Saturday 10/09/61, Location: -6.9362, 110.51054, Time 06:31

"Finding their network!" Marius adjusted his mental position a little, releasing the control over the gun and directing his sensors and electronic warfare capability instead, scanning the area for signals and data. He picked up the transmissions from multiple sources around the ambush site, all coalescing into a control system on the north side somewhere – and more worryingly, he also picked up an outbound signal from there heading out in an omni-directional broadcast, no doubt heading out over the matrix back to some command and control node somewhere remote. He directed his deck to infiltrate the network, blasting through the low-end firewall that protected the system, forcing his way through the command channels and started to seize control of the devices.

Aswon unbuckled himself from his seat and dived over towards the door, one hand reaching for the opening mechanism while the other swung his rifle round, jamming it through the opening in the doorway as soon as it was wide enough, and starting to look for a target. He wished he had the larger rifle ready to go for a moment, but then wondered if that was a case of overkill…

As the door swung back, he could see sudden gunfire down below, indistinct tracer-fire as the ambushers opened up with their assault rifles, firing short controlled bursts towards the group who had been waiting for the delivery. They'd lost a few men from the northern group with the initial burst from Marius, but there was still plenty of them, and their rapid-fire rifles spat bullets out in a deadly-crossfire. The group at the minivan were caught in a pincer, taking fire from opposite directions, and writhed as the lightweight but fast-moving rounds slammed into them. They may have had some armour on under their clothing, but if so it was the lighter-weight kind designed to protect against the lower power firearms commonly used by street-scum and lowlifes, not the high-tech arsenal available to the wealthier.

One of the ambushers to the south spun in place and slithered across the floor with his limbs twisting and writhing as Hunter took him out using the rear-turret, and Aswon could see the sharp angles and reflections of his armour glinting in the faint pre-dawn light though the wisps of mist. He was wearing security armour – very obvious and indiscreet attire that was normally only worn when combat was expected or when someone wanted to make a statement. The heavy blocks of alloys provided superior protection compared to the armoured street clothing common in the sixth world, outclassing even the stopping power of armoured fatigues. His assault rifle clattered off the angular breastplate, skidding across the ground until the sling snagged on his gauntlet.

The ambushers were using modern-looking rifles, something analogous to an Ares Alpha as far as he could see – a 5.56mm round, probably about 45mm long, firing from a half-metre barrel. The round was lightweight, but had good muzzle velocity, reasonable penetration and delivered an acceptable punch. If the shooter was skilled and could compensate for the recoil, a three round burst was normally sufficient to take a man down and out with no issues – as they could see from the state of the delivery crew. The ambushers had the advantage over their opponents – their own heavy-duty security armour was pretty much proof against the rounds they were firing, so even any misses from one group wouldn't hurt those on the other side of the pincer, and that, of course, meant that if they'd not taken down their opponents when they sprang their ambush, the return fire they would face would also have had a minimal threat. At worst, they would have ended up with some bruising or spall damage, probably easily fixed in a day or two.

But they weren't facing just fire from their own type of weapons. The autocannons on the Broadsword were a big step up, in every possible way. The 20mm diameter was nearly four times the size of the rifle rounds, and the 110mm length was nearly triple that of the infantry system. The smaller bullets had a weight of about five grams, with the explosive providing an impact force of nearly 1,800 Joules. The larger cannon rounds, though, used their vast size to pack in nearly a hundred and ten grams of explosive, giving them a muzzle velocity over twenty-five percent higher, but an impact force exceeding 55,000 Joules. The security armour that could deflect the lighter round was shattered and destroyed as the heavy cannon rounds impacted them, tearing through them as if they were tissue paper.

All of this flashed through Aswon's mind as he lined up on the next figure in line, settling himself and calming his heartbeat, commanding his body to be still. His own rifle was heavier and more powerful than an assault rifle, but lacked the rate of fire that would let him put multiple rounds on target in a split second. It was far lighter than the cannons too, with nowhere near the same amount of energy imparted on impact. That just meant he had to be clever, working around the armour, instead of punching through it. As his heart stopped momentarily, commanded into stillness with his somatic control of his body, the targeting reticule dropped into just the right spot, and he squeezed the trigger. A moment later the 7.62mm hunting round punched through the narrow neck seal of the next target, sliding between the armoured breastplate and dense helmet, smashing into the neck and carving through the blood vessels and tendons there, dropping the ambusher to the ground.

"No magic, no spirits visible. No strange effects, no spells!" Tads called out, blinking as she rapidly cycled through the viewing prism, scanning across the battle-site to look for astral threats. With one hand she held the headset to the front of her face, while the other tried to pull the straps around the back of her own head, seating it properly. Shimazu had taken it off in such a hurry that they were all tangled up, and she couldn't seem to get them to sit right, especially not when she was also trying to concentrate on the situation outside and provide support.

