are taking it. That is enough." Kui Hai waved his hand around, the tip of blade making a large circle in the air. Kai wasn't sure if it was a lazy gesture or one that indicated that gutting and flensing was an option, and elected not to ask any questions…
Loading didn't take too long, though it did fill up the cargo area to the point where it was clear that the rear ramp was effectively out of action now. Between the motorbikes and drones strapped in on the starboard side, the fuel barrels and pumps, and now their cargo netted, strapped and wedged on top, they were uncomfortably full, and would have to use the side doors to get on and off the craft.
"Good luck to you, and I see you soon, I'm sure. And hey you!" He pointed with the tip of his blade at Aswon. "Remember what I said to you." Aswon nodded at Kui Hai, and then ducked his head to climb aboard, heading towards the front of the passenger bay. Kai turned and smiled, and was going to thank Kui Hai, but he had already turned away and was sauntering up the beach, twirling his blade in his hand as he went. When he was clear, Marius checked all of his systems were ready, and started the engines – smoothly applying power and throttling up quickly, aiming to get off the ground as fast as he could and cutting down on the sandstorm he created. Once he'd risen twenty metres or so in the air, he kicked the rudder over, turned to the east and then started to move forwards, building up speed as he got over the water.
"Ok, here's where we're heading for. What can you tell us?" Kai forwarded on the data to Hunter, then sat back to wait as the big ork fed in the co-ordinates into the navigation system.
"It's the western end of the island of Papa New Guinea. Looks like a small island in a bay, off the main coastline. Distance is… about fourteen hundred klicks, so about three hours flight time, depending on the weather. There's no information on the place – looks like it is called Anggrameos Island, just a bit under eight kilometres long. So at least we should be able to spot the place easily enough!"
"Ok, thanks, Hunter. Marius – are we going to get hit with a storm?"
"It looks like it – we're flying straight towards it, and it is probably moving east to west as well."
"Can we fly over it? Or do we have to go through it? Or around it?"
"I do not think we can fly around it – from my sensor view, the storm front looks to be several hundred kilometres long. We may be able to go over it though. A lot depends on the cloud formation and type of weather system. It's not hopeful though – we could see it from the beach, and you can only see about thirty kilometres to the horizon normally, which means the clouds reach up to a significant altitude."
"Bugger!" Tads voice intruded into the conversation, as she slapped at her head with her hand. Kai looked at her in confusion. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt – but I forgot to mention. I thought it was worth mentioning to Kui Hai to get some bottles in, so we can stock him up with water when we come back."
"It's a nice idea, Tads, but I get the impression that wasn't what he was after." Aswon's deeper voice rumbled over the comm-link. "I think he was after the bottled stuff because you can show the cap and seal is intact, and that carries with it a certain amount of trust and reliability. Nothing against your magic – I trust it – but I think people want to make sure their survival rations are reliable and have a known origin. At least that would be my thoughts. They want their water treated with chemicals in an automated factory, guaranteed."
"Euugh!" The look of disgust on her face was enough to make everyone smile, at least for a moment. "Hey, if you're staying in here when we get to the next stop, do you want to rest now, and get someone else on the optics for a bit so you're fresh when we land? Seems to make sense to me that if you need to stay aboard, you can at least save your watch schedule for then?"
"Good idea, Tads!" Aswon pulled down the headset and viewing prism and then held it out between Kai and Shimazu, seeing who was going to take the equipment from him. After a few quick looks between them and some raised eyebrows, Kai leant forward to snag the system from Aswon, fitting it over his skull and pulling the straps a little tighter, before leaning back into the seat and starting a slow flick through the various channels as he scanned the area around them. Aswon leant back too, closing his eyes and slowed his breathing, trying to tune out the engine noise and vibration and seek inner calm.
"Hey, a question. We got a month to do this job in, for weird myfic reasons." They could imagine the air quotes around the word mythic, along with the disdain in Hunter's voice. "And we can't start until midnight on the right day. But is that midnight Japan time, or midnight where we're starting?"
"Good question, actually!"
"Don't sound so shocked Aswon!"
"No, I didn't mean it like that. But it's a valid question. But I'd be certain that it's local time. Midnight, wherever we are. The winds of fate and twists of magic don't bend to things like human concepts of time zones. So it will be wherever we stand, that we need to time from. Unless you disagree, Tads?"
