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The station was under attack! Alarm klaxons rang out through the corridors, offices, shops and malls. Whilst the civilian population fled for their reinforced shelters, the small militia attachment sprang into ready response. Already megaton detonations were smashing against the invisible magnetic shield that protected the outpost at ‘Aurelus 9' from harm. Under each weapon impact, the shield wall would appear for a fraction of a second, iridescent colours flooding across the outer shell as the resulting radiation field bounced harmlessly away. However each attack came at a cost. The mighty energy core at the heart of the star station had a limited threshold of output. As the minutes went by and still no help came from the errant Earth Alliance Defence Carrier ‘Santiago', the worse the situation became.

To make matters more problematical, the heat build-up from the weapons discharge of the station's answering guns could not be vented whilst the force shields were active. This in turn meant that the station was slowly starting to cook inside its protective magnetic shield. Meanwhile in the red glow of the control room, things were starting to come apart. The heat was oppressive, the air regulators already at maximum. Panicked station crew had already begun shedding their clothes as the conditions became unbearable. A new energy spike pushed the temperature up once again as the main weapons array spoke in anger against the attacking ships of the ‘Goralling' fleet. Banks of monitors were displaying the ensuing battle upon the black tapestry of galactic space. Various weapons platforms and defence satellites scattered across the local system were all linked to this central nexus of command control. A vast amount of data input flooded the local limited AI interfaces as they desperately attempted to correlate a plan of defence against the unexpected attack.

Star-Killer Jake calmly took his seat in the centre of the control room .Around him was a maelstrom of activity. Harried technicians were running from station to station in an effort to dump the overload of data and shunted relay information coming in from the communication feeds. Sweating operators despaired at their posts as neural relayed control activity flooded their com units. It was chaos!

Most men would fold under such pressure but not Star-Killer Jake. With a cool, collective and inspirationally practised manner, he thumbed his communication shunt and keyed in his operational override code. Seconds later and a green acknowledgement light rewarded his action along with a distracting blare of feedback from the overhead speakers.
"Crew and civilians of the Aurelus 9 station, this is your commander speaking." So far so good, thought the Star-Killer.
"Fear not at the events of this day. Even now we are fending off this act of aggression and our approach lanes will soon be free of the Goralling menace."
A rousing cheer greeted this statement from all those present in the control room. Star-Killer Jake felt a wave of pride rush through him at the response of those under his command.
"However, I do ask, no, order all of you listening to this message, to stay calm and man your posts.