Monday 20/06/2061, Location: 67.8139, 48.96953, Time 05:00

The team awoke at dawn time… though, of course, the dawn had been some weeks prior. At least they had managed to get good sleep – the troop bay of the tilt-wing being windowless kept it nice and dark, though it was as cold as a fridge in there, while others had slept in the chum where the hides and skins also kept the interior dark, and the heater and multiple bodies kept it significantly warmer – though the sounds of snoring and people were far louder.

Regardless though, they dragged themselves out of their sleep bags and blankets, getting into clothing that was starting to smell more than a little ripe despite their efforts to wash them and keep them hygienic. Aswon looked his normal chipper self, fully rested after only a few hours of sleep, while the others mostly looked like they'd be happy to crawl back into their beds for another few hours. Still, they kept the grumbles to themselves and got ready, heading out for a morning run along the coastal plain. A few of the villagers were up already and watched with bemusement as the team settled into a fast jog, heading over the frozen ground for no apparent purpose other than to run…

On their return, they got cleaned up, and settled down for breakfast. Hunter checked the matrix for news and other interesting facts, and pretty quickly came across a major story that had broken late the previous night. A terrorist cell called 'The Cataclyst' had apparently taken credit for an incident on a semi-ballistic plane headed out from Tokyo. Shortly after initial climb out, just as it entered the boost phase for the climb into the upper atmosphere some kind of explosive device had been detonated, triggering a fire that had quickly spread to the almost-full fuel tanks. The resultant explosion had shredded the aircraft, scattering parts and wreckage over several hundred kilometres of ground. After some investigation into the passenger and cargo list, it emerged that the Shiawase Corporations 'Brahe' probe that was due to be launched towards the approaching comet had been onboard, and was being shipped to the launch site that would have catapulted it into space in only a few day's time.

"Terrorist incident? Riiiight…" Aswon snorted in derision.

"Exactly. Can anyone else say Shadowrunners? It appears that we were certainly not the only team carrying out such activities…" Marius sipped at his coffee, pulling a bit of a face at the taste and texture of the instant brew soycaf they'd bought along on the trip. "I do not believe that anyone is in a position to launch a probe at the comet, at this time?"

"Nah… they've all fraked each other over mostly." Hunter confirmed. "There's a couple of corps that haven't said anything, but most of the ones that were due to launch already have suffered sabotage, explosions, missing parts, fuel contamination or some other incident. Lot of bad luck going around it seems…" He grinned, his lopsided face looking like a horror-show poster. "Still, bad luck for them is more Nuyen for the likes of us! Probably a good thing we're not going to poke it anyway. Should leave it alone!"

"Why? What's wrong with learning about the comet?"

"Depends who you believe, Aswon. There's a good chunk of people on Shadowland that are convinced it's not a comet after all, but actually a dragon egg, returning back to us. Bad evil dragon though, one we don't want to hatch. And that ain't the weirdest rumour, I tell you…"

"The worst thing about that whole idea is that it is not the weirdest thing we have heard this year!" Marius seemed annoyed at even having to mention that, though given some of the things they'd encountered over the last twelve months, the team mostly found themselves in agreement with him.

"Oh, Hunter – did you sort out the paperwork for the airport on the way back?"

"No, just the way there. Why?"

"Well, can you? I'm assuming that once we've made the delivery, we're coming back here? I'd like to spend some more time with my people, and make sure they're ok?

"Kai?"

"Yes, I suppose that makes sense. We haven't got a follow on job yet have we? So we might as well come back here, then work our way south. Especially if we're wanting some of this stuff as a reward or something."

"On that note – I think we ought to start distributing some of the orichalcum out to the other shaman. It's very risky keeping it all here, all gathered in one spot. It's unlikely anything would happen – but all it takes is one infiltration expert to get in and they could destroy the whole deal."

"Good point, Aswon. Ok, Tads – can you talk to Parako and get that sorted out. Get some supplies distributed out, and make arrangements with them to keep doing that to avoid it being all together?" Tads nodded her head in agreement and made a note on her commlink to follow up.

Around 8:15, Iosif poked his head into the chum and waved the radio handset towards Kai, raising an eyebrow to him in query. Kai finished what he was saying to the team and waved Iosif over, the took the receiver and held it up to his head.

"Good morning? Ahh, Brigadier, good to hear from you. Uh-huh… yes…. I see. Just bear with me a moment…" He moved the receiver away and released the button on the handset, then turned to look at Tads. "Can we get some people willing and able to speak on behalf of the Nenets people, to meet with the Brigadier in a few hours? He wants to fly up and see us."

"It might be better to meet elsewhere? This is where we're gathering the material after all… but yes, we can find some people. I think between the shaman here, we can probably speak for our people."

"Don't be daft." Hunter interrupted. "He's being polite. We're here. His radio is here. He knows exactly where the stuff is. He's just not saying it…"

"Ahh – that's a fair point actually. He probably is just being circumspect."

"Well, there's a spit of land that sticks out into the sea, a little way north of here. Close enough to be easy to get to, far enough away not to disturb the village. How about that?"

"Got it… tell him 67.88823, 48.67591 are the co-ordinates he needs." Hunter added, pinging the map with the location."

"Brigadier, yes. We can make those arrangements." Kai reeled off the co-ordinates and a description of the landing area, then nodded several more times as he listened to the other side of the conversation. "Very good. We'll see you in about two or three hours then." He handed the radio back to Iosif and made a circling motion with his hand. "Ok, let's go get people organised and get things moving. VIP coming in by air and we need to be ready."

The team prepped the tilt-wing for take-off, while Parako organised a whole bunch of villagers into action – getting skidoos and sleds packed with material and taking a large pile of supplies with them. Iosif loaded up with the team for the short twenty kilometre flight up to the spit of land, quickly leaving the dog teams and skidoo sleds behind. It didn't take long for them to find a relatively large and flat area to land on – the entire spit of land looked like it only needed one really good storm to wash away, being no more than a half-metre above the sea level at any point – but it seemed to have been here for a while, so perhaps it sat on some firmer rock, forming a natural collection point for mud, silt and loose dirt. Why it existed didn't matter so much – but it gave plenty of room for now for the team to set down and survey an area.

