Friday 09/09/61, Location: -1.67738, 117.43858, Time 22:09
The rig worker that had arranged their fuel returned a minute later, climbing the steps up to the helipad.
"Spoke to the gaffer, he says you can have some time with him. C'mon." He waved, indicating the centre of the rig, then turned to head back to the steps, not waiting to see if they were following.
"I'm gonna stay here," Hunter looked around, and got a nod from Marius, "with Marius it seems. We'll be listening in on comms. Holler if you need us!"
"Ok, anyone else staying?" Kai looked around, but it appeared the other three team members all intended to come with him. "Right – let's go then." He set off after the rig worker, Shimazu forming a shadow behind him. Aswon grabbed the large basket of fruit that Tads had managed to conjure up, freeing up her hands, and they both followed along behind Shimazu.
Once down the set of steps from the pad, they ended up on a wide walkway, that appeared to run in around the rig, following the worker along until he could take a cross-route that led into the centre. They headed past a number of rooms or modules, the doors dogged down tightly, most with maglocks showing the dull-red of a locked system. Closing in on the centre they could see the large tower that appeared to rise up at the core of the platform had openings here, along with winches and heavy machinery, pipework and other mechanical systems in operation. It certainly looked like they were still actively drilling for oil – or something else – and there were more technicians in boiler suits and hard-hats checking things over and doing some maintenance.
Their guide led them down another flight of steps through, and then into the large module that seemed to make up most of this level of the structure, weaving through a maze of passageways and bulkheads until they came across a large door, one of the few they'd seen that was open, crowned by a large neon sign that proclaimed it as the 'cantina'.
Inside the room was an eclectic mix of decorations. There were a whole bunch of random nautical items around – steam gauges, pressure doors, lifting blocks, anchors – anything that could be associated with a boat seemingly had a place stuck to a wall or hanging from the ceiling. A huge number of pipes and cables also ran around the room, many of them looping back at strange angles or joining up with each other in a way that made no practical sense. And finally, there was a 'base layer', which appeared to be the module walls, a dull sheet of grey metal, the cold and impersonal original walls of whatever this room had once been.
The floor had been covered in planking of some kind, the wood treated with a stain or protective oil, and the regular fluorescent overhead lights had been replaced with much warmer yellow lamps that hung from the ceiling over tables and the long bar set up along one wall, which at least gave the place a slightly homelier and less sterile feel. A good dozen of the rig workers were in the bar, clustered in small groups around a variety of tables, drinking, playing cards or talking. The team got a few quick glances as they entered, following their guide, but no second looks or anyone showing surprise – not even at Aswon's considerable height. Clearly they were used to visitors that included the more unusual meta-types and variants, or odder members of society.
"There's the gaffer, at the back. In the corner." The worker pointed at a man who appeared to be Indonesian, or from somewhere in that area, probably of fairly average height and weight. He was wearing casual clothing, not a boiler suit – cargo trousers and a fleecy top slightly open and showing some kind of sports top underneath. His mid-length black hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, and he had a very small and neatly trimmed beard with a small moustache, trimmed to the same size as his goatee.
"Thanks – thanks for setting this up. Really appreciate it." Kai gave him a sincere smile, and a nod of thanks. "What's his name? Want to get off on the right foot when we introduce ourselves…" The worker paused for a moment, looking at Kai, glancing up and down at him. After a moment he seemed to reach a decision.
"Call him Sultan."
"Right… will do. Thanks again." Kai shook his hand, then headed over to the bar, ordering a round of drinks for the team and 'one for Sultan'. Tads muttered under her breath, reminding Kai that she could also make alcohol now, but he just nodded at her and paid for the drinks, collecting the mugs of beer and wandering over to the corner of the room. Stopping a metre short of the table, until the man looked up from his small tablet, Kai concentrated on making his posture and expression warm and open, appearing to be just a likeable guy out for a nice drink... "Evening, I'm Kai – and this is some of my team, from the 'New Fish' – I guess you're Sultan? We'd like to have a little chat, if you can spare the time?"
"Of course. Pull up a chair, please, make yourselves comfortable. Welcome to our little vacation spot." He smiled at Kai, revealing a broad grin of brilliant white teeth. He seemed to be confident and relaxed, waving for them to take a seat while he focussed his attention on Kai. As the others settled, they noticed that he seemed to be remarkably similar to Kai, in some indefinable way. Kai however started to pick up on the mirrored micro-expressions and mannerisms, the carefully cultured tone of voice, and the subtle changes in body language. Sultan, it seemed, was a pretty skilled negotiator, and Kai let his grin broaden as he settled down – a challenger had entered the ring, it seemed!
