It had been three days since their attack on the Vault. Akira, working with Mahzi from the Library, had cast a ritual over the BASEment and Container Town that ‘apparently’ blocked vampires from entering without the explicit approval of a member of the team. Or at least that’s what Akira hoped his adaptations to the spell had achieved. The original spell had been intended to protect a single dwelling, not such a sprawling estate, so they’d had to dramatically adapt the ritual as a result.
There was a still nagging worry in their minds that one of the residents ‘upstairs’ could unknowingly invite a vampire in and that residents’ sense of ownership of his container home would allow the vampire access to cross the threshold of the spell, to attack everywhere and anyone once they were inside. Time as they say, would tell.
Despite expecting a vampiric assault imminently, the last couple of days had been extremely quiet, not least because Annie had sealed herself in the Monitoring Room during the day and Sam had walked out and hadn’t yet returned. They were aware that Annie had still been heading out at night to continue her P.I. work. Sam, as they discovered from Adam, had headed home to spend some time with his parents.
Despite his many concerns about his father’s prejudices towards metas, it seemed Sam had a great deal of respect for his parents’ relationship skills. His tablet and comms were switched off, so all the team could do was leave messages of support.
The previous night, a message had been received from the Dakatan Ambassador to London, Philip M’Shumba. He explained that he needed to return to Dakata in a couple of days’ time and if they were willing to provide both himself and his secretary, Fortune, with a lift he was authorised to allow them to visit Dakata for a few days as his personal guests. He did have another ulterior motive: he wanted them to also agree to allow his people in the city of Kiburi a chance to look over (and reverse-engineer?) their vehicles’ gravitic propulsion system, as that specific technology was something the Kingdom of Dakata hadn’t achieved for themselves yet. He admitted that he wanted a chance to examine a unit up-close himself. The Ziru Sirkan propulsion systems you could openly buy were securely sealed units and not as powerful as the ones the ‘locals’ had made for themselves, now that they knew such a thing was possible.
That would be the price of their entry. Philip needed to leave in the next couple of days, as he wanted them to fly over Sudan enroute, assuming they agreed to his proposal.
They were aware that there was no commercial flights to anywhere near Dakata.
Mary had wondered aloud what ‘R’, the Duchess Marjorie Rittingham, was up to since her unsuccessful visit to the Dakatan Consulate in Cape Town.
Philip smiled, “We’ve been keeping tabs on her until she headed to South Sudan where we lost track of her. That area is inundated with a rebel problem from a group that call themselves the Paradise in Africa Army, or the PAA for short. They are less an actual army despite their numbers and more a large group of terrorists, who roam through several countries, most recently Kenya and Ethiopia, like a plague of scavengers.
Dr Kitengi N’Ambo, the leader of the PAA is a committed Marxist as well as a believer in the Africa-for-Africans ideologue. He has an army of self-created cyborgs as well as an extraordinary number of captured and brainwashed metas at his disposal. I want to know what they are up to, so close to our borders. Admittedly, Dakata has never been conquered and is extremely difficult to get into unless you fly in. Dakata is completely surrounded by impassable mountains and there is only one route in.”
He left them with a promise that they would phone him the following day with their decision. Given it was late they left a message for Sam in the hope he would get back in touch with them tomorrow and headed to bed.
As the remaining team members entered the lounge the following morning in search of coffee, they were surprised to see Annie standing in the middle of the room waiting for them.
“I need to know if you trust me as a team member. If you have any doubts as to my loyalty, any at all, then say it now and I’ll quit.” Seems the argument with Sam had been about trust and the last few days sitting in the Monitoring Room had caused her to have a crisis of faith.
Jeeves immediately put down the coffee pot and rushed out of the door as Annie continued, “Oh, and Akira I want to buy out Steadman Investigations. I will pay cash and take over all of the business costs. Almost all of the equipment is mine anyway and I’ve been doing all the work since Christmas. What would you accept for the good will?”
As they tried to think what to say, Jeeves, Adam and Mikey rushed in as a group and to everyone’s surprise Jeeves, speaking on their behalf said, “If Annie leaves then so do I,” he glanced behind him and the other two nodded, “I mean we. Should Annie go then we must respectively tender our resignations as well. Annie is part of this family and we want it noted that we trust her completely. ”
Akira for a moment wondered if they could re-program Annie or possibly hypnotise her so she felt happier? Then again, he was sure not even Mace could hypnotise her into liking Sam, he was a bit of an ‘acquired’ taste after all.
