Fate/In Glory Of (Worm)
- Thread starter Jefardi
- Start date
- Crossover Modern Superhero
Changed my vote
Parodos 04.16.03
[X] 2008: When the Moon went Dark
The first time the moon had been touched by humankind had been on September 14th, 1959, when Lunik 2 landed on it.
A decade later, a human walked the moon.
With that kind of progress, naturally, one would think that habitation on the lunar surface would come forthwith.
Yet it was not to be.
Three years later was the last time a human walked an extraterrestrial surface due to a government agency.
Interest had started to die down and the Soviet Union did not seem willing nor capable to land a human on the moon which in turn gutted the United States push for it.
A decade later, parahumans began to appear.
The rise of parahumans gave a new hope for what hadn't been feasible since the depths of the Cold War; further lunar exploration and possibly a long-term lunar outpost. Literal superpowers would make this far more manageable, making the unreality of imagination into reality.
Yet difficulties were found.
For one, it would still cost an obscene amount of money, hundreds of millions, to get the materials needed for the structures and the support to further lunar ventures. Secondly, from what little could be found, powers seemed almost entirely random with no way to plan for what would be a useful ability to aid space exploration could only be found in someone who had died or, more commonly, on literal supervillains who were far less amendable.
Thirdly, and most damning, was that most parahumans only seemed to be able to exhibit effects that petered out within two hundred and fifty miles of the surface of Earth. This cut down on the few that were viable for such an endeavour from an exceedingly low probability to a near impossibility.
And yet...
Nearly two decades later, on 1997, August 29th the first verified time a parahuman stepped onto the lunar surface.
Kirin White.
A name that would live in history as the first living being to touch the moon's surface since the Apollo 17. The first non-American. The first to do it without a massive rocket or a spacecraft. The first non-human, depending on your belief of whether humans and parahumans are the same species.
Kirin White was the first of key figures when it came to lunar settlement. It was with his ability to teleport between Earth and the Moon that the rest became possible.
Kirin White, Sphere, Warrior Princess Kaguya, Bonaiuti, Astroturf, Daguer, Armstronger, Meteorite, Chang'e, Superplex, Gargoylic, Afield…
These were the names that had made the project possible.
Sphere was both one of the most important and most terrible when it came to the development of the Stanisław Moonhub.
Charismatic and affable, he also had the miracle of possessing one of the best possible powers when it came to the possibility of a moonbase- a tinker ability with a focus on making self-contained biospheres. Without him none of the vision that Evacuation Earth project had dreamed for could be possible on such a scale.
For much of the late nineties and early 'naughts, he was the lead of the project. Every setback was bulldozed, every promise to their backers seemed to be ahead of schedule, his name had already entered textbooks before the turn of the century…
...before disappearing the day after the Simurgh's second appearance.
Within a year, most of Evacuation Earth project leadership, and all but a singular cape part of the project were dead or deeply insane, broken beyond function. For those hoping to explore the Moon, for hoping to live on a different celestial body, all seemed lost.
Then Warrior Princess Kaguya entered the spotlight.
The only surviving member of Evacuation Earth project, and the most junior cape, in 2003, he was left with only his name and a ruined facility with creditors and backers after him for the money sunk into the project and was actively being hunted by the newly dubbed Mannequin soon joined by the rest of the Slaughterhouse Nine.
Without a doubt, Warrior Princess Kaguya was the only reason for the moon base concept to reach fruition.
If it wasn't well known what Warrior Princess Kaguya could do, many would consider him to be a master of a higher calibre than any known.
Within two years, a crowd sourcing campaign that raised over three billion dollars. That achieved international support from forty-three countries. Successfully petitioned the United Nations to amend the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 to allow for technologies that could be used as weapons to be present on the moon under certain situations. He was able to create a support crew of one hundred and forty seven talented individuals.
Within those same two years, he had assembled a new team, the Moonwalkers, even recruiting Kirin White who had previously refused to join Evacuation Earth project. Pulled Daguer out of obscurity to finish Sphere's structures. Funded Afield to run a small thinker team to keep Mannequin from gutting them. Found a second mover, Meteorite, who could also reach the lunar surface with their powers active. Convinced Gargoylic and Chang'e to end a decade long rivalry and join the same side. Had the foresight to bring Superplex on to maintain Sphere's creations after Daguer completed them. The recruitment of Bonaiuti paid off in spades as she found several different sabotage teams from the CUI that had tried to either halt or steal any of the data.
By the year 2005 of the current era, in a live, televised ceremony on Friday January 14th, the first permanent lunar colonists entered the Stanisław Moonhub.
From the catastrophic culling of Evacuation Earth project to that moment, Warrior Princess Kaguya had pulled off the impossible. A thousand generations that had preceded them that had looked up at the moon and wondered could finally know what it was like to live on the moon. The promise of the 1950s and 1960s had finally been fulfilled.
