Far north.

In the center of an iceberg surrounded by frozen waters, a damaged laboratorial structure stood out of place.

Automated drones flew around the area with a silent buzz as they tended to both major and minor repairs, their mechanical arms cut and welded whatever they deemed to be in bad condition. After their maintenance came to an end, all of the drones headed into a ventilation shaft that creaked open, welcoming them inside, before snapping shut once they entered.

The interior of the laboratory was dim, only illuminated by the blinking and glowing of machines. And the one who acted as the sole conductor over the array of technology was a man in a white lab coat. The coat bore the stitched insignia of an owl along with the word “Minerva” sitting right under it. It marked his origins quite clearly.

“Status?” A tired groan emerged from his lips before he sipped from a mug of coffee.

“We have isolated the strain of enhancement microbes that were released onto this planet. They have mutated rapidly, and benefited the natives of this world,” A machine-like voice intoned.

“Just call them humans,” The man replied to the emotionless AI while scratching at his unkempt beard.

“Understood… The enhancement microbes found in the blood of those humans can now be replicated without difficulty,” The AI said.

“Good to hear, move forward with implanting the most beneficial strains into our subjects.”

“Affirmative, but I am curious about one thing, Dr.Mcgrath.”

“About what?” The somewhat young doctor took another sip of his coffee before cracking his knuckles and rising to his feet. He sauntered around the lab, checking different data recordings while heading to a deeper corner.

“You have been assisting some of the humans of this planet since our sudden arrival, but you have withheld our strongest research and weapons from them as well as the locations of facilities that could help them. Why is that?”

“They’ve all benefited from the release of the enhancement microbes that were expelled into the atmosphere, but it affected the predatory species they call Corrupted too, right? Who is to say that more interference will result in a good outcome? Who is to say they won’t turn our weapons on each other? Imagine if we found a way to develop a nuclear warhead for these people. They are far more inclined to mutual destruction than the citizens of earth, that's for sure.” Dr.Mcgrath finished speaking as he arrived in front of dozens of liquid stasis pods.

Inside each cylindrical container of liquid, a man floated. There was no distinction in the features of the men as they all were without hair and had a very pale pigment of skin. In fact, they all had the same exact facial structure and height, it was uncanny how much they resembled each other. But considering it was Minerva, human cloning was no surprise.

“Inquiry. What is your main goal, Dr.Mcgrath? The data gathered from our time here shows that it is very unlikely that we will be able to return to earth based on our current rate of development.”

“Answer me this, how many laboratories have sent out broadcasting signals the time since our arrival?”

“As of now, we have detected just seven signals that are likely to have come from our laboratories. They are continually broadcasting even though we cannot establish contact.”

“So, there is a chance that those who worked on the project that sent us to an entirely different world may still be alive. Even if they aren’t, we have successfully found a way to replicate the genetic mutations that enhance the people if this world. Not only can I extend my lifespan, but I can increase my intelligence, and there will be a force of biologically enhanced soldiers to protect me. If we can recover the work from those laboratories we have a chance to return with Novidium. So our rate of development is not an issue for me, you see.”

“I understand,” The AI buzzed.

“...That reminds me, what’s the progress on locating Theresa Hagen’s experiment?”

“Do you mean CV-122-S-767?”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“I suspect that S-767 has survived. The facility created to deal with her sent out a signal indicating it was restored to operational capacity a few days ago before it went offline once more. It is incredibly likely that S-767 was the one to make use of the facility since no broadcast signal was sent out. A certain survival protocol would classify her as Minerva personnel once it was deemed that no other researcher was inside of the lab.”

“That’s great! We need to retrieve her at all costs. I’ve read Schrencard’s theories and she may be the key to our return… What’s the status of Project Bellona? If S-767 is under the control of someone else, we need to take immense precaution should she show hostility to us.”

“Project Bellona estimated time to completion: Seventy-two days, twelves hours, fifteen minutes, thirty-one seconds.”

“Bring up a diagram,” Dr.Mcgrath ordered the AI.

Very quickly, a 3D model was projected in front of him.

The blueprints depicted the figure of a young woman, but the mechanical parts that were highlighted indicated that her appearance was just a shell. Inside of the woman, there was nothing human, only complicated machinery.

