Tads continued to levitate Hunter, and by extension the rest of the team – herself included – above the ground and away from the compound wall. They crossed the open area in a few seconds and she lifted them up in an arc, risking being seen from the roof of the tower but balancing that against the risk of being driven into by a truck or other vehicle flying down the main road. It was fairly quiet at this time of night – but that just encouraged the few drivers that remained to treat the main road as their own private racecourse and put their foot down hard on the accelerator.
No more spells fired down at them from the tower, though, and nobody shot at them either – presumably their troops were still busy dealing with the fires and intruders on the north side of the compound, or trying to get through the mass of fires and tangle-grenades the team had left behind at the top of the tower. They lifted up again as they reached the far side of the road, flying up and over the houses and shops there, before dropping once more into the road behind them.
"I'm going to put us down here, if it looks safe?"
"No cameras that I can see this side, Tads!" Aswon scanned up and down the road from the side he could see.
"Nothing this side, looks good." Shimazu chimed in.
"One camera, but pointing at the shop entrance. Clear here. Get us down." Marius sounded extremely fed up with their current position, and despite the adrenaline, Hunter gave a snort of amusement, getting a killer bit of side-glare from the pilot in response. Tads lowered them down to the dusty road surface, though, and as the weight was released on the harness, Hunter started to unclip everyone, freeing them to move around and remove their own harnesses and slings.
There was a thirty-second period where they remained in the centre of the street, stripping off the gear, stashing weapons in toolboxes and adjusting their clothing, trying to make themselves look a lot more presentable.
"We need to call Phoss and Ury and let them know we're clear, and thank you. That distraction made that a LOT easier!" Tads stared at Kai, making it clear who she thought should be doing that task.
"In a minute – got a more important call first." Kai pulled out his commlink and dialled, waiting for the signal to connect and then talking quickly. "Mr. Musa? We've got some take-out food. We're looking for somewhere comfortable to come and eat it. Can we pop by?" They waited a moment, and saw Kai's smile fade on his face. "Are you sure? We can share…?" A few more seconds. "Fine – I understand. Ok then, perhaps another time." With a stab of the finger he disconnected the call. "Musa doesn't want us at his place, thinks we're too hot. Well, not unless we give him a substantial amount of money anyway. Like… a lot of money. So, what's Plan B?"
"I suggest we split up into pairs, take a road a block apart each, Hunter and Tads, Kai and Shimazu, then Marius and myself. At least one astrally-aware member per team, at least one good combatant per team. We head back to the airport, trying to stay relatively close to each other, but far enough away that we don't look connected."
"I'm ok with that." Tads was concentrating on the area astrally, clearing away her spell signature and making sure the area was clear of any other traces they might have left. "Are we heading back to the airport on foot? That's going to take a while."
"The bus might still be running? Maybe we'd need to split up and get on at different stops, to spread ourselves out. But it's cheap and pretty anonymous?"
"I do not like the idea of being trapped in a vehicle we do not control. Especially one that is so slow." Marius frowned. "I will see what I can find on the police channels – maybe they might already be looking for us. If that is the case, I very much am against this – we will be too obvious."
"That's a fair point. Let's start walking, though – westwards at least. Takes us towards the city centre and the bus stop, but also taxis and hotels and stuff. But it's also the easiest way to get down towards the docks, or Musa's hideout if we have to pay him…" Aswon gestured, and when he didn't see anyone arguing, he gently started to propel Marius down the road, steering the pilot while he concentrated on mentally configuring his deck to start intercepting the local police radio channels.
Shimazu and Kai turned and backtracked a few metres towards a small and dirty alleyway that looked to allow them access to the next block down, letting them walk on a parallel road but stay relatively close, leaving Hunter and Tads to split off in another direction. Their comms at least would be fine over the short distances involved and let them stay tactically aware of what was going on.
"I've just messaged Phoss and Ury, told them we're away and to bug out themselves, if they haven't already." Kai called to the team. "Hopefully they won't have any issues and can…" his voice cut off suddenly as Shimazu grabbed him and propelled him forcefully into the wall, putting his hand over his mouth and holding him in place.
"Kai?" Tads called, "You ok?"
Shimazu stepped back from Kai, and then twitched, the sword appearing in his hand almost instantly. Kai stared at him in confusion, suddenly wondering if one of the enemy mages had managed to sneak some kind of control spell or mind-puppetry past Tads. Shimazu certainly was staring at him with a very intense and determined look on his face, and he didn't like the way the sword was pointing straight at his head.
