The preparations for the imminent possible operation were underway. Everyone was doing what they could to make sure that it would go without a hitch.

  Dan himself was sitting with Marcus as they went over who to send.

  "Leonard is a must," Marcus said as he tapped the table, "Even though it might hurt me to say it, he's a reliable combatant, way more than his usual behaviour would make you think. Of course all that's without even mentioning his Class. The Martial Grandmaster is probably our strongest close-quarter combat personnel. And if we want to finish this operation without being found, then we should aim to complete it without firing any shots."

  Dan just nodded as he awaited Marcus to bring up the next person they were sending. He of course didn't have any objections about Leonard; from what he had heard, the man had acquired a skill that changed everything they thought they knew about his Class, it was way more than just a normal martial arts Class.

  "No matter how much of a reliable combatant he is though," Marcus continued, "I don't trust him enough to lead, that's why I will be sending Old Raily to be the Captain of the operation. He's a reliable leader and will make sure that they return safely. Plus, with his skill, Brothers in Arms, he's worth way more than a single person. This is going to be a stealth mission first and foremost, that's why we are keeping the number of people as low as possible, but if it were to turn into a head-on fight? Old Raily is worth as much as a well-equipped squad."

  Again, Dan had no objections to this choice. Honestly speaking, this was less of Marcus asking for permission and more of a briefing on what Marcus had decided on. Security and such operations were always left to Marcus, Dan never had the experience nor did he ever care about interfering in his officers' expertise. He had them for that exact reason after all, to excel in the subjects he did not know, and to fill any gaps he might have.

  "I would have filled the last spot with a medic or a healer." Marcus seemed deep in thought. "But the only healer we have here is Fleta, and I don't feel comfortable sending her on such a dangerous mission. So in the end, I went with the second-best choice, George. He's a good addition to the operation, can take the position of second in command and even knows how to take care of minor injuries."

  "Those are all?" Dan asked when it was clear that Marcus wasn't going to add another person.

  "Yes." Marcus nodded. "We have been giving everyone lessons on how to operate the tenders so we don't have to send people for no reason other than to be pilots."

  Dan did know about that, he wasn't so oblivious that he didn't know about that matter. It was brought up to him by Old Raily once, and he had realised how limiting only having a few people who could man the tenders was, without mentioning how risky it was. What would they do if something happened to the only person who could man the tender during an operation? Their whole group would be stuck behind enemy lines.

  "Still, are three people going to be enough?" Dan asked something that kept nagging at his heart, "I know that we are trying to go for stealth, but just three people feels too few."

  "It should be enough. Plus, the reason for sending just three people isn't only to keep the numbers low, but also because of the modified vests we have." Marcus stopped, then murmured to himself in a voice he could barely hear, "Fortunately, Rose wasn't responsible for those, can't handle what she would have called them."

  "They managed to make three already?" Dan asked in surprise.

  He knew what Marcus was talking about, it was a project that Marcus and Jackie were spearheading. In essence, it was working on the same principle as the Tank tenders that Rose made. Reworking their vests and filling them with as many defensive runes as possible. Jackie's part of the process was finding the optimal way to put those rune combinations together and also providing those charms he made.

  After tiering up, Jackie's previous Soul Awakening skill could output much stronger charms. The invisibility charms got so strong that Dan doubted normal unaugmented people would notice someone wearing them if they stood still.

  With the charms and the rune-filled vests, Dan thought it would take quite a while before they made any of them. But to think that they would have three ready to go already? It was quite the surprise.

  "They have been pushing themselves to finish them," Marcus said, "The hardest part was finding the best way to put those runes together and layer them. After they got that the first time, for the others it was nothing but a matter of copying what they did with the first to the other two. It's still hard, so only three in total were made."

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "It's still surprising," Dan said. He then thought for a bit and asked, "What about choosing a path?"

  "We will wait and see which way the Harvesters are coming from, and take the opposite path."

