Aswon spoke with one of the villagers, and arranged access to a house – or at least the 'veranda' – though that was a grand term for four sheets of wiggly tin held up by old scaffold pole. It did however give them shelter from the sun, which was beating down on them without mercy, and after dealing with a Russian spring powered by arctic winds, felt more like an oven.
Several rickety wooden chairs, a camping chair, two upturned plastic crates with thin cushions and a large wooden chest were provided, giving the team something to sit on and to lay the screen for Hunter's deck and any other equipment onto, and let them get on with some planning.
Hunter bought up a map first of all, and showed the team roughly where everything was located – highlighting their current position north west of Zaria, the capitol city of Lagos far to the south west, and the border with Cameroon to the east, zooming in to show Chappal Wadi and the range of mountains that made up the small chain, stretching from north to south, about four hundred kilometres inland from the Gulf of Guinea. When he zoomed out on the map to show a larger swathe of Africa they could see the bright yellow band of the Sahara to the north, stretching across the giant landmass, the lighter green of their current environment, and the darker green of the more tropical wetlands to the south.
Aswon found one of the local hunters who had been in contact with the tribe far to the south, and pumped him for information, before coming back to fill in the rest of the team on what he'd found.
"Right – it turns out this has been brewing for a little while, with announcements on the media and things like that. So it's not sudden, but it's not been major news – certainly not anything that would make the international media – just a corp doing corporate things, and a government making deals with the corp. So pretty standard stuff. But that means the tribes down there have had plenty of time to see what was going on and do scouting, so they've got some reasonable intel on things – most of which was passed along when they started calling for help from the other tribes and shaman."
"They should have pretty precise locations of all the construction sites and efforts on the route from the coast up to the mountain itself. Most of the work is being done fairly close to the mountain – that's the nastiest terrain and the least developed. Just scroll down on the map and find Port Harcourt, will you, Hunter?"
"Roger, one mo… ok, here it is, at the mouth of a pretty big delta by the looks of things. Zooming in… ok, cargo port, rail head, a bit of highway – that the place?"
"Yep. So, Port Harcourt is one of the deepwater ports for the country. Has to be dredged a lot, but they shift a lot of bulk product out of there – so it has some of the best rail links in the area. That's not saying much mind – but compared to everywhere else, it's miles ahead. The roads are pretty average though, so an awful lot of goods get shipped in by bulk rail car, then transferred to ships. With the rail network stretching out from here, they've been able to get a good 70% of the way to the mountain on existing lines. There is work along the route to widen the tracks and clear back the route somewhat, but it's on already graded and developed track."
"They'll be making good progress with that then – if they can ship in supplies on the railroad itself, they can at least deliver stuff exactly where they need it."
"Exactly, Hunter. But, the last bit is where it starts to meet some more serious grades, and climb up into the mountains. Again, by international standards, Chappal Wadi isn't that high – but it's the highest spot in the country, so it's still a fair rise in height."
"How high is it?"
"About two thousand five hundred metres above sea level, Tads."
"Ugh. So we might get headaches up there again. Well, I learnt that spell to oxygenate the blood for a reason, so at least we'll get to see if that works. Is that too high to fly up?"
"No. We will be fine to fly up there, all the way to the peak if required. It will not give us much flight ceiling above that, so we may need to be careful, but it should be fine." Marius commented.
"So, the locals have been watching 'with interest' to see what's going on," Aswon continued, "and they've had scouts out to keep an eye on the interlopers. When they started to slash and burn through the jungle and drive in with the new rail lines, their tribal shamans and elders lodged protests and started to bang their drums, complaining about the destruction and invasion of their lands. It didn't do them any good of course – but they tried. And after they realised the government either didn't care, or had been paid off, they let the scouts loose."
"So what do they need us for?"
"Well Hunter, they were successful at first. They'd scoped out all the camps, had counted heads, checked out all the machines and had a good amount of intel. They started ambushing workers and capturing them, stealing supplies, damaging equipment. Pretty much stopped operations all up and down the construction range, it sounded like. The initial guards were city-boys, no good for working in the jungle and way outmatched. So for a couple of weeks they had happy hunting and were very successful. They stole supplies and managed to strip out a load of equipment and sabotage it – apparently stealing oil filters and throwing them down into the gorges was a favourite trick, as that kills a lot of the equipment pretty quickly."
"I am guessing the corporation responded with a heavy hand?" Marius looked around at the rest of the team. "And not with more rent-a-cops?"
"Pretty much. There were still some of the mall-cop level security about – but they were mostly guarding the inside of the camps. They bought in some much more serious corporate security teams – they might not have much experience with the jungle, but their overall training and equipment was much better. But worse was the tech. Warriors started getting ambushed in the jungles, rather than springing the ambushes. They got detected approaching the camps, even though they were being as stealthy as possible. And there were combatants that they just couldn't hurt or damage, and their scouts started to take a beating. And no matter where the scouts ran to, or tried to flank – the guards seemed ready."
"Ultrasound fields to detect the scouts, IR sensor networks, combat drones, tactical mapping systems, encrypted radios…"
"That's my guess, Marius. And the locals just aren't equipped to think in those terms, or even have the gear to detect or suppress them. You've seen the level of tech around here – and the quality of it. It'll be much the same down south."
"Probably turned into a slaughter then."
"Thankfully, it wasn't that bad. They've lost people – a lot of people, more than they can really afford. But if they're anything like our tribe's hunters, they're skilled and experienced. They have, and are losing badly – but they're being picked off in small groups, and are being ultra-careful now. Which is all the corp needs to do to keep them out really, and the building has got back to full production. But they do have some intel on what we're facing. It sounds like ex-army or merc forces now – well trained and with some tactical sense, and carrying sub-guns or basic assault rifles along with full sets of body armour, rather than the pistols and flak jackets of the mall cops."
"The scouts do also have some gear from their first raids – including a quantity of blasting caps, det-cord and explosives. They tried to use some of the stuff, it sounds like, but that backfired – they ended up killing a bunch of their own men. So I think we can probably get hold of some of that stuff if we get down there. But the corp are also playing it smart – apparently they've been offering jobs down in the lowlands on the logistics trail, paying better than average money, but targeting the local tribes. They're the ones suffering because of the losses of their hunters, so they're already going hungry. But with every person leaving the tribe to go and work elsewhere, it weakens the village and makes it less viable."