Shimazu meanwhile had vaulted over the seats and then dived for the doorway.

"Coming through!" he barely had time to say, before he physically shot between Aswon's braced legs, sliding out into open space and tucking himself into a ball as he started to fall. He tucked in tightly for a moment, increasing the speed of his spin, before then straightening out just as quickly. As his limbs extended, his rotation slowed and he dropped, landing on the roadway below with unnatural quiet, hands spread to either side to brace and support him, one leg back, the other bent below him, making him look like a sprinter on the starting blocks. Another moment later and he was away, zig-zagging across the freshly laid road surface towards the delivery van and the mess of bodies slumped next to it.

"I have control of the enemy network. Appears to be several camera drones reporting back to a retransmitter, broadcasting to a remote location. Shutting it all down now. Mind yourself, Aswon – drones incoming to your door."

"What?"

"My new drones. I need to get them onboard." Aswon snorted as he realised what Marius was doing, but then moved to the side of the door, bracing himself in a new position that would hopefully let whatever drone Marius had just stolen get past him and into the interior.

"Those drones are on a corporate network – Zeta Imp-Chem." Marius continued. There was a moment of silence, then a stream of profanity from Hunter. "Do not worry – they have no footage of us, or our craft. But I thought you should know." A few more words rumbled over the radio before Hunter concentrated on his shooting once more.

"Listen, buddy – it's all got a bit shooty here." Kai returned to the phone call. "It looks like your pickup team were ambushed, by a corporate security force. They've not seen us yet, and we still have your delivery, but most of your team are down, it seems."

"Drek! What a shit-show… err… are you in a position to help? Can you get them out?"

"We can, but it's going to cost you!" Kai warned, much to the surprise of those in earshot. He paused for a moment as there was another loud blast from the rear autocannon, as Hunter took down two more targets, channelling his annoyance into some extreme violence. "But if you're willing to pay – ok. Let us get on it, will call you back soon!" He disconnected the call, then grabbed the larger medkit from the stowage bay, flipping the catches open to ready the unit for use. "I'd like one of the ambushers to examine, if we can. Find out who they are. Alive might be best, but if not… we'll work it out."

The front gun on the Broadsword joined the rear as Marius finished taking down the opposing network, and twin streams of 20mm cannon fire spat out, taking down more of the ambushers, while Aswon sniped another from the doorway, this time managing to place a shot straight through the eye-hole in the helmet. Down on the ground, Shimazu had reached the pickup crew and had done a quick assessment – three of them were clearly dead, while the other two weren't far behind. He pulled round his small medical kit and glanced down at the pair of bodies, oozing blood from multiple gunshot wounds. One of them had a commlink still active, and Shimazu guessed that he was most likely to be the leader, so he started with him first, applying emergency aid to try and stabilise him.

"North side, all hostiles down."

"South side clear."

"Nothing moving from where I can see."

Kai listened as Marius, Hunter and Aswon called out their reports, as he finished getting the medkit laid out ready.

"Bring us down please, Marius, just above the deck – let's get the survivors inside, in some cover and we can start work on them." Marius didn't answer him, but a moment later he felt the Broadsword sinking down and sliding sideways, closing in on the ambush site. Kai felt Tads brush past him as she moved to the doorway to help get the bodies inside and to provide magical cover, but trusted the rest of the team to get the remaining contacts to him as quickly as possible.

"Warning… I see movement!" Shimazu tensed as he lifted the first body into the doorway, handing it over to Aswon and Tads, expecting to feel rounds hit him at any moment after hearing the warning from Marius. "Wait… no, there are two survivors. Both look to be trying to flee. One north side, one south. North side has lost most of his right leg, leaving a trail of blood. South side has chest and arm wounds. Both non-combat effective." Shimazu relaxed a little and turned to get the second body, giving a little jump as the rear autocannon suddenly spat out a round.

"Target two down. Just waiting on the other one to clear the cover…" Hunter's voice was cold and precise, and it certainly didn't sound like he was going to lose any sleep over taking down these targets now that they weren't hostile – and nobody else on the team seemed to have an issue with it either, not even Tads. A few seconds later, another shot rang out, and Marius confirmed that both targets were now dealt with. Shimazu headed back to collect the three corpses next, throwing them aboard the Broadsword before turning to start looking for loot.

"The mist is starting to lift!" Aswon called out. "We need to get out of here soon. People must have heard the gunfire – but they've probably not seen anything. But it won't be long."

