It didn't take long for Amber to discover how the Haze had got its name.

She materialised in their staging area and just barely stifled a hacking cough as she took in a breath. Even by Ravine's abysmal standards the air here tasted filthy, thick with chemicals, rock dust and the burn of nearby magma. But the taste of the air was nothing compared to the sight when she opened her eyes and looked up.

Appearing in a secluded spot not far from an abandoned seismic monitoring station, she could see the Haze opening out before her, and the entire region shimmered like a mirage. The sheer scalding heat of the ground beneath their feet left a near-permanent blur of fuzzed light as far as she could see. She crunched down on one of the hydration meds and surveyed the scene uneasily. This was not a place made for human habitation, but the wealth of heavy metals beneath those volcanic slopes had meant greed overcame caution.

The entire Blink force had been deployed in the region, scattered through the different settlements and equipped with heavily boosted comm packs to try and cut through the worst of the interference. Four squads had been assigned a town each, while Tundra Squad under Vass's command hung back as a strike force, ready to act as an emergency response fail-safe in case their plan fell through. While the tactic was sound, she also suspected Darien didn't want to risk Vass fouling up what was sure to be a delicate operation.

Every other unit was split between a surveillance team of two and an insertion team of four, whose task would be to get the attention of the local players who might be in the market for new hardware. Amber had hoped to be able to sit in surveillance, but regulations dictated either the squad leader or second officer needed to be on the surveillance team, to coordinate based on wider information. They also needed a tech on that part of the team, and she'd lost her coin flip with Uther over that one.

That, and Niamh's mechanical eye was a striking enough feature to mark her out on Ravine, given the quality of its tech. If you lost an eye on Ravine you would either live with it, or risk much lower grade tech grafts that could come with a whole raft of complications. It stunned her just how far behind the curve most of the planet seemed to be.

A tiny voice in the back of her mind told her that on some level, the rebels might have a point.

She tried not to think about that for the moment – there would be time to debate the overarching morals when the dust settled. Right now she shouldered her carbine and joined the others in trudging up the jagged pathway through the heat-blasted crags that led to the monitoring station that would serve as their base. Like the others, her Blink combat armour was concealed beneath a long, ragged coat embedded with heat absorbing pads, a common garment amongst Ravine civilians. Baggy trousers and thick, studded boots were combined with a set of grimy but functional factory goggles to give her the look of a Ravine native. They'd even gone so far as to touch up their faces with cosmetics to give their skin the drier, cracked look that was characteristic on the planet.

"Damn," she heard Niamh mutter from just behind. "If they want this planet so badly maybe we should just let them have it."

"I'll buy that," Hekket agreed grimly, wiping a film of sweat from his face as he slouched along, face crumpled with discomfort.

Darien turned on them with a wry smile on his face. "I get it, it's hot out here. The faster we're inside the faster you can unload your gear, so let's keep the complaining down to a fever pitch, eh?"

"Easy for you to say!" Idas called from the back of the group. He and Uther brought up the rear, lugging a long rectangular crate between them. Inside was a motley collection of military firearms, explosives, body armour and radios – anything and everything a rebellion might want. Even with the gravity assists built into the plating the crate still weighed as much as a grown man.

"Just don't drop that," Darien replied smoothly, turning and resuming his march toward the blocky structure fifty yards up the slope.

The building's antiquated security lock released under some gentle persuasion from their hacking software and they gratefully bundled inside into the she shade. It was still warm inside the station, but sealed off from the elements and sheathed in heat resistant alloys, it felt like plunging into cold water when Amber stepped over the threshold.

The interior of monitoring station was in a sorry state. Built at a time when science was still pursued for its own ends, it had long since been left behind by a planet descending into anarchy. The operatives spread out, clearing abandoned gear from work surfaces and unloading their own. The vast majority of the equipment they'd requisitioned was heat-hardened short range comms and surveillance gear – cameras and radio that could cut through the interference at least locally.

Idas and Uther thumped the weapon crate down heavily on the table in the centre of the room, and set about helping the others. Amber shed her pack and opened it, quickly unfolding and assembling their portable comm rig. A mess of secondary batteries and combo-antennae, it looked like someone had mashed together a radio, vid-screen and walkie-talkie all in one. She rattled off the activation sequence and the machine fizzed into life, a high-pitched electric whine coming from the speaker grills. She glanced at Darien and gave a thumbs up.

In a matter of minutes the operatives had completed their set up, stowing weapons and supplies in any nook they could find, before gathering around Darien and a three dimensional map of the settlement they would be infiltrating. Clad in their motley disguises they certainly looked like they were up to no good.

"Okay, folks," Darien began. "Check in with all teams at 1300 Ravine time as scheduled. Then we're moving into the hornet's nest." He pointed down through the 3D hologram, his hand passing through unimportant structures as he indicated the main crossroads in the centre of the town. "First task is getting our eyes in place. We'll need to get as much coverage as we possibly can, even if it has to be patchy. Main target areas are here, here, here and here." His finger jabbed out as he spoke, marking different spots on the display.

