An evening on Blue Terra, Viridiana Republic....

Already two days since the incident of Blue Terra. News report put the scene as their headline ever since, and everyone still discuss the event, both in online media, and in real life.

Currently on the evening, the school that involved on the incident as they participate on the conscription, Saint Prestige High, still on a day off, suspended, as both students and teacher still recovering from the tragedy. Not only busy with their therapy, but authority also busy investigating the case, and the teachers also cooperate on providing all the information that they had.

Meanwhile, the students of Class XI - C, one of the class that included the conscription hosted for the whole eleventh grade, been discussing about an... inciting detail of the news. Not only the students, but the teacher, including their instructor during the Martyr, also there. 

"And how can two people went missing when the whole ship explode? Where's Keith and Millus!?" Young girl with pink hair complained in front of the group, seems more fired-up than the rest, half due to her personality, and half because she valued her friends dearly. Everyone else nod, since the report been pretty fishy, and the authority refuse to answer their call until finally, now they're here. 

"Please calm down, Miss Jessica." An older man, that didn't looks that old yet, speaking. He's their class representative, Rick Massachusetts. Beside him, are the rest of the teachers, and there's also two police agents; one investigator, and one officer.

"According to what we learned so far, there's a chance for the two to be still alive... Even though the chance is small." One of them speak. The truth is, even the expert still clouded by the outcome of the events, and analysis of the situation still incomplete.

"Can you please state the fact in a structured details?" Filiana tilt her glass between her eyes in attempt to evoke an intellectual image, or trying to sound smart, which she already does. 

The officer click on his terminal and project a lengthy holographic screen containing their publicized official report. "The official report state that over 100 of people was killed by the attack, 275 people successfully evacuated, and 2 was missing. That's all that the official report state. We had no other official information to deliver." He speak in such rigid, stern way, much like how police of the era act; with minimum of emotions.

"Now the question is, how can the report accurately said there's ONLY two people missing, when they didn't even know the exact amount of those who died?" Clive immediately cut in. He, who had bitter tongue toward the authority, speak to no compromise. His tone clearly sharp toward the two, not because he dislike them, but because he distrust the government. There could be something that they hide.

"Mr. Clive, we do had our reliable resource on why we state such number. It's hard to accurately calculate the number of those who died, as they're vaporized by the unknown alien weapon, causing almost no remain can be found, but there IS a trace. And this is where our trusted official investigator conclude that, due to the almost nonexistence remnant from the two last people, we assume them to be still alive. Or at least, their bodies didn't turned to ashes." The investigator speak.

"Let me guess.... you use a bio-scan over the region as your researcher collect the data, and find no evidence that Keith and Millus to be dead, nor alive, so you assume their status as missing?" Clive reply, still with doubt and accusation.

"Correct, Mr. Clive. After using the bio-scan, we manage to collect most of the remaining living tissues. Most already becomes dust, but we still can analyze the DNA from the specks. After scanning all over the vacuum space of Martyr's shipwreck, and we found a result. The bio-scan detect a minuscule trace of Jacob Hestiss and Millus Arcbrand, however, unlike the rest, their result are so vague, it most likely just come from a minor wound opening. With such low percentage of chemical reaction, their body shouldn't be disintegrated to dust."

"Which mean there's still chance for them to be alive out there?" Jess suddenly speak, in hopeful tone. It's clear just how much she's dying worried about her two buddy.

"There's a percentage. That's all that we can say." The officer and the investigator said for one last time. After that, all the teachers continue their own private discussion with the two official representative about all the affair and their next action to do, regarding the school and the students too.

Meanwhile, most of the students leave the hall, but few remains. Jess still looks down, while Fi tap her shoulder on her side. "We can only pray, Jess." The shorter girl said, and Jess nod.

Meanwhile, Clive look at the sky above...

For some reason, his instinct told him that the government still had something to reveal...

____________________________________________________

[ FIRST PERSON POV ]

Two days later

I fall into a deep dream.

