The Small Town Meteorite

It was December 31, 1999, by Earth's calendar—the last day of the old millennium. When midnight passed, humanity would enter a new millennium and a new century of technological breakthroughs.

To celebrate the final day of the old era, many of the biggest names in technology gathered in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, for a technology conference. It was also a chance to attract investors and secure funding.

When it came to technological research and development, no amount of money or resources was ever enough.

On the roof of a hotel, cold winds blew from time to time. Kilian stood silently in the wind, but the night air drained his warmth, leaving him shivering as he leaned on his cane.

An hour earlier, Kilian had rushed up to Tony Stark with his research materials. Full of confidence and admiration for his idol, he had presented his work, hoping to win Stark's approval and investment so he could complete his research.

But Tony Stark's attention had been entirely on his companion, Maya Hansen. A woman with both beauty and brains, she was especially captivating. Kilian, an ugly, limping grown man, had been an eyesore. Stark had brushed him off with, "Meet me on the roof in an hour," then taken Maya Hansen back to his room to discuss their research.

After all, Kilian didn't make a good impression. A printed T-shirt paired with a cheap jacket made him look like a typical amateur crackpot—usually someone with an inflated opinion of himself who learned a single theory and then started what he called "research" on a whim.

Whether or not they came up with anything, crackpots' deductions and experiments were incredibly sloppy. They couldn't even make their arguments internally consistent, and their work was so shoddy that even scum like Fang Shimin could mock it.

Even when they really did discover something, their research had either already been disproven or had long since been put to use, though they had never bothered to learn that. Alternatively, it had been locked away as a reserve technology by capitalists, who then released it bit by bit, like squeezing toothpaste from a tube, to recoup their investment.

So an hour later, Kilian still hadn't seen Tony Stark. He understood that he wouldn't see his idol that night—or ever. He was nothing but a joke.

Kilian felt inferior because of his physical disability, and he had begun his research in hopes of making up for his shortcomings. When that hope was shattered and his inferiority laid bare, Kilian began to turn to extremes.

With a cane in hand, he limped to the edge of the roof and looked down at the ground below. Waves of dizziness washed over him.

As he hesitated over whether to leap and end his ridiculous life, the bells of the new millennium rang out. Fireworks burst in celebration, and cheers rose from the crowd.

At that moment, Kilian's despair turned to hatred. He would take revenge on Tony Stark for humiliating him, and that revenge would not end until he had destroyed everything Stark had.

As if affirming Kilian's resolve, the dimly lit night sky suddenly brightened—a meteorite drawn in by Earth's gravity.

It had come from beyond the solar system. It had escaped Jupiter's pull and passed the Moon, hurtling straight toward Earth. It faced off against the atmosphere, the planet's last barrier, and blazed brilliantly as its outer layers rapidly burned away from friction.

The shooting star streaked across the night sky as if it had come to celebrate humanity's new era. After entering the atmosphere, it crossed more than half the globe before crashing into a small town in Kansas, USA. The enormous impact completely destroyed the town, leaving it forever behind in the old era.

The number of meteorites that fell to Earth each year was enormous. On average, meteorites brought tens or even hundreds of tons of material to Earth annually.

Most meteorites turned to dust as they rubbed against the atmosphere, and few survived. On top of that, the oceans covered 71 percent of Earth's surface, while the land inhabited by humans accounted for a relatively small area. Meteorites discovered by people were rarer still.

The meteorite that destroyed a town in Kansas was a once-in-a-century discovery. It was named after the town it had destroyed: the Small Town Meteorite.

After the meteorite fell, a specialized agency was dispatched to recover it. Some of the trace materials found on Earth had been brought here by meteorites over the course of countless ages.

As hoped, the meteorite was made of iron, and its metal content was remarkably high-quality, as if it had been processed by human hands. The best alloys on Earth were only a little better—and those were made in small batches in laboratories, without regard for cost.

Reverse-engineering the metal could advance technologies in several fields that had stalled due to material limitations, further strengthening America's lead in those areas.

But the meteorite brought more than a gift. It brought disaster too. The destruction of the small town was only the beginning; the threat posed by the alien life-form that had arrived alongside it—the Insects—was far greater.

They were green from head to toe, shaped like the pupae of certain insects. Their bodies were covered in wrinkles, and they had limbs resembling those of humans, though asymmetrical.

The Insects could mimic any person, freely changing their appearance and even copying their memories. Their physical abilities far surpassed those of humans, allowing them to kill their originals immediately after taking their place. Then, they could dissolve the bodies with a special acid they secreted. Taking advantage of humanity's advanced transportation systems, countless Insects had infiltrated human society in a short time.

The Insects' exposure was only an accident. During a physical examination of someone being mimicked by an Insect, a doctor used medical equipment to discover physiological differences between the Insect and a normal person. The doctor reported it to the relevant authorities, and that was how the Insects' existence became known.

But, as the saying went, "If you see one cockroach in your house, there are hundreds or thousands more hiding there." By the time that Insect was discovered, Insects had already infiltrated human society so deeply that it was riddled with holes.

Before the Insects were exposed, an urban legend had spread among the public: if one day you saw someone exactly like yourself, your days were numbered. That person was your doppelganger. He or she would kill you, then live as you.

The American leadership began investigating its own ranks and discovered that many high-ranking officials had been replaced by mimics. The president was implicated too. Although he was still himself, he lost his chance at reelection and left office when his four-year term ended.

The new president appointed a typical hawk as secretary of defense. Under his leadership, the war against the Insects began. But under intense pressure from interest groups, the foreign wars intended to maintain American hegemony went ahead as well. The World Trade Center could not escape the fate of being demolished by its own people.

But the wars dragged America into a quagmire. Leaving the foreign conflicts aside, the war against the alien life-form was not going well. Finding the Insects hiding among America's population of hundreds of millions was no easy task, especially since they changed their targets when they realized things were going badly for them.

What's more, each Insect was incredibly powerful. If they were still in their pupa stage, the human military could destroy them at a cost. But once an Insect had sufficiently perfected its disguise, it entered a molting phase and developed into an even more powerful adult, moving faster than humans could track with their eyes.

In response, America changed its tactics and focused on improving the combat abilities of individual soldiers. Many projects that had seen their funding cut for lack of results were brought back into the spotlight, such as the "super-soldier serum" that had once recreated Captain America's miracle, and the Osborn Group's "Human Enhancement Potion."