Quoted By:
“Thirst. The oldest driver of armed conflict has hounded our species from the warmth of the African plains to the frigid reaches of the outer solar system. While water is not rare in space, the same is not true for clean water. Conflicts over economical sources of pure, low-emission water have sparked more than one major interplanetary war.
But as essential as water is to human survival, the amount we once required pales in comparison to the quantity that the Mizarians seem to use. MERRYGATE’s estimates place their consumption rate at least an order of magnitude above our species’ own. The fact that the aliens can meet this demand represents a major logistical achievement - and an exploitable vulnerability:
This morning, the NOVEMBER RAIN’S optical array picked up a string of bulbous mass-carriers traveling on a long, arcing path to MIZAR-9. The vessels were likely carrying surplus water to replace the irradiated morass left behind by MERRYGATE’s radiation spike. Though the convoy were undefended, we turned our attention elsewhere once their back-calculated trajectory arcs confirmed a more interesting target.
MIZAR-6-A. A lightly colonized ice-moon. The parent ice-giant is unexceptional, but its mid-distance orbit and powerful gravitational pull allows water shipments from the colony to be catapulted to almost every inhabited location within the system. Coupled with our system-map, our observations indicate that 70-80% of the Mazarin’s non-terrestrial water supply hinges on the extraction/purification activity of this single colony.
In a little over two weeks, the NOVEMBER RAIN will breach MIZAR-6’s gravity well. Finding the best engagement angle will be challenging, but I am confident that I can plot a path through the colony’s meagre defenses…
Our last strike was a warning. But this one will be crippling.”
[See the preliminary map of MIAR-6’s orbit. Primary installations and potential defensive stations are shown in red. Estimated targeting/detection zone of the orbital station shown in dotted red. Fleets/ships are not shown, since they are too small to be detected at this range]
>Propose a path/approach vector (either by drawing or text description, just make sure its comprehensible). Remember that solid bodies block detection and asteroid fields very strongly attenuate it.
- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, FEB 10, PERSONAL JOURNAL
