The Night that I Scared

The Night that I scared

It was just another night on the colony of Luna 6 like any other. As chief of security, I always did a late evening patrol to ensure all was calm and quiet in our isolated outpost on the moon. Little did I know that this night would be the strangest one I had ever encountered in my 15 years living and working here.

My name is Lieutenant James Harper, and I've lived my whole adult life in this lunar colony. We mine Helium-3 here that is used to power fusion reactors back on Earth, providing clean energy for millions. It's important work but also lonely being so far from home. My evening patrol was fairly routine as I made my rounds checking security cameras and ensuring the perimeter fences had no breaches. Everything seemed normal until I got to the mining equipment depot in sector 4.

As I scanned my ID to open the heavy blast doors, my tablet alerted me to a perimeter breach detected near the depot. That was strange as that area had the highest security given the valuable mining equipment stored inside. I pulled out my laser sidearm and cautiously opened the doors, letting my nightvision goggles scan the dimly lit interior. At first, I saw nothing out of the ordinary among the rows of excavation mechs, drilling rigs, and cargo transports. But then I noticed movement in the far corner of the massive warehouse-like structure.

Creeping slowly with my weapon raised, I tried to get a better view on my goggles of what was over there. To my shock, I saw two small humanoid figures rummaging around some storage crates. They appeared to be about 3 feet tall with oddly shaped heads and spindly limbs. I suddenly felt a surge of adrenaline and fear, realizing I was confronting alien intruders on the colony! But how did they penetrate all our defenses? I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and shouted "Freeze! Identify yourselves!"

The strange creatures froze in place for a moment before darting behind some crates with surprising speed. I rushed over and peered around but saw no sign of them. I activated the warehouse's emergency lighting to full brightness and did a sweep of the entire area but found nowhere the aliens could be hiding. It was as if they vanished into thin air. Thoroughly unnerved, I radioed colony control about the incident and requested backup to sweep the facility.

Within minutes, a squad of armed guards had joined me along with the colony commander, Colonel Sanders. She took my report seriously despite how outrageous it sounded. We performed a meticulous search of the entire depot but found no trace of the aliens I saw. I was beginning to doubt my own eyes until the colonel noticed some unusual markings and scuffs in the lunar dust on the floor near the storage crates.

"There's definitely been activity here that lines up with your story," she said thoughtfully. "I believe you, Harper, though I'm just as confused as to how this could happen without tripping any perimeter alerts." We performed sensor sweeps and analyzed security footage from the depot but found no technological or physical evidence of an intrusion. The colonel decided to review all sensor logs from the past twelve hours to look for any anomalies while I was sent to the med bay for observation.

The colony doctor, Clarke, gave me a full workup but found nothing physically wrong. "You seem fine, Jim, though understandably shaken up. Let's have you rest and we can review your story again when you're feeling better." I tried to sleep but kept replaying the strange sighting in my mind, unable to make sense of it. Was I going insane out here? The next morning, Colonel Sanders paid me a visit with some answers.

"Lieutenant, it seems there was a brief sensor glitch last night that coincided with your encounter timing. It allowed a small robotic maintenance unit to slip through a fence perimeter undetected for 12 minutes before self-correcting. We believe that unit may have malfunctioned and taken an odd shape in the low lighting that could look similar to what you described from a distance. Its movements might account for the marks we found as well. No sign of actual intelligent intruders."

I considered her explanation and it did provide a rationale for the events, even if it didn't entirely convince me. Perhaps the solitude and stress of the job was getting to me after so long. The colonel took me off duty for a few days to recuperate fully. In my down time, I replayed security camera footage from the depot over and over, pausing and enhancing images. That's when I noticed something that made my blood run cold.

In one brief frame during my initial sweep with emergency lighting, there was a fleeting shadowy figure visible darting behind machinery just as I rounded the corner. It appeared squat and had an oddly shaped bulbous head. I showed the colonel immediately and her eyes widened in surprise. "My God, Jim...I don't know what to make of this but it lines up with your report. I'm authorizing a full investigation and increased security protocols until we understand this situation better. Thank you for not giving up on this—there may be more going on here than a mere equipment malfunction."

In the following days, extensive sensor sweeps were conducted around the entire colony as well as excavating the area of the depot for additional evidence. That's when several artifacts were unearthed that defied any logical explanation—small electronic devices of alien design far beyond our current technology. The colonel called an emergency meeting of all colony personnel to reveal the alarming discoveries. An intrusion had indeed occurred and we were clearly not alone on the lunar surface. What's more, these visitors seemingly possessed stealth abilities far superior to our own.

Panic began to swell among the colonists as the reality sank in that we were being covertly monitored by an unknown extraterrestrial intelligence. Colonel Sanders took swift action, putting the entire outpost on lockdown with round the clock security and quarantining anyone displaying unusual symptoms. I was promoted to her second in command to help coordinate our defense and learn more about these enigmatic visitors lurking in the shadows of our little world. It seems my strange encounter that night was only the beginning of making contact with a technology far more advanced than our own. We're still working to understand the intentions of these stealthy observers and if they mean our colony harm. One thing is for sure—I'll never doubt my instincts again.