It was a day held with the same reverence as July 21st, 1969.
The scientific community's output exploded, as nearly a hundred scientists permanently lived on an extraterrestrial object, able to go back and forth within minutes.
It was a time when it felt like the future was now.
Almost immediately there were problems.
Kirin White and Meteorite were unable to keep up with deliveries fully once the population had swelled beyond three hundred. Shortages started to become more and more common after the first year, especially of basic necessities. Each trip seemed to have longer wait times. Later interviews would prove that both of the parahumans had started to suffer from worse response times to their abilities; physically they had been unable to keep up the schedule.
Not that this was known to the public at the time, but maintaining the Sphere's creations without him present was vastly difficult for Superplex; he had to do every bit of maintenance for the massive structure by hand, without the drones that Sphere had specialized in or that Daguer had been able to utilize for a short time. More and more of the Stanisław Moonhub began to suffer glitches, issues with keeping its enclosure vacuum sealed. There were instances where sections of the structure required spacesuits to venture through within months of the first colonists arriving.
What compounded these issues were the three goals of the Moonwalkers; the establishment of additional settlements on the moon, the creation of a permanent travel method between Earth and the Stanisław Moonhub, and finally, the terraforming of the lunar surface to retain a habitable, breathable biosphere.
Astroturf had been specifically brought onto the Moonwalkers as she had shown a specialization in biotinkering inorganic materials into organic and making them viable in the most hostile environments on Earth. She had several proofs of concept that were shown to work on the lunar surface. Tragically, her ability to create failed when she was in the Stanisław Moonhub. She was by far the most promising lead for any terraforming project and her progress towards it nearly flatlined over the course of three years.
The establishment of additional locations likewise was bottle-necked, but in a far worse manner. Most of Sphere's work had been able to be salvaged which is what had made the Stanisław Moonhub possible. The problem was that Sphere had never worked on additional locations; there was nothing else to salvage, not really.
Daguer was not a tinker but had a secondary function of abilities to finish in-progressed tinkertech projects. Without Sphere's presence, the Moonwalkers were looking for someone who could. There were many who tried. None got close.
Out of the three goals the Moonwalkers had, it was the stable method of travel to and from that had met the most success, but even that success was merely a qualified success.
The longest continuous, stable method of travel had been the Fesenkov-Tombaugh tunnel which had lasted for nineteen days, twenty-two hours, three minutes and fourth tenths of a second between March 4th to March 24th, 2006. It had been an outlier and any others were measured in fractions of an hour. But still, a success by comparison.
A year passed.
Then a second.
Three years since the permanent establishment of the Stanisław Moonhub.
In those three years, great promise had been found and yet little had been delivered upon after the first year. It was not the scientists, those with decades of research into their respective fields that were found wanting, nor the support staff who supported them nor even the colonists who had decided to live amongst the stars.
It was the Moonwalkers themselves.
It was the supposition that had been found at fault; that some powers worked on the lunar surface while most did not.
Severe mental strain started to become rampant amongst the twenty three parahumans living on the moon. After half a year, several of their parahuman abilities became shadows of their previous efficacy. It was found that long stints were required on Earth for them to recover from these ordeals, lasting up to six weeks in some cases; it was found that parahumans could only effectively spend a fifth of their time at the moonhub.
There is much in the realm of speculation of what caused this; perhaps it was some innate property of the moon or the distance from earth? Equally as possible was that without the atmosphere present, some celestial phenomenon interfered with their abilities. That was what the author of the book believed as it meshed with parahumans running into issues once they had left Earth's atmosphere.
As the Stanisław Moonhub stagnated it became clear to everyone involved that without a dire change in circumstances, that the project was not going to be sustainable. Tensions ran high.
On April 4th, 2008, the first murder in space occurred.
The Gargoylic was killed by Chang'e in an argument, their animosity having never quite gone away. Chang'e fled the Stanisław Moonhub on to the lunar surface before Gargoylic's body had even cooled.
A massive manhunt had ensued and so began Chang'e's Run.
The population of the moonhub had expanded from two hundred and ninety eight to five hundred and twelve, with a further thirty-two parahumans arriving to aid in the endeavor.
During the ensuing running battle that lasted for nearly three months, nineteen parahumans died alongside eighty-seven personnel with two hundred and forty-one injured.
At first glance this seems ludicrous, yet several things have to be considered; while there were no further tinkertech of Sphere to co-opt to complete, there had been several mundane outposts completed, including a tram system alongside many caches scattered about in case of an emergency. Chang'e was able to get quite a bit of distance and time from that alone. Not only that, but Chang'e knew how the Moonwalkers operated and was able to cripple the tram quickly, causing much of the distance to have to be covered on slow rovers or on foot.