The other members of the team explained that they didn’t want to take sides, but yes, they trusted her to have their backs. Akira joked that they might be better off kicking Sam out instead. Then he immediately went into negotiation mode for the business, which to his surprise, he discovered he was very reluctant to let go even after Annie pointed out that he was rarely there, most of the equipment was hers and if he refused, she would likely set up her own business in competition.
Akira took Annie to one side and began to try to chat her up telling her that in his view she was more part of the household that Sam anyway, that he was aware that Sam had never valued her or seen her full potential and he’d be more upset at losing her than at losing Sam. Seemed the old rivalry between Sam and Akira over Annie was still there.
Meanwhile, the news of their invitation to visit Dakata had somehow, got out at least to one person and Mary found herself in the corridor talking on the phone with a very excited Tessa Challenger-Wildeman. She wanted to know if there was any chance they could take one of the prototype scanner-goggles and extractors with them to check if the Terminus control parasites have possibly infiltrated Dakata. If an extremely isolated country had been infiltrated then they could assume the bugs had already secretly penetrated every country in the world. On the other hand, if they were infection-free, she hoped that Princess Tafari, the daughter of King M’Balla might consider manufacturing the devices and help identify those in the UN or world governments who had been infected. Mary knew the extractor was powered by a miniaturised gravitics module so possibly that was something else the Dakatans would be interested in. Tess admitted that she’d already been secretly talking with this Princess Tafari and that was how she knew about the Ambassador’s offer. Mary agreed for a set of goggles and an extractor to be sent over and went back to try to rebuild some team bridges in the lounge.
Akira was still trying to chat up Annie much to Mace’s obvious disgust. He was inviting her to come to Dakata with the team. Mary knew if they took the Crate, numbers would not be a problem. Akira was offering her the window seat, next to him. That was too much for her and she agreed she wanted to go but immediately turned the conversation back to buying out the business – again reminding him that she did most of the work there. Akira immediately got defensive; about how it was his name that people trusted when they came for help. People know his brand was trustworthy.
The rest of the team rescued her by explaining again that they were happy to trust her and for her to come with them. Mary heard a sigh of relief emanating from Jeeves. She still wasn’t totally sure whether that had been a bluff or not but she knew that having spoken all three of the others would have felt duty-bound to have quit with her. Thankfully Annie really didn’t want to leave, she just felt ‘untrusted’. It was Akira who raised the question of whether the suggested mass resignation meant the others weren’t as happy here as they’d assumed. He suggested perhaps they should just invite everyone. If they took the Crate, which they would need to accommodate Philip and his secretary anyway, then they would have room to spare.
Mary went back to the others and asked, “So, you three also want to come? You’d be welcome.” Adam muttered, “Pilot remember – try getting there without me.” However, Jeeves begged off claiming to have spent way too many years in Africa when he was younger and unfortunately Mikey had an art exhibition opening in a couple of days and as much as she wanted to, couldn’t spare the time.
Later that night a Courier dropped off a parcel at the gates, containing a couple of scanner-goggles and a miniaturised gravitic extractor.
A bit of research by Mace confirmed that the Dakatans primarily spoke a form of Swahili known as Daku or Ki’Swahili. This was written in a unique and ancient alphabet only found in Dakata, (some believed this to be the original alphabet of Swahili), however many of the more educated locals also spoke English (primarily amongst those known as the Alitu – those who have been ‘sent forth’ to attend foreign schools and universities). That’s when Annie reminded them about the Commdot translators given to them by the Archduke Ty’dea Viisarikaa; she could reprogram them to translate however, they only had three pairs. Annie could download a translation program and pronunciation guide into herself, so she wouldn’t need one and Mace could if necessary get by running a similar program on her wrist-computer.
They immediately phoned Philip and confirmed that they were happy to take him up on his offer and it was agreed that they would set off from Greenwich Skyport the following morning.
Akira did wonder if they needed inoculations but it was a bit late to arrange anything so instead he elected to trust the Palace where they would be staying would be a safe environment and trust to luck. Philip did claim Dakata was reasonably disease-free but if they were planning to stop off anywhere on the way back?That was enough to persuade Adam to book in with his Doctor anyway and get the standard Africa package of shots, which given he was going to be piloting for several hours the following day might not be the most sensible decision he had made, but Akira had panicked him. Meanwhile there was still no communication from Sam.
Next morning, packed and with Mace’s grav-bike crammed into the cargo bay of the Crate, meet with Philip and his secretary Fortune at the Skyport. Instead of a dress, Fortune was wearing a black body-tight outfit (which Akira was sure was what she’d been wearing under her dress when they’d previously visited the Embassy). There was obvious technology incorporated into it though for what reason they couldn’t tell.
