Smugglers - a Shadowrun Story

by Kren.Cooper

Follows the story of six unlikely allies who find themselves thrown together by fate in the cruel and harsh Sixth-World of Shadowrun. A new chapter is written most weeks. The game takes place during the 3rd edition rules set / timeline, for clarity - we're just coming up on the Year of the Comet...

341. 341 - The Big Bang

Thursday 27/10/61, Location: 15.79408, 124.28158, Time 02:30

"Setting the interlocks now. Should be one to two minutes before the doors will open. Aswon – there is a control panel to one side of the door, press and hold the button there to confirm door opening, please."

"Roger that." Aswon found the control and pressed his thumb on it, confirming that there were crew on station and it was safe to open the door just above the waterline. He looked over towards Hunter as his backpack buzzed, watching as Hunter pulled out his pad and checked the connection onto his deck.

"Just a news alert, something hit a keyword I set up. Oh… you know all the strange mutations and stuff? Some university clinic has just confirmed it's genetic – not a disease or virus." He scanned the news article quickly, then looked up again. "Yeah – saying it's more like a second stage of goblinisation. Talking about sudden unexpected recessive gene expression – ain't that a mouthful… oh, I get it. SURGE. Yeah, someone spent a few minutes working that one out into a funky word. Anyways, they've published their findings and according to the report it's been confirmed by three other clinics or research hospitals. So there's calls to release people that have been isolated or quarantined, and to stop sending people to the concentration camps. Sorry – 'interment centres'."

"I bet there is. I wonder if people will listen, though."

"Pah… of course, there's some people already posting that this is false news from the conspiracy nuts, and that it's all a lie to deceive us and let the whole world get infected with the disease. Yeah – whole bunch of Humanis sympathisers."

There was a shudder from the doorway next to them, and then an alarm started to sound as the huge steel doorway started to move, unsealing from the thick gaskets that kept it watertight at sea and ponderously swinging open. Hunter tucked his tablet away in a pocket and bought his assault rifle round to cradle in his massive arms, keeping the barrel pointed down and away from the outside, but ready to swing up in a moment if required. A fresh waft of air came in through the doorway, carrying the unmistakeable tang of blood, fire and destruction, snapping their minds back to the current situation.

As the door receded into the hull, leaving a three-metre wide opening in the side of the ship, they could see the waiting mass of people – in fact, the waiting mass of orcs, waiting about twenty metres away, held in place by two of Emerald's team. Eyes adjusting to the darkness outside, Hunter, Tads and Aswon took in their appearance and felt a shudder of shock run through them. Their metatype was abundantly obvious – the skin tone and texture, the presence of tusks, or for some of the people, the more unusual physical appearance of 'oni', the uniquely Japanese variants of ork with their distinctive facial features that made them look more like a stylized demon from Japanese mythology – and which no doubt was the origin for many of the legends from the country's past.

But once you looked past their immediate features, the eye could take in the condition of the people, and that was alarming to see. They were gaunt and haggard, all of them showing signs of advanced malnutrition, with their skin stretched tightly over their bones, the shapes of their skulls alarmingly obvious. Even more so was the expression on their faces – this was a people who had been beaten, abused and reviled, exiled from their land and then set loose upon an island designed to wear them down and consume them. Their eyes were 'dead', their movements lethargic and their countenance contained an indefinable aura of despair.

As the yellow light of the ship washed over them though, many of them looked up or focussed, and something changed. No doubt they had been told that rescue was coming, and perhaps they had been focussed on just getting to the harbour, making it one more step in their journey, a goal that was short enough to be focussed upon, something they could envisage to provide them with enough energy, enough impetus to keep putting one foot in front of another, to follow the HUK guerrillas that had stormed onto their island. But now the object of their salvation was here… and not just a huge ship that had pulled up alongside the quay, but with a door open, people waiting – beckoning them onwards into salvation.

Emerald's two troopers moved towards the edge of the concrete pier, waving with their arms to encourage the crowd forward, and slowly the orks started to walk forward, shambling almost as they walked into the illuminated area.

"Come on, that's it, keep coming. Straight through the door to the lifts. Try and get as many of you as you can in each lift, take it up to deck seventeen. People will be waiting there to show you to a room, give you a bed. Keep coming. Anyone who is fit enough to climb, there's also a staircase on each side. Head up the ship, people will be waiting." Hunter's voice carried clearly across the crowd, the slight variations to his pronunciation caused by the tusks prominent on either side of his jaw triggering some of the crowd to look up at him, seeing him and recognising some form of kinship.

Aswon moved over to the lifts, guiding people in and then cramming them into the waiting cabs. Normally orks were 'bigger' than humans, bulkier and much more heavily muscled, but he was as shocked at the rest at seeing them, and as he guided one female in gently with a guiding arm, he felt the bones under her skin and almost pulled back in shock. He'd grown up in a small village in Nigeria, and they'd not had much compared to many in the world – but they'd been generally self-sufficient. Obesity was certainly never a problem he'd seen until he'd started to travel the world and actually met people for whom excess was a possibility rather than dream. But since then he'd seen plenty of people in tribes all across the world, all of which tended to live simple subsistence lifestyles. But on the whole, those people had generations of institutional knowledge about how to survive to draw upon, a family or clan support structure to preserve them and keep them safe. These people had clearly been dumped onto the island and left to fend for themselves, and their lack of knowledge on survival skills and primitive facilities had harrowed them mercilessly.

Tads found herself in the same position, unconsciously mirroring Aswon's thoughts as she compared their condition to her tribe back home. She could remember seasons where the fishing was bad, or that they'd not managed to herd the reindeer as well as they had hoped, and food had run short. Cooking pots had been more melted snow than meat, and life had been hard – yet they had still always had more than these people must have been living with. A growing horror washed over her as their mental state permeated through her, and her empathy drove a spike of sadness through her own heart. Part of her wanted to just stop them here, to create food for them out of thin air, drawing upon her skills to feed them a hearty meal right now – but if she did they would create a huge bottleneck and stop them getting aboard, and that could cause huge problems. So, she had to let them go, let these starving miserable people wander past her, get packed into the lift cars and taken away to be hungry and tired, drawn and miserable elsewhere – because it was the best way she could help them right at this moment. And she hated that…

At least here the ship's design worked in their favour. Designed to transfer people off the vessel at the end of one cruise and then rapidly replace them with the next consignment of tourists, the lifts were large and very efficient, moving rapidly up the ship to disgorge the shocked prisoners into a lobby – where the waiting Filipino engineers started to usher them out and down the corridor, gesturing for them to head into cabins. Down on deck two, the stream kept coming, with Tads, Hunter and Aswon guiding them to the waiting lifts in turn, packing them in ten at a time and sending them up the ship to be assigned a room.

There was a brief pause after the first hundred or so orks, then they saw a pair of Sapphire's troops at the head of a contingent of dwarves. Shorter than the orks by far, they 'should' have been just as wide if they lived up to their normal physiology, but once again the signs of malnutrition and systemic abuse were plain to see. They, too, shambled forward, their fear of the unknown and trepidation at seeing the strangers beckoning them into the ship countered by the possible hope of salvation. The two guards from Emerald's team had already disappeared, heading back down the quay towards the end of the harbour and the wall, where there was still intermittent fighting ongoing, occasional bursts of gunfire or screams carrying over the noise of the burning buildings and odd explosions.

The two dwarves from Sapphire's squad looked just as tired as Emerald's troops had been, a strange mix of exhaustion and exaltation. They had no idea how much sleep the attacking troops had gotten over the last few days, but clearly it hadn't been enough – but however they'd planned and executed things, it had gone well, it seemed, as they had managed to secure tens of thousands of prisoners and take the harbour – whatever assault they had launched had taken the Japanese forces by surprise and let them overcome their numerical advantage and defensive positions. Looking around at the things like the destroyed radar station it was most likely that Sapphire's squad had managed to creep into position and plant their improvised demolition charges at key locations and launch a decapitating strike that had paralysed the defender's control and communications channels.

"Marius, it's Aswon. Looking around, it seems like the HUK have taken out a lot of the fixed positions, and the remaining troops are all mobile. Probably using small handheld radios or tactical communications. Can you fire up some blanket broadcasting and see if you can drown them out? I don't think the HUK will be affected…"

"I will see what I can do. The ship does not have offensive capabilities… let me check. Ahh – yes, I can over-ride some frequencies here. And… there. That is done. Broadcasting 'Lightning Jacks morning workout routine' on all frequencies. Now ramping up the power on the transmitter… there. Everyone inside about ten kilometres should be receiving that now."

"Great stuff, that should stop them communicating as easily."

"Aswon? Are any of the HUK leaders about?"

"I don't think so, Kai, not that we can see. Um… ok, no, I can see Citrine, I think, towards the end of the dock? You want them?"

"I was going to introduce our engineering friends to them, make sure they all understand what's going on. Don't worry about it, though, probably time for that later. How's the loading going?"

"Steady progress. I think we're looking at another sixty to ninety minutes though, at least. Some of these prisoners are in pretty poor condition, so they're moving slowly. At the moment that's working out ok, though – by the time they get onboard, the lifts are back down to collect the next batch. So I don't think we can increase that, short of Tads going outside and levitating people up onto the deck." Aswon grinned as Tads gave him a withering look. "Scratch that – I don't think Tads is that keen on that plan. So yeah – another ninety minutes, conservatively."

"Ok, fine. Can we maybe send some of the spirits out to do some recon of the area? Find out what is going on out there?"

"No, Kai. The island is so horribly polluted and tainted that the smaller spirits will get disrupted or discouraged by the taint. They're struggling to overcome things already."

"Ahh, right. And we want to keep the big one back for emergencies. Ok, never mind, then. "

"Kai – we're going to need to open up the medical centre. I think you should get down here… there are a bunch of sick people, and they need treating. I think they're going to need both of us. And Shimazu as well, yeah. They're in awful condition."

"No. I will remain on the bridge." Shimazu said clearly and emphatically. "The last thing these prisoners need is to see a Japanese human wandering around with a sword and gun. It will be entirely too easy for them to see me as the enemy. I doubt they could hurt me, but I may have to hurt them if they try – and if anyone witnesses THAT, it would start a tricky escalation. So I will stay on the bridge, with Marius, and keep a watch on here."

"Ok, fair enough – that's not something I'd considered actually. Yeah, best for you to keep out of sight for the moment."

"Kai – I wanna move topside. I'm still hearing combat from the edge of the harbour. I'm gonna grab the next two HUK I see to replace me, and preferably Aswon as well. I think we can probably get high enough on the ship to provide some support fire to the HUK."

"Ok, sounds good, Hunter."

"Heading back to the Broadsword, then – do you want the cannon, Hunter?"

"Betcha ass I do!"

As the next group of prisoners boarded, Hunter grabbed the two of Diamond's group that was herding them into position and told them they needed to man the door. At first they seemed hesitant – wanting to get back themselves to the fight.

