There was an air of inevitability about the call Darien received mere hours after the transmission ended. One of Merlynn's subordinates summoned not just him, but every single operative in the detachment, to an emergency briefing. The teams assembled swiftly, and even Vass kept any smart comments to himself, understanding the full gravity of the situation. Whoever was leading the resistance on Ravine had just made it abundantly clear that they didn't fear the local forces or the colonial reinforcements that had arrived to restore order.

What's more, they seemed to have a very legitimate axe to grind. Although it had been a long time since he'd set foot on the world, Darien knew that the handful of examples the mysterious figure had thrown out were hardly far fetched. Ravine's remoteness and lack of proper law enforcement and infrastructure made it a breeding ground for the worst kind of negligence and criminal activity. And the colonial government had stood by and let it happen.

Still, Darien doubted an armed rebellion would suddenly put the powers-that-be in a listening mood. With his thoughts weighing heavily inside his skull he led his operatives at a trudging pace into the main compound.

The thirty Blink operatives trooped through the main doors, flanked by armed marines and clad in their casual dark fatigues for moving around the base. They were ushered through the seething hive of activity by their chaperones and guided through to a series of broad, rectangular elevators. Once they were loaded in a pair of Beltock Dragoons joined them, one pressing the button for a lower level of the complex. Darien licked dry lips. None of them had been to this part of the base before.

After the elevator ground its way downwards for several floors, it juddered to a halt and its doors fell away with a creak of metal against metal, revealing a fresh warren of passages beneath the main structure. He realised that even the formidable fortifications above were little more than a smokescreen, concealing the true strength of the Karpa Luna forward base.

Even a glance around the subterranean passages was enough to show that. The low ceilinged halls had thick spars of solid metal placed every twenty feet – earthquake supports, and the walls were clearly proofed against explosives. Massive, armoured blast doors gaped open at every corridor junction, ready to slam shut at a moment's notice to seal off the base's personnel from any attacking force.

Lucky for some, Darien thought wryly as he followed the soldiers through the hallways. Eventually the Blink operatives were deposited at a large briefing room that could easily hold over a hundred people, its chairs arranged in a semi-circular arc like an amphitheatre, facing a slightly raised platform where a massive screen loomed behind a lectern. At the lectern stood Adaya Merlynn, and the screen behind burned with life.

"Take a seat," she commanded brusquely, indicating the front row of seats with a sweep of one hand.

With a nod to the two guards, Darien stepped over the threshold first, already well aware that Merlynn's mood was grim, at best. The others filed in behind him in silence and the thirty operatives took up their positions in the seats in front of the lectern. Niamh slid down beside him, arms folded, an unreadable expression on her face, while Amber sat down on the other side, her unease a little more visible from the way she tightly balled her fingers together in a tangled knot on her lap.

Once the shuffling of feet and squeaking of chairs had subsided a cold silence settled over the room, a sense of underlying tension that revealed just how seriously the military forces were taking the rebel leader's threats. The enormous screen built into the facing wall showed the dark silhouette of their antagonist in the top left corner, time stamped with the log

"I think your next objective has been made abundantly clear to us," Merlynn told them without preamble, her voice hard as granite. "I want the man behind the voice."

"Ma'am?" Darien said uncertainly after she left the statement hang for just long enough to be uncomfortable.

"No more hit and run raids, no more kidnappings," she snapped. "We'll deal with the rebels our way. From hereon out you and your people have one job. Find the person who sent that transmission. I don't care how you do it; I don't care how long it takes, but I want him here, in my interrogation rooms. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Darien replied.

"You'll have complete operational discretion," Merlynn continued. "And access to every piece of intelligence that's ever been gathered on the resistance movement on Ravine. That bastard is taunting us. Sending out a proclamation like that because he knows we can't find him – he's confident. Maybe overconfident." Her eyes turned on Darien, gaze dagger sharp. "I am going to light a fire under every rock this rat could be hiding under and when he runs for cover, I want you ready to pounce. He's going to learn the hard way what happens when you screw with me."

Something in Merlynn's tone put ice in Darien's veins, and it wasn't long before he figured out why. It was eerily like looking a mirror. He'd gotten used to Merlynn's crisp, sharp commands – a brusque military mind mechanically conditioned to meet every problem that it was set. So far she'd handled herself with the utmost professionalism, but this was different. Merlynn viewed the transmission as a personal insult and now that she was angry, she was going to tear Ravine apart.

Darien doubted that he'd have done any different in her shoes.

He glanced around at the assembled operatives. "Alright, everybody – you heard her. We've got our assignment. Nobody knocks off for R&R until we have the target in custody."

"How exactly do we do that?" Panther's squad leader, Bandle piped up. "So far we've seen no evidence of any headquarters or localised build up of strength. They're staying spread thin and far to stop us doing exactly what you're asking."

