This base was an old, yet advanced for its time research and development area and it was presumably destroyed because of the experimental technologies that it was using.  I thought, “Really?  I have to visit this ruin just for a moon? Why didn’t I stay as a professor of strategy at The University of Earth”!  Then, a little voice whispered, “You may get promoted to an actual battle craft captain!!”  The reward seemed too great.  I had to inform him.    

Then, I dashed inside to inform the base commander.  The commander was a distinguished man with gray hair.  He had a designator sign which read Base Commander Farvel.   He actually owned the base and could do anything with it as long as it complied with the base rules.  This man could actually change my life for better or for worse.  I could tell that this was a new experience for him by looking through his eyes.  Imagine seeing a 5 foot 7 inch tall human with black hair and an Intergalactic Space Fleet pin which read “Scout Carrier Captain Vernal”.
You could also tell that he was intelligent and had one plasma SMG on his back.

Farvel told me that the location was super important, but he doesn’t exactly know where it is or directions to the base.  There was a thought inside of me that shouted, “Your craft’s infantry are permanently stationed at the base.  You’ll need reinforcements, and I don’t know if he’ll allow infantry to assist us.”  I suddenly blurted that an expedition to the base would require more people.  Farvel sharply responded by saying, “Captain, I don’t have enough resources to reinforce you.  You should know that this is a refueling base and a garrison if there are nearby conflicts. Try going to a major city to find helpful locals.  I thought “Vernal, why did you say that?  WHY???” 

I rallied my elite troops, and we rushed out to the nearest city, Copicer.  They all were thinking, “Cool.  I don’t have to stay at this boring base and I get to go on an adventure”!  We had to set our hoverbikes to manual because the roads in this area were not computerized.  Our first units arrived in the late afternoon.  As we anticipated, Copicer was not modern.  There were barely any computer-controlled facades; some of us saw buildings made out of wood and stone from nearby areas!!  After countless walks through the streets, we were greeted by a human boy.  He had tan skin and black eyes.  The boy also looked very interested in us and he had a tiny and unused slingshot in one of his pockets.  He asked us what we are doing in the city.  One of men, Arto, firmly said, “None of your business.  You should be at your home”.  The boy responded, “I’m Heeya, and I can help you.   I then responded, “We are looking for people who’d like to take us to your planet’s moon”.

Heeya replied, “Then why are you in the south side?  You should be in the northeast”.  Arto said, “What is so special about the northeast”.  Heeya sharply replied, “The northeast requires permits to enter because it is a shady area.  You can find anybody.  Maybe, people who’d be dying to help you.”  Arto whispered, “Can you take us there??” 
 

Before Heeya could respond, the commander ordered that we return to the base as the major roads were being computerized.  We told Heeya, “Meet you here, in 24 hours, at this spot.  Have an excellent day”.  He responded, “Stay safe on the minor streets!!”  Our hoverbikes zoomed through the dismal dirt roads.  I heard E1 electric pistols fire and ordered my troops to go towards the sound.  The scouts found a few gangsters, with a presumably stolen cargo craft and hostages.   Some of them were really weird non-humanoid aliens and one of them yelled, “Hey, there’s a weird man over there.  Let’s stun and mug them”.  We immediately opened plasma fire on them.  They attempted to shoot Arto but the electric blasts just powered his railgun.  Arto noticed an odd vehicle which was shooting plasma at us.  Since he had a charged railgun, he shot the vehicle.  I heard a loud boom.  The gangsters were obliterated and the vehicle was left a mangled ruin with its parts still flying in the air.   Arto and the rest of the crew then liberated the hostages.  

We sped to the base as all of us were late and found an experimental cargo craft.  There was a shipment which contained the brand new IF-69 space fighter, 2000 new MRES, and a new communications and hacking device.  When heading to my quarters to eat, I saw a shadowy figure.  That figure was a human man in an invisibility jumpsuit, but I noticed him from its shadow.  I shot at that intruder with my gun, but all my blasts missed.  I ordered a base shut down and continued my pursuit.  I wondered, “Oh no.  That thug is going to the hangar”.  The intruder hijacked an old fighter and set the engines to warp-drive.  At the last second, a flight crew shot a tracker module at the craft.  They hit it and we now had a file which would recognize that fighter if it was seen again.  
 