"No, I would say the same. But it's not something I'd even thought about. Good catch, Hunter. And I'd have hoped that if it wasn't the case, then our two employers should have mentioned something to us."
They flew on, flying a course of a hundred and thirty degrees as they headed away from the Philippines and down over the Celebus Sea. The water beneath them was a fairly deep blue, volcanic trenches that dropped away from the isolated random islands that dotted the area. As they headed east, the bank of grey clouds grew larger in front of them, towering clouds rising up thousands of metres high.
About an hour into their flight, the weather front started to appear on the radar, a mass of violent red and black forming an almost solid line on the scope as they closed on the dense grey clouds. A moment later, their sensor dinged as they picked up smaller targets ahead of the front, racing towards them. Marius concentrated, swivelling the sensors to the correct bearing and zooming in, then raising the alarm to the rest of the team.
"Contact, front. I have a number of targets flying ahead of the storm, closing on our position. Bearing zero relative, their heading one eight zero. Speed appears to be ninety klicks, though it is hard to get a reading at this range."
"Here, Shimazu – take this," Kai pulled off the optics and passed them over, "you're better at this than me. What are we looking at?" Shimazu pulled down the headset and adjusted the straps, then slowly adjusted the controls as he focussed on the targets ahead of the craft, closing quickly.
"There's about six of them I think. Look like huge birds. I would guess several metres across if we're spotting them at this range?"
"Confirm – sensors read approximately eight point two five metres per target."
"Ok, there's some kind of magical effect on them – I think they're magically augmented, but not really active? No signs of spirits or spells, but they're moving pretty quickly. Hang on… what are they doing? Oh, they're diving down and skimming across the waves, then pulling up and soaring up. And up. Are they coming up to intercept us?"
"Unknown. They are on an intercept bearing, but I do not know if they are aiming at us."
"Ok Marius, let's see if we can get around them. Can we climb and turn, see what they do?" Kai called out. A moment later they felt the chopper start to lift and bank, turning further south as Marius climbed, turning their belly towards the incoming creatures.
Despite the thirty degree slope to the deck, Aswon hit the release on his restraints and then made his way to the starboard door, grabbing the restraint there and snapping it onto the sturdy leather belt fastened around his waist. When he was secure, he made a grab for the door handle, and got ready to slide the door open. Behind him Kai unbuckled too, and with a lot less grace and panache managed to swing around from his seat and lash himself to the port side restraint. Without the benefit of the tattoos magically inscribed onto his flesh, he struggled to remain in position, but as he managed to snap the restraint into place, he could let it take the weight.
He slid open his door, and as soon as the maelstrom of wind rushed in, Aswon followed suit. He stared down into the sea below him, the doorway filled from one side to the other with nothing but water as he stared down, and behind him Kai stared up at the doorway filled with nothing but sky.
"I do not want to alarm anyone, but I am picking up strange readings from the ocean as those creatures get near it. They are leaving hot trails in the water, hot enough to show up on thermographics!" Aswon concentrated for a moment, racking his brain to think of what manner of creature they were facing.
"It sounds like a Kylers Albatross then. They fly fast, normally ahead of a weather front where there's a sharp and clearly defined edge. I think they have some kind of static charge or lightning type power, too."
"Ahh, that would explain the tiny little kicks I'm seeing in the instruments then. So, do we shoot them down now?" Hunter called out. Marius increased the rate of climb, throwing more power to the engines and rising at a sharp angle of attack.
"I will try to climb over them. Aiming for five thousand metres." He eased the bank, and Aswon and Kai returned to an upright position, the horizon returning to a more normal position in the doorways, though still slanted from one side to the other. But both of the door gunners could now lean out slightly and look forwards and down, spotting the huge birds as they rose up below them. The leading bird opened a metre-long bill, and a small ball of plasma or lightning burst forth from it, arcing up through the air towards them. Neither of them had enough time to call out before the ball exploded, sending out filaments of energy in an arc several metres long – well clear of the craft.
"Don't worry – I think it's just a threat display!" Aswon shouted, fighting to be heard over the wind as it howled through the doorways. "As long as we keep avoiding them, we should be ok!" Several more of the balls of energy were shot in their general direction, but they all exploded far short of them, as the creatures continued to swoop and dive as if riding a rollercoaster of epic proportions.
They started to open the distance between them, and the team slammed the doors closed, moments before they storm front engulfed them. The tilt-wing vibrated and shook violently, but then calmed as they penetrated the leading edge, then quietened a little more.