"I understand – but I need you on this door, keeping the people moving in nicely. If you do that, then I can go up to the top of the ship, and start using this," he tapped the Ares Alpha combat gun hanging from his shoulder, "to provide cover fire over the whole harbour, and protecting your flanks. Or my assault cannon. That's better – trust me." Hunter gave a tight smile. "So do me a favour and stay on the door, and keep things moving. And we'll go and provide covering fire for all your buddies, ok?" He didn't want for acknowledgement, and instead just headed for the lift, squeezing in with the next group that were heading up to the cabin decks.

Aswon met up with Hunter and passed over the canon with a grunt. He was a pretty wiry guy and used to hardship and combat operations – but he had to admit that he didn't want to carry Hunter's massive assault cannon and his own equally outsize anti-material rifle together any further than he had to. Offloading the cannon and handing over the two spare magazines he had crammed into his pouches reduced the weight he was carrying but about twenty-five kilos, and that was a relief.

"Do you want port or starboard?" He asked, pointing to the wings on the bridge. "They've got opening windows at both ends, so we've got something to rest on, and some cover. Seems better than going up another couple of decks into the passenger areas."

"I'll go this way then, cover the quay side." Hunter pointed to the starboard wing. "The cannon probably has a bit more utility against groups, if they try to rush the crowd."

"Fair. Ok, see you soon." Aswon hefted his own rifle into his hands and trotted down to the port wing, while Hunter turned the other way, carrying the massive Panther cannon with ease in his massive arms.

They set up, opening the windows and scanning the areas below. Both of them could see perfectly well even in the partial darkness, the fires and intermittent lighting remaining in the harbour more than enough for their enhanced vision. The height advantage from the fifteenth deck also gave them a clear view over all of the harbour, with only a few blind spots directly behind buildings. It didn't take long for them to start spotting the few remaining Imperial Marines, hunkered down in craters or shattered buildings, suppressing the front line HUK guerrillas.

"Target, port side. Second building back from the supermarket. Target down." The Purdey slammed back into Aswon's shoulder as he gently squeezed the trigger, taking the marine in the neck, striking between the top of his combat jacket and the armoured helmet.

"Contact. Two marines in a foxhole. Range four fifty… shot out." There was a pause, and Hunter worked the action on his grenade launcher, readying another mini-grenade in the under-barrel launcher while the grenade was enroute. "Chunky salsa." His satisfaction was unmistakeable as the round landed on target, bouncing around in the bottom of the hole they were sheltering in. There wasn't time for the two marines to react and the confined space made the blast bounce back and forth, obliterating them both and sending a spray of mangled body parts out in a fountain from the hole.

The jamming from the ship has obviously hindered the Japanese response, and it became even more obvious now as the two team-members started to work around the harbour, eliminating targets when they appeared. Aswon was a world-class sniper, and every single one of his targets went down with a single neat bullet hole in some exposed part of their body, or at worst, a shot through the thinnest and most exposed part of their armour. Hunter wasn't far behind in terms of skill, if behind at all, but the benefits of his Smart-Link cyberware system, the range-finger and his orientation system meant that he could drop his grenades with pin-point accuracy and perfect timings on groups of enemies or those sheltering in holes – and for direct targets, while his rounds individually lacked the stopping power of Aswon's hunting rifle, a three-round burst generally did the job quite nicely. Neither of them bothered taking shots with their larger weapons, finding that their normal long-arms were more than sufficient for the environment and target selection.

In fifteen minutes of careful and deliberate shooting they had obliterated about ninety percent of the remaining Japanese forces in the harbour – and the two remaining marines they had spotted were hunkered well down inside buildings and didn't appear to want to engage anyone or anything, no doubt figuring that reinforcements would be here sooner or later. With the reduction in suppressing fire down to zero, the remaining HUK guerrillas could move freely, and more importantly, start to recover their wounded from the battlefield.

"I can still see lights on the left there – that building is intact. Do we engage that, too?"

"I wouldn't, Hunter. I think that's the closest of the prisons – what can you see?"

"They've got search lights running, sweeping patterns over the grounds. Their radar and sensor domes are intact – don't look like they've been hit at all. Fences are all clear and intact as well. No signs of combat in or around it from my viewpoint."

"I concur." Aswon swept across the facility with his scope. "I'd advise leaving it well alone. So far we've pissed off the marines and the Japanese state – but not the three megacorps. I'm sure they'd help if they were asked, but with the communications down, they're just sitting fast and watching their own turf. Let's not poke the anthill with a stick."

"I can take out their sensors with two shots – for sure." Hunter said, sounding somewhat wistful. He'd not fired his Panther cannon yet, having found the assault rifle and grenade launcher had more than enough range and stopping power to deal with the isolated marines.

"Hunter… seriously, dude. Leave them alone." There was a deep sigh over the tactical net, then some movement caught Aswon's eye and he swung the scope down to focus back on the harbour. "Kai, Tads – we've got injuries coming in. Some of the prisoners, but mostly the HUK. I can see multiple stretcher cases being dragged towards the quay, as well as a bunch of walking wounded." Aswon concentrated for a moment, dialling in the magnification on his scope giving them a quick assessment. "Yeah, multiple cases of GSW, some of Sapphire's team with bits physically missing. Get down there fast – some of these are pissing blood all over the place and in a bad way. Hunter and I have the remaining enemy suppressed, and it looks like the HUK are all pulling back. Still got a bunch of prisoners to load, though. We'll stay on top cover – but those guys need some medical attention, stat."

"We've got wounded coming in." Tads told the ork and the troll from Diamond's team that had been helping to move people through the entrance gangway and into the ship. "I need to go and get the medical centre open, on the next deck up. Send the wounded to us there, and we'll do our best for them." They nodded to her, then moved to the entrance and started shouting to the prisoners, getting them to move to the sides of the quay and clear a path down the centre, wide enough for the wounded to be bought through. "Kai – I'm heading to the medical centre, meet you there?"

"I'm on my way."

Shimazu heard the call and grabbed his kit, then left the bridge area and started to head down. He didn't have quite the same depth of medical training as Kai, but his knowledge was probably as broad, and his focus on first aid treatments most likely to be used for things like gunshot wounds and blasts – the immediate traumas a bodyguard may have to deal with.

As he headed down into the public areas of the ship, he entered a lounge bar that some of the prisoners had spilled out into, finding lounge chairs and settees to sprawl on. As soon as they saw him there was a ripple of discomfort that spread through the room, the idle conversation dying away as they stared at him. Shimazu paused, reading the shift in the mood of the room, before he slowly started to back away, returning to the passageway that led to the bridge.

"I will return to the bridge. I have just encountered some of the prisoners – and they are not happy to see me." He paused for a second, then continued as he backed through the hatchway and sealed it. "That's not unsurprising. Native Japanese human, carrying a sword and a gun – I must personify 'the enemy' for all of the people here."

"Did they give you any trouble?" Kai asked.

"No – but I didn't give them the chance. But from the look of naked aggression on their faces, some of them were wondering about it. I just think it's better that I stay out of sight for the moment. Easier for everyone."

"Alright… Tads – I'm definitely going to need your help then!"

Tads reached the medical centre first, and found that Marius had already flicked on all the lights and machinery, and had the doors held open for her. She called out a 'thank you', not sure if he could hear her or not – but it was the thought that counted, right? A lot of the machinery and equipment was beyond her, but it all looked clean and tidy, and most of it looked very high-tech – she was sure that Kai would understand what it was for. In the meantime though, she headed back to the entranceway, looking around and mentally planning where to put people and how she could organise things to make sure that people could get in for treatment quickly. She took a few moments to centre herself, taking some calming breaths, and then concentrated.

She pictured elk in her mind, and didn't even have to concentrate to radiate a sense of love and honour, the feelings coming naturally to her after years of service and duty. But what she did next did – and still felt a little alien. She took her feelings for elk and moved them gently to one side – they were still there, still important to her – but for the moment at least, she turned her attention elsewhere. In her mind, her focus shifted to the trees she was imagining, overlooking the tundra where elk watched. She 'saw' in her memories snowy owls, sitting on the trees and watching the snowy expanse below, their mottled black and white features disrupting their outlines, while huge yellow eyes took in the details of all below them, watching for the tiny movements of mice in the deep snow. She reached out, focussing her attention on the aspect of owl, calling to it and welcoming it into her life. A pair of yellow eyes looked up at her, growing in size as she zoomed in on them, until they engulfed her mind completely.

"Hi…" Tads didn't know if she'd spoken out loud or not, but she felt the sudden warm embrace around her as a set of huge feathered wings wrapped around her soul, engulfing her with a strange and new presence – but one that felt reassuring none the less. More importantly, she felt a surge of power and confidence as the spirit of owl fused with her own, granting her mastery of the night.

The lift doors opened, and Kai appeared with a large ork, holding a large blood-stained pad over his midriff. One of the prisoners was on the other side, helping to hold them up and they staggered over towards her.

"Several gunshots to the abdomen, loss of blood volume, possible organ damage, need to get them on a bed and some fluids into them now, then go from there." Kai's normal irreverent tone was absent as his medical training took over, and Tads ran over to one of the cupboards and grabbed a bag of blood expanders from the supplies inside. She still wasn't sure how they worked or what you did with them, but she'd seen Kai and Shimazu call for them before. As soon as she reached the ork, she took in his pale complexion and laboured responses and saw how serious the wounds were – he looked to be at death's door, and she held her hands over the body and let the mana flow from them.

"Drek! He's arresting!" Kai called out in alarm as the diagnostic panel started to furiously beep at him.

"No, that's me." Tads responded through gritted teeth as she concentrated. "Just slowing down the body process, give you time to work." Kai glanced over at the monitors and saw that the heartbeat had actually stabilised at five beats per minute, and had not bottomed out as he had originally feared, and then dived back into work – grabbing his medical shears and cutting away at the clothing to expose the bloody mess that had once been a belly.

They heard the lift ding again, and more people staggered into the medical centre, this time one of Emerald's team with an arm wound that was oozing blood, along with one of Sapphire's dwarfs that had a gunshot clear through his thigh. Tads headed over to triage them, and get them settled in a bed while Kai continued to work, and then turned as the lift doors dinged again, disgorging more wounded in need of their attention. Time blurred for both of them as a steady stream of casualties came in, mostly HUK guerrillas but with a smattering of prisoners suffering various combat wounds and traumas too – people who had been fit or well enough to be given weapons and join the strike force in their liberation efforts.

Time became a blur as they treated the wounded. Kai's hands were a blur as he dived into wound after wound, seeking to find shrapnel and bullets that had penetrated organs, repairing tears and ruptures. He was thankful that they were on the ship – the medical facilities here were surprisingly good at first glance – it was only as he thought about the kind of clientele that could afford a fifty-to-sixty thousand Nuyen cruise that he realised that they would demand the best – in terms of the luxury of their rooms, the quality of their food, the service from the staff – but then also from medical facilities they expected on board to cater for any accidents or injuries they may encounter. Potentially, given the age that some of the cruise passengers might have reached, some of them may have come aboard with a number of existing conditions or ailments that needed to be managed, and with a nominal cruise size of over eight thousand passengers, it required a proportionally well-equipped sick-bay on the ship.