They were a little taken back by Fortune’s change of manner, bolder more assertive and by the fact that she now referred to her boss simply as ‘Farasi’ which Philip explained was actually his first name. It was a tradition for Dakatans to change their first name when ‘in the world’ to a local equivalent apparently.
Annie kept them entertained as they flew towards their destination with background about Dakata, what little was known about the country. Dakata had a population of approximately 800,000 people and despite having immense wealth for its size and a highly educated population, the country had preserved its ancestral way of life with only the capital of Kiburi having any obvious signs of economic progress. It was a landlocked country in the central of a range of impassable mountains and jungles around its borders, which had helped Dakata isolate itself from outsiders. The interior supposedly consisted of a very fertile and lush river valley surrounded by mountain ranges rich in natural resources. The country had been attacked many times but had never been conquered.
Fortune and Farasi merely smiled enigmatically.
Some believed Dakata might have been the legendary Kingdom of ‘Prester John’ – though that land had supposedly been a Christian nation located somewhere in Africa and Dakata had apparently retained its original beliefs and religion over the centuries. Perhaps they had been considered Christian in the same way that early contact with China had fostered a similar initial belief simply because they weren’t followers of Islam?
Several hours later Philip asked Adam if he could circle several large temporary encampments in the South of the Sudanese savannahs. Vast areas of land surrounding these settlements had been stripped bare and it was obvious that these were not permanent camps given the accompanying decimation of the land. Farasi asked if there was any possibility of a flyover as he believed the camps to belong to the PAA and any information they could get could prove useful as he was concerned about such a large gathering of ‘soldiers’ on their border, though that might not mean anything. This had happened before and they had simply skirted Dakata while they’d raided Konza City in Kenya for their technology and equipment. Annie pointed out from her sensors that there was extremely high-energy readings coming from the camps, possibly due to a high number of cyborgs? The sensors weren’t able to read the presence of metas unfortunately.
Initially they had found a main camp of about 150 to 200 people but as they flew over, they realised that there were actually several other encampments spread all over the plain, each about the same size. They obviously feared an aerial attack and had spread out to make that more difficult. In total there was about 2,000 to 3,000 in about 20 separate camps though how many of those present were actual soldiers and how many were camp followers he wasn’t sure. Their presence was having a major ecological effect on the area and the local wildlife had been decimated in their search for food. Farasi really wanted to know why they were there.
Akira asked Adam to hover in one place as he astral-projected himself down into the largest of the camps and after a few minutes found a large woman surrounded by meta-humans, most were deformed and distorted in some way by their breakthroughs. This woman was Massai, Dr Kitengi N’Ambo’s apparent wife.
Akira tried to get closer but one of the young metas, a boy with four extra eyes on his forehead kept on looking in his direction as though he could ‘almost see’ or feel Akira’s astral form.
This woman seemed to be the main leader of this encampment given that there was no sign of the Doctor. Although, because of the boy-meta, he couldn’t get close enough to the woman there were certain things that did worry him. Several soldiers were wandering around the encampment in heavy-duty battle armour and most of the soldiers were young and converted into cyborgs.
As he stood in the camp observing Massai and looking for some sort of clue as to their purpose here, he saw a message being passed to her by one of her guards who said it was from ‘R’. He couldn’t get close enough to see what the note said however.
Akira looked for transportation but again there were none in the main encampment but given the number of soldiers (and apparent lack of camp followers), they had to be present somewhere just not there. Although their technology was advanced, most was handmade except for the suits of heavy armour that had apparently been stolen from somewhere.
He headed back to the Crate and asked if it would be worth Banshee heading down, insubstantialising and ‘kidnapping’ the woman as a way to gain further information?
Farasi was against the idea, as that would be seen as an act of war. This was after all the Doctors ‘wife’ and she had a reputation of being capable of creating breakthroughs and some thought her abilities might even ‘interfere’ with the powers of existing metas, corrupting and altering their powers somehow, possibly permanently; best not to chance it.
The heavy armour worried him in particular and he needed to make sure the Dakatan border security was fully aware of their capacity.
Akira asked Farasi if their schedule allowed them time for a fly-by of Konza City in Kenya? The Ambassador said that would possibly be best done on their return flight as he urgently wanted to get the intelligence that Akira had obtained to his country’s security, just in case.