"I have a spirit guarding us. While we are in the storm, it will keep us safe – relatively speaking."
"Good job, Tads. So – can we get over this Marius, or are we going through?"
"My sensors show the weather reaches at least seven thousand five hundred metres, so we are flying through. But the controls are responding almost normally at the moment, so we are ok. Though we have visibility measured in metres."
Hunter beat Marius to the punch, swapping the viewscreens to show the forward sensor view. Water was streaming down the windscreen as it condensed out of the clouds onto the hull, and they could hear the impact of tens of thousands of raindrops slamming into the fuselage, even over the sound of the engines – underscoring again to them that this was not a commercial passenger transport with all the insulation and niceties involved.
They flew onwards for a short while, the craft occasionally lurching up or down wildly, and with a constant low grade shake that rattled them around in their seats – but the storm spirit protected them from the worst of the monsoon and Marius piloted around the patches of worst weather as best he could.
With breath-taking suddenness, they burst out of the cloud and into clear skies, suddenly thrust into the brilliant azure with the ocean sparkling below them. Islands lay illuminated in the sun far below them, tropical oasis surrounded by sparkling yellow beaches laid out like gems on a field of deep blue. The wall of grey cloud retreated behind them, a solid mass of weather that marched westward. Hunter scanned forwards, and could see another wall of cloud in the distance – but far too far to be part of the same front.
"Just checked – we're not in the eye of the storm or anything. Looks like we have a break for a few hours, then there's more of that crap coming."
"I may need to call a fresh spirit then, depending on how long it will take. I'll keep an eye on the time and the weather though."
Marius angled downwards, aiming to get considerably closer to the ocean waves where he'd hopefully disappear from any sensor scans of the area. Although he was pretty confident in the design of the tilt-wing now and the radar-absorbent materials it was coated with, he figured the more carefully he flew, the less chance they had of running into trouble. As he dropped to a hundred and fifty metres, they could make out more details of the islands and atolls they over-flew, and could also see the change in colour of the ocean as they flew over the deeper trenches and shallow shoals.
"What the hell are those?" The team perked up at the cry of surprise from Shimazu, and they saw him adjust the viewing system on his head and grab the controls to adjust the angle. "Down in the water – massive creatures, swimming south east."
"Ja, I have them on sensors. Must be shallow to get a read on them. I make them the best part of twenty metres in length, and there's nearly a dozen of them." Marius fed the sensor data through to the screens in the troop bay and they studied the indistinct shapes that were swimming below them through the shallow water.
"I think they're whale sharks," Aswon said, with a slight raise in tone indicating some uncertainty. "But if they are, they're right at the top end of size from how big they're supposed to be."
"Are they dangerous? Do we need to evade them?" asked Kai – not sounding hugely concerned, at least not yet.
"No, no. We should be fine. Despite being sharks, they're actually pretty benign. They feed on krill and plankton like whales do, straining food out of the water. Not bitey sharks – they don't take big creatures at all. But there must be lots of food around for them to get that big…. And I'm surprised to see so many all this close together."
"Maybe they're migrating for monsoon season or something, and this is a choke point?" Kai mused.
"I've just assensed them," Shimazu interrupted, "and they're not magical in any way, at least as far as I can see. But I am getting some strong feelings from them – a very base primal fear. Something has alarmed them, for sure. That's….worrying."
"What do you mean, Shimazu?" Kai asked. It wasn't Shimazu that answered him though, but Aswon.
"When you're twenty metres long, generally there's not a lot of things that prey on you. The ones that do are either nasty and vicious creatures – or something much bigger. I've never seen a Megalodon or Leviathan, and I'm not sure I want to…"
They flew on for another minute in silence, as the pod of whale sharks disappeared behind them, until Hunter called Kai and told him they were approaching their destination. Kai in turn jumped onto the sat-uplink and made the call to the contact number he'd been supplied.
"Yes?" The voice spoke English, but it was accented and Kai couldn't work out what it was.
"Hello. My name is Kai, and we have a delivery for you. We're about ten minutes out from your location, and we just wanted to let you know we're heading in."
"Air or sea?"
"We're airborne."
"Head for the co-ordinates given and then look for a clear patch of beach to the west of the main building to set down on. We'll send out a vehicle to meet you."
"Ok, fine, we can do that." Kai was about to ask what the arrangements were for refuelling, but the other side disconnected the call before he could speak. Instead he hung up his side, and then relayed the instructions to the rest of the team, making sure that Marius and Hunter in particular were clear on what they had to do.
