Thursday 08/09/61, Location: 35.32212, 126.74389, Time 19:00

"Is everyone ready?" Kai asked, when Tads indicated that her headache had passed and that she was ready to proceed.

"All good here – you sure you're ok, Tads? That last spirit looked to have caught you by surprise…"

"I'm fine – all good now, Aswon. I wanted to make sure the Broadsword was covered by the most powerful spirit I could get, to make sure it's concealed while we're all away. But we're good to go."

"I have prepared the aircraft as far as is possible. All systems are pre-flighted, and remote systems engaged. It will drain the vehicle battery somewhat, and is not ideal for long periods of time, but I can get her airborne in only a few minutes if need be, and be over to our location a minute or two later at worst." Marius paused, then frowned slightly. "If the situation warrants it, I can perhaps cut that time in half, though it risks damage to the engines, and increased maintenance costs."

"Good to know – let's try not to need it!" Kai said brightly. He pointed a finger towards the door. "Ok, let's go! Aswon, lead the way please, as you've been round that way before." Kai watched as Aswon headed off, the rest of the team following along behind, quickly shaking down into a single file – the mercenary leading the way, Hunter padding along behind him with his rifle in hands, Shimazu following him with one hand on his sword hilt, eyes scanning side to side as they climbed the ridge, Kai following the bodyguard, Tads just behind him and Marius bringing up the rear.

They moved quietly through the light woodland, each of them fairly adept now at moving stealthily through a variety of environments. The slope wasn't that steep, and the foliage wasn't that dense – certainly not compared to some of the rainforests they'd encountered previously, and they made good time heading up the slope and then working their way to the south, keeping the top of the ridge between them and the factory, obscuring them from the drones and any other sensors that might have noticed the subtle heat shapes moving through the cooling landscape.

Soon enough, Aswon swung to a more easterly heading, running parallel to the fenceline and following some kind of faint game trail, leading the team towards the valley and their way into the facility – they hoped. He paused at the edge of a clearing, his hand raised into a fist while his body smoothly crouched and took cover behind a bush. The faintest whisper of fabric swishing at the edge of his hearing and a vague sense of presence told him that Hunter was crouching just behind him.

"Seen something?"

"No… but this is where I found those lovebirds and…drek!" He fell silent, as a sudden giggle crossed the clearing, and a small patch of darkness on the other side of the clearing shifted. "Looks like it's nookie time again. Take cover. They probably won't be long."

"No stamina, some kids…" Hunter sent subvocally, and a couple of the team had to fight to suppress a snigger. But the team crouched or lay down, oozing into the darkness under bushes or behind trees, settling down to wait. Hunter listened intently, picking up some truly cringe-worthy teen romance chat, but it let him listen in to some slang and pick up on the subtle nuances between the version of the language taught and the version actually spoken, and that had value of its own – even though he didn't want to listen to discussions of her 'delicate love flower'…

Aswon was correct, though, that their forbidden tryst in the woods didn't last long, and soon enough their 'business' was concluded and they headed out of the clearing, following a small trail to the south.

"Must be locals, from the farms. Just what we needed though, to stumble into a Romeo and Juliet situation…" Aswon shook his head, and then slowly crossed the open space, his head scanning from side to side as he checked out the route ahead. One by one the team followed along, picking up their position in the line once more and travelling further to the east.

Soon enough they reached the end of the plateau, finding the ground dropping away sharply before them, descending down to the small but fast-flowing river below them. The imposing presence of the railway viaduct stretched across the valley to their left, and a smattering of lights on the opposite side of the valley showed them where the various farmhouses and small-holdings were located. They descended about halfway down the slope towards the river, then started to traverse the incline, crabbing their way to the north. It kept them a reasonable distance from the double fence around the facility without having to descend all the way down to the river, though moving across the sharp slope was uncomfortable and slowed their progress somewhat – but it did keep them in the concealing foliage that grew stubbornly from the thirty-degree slope.

