Standing on the bank of the river, Haiser could not help admire the long gun. It had been a minute since he had seen this kind of gun. Usually, as a prince, he was exposed to all manner of weapons, but there were a few that were more preferred than others.
When it came to long guns, there were all manner of modifications and advancements that had happened over the years. The last gun he'd used had all manner of telemetry readings, wind velocity and direction analysis, and even bullet velocity and curvature.
"While all this data is quite helpful, at the end of the day, the shooter must rely on their instincts and understanding to make an accurate shot," Haiser could still remember his trainer as he learned to use the long guns. As a young cadet, he must have fired thousands of bullets from this model of long guns.
Other than Haiser, every person in his team had collected a weapon. Even Carlos and Joel, who normally used bows, were all equipped with long guns. Felix has gotten the smart rifle, and the remaining smart bullets. With this, the team had received a massive upgrade, making them several times more lethal.
After much deliberation, the group had concluded that they could not go back to the the settlement. Based on Cate's prediction, and their own inference, they realized that the reinforcements may very well discover the settlement.
Not seeking to endanger them any more than they had, Cate had the team take a roundabout way back to the city, avoiding the various settlements along the way. This was the way they had come. It was much longer than using the path through the settlements, but much more quiet, and less prone to contact with settlement dwellers.
That being said, there was an off-chance that the reinforcements would harass the settlements. In that case, Cate's trusted subordinate, the one who had been discovered by the settlement dwellers, would be lost. However, there was nothing more they could do about it.
What Cate did not know was that, due to her subordinate being discovered, the Laventine hovercrafts had almost flattened the Forest view settlement. When the Laventine crafts had discovered him, her man, Jasper, had been under the care of two local women.
With brute force, the corporation's men had barged into the house that served as the local clinic cam dispensary, and from there they had pulled him out and murdered him in the streets. They did not allow anyone to come close to the corpse, making a very grotesque view for the settlements to see.
Of course, when the Iresal company hovercrafts discovered this, they had engaged in a fierce aerial battle with the Laventine corporation's hovercrafts. It had been pretty impressive to watch, but the settlement's favorite, Iresal corp, had received a thorough beating and chased away.
Of the three remaining hovercrafts sent by the Laventine corp, one was docked, waiting for anyone else to come from man. The other two were continuing on to the hunting grounds, ready to destroy the Iresal team.
Duma was appalled by the Laventine corporation's actions, but he did not find them out of place. All he could do was get out of the way. Luckily, no one bothered themselves with wondering merchants.
However, this only deepened Duma's confusion. He still did not know who his target was. His most likely candidate had been brutally murdered by some company. This made him suspect that he was after someone else.
Duma worked for the Tres Family Holding company. This was the absolute overlord of planet Tres and a behemoth compared to companies like Laventine corporation. As such, they would not have murdered anyone associated with the Tres family in any way so brutally and so publicly.
From Duma's suppositions, he could guess that the person or persons he was looking for were extremely elusive and not so easily identifiable. This was going to be more troublesome than he thought. Luckily, he had managed to embed himself to the settlements.
Meanwhile, across the plains, the group consisting of Haiser and Cate continued on at a steady pace. Much like the group they had ambushed, they moved in a single file, organized manner. With their guns at the ready, they were very conscious of their surrounding, dreading an ambush.
While the group continued on, they became aware of the low monotonous sound of a hovercraft which was moving in their direction. Cate wanted to suddenly start screaming, but Haiser stopped her. He instructed Joel to climb up a tree and watch the hovercraft.
Much to his relief, Joel realized that it was an Iresal hovercraft. After he informed the group, Cate shot up a flare and waited for the craft to spot them.
Unfortunately, just as she had fired her flare, two more sounds coming from hovercrafts could be heard. Looking around, Joel was appalled to realize that, the logos on the new hovercrafts did not match Iresal's logo.
Looking on from his screen, Maxiell had a toothy grin. While stealth technology was not new, it was still pretty expensive to arm a hovercraft with stealth capability. Moreover, due to its strain on resources, stealth tech could only be activated on a hovercraft for a short duration. It also came with various restrictions, but all that was worth it.
Maxiell knew that he wouldn't get the position of the team on the ground without employing some form of trickery. After watching his hovercrafts shoot down three of Iresal, he had commanded the group to allow the remaining hovercraft to escape. He then had the craft pilots activate stealth tech in their crafts before giving pursuit.
The hovercrafts had had to push themselves to the limit of what the stealth tech could handle. From the cockpits, the various hovercraft dashboards were spiking and giving warnings. However, it had all been worth it, the moment Maxiell spotted the flare.
Without waiting, he suddenly gave the order, "Kill them all!"