Thursday 27/10/61, Location: 13.14992, 123.75546, Time 17:15
The blast of magic enveloped Tads, the mana trying to grab a hold of her astral form and rip it asunder. While projecting into the astral realm, she didn't have the same level of control she did as from the physical world, her shields and defences not nearly as strong – though she was by no means a pushover. As the blast hit her, she grunted with the effort, concentrating on reinforcing her own aura and defeating the incoming attack, redirecting the manablast away from her. Her eyes widened as she realised how intense the attack was – this was no idle blast, no casual swatting at a passing fly – she could feel the intent behind it, the murderous killing rage that had been summoned and given shape, directed towards her own form. Whoever this mage was, he had meant to kill her, and there was a cold, calculated and emotional intensity to it that chilled her spine.
The moment passed, and she accelerated – streaking east through the building and smashing through the wards on the front of the building without thought or concern. In retrospect, whoever put up the wards was more than likely having issues or challenges already in the face of the entire country being up in arms, and was unlikely to respond, but her intention was to get away, and as fast as possible. It would be a highly-trained combat mage indeed that could have kept up with her, and she headed out to sea, covering the distance in the blink of an eye. Abruptly she changed course, heading north and up, though she watched her altitude carefully – not wanting to rise up too far and risk heading out of the manasphere. A few more seconds and she jinked again, heading south-west now through the clouds, ducking in and out, rising and falling as she streaked in a new direction.
A quick check around her revealed no sign of pursuit, so she slowed and started to descend, orienting herself and then heading back towards the city. Rather than going back to the trideo station though, she headed for the Ocean Adventure, ducking back into the Broadsword and through her own powerful wards, before stopping and taking a deep metaphysical breath. After counting to twenty, she emerged again, taking a much slower and more deliberate look around her, looking for signs of astral pursuit or watchers, before heading back towards the trideo station, slowly and carefully.
"Well, drek. They know we're here now." Marius murmured. "Team, the mage must have spotted Tads. I could not see what he did, but there was some kind of spell, aimed up at the corner of the room. That would fit with Tads and her usual methods of observation. I could see flickering lights around his hands for a moment, but nothing beyond that."
"Probably some kind of mana-based spell, then – but they will kill just as easily as a fireball or something like that. In fact, it would have to be a mana based spell to hit her in astral – a physical spell like fire or lightning would go straight through her." Aswon replied.
"Well, the guards are alerted – the mage must have passed word to them. I can see them readying weapons and taking cover behind the desks, two covering each of the entrances into the room, the mage is retreating to the far side, and what I think is the squad leader has moved to hold his pistol to the temple of the remaining technician.
"Drek, indeed. You can open the doors right, from the access you have?"
"I can."
"Good. They're pretty sturdy-looking – and gas-sealed I think. They're not full-on security doors, but I think they're heavy-duty. My guess is that because of the equipment in there, they have some kind of fancy gas-based fire suppression system, and the doors are expected to be airtight. They look solid, and heavily-reinforced too – and so does the wall. I think we could breach it, but we'd need some serious effort, and that would obviously alert them. Probably give them enough time to adjust fire as well, if we did have to make a hole to get in. And we'd have to watch our fire with the equipment behind them – and they wouldn't if they returned fire."
"The floorplans and blueprints I have found so far would corroborate that."
"What's on either side, Marius? I can see two doors near me, and another one past the control room. One of the doors near me looks very narrow. The room, I mean, not the door."
"Checking… The room on the north side, furthest from you now is some kind of changing room or executive wardrobe. The narrow room immediately to the south of the control room is unlabelled, so may be a service accessway – it is barely wider than the door itself. And the other side of that is marked as a production office. I have unlocked that doorway, if you wish to examine it."
"Thanks, moving now…" Aswon stopped transmitting, then carefully peered around the corner, ensuring that nobody had emerged from the control room. Taking a deep breath, he started to crawl across the ceiling, his forearms and legs clinging to the roof as the magical field of the gecko tattoos blazed brightly inside his clothing. He had to invert to crawl 'down' the wall a little to reach the door, but could then drop down to resume a more normal orientation once inside the office. A large boardroom-style table dominated the centre, while screens were mounted on the wall to the north, and a few workstations were dotted around the outside walls. It looked like a place where managers or producers might come to watch a show or plan activities, while crew around the perimeter could input changes or decisions on their workstations, updating the product in real time. Whatever it was, though, it was no immediate use to him.
A glance up at the ceiling, though, showed him the air-vent, and with a stride and a quick jump he was up onto the table and examining the vent.
"These are pretty small. Not wide enough to crawl through, I think. Not for us, anyway. Certainly no way Hunter or Shimazu is getting in there. Not sure I could, either… I'm going to move around to the other side and check, if you can open the other door, please, Marius?"