They flew on towards the high mountain range that marked the borders of Dakata and into heavy cloud cover that covered the mountain peaks. Inside the thick cloud cover it became obvious that they were artificial, created by holograms. Beneath this illusion was an energy shield covering almost a hundred miles of sky between the two sides of the mountain range that surrounded the country. Beneath the holographic clouds, they could see the shield was formed from millions of heptagon-shaped segments created out of pure energy linked together. This energy shield was covering the whole country! Farasi went on the radio confirming who he was and seconds later, the shielding began to collapse in on itself revealing a sun drenched paradise below. They dropped down and realised that the holographic cloud cover must be unidirectional as beneath the transparent shielding there was no sign that it was there.
Farasi directed them to head towards the city and the landing field beside the royal Palace.
Dakata’s city and settlements seemed deceptively simple; most of the buildings were beautiful but either primitive in design, such as stone temples, strongholds, and similar dwellings or futuristic towers still apparently having been made from stone. The city was a mix of styles, both tribal and Western and that was mirrored in its citizens as people in traditional tribal clothes walked side by side with people in brightly coloured suits.
They flew low over the city following the main thoroughfare and landed in the grounds of the Palace.
Farasi smiled, “Welcome to Dakata, a lot of what you will see here during your visit we would prefer was kept secret. Most people out there think of this as a small, third world country filled with farmers and goat herders. We want to keep the impression, however the reality is that we are fairly self-sufficient in most things mainly because of the presence of Daka crystals which we occasionally sell to the outside world.”
The team nodded their agreement and stepped out into the heat. In front of them were two women wearing an identical outfit (if fully fastened up) to that worn by Fortune. There were the apparently wearing the uniform of the Shujaa Wa’Usiku (or Honour Guards).
The white haired woman stepped forward and introduced herself in English as Imani M’Kusini or if they prefer they can call her Mercy. She would be overseeing their visit. It was obvious that she really didn’t trust them one little bit and wasn’t happy about them being here.
Next, a woman with multi-coloured hair and Western clothes (including stylised ripped jeans) approached them and welcomed them to Dakata and introduced herself as Princess Tafari. It was obvious that she wasn’t a traditionalist, especially when she then went and hugged both the Ambassador who she called Uncle Farasi and then Fortune to her obvious discomfort.
She nodded politely to the team members and asked them to follow her inside to their rooms.
They would stay in the palace throughout their visit and would meet King M’Balla and Prince Baako who had just returned from Europe at the reception that night in their honour. They would also meet Queen Izulu, the King’s first wife and mother of Prince Baako and Queen Asha, M’Balla’s younger second wife, her adopted mother and Farasi’s sister.
Behind them Fortune, ‘Mercy’ and the other guard were busy chatting away about whether Fortune had enjoyed her visit to the outside world with her uncle. Apparently, she was also an M’Shumba.
The Princess appeared very technically minded and was happily discussing with Adam about his work on gravitics propulsion systems and got him to promise to meet up with her in a couple of days’ time to explain how his units worked.
After dropping off their bags and eating a lunch consisting of several exotic fruits they’d never seen before, Princess Tafari, accompanied by Mercy, offered to guide them round the city on a sort of meet and greet.
To their surprise, there were no additional security and they walked the street freely with Tafari regularly stopping and chatting with people as she showed them the wonders of Kiburi. The locals often used a title when speaking to her, Nyeupe Simba-Jike – which the commbots translated as ‘White Lioness’ and the King as Nyeupe Simba – ‘The White Lion’, possibly a traditional title given the presence of prides of White Lions in the Country; something they had been promised they would see the following day.
As they walked the streets, Akira pulled out of his pocket the scanner-goggles and when he thought no one was looking, put them over his eyes whilst casting an illusion of Idolon to try to disguise them merely as oversized Rayban sunglasses. With the goggles activated, he scanned the Princess and Mercy as well as the people around them for signs of control bug infestation at the base of their skulls. Nothing. No one said anything but to everyone else the illusion hadn’t worked, though Akira was blissfully unaware of that fact. Everyone else could see that Akira was apparently wearing an oversized pair of X-Ray specs. In fact, Princess Tafari even did a 360-degree spin on the spot as though confirming for him that she was not infected. He couldn’t check either himself or Annie in her Android body. In a touch of paranoia, he pulled Mace aside and asked her to check him just in case. Thankfully, he was clear and Mace persuaded him to put the goggles away before he drew any more attention to them. Tafari approached them and said she liked his ‘binoculars’ and wouldn’t mind a closer look when they returned to the Palace which put Mercy at ease.