"You're right," Merlynn told him. "Overconfident or not, the target isn't stupid. That transmission was a counter-punch to the damage we've done. It's designed to whip up local unrest against the colonial forces here, which in turn will damage our local level intelligence capabilities as our local contacts may well become unreliable."

"What about the transmission?" Vass suggested. "They can't hack an entire planet's network without leaving some kind of trail."

"Our techs are working on that angle," she replied. "But it will be some time before they can discern anything useful. The system was accessed from fifteen-hundred different sites simultaneously from across the entire planet. They've had this planned for a long time."

Pressing a button she brought up a two dimensional representation of Ravine, as though the skin of the planet had been peeled off and pinned to the wall. "But this is why I'm assigning the operation to you. People here might have some idea about the Blink organisation, but it's exceedingly limited at best, and none of them could pick one of you out of a line-up. You can move among the population in ways which my soldiers cannot."

"Undercover ops, eh?" Taggs grinned, leaning back in his chair, slinging his feet up on top of the seat in front of him. "My kinda gig."

Merlynn's gaze lingered on him for a moment. "I'm glad you think so. On the basis of the arms shipments we have been able to track from your previous operation we can make some guesses as to the most likely location of our target. Unsurprisingly, the places on the shortlist are where colonial influence is at its loosest."

An uncomfortable feeling of familiarity settled in Darien's mind. He had a feeling he knew the area of Ravine that the would be sent to. The map flickered and zoomed in on a region several thousand miles to the east of Karpa Luna and his suspicions were confirmed with the finality of a gavel striking. They were going to the Haze.

The Haze was home to a half dozen armoured settlements dug into the mineral-rich caldera of a dead supervolcano that marred a vast portion of Ravine's main continent. While the giant's main eruptions were spent, it was still surrounded by a brood of smaller volcanic peaks that were very much alive, pumping out molten rock and smog in such quantities that long range communications were virtually impossible, and satellite imagery of the region was ... unreliable at best.

It was the perfect place to hide. If Darien had been leading the revolt he would have done exactly the same.

"There are other possibilities, but our best intelligence points to this collection of settlements," Merlynn continued. "The local law enforcement are independent from the planetary government, which makes then essentially useless to us. They turn a blind eye to most things so long as it's kept under the radar."

"That's because they're not the ones making the rules," Darien said flatly, folding his arms and scrutinizing the display. Icons and text blocks scattered around the marked settlements were laced with red exclamation marks and asterisks; caveats over the reliability of the information provided.

"Meaning what?"

"That whole area – that's gangland haven. The local police will be either on the payroll or smart enough not to rock the boat." He shrugged. "It's a good place for a wanted man to hide."

Merlynn nodded, making a small noise of approval. "Then that only reinforces the possibility that this is where we need to look."

Vanna spoke up next, lounging two rows back with her booted feet resting on the chair in front of her. "So how are we supposed to investigate? The police can't help, and the local gangs won't help. That leaves us with no angle to even enter these places."

"She's right," Darien agreed. "The gangs work with tight crews. They won't let strangers get anywhere near – especially right now."

"Like I said," Taggs chuckled. "Undercover."

Heads turned to look at Vandal's leader and he spread his arms wide, as though he was suggesting the most obvious thing in the world. "They want guns, don't they? If we can't just show up there without a good reason, how about our pals in the marines furnish us wi' some gear to sell?"

Merlynn's brow furrowed disapprovingly and a murmur passed through the other operatives, but Darien nodded to himself. It actually was the best way to make contact with the local organisations – in the current climate military grade weapons would be impossible to pass up. He leaned back in his seat, clasping his hands together and pressing them against his chin as he thought.

"We're not about to start arming rebels," Merlynn said icily once the hubbub died down.

"I'm sorry, but Taggs is right," Darien told her, a twinge of regret in his voice. "It's the best way for an outside party to make contact. Even if the gangs aren't involved in our little revolution I'll bet my teeth they're supplying whoever is."

"So you want me to sanction an arms sale to a potential rebel outpost?"

"If you want to catch your big fish – yes. We'll need to put together a cover story and leak it out to the planetary news network so that when we arrive they believe we are who we say we are."

"Maybe you pretend to lose a convoy somewhere, and maybe someone rats it to the press," Vanna said thoughtfully, nodding. "We can dress it up as a heist – unknown perpetrators."

"And then we rock up in boon town Ravine with the 'stolen' guns." Taggs' grin broadened. "I'd buy it."

Merlynn scanned the operatives before her, reluctance still clearly evident on her face, but eventually she let out a heavy sigh, seeing that the group all seemed to be on board with the plan. She put down the control for the screen, leaning with both hands on the lectern.

"Very well. It looks like I have some arrangements to make. I'll be in touch when we're ready. Dismissed."