"Thank you, that's very kind. Everyone ok? Got a seat? Well, Mr. Sultan – these are some of my crew, Shimazu, Tads, Aswon – and we have two more back at our aircraft, Hunter and Marius. We're a wandering bunch of entrepreneurs, with a wide variety of skills that we've often found useful to the people we meet. And we've also got some goods for sale or trade, that may be of interest to some people. So we wanted to make your acquaintance, and make our services available to you, if you're interested, of course. For instance, one of the things we can supply is some fresh food?" He gestured, and Aswon lifted up the container full of fruit, carefully placing it on the table, then opening the top to reveal a couple of kilos of ripe apples.
"Oh – those look nice. And I'm certainly interested. Fresh food can be difficult to get hold of out here, and is a nice little morale booster. It's so expensive compared to normal rations and bulk goods, of course… may I?" He gestured to an apple, and Kai nodded and then reached over to push the container slightly closer towards Sultan, making it clear that he was welcome to grab one. The man reached down below the table and pulled out a butterfly knife from somewhere, flipping it open with casual ease and then slicing into the apple, cutting out a chunk and examining it carefully, before taking a bite. A little juice ran out of the corner of his mouth, and towards his chin, and he carefully dabbed at it with a napkin. "Hmm – tasty. Though it has a unique tang to it – is it a particular breed or brand?"
"In the interests of getting off to an open and honest start – it's magically created, so I think it's based on the apple that our shaman first tasted or encountered, but I'm not sure what particular brand or style that would be." Kai gestured with his head towards Tads, who gave him a smile, then reached over to grab one of the apples herself, munching down on it neatly, hoping to show him it was safe and edible. Sultan appeared to take the news in his stride, and gestured to the basket.
"Do you mind if we sample a few?" Kai gestured for him to continue, and Sultan called out to the workers at the nearby tables, waving them over. They got to their feet quickly enough, heading over to his table with inquisitive looks on their faces. Sultan grabbed a few of the fruits and sliced them up, handing out half-fruits to the workers, asking them what they thought of the food. They appeared to have implicit trust in him, as there was no hesitation in chowing down on the apples, and he watched as they chewed and gave him their opinions – which were thankfully all positive.
"If you can perhaps ask someone to bring some plates, or containers, we can make other items too. More and different varieties of fruit. Fish – though I would imagine you have a source of that nearby!" Kai grinned, then continued. "But perhaps steak or chicken might be of value to you, as well as supplies of things like peanuts." Sultan cocked his head slightly to the side, then called over to one of the workers, telling him to head to the kitchen to go and fetch some containers.
"That's a very neat trick. Is it hard?"
"It's not the easiest, nor is it the hardest. But if you're out in the wilds, it's potentially a life saver." Tads responded."
"And while not a matter of life and death, it can be very useful in terms of making a positive first impression sometimes…" Kai gave him a wink.
"Well, that remains to be seen. But there's a good chance that may be true…" Sultan responded. "So, what is it that you seek?"
"Well, we're new in the area, it's our first time down this far south. We've done a lot of work across Europe, up around China and Japan, and over towards the UCAS and NAN. But we've not really been this far south much before. So it's all a little new to us. Finding out what people want, what they need, is all going to be useful. Or how we can help them…"
"I see. Well, information like that has a value all of its own, of course. But I'm sure we can work out some detail in trade, if your rep is good. We have crews that travel, that would find some of your information quite useful, I think, on where you've been and what you've found. Perhaps a trade could be brokered…" The conversation went back and forth for a few minutes, with Kai covering some of the areas they'd travelled through, giving a very high level overview of areas they knew something about, the number of contacts they had, information on different countries borders and crossing points – while Sultan responded with an equally high-level and rough overview of the area around them, as both negotiators jockeyed for position and continued to size each other up.
When the crew returned with a bunch of containers, Tads started to create some food, sticking with mostly basic types that would taste pretty close to what they should be, and would be something not found in the area and thus likely to be better received as a result. The volume level in the cantina dropped noticeably as the food was made, with many of the workers craning their necks or turning to watch the magic being worked. Sultan made a point of inviting people over to taste some of the food that could be eaten raw, gauging their response – which they seemed to be very honest about. Nobody was sucking up to him, and he seemed to be very well regarded – but his generosity to his staff also didn't seem to be unusual to them, or out of place, and that in turn told Kai something about how he ran his operation.