As they walked back to the Palace they realised that the city was pollution-free and appeared to only use some form of renewable energy – something that the Princess referred to as ZPM’s. All the vehicles appeared to be running on electricity and a substantial number of the citizens were using some form of wearable technology including heads-up computer screens and holographic displays. Apparently some form of internet access but it wasn’t Wi-Fi, it was some form of unique computer access that she thought was somehow connected to the roads. When asked they were told this was the Maarifa (translation: Knowledge) and was only available in Dakata. Annie was convinced this Maarifa was some sort of countrywide quantum computer but that was surely impossible. There were no obvious connections other than seams of crystal naturally embedded in the roads.
They also couldn’t help notice that everyone they met was in exceptional physical condition.
Heading back to the Palace they were greeted personally by King M’Balla who introduced them to his two wives, Queen Izulu and Queen Asha as well as his son, Prince Baako who had just returned for the first time since the Princess and he had been involved in something called the Ascension Trials. He had been in Europe attending University as an Alitu (visitor to the outside World).
King M’Balla suggested that the next day they visit the attractions of the country from the Ngao (translation: shield) Mountains and the Thousand Step Staircase which was the only foot entrance into the country and laughingly remarked that in the old days that was partly responsible for the safety of his country as any warrior who had to climb down a thousand steps first was in no shape to fight when they finally met his ancestors in battle. He did admit that in fact there was only 632 steps, not a full thousand despite the name down to the valley bottom and the staircase had been built over several hundred years ago. Prince Baako seemed very amenable if slightly distant but what was clear was the tensions between him and the Princess for some reason.
Afterwards they retired to their suite and talked about what they had seen. Akira had a theory that the Ascension Trials whatever they were had been responsible for the tensions between the two royal siblings though as Mary quite rightly pointed out they were siblings from different mothers so the tension could be just a result of that. She did admit no-one appeared to refer to Prince Baako as a ‘White Lion’ so it was possible that Akira’s intuition was right.
Just before retiring for the night they had an unexpected visitor, the Princess entered unescorted. She chatted with them for a few minutes before saying she was a friend of Tess and believed that she had asked them to deliver a couple of items to her, specifically a set of googles and an extractor for her to have a look at. She explained that most people believed that Dakata has a very small amount of Daka Crystals but in fact they had many more than they let on. These can be used to make Zero Point Modules and energy weapons. “We have developed a high technological, if covert, society as a result but the history of the country has been one of isolationism and protecting ourselves against attacks over the centuries. We have never been conquered though many have tried but I feel that the time of isolation and pretending to something we are not is past. Our Shujaa Wa’Usiku, or honour guards, have special abilities due to the unique technology in their suits. As outsiders you will primarily be shown the traditional parts of the country and steered away from our technology which I want to share with our neighbours. We have effectively abolished poverty and ignorance yet in the country’s around us both are rampant. Sorry, look Tess says you can be trusted and despite my country’s issues with the Challenger-Wildeman family, I have built up a friendship with her and her family and trust her judgement. She informs me that you can be trusted completely so I want to be honest with you. If you have questions about anything you see please ask me.”
Akira asked, “I’ve heard people talking about Maarifa, the knowledge? In terms of what people in the streets are wearing..?” Tafari plucked a broach-like device off her top and handed it over for them to look at. “This can access it. Basically, when we built the road network we used materials that contained Daka fragments and powdered crystal to form the slabs of the road. Extremely hardwearing, we later discovered that the fragments linked and grew together to form a network that allowed a data storage network that anyone can access with these types of devices and its capacity for storage and transmission is almost limitless. When you visit some of our people out in the traditional villages, on the surface their way of life may appear quite primitive but you will find that even out there they are connected.” Akira asked “This broach, can I use it?” Tafari admitted that, “In Dakata it will work but will stop once you leave our borders but it will give you access to whatever is allowable for you to have access to. It will not give you any of our national secrets but will give you access to everything our own citizens would know. Ah, the text will be displayed in Daku though. You may want to ask it to use voice response instead.” It could be pinned to his clothes or worn on his wrist and had a holographic display. She picked up the scanner and extractor and left.
The morning after, they heard a noise outside and went onto the balcony only to witness a man in a stylised white body suit jumping around the grounds. He appeared to be a meta-human bounding from tree to tree, jumping down a 200 metre high cliff before bounding back to the Palace and the royal apartments.
A knock at their door and Mercy entered to say that immediately following the breaking of fast she and Fortune would accompany the team on their trip to see the sights.
