The drones came first.
Yalira spotted them from her perch at first sunrise — three of them, moving in a triangle formation high over the southern dunes, sweeping wide. Standard Tribunal pre-deployment scan. Within an hour, two more appeared on the eastern horizon. Within two hours, the count was up to nine.
"More than usual," she said when she came down to brief them. "Wenrik had four pre-deployment drones. This one's running nine."
"Higher-priority hunter?" Vren asked.
"Or different protocols. Architects don't share methodology with the other Races."
Owen sat at the lower entrance of the cave, tightening the straps on his gauntlet. His CE was back up to its full Tier 5 five-star reserves — five thousand units, clean, recovered. The damage Wenrik had done to his core had healed through three weeks of careful rest and the meditation exercises Gorvax had taught him. He felt as ready as he was going to be.
"Plan stays the same?" Jorik asked.
