"We've got the crates," James whispered, keying his comm as he slammed the heavy lid of a medical supply chest shut and strapped it to his tactical frame. "Ethan, grab the food modules. We're heading out through the perimeter access hatch.""Negative, negative!" Noah’s voice crackled through the ear-piece, sharp and frantic with panic. "The eastern patrol just altered their route two minutes early! They’re sweeping directly toward the access hatch right now. If you go that way, you walk right into their crosshairs!""Change of plans," James snapped, pivoting instantly on his heel. "Ethan, ditch the hatch route. Up the exterior cooling tower. Now!""The cooling tower?" Kael hissed, his voice cracking as he stared up the sheer, vertical expanse of slick metal rising thirty feet into the freezing fog. "Are you insane? There are no handholds on that thing, and my boots are already losing grip!""You don't nee

 "Quiet?" A harsh, mocking laugh echoed from the shadowy corner near the freight elevator. "You think you can hoard crates of medical grade antiseptic and real protein modules down in the Silt without paying a local tax, Carter?"James didn't even turn around, his hand resting casually on the cold iron frame of the reinforced deadbolt. "Step out from the shadows where I can see your face, Digger, before you finish talking about taxes you never earned."A heavy-set local enforcer with a scarred lip and a jagged cybernetic optic stepped into the flickering orange light of the foundry's overhead lamps, flanked by three armed thugs brandishing rusted lead pipes. "Times are hard, Carter. The corporate blockade is squeezing everyone. A few boxes of food aren't yours just because you managed to steal them first.""They're for the dock workers who haven't eaten a hot meal in a week," Mia snapped, her boots scraping against the concrete

 "Again," Ethan demanded, his massive boots planted squarely in the center of the foundry's scarred concrete floor. "And this time, don't lead with your chin."Kael spat a mouthful of metallic-tasting spit onto the damp ground, wiping the back of his forearm across his bloodied lip. "My chin wasn't the problem. The loop stuttered on the transition.""The loop didn't stutter. You panicked," Mia corrected sharply, walking in a slow, predatory circle behind Kael with her kinetic converters humming a low, threatening frequency. "You tried to shoulder the entire kinetic load of Ethan’s strike instead of letting the harness distribute it. That’s why your left shoulder feels like it's been hit by a freight train."Kael winced, involuntarily rolling his bruised shoulder as a sharp spasm of pain shot down his collarbone. "Easy for you to say. You’ve been running this sync since the upper Academy trials. I spent my entire life tr

 "Keep your eyes on the grid floor, not the upper alcoves," James warned, his boots clicking hollowly against the slick, rusted grating of the subterranean testing bowl as the heavy pneumatic blast doors hissed shut behind them. "Sterling’s spotters are up in the dark, but they can't touch us down here.""Easy to say when you aren't the one walking into a damp concrete tomb engineered specifically for corporate blood sports," Kael muttered, adjusting the chest harness strapped tightly over his tactical vest. The red status LEDs on his telemetry unit blinked in a frantic, stuttering rhythm. "Look at the drainage troughs. They didn't even bother scrubbing the oil off the walls from the last match.""They don't scrub the floors because they don't expect anyone to walk out upright," Ethan rumbled, his massive frame shifting as he cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing sharply off the damp, moss-covered concrete pillars. "Just keep your

 "Brace!" James roared, his voice cutting through the damp air a microsecond before Vance crossed the centerline.The corporate enforcer captain slammed his heavy kinetic hammer down with bone-shattering force. The blow struck Kael directly across the chest, the impact sounding like a structural pillar snapping under a hydraulic press.Kael let out a sharp, choked gasp of pure terror as his boots left the grated floor, the sheer momentum of the blow threatening to fold him in half."I've got you!" Ethan bellowed, his boots instantly locking into the wet steel grating as the shared telemetry harness flared with a blinding pulse of orange light.Instead of crushing Kael’s ribs into dust, the kinetic force of the hammer strike was instantly intercepted by the Silt Circuit. The staggering blow split five ways across the neural loop, dividing the crushing weight equally among James, Ethan, Mia, Noah back at the base,