Being half-way down the slope also made it easy to get under the railway line, moving quietly through two of the large archways that supported the railroad above them, as soon as they'd checked the areas for cameras and other sensors. Further up they could see a mass of razor wire and fencing around the edge of the facility and the first two of the uprights for the viaduct, meant to discourage any attempts to climb the large concrete piers – but further down the slope where they were, there was just a simpler ring of razor wire around the top of the pier, preventing any adventurous climbers.

Once past the rail line, they had another hundred metres or so to go before the slope opened up a little, and more importantly the double fence turned to the west, running along the northern side of the marshalling yard. As they started to push up the slope, they saw the much more basic chain-link fence that surrounded the future building site, and quickly swarmed over the barrier.

From there, it only took two more minutes of careful crawling until they reached the entranceway to the underground system. A large manhole cover was centred in a concrete collar, surrounded by a spray of weeds and grasses. Two large metal protrusions rose out of the concrete, and a large diameter steel bar was threaded through the metal loops, with a padlock on each end. The steel bar ran over the centre of the manhole cover, just above the surface, locking it down in place and preventing access.

"Time for you to do your thing, Shimazu." Kai gestured for him to deal with the problem, and the team all crouched in a circle, looking outwards and watching the surrounding area while Shimazu crawled forwards over the concrete ring, pulling out his lockpicks and approaching the padlocks with a determined look on his face. The locks were of a reasonable quality, and showed signs of having been installed for some time – a slight patina of rust and debris showed they were not commonly used, and Shimazu carefully moved his picks and tools around, feeling his way through the various tumblers until with a muted click, one of the padlocks opened up obligingly for him after fifty seconds of effort. He pulled out the bar carefully, then reversed his grip on it, pushing the end of the bar into one of the holes on the cover, and using the two-metre long rod to pry up the large disk of metal. Aswon heard his stifled grunt of effort and the tiny scraping sounds as the cover scraped across the concrete, and swiftly moved in to grab the other side of the manhole cover, lifting it carefully to one side.

Peering down, Aswon waited for a few moments, observing and listening carefully to the darkened tunnel that stretched down below him, before he quietly oozed over the lip of the collar, and started to carefully climb down the metallic rungs embedded in the wall. He got to the bottom, and was just about to signal the others when he as much felt as saw the large form of Shimazu land with a thud next to him.

"Sorry. Thought it was deeper than this…" Shimazu whispered, giving an apologetic shrug.

"Well, shush," Aswon whispered, before turning back to examine the way ahead. No matter how he squinted, he couldn't see anything, so very carefully he pulled out his torch, and used one hand to cover nearly all of the lens, limiting the amount of light that it would emit, and then with a deep breath, he turned on the device. The tiny amount of light that emerged was aimed at the wall, and the rough concrete surface scattered the light wildly. To a lot of people it would have made no difference at all, but to his magically attuned senses there was a world of difference between no light and a tiny amount of light. The long dormant genes that so many doctors and geneticists had thought were 'junk' but had in fact merely been awaiting sufficient mana to be in the world to display their true purposes were active now, shaping the rods and cones in his eyes and letting them drink in the tiny amount of light produced, giving him night-vision far beyond that of a cat or dog, let alone an unaugmented human. "Well, drek. Looks more like a portcullis on a medieval castle than a grating."

He examined the barrier over the tunnel that would prevent them from travelling west, looking first for a good thirty seconds from multiple angles at the heavyweight girders of plasteel that had been implanted into the concrete and arc-welded together. Each was as thick as his hand, and the gaps between them were sized that while a child or a contortionist might possibly squeeze through, no adult could – and certainly not anyone wearing armour or carrying significant gear. It was possible that they might even have problems getting some of their weapons through the gaps.