"Something is happening to Kai's aura. It's flickering, pulling and tufting in one direction. Not sure if he's being attacked… no, it's not that. DREK! Tracking ritual. It's got the same flavour as the one I saw you and Vadim do, Tads, back in Hong Kong. But this is stronger. A LOT stronger!"
"We're on the way." Tads broke into a run, heading after Kai and Shimazu, trying to close in on their position to be ready to shield them with her defences or call some spirits to help stave off any attackers. A moment later, she felt Hunter catch up to her, the reassuring presence trotting alongside her with ease.
"Also heading your way, just in case." Aswon checked the street and pointed to the next junction, where a turning should lead down towards the street Kai and Shimazu were on, and started to pick up pace. "Wonder why Kai – I mean, he's magically active, sure. Might make him a slightly easier target – but he's not the most distinctive or anything."
"I think I know why." Marius announced, his mind casting back to the time in the tower. "Only one of us stayed in the lobby, behind the desk. Only one of us drank coffee…"
"The coffee?"
"Yes, Kai. Only one of us probably left some spittle or saliva, or a tiny flake of skin on the coffee mug. Not much, but it is part of you. That IS how it works, right, Tads?"
"Yes, pretty much. Some living part of you – that's all they'd need for a material link. But…" She thought furiously for a moment. "If the power is building up already, then we're potentially in trouble. You saw how long it took for me to do the tracking ritual over in Hong Kong, and for someone to follow the link. That was only myself and Vadim. If they've got themselves sorted and the link is already building, we're looking at a full ritual team working together – some serious mojo. They'll still need to send a spotter, someone to follow the link and then actually look around once they get here, to report back and then send in reinforcements – assuming that's what they're doing. Otherwise they could just be dropping a massive fireball on us. Though I don't think so – the ritual link doesn't feel right for that."
"So it's not even a case of getting in off the streets. If we do that, it's harder for them to work out where they are, for a few seconds. But we've all seen how fast Tads can travel in the astral. It's going to take them seconds to get up into the air and scope out their position. Unless we can stop them." Aswon warned.
"We need to get somewhere enclosed then. Somewhere I can be most effective." Shimazu hefted his sword meaningfully. "The spotter can't report back, if he's dead."
"True enough. But I also don't think they'll come alone. So we need to be ready for trouble." Aswon frowned. "For what it's worth, I think I agree with Shimazu. We need to get somewhere tight, where lines of sight will be severely constrained."
"How about sewers? They don't smell nice, but they're very nondescript. If they just catch a glimpse of being in a sewer pipe and flee, that might not be enough to really localise us?"
"Nice thought, Shimazu, but that's not going to work – not around here. You've seen the open culverts and how much crap there is lying around the place. We're too close to sea level, and sitting on the river delta makes this whole area dodgy as hell for tunnelling. I'd be surprised if there's any decent sewers around here! It's going to have to be a building of some kind, somewhere we can get into without being spotted by cameras or people." Hunter pulled up his data pad and loaded the map of the city in, zooming down onto the area they were currently walking through and cursing the limited resolution of the image.
"Getting inside the aircraft will really help. That ward will be like hitting a wall for the spotter – at least I hope so."
"But it will take us at least an hour to get to the airport, Tads. I get the impression we do not have that much time?"
"No, I don't think we do. How long will it take you to bring the aircraft to us – if you can?"
"About five to ten minutes. But the doors are closed on the hanger, and none of us can get there to open them."
"Leave the doors to me. Can you do the connection thing and get the engines started? I'll have the doors open by the time you're ready…" Tads smiled at him then called a couple of her spirits to her, and began to give them very precise and careful orders… Marius nodded and jacked back into his deck, trusting once more that Aswon would guide him by the arm and stop him from stepping into a pothole or falling over. Thoughts raced like lightning, and twenty kilometres away the whine of the small auxiliary engine sounded in the otherwise quiet and deserted hanger. As the engine rumbled into life, the lights flickered on in the cockpit, illuminating the empty seats and dangling safety harnesses. Pressure built up in the air-tanks as the compressor hummed away quietly, and then the port side engine rumbled into life, the large propeller starting to ponderously swing.
