Chapter 2: The Aftermath

The Supervisor of the Project is an older Omakwean, her dazzling multicolored skin has faded, but she's still able to retain the appearance of someone half her age. Today though, while sitting in her drab chair as her subordinates give today's reports, she clearly aged a full decade in just a few minutes.

After the complete reports were given, a slightly astringent smell filled the room. The Humans and Glieseans in the room could tell it meant she was fuming, but to an Omakwean, it was a furious rant of curses that would make a soldier blush. The report was a disaster and she would have to give her old friend, the Director, the bad news.

Glieseans are tall, green and known for their beauty, but this one was taller, greener, and more beautiful than any other. Even sitting at her desk, the Director was twice the height of the Supervisor. Her deep emerald skin had paled over the two centuries she has lived, an unnatural lifespan for them.

"You're angry. More than I've ever seen. What happened?" The Director is the only person able to understand the chemicals her friend gives off, Which makes her deeply worried when the Supervisor hands her a small stack of papers.

"Subject S's level spike and disappearance. 10,000 casualties. Irrevocable environmental harm. Subject V's life being completely derailed. Our plan is ruined." The two women were infamous for their calm demeanor; the Director serenely read through the report detailing how her life's work was falling apart without a hint of emotion on her face. Not even she could suppress this anger for long. The steel desk slams into the wall, turning the room into an utter mess.

"RUINED!" The facility's walls are thick, but the roar was likely heard far across the labs. After a few heavy breaths, she sighs and recollects herself, fixing her hair and clothes.

"Ma'am, how should we proceed? The damage is extensive; the team isn't sure how to contain it." The Supervisor's job is to oversee the day-to-day operations of the project. Coming up with a solution to this mess is the responsibility of senior staff.

"It all comes back to S." The subject had hidden himself after reaching level 3 and had somehow discovered a way to send falsified data back to the researchers. All of the data since then is utterly useless to the project. It isn't known precisely what was falsified; nearly all of it will be scrapped.

"We need to find him to get some answers. In the meantime, we still need to replace the junked data." The Director sits back down and for several minutes, mulls in silence with a twisted face.

"Prepare Subject C for [Reincarnation]." she finally choked out with barely contained tears

"Ma'am, you can't be serious."

For the last century, the Director has always been stoic, especially for the past 6 years. Supervisor knew why she did this, but the burden was too much. To see her close friend finally crack like this was difficult.

"We have no other choice. It's the only way to recover from this setback. Develop a new Type D metric. Memories will return after 3 years at a concurrent rate until she reaches her current age."

"But what shall we do about the Type A metric?" More data will certainly be useful, but this doesn't solve the issue with the lost Type A data.

"We're writing it off for now. V has proven Type B produces a normal EKG and development. S, on the other hand, has proven there can be issues with Type A. We can't risk it right now, not until we can put further safeguards in place.

"Yes, Ma'am. I understand. What about [Character Creation]? There isn't a tribe equivalent for your species." That world has an inordinate number of species, but still, nothing that exactly matches Glieseans.

"I've already made my decision, but ask her what she wants. It'll ultimately be up to her. It's the least I can do to make up for something this horrible." The director motions for the Supervisor to finish and leave.

"Ma'am." she stops herself from saying anything else despite wanting to comfort her. Instead, she leaves. "I understand."

The Director is left alone in her wrecked office to grieve in silence.

"Damn those blasted feds."

— — —

It's been six months since the meteor shower and lots happened. I hear that it was seen all across the island and even in the capital, but all the meteors fell over our small town. It was the army mages that protected the town; they deflected them into the fields.

Something that day changed in me. I don't know why and can't explain it, but everything makes more sense to me now. I saw someone else's memories while looking at that sky. They felt like they belonged to me, but I didn't recognize them. All I could understand was that a man my brother's age was killed by his friends. It's been so busy that I haven't had a chance to explore those new memories.

That day my brother left for the capital. He's only sent a single letter so far, but I'm sure he's safe. Mom didn't stop crying until she got the letter, then she cried even more. Dad kept a stern face like always while River giggled at the commotion around her.

When you become a smoke-master for the army, they'll grant you any one wish. My brother chose for them to discover what his magic is. That's the part that made her cry even more after finding out he had made it to the capital safely and was settling in and making friends. He didn't share with us what his magic is; it might not be safe to share that through the mail. He got a big promotion almost immediately and sent us his bonus pay, a staggering 125 gold pieces. Dad was really proud of that, he even said I shouldn't be afraid to take risks if I want to be successful. Of course, that didn't stop him from recklessly spending nearly all of the gold on meteors despite us not being able to work that much metal. Mom gave him slaps for both encouraging bad behavior and for his bad finances.

I hope he'll come back and visit us soon, though, with that new promotion, it sounds like he'll be busy for a while. Something feels weird about the letter, but I won't know until I can confront him about it.

