The Takeover
People across the world watched on screens as the rogue rocket struck the moon.
Domestic and international news outlets chattered for weeks prior to the actual event. A harmless, three-ton explosion would occur on the moon’s surface, causing minor damage yet loosening evidence that would plummet to Earth. Evidence that would land as meteorites scientists would then examine to learn more about the moon.
The moon debris landed on multiple continents and in several bodies of water. Governments confirmed meteorite landings in North and South Korea, China, Turkmenistan, Bolivia, and Canada. Russia and the United States of America would neither confirm nor deny anything. Satellite imagery confirmed meteorites splashing into multiple locations in the North Atlantic, South Pacific, and Indian Ocean. Governments deployed crews operating aerial drones and unmanned underwater submarines and drones to recover every fragment.
The search and salvage missions, all standard operating procedure, failed. No crew or equipment returned. The world watched on the same screens as the drones vanished before their eyes, submarine pings silenced, and streaming underwater images went dark.
Conspiracy theorists outnumbered the experts on the airwaves. The governments let the media run wild, hiding their own suspicions under the radar. And the people just continued watching their screens.
The meteorites vaporized anything and everything that approached them. Mission after mission failed; armies depleted of their ranks. Before governments could regroup, the world’s infrastructure became infected. The takeover by the subterranean-lunar biological AI was swift and subtle. It only took a week.
© 2026 by Lee D. Gibbs