"Affirmative." Aswon climbed back up onto the ceiling and then scuttled past the control room, staying out of sight of the one-way-glass in the doors and repeated his search on the north side of the control room. Once again the air-conditioning vents revealed a narrow accessway, looking like it headed south through the control room to link up with the same feed as the production office. He quickly moved one of the ceiling tiles in the false ceiling and poked his head through.
"The walls here are floor to ceiling too, just like in the southern room. Go straight through the suspended ceiling, so we can't go over the top. And the HVAC looks too narrow here, too. Maybe Tads might squeeze through – but I'm still doubtful. They're really not that big at all.
"Tads is back – apparently unharmed." Marius glanced down at the body of the mage laying on the floor next to him, watching as Shimazu examined her carefully before raising his sword, apparently satisfied that it was actually her, and not some evil spirit stealing her body. "The guards, however, are definitely alerted. They are on what I would assess as a hair trigger – weapons are cocked, and they look to have under-barrel grenade launchers primed, too. With the armour they have on, they can probably survive a close-range blast – but I do not believe the equipment could. We must prevent them from engaging like that."
"Easier said than done, Marius."
"Let me see the feed." Shimazu leant in close to the screen as Marius twisted his deck around a little. "Ok, I recognise the style of armour – if not the exact type. It's tactical control gear, the stuff they use to deal with riots or civil insurrection. The armour is chem-sealed, and the helmets have built in respirators and full-face masks. They're buttoned up, so they're going to be functionally immune to gas and liquid-based attacks. It's the type of stuff they use when they have riot-van backups and auto launchers firing tear-gas and other irritants into the crowds – lets them wander in with impunity, and pretty much impervious to the average rioter with a bat or cudgel, or something like a machete. You need armour-piercing rounds, or a big hit to get through that."
"Well, drek… this is getting harder and harder. So exactly the kind of situation we want our big guns for – or a bag of grenades – but exactly the situation we can't use them in because of the delicate equipment?"
"Tads. You can change your shape into different creatures, can you not?" She nodded to him. "As long as you have seen the creature, or understand it… it is not limited to certain types?" She nodded again. "So you could change to something like a monkey or some other ape – something a little more slender that could get through the limited space in the air-vents, but still have the manual dexterity to use a grenade or tools?"
"Oh, I see what you're getting at… yes. But didn't Aswon just say we can't use grenades?"
"I was thinking about using smoke grenades. Specifically IR-blocking smoke grenades. They are not going to be able to see, and I think it is most likely that they will have low-light augmentations and flash-suppression built into those helmets, based on the likely use cases that Shimazu described. But ultra-sound is more expensive, and a lot more rare. So why do we not take their vision away?"
"And I can still see with ultrasound… and so can Hunter." Shimazu gave a little smile, his hand tightening over the pommel of his sword.
"Exactly. They may still shoot at what they think they can perceive – but if these are well-trained marines, and we think they are, they are probably more likely to have good trigger discipline and want to confirm their targets, and will not just blaze away with wild un-aimed fire. But we have several people who can see through obscuring smoke without issue, and can engage with precision. And if you can get into the vents, you can deploy multiple smoke grenades with a single activation, ensuring the room is rapidly flooded with smoke."
"Hang on, one of them's moving. The others are covering… yeah, one is heading towards the north door. Crouching down and doing something by the wall." Shimazu watched the screen intently as he narrated the action.
"There are no access points or terminals there – no way into the rigged or building matrix systems. I am not sure what they are doing."
"I think I know…" Aswon peered at the screen, trying to focus on the small display and the even smaller image of the marine. "Looks like he's rolling out demo and fixing it to the wall – making a claymore style trap. Thin line of explosives pressed into the wall at about groin height, covering the area of the entrance ramp. That's going to complicate things. If they put a sensor pod on there, the laser might not work if the room is full of smoke, but the electro-capacitance module will. Will detect your life signs and blow, and probably cut you in half…"
"These guys are pretty hardcore." Kai said drolly. "It's almost like they don't want us to get in there."
"They're Imperial Marines – front-line elite combat troops. Yeah, they're good… the combination of bad news you get with excellent training and a high budget. Just be grateful there's only a half-squad in here!"
"I'm not entirely sure I want to be in the air-vents, you know. I mean… let's say I go in there with some grenades and a screwdriver, and manage to get the vent open. And on whatever the signal is, I drop the grenades into the room. What are they going to do? Because I would have thought in the second or two they have before the grenades go off, they're likely to look up at the air-conditioning and then just shoot at it, thinking there's someone in there."
"That's exactly what they're likely to do. A long raking string of fire along the length of it." Aswon confirmed. We've seen these guys planning already, based on their reactions they're going to respond very quickly, professionally, and will absolutely intend to murder anything they can.
