The Fall of Luna 1
*Preface*
In the year of 2054, humanity managed to place a colony on the moon. One of the biggest population booms within the last century had pressured the World Council, formerly known as the UN, to invest in one of the most controversial government power plays of all time. The Luna 1, or L1 colony, was designed to be a utopia overlooking Earth, and from an advertising standpoint, this caused civilians to flock to the polls to sign up. 490 million people were sent to Luna 1, hoping for a new start. By 2055, the colony was already at max capacity and thriving similarly to any other city on earth.
However; on July 29 2057, Earth lost all communications with the L1 colony. There was silence on all known transmission channels to Luna. By the time an expedition ship was able to make it there, the entire colony was abandoned. A ghost city with nothing left behind. The loss of the L1 colony was marked as a tragic loss for humanity, but until today, it was unknown what truly happened there.
*Modern Day [...] World Council Meeting*
The council sat around the round table, an eery silence filling the room, as politicians sat waiting for a country’s leader to speak out. The room was matte black, with no windows going in or out, designed for the utmost privacy. It was only used for the most essential of world issues, and this one qualified. Everyone had thought that Luna 1 was a modern case of the Croatoan mystery, a strange case from but the North American Space Association had just come into possession of an audio log. Before the association handed the film over to the World Council, the log was checked for dates of entry. There was a series of entries spanning from the initial colonization of Luna 1 up to the fated July 29th.
Finally, the North American head spoke up, “So, are we going to open it or no?” Mumbles of agreement echoed around the hall, which eventually turned into a roar, calling for the immediate viewing of the tape. All countries had sent forward civilians to Luna 1, and the loss of 490,000,000 was still a fresh wound to the world. The roar gradually calmed down as the United Russian Alliance leader stood to speak. “What do we know about this audio log? Who made it?”
“All we know is that it was someone from the shield engineering department,” Answered the primarch of China.
“I don’t care who made it, play the damn clips! I want to see what happened to 490 million of humanity’s most forward thinking people!” Interjected the N.A head.
“Bu-”
“No buts! We all lost people and I need to know how!”
This ended any and all discussion in the room filled with world powers. North America tended to have that effect on the other powers. The ability to silence them all with its brash and headstrong tactics. The head walked to the main console in the room, and with a few quick keystrokes, the first audio log was being projected to all the personal monitors everyone in the room. As she stood in front of every serious world power, she couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with a feeling of solemnity.
“We’ll start from the day before the loss of communication. Play audio log, July 28th 2057.”

*Audio Log 1*
“This is Aidan Jenkins checking in for audio log #327, July 28th 2157. I never thought that I would say this, but I don’t even miss Earth at all. Sure, I had friends and family there, but this is just… breathtaking. And I get to say that I help keep it all working. The intricate work in the oxygen generators is just genius, and I can’t even comprehend the shield. At first I didn’t understand why we needed a massive shell to enclose the whole colony during a dark side rotation, but, if the government wants to pay me to operate it, I won’t complain! The light fixtures on the interior give me a bit of a headache. Natural light is always better than that artificial crap, but I’ll take a migraine over total darkness thank you very much. I’m just shocked that this was able to be made in such a short period of time. I would’ve thought that a project of this scale would take decades, but somehow we managed to get it done in about five years. Anyways, enough geeking out about all this amazing tech we have up here. I wanted to make this as a reminder to myself to talk to Ashley about that scratching she was talking about again. She started complaining about it two dark cycles ago, and now she just won’t shut up about it. Something about how the darkness must not be breached. I don’t really know how to get her to calm down though, she can be a bit crazy at times, but if this gets any worse I might just go bald by 45. For some reason she seriously thinks that something is outside during the dark cycle, trying to get in. I’ll just tell her that all the scans for life show that there is absolutely nothing out there. Maybe even show her the data. The hard facts never fail to calm down a scientist. The dark cycle is going to be starting soon, I have to go and put up the shield. Just no matter what, remember to talk to Ashley about the scratching. It’s getting obnoxious.”
*End Audio Log 1*
“Well what good was that?” questioned the United Russian Alliance, “It seems like everything there was just fine and dandy. This does nothing for us, and was a waste of my time! I don’t know about the other political powers, but I’m trying to figure out how millions of my people just disappeared! No corpses! No nothing!”
“But did you not hear about the scratching? There has to be something making all that racket.” Fired back the Chinese advocate.
“We’ve scanned the moon millions of times with the most cutting edge technology, and every time it reveals that nothing other than the Luna 1 colony has life on the moon.”
“The North American government agrees that there are no life forms on the moon, but it couldn’t hurt to watch the second tape.”
The shadowy figure of the URA’s representative could be seen squirming in his chair.
“If this is another dud, there will be repercussions for wasting all the URA’s time.”
*Audio Log 2*
“This is Aidan Jenkins checking in for audio log #328, July 29th 2157. Dammit, I thought this place was safe! Thousands are in already, god I wish I had listened to Ashley. Whatever they are, they’re harvesting us. Gunning us down in the streets and taking all that’s left of the corpses. It’s not even a war. It’s a massacre. The slums got hit first. You could hear the screams from miles away. I saw a little boy running away, trying to make it to an evac shuttle. One of those things, it… it ate him or absorbed him or something. I don’t want to think about that. These things must be some kind of synthetic life that lives to harvest organic material. They’re brutal. In just over an hour, they’ve reduced our militia to the equivalent of a child with a water gun. There’s no hope, no chance that we will be saved in time. I just hope someone finds this in time. They could come to earth. Be ready. I think I hear one coming my way, Lord help m-----”
*End Audio Log 2*
Everyone in the room was clearly distressed by what they had just heard. The grotesque description of slaughters is not exactly a pleasant thing to hear, however, one country was willing to start up conversation again.
“So much for a waste of your time, huh?” goaded the Chinese advocate.
The URA quickly fired back, “Of course you would be making jokes after finding out that our colonists didn’t just disappear, but were, I believe the word Mr. Jenkins chose was massacred.”
“This is no time for the starting of a third world war, some synthetic life form just killed 490 million of our finest people.” interrupted the North American leader.
“The implications of these, things, are very disheartening” Great Britain’s Prime Minister stated, making himself heard for the first time.
“No one is going to deny that sir, but this isn’t the time to be afraid” reassured the Chinese advocate.
“I couldn’t agree more” concurred the North American leader, “This isn’t the time for fear or defense, this is time for revenge.”