As the minutes passed they could see the island grow on the forward sensors, turning from an indistinct dot to a small blotch of green, and then into an island with a central hill or rise that looked volcanic in origin, clothed in dense green jungle and with a thin strip of brilliant yellow sand separating the lush growth and the ocean waves. As they closed, they could see a large structure on the north side of the island, and Marius focussed the sensors on it to try and get some detail.
A large tower rose up, perhaps two or three stories high, linked via a sturdy looking wall or building to the main mass of the structure which ran east to west. A second structure was behind it, seemingly linked, and beyond that was a courtyard with four more towers at the corners. It looked medieval in design, reminding him of the fortified Schlosses that could still be found in parts of Germany, but instead of being made in stone, it looked to be made out of modern high density plas-crete.
"Notice how there are no windows on the ground level, and the ones on the upper floors are all relatively small, and look to be flush with the walls? This looks like a secure building, designed from the ground up to be resistant to attack." Marius adjusted course slightly, angling east to get a slightly better view of the side of the structure as he looped in towards the landing co-ordinates. As he did so, coming into line with the two longer structures, he could see the grey painted masts and superstructure of a small warship that lay beyond the fortified house.
"Just so you are aware – we have a small naval ship here too. Looks like either a frigate or corvette of some kind."
"So he's got a boat too? Ok." Kai answered, giving the sensor feed a quick look.
"Nein. A ship. Not a boat. Very different thing. It's not just size, it is a matter of armour, and design too. Very resilient and tough. Anyway, hang on, I am landing." They felt the nose pitch up as Marius adjusted position, and then the display turned to a swirling mass of sand as he dropped to the sand and touched down gently.
A minute passed, and the last of the sand settled as the engines faded into silence, leaving their craft sitting on the beach, laying at the centre of two concentric circles centred on the engines and propellers, multiple rings stretching out in every direction forming a geometric pattern.
"So, that warship. How much does something like that cost? And could you drive it? Just….curious…" Kai asked.
"If it's a full-up warship, then likely to be in excess of a hundred and fifty million. Maybe more. If it is a coast guard or other security force type, then maybe a little less. And yes, I could pilot a ship like that if it has a rigger interface. But I do not think this is a good idea. A man who has a warship, is also likely to have competent defences and contingencies."
"Oh, I was just curious. Not for a moment contemplating grabbing it and stealing it. Again, just curious – could you land the chopper on the back of it?"
"I don't know if it had a flight deck. But probably. And still a bad idea…" The rest of the team grinned, wondering if Kai was serious or just speculating – it was hard to tell, but they probably weren't going to try and steal it.
Probably.
In the wall of the courtyard they saw a pair of reinforced or armoured doors open, then an honest-to-goodness portcullis rise up, giving them a view in through the gatehouse tunnel. Inside they could see the edge of several large vehicles, but their attention was mostly drawn to a large and armoured off-road trike that came rumbling out of the building. The driver sat up front, behind a canopy, and two passengers sat behind and to either side, each with a machine gun mounted in front of them. Both of the guns were pointed at the sky, but their hands were on the controls – striking a balance between being ready without being overtly hostile. All three of the men were wearing fatigues, and the trike was painted in a similar colour – a woodland style disruptive pattern. It did them no good at all on the beach, and wasn't optimised for the jungle that lay beyond, though it would certainly help them blend in a little.
"That looks like the French Foreign Legion uniform!" Aswon exclaimed in surprise as he studied the oncoming vehicle through the viewing optics. "What the hell are they doing down here?"
"Guess we'll find out in a minute. Ok, let's drop the back ramp and go meet them. Shimazu, you're with me. And…. Hunter, if you please. They're showing us some hardware, so let's do the same."
Shimazu made sure his sword was ready, while Hunter grabbed his assault rifle and adjusted the sling to make sure it hung comfortably and in reach, then they followed Kai out of the side door as he headed towards the back of the vehicle to meet the trike.
"Morning! We have a delivery for you. We should be expected."
"Morning friend. What have you got?"
"It's these boxes on top here. There's about two pallets worth, all told. Mixed supplies so I'm told."
"Right, right. Ok." The two passengers climbed out of their seats and moved apart, their guns ready and available but not held in a threatening fashion. Indeed, it looked a little pro-forma, as if they'd been told to go and check the team out, but really would much rather have been sat supping a cocktail instead. "All clear." The driver released his transmit button, then leant back in his seat, interlacing his hands behind his head.
