‘THE FOLLOWING FOOTAGE WAS RECOVERED BY AUTOMATED TRANSMISSION AS PER PROTOCOL FLARE WHICH THE PERSONNEL WHO RECORDED THE FOOTAGE AGREED UPON BY TERMS OF EARTH ONE MILITARY AND DEFENSE. THIS TRANSMISSION WAS UPLOADED DURING A COVERT RECONNAISSANCE OF LUNAR FACILITY FORTRESS ICARUS FOLLOWING REPORT THAT THE HOSTILE INVASION HAD CONCLUDED. THE PURPOSE OF THE MISSION WAS TO DETERMINE SAFETY OF THE FACILITY AND SURROUNDING AREA BEFORE FURTHER PERSONNEL COULD BE PERMITTED TO ENTER THE CAMPUS AND BEGIN RECOVERY PROCEDURE.’

‘THIS FOOTAGE SHOULD ONLY BE VIEWED BY THOSE PERMITTED TO BY RELEVANT AUTHORITIES. VIEWING OF SUCH FOOTAGE WITHOUT SAID PERMISSION IS NOT ONLY A PLANETARY OFFENSE BUT MAY INVOLVE PUNISHMENT OF THE EARTHLY GOVERNMENTAL ALLIANCE AS PER TERMS OF SECTION 15 IN THE WATCHTOWER STATEMENT. FOOTAGE MAY INCLUDE DISTURBING IMAGERY INVOLVING INJURY OR EVEN DEATH, THUS VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.’

“Determined five corpses in Room 104-C of Building G1012, over,” reported the voice of an adult male, although the voice was not spoken with perfect clarity as it was instead slightly corrupted by a slight static over gentle white noise.

The voice came from the body of a man dressed in a familiar navy blue uniform standing by an open doorway of a dark room, the shield-shaped epaulets on his shoulder. Over his right arm hovered the board firearm with the black ballpoint muzzle, which was aimed through the door and slowly moved while in speech.

The man then stepped back and turned around to face the larger room which without much strong lighting can only be made out to be some sort of large office space with many long hovering tables with empty seats along it. The walls were white same as the floor, although there were notably some dark streaks along the surfaces amongst slight debris of metal chunks on the floor.

Facing head on towards what the footage was recorded from, the man’s face was revealed to be a young adult not much greater than a teenager with short blonde hair and a chiseled jaw. His eyes appeared to have a strange purple tint as he lowered his arms which his firearm followed smoothly, although that tint vanished.

“Hey, you want to check it out too, Fred?” cheekily invited the man with a slight sway forward despite the rather gruesome description he had made just seconds earlier.

With said description in mind, a second voice rejected: “Man you know we’re still being monitored, you don’t got to say that kinda thing.” The voice was substantially louder, in fact it was as though it was spoken right above the camera. It also was an adult male albeit a bit higher pitched than the comrade, and with a more apprehensive tone.

Huffing from disappointment, the comrade shook his head and surrendered, “Well fine by me, but I’ve been the one doing all the counting here. Didn’t know I was babysitting too.” He then began walking towards the camera as up close two arms appeared before, although seeming to originate from beside the camera itself, with the left one above carrying a hovering firearm of the same model. Judging from the placement of the arms in relation to the camera, said camera appeared to be attached to the chest of the body.

The cameraman who had been identified as Fred turned as the comrade walked past him towards the other side of the room where there was another open door, and he retorted defensively: “Well, you seem to get off to this stuff so I didn’t think it was work to you. You’ve always been a div, Chase.”

Approaching the other doorway while glancing at the various empty tables in circles like rings with slits to allow entry, the ally named Chase chuckled to himself before remarking slyly, “Well you know what they say, love what you do and it won’t feel like work.”

Suddenly a third voice spoke although samely as Fred’s it’s almost right up to the microphone, or rather this time it’s as though it came from no direction at all, instead directly reprimanding in a male voice although severely older with audible rasp: “Chase, this line is strictly for you to update us with your findings, not for you to educate us on your beliefs.”

Abruptly Chase stopped in the doorway upon the voice, and he raised his head up before sarcastically tossing back, “Oh hey commander I didn’t see you there! We’re wrapping up this building and we’re on our way out,” before he did just that, walking through the door to which Fred followed out.