"Leave that to me." First she crouched down by each one of the pickup crew, touching her hand to their foreheads and concentrating for a moment. As she did, the bodies seemed to relax a little, the breathing stopping and the blood slowing to a faint trickle. "There – they're stabilised. That should give you time to work, Kai." She moved to the doorway, suddenly skipping to the side as a bunch of ammo was thrown inside the aircraft, before Shimazu turned back to continue his battlefield scavenging. Tads raised her arms up to shoulder height and concentrated, and a vast plume of thick mist flowed out of her fingertips, expanding outwards rapidly. The fog bank grew thicker and thicker, obscuring the road, the delivery vans, the dead bodies… "There… it won't last long before the wind starts to disperse it, but it gives us a few minutes."

"Got one of the bodies, and most of the guns." Shimazu appeared out of the mist like a spectre, dragging one body that he unceremoniously threw into the doorway, followed by the clatter of a couple of rifles landing on the floor. "Checking the other side. If I can see anything!" He grinned a little at Tads, taking the sting out of his words though, no doubt actually glad for the concealment.

"Hunter – these guys have got Zeta Imp-Chem logos on their stuff. Most of their stuff – belts, pouches, stamped on the guns… is that going to be a problem?"

"Don't bring any of the bodies in, at least not in armour then! They have a tendency to load up the suits with trackers and bio-monitors. In fact, if they are ziccers, then when we've taken them down, that's going to raise the alarm back at their HQ. A backup team is probably on the way." Aswon looked down at the body, and made a quick decision, rolling it back to the doorway and then out onto the tarmac below, trying not to wince as it made a dull, wet, thwacking noise.

"You hear that, Shimazu? No more armour." Aswon looked down for a moment, then called out to Hunter again. "What about the helmets? They were shooting through the mist fine, so they've probably got some vision augments in them. Maybe a radio, too. Might be worth snagging…"

"Yeah, helmets are probably fine – but we can check them over on the way out just to be sure."

While Aswon leant down and wrestled the helmet off the body, Tads concentrated on the area outside the aircraft, dissipating her astral signature and dispersing the mana. Twenty seconds later, Shimazu was back, carrying another armful of guns and spare magazines, along with another of the helmets from the security armour.

They loaded up all the gear they could easily steal, while behind them Kai worked methodically on patching up the horribly wounded men, letting the med-kit diagnose their status and administer healthy doses of drugs into each of them, while he worked with a scalpel and micro-sutures to fix the damage to their organs and blood vessels. Both of them hung in the balance – another thirty seconds lying on the road would have killed them both, but the powerful magic from Tads held them at death's door, giving Kai time to work.

"I can see blue and red lights in the distance – emergency vehicles. No idea how far away, but I can see the lights through the fog!" Shimazu warned them, depositing another armful of gear into the doorway.

"Time to leave, then! Marius – as soon as we're all inside, get us out of here, please!" Kai didn't look up from his work, his nimble fingers still diving into the chest cavity of one of the men, removing fragments and sewing together ruptures in the wall of his heart. He felt the engines increase in power, and the noise level drop as the door was swung shut and locked in place, but was far too busy working on the wounded to pay much more attention than that.

"Marius has turned the jammers on for now – but let me check over this gear…" Hunter had come back from the cockpit as they got ready to depart, and quickly ran their bug-scanner over the gear, looking for any of the telltale twitches indicating some kind of transmitter stowed away internally. "Looks clear. Probably worth a visual check as well though, just in case they're not active now. And turn off the bio-monitor connections, just in case they try to connect to anything – don't want them screaming. I gotta get back up front." With that he headed back towards the cockpit door, sliding back into the co-pilot's seat and checking the sensor readings and map of the area, looking for any issues.

Marius kept them low as he spun around ninety degrees, then slowly drifted out over the water, watching his instruments carefully as they moved out from underneath the overhead transmission lines. Once they were clear though he angled up slightly, making sure he wasn't going to hit any of the unfinished construction for the new highway bridge, and accelerated smoothly out over the bay. Semarang airport was to the west of the city, and he could feel the radar from their tower sweeping around and over him – nowhere near strong enough to get through his stealth systems, but he didn't want to find himself accidently in the path of an inbound jet-liner, heading through what it thought was clear space…

"If you can get me back down on land, I can try to patch them up once you're done, Kai."

"I think Marius is heading over water at the moment. Heading to land would put us either into the city centre, or further out along the highway, close to where the police were…"

"Oh… well, they're stable, for now. I suppose it can wait." Tads thought for a moment about trying her healing spell in the air, but with the headache she was still nursing from the dawn summoning of her spirits, she really wanted to feel the connection to the land before she tried a spell as taxing as it was likely to be.