"So – hopefully that provides you of some idea of some of the service we can provide. The provision of food is possible, but limited in quantities, or requires a continuous effort on our shaman's part… but it's something that can perhaps be used as a reward for excellent performance on behalf of your team, or just used to bolster their existing rations? But, we also, of course, are primarily couriers – fetching and delivering cargo quickly and efficiently."
"Well, we're somewhat of a hub. We provide the services – fuel and repair, a brokerage, cargo storage if needed. So the one thing we're really not short of is delivery partners. We have lots of crews that stop here, and that can do delivery runs for us. Information though? That's something that's always of value…"
"Which brings us back to the earlier conversation, I suppose. Well, let's see. Perhaps I can tell some you things we've found…" Kai took a sip of his drink, and started to talk, filling in Sultan on a whole bunch of information.
Meanwhile, back in the Broadsword, Marius had finished his basic maintenance and was now relaxing in the cockpit. With plenty of time on his hands, he fired up the passive sensors and started a careful examination of the rig, talking with Hunter as he scanned over the complex structure. Hunter was keeping half an eye on the news, scanning through the various matrix nodes on his deck, but still had enough spare brain cells to keep up a conversation, and his knowledge on engineering, chemistry and a variety of other subjects proved to be invaluable.
The rig was pretty large, based on four giant legs that protruded from the sea, forming the four corners of a square. The bulk of the rig crowned those legs, with multiple decks laid on top of each other, before it opened up onto the main deck where the drilling activity took place. From there, a large tower rose up from the centre, supporting the huge drill bits that sunk hundreds of metres down to the sea-bed and into the rocks below, while arrayed around the outside were the huge helipads. They counted three large pads, including the one they were landed on, that could handle craft up to thirty metres long or wide fairly easily, five smaller pads that could handle perhaps a twenty metre craft and at least eight smaller pads that could accommodate a regular sized chopper or light tilt-wing, with pads about ten to fifteen metres across.
In the centre of the rig, just offset from the tower was a module that was suspended from a latticework of steel, festooned with lights that illuminated all of the helipads around the rig, casting light downwards towards them to prevent blinding the pilots on their final approaches. It was also, according to his sensors, the source of the instrument landing system data, and from the number of antenna and sensors mounted on the roof, almost certainly the primary command and control centre for the rig – or at the very least the air operations. It had unrivalled visibility from its central position, and would allow a rigger to lurk in the centre of his network and control all aspects of the rigs operations.
Below the flight deck, they could see a few of the modules laid out above the main drilling deck. A number of ramps from the smaller pads led down to this deck, and it looked like there were heavy winches positioned on either side of these ramps – both Hunter and Marius were confused at first, until they saw a large maintenance bay on the lower level. It looked like it was possible to lower choppers down the ramp on the winch, to enable them to reach the maintenance facility and the hanger there, co-located with what looked like a small infirmary or clinic.
Much beyond that was difficult to see, as the bulk of the rig's facilities started to interrupt their line of sight – and there was no way a sensor sweep was penetrating that much mass, but it was easy enough for Hunter to find some reference material to share with Marius, and they quickly identified the general type of rig they were on, and the original layout – it was unlikely that the accommodation blocks had been changed much from how they had been constructed. There were only so many ways to build some things efficiently, and the oil drilling business had a long history of getting the job done in hostile locations, and making the situation bearable at least.
Marius replayed the sensor footage they'd gathered on the approach, able to fully concentrate on it now that he wasn't flying in towards the pad, and they could see that down at sea level there were a number of floating docks, moored to the massive legs of the platform on articulated arms, conforming to the sea's movements and moving with the waves, allowing small boats and ships to moor up against them to transfer cargo. It also looked like there was some kind of semi-protected dock or quay in the centre of the rig, though the spacing of the legs would limit the size of craft able to enter it. There also seemed to be lifting blocks and cranes operating down in the central area, running along the side of the drill shaft, to allow cargo to be raised and lowered from the sea-level, presumably up to some kind of cargo storage, and perhaps all the way up to the flight deck.
As they were studying the sensor footage and talking about the rig design, Hunter's deck was ticking away, slowly incrementing a counter in the corner of the display.
"What is that counting?"