"I can probably burn through this – but it's going to take time. No sign of sensors down here, no alarm wires or anything like that – but it wouldn't take much of a camera up the tunnel to spot the sparks and bright light of a burning bar and raise the alarm – not in this darkness."

"I can try to cut through?"

"I wouldn't. Your sword is sharp – but plasteel is tough, and there's a lot of material here. You're as likely to shatter your blade as you are to cut through. Nah… I think we go back up, and actually go to one of the other junction points, and try there. I get the impression this is to stop people coming in from down by the river bank, maybe there's a vent there. Or it's used for drainage. But there's a small amount of dirt over everything here, this doesn't look like it's been disturbed for years."

Shimazu and Aswon climbed back up to the top, and filled in the rest of the team on what they'd found, then spent a minute levering the cover back in place over the access tunnel and replacing the locks, getting ready to move on.

"I have checked the drone patrol route, their height and the probable resolution of their scanners, based on what I have seen of them. If we head to the next access point on bearing two-nine-six, we can be reasonably sure that we are just outside the scanner footprint. That is also an access tunnel that has a number of low-lying bushes and tall grass growing nearby, which should give us some cover."

"Ok, good stuff." Kai looked around, taking a moment to sample the night air and listen to the world about them, then nodded. "Lead on Aswon, let's go." Aswon nodded in response, then led the team onward, moving slowly and cautiously across the relatively flat terrain, moving from one patch of vegetation to another as they worked their way north-west and towards the next access point into the underground tunnels. When they got there, they found exactly the same setup as the previous one, and Shimazu got to work immediately, quickly working the padlock off the bar and then using the locking bar to lever off the huge manhole cover. This time though, Aswon made no moves to descend into the tunnel, instead staring at Shimazu.

"You first this time, you noisy bugger." His lips pulled back revealing a feral grin, as he waved for Shimazu to precede him. Shimazu returned his grin, drew his sword and then neatly stepped over the edge, dropping down the centre of the shaft – and this time landing without a sound as used his own magical augmentations to absorb the impact on the ground below. He looked around, using the thermographic sensors built into his goggles before quietly reporting in.

"All clear both directions. No signs of activity at all."

The rest of the team swarmed down the ladder, descending down into the chamber formed where the tunnels intersected, then following along as Aswon led them to the south, working towards the junction that should lay there. Sure enough, after thirty metres or so, they came to a t-junction, with the left turn heading back towards the first access point and the portcullis, and the right path leading to the west, directly towards the factory. He paused for a moment, something nagging at his mind, and he waved for the team to stop, waiting while he let his mind chew on the situation, wondering what it was that had alerted him.

"There's no air movement down here. It's dead… no currents." He looked back towards the team. "We need to be careful. The tunnels are wide enough and big enough that we're not going to exhaust the oxygen that quickly… unless we do something like start using thermite to cut through a barrier. The heat will cause some air currents – but I'm not sure if that will be enough, and it's also going to spew out carbon monoxide and other stuff. If we're cutting, we might want to make sure only one of us is nearby, and the rest are back a bit."

"Let me know if that's going to be an issue. I have some magic I can use, that will directly oxygenate your blood. I thought it would be for when we were underwater, but it should work like this too."

"Or you can just tell me what to do. I can switch over to my internal tank." Hunter reminded them.

"Ok, sounds like we have some options. Let's move on…" Aswon led the way westward, the rest of the team following along quietly behind him once more. They travelled a fair way, more than a hundred metres, at a slow and cautious pace, trying to maximise their stealth and stay alert for any traps or sensors. It wouldn't take much noise or light to set off an alert in the quiet, dark and otherwise motionless tunnels, and they had no idea how paranoid the company was.

Eventually though, they reached the doorway that Tads had discovered on her astral reconnaissance, closing up on it carefully to examine it. Unlike the previous barrier, the one across this tunnel was considerably less permanent and massive – though it was still a clear impediment to their progress.