There was a snap of latex as Kai peeled off his bloodstained gloves, sitting back and taking a few deep breaths while he checked the status display on the medkit. Everything seemed stable, so he pulled himself up off the floor and flopped into his seat, then pulled out his commlink.

"It's Kai. Unfortunately three of your men are dead, downed before we could get to them. We have two alive though, badly wounded. We've extracted them, and they're stable, and should make a full recovery. We also still have the cargo in our vehicle. The ambush was by a squad of Zeta Imp-Chem security troops, wearing heavy armour – your guys didn't stand a chance. I don't think they even knew we were there, until we opened fire. We need to arrange a new meeting point." He paused for breath, but pressed the right control on his commlink to pipe the audio through the Broadsword's systems, so the rest of the team could hear the response.

"ZIC? Frakkers. Oh, this is bad. So so bad. They were ambushed? Three dead? Drek… that's going to ruin the plan. Oh god… what are we going to do? My job… my job is toast!" There was a moment where all they could hear was the breathing of the other man – though it was closer to panting than regular breathing, as far as they could tell. "Hey…. Heeeeyyy…. You guys… you're good, right? You blew away that ambush without any problems. Are you… interesting in any extra work?" They could hear the hope in his voice, a strange mix of naivety and desperation intertwined with it. "Um… if you're away from the ambush site, yeah, we should meet up. Are you heading east or west at the minute?"

"West," Kai lied smoothly, holding a hand up to the others to let them know it was deliberate, and not a mistake on his part.

"Oh… ok. Lemme see. Right, the main highway out of town to the west, it has a really sharp dogleg, about twenty klicks out from town. And there's a really crap picnic spot, right on the corner – could we meet there?"

Kai paused for a moment, knowing that Hunter was almost certainly checking the map and evaluating the situation. A moment later the screen flickered to life and they could see the map of the area, and the sharp turn in the highway, exactly as described.

"Looks fine, we can get there ok, good visibility, lots of farmland around. Not good for an ambush site, almost no cover." Hunter sent over the team network, making sure it wouldn't transmit over the open communications line to the contact.

"Yes – we can get there."

"Great! GREAT! Ok, it's going to take me an hour or so to get there. Can you be there in that time?"

"No problem." Kai saw an estimate pop up on the screen, showing it was only a few minutes flight time for them. "Yeah, we should be there. Maybe a few minutes late, but we'll be there. We'll have your wounded men with us as well."

"Ok. I gotta go, find another car. Need more room to bring them back. I'll see you in an hour!" The team heard the commline drop, and the cabin fell silent for a moment.

"I'm not sure I trust him. Something weird about him…" Kai frowned, wondering what it was that was bugging him. "So, be ready. We'll give him the wounded back, and then see about getting paid and swapping the gear over. Then – if everything is good, then maybe we can talk about this new job he wants us to do."

Marius dropped down until he was almost skimming the waves, sliding in under the approach path for the airport as he crossed the bay, then flying up what appeared to be an estuary. As they headed inland, they saw more of the weird banks of earth with a single-track dirt road along the top, with long spindly arms growing out of either side, forming the anchors for whatever kind of farming was taking place. As the estuary narrowed, the arms interlinked, forming a huge network of submerged fields that were part rice paddy, part bog and part pond. They could see a few workers out and about now, their heads turning as they heard the distorted and concealed sound of their flight, looking around with curiosity to try and identify what it was before they lowered their heads back to the daily grind.

The turning was easy enough to find, and agreeably there was a mostly-flat field just past the small picnic area, more than sufficient to set the Broadsword down on. They flew a quick circuit of the area, with eyes glued to the sensors and the optics, scanning the area for heat signatures, life forms, astral anomalies or signs of any other kind of ambush – but the area looked clear. Marius bought them in for a landing in the field, positioning them at a sharp angle so that both the fore and aft turrets could traverse towards the expected meeting location, and then powered down the engines – though he kept all of the systems active and running on internal power, ensuring that their start-up sequence wouldn't take too long.

Now settled on terra firma, and having had a few more minutes to rest, Tads approached the two bodies and evaluated them carefully, looking for any issues or problems that could affect her spellcasting. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, and while they both had some cyberware implants, they were the more mundane and run-of-the-mill ware that a lot of people had – datajacks, a replacement eye, some bone lacing around the site of an accident. Their essence was mostly whole, and it was certainly a lot easier to push the mana through them than it was someone like Hunter.