"Yeah. That doesn't sound like a fun place to be."
"You can avoid that. If you can get in position quietly, you can set up the grenades on the air-vent itself, and then back away, running a single cable behind you. You can activate the grenades from the next room them, behind the safety of some solid walls. Well outside the line of fire."
"That sounds much better!" She thought for a moment. "Actually, if any of you guys see the mage sit down, or go floppy – shout. I know he can cast spells, but I don't know if he can project. I didn't stop to check. But we should assume he's a full mage that can get out of his body, so we should keep an eye on him." She looked up around the room they were in with suspicion, checking the top-corners. "He might try to do exactly the same as we tried to do to them…" She paused for a moment, then looked over to Marius. "We do need to get in there right? I mean, isn't there some other control room we can use? Surely there's more than one?"
"No. Or rather, yes there are other control rooms, plenty of them. Some handle sound, some the visuals, some for adding graphics or imagery into an existing stream. There are a number of rooms like this, one for each of the separate studios. But all of those feed their data back here to this room – and this is the main control node that feeds out to the matrix. I have been checking – there are redundancies in place. The two desks in the room? Each one of those is essentially a duplicate of the other – two separate power feeds, two control feeds, two matrix feeds – there are cross-links in place, and duplicate firewalls and all manner of other systems, but the two systems are co-located in the same room. No doubt it is a risk in some ways, but it also simplifies their security and maintenance. And I doubt this is a contingency that was foreseen in their planning."
"Oh. Well then. I guess we're back to the same plan."
"Hmm… two separate power feeds. Now there is a thought…" Marius tapped his fingers on his lips as he rapidly thought through his idea. "I could induce an overload on the powerfeed, and potentially blow up one of the desks. The one on the east side of the room, that is being used as cover by four of the marines for instance. I could probably make the consoles physically explode if I manipulate the power correctly. Not in a manner that will hurt them, but likely in a very distracting and noisy fashion – that could be timed to coincide with the smoke grenades exploding and the doors being breached, perhaps. That could increase our odds – though it leaves us with only one functioning control console."
"I could send in some spirits as well to try and distract them. Pull your guard spirits off each of you, and allocate them to each marine, with instructions to manifest and make noises and dance in front of them to throw them off balance… they couldn't be hurt physically, and they could then try to confuse them a bit, or try and break their weapons somehow. I could even send the spirits in first to try and trigger the explosives to waste them and be the first distraction?"
"That sounds like it might work, Tads. If we can fill the room with smoke and then prematurely blow the explosives – that's going to make them think they're under assault, and probably stand or be leaning over the desks ready to fire, and then if Marius can blow the consoles that they're resting on, that's going to be right in their faces. I can scuttle in low and bypass them, and head for the squad leader and the civilian, and try to get in between them – we need the tech, right?"
"He would no doubt be most helpful."
"Ok, and I can head in and take out the guy with the light machine gun as a priority. He's close to the middle of the room, so if I head in on the south side, I can take out their sustained fire."
"I can go in with Hunter, and head straight through the room – and look to take the mage out. No doubt he will be protected against whatever Tads could try and do, and may have magical protection on the rest of his squad… so the sooner he is out of the picture, the sooner they're vulnerable to her attacks, too."
"I can go in behind Aswon then, I guess… and anyone standing up can get tased in the face. Though I'm going to be just as blind as they are, so don't count on that… but on the other hand, if Shimazu can check my pronunciation and stuff, I can try to shout at them to drop their weapons if I'm there in person."
"I can help….with… hmmm." Shimazu paused, his brow furrowed. "I have an idea. Marius – you have access to the broadcasts made recently?"
"What? Well, I have access to the facility, so I can get whatever we need, probably. Why?"
"I'm just thinking – these are Imperial Marines. Ultra-loyal servants of Japan, disciplined, reliable… but they're here. They've not followed the recall order back to the homelands. There must be a reason. Maybe they don't think they could make it, or it was too dangerous to travel with the rebels out. I don't know. But maybe it's just the squad leader thinking like that… what if the rest of his squad don't like it? What if we can play the recall order – remind them they're not supposed to be here. That they've been ordered back to the Home Islands."
"What good does that do us?" Hunter asked.
"Because if it's played back to them, maybe over the building tannoy – they can't ignore it. Then we put Kai on, reminding them of their duty. That the emperor is lost, missing… trapped under a volcano back in the Imperial Palace. They need the armed forces home, to protect and preserve the country, to save Japan. But they're hiding here, staining their honour – guarding a TV station, not really doing anything useful. What if they might be the difference between the Emperor being found or not? Or helping to preserve Japan somehow… question their loyalty and motivations, challenge their orders or intentions. Maybe the squad is here out of loyalty to their squad leader – but the news of the disaster back home has to be weighing heavily on their mind."
