The Kurogane and her crew surface in the northern farmlands, to investigate reports of crop-stealing vermin.  The people seem rather perturbed at the massive ship with its massive drill parked right next to their fields, but they welcome the help and have a safe level of fear for the ship's captain, Lady Soma.<br/><br/>Soma and her crew stake the fields' fringes out for hours, through the murderously hot noonday sun and on through dinner time, yet to no avail.  It isn't until the last vestiges of daylight start to fade that Soma and the staked-out crew begin to notice something moving in the darkness.