The second explanation that is needed, is that for a reason that has not been quite ascertained at the time of this book's publishing, nearly a third of those brought in to find Chang'e ended up aiding her. Theories have been thrown around ranging from being mastered, to covert operations by international actors to wanting their names in the history books. The personal theory the author liked but found exceedingly unlikely was that Chang'e had convinced them through other channels to follow her and establish their own colony at the furthest outpost, Labos station.
Third, and finally, it was during this quarter of a year that several of the Moonwalkers were able to make breakthroughs.
A second cape, Yupik, had been found who could also maintain the moonhub. Much of what had been slowly been reclaimed by the vacuum of space became habitable once more. Astroturf had finally been able to get a type of moss to grow on the surface in a large enough quantity to create a noticeable green patch viewable by telescope.
That is all to say, that when Chang'e's Run ended on July 24th, 2008, with Armstronger's fist through Chang'e's chest, at the edge of Rimae Littrow, the future of the Stanisław Moonhub and the Moonwalkers was looking up.
September 6th, 2008 was yet another day that would forever go on past living memory.
At 22:58 UTC the protective bubble that surrounded the Stanisław Moonhub darkened until it reached a vantablack. The dozens of connections from Earth to the hub were cut. The several video feeds that were live showed darkness spreading, lighting dimming. Only two video feeds and five audio recordings exist of this and each have been analyzed by the best minds and Thinkers and each and every one has no definitive answer. A blindspot much like the Endbringers.
It has been referred to as the Moondark incident.
Of the five hundred and eight-nine souls on the lunar surface on that day, nothing has been heard of since.
Kirin White had been at the hub at the time and has been MIA since then. Meteorite had died during the course of Chang'e's Run. They had been the only ones able to consistently traverse the distance and of the few remaining that could do it inconsistently in the past, each has declined. Without someone on the moonhub, it has been impossible to establish another method of travel to it.
Astroturf, Daguer, Afield and Warrior Princess Kaguya are the only core members of the Moonwalkers who survived the incident as all four of them were on Earth at the time; Astroturf having only ventured to the moonhub thrice, Daguer transitioned mostly to a retainer for them following the completion of Sphere's work, Afield's team mostly centered in Chicago and Warrior Princess Kaguya had been talking to investors in Montreal.
The loss of the Stanisław Moonhub broke Warrior Princess Kaguya who has not been seen since New Years, 2009.
The theories about what happened are as vast as the stars.
The credible theories mostly boil thus;
1. An international actor with ill intent planned this – several were known to be opposed to the project given who Bonaiuti had sussed out over the years.
2. A vindictive final action by Chang'e or sympathizers that acted on a timed dead man's switch.
3. A catastrophic system collapse. Multiple angles that this could happen; it should be stated that most are via Sphere's creations as whilst they were utilized, they were never used by their creator and there could have been some aspect of it that was missed.
4. A twist on the third theory; Mannequin may have been working on a long term project to directly end the work on the moon itself after he was continuously thwarted from ceasing their work on Earth.
5. An extremely negative power interaction caused an incident. There were fourteen new parahumans who had joined the Stanisław Moonhub following Chang'e's Run, and if parahuman fights on Earth have proved anything, it's that a bad power interaction can come from any place. This would place the fault at truly being an accident.
6. There was a fourth Endbringer that had emerged. Normally that could be disproved immediately as the schedule for Endbringer attacks had not varied except perhaps it was locked to the terrestrial body itself? There had been a sudden influx of parahumans in the lead up to the Moondark.
The author personally is a believer in the fourth theory.
At the time of publishing, the bubble surrounding the moonhub is still pitch black. Mundane technology has not allowed any observation of the inside nor has it shown any activity at the other outposts. Parahuman abilities also fail to provide an answer as the majority are unable to reach that distance and those that can are unable to pierce the bubble.
The only change that has been observed since 2008 has been Astroturf's moss, as it has grown, covering the entirety Stanisław Moonhub.
A solidarity monolith that taunts and intrigues, covered in a lichen that survived where efforts by humankind could not.
Taylor closed the book as her seat rocked from the movement of the bus.
She of course knew about it; she remembered being nine years old and watching the live feed of the first colonists with Emma. Her mom had found it fascinating; she had been born the same year as the moon landings after all.
Moondark… she hadn't really cared, as horrible as it sounded. It was a bunch of people that had died on the moon and, well, her mom had died only a few weeks prior. That had overshadowed everything.
…
…
...next time she was going to get a novel that wasn't as horribly depressing.
The bus' speakers rang out as her stop came up and she pulled on the cord indicating for the bus to stop at...