After this, we headed back to base only to be greeted by an abandoned, and partially blown up fortress.  We all thought,  “Curse that idiot who intruded our base”.  Arto remembered about the camo and yelled,  “GET THIS DISGUISE OFF OR I BLAST MY WAY IN HERE”.  The disguise was deactivated and we entered the building.  Salline thought we should ask the commander for MRES and a tiny troopship.  I could foresee this and replied,  “I’m going to ask the commander for a dropship and MRES”.  I sprinted to the commander’s quarters and got my retina and quantum keycard scanned before entering (Yes, the security issue is to blame).  The commander firmly whispered,  “What do you need now?  All the IF-69s?”.  Shocked, I replied,  “No.  All I need is 200 MRES and  one drop ship”.  Farvel firmly said,  “Vernal, I can finally give you what you need”.  He then gave me the keys to the MRE storage unit and an D15 dropship. 

We left next morning in our loaded dropship.  Even though, it wasn’t the latest model, it was still extremely roomy and functioned well.  Our journey wasn’t that exciting.  In the city,  an occasional civilian would be seen staring at our ship.  We landed at the border area for the northeast.  This was a sight (and modern site) for our sore eyes, as we were sick of seeing old buildings.  After departing the dropship,  Arto and Salline guarded the ship and I gave my permits to the weary guard.  After analyzing it, he said that we could all pass.  I thanked him to make this day his day.  Our pilot flew to the nearest bar.  We all dropped off except Arto and I.  The bar was actually decent as there were computerized facades and it even had a holographic sign which read,  “The Lazy Kalor”.  This rectangular building sprawled over streets and even had viewing platform on the roof.  Out of the hundreds of individuals there, we found 50 people who were willing to assist us.  An adventurer,  Sanf Mus asked us if we were allowed to take back souvenirs.  Sanf had brown hair and blue eyes.  We could tell that he was experienced and excited.  He was a foot taller than me and wielded a railgun sniper rifle which was as powerful as Arto’s one. We replied yes.  While in the dropship,  I saw a fighter that looked exactly like the stolen one.  Arto and I shot at it, and we actually hit it.  The pilot retreated and I was able to get a some of the wreckage and some of his cleavage.  Out of the chemicals on the moon I analyzed on the fly-by,  most of them were on him. 

Arto and I simultaneously thought,  “Yup, this guy is responsible for the wasteland”.  Salline then notified us to let our newfound allies board the ship.  We boarded and swiftly returned to the base.  They all responded,  “Wow, that’s a nice base,  or Oh my,  I get to go to an Intergalactic Base”. 

That man’s name was Conber Fincus.  Conber was a scruffy, yet huge man.  He had a short temper and was extremely violent because of his lack of money.  He thought that if the moon was to be transformed into a waste,  he’d receive plenty of cash from the Federation if he restored the moon.  Conber spent all his money to go to Base 56.   He landed right next to the base and searched the ruin.  He found plenty of lame things such as plasma cannons, which were widely available now or Conber would stumble upon useless and crummy gadgets.  The personnel of this base were long gone and while exploring,  he found no signs of them besides a crude sketch.  Fincus’s interpretations of the sketch were that the moon was once an airless desert and they were working on a mass terraformer.  The terraformer malfunctioned and the entire planet was changed.  The first effect was most of the people being shot out of the base and being scattered throughout the moon.  The second effect was much more terrifying.  The people who were shot out and the areas they were in started to transform.  The personnel rapidly evolved to their biome and gained the ability to clone themselves.  Fincus’s interpretations were true.

Fincus found a large, dusty, and strange looking machine.  After dusting it,  he found a computerized control manual.  After a good thirty minutes or so of reading,  Conber decided to turn the moon into a wasteland.  He set the controls to start in 30 minutes.  In that time, he escaped the moon on his craft, but it was damaged.  Fincus was forced to land on Tigata for repairs.  It was unrepairable, so he needed a new one.  Since Fincus couldn’t even afford the most torn-up and worst spacecraft, he had to steal one. 
 