"That's something we might be able to make backfire on them – if we can infiltrate the logistics centres, we can do a lot of damage. As long as those jobs are actually jobs, and not just bribes with food and accommodation anyway, and no actual work.
"What about the shamans of the villages? Haven't they been able to pitch in?"
"You should understand, Tads, that most villages have an elder, or mayor equivalent, or someone referred to as a wise man – but they're not all gifted. They may follow the old ways, sings songs of the past and venerate the spirits, pass down the knowledge of our forebears. But only a very small number are actually spirit talkers, or can cast magic themselves. So it's likely that most of the tribes in the area have 'shaman' who know the theory of spells and can tell you tales of the past, or offer good life advice and help heal wounded people – but they won't be able to perform any actual magic."
"I see. Good to know – I've met several cultures and people that work the same way along my travels, but some that reserve the name shaman for those that can actively practice magic. At least if we get any shamans from the tribes down there, they should at least be calm and competent people, from what you say."
"Indeed."
"That might make some conversations difficult, though – if we do end up trying to wake the spirit of the mountain, I'm not sure that non-magical shaman will understand the scope of what we're trying to do, or the possible risks involved."
"Why is it risky?" Hunter asked, edging his chair back into the sunlight and basking in the directly light.
"Careful you don't burn, Hunter, if you're not used to it." Aswon warned. Hunter shrugged, but made no effort to move, so Aswon gave a little sigh, but then continued. "But – it depends on what we're doing. Or rather, what Tads is doing."
"But she summons spirits every day and gives them to us to use – that ain't risky! Is it?" He looked between Aswon and Tads for an explanation.
"For the normal spirits that Tads summons, there is some risk, but is such a tiny, remote risk that it's not worth talking about. Over the last year we've all become more adept with our magic – whether that be swordplay, using our muscles to run further and faster, learning how to better control our voices," he pointed to Shimazu, himself and then Kai as he identified the aspects they'd been able to hone in their travels, "but in Tads' case, she's become a very adept summoner of spirits. The spirits she summons are powerful enough to give us a significant boost in combat or even for stealth, as we've seen – but she can handle summoning them fairly easily, and without getting a headache or being physically taxed. At least as long as we're not in a toxic hellhole…"
"But those spirits are only moderate in force. Not weak by any means, but not the strongest either. Um, it's hard to quantify, but each one is as tough, or fast, or clever as a typical human. There is normally one that is a cut above that – maybe as strong as a trained security guard, that covers the aircraft. But those are spirits that must be called individually and bargained with for their aid, and as you know they disappear at either dawn or dusk, when the world shifts. If Tads were to summon larger spirits, ones that would be as tough as you or Shimazu, or as intelligent as Marius, or as fast as me – then the risks become very real. You've seen her when she over-exerts herself with spells – the nose bleeds and the crushing headaches? Well, like that. For each one. So that's a risk to her…"
"What we are talking about with this spirit of the land though, is summoning it – and then setting it free. Granting it autonomy, and giving it the gift of free will, and dominion over a place. That's not something to take lightly. The spirit might be grateful to us for giving it a home and a form. It might just as easily express hatred to us for binding it to a place and keeping it from its former home. There's no way to tell, and if we do summon a spirit, it's likely to be a powerful one, one equal to any of us – or stronger. Something we would struggle to overcome – because it HAS to be that strong to be a credible threat to the corporation. So that's likely to tax Tads and leave her weak and disorientated in her efforts to get the strongest spirit she can – so if it turns on us, then it's going to be down to Shimazu, myself and Kai to fight it. It'll be strong enough that your rifle isn't even going to scratch it. Maybe your cannon would – but it's likely to be in punching range, and I don't want to be that close if you're waving that panther cannon about!"
"Ahh, so it's a biggun… and you're doing something weird with it."
"Yes. In setting it free, it will become more like the spirit we found on the volcano – the Quoll."
"Ahh, gotcha. Not just weird stuff, but super weird myffic stuff. Why didn't you say that…"
"We can also work with the local shaman, for any that have magical power, to teach them useful spells and possibly point them along a path to gaining new insight and control over their abilities. And I'm sure you can also teach them valuable things in terms of weapons handling, how to spot the electronic security, how to deal with drones. We might be as useful to them as trainers and teachers as with direction action – that's something that will stay with them and be useful even after we've gone." Tads added. "But if we are going to wake the spirit of the mountain – and I see no reason why we shouldn't pursue that as an option – then we really want to get the permission of the locals."
"Sounds reasonable. Alright, Aswon – these tribes round the mountain. How easy will it be to unify them?"
"They're already unified – they will help us against the corporation and their forces."
"No no no… I mean REALLY unified. Like warriors from one tribe working with another, villages sharing food and accepting refugees from each other, that kind of cooperation. Because if we go up against a corp that size, it might come to it."
"The tribes can't afford to go to war like that. They don't have the resources or supplies to withstand a long conflict, and they're too poor to hire in mercenaries or foreign aid."
"That's what I thought. I don't like being the cheap option!" Hunter folded his arms defiantly.
"Could we make the air above the mountain unusable?" Kai interrupted quickly, before Aswon could respond. "I mean, could we make a storm or something like that, a magical thing that would hang around for ages and ruin the place as a launch port."
"Well, magically, it's possible. That's what the Great Ghost Dance did, when the tribes in North America carried out their ritual to take back their lands. It made volcanos explode all up and down the country and showed the UCAS that they were horribly, desperately, woefully ill-prepared for a world of magical warfare. They lost half their country overnight."
"So let's do that, then!"
"No, Kai. For one, we don't have the power. The Ghost Dance had hundreds of shaman working on it, massive rituals with a power level we can't begin to approach. It also killed a lot of them – the drain on the ritual was so severe it left many of them dead, their corpses shrivelled husks. And they also did this a long time ago – way before there was understanding of magic widely accepted by the population, and especially by the western nations and the corporations. Since then they've done a lot of catching up!"
They were interrupted by the approach of a small entourage of the locals, carrying carved pieces of wood, and accompanied by the village elders, led by the shaman. Aswon gestured for the team to stand, and they moved out of the shade and into the sun to meet them.