Two spirits materialised by the large hanger doors, working to unlatch the massive retractable panels and shove them to the sides, straining to move the ten-metre-high sheets in their tracks. A passing night worker stopped and gawped as he saw two beings made out of cardboard boxes, food crates and wire baskets sliding the doors apart, while inside, the starboard engine also rumbled into life, sending the second propeller spinning in lazy circles.
Marius felt the systems coming online, watching as power levels crept up and systems normalised. As more and more systems reported in ok, a tingling sensation crossed his body, mirroring the cockpit instrument panel slowly turning green, a feeling of well-being spreading through his surrogate 'body'. He released the brakes and the tilt-wing started to inch forwards, the propellers providing enough forward thrust to start the aircraft rolling forwards and towards the opening doors.
By the time he reached the doorway, the spirits had three of the massive panels slid back over each other, making a space more than wide enough for him to slip through and roll out onto the apron. Once he had enough clearance, he gently applied the brakes while simultaneously rotating the engine pods up into the vertical position. When everything was lined up nicely, he fed more power to them both, feeling the aircraft lighten and then lift off, the airfield receding down beneath him.
A fly buzzing in his ear told him that the tower was a little upset with him for not requesting or being granted clearance – but his sensors had shown him no other traffic in the area, and he had no time for niceties. Instead he transitioned to forward flight, setting the aircraft to climb up to five hundred metres and head for their position.
"Hunter – I need a landing spot. Or we need an alternate plan."
"Looking for one, mate – the map's not great. Ok… couple of options. We head over towards Musa anyway, but just head for the river. The area's a shithole, so fewer cameras and people, and probably slower police response, but the area is less likely to be clear. Or, if we go west from here a bit, I think there's a school, and it looks like a playground that should be big enough. Or a little way south from here there's a big ass house with private grounds and a lawn that's more than big enough – just need to get over the perimeter fence."
"That sounds like the best option – least likely to be seen by passers-by. What's around there?"
"There's a church just to the south of it, Kai, the 'Jehovah The King Holy Sabbath Mission', whatever the drek that is."
"Don't know, don't care. But a church is going to be empty this time of night, I'm pretty sure!"
"And more importantly they're going to have nothing worth stealing inside, so security will be light." Shimazu added. "Not non-existent, I'm sure, as books and seats will probably still be worth something, but compared to a lot of other places, it's going to be a cake walk."
"That settles it, then. Feed the co-ordinates to Marius and then lead off, please. We need to get under-cover quickly." Kai gestured dramatically, then watched as Hunter nodded and headed off in a completely different direction. "Oh, the other south. Fine, whatever…"
"Agreed. I am now detecting drone launches from the tower. Multiple drones. Spreading out in a southern arc, moving swiftly!" Marius frowned, then adjusted his deck slightly. He still looked a little distracted, but could move much more coherently. "I am piloting the aircraft, but just by remote rather than full immersion. I am also monitoring the sensors, police frequencies and other channels.
The team headed south quickly, Hunter leading the way with the occasional check of his map to ensure they were on course, trying to keep to the tiniest of back-alleys and cut-throughs, darting across larger roads only after checking the coast was clear. Kai and Shimazu followed up, Shimazu spending at least half of his time in astral space, watching the magical effect build up in Kai's aura and his sword was ready to strike at anything that appeared nearby. Tads followed up behind them, keeping her spell defences active and protecting the team as best she could, while Marius and Aswon bought up the rear, Aswon making sure that Marius had a guiding hand to keep him on track while he managed the half-dozen tasks he was currently monitoring.
"The drones are fanning out from the tower at high speed. It looks to me like they have launched every airworthy unit they have – I can see multiple types of signatures, and some of them are much larger or less stealthy than others, and are definitely not armed. They are also running flat out from what I can see – all of them have hot motors and there is no way they will have reasonable endurance at those speeds. They are working them outwards from the tower in a general arc to the south – probably based on our initial direction, but they are spreading out in a wedge shape. Each of the drones is fanning out in a spiral pattern, criss-crossing over the other tracks and then rebounding out another segment."
"Which means what exactly?" Kai asked.
"They know that not all of the drones are good or have decent sensors – so they are overlapping their sensor footprints, and sending them out in patterns that rotates more and less capable platforms over the same area. It means something is in the sky over an area for more of the time, and increases their chances of spotting something, or keeping us to ground. Time is on their side – while the drones might not last forever, they will be getting other assets organised."