Just like how dreams meant to be, they're only a random projection of images driven through abstract emotions. With a little bit of consciousness, you could turn the path of your dream to your preferred path, more logical and less abstract. That's what a study said during 22th century.

Mine driven by the memory of that day, of the incident, that still embroidered on my mind. 

It's a long dream, dominated with two scheme of color; carmine and indigo. There's explosions, bright light, and some people that I've known to be dying... Then finally, I dive into the far open space, zooming through the stars.

Of course I can't possibly understand the meaning of it, as as we had no real intellectual capability inside our dream, where logic was turned off, and brain was in rest. However as soon as my eyes opened, I recalled the dream, and I understand what it was.

"Ohhh!! He's finally awake!!" That's what I heard the moment I opened my eyes. The next is the sight, that comes after my eyes adjusted and my vision cleared; There's few men around me, all to be adult, wearing simple clothes. Some of them wear uniform of brown and yellow vest, completed with black and grey parts. Seems they're somekind of a worker, maybe construction worker or miner. Especially since some of them equipped with a sturdy metal helmet, and it had a circular glass above their forehead, which is their lamp. Unlike the old 21st mining, the safety for interplanetary mining worker is a great importance due to the possibility of them being exposed to dangerous environment. For heavy work, they wear armor and high-tech safety device, including their helmet that can withstand much impact, and equipped with bright torch lamp.

The room itself looks like an ordinary room, and perhaps bit too ordinary. It had concrete walls and an old air conditioner, with many old-type bed you would expect to see before 23th century, as they're just a bed, with no mechanism. Bed nowadays had computerized mechanism where they can be fold, can be moved easily, can lower and heighten themselves. Also, concrete wall without any mechanism considered to be traditional and very old style, too. True that not every house made with expensive computerized walls like what spaceship had, but even so, walls of ordinary house in Blue Terra often had computer panels and many more tools to help you adjust the room. Which mean, this can't be Blue Terra.

"Where... Am I?" That's the first question that I naturally uttered, and it seems to cause quite of commotion. They seems to be surprised.

"You don't know? Whoaa an amnesia case!! Just like in fictions!" 

"Huh...? I remembered my name alright. It's Keith." I said, quickly straightening the situation. They exhale and chuckle over it. 

"Oh my bad, don't mind it."

"Anyway, this is planet Feldale of Daina solar system." Another man speak with gentle, mature tone, while he offer me a glass of water. I weakly try to move my body and drink the water. Ahh.... it's refreshing. My throat seems to be dry, and the cold water flushed quickly into me, which mean my stomach must been empty. How long did I sleep?

"Feldale of Daina system? That's... pretty far from where I was previously." I commented.

"Where'd you come from, kiddo?" A bigger mining worker asked me as he tidy up his cabinet with worker tools.

"I'm from Blue Terra, Cerisia system." I shortly introduce myself, and they gasped, seems to be genuinely surprised, as they murmured around between each other. What's so surprising from being a citizen of Blue Terra?

"Cerisia is few solar system away from Daina! How can you get here? We see no spaceship or anything."

"That's.... also something I want to ask. HOW did I get here?" That's a legitimate question, since I had no memory on what happened since..... since the Martyr exploded. I lost my consciousness.

"You just land to a crater, seems to be freshly made, along with your friend. There's no remnant of any spaceship, or a shuttle, or whatever else. Just you and him."

....Him? I don't remember to bring a company.... 

I mean, I don't even remember how can I get stranded here, let alone remembering my company. Also, how did I survived the explosion of Martyr? Normally, you shouldn't survive such series of explosions, and even if you do, there's only vacuum await outside. So either I get rescued, or.... could it be that I'm the one who saved myself? But.... how?

I just shake my head softly and shrug the questions, refusing to delve deeper into this. My head still not ready to recalled the tragedy properly. Too much things happening.

"Anyway, just tag any of us if you ever had something to ask. Also, you should eat, and we don't mind sharing free foods. You haven't eat for like... three days." One of them toss a bag of snacks to me, and I'm just there with my mind hanging.

Three days....?