"Once we get confirmation that surveillance is live, we need to draw a little attention to ourselves."

Idas gave him a dubious look. "How are you planning to do that?"

"It shouldn't be too hard. We're new around here. The local gangs will be keeping an eye on the area anyway, and if anyone here's connected with the resistance movement then they'll be looking extra close. They'll notice when a group of newcomers come into town." He looked up at them, his eyes hard with determination. "That means you need to be extremely careful when planting your bugs. If the wrong person spots you it could blow this before we start."

Returning his attention to the map, he pressed on. "Once bugs are in place and we've confirmed comms are running we'll rendezvous here." He tapped a building just off the crossroads with one finger. "It's the local bar. We can't aim for the big buyers first. We'll need to work up the food chain and that's where it starts."

"We can't all go in together," Amber spoke up, cupping an elbow with one hand, the other pressed to her chin in a tight fist. "If we move around as four it'll be too conspicuous – they'll know something's up."

"I know." Darien nodded his agreement. "You stick with me and we'll enter first. Hekket, Idas, stagger your entries at random times after us and find yourself a spot in the bar you can keep an eye on things."

"How will we make contact?" Hekket ventured.

"I'll just ask the right questions and they'll come to us – I know how these people operate."

"You do?"

He shrugged. "I used to be one of them."

*

The town was a densely compact collection of two or three story buildings armoured with the same heat-resisting alloys that protected the monitoring post. Streets snaked around the buildings, carved through unwilling rock in order to reach the rich mineral deposits underneath. The largest buildings were the mining complexes that thundered with the sound of heavy drilling and cutting machinery. Bulk haulers made up most of the traffic trundling up and down the thoroughfare, their armoured exteriors and opaque windows concealing the human operators from prying eyes.

Amber walked at the back of the group, goggles perched on her forehead and heavy pack slung over one shoulder. Officially (if there was anything official about what they were doing her) they were contract workers from out of the region looking for work in the mining factories. That story might pass a casual inspection, but it had never been designed to fool the criminals they sought to make contact with.

Entering the town properly, buildings rose up around them in a jumble and voices spilled between them. Although a far cry from the clogged urban metropolises that Amber had seen, the streets quickly began to fill up with people going about their daily routine.

"Okay, time to split up," Darien told them, as they emerged into the broader street that would lead them into the town centre. "Move quick and keep your heads down. Radio check in every ten minutes."

Hekket caught her by the elbow as they started to move off, leaning in and speaking quietly into her ear. "Be careful."

"You know I will," she answered, a smile crossing her face. She dipped her head to bump against his shoulder. "Stay safe."

Then they were off and moving in opposite directions, plunging into the harshest environment Ravine's inhabitants had to offer. She looked back once – just once.

Doing her best to keep a low profile, Amber jammed the blast goggles down over her face, dug her hands into the rough pockets of her coat and began picking her way through the heat-scoured streets towards her target section. She'd drawn the southern quarter of the town, moving wraithlike, eyes constantly roving to spot anything out of the norm. Twice she thought she'd found someone following her, only for the person to disappear down a different street a moment later.

Pull it together, she chided herself, trying to get a handle on her jangling nerves. As she moved she deployed the tiny camera studs that they'd been supplied with from Merlynn's forces. The devices were barely two millimetres square, a combination of camera and sound-gathering mic and fitted with an active environment screen to blend with whatever background they were attached too. Tiny as they were, the machines couldn't offer particularly high quality visual or audio information, but scattered in sufficient quantity they would give the spotters at the monitoring station something to work with. Anything more invasive risked detection from the very people they were trying to catch.

"Fifty percent studs deployed," Amber murmured into the comm as she twisted down through a back alley, sending another of the little robots off with a deft flick of her wrist.

"Copy that," Darien replied. "Idas, Hekket, check in."

"Sixty percent through," Hekket responded first. "I'm looping back towards the bar."

"I'm gonna be a little late," Idas grunted a moment later.

"Problem?"

"Nothing to do with me, but there's been a bit of a... ruckus at the motor pool. Had to wait for things to die down before I could get in. Thirty percent studs deployed."

"Copy that. Radio silence till next check in. Darien out."

Wiping the sweat from her cheeks, Amber soldiered on through the scorching heat, deploying more cameras as she went. Like Hekket, she'd crafted her course to arc back towards the central cross-roads, and the bar Darien had highlighted as their target. Minutes ticked past until eventually she rejoined the main throngs of people gravitating to the centre of the town.

The bar came into view – a hefty armoured cuboid with a structure that disappeared back into a cluster of other buildings – and she spotted Darien loitering on the street corner beside it. A radio message from Hekket confirmed he was already inside – Idas would be the last to arrive after being hung up by the local altercations.

She sauntered over to join Darien as naturally as she could, constantly anxious that she wasn't moving in the right way, or giving them up with some other subtle indicator. Once they were inside that bar both of them would have to put on their best acting faces for the locals. She stopped next to Darien without a word; he gave her a nod.