A moment later they heard another rumble as a large engine started up, and then a squat, wide, heavily armoured transport edged its way into view, moving carefully to line up with the entranceway and drive towards them.
"What are these jokers doing? It's probably going to cost them fifty Nuyen in fuel to drive over here in that thing!"
"I suspect it is partly dick waving and trying to impress us with what they have, and a certain amount of establishing their credibility. They live in an armoured fort, and have attack trikes, a riot control vehicle and a warship. Don't take the piss." Shimazu suggested. "But set against that, you have the guys being all chill and relaxed. It's saying we're welcome here, and could be friends, and we don't want to be enemies. At least that's my read on it. Or it could be that they're just really lazy, slightly demented or think they can intimidate us. We'll have to wait and see, I guess."
The others considered Shimazu's words. It made a certain amount of sense, and given the strange people they'd met since forming the team, probably wouldn't even count in the top third of weirdness. It did seem like the shadow world and seedy underbelly of the sixth world attracted more than its fair share of the weird and wacky.
The riot van pulled up, and a heavily armoured side panel slid open. Another man in fatigues emerged, looking around quickly, his hand on the grip of his sidearm. As soon as he appeared, Shimazu straightened up unconsciously, and his own hand dropped to his sword hilt – his bodyguard training kicking into life as he established a clear potential threat. The other man surveyed the team, his eyes locking with Shimazu's for a moment, before quickly glancing over the rest. Apparently satisfied, he stepped to the side, clearing the way for the person behind him.
He was pretty tall, probably just over two metres in height, and barrel chested with his fatigues straining somewhat to cover the broad expanse of muscle. Wearing the same fatigues as the rest of the men, he had a number of subdued patches sewn onto his shoulders, indicating rank or specialisations. He had a broad and somewhat flat face, with a neatly trimmed goatee beard, running to grey, as did his close cropped hair. Fine lines at the corner of the eyes and weathered skin indicated he was reasonably old and certainly used to being outdoors. He nodded to his bodyguard, then turned to face the team, striding across the sand towards him.
"Hello mates. So which of you is in charge?"
"That would be me, name's Kai. I presume you're Colonel Sawoon?"
"That's right. Welcome to Arkan Port. So, what have you bought us?"
"I'm not sure what it is – but it's a selection of goods from Kui Hai, over at Sarangani. We did a little job for him, and he asked us if we'd drop this stuff off with you as we were heading this way."
"Let's have a look then." He planted his hands on his hips and waited, and none of his men seemed inclined to move either. Kai nodded and smiled, and then waved towards the ramp. Hunter moved over to grab the first box, turning to release the cargo net from the clips on the side of the hull, and quietly speaking into his comms as he did so.
"Don't know about French – he sounds South African to me?"
"Ahh, ok. That makes sense, too, I guess. A bunch of South African mercenaries all the way over here though? Interesting…" Aswon scrunched down in his seat, trying to keep out of sight. He still wasn't sure why he needed to do that, but it was probably best to avoid trouble if he could.
Hunter, meanwhile, had climbed down the ramp with the first box, and presented it towards the Colonel. The Colonel didn't take the box though, instead releasing the catches and opening the lid, glancing at the contents quickly and then letting the lid shut again, before he fastened it down with the spring clips.
"Looks good to me. Ok, let's get it into the courtyard. Can I interest you in staying for lunch, Kai? You and your team?" He released the box, leaving it in Hunter.s hands as he stepped back to open the distance between them.
"That's very kind of you, but we do unfortunately have a pressing appointment already arranged further to the east. If we can refuel, though, and be on our way, we'd certainly be interested in coming back this way and stopping to see you. I'm sure there's a really interesting story behind this place and your group." The colonel looked disappointed for a moment, but then nodded in acceptance, before turning and climbing back into the vehicle, closely followed by his bodyguard. The unseen driver started the vehicle up and swung it around on the beach, before heading back into the tunnel and through to the courtyard. It was a comical farce when looked at objectively – it took three minutes to drive what could have been walked in less than one…
"Ok, Hunter and Shimazu, you're already seen and known. You're with me, let's move the boxes inside. The rest of you, stay in the chopper and keep an eye out, or be ready in case things get funky?" A chorus of agreements came from the rest of the team, and the three of them started to ferry the boxes over towards the building.