[] North (Docks, Trainyard & Boat Graveyard) [Taylor went there a week ago and got into a knock down, drag out fight with the Merchants. She also went yesterday and found nothing.] {Merchants} <Low intensity fighting, ???>
[] Northwest (Trainyard & Docks South) [Taylor went there three weeks ago and had an encounter with ABB's second in command, Kage] {ABB} <Medium to high intensity fighting; secondary location to main area, ???>
[] West (Docks South) {Coil} <Low to no fighting, ???>
[] Center (Downtown & Boardwalk) [Taylor went there two weekends ago and stopped a mugging.] {New Wave, Protectorate} <No fighting, ???>
[] Southwest (Commercial District & Downtown South) {E88} <Medium to low intensity skirmishing, ???>
[] South (Downtown South) {E88} <High intensity fighting, main area, ???> [Taylor went there a few nights ago, the giant fought some neo-nazis]
[] Southeast (Downtown Coast) {ABB} <High intensity fighting, main area, ???>
Author's Note: I wrote this in something of a fugue state and not wholly in right mind and in one go, but I think it covers what I want it to cover. Sorry if I was overly verbose. I'm kinda rambly.
Apologies if anyone doesn't like it. AU Worm lore is a go!
If any are wondering where the heck they got more parahumans who could operate on the lunar surface, a lot of capes were brought there to see if they could use their power in prior years. Most capes kinda jumped at the chance to say they were on the moon, even if it was for a short while.
I usually have more to say but I don't know what else to say, so, uh, I hope everyone liked my ramblings? I guess?
Um.
Anyways.
Please vote? Discuss the moon lore you have learned if you wish to make the QM happy?
The first time the moon had been touched by humankind had been on September 14th, 1959, when Lunik 2 landed on it.
A decade later, a human walked the moon.
With that kind of progress, naturally, one would think that habitation on the lunar surface would come forthwith.
Yet it was not to be.
Three years later was the last time a human walked an extraterrestrial surface due to a government agency.
Interest had started to die down and the Soviet Union did not seem willing nor capable to land a human on the moon which in turn gutted the United States push for it.
A decade later, parahumans began to appear.
The rise of parahumans gave a new hope for what hadn't been feasible since the depths of the Cold War; further lunar exploration and possibly a long-term lunar outpost. Literal superpowers would make this far more manageable, making the unreality of imagination into reality.
Yet difficulties were found.
For one, it would still cost an obscene amount of money, hundreds of millions, to get the materials needed for the structures and the support to further lunar ventures. Secondly, from what little could be found, powers seemed almost entirely random with no way to plan for what would be a useful ability to aid space exploration could only be found in someone who had died or, more commonly, on literal supervillains who were far less amendable.
Thirdly, and most damning, was that most parahumans only seemed to be able to exhibit effects that petered out within two hundred and fifty miles of the surface of Earth. This cut down on the few that were viable for such an endeavour from an exceedingly low probability to a near impossibility.
And yet...
Nearly two decades later, on 1997, August 29th the first verified time a parahuman stepped onto the lunar surface.
Kirin White.
A name that would live in history as the first living being to touch the moon's surface since the Apollo 17. The first non-American. The first to do it without a massive rocket or a spacecraft. The first non-human, depending on your belief of whether humans and parahumans are the same species.
Kirin White was the first of key figures when it came to lunar settlement. It was with his ability to teleport between Earth and the Moon that the rest became possible.
Kirin White, Sphere, Warrior Princess Kaguya, Bonaiuti, Astroturf, Daguer, Armstronger, Meteorite, Chang'e, Superplex, Gargoylic, Afield…
These were the names that had made the project possible.
Sphere was both one of the most important and most terrible when it came to the development of the Stanisław Moonhub.
Charismatic and affable, he also had the miracle of possessing one of the best possible powers when it came to the possibility of a moonbase- a tinker ability with a focus on making self-contained biospheres. Without him none of the vision that Evacuation Earth project had dreamed for could be possible on such a scale.
For much of the late nineties and early 'naughts, he was the lead of the project. Every setback was bulldozed, every promise to their backers seemed to be ahead of schedule, his name had already entered textbooks before the turn of the century…
...before disappearing the day after the Simurgh's second appearance.
Within a year, most of Evacuation Earth project leadership, and all but a singular cape part of the project were dead or deeply insane, broken beyond function. For those hoping to explore the Moon, for hoping to live on a different celestial body, all seemed lost.
Then Warrior Princess Kaguya entered the spotlight.
The only surviving member of Evacuation Earth project, and the most junior cape, in 2003, he was left with only his name and a ruined facility with creditors and backers after him for the money sunk into the project and was actively being hunted by the newly dubbed Mannequin soon joined by the rest of the Slaughterhouse Nine.
Without a doubt, Warrior Princess Kaguya was the only reason for the moon base concept to reach fruition.
If it wasn't well known what Warrior Princess Kaguya could do, many would consider him to be a master of a higher calibre than any known.
Within two years, a crowd sourcing campaign that raised over three billion dollars. That achieved international support from forty-three countries. Successfully petitioned the United Nations to amend the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 to allow for technologies that could be used as weapons to be present on the moon under certain situations. He was able to create a support crew of one hundred and forty seven talented individuals.
