Luna

Luna, commonly known as the Moon, was the only natural satellite of Earth and the fifth largest satellite in the Sol System, after Io, a satellite of Jupiter. It was home to the New Horizons Lunar Colony, humanity's first permanent off-world settlement, and for centuries it served as the gateway between the homeworld and the colonies beyond. In its final years Luna sheltered Isaac Clarke in hiding, concealed a shrouded Red Marker test laboratory run by EarthGov, and suffered a Necromorph outbreak when the Circle tore that shroud away.

Colonization and the first off-world settlement#

In 2045, Luna was colonized and the New Horizons Lunar Colony was created, originally a joint Sino-US strip mining base. It was built amid environmental and energy crises on Earth and armed conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union, and its rich natural resources, above all the extraction of Helium-3, made the installation a crucial one. It was the first permanent off-world colony humanity ever formed.

New Horizons eventually became a staging area for missions to neighboring planets, and as the era of space exploration hit its stride the colony ballooned in size; anyone with prospects in space moved there. For hundreds of years, people migrated to Luna in droves. In the years before the formation of the Sovereign Colonies government in the 23rd century, many of Earth's national governments vied for control of the Moon, and very little was properly regulated. Communities sprang up and sprawled without rhyme or reason, spilling around the strip mining sites and shipyards, up and down craters, and eventually stacked top to bottom as it became easier to build up than out. The result was a city of poorly planned neighborhoods with improper or, in most cases, nonexistent zoning.

Decline into a layover world#

When distant space travel became less expensive and Luna's local resources were exhausted, the colony's industries began drying up. While it had once been the place to be, New Horizons became a slum populated by struggling businesses and an increasingly destitute population. By the 26th century, major corporations still maintained offices and work sites on Luna, but no one seriously viewed the Moon as a money-making opportunity anymore. It was instead considered the sad place to lay over while waiting for a flight out to a proper colony such as Mars or Venus.

In this era the colony was mostly run by the New Horizons Security Force, an EarthGov gendarmerie that was known to make use of conscription. Despite Luna's decadence, the government still judged it significant enough to establish a Red Marker test site within the metropolis at some point after 2508.

A refuge for Isaac Clarke#

After escaping the Sprawl in 2511, Isaac Clarke and Ellie Langford went into hiding on Luna from EarthGov and the Unitologists. The two became romantically involved and took up residence in the Red Moon Apartments of the New Horizons Colony. Ellie was able to purchase an artificial eye to replace the one she had lost on Titan Station, though she could not find one that matched her original eye color. Isaac, despite having freed himself from the Marker's mental grip on Titan Station, still suffered its lingering effects, and his mind still held the secrets the artifacts had planted there.

The couple eventually separated over Isaac's refusal to keep fighting the Markers. Ellie left to pursue a solution to the Marker crisis while Isaac remained on the colony, forced underground to avoid capture. He stayed there until Captain Robert Norton and Sergeant John Carver of EarthGov apprehended him at his apartment. Isaac at first refused to help them, partly because they were EarthGov soldiers, but agreed once he was told that Ellie had gone toward Tau Volantis and was missing.

The Luna Marker#

The Red Marker hidden in the heart of New Horizons appeared to be nearly as large as the Site 12 Marker that had destroyed Titan Station. EarthGov encased it in a shroud that prevented the Marker's signal from spreading into the surrounding city, and according to Jacob Danik, the shroud had a laboratory built within it, possibly similar to the facility hidden in Titan Station's Government Sector. A similar structural design was later used at the EarthGov facility called Marker Shroud 4 on Uxor, where the enclosure seemingly controlled the Marker's exposure and kept its signal from reaching the surrounding area. So long as the shroud stood, the millions living above the laboratory remained unaware of what EarthGov kept beneath them.

The Circle's assault#

In 2514, the Circle, a militarized extremist faction of the Church of Unitology led by Jacob Arthur Danik, attacked Luna's colony. Danik and his men had followed Norton's group to New Horizons and discovered that Norton was after Isaac Clarke, whom the Circle's inner leadership regarded as a heretic for killing the Aegis VII and Titan Station Markers. As his forces prepared the assault, Danik spread an automated speech from an airship over the top of the colony, preaching that the end of mankind had come and that the time of humanity's glorious rebirth was imminent.

The Circle massacred most of the New Horizons Security Force and captured Isaac. Danik forced him to watch as the shroud and the laboratory around the Red Marker were detonated, exposing the artifact in its endeavor to "free" it from EarthGov's containment. Danik then attempted to execute Isaac, who evaded the shot and fell down a shaft into a pile of dead EarthGov security officers. While Isaac lay unconscious, the Marker's signal leaked across the city and a Necromorph infestation began ravaging the colony, turning the dead into creatures. Among the forms that stalked New Horizons were Fodders, Necromorphs that used a human-like facade to hide their transformed bodies. Isaac fought his way through the colony's transformed inhabitants and the Circle's soldiers to escape aboard the USM Eudora, bound for Tau Volantis. Behind him, the outbreak presumably wiped out the New Horizons colony.

Silence over Luna#

After the events on Tau Volantis, Isaac Clarke and John Carver returned to Earth and Luna aboard the CMS Terra Nova, the Sovereign Colonies vessel recovered from above Tau Volantis. They attempted to raise anyone on the radio channels of Earth and Luna, but all they received was the haunting sound of people being slaughtered by Necromorphs. The Brethren Moons had arrived at Earth and were in the process of consuming the human race. One of the Brethren Moons then appeared directly in front of the Terra Nova, seemingly crashing into the ship. No further word ever came from Luna or the colony that had been humanity's first foothold beyond its homeworld.