“After the first batch of soldiers is finished, focus all resources on completing Project Bellona. That should shave off a few weeks. Also, make sure the Novidium Core is installed properly, I’d hate to have Bell overheat on her first deployment.”

“Understood,” The AI replied.

Dr.Mcgrath nodded as he stood in front of the glass tanks that held human-like beings within them. While he thought of his project as something small, the people of Novo Prime would erupt into chaos if they were aware of a way to reproduce the traits Abnormals showed. Not only that, but Dr.Mcgrath would put multiple high-level traits into the soldiers that could be produced en masse.

…

“Gun one and gun two.” Smith, as he called himself, the Chief Gunsmith of New Mayhall, placed two large pistols on the table.

The weapons, a pair of semi-automatic, high-caliber, high-velocity, pistols were made after Visette’s request. It had a very long bullish barrel that was thick.

“Uh… Be warned though, we had to use a damn spring mechanism to shoot those things. Had one bastard who thought he was tough enough and basically shattered his entire hand. His finger? Broken. His wrist? Broken? His palm? Multiple fractures. By Anton’s soul, I never thought I’d be asked to make a gun that can’t even be shot. Really, I doubt even most Abnormals could fire repeatedly. For one, it’s heavy, we needed a frame and barrel that could support high-caliber rounds-” He stopped his explanation when he noticed the two young women in front of him seemed unimpressed, “Well, whatever, here’s your guns.”

He slapped a holster onto the table and headed into a back room while grumbling about their attitude.

“Thanks,” Lyn said to his departing back.

Meanwhile, Visette had already begun to examine the two handguns. Since they were an uncommon request, they didn’t have an exquisite or very sharp appearance, but she held no desire for those qualities anyway. As always, performance was her highest priority. She discovered each pistol could hold 11 rounds which were more than enough for her to make use of.

She holstered the intimidating guns to her hip before directing her gaze to Lyn.

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Yes, they have been made to my exact specifications.”

“Right, then let’s go. You gotta prep for that damn ceremony and then there’s a dinner.”

“Is that necessary?”

“Necessary? Not really, but it helps raise morale for the city.”

“I understand. I do not mind allocating a portion of my time to such activities as long as they do not occur often.”

“I would’ve known that even if you didn’t tell me. Oh, you have to see Dr.Brendan too, don’t forget.”

“I will be sure to meet with her.”

The two of them headed out of the smithery and toward some other destination.

…

Elsewhere, more specifically directly underneath of Eden Hall.

The Cataclysmic Variant of Corrupted, known as Queen Zero, was being pumped full of enough sedatives to kill several dozen Corrupted, but she still kept her mental clarity.

Since the sedatives weren’t enough, there were also electrified restraints with an immense level of voltage.

“NOT...LONG…” Her raspy, inhuman voice grated against the ears of the listeners like nails.

“How do you Corrupted view humans?” Beyond her holding area, a voice buzzed from an intercom.

The interviewer was wise enough to remain a safe distance away.

“MEAT!” She growled, barely intelligible.

“So, why do you attack us so relentlessly when there are other sources?”

“YOU...TASTE...BETTER.” Her long tongue glided across her needle-like teeth as she let out a hoarse laugh.

“Are you not afraid of us killing you?”

Instead of responding, she simply laughed at the question. It was a dismissive laugh full of mockery and scorn as if the very thought was insulting to her. Seemingly self-aware of her own worth, she projected arrogance in her behavior.

“NOT...LONG,” She said once more with a greater sense of confidence.

“What is it that you mean by that?”

“THE CHILDREN...NOT LONG!” She began to thrash around.

[Increase the dosage and turn the voltage up.]

The Queen let out a shrill scream as she was electrocuted, thrashing around in pain.

“Don’t you get it? In our eyes, you are the meat. You seem to have some capacity of understanding, so why is it that you choose hostility? Are you not tired of your own species dying? Work with us and we can achieve a balance for both our species. If not, we will make sure every single Corrupted dies, one way or another.”

Suddenly, the Queen’s body stopped thrashing even though the voltage was raised.

[It- I think it’s immune to electricity!]

The Queen let out a guttural laugh as the sparks of electricity flew.

“YOU...are too arrogant, meat!”