They had cleared a landing area for the Brigadier when he arrived, and checked around for a good spot to actually have the meeting in when the first skidoo arrived, depositing four of the villagers and a whole bunch of tent poles. In a series of motions that were clearly well practiced and second nature by now, they dug the poles into the ground a little and quickly had them raised to form the basis of the chum, then started to roll out skins and hides to form the sides – though they covered only one half, that facing out to sea.

It took the dog team about an hour to catch up with them, but when they did the other sleds carried more materials to finish off the chum as well as some seats and a table, all hand crafted from wood no doubt gathered from the local forests. The timbers were thick, cleaved into shape with an axe and split with wedges, but then worn smooth with use over decades.

Just before 10:20, Aswon heard the sound of an approaching chopper and alerted the others, then quickly pointed out the tiny black dot on the horizon. Hunter consulted his GPS and took a fix from the position, then quickly checked his map of the area.

"Least time course from Murmansk, assuming he's not doing any deceptive flying. But if he was there when they radioed in this morning, he's not had much time for that." He showed his screen to Marius, who checked the distances involved and the time chops for the radio messages then did some quick maths.

"Ja, I agree. He likely radioed in, then had to board almost immediately and fly here." The dot had grown in size now and was clearly a broad-bellied chopper, painted a dull green rather than the initial black it had appeared to be. "Heavy troop chopper, one of the MIL series. Looks like they have put drop pods on the wings for extra fuel rather than missiles. But the autocannon is still on the nose. Probably would take too long to dismount for little gain." He checked the speed of advance and then squinted at the helicopter again, noting the position of the body and tried to estimate the maximum speed. "I would say he has flown a direct course here, and constant speed. Straight from the naval base."

"Iosif – had the Brigadier just arrived at Murmansk when he called?"

"That was my impression, Tads. He'd not long gotten back from Moscow, I believe. Caught the first flight up this morning."

"Good. Thank you."

The team waited, while the villagers made the final preparations – lighting a fire and getting water into a pot to boil up and making sure the seats were arranged in the half-built chum. It wouldn't stand up to rough weather, but as it was it made a very fine windbreak and kept the air still around the front and the fire.

The Russian pilot circled the area once, eyeing up the landing site and checking the conditions, then came in for a nice smooth landing, putting the chopper down parallel with the tilt-wing. The rotors quickly slowed and then stopped, before the side door slid open and a crewman jumped down, setting up a small set of steps. Moments later, the Brigadier emerged, nodding in thanks to the crewman and returning his salute, then moving clear of the steps to allow the two Captains to disembark behind him, followed by his two guards. All were wearing dress uniforms, though they looked a little crumpled and 'well worn'.

"He looks pleased with himself. Not smug, but satisfied." Shimazu observed as the party headed over towards them. "Maybe a little tired, but he's holding himself upright regardless. Of course, he's an officer, and that kind of thing is expected… but he's happy to be here, I think." He continued to watch carefully as they approached, examining each of the officers in turn and trying to evaluate not only their appearance and facial expressions, but also their body language.

Kai waited near the fire pit, the shamans next to him, including Tads, while the rest of the team hung back a little. As the Brigadier arrived he stopped in front of Kai and offered his hand in welcome, receiving a hearty handshake from Kai and a polite greeting. Kai turned sideways then, introducing the Brigadier with his full rank (or what he sincerely hoped was the correct phrasing), before then introducing the four shamans in turn by the names they'd been given. Each one received a brief brace to attention from the Brigadier, with nods and smiles. Then the whole thing was repeated with the two captains, with Kai making sure that the shamans knew that Captain Fredericks was magically active.

Parako led the way into the partially-constructed chum, gesturing to the seats and ensuring that the Russians were seated comfortably and then gestured for drinks to be served, the pot of boiling water over the fire used to make a thistle tea served to all of the people present. Parako then paused, and glanced over at Tads, looking a little uncertain. Tads gave her an encouraging smile – not wanting to steal her thunder if this was something she felt she had to do. It dawned on her a moment later, that her relationship had changed dramatically, and she hadn't really thought about it. Parako was her mentor, a mother figure that had taught her most of her basic skills in magic, but also in life. Preparing her for the life of being a tribal shaman, leading her people and keeping them safe.

But Parako had also been with her tribe her whole life. The Nenets were semi-migratory, and ALL of the tribes moved around from time to time, finding new fishing spots or hunting grounds, moving their herds to new areas. So Parako had travelled – but never really away from her people, and never out of Nenets lands. Tads, on the other hand, had now circled the globe, seeing more countries than Parako had ever heard of, meeting scores of outsiders, making friends of some and terminating others with prejudice. She'd encountered spirits and magical creatures from dreams and nightmares, been shot at, encountered mana storms and fell creatures and made friends with some strangers strongly enough that she would happily risk her life for their safety. And along the way, her powers had grown far in excess of her teacher's.

She thought about how much she had learnt over the last year and a half, in a brutal and somewhat harrowing school of survival. The many techniques she now knew, the spells she had picked up to deal with situations. It was hard to quantify – but she probably had surpassed her reach by a significant margin. But more than just her much improved mastery of magic, she had a pool of experiences to draw upon that far outstripped her mentor. Very specifically in this case – in that the team had performed tasks for the Brigadier and had a working knowledge of him and his situation.

"Thank you, Parako, for your hospitality. Perhaps you could send a message out to the rest of the shaman to let them know?" Tads watched as the older woman nodded and pulled out the bulky and outdated device. Like all of their technology, it was 'well used' to say the least, and the primitive sat-phones were valuable devices to their people – one of the only ways they could realistically connect with each other across the vast and inhospitable landscape. Now she sent out a message to the villages and tribes she had regular contact with, advising the shamans that the Russian delegation was here. And they contacted the tribes they knew, and slowly word rippled out across the entire Nenets region.

