I woke after about two hours of more or less restful sleep, or rather, blessed unconsciousness while Galatea did her best to repair the damage I had done to my body by overclocking the nanites. Looking around, I was still impressed and disturbed by the helicopter Technica was flying, impressed because it was whisper-quiet, blazing-fast and both armed and armoured to the teeth. Disturbed because it was missing a couple of elements I felt necessary in technology, mainly it was missing a fuel-tank and controls other than an orb Technica placed her hand on. The chopper only worked with Technica at the helm, powering it with her power, even if some of the parts, mainly the weapons, were only partially powered by her. At the end of the day, a machine-gun was mature and optimised technology so there was no need to reinvent the wheel for that. Or the missiles, for that matter.

Now, that I was back awake, I was able to take in more about the helicopter than I had noticed before, it seemed to have quite advanced sensor-gear, at least there were a lot of screens around me, to display data. On one of the screens was a feed from the wildlife-camera that had partial vision of the farm.

“Ah, you are awake.” Technica noticed me moving around.

“Yes and the pain is mostly gone. How much longer do we need?” I asked, curious how fast we actually were. In addition, I was contemplating my decision to head directly to the site where Sophia was being held, instead of heading to New Brunsburg before, to get my armour. But, getting to New Brunsburg would add two hours of flight-time, not even going into the amount of time it would take to get into my bunker and make sure that my armour was still working as intended after a year of storage. I was not willing to leave Sophia in Clark’s grasp for that long. Or whoever had her.

“About one hour. I’ll deploy a couple of reconnaissance drones before we go in, so we know what we are running into. There has been some movement but nobody came or left from the farm. In addition, I have gotten access to one of the orbital observation platforms that are normally used for natural disasters and such, so I know that no cars drove there. Sadly, those platforms are not as accurate as military ones but the military gets cagey if the Guild wants to play with their toys.” she explained while side-eyeing me. I had told her how I had found them, before passing out as she took off. Needless to say, she was amused but not happy.

“Good. What more can this thing do?” I asked, curious.

“Some firepower but that’s not its main job. In addition, I would rather not use military-grade weapons in another country without warning. My armour and your rifle are, well, not okay, but it is far easier for their government to deliberately not-see a high-tech rifle or my armour compared to a heavy attack-helicopter unleashing hell.” she started with a slight smile.

I could understand the reasoning, the various governments played ball and the Guild did not trample on their authority. Slowly, it became obvious that I had glorified the Guild a little too much, it was powerful, no doubt, but not the all-powerful behemoth I had built it up to in my mind.

“But, mostly, this helicopter is for scouting, giving us the option to rapidly deploy technical scouting gear in an area. Technical surveillance easily sees through concealment against magical scrying or psychic probing so it is often a good idea to use multiple processes to gather information, instead of hoping that the other side can be beaten through superior skill. It is easier to conceal than to observe, as I told you before. In addition, we got some tools on board that are difficult to replicate using either magic or psychic powers.”

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, before she spoke again, “When we get there, you will follow my orders.” I wanted to protest but a quick glare made me swallow my words.

“You want to get your friend back, I know. But you forget something, I have done this job, and harder jobs, almost as long as you have been alive. And before, I helped in a support-role. So, if you follow my orders, our chances to get her back are vastly increased. Now, decide, do you want to play the hero, to show off how independent you are or do you want your partner back?”

“I will follow your orders.” I answered, thoroughly cowed. She was right, plain and simple. If the only thing I needed to do, in order to get Sophia back, was suppress my ego and follow orders, I would do so in a heartbeat. It would not be that simple, but I had never needed to rescue a hostage, something Technica undoubtedly had done before, so I vowed to keep my mouth shut. I had gone to the Academy to learn and while this was certainly not a classroom, it was a valuable lesson nonetheless.

Instead of mulling things over and getting lost in thought I focused on the screen showing the camera and the satellite-footage, trying to get a feeling for the target.

“You can watch the recording, I have saved them, just in case.” Technica added and on another screen the recording started playing at five-times the normal speed. It showed that there was some movement every so often, not in a perfectly regular pattern but every ten to thirty minutes, someone would check things outside.

Movement on the screen showing current events caught my eyes and at first I thought it was just another check-up, but the leisurely walking figure was suddenly pushed aside as two different figures burst out the house, running to the cars. Or, maybe one ran to the cars, the other followed. The first had jumped inside the SUV and started the engine before the other had gotten the door fully open and the second figure barely managed to get in the car before it sped off like a bat out of hell.

Frowning, I asked Technica her opinion and followed the SUV on the satellite-feed.

“Hard to say, could be anything. Don’t drive yourself mad, it did not look like they carried your partner out, whoever left did so under their own power. The fewer people are in the combat-zone when we hit, the better. Our goal is to get your partner back, nothing more and nothing less.”

I nodded and banished the thoughts about the two leavers, while making sure that a script tracked them as long as they were within the observed area. It meant two fewer enemies, two fewer chances for things to go wrong.

Finally, we were in the right area, high up in the sky, hidden in the clouds.

“Releasing drones.” Technica announced and a slight shudder went through the helicopter and eight monitors went active, displaying the rapidly shifting horizon as the cameras dropped down, first simply falling, then caught by their engines and spreading out, around the farm. On the various monitors, I was able to see the house, not only in normal light from the outside but also rough shapes from the inside, as the drones activated infrared cameras to increase the amount of information we had available.

“Activating ground penetrating radar.” Technica stated and after a few moments, another screen went active, displaying the outline of the house. At first it was only in 2D but it changed into a 3D image with added detail. Apparently, that screen showed a collection of information from the available sources, integrating them all into a single image.

“Mhm, that looks not good.” Technica mumbled and I noticed just how insanely good her equipment was. The released drones had to have some sort of receiver, allowing the helicopter to put out a signal and all drones analysing the bounce-back for an incredibly clear image. Sadly, in this case it mostly showed us that we had a few problems.

There were fifteen people on the premises and I was quite sure that one of them was Sophia. At least, there was a petite form strung up between two concrete pillars, apparently shackled around her wrists. In addition, all the others were either patrolling with weapons in hand, sitting around in groups or sleeping in a bunk-room. But that was not the biggest problem. Technica pointed out a structure that I had noticed but had been unable to identify. According to her, it was a bomb, most likely quite potent by the amount of unidentified material it was linked with.

“Hopefully, they will not blow the place up while they are all inside. Ok, here is what we will do.” Technica said, outlying her plan, while leaving the area so she could approach close to the ground, without instantly getting spotted.