Epilogue

“Hey jackass, how many times do I have to tell you. The strap goes over the rock.” Jimmy was trying to teach his little nephew the proper way to harness a hunk of metal floating near the asteroid that was slowly making its way into the Sol system. The mining operation was only around fifty light minutes outside of Pluto. It was estimated that Pluto or Charon would grab the asteroid and pull it towards one of the planetoids, killing the asteroid on impact. Before that could happen, Earth Mining Corporation Helix Energy sent out a crew to mine the rare metals the asteroid was discovered to have. Iron, silver, gold were just a few metals that were in extreme abundance. The platinum on this asteroid was in such high quantities and densities, it was worth sending out a freighter and a mining crew to grab as much as they could before the impact. The company estimated they had just over seven months of mining before it got close enough to the orbit of one of the outer planetoids for impact.

“I got it, uncle, just like you said. I know,” Jack whined, as he did everything he could to please his uncle.

“Well, will you look at that!” Jimmy got distracted momentarily as he watched a Federation Cruiser come within a few kilometers of the mining operation, flaring their main drives in the direction of travel and braking as much as they could. “Looks like the ol’ Navy is here to make sure we don’t kill ourselves, eh?” Jimmy noted.

The Navy had recently increased patrols around the outer planets, after rumors of a big battle that had inflicted major losses and new heightened worries of Republic forces wanting to re-spark the war. Jimmy was both afraid of the warship and grateful. Fearful of it being so close, that it might mistake him for an unfriendly object, and yet grateful to have a protector out there.

“Yeah, my mom said they are pushing hard to build more ships, to gear up—” Jack was interrupted by a giant explosion coming from the direction of the Cruiser. The miniature star lasted a few microseconds as the Cruiser vaporized from the blast; only then did the attacker become visible. A substantial number of Alliance warships, ranging from Corvettes to Dreadnaughts, appeared in random points all around the mining crew. They watched in horror as Destroyers and Frigates whizzed past them at high speeds, running towards Pluto station, as the rest of the fleet sat there, observing. On the last destroyer’s last pass, it managed to throw several dozen plasma blasts at the two young miners, the freighter and the barge, destroying everything in a matter of seconds, without a single care to what they were shooting.

It only took just under an hour for the light of the attack to reach Pluto Station. A station filled with mostly asteroid and plutoid miners, they had no real defense. The lone Cruiser that was destroyed was their only real weapon. Pluto was never much of a desired target for people to colonize and live. Still, its moons and other plutoids in the area were rich in minerals, which provided excellent commerce opportunities, and attracted a decent number of hard laborers and miners. Without proper military training, no one knew quite what to do when they saw four destroyers burning towards them at 27g’s. They would reach the station in just under a day and a half. The miners sent out a distress call to Jupiter station, the closest Naval base to them. The distress signal would take just under five hours to reach the base, and another five hours to return. But any help would take far longer to reach them, so the decision was made to evacuate.

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The station did not stand a chance; once the Alliance destroyers reached them, they tore the outer planet's mining consortium station to shreds easier than taking a bullet to paper. Unfortunately, the escape craft could only accelerate at 4g’s max speed, and had no inertia dampeners to negate the effects. The Alliance ships caught up with them within a few hours, slaughtering the civilian workers without any regard.

The Admiral Traxler Naval relay yard received the distress call five hours after they saw the first initial attack and sent the information to Naval Command on Earth. There was nothing they could do at this time, as no ship was currently present from the recent losses. They knew their escape craft would not outrun the destroyers. It was better than a civilian model, but could only push 10g’s at most. The WarpStar was the only ship in the system that had the ability to render assistance and, unfortunately, one destroyer against an armada of hostile ships was a suicide mission.

It only took seven hours for the Admiralty board to convey an emergency meeting on Earth One, the Federation’s primary space station orbiting earth. Every admiral of the fleet, every military advisor and joint chief were present. The President of the Federation himself was personally there.

“How the hell did they get our Hyper-buoy coordinates?” President Hammond shouted with anger to the room.

“Sir, we have no idea. Right now, we have no access to the Hyper-buoy,” the chief of Naval Operations replied. Everyone in the room gasped, shocked by the news.

“Are you telling me we’re trapped?” the United States Armed Forces joint chief asked.

“I am. We've tried contacting other territories, and even jumping out of the system. It is nonresponsive; we cannot move assets in or out of Sol.”

“And we’re surrounded,” President Hammond added, looking at the threat map hologram floating in the center of the table, which showed enemy ships maintaining a solar orbit at the furthest points of the solar system, on all sides, only making course corrections to keep spacial coordinance with the movement of the star. “You told us it was the Russians!” President Hammond shouted towards the man John knew as Colonel Asshole.

The Colonel fell into his seat; all blood flowed away from his epidermis. “They…. They made me believe it was the Republic…I…I had no idea…”

“Are you telling me, you were passing intel to the god damn Alliance the entire time?” the United Kingdom Armed Forces Joint Chief asked.

“It…it…it was the Russians, I tell you!” the Colonel stuttered, as he had no idea what else to say.

“Sir,” a Compound aid interrupted rudely, without being asked to speak. “Look at the system display. We have more contacts, just entered the system.” A look of horror came across the young woman's face. “It says they are Legion ships.”

“God, help us!” President Hammond said in a half-whisper as he stared at the display. Not only had Alliance ships entered the Sol system, the same alien group who had committed genocide in Orion, but another hostile alien group decided to join in on the fun. The Legion, as they are so fond of calling themselves, the same aliens that are rumored to have killed the Pegasus Colony ship some hundred years ago. The same group that had nearly destroyed the Dreadnaught Avenger. The Federation was desperately outmanned and outgunned on every front. The system was surrounded, not even a scout ship or personal yacht could escape from flying beyond the control of Sol. Humanity’s home had been invaded by not one but two separate forces that wanted the human race eradicated.