Moonlight Mile -Lift off-

Goro and Lostman were university students, yet they were formidable climbers who had conquered many of the world's most famous peaks. They recognized each other as their sole, irreplaceable rope partners. While summiting Everest—the final challenge in completing the highest peaks on all five continents—they discovered a female member of a French expedition caught in an avalanche. The two named her "Snow White." She suffered internal injuries, and rescue was impossible due to the harsh environment; she eventually passed away. After witnessing her death, Goro and Lostman took her ring, lost most of their equipment, but used their extraordinary physical strength to resume their ascent. At the summit, they placed the ring on the flagpole as a memorial. Looking up, they saw the ISS (International Space Station) and the Moon floating in the sky. Seeing the exact scene Snow White had described while being cared for, the two found a new goal: "expansion into space." Coincidentally, on January 17, 2005, the day they summited, NASA's lunar resource exploration satellite revealed that Helium-3, considered a promising next-generation energy source for fusion reactors, exists in vast quantities on the Moon. Thirty-six years after Apollo 11 marked humanity's first landing on the Moon, a new era of lunar development began. Four years later, Goro had joined a major construction company and worked as a site laborer, operating heavy machinery with the ease of moving his own limbs. One day, Riyo Ikeuchi, an assistant personnel manager at the company, informed him that he had been selected to undergo a preliminary interview as a candidate for BS (Building Specialist) status under the "Nexus Project," a next-generation energy development initiative. This required him to represent the company in astronaut training. Goro had predicted the coming rush of space development and had acquired numerous heavy machinery operation licenses in a short period. Around the same time, Jack F. Woodbridge, known as "Lostman," had returned to his home country, the United States, and was serving as an ace fighter pilot aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. He passed the Space Shuttle pilot training program on his first try, and just as the doors to NASA seemed ready to open for him, he was scrambled for an emergency sortie toward Iraq, which had launched an armed terrorist attack. His jet was shot down by enemy surface-to-air missiles, leaving his fate unknown. However, despite becoming a prisoner of war, he was saved by Ali and his child, members of an Iraqi anti-government guerrilla group, and managed to survive. Upon returning to NASA, he became a Space Shuttle pilot and joined a top-secret project developing a spaceplane at Area 51. Subsequently, as an officer in the US Space Force, he rose through the ranks using his exceptional spacecraft piloting skills and political acumen. Through twists and turns, these two genius climbers, who had begun ascending to the new extreme environment of the Moon via separate paths, would eventually become embroiled in a global conflict vying for hegemony over lunar society...