The Dominion Office of Reclamation presents
The First Reclamation
The world below has been corrected. The Moon has not. The Dominion sends one Engineer to keep it that way, and to arm the faithful before the last light goes out.
File I · The Mandate
You are the Engineer, and by consolidation you are also the chaplain. The Committee holds the Earth; the Moon is the one ground it has not yet catalogued, so the Dominion sent you here. Raise a factory from the regolith. Draw out ore, oil, and medicine. Forge what the faithful cannot forge under occupation, and ship it home. The Dominion is losing the war below. Everything you build is how it stops losing.
Raise drills, furnaces, and belts until the regolith hums like a hymn. Every ingot is an offering, every belt a procession, every crate shipped home a round fired in a war the faithful are losing. A running machine is a prayer that does not pause. Keep it running.
Night on the Moon runs longer than you were told, and it is occupied. Something stands at the edge of the lamplight and waits. Do not study it. If it knocks, consult Procedure 7. Procedure 7 reads, in full: do not open the door.
The world below filed God under fiction. Here, scripture is still standard issue and fully load-bearing. Read your portion nightly and it is banked against the darkness, verse by verse, spent when the dark presses closest. Anointing oil is holy, flammable, and rationed. Faith is provisioned like oxygen. Ration accordingly.
File II · The Cause
By 2333 the world speaks with one voice, and it is the Committee's. What was founded to preserve culture became the branch that corrects it. UNESCO is the armed conscience of a single world government: it catalogues what may be remembered, licenses what may be believed, and files the rest under superstition. The cathedrals are museums now. The hymns are archived, not sung. The Dominion is what remains of the people who would not be corrected, and the Dominion is losing.
The Moon is the one ground the Committee has not yet catalogued. That is why the Engineer is here: to draw out ore, oil, and medicine, and to forge what the faithful cannot forge under occupation, and send it home. This is not a colony. It is a supply line for a war the free world is losing, one shipment at a time.
Protected Cultural Zone
By order of the Committee. This site is catalogued heritage. Industry is prohibited. Unlicensed belief is prohibited. Consecration is prohibited. Violators will be identified and corrected.
WE DO NOT
Every ingot you cast, every crate you ship, every lamp you keep lit is a sentence the Committee cannot redact. Hold the Moon. Arm the faithful. Win the war from the one place they forgot to occupy.
File III · Broadcast Archive
These reach the Engineer weeks late, on a relay that is losing frequencies one by one. In Blue Chaplain the war you are supplying is never on your screen. You only hear it, in the broadcasts that still get through, and every crate you ship is the reason the next one arrives.
"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one."Deuteronomy 6:4 · monitored by Lunar Relay Station "Moriah"
Lunar shipment received: industrial solvents, steel, antibiotics. Production schedules stabilized. Well done, Engineer. Your labor is not unseen.
"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
Galatians 6:9
Trauma centers in Sector Nine have exceeded capacity. Field surgeons operating without sleep. Requesting morphine, bandages, clean water.
"He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."
Psalm 147:3
The UNESCO Peacekeeper Corps has deployed gas munitions. Civilian shelters compromised. We are pulling back to the old metro lines. Pray for the children.
"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."
Job 13:15
We held the ridgeline, at cost. Two hundred and eleven good men are now with God. Their names are recorded. Yours will be also.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
John 15:13
Ammunition reserves critical. Rationing all cartridges. Bayonets issued. Engineer, this is no longer a delay we can absorb. Send what you can.
"Fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses."
Nehemiah 4:14
Chapels destroyed in Oldtown. The Word is still read in cellars and on rooftops. We baptize with melted snow. Faith is not their target. It is our weapon.
"The gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Matthew 16:18
All sectors instructed to prepare for total blockade. Trade routes are collapsing. Self-sufficiency is no longer a protocol. It is the only plan we have.
"He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out."
Lamentations 3:7
Agricultural zones lost. Famine expected in forty-four days. If you have stockpiles, send them. We will distribute what comes.
"And the famine shall consume the land."
Genesis 41:30
If you are hearing this, our command has fallen. We continue the fight in smaller groups. We are scattered. We are not broken.
"The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger."