That proved to be instrumental in their efforts, and as more and more wounded flooded in, Kai was grateful that they had the facilities available to use, along with so many supplies. Of the forty or so critical patients that arrived, between his own efforts and those of Tads, he lost only a single patient – just one that they ran out of time on before they could treat their wounds. The other thirty-nine were not only saved, but restored to a good modicum of health. He was shattered, and Tads was beyond physically exhausted – she'd thrown so much of herself into the constant spell-casting to stabilise or heal the patients that she had little dribbles of blood from her nose and ears, and looked on the verge of collapse.

"Team, what's our status?" Kai grabbed a cloth and after a quick check that it wasn't one used to treat a patient, scrubbed at his face, getting rid of the sweat and blood splatters that covered him.

"It appears that loading is almost complete. We have perhaps fifty people waiting to board, and of those at least thirty are HUK guerrillas on rear-guard. Sensors show no more people heading into the harbour area. There are a few ghost signals still in the ruined buildings – I think they are Imperial Marines, but they are keeping their heads down now. Hunter and Aswon have seen to that."

"Ok, I think Tads and I have dealt with all the wounded now, pretty much. At least I hope so – we're running low on a whole bunch of supplies and this place looks like a war zone." He looked around at the medical facility and the host of wounded people sleeping or resting, covered in bandages and tattered remains of clothing. "Yeah, we're stable here. So, are we almost ready to get underway?"

"Yes. I need someone to go to the gangway and double check the door seal, but we should be ready to depart in a few minutes." Marius paused and checked the time display in the top corner of his vision, watching as the digits changed over to read 3:59. "Technically I can start to depart now, but I would much rather have someone double check the door seal and seaworthiness. This is not something we should be adjusting in the open ocean."

"I'm already on the way down." Hunter called out. "Should be there in a minute, just getting in the lift." The comms went quiet for forty-five seconds as Hunter headed down in the lift, then crossed the few steps from the lift to the gangway entrance. "Ok, I'm here. Seal her up, mate!" He leant out into the path of the closing door for a moment as the huge steel plate started to move, looking up and down into the tracks that the door ran along to ensure nothing had fallen in and fouled the mechanism. As the door ponderously slid into position he pulled back, keeping up a visual inspection of the reducing gap. The door slid into position with a loud clang, and then moved outwards as hydraulic pistons pressed it into the outer hull, making it flush with the surface and sealing the thick rubber gaskets in place. "Door secure, seal looks good. Got green lights on the door panel here."

"Confirm, looks secure to me to, showing a green light across the board. Starting to depart."

"Oh, don't we need to cast off or things?" Kai suddenly called out. "Isn't that a thing?"

"No – we never tied up to begin with. I have held us in position with the engines for the last two hours. We do not have the crew required to handle the lines, so that was the only real alternative."

"Oh… then, good job?"

"Indeed." There was a certain level of smugness in his voice, but nobody felt it was undeserved – it must have been interesting trying to keep the massive ship in place using the thrusters during the loading process, and it certainly explained what he'd been doing for the last few hours.

"Kai – a suggestion. Get on the public address system, and put out a shout for anyone with any kind of cooking experience to volunteer and go to the kitchens. There's no way those three cooks can handle cooking for twenty thousand people, but maybe they can direct or co-ordinate. And getting some food out and into some of those prisoners has got to be a good thing."

"Yeah, good idea. Marius – I've got a phone on the bulkhead here. Can you patch me through?"

"Pick up the phone so I can see which line it is… ah – got it. Ok, you are live."

"Good morning everyone, and welcome aboard the Ocean Adventure. My name is Kai, and my team here were asked to help secure the boat and bring it into the harbour, so we could take you all away from that island. I'm sure by now you are all familiar with Emerald, Ruby, Citrine, Sapphire and Diamond – well, we're also the ones that got them to the island and into position to start the break-out." Kai paused for a second, thinking about what to say next. He spoke in English, hoping that enough of the Japanese would be able to understand or have it translated for them, but reminded himself to speak slowly and clearly to his unseen audience.

"We are just about to leave the island, and take you all away to our destination, where you will be safely looked after." He had no idea where that was or if it was true – but they definitely didn't need to hear that! "For the moment, please try to relax, and stay in your cabins or lounge areas. Be comfortable and relax – you have more than earnt a bit of comfort and relaxation." He paused again, hopefully leaving time for any translations that might be going on amongst the passengers to be completed.

"We have some people in the kitchen working to make some food – but there are only a few of them. So, if any of you have any experience with cooking or preparing food, and you are well enough to volunteer – please head to the lift area, and we will come and collect you. You can help us cook some fresh food and as soon as we have some, we will pass it out amongst all of the passengers." He paused again, knowing that more than likely Tads or Aswon, or perhaps both would already be moving down into the lift area to start collecting volunteers.

"We will update you when we have more information. But for the moment, remain calm, and in your places. If you have problems, please report them to one of the rescue team, and they will pass them along to us. We will call again if we have more information for you." There didn't seem to be much else worth saying, so he just hung up the phone, hearing the click of the circuit dropping echoing through the speakers before Marius killed the broadcast.

"Hunter – are you in a position to check in with the employer on exactly where we're supposed to be going?" He paused for a moment as the ship shuddered, then realised it was just Marius manoeuvring the ship away from the quay side and starting to back out of the harbour. "We need to have some idea of where we're going. And I'm sure Marius would prefer to have a course to set.

"Yes, that would be handy. At the moment I am planning on heading north-east – towards Japan."

"Towards Japan? Are you crazy?"

"No. But I am hoping any rational person would not think to look in that direction initially. It we can clear the initial locus of the island without detection, or with reports sending us in that direction, it may make finding us marginally more difficult."

"Oh, ok – that makes sense, I guess."

"This is not a good plan Kai. Do not think that this is going to save us. We are a huge target, slow moving and with no stealth capabilities. I do not see how we are going to get away with this. That does not mean that I will not try – but I genuinely do not see how we are going to get away from the Japanese forces. All it will take is one high-altitude long range aircraft and we will be tracked for as long as it takes them to send forces to recapture the ship."

"Well, full speed ahead then, and screw the fuel economy?"

"Affirmative." There was no noticeable change in the shuddering noises or the pitches of the engines, and Kai belatedly realised that Marius was already running flat out – or as close to it as he was willing to risk. He'd had several hours to get 'used' to the ship the day before, but sailing on the open seas was a vastly different situation to trying to move around in the confined space of the harbour – but the island was already sliding past them quite quickly as they slid out of the calm waters and sheltered bay at a speed that was probably contra-indicated in the maritime guidelines. They were already starting to turn, as Marius twisted the azipods a few degrees, swinging the stern of the ship to the south as he made ready to start moving off to the north.

"Team, we've got about fifty volunteers to work in the kitchens, and we're setting them going now. The cooks have been amazing – apparently they were prepping for passengers most of last night, figuring that something was up. So we've got a mountain of rolls baked and we're going to start throwing hamburgers out as fast as we can cook them. We've also got a bunch of people to ferry food up to the decks. Going to get them fed first, then start relaying food up as fast as we can. Tads is with me as well.

"I've messaged Masaru. No response yet. I've confirmed arrival in the mailbox, and it's been receipted – but not opened. Not sure if he's avoiding us, or just busy elsewhere."

"I guess we have to wait, then. He's the employer, so hopefully he's got it all figured out. We've done our part." Kai tried to sound convincing, but even he thought it was a bit of wishful thinking… "Oh – something I meant to ask – do you think it's a good idea to check the prisoners over to see if there are any mages or adepts in there?"

"I was doing scans of them on the dockside as they were waiting to board – and I didn't spot anything." Aswon reported. "It was pretty hard to spot, mind you, so I'm not saying I didn't miss anyone – the astral pollution from the fighting and the general background of the island made it hard to see through. But I'd say if there were any people with talent there, then they're more likely to be physical adepts rather than mages, and almost certainly their powers or abilities were related to hiding, surviving, or resisting damage… things that will help them survive in a hellhole like that. But we're not going to find a Vadim or someone like that – they would have either made themselves the leader of a prison gang and we'd have spotted them easily, or they'd have been weeded out by the Japanese and dealt with – too dangerous to leave roaming around loose."

"Ahh, bugger. So no ninjas to help us fight off an assault if the Japanese do catch up with us?" The disappointment in Kai's voice was palpable.

"No. Though I have no doubt the people on board will fight tooth and nail to fend off the Japanese if they do arrive – but that's exactly what they will be fighting with. Or maybe we can distribute knives from the catering areas… but that's still going to put them at a disadvantage compared to Marines. And we've lost a bunch of the HUK already… they're in sickbay, and they'll be ok, but they're in no condition to fight from what I could see. I only popped through to see about food, but I'm guessing that's right?"

"Yeah – they're all exhausted, and barely patched up. We don't want them fighting if we can help it. And the teams have lost a bunch of casualties as well. Most of them are down at least twenty-five percent, and Sapphire's team got slaughtered it seems, they're down about fifty percent.

"Um – Marius. You were doing things with the radio, to stop the Japanese talking to each other?"

"Yes, Tads – hot mike jamming."

"Who's Mike? Oh, microphone, no, I get it. Ok – should we still be doing that? Or will it make it easier to find us, because they can hear the music, or whatever?"

"That is a fair question. It is a bit of a two-edged sword – it will stop communications still while we are close to the island, and will maybe stop them calling for help, or passing information onto the mega-corp prisons. But it could be a risk as we get further out to sea and make us easier to find. I will monitor the situation."

"Right – Tads. Can you hide this ship? In an illusion, I mean?"

"Not at close range, but if the person is far away – yes."

"Why do they have to be far away?"

"The ship is about sixty metres wide or something like that – bigger than I can do. But if the person looking is on the horizon, then I can put an illusion closer to them, somewhere I can see, and it would be wide enough to hide our apparent size. But only if it's directly between us and them."

"Oh – how come we haven't had this come up before?"

"We've never been out at open sea before – there's always something in the way on the ground, and we never get to see this far normally. And in the air there's too much up and down."

"So how big can you do, or how far away does it need to be?"

"I can cover an area about thirty metres or so at the moment. Something like that anyway. In a big bubble."

"So it needs to be about halfway between us and the observer – probably around the ten to twelve kilometres mark at least, and then we can hide. But only from one observer." Marius stated having quickly run through the maths in his head. "If there are multiple observers, it fails. Because each illusion will be visible on a very different heading to the first, from the other observers."

Kai didn't quite follow the reason why, but it was safe to say that it wasn't going to work if Marius said he'd worked out the maths for it, and he left it there.