  "What if," Dan said slowly, "We first study the island and see if we could find a target and head towards them directly. That would save us from dealing with any unforeseen circumstances or the like. We mark our target, go in, finish the operation and get back. What do you think?"

  "It's good," Marcus said, his eyes darting around as if he was thinking about the feasibility of the plan, "But it depends too much on chance, we don't know for sure if we are going to meet such a target or not. We are still going to go with it though, if we find no such perfect target we will go with the first plan."

  After that, Dan and Marcus spoke some more before they went to check on the others and how they were doing with their tasks and preparation. Soon, night fell and almost all the work on the Voyager came to a halt, everything was complete.

  With everything ready, they were only awaiting the Harvesters to arrive. The Voyager was on a high alert state, even though everything seemed dormant, they could move and be ready to deploy at the drop of a hat. Fortunately, though, the night passed peacefully and nothing happened at all.

  The next day had a peaceful start, Dan woke up, went through his morning routine and sat on the bridge alongside Marcus and the others in case anything happened. As the hours passed, Dan started feeling a bit jittery, waiting like that for something that might and might not happen put him in quite the stressful state.

  Around 9 pm, William stood up and asked,

  "Does anyone need a coffee? I'm gonna get myself one."

  "I'm already this stressed, getting a coffee would only make me explode from stress." Dan chuckled.

  "A juice then, maybe?" William asked.

  Dan didn't answer his question though, he found himself being engulfed by the Voyager's aura as his consciousness was pulled into one of the port's cameras. Looking at the incoming swarm of Harvesters heading their way, Dan's heart skipped a beat.

  "They are here!" he half shouted after he had frozen for a second, "Start moving!"

  With that one shout from him, people moved to do their tasks. Freddie and Keith moving the Voyager, Marcus taking out his walkie-talkie to contact the people going on the trip, and even he himself started running to where the tender was.

  It only took Dan a few moments before he was standing in front of the Phantom they were taking, Advantage pushing his speed to levels he never thought he would ever reach.

  "Okay, Voyager, show me the island," he told her as he felt himself being connected to a camera again.

  Dan knew that he only had to take care of spotting a suitable target for them to go after, if they found no one, they would have to head in blindly and that would raise the risks they would have to suffer.

  The Voyager was around 10 nautical miles away from the island, which meant that the Phantom would have to cross that distance of open water before finally reaching the island. Hopefully, the stealth runes they had on it would be of use in keeping them from being found.

  Dan scanned the island, his expression serious. His eyes caught all the happenings on it clearly. Normal long-range cameras weren't like thermal cameras, he didn't have to worry about the quality and was able to see how the guards too were starting to move frantically around, pushing the slaves, as Graham had called them, and forcing them to work on fortifying a certain defensive line.

  As Dan watched, all his attention on that only, he finally noticed something. From his vantage point, he could see a man in rags who was followed by a boy who wouldn't be more than 14 or 15 as they stealthily avoided the soldiers and made their way to the back of the island.

  Dan knew that he had found his target, especially after seeing how no guard saw them and that they made their way as fast as they could. He could feel no joy in achieving that though, only a cold anger bubbling under the surface as his eyes refused to leave the boy behind the man.

  Forcing himself to look away, he returned to the real world just to see that all the three heading to the island were already on the tender, awaiting a response from him. He took a deep breath and looked at them.

  "We've got our target..." He then went on to explain where they were hiding, a certain cave that seemed to be closer to a lair of some small animal than a cave, and how to find them. Done with that he added after closing his eyes,

  "Everyone, I need you to know that the target is a pair, a man and a boy who seems to be just 14 or 15 years old. If what Graham said is true, then that child is also a slave who had been kidnapped and forced to work on this island. If you were wondering why we are taking this much risk, then I hope this would be enough of a reason for you, on that island, who knows how many kids there are, and who knows how many years they have spent there already and how many more they would spend.

  "At last, I will only leave you with two words, good luck."