Job 17:9
If this reaches you, know that you were not alone. Hold the line. For God. For family. For the Dominion.
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away."
Revelation 21:1
Good morning, Dominion. The sun rises again over a wounded world, but it rises. Thank you, Blue Chaplain, for the steel that mends our walls and the light that keeps our children warm.
"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."
Psalm 118:24
To all the children listening: you are the reason we hold. Study hard. Help your parents. The future is not written yet. It is being written by you.
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Proverbs 22:6
We are pleased to report: the Northbridge rail line has been restored. Supplies are flowing. Hope is moving with them. Well done, Dominion.
"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles."
Isaiah 40:31
To every mother, grandmother, and guardian: you are the quiet front line. We see you. We honor you. We are with you.
"Her children arise up, and call her blessed."
Proverbs 31:28
The Dominion needs minds as much as it needs soldiers. If you can build, teach. If you can heal, serve. If you can dream, do not stop.
"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers."
1 Timothy 4:12
Field hospitals are strained but holding. New medicine formulas are arriving from Lunar shipments. Lives are being saved because of you, Engineer.
"For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord."
Jeremiah 30:17
Do not let the darkness steal your heart. Remember who we are. Remember whose we are.
"The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him."
Nahum 1:7
The night is long, but dawn is promised. Hold your posts. Hold your families. Hold to hope.
"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
Psalm 30:5
Every shipment is a verse written in the continuing story of our people.
To the Engineer on Luna: these voices are your family. Build strong. Ship often.
File IV · Field Surveys
Exposures from the Reclamation record, certified unretouched by the Office of Witness. Where the lamplight ends abruptly at the edge of a plate, that is not a defect of the film. Any tall figures near the frame's edge are equipment.
File V · Advisory 12
The Moon keeps a long night, and the night is occupied. Personnel report tall figures at the limit of the lamplight, standing with the patience of things that have nowhere else to be. They are designated watchers, and no further designation is required. Personnel report knocking. The Dominion does not catalogue these reports; it answers them, with oil, with incense, with light manufactured at industrial scale. The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. The Dominion reads this as a performance guarantee. Comprehension is not required. Lamp discipline is.
File VI · Circulation Restricted
FIELD BULLETIN 002. CLASSIFICATION: BONE WHITE. TO BE READ IN GOOD LIGHT ONLY.
…confirms a city already standing on the Moon. Prior claim under review. REDACTED NAME insists it was empty.
…the emergency broadcast repeats on the quarter hour. No station on the survey map answers to it.
…craters resembling fallen temples. The term 'hellpit' is informal and is now forbidden.
…the men have begun facing the sixth wanderer when they pray. Corrected.
CHAPTER TWO WILL BE ANNOUNCED WHEN THE LAMPS PERMIT.
ARCHIVE LOCUS 87.0°N · SIX WALLS · FILED UNDER STORMS
File VII · Issue of Record
Pressurized garment, Covenanter pattern, issued to officers of the First Reclamation. Twelve-layer weave over a sealed bearing frame, with radiation shielding sufficient for the surface, and for what the surface reflects. Rated ten years of continuous mission; the rating assumes the wearer sleeps indoors. Conservators note wear concentrated at the knees, consistent with kneeling. Plate reproduced from the conservator's file.
SIC · ITUR · AD · ASTRA
File VIII · Office of Print
The Office of Print commissions works of encouragement for display in habitats, refectories, and airlocks. Display is mandatory. Morale is a supply category, and these are its rations.
File IX · The Three Offices
The Reclamation runs on ore, oil, and the willing. The ore and the oil we can draw ourselves. The willing we have to ask for. The war below will not be won by the faithful alone, but it will not be won without them. Present yourself at one of the three offices below.
Offerings via Ko-fi, gratefully weighed, entered in the Book of Sustainers.
Support on Ko-fiThe Steam page is being prepared. When the rolls open, every wishlist hastens the launch. Check back soon.
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Requisition on itch.ioGo now in good light. Keep your lamp trimmed, your door shut, your quota met. And if the knocking comes, be reading.
Created by Brian James
An approved communication of the Dominion Office of Print. Read in lit areas only.