The Deep Space Station Delta ( DSS-4 ) was the crowning jewel of the United Nations. Located in the Alpha Centauri triple star system, DSS-4 was very near the wormhole, which connected the SOL system to the Alpha Centauri system. For the nearly twelve thousand servicemen, women, and their families, it was home. Just a few short months earlier, Earth, or more precisely, the United Nations, was given the chance to earn a voting seat on the Orion Sentient Races Council. There were a total of forty-three members of the Orion Sentient Races Council; however, only ten were voting members until Earth earned the right to vote, unlike those who were only part of the general assembly. The problem with this arrangement was that the Quarii only voted new races a seat at the big table so they could enact a clause in the bylaws that stated that a single voting race could challenge a new voting member to a test of power once and only once. If the challenger lost, the new race could immediately take their seat, and the losing challenger had to pay war reparations to the winner, which had to cover all losses incurred by them, plus death benefits and replacement costs for all damages. However, if the challenger won, then the new race must pay war reparations to the winner, which must cover all losses incurred by them, plus death benefits and replacement costs for all damages. And also, be enslaved to the winning race for a period of one hundred solar cycles, during which the winner was entitled to all natural resources of the losing race, including control over their home planet and all colonies for that same period of time. The captain of DSS-4 saw no way he could beat the armada heading for them, even if they had Earth's entire fleet to help them out. All they had were a few small ships and starfighters. So, Captain Parks decided to employ the strategies that all human commanders resorted to when confronted with impossible odds: guerrilla tactics, deception, misdirection, confusion, and plain old sneakiness. Although they had no hope of defeating the Quarii Armada, Captain Parks believed that if he could inflict enough damage, Earth might still be able to fend off the remnants of the Quarii invasion fleet and achieve ultimate victory.
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