Within those same two years, he had assembled a new team, the Moonwalkers, even recruiting Kirin White who had previously refused to join Evacuation Earth project. Pulled Daguer out of obscurity to finish Sphere's structures. Funded Afield to run a small thinker team to keep Mannequin from gutting them. Found a second mover, Meteorite, who could also reach the lunar surface with their powers active. Convinced Gargoylic and Chang'e to end a decade long rivalry and join the same side. Had the foresight to bring Superplex on to maintain Sphere's creations after Daguer completed them. The recruitment of Bonaiuti paid off in spades as she found several different sabotage teams from the CUI that had tried to either halt or steal any of the data.
By the year 2005 of the current era, in a live, televised ceremony on Friday January 14th, the first permanent lunar colonists entered the Stanisław Moonhub.
From the catastrophic culling of Evacuation Earth project to that moment, Warrior Princess Kaguya had pulled off the impossible. A thousand generations that had preceded them that had looked up at the moon and wondered could finally know what it was like to live on the moon. The promise of the 1950s and 1960s had finally been fulfilled.
It was a day held with the same reverence as July 21st, 1969.
The scientific community's output exploded, as nearly a hundred scientists permanently lived on an extraterrestrial object, able to go back and forth within minutes.
It was a time when it felt like the future was now.
Almost immediately there were problems.
Kirin White and Meteorite were unable to keep up with deliveries fully once the population had swelled beyond three hundred. Shortages started to become more and more common after the first year, especially of basic necessities. Each trip seemed to have longer wait times. Later interviews would prove that both of the parahumans had started to suffer from worse response times to their abilities; physically they had been unable to keep up the schedule.
Not that this was known to the public at the time, but maintaining the Sphere's creations without him present was vastly difficult for Superplex; he had to do every bit of maintenance for the massive structure by hand, without the drones that Sphere had specialized in or that Daguer had been able to utilize for a short time. More and more of the Stanisław Moonhub began to suffer glitches, issues with keeping its enclosure vacuum sealed. There were instances where sections of the structure required spacesuits to venture through within months of the first colonists arriving.
What compounded these issues were the three goals of the Moonwalkers; the establishment of additional settlements on the moon, the creation of a permanent travel method between Earth and the Stanisław Moonhub, and finally, the terraforming of the lunar surface to retain a habitable, breathable biosphere.
Astroturf had been specifically brought onto the Moonwalkers as she had shown a specialization in biotinkering inorganic materials into organic and making them viable in the most hostile environments on Earth. She had several proofs of concept that were shown to work on the lunar surface. Tragically, her ability to create failed when she was in the Stanisław Moonhub. She was by far the most promising lead for any terraforming project and her progress towards it nearly flatlined over the course of three years.
The establishment of additional locations likewise was bottle-necked, but in a far worse manner. Most of Sphere's work had been able to be salvaged which is what had made the Stanisław Moonhub possible. The problem was that Sphere had never worked on additional locations; there was nothing else to salvage, not really.
Daguer was not a tinker but had a secondary function of abilities to finish in-progressed tinkertech projects. Without Sphere's presence, the Moonwalkers were looking for someone who could. There were many who tried. None got close.
Out of the three goals the Moonwalkers had, it was the stable method of travel to and from that had met the most success, but even that success was merely a qualified success.
The longest continuous, stable method of travel had been the Fesenkov-Tombaugh tunnel which had lasted for nineteen days, twenty-two hours, three minutes and fourth tenths of a second between March 4th to March 24th, 2006. It had been an outlier and any others were measured in fractions of an hour. But still, a success by comparison.
A year passed.
Then a second.
Three years since the permanent establishment of the Stanisław Moonhub.
In those three years, great promise had been found and yet little had been delivered upon after the first year. It was not the scientists, those with decades of research into their respective fields that were found wanting, nor the support staff who supported them nor even the colonists who had decided to live amongst the stars.
It was the Moonwalkers themselves.
It was the supposition that had been found at fault; that some powers worked on the lunar surface while most did not.
Severe mental strain started to become rampant amongst the twenty three parahumans living on the moon. After half a year, several of their parahuman abilities became shadows of their previous efficacy. It was found that long stints were required on Earth for them to recover from these ordeals, lasting up to six weeks in some cases; it was found that parahumans could only effectively spend a fifth of their time at the moonhub.
There is much in the realm of speculation of what caused this; perhaps it was some innate property of the moon or the distance from earth? Equally as possible was that without the atmosphere present, some celestial phenomenon interfered with their abilities. That was what the author of the book believed as it meshed with parahumans running into issues once they had left Earth's atmosphere.
As the Stanisław Moonhub stagnated it became clear to everyone involved that without a dire change in circumstances, that the project was not going to be sustainable. Tensions ran high.
On April 4th, 2008, the first murder in space occurred.
The Gargoylic was killed by Chang'e in an argument, their animosity having never quite gone away. Chang'e fled the Stanisław Moonhub on to the lunar surface before Gargoylic's body had even cooled.
