The battle had raged on for a few hours casualties on both sides

The Director had a thunderous look on his face as he stomped down the corridor leading to his main office. His body sported fresh scars and had unnaturally darkened spots that within which you could see his veins through his skin. The destruction of the facility and its surrounds was quite clear in the morning sun, collapsing buildings and craters of various sizes dotted the landscape as well as signs of burning and the bodies of guards and their assailants. The only reason the current building they were in was intact was the fact that it was a bit of a distance from the main buildings. Trailing behind him were the head teachers, one of them from the four was missing, he was dead. One of the head teachers pushed through the others. The hammer wielder Kiera, she had long bushy auburn hair that nearly reached her bottom and wore robes similar to The Director. Her gait was lithe and graceful nearly predatory in her movements. She had to tip toe slightly to whisper something in his right ear, despite her considerable height he was taller still. His expression darkened further.

The door to his office was flung open banging into the wall with considerable force. He walked round the desk and sat himself into a chair that was more like a throne. It needed to be to fit his bulk. He leaned forwards putting his elbows on the desk as the head teachers filed in and spread out in front of the desk. Kiera was the one in charge of the facilities’ guards although she was called a head teacher, she did no actual teaching. In actuality she was an officer in the Red Suns, all the headteachers were and their direct commander was the Director known as Mori. He was one of the Nebulae under the command of The Lady as she was simply known as. A powerful figure in this world both in combat and in influence, though in a world like this those two tend to go hand in hand.

“Casualties?” Mori asked simply.

“We lost thirty percent of the guards and 4 of the trainers. No subject suffered grave injury; the worst was subject zero zero seven five also known as Hector.” Taril another headteacher and officer answered.

He was short, standing at around five and a half feet with black hair in a bob cut. Kiera couldn’t help but think of it as a bow turned upside-down. He wore a red buttoned up suit with gold highlights on its edges using the same tone as the robes of the Red Suns. Looking all serious while the shortest in the room Kiera could barely hold herself back from laughing.

‘You can’t do that’ she scolded herself to take this seriously, something she had always struggled with.

“However, we have an issue.” He took a breath. “A few of the subjects are missing.”

The Director’s already foul mood visibly worsened. The building shook with the miniscule release of Ehror from the man despite his attempt at controlling his ire.

“Missing?” He asked with a thunderous voice.

“Yes, missing. Fourteen of them to be precise. Subject zero two zero four or Sevyn being one of the more notable individuals from the missing group as well as Akuuna.”

Mori was silent for a while.

“Hector?”

“Still with us.”

A sigh of relief.

It was still a huge blow to lose two of the top three most talented Novas but they were lucky that Hector had decided to stay. It was no surprise to the Director that Sevyn had decided to take the opportunity to escape. She had undoubtedly been the most rebellious of all the Novas he was surprised that she never attempted to escape like others had beforehand. And it was certainly unsurprising that Akuuna or the other two boys had left with her. Akuuna especially, after all they had been inseparable ever since their first time out of the lab. They had been next to each other in the transparent vats, so it was likely they had developed a friendship prior to starting the programme. However their escape was not guaranteed, there was a reason the Novas had no knowledge of the outside world before the time for indoctrination into the Red Suns, they would have started earlier however the experimentation and the steps they had to follow was too rigid to fit anything else into it.

“How did they get out?”

“Using the chaos of the battle it seems they managed to break the outside wall.”

Mori’s eyebrows rose inquisitively.

“They broke the wall? How, Akuuna’s ability is not directly destructive in nature, at least not yet and neither is Angelo’s. Gael’s is certainly not enough to break through the wall in time for someone not to notice and Sevyn’s pressure while powerful has the same issue.”

“Based on my observation of the ruins and the remnant Ehror it seems most likely that Sevyn brute forced it using an unexpectedly powerful amount of Ehror.”

The Director was impressed, the walls had been built with a certain upper level of power to be expected from the Novas and on top of that it was made specifically to resist techniques and not a raw blast of Ehror. The fact Sevyn was able to manifest such a thing meant that their experiment was an overwhelming success despite the recent happenings. Still they had lost some of the value with the raid, they couldn’t afford to disappoint the Lady. Lucky for them with the kids having zero knowledge of even their whereabouts they should be wondering around the jungle without an aim and shouldn’t be too difficult to capture.

“Send word to the Red Suns hunting division. They need to send trackers around the jungle to find the missing Novas.” He would go himself, but he had a banquet to visit, a Red Sun banquet held by the Lady herself, on top of that the officers under him needed to stay with the rest of the Novas. He certainly was not looking forwards to meeting with the Lady after this mess.

“Next thing, Kiera brought it up with me on the way here.” He glanced seriously at each of the four officers. “We have a traitor.”

The other three officers stiffened up, before taking a contemplative look.

“You think it is someone between us officers?” Valerie asked. She was a woman that could be described as straight. She stood stiff and almost completely still. A long sword with a round guard strapped to are right hip. She wore a suit similar to Taril’s on her slim body and black gloves. Her short blonde hair hung over her right eye giving her a noble beauty.

“No, it was likely amongst the lower staff or else they would have attacked from a more critical area and would have had much easier access to the lab.” The relief felt in the room was palpable, they couldn’t let the details of what they were doing get around.

“You should investigate the trainers and examiners while you work, oh and pay special attention to Hector even more so than we have been already. It should be much easier to do so now that we have only one of the top three to keep an eye on.” Hector just like Akuuna and Sevyn was something special even amongst the already special Novas. On top of that, just like with Sevyn he shared the instinctive ability to lead.

Mori had calmed himself as he thought of their next move. Their attackers were the Umbra Cloaks led by Marrow. It was unlikely they moved under direct command of Mort as he should have vanished alongside the other five Royals fifty years ago. But Marrow himself was smart, he should have figured that people like the Lady would start making their moves when the Royals weren’t around to keep others on her level in check. He might not be able to defeat the Lady yet, but Marrow was strong as Mori himself could attest to. And he suspected that Marrow could get to a level where he would actually threaten the Lady if they weren’t careful.

“I am going to attend the banquet and would be back in a month, those kids should be captured at the very least within the week.” His tone suggested no arguments.

“Sir.” They saluted in unison Kiera a tad more slovenly.

Mori turned towards the large window at the back of his office, he raised an arm fist closed before pulling it down in a reverse pump. At the same time as this motion a close doorway with a stone arch adorned with runic writings appeared to fall from nothing. He opened the door and the view that greeted the officers was that of mountain range settled over by a deep fog. He walked through the doorway before it disappeared.