"I'm betting there's some frantic calls to the police right now, and calling in favours and markers!" Aswon announced. "We need to get out of sight as soon as possible, that's for sure!"
The team picked up the pace, Marius physically grabbing Aswon's shoulder and trying to jog along with the tribesman acting as his guide, actually finding it easier to close his eyes and ignore the area around him so he could concentrate on the electronic realm of signals and sensor feeds. Most of the drones were low down, racing across the city at about fifty metres – which meant they almost certainly didn't know that he could see them from the aircraft. It also meant though that there was almost no warning at all before something popped over the rooves of the buildings to either side of them.
They reached the church out of breath, with the advancing wave of drones no more than a few hundred metres behind them. It was a low building, perhaps ten metres long and about three high, made out of sheets of corrugated metal over some inner frame. Rickety windows looked out into the street, and it was dark and quiet, as they'd thought it would be. Fortunately the lock was as primitive as Shimazu had expected, and Marius was able to pop the lock open with no difficulty at all. They bundled inside, pulling the door closed as the first of the recon drones roared down the street, scanners looking for movement.
"The roof isn't going to provide much cover against thermographics!" Aswon warned.
"No, but the spirits should help a lot. Enough that they're probably not going to get much of a reading. At least I think so!" Tads shrugged – if they didn't, there wasn't a lot she could do about it.
They entered the church and looked around, Aswon pulling the door shut behind him as the last man in. To call it a church was actually a little bit grand and possibly gave the building delusions of grandeur. It was more of a shed than a building, with the internal framework exposed in several areas, and the décor being almost non-existent. They could see the metal roof in several places where the plasterboard had collapsed, tufts of primitive insulation hanging down like moss. There was no pulpit or altar – just a slightly higher area made out of some kind of portable stage that took up one end of the room. Expecting pews or benches, they instead found patio furniture, stained plastic chairs, cracked and mismatched, arranged in ragged rows on either side of the walkway.
"Check around, see what we have. Hunter – which way to the garden thingy?"
"This side, Kai." Hunter gestured to the north wall. "Outer wall of the building, then we have about a metre of space, then the perimeter fence. I'll check it out now."
"Great I'll…" Kai squawked a little as Shimazu grabbed him and propelled him towards the other end of the church. "I'll be over here through this door, apparently. Oh, a store-room. Nice. Why am I in here?"
"If they follow the astral trail, they have to come in here to see you. That puts them at no more than two metres away from me." The sword swished up between them, the blade glinting, showing a tiny sparkled of green light as it reflected the screen of Kai's commlink. "I can reach two metres."
"Ok, fair enough. What is… oh, a ping pong table. And an old trideo unit. Well, guess I can hang here there…"
"Get him under the trideo unit, Shimazu. The casing might help cover him against thermo or sensors. Or visual sightings." Aswon called out. "The other door is a small kitchen, then a toilet – well, a hole in the ground anyway. Clear this side."
"The aura is rippling – the link is formed! Get ready!" Shimazu lifted himself up onto the balls of his feet and took a deep breath, then slowly settled himself down, standing with sword raised before him in a two-handed grip. His eyes defocussed and he slowed his breathing, not looking at anything in particular, just….seeing. Tads moved to the doorway and called her spirits to her, starting to brief them with orders and made sure she was ready to cast a spell or defend against one, depending on what happened. Aswon moved to stand beside her, checking the charge on his taser-staff. Still a couple of jolts on it – it might be enough to tickle an elemental if they got within reach.
Out in the main room Marius monitored the sensors, watching the waves of drones launching from the Novatech tower. Clearly the word had gone out to launch everything – EVERYTHING – that could fly, whether it had weapons or not. He could spot cleaning drones, delivery systems, PR cameras, a whole host of other things that had shears and sprayers and looked like they should be more at home managing the ivy growing up the side of a house – but they were all fanning out from the tower, weaving a complex pattern around the city, looking down upon the houses and streets as much as he was looking down on them. The tilt-wing hurtled across the city – no doubt the airport had reported the unauthorised launch, possibly even to the police, who might be launching their own air support units, if they had some. They'd not seen any police drones, only the ubiquitous cruisers patrolling the streets, but with the primitive nature of the government here, that might be expected. He checked the map position, then called out to the team.
"Thirty seconds! Hunter, make us a doorway!"
Several things happened at once.