"Hmm… I could maybe do something with that…" Kai's features blanked and he leant back against the wall, casting his eyes upwards as he tried to imagine different conversational tacks he could take.
"Offer them the chance to stand down – to go home, and regain their honour. And offer them safe passage. Tell them they get to keep their weapons – they don't have to surrender, or give up… but rather than fight us, they just have to stand down from what they're doing now. We offer to get them home. Or at least to the airport or wherever the rest of the Japanese military is, that are also heading home. I'm not sure it will work – but the psychological lure will weigh heavily on their minds, and be another distraction. Maybe even make the offer just before we launch the attack, as another layer of distraction."
"So you're saying we don't follow through with the offer?" Kai looked over at Shimazu, genuinely surprised.
"No, not at all. If they accept, we absolutely should stand by our word. But if they reject the offer, we take advantage of their distraction, and there's no offer on the table any more."
"Ok… right. So we play the recall notice… maybe twice – or two different versions from two different times to remind them this was a legitimate recall notice from the Japanese High Command… then I talk to them and make the offer. If they take it… well, great. If they don't – well then Tads is in position, and has the grenades ready to go. We send spirits in to deal with the explosives by the door, we trigger the smoke, Marius breaches the doors, and we hit them hard – Hunter on the big gunner, Shimazu on the mage, Aswon covering the civilian, and then we deal with the rest as we can." He looked around at the team members in the small access room with him, seeing a bunch of nods, and hearing a grunt of approval from Aswon over the comms.
"Right. Hold still, Shimazu – I can put up a static aura on you to help defend you and damage anyone you're fighting… then I need to head up to Aswon to do the same thing. I need to do both of those and put them on their foci before I change into a monkey or something else and go into the pipes."
"Well, let's all move up to position. Except you, Marius, I guess – you're staying here?"
"Affirmative. I am in the system and can monitor and control everything from here. There is no advantage to me moving to another room."
"Alright – let's hustle. The longer we leave them, the more time they have to do defensive drek…" Kai led the team out and they headed up to meet Aswon, lurking near the room adjacent to the control centre. Tads cast her spells, locking the magical auras into her sustaining foci, letting them carry the effort of maintaining the glowing electrical fields around the two team-members. With that done she shucked out of her clothes, by now pretty much immune to any feelings of shame or fear – not that anyone in the team had time to stare at her burned and scarred body, let alone her feminine form, and she concentrated until her body started to warp and transform into that of a orang-utan. When she was ready she got a boost up into the air conditioning vent and crawled into the tunnel – then with a little more effort cast another spell on herself, dampening the sounds she made into nothingness.
Disappearing down the tunnel without any sound at all, the rest of the team took that as their cues to get into position – Hunter and Shimazu dropping down to the ground and crawling past the control room doors, staying low and avoiding the one-way armour-glass panels, until they were at the southern door, while Aswon and Kai lurked near the northern door.
Marius checked the positions of the team and co-ordinated, watching the location of Tad's communicator which was being carried in her mouth, analysing her position as she moved down the narrow metallic tube until she was over the control room, and set up the grenades in position just over the vent. It was odd to watch the lop-sided video relay from her commlink and see hairy black chubby fingers at work connecting up the detonator wire to the grenade terminals, but he tried to put that aside and make sure that the connections were all sound, then watched her retreat back the way she had come, clearing the space above the room.
"Everyone is in position. Grenades are primed. I have the sequence set. Stand by… Kai – the announcement will play twice, then there will be a short alarm buzz and you will be live."
"Got it."
[Loyal citizens of Japan. Our nation has suffered a tragedy, a terrible, terrible set of events…] The announcement played, repeating the first broadcast that had played at midday, announcing to the world that the explosions on and around Japan had been particularly violent and destructive, and announcing the status of the Emperor as 'missing', followed by the announcement from a senior General on behalf of the High Command, ordering the recall of all overseas military personal back to the Home Islands to help with disaster relief. It was followed by a second announcement, one that had played a few hours later that clarified and amplified the orders, revealing a little more information about the devastation that had been wrought over the lands of Japan. Again, the order went out that all military personal where to return home at once, and the order was clearly non-discretionary. A harsh buzz sounded at the end of the announcement, and Kai took a deep breath, then started to speak.
