Asia Region. Third Base Operations Department.
“Reporting, Commander. The Americas Region has officially responded.”
“Oh?”
After hearing his subject’s report, the man sitting on the chair and knitting his brows at the screen lifted his head. He turned around, tapped the keyboard twice, and a formal and rigorously-worded email appeared before him. After reading the email, the man let out a snort.
“How’s the situation?”
“What else can those westerners do? They failed, of course. Look at them; I wonder what they did to enrage Godzilla and why they are still playing dumb even now. They said everything is within their control. They’re taking precautions and assured us that they will respond immediately after finding the target… Tsk. A load of crap.”
“That isn’t Godzilla, Commander.”
After hearing his commander’s words, the soldier beside him raised his arm hesitantly.
“That should be a dragon…”
“Isn’t that about the same? Godzilla, dragon, Ultraman, and whatnot. My kids loved watching them when they were young. In the past I used to say those things were only shown to hoax children. Well what do you know? It became reality now. Even though that monster didn’t find trouble with us, who knows what will happen next time? Where should we go to find Ultraman or Calabash Brothers?”
The man said, spreading his arms apart helplessly. In fact, the monster had become the biggest topic in all moon regions over the past few days. The battle where Erin transmigrated and clashed with the Americas Region’s guards was witnessed by everyone. Later on, many were baffled after the nuclear warheads failed to have any effect on it. Many biologists were also bewildered. Logically speaking, the environment of the universe was extremely harsh, where even theoretically-perfect aliens would be doomed after being tossed out of spaceships. After all, apart from oxygen and food, air pressure and extreme coldness were the biggest obstacles in restricting the existence of life. But not only did the enormous dragon turn a blind eye to these factors, but ultimate killer weapons also couldn’t hurt it at all. It was due to this reason that the dragon became the biggest doubt of everyone in the moon regions. On the other hand, the biologists’ hair turned gray from stress as they couldn’t find a logical explanation for the existence of such a massive ‘creature’.
The concerns of the supervisors were more in-depth. Aside from how powerful the monster was and why it showed up, it was a fact that it appeared and also wreaked havoc in the Americas Region before slipping away unscathed from a nuclear warhead. Therefore, their main concern was what that monster was. Was it a weapon developed by the crazy scientists in the Americas Region? Or was it a monster living under the moon and provoked from its sleep? During this period of time, all satellites scanned the Earth and moon in full force. After all, according to the analysis of the experts, since the monster was able to engage in battle on the moon without obstruction, it proved that it was possibly equipped with the ability to fly in space (even though its source of energy was still a mystery). If it were to escape to Earth… the situation would be disastrous!
Apart from that, they also wanted to know if that monster was natural or man-made. If it was the latter, they had to re-examine the Americas Region and the forces behind it…
“Yawn…”
All of a sudden, they heard a soft yawn. Everyone turned around quickly and saw a woman in white uniform lifting her head from the table sleepily. Her hair was somewhat fluffy and cluttered, perhaps from sleeping for too long. Under her eyes were two large dark circles as though she were exhausted from working all night and finally had the chance to catch some sleep. However, the people around her didn’t raise any objection. It seemed like they were used to it.
“Any response from them? How’s the result?”
“No response, Major.”
After hearing her question, the man shrugged helplessly and extended his arm to show the email content from the Americas Region to her. The woman casually tilted her head, pushed up her glasses, and finished reading the email with half-closed eyes. But she didn’t say a word. After pondering for a while, she asked: “What’s the result from the earlier investigation?”
“We’ve investigated the boarding records and confirm that those two civilians have indeed entered the Americas Region by train. But all contact was lost later and our people spotted the train from 500 meters away. Judging from its plight, it seemed to have faced a certain degree of impact and was engulfed in the previous battle. We didn’t discover any corpses in the carriage and its surroundings and two emergency spacesuits were missing from the carriage. But the oxygen capacity can only last them for five hours at the very most.”
The man replied, before coming to a pause. Then, he continued.
“But according to our investigations, two of the young ladies’ identification cards were used in a self-service hotel three hours ago. We tried to retrieve the surveillance video but there were no results…”
“Oh…”
Even though the man was serious in his report, the woman continued to be half-asleep. She barely opened her eyes, her head swaying like a lazy, sleepy student listening in class to her teacher. But no one raised any objection to her attitude. After all, they clearly knew what kind of a person she was.
“… Yawn… got it.”
After hearing his report, the woman yawned again before leaning on the chair. Then, she tapped her fingers across the keyboard and the holographic images of the two young ladies appeared before her. She scanned their faces and closed her eyes after a few moments.
“By the way, have you reached their parents? How did it go?”
“This…”
The man revealed a somewhat discontent expression for the first time.
“… Reporting, Major. The families have responded. They don’t have any specific requests apart from sufficient compensation…”
The man was angered at the immediate thought of it. This wasn’t the first time he experienced something similar. In the past, families requested for ‘search and rescue’ of their kin, begging to see the person if they were alive or body if they were dead. Some families had even berated them in agitation. However, the man tolerated them. After all, they were families of the victims and couldn’t be blamed for their frustrations. On the contrary, these two families didn’t have any reaction at all upon learning that their girls went missing. Not only that, but they also couldn’t wait to hang up on the phone after dealing with them in mere formalities. This left him really dissatisfied.
“… Is that so…”
The woman nodded, shut her eyes to ponder for a moment, and said, “Get one squad ready. I will lead them personally for the search and rescue.”
“… Huh?”
Everyone was taken aback.
“Major, are you sure you’re going alone? Besides, earlier on the Americas Region is…”
“Our people are missing. Since they can’t offer any help, it is only natural for us to deploy ourselves… yawn… this also doesn’t violate the moon alliance agreement… yawn…”
“That… indeed doesn’t violate the agreement. But…”
After hearing the woman’s words, everyone revealed complicated expressions. Well, they couldn’t be blamed. Even though the countries that landed on the moon had signed the moon alliance agreement and worked out mutual rules, it was a pity that unless the world was unified into one nation, many agreements were completely blank. Therefore, although everyone raised the banner of ‘all human beings work together to develop the universe’, as for what was happening in private… Everyone knew the truth.
The deep-rooted bad habits of humans…
“Report to the higher-ups that I will be leading this ‘search and rescue’ and that is all… Yawn… I’m exhausted; I will head back to sleep. Gather the squad and we’ll head to the Americas Region in five hours. No matter what those girls are our civilians and we must be accountable. Besides, we can also investigate the internal affairs of the Americas Region along the way… By the way, after receiving the approval from above, inform the Americas Region’s headquarters of our visit. Since we’re heading there as guests, we must be well-mannered to inform them beforehand.”
“Yes, Major!”
Since the woman had given the orders, her subordinates couldn’t rebut anymore. Shortly after, they got to work and at this moment, the woman leaned on the chair and gazed at the holographic image before her silently. Then, a man in blue uniform approached her and asked softly.
“Major, do you know who the young ladies are?”
“… I’ve spent some time with them in the past. They’re decent girls.”
The woman stood up and extended her arm. Shortly after, the image transformed into a hologram and in the blink of an eye, the display of that enormous dragon raging on the moon appeared before her again. She stared at the dragon silently. After a few moments, she shifted her gaze away from the hologram.
“Alright then, I will head to bed. Wake me up after five hours,” she said.