Panels of metal had been riveted or bolted onto some kind of frame or truss on the far side, presenting a smooth surface towards them that blocked nearly all sight of the tunnel beyond. On the right hand side of the tunnel, the panels had been cut or shaped to match the curvature of the tunnel and were actually snug, but perhaps half a metre in, there was a line that ran from top to bottom, indicating a hinge or a joint on the far side. The remainder of the panel presumably swung open when it was unlocked, allowing access to the tunnel beyond. On the left hand side though, the panels were cut and shaped to go around the pipes and trays that held them, and here the cuts were much less precise. There still wasn't much room – but there were gaps on all sides of the pipes, some up to a few centimetres in size. One by one, the team crouched down to the left side, looking through the gaps and checking out the far side to get an idea of the terrain, each using the various vision systems they had access to, to try and gather as much intelligence as possible.

On the far side of the door, the tunnel was not quite as dark as on their side – it seemed that a string of lights had been installed, and each of the lights had a single, solitary status LED, a tiny green light that stretched off into the distance. Checking their own side of the tunnel, they found that there was a conduit that ran along the ceiling, and open receptacles, presumably for the installation of the bulkhead lights to match the other side. That let Marius break out his fibre optic borehole camera, running it up the 18mm wide conduit and past the door, getting a close up view of the light system on the other side.

"It has a power feed, appearing to be daisy-chained together from the previous light. But there is also a data connection. I cannot access it from here, I cannot get a spike through the conduit, but I can tell that it is on the building system – so it will be rigger-controlled. And if there is a data connection, that would indicate that it is in some way managed, and smart. It is likely to have a sensor, perhaps heat-based – that will turn the light on if a metahuman target is in range."

"Well, that sucks… so if we have a heat source in range, the light comes on, and if the light comes on, the riggers in control of the network will probably pick it up, and be alerted?"

"Correct, Aswon."

"Can we block the sensors?"

"We could, Kai – but only once we are on the other side of the door. And chances are, before we can reach the light, the sensor would detect us."

"What about if I created an aura of cold around someone. Or a trid-phantasm in a sort of tube around the lights? I could create a cold, dark, empty-looking illusion, that might fool the sensor?"

"A good idea, Tads. The sensors will be very cheap and simple, if they have them installed in every single light. They should be easy to fool." He pulled back the camera out of the conduit and instead fed it through the gap to the left of the tunnel, underneath some of the pipework, and then used the controls to bend it around in a U-shape, surveying the back side of the door and examining the lock. Once more it was a fairly simple mechanical padlock that was in place, but the door had a deep recess and a small flange in an arc around the locking mechanism, making it nigh on impossible to reach through the gap with tools and then arc around to manipulate the lock. "Simple, but effective. I think on this one we may need you to cut, Aswon, just a small slice down the middle here, to go through the actual bar that slides into the wall. That should allow us to swing the door open and closed again, without damaging the rest of the structure."

"Give me a moment, please?" Tads sat down and leant against the wall, then projected carefully through the material, manifested and then examined the other side, before drifting back into her body. "No wards, no moss or growth, nothing magical I can see. No anchored spells on the lock for instance, or anything at all, really. Should be safe."

While she had done that, Marius had pulled out a small applicator and had run some penetrating oil down the crack on the right hand side, hoping that it would seep through to the hidden hinges and lubricate them somewhat – and prevent or at least diminish any noise that it might make.