As they passed through the city, they saw the Country’s police force who appeared to be armed with stun weapons which they assumed had to be activated in some way before use given that kids were crawling over a couple of officers and playing with their guns whilst they broke fast themselves. Despite there being several various tribes in Dakata they all seemed to get along very well but the various tribes did seem very aware of the need for intermarrying outside their own tribes and possibly even the country to preserve their genetic diversity, going by their various skin colour and facial types, despite apparently belonging to only a small number of local tribes.
they visited the Ngao Mountains, the Breach Wall and the Thousand Step Staircase with its deliberately uneven steps. Akira stepped onto one of the steps and tried using his read the past on the staircase. An impression of ancient manufacture, these were still the original steps and extremely hardwearing, made of an ancient form of concrete and filled with centuries of memories of visitors and attackers; always defeated. He looked and saw their uneven sizes had been made deliberately so that anyone rushing down would tumble and fall and given the hardness of the slabs would likely seriously injure themselves. Quite the ancient defence.
Akira asked Fortune about the sky shield? Fortune nodded, “Its an energy shield that covers the whole of the country, it was only built a couple of hundred years ago so is fairly new. It protects against aerial attack.” Akira continued, “So you turn that off to let aircraft through?” She nodded, “normally most people coming here arrive via the Breach Wall and climb down the steps. Its quite rare that we reveal the sky shields’ existence to others.”
“So is it difficult to turn the shield off?” Mercy approached at that and asked quietly but menacingly, “Why would you want to know that?” Akira took a short step back to regain his personal space, “I was just worried about your security” he said, “whether its safe against modern day attackers.” That seemed to set off some alarms within her head, “We have the ability to switch it off and on. The equipment is well guarded, by people like myself.”
They then visited the BaBa (Translation: Ancestral) Plains to see the prides of white lions, the hippopotamuses and antelopes.
In the distance they saw some native tribesman trying to gently move some scraggly-furred apes off the plains and towards some caves. Mercy and Fortune immediately tried to turn their attention towards some distant rhino and away from the tribesman who were now trying to bribe the apes to leave with fruit and vegetables. Mangy-furred and quite tall for apes they stood about 1.3m tall and remarkably upright. The Knowledge said these were the K’Mya (Translation: The Silent). To Mary’s eyes they seemed more like early hominids, possibly Homo Habilis, rather than apes. Given their interaction with the sasquash Nani, they knew that on some parallel universes some of mankind’s nearest kin hadn’t completely died out. This seemed yet another example of that survival but the locals seemed determined to let them live peacefully and natural.
If somewhere in Africa had to be the starting point for humanity where better than a fertile valley surrounded by mountain ranges? Could this have been humanity’s Eden? How had they survived? The tribesmen were gently trying to keep their presence secret.
They saw a pride of white lions nearby, not albinos, this seemed to be a unique sub-species. Nearby they could see what Mercy called Ny’kundu (Red Hyena) with long noses and red striped fur which they were informed was now extinct outside of Dakata. Then the rhinos charged forward and they could see that they were smaller, slimmer that other African rhinos and with only a single, slim horn. Most African rhinos have two horns and very heavy built. This was the Nyati (or Unihorn Rhino), the males in the group were asked to stay back as their scent can cause the rhinos to attack, females however could get closer and they used to be ridden into war by the female warriors of the Shujaa Wa’Usiku. This might even be the origin of the legends about maidens riding unicorns, Fortune said. The Nyati, like the Ny’kundu were extinct outside of Dakata.
Then the headed to see the holy mountain and a carving of a lions’ head covered in white ochre on T’Katifu Peak. As they travelled, they passed through several villages. Fortune explained that many regular citizens lived outside the city in villages consisting of rustic huts. What they noticed was that despite the wooden huts and stock animals stabled nearby there were no open fires or smoke, a large community hut and no public wells. Akira checked the Maarifa and it was obviously accessible. If they had to check, they were now sure they would discover that each building had indoor plumbing, high-tech appliances and each property was fully integrated into the Maarifa.
As they approached T’Katifu, they were told that behind the Lion’s head lay the sacred Shrine of the Goddess S’Khmet. Over 50% of all Dakatans were atheists but most still respected and paid lip service to their ancestral religion. Ngai was worshipped as the creator god, and T’huti as goddess of wisdom. In the shrine, the royal family worshipped the daughter of Ngai and T’huti in the form of S’Khmet, as protector of the kingdom who was represented as a lion-headed Goddess.