A few seconds, later the first astral forms arrived – Shamans from the first settlements contacted, their bodies laid out comfortably somewhere while their astral form travelled across the tundra to meet with them. Then another, and another. The number of ghostly apparitions rose, until thirty or more stood watching and waiting, their translucent forms examining the Russian soldiers with a fair degree of trepidation.

"Brigadier. If you will, perhaps you can explain what's going on?" Kai gestured to the centre of the chum, moving away to give the man plenty of room to address his audience. Shimazu examined the guards briefly, who stood to one side keeping a watchful eye out along the spit of land – looking for enemies that they could do something about. When he turned his attention to the two Captains, he noticed that Fredericks seemed agitated, almost quivering in his seat, and he fixed a steely gaze upon him, wondering what was going on…

"Thank you for your welcome, and thank you for coming to meet with us. I very much appreciate the effort you have taken." The Brigadier spoke slowly and clearly, his voice deep and resonant. Kai watched him carefully, checking his body language and his aura. The man was astrally active, his untrained magical powers affecting his body. But, while he was using the powers he had, he wasn't trying to control people with them. He was trying to give the best impression he could of himself, but he was leading, not commanding. It was a subtle, but important difference, and Kai settled down in a chair and watched, fascinated to see the process unfolding before him. Tads moved to stand a little to his side, and as he finished, she translated into the Nenets languages, for those of the Shaman that didn't speak enough Russian to fully understand what was going on. It gave him time to watch the Brigadier as he worked through his speech, and to see what effects he was having upon the various shaman.

"I have met with the council, the ruling body of Russia, over these last few days, and have informed them of the situation here. They in turn have come to a decision, one that will hopefully serve us all well." He pulled out a flimsy sheet of paper, and read a summary of the text that was printed upon it. "They recognise the right of the Nenet people as proud Russian citizens, people who have been loyal to the country for generations and are part of the glorious socialist collective; and that it would be improper to force them away from their land, especially as they live in a such an ethical and desirable state of collective work and ownership." The Brigadier rolled his eyes slightly over some of the phrases, and though he was by the looks of things giving an accurate reading, it was clear from his body language and intonation that some of the content might not be given the same amount of credence as others.

"As such, the Russian armed forces will support and protect them against the evil Yakut oppressors, allowing the Nenet to harvest their materials and work on their traditional crafts. The country will even support this by providing logistics and administrative functions to allow them to export their craftwork to a wider market for sale..." he continued. The flowery messages continued for several more paragraphs, though it was clear to anyone listening that there was a barely-veiled message contained within it.

When he had finished the speech, he took a deep draught of tea, as if to wash his mouth out and get rid of an undesirable taste. He motioned to his Captain and was passed another document.

"This is the agreement we have, formally codifying the aid and support that will be offered in each direction." He opened his thumb and forefinger, letting the paper slip out from between them and waft down to the damp floor, where it landed in a patch of mud. "Oh. Oh dear. Fortunately, I think we have another copy. I'm sure it has the same general terms within it, though the choice of language may be slightly different."

Tads picked up the abandoned copy, as the Brigadier read out the terms from the second version, and read through it alongside him – noting the differences between them. They were minor, not actually changing the overall intention of the Nenets people to supply magical aid to the Russian armed forces in exchange for protection, self-governance and a continued way of life. What was missing though was any mention of specific timescales or amounts of aid to be specified. It was a 'simple' oversight that would be fairly easy to overlook unless you knew that it had been originally specified, and she wondered what the Brigadier was up to – though this clearly worked out far better for the Nenets people than the first version.

During the explanation, the Brigadier introduced Captain Fredericks, explaining his role as one of the leaders of their magical forces, and that it was his expert advice that had helped push the treaty through, with his explanations of magic and the value of the Nenets people persuading the council to see the wisdom of the plan.

Captain Fredericks stood up and moved next to the Brigadier, and then took a deep breath – and dropped his masking, exposing his magical signature and aura to everyone present. There was a fair degree of scrutiny of him, and he looked a little uncomfortable – all of these Shaman could now see his magical 'fingerprint' and would have a head start on any magical rituals or tracking to affect him. On the other hand, it was a huge show of trust and respect to them, and the gesture seemed to have been appreciated by most of the people present.

"I bet he was told to do this by the Brigadier. And not to look at everyone else." Shimazu muttered into the comms, his earlier discomfort now making sense. "He's itching to go looking at people, to learn all about them, but he's not doing it."

"Makes sense. Well, trust begets trust." Kai stepped forward, gave the Captain a nod of respect and then dropped his own masking. A moment later he felt Shimazu move to stand by his side and also lower his masking. Kai's aura was as bright and powerful as any of the shaman here, and that caused a bit of a stir, but the noise rose in volume as Shimazu revealed his own aura, burning bright and pure. Tads stepped up too, and followed suit – and that triggered a much bigger reaction, especially amongst the people that had known her before she had left the Nenets lands.

"Regardless of what is contained in this document though" the Brigadier continued, "I want you all to know, that I take any agreement between our people very seriously. I have a great deal of respect for your culture and your customs – and REGARDLESS of whatever magical aid you can provide, I will do all that I can to protect your people. You may not see yourselves as Russians – but I do. And it is the sworn duty of the armed forces to protect and preserve our people. There is no higher honour, no duty more sacred than keeping your people safe."

It took a while to read through the document and translate it from Russian into Nenets – both Tundra and Forest variants, and to explain some of the terms to the shaman where there was no direct translation – but it went smoothly enough. Soon the deal was agreed upon, and the four shaman physically present signed the document, along with Tads, on behalf of the Nenets people.

The astrally-present shaman returned back to their bodies, carrying word of the agreement, and leaving a much smaller contingent of people to breathe a sigh of relief that everyone was satisfied with the deal.