"The craftsmen have finished, and we have prepared your masks." The shaman pointed at Hunter first. "Come, warrior." Hunter stepped over, giving a quick glance to Aswon who gestured for him to comply. The shaman took the mask and presented it to Hunter, accompanied by a slow steady beat made by the villagers stamping their feet. "Take this mask, and walk with the spirits of the land. Protect it, and it will guide you." Hunter took the mask, seeing the likeness of a Hyena painted onto the front. Another quick glance at Aswon who mimed placing it on his face, and he pulled it up and over his head, tying the leather things behind his head and then stepping back out of the way.
Aswon was next to be called, and he was presented with a very old-looking carving, battered and worn, and unsurprisingly painted up with a lion on the front. The words were repeated, and he too slipped the mask over his head. Marius was next, and was awarded a mask with a cape buffalo painted on the front, moving out of the way to let Tads in who was assigned a barbary stag. Shimazu's mask had a dog on the front, while Kai's had a chamaeleon adorning the front. Each received the same speech, and placed the mask over their heads and then stepped back to face the group of villagers when they were done.
When all the masks were handed out, the rhythmic stamping stopped, and then without fuss the group broke up, wandering off to resume their normal activities, leaving the team standing in the street with their masks on.
"Do we have to keep these one? I mean, will it cause offence if we take them off now?"
"No, take it off it you want, Kai." Aswon pulled his mask off and held it in his hand. "But please treat them with respect – they're an important part of our culture, and recognised widely across Nigeria. You might want to wear them at any big ceremony, or at the end of a hunt – but otherwise, just keep them safe."
"Alright, that sounds simple enough. Speaking of 'all over Nigeria' though… if we head south, are we going to find the same kind of response, culturally, I mean."
"Yes. On the whole the tribes are generally welcoming of each other and outsiders. There have been wars in the past, but not for a long time. As long as you treat people with respect, they should do the same for you, and they'll be at least a little forgiving about any cultural taboos if you don't look like you were deliberately trying to be insulting."
"Good – that sounds very good." Kai smiled, then looked around at the others. "So – next steps? Are we heading down to the mountain to get some first-hand recon and work out what we're doing?"
"I think that would be a good idea. We can get them to call ahead and warn them we're on the way, and see if we can get to speak to some of the local tribes, maybe get a guide for the area."
"Ok, let's do that. How far is it Hunter?"
"About seven hundred and fifty kilometres to get down there, probably a hundred and twenty minutes flight time if we're not pushing."
"Great… can you do a bit of scouting around and find out what you can about Novatech and this project on the way?"
"Sure, I'll hit up Shadowland and see if I can dig up any dirt. There's got to be some gossip out there."
"I'd hope so. And maybe do some digging on the mountain? Find out if it's a volcano we can do something with? I don't know how much explosives we'd need, but maybe it's a possibility…"
With a decision made, the team got ready to leave – Aswon relaying their plans to his shaman and getting a message passed down to the tribes living near the mountain, while the rest of the team returned to the tilt-wing and got ready to depart. As soon as Hunter was strapped into the co-pilot's seat, he jacked in and started his data searches, trying to dig out any useful information he could find.
A little after 15:30 they lifted off, Marius swinging around to head south east and then accelerating smoothly over the savannah and heading towards the border with Cameroon.
"Hey Aswon? Are we likely to find horrible areas of astral space down there? From your understanding of the terrain and situation, anyway?"
"Not in general. In the areas where they're specifically blasting away chunks of the mountain or slashing and burning the rainforest down, perhaps – but it's going to be at a moderate level. The kind of thing we find in the cities, not anywhere near as bad as near the cosmodrome, I'd say. Out in the jungle it's pretty pristine – if anything, that might also be a problem. I don't know if it's the same for you back at your tribal lands, but the sheer amount of life crammed into the forests might give the area a lot of astral glare, which could be almost as difficult to cast through."
"I'll take glare over pollution any day. Just need to find someone who can make me some astral sunglasses!" Her comment bought a smile to the rest of the team, but a moment later Hunter's voice called them over the comms.
"Right, listen up folks – done a bit of research to start us off. Listen in." The magic users in the back shared a look – it was always amusing listening to Hunter when he had stuff to report, as his normal irreverent voice faded away into something much more serious – probably without him realising he was doing it.
"The African plate meets the North and South American plates at the mid-Atlantic ridge far to the west of us, and shears to the Arabian plate to the north east, and diverges from the Somali plate far to the east - so the area is generally fairly stable with no recent volcanic activity. We're thousands of kilometres from the nearest fault line, so earthquakes are definitely not going to be a thing, and a lot of the pressure you get from subduction is a long way removed – so there's not a lot of volcanic activity in the area."
"Chappal Wadi sits on the Benin-Nigerian Shield, part of the West African Craton, a tectonically inactive region forming the late Precambrian era. It consists of two Archean centres juxtaposed against multiple Paleoproterozoic domains made of greenstone belts, sedimentary basins, regional granitoid-tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) plutons, and large shear zones." The team in the back exchanged looks, wondering what the hell any of that meant…
"Um – explanation please, Hunter?" Kai ventured
"The type of rocks, formation of the plate and the age of the area, along with the way pressure was applied to the formations explains why the land is like it is. Imagine if you'd folded a sheet of paper in horizontal lines, then laid it out on a flat surface, before pushing the top and bottom of the paper together. What happens?"
"It folds up into a zig-zag?" Kai guessed.
"Exactly – the weak parts allow the stronger sections to remain in their natural shape… that's pretty much what happened here – the weaker areas of rock allowed for the land to fold, and that's why you get such amazingly deep valleys in such a short amount of horizontal distance. The land got compressed into a zig-zag shape. Probably about two hundred million years ago…"
"The geology of Nigeria formed beginning in the Archean and Proterozoic eons of the Precambrian. The country forms the Nigerian Province and more than half of its surface is igneous and metamorphic crystalline basement rock from the Precambrian. Between 2.9 billion and 500 million years ago, Nigeria was affected by three major orogeny mountain-building events and related igneous intrusions. Nigeria still has tremendous oil and natural gas resources housed in its thick sedimentary basins, as well as reserves of gold, lead, zinc, tantalite, columbite, coal and tin – but it's all in places that are absolute frakking nightmares to get at, which is why it's still there. All the easy stuff was mined or exploited decades ago. Now the resources are running out elsewhere, the corps are sniffing around these areas trying to find the next place to work on. Even the 'shallow' deposits here are relatively deep - - below six hundred metre thick bands of rock formations for instance, which makes extraction expensive and less desirable to the corps. It's also hard to drill and blast with the particular types of rock - but does make for superior foundations and seismically stable areas – unlike softer rock tunnels where you an drill easily, but then have to prop up and secure the tunnels behind the drill face."
