Inside the expansive main hall, Claire and everyone else sat around the central table, all their faces grim and entirely uncertain. The tactical readouts floating above the table meant absolutely nothing to them right now.
Claire pinched the bridge of her nose, her crimson aura slowly retracting back into her skin as the explosive flare of her anger gave way to a deeply gnawing anxiety. She looked up, her red eyes sweeping over the quiet faces of the squad.
"Where... where did they go?" Claire presented her question to the room, her voice dropping from its previous shout into a strained, frustrated rasp. "First Commander Maddox, and now Hide. Why aren't they picking up their calls?!"
No one had an immediate answer. Commander Maddox had inexplicably gone out of service yesterday evening, without leaving so much as a sticky note behind, his last message to Claire was the training schedule.