"Now that is out of the way, there are a few things I would like to take care of sooner rather than later." The Brigadier addressed Tads and Parako directly, apparently having singled them out as the key figures he needed to deal with. "First of all, I will be withdrawing my troops to key nodal positions, concentrating them and enabling them to respond to any incidents quickly, and in force, should they be needed. Some of them will be placed alongside or in support of the new road we're constructing to bring up supplies."

"That should be ok. And hopefully your engineers are having an easier time of things with the road construction."

"Ahh – that's your work, is it? I should have known. I did receive a somewhat garbled and excited message about their efforts in that regard. Makes more sense now. But the other major thing is that I'd like to bring up my air-defence squadrons to somewhere closer to here. Put one in a few kilometres to either side of this area, just in case." Tads glanced over to Hunter, and saw a knowing smirk on his face. Clearly he was aware that this place was fairly important! "Now, Captain Fredericks has made it clear, VERY clear to me just how delicate the work of gathering magical materials are – so I want to make sure we keep the area secure, but also clean. So I'm aiming to limit the use of vehicles as much as possible, and as I said, keep our troops fairly concentrated and in relatively few places. Countering against that, I intend to have foot patrols out to monitor the area on some fairly large sweeps – and with your permission, I want to make sure that they all interact with your tribes as much as possible to ensure we're familiar with each other and that your people are known to us, and vice-versa. It will make spotting intruders and infiltrators much easier, and hopefully will cut down on any issues between us…"

"That all sounds like a good idea. We need a list of your mages as well, and what they can do – so we can make or start making supplies for them."

"Captain Fredericks has drafted an initial list and will be sending over a more detailed survey soon. Now, I am going to leave Iosif here as a primary point of contact with your people, but I'll also get him to move around and meet some of the other shaman and villages, I think."

"I'd suggest a few more people as well, but yes. That sounds like a good idea. We don't want to miss out those shaman from the eastern reaches."

The team got together with Parako and the other shaman, and the Brigadier and they spent a few minutes thrashing out plans, bouncing ideas around and working out what they needed to do sooner rather than later. Due to the lack of roads and the need to keep pollution to an absolute minimum, they decided to try and use the Nenets shaman in the eastern side of the country more as a support structure, providing spirits of the land and watchers to provide astral support to the troops there facing off against Yakut, rather than manufacturing the foci. The shaman in the western half of the lands, though, would form the backbone of the efforts to make foci and magical weapons for the Russian mages, directed by Parako.

A fast response force would be located where they currently stood, kept far enough away from the village to avoid spoiling the environment, but close enough to respond quickly to any attacks or interference – it was horribly exposed and would be awful if they were still here as winter approached, but should be fine for the next few months.

With the basic agreements laid out and all parties happy, the Brigadier gathered his things and headed back to the chopper, thanking Kai, Tads and the team once more before boarding. When they took off, the chopper turned north, heading out to sea rather than south and towards his HQ section.

"Probably going to brief the commander of the task force in person. Explain to them what's going on." Hunter suggested. "I'd imagine they've gone for not allowing anything about this to be discussed over the radio or matrix, if they can help it. Big story if it gets out, and a lot of heat."

"That makes sense, Hunter. Who else needs to know, really… if the Brigadier can brief the Admiral or whoever is in charge of their boats, that keeps the numbers down. Everyone below him will just follow their orders to keep the coastline secure and under observations. Don't really need to know why – they'll just do their jobs." Aswon looked around, seeing the shamans were packing the few perishable supplies back onto the sleds along with the villagers, and were getting ready to head back to the village. "Are we done here?"

"I guess so. Hop back to the village ourselves, pick up Captain Hook and his crew, and then we head off to Sweden?" Kai looked around and received several nods, and the team got into gear. The journey back was quick, and Marius just idled the engines while Aswon sprinted over to get the other team and let them know they were leaving. It was a tight fit to get both teams into the tilt-wing – every seat had a passenger and there were still bodies to fit in, and some ended up sitting on the floor between the two doors. Tads warned everyone that if they ran into turbulence, or some kind of attack, that she'd use one of her spells to restrain people in position to keep them safe – but beyond that they should just hang on tight.

The tilt-wing lifted off and angled south-west, accelerating smoothly and leaving the village behind – while Tads looked in that direction through the fuselage, not sure if she should be sad to leave it behind or ecstatic for having – hopefully – kept it safe and secure.

"Hey – you guys? Where are all your firearms?" Aswon shouted out to them over the noise of the engines.

"Left 'em behind – with the villagers. Hopefully they can make use of 'em!" Glass shouted back.

"Can't exactly get them through the airport, now can we? That's gonna take some gentle finesse and negotiations, not a burst of gunfire." Captain Hook added. Aswon thought about saying something else – but there really wasn't much point. It was done, and there wasn't really any point in circling back.

The tilt-wing flew over the Nenet lands and slid across the border into Finland in a quiet little valley north of Lieksa, then climbed up once they were clear to a more reasonable altitude and turned on their transponder. The flight details that Hunter had spoofed were accepted, and they slid into the queue of commercial traffic transiting into Sweden, and flew along fat, docile and happy like a good little civilian flight of medical doctors.

Three hours and twenty minutes later, they were on final approach and Marius enjoyed the almost boring descent onto a wide, paved, clear and very long runway at Bromma airport. It wasn't the international airport – located north west of the city about thirty five kilometres, but the original and much smaller airport dating back over a hundred years. The city had long since engulfed the airport, and the short runways were inadequate for most aircraft not – but that kept the landing fees very low and the schedule clear, and their fuel was just as good as anywhere else. The 1660m long runway was far more than was needed for a craft of their size, and Marius was able to turn off at the first taxiway and head towards the service buildings and find their designated spot.

The refuelling bowser was not due for another twenty minutes, so most of the team headed for the secure side of the airport lounge, stretching their legs and making use of the facilities – plumbed-in toilets and restaurants that weren't sized for the back of an aircraft being key features! After they'd eaten, Captain Hook sidled up to Marius.