"Huh? Oh, that's the search Aswon asked me to run. About the mutant reports. Jumping up a lot…" Hunter expanded the prompt, showing a mass of information that quickly cascaded across the screen. A summary of the headlines was being monitored by one of his bots, and showed what had been a trickle of reports yesterday had turned into a river today. There were now tens of thousands of reports filed, from all around the world of people spontaneously growing stalks, extra mouths, furry tails, gills, elongated finger-nails, all manner of things that could be defined as 'cosmetic', along with a host of far more serious and life-threatening ones. A bank executive in Seattle had suddenly grown gills, and had only survived by jumping into his pool at his Bellvue residence, while a French politician had suddenly sprouted thousands of tiny sharp barbs that had extruded all across his body, puncturing his clothes and making him untouchable – and even worse, each of the barbs appeared to secrete some kind of toxin that made examining him a dangerous activity.
The reports were predominantly from the more civilised and advanced nations, with a sharp, almost exponential rise in the last few hours – but as Hunter started to dig into things further he found more reports identifying growing alarm across Africa, Southern America, Australasia… it was clear that this was happening world-wide, but the more sparsely populated countries or those with less developed matrix networks were lagging behind on the reports of activity – but not the activity itself.
"Aswon, just a heads up, mate. The world is going bat-shit crazy at the moment. Got tens of thousands of hits now for people turning funny colours, growing tails and all kinds of weird shit. Some people are dying from weird adaptations, some are turning into killers. I'm saving the data to review later – but it's getting kinda funky out there."
"Thanks, Hunter. I think we're not far off done here… Kai is talking with the rig manager, some guy named Sultan. Made friendly contact, Tads has been making food and stuff for them, and they've now just discovered she can make alcohol too. They've bought some empty bottles for her to full, and she's becoming very popular… and the guy is spilling all kinds of info to Kai in exchange for the stuff, and some details of smuggler stops we know about."
"Well, if you're making friends, ask him about speciality ammo. Could do with some more penetrating rounds for the cannon and stuff."
"Will do."
As it turned out, Kai had pretty much sussed out what the deal was at BP-12. For whatever reason, it had developed more like primitive souk than a trading hub. Trades and favours, bartering goods for goods, or service for service was far more likely than just a straight-forward purchase. He'd realised that this put them at a marked disadvantage, coming into the area with no reputation or history meant that people weren't really going to trust them or know anything about them – and that's why he'd been quite so free with not only sharing information about the various smuggler stops and locations they'd travelled through (though without blowing any truly personal information or exposing themselves), but also in ruthlessly taking advantage of Tads and her ability to create food and alcohol. She'd already made litre after litre of a variety of spirits using her spells, which he'd 'traded' for information on the various kingdoms and confederations that made up the complex web of competing political bodies in the Indonesian area, along with a lot of information on corporate presences, gang and underworld activities and the types of materials that commonly moved through the area.
He'd also become more and more impressed with Sultan – who was, it turned out, just as charming, knowledgeable, professional, shrewd and devious as Kai was. He was certainly holding his own in negotiations, and getting fair value for his trades, but Sultan was probably the savviest person he'd had to deal with in the last year. It certainly explained how he managed to run an operation this large and easy to find – Kai would be extremely surprised if he didn't have personal contact with the Prime Ministers or Royal Families of the various neighbouring countries, along with some informal arrangements for the provision of goods and services. But that local knowledge was fantastically useful, and almost certainly very reliable. It might not sound important to some, but knowing for instance that in the Javanese Republic the threshold for extra-territorial status was lowered from the normal 'A' rating down all the way to 'C' meant that they wouldn't be surprised if the guards at even a small corporation suddenly opened up with lethal weaponry against intruders, rather than having to capture and hand-over to the local authorities.
When he'd offered their services for providing wards and magical protection for the rig, as one of their own specialist services he'd discovered that while that was useful in general, and that others may well want to take advantage of, the rig itself was already well protected, with their key areas already taken care of by existing arrangements – confirming that they did have access to their own magical support or provision.
"Sultan, if I may?" Aswon politely interjected into the conversation that Kai was having. With a slight nod, the tribesman continued. "Our information specialist back aboard has been monitoring something, and has made me aware of changes in the situation. This may be useful information for you, somewhat time-critical. I'd be happy to share this with you, perhaps in trade for some information about say… telesma?" Aswon's voice rose a little as he asked the question, somewhat unsure on how it would be received. He saw Sultan's expression change a little, and out of the corner of his eye saw Kai suddenly focus on the manager as well, wondering if he'd made some kind of faux-pas or error. But a moment later the expression seemed to clear, and he waved for Aswon to continue.