"So what else can we do?"

"I can create a large patch of mist – actual real mist – and position it over the ship. But we'll sail out of it quite quickly and I'd need to keep casting a fresh spell every few minutes."

"I do not have a problem with that, Tads. Creeping smoke screens were very effective in the Second World War, and a common tactic for destroyers to close in on their targets. It would give away our general position, but hide us from observation and examination, and that is still a useful thing." Marius was about to continue when he suddenly felt a tingle in his side, like a hot needle being jammed into his flesh. He concentrated on the rigger interface and then cursed. "Fire. We have a fire in the main galley. Smoke alarms trigged in section nine."

"We're on it! We've got an extinguisher, dealing with it now. One of the volunteers made a mistake and a pan of oil went up. It's all under control." The throat mike cut out any of the background noise from the kitchen and the probable shouts and cursing that must have been going on. But – Aswon didn't sound too alarmed, and Marius felt the sensors silence or return to their normal status one after another as someone attacked the fire with the portable extinguisher. "Ok, that should be dealt with – just a bit of excitement. All under control here now. Just a simple mistake, easily fixed."

The ship sailed on to the north-east, opening the distance to the island quickly as the massive engines thundered and drove the six steerable propellers at full speed. People started to move around the ship, with a constant stream of food flowing from the galley and delivered up to the cabin decks to the waiting passengers. More of the ex-prisoners volunteered, wanting to do something rather than nothing, no doubt a stress response to their rescue and having control over their destiny for the first time in years. But with the three Filipino cooks now having about a dozen volunteers to manage, people were learning how to do one task to a reasonable proficiency and in a repeatable fashion, and plate after plate of freshly cooked food was making its way around the ship, to be consumed by the starving masses. Potentially in a day or so it may cause them problems as people who had lived their entire lives never having tasted real meal suddenly found their digestive systems struggling to cope – but that was a problem for later, and right now the allure of real, hot, fresh and tasty food was keeping people happy and cared for.

Thirty minutes after leaving the harbour, Marius felt a sensation, the hairs on the back of his virtual neck standing on edge. His sensors were clear of direct targets, but still he could sense 'something' and he concentrated his full attention on the ship's systems. After a couple of seconds, he realised what the feeling was, the sensation translating differently through the massive ships sensor array and civilian processing software. There was a bubble of energy on the horizon, active scanning from some target just over the horizon, pumping out energy and flooding the area around them with sensor beams and radar sweeps. He wasn't sure what they were, other than being military craft – nothing else had that level of sensor systems.

He was somewhat prepared then, and already had the ship turning hard towards the south as the tip of the radar mast crept over the horizon, and the sensor sweeps began to hit the ship.

"Team, please come to the bridge. We have an issue." They recognised the absent-tone of his voice, knowing that they were getting only a sliver of his conscious attention while he dealt with other things, and they also knew that Marius was not one to make idle requests. Shimazu was already there, but the rest of the team put down their various things and headed that way – congregating in the expansive bridge.

"What's up, Marius?"

"Hunter, screen please. I will show you." Hunter rolled out his screen and plugged it into his deck, then cross-linked his deck to Marius. A moment later the lash-up synchronised and finished their security checks, and the heads-up display replicated through to the screen. At first it was a huge mass of information, screens, virtual dials and readouts that packed a huge amount of information into the tiny space and was almost indecipherable. Marius cleared it all away though, and then bought up a single screen that filled the display, showing the ship at the centre, and a bubble slowly forming at the top of the viewing area. "This was a few minutes ago. I detected an energy surge, on the horizon. It has grown slowly – this is a compressed replay. The source of that energy bubble is the radar and sensor mast of a Shimakaze-II destroyer – the same type of warship that we encountered previously and which shot the missiles at us. Very capable, fast and not to be underestimated."

"Well, drek… so we've got a warship on our tail? I presume that's why we turned so hard a minute ago?" Kai didn't wait for an answer, realising it was a pretty rhetorical question. "So Tads – time to do your illusion thing out of the back."

"No – that will not work. Wait." The screen zoomed out, the bubbles getting smaller as the scale increased. Another bubble appeared at the top of the screen, then another on the other side, joined by several more in a long line, slightly swept back from the lead ship. "This is a full division. Eight ships, spread apart with a roughly ten kilometre distance between each ship. They are approaching at twenty-eight knots currently, giving them a six knot advantage over us. Even if we move up to the absolute maximum speed, we cannot outrun them – just delay their approach very slightly."

"How long have we got until they're in range?"

"They are in range now, Kai, technically. Those missiles they carry have a good hundred kilometre range from what we observed – at Mach three. If we try to lift off in the Broadsword now, we are well inside that range. We may be able to stealth away, using the ship for cover – but it is a significant risk. Evading one radar is possible, but each additional set of sensors complicates matters. And at the moment we have eight sets of military sensors all trained in our direction – we are being constantly painted with energy, from multiple directions."

"So they can easily shoot us with missiles?" Kai sighed, staring at the screen and wondering what they were going to do. He'd not seen the plumes of smoke streaking through the sky as the missiles had raced towards them previously, but he'd felt the wild manoeuvres as Marius had twisted and turned trying to evade them.

"No – probably not. In fact, I doubt they could launch them at us. Those are surface to air missiles – SAMs. Designed for small, fast-moving targets like aircraft and drones. It is entirely probable that they would refuse to lock up a target this big. I have seen systems like that classify a target like this as a small island or piece of land, because it is so far out of their threat parameters."

"So we're safe, then?"

"From the SAMs yes. But not from their ship-to-ship missiles, which they also carry. Those are designed to strike other warships and are slower – much slower – but carry a massive warhead compared to the SAM versions. And though a ship to ship missile only does five hundred knots, we still cannot dodge or evade it, and it would punch straight through our hull."

"So what do we do to…"

"I have not finished, Kai. They also have deck guns. More than likely a system based on a 127mm rifled long-barrelled auto-loading gun system, protected in a turret mounted on the fore part of the ship. Each one of those shells would be about eight times larger than the ones Hunter fires, and far more destructive. And most importantly – cheaper. A missile might cost a third of a million Nuyen. Each shot from the deck gun will cost them about five hundred. And yes, to answer your next question – we are probably in range of those guns now." The radar screen disappeared, replaced with a view from one of the stern cameras. It was still mostly black, but as Marius applied some enhancement to it, they could see a wireframe outline around some different coloured pixels and blurs on the screen. "We can only see the top of those masts at the moment, but the guns can elevate and fire at us, based on the fire control radar. They may not have the best accuracy – but we are in range."

"Well, that's something at least." Kai grinned a little, studying the screen and then relaxing a little. The rest of the team looked at him in confusion, wondering what he had seen – as the situation didn't look good. "Look – WE know we don't have any passengers on, right. I mean, legitimate passengers. But THEY don't. To the captain of those warships, when they come over the horizon – they're just gonna see a frakking massive cruise ship. As far as they know it's stuffed full of executives and board members filling the luxury apartments paying sixty thousand Nuyen a week for an exotic cruise. Maybe we hijacked it and are holding them all hostage? But do YOU want to be the military officer that starts shelling a ship like this and kills hundreds of innocent SINners, provokes a major media incident and invokes the wrath of the seven non-Japanese megacorps for killing their citizens?"

The team thought about it for a moment and then nodded along. Once again they'd been projecting their own thoughts and knowledge onto the enemy – when realistically all they probably had was an alert or alarm, and instructions to investigate and deal with the matter. And Kai was right – if a captain on a small ship like a destroyer did kill a few thousand people and his navy disowned his actions, his career and likely his life would be over.

"We can't count on that forever, of course – and if they get close enough to board us, or even see what's going on, then we're screwed… so what can we do to get rid of them? Can we decoy some off with the Broadsword?"

"I do not see how, Kai. If we launch the aircraft, we run a serious risk of losing it. We have seen the performance of their missile systems – we were very lucky to get away last time, and that required us to enter a steep dive to pick up speed. If we are just taking off, we cannot reach the required speed to activate the ramjet, and we cannot evade the missiles. And those SAMs are very definitely capable of taking out the aircraft, even if they will not threaten the ship." Marius shook his head.

"What about a fake distress call?"

"Technically under the law of the sea they should answer something like that. But I think practically they won't." Aswon said, scratching the side of his head as he pondered. "I think they'd hide behind their orders. Or maybe they'd just launch a helicopter or an inflatable powerboat, something like that, just enough to check it out and then ignore it. It's what I'd see happening in a standard military unit in the same position."

"We are approximately nine hundred kilometres from Taiwan, and we would have to cut past the destroyers to head that way – so that is out. If we head east, we have a thousand kilometres to the nearest islands – so we cannot flee that way either. The Philippines are closer – only two hundred kilometres away, and to the south or west. But we still will not reach them before we are caught."

"We can't hide in territorial waters?"

"No, Kai – not while the Philippines are a Japanese protectorate. It is effectively Japanese land, and they can do as they wish. Including shooting us all without a trial."

"Ok – can we send our spirits over to batter the enemy ships?"

"I don't think so, Kai – for two reasons. Attacking vehicles is one thing, but attacking something that big is much harder. Much, much harder, and our smaller spirits won't be very effective. But also, the destroyers have a crew assigned for months and months probably. People live there, and make it their home… so the chances are that it's become a hearth domain, and probably has a spirit that inhabits it. That's going to defend its home, and its people. So our spirits would have to defeat that spirit first, before it could start to try and sabotage the ship."

"Oh, ok… so we'd need to gang up on them, which means we could affect only one or two – probably not enough to make a difference. Well… any suggestions?"

"I have dropped all the external lights. We are still a huge target, but we can try to make ourselves as hard to see as possible. And we can push the flux back up and transmit as much as we can – we cannot hide from their sensors, but we can try to overwhelm them and disrupt their communications. And I am pushing the engines to maximum power – though the engineers will not like it. But if we can hit twenty-three knots, that means they are closing in at only five knots, and that increases the time they will take for a stern chase. It is not much, but the best I can offer right now." He paused for a moment, then frowned. "Ok, they do not like that. All of them have increased power on their own transmissions. They have us locked up for definite now. We absolutely should not try to launch the Broadsword – directly or remotely."

"Ok, give me a minute or two to head to the back of the ship, and I'll start creating some mist to obscure us more." She paused for a moment then started glancing between Marius and Aswon. "If we can get any of the demo charges from Sapphire's team, I could send a spirit to carry them over – perhaps try to drop them on the ship? Would that work?"

"Triggering them remotely might be tricky – but the transmitters could be locked onto a frequency. Yeah – possibly. Could work – but it's unlikely to do anything more than scorch the paintwork."

"Unless you can drop the charges directly on the radar dish or sensor masts. They will perhaps the most vulnerable to blast damage."

