Post-war summary meeting!
The members of the Nova Squad all looked grim, no longer displaying the energetic enthusiasm they had before.
Especially the eight people responsible for the combat, each one of them looked disheveled, with bloodstains on their clothes that hadn't even dried yet.
They opened their mouths, as if wanting to say something, but in the end, they hesitated and said nothing.
"Now is the time for the post-war summary. Don't you have anything to say? If you do, feel free to speak up; there's no need to be embarrassed!" Raven broke the silence.
Her tone didn't carry any subjective emotions, nor did her words contain any blame.
But Siryn was the first to speak, admitting her mistake: "I was careless. I wasn't cautious enough when dealing with the sentries, which led to alerting the enemy!"
In fact, when Siryn took out the sentries, there was no noise at all. However, during the cleanup after the battle, they found that one of the sentries had a pacemaker implanted, and that pacemaker had a signal transmitter on it. It was the death of this sentry that alerted the enemy, causing their plans to take a sudden turn for the worse.
Strictly speaking, this mistake could have been avoided.
The Siryn's X ability is soundwaves, which not only lets her control sound waves but also adds a mental control effect to the sound she produces. When dealing with sentries, she could have used control instead of outright killing them.
"I also made a mistake, I didn't detect the hidden bombs in time!" Snake-Eyes immediately admitted his error.
After they dealt with the outside sentries and sneaked into the abandoned factory, remote-controlled bombs hidden throughout the factory suddenly exploded.
The eight people entering the factory were caught off guard and reacted too slowly, resulting in injuries to everyone.
The Siryn and Snake-Eyes, who entered first, suffered the most severe injuries, with their limbs crushed and nearly losing their combat ability.
Fortunately, they had self-healing drugs, or even if they didn't die, the aftereffects would have been severe.
The remaining six were slightly further away from the center of the explosion. This gave Magnetic Light some time to react, and he managed to control most of the shrapnel, leaving them with only minor injuries that didn't affect their combat abilities.
At the same time, more than ten gang members inside the factory were killed in the explosion.
If it hadn't been for these gang members, the team would have been more prepared for the explosion.
This group was ruthless beyond imagination, not caring about their own people's lives, even blowing them up alongside themselves.
So, the blame couldn't really be placed on Snake-Eyes. It's completely normal that his thermal vision didn't detect the hidden bombs, considering how well disguised they were. Before the explosion, they weren't even heat sources.
Moreover, after the operation, they repeatedly confirmed that there were no abnormalities with the gang members in thermal vision at the time, so it was clear that the explosion was a decision made solely by the gang leader.
"I also have responsibility..." Magnetic Light's face looked just as bad.
His responsibility in this operation was to control the situation, but from the beginning, he failed to do so. No excuse could justify his failure.
"As the on-site commander, I failed to react in time, which led to the injury of team members and the escape of the targets. I take the greatest responsibility!" Leona was hit hardest.
Accepting the injuries of team members was one thing, as it was normal for unexpected situations to occur in such operations.
But to encircle six targets with twelve people, even with two heavily injured, they still had overwhelming advantages.
The result of letting two of the leaders escape was something Leona couldn't accept!
As soon as Leona finished speaking, the others started to speak up as well, taking responsibility.
Raven was somewhat reassured. Although the kids had made some minor mistakes, no one shirked responsibility.
But she interrupted them: "This is a summary meeting, not an accountability meeting. The focus isn't on what mistakes you made, but rather on what you learned from it!"
...
Watching the summary meeting remotely, Ian was also quite satisfied with the Nova Squad's performance.
They were beginners, so it was normal to make common beginner mistakes. The most important thing was their attitude.
All the members of the Nova Squad came from the Mutant Academy, and they had at least received over ten years of education from the academy, which helped them develop a proper set of values.
This was the reason Ian only recruited mutant children instead of adult mutants.
After seeing this, Ian turned to Elsa: "I told you Raven was the best choice. What do you think?"
"Raven's approach seems good, but the risks are high. Isn't she afraid of it backfiring?" Elsa said while pulling up the injury reports of several team members.
The eight who entered the factory were able to participate in the summary meeting in one piece thanks to the combat suits they wore.
If it weren't for the powerful protective effect of the combat suits in vital areas, they might have suffered serious casualties!
"They're fine, aren't they?" Ian didn't even look at the injury reports. "These combat suits were specifically selected by Raven!"
With the material technology of Carnegie Alloy Corporation, it would be easy for them to provide the Nova Squad with fully defensive combat suits, allowing them to come out of an explosion completely unharmed.
Even combat suits woven from the finest alloy threads could provide protection comparable to the Black Panther suit worn by the King of Wakanda!
Such top-tier equipment was available in stock, it's just that it hadn't been equipped to the Nova Squad yet.
Overly powerful equipment would be detrimental to their growth.
"Also, the first few opponents of the Nova Squad were all carefully chosen by Raven!" Ian added.
"The leader of this gang was extremely reckless and had the ability to tunnel underground. This information wasn't in the intel, but Raven must have known about it beforehand."
Hearing Ian's words, Elsa pointed at the screen: "Then why didn't she mention it?"
The screen displayed that the summary meeting had ended, and the team members had not noticed the issue with the intelligence, nor had Raven reminded them.
Ian wasn't surprised: "They need to figure things out on their own in order to remember the lesson!"
Raven didn't remind them because she wanted them to figure it out themselves. If they didn't get it right the first time, she could arrange a second attempt. It's better to make mistakes now than at a critical moment later.
Raven's arrangement, rather than sending an expert to protect them, was far better for their training.
There were still several years of calm ahead, and during this time, it should be enough to develop and mature the Nova Squad.
The Mutant Academy had a vast reserve force, and all they lacked was John's gene implantation technology.
The breakthrough for gene implantation technology had been found; success was just a matter of time.
Ian's gene studies had reached level five, and by joining John's research, he could significantly shorten the time for the technology's success.
However, Ian didn't pursue this.
Rather than having the gene implantation technology succeed a year or two earlier, Ian was more focused on advancing his studies in the field of time and space.
The feedback from the world was simply too enticing!
Of course, time travel carried many unknown risks, so Ian wouldn't take the plunge until necessary and until he had prepared properly.
The most important and fundamental preparation for this was to further advance his studies in time and space.
The knowledge of time and space he had learned from Ancient One had not been fully studied, and there were many insights gained from his own time-traveling experiences.
These were the foundation of Ian's confidence in advancing his studies in time and space.
After arranging everything for the Nova Squad, he devoting most of his energy to the research of time and space.
(End of Chapter)