Hunter kicked out, smashing his foot through the panels making up the sides of the building and driving straight through the plasterboard, smashing through the thin wooden lathes and popping the outer sheet metal off the studs. It wasn't the neatest technique, and he wouldn't have won any martial arts competitions with his form, but having a hundred and fifty kilos of mostly muscle behind a kick had a quality all of its own.
In the store-room, an astral form decelerated to a halt, following the trail laid out before it and arriving a bare arms-length from Kai. Afterwards, Tads reflected on what happened and it sent a shudder through her, as she worked out what would have happened had she been the one doing the tracking.
Shimazu had been waiting, balanced and poised, his muscles relaxed but ready, holding his position unmoving as he had for the last few minutes. His conscious mind barely even saw the figure shimmer into existence before him before the strike had started. Movements that had been drilled tens of thousands of times triggered muscle memory, without him having to think about anything at all. His mind saw a target, the blade moved, the target was struck, then a thought entered his mind – it was that quick and automatic.
The blade drove down through the form, striking hard on the top of the head and cleaving down, slicing through the body from tip to the groin, driven with all the fury and force Shimazu could muster. In astral space, the body split in two, slices of energy streaming out of the disjointed flesh. The body literally peeled in twain, falling away from the other half, sliding down to the floor. Somewhere in the Novatech tower, the physical body had no doubt just erupted with blood, the psychic backlash of the killing blow manifesting itself upon the mortal flesh, sending a spray of sanguine horror bursting out from the mutilated body. Perhaps if there was a trauma team waiting by the side, ready to go, there might be a hope of saving something – but they would never be the same again, that was for sure.
The air rippled to either side of the body as elementals appeared, materialising into the room as they caught up with the spotter who had been only a microsecond before them. Seven massive forms appeared, cramping together in the room, a mix of earth and air elementals. A part of Tad's mind recognised the rest of the pack that had burst out onto the roof as they had been fleeing the tower, the ones that had been looking on the north side of the building while they had fled south with the fire elementals in hot pursuit.
Time seemed to speed up again, the frozen moment of the strike over and the passage of the world resuming – and with a roar, the elementals attacked. But, it took them a moment to get their bearings, to adjust to the physical world and spot their targets. Shimazu was operating in a fugue though, a zen-like state where conscious thought struggled to keep up with his enhanced reactions and innate movements.
The sword swung in an arc, slicing across all three of the earth elementals as Shimazu bought the blade back up from the floor, raking across all three bodies in one continuous strike. The first form was riven, sliced neatly apart much like the mage as the magically enhanced blade cut through its form, destroying the magical bonds and weave that held it together. The elemental writhed briefly as the sword sliced through its form, agony ripping through its mind before blessed darkness took it from the world and cast it back to the elemental plane of earth.
The sword drove onwards, still rising and cutting deeply into the second elemental, slicing open the front of the magical creature, sending streamers of energy gushing out from the 'wound', mana leaking from the deep slice while the elemental desperately tried to parry the blow. It was hurt, though not decisively – but the impact robbed Shimazu's blow of both power and speed.
The third elemental had two benefits in its favour. Being third in the line of targets attacked, it had a moment extra to see and react, to perceive the events around it and work out a strategy. It also benefitted from the slowing nature of the first two elementals absorbing the impact of the strike, slowing Shimazu by simply being there. It swayed backwards, the sword tip sliding up and across the top part of the elemental, slicing across what would have been a chest on a humanoid, the tip barely scraping the surface. It continued to roll, building up momentum and then driving forwards, a massive fist forming like a sledgehammer that drove around with the roll, swinging towards Shimazu. The bodyguard had put his all into that one strike, trying to take out as many as he could while he had a chance to strike first, but that meant he'd stepped into the attack, deliberately throwing himself forwards to gain as much power and momentum as possible. It left him off-balance and committed, and left him no room to dodge at all as the huge boulder that formed the end of the elementals arm slammed into the side of his face.
His aura flashed as his powers activated, the mystical armour he'd learnt how to harness way back in the training academy flashing into life, deflecting some of the blow, absorbing still more. But it wasn't enough to stop it all, not from an elemental this size, and the fist drove through the magical protections and cracked his skull, sending his brain quivering and blood, spittle and sweat exploding off his face.
