What follows is a transcript of the Lunar News Service broadcast, following which is our initial analysis. Please note that we are still gathering data, and the loss incurred makes this very difficult. Recommendations follow analysis:

KLNS Broadcast Transcript, October 17th, 2195 14:55pm (LFT) .....

As requested, what follows is a transcript of the transmission of Doug Weathereal from Lunar colony Mare Moscoviense.

DOUG: Thanks Tom, I'm standing here on the observation deck overlooking the Mare Moscoviense complex with base spokesperson Ted Chu. Mr. Chu, as we can see below, construction of the QI Telescope is nearly complete. Why don't you tell us what we're looking at here Ted?

TED: Well, if you'll look to our left here, you'll see a bright line of light; this is the underside of the QIT Collector.

DOUG: It's like a moon rising on the moon. Why is it so bright, you'd think you wouldn't like a lot of light around a telescope?

TED: That's a sharp observation! You usually wouldn't, but we did something very special with the QIT, using some of the new forcefield technology, we can choose exactly what light we want to hit the telescope and that which we do not. For instance, if a rover were to shine its lights on the side of the scope, the light would have the wrong angle and would be repelled by the field. The field is exceptionally selective, and can tell the difference between light coming from interplanetary and interstellar objects.

DOUG: That's remarkable Ted. What is that building to the right of the scope?

TED: That's the observatory control room; from there we control all aspects of the scope. An operator either here or on Earth can do a variety of operations with the scope. One of the very cool things about the QI light steering is that we are able to in essence use the telescope for wildly different operations at once, inspecting both interstellar and interplanetary objects.

DOUG: The best of both worlds, eh?

TED: Indeed.

DOUG: I notice a fellow working on that building there? What is he doing?

TED: I don't know, that building is off limits to QIT person...

Transmission Ceases.... October 17th, 2195 14:57:15pm (lft)

INITIAL ANALYSIS, OCTOBER 20TH, 2195

Committee members:

Dr. Patrick Ryan
Louis Park-Frye
Dr. Thomas Zhen
Dr. Sarah van Dyk

While any report on the events of October 17th is premature at such an early date, we are presenting our preliminary findings to satisfy the demands of the public and their representatives in the UN, but these findings should not be considered complete or final.

We can confirm that the brutality of the explosion at the Mare Moscoviense has permanently claimed the lives of 120 base personnel. The explosion, whose cause is as yet still unknown, was centered just south of the QI Telescope complex at the location of the base reconstitution receivers. The receivers are believed to have been destroyed in the first milliseconds of the conflagration, and the backups were down for diagnostics, leaving no place for the base personnel to be reconstituted to. No implant failsafe memory devices have been found to date, and it is thought that the explosion was such that none will be found. Teams from the base continue to search.

Equipment Damage Inventory:

Item: Reconstitution System

Primary receivers have been destroyed. Replacement is recommended.

Backups have been reactivated and are running at peak efficiency under regular loads.

Item: QI Telescope

Heavily Damaged. While not at the epicenter of the explosion, major damage was caused to the field generation equipment. When the energy of the explosion hit the force field system, the system tried to shunt the incoming energy away. Having been designed to handle only very small amounts of energy, the system deposited the collected energy of the blast into the observation and control building, cracking the walls and foundations and rendering all control electronics into slag.

Item: Base Moscoviense Air Retaining Force Field

Heavily damaged. The majority of the deaths were caused when personnel were unable to reach secure quarters when the base was exposed to vacuum.

Item: Teleportation Nexus

Destroyed. Also destroyed by the base is the bases teleportation system. Base personnel have a backup system that can handle low volume, human sized transmissions, but the loss of the shipping grade high volume system will require that we pull a heavy lifter out of mothballs and bring a new teleportation center up for lunar use. Also, backup is under a very heavy load of food, air and water, making equipment transfers very difficult at present.

A secondary transportation is due to be delivered in the coming week, but power draw is already becoming an issue.

Item: Fusion Plant

Offline. While the plant was not substantively damaged, the plant is being inspected and the base is running in a low consumption mode off of the emergency batteries. If the plant is deemed unreliable, base personnel assure us that the base fission pile can be brought online quickly. The fusion plant, which is located on the opposite end of the base, entered an offline state as a default response to a moon quake, which it interpreted the explosion as. The fusion plant was the first off world fusion plant and only the fourth plant deployed.

Item: Air Plant and Hydroponics

Damaged. Currently the base is being supplied via teleporter while the air plant and hydroponics center is repaired. Base personnel say that the damage was minimal and they expect to have it back in working order in a matter of weeks. This is a very good thing, as the cargo capacity of the teleportation link is largely being devoted to the transportation of these consumables.

Item: Classified Laboratory Facility

Destroyed: The classified laboratory has been completely destroyed, requiring a complete rebuild. Ironically, and sadly, this building, which was sealed from the lunar vacuum, was at the epicenter of the explosion.

Possible Causes:

The committee is not at this time wont to speculate on the root cause of the accident. We are investigating any number of failure modes of the Telescope, air field generators, the experimental teleportation derived cracking power plant, and a number of classified projects that may have had to do with the accident. The terrorist threats to the base have been extensively documented, but no firm connection has come to light as yet.

Current Recommendations:

The committee has no current recommendations; a further report will be released in 6 months time.

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