Quoted By:
"Mizarian mining stations are ugly constructs. They lack the elegant lines of their warships and orbital habitats despite sharing similar design sensibilities. Through the RAIN's visual sensors, I watched fleets of semi-automated mining drones circle thin docking rings, waiting to drop off irradiated ice scraped from the outer belt. Every three or four days, larger bulk-transports would emerge from the axial hanger bay, burning furiously towards the inner system with holds brimming with processed tritium fuel.
The location was a strategic target, albeit one suffering from a momentarily reduced garrison. A significant portion of the local patrol force had been redirected to search around MIZAR-VI after our earlier attack. But there, they had tarried for too long. The returning flotilla of alien ships left wispy ion trials millions of kilometers behind our own vessel's wake. At her current burn-rate, the RAIN would arrive at their home port several days before their return.
Still, the resistance we faced would be considerable. The manifests that MERRYGATE had intercepted alluded to several large patrol fleets still lingering in the area, captained by aliens who presumably understood the stakes of their mission better than their predecessors. The same carelessness that allowed us to score three capitals at MIZAR-VI would not manifest here. At least not to the same extent.
As we reviewed a map of the region, we considered several possible approach vectors:
[Note: Mining stations are dedicated to extracting and purifying resources, not combat. This is why their marker symbol is slightly different from the one used for defensive orbital stations.]