Aswon set himself up, checking the position and preparing his thermite, standing ready to try and create a small burn that would cut through the locking bar and as little else as possible. Once the others had retreated back twenty metres, he fired up his small lighter, adjusting it until the flame caught on the small magnesium strip that was wound tightly around the end of the bar. The yellow of the lighter flame was replaced by the intense burning of the magnesium, a much brighter white/yellow that seared his eyes – and that additional heat lit the tip of the thermite. A shower of sparks started to spit out from the end of the bar, and a large flare of intense flame licked up from the position of the bar. A second or two later, molten gobbets of metal started to fall from the doorway, as the thermite melted through the locking bar, along with the edge of the door frame as well. It seemed he'd judged the size about right though, and a few moments later the reaction sputtered and faded away, leaving him blinking to try and restore his vision, while the cherry-red edges of the hole started to fade. He retreated back to join the rest at a safe distance, crouching at the side of the tunnel with his rifle ready… if they had set off the alarm, it wouldn't take long to find out. He felt a breeze heading past him, carrying the noxious scent of burning metals and the tang of the chemical fire.

"I've asked a spirit to circulate the air, or at least push the vapours away, make sure there isn't a pool of bad air around it – that's right, isn't it?"

"Nice, Tads – yes."

"And I had a spirit conceal you while you were cutting. It seemed like a sensible thing to do. Hopefully it won't have set off any alarms…" She sounded a little distant, and a quick glance at her in astral revealed that she was fully focussed on the astral plane, watching for any signs of watcher spirits, elementals, spells or other magical phenomena. They waited for a full five minutes before they approached the door again, sitting in the darkness as they listened for sounds of activity. That at least meant though that when they did approach the door, it had cooled sufficiently to be slightly less dangerous, and with a bit of wiggling, they managed to get the door to open, hidden behind a concealing barrier of illusion that Tads had put up.

Once on the other side of the doorway, the team stepped up a gear, with Aswon and Kai watching the tunnel into the facility, backed up by Kai and Tads, while Hunter and Marius started to check over the devices. Now with physical access, Marius was able to get his data-spike inserted into the rigger system, giving him direct wired access for the first time. Hunter meanwhile was able to find an access panel in one of the pipes on the wall and get access to a fibre junction box, and quickly get his own tap in to hook up his own deck. Both of them still had to be careful – with direct access, they had a 'footprint' in the systems, and were detectable, even if they were lurking and not doing anything, but it let them gather information much more quickly and with lower chances of detection that trying to hack in through an external device.

Over the next ten minutes, Marius was able to pull camera footage from the huge sea of cameras dotted around the facility, and had a much better idea of layout. The plants seemed to run on a series of linear paths, with raw materials being injected into the process from the sides, slowly being formed, pressed, drilled, cut or milled into components that were bought to the central line and attached, a car forming from a skeleton to a fully realised item over the course of the journey. Most of the workstations had robotic arms, and it seemed that there were relatively few manual tasks – just a few stations here and there were human ingenuity and flexibility still seemed to be able to do a job faster and cheaper than a drone. But amongst his exploration, he found the two data-centres, one in building eight and the other in building one – and confirmed that both of them were off the rigger network, or at least off the general network he was on. He could see the outside of the rooms, including the airlock style entrances – but had no access to the interiors. Presumably there was a separate system to handle the air-conditioning, lighting and power systems. He shared the information with the rest of the group, but in particular with Hunter.

"Great. Ok, we got two options. One is that we go break into the room. If we can get past the doors and security, and get me direct access to the host, I can bypass like… 80% of the security, and get system access. Getting the codes should be simple – but it's an arse to get in there."

"I can only be in one place at a time. If I am dealing with the electronic locks on that door, I cannot maintain rigger overwatch on the rest of the system…"

"I know, buddy. Option two is I can splice in here, and gain access via the data lines. That's coming in through the front door though. At least we're on the network here – their host HAS to be connected to the robot stations throughout the facility, and things like the stock management system. It has to be, or there's no reason to have it. But that means punching through the firewalls and security that's designed to keep the data safe. Less risk physically, 'cos we don't have to get to the data centre itself. More risk over the matrix though…"

"Oh. Wait one." Marius sounded distracted, and as he probed his rigger deck, his frown deepened further. "We have an issue. I have detected another…. Yes, definitely, another tap on the network."

"What do you mean?" Kai pressed him for clarification.