"Honourable Marines. I am speaking to you from elsewhere in the facility. We are aware of your positions in the control room, and your presence, numbers and equipment. We have also seen your defensive positions and preparations. Unfortunately, we have orders that appear to run counter to yours – and that puts us in a difficult position. But – we recognise that you are elite soldiers – men or women of honour, professional soldiers who are under terrible strain at the moment. Firstly, I wish to offer my condolences to you on the terrible events that have ravaged your homes. I do not know if you have family back home, and if you know of their safety – but I sincerely hope that your loved ones are safe and well." Kai knew his voice would lack the weird harmonics and sub-vocal modulations that would let him affect them magically – the electronic relay would strip out any use of power he might have had. Instead he focussed on putting all of his natural charm, empathy and persuasiveness into his speech, carefully choosing his words and appealing to their honour, dignity, loyalty and their emotions in turn, trying to persuade them to his point of view.
"Soon, we will find ourselves enemies – fighting against each other because we both have to follow orders. But, it need not be this way. This facility does not matter to Japan. There is no Imperial Governor here to rule this country, not anymore. They have followed the order to return home – to go and save your people, and your nation. We do not know why you have not followed them – perhaps because of how far you are from the airport, or because you did not receive direct orders… but it matters not. Now we offer you an option. Heed the words of your high command. Follow your orders, and your loyalties. Agree to stand down – NOT surrender. Leave the control room peacefully, and move to the office next door, the room to the south. Keep your weapons, your armour – and your honour. Let us secure the control room and the facility for the new government here… and in exchange we offer you our word, our promise – that we will escort you safely and unharmed to the airport, to re-join your other forces and return home – to help save your Emperor, and your Empire."
He stopped, and took a breath, then glanced over at Aswon who gave him a quick thumbs up – seeming to agree with his delivery.
"I have motion in the room. The one we have assumed is the squad leader has pulled out a pistol… is moving around to the other side of the desk. Ach – he has pulled the technician over to stand in front of him, pistol to his temple. Using him as a human shield." It was hard to tell if Marius was disgusted in his behaviour, or in the threat to the information he needed – but he clearly wasn't happy with relaying the news. "Wait… one of the others is moving now. The demolition trooper… is turning to face the leader."
Marius watched the scene play out, trying to interpret the body language and movements. It was a silent exchange – the battlefield tactical systems of the marines far too well encrypted for Marius to crack with the gear he had on hand in a reasonable time-frame, and he suddenly had a strange sensation wash over him, wondering if this was what other people felt like when they were observing the team. They'd had so much practice with the tactical gear now that it felt like second-nature, and they often forgot they had to speak out loud to some people, so used were they to sub-vocalising communications.
"It looks like… hmmm. I wish Shimazu could see this on the big screen. But it looks like he is appealing to the squad leader, trying to get him to think about things. That is my read on his posture and gestures. The demo trooper… no, I thought he was threatening, but he has released his rifle, let it fall on the sling. He is gesturing now with both hands towards the squad leader. And the leader is responding… angrily I think. The pistol is away from the technician's head, gesturing wildly around the room."
Aswon, Shimazu and Hunter braced, crouching like sprinters ready to go in the blocks, poised to accelerate if Marius opened the doors, ready to respond instantly now that the technician wasn't at immediate threat – knowing that it wouldn't take more than a second or two for the situation to revert.
"Change… ok, the heavy gunner has turned, too. He is also talking with the squad leader. The two other troops are both on station still, rifles trained on the doors. The two other troops are still talking to the leader. Still angry gesturing. Stand-by… ok the leader has released the civilian, and pushed him down to the ground. Striding towards the centre of the room. Looks angry, still waving the pistol around. The other two are still talking to him, I think. Waving hands around too, though more calmly. The leader is directing most of this at the demo-trooper it seems, but the heavy gunner is pitching in. Other two still on the doors, on target."
"Kai – give another push. Gentle. If he has his troops wavering… that's a good sign – for us."
"Ok, patch me in again, Marius. Same as before."
"Marines – please… make the courageous decision. Your honour is worth so much – your lives are valuable. If we fight – we may win, we may lose – we know how good you are, and the fight will be hard. But either way, realistically we both lose, as does Japan and all the people back home. We would both take losses, and that would leave you unable to help save your people – and for what? Control of a trideo station in some backwater country? How does that help Japan? Soon enough, if we do not secure this location, they will send in people with less skill – but with explosives, and flame-throwers, and all manner of barbaric weapons. Or we can come to an agreement now – to agree not to fight, to save our strength. To travel back to the home-lands, to save your people, to help save your emperor. We urge you to take the offer – but we will respect your decision either way. Once again though, you have our solemn word, that if you agree not to fight, we will guarantee your safety, and help you get home, as quickly as possible. Please – do the honourable thing for your home, your people and yourselves." He stopped, listening intently, wondering if he was going to hear Marius first describing their actions – or the gunfire as they started to execute the hostage…
"Put Shimazu on. Speak candidly – from your heart. Honour, truth, duty. Let them hear your accent…" Kai looked down the corridor towards Shimazu, pointing at him as he sent the instruction to Marius. A moment later Shimazu heard his own exhalation coming over the tannoy as Marius patched him through.