"I was sleeping for three days straight? What day is it?"

As a note; It's hard to determine days as each planet had their own time. To make it fair and equal for all, ever since 23th century, we had something known as "Unified Calendar", which is a time measurement that used by all nations, all planet, regardless of your time zone. So you had two time - one that is your local time, and one that is the united time of all human race, that which can be seen through any device such as phone or computer, automatically updated and sync so you can determine how long is "three days later" regardless the time zone of your planet. So even though every planet had their own clock system depend on their revolution and rotation, the United Calendar is the universal standard. Think it as international language, but it's instead in form of time zone. 

The Unified Calendar itself invented by Frank Josephine Brights on 23rd century, from planet Evemore (named after the largest mountain of the old Earth, Everest), that is the very first planet that humanity colonized during 22nd century. Basically, the calendar had 30 days for all month, and there 10 month in total. 

"In united time? 15th Quincial." One of the worker said as they open their mobile terminal. Quincial is the fifth month. To make it easier to be memorized, all the months ends with "cial", taken from the word "celestial" and each of them named over the spelling/pronounce of old Roman numeral. Thus, the ten months goes as Unacial (numberal I, unus), Duacial (numeral II, duo), Trescial (numeral III, tres), Quacial (IV, quattuor), Quincial (V, quinque), Secial (VI, sex), Septecial (VII septem), Octocial (VIII, octo), Novecial (IX, novem), and Dececial (X, decem).

On my last day in Martyr, it  was 11th of Quincial, which mean it's already four day since the Martyr incident! They probably found me on the second day, as I assume that I arrived on this solar system a day after the incident, by whatever method that was used.

"One more thing. Your friend await outside." They speak again before leaving me alone. Ahhh yes they mentioned that I do come here with someone, but I had no idea, to be honest. I lay back to the bed, stretching my body and try to work on it, after days of sleeping. So I slowly extend my feet and move it around. I also notice that I wear a simple white shirt and long pants on the same color. Must be an unused staff working clothes? Anyway I step down and--- Oh god the floor felt tad cold without a fluffy sandal. I guess they're not using such thing for the indoor, eh? But I do find some public-usage sandals outside of the room, free to use, and so I borrow one. 

The corridors outside had multiple room on each side, symmetrically, much like the corridor of a hotel. The whole building is maze full of worker's room, so it's almost like a dorm. Each sector had a lounge-like room with couch, a flat-screen TV on the walls, some air conditioner, some pot of plants, and a terminal screen for information purposes such as access to information of the place, maps, details of the place, et cetera. On every every mess hall or end of corridor, there's also a small sign below the ceiling to show our current location. I'm now in D-1, and from the info screen, the exit should be on A-1.

I reached the main lobby, and fresh air greet me, along with a beautiful sunlight of a barren wasteland. Multiple craters filled the place, with space rock and boulders exist as debris floating and revolving around the mesosphere or exosphere, while the sun is hazy yellow-ish with atmosphere of pale white-yellow-cream, almost like the earth's sky under desert climate during a cloudy afternoon, unless the hue of the sky isn't bluish white, but creamy chiffon yellow due to the smoky dust. Breathing here isn't exactly pleasurable. It's safe and breathable, but the air is nothing fresh, as the planet seems to be an arid desert.

By the moment I was outside, I remember seeing this planet before. It's mentioned in my high school textbook under subject of "Planetary Geographic". Feldale is a wasteland planet, consist of desert, valley full of rocks and stones, dry harsh land, much like moons, unless with an atmosphere to support the little-to-no living ecosystem. I think the only major biodiversity here is underground creature and desert-crawler alike. The name of the planet itself comes from the abundance of feldspar mineral, and the landscape that feature much valleys. So then the "feldspar" and "dale" becomes Feldale. 

