Xerik-12's third moon

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The third moon of Xerik-12 is a satellite orbiting the planet Xerik-12 in the Xerik system. It served as the location of a Sky embassy established to maintain diplomatic relations with the Chitain, the native inhabitants of Xerik-7.

Geography

The moon possesses a thin atmosphere capable of supporting limited flight and creating atmospheric drag on spacecraft during descent. Brief flames appear around vessels entering the atmosphere due to friction. The moon also has light gravity, making it relatively easy for beings capable of flight to escape its gravitational pull.

The lunar surface features craggy peaks and tall ridges of sharp, spiny outcroppings. These geological formations provide natural cover and create a rugged terrain across at least portions of the satellite.

History

Sky Embassy

The Sky established an outpost and embassy on the third moon of Xerik-12 to facilitate diplomatic relations with the Chitain, who were native to Xerik-7 and the only sentient race in the Xerik system. For a time, this arrangement proved peaceful and mutually beneficial, with the Chitain sharing aspects of their technology and culture with the Sky.

The embassy housed approximately one hundred Sky, though the exact number was not precisely known even to recently-arrived personnel like Valor. The facility served as both a diplomatic station and an outpost for Sky operations in the region.

Chitain Attack

The peaceful relationship ended abruptly when the Chitain launched an unprovoked attack on the Sky embassy. Valor was in stationary orbit around the moon, overdue to return to the outpost, when he heard the psychic screams of two Sky brothers dying. More than a dozen Chitain craft descended on the embassy without warning or provocation—no prior slight, insult, or indication of hostility preceded the assault, only duplicity.

The attack force consisted of ten Chitain ships that dropped toward the moonbase through the thin atmosphere. As they approached, several Sky warriors flew to intercept them, though only two were armored while the others flew unprotected, apparently hoping to draw fire away from the embassy by sacrificing themselves.

Valor attempted to defend the embassy, destroying four Chitain craft during his assault. However, the main body of the Chitain fleet—six troop carriers and nearly one hundred fighters—arrived shortly thereafter, overwhelming the Sky defenses. During the intense battle, Valor was severely wounded when his armor was shattered by Chitain weapons fire, with a direct hit destroying the armor over his left wing and tangential blasts turning his back armor into shrapnel.

Aftermath

The Sky embassy was completely obliterated by the Chitain assault. Fires burned for centons before being reduced to smoldering embers and thin, wispy smoke that dissipated quickly in the moon's thin atmosphere. All Sky at the embassy were killed, their minds falling silent—the Sky's indicator of death.

Valor regained consciousness approximately half a kilon from the edge of the shattered embassy, over a tall ridge of sharp, spiny outcroppings. After assessing his severe injuries and the complete destruction of the embassy, he psionically lifted himself from the ground and flew up through the thin atmosphere to escape the moon's light gravity.

Without his armor's engines, Valor was forced to rely entirely on his telekinetic abilities to propel himself through space toward the Sky homeworld to deliver news of the Chitain betrayal. He left behind the silent minds of approximately one hundred Sky who had been stationed at the embassy.

The destruction of the embassy and massacre of its inhabitants generated profound hatred among the Sky for the Chitain, ultimately leading to the Sky's military intervention when the Chitain later attacked the Colonial Fleet. The Sky's battle cry during that engagement specifically referenced the embassy's destruction: "Destroy the Chitain with all the savagery with which they wiped our embassy from the galaxy."

Later, when Valor led more than one hundred and fifty Sky warriors against the Chitain fleet, his hatred and fury over the embassy's destruction drove him forward despite his pain and discomfort from his earlier wounds. Even as Valor traveled almost unconscious while healing through space from the Sky homeworld to the battle, the memory of the Chitain "wiping the embassy from the galaxy" fueled his determination for vengeance.

The Chitain's unprovoked destruction of the diplomatic facility transformed the Sky's view of them from peaceful neighbors to hated enemies deserving of retribution, fundamentally altering the political landscape of the Xerik system.