"Thanks for the lift, chummer. We owe you. A great deal."

"You are welcome, Captain. I hope you would do the same for us if the situation was reversed."

"Betcha. Listen though, we're going to start looking for a way to bypass security, and head out into the sprawl. Just wanted to let you know, in case stuff goes funky."

"Ja, thank you. I will get everyone back to the aircraft. We should be due to fuel in a few minutes anyway. But good luck." They shook hands, and then Marius got the team together and hustled everyone back down to their landing spot, relaying the information about Hook's team. If they did get spotted or raise an alarm, they wanted to be in the aircraft and ready to go if there was some kind of security lockdown. It wouldn't be ideal 'breaking out' from the airport, but they could do it if needed and probably get away with it.

As it was, everything stayed quiet, though – and they were soon fuelled up, and paid off, and then slotted into the outbound queue for takeoffs. They headed south-west, crossing the width of Sweden and into the North Sea just north of Gothenburg, then slowly eased down out of radar coverage, disabling the transponder again and fading off the controllers' screens.

"Marius, increase speed to 490 please. Got a bit of time to make up."

"Really? We are not due to the drop off until 20:00 hours. We should have plenty of time, and we still have a one-hour time difference to account for."

"We do – but they're also in British Summer time, so that one-hour back is countered out. Don't wanna be late!"

They increased speed, and Hunter checked his figures, nodding in approval.

"Right folks, settle in. We got another fifteen hundred and twenty kilometres to go until we reach Swindon, flight time about two hours fifty. We're heading across the North Sea, so we're going straight through the Black Tide – so you might wanna stay off the optics! We'll be crossing the coastline into the Stinkfens, running down south of Cambridge and then following the hills west, staying well clear of London and running along the lines of the Chiltern hills. As long as we can get across the coastline ok, we should be good."

As they headed west over the North Sea, they ran into a cloud front moving eastwards, the light grey darkening further and further as they headed west. Spots of rain landed on the windscreen, accumulating slowly at first, then suddenly becoming a waterfall as they flew into what looked like a solid sheet of rain. The clouds were fairly low, but rose up several thousand metres, so they resigned themselves to flying through the crappy weather, with Marius dropping out of the clouds into the rainstorm below. The rain cut down on the visibility drastically, but it was at least still better than flying through the cloud itself.

The Black Tide was horrific in astral space, of course, just as bad as the last time they had flown through it – but this trip was much longer than before. At various times the pollution rose to levels high enough that it almost created a mana warp, an area of twisted death and destruction that would actively attack any magical targets in the area. Thankfully it was never quite bad enough, and they slashed across the North Sea in a ruler-straight line, heading for the specific co-ordinates given to them. When they got about twenty kilometres from the shore, Hunter sent out the coded message on the frequency he'd been given, then crossed his fingers.

Whoever it was that received the message presumably did their job – or rather didn't – and the tilt-wing flew over the coastline into the UK without any challenge or interaction. Or at least they crossed what was marked up as the coastline – though looking down, it was hard to tell. The rain didn't help, of course, but it looked like the sea was making a spirited and determined effort to reclaim a lot of the Norfolk Broads, and huge estuaries and rivers criss-crossed the area, while the land had been turned into a thousand tiny islands of slightly higher ground. The area was ripe with pollution too, the spills of the Black Tide washing in, to be met with the industrial pollution from factories and industries washing out.

"Hey look! A Dragon – port side!" Hunter called out as he spied the flapping wings barely visible through the rain.

"No – close though. A Wyvern. It's only got two legs and a pair of wings. Still bad news, of course." Shimazu watched it through the optics until it vanished from view, then wrinkled his nose up a little. The bad smell intensified and he slipped the goggled off his head and looked around the cabin for the source of the smell. "Ok, who did that? That's EVIL."

"Not us, Shimazu. Think it's coming in from outside. And I agree, that's nasty as all drek. Guess that's why they call it the Stinkfens!" Aswon wrinkled his own nose too, then grabbed a facemask and slipped it on, seeing if that would help.

It didn't.

Fortunately, it didn't take long to transit over the fens, and as they neared Cambridge the ground rose and dried up a little. The city looked like a walled enclave, and to the north could barely be seen large corporate towers rising up through the rain, reaching fifty or sixty stories high. Marius kept them well clear of that side of the city though, and swept over the patchwork fields, flashing across hedges and barns at low level as they headed west.

The thunderstorm kept visibility low, but it also seemed remarkably dark out there – other than the occasional village or lit road, there were large chunks of the countryside that seemed to be entirely rural, field after field growing crops with very little sign of habitation. This was ideal from their point of view as it massively reduced the chances of them being spotted, but it seemed quite surreal, too – it felt as quiet as some of the Russian steppes or the parts of the TCL near the ranch, rather than a heavily-industrialised nation like the UK.

Their initial assessment had been correct – once inside the border, there was little air surveillance of the interior and by using the Chiltern Hills as cover, they made their way west without incident, closing in on the location specified in the instructions. Hunter sent off his second coded message, and as Marius slowed and circled on the approach, a set of landing light illuminated, marching in series down the runway and highlighting it through the driving rain.

This runway was even shorter, less than a thousand metres long – though this was still in excess of what they needed, and Marius took advantage of the ability to do a conventional landing, saving what fuel he could. As they rolled down the runway, they could see the vast array of solar panels covering the landscape at the end of the runway, along with the rearing towers of the wind-turbines that ringed the exterior. Right at the end of the runway, near the closest edge of the facility was a white van, a small fork-lift truck and a single figure protected by a huge umbrella, standing and waiting patiently.

Marius slewed the tilt-wing around and killed the engines, just as the clock ticked over to 20:00. Right on time. Giving himself leeway for a small smile of satisfaction, he sent the mental command to lower the rear ramp, and spotted the two vehicles and the pedestrian start to move as the crack of light appeared at the back of the aircraft.

"Kai – contact incoming. Your turn."