Long ago, this place is an inhabited desert planet with no human colony, until mining activity occurred and the planet get exploited in rapid development. Albeit there's no nation, there's indeed cities and settlement scattered over the wasteland. This development is all thanks to Lunascave, the major mining company that owned the planet. They like to claim and farm out asteroid or moons for minerals, hence their name: Luna for moon, scave for scavenge. Companies nowadays sure don't think much when naming their brand. Nevertheless, Lunascave isn't like a top-ranked company as they considered to be a really opportunist conglomerate, borderline violating the law by ruining few moon under outside territory of their own. Greedy is a better words for me.

I walk out slowly, feeling the sands blown by the wind as I shield my eyes. The sands here rather.... soft, almost like dust. Below the boulders and craters, I walk through the hill. I can see the horizon far, far away. Mountains to mountains, craters to craters, and debris decorate the sky. Our current area also had few smaller mining base, each nearby craters or cavern.

Then... I spot a familiar figure. Someone sit alone atop a huge chunk of rock, and wind blow his copper hair, giving hint of orange. As soon as my eyes captured the sight, I recognize him, and spark of happiness flare into me. I'm so relieved! He must been waiting, so I immediately run down the hill and call his name.

"MILLUS!! HEY!!"

I excitedly wave my hand, and he's startled by my shouting, but he's quick to recognize my voice. He's surprised, and seems to be happy too!

But I slip down the slope, and slide through the hill, rolling down the sands as cloud of dust blow out. Pheh- the surface is too soft to sprint on! As I dust myself, Millus was laughing so lightheartedly. He never change.

"You're so mean! Help your bro out!" I pout with a stare. He's still trying to stop his laughing. 

"Haha... Sorry, sorry! It's just... Seeing you made me so happy. I....  dunno, I feel so relieved." His laugh fully died as his tone get more emotional. I get it. If he's awake first, he must be here, waiting for me, all alone, on a distant planet without a relative, living among unfamiliar faces, and he must also be overwhelmed after what happened to us, and confused on why we're here, and what our fate will become.

"Yeah... I'm happy to see you too." I softly smiled. 

"Same. You're finally awake. I was worried that you'll never open your eyes anymore." He come closer and sit beside me.

"I understand. When I wake up, I also.... wondered about what happened to our friends when the Martyr exploded and...." I hesitate to continue. I'm not ready to open up the bitter tragedy that just shook our life. It's pretty tragic...  So many lives lost in that tragedy. So many innocent people died fighting valiantly, throwing their life to save few of us. Everything happened so fast, and our ordinary life took a turn into this.

He pat on my shoulder, massaging my back lightly to console me. "I... I'm not sure either. We had no idea. Nothing that we can do, but at least, I'm here, my friend."

I smiled. He's right. For now, we should just let it pass through time. There's nothing good on looking back to just dwell there. 

"Now let's go for a little walk. I wanna know more about this planet, and seems we get plenty of time for that." I stand up and admire the horizon. Millus nod as he stand up to and hold my shoulder in friendship gesture, as we converse further when we walk aside the hill.

____________________________________________________

[ THIRD PERSON POV ]

The next morning...

Instead of the sounds of alarm, the morning period of Feldale desert started with few sounds of drilling and explosives. Mining activity start early on the morning, at least for the morning shift. After all, there's no birds as a morning sign, when the desert only had sand crawlers.

"So, how's your leg now?" Keith ask to Millus as they sit on top of a rocky mountain in size of a skyscraper, that connected to the cliff hill. 

"Fully recovered." The older boy roll his pants up, revealing the scar that he got from the alien attack. He's lucky to survive with just a flesh wound. Few inches of mistake, or a slightly off timing, then the laser could cut off his whole feet. Also fortunately, with the medical technology nowadays, it's easy to heal a minor wound.

"That's great. Mine.... also healed already." Keith almost forgot that he can't tell the detail of the event to Millus. In fact, he's not sure why his limb, that was gotten destroyed, suddenly regenerate back to normal as he receive the unknown power.

Keith is unsure, but he do realize his change. It's not a delusion nor a mere imagination. He did obtain a power that he know nothing about. With it, he indeed wipe clean the slate, beating up the alien that ridicule the national force of Blue Terra. 

Without he realize it, it's not just his own body that changed. Everything changed when he struck the crystals with his right hand.

