The Ocean of Storms

///MESSAGE ALPHA ONE CLEARANCE RECEIVED AT 02:10AM\\\-----

Please, whoever this reaches, this is an ALPHA ONE MESSAGE. I repeat, an ALPHA ONE MESSAGE.

This is former Captain Leon Temple of the UFA vessel Fortuna speaking.

I guess this is my last message, as it's too late to save me. I pray to God that somehow this will reach Terra Major in time, but if it doesn’t, then may God be with us all. If you don’t find the vessel and me in time, you must destroy the ship. I repeat, you must destroy the Fortuna.

It's been 12 days since the incident occurred. We landed midday on April 24^th 2030, with minimal damage report, stable ground logistics and an all green from Cape Julius. I was part of the first exploring team mission sent to extrapolate and correlate data on activity found in a region of Luna 1, on the dark side of the moon. A place registered by scientists as The Ocean of Storms. But no one had a clue as to what we would find.

Where do I begin?

God, how the hell can I explain this?

You must believe me. I found it hard to believe at first, as everyone else did, and now everyone is just me. Everyone is dead. Please, believe me. You have to.

After reaching our point of destination, the scanners immediately picked up electromagnetic disturbance, the likes of which put functions and sensors miles off course. This should have been the first warning sign, but our three expedition members; UFA’s Major Fox, Sergeant Richards, and Private Mason all were set on being the first recon team to reach the first five miles of The Ocean.

As they reached the inside boundaries of the dead crater, one of the terraforming vehicles started to read correspondence from inside the vessel. They had reached their destination within optimum time, and began to correlate data immediately upon arrival.

What they reported on their logs were signs of growth. Unbelievable growth. There had never been any activity ever on the moon, and within this one territory, sudden activity meant everything had changed.

It was at first containable. The specimens and samples taken from Site 1 on The Ocean of Storms was unlike any form of life we, mankind, had ever encountered before. It seemed like the site, to be a pod of some sorts.

Science Division wanted it immediately quarantined, under orders of the UFC regulations, yet certain members of the crew believed it to be a threat if taken aboard. I made the decision to overrule Science and allow its transportation. If I had the chance, I would never have let that thing on board.

To this day I regret and take full responsibility for my actions. I am responsible for the deaths of over 45 crew members. My friends and their families. They are all dead, all because of me. Because of my decision. I’m still alive, barely, by the skin of my teeth. Just because I was smart enough to get out before it had the chance to get me.

My God... What have I done? What have I become?

I’ve let everything die. It’s all my fault, and I don’t know if I can carry on anymore.

Years of work, all gone, all wasted, billions lost, and all because of the discovery.

I managed to escape in an Medivac Pod, and currently I’m holding the last of the food/drink supplies. It’s been over a week, maybe longer, but out here, the machines are malfunctioning. I don’t know what time it is right now. I can’t think about it. Everything is gone to shit. Everything.

I’ve never been so scared in my life before, of what’s out there. I know it’s waiting for me. It knows I know, somehow. I don’t know how the hell I know this, but I just do.

It mocks me, The Ocean of Storms. The waves of electromagnetism, they look as if they lie still, dormant, almost peaceful. Yet, they are ever changing. They are violent. From time to time, the shields and hull sometime feel the forces hit as hard as a photon shot and causes everything to rock.

You’ve gotta believe me when I say that it is alive. The Ocean is alive. It’s not what it seems at all Goddammit, it’s not just a huge hole on a planet. Something must have hit it, like a meteorite, something must have caused some form of a fissure to split the surface of the rock. Or whatever hit it must have had something on it which landed, because we’ve studied this piece of crud for years, and nothing lives on this. Nothing.

Sometimes, I ponder on whether or not mankind made the right decision, to explore, to wonder into the vast great unknown and stick their greedy fucking noses into something which absolutely no one could understand.

I have gazed into the craters, into the deadlands of Luna 1, and it has stared back at me. I have seen forever, in the glimpse of a servo eye, and it has a mask on. It wears the face of death.

This will be the last entry. I can't live in fear anymore. 

Oh, who am I kidding? I died a long time ago. I've got to leave, before it is too late.

I've become trapped, trapped upon this vessel; this ship. No. not a ship. A prison.

I hear noises. Scraping noises. They’re calling out.

I’ve got to go now. May God be with us all.

-----///END OF MESSAGE\\\