The cabin glowed a marvellous warm and nourishing light, the yellow-gold emanating from her hands and suffusing the bodies, one after another. She took her time, carefully channelling the mana through them and being careful not to leave herself stressed from the effort – wondering if the next meeting would also require her services. She wasn't as success as she'd have liked to have been – while she was feeling better than she had been, there was still a nagging throb behind her forehead, and she only managed to partially restore the two men to a healthy state. But, much as she might have liked to have done better, the core of their beings were far stronger and in much better condition than when she'd started, no doubt knocking weeks, if not months, off of their recovery time.

When she was done and had moved out of the way, Kai called for Hunter to come back with the bug-scanner, and this time asked him to run it over their two patients, checking them from head to foot for any concealed trackers or transmitters that they might have lurking around – but without finding anything. Seeing that Kai was clearly still uncomfortable with the situation, Tads dropped into astral herself and then also performed a scan, moving slowly and methodically across their bodies to see if there was any strange spell signature or magical effects upon them, or if she could spot anything like the nebulous trace of a tracking ritual forming around them.

With that done, they settled down to wait – Marius keeping an eye on the sensors to spot for approaching vehicles, while the rest of the team got their personal weapons in order and made sure their armour was sealed and appropriately positioned. Just as they came up to the hour mark, Marius alerted them to a vehicle turning off the main road and nosing into the picnic area, a battered two-seater of local design, it seemed. The car looked more like a child's toy scaled up than a serious car, and the engine would probably struggle to propel it to more than forty kilometres per hour. It did at least have polarised glass though, indicating it had been made in the last decade or two, providing some privacy and safety for the occupants.

While the car was parking up, the team mostly dismounted from the Broadsword, leaving Marius hooked up and manning the sensors and gun turrets, while the rest of them moved over to the patchy hedgerow that separated the field from the rough grass of the picnic area. Each was concealed by their own spirit, and they crouched down in the cover of the vegetation watching the car brake and then stop. The engine stopped, and a moment later Kai's commlink buzzed.

"I'm here. I can't see anyone around, I think it should be safe."

"We're already here. When you get out of the car, hold up four fingers." Kai ordered. A moment later the driver's door opened, and a slender man emerged, wearing a set of battered jeans and a hoody that was marked up with some synth-rock band logo. He looked around nervously, then raised a hand, holding out four fingers, while his other hand rested on the car door, making sure it stayed open. He looked extremely nervous, and his whole demeanour made him look to be on the verge of flight.

"Ok, we see you. Turn to face the road." Kai commanded. The man turned, and even from range they could see his shoulders tense up, as he turned to face the road. Kai and Shimazu both asked their spirits to stop concealing them, and pushed around the hedgerow, swiftly walking towards the man. Closing the call down on his comm, Kai raised his voice a little. "Everything appears fine – we've not spotted anyone following you, and the area is secure." He gave a reassuring smile as the man jumped, spinning around to face him.

"K..Kai? Oh – I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. I promise you, we weren't planning anything like that – we weren't trying to rip you off or ambush you."

"Don't worry. I believe you. If we didn't… well we wouldn't be having this conversation. But we have your people, and your product. Though it's not going to fit into that vehicle." Kai pointed at the compact two-seater. "In fact, I'm not sure we're going to get both the survivors in there. You're definitely not going to get the bodies of your fallen men, or any of the delivery in there."

"I know… this all came at me so suddenly! We'd sent both of our vehicles to do the collection, and I need to find something new now. Oh, drek, this is not how it was supposed to go!"

"I think he's being honest." Shimazu murmured over the comms. "He seems pretty terrified, and way out of his depth. His body language is all over the place, and I'm not sure he knows what to do." He studied the man carefully, keeping his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready for anything that looked hostile. It would be crazy for him to try and attack Kai and himself – but the man didn't exactly appear to be rational. As he watched the man moving his weight from one foot to another, still holding onto the car door, he could swear he saw a bulge in the man's trousers, right over his groin. Was he somehow aroused by all this? Shimazu's eyes narrowed and he took an extra step forward, making sure he could intercept anything the man tried to do to Kai.

"So – can you help me out? Can you help replace the men on the job?"

"We need to get paid first. Once that's sorted out, we can look at other options, and have a discussion." The man turned towards the vehicle and looked like he was going to jump in – and possibly drive away. "Ah ah ahh!" Kai shook a finger at him as he glanced over his shoulder.

"I'm getting the money – it's in the glove box!" He looked over and realised that Shimazu had taken another step forward and was looking…stern, and he started to babble. "I'll get it – it's just here. Right here. Just leaning in. Look, here it is. I'm going to pass it over now. No tricks. Nice and steady. There…" Kai took the credstick before the man could drop it, and then slotted it into the reader, confirming that it held the promised ninety thousand. Kai glanced up, then gave him a smile, and tried to exude calmness – the contact looked on the verge of a heart attack, and his discomfort was very obvious.