And he start to feel uneasy. Foreboding brew inside his inner instinct....

On the other side, Millus had his own things that occupy his mind.

"Maybe this sound weird...." The brunette decide to speak up for something that weight his mind ever since the day. Yes, he witnessed how Keith had his unexplained transformation and manage to ruthlessly kill the aliens with bare hand. He see him changed drastically, not only physically, but personally too. He's afraid that he's not his friend anymore. What if he's not human anymore? But that worry, that doubt, that accusation seems to be too soon to be spoken, yet. "...Nevermind. I forgot what I'm going to say." He pretend.

Keith look at him with a curious sight. He clearly sense worry on his friend's eye, and he know he's somewhat uncomfortable.

Millus can't help but stare back at Keith's deep teal pupils. 

"Such innocent eyes. He.... he couldn't have ever do it. I know Keith. He can't even punch people. He's such a nice person, and I know that he always want to stand up for the right of others, to help those in need, but...."

He want to believe that he's still the same, but at the same time, he can't convince himself that what he saw isn't Keith. He's conflicted. He's afraid. He afraid that he'll lose the only friend on his side, right now.

"Jeez... Just spit it out!!" Keith exhale as he cross his hand in his chest, clearly seeing through Millus's mask. 

"Oh nothing, nothing really!" Millus stroke his back head, trying to think of an answer. He really didn't want to question his friend. Keith also didn't persist to know about what's in mind of his buddy, as they prefer to enjoy the sunrise with a nice breakfast. A simple bread baked with cheese, egg, and ham, then added some lettuce. 

Keith sighed. His mobile terminal was broken somehow, for reason he's unaware with. Maybe it broke when he transformed? Maybe it's because the ship exploded? Or perhaps he land to the planet like a meteor and the turbulence broke the device? He don't know.

"Dammit I haven't finished my games, and the terminal broke." Keith lament on his loss.

"You can just redownload the game later. I'm sure your save game still intact on the server." Millus replied. Game nowadays, even the simplest one for mobile, automatically synced to your online account, so even if your device broke, then all your data remains.

"I mean, some of my game is offline, so the data stored on the phone."

"What games?"

"Max Action Gunblast, Crystal Puzzle of Heaven, Ninjarun X Lite, Blackspace, Zombiedroid, Vector Card Tournament, Galactic Ranger Mobile, Fantasia Sword Tactic Chibi Version, Demonlord War, Agent Red Star, New Generation Neko Atsume, Sonic Z4 Mecha Showdown, Mortal Kombat Ultimate III, Plant vs Zombie - Apocalypse of the Vegan Lord, and... I think few more games."

"Uhhh.... Those are ONLY the offline games?"

"Yeah."

"Dude you play way too much video games, just like Clive and Jess."

"And those are just small casual games. My real games goes from Legend of Zelda 4D Remastered Season 2, Hyper Metroidvania, League of Legends Reborn, Dead Space VII, Metal Gear: Day of Vengeance, Mario Universe Maker, Castlevania Resurrection Saga, Minecraft: Planet Nirvana, Fallout 9, Call of Duty: Black World, StarCraft Evolution, Overwatch IV Alpha, The Elder Scroll New Age Online, Final Fantasy After Legend XII, Kingdom Heart Re-Heart: The Third Keyblade War, and..... probably maaaany more."

Millus just listened with a perplexed, petrified look. As someone who's not much of a gamer, he barely recognize the names. Nowadays, games keep going and keep going and going. Old franchise get revived after centuries of hibernation, and things get pretty hectic and convoluted ever since the 24th century.

"....Man, I never get what you and Clive playing because I don't get how you boys keep up with all of those. I only played seven games so far in my life, and only three installed on my terminal, that is Tekken Championship for Mobile, NASCAR Era 2500, and FIFA Milky Way Cup." On the contrary, Millus only dig either sport, or realistic fight. The only story-based game he ever finished is Grand Theft Auto 15.

"You need to play more games. I'll introduce you to Metal Gear later because I know that you liked realistic games."