He quickly ran through the situation they'd been monitoring, outlining some of the reports they'd heard and what their suspicions were, then added in the data that Hunter had gathered over the previous few hours. A quick call over the team channel and Hunter dumped a load of information to his commlink, including some graphs and trend-analysis data, which Aswon then shared with Sultan.
"If you have access, you may want to stock up on medical supplies, and possibly some extra clinical staff, at least in the short term. If these graphs continue even as they are, let alone continue to ramp up – you're almost certainly going to see some of your own crew affected, in some way or another. It may be harmless, like someone's beard turning a funny colour. Or they may suddenly grow a third leg, or wings, or become allergic to water. Having some specialist equipment around might be the difference between life and death – and from what we've seen, you clearly have regard for your crew."
"Interesting. Very interesting. And valid, too. You think it has something to do with the Comet?"
"It seems to be correlated. Not necessarily a cause – but it's ramping up in line with how close the comet is getting. So perhaps linked, if not a direct cause."
"Worth keeping in mind. Very well. We tend not to deal with that much telesma here. Gathering can lead to some… complications. I'm sure you noticed that the Dayak Council islands to the east and west of us appear to be quite primitive? Very little in the way of population centres in general, and little technology?"
"Yes – the islands looked quite dark, and we could only see coast villages, and those were quite small."
"Yes. Brunei on the western side is the only really large city, and that isn't as big as it was… but there are reasons for that. After the awakening, much of the land grew inaccessible as creatures of myth and legend returned to the jungles – that much doesn't make us special, we know. That happened everywhere. But what other places have not had to contend with is some of our genetic and bio-technology companies that have the ear of the local rulers and some…ahhh… special licences let's say."
"That doesn't sound good…"
"Well, imagine a company that was allocated a province for their own personal use – and have released genetically engineered combat critters into the environment. That then escaped, bred and mutated. Creatures gene-modified to be able to blend into the environment, or pick up footsteps from two hundred metres away, or to be able to spit acid. And all of those are creatures that we know for a fact wander the islands to the west, by the way. That's not idle speculation. Hunting for telesma around here is a dangerous occupation, and once that is as likely to get you hunted in turn. Be very wary of the jungle. It will kill you in a heartbeat."
Aswon nodded his thanks, sitting back to think about the situation. Paracritters often had strange abilities and powers that made them dangerous and difficult to deal with – his mind thought back to the nova-scorpions and their deadly venom that they'd hunted in the desert for Ludmilla – and their startling and frightening ability to move through sand as if it was water. Creatures like that would be difficult enough to deal with on their own, but if someone had been deliberately creating and modifying creatures to become dedicated war-critters, then that was a whole new level of scary…
Kai and Sultan continued to chat for another twenty minutes – swapping information and getting to know each other, while Tads continued to create litres and litres of alcohol in whatever containers were bought to her, pacing herself carefully to ensure she didn't overtax herself. During their chat, they saw the group from the other helipad enter the cantina, heading over to the bar to get drinks and then find themselves a table to sit at. The elf with the long and flowing hair glanced over at them, then made a little face, looking almost disappointed, before she turned her attention back to her team-mates. A minute later, Kai stiffened and paused mid-way through a sentence, giving a little shudder as a waft of something incredibly pungent washed over him, giving him a horrible flashback to the Quarry. Turning to look around for the possible source of the smell, he spotted one of the new group pulling out chillies from a small container and popping them into his mouth, chewing with gusto and apparently immune to the burning sensation that must surely be scorching his mouth!
A little after midnight, they concluded their dealings and headed back to the Broadsword, meeting back up with Hunter and Marius.
"Marius – I don't know if you've called home yet. But if not, I'd suggest you warn Nadia and the family about the craziness that's going on. They may want to get some supplies in and hunker down for a few days, and warn any guests at the ranch, too. They're probably remote enough to avoid much in the way of problems, and most of the locals aren't going to give them a hard time, I would have thought… but they don't want to get caught up in any trouble in town."
"A good suggestion, Aswon." He did the mental maths to work out the time back at the ranch, then activated his internal connections to his sat-phone to call his wife and warn her, as well as spend a few minutes talking – and if he was lucky, perhaps even catch Marius Junior before he was put down for bed.