"Ok, look, that's fine. We've been paid for the delivery. Now, take a deep breath. We'll get the two wounded men out of our aircraft now, and over to your car. One can go in the passenger seat, and one… well, I guess we can put him in the cargo space, if we're careful. We might need to fold his knees up. I guess. But there's no room for the rest of the team, or the gear. So – let's see…" Kai made a show of putting his hands on his hips and then looking around the area. "Ok, how about this? We can get the cargo and your men out, and bury them – not too deep, but deep enough to avoid them being dug up by foxes. Right over there, by the hedge. Then when you have a bigger vehicle, and some help, you can come back one night and dig them up, nice and easy. How does that sound?"

It wasn't much of a plan, or particularly complex – but having any kind of process laid out for him seemed to help the man focus, and he nodded.

"Ok, yes. That sounds good. But perhaps you won't need to bury them.. if you can do the job? I can pay? More, that is? At least a little bit."

"Why don't you tell us what the job is. I'm just going to put my commlink on, so the rest of my team can hear, ok? It's private, and encrypted – so nobody else will overhear you."

"What? Oh, ok. Smart. Right… well, we needed the boxes of supplies for the job – then my guys were going to use them. We were going to stage a raid, on a dock, right in the middle of town. Need to rock up and then get out of the vehicles, and stage a really noisy, obvious and destructive raid on the port. Take out some of the silos, blow up a bunch of stuff. Shoot off the guns all crazy-like – and be seen doing it. In disguise, see? Make it look like another corp attacking them."

"And where is the facility? Show me on the screen here…" He offered out his small commlink, and let their contact zoom over on the map into the centre of Semarang, closing in on a port section on the northern edge of the city centre.

"It's a shared road, see. Several corps have small docks there, as well as this big one – so we can get onto the road without running a checkpoint. That means there's only one gate to smash through, to get into the facility. Once we're in, we had all sorts of gear to use, to cause as much havoc as we could, before getting out and away."

"I'm concerned. Your plan appears to have been thrown into disarray with the loss of three people. I take it you're a small crew, and you've not got any backups." The man shook his head dejectedly at Kai. "I'm also a little worried – those look like chemical silos. Do you know what's in them?"

"No. All kinds of chemicals though, taken from nearby."

"Kai – that's a Zeta Imp-Chem facility." Hunter announced over the radio, having done some quick checking. "He's right about the shared road, there's a couple of other minor corps that have small docks down there, but they have most of the north side of the dock area. Those towers hold about fifty thousand kilos or litres of product each. Can't tell if they're dry or wet from a quick scan. But there's at least twenty towers there, as well as some other storage areas."

"I don't like that. If we blew up those towers, the chemicals would get into the water. Just think of what that would do to the local wildlife!"

"Tads, if that's a ZIC facility, then they don't give a shit about the area. None of the megas do, but they're worse than most. Believe me, that water is probably deadly already, before anything gets blow up!"

"You've gone quiet? Are you thinking about it?" The man enquired, looking hopeful.

"Give me a minute. My team are discussing this, and looking at the map." Kai tapped one ear, and saw the man nod in at least some semblance of understanding.

"Are we even considering this? I mean, the job was to come down and do the delivery – nice and simple. Then get paid, and get back to Hong Kong. I don't need to remind anyone I hope that we've got a meeting arranged with a dragon? Spook and her kid are waiting on us. Relying on us!"

"That is true, Aswon. But does the job pay? And is it quick? We are here already. If this job is something we can do in thirty minutes, and earn ourselves a fat paycheck – that perhaps we should consider it?" Marius spoke calmly and carefully, analysing the situation logically. "We would be leaving the area, travelling thousands of kilometres away from the incident, very quickly. It would be almost impossible for them to trace us. And I would rather be paid enough money to cover the fuel back to Hong Kong, and perhaps some more, than not. I do not welcome the diversion, but I think it is worth establishing the details. If the job cannot take place for several days, then we should not take it. But if it can be done today – then perhaps, why not?"

"Do we know this guy? At all I mean?" Shimazu asked.

"No – he's just a guy. I presume he knows Harry somehow. Maybe a friend. Maybe just put in contact via a fixer. But that's it. Nothing personal."

"I'm getting these boxes off the bird." Hunter announced. "Come on, Aswon, give me a hand. One way or another, we need them off. Might as well get them moving. Tads, you ready to start burying them?" He heard her grunt of agreement, and headed aft, knowing that Marius would already have the rear ramp moving by the time he got there.

