The Prime Nine

The Prime Nine was a group of nine elite villains who were newly recruited to the Major Arcanis. On their first mission, they invaded Cains and attacked The Ironclads. They serve as the main antagonists of the Cains Arc.

Cains Arc
The Prime Nine was created shortly after Scourge inspired various criminals hiding behind the scenes to join the Major Arcanis. Many of them were recruited by Babaya, including the original two recruits, Coyote and Grimmlow.

Several other criminals followed suit, and eventually, The Emperor formed the Prime Nine with the intention of attacking and killing the Harbingers of the Ironclads Warrior Guild. Their first mission was to capture Rappa and destroy the image of a peaceful society. Coyote is the defacto leader of the group, and it is comprised of nine elite villains with either powerful Aberrations or good combat abilities.

They made their first appearance when they invade Cains, in order to attack the ironclads stationed there. Coyote burns the forest while Grimmlow fills it with poison gas. This was to keep their meeting point a secret while at the same time cornering the Ironclads inside the city.

Yaeger, Octava and Mustard are tasked with looking for Rappa. Gunner and Adolphe fight the Ironclads to hold them off from protecting the Harbingers. Nemesis was released to incite chaos, Grimmlow maintains the cloud of toxic gas, and Hyde is tasked with collecting four different blood samples. Coyote and Sanguis distract Joseph with clones of Coyote.

Octava, Yaeger and Gunner are all ultimately defeated by the Ironclads. Mustard successfully captures Rappa and brings him to the rendezvous point. After a battle with the Ironclads, Shirokuro retrieves the conscious Arcanis and warps them to safety.

Strength
The Prime Nine has been noted to be comprised of elite villains as opposed to the weaker criminals used to invade Onmund. Coyote alone was able to keep Joseph and Abdallah, the two most talented Albasira users with extensive combat prowess, distracted long enough for the mission to finish. The villainous team greatly injured half of the Ironclads and many other members of the Vanguard Alliance, even killing Steelo and Johan. The succeeded in their mission to capture Rappa and managed to escape with only a few casualties.