"From the sounds of what Hunter has discovered then, we're not going to find a volcano to rouse. Not easily. There might be lava down below the mountains, but it's going to be very deep and hard to get to. We CAN still summon the spirit of the mountain, and it could still be very powerful – but it's unlikely to be able to trigger an eruption. At least from what I understand of what Hunter said." Tads shrugged and scratched the side of her head. "I'm more of a practical geologist, so I don't know a lot of the words he used, but I can infer a lot, and I get the general idea."
"Well, if a spirit is still a good idea, I think one of the first things we want to do when we get down there is make a warded area – something nice and powerful, like we put on the aircraft. It doesn't have to last long – even a week or two should be enough. But something Hunter and Marius can shelter in, or we can retreat to if the summoning goes wrong, or the spirit becomes hostile."
"I have a question. You say the volcano plan is difficult – is it still possible?" Marius called back.
"I suppose technically it is. Why?"
"Because, Hunter, if it is very difficult, it would be even more effective if it happens. If their surveys of the area indicate that the place is geologically stable, then should that prove not to be the case, it will cast all their other assumptions into doubt as well. If this is not even a contingency they have planned for, it may be a serious enough setback that it would call the entire project into doubt."
"Ahh, see what you mean. Yeah – big projects like this don't like the unexpected, do they…"
"Indeed. Novatech must be investing a serious amount of money into this endeavour. Hundreds of millions of Nuyen. A project this big has inertia that can be difficult to overcome. Something as shocking as their primary building site being covered in lava is the kind of thing that tends to get bought up a senior board level, and causes some very significant questions to be asked!"
"And I suppose something like that – if it appears to be a natural event – isn't going to be covered by any insurance or protection they may have taken out. I remember working one contract, where we needed to keep out some people from a construction site – it wasn't covered by the insurance underwriters. Flood, fire, lightning storms, mudslides, materials delays and stuff – that was all protected, but not the actions of armed insurgents – so they had to hire in a platoon of us to secure the job site. I guess the same thing might happen here – just on a bigger scale."
"Exactly, Aswon. But we need to be careful about how it appears. If the corporation thinks for even a moment that this is caused by the locals, they are likely to respond with overwhelming force and either just eradicate them, or turn this into a years-long guerrilla conflict that your people can ill afford."
"We need to avoid that if we can – they really can't take on a corp and win. Not with their resources. Even if we train them up as best we can. But remember they're the people who regard themselves as the stewards of the land – this is their tribal home, for thousands of years they and their ancestors have lived here. Regardless of what we might advise, they may choose to fight for what they believe in. And if they do, then the best we can probably do is train them as hard and as well as we can. But I agree with you – the more we can make this look like either an accident or the actual land rising up against them, and not the people, the better."
"What about PR? Is there anything we can do with a good publicity campaign that would slow things down?"
"I don't think so, Hunter – not here. It's just another day and another corporate activity. Short of some kind of atrocity, I just don't think anyone would care enough. And the kind of atrocity we'd need to rile up public opinion, is not the sort of thing I would want to be involved in creating or manipulating."
"Hmm. Yeah, you're probably right. The place is too remote for most folks to care about. A lot of people still don't realise just how big Africa is, you know – the way the standard world maps distort things. Anyway – I've got some more information I've dug up while you were chatting away."
"Doing a bit of digging around, I've found the cost for the railroad is somewhere on the order of a million Nuyen per kilometre for construction and materials, for an average project. It's going to be higher than that here, due to the terrain, but I can't find good figures on that – not without digging into some much better protected hosts and data stores. From what I can see though, the railroad extension is a hundred and fifty-six kilometres long, so they're probably pumping in north of two hundred million Nuyen just for the rail link, based on the terrain." He paused for a moment, letting that sink in and waiting for the noises of surprise die down.
"For a typical project, expected construction time would be approximately two weeks per kilometre for a prepared route, giving three hundred weeks of construction for a single crew for this extension. From press clippings and recruitment posts, it looks like Novatech have employed twelve separate crews, working from staging areas along the route, each responsible for one section of the build. So we've got six base camps, with a team working away from that location in both directions, trying to meet up with the crews on either side, closing the gaps between them. Overall that means we're looking at roughly half a year to build the railhead – which is significant."
"Why?"
"Because, Kai, with the time taken to construct the railroad, along with the actual launch facility once the railroad reached the plateau, along with all the support buildings and functions required to make this work, catching even the second pass of the comet is going to be almost impossible. So they're not doing this as part of the hype for the Comet, like a lot of the other corps – they're making this as a corporate expansion, and to develop their space launch capability in general."
"Ahh, right – gotcha. So a little delay isn't going to phase them – because they're not on a really tight time schedule to make a launch window. We've got to go for really big delays."
"Exactly. The railroad they're planning is also very unusual – and there's some work going on down in the lowlands as well to change the existing layout. It looks like the track gauge is planned at a massive 2140mm, presumably to carry the large rocket sections up to the spaceport, which requires extensive sweeping turns and lots of grading. A normal railroad is much narrower than that – only fourteen hundred and thirty-five mill across. That again is going to increase the effort that they need to put in to get the railroad built, but once it's operational, they can carry stuff like rocket bodies up far easier."
"Speaking of the rockets, a quick bit of research on orbital mechanics makes it slightly more obvious why this is a viable site - rockets can most easily reach satellite orbits if launched near the equator in an easterly direction, as this maximizes use of the Earth's rotational speed. It might not sound like much until you look at the numbers – it gives you about four hundred and sixty five metres per second of starting velocity if you launch at the equator, which is nothing to sniff at – and they also provide a desirable orientation for arriving at a geostationary orbit, where you want to boost satellites to for things like communications, media, weather and stuff like that."
