The Mountain Range received them the way wilderness always receives hunters. Without ceremony and without concern.
The convoy had departed Celestial City in the early morning, four hours on academy transit vehicles that moved through the outer districts and into the open terrain beyond the city walls. By the time the vehicles stopped and the students disembarked, the range was already visible in full, a landscape of dense forest broken by rocky outcroppings and elevated plateaus, the kind of terrain that rewarded spatial awareness and punished carelessness.
The expedition briefing was short. Grade 6 zone, standard safety protocols, the academy tracking system active through each student's datapad, emergency extraction available if a student activated their beacon. Instructors positioned at four perimeter stations around the designated hunting area. Six hours from the moment the expedition began. Return to extraction point before the timer expired.
Students dispersed.
