Moon Diary III by Satriark (2012/2/20)

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// Story: Moon Diary III

// Author: Satriark

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// Chapter: LunarMissionTOPSECRET.avi

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Moon Diary III

By Satriark



John Bluefield slammed his fists against his hardwood table desk.

Searing pain shot forth from his wrists, but he barely felt it. Sweat beaded his forehead and his hands shook as he sat glaring wide eyed at the computer screen.

His password cracking program furiously scanned through all possible numbers and letters, trying desperately to crack open an email address for its master.



John was a top member of an internet based group called Anonymous, specializing in freedom protests and hacking. The group has been in a futile battle with the government for over thirty years. He was also the founder of the website www.mareonthemoon.com, a website for gathering all information on the fabled Mare on the Moon.

Three years ago archeologists made a startling discovery in vast forests of South America.

An extremely ancient city was found, dating back at least forty million years. Most of the city was destroyed and overgrown; the only thing left standing was a castle that stood hidden on a nearby mountain.

A dig site quickly erected around the area, and it made worldwide news. Many books and writings were found, though all in an ancient language.

Large framed pictures, preserved in glass hung proudly from the ancient walls of the castle. Horse looking beings filled the pictures, and told the tale of a magnificent race that once ruled the planet.

Dubbed Equestrians, these beings could write, build and socialize. Physical proof of Equestrians was never found in the castle, no ancient remains or anything. But, this was the first sign of intelligence other than humans ever found.

The Amazon in which the castle was discovered was combed for any other Equestrian ruins, any other towns or cities. None were found.



The search went quiet for one and a half years, until the next major discovery was uncovered.

A massive bunker was unearthed deep underneath the castle that was discovered in the Amazon a year earlier. Spanning miles wide and long, this was the largest underground complex that has ever been built.

Millions of Equestrian skeletons filled the bunker, hiding under ancient tents and beds. A large tunnel that once led to the surface was plugged with volcanic rock and ash. Some of the skeletons had horns atop their heads, and others had wings on their bodies. Named Unicorns and Pegasi after the old legends, these skeletons were brought out and studied deeply. Nobody knows why the Equestrian Race hid in the bunker, except that their reason was genuine.

All other remains of the Equestrian civilization were erased from the face of the planet in a massive extinction event named the Day of Fire.

The Day of Fire was thought similar to the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs, if not the same one.

After physical evidence of their existence was found, the Archeologists turned their attention to deciphering the ancient books of the castle. This is where the legend of the Mare on the Moon came from.



In the top room of the castle, thought to be where royalty once stayed, a book filled with notes and pictures was discovered.

The pictures told a tale of two sisters who ruled Old Earth, and could summon forth the sun and moon using their horns as a sort of magic device.

The Equestrians played and lived in the sunlight brought forth by one of the sisters, but shunned and slept through the others.

The night sister was insulted and attempted to take over Old Earth under her rule, and bring forth an everlasting night. The sun sister managed to stop her, and banish her to the moon for a thousand years.

Here, the handwriting changed to a scribbled frantic one, and the style of drawing changed also. It was clear that another Equestrian had picked up the book and continued the study.

The pictures drawn by the other Equestrian finished the tale. After her thousand year imprisonment was over, the night sister returned and re-attempted to rule Old Earth. However, she was quickly defeated by six magical Equestrians, and returned to her calm old self.

Seven years later, the night sister's personality changed and her mind collapsed for unknown reasons.

She began to slaughter mass amounts of Equestrians all over the world.

A worldwide evacuation was ordered, in an attempt to save the race from the extinction. They retreated to the bunker far beneath the castle, one that had been built many years before in case of a disaster.

The pictures and writing ended there, and it was assumed that the author had drafted this before moving to the bunker themselves.



Ding!



John Bluefield was ripped from his memories by a startling but innocent noise that came from his computer.

He snapped his vision up to the screen and pushed his thick glasses up to his eyes.

The password for the email address had been found, and the Hotmail stood open sheepishly on his screen. He whooped in victory and fisted the air.

He quickly wiped the sweat off his forehead and began scanning the inbox for any information regarding the Equestrians.

Shipping invoices, personal emails, government business, schedules, almost everything you could think of except for Equestrian information.