"Another dataline tap, like mine. Inserted onto the rigger network somewhere. Someone else is physically tapped in."

"And how come they haven't detected it? And you have?"

"I suspect they are doing passive recon, like we are. It is just slurping up passing data, lurking in the shadows – but I am specifically looking for odd patterns and such like. And not taking anything for granted, like the building riggers probably are. They almost certainly know what the network is configured like, and are making sure everything runs well, rather than looking directly for intruders. At least that is my guess. They are complacent. But that does not mean they will not find it, sooner or later."

"I could go looking for it? In astral?"

"I doubt you will be successful, Tads. They could be in any building, or anywhere on site, that the cables reach. I cannot locate them without going active myself, and that will probably tip off the company riggers. But I think we are not alone here…"

"But you can find us a way to the server room, if we need to, with what you have now?"

"Yes, Aswon. But again, if I am to defeat the maglocks on the entrance, I would have to jack out of the building system – then I cannot monitor for alarms, or supress cameras, or do anything else to support us, while we get through the doors."

"Drek. Ok, what else can you see?"

"There is a rail system around the factory. All of them it seems. It looks like the Ares series P system, but made slightly differently." He glanced up from his deck and saw several blank faces, then sighed. "Ok, there is a monorail system around the interior of the buildings, at a high level. Specific drones run on the monorail, using the track for both power feeds and data control – they are not on wifi, they communicate as if they are cabled in. So we have to be connected to the rigger network to affect them. But they are fast, and have unlimited power effectively."

"But can only go where the rail goes."

"Indeed, Aswon. But as I said, these are mounted at a high level, so they have excellent fields of fire. I have a partial picture – displaying now." A slightly blurry picture appeared on the screen of his deck, letting them spot the bulky form of a drone whizzing along the rail, caught in passing by the security camera. "I think they also double as a fire-fighting system, based on the barrel size displayed there. But if they have drones in a maintenance bay somewhere ready to deploy, I am sure they can just swap rails and send out a security drone rather than a fire drone. They are likely armoured to a point where only Aswon or Hunter could damage them."

They spend a few more minutes checking out the sensor feeds, learning more and more about the facility, working out how to get around inside the factories, checking out the locks on the doors that separated each of the areas and getting much valuable information on the floor plan and organisation of the facility.

"Oh…" Marius paused again, and the frown returned, the harbinger of bad news. "I have found something." The screen changed to show a camera view of a tunnel, according to the logo displayed, the access tunnel on the north-west side of the facility, leading towards the dam and reservoir located there. They watched, but nothing seemed to happen.

"What are we watching for?" Kai asked.

"Watch in the top left control on the right hand panel. The one showing the amount of water that has been pumped so far this hour." The team watched, and then gave a start as they saw the figure suddenly jump backwards, dropping from 14,100 litres back to 13,800. It was hard to make out, but Marius had zoomed in close on the display, putting up with the artefacts and jagged pixels as he zoomed to a degree the camera had to start inventing detail and interpolating data. As they watched it climb up it reached 14,100 again, then jumped back down.

"Frak… someone else isn't just in the system on a tap. They have a rigger as well, and they're looping the camera feed?" Aswon theorised.

"Yes. They are not just doing recon, they are here to do a job. Possibly the same job as us, for a different Johnson. Or maybe the same job from the same supplier. We have to consider that we may have been burnt…"

"Or it could just be really bad luck on our part. Or their part. Someone's part…" Kai sighed, his fingers drumming on his thigh as he considered options. "Crap… ok, we need to press forward. If another team pull a job, even if it's unrelated to ours, it's going to put them on such a high state of alert that we're going to be running a hell of a risk trying to get in."

Hunter moved over to the data lines and started to check on the labelling, comparing it to his notes on the system that Marius had discovered. Rummaging around in his kit, he found his own data-tap, and jammed it into his pocket.