"Honoured warriors. My captain speaks the truth. Our home has been ravaged by natural disasters. You – all of you, are sworn to defend the Emperor and his Empire. You have been called home, to face the most significant challenge to our people that we have ever known. You know what you need to do – it is up to you to answer that call, though. But your choice here will define your soul and your families' honour for generations to come. Nobody can take your honour away from you. But you can discard it, stain it and throw it into the gutter." He stopped, feeling that he'd said enough – if they really did have the honour he thought they would, it should be enough – and hearing his native accent and the specific word choices and syntax of a native speaker, should convince them his words had merit… he hoped.
"The leader is still angry, waving his pistol at the demo guy. But the demo guy and the machine gunner seem to be wavering more… I think Shimazu has convinced them. Or given them a lot to think about."
"If they don't get their shit in gear we're going to have to go… standby on the assault, ready on the doors, Marius." Kai said, checking the charge on his taser for about the twentieth time. "If we leave it too long, we lose any element of surprise…"
"Oh – that is not good. Get ready. The leader has stopped waving his gun around – now it is pointing straight at the demo guy, centre head. That is a threat, direct and to the point. Demo guy is just standing, hands still now. The gunner has backed off a little… I do not think he is threatening the squad leader, but he is looking – so his smartgun is trained on him, centre-mass. This is looking tense!"
"Marius… live mike!" Kai paused for a single second, then started to speak, hoping that his words would be heard. "I am very sorry, but we are running out of time. As your leader has decided to take this path, we must respond. I can, however, promise you that we will do our best to repatriate your bodies, with all due courtesy and speed to the home islands. We will not stain all of your honour due to the actions of one man." Kai stopped, hearing the echo of his own voice fading away, resonating down the corridors from the loudspeakers.
"HOLD!" Marius spoke urgently but quietly. "Wait… the mage is moving. There are new creatures in the room, surrounding the squad leader. Huge rock beings. I presume elementals of some kind. They have surrounded the squad leader, hemming him in, but not doing anything."
"How big are they, Marius?"
"I would estimate over two metres tall each, probably the same build as Shimazu."
"Oh? Likely to be high force then, powerful elementals. Very strong, too… well that answers the question about if he can summon…"
"The squad leader is moving – aiming his pistol now at the mage. Definitely aiming at him. The demo guy is backing off, away from the elementals… they're not moving… presume there is more conversation going on… there…. Oh. The squad leader… I presume he is dead."
"What happened?"
"The rock creatures just seemed to converge over and around him, engulfed him… he was maybe threatening to shoot… but they just swallowed him up! Wait on, the mage is taking off his helmet, and looking up at the camera. Trying to patch audio though…
[To the originator of the recent announcements. We accept your terms. Send in your Captain to discuss the finer details]
"Kai – come over, quickly!" Shimazu quickly translated the carefully spoken and enunciated Japanese to Kai, then waved him down. "I'll come in with you – they'll understand a bodyguard or aide, it shouldn't be a problem. If anything it shows you're important."
Kai headed down to Shimazu at the southern doorway, holstering his taser, and pointing to the northern door, getting Hunter moving that way – just in case they needed some flanking fire. He headed to the door, not breaking step as the door slid open in front of him as Marius activated it, aware that Shimazu was in his customary place. He wandered up the shallow ramp, his spine twitching a little as he felt the weight of the stares upon him, as well as the steady aim of the riflemen. At the top of the ramp he took two more steps to draw level with the first console, then paused and gave a deep bow to the mage.
"Good afternoon. I am Kai. Thank you for this discussion. The terms I would propose are very simple. Keep your weapons and armour, and move to the next room, for the moment. Once we have control of this room, and have carried out our own mission, we will come and speak to you, and make arrangements to get you to Manila, to the main airport. From there, we will expedite your transport back to Japan. At no time will you be considered our prisoners… perhaps our 'honoured guests'. At all times you remain in command of your squad, and can take whatever actions you deem prudent. But we also guarantee to maintain your safety and security from any of the locals. Is this acceptable?" He waited, while the mage considered… then gave a nod.
"Hai." The mage looked over at the other members of the squad, then gave a twitch of his head, getting them moving. One by one, they filed past Kai and Shimazu, heading out into the corridor and then around to the door into the production office, filing in one at a time in their heavy battle armour.
"What is going on?" They saw the technician crouching at the end of the desks, just the top of his head peering over the worktop. Unsurprisingly, he looked terrified, and was visibly shaking as he took in the armoured and heavily-armed forms of a new bunch of people – no doubt wondering if he was out of the frying pan, but in the fire.
