Director Hutchings' facial muscles were contorted from the barrage of bad news.
"It seems this is no longer a problem we can solve; I must consult with Mr. Fox immediately..."
Hutchings covered his head with both hands, like a mental patient on the verge of a breakdown, and walked straight out of the office.
Fowler chased after him. "Hey, about the ZX-7?"
"My God!" Hutchings turned around, speechless, and looked at his deputy. With utmost patience, he said, "Joe Fowler, you haven't heard anything about the ZX-7, and neither has anyone else in the office. This isn't something you should know!"
"At this time, you shouldn't cause me any more trouble! Fuck~~"
After saying that, Hutchings turned and left, disappearing in two long strides.
Fowler, left standing there dumbfounded for a while, finally reacted. "What does this have to do with me? It wasn't me who leaked the information! What an unreasonable old fogey!!"
On the other side.
Hutchings immediately contacted a helicopter to take him to Washington, but before he could even board, Mr. Fox, whom he was supposed to meet, called him.
"Chief Hutchings?" The voice on the other end of the phone was that of a middle-aged man, his tone slightly shrill.
"It's me, Mr. Fox." Hutchings immediately abandoned his original plan and hurried back to his office.
"I was just about to report a very urgent incident to you."
"I also have something to ask you, but you go first."
"It's about lunar orbit deviation."
"Um."
"According to the latest predictions, if we allow the moon to continue its downward trajectory towards Earth, it will reach Earth's atmosphere in three weeks and reach its Roche limit, at which point it will disintegrate into countless meteorites that will crash onto Earth..."
Hutchings repeated the information he had just heard without reservation.
Mr. Fox paused for a long time, as if processing this shocking news.
After a while, he said, "What I'm about to tell you is also related to this lunar orbital deviation."
What do you know about the ZX-7?
"?"
Hutchings immediately recalled what Fowler had just told him, "Why would you ask about this project? It's decades old."
"Someone just called me. They believe there's an alien intelligent weapon on the moon, and they say this thing we've developed might be able to destroy that alien weapon."
"Come on, tell me everything you know about this project."
Mr. Fox knew about the existence of extraterrestrials and the entire process of the Apollo moon landing; these top-secret files had long been declassified to him.
However, there are many declassified files about him, and the information about ZX-7 is just an insignificant one among them. Moreover, it was a weapons project that had long been discontinued, so Fox had no recollection of it.
When he received the call and heard about this thing, he had no idea what it was. The person on the other end of the line had to explain it to him in detail before he understood the general purpose of the ZX-7.
Having heard this, Hutchings had no further questions and told Fox everything he knew.
"... I don't know where they got this information, but their method of obtaining it must have been illegal..."
"Okay, we'll hold them accountable for this later. They said that if we use this bomb to eliminate the aliens, the moon will return to normal. Is this information credible?"
"..."
"Excuse my bluntness, sir."
"If you just look at the footage from back then and the astronauts' descriptions, you'll see that although that alien monster could transform into many forms, its size was clearly insufficient to shake the moon's orbit!"
"Compared to the moon, it's not even a tiny baby; this must be a conspiracy to steal our data!"
"I will try to understand it..."
Fox hesitated for a moment.
At that moment, Hutchings turned on his computer and found an email from Fowler. After reading it, his mood improved slightly. "I have some good news, sir."
"We have reached an agreement with the European Space Agency, and they will deliver their lunar spacecraft within a day, so we only need to equip it with rockets."
With astronauts, we can conduct lunar exploration missions, which will help us understand the true condition of the moon... and avoid the strategic deception of certain countries...
Three hours later.
At a press conference held by NASA.
Director Hutchings stood on the podium, with Fowler beside him, both facing the cameras and flashes of the reporters in front of them.
Hutchings calmly addressed everyone, explaining the collaborative project between NASA and the European Space Agency. He stated that this project would help NASA determine the true cause of the moon's deorbiting, allowing for appropriate action to be taken, and that there was no need for excessive panic...
Compared to Hutchings's eloquent speech, Fowler had a dark expression throughout, his face as taut as a lump of coal.
However, instead of becoming a panacea for panic, NASA's press conference became the biggest driver of panic.
The idea that the moon has deviated from its orbit was originally just a widely circulated claim and had never been certified by any authoritative organization. Now, the NASA administrator himself has stepped forward to hold a press conference.
In the eyes of ordinary people, this is not an attempt to appease public sentiment.
On the contrary, this is exactly what they're doing—stepping forward to confirm the rumors!
The whole society was like a domino effect; after Director Hutchings pushed it, a chain reaction began to unfold.
In the time that followed, chaos spread like a plague across the globe.
Some countries received advance warning and were prepared, but many others were caught off guard, and their societies were plunged into complete chaos in an instant.
All sorts of crimes began to appear in reality.
The streets were filled with the blaring of car alarms, shattered glass littered the ground, and crazed people dressed in jeans, wielding baseball bats and various firearms, chanting extreme slogans, jumping on car roofs, and randomly attacking anyone who passed by...
This chaos quickly spread to most parts of the world via the internet.
One of them was the home of a very fat man.
In his cramped home, Houseman hunched over his computer, watching countless videos of riots on video websites, his small glasses slipping down in fright.
Hutchings has wronged the other major space agencies.
The news of the Moonfall did not originate from professionals at these institutions; at least, they were not the earliest source of the information.
The first person to leak the news of the moon's orbital deviation was none other than Houseman, a habitual thief who liked to steal information from space agencies.