Tads pulled magical energy from the surrounding air – drawing in power and noticing that despite the general malaise of the southern part of the city, the church was somewhat neutral in its aspect, allowing her to pull more energy in than she expected, shaping it and throwing it out into the room. She couldn't avoid targeting Shimazu and Kai as well, but she had her protections on them that should let them resist her magic – she hoped. The blast of power rolled over the room, stunning the air elementals as well as the earth-elementals, disrupting the bindings that kept them here in the 'real' world.
Her attack came none too soon – hitting the second of the earth elementals just as it retaliated against Shimazu. He blast of power stunned it momentarily, slowing its attack enough for Shimazu to plunge the tip of his blade into the creature and shatter it, before recovering and parrying the next massive clubbing attack of the third elemental. He whirled desperately, spinning inside its reach and turning his back on the creature, slicing backwards with the blade and dispatching it before quickly pulling his sword forward to engage with the woozy and stunned water elementals that now stood before him.
Aswon reached over with his taser staff, not so much trying to hit the creatures, but more providing a distraction to take some of the pressure off of Shimazu, though where he could try and parry against their attacks, he did.
To them, it felt like the odds shifted slowly, with frantic parrying and ripostes, more stun-balls rolling out and cries of effort – but to anyone without their improved levels of physical prowess it was remarkably quick. Within a few seconds, the flashing blade, thrusting staff and blasts of mana had reduced the elementals to moist gravel that littered the room.
"ETA?" Aswon called out.
"Fifteen seconds. Coming in hot, I have a window in the drone search patterns. But it is not big!"
The team rallied, heading for the hole in the wall and trying to catch up with Hunter, who was busy levering the metal fence upwards on the outside of the church. Muscles strained and there was a metallic shrieking as fasteners gave way before his prodigious strength. They could hear the muffled and indistinct noise of the engines closing in, disguised and concealed by the spirits Tads had detailed to try and hide the aircraft. Aswon looked around and saw Tads in the room where the battle had taken place, her arms raised as she concentrated on another spell.
"Go Aswon! I'll catch up!" He nodded and turned away, moving to just behind Hunter and trying to assist with the fence.
With one last mighty heave Hunter ripped open the bottom half of the fence, lifting it to create a hole big enough for them to fit through, one by one. As they duck-walked through, gusts of wind rose and blew back their hair as the tilt-wing landed on the large lawn ahead of them. Marius commanded the side door to open, and the inside of the aircraft appeared for a moment until the spirit concealed it – but it was enough to give them a fix. Aswon ran forward, swapping to astral sight to see where the spirit's concealment ended and then hopped up onto the edge of the fuselage, throwing his staff inside and then making a stirrup with his hands. Moments later Marius placed his foot inside, getting a lift up into the aircraft and inside the concealment, then turning to move towards the cockpit, quickly jumping into the seat and stashing his deck down by his side.
Inside the church, Tads managed to finish dissipating the mana from her spells, smoothing away her astral tracks. She looked around, suddenly frightened by the amount of blood on the floor in here – not only for what it meant to the team in terms of forensics, but also that all of it had come from Shimazu. There seemed to be so much…
She quickly fired out another spell, sanitising the area and destroying the microbes and bacteria, then the actual blood itself, sterilising it and making it inert – and useless for tracking them. Hopefully they'd used up their sample of Kai's saliva already, but there wasn't much she could do about that. Another quick wave of the hands to clean up after the additional spell, and she headed out, following along behind the team and running for the tilt-wing.
In the cockpit, Marius quested around behind him, grabbing the rigger jacks and then sliding them into the waiting ports on the back of his head, and he felt himself submerge into the vehicle, slowly becoming one with the tilt-wing, feeling the systems and components, seeing with the sensors and monitoring as the rest of the team climbed aboard. Shimazu looked to be almost out on his feet, the adrenaline wearing off and the damage he had sustained slowing him significantly – but Aswon, Kai and Hunter were manhandling him into the aircraft, and he could see Tads running across the lawn towards the aircraft. He checked how far away she was, and then applied more power, starting to lift them off. Aswon had long arms – she'd be fine…
Tads jumped and felt Aswon grab her, pulling her up and in through the hatch, rolling backwards to get his legs and her body inside the fuselage, and the door slid shut behind them, sealing out the windstream. Shimazu was being pushed into his seat, while Kai and Hunter worked to strap him in as quickly as they could, and Aswon and Tads scrambled to their feet to do the same. They slid forwards nearly a metre as Marius dropped the nose, skidding across the deck and making a frantic grab for their harnesses.