A massive manhunt had ensued and so began Chang'e's Run.
The population of the moonhub had expanded from two hundred and ninety eight to five hundred and twelve, with a further thirty-two parahumans arriving to aid in the endeavor.
During the ensuing running battle that lasted for nearly three months, nineteen parahumans died alongside eighty-seven personnel with two hundred and forty-one injured.
At first glance this seems ludicrous, yet several things have to be considered; while there were no further tinkertech of Sphere to co-opt to complete, there had been several mundane outposts completed, including a tram system alongside many caches scattered about in case of an emergency. Chang'e was able to get quite a bit of distance and time from that alone. Not only that, but Chang'e knew how the Moonwalkers operated and was able to cripple the tram quickly, causing much of the distance to have to be covered on slow rovers or on foot.
The second explanation that is needed, is that for a reason that has not been quite ascertained at the time of this book's publishing, nearly a third of those brought in to find Chang'e ended up aiding her. Theories have been thrown around ranging from being mastered, to covert operations by international actors to wanting their names in the history books. The personal theory the author liked but found exceedingly unlikely was that Chang'e had convinced them through other channels to follow her and establish their own colony at the furthest outpost, Labos station.
Third, and finally, it was during this quarter of a year that several of the Moonwalkers were able to make breakthroughs.
A second cape, Yupik, had been found who could also maintain the moonhub. Much of what had been slowly been reclaimed by the vacuum of space became habitable once more. Astroturf had finally been able to get a type of moss to grow on the surface in a large enough quantity to create a noticeable green patch viewable by telescope.
That is all to say, that when Chang'e's Run ended on July 24th, 2008, with Armstronger's fist through Chang'e's chest, at the edge of Rimae Littrow, the future of the Stanisław Moonhub and the Moonwalkers was looking up.
September 6th, 2008 was yet another day that would forever go on past living memory.
At 22:58 UTC the protective bubble that surrounded the Stanisław Moonhub darkened until it reached a vantablack. The dozens of connections from Earth to the hub were cut. The several video feeds that were live showed darkness spreading, lighting dimming. Only two video feeds and five audio recordings exist of this and each have been analyzed by the best minds and Thinkers and each and every one has no definitive answer. A blindspot much like the Endbringers.
It has been referred to as the Moondark incident.
Of the five hundred and eight-nine souls on the lunar surface on that day, nothing has been heard of since.
Kirin White had been at the hub at the time and has been MIA since then. Meteorite had died during the course of Chang'e's Run. They had been the only ones able to consistently traverse the distance and of the few remaining that could do it inconsistently in the past, each has declined. Without someone on the moonhub, it has been impossible to establish another method of travel to it.
Astroturf, Daguer, Afield and Warrior Princess Kaguya are the only core members of the Moonwalkers who survived the incident as all four of them were on Earth at the time; Astroturf having only ventured to the moonhub thrice, Daguer transitioned mostly to a retainer for them following the completion of Sphere's work, Afield's team mostly centered in Chicago and Warrior Princess Kaguya had been talking to investors in Montreal.
The loss of the Stanisław Moonhub broke Warrior Princess Kaguya who has not been seen since New Years, 2009.
The theories about what happened are as vast as the stars.
The credible theories mostly boil thus;
1. An international actor with ill intent planned this – several were known to be opposed to the project given who Bonaiuti had sussed out over the years.
2. A vindictive final action by Chang'e or sympathizers that acted on a timed dead man's switch.
3. A catastrophic system collapse. Multiple angles that this could happen; it should be stated that most are via Sphere's creations as whilst they were utilized, they were never used by their creator and there could have been some aspect of it that was missed.
4. A twist on the third theory; Mannequin may have been working on a long term project to directly end the work on the moon itself after he was continuously thwarted from ceasing their work on Earth.
5. An extremely negative power interaction caused an incident. There were fourteen new parahumans who had joined the Stanisław Moonhub following Chang'e's Run, and if parahuman fights on Earth have proved anything, it's that a bad power interaction can come from any place. This would place the fault at truly being an accident.
6. There was a fourth Endbringer that had emerged. Normally that could be disproved immediately as the schedule for Endbringer attacks had not varied except perhaps it was locked to the terrestrial body itself? There had been a sudden influx of parahumans in the lead up to the Moondark.
The author personally is a believer in the fourth theory.
At the time of publishing, the bubble surrounding the moonhub is still pitch black. Mundane technology has not allowed any observation of the inside nor has it shown any activity at the other outposts. Parahuman abilities also fail to provide an answer as the majority are unable to reach that distance and those that can are unable to pierce the bubble.
The only change that has been observed since 2008 has been Astroturf's moss, as it has grown, covering the entirety Stanisław Moonhub.
A solidarity monolith that taunts and intrigues, covered in a lichen that survived where efforts by humankind could not.