Walking through the tunnel they realised the walls were thick – very thick, and there was an imposing solidity to the construction that reminded them of the dam at Irkutsk. Considerable effort had gone into making the structure strong – with aesthetics not a contributing factor. The gate that swung into place to close the tunnel was built onto the same scale, and the portcullis was sturdy and looked like it would stop a troll in its tracks with very little trouble.
Emerging into the courtyard they glanced around, and found themselves looking at a variety of military vehicles and equipment, arrayed neatly around the outer walls. The north east wall had two more of the all-terrain trikes parked up, each with a pair of light machine guns mounted for the passengers to the rear, painted in the same woodland camouflage pattern. The team that had come out to meet them were just reversing into the third spot as Kai, Hunter and Shimazu looked around. A second large armoured truck or riot van lay alongside the one that the Colonel had been driven out in, equally well armoured.
To the south the wall was taken up by three large tanks, tracked vehicles that looked wide enough that they too would struggle to fit through the tunnel in the wall. Heavy tracks on each side ran up under a heavily armoured skirt, and the hull was sharply angled and sloped to the front and sides. A massive turret sat atop the tank, with a long barrel protruding over three metres forward, ending with a muzzle break as long as a forearm. They had no way of telling what kind of sensors or electronic warfare suite the vehicles were equipped with, but the fact that they had tanks at all underscored the potential power of the Colonel and his men. It was going to be very unwise to assume that the tanks were not loaded with the standard armour piercing rounds, which meant that they would destroy either the truck or the chopper in short order, and take out anything the team had access to with ease – while they would struggle to get through the armour that was layered onto the tanks at all.
On the last wall was a large industrial module, containing eight large bays, each fitted out with a charging point and some equipment – and in each of those bays was a heavy combat drone, sitting dark and unmoving. Tracks ran around a series of wheels on each side of the squat body, while a machine gun was mounted on the small turret like head. They, too, looked to be heavily armoured and had a sleek design that emphasised their purpose. A large lightning bolt was stencilled across the front of each, in the centre of the heavily reinforced front panel.
They saw several of the Colonel's troops wandering about, mostly it seemed following a number of Filipino servants as they set up a table for the goods to be placed onto, while a few of the others were carrying out maintenance tasks. One by one the cargo was bought in and placed on the tables, and then they went to work on opening them all up.
Inside was a treasure trove of random products – tobacco, alcohol, food stuffs, optical chips, condiments, branded products. It was a truly eclectic mix of items, but as they watched the contents get pulled out to great cheer, they noticed there was a common theme to everything they could identify – it all appeared to be from South Africa. Presumably it was a taste or reminder of home, and represented luxury products to emulate the land of their birth for people who had long since moved on.
While the troops were splitting out the cargo and claiming items or directing the servants to take them away to the store room, Shimazu had a good astral look around the courtyard, examining the buildings, tanks and the actual fortification itself. There were wards over most of the area, but they were relatively weak, and he could spot the joins in the wards where different sections had been put up at different times – a sure sign that they'd been put up piecemeal, and were not permanent wards. That in turn meant that there was someone magically active in the Colonel's pay, but also that they must spend some considerable time going around to renew the wards and keep the area protected. He made a mental note to talk to Tads and the others, as that was potentially a very useful service they could supply to their host.
"So Mr. Kai. Everything seems to be here, and all is in order. As you can't stay for hospitality, let us arrange some fuel for you. How much do you need?"
"I think we've used about fifteen hundred litres getting here, so that much thank you." Kai watched and saw the Colonel wince slightly, before smoothing his expression out.
"Of course. No problem." Kai wondered if he should say something, but while they could use their spare fuel from the barrels, he was keen to keep that in his back pocket as an emergency reserve if he at all could. But, looking at the Colonel's expression and body language, he guessed they were dipping into their supplies somewhat unexpectedly to get that much fuel all at once. Worth noting for the future – perhaps it would be easier to call in advance and make sure they had time to lay supplies in, either that or they'd caught them not long before a resupply vessel was due.
The Colonel spoke, almost as if he was reading Kai's mind.
"Of course, if you're coming back, it's good if you can call ahead. That way we can let you know what supplies we're after or that we need, and if you have requirements, we can see what we can arrange. We're happy to trade gear for luxury items of course."
"I'm sure we can do that in the future, yes. What kind of trade goods are we looking at? Just so we can do some planning?"
