C3 First Meeting
On July 15th, in the 58th year of the Meteorite Era, the sky was clear.
Deep within the mountainous region of Ji Province, under the jurisdiction of the Antathira Union Government's northern federal division...
The wasteland of fallen meteorites.
Shelter No. 104 from the meteorite disaster.
—
A mutated cockroach scuttled along the shelter's wall, having gone nearly a month without food. Desperate with hunger, it sniffed the air, seeking even the faintest scent of sustenance.
There! It caught a whiff. Another of its kind, albeit a deceased one...
No matter. It was indifferent to the specifics.
The mutated cockroach unfurled its massive wings and took flight toward the scent. Yes, that's right! It was on course! The smell grew more pungent by the second!
It had to be swift, lest other predators snatch away the precious meal.
Eventually, the mutated cockroach alighted upon a human skull, folding its wings. The tantalizing odor seemed to emanate from beneath this inconvenient bone.
The skull was small to the cockroach. Though it belonged to a fully grown adult, it was less than half its size, and pushing it aside was no challenge.
The cockroach shoved the skull aside before any other scavenger could, baring its fangs dripping with a repulsive green liquid. In just a few bites, it ripped through the corpse's protective shell. With its barbed foreclaws and the aid of its mouth, it shredded the wings hidden within, exposing the edible flesh and entrails.
As the mutated cockroach feasted, others joined the banquet. In under a minute, the corpse was stripped clean. By the time other predators arrived, nothing remained but a skeleton and the indigestible shell.
Calm once again settled over the shelter.
"Hey, should we really be doing this?" one of the shelter's control center operators asked while managing the hibernation pod systems.
"Absolutely, why not? Why should we let these jerks rest easy in the hibernation pods while we're out here building a new world? It's not fair!"
"But haven't we done enough experiments already? These are the last three hibernation pods. Letting them be won't make any difference to us..."
"Enough talk. If you don't want to die, stick to the plan. And if you don't stir up some trouble, you'll never make it out."
"Fine..."
Two minutes later, both had finished their tasks and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Mission accomplished. Time to get ready to pull out..."
...
A piercing, maddening alarm shattered the quiet of the shelter. Flashing red lights instantly bathed the facility in an ominous glow, rousing the dormant mutated creatures. Their first instinct upon waking was hunger.
"ALERT! Shelter No. 104 is under attack by an unidentified entity! Hibernating pod malfunction! All hibernating pods are being activated! All personnel, please assist the hibernators in evacuating the facility..."
The mutated creatures might not grasp the alarm's message, but one thing was clear to them.
Fresh food was nearby, at the end of the facility!
...
Inside the hibernation chamber, the response was different from the announcement. In reality, only three pods near the entrance opened in succession.
"Wow... Ugh..." From the first pod, a calloused hand clutched the wall. A man in a blue hibernation suit emerged, his 175 cm frame and robust muscles evident beneath the fabric. His brown, unkempt hair and weather-beaten face gave him the appearance of a war deity freshly risen from a tomb. However, unlike a deity, his first act upon emerging wasn't to stretch or move but to cling to the pod's edge, retching.
His name was Moorer, a 26-year-old who had been a doctor with a keen interest in mechanics before hibernation. But that was just the surface. In the shadows, he was an SCP Foundation operative tasked with covertly "protecting" an anomalous cat.
"Meow... Wuu!"
Speaking of which, there it was. Shortly after the second pod opened, Moorer spotted a black shadow darting out. It scampered around the chamber before settling next to him. It bowed its head, whispering into Moorer's ear in a feminine voice that could belong to a twelve-year-old girl.
"Brother Moorer, where are we?"
Right, this was the anomaly Moorer had been tasked with "protecting." Named "Meow," she was a fold-eared, milk-fed female cat, only three years old. Unlike other cats, Meow's most notable trait was her ability to speak and think. Beyond that, she exhibited no further abnormalities, which is why she hadn't been assigned a specific SCP designation.
Meow was discovered living with a girl named Ryder Maas, and they had formed a close bond. The higher-ups at the Foundation deemed it unnecessary to create a containment chamber for such a benign anomaly. Instead, they assigned junior agent Moorer to integrate into their lives under the guise of "protection."
Moorer executed his mission flawlessly, seamlessly blending into their lives and earning the trust of both women. However, Meow and Ryder Maas were kept completely in the dark, unaware of Moorer's true identity.
"I... I'm not sure either..." Moorer said, rubbing his foggy head. He surveyed his surroundings and glanced at the items he had been lying on for decades, finally piecing his memories together.
"Ah... this is Shelter 104. You, Ryder, and I managed to save up enough money to move in here a week before the meteorite hit. Does that ring a bell?"
Meow, perched on Moorer's shoulder, shut her eyes to concentrate on the past events. After a moment, she opened her bright, coffee-colored eyes and nodded at Moorer.
"Good girl..." Moorer said softly, caressing Meow with his left hand, eliciting a contented purr from her.
The third hibernating pod opened. Moorer and Meow expected Ryder to emerge, but instead, they were greeted by a stranger.
Out of the pod stepped a young, handsome man, a stark contrast to the rugged, battle-scarred Moorer. With a head of gray hair and standing around 1.7 meters tall, his pale face exuded an air of mystery, and his light gray eyes displayed a level of composure and coldness unusual for someone his age.
The boy was Payson, a mere sixteen years old, yet his gaze held a depth that even Moorer couldn't fathom. Unlike Moorer's bewildered entrance, Payson showed no signs of distress. He simply scanned the room with an impassive face, completely disregarding Moorer and the others' attempts to greet him.
Meow was a cat that craved attention from others. Feeling slightly miffed after being ignored upon greeting someone, Meow made a light leap and landed beside Payson, voicing its discontent.
"Hey! Didn't you notice us saying hello just now?"
Most people would be terrified at the sight of a talking cat, but Payson's reaction was quite different from what Meow had anticipated. He remained silent for a moment before casually responding, "Oh, hello."
Meanwhile, Moorer had no interest in the squabble between Meow and Payson. His mind was fully alert now. He climbed out of the hibernating pod and headed toward the sealed door of the hibernation room, where he could hear the sounds of a broadcast and an alarm outside.
"Odd... The broadcast mentioned that all the hibernating pods were open, but why are only ours operational?"
Just then, Moorer heard a rustling noise overhead. Instinctively looking up, he spotted a mutated cockroach, larger than Meow, clinging to the ceiling and gazing down at him.