With a click, her harness was secured into place, and Tads activated her comms, thinking fast and looking around to check on the status of everyone in the rear.
"Marius – head for the mountain. I know it's a long way, but they know where Pebble is now, best we try and make use of him. Or make it seem like we're directly connected."
"Already heading that way. Hang on, though." The tilt wing lurched sideways, banking steeply and they heard the engines roar as Marius pushed them to 100% power and more. "We have been pinged, direct contact from a drone. They are turning to confirm!" The aircraft lurched again, flipping and banking the other way, sending every item of loose equipment shooting across the fuselage as Marius did his best to avoid detection. "Engaging stealth measures. I would appreciate anything you can do to help, Tads!"
She concentrated, taking deep gulping breaths and trying not to let weighing twice as much as usual stop her from getting the illusion cast, disguising them as a flock of large birds. Any riggers directly watching would no doubt find it strange to see an entire flock of Imperial Eagles, especially here over the city – but the automated systems and dog-brains might not. At least that's what Hunter and Marius had explained to her. She wasn't quite sure what deep-machine-state learning was, or quite how the advanced pattern recognition and pixel filtering was, but they seemed pretty certain about what they described, and she trusted them.
They angled over once more, this time banking all the way to ninety degrees. Half the team were pressed back into their seats, feeling like they were lying on the floor, while the other half dangled in their five-point harnesses, feeling arms and legs wanting to dangle below them. Shimazu dripped blood onto Kai sitting opposite – now below – him, but was too weak and disoriented to do much about it, leaving Kai to just close his eyes and put a hand over his face to try and deflect the liquid.
The aircraft turned in a tight circle, losing altitude quickly but shedding all forward momentum instantly. The pursuing drone had only just managed to get a faint return on its sensors, a partial hit on an aircraft of indeterminate type, but the onboard pilot was trying to close and localise, sweeping back and forth with the radar and optical sensors. As the tilt-wing dropped horizontal speed, the Doppler ranging vanished, and all the drone could see was a large flock of birds moving slowly in the sky. The subroutines considered this, found the speed and formation to match the parameters set up in its logic files and then adjusted course, flying around the obstacle and keeping a good distance to avoid fouling its own engines.
Marius flipped back to level flight, clawing for altitude and kicking the rudders to try and bring them back onto a heading for Chapal Waddi.
"We are clear, for the moment. Trying to climb above the drone network." He pulled back on the stick, and the tilt-wing rose through the air, spirits and magic concealing them and the radar absorbent material deflecting or swallowing the odd energy spike that came their way.
"Marius, let me know when we're smooth. Shimazu needs medical attention – he's a mess."
"Go now, work quickly. I will warn you if anything changes."
Kai unbuckled his harness and grabbed the battlefield med-pack, kneeling down in front of Shimazu and pulling out the diagnostic machines and leads, hastily attaching them to the blood-soaked mess before him. He quickly ran a line into the wrist, then passed a bag of blood expanders over to Aswon in the next seat.
"Put that under your leg, then apply slow but consistent pressure." The normal irreverence and smiles were absent as Kai worked quickly and efficiently, slapping on bandages to the side of Shimazu's face and applying compression.
"Aren't you supposed to go in at the elbow or something? Or on the forearm?" Aswon queried, squeezing the bag and watching the clear fluid moving down the tube and into the needle jammed into Shimazu's wrist.
"Yes, ideally. But he's wearing armour, and it's a bugger to cut open or off. Almost like it was designed to stop blades cutting into it. Weird." There was an edge of sarcasm to the voice, indicating that perhaps things weren't quite that bad after all. "Ok, heartbeat stable, lungs clear of fluid. ECG is running wild, but he got thumped in the face, so that's not that surprising. Bleeding is under control, and we're not getting any signs of a cerebral bleed. His BP is still stupidly low, so keep pressure on that bag." Kai fiddled with the computer some more, dispensing a variety of drugs into Shimazu. The bodyguard had been silent throughout – conscious, but biting back any response. But as the nova-morphine hit, there was an audible sigh escape from his lips as the pain receded.
"Ok, that's better. Bit more under control. We're going to need to keep an eye on those fluids and keep pressure on the wounds, but he's going to be ok."
"Kai, strap in. Now." As Marius called back over the comm-net, Kai looked down at the medkit and strewn supplies in front of him, and the machine still attached to Shimazu wherever he could find available skin.