"Well, most of what you see here is available, for the right price. Let me show you." The Colonel led them off, strolling around the courtyard with a very different gait than he'd used earlier. Now he was more like a used car salesman, discussing the finer points of each of the vehicles and describing their manufacture, capabilities and giving a rough indication of cost. Kai nodded along and tried to ask questions, Hunter filed away the information carefully for later discussion and Shimazu kept pace with Kai much as the other bodyguard did with the Colonel. When they had a bit more information, it appeared that most of the gear was military in origin, but several years old at the minimum, and thus likely to be at least one generation 'behind the curve' with regards to the electronic warfare, sensors or software. On the other hand, a seventy five millimetre high speed armour piercing squash head warhead was still likely to ruin your day, even if it was a five year old product, provided the gunner could hit the target.
"There's lots of potential here. Certainly my pilot will want to hear about all of this stuff, especially the drones, I think. But mostly we're in the market for something a little smaller – personal weapons and the like."
"Ahh, then follow me, Kai. I have just the thing." The Colonel led them over to the double doors leading from the courtyard into the house, revealing a well-designed and attractive hallway, decorated with artwork and some sculptures along with several large plants. He walked across the black and white diamond tiles to a stairway that led downwards, and swiftly descended to the basement level. At the bottom of the stairs he swiped a mag-card through the lock and leant forwards for a retinal scan, then pushed open the heavily reinforced blast door at the bottom, swinging it back into a recess cut into the wall.
Beyond the door was a straight corridor, functional and plain, illuminated by recessed lights channelled into the ceiling. Despite being below ground level it was bone dry, the temperature slightly on the cool side. Their host led them along to another heavy security door that was opened and led into an armoury. Rack after rack of pistols, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, shotguns and crew-served weapons were laid out, the black metal and plastic reflecting the overhead lights. Cages fastened to the walls contained boxes of ammunition and explosives, and everything was covered in bizarre acronyms and part codes.
"See anything you fancy?" The Colonel asked.
"I'm sure we do. At this point, I shall let my combat advisor have a look if I may, and he'll tell us what we need." The Colonel nodded and smiled, then watched as Hunter started to check through the racks of guns, providing a little insight into certain products.
Hunter worked through the room swiftly, trying to get an idea of what kind of gear was available. Everything seemed to be made by one of three companies – Denel, Armscor or Truvelo Armoury – which he guessed were South African defence manufacturers. The Armscor brand seemed to be sturdy and slightly over-engineered, while most of the Denel kit had fancy covers or spring loaded ports to keep dirt and dust out of the inner workings. The Truvelo kit was lighter and streamlined, with far less protruding parts to catch on clothing or surroundings, though in some cases Hunter wondered if they'd taken weight saving a little too far, as some of the barrel designs looked a little weak.
After a quick survey he picked out an Armcor combat shotgun fed from a magazine, a box of thirty-six high-density smoke grenades, and a couple of spare armoured fatigue sets, hoping they could adjust them to fit Aswon.
"What kind of ammunition do you have, Colonel?"
"Regular copper-jacketed of course, some explosive. We have glazer for certain weapon systems, tracer for the crew-served and we do have some special ammunition for our more discerning customers. But that gets expensive…"
"Well, I'd very much love to add some armour-piercing rounds if you have anything for a 5.56mm assault rifle?" The Colonel headed over to one of the cages, and keyed in the code to open the lock, then pulled out a large plastic box from an even larger dull green plastic crate."
"Here. I'll sell you fifty rounds, as an introductory offer. We can negotiate on price and quantity more later, perhaps."
A little haggling followed, and they agreed on a price of five thousand Nuyen for the lot, and the Colonel dug out a cred reader that was lashed up to a sat-phone, with a long external aerial that ran into the wall and disappeared – presumably up to the roof somewhere. Moments later the transaction was cleared, and five grand disappeared from their certified stick, and the Colonel handed over the supplies to Hunter, before leading them back out of the armoury and along the corridor, back to the stairs up.
Returning to the courtyard, they found that the tables had been cleared of cargo, and instead were covered in snow-white linen, and a selection of fruits and snacks were laid out. The Colonel edged them over that way and insisted on pouring Kai a small glass of juice, then extending his hand in invitation to the other products. Kai took a polite sip, and grabbed a nibble, complimenting Sawoon on his hospitality.
The Colonel grabbed some food too, which seemed to be a general signal to his men who started to circulate around the area, stocking up on food and drink themselves, and studying Kai and his two team mates.