He slammed his hand down onto the keyboard in frustration and put his head in his hands. In his anguish, he struck the refresh key and the inbox flickered and reloaded to reveal another email had just come in.

He squeaked his eyes open and looked at the tile of the new email.

'FirebirdMissionDetails'.

He frowned in confusion and clicked open the email. The text box was blank, and a lone attachment was the only thing sent. He clicked on the file and the download options screen came up.

LunarMissionTOPSECRET.avi was the file that was quickly forming on his hard drive.

His palms started to sweat and a smirk grew on his face as he waited impatiently for the download to finish.

His bundle of virus protection services scanned the file over thoroughly and gave it the OK. He squeed with joy and navigated to his download folder and clicked open the file, and a clip began to play. Walls of text flashed onto the screen. He quickly paused the video and examined the text.



December 19th 1972

Pilots of Apollo 17 return to earth. The originally planned twenty day mission was cut short after the two astronauts complained of seeing extraterrestrial life on the moon. They were evacuated without a problem and given brief counseling on their return.



November 3rd 2030

The Equestrian race is discovered. The beings found matched the description given by the astronauts of the extraterrestrial found on the moon. Possible early spaceflight considered.



July 4th 2031

Mission Firebird was planned in the Pentagon. Blueprints for a revolutionary space shuttle were drawn up, a mining vessel with the capacity for three personal and ten tons of ore.



September 21st 2031

Blueprints for the space shuttle Firebird have been finalized and construction has begun. A large ravine on the southern pole of the moon has been chosen for the mining space. The eight personal are in training.

January 19th 2032

Construction is almost complete. The crew has been sworn to secrecy until the presence of precious minerals on the moon can be determined. They are aware of their secondary objective.



March 8th 2032

Construction is complete and testing has proven the vessel space worthy. The astronaut's primary objective is mining precious minerals on the lunar surface. Secondary objective is confirming the presence of Equestrians on the moon.



John grinned ear to ear.

This information was pure gold for his website, and if he pulled the right strings could possibly be sold for a lot of money.

The dates shown in the video were only a month old, it being April 12th 2032 at present. He hurriedly clicked the play button, and the silent text stayed on screen for a few more seconds before flicking to a video. The sudden change made John jump, but he shrugged it off and absolved himself into the video.



An astronaut floated in front of the camera with a smile to match Johns.

Buttons and dials littered the background. A table sat welded to the floor, along with some chairs.

Two other astronauts could be seen bustling around, fiddling with switches and talking over the radio.



The astronaut shushed the others and said "Day one of Firebird's lunar mission. Take off went without a hitch and we've been asked to keep a video log of our time up here. Kinda like a moon diary if you think about it. Anyway, we're all very anxious to get to the moon and start mining. It's the first time in space for all of us, so we can only hope that the simulations and training prove useful."

An astronaut snickered in the background "Yeah right" he said.

"Shut up, man." Snapped the astronaut in front of the camera. "This is Captain Kane Maese, signing out."



The video flickered back to an eerie black screen for a few seconds before changing back to another video log.

John quickly paused the video and opened his Tor 3.0 browser, the standard for a probably now wanted hacker. An old program, but it was reliable.

He ran a search for Captain Kane Maese and the Firebird mission. His lightning fast internet shot forward the results in milliseconds. The Firebird mission came up empty, mostly just spam and unrelated junk.

Captain Kane Maese came up with a Wikipedia page and he navigated into it. Captain Kane Maese was a thirty four year old astronaut under NASA. Born and raised in North America, he was a straight A student and a hard worker. He died during a training exercise on March 12th 2032, his body was never recovered.

Wait, hold on.

He died from a training exercise on March 12th, 2032.

Yes, that's what it said.

John quickly clicked back to the illegally obtained video and flicked back to the beginning.

March 8th was around the time when the shuttle Firebird left on its maiden voyage.

That means that he didn't return from the space flight.

John gulped and a shudder crept down his spine. He shouldn't have this video. Of course, his curiosity beat his logic and he slowly fast forwarded back to where it was and continued to watch.



The camera flickered back on to the familiar scene of the table, chair and mass amounts of dials. Captain Kane Maese sat at the table taking repetitive swigs of what looked like a water flask.

A different astronaut sat in front of the camera. He had dark eyes and black hair and spoke with a thick Russian accent.

