That's like one of those headlines you'd read back in the days of the USSR, many of them based on rumors started by our own government to get the Soviets to discredit themselves, or pursue ridiculous time-wasting avenues of research.

My best friend's parents, who were terribly sweet but incredibly kooky, actually founded and ran the Las Vegas militia. Amongst their black helicopter conspiracies, they were convinced that the Soviets had bases on the mon and had colonized Venus. Naturally, neither the fact that the Soviet regime had collapsed nor the contents of Venus's atmosphere made the slightest impression on their beliefs.

Where they find microbes in the clouds eating their spaceship.

And then the main character is almost trapped by a silicon-based organism while he tries to retrieve his brother's remains.

The disk says........

shit. I got nothin'