Upon passing through the door, there was not just another room as while the ground was still nearly white it was grayish and entirely made of rocks. There were also no walls, instead the boundless infinity of the black expansion, stars glittering amongst the gaseous cosmic phenomena, but substantially larger with greater resolution was the globe with green and brown land over the blue base below the white swirls, such immense fidelity visible even from so far away, a sight beautiful with hardly any quality loss in recording. There were also multiple strong cyan rays of light although split into thin branches, providing greater light so the camera could rely on a natural source. There was a faintly scaly blue dome that slightly filtered the shot, but it was hardly even translucent thus didn’t obstruct the view too substantially.

Right in front more precisely are several white buildings of various scales with some the size of sheds and others being tall as apartments, although all of them have the same shape of a spike with a wide base that curved into a thin tip. Beyond the many white buildings was a substantially larger one that towered over like a skyscraper, also of the same spike design, and past that was a looming white wall that curled around as a ring, many stories tall. On the ground there were several other figures walking in small groups, mostly pairs but others slightly larger, all spread across the campus with some raising their heads up in curiosity. All of them also are dressed in those navy blue uniforms with the same standard issue weaponry, all part of the same mission. However, there was one substantial portion of the campus where nobody stood, a huge crater deep within the surface almost as though an asteroid struck the moon, which a few of the personnel had attention to in conversation as though centering their topic around such a sight.

“So I guess once we’re out of here, the others will come and take the bodies away?” inquires Fred’s voice, with the only spatially present audience to be Chase who strolled in front of him, facing ahead as the two continued forward and he surmised, “Probably, gonna need more people for that though. But god damn those guys had a lot of holes all over their back and hands and whatnot, don’t know what for but could you imagine being stationed here when that happened?”

“Yeah I shouldn’t have asked, that’s on me,” admitted Fred before sighing from the unnecessarily morbid question returned to him. While moving, his arms sway back and forth ever so slightly, the firearm needing to shift itself precisely to remain in position.

All the sudden an anomaly caught Fred’s attention, causing him to turn to the side as a horde of lights off in the distance from the direction of the Earth approached them from high above the wall. At first there wasn’t a discernible quantity of them, and they lacked any volume in the vacuum, but they were noticeably growing larger. They had to be seen higher up on the field of view as the camera was not rotated due to its anchoring, but it was still well captured.

“Oh shit, we done already?” muttered Fred in surprise to the sight, to which Chase noticed the same sight and figured too, “Guess so, we should probably regroup then,” before he turned around and began walking with a faster pace which Fred also took on when turning the same direction.

Upon the turn there were new buildings visible, still similar as the white spikes but with a ginormous one in the center of the walled campus, one of such immense grandeur that it seemed it’d fit in Versepolis itself. Past it were more buildings and the wall, but past that was a sight that covered the rest of the entire view, the gargantuan cyan sun in its intimate glory, its rays shun between the tall spikes, its distance so little that individual flares could be seen on the ground terrifyingly so.

In front of the largest building was a crowd of other personnel which only grew as more from the distant buildings began to approach the center, more noticing the lights above.

While Fred and Chase approached the growing cluster, Fred turned around again to return his gaze to the lights which had become much larger, and in a second an abrupt flurry of roars nearly shook the campus, the roars emitted from the lights as they flew towards the crowd, close enough that they were visibly black vehicles shaped as buses with long solid bodies, a handful of them in a fleet that flew overhead.

Being turned around to trail the fleet, the camera could watch the buses slow down to a near stop in the air as they descended carefully towards the gray ground by the edge of the crowd, causing many of the personnel to move to the side as etiquette to provide easier landing.

From a hurried walk to a jog almost bordered on a sprint, Chase accelerated towards the crowd to which Fred shouted, “HEY WAIT!” before needing to do the same, although panting and wheezing as his arms rocked side to side.

He wasn’t the only one as there were a handful of others also raising their pace, eager to depart the mission which was fair given the morbidness. It would be a lie to state that Fred wasn’t among those, as he sped up to stay right behind Chase as they made it at least to where the mob was thickening where they slowed down as to not collide, walking at a calm pace surrounded by others.

Ahead the buses hovered a foot off the ground as doors dematerialized where typical bus doors would be, revealing steps to the interior which the allies began boarding immediately, murmuring amongst themselves as more buses landed and opened their doors.

There were a solid amount of personnel on the ground, so much that despite the fleet’s size it still seemed they were filling up quickly with many left to board. So many people needed to catch the buses, yet Fred and Chase stood by the end of the crowd, having caught up later than most despite their run as it was difficult to even see the buses past the horde.

Disgruntledly Chase sighed before complaining, “Damn guess we’re going to be some of the last ones, looks like you were too slow, what a shame.”