Taylor closed the book as her seat rocked from the movement of the bus.
She of course knew about it; she remembered being nine years old and watching the live feed of the first colonists with Emma. Her mom had found it fascinating; she had been born the same year as the moon landings after all.
Moondark… she hadn't really cared, as horrible as it sounded. It was a bunch of people that had died on the moon and, well, her mom had died only a few weeks prior. That had overshadowed everything.
…
…
...next time she was going to get a novel that wasn't as horribly depressing.
The bus' speakers rang out as her stop came up and she pulled on the cord indicating for the bus to stop at...
[] North (Docks, Trainyard & Boat Graveyard) [Taylor went there a week ago and got into a knock down, drag out fight with the Merchants. She also went yesterday and found nothing.] {Merchants} <Low intensity fighting, ???>
[] Northwest (Trainyard & Docks South) [Taylor went there three weeks ago and had an encounter with ABB's second in command, Kage] {ABB} <Medium to high intensity fighting; secondary location to main area, ???>
[] West (Docks South) {Coil} <Low to no fighting, ???>
[] Center (Downtown & Boardwalk) [Taylor went there two weekends ago and stopped a mugging.] {New Wave, Protectorate} <No fighting, ???>
[] Southwest (Commercial District & Downtown South) {E88} <Medium to low intensity skirmishing, ???>
[] South (Downtown South) {E88} <High intensity fighting, main area, ???> [Taylor went there a few nights ago, the giant fought some neo-nazis]
[] Southeast (Downtown Coast) {ABB} <High intensity fighting, main area, ???>
Author's Note: I wrote this in something of a fugue state and not wholly in right mind and in one go, but I think it covers what I want it to cover. Sorry if I was overly verbose. I'm kinda rambly.
Apologies if anyone doesn't like it. AU Worm lore is a go!
If any are wondering where the heck they got more parahumans who could operate on the lunar surface, a lot of capes were brought there to see if they could use their power in prior years. Most capes kinda jumped at the chance to say they were on the moon, even if it was for a short while.
I usually have more to say but I don't know what else to say, so, uh, I hope everyone liked my ramblings? I guess?
Um.
Anyways.
Please vote? Discuss the moon lore you have learned if you wish to make the QM happy?
- Pronouns
- He
This has just inspired me to hate the moon more for causing more complicated shit that makes my eyes swim.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well. At least it wasn't going dark because of Velber...maybe.
[X] Southwest (Commercial District & Downtown South) {E88} <Medium to low intensity skirmishing, ???>
Honestly it's a fucking miracle they got so far as a semi-permanent settlement on the Moon. If I had to guess, Kaguya either committed suicide after the catastrophic breakdown of their years of work or just drunk themselves into oblivion (I know I would). Astroturf's astroturf surviving and thriving on the moon smells like a plot hook, but not one relevant to this story.
Honestly it's a fucking miracle they got so far as a semi-permanent settlement on the Moon. If I had to guess, Kaguya either committed suicide after the catastrophic breakdown of their years of work or just drunk themselves into oblivion (I know I would). Astroturf's astroturf surviving and thriving on the moon smells like a plot hook, but not one relevant to this story.
As in... tears? Or...?
Warrior Princess Kaguya was the real MVP. Canonically, dude was the only survivor of the Evacuation Earth project with Mannequin and his eight friends gunning for him for a decade and he was still shooting for the moon.
I mean, canonically Kirin White would just dump people on the moon during a fight, so, once they got the permanent base up and running it was surprisingly easy. The problem is that it had very few redundancies for the parahuman element.
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- Pronouns
- He
Speaking of, why is he calling himself Princess anyway?
Don't worry about it.
If I had to take a guess, its a reference to the Tale of the Princess Kaguya, and the titular Princess Kaguya is from the moon.
I'm worried about it.
- Location
- Oklahoma
[X] Southwest (Commercial District & Downtown South) {E88} <Medium to low intensity skirmishing, ???>
Voting for 04.16.03
So, I was going to write new chapter, but I looked at votes and realized that... most people didn't vote.
Like, half as many as usual. Which is by far more than enough to completely change the current vote trajectory. This isn't an instance of there not being a clear majority, more just a majority of the regulars having not voted and want to make sure more people get a word in and don't have non-voting regret.
Current vote is thus;
8 Southwest
3 Northwest
1 South
Closing vote in 22 hours, most likely.
Like, half as many as usual. Which is by far more than enough to completely change the current vote trajectory. This isn't an instance of there not being a clear majority, more just a majority of the regulars having not voted and want to make sure more people get a word in and don't have non-voting regret.
Current vote is thus;
8 Southwest
3 Northwest
1 South
Closing vote in 22 hours, most likely.
