FOREVER WAR

"This war isn't about anyone winning. It's about everyone losing."

• Unknown Astronaut soldier

Decades before the Great Collapse and the following age of Desolation, mankind began to colonise the moon. Over the course of years, giant freighters brought millions of workers to the lunar surface in three great settlement waves, to build three thriving cities, complete with underground mines and factories.

In order to be able to support one another, the three great cities on the lunar surface were built in relative close proximity to each other, only a few miles apart. Each city was entirely run and controlled by a powerful AI Gestalt to ensure maximum efficiency. These AI Gestalts still run the cities, but under very different parameters.

The first city to be built was Apollo, governed by the Apollo AI.

The second city to be built was Artemis, ruled by the Artemis AI.

Lastly came Ascension, and with it the powerful Ascension AI, almost en equal to the Prime AI on Earth.

When the Great Collapse severed the link between Earth and the Moon cities, the three cities immediately turned on one another for their resources. Ascension prevailed in this conflict - while she couldn't overpower Apollo and Artemis with military force, she managed to take partial control of both of the other AI's . She locked Apollo and Artemis in a sub routine to start a never-ending war against each other, so they would forever be too pre-occupied to turn against Ascension. She then embarked on a master plan to gather enough military force to return herself and her children to Earth, without too much interference from the other two cities.

Beyond the tight control of the three city-states lies a patchwork of smaller colonies and outposts.

The largest among them is Gamma Ios, the "Secret City", built into the sides of a large crater formation. Gamma Ios is an open city and the main trade hub of the independent colonies.

Other notable colonies include Beta Tycho, a fiercely independent mining colony known for its high-quality rare earth elements, the domed agricultural settlement of Delta Eden, which supplies fresh produce to anyone willing to pay their exorbitant prices, and the secretive tech hub of Gamma Silex, rumoured to be developing advanced weapons and technological systems to rival those of the main cities.

These settlements are often connected by a vast network of service tunnels, some pressurised, others requiring protective suits to traverse. Survival for these minor colonies depends on trade, specialised production, and sometimes, less savoury means.

In the shadowy depths of these tunnels, illicit substances flow freely. The cavern-colony of Gamma Ios is infamous for its production of "Moonwater," a potent hallucinogenic liquor derived from lunar fungi.

Meanwhile, the hidden labs of Delta Prometheus churn out "Titan's Blood," a dangerous performance enhancer popular among soldiers and workers alike. These drugs find their way into the main cities through complex smuggling networks, providing a lucrative income for those willing to risk the AIs' wrath.

Not all of these outposts maintain peaceful relations. Brutal pirate clans, such as the notorious Void Raiders, survive through raiding and theft. Their ships skim low over the lunar surface, striking unsuspecting colonies with terrifying violence. Entire habitats are left depressurized, their inhabitants frozen in the vacuum of space.

Few remember now that humanity once dreamed of giving the Moon breath itself. These colossal processors, rising from the regolith like the ribcages of mechanical leviathans, were to be the lungs of that impossible dream. Now they stand as silent sentinels, their purposes corrupted by time and neglect. The thin atmosphere they maintain on the moon serves only to carry storms of razor-sharp dust between the warring cities of Apollo and Artemis. In their shadow, clone workers whisper that on still nights, when Earth hangs full in the sky, you can hear the processors sigh - the death rattle of humanity's greatest ambitions - but also a sign that a thin atmosphere actually exists to carry sound!

In abandoned maintenance tunnels, the Forgotten - descendants of those exiled during the great purge - eke out an existence, their bodies adapted to low gravity and thin atmospheres by the reaper agent, their minds focused on vengeance.

Any maintenance worker unlucky enough to encounter the Forgotten, will be dragged into one of their lairs, their unspeakable fate too horrendous to even contemplate.

War is hell, but on the lunar surface this takes on another meaning. Fighting in space suits that were never meant for war, even just a grazing hit means almost certain death as a suit is ripped open. A rock flung from a far-off explosion may shatter a helmet, oxygen ignited by a single spark may burn a warrior inside their suit - there are many ways for an astronaut soldier to die at almost any moment. The brave warriors of Apollo and Artemis slaughter each other for no purpose other than a malicious software subroutine deliberately introduced by the Ascension AI...

The Moon's surface is a graveyard. From battles that have no name and no meaning, tens of thousands lie dead where they fell, unremembered and doomed to remain here for all eternity.