"Folks – there's something I spotted on the way out of the bar. Sultan got up and walked us to the door, and I saw the little hair clip he had on to hold his ponytail in place. First up, I don't know if you saw it, but it looked like a little crown. That's pretty unusual… but more important probably is that it was a sustaining foci. I didn't have to actively probe it to find out what it was, because it's so familiar. It's exactly the same as my bracelet." She pulled back her sleeve and showed off the copper bracelet pressed around her wrist. As she rolled her arm back and forth, the light glinted off the fine detail work of silver and gold inlaid into the shallow channels in the base copper, depicting two intertwined snakes. "The spell on his crown is the same one I use, but it's more powerful. I don't know if he got it just to help with summoning his elementals, but it certainly explains the power and solidity of the ones he had guarding him. But it will also make him a shrewd and effective negotiator."
"The bugger was cheating!" Kai grinned. "Oh well, at least that means he was trying!"
"Are we staying the night here, and heading on to do the delivery in the morning, or are we leaving now and heading down? In fact, do we know where we're going at all?"
"Let me check on the chip, Aswon." Kai dug out the chip he'd received from Harry Wu, and flipped it over to Hunter to run through his deck. A few moments later he had a comcode number and an authentication password, and he started to punch in the details to connect through.
"Hello?"
"I'm Kai. We have a delivery for you. We're fairly close to your area, and ready to make drop-off, but we need to arrange a suitable location. Our delivery reference is 'The flowers of yesterday fall to the ground, littering the path of our footsteps and showing us the faded glory of our deeds'. I'm not sure any flowers are falling in my footsteps, but we've got a number of nice big boxes for you with some exciting contents…"
"How far away are you? And how are you travelling?"
"We're in an aircraft, and probably only two hours away if we came now, depending on where on the islands you are."
"Ok – I take it you have a map of the islands. If you look for Semarang, there's the main highway heading east out of the city." As the voice on the speaker described the geography, Hunter was sending mental commands to his deck, and the map zoomed in, following the prompts and closing in on the described location. "A little way past Karangroto, the highway has a new junction, and there's a big loop in the road, before it heads off to the north-east. They're building a new bridge, but it's still under construction. There's a toll-plaza already constructed, but beyond that there's a nice clear 8 lane highway, freshly constructed, nice and flat and clear of obstacles. I'll send my people to meet right at the very end of the constructed area, this morning at 06:30. It's monsoon season, so there's going to be a huge wall of sea-mist coming in from the north, that should cover us all."
"Ok, we'll be there." The call dropped as the other side disconnected, and Kai looked around to the rest of the team. "All ok?"
"Fine with me. Two-hour journey, and it looks like it is on the northern coast, so closest to us. We need to leave here at around four to get there on time, so I will go to get some sleep now." Marius headed into the cockpit area to grab one of the two bunks there, quickly settling himself down to get some rest.
"It's a really frakking weird location – the bridge has a bunch of piers and stuff built for it, and they're crossing out over the bay it looks like. Lots of water around, very limited approach. But your contact was right – nice clear highway will give us easy landing… oh, no wait." Hunter studied the map a little, then grabbed some more data. "That's not good. I've sent a note to Marius – but we need to be careful. There's a high-voltage line passing right over the area. If the bridge is being built, it's going to be plenty high – but we'll need to be really careful, especially if it's misty."
"The timing is an issue. It's just a little after dawn, which means my spirits will have departed. And if we're in the air, I have difficulty calling on new ones. So we may need to go in without magical concealment. That's not the end of the world, but you need to be aware of that. If I do try and summon some new spirits, it may be soon enough after dawn that I'm still recovering."
"Do I need to call him back?"
"No, you just need to be aware of the choices. Either no spirits, or risk me being less capable than normal. It's a trade-off."
"Ok, nobody else have any issues?"
"Only that the world is going to shit." Hunter frowned. "And I mean that… getting more and more news reports flagged up about these weird mutations, the news has started to run frequent updates, and they're seeing numbers climbing fast. And some talking heads are on the channels saying it's a new wave of VITAS, a new disease that's spreading, something with no cure. That's causing a lot of panic and there's already been one instance where someone was lynched by a mob for 'looking funny'. And some of these experts are blaming meta-humans, saying they're breeding grounds for this new disease, that it's being deliberately passed on to 'pure' humans, and is some kind of bio-warfare." As he described the reports, they could see his hands clenching and the muscles in his forearms tense up, his reaction to the so-called experts blaming orks and trolls for the troubles obvious to them all.
"Nothing that applies to the drop off, though?"
"No."