At the foot of the mountain was a small, red dust-covered plain, the first such they had found in their travel so far. Whatever was in the dust appeared to be toxic to most plant life.
They then travelled round to the manufacturing/artisan centre of M’Taalamu at the centre of the dusty plain where Daka Crystals were mined from deep inside the mountain, the crystals were cut and etched using sonics. Much of M’Taalamu was located underground and was not open to visitors.They watched as the artisans on the surface used advanced sonic cutters attuned to their users own harmonic frequency to slice through the blood red crystals. The slivers of crystal reminded them of the inside of a certain chalice and they wondered if..?
The tour continued. The mining waste was compressed and manufactured outside the settlement into housing and building panels. This reddish dust looked to be heavily contaminated with particles of Daka Crystal and only one plant seemed able to grow on its contaminated clay. This was the sacred blood-red, heart-shaped Manaka plant which was carefully cultivated and guarded as it was considered sacred to the royal family.
They did see the heavy security doors to the mines and vaults where the mined crystals were stored but they were not invited to enter.
That night they were met on their return by Prince Baako and invited to attend another banquet and meet some of the tribal elders from the (the mountaining dwelling) M’lima, (the Plains dwelling ) M’Bondi, (the border dwelling) M’Paka, (Southern dwelling) M’Kusini, (Northern dwelling) M’Shumba and the Ki’Talmi tribes.
After dinner, they went to bed and tried to sleep. They were ‘awakened’ about midnight by a noise from outside their rooms. There appeared to be something happening in the grounds. They rushed to the common room and looked out the windows where they saw several people of both sexes dressed in red-coloured hyena masks who were trying to gain entry into the Palace. They appeared to be moving around covertly. Mercy was in an apartment nearby and they rushed out into the corridor and to her door as soon as they saw the people moving about down below.
They quickly explained what they had seen outside and explained that when they left they appeared to be entering the Palace. She immediately rushed off, sending another Shujaa Wa’Usiku warrior, Jidenu, back to usher them inside their apartments and guard the door from the outside.
A few minutes later they could hear Mercy talking to Jidenu saying that a full search was underway but they had found nothing so far and perhaps the ‘Wakoloni’ had imagined it, though their description of the masks made her suspect Bultu. A quick check on the Maarifa revealed that Bultu referred to a local cult, its followers were known as the Hyena Men and that there were those in the kingdom who secretly worshipped the God Setekh, possibly due to the historic influence of someone just referred to as ‘She’. The cult developed in direct opposition to S’Khemet (rather than Ngai) and the Dakatan royal family. This god was associated not with the Jackal as portrayed in Egyptian mythology but the unique long snouted Red Hyena of Dakata.
Suddenly there was a scuffling noise coming from the other side of the door. Rather that open it, Banshee turned insubstantial and invisible and headed through. On the other side she saw a young female dragging their guard away and her own appearance was changing as she did so; into an exact duplicate of the guard being dragged. Even her clothes altered as she dragged the unconscious woman across the hall tiles towards the ballastrade. Banshee immediately went back inside and told the others what she had seen. Outside their door they heard the ‘guard’ return as Akira immediately erected his force field. They rushed to the door and Banshee went through still insubstantial as Akira and Mace pulled the door open whilst both were invisible. They needed to get some answers if they could from the doppelgänger guard but instead they both felt a sudden compulsion to be co-operative with the person wash over them. Mace managed to shake it off but it hit Akira with a full whammy. Akira seemed to be very happy to comply meant he wanted to go back to bed and sleep. He felt Mace’s grip on his arm and immediately pushed her away as he walked back towards his room.
Mace turned visible and felt the compulsion – possibly caused by pheromones, but rejected its demands. Banshee watched an invisible Akira apparently walking away, his feet clattering on the wooden floor having exposed Mace for some reason. Banshee now felt the same compulsion happening but managed to avoid being affected by it and remained invisible and insubstantial as she unleashed her corrupting touch on her when the guard wasn’t looking in her direction. The energy flowed through Banshee’s hand into her. She fell backwards and jerked but the attack was not enough to render her unconscious. Mace opened the door and unleashed her hypnotic hologram – it wasn’t enough and the guard managed to resist.