"And I'll try to get back to Masaru and ask him what the frak he expects us to do now." Hunter looked over to Marius. "Send me your seed file so I can match your frequency hops and cut through this drek." He gestured at the broad-spectrum jamming that was currently clogging up the broadcast frequencies and squelching his transmissions.

A few minutes passed, and the visual sensor feed disappeared from the back of the ship as a huge patch of mist 'appeared' at the stern, then started to drift and dissipate behind them. Tads started to throw out the spells to the left and right of them as well, and soon a bank of fog half a kilometre wide was spreading out behind the ship. Radar and lidar penetrated the fog just fine, but their visual tracking would be completely negated, at least until the fog spread out and blew away on the wind. That started to happen almost immediately at the edges, but the fog bank was big enough that it would still take several minutes to dissipate enough to make a difference. After Tads had cast her first batch of spells, she heard Aswon calling her over the team channel.

"I've checked with the HUK, and they have four satchel charges left over from their assault. They're a bit battered, but I think they're serviceable. Not that large, though… so we probably have enough to try an assault on two of the destroyers to take out their sensor masts, with a bit of guidance from Marius."

"Ok. I'm going to wait back here – the wind is gusting and changing direction, and I want to be on hand to make some more mist to keep us concealed. If we decide to assault, then we can take it from there?"

"I actually advise not doing that." Hunter cut into the conversation. "They're not firing – yet. Maybe it's like Kai said, and they're worried about hostages. Maybe they don't want to fire at a two billion Nuyen ship that belongs to a double-A corporation. But if we start attacking them, then they're defending themselves, not being the aggressors. It might be better to wait – as long as possible. They'll be more accurate, probably – but so would we. And maybe we can come up with something else instead. Like… can we put those charges into plastic bags and get a water spirit to attach them under the hull? Turn them into improvised torpedoes rather than bombs?"

"That may be a viable alternative. Destroyers are quite fragile – in terms of ships – not having much in the way of armour. Their hulls are still quite strong of course, but if we can turn them into a rudimentary shaped charge and breach their keels, that would have a significant effect on them. Their crews and supplies are limited – they are the smallest of the blue-water vessels, so their damage control resources are also the smallest."

"Ooh – now there's a thing. Maybe I should make an announcement to the passengers. Prisoners. Rescuees? Let's go with passengers." Kai paused for a moment as he mentally shifted them into a different box in his mind. "Yeah – give me a minute, Marius, then give me a live PA again please, I'm on the phone down in the medical centre."

[Good morning everyone. This is Kai again. We're currently heading south at our best speed, but there's a tiny little issue right now. Apparently the Japanese navy aren't too happy with us for rescuing you all, and have sent some kind of destroyer after us.] Kai's voice sounded confident and light, and he spoke naturally and without worry. It almost sounded like a routine announcement, and nothing more concerning than the possibility of bad weather, or perhaps that they were out of mint-choc-chip ice-cream. [We're working to try and evade them, but they are being rather persistent in their efforts to catch us up. It's very annoying.] There was an overly dramatic sigh resonating through the speakers.

[There's a slight possibility that they may become irritated with us though, and start shooting – so we're unfortunately going to have to make some preparations. Anyone in a cabin that faces towards the outside of the ship, especially to the rear – be aware that we're going to turn off the lights. Or – if you can close any curtains, blinds or covers over the windows – you can leave them on. But we want to make the ship as hard to see as possible. That might not make much of a difference, it is pretty large… but every little bit helps.]

[But, if they do start becoming very upset with us, it's possible they may start shooting, or trying to land Marines on-board. Now, we certainly don't want them to capture the ship, and I'm sure you don't either… so we would really appreciate it if everyone here can try to close every single door you can see around you. They don't need to be locked, but especially those of you lower down in the ship – we want to make it more likely that any hit or damage would be confined as much as possible – just in case. And if any of you are able and willing to fight – it's been pointed out that the catering areas have thousands of knives. And there's lots of mops and brushes on board – Diamond, if you and your team would be happy to wander around and show people how to turn a knife and a mop handle into one of those handy little spears, maybe we can set up a welcoming committee for anyone that does try to get on the ship?] Kai paused for a moment, wondering if there was anything else he could do or say, before deciding to keep it fairly short.

[We are doing everything we can to keep you safe, and keep you free. So, remain calm. If you have any issues, once again, talk to one of the HUK freedom fighters that handled the initial break out. When we have more news, I will talk to you again. Kai, out.]

"Right, hopefully that lets people know what's going on. Marius – can you do the thing with the lights, and if people turn them back on we can probably trust that they've shut their curtains and stuff? Otherwise – I've had an idea. I'm going down to the brig to talk to the first officer. I want to find out what happens if they are attacked by pirates – I'm sure they have a standard procedure." About ten minutes later, Kai returned to the tac-net to update the rest of the team. "Ok, they have anti-piracy insurance through a corporation. In the event they get boarded and are taken over, their standing cruise-line instructions are to comply with the kidnappers and to put in a call to the insurance company. They have trained negotiators to handle the situation, and also then dispatch a rescue strike team to handle the…other side of things. We could try calling them up and maybe get in touch with the Japanese, and see if we can confuse the situation, but it doesn't sound too helpful."

"The passengers are mostly doing as you asked, Kai. I've done a wander around, and I've seen a big mob of people working around the top decks of the ship – some of the more able rescued and a bunch of the HUK, and they've just piled a whole bunch of furniture up against the guard rails. It won't stop a boarding team, but it turns it into a more difficult thing and will slow them down, and probably make some noise. And I think they've felt better because they're contributing. And that's not a single stick to be found anywhere on ship now I think – but we have a couple of hundred new spears. Sure, some of them are forks gaffa-taped to the end of a chair leg, but it's still better than nothing." Aswon sounded like he had a grin on his face, taking amusement where he could from the situation.

"Still pumping mist out of the back. I've caught sight of them once or twice now, and they're definitely closing on us." Tads reported.

"And I can confirm that every single one of those ships has their deck gun trained on us." Hunter added. "I've had a couple of thin patches in the mist, and they're still keeping up their pursuit line-abreast, so it's really obvious for the ships on the end that I can see – but those big-ass cannons are pointing square at us."

Minutes continued to crawl past, and there was a slowly ratchetting tension aboard the ship. They'd been underway for nearly an hour now, with the Japanese in pursuit and slowly gaining on them. The passengers thought it was just a single ship, and their efforts to build barricades and improvised weapons had given them something to focus on and a limited foe to mentally prepare for – but the team knew just how badly they were outnumbered and outgunned, and their feelings grew grimmer and grimmer as the distance between them was closed.

The bridge chronometer ticked over to 05:27, and around the ship a number of the team stopped as a strange feeling coursed through their bodies. Aswon, Kai, Tads and Shimazu all felt the strange sensation, a slump in their bodies, a feeling of someone sucking away their energy and will. It wasn't that strong, but it was something that had not happened to them before and the tension they felt from the long stern chase made it seem more poignant. Aswon looked around, then when there was no obvious source, started to make his way up towards the open decks, wanting to get a visual look at the world. Shimazu moved to the front of the bridge, looking out of the armoured glass windows to do the same, while Tads was peering out into the mist, checking the astral realm for herself. Kai felt the changes, but ignored them for the moment, continuing to work on his post-op care down in the clinic.

05:28 – the feeling rippled through the magic users once more, and they felt their energy slump further. Tads was suddenly confronted by her spirits, bobbing and weaving in front of her. She felt their presence, realising they'd all left their assigned team members, flying to her and gathering around her. The large spirit that normally guarded and concealed the Broadsword was there, too, looming over the rest, and they all beseeched her to release them. They looked terrified and in pain, and though Tads had no idea what was causing it, she dismissed them with a wave.

"Everyone, the spirits have just gone a bit funny – I've released them. It was like they were screaming in pain… and I'm feeling funny. Sort of… drained."

"Me too. I felt something really odd. I'm just heading up onto the forward deck to have a look around. It is an alchaera or something?"

"I'm on the bridge, looking out. I can't see anything, but I'm glad it's not just me. It wasn't much – but it was a strange feeling. Like something was sucking my insides through a pipe."

"Glad it wasn't just me… and it just happened again, right. For the second time?" Kai looked down at his patient and adjusted the bandage a little bit, applying a little more pressure to the dressings it held down.

"Yeah. Just got on deck. Can't see anything here… other than the sky getting light on the horizon. Dawn in an hour or so, I think." Aswon looked around and sniffed the air carefully, his eyes scanning the sky and sea, looking for any sign of trouble. But the seas were calm and quiet, the clouds overhead fairly static and consistent. Looking back he could see the edge of the mist streaming out from the aft of the ship. "Tads – you ok? Is this affecting your spellcasting?"

"A little. I can feel that there's less power here. Or less power in me – I'm not sure which. I've never felt anything like this before. But I'm going to stop casting until we work out what's going on."

"Is this something the Japanese are doing?" Kai asked.

"I hope not. If it is, it's something we've never heard of before, and being able to take magic away from all of us, even when they can't see us – well, quite frankly, that's a terrifying thought!" Aswon racked his brain, but came up with nothing like this that he'd ever heard of before. "I think it's got to be some kind of natural phenomena."

They lurched again as they felt their magic drain away once more. The looks of concern on their faces grew deeper as they felt themselves grow noticeably weaker – and for no apparent reason. None of them could see a corrupted area of astral space, or any sign of alchaera or illusions. Aswon checked over the edge of the rails, looking down into the choppy waves below, but couldn't see any signs of storm-dolphins, megladons or other paracritters that might be generating this strange effect. Another wave hit them a few seconds later, and Aswon felt a jolt through his arm – looking over he saw the faint runes on his spear flicker, and a wave of genuine concern washed over him.

"Guys, my spear is acting up. Whatever this mana-draining effect is, I think it's affecting the spear, too."

"Me, too – my sword is feeling… well, odd." Concern was evident in Shimazu's voice as he dropped a hand onto the pommel of his sword and felt the weakening of the magic that normally coursed through it.

"Same for my staff as well, though less so – though I think that's less powerful than either of yours. Oh, but my ring is feeling the strain."

Another lurch, another shudder, and the effect intensified.

"We should definitely not be trying to use our powers. And maybe turn off whatever we can." Aswon suddenly crouched down and pulled up the back of his clothing, twisting to try and peer over his shoulder at the gecko tattoos on his back. They too seemed to flicker and pulsate as whatever the strange effect was sucked away at their power. "My tattoos are starting to waver. Drek… that's not good!"

"Take a deep breath, Aswon. Centre yourself and try to calm your aura. I'm… I think I'm having an effect. I'm trying to mask and shield my ring from the outside world, draw it into my own body aura. Sharing what I have left with it. I think it's working – at least it feels less ragged. You've got to actively concentrate, though, try really hard!"

