"Nice work out there," Colonel Merlynn declared, her hard features folding into a pensive frown as she perused the after action report on her data slate. The leaders of the Blink teams had been assembled in a briefing room in her headquarters outside Karpa Luna, seated in a loose semi-circle around Merlynn's lectern.

All in all, Darien was happy. They tagged dozens of suspicious cargos and now had a whole host of leads to follow up across the planet, as well as the added bonus of the high-grade firearm he and Amber had liberated from the unfortunate guard which the techs stationed on the base were currently tearing apart in an effort to trace its origin.

There had been no hitches; no slip ups. Blink had carried itself admirably in the eyes of the colonial marines, and in particular, the eyes of Adaya Merlynn. They were one step on the road to building a reputation with the colonial military that may pay dividends for years to come.

"Keep up this standard," Merlynn continued. "And we're all going to get along just fine. You've given us a good staging point to really put the choke on the lines of supply to the rebel militias and action groups." She looked at them and a grim smile crossed her face. "So I don't see any reason to take our foot off the gas, so to speak."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Vanna lounge deeper in her chair, lithe and languid as a cat. At the far right of the group Taggs leaned forward, elbows on his knees and hands clasped in front of him, a picture of attentiveness. He could tell that both Vass and Bandle were itching for action, having been left in reserve on the first operation. Darien made a mental note to have a word with both of them before they shipped out for whatever waited for them. They would need cool heads, no matter what their assignment was.

"What about the gun?" Darien asked, his mind still filled with curiosity over the firearm they had liberated from the guard who'd assaulted Amber. He'd never seen a model like it, and a quick ring round of the Blink operatives revealed none of them did. Given the number of colonies represented across all five squads, they had a fair spread of knowledge to draw from, but ... nothing.

Merlynn's thin lips twisted into a predatory smile. "Yes, the gun. Quite a piece of luck that."

"You traced it?"

"Indeed we did." She placed her data slate down on the table in front of her and passed a hand over the holographic controller for the screen behind her. The screen came to life, and jutting out into three-dimensional space at its base was a holographic keyboard. Merlynn's left hand flashed silently over the keys and an instant later the weapon in question appeared in front of them, magnified on the screen so be the size of a bazooka. Even up close he couldn't see the seams and tiny bolts that held a normal weapon together. It was like it was made of a single, hollowed out piece.

"Can't be many o' those knockin' about," Taggs offered. "So who around here's got the bankroll tae be armin' their lads wi' this kind o' kit?"

"That's where things get even more interesting." Merlynn drummed thoughtful fingers against her thigh as she spoke. "This is a Bocklor Model typhoon. The barrel is solid state and rifled, and it fires aerofoiled armour piercing rounds, meaning that despite the size it has an effective range of almost 500 meters. It's also a side-arm that's only carried by one force on this planet."

She tapped at one of the keys and the image changed, revealing an image of Karpa Luna, specifically the bowl-like, sin-dark mass of Ravine' s parliament chambers in the city's northern quarter.

"The only force that carries Bocklors as standard issue is the parliamentary security cadre," she told them flatly. "Which means one of two things. Either the man your operative took down was a defecting officer, or the rebel elements have managed to penetrate much deeper into the supply lines of this planet than we thought."

"Terrific," muttered Bandle, Panther Squad's leader. His face crumpled with annoyance and he nodded to the image on the screen. "Who supplies the guard with those?"

"There are a number of facilities on Ravine with the capability to manufacture them. It would be a matter of getting hold of the plans to do so."

"So you've got a leak somewhere." Bandle flapped a hand vaguely in the direction of the door. "I hope you've got people stepping on the local authorities to figure out who's leaking the plans for high tech firearms."

"Of course we do, operative," she said icily and Bandle's expression faltered. "Which is why it is no longer your concern. The Dragoons will deal with tracing that particular traitor. I've got a different assignment for the five of you."

Another flick of the holographic controls and the gun disappeared. Bandle subsided back into his seat as an image of Ravine appeared instead, all darkness and searing scars of lava. It didn't look any more pleasant on a screen than it had from their troop carrier.

Merlynn turned her smile on them again – it was a little unsettling seeing that faintly bloodthirsty grin on the face of a hardened soldier. "You're going to be following up on your excellent work so far. The shipments you tagged have been sent all over the planet – you've shown that the network of this group is a lot wider than we initially thought.

"The largest concentration of your target containers ended up here." Merlynn tapped a region deep in the southern reaches of Ravine's main landmass. Darien felt his stomach tighten and he leaned back in his seat, folding his arms more tightly. He knew the kind of settlements that ran through that volcano-ravaged region – the south was home to the lava canals, and all the deadly dealings that went with them.

The map zoomed in under Merlynn's touch, flying down to the planet's surface until it focused on a few dozen square kilometres of coal-black terrain. Then it zoomed a little further and fastened its electronic gaze on a fat smear of steely grey that arced through the black and orange.

"This is the Gartole Dam," she declared. "It controls the flow of the major lava flows in the souther continent that power the major settlements in the region. According to our trackers, a convoy of six marked vehicles arrived here fourteen hours ago. Call it intuition, but I'd say there's definitely something worth investigating at that dam."