Meanwhile Akira broke free from the effect and unleashed a mystical blast through the gap in the door at the guard knocking her against the doorframe and rendering her unconscious. As she collapsed, her form altered back into a young black woman with a hyena mask on her hip and dressed in black combat gear. To their dismay there was a beeping sound coming from her pocket as several other figures began appearing from the direction of the steps. There was a man directing the others, disguised with a red full facemask, human in style. He sent two of the figures in their direction as he rushed back towards the royal apartments with some of the others. One of those running towards them was apparently physically enhanced and attacked Mace by punching her. She tried to dodge but the blow hit her shoulder with such force it left her partually dazed. The one behind unleashed a blast at Banshee. It hit the wall instead but Banshee felt the edge of the blast and was glad she had elected to dodge. She unleashed a terrorising scream which dropped both of their attackers to the ground unconscious. Mace immediately unleashed a stun bolt at the departing man in the red facemask but he twisted his body at the last minute and it hit the wall mere millimeters from him. He didn’t waste a second as he continued to sprint at near inhuman speeds away and down the stairwell. Before they could do anything, a blast rang out from outside in the grounds which just missed hitting Akira by inches. In the corridor outside their apartments a hovering floating device, gravitically-powered, appeared coming up the stairwell towards Mace and Banshee.
Akira had a rough idea where the sniper had to be. He rushed to the window and unleashed a mystical blast in the direction of the early shot. There was a muffled scream and a crash. The drone was now close enough to see a flashing red light on the top of the device, Banshee turned substantial grabbed at Mace and returned to a combined insubstantial state just as Mace unleashed an EMP bolt. The head on the arrow only became substantial as the arrow speeded away from them towards the device. The drone staggered as the bolt unleashed a blast of energy, draining its power supply.
Mercy and several other honour guards appeared running at near inhuman speeds. Mercy grabbed hold of the still floating device and slammed it with great force into the corridor floor smashing it into bits. “What have you been doing?” she demanded. Akira replied, “We’ve been defending ourselves against someone who looked like you. They throw your guard off the balcony. This one impersonated her.” pointing at the woman unconscious by the door, “replaced her and attacked us. People wearing red hyena masks attacked us.” Mercy began ripping the metal of the drone apart with her gloved fingers, something that should have been impossible for a normal human to do, apparently searching for something. As she did so she asked, “And you weren’t involved with them?” Suddenly a look of joy crossed her face as she scrambled through the internal parts and pulled up a component from the propulsion drive, a part branded CW Tech… Challenger-Wildeman’s company logo printed on the base of the board.
“This isn’t you?” Akira was stunned, “No its nothing to do with us.” “Yet you brought in other technology made by the Challenger-Wildeman’s..?” Akira continued “Yes because you wanted to see them.” Angrily she stood up and advanced on him, “No we didn’t. Who said we wanted to see them?” He replied, “I thought the King wanted to see them.” We will go and visit the King now. Why would the King want to see something made by the Challenger-Wildeman’s given their presence in Dakata is banned in any form? They are not welcome in this Kingdom and you were made aware of that.” Akira said, “All I thought was that we were bringing in were some scanners.” “Did you bring this in as well?” Grabbing at the drone fragments she tossed them towards him then stood up and grabbing him by the jacket raised him physically off the ground, “So, are you working with the Bultu’s?” “You can put me on a lie detector if you want.” “OK we will.” Despite her demure size she seemed inhumanly strong. “I’ve a soft spot for strong woman” Akira muttered as she let him go and turned as the other guards dragged off the unconscious attackers and shut the door.
Outside at least two guards were left whilst Mercy rushed to a meeting with the King. Through the door they could hear the guards talking. Their attackers were apparently not Dakatans, but how they got into the country without being spotted was a mystery and apparently Mercy thought it was connected to them because she’d found the Challenger-Wildeman-made scanner and extractor and then found that the explosive drone contained C-W components. That was too much of a coincidence for Mercy.
Akira was muttering that they should look closer to home and hook Prince Baako up to lie detector as well as he had his suspictions, something about him felt… off somehow.
Next morning Princess Tafari arrived at their apartments to apologise to them. She had admitted to the King that she had been in secret communication withe the Challenger-Wildeman family and had agreed to look at some of their technology, she know nothing about the drone but she has accepted responsibility and would face punishment from the King for breaching his rules about contact without his permission.
The King had decided to ask them to give their word to stay within the Palace while the investigation continued as he believed they weren’t involved but he was worried that the Paradise in Africa Army was now massing just outside the Dakatan border and there may be an attack. The attackers the previous night had damaged some of their automatic defences but thankfully not the sky shield which was still fully intact. The external cannons on the border had been disabled and the worry was that the PAA might attack via the thousand step Staircase and of course some of the attackers from last night had obviously escaped and were still capable of further sabotage.
Where did they go from here?
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 