*Valedith Flemming POV*
"Minerva, duck!" I shouted as hard as I could as I pressed the trigger of the laser gun that I picked up from my table. Like how I analyzed the Stage 2 Xenobiotic's movement and the aftermath, it almost hit a black-haired woman's large breasts, but the laser went straight into the center of the Alien's squishy disfigured head instead, making a seared hole immediately at contact.
The Alien creature, Stage 2 Xenobiotic, has a greenish body and is similar to a humanoid body.
Thankfully, there was only one who managed to come all this way. But it was still a Stage 2 Xenobiotic. If Minerva hadn't bent down and I hadn't shot at that exact point in time, then we might have died.
Who knew that I had a talent for battle analysis?
"What the...I didn't expect the chairperson of the Health Innovation and Research Department to be talented in battles...hmm, are you really the Valedith that I know?" Minerva squinted her eyes as she turned off her plasma shield. After deeply staring into my eyes, she then lay down on the floor and laughed, "Pfft, it's because of your newly discovered talent that we're still alive now."
Looking at Minerva and her deep breaths, she's somewhat tired. Why won't she when she just did her shift in defending the station's boundaries not long ago and came here next...well, just to learn that aliens are breaching the station now.
But talent, hmm? In the end, the talents and skills of humans are not enough against this bunch of invaders with better physical strength and adaptability.
I sat down in my seat and rested my head on the desk. It seems like I'm getting a headache because of too much overthinking.
"Haiz~ we're going to die at the wrong time." Minerva deeply sighed. "This is the end of Loragram, and possibly the whole Metatron itself." She looked like she wanted to cry and covered her eyes with her hand while groaning.
"...It's inevitable." I banged my head on the desk. I wanted to bang it more, but I didn't have the strength. It's frustrating, but we can't do something about this, especially me, since I'm just waiting for orders from President Leina.
But it's been two days, when are they coming?
The station was surrounded; we couldn't leave. I don't know how it was possible, but the Loragram signal was jammed so I can't reach the President's line either. What can we even do?
It's been a week since the Aliens invaded Metatron yet they have already managed to adapt and refine their strategies to the point that it's difficult to find weaknesses in their evolving bodies. As to why we call them Aliens, it's because they will probably be the first and last invaders of Metatron that humans will ever encounter before becoming mere remnants.
Talking about specifying, what we need to specify first is their rapid evolution tree. Like what I and Minerva encountered earlier; a Stage 2 Xenobiotic was just discovered a day ago. Unlike Stage 1, Stage 2 is almost twice as small, averaging only 5 feet tall, and their movement speed is three times faster.
In a game-like term, they are for backdooring. And these creatures know the concept, even if they can't speak human language and only scream in high-pitch voices. They probably communicate with each other through that.
They are intelligent, I must say.
"Hah~ It was supposed to be on this day that the Federal Alliance will test the prototype of the space teleportation device for the first time," Minerva muttered in frustration. "But how in the world did these creatures target the exact location of the test first? It cannot be pure coincidence. It's like these aliens have been watching our progress all this time."
"They have probably decided to destroy us now because they got afraid," I replied to Minerva with certainty. Her theory is highly likely since Exelrott Station, the chosen station for testing the space teleportation prototype, is one of the smallest stations. And, of the millions of stations in Metatron, these Aliens landed in Exelrott instead. "How ridiculous."
What's worse; Loragram is one of the stations that are farthest from Exelrott, but there are waves of Aliens already coming here. I was put here by the President to try and find some weaknesses and patterns in their rapid evolutions, but the backup scientists, along with the information they are supposed to be carrying, as well as the President herself...why have they not arrived here yet?
Loragram is the station with the most advanced research technologies, but the current combat power here is not enough to be able to venture outside the station and get Evolutions of Aliens that aren't Xenobiotics and Mysobiotics. I can't further my research with this Stage 2 Xenobiotic body that is lying dead on the door of my office.
I can't do anything but wait.
"We must keep defending Loragram until they arrive" I declared while looking at Minerva. "We don't have any other choice."
"It's hard, but dying here is harder, and losing against these disgusting Aliens is the worst," Minerva replied and stood up with her turned-off plasma shield.
It's not like we don't have any chance of defending Metatron at all. We still have the Mechas, though there are no Mechas currently in this station because they went to the other stations that are closer to the Ground Zero Exelrott as backups.
However, the station that the President thought would be the last station to get invaded is now being invaded. Sadly, dear President, we also need backups...