"We're on the clock, I'm going to see what we can do from out here. There's a junction action point, actually down in the tunnel, twenty metres in and about ten to the right on the next corner. Probably better if Marius stays in and tries to protect us, or limits the other team from doing what they need to, and I'll do my best to slice the data from there. At least I'll actually have access to the network directly… but I'll need cover."

"I'll come, and Shimazu will, too. Aswon, can you secure the junction behind us, and watch the tunnel to the north. Tads, you stay with Marius, while he's jacked in?" Kai detailed people off to their various tasks, then glanced up at the lights overhead.

"Taking control of the light sensors now…. Ok, go ahead. But be quick." Marius muttered as he sliced his way into the system, invading the lighting circuits in the tunnels and rerouting data and control information to his own deck, preventing the sensors from reporting back on the movement and turning on the lights in response. The team hustled off to the west, leaving the pilot sat on the floor, a network cable running from the port on the back of his neck to his deck, and from there into the lighting circuit, his electronic fingers trying to dance through the network now with a light but firm touch.

"Marius – I know you're busy, so don't do anything that will distract you… but if you're in their network now and having to do things… could you get a drone forklift or something to go get the sensors and deliver them somewhere. Like the middle of the parking area outside? If you have to be online and risk getting caught, can we at least make that part of the job easier?" She wasn't sure if he'd heard her to start off with, but then he gave a grunt and one hand gave a kind of thumbs up gesture – but it seemed he was concentrating too much on what he was doing to give her much beyond that.

"In position at the junction!" Aswon reported.

Thirty seconds later, they heard another quiet report.

"At the junction box. Decking in now."

"We're watching over him. Shimazu is just in front of him, I'm on the other side of the tunnel."

It fell quiet again as Hunter started to slice his way into the building data network, trying to replicate what Marius was doing with their facility network. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he concentrated… he was good, though he hadn't spent quite as many hours as Marius had perfecting his craft. But unlike Marius who had a top-end rigger deck with all the latest bells and whistles, he was reminded that his own deck had come from a 3rd tier department store and was originally designed as a tool for remote workers. In fact it wasn't even until he'd managed to secure a masking chip that it had actually been a 'deck' worthy of name – until then it was just office supplies… but now he was having to do a run against a hardened data host on the clock, flying by the seat of his pants.

It didn't fill him with confidence – but it didn't seem like there was a lot of choice.

Unaware of the doubts flashing through Hunter's mind, Aswon crouched down in the junction about twenty metres to his south, leaning against the wall and trays of pipes, trying to blend into the obstructions as much as possible. His rifle was aimed down the tunnel to the west, but not raised to his eye mainly. He was running though a routine – eyes closed for a few seconds, concentrating on listening, feeling with the skin of his face, trying to detect air currents or distant noises. Then he opened his eyes wide, his pupils drinking in the tiny amounts of detail betrayed by the tiny green status lights set into the bulkhead lamps. Then he lifted the rifle slowly to his eye, looking down into the darkness of the tunnel as it continued arrow straight away from him. Then he lowered the rifle, and let his spirit relax, his eyes changing shape slightly as he examined the astral plane, looking at the grey uniform walls and tunnel for a moment, looking for signs of life or activity, before closing his eyes once more to listen…

He cycled through, trying not to let it be routine, keeping a watchful eye out for anything that might threaten them, determined to keep the escape route clear for Hunter, Kai and Shimazu.

As he dropped into astral space once more, he saw a bright flare of energy far off in the distance – an elemental. A big one too. It looked up the tunnel at him, and he felt a slight prickle in his aura as it latched on to him trying to get a read on his own power.

The moment stretched out, as they stared at each other. No more than a heartbeat, but it felt much, much longer. Then it turned and vanished, fleeing northwards around the corner as fast as it could.

"Guys… we have a new problem. Air elemental just spotted me, then bolted north. Guess the other team are down in the tunnels too, and they're aware of us now. Stand-by…"