"Hunter, why don't you take the shopping back to the chopper and get it stowed? We should be fine here." Kai suggested, then turned back to the Colonel. "I'd be very curious about your residence – it's so very tasteful, yet practical. I'm sure there's an interesting story to it."
"Indeed there is – but that's something that would probably be best saved for when we are sharing dinner someday. Suffice to say that I and all of my men came here a while back, bringing a lot of kit with us from the motherland. We had the place constructed to give us somewhere to operate from, and we've been here ever since – the climate is awesome, the staff work hard, and the cost of living is generally low – although getting some products is very difficult or time consuming. But of course, that's where people such as yourself come in…"
Hunter made it back to the tilt wing, then held up a finger for silence as Tads went to ask a question. He pulled out the bug scanner and ran it over the guns, ammunition box and fatigues very carefully, checking every part of them at least twice while he looked for any trackers or tracers that had been placed upon them. They didn't get even a twitch out of the kit though – it all appeared to be clean.
One of the Filipino's appeared driving a small cart towing a bowser, halting conversation whilst he was near the chopper. Marius supervised the refuelling, calling through to Kai when it was complete so he could take care of the payments. It only took a few minutes more for Kai to appear out of the gate, sauntering back towards the chopper and making a circling motion with his hand – the team double checked that everything was lashed down and Marius started to run through his pre-flight checklist, getting ready for takeoff.
When all the checks were complete, Marius lifted off smoothly, rising up about fifty metres and then holding her steady while the dust settled a little underneath them, and then slowly drifting over the courtyard, letting his passive sensors record the scene and gather information to back up the data Hunter had gathered. On the far side of the courtyard, past another equally thick wall, they spotted a lagoon, and could now make out the details of the corvette anchored there, along with two much smaller boats – though what they lacked in size they probably made up for in speed.
"Interesting – I see no sign of vertical launch systems or missile mounts. Most modern warships tend to favour a missile doctrine due to the range you can engage at. It does have a large calibre gun in that forward turret though, so perhaps it's a coastal patrol vessel, used for interdiction or anti-piracy duty." Marius had that distracted tone of voice that they'd come to recognise as he split his attention between casually flying the chopper in the correct course and studying the sensors with intense ferocity looking for clues and capabilities.
"From chatting with our new friend the Colonel, I'm pretty certain now that they all used to be South African military regulars, and that they've left service with their former country, taking along a bunch of hardware that has erm… fallen off the books in one way or another. Everything is a little older than you'd expect otherwise – certainly for the major assets anyway. So I think he's arranged a little creative book keeping, and officially that ship is probably supposed to be razor blades. The smaller stuff I think is current, and he probably has back channels into arms suppliers, but the big stuff is probably his golden handshake package." Kai scratched at the side of his neck, adjusting his collar as he dislodged a piece of sand.
"That would make sense. Not many people could afford a tank or a ship like that – but if you can, you can dominate your area. And the sale proceeds from something like that will keep a place running for years. They can probably only sell something major every other year and still make more money than they spend, even after buying in luxuries like beer and wine from Africa."
"I think I understand now why I was told to stay out of sight, as well. From my understanding South Africa turned into Azania, a new nation in the twenty forties, after massive racial strife and pretty bloody series of coups and uprisings. Part of the new nation of Azania includes the descendent of the Zulus, a type of elves called Wakyambi. Guess who else is very tall, slender, black and has strong opinions on things? If they were part of the group that kicked off and the Colonel had a run in with, I suspect he might not recognise or care that I'm not actually an elf…"
"That makes sense, Aswon. Well – we're on our way to our last stop hopefully – at least until we can start this job. Let's hope there's not any more surprises."
"Well, if Marius is happy to keep the speed down a bit for a few minutes, I'm going to log onto Shadowland and do a bit of a search on this town of Lae, and try to get some information. Maybe we can see what sort of thing we're up against." Hunter had his deck connected up to the sat-link, and was searching for a carrier signal, trying to lock on and synchronise his connection so he could get a stable line to jack in on. Marius slowed the chopper a little and fixed his course and altitude, trying to help Hunter program in the alignment adjustments needed to keep a solid connection, and allow him to go do some research about their next stop.
Beneath them the ocean rippled, waves rising and falling as they marched westward, and far ahead the next weather front closed in, covering the vast majority of Papa New Guinea in dense grey cloud.
