Eclipsed

The moon is a peaceful place. There’s almost no wind, for one thing, and, personally, I have always found the off-white/grey of the rock to be soothing. I imagine it to be an exfoliating and moisturizing cream for the mind. After months at war, a brief cleanse is well-appreciated.

Currently, I was sitting by a viewing port at the top of one of the most important buildings in the base: the solar decryption tower. I was surrounded by plush leather from earth. They really built these original buildings with superior sensibilities than anyone would bother with these days.

The base sat in an enormous crater, and I could see across most of it from here. There were domes and greenhouses, bunkers, spaceports, barracks, engineering warehouses, hangers, munitions stockyards, and even a library. We called it a library, but it was mostly just servers. The building closest to me was the laser radio station. Paired with the solar encryption tower, we could reach almost anyone in the galaxy from here.

It had been quiet all morning, but it seemed like there was a lot of commotion the last few minutes. I wasn’t on duty, but I stood up to go check it out. You always got bonus points for helping out, and I wasn’t one to miss out on an opportunity. As I stood up, the whole window turned red, and I stared out.

Outside, the base melted before my eyes. Millions of lasers pressed buildings into the ground. The whole crater filled with red light too bright to look at. Unbearable heat radiated towards me. 5 seconds ago, I was looking out on a military complex, but the bombardment of energy had reduced it to slag. The full heatwave hit me, blasting the glass, shredding me, then vaporizing everything in the tower. What was left of me floated through the micro-atmosphere and settled on the surface, a darker grey stain on the grey surface.