"Niamh, status on our net?" he said quietly.

"We've got eyes," Niamh's voice sounded over the comm. "Nice work. I've got coverage of all the major transport arteries and the main mining facilities. We'll know if anyone's moving in and out."

"Copy that. Sit tight – let me know if you see anything out of the ordinary. Darien out." He looked at Amber. "You ready?"

"As ready as I'm going to be," she replied flatly.

"Guess that'll have to do. C'mon."

Squaring her shoulders unhappily, Amber plastered a disgruntled expression on her face and followed him through the thick metal door. A blast of merely warm air struck her as the entered, before the slabs clanged shut behind them, shutting the two operatives into the clamour of the bar.

Other than a couple of cursory glances toward the entrance no-one paid them any real notice as they crossed the floor, moving under tepid yellow-white lights between box-like tables that had been welded into place. In the far corner of the room, however, she spotted Hekket slumped in a low-backed chair, their companion making a show of being engrossed in his tablet with a half empty beaker sitting on the table in front of him. His eyes flickered up to them once before returning to his reading.

Time to put the next stage of the plan into action.

"I can't believe you thought we'd find anything worth our time out here," Amber piped up, loudly enough for the nearby patrons to hear, injecting as much false frustration into the statement as she could. "There's not enough work in this place to scrape a food pack together, never mind get a proper contract."

"Will you quit bitching for five seconds?" Darien grumbled back, shaking his head as they reached the bar. "Just shut up and have a drink. Told you it would take time. Sometimes work's got to find you."

"Spoken like someone who's never done an honest day's work," the barman chuckled as he moved over to serve them. He was a gangly tall figure with a faint mess of stubble shadowing the lower half of his deeply tanned features, though surprisingly white teeth gleamed from a knowing smile as he appraised them. "What'll it be?"

"Space – anything for her to shut up." Darien flapped an irate hand towards her as they took their seats. "You got anything with more of a local kick?"

"Out of town?" the man enquired as he reached beneath the counter.

"Booked it out of Karpa Luna a week ago. The whole world's going crazy."

Two metal bottles etched with decorative flames were placed in front of them. Amber accepted one dubiously, appraising it with a critical eye. She wasn't a drinker by any means, but they needed to blend in. Steeling herself, she took a suitably carefree swig.

The liquid scorched at her throat but she swallowed down the sensation, contenting herself with a wince as she looked at the barman. "That's got quite a burn to it."

"Folks drink hard around here." He smirked. "So what would two kids like you be doing in a place like this?"

Darien grinned, taking a drink of his beer and not missing a beat. "Just looking to scare up some credits."

"You've never worked a mine in your life," the barman scoffed.

Amber gave him a pointed look. "I don't remember saying that we had."

Their server's face changed then, a quizzical expression crossing his face and his dismissive smile fading. "I suppose you didn't."

"Look, pal, you know how things work around here," Darien said, leaning closer and lowering his voice. "Things are nuts right now. People cutting around, shooting each other, bombing and kidnapping – valuable things go missing at times like this."

"Sounds like it's worked out okay for you."

"You could say that." Darien winked. "We're just looking for someone who wants some special market pieces and has the money to back it up."

The barman nodded his understanding, raising an eyebrow. "You don't mess about, do you, kid?"

"Just trying to make a living."

The man's eyes flashed to Amber and she gave him him a wry smile, forcing down another mouthful of the strange-tasting fire beer. He made a small, noncommittal sound and moved off, checking on other customers further down the bar.

"Heads up guys," Hekket's barely audible whisper sounded in her ear a moment later. "I think you got someone's attention with that little performance. Three heavies coming up behind you and they're packing."

Amber pressed her lips together, her hand tightening around the bottle. She looked at Darien. His face betrayed nothing at all. He squinted at the design on the beer bottle, as though trying to make out the intricacies of the artwork. Another sip. He let out a contented sigh.

Then she heard the unmistakable click of a weapon's firing bolt being drawn back. She started to rise but Darien grabbed her knee, holding her in place and giving her the tiniest shake of the head. Amber swallowed hard and stayed put. Sweat beaded on her cheeks and now it wasn't just from the heat. She willed herself to remain still.

Footsteps drew up behind them and she could see the shadow of three tall figures falling across the bar. Then Darien nodded slowly. He put his drink down and buried his hands into the pockets of his coat, before standing up and turning to face the newcomers in an almost leisurely manner. Steeling herself, Amber followed his lead and rose out of her chair.

They turned to find two large men and a heavily built woman facing them. The woman had a wicked-looking burn across the right of her forehead, and in one hand she held a bulky, smoke-darkened pistol. One of the men had a shotgun hanging across his chest, while the other brandished a viciously hooked, six inch knife. The woman smiled, revealing cracked, yellowing teeth.

"Well, well, boys," she said, her voice a sadistic rasp. "Looks like there's fresh meat in town."