"I'm going to move the two wounded men over to his car first. Make it clear they're not hostages." Tads announced. Casting her levitate spell on the first, she scooped her hands underneath him, and then stopped the spirit from concealing her, heading over to join Kai and Shimazu while 'carrying' the body in her arms, with apparently no effort. She enjoyed the small moment of joy when he saw her carrying the man lightly in her arms, eyes boggling – but he did at least open the car door to let her get the wounded man into the seat.

"As you can see, that's one of your men – he was shot, and very nearly dead, but we managed to stabilise him at the scene, and then do some healing on the way over. By the way – no charge for the rescue. Clearly things are not going your way at the moment… What is your name anyway? I just had your number, and we've not really been introduced?"

"Sujuno. And thank you. I don't know what we're going to do now. You've got to say yes to helping me! We need to get this job done!"

"Well, that's still under discussion. There's some important factors we need to think about. First of all, of course, is how much you're offering."

"Well, I have another ten thousand Nuyen. I know that might not sound like much – but for people of your skill, I'm sure it would be enough?" Kai frowned at him, wondering how he came to that kind of assessment. "You're clearly very skilled – so skilled that this job should be really easy for you, and quick. No risk at all!" Kai snorted – but he could see the twisted kind of logic there. And while it wasn't a great deal of money compared to the jobs they normally took, Sujuno did somewhat have a point. If the job could be done in an hour, then ten grand wasn't that bad a payment. Especially when Marius could have them thousands of kilometres away pretty quickly…

"That's a matter of debate. But ok – ten thousand for the job. And when does it need to be done?"

"Well, as soon as possible really. We need to stir up tensions between them. And quickly!"

"We need? Hmm. I take it you're doing this job for someone else, then?" Kai watched him nod. "Are you doing this because you're being paid, or because morally you agree with the job?"

"What? Um…" Sujuno paused for a moment, thinking things through. "Moral, I suppose. But I do have some money. It was given to me by the…other people. To make arrangements, and get the work done here. I don't want to disappoint them!"

"Ten grand won't even fill the tanks once, you know Kai." Aswon interjected over the net.

"But we have to pay for the fuel anyway, so we would be ten thousand less in debt." Marius countered.

"I still don't like the idea of blowing up a chemical storage facility, and potentially dumping huge quantities of toxic chemicals into the sea." Tads announced, speaking out loud as she passed Kai, Shimazu and Sujuno with the second patient, before she started trying to manoeuvre him into the small storage compartment at the rear of the car. "That doesn't sit well with me at all, no matter how polluted the waters at the port might be." She switched to sub-vocal, not wanting the contact to hear the next bit. "But if everyone else wants to do this – then ok. But I'd like to avoid as much pollution as possible. Maybe Aswon can blow them up so they fall inland?"

"I'm with Tads. If everyone else is in, then ok. But it's not my ideal choice." Shimazu added. "I'd rather get out of here and head back up to go meet this dragon, and try to get that situation sorted out."

"If we are going to do this job, we must do it now. The fuel costs for going back to Hong Kong and then onwards to the mountain, doing that, and then coming all the way back here would be outrageous. We cannot afford that."

"I agree – we can't justify the fuel costs for two extra trips, just to help out this guy. Especially when we don't really know or care about him."

"Please? Please, help us. I can…" Sujuno fell silent for a moment, staring at Kai with sad eyes. He pulled out his commlink and then dialled a number. Both Kai and Shimazu took another step closer, with Shimazu tensing – ready to draw and cut the man's arm off if turned out he was calling the authorities or anyone else that would harm them. "Harry? It's Sujuno. Listen, it's all gone wrong. No – your team are here, they're all safe. But at the delivery site, my men got ambushed. Zeta had some security troops there, and shot them. Your delivery team took them out, and rescued some of my people, but the rest are dead. And now I can't get the job done. Look – I need to know. Can I trust them? Do you trust them?"

Kai, Shimazu and Tads shared a look, and they could imagine the same look replicated on the faces of the other half of the team as Sujuno discussed them with Harry like this, in earshot. It wasn't the way business was normally done, and exposed his inexperience again. Kai couldn't help but to start grinning… what would Sujuno do if Harry said they couldn't be trusted? It wasn't as if he had a good poker face. What would he do? Apparently that wasn't the case though, as from the sigh of relief it seemed that Harry had vouched for them, quite strongly.

"I could introduce you to my friends. They're… a powerful group of people, in their own way. Just not the kind of people for this job. But very useful!"

"Who are they?" Tads asked, coming to stand next to him so she could size him up herself. She wasn't as skilled as Shimazu was at reading people, but she could still get a feel for his aura. "And what can they do for us?"

