"As we attempt to connect back to the Chandraayan-10 crew, we present to you a short history of the construction of the modern day marvel: the lunar base.

February 27 – November 2, 2030

Humanities dream of a lunar base had spanned decades. During the Cold War, the United States' aim for a military presence on the moon before the Soviet Union was the driving force for NASA's Apollo missions. There had even been a plan by the U.S. Air force to create an underground base in 1968. But neither plan came to fruition.

It wasn't until the Eastern space agencies joined forces to compete against the the West, to harness the moons potential, that the International Collective Space Research Organization was formed to overlook the establishment of a viable lunar base. ICSRO recruited numerous space agencies under their organization in order to come up with a plan to construct the base. They fell short of a feasible number until the solution of artificial intelligence was utilized. A standard practice in building new homes around the world, the future of space colonization was dependent on artificial agents being able to operate without much human intervention. With China providing the basis for intelligent systems that could be operated with delay in space, India was quick to implement the technology and was the first to propose a plan to ICSRO. This led them to dictate the terms of the first lunar base being operated by them since their cost effectiveness had finally made the plan feasible.

March 1, 2031

The lunar base itself was established in the prime location of a permanently shadowed crater called 'Acorn One'; near the moon's north pole. Since the location harbored vast quantities of ice, H20 could easily be harvested meeting the main necessities for human life. Creating a power source, however, was a lot trickier because of the 354-hour lunar night cycle; solar energy was not entirely viable. A system of conserving energy was implemented during the construction process only taking place during solar hours.

Artificially manned robots (AMRs) of ISRO began with the construction of the lunar lander from 3D printed structures that the lunar soil provided, moving onto polycarbonate housing for the initial 3 camps and the creation of the Mass Driver – a kilometer long electromagnetic rail gun that allowed packages to be accelerated at lunar escape velocity and catapulted into space colonies and/or space stations. Rocket fuel and other necessities could all be manufactured on the lunar surface itself due to the lunar soil's properties and its potential to fabricate fiberglass, concrete, metals and oxygen."

Present

The telecast took a brief pause before transitioning into the next segment. The annoyed tv presenter sat with his arms crossed in his chair having been promised exclusive footage of the lunar expedition and instead had re-run previously broadcasted footage. Outside his air-conditioned studio office, workers in blue and white blurred through crowds of frenzied colleagues all sweating in the 40° Bangalore heat trying to figure out how an impeccably tested broadcast system had suddenly been shut down. Apart from the crowd stood a calm figure dressed in a white t-shirt with the emblem of an upward slanted chevron arrow in orange with rectangular blue satellites protruding from either side. A member of the Indian Space Research Organization. He walked straight into the media communications office in a slow yet determined pace while frenzied workers stopped in their tracks to make way for him at the sight of

The door was gently shut behind him as the manager of ISRO's broadcasting division stood to his feet immediately wiping off the sweat from him brow with a pocketed handkerchief.

"Listen, before you apologize for all this inconvenience let me be the one to tell you this is not your fault" The ISRO employee said reassuringly. He motioned for the surprised manager to sit back in his chair. The office itself was littered with pictures of old ISRO rocket models and it was evident the greasy haired manager with the pot belly was in fact a fan of the project and therefore dedicated to its cause. "Our encryption was decrypted faster than our top engineers even noticed anything was wrong, the broadcast was nullified and all communication to the crew was blocked." He let the information float in silence expecting the manager to say something in response.

"That's not possible" he finally uttered in shock. "We work with ICSRO on our communication channels and broadcast delivery. No other agency would dare sabotage an operation they are equally a part of." The manager said with certainty as the setting sun glimmered on his brown complexion.

"Precisely, we need to deal with this anomaly immediately then." The ISRO employee stood up from his chair while the manager followed.

"Our orders are to follow phase 2 immediately. NASA will be sent up to the lunar base with the instruction of reporting back what has happened. They may not be cost efficient but their equipment is the best of the ICSRO nations. I believe you know your directive?"

With a second of hesitation in promoting NASA through ISRO channels the manager solemnly nodded in agreement.

"It's in all of our best interest" replied the unnamed ISRO employee.

Lunar Base

A short haired blonde sat at the research station's terminal fervently typing code to establish the communication channels with ISRO. Her ghostly white appearance was an indication of her lack of sleep. But as she sat cross legged on her cushioned blue beanie on the floor with her laptop connected to multiple ports in the computers processing systems it was clear she must've been recruited or assigned to ISRO by their parent organization ICSRO for evident abilities in management of computer systems.

"Anything yet Z?" Amir peered in to the research station's technological quarters hesitantly.

"There will be of you give me my TIME and SPACE." Z replied agitated having failed another attempt at decryption. Amir backed away slowly before he heard Z call his name in the most polite manner she could've.

"How's Arjun?" She asked empathetically, showing a genuine level of concern for the commander.

"Still sedated. Talking in his sleep. We can't jump to any conclusions yet. But we need to know what ISRO is planning next. They're not about to let us sit here in the dark without instructions" Amir replied seriously trying to avoid any jokes to set Z off.