"Oh drek." He frantically grabbed the computer and bundled it into Aswon's arms. "Don't let that disconnect!" Kicking the bag of supplies back towards Tads, he flipped the top over as it slid past him, then made a lurch for his own seat, grabbing at the safety straps. Tads grabbed at the medkit, trying to lift it to her chest and hug it tightly to keep the lid closed, while Aswon did the same, also trying to keep pressure on the fluid bag beneath his right thigh. Just as Kai clicked the last of the straps into place, a loud boom reverberated through the fuselage, sounding like a thunderclap had actually impacted the outer covering of the tilt-wing.
"What the hell was that!" Kai looked up with concern from the harness clips.
"Fight jet, closing from the east. Must have launched from the airbase where the choppers were stationed."
"Did they detect us?"
"Absolutely. Not enough to localise, but enough to get at least a sensor ghost or partial read. They are swinging around and coming back." The tilt-wing nosed down, descending rapidly towards the ground and picking up speed, while performing a shallow bank as Marius tried to move out of the search cone for the massively powerful sensors on the interceptor. "They are still over Mach one – so their turning circle is large. But we cannot outrun them. And the missiles on something like that will do Mach 3 or 4."
"So we have to hide? Can we land and turn everything off?" Tads called out. "Make it so we're just all quiet?"
"We could, but they will still get a return off the skin of the aircraft, and we would be a sitting target. I do not think that is a good idea. Not against this foe."
"Standing by on ECMs," Hunter said quietly, checking his side of the cockpit and doing what he could to take some of the electronic load from Marius to leave him to the piloting.
"Only activate them if we get a confirmed launch – otherwise they will help the fighter zero in on our emissions… stand by… Contact! Active contact!" They slammed over to the side again, spiralling down towards the ground and managing to slide out of the sensor window before they were locked up. The pilot of the other aircraft clearly knew there was something out there, and he didn't seem to care if he was spotted. Every one of his sensors was blasting out a signal at full power, filling the air with electromagnetic energy. Marius dropped down again, lowering his altitude until he was perilously close to the ground and looked for hills and forests that would provide ground clutter for him to get lost in.
Back and forth they danced, the fighter swinging around and repeatedly getting a vague tickle on his sensors, before the dynamic manoeuvres, stealth systems and magical concealment managed to throw off the questing tendrils of the sensor suite.
"We have got to lose this tail, quickly! If they get another plane up here and start to box us in, we are finished! Hang on tight." Marius performed a break, whipping the nose around tightly and throwing off the sensor lock, then streaking away on the deck as fast as he could – but climbing slightly. The plane circled around and picked him up again, and Marius repeated the move, turning the same way again. Twice more he pulled the same stunt, but the third time around he pulled left before then inverting the aircraft, rolling around and under his initial bearing and rocketing away at an obtuse angle. The trailing pilot missed the move, and as he circled around once more his sensor pod was aimed at the patch of sky where he thought the tilt-wing would be, while they actually headed off in a different direction.
They heard another sonic boom as a second fighter, then a third joined the first, quartering the sky and blasting away with their sensors – but Marius was too far away now, skipping the edge of their detection grid and hugging the ground, barely fifty metres up. He lowered the speed, letting the engines cool a little, and killed every extraneous electronic system, relying on the bare minimum of systems to keep them in the air.
With every passing second, the searching aircraft fell further and further behind on their flank, the distance opening up quickly even at the lower speed. Marius adjusted course again, turning gradually to head north and towards Aswon's village now, rather than Chappal Wadi.
The darkened shape of the tilt-wing flitted across the night sky, Marius sweating profusely as they continued to fly 'nap-of-the-earth' away from the interceptors, while behind him the Novatech military pilots cursed and swore, casting the search net ever wider as they sought to find the elusive target.
"Looks like we are clear, for now." Marius sounded relieved, and slowly the team unwound, letting go of the tension that had been building for the last few minutes.
"ETA for the village?"
"We should be there about dawn. We still have about a third of a tank of fuel as well, and there is an airport around one hundred kilometres to the east."
"Good stuff. Ok, sounds like we made it. I'm going to send a message to Phoss and Ury and make sure they're out of the city, or heading that way. But let's see if we can rest a little before we reach the village…" Kai tapped out a message to the two agents, hoping they could make their way out of the city without incident, escaping the hornet's nest that had been stirred up behind them.