Who would've thought that the next spaceflight would be flown with both Americans and Russians together?

"Day two of our voyage, and morale is pretty damn low. We can all feel it, something is wrong about this mission. It's like something on the moon is warning us to stay away."

He spun his head around to face his fellow astronaut sitting at the table, looking depressed.

"Hey Kane, easy on the water man we're here for three weeks."

Captain Kane turned his head slowly to face the Russian cosmonaut and blinked slowly. The Russian put his head in his hands and turned back to the camera.

"Feels like I'm working with a fucking zombie. Ivan Demidov, out"



The screen flickered black again and John quickly paused it, breathing quickly and his hands shaking.

He opened up his browser and ran a search for Ivan Demidov. Another Wikipedia page sat at the top of the list and he hastily opened it.

He immediately scanned the birth and death dates, hoping that the latter sat empty.

Ivan Demidov died in a training exercise on March 12th 2032.

John's face went pale as he realized that he died on the expedition also, and that both their deaths were covered up by the government.

Why did it remain a secret?

What did they find there?

He navigated himself to a familiar webpage, his own. www.mareonthemoon.com sat open on his computer and he stared at the artworks on it.

It was filled with ancient drawings of the Night Princess, the one who had been banished to the moon.

The astronauts of Apollo 17 had seen her, and the astronauts of the secret lunar flight Firebird had never returned. NASA had reason to make the search for extraterrestrial life on the moon a legitimate reason for spaceflight, which wasn't cheap.

Could it be?

Could the mare on the moon be true?

Surely it couldn't, magic doesn't exist. He satisfied his lust for reasoning and clicked back to the video.



The screen stayed black for a lot longer this time. Suddenly, static exploded loudly from his speakers and John quickly turned them down in an attempt to save his ears.

Almost instantly quiet voices replaced the static, as if mocking him for drowning out their song of white noise.

He rolled his eyes and turned the audio back up.



"Control, this is Firebird do you copy?"



"Firebird this is Control, we read you."



"We have landed successfully and we are in the process of examining the rock for precious minerals. No sign of secondary objective, but we'll keep a look out."



"Roger that Firebird, Control out."



The loud static returned, but John winced and sat through it, in fear of missing any small details. The static was replaced with a video, except this time it showed the three astronauts sitting in the back of a rover, the camera sitting in the front.



"We're on our way to examine the rock now, hopefully there's nothing here so we can get home quickly." Ivan said sullenly.

The third anonymous member sat silently in the back whilst Ivan and Kane sat in whispered converse at the front, too quiet to hear.

The screen flicked to the familiar inky darkness for the familiar three and a half seconds, before switching back to an unfamiliar video log.

Frantic hushed whispers were heard as the camera was slid along a rock wall. A vast, smooth cliffside filled John's computer screen.

"Oh my god." An unfamiliar voice said, probably the third member.

The rock face was covered in demonic scratches and writings, all done by hand. Millions of pictures of faces and Equestrian beings littered the surface.



This time unexpected, the video cut off and returned to darkness for a regular three and a half seconds. The screen stayed black and another radio conversation played through his speakers.



"Control, this is Firebird do you copy?"



"Loud and clear Firebird, go ahead."



"We have found evidence of Equestrian presence on the moon."



"Say again, Firebird. You found evidence?"



"Yes sir that is what we believe. Large scale sketching's and writing were found on the wall of a crater, including Equestrian drawings."



"Excellent, document it and continue with your primary objective. Control out."



This time there was no static and a video log played almost instantly.



An exhausted and unfamiliar face filled John's screen, they back aboard the Firebird.

The table and chairs sat in the background, but Ivan and Kane weren't visible.

"Day six of our time here." A thick Australian accent said wearily.



"Don't know if the others feel it too, but I know I do. They don't tell me anything, they don't trust me. Something's watching us alright. It's still here, it warned us to stay away but we came anyway. I'm going to remain as close to the others as possible for now. James Dylan out." Finished James, and the screen turned black.



John's skin crawled and a cold flush of anxiety crept down his spine.

There was now no doubt that the mare on the moon existed, which probably also meant that the Equestrian Unicorns had some biological magic ability.

The three astronauts never returned, and who knows what power the Unicorns were limited too.

