Even as a veteran of hundreds of simulated operations just like this, I had to concede these guys were bloody brilliant. They were holed up in unexpected places, in positions not on standard plans, with blind spots and overlapping fields of fire. My instructors would have been proud, if not stunned.

I tore through them like the proverbial hot knife. It wasn’t a fair fight, not by a long way. The orbiting shuttles delivered hyperspectral scans as far as they could penetrate, showing their positions where they could. We deployed a set of fist-sized aerial drones to provide view capability when the scans weren’t enough, and simply fired through bulkheads when neither was available.

One after another was dispatched – with humane precision when possible, and overwhelming automatic fire when not.

I could see Hart’s point better than ever, though. Conventional methods and equipment wasn’t sufficient any more. These guys were good, I was sure – maybe even the best. But it hadn’t been enough to save two of them.