SaberFail
All Ideas. No Skills. a bit hungry
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x] Northwest (Trainyard & Docks South) [Taylor went there three weeks ago and had an encounter with ABB's second in command, Kage] {ABB} <Medium to high intensity fighting; secondary location to main area, ???>
Earth Bet's Mooncell? Some sort of defense mechanism as a result of one of the moonwalkers finding something they shouldn't have?
Deadweight Hero
I can't beat the demon lord help-
[X] Southwest (Commercial District & Downtown South) {E88} <Medium to low intensity skirmishing, ???>
Parodos 04.16.04
[X] Southwest (Commercial District & Downtown South) {E88} <Medium to low intensity skirmishing, ???>
Compared to her last excursion into Empire territory, there was something of a tenseness in the air that the previous time lacked.
Which was somewhat ironic, because Taylor was decently certain that this was one of the safer areas of their holdings.
There was foot traffic, sure, cars went by, but people were… jumpy. Twitchy, readying for something to go awry.
On the one hand, Taylor figured that at worst, a lot of the people who lived here were Neo-Nazi sympathizers. She certainly hadn't seen many people of colour since she crossed the divide into the southern half of downtown. But on the other hand… Did these people have much of a choice? It's not like it was easier to upend your life and move to some place entirely different even within the city. Not without a lot of money…
...though given that skyscrapers dotted the area, and at least a half dozen major companies had headquarters here…
It made Taylor idly wonder what kind of dirt that the Empire Eighty-Eight had on Medhall. Whatever it was, it had to be rather impressive to keep them where they were… or when you were that rich, you just didn't care about the area. A toss up, really.
After all they the Neo-Nazis had held this area as long as Taylor could recall, whi-
A hush fell over everything. It was rolling thing, almost physical, magnetic in nature, drawing everything to a standstill. Taylor swore she could hear a paper fluttering in the wind.
Or would have, had Taylor not been able to hear the growing cacophony of gunfire.
Or the screams.
Or explosions.
Smoke started to rise. Multiple columns of it.
However what was most concerning was the fact those skyscrapers were going dark in the early evening, the ambient lighting going out, a darkness spreading out, visible as the light pollution slowly dwindled, coming closer and closer to Taylor.
Fear started to slither its worms into her head.
She had no idea on what could cause that.
Taylor…
[] Fled, this seemed too dangerous.
[] Sent the giant in and skedaddled.
[] Got closer to see what was happening.
Author's Note: Hey, have a new update!
*Looks at rolls*
Ha. This will be… intriguing regardless of what gets picked.
Short chapter because I figured I should give people the option. The first option, mechanically, is Taylor going to try elsewhere and find something less… whatever this is, to do something about.
Please vote and discuss, as always! The moon discussion was fun ^_^
Compared to her last excursion into Empire territory, there was something of a tenseness in the air that the previous time lacked.
Which was somewhat ironic, because Taylor was decently certain that this was one of the safer areas of their holdings.
There was foot traffic, sure, cars went by, but people were… jumpy. Twitchy, readying for something to go awry.
On the one hand, Taylor figured that at worst, a lot of the people who lived here were Neo-Nazi sympathizers. She certainly hadn't seen many people of colour since she crossed the divide into the southern half of downtown. But on the other hand… Did these people have much of a choice? It's not like it was easier to upend your life and move to some place entirely different even within the city. Not without a lot of money…
...though given that skyscrapers dotted the area, and at least a half dozen major companies had headquarters here…
It made Taylor idly wonder what kind of dirt that the Empire Eighty-Eight had on Medhall. Whatever it was, it had to be rather impressive to keep them where they were… or when you were that rich, you just didn't care about the area. A toss up, really.
After all they the Neo-Nazis had held this area as long as Taylor could recall, whi-
A hush fell over everything. It was rolling thing, almost physical, magnetic in nature, drawing everything to a standstill. Taylor swore she could hear a paper fluttering in the wind.
Or would have, had Taylor not been able to hear the growing cacophony of gunfire.
Or the screams.
Or explosions.
Smoke started to rise. Multiple columns of it.
However what was most concerning was the fact those skyscrapers were going dark in the early evening, the ambient lighting going out, a darkness spreading out, visible as the light pollution slowly dwindled, coming closer and closer to Taylor.
Fear started to slither its worms into her head.
She had no idea on what could cause that.
Taylor…
[] Fled, this seemed too dangerous.
[] Sent the giant in and skedaddled.
[] Got closer to see what was happening.
Author's Note: Hey, have a new update!
*Looks at rolls*
Ha. This will be… intriguing regardless of what gets picked.
Short chapter because I figured I should give people the option. The first option, mechanically, is Taylor going to try elsewhere and find something less… whatever this is, to do something about.
Please vote and discuss, as always! The moon discussion was fun ^_^
[X] Sent the giant in and skedaddled.
Obligatory dissenting vote. Also because a fire-and-forget Heracles sounds funny.
Obligatory dissenting vote. Also because a fire-and-forget Heracles sounds funny.
[X] Got closer to see what was happening.