"Guess what, Valedith. You're thinking about the backup Mechas right now, huh?" Minerva tried deciphering what I was thinking about, and she was right. "Mechas...they were supposed to be created for the possible war against the East, but now it may be useful for fighting these shit-tons of Aliens instead."
"Weapons are born when tensions between men arise." That's how it has always been.
"..." Both of us fell silent.
"So, what do you wanna do now, Valedith? Wanna take a look at the outside?" Minerva asked.
"No, I should study this Stage 2 Xenobiotic body again," I replied and stood up.
"Really? Studying a Xenobiotic for the fifth time today? Ugh, you better uncover the key to killing those damn assassins." Minerva groaned again. "I'll come with you."
"Then please carry the Alien's body, dear protector." I smiled at Minerva and walked towards the door first.
"Ugh, here comes the Princess Syndrome of Her Highness~"
...
"Hmm~~" Minerva was humming~
While walking on the path to the Main Research Laboratory, I remembered a funny truth about the President. I wanted Minerva to know this as well, so I wanted to look at her and say it.
"Minerva, do you know that the President actua-"
As I twisted my body, the world changed in an instant.
Suddenly, I was standing in a vast grassland.
The transition was so smooth, so seamless that I didn't even have the time to blink. The sudden change was imperceptible, as if nothing bizarre just happened and it was like this in the first place. If this was magic, then in my life, this was the last magic I ever imagined seeing.
And here I am, looking at the puzzled Minerva and her black hair dancing with the winds as she stood in this sea of grass.
We got teleported, aren't we?
"Minerva...what just happened? I didn't-"
"-Valedith, what the heck just happened?! I blinked my eyes and the next thing that I see is you in a different place!" Minerva shouted, her rough hands brushing my face. "Am I real?! Am I dead?! Are you just a part of my dream?!"
She kept pinching my cheeks and shouted more words, "You got cuter suddenly! This must be a dream!"
"...No, Minerva. We actually got teleported." I gently took her hands off my face.
But there is something more interesting. Looking everywhere at the grasslands, far and close, it was inevitable for me to blurt out "Unbelievably amazing..." because it seemed like...it wasn't just me and Minerva that got teleported. Most of the people who were still alive along with us in Loragram are here as well. They are scattered around us as if we are in the center. "Look around us, Minerva. Isn't this amazing?"
Minerva's eyes widened, "Pe-People...? No way, is this...the works of the space teleportation?" She asked, walking around me while far gazing at the vast grassland and the people in it.
"I...don't know. But the only explanation for this is the space teleportation device." I crossed my arms, deep in thought, "So then...this is probably a wide-area type of teleportation." I said, thinking about many kinds of possibilities.
First, it seemed like we might have been randomly teleported into another world.. Second, is that since we can breathe normally, then space explorers have probably discovered this habitable planet in the past and made a station that hosts the connection of the teleportation device.
However, there are many holes in those theories, like the fact that there are no stations seen at all.
"Wait, Valedith, aren't there men in Loragram too?" Minerva suddenly asked, and it was an odd question that was as easy to answer as mapping the genome of the Xenobiotics.
"Yes, there are men, and then?"
"Can't you see?" Minerva looked around. "There are...only women here."
I have perfect eyesight, so I looked again at the people and found that there were only women. Some of them even started walking closer toward us.
Although there are fewer because they are mostly stationed closer to the Ground Zone, there are still men defending the boundaries of Loragram as well. However, as to why they didn't survive, it's probably because most of them are front-liners. After all, the base enhancements of their physical strength are naturally twice more than women.
"What if they all just died, Minerva?"
"-U...Uhm, Chairperson Valedith..." I suddenly heard my name being called. I looked behind as the voice seemed to have come from the back.
I didn't notice because I was talking with Minerva, and she didn't even bother saying that there were people close to us already.
"...Thank you for defending Loragram, dear soldiers." I thanked both of them and smiled. "As to why we are here in this grassland, I am afraid that I do not know either. My apologies." I said and bowed down. I can hear one of the girls whisper: why is the beautiful chairperson bowing her head to us?
I mean, I'm grateful for being protected yet I can't even reward them with information!
"I'm so sorry, girls." I continued bowing my head, now two inches closer to the ground.
"No no. It's not about that, Chairperson. The thing is..." she was hesitant to say further, but she continued either way, "...the men that were in front of us on the battlefield...they're not here."
"...Oh, I see."
In the end, what's stranger than being teleported here is that it's only us, women, who got teleported here.