Before he could indulge into his fears any further, the screen flickered to another video log.



Nobody sat in front of the camera this time; it seemed to just flicker on by itself. The three astronauts sat around the table in a heated discussion, Ivan and Kane on one side and James on the other.



"I'm telling you, I saw it! It's still here!" James yelled loudly at the two, hoping to gain their belief and trust.



"Listen to yourself James! She can't be alive; she's forty million years for god sake!" Kane snapped, his reason defying the ever mounting fear in his stomach.



"I know what I saw... I know what I saw." James said quietly, folding his arms and lowering his head.



The camera switched off automatically and John jumped. Almost instantly another radio conversation came on, forever thwarting his attempts to let his mind wander.



"Control, this is Firebird do you copy?"



"Firebird, your signal is slightly weak but we can hear you."



"James is missing.

He disappeared after he took an unscheduled moon walk, we had an argument and we believe he wanted to cool off, or simply prove to us that the night sister is still here.

He believes he saw her during our first mining expedition."



"Firebird, please repeat. Did you say he saw the Equestrian?"



"Yes sir."



"Is Ivan with you?"



"Yes sir, he's right here."



"Make no attempt to find James. Double check that the door is sealed and allow nothing in."



"What are you saying sir? Do you believe that she is still alive also?"



"We have gotten new Intel from our Archeologists that the Equestrians were led by two very powerful mares.

They have proven that the sisters and Equestrian Unicorns had some very strong biologically measurable kinetic abilities.

If the story is true, then there is a chance that the sister could've survived using 'magic'.

You have been given the clear for evacuation. Your control shuttle pod is about twelve hours away from your position, do NOT launch until you are given the clear or you will be lost. Control out."



John didn't want to believe what he heard. The mare on the moon was always just a story to him, a fun little fable that he dribbled on about on his website. Now that it might be true, the stories of the demonic sister that butchered her race haunted his mind. A video log flashed onto screen, pulling him out of his thoughts.



Kane sat at the camera, shaking and sweating with fear.

A loud, repetitive knocking made him wince and glance back to check if he was still safe.

"Three hours ago, Ivan left the safety of the shuttle. I warned him against it, but that stubborn man refused to listen to reason."

The knocking continued its steady pace, filling the room with an eerie echo.

"The knocking started about twenty minutes ago, but there's no way I'm opening that door. There's no way that's him.



His suit ran out of oxygen over two hours ago."



The screen suddenly turned black and stayed that way for about thirty seconds. John sat there the whole time, his palms slippery with sweat and quaking from fear. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, what he was hearing.

Suddenly, the screen changed back to a video log.

The room with the table was completely covered in blood, and in the background the door stood cracked open.

In the middle of the room, looking dead into the camera was the night sister.

Her eyes were completely jet black and dripped a strange black liquid. Streaks of the dark liquid lined her cracked, ancient skin.



Her fur was a dull dark blue, and the horn atop her head was cracked and splintered.

Her mouth hung open and the black liquid poured out of it into a puddle on the floor, blotting out the blood.

She slowly turned her head towards the main power grid, where the dials and switches were hidden under the vile red liquid. She jerked her legs forward, pulling the raggedy walking corpse towards the machine.

She reached it, and slowly turned her head back to the camera.

A slow smile crept onto her face, and it penetrated the computer screen right into John's soul. She turned her head back towards the machine, and stabbed her horn into it. Electricity arched and flickered around her horn and the camera flickered violently and turned to static.



The video turned black again, and John peered down at the progress bar to see that the video had finished.

But the night sister wasn't.

Suddenly, it flickered back to the scene of her sitting in the blood covered room.

Instead of walking towards the machine, she walked dead forward towards the camera.

Her jerky movements struck horror in John's heart, and her dark dead eyes didn't break focus from the camera lens.

She sat down a few inches away from the camera, and only her ancient, demonic face could be seen.

She spoke in a creaky, dark voice that epitomized insanity. To John's surprise and dismay the voice was in perfect English and it came not from her mouth, but from her mind itself.



"Those who seek shall surely find

Even if it kills their mind.

Condemned forever in this dark place

Time no longer keeps its pace.

In your room, you'll hear no sound

but meet your fate, and TURN AROUND."



John's lip trembled with fear as unwillingly turned his head around.



The End.