"Hang on… you did say two point one metres wide for the railroad, right?"
"Yup!"
"But… that's as wide as I'm tall! That's crazy! I've never seen anything like that before!" Aswon gawped at the concept, and the others blinked as he put the measurement into context for them.
"Normally mountain railroad construction goes for a narrow gauge to reduce construction costs. I mean, the one point four metre gauge I talked about a minute ago is what's normally called 'standard gauge', in use in a whole bunch of countries. But a lot of mountain railroads go much smaller than that – there's stuff that drops down as low as point six of a metre for their tracks in really twisty and mountainous areas. So, normally they'd be crazy to go for such a wide railroad here. However due to the geography of the area and the nature of the plateau, they have a relatively easy climb without sharp turns on the route they've selected - but they do have a number of narrow but deep valleys to cross which will require bridging. But like I said earlier about the formation of the land – those gorges and valleys are deep, but they're not very wide. I think that's the only reason this is feasible. They need a good few bridges, but they're not that difficult to construct – they're high, but not long."
"So they're going to need a drek-load of construction equipment, I take it?"
"Just a bit, Aswon. Again, I've not got the precise details, but you wouldn't believe some of the nerds in this world. I got a couple of hits from some weird club that takes photos of heavy machinery, and they had someone down at the port when a bunch of this stuff came in. We've got crawler dozers and loaders, standard dump trucks, the kind of stuff you'd expect to see for road construction, along with some small cranes, eight to twelve-wheel units that can probably lift a hundred tons or so. Nothing special there. But they spotted some big stuff as well – there's something they identified as an Acco-megadozer, which looks more like a tank than a dozer. We'd need some serious firepower to punch through that, and it looks big enough to just push a house out of the way of stuff. The really impressive bit though is a monster crane. Tracked, with a massive lifting body and extending counterweight system, something called a luffing jib – whatever that is – and with a reach over a hundred and fifty metres, and a rated lift capacity exceeding thirteen hundred tons. That's gonna be a nightmare to move on the roads up to the construction sites – but it'll probably lift anything they want over some of those valleys and will really help with the construction efforts."
"Do we know how far through the project they are?" Marius questioned.
"It looks like the initial surveys are complete, and the equipment is up in the hills. They're still constructing extensions to some of the roads to get to the rail construction sites, but they're well on the way with that. There's been some news in construction industry media analysing the effort due to the location – the initial thoughts are that they're building roads to a very low standard, designing them to last only a couple of seasons at the most – but as a result they're moving quite quickly. As long as they don't hit any major delays, they'll be done with the railroad and can get the gear out before the roads disintegrate – and after that, they can move what they need on the rails themselves…"
"One possibility that might work - is if you can hit REALLY hard REALLY quick, and make the costs spiral out of all projections in the very short term, you might be able to stop this. But it has to be before they spend too much and get into the sunk cost fallacy. We have to make their projections look wrong not just by a multiple of the original, but by an order of magnitude, if we can."
"That's a big ask, Marius – but yeah, I see your point. If we can make a one point five billion Nuyen project suddenly look like a five billion project, they might bail on the big plan. But that's going to take some serious work. And what do they do then?"
"Well, they might have contingencies and fallback plans in place already - say to just do some local mining to recoup the costs put in so far and to make use of the infrastructure upgrades already in place. But we can't leave ANY evidence, or we get hunted to the ends of the earth. Nothing will upset a corporation like costing them a few billion Nuyen."
"I'm not sure if this would work, but what about the Quoll? Do you think we could persuade him to come and visit? I'm sure the local tribes have lots of stories to share. Maybe he might be interested in defending this mountain as well as his own."
"It's an idea. But if we were to summon a spirit and set it free, with the Quoll here as an example – maybe it could persuade them to act in the same way, Tads. It might give them something to aspire to. Either that, or we could show the new spirit a phantasm of our encounter with the Quoll, and maybe share a mindlink with it – to let it know what really happened."
The team continued to discuss ideas, going back to the various bits of information that Hunter had found and going over the nuances to try and get some different ideas or to make sure they hadn't missed something important. As dusk was falling, Marius throttled back, and they checked the outside view, finding themselves towards the top of a peak. The rainforest ended somewhat abruptly, giving way to grasslands that rose gently upwards, and the craft was edging close to the treeline, looking for a good spot to land. After a few minutes Marius found a place where there was an indentation into the line of the forest – perhaps one of the trees had been struck by lightning in the last few years and had cleared an opening, or maybe the locals had felled a few tees for their own use – either way, there was a patch of available space that they could tuck into and there was more than enough cover from the sides - and the plentiful trees would give them all the anchor points they needed to string up the camouflage netting.
Once they were down, Aswon checked the co-ordinates and their location, passing it back to his own shaman to forward onto the locals, receiving a message that they were on the way. After that he joined the rest of the team with setting up their camp, getting the netting strung overhead and partially unpacking the rear of the tilt-wing, setting up hammocks and supplies outside on the assumption they were building a base camp for staying several days. The spot they'd landed in was on top of a ridge, and there were three separate construction camps all within a fairly short distance that they could strike out at, so it seemed to be a good position to stage from.
With that done the magical members of the team constructed a small palisade around their camp. It wasn't impressive – nothing more than a couple of sticks pushed into the ground with some vines and long slender branches woven between them. It wouldn't have stopped an arthritic guinea pig from getting into the camp, but it did satisfy one hugely important criteria – that of delineating an 'inside' and an 'outside'. They got to work carving in the tiny sigils and signs needed to create a ward, the four of them working together to erect a temporary ward as powerful as the one on the tilt-wing, protecting the outside space from astral intruders, spies and spirits.
Several hours after dusk, one of the spirits on guard alerted them to the approach of some people, and the team grabbed their weapons and spread out, ready to defend themselves. They spotted a large group of people travelling down the edge of the forest, moving from cover to cover and moving very quietly – but they were clearly all natives, armed with mostly spears and clubs, and clad in a patchwork assortment of clothes.