"I work for… the Kuku-Mecan!" Sujuno stopped, looking at them dramatically. From his expression it was clear that he was expecting a reaction as if he's announced that he worked for Damian Knight, or Lofwyr, or Nadja Daviar. But Tads, Kai and Shimazu looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

"Who?"

"Never heard of them."

"No idea… any of you guys?"

"Nope."

"Not a clue."

"I have not heard of such a people."

"Sorry, Sujuno. None of us have any idea who they are. Not saying they're not important – maybe they're just very well known around here. But we're new here – never been this far south before." He tried to speak diplomatically, knowing how close the man was to having a mental break. "Let's accept that they're a powerful and useful group of people. What are the specifics of the job, then – I know we have to raid the Zeta docks. But clearly we're impersonating some people to do it – who is that?"

"Well, Saeder-Krupp, of course! We have a shipment of their uniforms, guns, explosives, rockets, all kinds of things. All fresh from the SK catalogue."

"Nein." Sujuno had barely finished speaking when Marius announced his thoughts on the matter. His voice was flat, emphatic and definitely final.

"Yeah, I'm out, too. That sounds stupid. I'm ugly, but I ain't stupid."

"I have to agree with Hunter. We have history with SK. And possibly have met important people. Let's not piss them off." The comments flew over the tac-net quickly, and Kai held up his hand to Sujuno to stop him from continuing.

"I wish we could help you – but that information was important, and very non-negotiable. We have some professional considerations to take care of. And that means we CANNOT do this job. But we are professionals, so I can also promise you that while we cannot do this, we also will not do anything to jeopardise or hinder your work. We won't share details of this with anyone we know, or discuss it with other people, or share any information."

"What?"

"Sorry, but we can't take this. Like I said, we have some history with SK, and it would not be appropriate for us to engage with you on this. We can try to help you a little, though – we have some of the ID sticks from that security force, and they might get you through the front gate without ramming it, or give you some options. We can pass that over to you, for free. But that's as far as it goes. We've delivered the cargo, and we've rescued part of your men. You have the tools you need to do the job, you just need to find someone new now. But that's final." For the first time Kai put some emphasis into his voice, with an edge of harmonics that drove right through the despair that Sujuno was now exhibiting.

"What am I going to do?" The wail was plaintive and made him sound like a spoilt child – triggering a very sarcastic and pithy response from Hunter, that fortunately was out of his earshot. Shimazu was tempted to agree, but found that he had at least a little sympathy with the man, as his emotions coloured his aura with doom and defeat. He did sound like a whiny little bitch, but that's because he actually felt devastated by the turn of affairs.

"Listen – we're heading out of here, travelling up north. And our first stop is a smuggler and mercenary outpost. We know some people there. How about if we put the word out that there's someone down here, looking for a good team of mercs for a very simple and fun job, with all the gear supplied. We can give them your contact number… and tell them a code phrase. Um…" Kai looked up into the air for a moment, until some random thoughts popped into his head. "If anyone calls and says 'bananas in the woods', then you know they've been sent or recommended by us, ok?"

"You'd do that for me?"

"Yeah, we'll do that for you. You might not get any takers, but we'll try our best to find someone. And they'll be local, at least, so you should get a fast answer."

"OK! That's great!" The aura of despair was lifted, and suddenly it was like dealing with a puppy that had just been given a treat. Kai wondered if Sujuno was cut out for this line of work, and might not be better employed as a kids' entertainer, or possibly a tour guide, given how fragile his mental state was. But that wasn't his concern.

"Right – your gear is buried, just over there. You can dig it up whenever you need. And we'll make tracks now, and start getting the word out, and get someone to reach you as soon as we can, ok?" Sujuno nodded again, now all smiles and grins, clearly placing a lot of faith in Kai's ability to 'get someone' for him.

"Ok, everyone back aboard. Dust-off in two minutes." Kai, Shimazu and Tads headed back past the broken hedgerow, disappearing from view as they entered the concealing aura of the spirit masking the Broadsword, and causing Sujuno's jaw to drop open once more.

"Going to broker the job through Sultan, I take it?"

"That's my thoughts, Aswon. He seemed to like info and barter, and this seems like a good way to get a bit of interaction with him. Let's see how it goes." Kai headed to his seat and strapped in, looking around to make sure everyone was accounted for.

A minute later, Marius lifted them into the air, turning gently and plotted a course northward, keeping low until they'd cleared the airport and then turning on a direct bearing for BP-12. In the back, Kai worked on a briefing document, putting down the mission requirements and aims in anonymous but specific detail that could be passed over to Sultan or whoever they met at their destination.