— — —

Close to a month after the meteor shower, a Highlander smith came to town to work on the meteorites. Highlanders come from a giant mountain to the south, they live in clans, are dedicated to different crafts, and also look a bit different from us. I was told that while Midlanders were born of soil and that's why we have dark skin, Highlanders were carved from stone, so they have pale grey skin. That's pretty much all I know, though they aren't uncommon in the mining town to the south.

I don't know what clan this smith is from, but everyone calls him Goldenlocks. Supposedly his rust hair used to be gold when he was young. He's about 14 cm shorter than my dad but way bulkier. He looks more like a smith than even dad, but I don't know how he doesn't burn that beard off.

Goldenlocks came to work as a contractor, but he found out dad had way more meteorites than anyone else. There was a bit of commotion when others found out; after that Goldenlocks cut a deal with dad. He moved into the third floor of our building and has been working with dad in the forge to get through all the metal.

He also brought an apprentice along… but I don't want to talk about her. The first thing she did was mess with me. She said I should bring her meat every day. Why would I want to do that? I'm not her servant. Everyone else though laughed and told me not to worry about it. I wish they would take my side and not encourage a bully!

— — —

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The whole town has been busy. Everyone has something they got to do. The meteors did a lot of damage and brought a lot of opportunities to make some gold, so no one wants to miss the chance. Even the priest has been busy with giving more sermons, warning against excess and encouraging working together.

He's even doing sermons today. More important than all of that though. My friend Mountain Trader is coming back to town now, though everyone calls her Tanny. Her father left for his work shortly before the meteor shower and Tanny went with him to learn. I bet she'll be really upset she missed it.

"Mr. Trader!" I shouted for her dad as I saw him unloading his luggage from the train. This train station was only built a year after I was born. Even though it's an hour away from the town, it was meant to connect us to the big cities. When he noticed me, I ran up to him to ask about where Tanny was.

Mr. Trader made an ugly face and avoided my gaze. My heart sank.

"Tanny is, well she…."

Suddenly I'm hit in the head with something. I'm soaking wet. I turn around and see a girl way older than me laughing at me.

"She got her magic and had a growth spurt. She's impossible to handle. I'm going to toss her to her mother next time I leave."

That's Tanny!? No way, she's only 2 years older than me, but she looks way older than that. She must have spent a lot of time outside because her skin is even darker now and she tied her wild brown hair into a long ponytail. Despite all the changes, I know it's Tanny because the only change to her grin is that it's even bigger.

She comes running down from the hill with tears in her green eyes from laughing so much.

"Tanny!" I'm so angry at her. We promised to never prank each other. This is so unfair. Tanny was also like a late bloomer like me and the first thing she does is show off her magic like this!

"I'm sorry, Rose." She stops laughing and pulls me into a hug. Her mean prank made me forget that I'm friends with her because she was always so nice.

"I didn't know how to tell you I got my magic, so I did this instead." Despite being nice, she's also kind of dumb. Whatever, I'll forgive her just this once.

"I forgive you."

"Thanks! Come on, let's go to our usual place." She pulls me along with her to the horses and unleashes one of them.

"Hey, we can't take a horse, your dad needs them."

"It's fine. You kids go have fun, catch up." Mr. Trader will let Tanny do whatever she wants just so he doesn't have to deal with her.

"See, it's fine. Now let's go." Tanny pulls me up onto her horse and off we go. Tanny really has changed, she can even ride horses now. It makes me feel like I'm falling behind her and my brother.

I'll just have to catch up soon.

— — —

It took a few months to accurately assess the damages caused by that night. The Director read through the long, extensive report handed to her by the Supervisor. The damages were far more extensive than assumed from the initial report. The project team will be lucky if the system doesn't respond with equal force. No one knows what S is planning or how the system will respond. A new countermeasure needs to be established; a gift for V. The Director's pensive face gave way to a twisted smile.

"Ma'am…" The Supervisor knows exactly what the kind of face means, and she does not like it.

"There should still be a few Celeste souls wandering about after that attack. Find the strongest and prepare a guardian for V. If S is determined to take, then we'll give."

"Ma'am, I am firmly against this idea. The system won't respond well to such an overt action. All of our current projections will become useless."

"S has already seen to that. If we don't adapt, he has the advantage. If the worst truly does come to pass, I'll use my System keys to get rid of him."

"I can't let you do that, "they" would notice." "They" can't act against anyone with keys, but they can certainly be an inconvenience.

"I'd like to see them try. This planet has us two and that generous benefactor. With his help, we could sink an entire fleet before they realize what we're doing."

The Supervisor has heard far too much ridiculousness. Despite her short size, she reaches up and strikes the Director across the face with all the force she can. The Director would barely feel it, but she understood the meaning.

"I understand your frustration, your anger. I'm also disgusted by their recent actions; my ancestors would be ashamed. That said, you need to calm down. You've always preferred the direct approach, but if you did that, the 10 million people you promised to protect are the ones that would die.

"I'm sorry, you're right. I have to keep a clear head. Proceed with the [Divine Beast] plan, then hide them. That power should only be used when necessary. I won't get involved personally. I promise."

"Understood."

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