A few minutes earlier.
The Truth Society's main base, Zone B, Equipment R&D Department.
Bernardo, the Minister of Operations who had stayed behind at the main base, was touring some newly developed exoskeleton equipment with several engineers.
Just then, his Personal Terminal suddenly rang.
"What is it?"
A panicked shout came through the terminal. "Minister, something terrible has happened! The secret lab in Zone C has been attacked. The intruder is incredibly strong—they smashed the lab door open with their bare hands!"
"What?"
Bernardo was stunned. After the Chairman had led the main force out on an expedition, he had moved his office to Zone C. But he couldn't sit still, and after spending a little while in his office, he had started patrolling the base. He never imagined it would be invaded in the one hour he'd been away.
Was it someone from the Gene Primordial, someone from another faction, or had they all attacked at once in some kind of switch-base tactic?
Bernardo's mind reeled, but he forced himself to calm down. "How many intruders are there?"
"One," the person on the other end replied. "Just one. No, not just one—there's an Undying with them, too. One of our Undying. He led the intruder here."
One person?
Bernardo suspected he'd misheard. He asked several times before he was finally convinced.
"The base is relatively undermanned right now. If it's only one person, they might have been able to get past the various checkpoints and sneak into Zone C."
He breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn't an attack by another faction. Otherwise, the Truth Society might have suffered a devastating blow.
"Mi... Minister, should we contact the Chairman?"
Bernardo shook his head. "No need. The Chairman is fighting right now. We can handle this little matter