"Ok… ygh, that's tricky… but I think it's working." Another lurch came, and they fell silent – each of them trying to shield and mask their magical items from whatever the strange draining effect was – apart from Kai who just had shrugged, ignored his weapon foci and decided to just wait and see what was happening. All of his magical powers were focussed on talking to people and changing his appearance or outward presence, and he didn't need to do any of that at the moment. He focussed his efforts on monitoring the wounded, giving him plenty to concentrate on as he wandered around the medical centre to follow up on the injured HUK.

05:36 - there was a final lurch, and now all of the magic users physically staggered, unable to restrain themselves as it felt like something was physically trying to rip out their spines from their bodies. The mana was almost gone from the area, and their bodies felt like someone was running a cattle prod over their skin, strange jolts and sensations coursing through their nerves. It didn't hurt exactly, but it was incredibly uncomfortable and distracting, and each of them found themselves in their own private little world as they valiantly fought to retain their magic, to hang on to some vestige of talent.

Marius and Hunter had heard all the chatter, and had seen Shimazu physically reacting, sharing looks of bewilderment, confusion, disdain and then even concern. Normally their shared dislike of the 'mythic' powers of the rest of the team was something they both agreed on – at least publicly. Both of them knew how much it affected their performance as a unit, of course, but there was no need to go around making them feel special or big-headed. Magic existed – that was an unavoidable fact, but neither of them liked the weird world of hocus pocus and magical doohickeys – and they left dealing with them to those with better skills. But seeing the rest of the team go from mild concern to acute fear, and then to start twitching and flailing in response to the strange event made them concerned – especially as none of them could do anything about it.

"OCEAN ADVENTURE! Ocean Adventure. This is Captain Iwara of the Imperial Japanese Navy. You are ordered to heave to at once! I repeat, stop your engines and maintain position. We are going to board you!"

"Well, I guess they are close enough to burn through the jamming." Marius reported drolly. He listened as the message was repeated and checked the range – they were down to about six kilometres behind them now. There was a loud boom, and a cloud of smoke could be seen on the sensor feed, and a moment later there was a large splash about two hundred metres to starboard as the shell impacted the water.

"You are ordered to stop your engines at once. You have been warned!" It appeared that they were now close enough that the Captain of the pursing ships was happy enough with his gunnery team and their accuracy to enforce his point. Marius ignored him though, continuing to power south at flank speed – cursing his lack of options. At the moment his best plan was to let the destroyers close, and potentially ram one of them – the huge bulk and mass of his ship would let him rip one of them apart without issue – maybe two if he could position himself carefully. But after that… he had no idea. In the absence of anything else to do he started to run a track on all of the destroyers and checked their courses and speeds, feeding them into a model to track their movement and plan his own manoeuvres to ensure maximum efficiency.

He was engrossed in the calculations when his world went mad. The boat shuddered violently, gripped in unseen hands that shook it as a small dog would worry a rat. All across the ship loose items were thrown back and forth, people were dashed into the walls, glasses and plates shattered and random items of furniture on the top decks sailed across the guard rails to scatter into the sea. Worse, the ship fell, dropping a metre downwards as the water beneath it was sucked downwards. Marius grunted in pain as the ship was compressed and twisted, feeling the shrieks of metal as the boat deformed under the enormous stresses. Then, just as quickly, it was gone – and they were sailing forward just as before. Never had he experienced anything like it, and his mind couldn't comprehend what had just happened. Nothing in his training or years of flying had equipped him to deal with such a cataclysmic force. He took a deep breath, and muttered to himself.

"Can I do anything about this? No. Did it happen? Quite clearly so. Deal with the situation at hand. Focus on the things you can affect. Do not spend time pondering on what might be, but focus on what is, and what you can do." Although he said the words, in his head it was his mother speaking, teaching her son how to cope in a world that was unused to dealing with such an intelligent and precocious child. Repeating the words to himself helped, though. There was no point speculating at this time on what had happened – better to focus on the situation at hand. The ship was intact and functioning normally. There was some water ingress around the bilges and pumps, from the sudden shock, but the ship's systems could cope with that. The destroyers were still in pursuit, still closing on their position. They appeared to be sailing normally, and there was also nothing he could do about that. He checked the time though and stored the logs for later analysis, squirting them over to the Broadsword, just in case, noting down the time. Five thirty-seven AM, on the twenty-seventh of October, 2061.

Just as he was back on an even keel, Shimazu groaned and sank to his knees next to him, holding his head in his hands, while along his forearms all of the hairs stood on end, rising up to point away from his body. Whatever it was seemed to pass quickly, and he jumped back to his feet, looking alert and fresh, his eyes swinging around wildly. He grasped his sword, then activated his throat mic.

"My magic seems to be back, all at once."

"Me, too – and the runes on the spear are glowing again, like normal."

"Same here. Dumping more mist out the back!"

"Is that what that was? Ok, I'm coming up. Be there in a minute."

Marius suddenly picked up a radio message, coming in on an unusual frequency. He checked on his systems and saw it was one of the bands normally reserved for air traffic. Opening the channel, he realised it was an emergency frequency and snorted – realising that neither his jamming nor the Japanese had blocked this particular frequency. Despite the rising levels of tension, he found it ironic that both sides had left open the same emergency channel and not jammed it – before he realised it was actually baked into the software he was using and wondered if the military on the other side were even aware of the 'oversight'. He listened to the message, and then shunted it out over the team-frequency, replaying it.

"Just picked up this distress call?"

[Mayday, mayday, this is Quantas 14-62. We have lost all power in engines one, two and three, say again, we have triple engine failure. We are five hundred kilometres north-north-west of Port Moseby, just crossing the central ridge of Papa New Guinea. We are flight level thirty-five, descending. Engines will not restart. Engine four is running, but is losing RPM. We… wait one. We have tried to start the APU, but that is also not responding. We're working the manual now. Quantas 14-62, six hundred and thirty-four souls on board, triple engine failure, losing altitude. Engine four now at fifty percent power and falling. We are looking at loss of electrical power. Setting optimal glide path, but not sure we're going to reach Brisbane…]

"We picked that up at extreme range – they are quite far away. Several thousand kilometres. Perhaps the signal was bouncing across the high-atmosphere."

"Weird – but too far away from us?"

"Absolutely – there is nothing we can do there. I just found it strange that we would be receiving this message."

[Ocean Adventure – this is your final warning! Heave to! Now! Prepare to be boarded!]

The lead ship of the destroyer flotilla fired, the deck gun spitting out three rapid shots. Unlike the previous warning shots that had landed a few score metres away, these hit the ship, slamming through the waterslides and aquatic features on deck twenty-two and twenty-three. Shrapnel exploded outwards from the impact, sending brightly coloured plastic and painted hoardings up into the air, launching debris outwards. Despite the damage, the ship didn't even shake, such was its massive size.

"No significant damage. And it was clear of the sports court and the Broadsword." Marius reported.

"Tads – you're not still at the stern, are you?"

"No, I'm halfway to the bridge. Did we just get hit? There's bits of waterslide hanging off the side of the boat?"

"Yeah, another warning shot." Hunter reported. Checking on the ship schematic, he saw no real damage at all. "Looks like they shot only at the stuff above the superstructure – still playing it very safe, shooting at what they could see, and only the lead destroyer fired. The others are closing in – there's only a kilometre or so between them now, and they're all line-abreast. But the other seven are holding fire."

"Err…. Guys…"

"What, Tads?" Aswon was heading for the bridge himself, but his ear perked as he heard her call out, recognising the tone of voice.

"Guys!"

"What? What's the matter?

"Something bad is coming. I can feel it." Her voice was disjointed and broken, and the rest of the team paused on hearing it. "Something… really… bad. Big…. Huge!"

"From which direction?"

"EVERYWHERE, MARIUS! IT'S ALL AROUND US!"

"Scanning. I cannot detect anything other than the destroyers, which are still closing on us." The door the bridge was thrown open and Tads almost fell through it, breathless and red in the face. She'd clearly sprinted from her position midway along the ship to the bridge, and now she really was struggling to speak. But she pointed ahead of them and then to both sides as her chest laboured up and down, trying to re-oxygenate her system. "Still nothing to see out there. I do not doubt you – but I cannot see anything."

"It's far away. Like a hundred kilometres or so, but I shouldn't be able to pick it up that far. I never have before! But it's still all around us, pressing in towards us!" Her voice rose in pitch, sounding almost hysterical as she tried to analyse what was happening. Just like the weird magical drain that had happened before, it was outside of her experience and she had nothing to go on, and felt that somehow she SHOULD know – this was supposed to be her area of expertise. But she didn't, and now she felt that the entire world was pressing down towards her, and was rushing towards a precipice.

"Is this something to do with whatever we hit?" Kai asked.

"We did not hit anything."

"So what the hell made that bang, Marius?"

"We did NOT hit anything. Beyond that… I am uncertain." Suddenly Marius felt a pang of shared sympathy with Tads. This was his area of expertise, and he was still unable to hypothesise on what the issue was. "There was a violent, intense and unprecedented transfer of energy, and the impact we felt was us hitting the ocean again after the water suddenly receded beneath us. Whatever happened moved millions of decalitres of water, almost instantly and the ship… fell. Only about a metre, but with something this big that is a significant impact." The team looked at Marius, mouths slightly open as they tried to comprehend what level of force was required to do something like that.

"All the water… rushed away? To where? And what pulled it?" Aswon had arrived, having sprinted the last deck back to the bridge, but showing no signs of the effort. He started with a questioning look on his face, but as he reached the end of the sentence his mind flashed back a few months, and he suddenly went from confused to alarmed. Marius it appeared followed his line of thinking, as his face paled somewhat and he stared at Aswon.

"Only thing I am aware of that would create that kind of suction would be a vast movement along a tectonic plate, a subduction fault suddenly shifting and creating a huge void. The water would rush in to fill it, suddenly and without warning, creating a huge sinkhole effect."

"But once the water has moved, then it's likely to resonate?" Aswon looked like he was unsure on the terminology to describe his thoughts, and was grasping at words to describe his meaning. "Reverberate? But whatever excess water would come back in a ripple."

"And we have seen ripples like this… on the lake in Russia, where we were investigating the dam."

"Drek… so… Tsunami, then. I mean, the lake was big… but not THAT big." Aswon pointed out of the bridge windows at the ocean beyond, stretching out for thousands of kilometres. If the bearing was right, they could travel almost halfway around the world from here without meeting land.

"Indeed. And in deep water, a tsunami moves incredibly quickly, but has little amplitude. Waves have been recorded travelling in excess of the speed of sound in some cases – but they are often less than a metre high. But when they hit the continental shelf and transition into shallow water…"

"That's when they get high?" Kai hazarded a guess and saw several nods. "I think I remember you talking about this… with the dam. That's why they didn't need much explosives and stuff – they just needed it to weaken the dam a bit because the wave would get really high as it got to the shallow end of the lake."