Because only he has the professional data.
It was precisely because of this professional data support that his theory of lunar derailment quickly became popular.
To be honest, when Houseman first saw that his cries had finally attracted people's attention, and even the former NASA administrator had to respond, he felt very satisfied and proud.
He had just received the data and immediately notified NASA, but the NASA operator was only responsible for selling merchandise and models, leaving him with no way to raise the issue.
Is everything alright now?
Let them focus solely on selling merchandise!
Even the NASA administrator now has to step forward and explain things clearly.
However, as events unfolded, Houseman's mood quickly changed.
Social order and security are rapidly deteriorating.
People were either fleeing to the plateau or engaging in rampant vandalism, wanting to have one last crazy adventure before the end of the world.
His surroundings were generally safe, as long as he didn't wander into certain neighborhoods at night.
But now it's not safe to go out during the day or even just stay at home.
Yesterday, he witnessed another person in the neighborhood being brutally dragged outside and executed by his enemies who brought men to his door...
Moreover, those people were using the guise of cults and shouting various extreme slogans.
This terrified Houseman. He's now too afraid to go out. Although his size is intimidating, his face is just too kind. He's a chubby, friendly fat man. If he gets targeted, he'll look like a piece of meat!
By now, Houseman no longer knows whether what he did was right or wrong.
He has lost contact with some of his online friends, especially those in the community who believe the moon is an artificial celestial body; several people are going missing every day...
If all those people are dead, wouldn't he be considered an indirect murderer?
Houseman hopes the commotion will subside soon.
He hoped that fewer people would die, and for that reason, he even hoped that NASA and the European Space Agency's lunar missions would be successful.
But...
Houseman pressed the Enter key on his computer and watched the lunar mission briefing again with his cat.
He couldn't hold back any longer, grabbed the cat beside him, and muttered to it, " Fuzz, this is a mission destined to fail. Those people haven't realized that the moon is a giant structure, it's man-made, and the problem lies in the core of that giant structure. This isn't something they can solve just by obtaining a little data..."
"Meow?" The kitten tilted its head, indicating that it didn't understand what its human was saying.
Only I can solve this problem...
Houseman kept babbling on, and the pressure on his grip on the kitten was getting stronger.
"Meow???"
The kitten silently extended its paw.
Don't go to this barbershop!
Swish swish!!!
With two gentle swipes of the cat's paws, two marks appeared on Houseman's hand...
Startled, Houseman quickly withdrew his hand, but his arm accidentally slammed onto the keyboard with a loud thud, and the computer resumed playing.
It was a female voice with a translator's accent.
"We have developed a preliminary solution to the lunar orbital deviation. What is now certain is that the moon is not as simple as we previously thought; there may be some kind of extraterrestrial life on it, and this event is most likely caused by that extraterrestrial life..."
Just one sentence was enough to leave Houseman speechless.
The Moon, Extraterrestrial Life?
He likes this theory!
Although he supports the theory that the moon is man-made, if the moon is man-made, then it must have been created by extraterrestrials, not by Earthlings, right?
Therefore, this viewpoint is similar to his.
Houseman immediately looked at the screen and saw a man with the nameplate "Chief Engineer of Aerospace Engineering" speaking to the camera, with the television station providing simultaneous interpretation.
It appeared to be a press conference as well, and the man speaking was surrounded by reporters, all of whom looked quite shocked.
Chief Engineer Ji continued:
"Just now, we learned that NASA and the European Space Agency have reached a cooperation agreement to jointly send a lunar spacecraft and astronauts to the moon and obtain current lunar data."
"We wish this mission a success, but based on the information we currently have, we must urge them to halt the launch."
Sending astronauts to the moon prematurely would be irresponsible, given the lack of capability to eliminate any extraterrestrial life inhabiting the moon.
"Roar----"
Hearing Chief Engineer Ji's words, Houseman was so excited that he blushed, just like a shut-in who saw Teacher Hata and Teacher Mikami in his own room.
The artificial moon and aliens are none other than Teacher Hata and Teacher Mikami of this nerdy guy, Houseman.
Houseman was so excited that his voice trembled slightly. He shakily took out his medicine from his pocket, grabbed a pill at random, and popped it into his mouth, his eyes still fixed on the computer screen.
Suddenly, he remembered something, quickly took out his phone, and started shouting in the small circle of people on the artificial moon, telling everyone to watch the press conference.
After Chief Engineer Ji finished speaking, the press conference did not end, but was moved to another location.
Ding Hongbo's serious face and figure suddenly appeared on the screen.
He then personally explained the specific action plan in order to alleviate public panic.
"To address the shift in the moon's orbit, we devised a grand plan—we decided to push the moon away!"
"We obtained temporary access to an engine through special channels. This engine is called a ' Planetary Engine,' and its thrust reaches an unprecedented 150 trillion tons. Only about one hundred of these engines are needed to propel the moon and alleviate its continued slide toward Earth..."
Ding Hongbo's image was still on the screen, but at this moment, no one could see him anymore; all they could see were the words he had just spoken.
"Wang Defa?!"
What did he just say?
An engine with 150 trillion tons of thrust?
"Is he really not mistaken about the unit of measurement?"
In Houseman's group chat, his friends in the industry who had just been invited to the press conference were immediately in an uproar.
Even Fox, far away in Washington, was incredulous. He instinctively called Hutchings:
Do we have an engine with a thrust of 150 trillion tons?
Hutchings: "???"
Please don't go to this hair salon.