The Vortex was ready with all the people who would land on the moon.  Captain Vernal set the controls to medium and it zoomed out of the base.  On the flight,  all the locals who helped us exclaimed, “I never knew our planet looked like this from space or Wow.  No wonder we didn’t notice the moon changed”.  In mid-flight, the Vortex met with Conber.  The people who saw before Conber thought,  “Yep, that’s him.  He has to be back again to torment us”.  Arto yelled,  “Captain, it’s him”.  Salline and Vernal shouted,  “All units to battle stations.”. 

The sound of plasma and railgun fire would be deafening if we didn’t have a sonic shield.  Bolts gracefully whizzed around the two crafts.  We sustained minor damage, but we managed to hit one out of three of Fincus’s engines.  Fincus yelled, “Dang it.  I am so going to get payback”!!! 

While raging, Conber managed to strike us with eight plasma missiles.  An engineer named Jask Kilf screamed,  “CAPTAIN,  2 out of the 4 engines have been destroyed”.  Arto wondered,  “Will we make it out alive”??  I thought,  “Dang it, I should have stayed at the University”!   One of our units got a critical shot in the main engine and Conber and his fighter exploded.  The explosion was largely satisfying as that thief pestered us so much and drove us crazy.  Now the real problem loomed even larger: Will we make it to the moon???

I thought,  “If I make it, I will be the luckiest Captain in the world.”.  Then,  I ordered all engineers to work on fixing the engines.  We were entering the moon’s atmosphere.  It was pulling us in and crashing was inevitable.  In the nick of time,  I managed to land.  Sadly,  we couldn’t go to Tigata because the engines were too damaged for us to repair.  Salline and Arto ordered all people who will go to the base to put on their space suits and exit the Vortex. 

I pulled out my hypersonic radar and it said that we were 4 miles away from the base.  I thought, “Great.  No journey required”.  Using my comlink, I ordered everybody to follow me.  On our way, we were shocked to find unconscious animals.  At last, we found the base.  The only problem was that there was a dried up lake which we had to cross.  Arto said that we had to use our zero-G grapplers to get across.  Everybody obeyed and we scaled the crevice in 20 seconds.  Salline found a map and ordered us to follow her.  We came across many artifacts. 
The people who came with us tested those trinkets.  Some were found to be odd plasma guns, some were akin to our technology, others were broken fragments of others.  We eventually found the core of the base.  It contained an odd circular-shaped device which had switches and knobs on it.  There was an electronic manual for it and it said: How to use this experimental terraformer.  I thought, “Did that figure actually read this?” Arto downloaded it and streamed it to all of us.  We immediatly realized that we needed to search up moon history and set it to the time when it was a biome hodgepodge.

Arto decided to do this but he forgot the last sentence: Set a time delay or it will malfunction.  I read this and stopped him at the last second.  Arto yelled, “What was that for”?  I replied, “The last sentence says the terraformer requires a time delay or it malfunctions and we die if we don’t escape when the delay ends”.  Salline set the delay to 5 hours so we could see the moon transform.  We traveled back to the ship except I realized that we needed another ride home.  The communications line was still on, so I sent an SOS message to the commander.  The commander replied, “Are you okay? Is anybody hurt? What happened?” .  I responded, “We are okay.  The person who stole the fighter destroyed 2 of the 4 engines and we can’t leave.  All of us need another ride to the base which can tow the Vortex for repairs.”.  The commander whispered, “The flagship and the Federation Admiral are checking the base, I can get them to send the flagship here”.  I replied, “That’s excellent”.  In 1 hour, the flagship arrived. The admiral’s comlink said, “Captain Vernal, we will send rescue shuttles immediately.”.   The rescue ships got us and the vortex to the flagship.  We left to Tigata.
 

While on the flagship, I told the Admiral that we discovered more about a moon and we might have found a new tourist site.  He agreed and decided to promote me to a destroyercraft captain.  The rest of the crew received medals.  When I went back to the moon,  I saw a very diverse tourist site.  There were tourcraft and memorials for all of us.  Base 56 became a historic site and the moon was restored.