He stayed jacked in, watching the sensors, while Hunter clambered through into the back, grabbing his rifle and jacking a round into the breach. Kai was already standing at the top of the ramp, Shimazu by his side, while Aswon was moving the three cargo containers into position. Tads remained in her seat, her head turned through and watching out of the back ramp and ready with spells and spirits, just in case.

The two vehicles stopped just clear of the rear section of the tilt-wing, while the figure under the brolly moved further in, until he stood at the bottom of the ramp.

"Good evening. Welcome to Bright Spark." The brolly lifted, angling slightly to the side and shielding the holder from the driving rain, but allowing the team a better view. "I'm James Middleby."

James was very unusual to look at, being no more than a metre tall, and clearly of dwarvish origins. But, he seemed to be a very slender dwarf, athletic and looking more like a regular person shrunk down by one third than the usual stocky dwarven proportions. He had dark brown hair with a side parting and generous comb-over, his hair thick and luxurious, with a large amount of volume. His beard was short and neatly trimmed, while his moustache rose into a gentle handlebar shape.

Wearing a green flannel shirt with micro-collar, and all the buttons done up to neck height, underneath a pair of light-brown plasticised dungarees, with thick shoulder straps holding up the bibs he definitely didn't look much like a smuggler or denizen of the seedy underworld – more like a slightly nerdish gardener. In the large pocket of the dungarees though was small computer, some random peripherals and tools. A large torch hung from a loop on his right hand hip, that had a side baton handle, and his work boots had a large metallic band running down each side which disappeared under the sole.

The one thing distracting from the overall image was the left eye – an obvious cyber-replacement, with a red crosshair that seemed to scan from side to side as he examine Kai and Shimazu. As he turned his head, the edge of a datajack just poked out from under his beard under the left ear.

"Hello there, I'm Kai, and this is my team. We've got a delivery for you, from Ms. Ludmilla."

"And right on time too. Let's go ahead with the transfer shall we?" The fork lift truck came to the bottom of the ramp, and Aswon started to move the boxes down, helped by Hunter – loading them onto the forks as they moved in to a narrow setting. Once all three were loaded up, the fork lift truck backed away and transferred the cargo into the white van, loading through a side door into the empty rear section.

"I was wondering if we could make use of the facilities while we're here?"

"Oh, no, I'm sorry. That just won't be possible. I suppose you could walk up and down the runway a little though, if you wanted to stretch your legs." James gestured at the runway, barely visible through the torrential downpour. To the side, the white van started up and then rumbled off into the rain, disappearing into the solar array.

"Well, a nice walk is always enjoyable, I suppose." As Kai finished speaking a loud peal of thunder crashed through the clouds while a bolt of lightning illuminated the skies. "Well, if that's not possible, perhaps we could purchase some fuel, and be on our way then?"

"Ahh, now that I can help with." He went quiet for a moment, staring blankly into space, then looked back at Kai. "Someone will be here momentarily." With that he rocked back and forth on his heels slightly, staring at Kai with a strangely neutral expression. Kai gave a faint smile and a nod of thanks and stared back at him determined not to let the strange little man get under his skin.

A converted Land Rover bounced out of the darkness, the rear cargo section having been replaced with a large fuel tank. It pulled up alongside the tilt-wing and a figure got out, dressed in heavy-duty rain gear, pulling out the large diameter hose and a couple of couplings, then looking for somewhere to attach it to. With a deep sigh, Hunter headed over to the fuel port and got it open, becoming soaked to the skin within seconds. The pump rumbled into life, making the entire vehicle shake, and Hunter watched the fuel start to flow – at a rate that far exceeded the normal amount.

"Drek – that's fast. Marius! Check the tank pressure… this is way overspeccced for a fuel pump!"

"Well, that's going nice and quickly. I expect you like to have people on a fast turnaround time." Kai smiled.

"Indeed." James smiled back.

There was another pause, the seconds stretching out.

"So, I don't suppose you have any jobs in the offering do you? Anything you need delivering?"

"Oh no. Nothing like that. It wasn't arranged, you see. No appointment."

"No appointment?"

"Well, not for taking jobs. Just for deliveries. Very different things."

"I see."

"I do have some supplies, that we could maybe part with. On a strictly cash transactional basis, of course."

"What kind of things?"

"I just happen to have some spare electronics systems. A IWS Discovery mark seven control module, with all the latest firmware installed, running on a Daytek microbus node interface. A Gen four Daytek, of course."

"Of course." Kai nodded sagely, then made sure he was transmitting. "So tell me, how much would you want for an IWS Discovery mark seven control module, with all the latest firmware running on a Gen four Daytek?"

"I could let one go for around one hundred and twenty. Seeing as we're friends."

"I see." Kai tipped his head a little to one side, and made a considering noise, hoping that Marius would come through for him – because he had no idea what they were talking about.

"It's an electronic warfare module, Kai. Pretty decent. Worth getting – either for us, or to sell on. We can shift that at a profit. Not much, but some."

"Well James – on consideration, I think that might be worth getting. I have the funds available."

"I'll get the goods bought over then." Again, James stared off blankly into space for a moment, before looking back at Kai and giving a faint smile, then resumed rocking back and forth.

It did only take a minute, and then the white van returned, pulling up as close as they could to the tilt-wing without risking hitting it. James wandered over with the brolly, and took hold of a shoebox sized package from the driver, then sauntered back over. Kai had pulled out a credstick and was waiting, while James handed over the box to Aswon to examine. The lid was loose, and inside was a high-tech looking module that could snap into a modular electronics warfare bay. Not knowing much beyond that, Aswon just gave a nod.

Kai paid, the bill rising by a few thousand as the fuel transfer went through as well.

"Excellent. Perhaps we can do business again some time. We will, of course, make an appointment."

"Good. In that case, you'll need this." James fished around in his pocket and pulled out a small electronic device. The one line display showed a frequency and then a ten-digit code, with a small countdown segmented display to one side. As the final segment of the timer disappeared, the frequency and code changed to a new pair, and the countdown started again.