They relaxed, snoozing where they could, catching a bit of sleep before the engines started to whine as Marius started his pre-flight checks a little after four in the morning. When everything showed ready, he flew out from the rig, following the carefully controlled corridor of clear-airspace, enjoying the professional handling from the rig that made him feel like he was once again flying 'properly', if only for a while. Once they'd looped around out of the rig's local airspace, he headed south towards the Javanese Republic, flying at a moderate height and speed through the quiet airspace. Small boat tracks littered the sea, most of the fishermen, it seemed, out harvesting the deep-water shoals – or what passed for them in the modern polluted seas anyway. Their journey was quiet and uneventful, with most of the team managing another hour and a half of sleep until they closed in on their destination.
Dawn came at a few minutes after six, and Tads tried to meditate and say her prayers as they flew through the air. It was difficult for her – Elk was a creature of the forest and tundra, a totem tied to the land, and she felt out of sorts being away from the surface of the earth as she tried to renew her bond. It made her feel uncomfortable, and discombobulated, and that in turn distracted her as she ran through her summoning rituals. The smaller spirits that protected each of the team members were called upon easily enough, allocated out to her allies, but the larger spirit to protect the Broadsword itself proved to be resistant to her efforts, requiring her to try again after her first attempt failed. The effort proved to be taxing, and as the slightly unruly spirit finally agreed to work with her for the day, she felt the slow trickle of blood oozing out of her left nostril, a sign that she needed to have a rest for a short while. With a tissue jammed into the nostril, she grabbed a pair of painkillers and threw them down her throat, then settled back in her seat, trying to calm herself and deal with the pressure headache with some breathing exercises.
"Closing in on the target. I can see long spurs of land radiating out from the mainland. Some of them are over five kilometres long."
"Can you get us a visual, Marius?"
"Negative, Aswon. The entire area is shrouded in mist. Feeding back the sensor image." The screens in the back lit up with a complex looking image, shifting patterns in blocky colours overlaid with lines, bands of shading and arcane symbols that flitted around the screen.
"What are we looking at here?" Kai asked.
"Combination of sensor images." Hunter responded. "Mix of radar, low light, lidar, E-M scans, some ultrasound… looks like a single track road with the occasional building, and then some kind of structures radiating out from them into the water. Water is pretty shallow mostly, though it does start to drop off after a hundred or two hundred metres."
"Farms, maybe? Something like krill, or maybe some kind of rice paddies? Maybe growing kelp or seaweed?" Aswon suggested.
"Whatever it is, there's a whole bunch of them coming out from the mainland, running roughly parallel. Maybe half a kilometre between each one, sometimes more, sometimes less. They almost look organic, like a spider web – seeing the odd cross-connect, so there's not even always navigable water down there."
"Pilings spotted." Marius highlighted the change in sensor readings ahead, a mass of darkened dots appearing on the screen in a regimented line, four abreast and heading inland as if they were marching soldiers. "Dropping down to avoid the power lines." Their stomachs lurched a little as he reduced power, and the Broadsword dropped down towards the ground. The image cleared up a little now as the visual sensors finally managed to penetrate the thick mist, at least out to a hundred metres or so, letting them see the construction site below.
A sandy finger of land jutted out into the water, protected on each side by a mass of interlocking concrete blocks that lay in a tangled jumble. The pilings were laid out in precise lines, each nearly a metre across – then suddenly as they flew further along the finger they appeared to vanish, replaced with massive cap-stones, huge manufactured concrete blocks that lay across the four pillars, forming a support for the sections of road bed due to be installed soon.
"Vehicles in sight. And the overhead lines." The screen split, showing the mass of steel cables that now lay overhead, strung between the wide-spread arms of the towering pylons, carrying high-voltage power down the coast-line on one half, and the first sections of road deck constructed over the concrete blocks on the other half. At the end of the road were two vehicles – large grey blobs at first, but quickly resolving into a large people-carrier in a rusty brown and a white box van as they closed in on the targets and penetrated through the mist.
"Targets! North side. I spot four… no five meta-humans, north side of the construction site. Laying in ambush!" Shimazu called out, his voice calm and collected, but enunciating clearly over the team-channel. "Assensing them… they feel watchful and expectant. Ready for violence. But not against us, at least it doesn't feel like that."
