The tension in Valeris alpable, the weight of suspi arayal hanging in the air like a dense fog. Ethan stood in the Guild Branch Master's office, a holographic map of Kynara's key transport routes floating before him. Guild Branch Master Darrik Voss leaned oable, his scarred hands gripping its edges as he studied the phan had just outlined.

  "This is risky," Voss muttered, his gravelly voice ced with caution. "But if we're going to draw the mole out, it might just work."

  Ethan nodded. "We don't have a choice. The lohis mole operates, the more they undermine everything we're fighting for. We o force their hand."

  The pn was straightforward but dangerous. Ethan and Voss would stage a fake shipment of alloy ons, disguised as a Syndicate voy. Guild meraries would act as Syndicate operatives, transp the cargo along a known route. The voy's departure time and location would be deliberately leaked to Federation personnel under suspi, banking on the mole reying the information to the Syndicate.

  Eliara Venn stood off to the side, arms crossed. "We're baiting the Syndicate with this, and they won't e lightly. We o make sure the ambush is airtight."

  "We will," Ethan assured her. He turo Thalor Veskra, who was sharpening his psma bdes nearby. "Thalor, you and your team will cover the west ridge. If the Syndicate shows up, you'll hit them hard and fast before they regroup."

  The Velkran merary grunted in agreement. "They won't even see us ing."

  The voy repared with meticulous attention to detail. The hover trucks were painted in Syndicate colors, their ste partments loaded with i alloy replicas to sell the ruse. Ethan personally supervised the briefing of the guild meraries who would pose as Syndicate operatives, ensuring they knew how to act vingly if observed.

  As the voy set out uhe cover of dusk, Ethan and his team moved into position, using the rugged terrain to ceal themselves. The ambush site was a narrow yon lined with jagged cliffs, both cover and strategitage points.

  From his position overlooking the route, Ethan adjusted his helmet's visor, sing for movement. "Iris, keep monit all frequencies. Let me know if there's any Syndicate chatter about the voy."

  "Uood," Iris replied. "All systems optimized for surveilnce."

  The miretched into hours as the voy rumbled along the yon floor. The silence pressive, broken only by the hum of engines and the occasional ch of gravel beh tires. Ethan's heart pounded in his chest, each sed dragging on as he waited for the Syndicate to take the bait.

  Wheack finally came, it was sudden and ferocious. Syndicate hovercrafts roared into view, their mouurrets lighting up the yon with bursts of psma fire. Syndicate enforcers rappelled from drop ships, their ons trained on the voy.

  "Here we go," Ethan muttered, gripping his psma dagger.

  The voy team pyed their part perfectly, diving for cover and pretending to panic as the Syndicate operatives swarmed the area. Ethan's team remained hidden, watg as the attackers moved closer to secure the "shipment."

  "Wait for my signal," Ethan said over the s, his voice steady despite the tension.

  The Syndicate forces focused entirely on the hover trucks, their leader barking orders to secure the crates. They were oblivious to the guild aance fighters lying in wait above them.

  "Now," Ethan ordered.

  The yoed into chaos as Ethan's team uheir terattack. Eliara's psma rifle cut through the Syndicate ranks with deadly precision, while Thalor leaped from his position, nding in the middle of the fray. His psma bdes hummed as they carved through Syndicate enforcers, his movements a blur of deadly efficy.

  Ethan ewo enforcers who charged his position, defleg their attacks with his psma dagger before dispatg them with swift, calcuted strikes. "Secure the leader!" he shouted, pointing to the Syndicate ander direg the ambush.

  The battle was brutal but brief. Outnumbered and caught off guard, the Syndicate forces fell one by ohe few who tried to retreat found their paths blocked by guild snipers positioned along the ridges.

  The captured Syndicate ander, a grizzled veteran with a cyberic eye, was dragged to the ter of the ambush site. Bloodied and defiant, he gred at Ethan and the others.

  "You're wasting your time," he snarled. "Kill me now or you'll regret it ter."

  Ethan crouched in front of him, his psma dagger glinting in the dim light. "We do this the hard way or the easy way. Either you talk, or my friend here-" he gestured to Thalor, who stood silently, his bdes still glowing "gets creative."

  The ander's resolve faltered uhalor's unyielding gaze. "Fine," he spat. "But you won't like what you hear."

  Over the several mihe ander revealed fragments of information. The voy's location had been provided by someohin the Federation guards stationed in Valeris. "It's one of your own," he said with a sneer. "High-ranking. They've been feeding us intel for months."

  "Name," Ethan demanded, his voice cold.

  The ander shook his head. "I don't know. We only get orders through encrypted els. But they've been... effit."

  Eliara leaned closer, her expression grim. "Do you have any idea how many lives your 'efficy' has cost?"

  The ander smirked. "Enough to make you desperate."

  Ethan stood, his jaw tight. The information firmed the mole's existe left their identity frustratingly out of reach. "Take him back to the guild," he told the others. "We'll see if he remembers more under proper interrogation."

  The team moved quickly to dismahe Syndicate's operation in the yon. The crates of alloy ons were destroyed, their votile tents igniting in a series of trolled explosions that lit up the night sky.

  As the team regrouped, Eliara approached Ethan. "We've got a lead, but it's not enough. This mole could be anyone in the Federation's of and."

  Ethan nodded, his gaze fixed on the burning wreckage below. "We'll find them. One way or another."

  Meanwhile in a fortified stronghold at an unknown location, Raeth was reviewing a live feed of the ambush site, his lips curling into a satisfied smile.

  "They're getting closer," he murmured, turning to an unnamed Syndicate lieutenant. "Good. Let them think they're winning. It'll make their fall all the sweeter."

  Raeth's fidence was unshaken, his move already in motion.

  As the team returo Valeris, the weight of their discovery hung heavily over them. The Syndicate's reach was deeper than anyone had feared, and the hunt for the mole will tinue.