Everything grew quiet as the Queen’s pattern of speech changed to a much more refined version.

“I have listened! I have waited! I have learned! You burned my flesh with your tools and filled me with your poisons! I will suffer no longer, meat! You ignorant lump of flesh, I will tear off your limbs before I feed you to my children! DO YOU UNDERSTAND, MEAT?!”

A layer of chitin grew over the Queen’s body like armor as she ripped apart the restraints.

[Attention! This is a code red scenario! Repeat! We need all teams to enact containment protocols!] The intercom whirred as flashing red lights filled the facility.

A shrill cry emerged from the Queen once more as she began tearing through her holding area. Her claws seem to be sharp enough to rip apart concrete and steel as it did nothing to slow her down.

Even as various gases were pumped into the room, it did all but slow her down.

“Incinerate the room! We’ll gather organic samples from her body, just kill it!” As the observer shouted, a wave of fire filled the room raising the temperature to hundreds of degrees in an instant.

Thirty seconds passed before silence and smoke filled the area. A group of soldiers in exosuits and reinforced polycarbonate armor set a perimeter in front of the Queen’s holding area and prepared to fire.

The air seemed to become completely still as they waited. A soldier kept his eyes forward until he noticed something. A small amount of dust falling onto the barrel of his gun. While it was something negligible, his attention was forcefully shifted once it continued falling.

His curiosity guided his eyes upward until he found the source of the dust. A crack in the ceiling that was slowly expanding.

“C-Captain,” He muttered as a single bead of sweat made a path down his cheek.

“Eyes forward!” The Captain, a man with immense experience waited for the smoke to clear.

His exosuit helped him hold up a weapon capable of firing thousands of rounds in a minute. It could cut down trees and destroy cars in an instant, so he had no doubt that several of those guns would injure the Queen.

The crack in the ceiling expanded even more as a chunk of concrete fell between the soldiers. More eyes went to the source as they found the structure of the lab falling to be odd.

“Captain!” A soldier screamed.

“What?!” The Captain shouted as he turned to look back but found all of his soldiers looking up.

His eyes drifted upward where he spotted a claw protruding from the ceiling.

Before his mind could even process what it meant, the ceiling collapsed as a creature dropped onto the soldiers.

“Move!”

Some dove out of the way, but others were destined to be squashed the creature which was the size of a bus. A Corrupted that lay flat on its stomach with long arms that were used for digging and short legs that pushed it forward.

“Fire!” The Captain bellowed and a hail of bullets followed soon after.

The Corrupted who seemed to specialize in digging was reduced into bits as the hot lead entered his body.

The Captain of the security team was about to give an order to cease fire but another Corrupted fell from the ceiling, this time, it was full of grotesque muscle. But it was still cut down by the gunfire.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there as more variants of Corrupted spilled into the room as the soldiers exhausted their ammo. Soon, there were dozens filling the area and it was unknown if the Queen was still alive.

“Retreat-” The Captain managed to mutter before a terrible pain invaded his body. A huge elongated claw dug into his torso and pierced through his armor with ease.

His body was hoisted into the air as he let out painful groans that were mixed with sheer disbelief.

“Meat.” The voice of Queen Zero rang out in his mind before her rows of teeth tore his head off.

The soldiers noticed a step too late and could do nothing as a chorus of clicks resounded, indicating they had run dry. Even if they hadn’t run out of ammo, hundreds of Corrupted were spilling into the room at an uncontrollable rate.

Their screams were drowned out as they were beset by the vicious horde that greedily consumed them in seconds. Only scraps of flesh and bone that were too small to eat were left behind along with blood stains.

The Queen let out another ear-piercing scream and the horde changed its direction. At the same time, several bus-sized Corrupted erupted from the floor and ceiling and began to head for a solid concrete wall under the Queen’s orders.

The horde emitted a symphony of animalistic roars, cries, and screams as they thrived around like one massive organism. Their numbers seemed endless as more poured in from the holes in the ground.

It appeared that holding the Queen underground was a poor choice as thousands of Corrupted were led in through tunnels made in secret. And even worse, she seemed to know they were coming the entire time.

The concrete wall fell and the rabid horde descended into every area of the facility. The casualties that followed were too high to count, not that there would be anyone left alive to even do so.