Aswon strode out to meet them, greeting them and exchanging information, before escorting them back to the camp and introducing them. There were three shaman, each with eight hunters accompanying them as both a guard and an entourage. Each gave their name, speaking in English but with a typically thick Nigerian accent, and they soon blurred into one, except for Marius who put faces to names with his accustomed accuracy. The three shamans were Malik, Surok and Farik – those at least the team managed to keep straight and commit to memory. Surprisingly, all three were actually gifted, their magical nature showing clearly to the team. Each was distinct from the warriors, easily identified by the magical accoutrements they wore.
Malik appeared to be a monkey shaman, Surok a parrot shaman while Fariq bore the trappings of a snake shaman. While they settled down, Tads made an excuse to head back into the tilt-wing for a moment, and then called the rest of the team over the comms.
"For your reference, each of the shaman are likely to behave differently, based on the totem they follow. Malik, the monkey shaman is likely to enjoy jokes and humour, and that may extend to physical pranks. He's generally aligned to what we'd perceive as 'good' though, and is likely to be willing to use his talent to defend his friends more than attack his enemies. The second, Surok, is a Parrot shaman, so likely to be outgoing, loud and exuberant. They like to show off a little, and their magic is likely to be noisy and showy – they're not going to be good with subtly casting or stealthy magic."
"And the last shaman, Farik, is aligned with Snake. Snake loves finding out and keeping secrets – about people, places or things, or rare knowledge. Likely to be wise, and to carefully consider their words, they're the most likely to be a pacifist and will only fight to defend themselves. We might have to trade knowledge or secrets to get their help. Try to remember those differences in talking to them – an approach that works on one might not be as good for another."
When she returned from the tilt-wing, Aswon was in the middle of explaining the situation to the shaman, using the insights she'd given him to try and tailor his speech to appeal to each of them, or at least to be aligned to their likely beliefs. He covered off the brief information that Hunter had discovered, identifying the types of machinery they were expecting to see, and the similarity with the efforts to build a space port on the top of Kilimanjaro, along with their desire to try and emulate the difficulty that had been caused there as the most likely route they had for success.
"Basically, we want to hit Novatech pretty hard and fast, but make it look like the whole resistance comes directly from the land itself. We don't want you to be visible to the corporation – we can't afford to get you tied up in a long term conflict with these people, and we can't stay forever either. We will teach you what we can, and help you as much as we can – but you won't win a direct confrontation with them. We need to work on a plan, and be clever about what we do – and drive these people from your home." The three shaman and their parties nodded emphatically, agreeing with everything Aswon said and glancing around at the rest of the team, trying to get a read on what they thought. Kai broke the silence with a question.
"Hello, I'm Kai. I'm the team leader. Please, excuse this question – I don't mean any disrespect by it, and no insult is offered. But it's something we have to know… how committed are you and your people to this fight?"
"This is our land. We will fight to defend it!" Surok responded loudly. "We will fight with all that we have, until the invaders have gone!"
"I hear you. You will fight, and your warriors will fight," Kai waved a hand at the gathered hunters, gesturing to take them all in. "You will fight with skill, honour and courage – of that I have no doubt. But will everyone in your village fight? The old people, the infirm. Will the people who left the village and travelled down to the cities fight? Will they support you? Will your people support each other – if the enemy attack one of your villages, will you others take in their people, feed them, house them, protect them? Are your tribes as committed to defeating the enemy as you all are?" As he went into detail, they saw signs of doubt on several faces, in particular when it came to the concept of taking in refugees from other villages. "This is the kind of action you might face. If an attack is detected and the corporation send out an attack force, it might be so overwhelming that the village is destroyed. Your people might have no homes, no life to return to. So you must all, each of you, be prepared to help each other and work together to overcome this enemy." Kai's voice was modulated carefully – he didn't try to command them, but he did seek to inspire them, and all of his body movements were carefully orchestrated to ooze sincerity, trust and a desire to help. Malik was the first to signal assent, and the other two shaman quickly fell into line behind him.
"Take that as a given, Kai," Aswon subvocalised. "If the shaman has made an agreement on behalf of their people, then that's what will happen. Some might not be thrilled about it, but they won't go against their word.
"Good. Then we're in agreement. Now, one of the things we can do is to teach you about the devices and systems they use. Several of our team are very good with electronics and drones, and other such systems. We can teach you what to look for in the approaches to the work areas, the things they are using to locate and identify you – and how to defeat them. Some of the systems are not so easily defeated, but they can be confused or deceived, and sometimes used to feed false information to an enemy. We will do our best to teach you how to do these things, and to work to overcome their defences, so you can continue to strike against the Novatech camps, and to help defeat them, ok?" Kai saw vigorous nods, especially from the hunters.
"First though, does the mountain have a protector - in legend only, maybe? Are there stories or tales of the spirits of the land from your culture? We can perhaps make contact with the spirits, and we would prefer to enlist its help in this fight."
The three shaman took turns in telling several of the local stories and tales – Malik and Surok being effusive and telling stories with great gusto, while Farik only added a few comments and one story of their own. Some had common roots, or shared elements between the tribes, while some were unique to the villages. Allowing for the differences in cultures, they were the fairly common tales of woodland sprites, fae or creatures, talking animals or elements of nature, a legacy of the fourth age that had persisted in some form all the way through the fifth age and now had come true again in the sixth. However there was no individual tale that stood out as being likely to pertain to an individual spirit or guardian of the mountain, no creature that claimed the peak as its own.
"Are you willing to give up access to the mountain? Or to certain parts of it?" Aswon asked, but was greeted with puzzled stares. "One of our options is to summon a powerful spirit. Well, several powerful spirits, and to look at releasing them – to set them free and grant them life of their own. To let them claim a part of the mountain and to help defend it. But if we do summon a spirit, they may not react well to us, or they may demand that NOBODY set foot in their domain, and they may be as hostile to you as they would be to Novatech. So we have to know if you are prepared to give up access to some or all of the mountain to achieve your aim."
The triggered a conversation, drifting in and out of English and their local dialects – as foreign to Aswon as to the rest of the team, and causing some frustration to Hunter who'd been cramming and learning Nigerian – or what he thought was the generic 'Nigerian' language on the flight down – but turned out to be the branch of the language local to Aswon's area. After a few minutes of discussion between the three tribal elders, they informed Aswon that this was an acceptable risk – though again Farik seemed somewhat reticent.
