Lunar Mission

The Lunar Mission was an investigation of a distress signal from the lunar colony in late 2264 by the Defenders.

A message sent by Commander Rathbone was picked up by the ISS. It was garbled and largely incoherent, but obviously a request for help. Shortly after, all contact with the colony was lost.

The Defenders, which at the time consisted of only Archangel, Victor, and Captain EO, were sent in EO's starship, the *Pale Dawn*, to investigate the colony. EO stayed behind to monitor the mission from his ship, primarily because his girlfriend Andromeda Waites was supposed to have been at the colony visiting her family.

Archangel and Victor landed on the lunar surface and began to investigate. They found the main facilities deserted, as though everyone had simply up and left.

Continuing deeper underground, they found numerous bodies, including that of Commander Rathbone. A few of the bodies in the lower levels showed signs of violence, but many had no apparent cause of death.

The two encountered a living human on the seventh level, a teenage boy whom they were able to identify as Galileo Harper. Due to his hysterical mental state, they were unable to get him to answer most of their questions.

Leaving Galileo behind, they continued through the seventh level and found the door to the eighth and final level sealed shut. While Victor attempted to override the lock, Archangel tried to reach EO, only to find that communication with the *Dawn* had been lost.

Before they could get the door open, Galileo reappeared and attacked them. They managed to subdue him, only for him to die shortly after.

After opening the door, Victor connected to the computer mainframe and was able to reestablish contact with EO. Stating that he was afraid something had happened to them, EO revealed that he had left the Dawn and was on his way to meet them. While Victor attempted to convince EO to go back to the ship, Archangel began to hallucinate, seeing visions of horrifying monsters attacking him. He began to transform in order to fight them off.

Victor hid from the progressively more violent and destructive Archangel but remained in contact with EO, who was rambling about finding Andromeda. EO became hostile toward Victor, and Victor cut off their communication. Using a tranquilizer, Victor managed to render Archangel unconscious and once again he connected to the colony's computer mainframe, this time using his tunneler. Accessing various logs and buried files, he pieced together what had happened at the colony: The government had been breeding and experimenting on the children born on the colony for the last twenty years in an attempt to turn them into the next generation of superheroes. Some of the children had developed mild psychic powers; Andromeda, at the cost of her sanity and the lives of all the colonists, had finally gained telepathy.

In addition to his search for Andromeda, Victor was also forced to outrun EO, who was under Andromeda's influence. Victor eventually located Andromeda, and was forced to kill her. EO immediately stopped, unsure of what he had been doing or how he got there. He returned to the ship, and was soon joined by the awakened Archangel and Victor, who arrived carrying Andromeda's body.

In the aftermath of the mission, Captain EO chose to leave the Defenders for good, returning to Mars three months later. Victor, deeply disturbed by what he had discovered during the mission, asked to resign from the group as well. While his request was denied and reported to Dr. Jo Andersen, Jo shocked everyone by lobbying on Victor's behalf. Her fight led to a trial over the rights to Victor, which Jo won. She took Victor and went into hiding roughly a year after the mission. Only Archangel remained in the government's employ; rather than a protector of the home front, he was sent overseas to fight in wars.