The squad leaders nodded their agreement, but Darien felt more ill-at-ease than ever, tensing in his seat involuntarily. Gartole was a place he'd spent a lot of his youth, running drugs, guns and everything in between through the searing heat of the canals. The 'authorities' had never had much sway over what happened there, and as long as the lava flows stayed on course and the southern settlements got their power, the local government was happy enough to turn a blind eye. And they'd turned it to a lot.

It was then that he felt Vass's eyes on him. He glanced at the other operative and found the young man had a faintly disgusted look on his face. It vanished quickly, fading to a facade of impassiveness, but Darien knew what he'd seen. He shunted it to the back of his mind – for now – and turned his attention back to Colonel Merlynn as she continued.

"That is the biggest concentration, but it is by no means the only one," she told them, zooming the map back out. "Several other sites across the planet received shipments in twos and threes, spread wide enough and far enough to be outwith the local government's nominal sphere of influence. We can't hit them all, but with you, we can at least hit five of them, simultaneously and with the element of complete surprise."

"Smash and grab, eh?" Vass grinned. "I like it."

"Glad you approve." Merlynn keyed in another command and five red pulsing dots appeared on the planet's surface. Darien's eyes were drawn unwillingly to the one in the south – to Gartole. He had sickening suspicion about what was about to happen next.

"An approach by any normal force would be almost impossible to conceal," she continued. "And while we could perhaps succeed in disrupting their supply lines, that doesn't bring us much closer to what we need. With your skills, you can strike hard and fast and get out with a very precious commodity."

"A commodity?" Vanna snorted derisively. "You mean hostages. We're going out there to kidnap people."

"We need to find the source of what's happening on this planet," Merlynn replied without missing a beat. "We need inside knowledge. This is the best way to get it. You've each been assigned one of these five targets. Your task is to infiltrate and capture the individual responsible for rerouting the shipments after they arrive."

"It can't be that simple," Darien interjected. "This won't be like the last op. There will be armed guards and whoever's running the operations out there is not going to be out on parade. I know how these people think, Colonel."

"I'm aware of that," she shot back. "But we only have a small window of opportunity. The best chance to spot and catch who is actually giving the orders is when they have a hot shipment on-site that they have to unload."

"We didn't come here to sit out the action," Vass snapped, glaring around at the other squad leaders. "Anyone seriously think we can't handle this? I don't know about you, but Tundra's ready, will and able."

"Cool your jets, hotshot," Taggs muttered, rubbing his eyes with both hands.

"Am I the only one with a bit of backbone in this group?"

"That's enough!" Darien barked. "Vass, you stow that crap right now, or I'll have you shipped back to Blink HQ, on my authority. Then you can explain yourself to Smith."

Vass's face twisted angrily but he had the sense to keep his mouth shut. Eventually he threw his hands up in the air in a gesture of resignation and averted his eyes, staring hard at the deck plating.

"Darien's right," Vanna piped up after a moment, shooting Vass a disapproving look before turning her gaze on Merlynn. "What intelligence do you actually have? Blink doesn't train assault teams – we need to know what we're up against."

"You will have everything we can give you," Merlynn answered. "We have orbital and long range surveillance in place which will run for twenty-four hours. You have that long to familiarise yourselves with the layouts of your targets and then you are going in. Any longer and the shipments will be fully dispersed with no way to track them, and your targets will be back underground."

Darien looked at the others. Vanna gave him a small shake of the head, clearly still unconvinced. Bandle and Taggs also looked a little uncertain, but harder to read. Only Vass seemed unperturbed. Not that surprising, Darien thought grimly. The other squad leader would probably relish the chance to show up his comrades by taking on a mission like this, no questions asked.

Merlynn let out a heavy sigh, clasping her hands behind her back. "I am well aware this is not an ideal situation, but if we're going to make good on the first phase of this operation then we have to act quickly. There is a reason only your teams were assigned to this operation. We needed the best, teams capable of making lightning strikes, and able to adjust on the fly. I'm not asking you to make a full-frontal assault on any of these posts. I expect you to use your best judgement, coupled with the intel we're able to provide. If it turns out there's an insurmountable force at your target area then get whatever close recon you can and get out." She looked at them each in turn, her tone hardening. "And, I would remind you that while you are on this planet you answer to me. This is a direct order. Do you understand?"

Darien glanced at the others, then straightened up. "We understand."

"Good." She gave him a nod of approval. Then she pointed to the southern region and a lead weight slammed into the base of his stomach. "Darien, Gartole's the biggest target, so that's Hammerhead's task." Darien suppressed a shudder, forcing himself to nod as she continued. "It is well guarded from what we can tell, but there are dozens of subsidiary access points that should get you in. You'll be able to Blink beyond perimeter defences and any spotting towers – our orbital mapping has identified several possible insertion sites. Once you've studied them in more detail you can make your choice."

Merlynn then moved on, indicating the other dots as she spoke, detailing the strike each team would be making. He felt numb, sinking against the chair, eyes boring into the screen. Merlynn kept talking, but Darien couldn't push the single overriding thought out of his mind.

He was going home.