"Do you have an issue with our use of spirits? We are here to help, not to offend or cause damage. So we need to know if you or your tribe has an issue with what we are planning." Aswon said, keeping his voice as neutral as he could.
"All of us have called the spirts of our lands before, to help and guide us, or to offer our aid to them." Farik answered. He glanced over at Malik and Surok, then turned his gaze back to Aswon. "Some of us are more adept than others though, and we have eldritch knowledge of powerful spirits ourselves, and other secrets of the realm of the ancestors. We too can summon powerful allies to aid us. Observe!" Farik started to summon, his arms waving before him as he called the mana to him and opened a channel to the astral realm, calling forth a spirit of the forest. As he did, they could see his shamanic mask appear, the eyes elongating into the orbs of a snake, the forked tongue appearing between his lips, darting back and forth and tasting the air. A spirit appeared, a tree-like astral entity, body thick and gnarled, with whiplike branches flailing around it. Farik concentrated and the spirit grew – Tads immediately recognising the technique known to her as 'invoking', the ability to turn a spirit into a greater form of itself, more robust and powerful, and able to travel outside of its own domain. The spirit bowed before Farik as the summoning ritual was completed, and the snake shaman staggered backwards, a small trickle of blood running from his nose. The effort had clearly taxed him, and he had not managed to contain the backlash of energy as the ritual concluded. Both Malik and Surok looked surprised though, and they were seen dropping into astral space to examine the spirit themselves – it appeared that Farik's mastery of the technique was unknown to them, and had come as somewhat of a surprise. "As you can see, some of us are powerful indeed, but even spirits like these have limits, and can only help so much."
Aswon opened his mind to the astral realm and examined the spirit himself, assessing its power and capabilities, and looking at the smug expression on Farik's face. Turning his assessment to Malik and Surok, he gently probed at their aura – not trying to plunder their own auras, but to try and get a better assessment of their own strength. From how they looked, neither of them appeared to have initiated – to make that leap to the next level with their magical powers, opening up a world of potential. Farik had it seemed, but had not mentioned this to either of them…
"Tads. Do me a favour and drop your masking, and call your spirits."
"I'm not sure that that's a good idea?"
"Please, trust me."
Tads gave him another look, then sighed, trusting in his knowledge – when it came to information about the use of magic, he was often better trained than she was in the theory and understanding of what was happening, even though he couldn't cast spells or summon spirits himself – he just had a better education about the theory and practice of magic. She turned to face the three shaman and their parties of hunters, then relaxed her mind and let her mental shields down, revealing her aura and letting her power shine brightly. She saw them give a start as she showed them her nature as someone with Talent, instead of appearing as a standard metahuman – and then saw their mouths drop open as he aura flared brighter and brighter, her true level of power shining out from her in waves of radiant energy. With a mental flick of the head she called the spirits she had summoned at dusk to her, eight astral forms appearing by her side, each as powerful as the one Farik had summoned individually. The ninth appeared floating above her, more powerful than the others, gazing down at the shaman with an implacable stare.
Malik turned to look at Farik, then back at Tads for a moment – then started to cast a spell. Aswon and Tads turned their attention to him, and they saw Shimazu's hand drop to the hilt of his sword in an instant, but they didn't attack, watching as Malik drew in a small amount of power and started to shape it. The team recognised the 'flavour' of magic, an illusion spell of some kind and relaxed somewhat, letting the shaman finish. A dozen monkeys appeared around Farik, and started to bounce up and down on all fours, and they realised Malik had rocked forward to assume the same pose – and then they started to laugh. The chattering screech of the monkeys' howls echoed through the forest, rising and falling as they bounced up and down, mocking the snake shaman and his 'powerful' spirit as the newcomer displayed her ability to match and exceed it, and with multiple spirits to boot – and all without any sign of a nosebleed. Surok joined in, a belly laugh escaping her and mixing in with the howling of the apes, her higher pitched giggles weaving a discordant harmony that echoed through the night.
Tads focussed and raised her mental wards, pulling in power and wrapping it around her, concealing her knowledge and skill in a protective barrier, then hiding the fact that she was even magical in nature, once more looking like just an average human female. Farik was still looking at her in open-mouthed shock, and she gave him a somewhat apologetic shrug.
"Tads is our spirit talker, from a land far, far away. She has been practicing for some time, and her spirit guardians keep us safe every day. Those spirits were the same as yours – powerful and useful, able to guard and protect us. But the ones we are discussing, the spirits we may loose upon the land – they will be twice as powerful as this. Maybe three times as powerful. So that is why we must ask you if you're willing to give up your claim on the mountain, or parts of it."
His explanation seemed to sober them up a little, and Malik released his spell, letting the illusionary monkeys fade away into the aether. He turned to look at Surok, who nodded in agreement. Farik seemed to still be wallowing in his own hubris, and didn't want to meet his gaze, so he turned back to Aswon and signalled their assent.
"Good. So our thoughts are to summon a large number of spirits, as you've seen and to start to systematically hit the yards to do damage where we can. Either by causing accidents and issues, directly breaking things, or providing concealment and protection to let us in to do more direct damage. Hunter – you want to cover that?"
"Yeah – so the type of equipment we've seen is all big and very heavy, and pretty tough as a result – if you're just shooting at them. If you've got time to get in close though and do some directed sabotage, they can be very weak." He pulled up an image on his deck and shunted it over to the larger screen, showing all the locals the image of a large multi-wheeled crane with an extendable jib. "This is a good example. Not especially big or well armoured, but still quite robust - designed to work in rough terrain, to take a few knocks and keep going. But if you have time to get past the locked access hatch and take out the sealing nozzle on the hydraulics system – all of a sudden they can't lift the crane arm up. If they don't have replacement parts on site, they have to get them shipped in – and until they do, the crane sits and does nothing. And that might stop work entirely, if it was needed to clear away an obstacle for the dozers and other vehicles to work past. Same thing for the dozers and other equipment – if we can cut through the hydraulic pipes, or even just puncture a hole in them, we can take a piece of machinery out for potentially days."