"Just for your information – the highest recorded wave following a tectonic incident was back before the crash – but the information was public. Probably why it survived… but on the ninth of July 1958, a giant landslide at the head of Lituya Bay in Alaska, caused by an earthquake, generated a wave that washed out trees to a maximum elevation of five hundred and twenty metres at the entrance of Gilbert Inlet. The wave surged over the headland, stripping trees and soil down to bedrock, and surged along the fjord which forms Lituya Bay, before heading out to sea. Half a kilometre high…" Hunter informed them, his voice grim.

"Can we survive if something like that hits us?"

"Nein. It will flip us over, break us in half and send us to the bottom. A wave like that would cause a loss of life on an unprecedented scale. If the one Hunter just told us about was in Alaska, I would imagine that it was a fairly unpopulated area, with limited human impact. But here… as well as us, it would destroy the Philippines and scour most of the islands clean."

"Ohhhh kay…. So, that's hopefully the worst case. It doesn't have to be that big, right?"

"Picking up….movement. And a contact, at extreme range. Size… four hundred kilometres?" Marius checked his sensors carefully. "Moving at… that cannot be correct. No… moving at four hundred and thirty-two point nine knots. So closing fast. From multiple directions. Multiple tidal waves incoming!"

Hunter had already started moving and had run over towards one of the bridge wings and was swinging the massive binoculars around on their mounts to face forward. He studied the horizon, seeing the ocean swelling up and rising across the entire horizon, making it feel like the world was curling up around them.

"I got worse news for you, then – I can see stuff moving around in the wave. Looks like naga and merrow – exactly like what we saw down on the bottom of the ocean when we met that drekking dragon!"

"Wave amplitude is forty-seven metres. When it hits us, though, we are in the shallower waters still – I am heading for the deepest area available. But the waves will slow… to approximately fifty to sixty knots – but the wave will rise to over two hundred metres. The impact is likely to crush our bows and strip off the top few decks, if we survive the initial impact."

"Can't we head away from it, ride it out?"

"It's coming too fast! This ship is actually quite agile, but I don't think we can turn quickly enough at this speed, and we don't have time to slow and turn, and then pick up speed again."

"Marius – patch me into the PA. Quickly!" Aswon picked up a handset and held it to his face, then started to give a warning, his voice changing and his accent shifting as his training kicked in, reverting to the 'Queen's English' he had been taught in his first mercenary company.

[All hands, brace for impact. We have BAD WEATHER ahead. Major waves and weather inbound, in less than a minute. Brace for impact, close all doors, and stay away from anything loose or breakable!]

Tads looked over at Kai and pointed at him, almost excitedly.

"Kai – the sea dragon! She gave you…"

"The plaque!" Yes – I remember!" He fished in his pocket and pulled out the gem containing the small bronze name plaque. "She said we'd be recognised. Assuming those are her forces out there in the wave."

"I don't know – but it's the best option we have!" Tads shrugged, not knowing if this was the right thing to do – but Kai grabbed the gemstone in his hand and ran towards the bridge door, Shimazu taking off after him. The passengers were mostly tucked away in their cabins he reasoned, and were unlikely to see him – and he wasn't going to let Kai go out on deck by himself. And he didn't have time to discuss it – a quick glance out of the window showed the ocean approaching at a ridiculous rate. He still wasn't quite sure why Marius insisted on using knots when they were at sea, but it was apparently traditional – but if he had the conversion right, the waves were approaching at over seven hundred kilometres per hour, so they didn't have long…

They only had a single deck to drop to reach a passenger area and get access to the deck, bursting out of the superstructure into the same area where Aswon had been looking about a few minutes ago. Kai ran forwards towards the bow of the ship, with Shimazu right on his heels. Ahead of them they could see the horizon climbing, rapidly consuming the sky as the wall of water rose up ahead of them.

"Look right – towards the Philippines! Mushroom clouds on the horizon!" Hunter called out, staring out of the side of the bridge with the powerful binoculars. "Someone's either nuked Manila… or there's a volcano going up!"

"That would be on about the right bearing for one of the volcanos we landed on during our tour… of the ring… of fire." Marius frowned as a horrible thought crossed his mind. "Did we have some part in this? A volcanic eruption might provide enough energy for this kind of tidal wave?"

"I think we might have been tiny cogs on whatever this is… but nothing more." Aswon had headed over to the other wing and had grabbed the binoculars, training them in the same direction. "Hey – Marius… that distress call… that was over Papa New Guinea, right? Is that near where we met that Quoll?"

"Five hundred miles from Port Moseby… yes, that could put you in the vicinity. Depending on the exact bearing."

"So that Quantas flight could be over a volcano. I'm just thinking about when we flew over the first volcano and it put drek in the engines… would that cause his failure?"

"Yes – yes, it would. Fine volcanic ash would clog his engines and shut them down."

They saw Kai and Shimazu reach the bow of the ship, and Kai stood holding onto the guard rail with one hand, holding the gemstone aloft with the other. Shimazu grabbed hold of him by the scruff of the neck, his powerful hand wrapping around his collar, while the other grabbed the guard rail on the other side.

The wave approached, truly frightening now, rising up higher and higher above them, a wall of water rising at a sixty-degree angle and now obscuring huge swathes of the sky. Atop the wave they could see the foaming white breakers crashing down and curling over, the merrow and naga now visible in the waves. It was hard to see what they were doing – to some of the team they looked to be surfing along with the wave, using it to travel at a ridiculous speed, while to others it looked like they were herding or marshalling the waves, directing them with their spears and tridents. But in the final few seconds the true size and speed of the wave became apparent.

Atop the wave, a small break appeared. A shallow 'v' shape appeared, as the wave split. As time appeared to slow down for the team, their combat reflexes kicking in as adrenaline coursed through their systems, they saw the wave ahead of them split into two. The v spread wider and wider, running deeper and deeper down the wave, a glimmer of sky visible from beyond it.

[AAAAROOOOOGGGAAAA…. AAAAROOOOOGGGAAAA] Marius hit the collision alarm, and then sounded the ship's whistle, giving everyone a final warning that the impact was due… then the ship tipped. The bottom of the wave hit them and they shuddered, the bow driving into the wave and water rose up to form a vertical wall now above Kai and Shimazu, two tiny figures worshipping at a temple of the sea. Then they started to rise, the buoyancy of the ship pitching them up, rising up higher and higher, steeper and steeper. Knuckles gripped white on the rails as their feet slid back behind them, and Kai strained, desperately trying to keep the gem held high.

The water appeared to be over them now, curling over to reach beyond the vertical, making the prow of the ship dark as they drove upwards, struggling to 'climb' the steep slope. The deep v was still above them now, but tantalisingly close. The massive engines deep in the bowels of the ship laboured, driving them forward, and Marius threw the controls to maximum, ignoring the safety warnings and alarms to get every last watt of power from them.

They climbed, and the bow of the ship broke through the bottom of the v, spray drenching Shimazu and Kai as the wave broke apart, losing coherency as it tumbled past the hull. They passed from darkness into light as the huge wave thundered past them, seeing nothing but the sky above as the rest of the ship continued to rise up the wave face. Water crashed down into the superstructure, outlying waves breaking loose from the mass of water, slamming into the steel plating and sending resounding crashes throughout the entire length of the ship, terrifying the team and passengers alike.

Ponderously, they started to tip. The front third of the massive cruise ship hung out of the water, putting enormous stress on the keel and making the ship flex and twist once more, ripples of pain running through Marius as he commanded the ship's systems, trying to delicately balance the need to keep them alive and not shake the ship apart with his incessant demands. Slowly they passed the point of equilibrium, and the bow started to drop faster and faster, the ship tipping over to crash down into the rear face of the wave. The 'pain' transmitted from the rigger interface shifted across Marius' body, moving from his shoulders to his legs as the rear of the ship was flipped upwards, hanging in mid-air as wave raced down the length of the ship, but then they were surfing downwards and picking up speed. Marius threw the engines into reverse, watching with concern as their speed increased dramatically. Part of it was exhilaration as the enormous vessel hit forty knots – nothing compared to the speed of an aircraft, but intoxicating for something that displaced a quarter-million tons – and part of it was terror, knowing that at the bottom of the reverse slope of the wave was the rest of the ocean, and his knowledge that hitting water with enough speed had roughly the same effect as hitting concrete…

The azipods groaned, structural damage making them flex and bending the propellers slightly so great was the demand upon them, but they slowed the vessel just enough that they reached the bottom of the wave at a survivable speed, impacting and slicing into the water, the bow digging deep once more before lifting them up onto the calm seas beyond. One final deluge of water erupted over the bow, finally dislodging Shimazu and Kai, washing them back towards the superstructure. Shimazu's hand was still firmly wrapped around Kai's jacket, and they slid across the deck, arms and feet flailing to try and get a purchase on the deck covering, before they were slammed into the bulkheads, driving the air from their lungs.

On the bridge the final wave splashed water across the windows, making their world a green fish-tank for a moment, giving them a view they hoped never to see again, before the water fell, running down the angled windows and draining away from the deck. Debris littered the wake of the ship, deckchairs, pool noodles, the entire aquapark slide system broken up into hundreds of pieces, hoardings for bars and a thousand other pieces of decoration that had been ripped off the ship as the wave scoured their sides. But the ship remained intact, settling back onto course though their speed was starting to drop – Marius throttling back the abused and damaged engines and propellers to something more manageable and safe.

"What happened to the destroyers?" Aswon asked, picking himself up from the deck where he'd sprawled as the final wave impact hit.

"Nothing good. Let me get a rear sensor online." Marius hunted through his feeds, trying to find an optical sensor that hadn't been damaged or washed away. "Oh. They did not fare well." He pushed the display through to the screen, studying his own feed carefully and trying to get an assessment of the damage.

One destroyer was dead astern of them, directly in their wake and appeared to be mostly undamaged and still travelling at full speed. Presumably it had been able to follow them through the split in the massive wave and had ridden up and over the tidal wave, in a far more exciting version of the same roller-coaster they had experienced. A closer examination showed some damage to their masts and radar systems, with some of the higher portions missing entirely.

The ship to the port side of them rode low in the water – dangerously low, with water only just below the level of the deck, and the sides of the ship being washed over by the larger waves. They couldn't tell if they'd been holed or had just taken on significant water, but they were not moving, and looked to be in trouble. The next two ships over that side were worse – they were flipped over, just the red-painted bottoms of the ships showing, surrounded by a small debris field each. On the other side of the commander's ship, there was a gap – one destroyer missing entirely, and the next one over had broken in half – the bow and the stern pointing up into the air while the centre of the ship was deep underwater, already sinking fast. Water boiled up around the two halves of the ship as air escaped from compartments and quickly flooded, hastening the death of the vessel. Further over, the last two on that side had also capsized and were in equally large floating patches of debris.

Of the eight-ship division, only one looked remotely sea-worthy, now barely three kilometres behind them.

"Are we stopping to help them?" Aswon gestured at the doomed destroyers. "They aren't our friends, that's for sure… but there's only one ship otherwise that could help – and he looks too intent on chasing us."

