The smoke from the destroyed mercenary mortar nest was still drifting across the quarry rim when Toby dragged an encrypted corporate field transmitter from the wreckage of the bounty hunter command post. The device was a heavy, military-grade comms end-post housed in a weather-sealed silver-steel case, bearing the gold-embossed seal of House Valerius and the double-helix emblem of ApexBio.
Arthur Vance knelt on an overturned ammunition crate. He wiped grease and dried saline from his razor-sharp cannulas with an alcohol pad. Beside him, Ronald and the four Oakhaven cadets were securing three captured corporate operatives with heavy nylon zip-cuffs. Their faces were dark with anger as they inventoried the hired blades’ weapons.
“Look at this hum log, Arthur,” Toby called out. He tapped the end-post’s glowing green glowing screen. “This transmitter wasn’t just coordinating the hit squad. It’s a self-running wide-band repeater linked directly to the College Board’s monitoring zeppelins. Every fifteen minutes, it scans the sector for commoner beast tracking data, identifies which animals are advancing in the survival trial, and beams an a deep hum carrier pulse to overheat their spinal resin.”
Ronald walked over, his fists clenched tight. “They were systematically hunting every regional academy in Sector 8! Oakhaven, Black-Iron, Storm-Forge... Every commoner team that survived the arena rounds was marked for extermination in the badlands so House Valerius wouldn’t have to face us in the Semi-Finals!”