Astounded by the blame, Fred turned towards Chase before correcting, “Man I was running behind you, what do you mean ‘I’ was too slow? That’s some pork.”

Before the argument could continue, a different voice remarked exhaustedly: “Man it is chaotic up here, I’m not even supposed to be up right now,” to which Fred glanced over to find a man around the same age with hair in a bun above a dark but faint beard.

Another man by the cluster spoke up too, a bit older seeming to be in his thirties instead if not more, his voice calmer although still understanding to the displeasures: “Tell me about it, I was stationed at a spot orbiting Earth 3 but I was called up here, and here we are. I suppose this is part of the job, and either way something to this extreme at least isn’t frequent so it’s only an annoyance every now and then.”

“Yeah, I hope it’s not frequent,” responded the former complainer before he then continued in a whisper, cupping his mouth even: “Been zipping around that this was all that evil Meditat’s doing, Exitium it is. Don’t know if that’s true but I don’t know, I’ve heard of recent sightings.”

“No way, that guy hasn’t had his name on a headline in years,” interrupted Fred, grabbing both of the men’s attention as well as Chase who shrugged before offhandedly mentioning, “Who knows, but man I’d be beneathed if I had to go against anything like that, hell I haven’t even dealt with an Exhuman attack yet.”

The crowd gradually grew smaller as more of it was tunneled into the several buses, quick work being made to help the guards depart the graveyard, as at that point there were already buses with doors being shut before they’d lift higher off the ground, taking their leave per their capacity being reached. They turned around before flying off into the air, humming louder as they pulled up away from the premises.

Abnormally the footage flickered and glitched, all the people freezing and their bodies distorting, stretched with black lines smearing the screen, heavy buzzing blaring magnitudes louder than the buses were, for such IGNvbnZlcmdlbmNlIG9mIG9wcG9zaXRpb25hbCBmb3JjZXMgbGVkIHRvIHZpb2xlbnQgY29uZmxpY3QuCg==.

Luckily the footage clarified with the glitches resolved, although there were less people as the boarding continued, with another bus lifting off the ground and soaring away. The bus was watched by Fred as it left, high off into the sky above the colossal telescope cannon past the walls.

In front of him Chase faced the other direction with a disturbed expression, perplexed even with oddly purple tinted eyes, and he peered more before beginning to slowly step forward, away from the crowd. The two men that they had conversed with prior continued ahead, although in noticing the strange divergence Fred focused on him and asked, “Huh where you going?”

Without any snark or banter, Chase simply stated soberly, “Wait huh…did I see something…,” while continuing his walk, although only moving faster.

Quickly Fred glanced back at the shortening crowd before then at Chase who was already moving distant from them in the direction of the crater, ventilating loudly in sign of desperation, challenged to make an uneasy choice.

Ultimately Fred took off towards Chase, swinging his arms side by side as his comrade began running too, pushing Fred even more such that his attempts to shout failed as he had insufficient breath to pass words out.

Only once Chase reached the edge of the crater and began running down it could Fred project: “Lo what are you doing?? The buses are going to leave soon, they already checked out this area, come on don’t mess with me right now!”

Yet Chase continued running, although able to spare some words back in a shout: “Wait, I think I saw something, give me a minute you can get on without me.”

“Except I can’t you hollowhead, what the hell are you saying??” shouted back Fred even more puzzled while chasing his comrade down the great crater.

In the distance behind a faint voice seemed to call out incoherently, although Fred couldn’t muster the strength to make an exclamation loud enough to reach back, not while still needing to run down the crater, small rocks kicked off his boots.

He could at least push out back to Chase, “We shouldn’t be here, we need to get back to the buses! You’re going to get us in trouble again, Chase, really what the hell is wrong with you??”

No berating held back Chase however, as he only came to a stop by the very bottom of the crater, stopping only a few feet from the center. He lowered both of his arms and bent over to better stare at the Origin, oddly entranced by what was likely just more rocks. The crater was by all means a strange anomaly, the most significant structural damage made to the facility thus it wasn’t exactly strange to focus on it. However the man didn’t seem as interested in the overall crater, but rather a very specific point, obsessing over a minute spec as he stood in place, facing straight at the ground almost possessed.

Such strange behavior warranted further concern, as Fred leaned to the side while calling out but in a softer, audibly apprehensive tone: “Uhm…Chase…what are you looking at?” It was likely just rock, that was what the crater was made of, he was just staring specifically at some rocks that perhaps had a strange indentation but nothing more the matter, although it wasn’t visible as his body was covering it from the camera.