"With any luck – you're free, and safe now. We were sent here by the HUK to free the station, and get your broadcast teams back on the air. You have a crew down at the docks now, with one of the HUK cells – led by 'Zircon' – they were trying to broadcast, but got cut off. That's why we're here." Kai gave him a reassuring smile, then wandered over and plopped himself down into one of the chairs and studied the complex controls of the transmission desk as if it made any sense to him whatsoever. "Lots of buttons here… hmmm. So, just how difficult is it to get the outside broadcast van back on the air?"
"Here, I can do that for you." The man stood, giving Shimazu and his sword a nervous look, then reached past Kai and rapidly bashed half a dozen buttons, adjusted two sliders, turned a control knob and then flicked a few selector switches. "There – they're back."
"Nice. Ok, let me message Zircon. Thank you. Looks like you were doing a really good job of stalling the marines if it was that easy!" He ignored the man and concentrated on his commlink as he sent a message to Zircon, getting an almost immediate thumbs up icon as he told her they were back online.
"I'm glad we didn't have to fight them." Tads wandered back into the room, adjusting her clothing and equipment after having gotten dressed again, now that she was out of the airvents and no longer in her shape-shifted form. "I'm guessing the marines were going to be tough – they certainly looked imposing. But I got a look at the mage. He might not be quite as skilled or advanced as me… but he was covered in foci. I could see half-a-dozen of them, all quite powerful. No wonder his spell was so strong – he's got all kinds of magical boosts and augmentations!"
"We could have had them." Hunter announced, giving a grin. "I'm sure."
"I'm glad we didn't have to fight either. They wouldn't have been pushovers. Good job, Kai, and you too, Shimazu." Aswon nodded at them. "And you too, Marius, keeping us up to date on what was going on."
"You are welcome. We need to speak to Zircon, though, I think. Explain the situation. I do not think she will be very happy – you saw the look on her face when we said we had granted the officers on the ship safe passage. I can foresee the same thing here."
"Yeah… well, we gave our word, and I intend to keep it. She'll just have to adapt to it." Kai shrugged. "But you're probably right. I'll drop her a message, let her know we need to talk." Once he had done that he went to check on the security team they had previously dealt with – ensuring they were stable, and let them know what had happened, and to tell the other team that were still waiting at the front of the building.
A few minutes later, his commlink buzzed, as Zircon finished her first broadcast and someone else in her little group took over, detailing news of the revolution on the east side of the islands.
"Kai – good job. We're still broadcasting, will be at it for a few hours probably, just spreading the word. But we're reaching most of the islands now between this and the other stations we've captured."
"No problem – we ran into some problems, but we've ironed them out, mostly. That's what I wanted to talk to you about, as we need to make some arrangements."
"Oh?"
"Yes, we've found some more Japanese that we need to deal with. A squad of Marines in this case that were controlling the station. There's also some mercs here, that were on the security detail – they were the ones that took out your squad sent here. Not for any particular hate-reason, just because it was in their contract. They've been mostly taken care of now, and they probably want to go home at some point – but they can be dealt with in the future. But the marines – they're still armed, and we need to get them home."
"What? Why? What have you done?"
"Well, we guaranteed them safe passage, and the chance to get home to help sort out the mess in Japan. That was the main reason they agreed not to execute the technicians in the broadcast centre and blow up the facility actually… so we made a deal. We gave them our word."
"Argh! You do like to make life…difficult don't you?" Zircon sounded genuinely aggrieved for a moment, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Fine, fine… more Japanese we have to allow to go home. Ok, we can arrange that. We don't have to like it, and you did what you were asked to do. But now we have to get more people to Manila!" She let out another sigh.
"No, you don't. Let us take care of it – then it's not a hassle. Look, if we've made a situation, we can clean it up. Just leave it to us, ok? Well, we'll come by the ship first and check everything's ok, and pick up those other Japanese officers from the brig. Might as well sort them all out at once, right?"
"Very well. That actually gives me a little time to talk to Gemcutter and get this all smoothed over. And get your payment sorted."
"Great – see, it's all for the best!" Kai grinned at her, then signed off, and went to tell the rest of the team.
"You have signed us up for what?"
"We get to take them to Manila, and hand them off to the Japanese military there, Marius. Should only take an hour each way, right? There's plenty of room in the Broadsword, we could fit a hundred people in there… so we load them up, fly over, drop them off, then come back here. Easy, and then that's another favour they owe us, and they can't say we're not helping out."