"We need to know what THEY'RE planning..." Z repeated clutching onto her ghostbusters pendant around her neck. "Take care of Arjun, I got this!" She replied to Amir directly and continued on typing commands onto her laptop and assisting tablet. The main computer screen had turned from black with shifting green text to a muted orange with minimally updating commands.

"You're hacking into L.U.N.A during phase 1. You sweet devil!" Amir cried ecstatically.

"We need what we need and this may be our best shot at predicting ground zero intentions." She clicked enter and a circular loading emblem appeared, transforming from a polygon to chaotic waves to gently shifting sinusoids.

"Hi L.U.N.A!" Z cheerfully greeted the new A.I.

"Hi. You must be Zabel. I like your hair." The female voice spoke using every peripheral at her disposal to to determine her surroundings. Amir entered the research station silently and sat behind Z in a chair gaping at the newly created A.I.

"Oh. You must be our pilot, Amir. Would you like to hear a joke?" L.U.N.A naively asked.

"Maybe later." He politely declined L.U.N.A "How does this work?" he whispered to Z.

"She has access to all the data files on us, our lunar project but excludes information on Earth for now. The only thing preventing her from becoming our overlord is the fact I was able to link her to the HUB. Ethics.exe, moral.exe, valueoflife.exe the lot for every A.I. in existence available to this beauty, and might i add free agent. She's not inclined to help us, but she will if she feels like it."

Flabbergasted Amir looked down at Z for creating true artificial intelligence sitting around on the moon.

"I'll hear that joke now L.U.N.A, if that's okay with you?"

"NASA are on their way to fix the problem." she said enthusiastically.

For a moment both Amir and Z sat astonished. They had received the information they needed. They knew what ISRO's plan was. Amir let out a chuckle, followed by a laugh by Z, until both of them hysterically laughed their lungs out in the confines of the empty research station.

Saghir heard the laughter walking back to the hangar on the far side of the base. His commander was sick, two security member were down and in the possibility that their communication channel would remain closed there was a necessity of a medical evacuation. Reaching the Pegasus he marveled at it's extended bird like wings and the intricately shaped oval body with etched carvings from the ISRO design team on Earth. He grazed the the markings until he got to the blast doors which immediately openend at his face, eye and palm signature. He didn't need to enter the entire ship just the fueling station to ensure they had enough to leave lunar atmosphere at their disposal. As it stood, they did.

"Commander Arjun is awake! I repeat commander Arjun is awake!" Sara broadcast over the local comms which didn't seemed to be disrupted. Saghir closed the diagnostic of the fuel tank and hurried to the medbay. Amir rushed out of the research station as Z stayed behind to ensure all safety protocols were operational for L.U.N.A.

"Why is it whenever I wake up I get to see your face?" Arjun smiled at Sara who stood at his side on the diagnostic table

"It eases the horror of seeing your own" She cried embracing Arjun before the other crew members got there.

"And he actually looks better than ever! Commander it's good to have you back" Amir walked in giving Arjun a hug.

"Alright enough with the physical contact we don't know if he's contracted anything." Dr. Singh impatiently separated the two.

"Any chance we'll have to make a medical evacuation to Earth" Sara questioned Dr. Singh. He scratched his white turban then gazed his beard until Amir interjected.

"NASA is on their way, Z intercepted ISRO communication" He kept L.U.N.A a secret not trying to add to the already stressful situation. Saghir entered the medbay smiling at Arjun having overheard Amir's information.

"NASA doesn't play nice, their superiority complex is high. We easily have enough fuel to get back to Earth. Let NASA deal with this mess.

"No." Arjun croaked shifting his body up to a sitting position as his crew members surrounded him. "There's an extraterrestrial anomaly here called Apollo. Not of this solar system. I'm not sure really. But he did mention one thing: 'War is coming'. Our establishment of this moon base is a sign to all the extraterrestrials out there that we are prepared for a new form of galactic interaction. We need NASA. We need all of ICSRO." he paused at the concerned look of his crew.

"We don't know what's coming, but it's right to assume something is."

"L.U.N.A what's your favorite color" Z asked the now yellowish blue AI that stared right at her.

"The color of air. It's so refreshing" L.U.N.A replied as if a child. Z smiled and asked L.U.N.A to question her.

"Zabel, why are you building a lunar base" the A.I. caught Z off guard. She pondered for a moment.

"Humanity has been a species of explorers. We're just preparing to explore the unknown" she replied candidly.

"Oh, why don't you work with Apollo then? He's your best bet at training for what you are about to face." L.U.N.A concluded. Z sat there in shock, this was the same Apollo that had abducted Arjun and L.U.N.A had confirmed his existence. Zabel got of her beanbag, excused herself from L.U.N.A and rushed over to the medbay where the rest of the crew members were.

She entered to the sight of all the crew members surrounding Arjun who was sat up on the diagnostic table while a figure in an indigo jacket and metallic mask comforted Arjun with a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to an alarmed Zabine.

"Well, we're all her now!" he said delighted.