"Slow us down, please, Marius – delay the approach, but don't stop. And be ready in case we need to evade." Kai didn't wait for a response, but instead hit the redial on his commlink. As soon as he heard the connection go through, he started talking, not giving the other party a chance to talk. "This is Kai, we're at the meeting point. If your guys are in the mini-van, then they're about to get ambushed. We spotted people in hiding on the construction site. Either that, or you're about to play funny frakkers with us, and that's not a good idea."
"What? No… wait a moment." There was the rapid beeping sound of someone dialling a number, then a separate call was bought into their conversation. "Listen, the delivery guys are almost there – they say there's people laying in ambush."
"Huh? No, we're all in the van still. No sign of the courier."
"Well, they're almost there, and they say they can see people. Go ahead, tell them what you can see!"
"My name is Kai, and we're close to your position. We can see the rusty mini-van and a white square van – is that you?"
"Yes!"
"Well, there are at least five people to the north of your position, just off the side of the road, hiding amongst the construction materials and supplies." Kai heard shouting and barked orders over the open commlink, and then saw people bursting out of the mini-van through every door, holding battered assault rifles – cheap clones of the AK-74 from the looks of things.
"You all have your spirits to call on. If you need to, you can send them down to hassle the ambushers!" Tads called out, pulling the bloody tissue from her nose and taking a deep breath, wondering if her headache was about to get a lot worse… "You can tell them to go and manifest over the ambushers and make noise, make it obvious where they are!"
"Additional information – I can detect some kind of drone network down there. Encrypted and tightly controlled, perhaps a few drones and a local controller. Gathering information." As Marius reported in, the mood changed in the Broadsword, and noise of guns cocking filled the air. A few people hiding might be explainable… a bunch of combat drones probably made this a carefully planned ambush that could have been deadly had Shimazu not been scanning in the astral as they approached. The Broadsword angled slightly upwards as Marius raised the nose, slowing their forward momentum, then spun slightly in the air as he turned sideways on, slowly drifting a few more metres until he was in a hover.
Without warning, the sound of the nose-mounted autocannon ripped through the quiet of the morning, a long burst of fire lancing down from the sky towards the hidden positions. Marius couldn't see the targets visually – but that was fine. He had the heat sources locked up just nicely on his sensors, and he directed the stream of fire from the first blob of heat towards the second. He couldn't see the impact directly, or hear the screams – but he could observe the sudden distortion in the shapes as they spun and tumbled across the ground under the impact of the heavy shells.
"There's a second group of five just popped up, south side!" Shimazu called out. He swept off the headset with one hand, hitting the seatbelt release with the other, then vaulted over the seat towards the starboard door, hitting the opening button. The noise in the cabin rose dramatically as he moved into the doorway, his eyes visually scanning the grey mist beyond. There was a sudden sound of hailstorm spattering on the skin of the aircraft – until they realised it was actually small-arms fire aimed blindly up at them, backtracking on the tracers of autocannon fire by the remainder of the northern group, who had responded to the surprise assault with instinctive suppressive fire.
There was a guttural growl of rage over the team channel, and despite the tense situation, several of them smiled as they heard the vindictive sounds of their enraged pilot.
"Oh, you done frakked up now…" Hunter whispered to himself, watching as the aft-autocannon started to slew around to a firing position, while Marius let the piloting system hold them in a hover and took personal control of the front cannon.
"Don't you DARE, Shimazu!" Aswon shouted out, pointing at Shimazu. He had spotted the tiny flex in the knees, the head scanning around and evaluating the drop from the open door to the road-bed below. He knew full well that Shimazu could drop that far without injury, and be off at a sprint a moment later – but that would put him right in the line of fire, mixed in amongst the ambushers. And he wasn't sure that Marius would detect the difference between friend and foe… Shimazu turned and looked over his shoulder at Aswon, and there was a definite pout on his face, an expression unusual enough to make Aswon snort. "I know what you were thinking! Don't! We need to get ready to offload that cargo!"
Several bursts of assault-rifle fire sounded below – but with no following sounds of impact on the hull. Presumably their delivery partners were now laying down fire at their hidden assailants, or at least in their general direction. As Shimazu looked down into the thick sea mist, he could see the indistinct bursts of muzzle flash from the centre position, where their contacts where, and to both the north and south, where the ambushers were. The situation looked to be descending into total chaos as both sides fired at each other blindly, while the heavily-armed tilt-jet hovered overhead, the targeting computers zeroing in on all of the heat signatures below them, allocating them target ID's.
"Right – let's get this delivery sorted. Take out the ambushers, try to save our guys!" Kai called out. A moment later, the team swung into action…