This is a counterpoint to the previous entry, following the same events from another perspective.

Tales Of The Lost

Day Zero In Atlas

It was the end of the week, and Zareen Dal was seriously looking forward to the weekend.

It had been a hectic work week at the Lost Hills Forge. Situated near the eastern edge of Atlas, the small manufacturing house primarily built specialized weaponry and armor for the Atlesian military. Not exclusively, and not as a policy, but that had been their main source of business for the last decade or so of the company's 21-year history.

The military was the biggest client in Atlas, after all.

This week, though, they hadn't been building much of anything. A key part of the production process, their Metal-Dust Directed Beam Sintering machine, refused to start up Monday morning. One of the workers was an experienced gunsmith who figured the MDDBS wasn't any more complicated and managed to "fix" the problem.

Zareen had walked in that morning just in time to watch the hundred-thousand-lien machine spectacularly disassemble itself. She told herself repeatedly that the gunsmith meant well, he really did. And some of his guns really were works of art. But she was the chief (and, nominally, only) technician at the forge, and it was up to her to clean up the mess.

Literally. She found part of the focusing assembly mangled beyond repair at the other end of the building.

Cue five days of overtime rebuilding the MDDBS essentially from scratch. The outer chassis, about the size of a van, could be patched up. The bed was twisted, but the manufacturer was able to bend it back into shape, saving them thousands of lien and weeks of lead time for a new one. Everything else was basically a lost cause, from the beam source to the servo drives to the roller rack. Even the main control board hadn't been spared, fried to a crisp by a feedback pulse.

She got the machine assembled by the end of the last afternoon. She'd left at eleven the previous night, came in at six, and was pretty much living off military-grade energy tablets by that point. They'd brought in two contract technicians to help finish the job, and the owner (to his credit) had spent most of the week calling in connections for special deals and rush jobs.

After exhaustively checking over every aspect of the rebuilt fabricator, Zareen stepped back, pulled off her grimy work gloves, and cranked the power switch a half turn to the on position. The machine whirred, whined, and groaned as it started up, but they were good sounds, correct sounds. It was initializing everything and running a diagnostic, so far so good.

A few minutes later, diagnostic finished with a happy chirp, the holographic control panel proclaiming success.

Zareen smiled broadly at the only people left in the building; the owner, one of the contract techs, and the gunsmith who had attempted the original repair. "We did it."

"You did it," the owner corrected. "Will it work?"

"Everything checks out," she told him. "There shouldn't be any problems, but I'd still like to be there for the first test forging on Monday."

"Fair enough."

And with that, the job was done. She headed off the floor, past the breakroom to the locker room. After picking up a few things, she locked herself in the tiny, run-down shower. It was usually ice cold, and today was no different, but she didn't matter. She felt a million times better after scrubbing down and changing into her street clothes.

Zareen checked her scroll as she stepped out of the building. Something about a strange mirror-like anomaly out past the edge of the city making headlines, but she scrolled past that. It was 6:43 in the evening, and… yes! If she hurried, she'd be able to catch the game with her friends, and the Amethyst Chargers- her favourite team- were playing tonight. It would be a great way to cap off a stressful if ultimately successful week.

Decision made, she hiked four blocks uphill to Springdale station. She popped her scroll into the slot at the fare gate, it did nothing, she cursed and tried the one next to it. That worked, and she breezed through the open gate and onto the platform. Five minutes later, she was on a train racing toward the downtown heart of Atlas.

While the station had seen better days, the train was almost brand new, one of the recent upgrades to Atlas's world-leading transit system. It still had that fresh smell, was almost the right temperature, the seats were large and comfortable, and holographic displays put on a show of tasteful art and public service announcements. Zareen leaned back and watched the bright lights of the city zip by.

The next station is Canterwood-Illumos, a robotic voice helpfully announced. That was her stop. The train was about half full, and she slipped by a portly man rather inconsiderately standing by the doorway on her way out.

If she had continued another two stops, she'd be right in the high-tech, high-wealth core of the city, with all its gleaming glass and neon lights. That was too rich for her blood, though, so she turned and headed a block and a half the other direction where the buildings were smaller, older, and less impressive. Her destination, The Red Bastion, was much like its neighbours, with a tattered awning, faded sign and windows that were never quite clean.