"No, we cannot." Marius tapped a command on his rigger deck, and pulled up a broadcast stream on one of the big monitors in the room, showing a large volcanic mountain that was belching smoke into the air. "That is Mayon Volcano – about sixty kilometres north west of us. That is belching volcanic ash, smoke and poisonous fumes into the air. As are approximately seven hundred other volcanos around the ring of fire. Currently there is no air travel anywhere in this hemisphere of the world, and the rest of the world are shutting down their flights as quickly as they can as the ash clouds spread. So, no – we CANNOT do a quick flight to Manila. It would foul our engines and shut them down, and we would need to have all four of them overhauled and rebuilt. And while we can afford that – we would need to find somewhere to do that, and pay a lot of money for something that is unnecessary."
"Bugger. Ok… guess we'll have to drive then? How far is it anyway?"
"About five hundred kilometres – through a country in the midst of a violent revolution, I would remind you. Over roads of questionable quality – we would be lucky to get there in a day, and the same back."
"Well, I think the station has some vehicles down in the loading dock – we saw some on the internal cameras, right? We'll just sort ourselves out with something and go drop them off." Marius gave Kai a disgusted look, but then flipped through the internal cameras until he could see the loading docks at the back of the building. A couple of the outside-broadcast vans were present, as well as a few trucks and small vans – but then they also spotted a few mini-busses at the rear, including one coach that looked to be good to carry about twenty to twenty-five people.
"There – excellent. Ok, let's get that scoped out, and stuff… should be good."
Marius and Hunter headed down to check out the vehicle and clear out a path to the doors, confirming that the coach was fully fuelled and ready to go, while Kai got back in touch with Zircon and updated her on their plans. She, in turn, suggested that he call on Ruby, who was still waiting outside the station with a few of her cell members, keeping an eye on the external approaches, and get her to tag the vehicle with the HUK logo – to avoid any issues on the roads.
Half an hour later, they moved the Marine squad and themselves down to the loading bay, heading to the coach. The marines headed to the back of the coach, taking over half the seats there and still watching the team with suspicion – the air shimmering around them as the elementals waited in astral space, no doubt with orders to attack if there was any 'funny business'.
Marius grabbed the driver's seat, and the rest of the team spread out in the front of the bus, keeping weapons to hand, but trying not to act like they were worried about the Marines further back, and a few minutes later they headed down towards the ship, to meet Zircon and the other HUK guerrillas. While some of the troops headed into the ship to go fetch the Japanese officers from the brig, Zircon came aboard the bus to speak to the Marine mage, who appeared to be firmly in command of the squad now. She greeted him cordially, and with a politician's grin – a wide and pleasant smile, that never touched her eyes. Presenting the plan as if it were her own, she detailed how the provisional government was guaranteeing their safety, and that they would be taken to Manila to meet up with the main elements of the Japanese expeditionary force, to be returned to the home islands as quickly as possible. The mage listened carefully, nodding at the appropriate juncture, and then accepting her assurances, without any further comment. He seemed to realise that she was probably not keen on the deal, but had decided not to make waves, and recognised that there was little point in antagonising anyone.
Once they had loaded up the prisoners, Marius got them turned around – then discovered that Ruby and her two friends had rustled up a battered van of her own, and was apparently going to escort them – to smooth over any roadblocks or other cells that they might encounter along the way. And so it was that the impromptu convoy hit the road, heading for the AH26 highway west out of Legazpi City. They did find a few road-blocks along the way – piles of vehicles across the highway, making them stop and thread a snake-like course around them at a crawl. Each time, though, Ruby dismounted from the truck and spoke to the cell manning the blockade, apparently exchanging code-words or authorisations, that let them pass.
The traffic was light, almost non-existent, which thankfully kept them moving quickly, and they pushed on through the night. At around midnight, Marius swapped out with Shimazu, bedding down for a rest, while the rest of the team stood watches – as did the Marines, both sides settling down into an uneasy truce as they travelled across the country.
Finally, as the sun started to light up the horizon behind them, they crossed a ridgeline south of Antipolo, and could see Manila bay and the sprawling metropolis spread out before them. Large parts of the city were dark, whether by design or accident was unclear, and a large number of fires raged apparently out of control. Another checkpoint lay ahead, and Ruby headed over to talk to them – but this time her assurances were apparently not enough.
"Ok, let's go see what they want…" Kai stretched and grabbed his jacket, feeling the cold air as the door opened. Shimazu went to get up, too, and Kai waved him back to his seat. "Probably not a good idea, all things considered. You watch from here… Aswon?"
"You got it." The merc grabbed his rifle and spear, and headed down the gap between seats to follow Kai, giving Shimazu a quick squeeze on the shoulder as he passed. "I'll watch him, don't worry."
"Good morning!" Kai called out, and strode over confidently towards the HUK guards at the checkpoint, a large smile on his face. "What a morning eh? My name's Kai, we're friends with Ruby here… now what seems to be the trouble?"