Chase didn’t give an immediate response, further casting uncertain dread as Fred turned around back the way he came, watching another bus ascend into the air and fly off towards the dome, off with another batch departing, leaving less remaining to evacuate on.

“Come on man…we really got to go…this isn’t funny. We’re really going to get it if we don’t get on a bus, seriously,” prodded Fred in clear anxiety, the camera bobbing up and down from Fred bouncing in place from impatience.

“No wait hold on…Fred come check this out…,” instead hesitantly offered Chase, turning Fred’s attention back to the center from the first invitation to actually get a glimpse of what had so deeply infatuated his ally who was now endangering them of trouble with their superiors.

An irritated sigh passed over Fred before he then began strolling towards Chase in hopes to satiate his curiosity so they could return back, although as Fred approached Chase, Chase took a step back and muttered, “Wait shoot did it just mov-,” before his face was instantly impaled by a black stake from the ground before it then arched back into it, causing Fred to instantly stumble backwards and shout: “HOLY SHIT!!”

Chase’s body goes limp with his whole face carved through by a strange long black curved entity resembling tree roots, although raised high off the ground, returned back into the lunar surface with a strange black spot in the ground where it reentered. In fact, the spot was pitch black, not any shade of gray for not even the light changed its hue, it was purely black.

Again the footage began to start glitching, static getting louder as frames were skipped, the cameraman’s cry of “CHASE!!!” distorted heavily, making it difficult to make out the sight of the bright streaks coursing through the root before a stick extended out of the entity past the guard’s corpse in the direction of the camera, about the size of an arm.

The stick even waved at a central joint, and beside it emerged a second stick about shoulder length apart. Both sticks then bent sharply, their ends grabbing onto the root before beginning to push, and as it pushed more in between the sticks emerged a slender ellipsoid crawling out as more bright streaks pulsated through the branch, propagating through the emergences too.

As the cameraman fought to hold himself steady, the ellipsoid arised whole, but under it was a longer tube connected to a wider base, and it soon all became clear this entity was humanoid in shape and functionality as its torso crept out, its entire body black perhaps naturally or by the rapid glitching of the footage.

Another step back and the cameraman raised his left arm, aiming his firearm up at the materializing being although shakily so, hyperventilating such that if it weren’t for the assisted aiming functionality of his weapon he may as well be firing blanks. He gripped his elbow with his right hand to steady himself, although that did hardly any good.

“HEY, STOP RIGHT THERE, I’M WARNING YOU!!” cried out the cameraman yet the humanoid continued to pull itself out, its entire body beginning to slope down as it passed its hips, as in fact its entire body then slipped straight out of the root and onto the ground including its legs. The body laid on the ground limp at first, face first although there were no identifiable features other than its shape.

Another step back the cameraman took away from his comrade’s corpse which was marooned to stand, its feet still grounded despite no energy to power the legs.

Suddenly the black arms reanimated and grabbed the ground with a bend before pulling its body up once more, its legs also moving to better support itself as it creepily stood upright in hazy movements, and upon standing fully straight even while lower than the cameraman in the crater the being was clearly well taller, its shape human but its proportions unnatural with an eerily slender build.

An abrupt jerk turned the entity’s head towards the camera, revealing its face to be blank, black without sculpt.

Almost as abruptly the cameraman fired three orange bolts from the ballpoint of his weapon, all three straight into the black head, every bolt being absorbed into the body between where the eyes would be.

Three lethal shots fired, the entity turned fully to face the cameraman without even a stumble, causing the cameraman to stagger backwards in horror to the ineffectiveness of his weapon, but more so to the stretching of the entity’s face as an aperture grew from the center, one with innumerable small white spikes inside like teeth, teeth in a never ending spiral inside the mouth.

Timed with another intense distortion momentarily freezing recording, the black entity reappeared charging straight at the cameraman with the mouth stretching more– covering the entire face– before it then lept and with its lanky arms it tackled the cameraman to the ground, causing him to shriek in panic, helpless as the entity’s mouth grew just a bit larger before it finally took its bite, an agonizing scream cut right as it was let out with the gruesome sound of squashing, and the whole camera lens became covered in liquid.

There ends the footage.

VGhlIGFuZ2VscyBjb3VsZCBmaW5hbGx5IHJldW5pdGUgYWxsIGluIHRoZSBjbG91ZHMgdGhhdCB0aGV5IHdlcmUgYm9ybiBvbi4=