"Excellent. Until next time, then."

"Until next time."

Kai backed up the ramp, giving a non-committal wave to James, who also backed away, returning a casual gesture, before turning to head to the white van, moving around to the passenger side and then getting in, struggling a little to collapse the large umbrella as he tried to avoid getting wet. Both the white van and the fuel truck started to pull away, turning back towards the power facility.

"Ok folks, that's a weird thing. Let's get ready to go."

"Just running the bug-scanner over this thing…" Hunter was already playing the probe over the interior of the box, scanning for any stowaway devices.

"Just had a quick astral scout around the area. No sign of observation, no spirits or wyverns, nothing going on." Tads informed them.

"Kai – alert. The white van has just pulled into a tight turn, and is coming back."

Kai turned, heading back down the ramp again, while Shimazu loosened his sword and Aswon checked his rifle – just in case. The van pulled past the tilt-wing and then swung around in a tight turn, bringing the passenger side to face them. The window wound down, and the interior light showed James looking at them.

"Bit of a bother, there's some air activity to the north. Not close, but don't want to take any risks. Sure you understand. If you could take off to the south, please, and head that way a while, just to avoid any possible tracking?"

"Ask him how far, Kai?"

"How far do we need to go, James? My pilot is asking."

"Oh, just twenty miles or so should do it. Anyway, thanks." The window wound up again, and the van started to pull away, once more heading towards the facility.

"He says about thirty kilometres or so, if I have the conversion right."

"We can do that. I'm closing the ramp." Sure enough the hydraulics started to whine, lifting the ramp into the closed position and Kai danced off it the last few steps as the angle changed. Outside the engines fired up, and Marius wasted no time using the minimal power as they built up speed to get them turned around and started to taxi up to the north end of the runway. As soon as they were up to speed he accelerated down the runway, lifting off and flying about thirty metres up, skimming over the sea of solar panels and below the levels of the wind turbines that flanked them on either side. As he gained a little more altitude, his sensors picked up a fast-moving target at long range, more from west to east behind them.

"Ok, I see it. A fast-mover on the display, heading from…" Marius quickly checked the map, trying to make sense of the place names. "From Cheltenham towards Oxford. Not closing on our position though. But if we had taken off to the north, we would have been heading directly towards it."

He kept the aircraft level, flying about thirty metres above the ground, thankful that nobody seemed to like especially tall structures around here. In fact, other than the occasional barn, nothing seemed to be more than a few metres up, and he concentrated on checking the weather radar and plotting a route, wondering where he should turn to begin heading back east again.

In the back, Tads twitched, as a feeling of dread ran down her spine like someone pouring ice-water down the back of her clothing. She looked around, but couldn't see anything obvious.

"Hunter – was the box thing ok?"

"Nothing found, looked fine to me. Why?" He was immediately suspicious – Tads was definitely not technically inclined, so why was she asking about the electronics."

"I don't know. I've got a really bad feeling about this. She extended her senses outwards, trying to open herself up to the magical realm and determine what had made her feel so alarmed. "Oh… that's not good. Marius – increase speed! Actually, go… right. Starboard? Yes! That way!" She felt the aircraft bank to the right as Marius responded, even as he pressed her for the reason why. "There's a mana surge behind us. And to the left… no… it's moving now. Now it's to the right of us, and behind us too. And it's getting stronger.

Marius swung the aircraft back to the left, and was about to speak again, when he was cut off by Shimazu.

"Go faster. Much faster. As fast as you can." They felt the brief surge of acceleration as Marius advanced the engine power to the rated maximum. "Um. Faster. There's…. horses chasing us. And dogs. And scary blue clouds. And they're gaining on us."

Marius heard a chorus of people asking silly questions, and ignored them as they cluttered up the team frequency. Instead he swapped to a live sensor feed from the rear of the aircraft, and felt his heartrate jump up immediately as he witnessed exactly what Shimazu had described. Except, it was actually, much much worse.

The clouds behind them were lit up with a pale blue glow, an ethereal light that had nothing to do with what should have been a sunset at this time of year. It highlighted the serried ranks of clouds, glowing out of somewhere or something – but strongly enough to clearly show the weird pack of horsemen, riding ghostly steeds that appeared to be hunting them down. In fact, appeared to be gaining upon them. Despite their speed, this pack of eldritch horses, were galloping through the skies and making up ground on them. He zoomed the view a little, and immediately regretted it as the camera displayed the macabre spectacle of their grinning undead visages, riding rotting mummified steeds, while what looked like the very hounds of hell bayed and surged around their feet.

"Tads! This is your department!" The tilt-wing swung to one side, dropping sharply and then levelling off as Marius slide-shifted out of the way, avoiding a sudden lunge from several of the dogs towards the tail of the aircraft. A harsh scraping sound round along the entire length of the aircraft as they skimmed over a hedge, the hawthorns rubbing over the outer surface of the fuselage. Marius pulled back slightly, gaining some more altitude in case he needed to make more evasive manoeuvres to escape whatever this was.

Hunter threw up the sensor feed onto the screens in the back, and both Kai and Aswon stared at the image in a mix of horror and confusion. Tads still had her eyes closed, and was trembling slightly as she concentrated, and Shimazu had the optics pulled down tightly over his face, though his hand rested on the pommel of his sword now.

"Whatever that is, it's powerful. Way more powerful than us. Than all of us – put together!" Tads cried out in warning. "We CANNOT fight that. It's… it's generating a warp in astral space, worse than the Black Tide!" She tried to put it in context for something they would all understand.

Kai hit the release on his harness, and staggered to the starboard door, opening it a crack and immediately getting a face full of wind. He bellowed out into the darkness as loudly as he could.

"BOTHER SOMEONE ELSE!" He slammed the door shut and dived back towards his seat, grabbing the harness and cinching it down tightly as quickly as he could. "Did that work?"

"What do you think?" Shimazu answered, studying the image behind him.