But with an eight-foot holoscreen, a good selection of tasty if unhealthy finger food, and reasonably priced Stalwart on tap, it was the best place they knew of when it came to watching Rockball. It smelled like booze, it was dimly lit, and noisy as heck, but it was practically home.

"Zareen!" a familiar voice called from near the back. "You made it!"

She made her way toward the table. Alani was on the far right, the diminutive orange-eyed verdette four mugs down with a wide smile on her face. Luka looked glum staring into the distance, halfway through a glass of something brown and fizzy and fingers tapping nervously, but she could tell he was having a good time. Kadir idly smoothed his forest green beard with one hand while grabbing a handful of chips with the other. That left…

"Cole didn't show?" Zareen asked as she sat down.

"Nope."

She shrugged and poured herself a glass of ale from the flagon in the middle of the table. "His loss, then."

Zareen had missed the opening ceremonies, but made it in time for the launch. The two teams, her favoured Amethysts and the Green Mace RC from Vale, were arranged each on their own side of the field. They formed a veritable rainbow from the air, with the Amethysts primarily decked out in pink-purple and the Greeners in brilliant lime, but a wide variety of personal adornments dotted their uniforms.

It looked random to the casual observers, but where each player was placed was a carefully considered decision. Her favourite player (and, as was endlessly teased, possible crush) Violetta Dalen was a hard-hitter placed near the front, easily identified by her deep purple streamers on the big screen. Argyr Plios, a recent transfer that Alani especially was cheering on, was a runner, closer to the back.

The Greeners were launching first. In principle, Rockball was simple. Two teams, fourteen players, angular wooden sticks and a small but very hard ball (allegedly it had originally been a rock picked up off the ground). Get the ball through the forked goalposts by any means necessary, up to and including physical violence. In practice, like any sport that had been played for any length of time, it had evolved a great deal of complex minutiae. The team with the lower standing always launched first, from two thirds of the way down the field, and no contact between players was allowed until the ball hit the ground.

The team kept their usual launcher in reserve, instead bringing out a tall woman with candy cane hair that none of them recognized. With a twirl and a flourish, she whacked the ball across the field, starting the game. Players on both teams maneuvered aggressively but carefully, balancing the need for an advantageous position with the risk of a foul.

A tough looking Greener- Carmine Fal-something or other, Zareen half-remembered- caught the ball in her gloved hands and bolted forward, making it about five paces before the Amethyst hitter Forest Jedlicka took her legs out from under her with an expert swing of his stick, then sent the ball flying downfield with another expert swing.

"Good hit!" Alani shouted excitedly, pumping an arm and spilling beer all over the table.

Zareen merely smiled and took a swig from her mug.

One of the Amethyst runners- was that Alben Kelly?- rushed into position only to have the ball land on his head and send him sprawling. An opposing defender took the opportunity to grab the ball. That elicited a few groans and shouts of derision from the audience in the bar. But as he set up for a forward pass, Violetta came in from the side with surprising speed and swung her stick into his chest, sending him flying one way and the ball the other.

"Yes!" Zareen shouted in excitement.

Violetta caught it and bolted towards the goals, streamers flying, but the other two Greener defenders were converging on her rapidly. There was a reason Violetta was a hitter, not a runner, after all. But she was moving like a freight train, and-

The feed went dead, screen blank and the bar briefly silent. The silence was quickly replaced by angry shouting as the bartender feverishly tried to get the signal back.

"Hey, what happened to the game?" Luka shouted angrily.

Zareen added, "Yeah, what the hell?"

"It's nothing on our end here," the bartender tried to explain over the roar of angry patrons. Zareen barely heard him.

Suddenly, the screen came alive again. The image of the stadium and players was gone, however, replaced with the somber visage of General Ironwood.

"Killjoy!" someone in the bar shouted.

The General's face was stony as he addressed the kingdom. "Citizens of Atlas. As many of you are aware, a strange anomaly appeared west of city limits early this afternoon. We did not, and still do not, believe this is related to Grimm activity. However, there is another civilization on the other side of the anomaly, and unfortunately, they appear to be hostile. They have already attacked and destroyed our peaceful scouts. We are now at war with an unknown enemy. Our response will be swift and decisive. I trust that each and every one of you will do your duty, and I am confident that we will emerge victorious. Thank you."

And with that, Zareen Dal's week had gone fully and completely to hell.

Let me know what you think, of both this and the fanime.