"Sure.... when we returned to Blue Terra later." Millus chuckled.

"Oh.... yeah, we need to get a ticket back to our home." Keith's enthusiasted bright smile dimmed down. He look faraway white-yellow sunny horizon. It's such a wide, wild baren wasteland out there, with mountains and valleys stretched endlessly. He start to think about how much time it would took to return home.

"Well, we can find an easy job later at the bulletin board. Surely we can get some after we get our terminal fixed, so we can check some schedules, map, info of the town, and many more."

"Sounds good to me. And I miss Viridiana already, with our fresh air, rivers and oceans flow through the cities..." Keith sighed. He's not fond of the dusty dry atmosphere of Feldale. It's unexpectedly quick to get homesick.

"Same with me, man. Also Jessica could miss us already, and probably still busy blogging so much social media rant about us. Filiana would be so stressed not only because that she's dead worried, but also because Jess would annoy the hell out of her every single hour. Clive would probably busy making petition and making articles about the Martyr incident, OR he could be hacking some governmental site by now."

Keith can't hold on his laugh as he find it so accurately sums up the stereotype of his buddies. "Totally sound like them!"

"I know right? Man I missed them and it's not even a week."

"Don't worry. We'll go get the job tomorrow and be back soon." Keith stand up and extend his hand to Millus, as the other boy accept his offer with a welcoming hand to help him get up. 

"Since  we're done with our breakfast, how about we go for an exciting adventure on this planet?" Keith point to the valley down.

"Sure! I'm always up for a little outdoor fun!"

So does the two depart as sun ascend high, and the day begin. However, it would took more than few days to return back to their home, because there's three important details that they didn't know yet: 

1. It would took two days for them to find a proper job, and it would took more than a week to gather enough money for the ticket. So they'll enjoy an extended stay at the desert for a little more.

2. Right now, unexpected development happens on Blue Terra. In about a week, the public will be shaken by the new policy that the government will soon install.

3. Keith hold more than what he thought he had, and what he had, will trigger massive chains of events, soon. And the smallest of the magnitude, will soon occur on the planet. His action and role will continue to revolve, and it'll be the start of their long journey throughout the galaxy, for something that may yet come in his future.

____________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note

As usual, the chapter becomes longer during the rewriting process. XD Originally it's just around 2K or something, and then it get to 4K on the final result. This chapter meant to be casual and short, so 4K is a bit too long... but I guess it's acceptable. 

Anyway MANY changes happens here on this chapter. Not only that it was once only a small shorter chapter, it also lack the backstory long ago, but then I add tons of them, including about the planet itself. Also, the original name of the planet is Asmud (I just pick random names years ago that I think to be fit with the desert), but then I changed it since it sounds bit too uncommon. Plus, I already had another desert planet for later purpose, so I want this one to sound less "middle east" and I want it to be named based on the main business on the planet; mining. Due to this, I research insanely about mineral.... about the most abundance mineral and what could possible dominate the planet. I was going for granite, but then I find out about feldspar, and it had better color that more closely believable to consist the planet. So I'm going for Feldale, considering that the planet had much of desert, mountains, and valleys. 

As for the "United Calendar", it's the concept that I put here on this chapter when I write it years ago. Now that I rewrite it, I pretty much just rename the months to make it more logically more reasonable, by making them all based on the Roman numeric.

Other than that, nothing much to happens. Most are additional, but they're pretty fun. ESPECIALLY adding many famous video game reference there! XD At first I'm like "hey it's already hundreds years later, these games should already extinct" but then I just make it that they reuse old games and remake it, because Keith do mentions on chapter 1 that people use old style from the 21st century and considered it a "retro" style. So this is entirely possible. Plus, it's amusing and totally hilarious to make up the names! XD

Anyway that's all, see you later! :3

EDIT: Chapter now dedicated to the gracious, wise and great Inked_Insane for her awesome birthday gift! I know, it's a late birthday gift. I meant to finish it few days ago, but I'm being late again and again and can't keep on with my schedule. XD