K1

K1 was a late Golden Age project undertaken in the Ocean of Storms on Luna under the direction of the Aeronautics of China and the Clovis Bray corporation. Many of the project's staff were driven to madness by an artifact from the Pyramids, and eventually perished to the Hive during the Collapse. The remains of the project's outposts would ultimately become occupied by the Hive and Fallen as Lost Sectors.

Overview
The K1 project was described as a nonprofit venture between the Aeronautics of China and the Clovis Bray Exoscience Agglomerated to uncover extra-spatial transmissions related to the Traveler, which involve extradimensional signals that propagate through Calabi-Yau manifold sixspace in terms of metaphysics. One of the main objectives of the project involved studying an anomalous artifact discovered beneath the surface of the Moon, despite the risks that plagued the crew at the time.

The K1 mission was later modified by Clovis Bray to quarantine the artifact in a sophisticated containment system after reports surfaced of it having adverse psychological effects on the K1 crew. Despite their attempts to mitigate the problem, the majority of the crew went insane listening to the broadcasts from the Darkness; having succumbed to its philosophical messages of existential struggle.

The nature of the project was kept to the upmost secrecy, as only the boards of the Aeronautics of China and Clovis Bray having in-depth knowledge regarding the deep-space signals received by the artifact. The mission was also secretly monitored by an AI provided by Clovis Bray called Firewall, which in actuality answered to the Warmind Rasputin by surveying the signals received from the Darkness and the effects it had on the crew.

History
The K1 project began as a secret mission between the Aeronautics of China and Clovis Bray to uncover a mysterious extra-spatial transmission related to the Traveler, which was traced to beneath the surface of Luna at Mare Cognitum. Kuang Xuan was assigned as Project Commander of K1 at the time.

EM triangulation led the mining excavation at Dig Site 3, where miners dug nearly twelve hundred meters deep into the Moon's crust before they broke into a tunnel lined with flood basalt and rich in potassium, phosphorous, and other rare earth elements. There they uncovered the artifact held up upon a geological pillar formation that the borer broke. Debriefing to Xuan, the miners reported that the borer and their mining equipment shut down the moment it got near the artifact.

Dr. Tanis Lee described the artifact as a transceiver attuned to what she believed to be the Traveler's home. Xuan also surmised that the article had also arrived to the Sol System long before the Traveler came, despite her reservations about the mission's secrecy and wanting to question the Great Machine personally.

Growing suspicious over the secrecy of the project, Kuang Xuan would announce K1 to cease all communications with the First Light Lunar Installation on the surface despite concerns of the Aeronautics board. She then ordered Firewall to scrub their conversations and cease its connections with Rasputin only to be denied on the latter. Xuan instead had the complex mapped of critical relays for cross-space transmission highlighted for potential backdoors.

Few months into the mission, reports of insomnia began to spread among the crew. Dr. Wade Bow, the crew's neuropsychiatrist, diagnosed that over eighty percent of the crew exposed to the artifact had been plagued with intrusive thoughts, insomnia, narcolepsy, nightmares, and hallucinations. Following Bow's dismission, Xuan had set shift limits at two hours max and rotate teams between sites each week to limit proximity.

After the reports of insomnia and intrusive thoughts, the scientists of the K1 project were attacked and killed by "things" and were unable to escape. It was most likely Crota's spawn that they had came across since he and his spawn had already hidden out in the moon's depths.

Personnel

 * Commander Kuang Xuan
 * Captain Hou Ye
 * Doctor Wade Bow
 * Doctor Janet Green
 * Doctor Luli Henson
 * Doctor Tanis Lee
 * Doctor Amanda Smythe
 * Doctor Yanoi
 * Technician Keleen Vance
 * Lynn Choi
 * Jun Han
 * Mike Loftus
 * David Pell
 * Rav Rahul
 * Helsha Rell
 * Ivan Runski
 * Georgio Vital
 * Ibera Wen
 * Liam Yan

Location
The main K1 Research Base was built to house the artifact in the MASM Cladding and Containment System, an advanced dodecahedron-shaped cage built by Clovis Bray to shield the artifact's transmissions from the inside while kept simultaneously monitored by Firewall, an AI submind delegated to the Warmind Rasputin. Recently, the base was converted into a Crucible map by Shaxx and his Redjacks for the purpose of training and sparring Guardians.

The K1 mission complex is also divided into several different subterranean dig sites that operated as separate facilities across Mare Cognitum on the Moon; most which are now occupied by enemies like the Hive and Fallen as Lost Sectors.
 * Dig Site 1 - K1 Crew Quarters
 * Dig Site 2 - K1 Communion
 * Dig Site 3 - K1 Revelation
 * Dig Site 4 - K1 Logistics

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * Rise of Iron
 * Destiny 2: Shadowkeep