"And while we're doing that, at least some of us – Tads could be here, or elsewhere on the mountain with someone to keep an eye on her, trying to make contact with the spirits, and finding out if there is a spirit of the mountain, or something in particular about the land here that we can call upon and bargain with. And if we can do that, we can then launch more obvious and showy attacks with that spirit, and really slow progress down – then fade away into the jungle, to go and hit one of the other sites." The hunters and shaman all nodded in agreement, liking the ideas presented so far.
"Another thought we had was that if we can find a spirit of the land, something ancient and deep that we can awaken, then perhaps we can rekindle the volcanos that made this place. Even a small lava flow from the top of the mountain would ruin their plans and make them question everything they have done, and could cancel the project entirely. But that would be an enormous undertaking, and may not be possible!" he warned them, not wanting them to get their hopes up too high.
"Additionally, when it comes to learning about the enemy technology and how to defeat it, our spirit talker has many spells and abilities that would be useful. We can share those secrets with you," he purposefully made sure he wasn't looking at Farik when he mentioned that, but hoping it would pull him out of his malaise a little, "and help teach you many new things. Perhaps you even have some knowledge that we would find useful, that you could trade with us."
"And… well. Let's just say we've done some work for some people. When I say people, I mean dragons. We're pretty sure they're dragons anyway. Maybe we could get in touch and ask them for a favour?" Marius lowered his head into his hands, shaking it from side to side while muttering something under his breath quietly enough that not even the subvocal microphone picked it up properly. "Maybe that's something to keep in reserve – but it's worth bearing in mind!"
"I think we might be better counting on our own resources to start with." Tads said firmly. "Now then – do they work at nights, or only in the daytime?" She addressed the scouts, and then started to ask a series of questions about various operations, trying to find out the information she needed. After going back and forth a few times, she shook her head in annoyance with herself. "Look, would any of you that have scouted the sites mind sharing your thoughts with me? I promise not to try and take anything you don't want to show me, but it would be helpful to see through your eyes." A few of the hunters volunteered, somewhat hesitantly, and Tads selected one that looked less worried than the rest, quickly casting her mindlinking spell upon him and scraping out the details of what he'd seen. When she was done, she created a three dimensional hologram in mid-air, showing the site and the various equipment, allowing Hunter to point at each of the machines and identify them, detailing possible weaknesses.
Marius also spotted some interesting equipment, identifying some surveillance drones and armed perimeter patrol-bots, along with a pallet of electronic sensors – taking the time to summarise what each system did and what threat they represented to the hunters, and how they might get around them. He also activated his own drone, showing the hunters up close how it worked, and letting them examine the system in an environment where it wasn't actively trying to kill them.
"I have a question for you," Surok said, looking over at the team. "We have seen what your spirit talker can do – and that is impressive. And we have seen you whispering to the machines, bending them to your wil,l" she gestured at Marius. "But what do the rest of you do?"
"That's a fair question. Tads – can you make me an apple, please. Actually two apples. And a pineapple." Aswon asked. When she had conjured up the food, causing another mild stir in the shaman, he asked one of the hunters to go and place the pineapple about fifty metres away, and an apple about three hundred meters away. He kept the last one, and waved for Shimazu to follow him outside the shelter, where he had room to swing.
"Ready?" he asked the bodyguard, miming a throw of the apple into the air. Shimazu nodded, taking a deep breath and steadying himself, letting his eyes defocus and his mind go blank. He saw the apple rise into the air and tensed, his muscles following the memory of ten-thousand draws and strikes. To the onlooking Nigerians, they saw him twitch somewhat, and then he appeared to be pushing the sword back into the scabbard – as the two halves of the apple fell to the ground in front of him. The hunters stamped on the floor in appreciation of his skill, and Shimazu gave them a respectful nod before resuming his seat, all without a word. Hunter was next up, putting a suppressed three round burst straight through the pineapple hanging from the tree, sending mashed pulp flying in all directions, followed up by Aswon aiming carefully with his rifle at the apple that was so far away from the group as to be invisible. When the hunter went to examine the shot, he came back with a few fragments of apple that had survived the impact of the heavy round. One by one, each of the team that was talented dropped their masking, letting the shaman see their power and gaining an understanding of their potential.
Aswon made sure to detail the skills of both Marius and Hunter as well though, describing some of their abilities and how they could help turn the tide on Novatech, making it clear that the two mundane members of the team were just as valued and useful as the physical adepts and the shaman were.
With the demonstrations out of the way, Tads conjured up some food, and they prepared a fire under the concealment of their shelter, sharing out food with the locals and relaxing somewhat. As they chatted and exchanged tales, Kai asked a question that had been niggling at him for some time – why the peak of Chappal Waddi was called 'the mountain of death'. He had been dying to know if there was some kind of terrible story behind the name, or some tragic event. What they were told was very different to what they were expecting, but interesting none-the-less. The area was known for its many deep gorges and valleys, as they'd no doubt seen – the team nodded in agreement – and many of them were very difficult to access. Rumours abounded of lost tribes, fabled artifacts and even mythical sites like a spring that granted eternal life. Many adventurers had heard of these rumours, and had gone looking for them – and not all of them had come back. Slowly the tale had spread about how they had stumbled across their prize, an ancient and exotic valley, crammed with everything from dragons to magical artefacts, depending on who told the tale – and how it's guardians had claimed the adventurers as their prizes, their curiosity being their downfall.
"That's interesting – we can work with that. Just start dropping rumours into the locals about sightings. Claim responsibility for the attacks via the matrix or on signs – make it something like the "children of the valley". The rumour mill will grab that and run wild – and it distracts attention away from your tribes.
The evening wore on towards midnight, and Kai yawned and stretched.
"How about we turn in – do some recon in the morning?" He suggested.
"Why wait? If we can get a guide to get us somewhere close to one of them, Hunter and I can try an infiltration and get some more info. We should be able to deal with any sensor net – or at least avoid it, now we know they have one. Might get us some useful info to plan with."
"Alright – if there's someone here that can guide them to the nearest site, why not. The rest of us can stay back here though, and be ready to board the aircraft, just in case – and get some sleep."
With that, the rest of the team got ready to bed down, while Aswon and Hunter got ready to go for a recon sweep of the closest site to their landing spot, heading out into the darkness with a few guides and disappearing into the jungle shortly afterwards.