"Well, I'm out of ideas then. What is it?"

"I think it's the Wild Hunt. Heard legends about it. Harbingers of death and destruction. But a naturally occurring event. Something to do with the solstice I bet. I think I remember hearing, you had to avoid them until dawn… which will be around five tomorrow morning.

"We are so frakked then." Hunter called out. Nobody disagreed with him.

"They're still gaining on us!"

"I am going as fast as I can, Shimazu. Engines are at 120%! They have nothing more to -" Marius's next words were cut off as he screamed, his digital voice crackling and clipping over the comms. The aircraft lurched violently, dropping down ten metres in a split second as the bolt of lightning speared down from the clouds, impacting on the starboard engine and making it explode. Tendrils of energy blasted the wing apart, and the composite material splintered and shredded as energy transferred into it. As the engine disintegrated, the propellers flew off, one of them lancing through the air and puncturing the side of the aircraft, driving into the space between two of the team's heads. Electrical systems went haywire, and in the cockpit Hunter could smell the burning flesh as the jolt of power rand through the rigger interface directly into Marius. The pilot was twisted and deformed with pain as the jolt of electricity hit his brain directly, but somehow through gritted teeth he managed to stay conscious.

The cockpit display was a sea of red warning lights – for those panels that hadn't shut down entirely that was. Damage schematics flashed up and huge parts of the diagnostics screen flashed warnings about critical damage.

"We… are… going…. down... Crash… positions!" The pain in the pilot's voice was all the warning they needed, and the team braced themselves, curling up into a ball and wrapping their arms around their heads. Tads flung her net spell out, trying to hold everything in place in the rear section with the last second of their flight, before the tilt-wing slapped into the ground at high speed.

It slid, ripping through the barley field and leaving a flaming trail of destruction behind it. The port-side engine lost all the props as they smashed into the ground, scything out a spiral trail like a corkscrew. The starboard wing disintegrated further, the spars digging into the ground and flipping them sideways. But Marius was an excellent pilot. Using the last of his power and control, he'd managed to get the nose up at the last second, slapping them down hard on the belly of the aircraft but turning them into a giant sledge, rather than letting the nose of the aircraft dig into the ground and then flip end over end.

The crash was brutal, the airframe shrieking and shaking, ripping apart around them and sending showers of sparks, hydraulic fluid and sprays of fuel out in all directions. Each of them were flung about, shaken as if a dog had hold of a rabbit.

But it was a military aircraft, designed to be thrown into brutal combat. All of the crew had been firmly strapped in, held in place by the crash harnesses designed for this very occasion. Each had been further secured by the spell Tads had cast with only a moment to spare. And their pilot, was truly world-class.

The aircraft skidded to a halt, at the end of a churned up mass of mud and ripped up hedgerows hundreds of metres long.

But they all were alive.

In fact, more than that, the only one of them that seemed to have sustained any injury at all in the crash was Marius – so determined had he been to stay jacked in until there was nothing more he could do. Because of that he was not in control of his body, his meat body – and the arms had flailed around in the crash, cracking his forearms off the dashboard.

As they stopped, sparks continued to flash and jump around the cabin, control lines shorting out and sending pulses of electricity arcing out to whatever they could reach.

In the back, one of the fuel barrels had taken a hit, and litres of aviation fuel were pouring out of the rent in the side of the barrel, flooding into the back of the cargo space.

"Get out! Now!" Kai scarcely need to use his powers, it was clear that staying in the aircraft was a one way ticket to death. It wasn't a matter of if it would catch fire and explode – more than when. Each of the team grabbed the item most crucial to them – mostly their weapons, and bailed out of the side door once Shimazu had shoulder barged it open, jumping down onto the muddy field.

Behind them, in their wake, the ghostly horsemen and hounds closed, hunting them down.

The team turned and ran, heading away from the pursuers. It seemed futile for a moment, they'd been catching up with the aircraft, how could they possibly not catch them on the ground?

But when Aswon glanced over his shoulder, they chasing spirits were running about as fast as they were. Maybe just a touch faster…

"Keep running! They're the same speed as we are. I think there are rules for the hunt! It's like we have to have a chance. Or choose to give up!" He didn't know if that was accurate, but it seemed to resonate with something he'd heard once. And if nothing else, the others didn't need to know – they needed a little hope.

Another crack of lightning and long rolling peal of thunder split the heavens above them, and they saw a low rise ahead of them, starting at the end of this field. On top of the mound was a stone tower or keep, or maybe some kind of manor house. It didn't look like much, but it was the only cover they could see.

"Make for the house!" Aswon pointed. Hunter changed direction slightly, barrelling through the waist high barley and clearing a path for them, Kai in his wake supported by Shimazu. Tads followed along, and he could feel the power emanating out of her as she tried to shield them from whatever magical attacks the huntsman might have, but he doubted she'd be successful – not against a foe that strong. Not that it would stop her, of course.

He saw Marius stumble, the poor pilot stunned and burnt from the lightning strike and fighting back the pain from his damaged arms. Aswon transferred the rifle to his spear hand, struggling to hold on to both and then grabbed hold of the German, yanking him along and dragging him forward.

They ran as fast as they could, Shimazu almost dragging Kai along as he started to run out of steam and stumble, and Aswon helping Marius. Tads had her head down and was blowing like a winded race-horse, but managing to hold up the pace – just. Hunter was a few paces ahead, using his massive bulk to smash the crops out of the way and clear a path for them. He charged straight through the hedge at the end of the field and pounded up the steps towards the wall surrounding the keep.

At the back, Aswon could swear he could feel hot breath on his neck, the hounds closing in as he ran, the faint ghostly laughter and chomping at the bit of the horsemen and their steeds ringing in his ear. He threw everything he had into a last effort, almost carrying Marius up the wide staircase and running through the stone archway in the outer wall, before slamming into the back of Shimazu and Kai, and nearly losing his footing.

All he could hear from ahead was Hunter, emphatically letting out a single word.

"Frak."