"I want to – but I don't think we should." Tads sounded anguished by the decision, and her face was a picture of misery. "If we tried – how are all our passengers going to react? They're full of Japanese military… the people that have banished and exiled them and kept them in misery for decades. And we gave them all knifes and spears. Unless we can guard them – do you think they're going to let them live?" The others realised she had a point – the ship was already crammed with people, and there was no way they could easily segregate people or keep them safe. It was more than likely that the prisoners would exact their revenge in a bloody and brutal retaliation.

"Isn't the captain going to stop and help his own people? Marius – get me a radio channel, please?"

"You are live. If they can hear you. They have taken some damage to their superstructure."

"Captain. Your fleet is sinking. Your own vessel is damaged. There is no honour in letting your people die when you can save them. Do the right thing." He stopped transmitting, wondering if he'd pitched it right. They watched the sensor feed, and saw the destroyer still coming on strong… "Drek." Kai sighed, and was just about to speak again when the destroyer heeled over sharply, reducing speed and reefing around in a tight turn. Now at a relatively close range they saw people emerging from hatches on the side of the superstructure, heading towards the rear of the vessel and the helicopter deck, while more moved over to the sides to start preparing to launch small boats. "Ok – so someone saw sense. There's nothing much we can do, though, is there?"

"Actually, yes. I am launching life rafts now." Marius said quietly. "We do not have enough capacity for everyone on board right now anyway – even with the excess a civilian ship is normally forced to carry by law. But if we have to abandon ship, thousands would be without places. But we have enough to launch some to save whoever is over there." He gestured towards the upturned destroyers. "And enough to help us offload to an island or something like that, wherever we end up. Speaking of which – Hunter, any response from our employer?" Hunter checked his deck and frowned, then shook his head.

"Nah… for someone so quick to respond previously he's been dragging his heels on getting back to us."

"I am turning off the jamming and broadcasting. I do not see it helping us now." Marius checked his systems quickly. "And be advised, we are heading south at eighteen knots. That is the highest speed I feel comfortable at given the state of the engines and propeller systems."

"Well, we still don't know what's going on or where we're going, so I don't think it matters too much. So… let's just keep heading south I guess. But until then, Marius and Shimazu, you want to stay here and keep things secure. Hunter – monitor the comms and keep an eye on things, the rest of us – let's go check out the passengers, the HUK and sickbay," he said, pointing at Aswon, Tads and then himself in turn. They split up and started to head out around the ship to check up on things, checking to make sure nobody else had been injured or hurt badly during the excitement, or required remedial attention.

Just after 06:30, Hunter called up the team, summarising the first news reports he'd managed to find.

"Japan's been hit – really hard, it seems. There's a volcanic eruption right next to the Imperial Palace and Emperor Kenichi and nearly all of his family are reported missing. There's a massive rescue operation underway, but they've already lost more than a dozen lives trying to get into the palace, but there's lava flows, aftershocks and all sorts going on. To give you an idea, there isn't even a live trideo feed – this is all verbal reports given by phone or over radio links. They haven't even got any news choppers up."

"I am not surprised if there is an active volcano in the area. Having experienced it once, never again." Marius responded emphatically. "I cannot imagine any news chopper pilot would be willing to do so, either. They do not get paid that much, not enough to risk their lives like that."

"I don't know what that whole deal was with those magic yin-yang tokens, but it sounds like Ryumyo isn't winning so far."

"Yeah – have to agree. That's the lead story, but there are reports of other volcanos kicking off too, and there's all kinds of trauma being reported. But the main thing going on is the Imperial Palace."

"Since the restoration of the Imperial Dynasty, the Emperor has been seen as the spiritual head of Japan by many. There will be people feeling sadness to the point of contemplating suicide back home." Shimazu said quietly. "For many, they have a real belief in his divinity and this will have put them in crisis. I would expect them to spare no expense, and to risk a great deal on his rescue effort."

"Wow…ok. Well, I don't think it's going to help us much – he's all the way over in Japan. And Mr. 'Gemsmith' still isn't answering his emails."

The news continued to trickle in, with further confirmation of the scope and severity of the eruptions and devastation of the calamity that had struck the Japanese homeland. Over the next fifteen minutes, news reports started to come in from elsewhere, though – a few brief mentions of eruptions in the Philippines and two confirmed volcanos in Papa New Guinea, confirming their earlier thoughts. As they continued to listen to the news, the first reports trickled in from Alaska, the western seaboard of north America and as far down as Australia and New Zealand.

The first seismologists started to appear on various news channels about forty-five minutes later, no doubt roused from their beds and rushed to get ready, appearing somewhat dishevelled and bleary-eyed as each network raced to get 'expert' opinion quickly. Soon infographics started to appear showing the location of confirmed blasts, scattering around the entire ring of fire, but with a definite higher incidence around Japan. As time progressed they started to get trid broadcasts from many of the locations, showing a variety of volcanic blasts, and soon a very distinct picture emerged.

Most of the western-seaboard of the American continent had been hit, with eruptions from the southern tip of Chile up through Peru, Ecuador and into Aztlan – though there were no official reports coming out of Aztlan, the science guys could prove that there were indeed active blasts in the area. Up through Cal-Free, Tir Tangiere and Seattle, Tsimshin and the Athabaskan Council – all of them had eruptions to contend with. But the eruptions along the eastern side of the ring seemed to be fairly mild – most of them 'only' causing blasts and seismic events that rated between one and three on the Richter scale. It was alarming, caused some damage – but many people had slept through it, and the issues caused were more irritating than dangerous for huge amounts of the people nearby. Likewise, the blasts near New Zealand, Australia and the eastern ends of Papa New Guinea were mild, racking up scores only a little higher – but affecting far fewer people.

Across the top of the Pacific Ocean, along the Aleutian Islands and into Russia and the Yakut the blasts started to grow to more dangerous and disruptive levels, with a number of blasts in the three to five range on the Richter scale, causing widespread but low level damage and significant issues along the coastal areas as they were hit with multiple tsunamis that had criss-crossed the ocean from each blast.

Japan, though – Japan it seemed had become the punching bag of the world. There were over a dozen confirmed blasts now that had ravaged the islands, all in the six to eight range. They built for seismic events as a matter of course, designing their cities to be resistant to the huge number of tremors that struck them each year. But this was an unprecedented number of blasts that had struck within only minutes of each other. Buildings that might have survived one tectonic event with no real impact were shaken to breaking point as they tanked multiple shockwaves, and in some cases the 'constructive' interference between two close blasts had pushed the impact to well over what had ever been expected, bringing down tower blocks, overpasses, smashing tunnels, breaking power lines or ripping up sewers.

The news reports continued to develop, a rash of red 'event' icons spreading across the entire hemisphere as more and more reports filtered in. Japan was top of the headlines, dominating all of the news services thanks the utter devastation that had been wrought on the islands, and the stock markets went wild as speculation on the impact on the mega-corp stocks and capabilities for the smaller trans-national and national corps ran rampant.

Aswon tried to call Spook, but got through to her answering service, which worried him a little – though at least the network itself was up, and he left a message with her to call him and let him know how they were both doing. He took a deep breath, centering himself and then forced himself to put his commlink away. If she was in trouble, he was in no position to help, and it would only distract him – and if she was busy, she didn't need him breathing down her neck.

By 9:00 the ship was back under full control – the damage from the wave had been cleaned up, and the hundreds of minor injuries caused by people being thrown around had been patched up. The medical supplies had been used up, and they were down to using towels and table-linen as bandages, but everyone had been treated and was stable, and they'd managed not to lose anyone else. The cooking staff were still going strong, making some serious dents in the supplies of ambient and frozen foods, and they'd worked out enough of a routine to avoid causing any more fires – so at least everyone on board was fed.

Kai found Emerald and Ruby and had a chat with them, explaining that they'd not been able to contact the 'gemcutter' and didn't have a destination to head to – and at the moment they were just sailing south to be further away from Yomi Island and Japan, in very general terms. They'd not been able to offer much advice, but had suggested heading towards Dayao, on the southern end of the Philippines – it had a deep water harbour and big quay, so the ship would at least fit and be able to offload – though they had no idea what would happen then. It was at least something, so Kai advised Hunter and Marius, and they plotted a course. It was going to take the better part of a day to make the journey, but having a destination in mind made things easier and gave them something to focus on.

As midday approached, Hunter called them up, then instead of speaking, just routed the news feed over his own commlink to them all – sending the English translation of the Japanese broadcast.

"People of the Glorious Empire of Japan. A terrible calamity has befallen our land. Our beloved Emperor is missing, and the Imperial Palace is buried. Courageous rescue workers have laboured mightily, and will continue to do so to try and rescue him. We have high hopes that our dedication and efforts will rescue the Divine One, and he will return to lead us from this dark hour. We ask for our citizens to pray, and to do all they can to aid in the rescue efforts for our people. Schools, and businesses will be closed, and any citizens with training are instructed to attend their closest disaster relief facility." There was a brief pause in the announcement, with the translation running on for a moment behind it before it, too, fell quiet. When the voice resumed, it sounded grimmer.

"In light of the unprecedented conditions that are now affecting our homeland, the Prime Minister, along with senior members of the Diet, and in conjunction with senior advisers, we have taken the decision to recall all Japanese forces currently stationed overseas. All commanders should now be receiving orders from their appropriate service branches to make ready, and to withdraw back to the Home Islands to assist with disaster relief and to ensure the security of our people."

The voice was replaced with the Japanese national anthem, playing softly in the background, until it was replaced with the excited yapping of the news anchors discussing the announcement and speculating on the impact. A moment later, Hunter picked up a ping on his deck – and saw that he had an email waiting. He quickly opened it up.

[Well done. Bring the boat to Legazpi shipyard and return it to the owners. I have made arrangements in town for the new population. Will see you soon.]

"Ok folks, our scaly friend has responded. Wants us to bring the boat to Legazpi… just checking the map. Ok, east side of the Philippines – that's not actually that far from us. I think that's where the boat launched from – it's noted down as a deep water harbour… yeah, I can just about make out dry-docks and shipyard stuff on the map. But he says that we should dock there, and he's made arrangements for all the rescued prisoners."

"Alright, then. Marius – will you take us there please, at whatever speed is safe?"

"Affirmative. Turning now." The mighty ship heeled over slightly as it turned almost due west. "We are likely to make landfall in about three hours or so."

"Great. Anything else in the news while you're there, Hunter?"

"Just some stuff about spirits escaping from the Dunklezhan rift outside the Watergate Hotel. They've pushed the cordon back another hundred metres or so, lost a patrolling mage and some civilian tourists got mauled by the new spirits before they fled."

"That's way away from us, isn't it?"

"Yeah, east coast of the UCAS. Nothing for us to worry about."

"Alright then – let's head for the dockyard, and get these people unloaded… and work out what we're going to say to our scaly friend when we meet him!"